Bracketology

  No matter what I do, this is another year where my wife soundly thrashed me in our NCAA bracket challenge. We have done this four times, and we have each won twice. She does it with an educated mind, courtesy of the articles she reads and watching Pardon The Interruption. 

I do the same, but she shamelessly beat me with some astute picks in the early rounds. She has Houston winning it all and I have UConn, yet by time the Sweet Sixteen morphed into the Elite 8, I was toast. Don’t feel sad for me (which I sincerely doubt you would)—she gets to pick the place we go for dinner to celebrate her win. 

There was some heavy carnage in the Sweet Sixteen. #1 seeds North Carolina and Houston fell to Alabama and Duke. #2 seeds Arizona, Iowa State and Marquette went down at the hands of Clemson, Illinois and North Carolina State. Only top seeds UConn, the defending champ, and Purdue survived—and they looked good. 

illinois gamely tried to play against UConn. With a 30-0 run, one of the most dominating stretches ever in a NCAA Tournament game, the Huskies put the Fightin’ Illini to the sidelines. Next up is Alabama, which has battled its way to the Final Four, outgunning Clemson to get there.

Purdue found the right antidote for Tennessee: 7’4” Zach Edey. The Boilermakers’ center killed the Vols inside and from the free throw line, scoring a career-high 40 points while playing almost the entire game. This was the best I have ever seen Purdue and Edey play. 

NC State continued its improbable run in the tournament with a strong performance against ACC rival Duke. Big man DJ Burns will give Edey a difficult time. Don’t underestimate the Wolfpack. Even if they come to the Final Four with the most losses for by a team that has gone that far, the team has jelled since the start of the ACC Tournament  where they won five games in five days, including victories over five ranked teams in their current nine game winning streak. 

UConn seeks to be the first repeat champion since 2007-08. Alabama has never been to a Final Four. NC State wants to recapture the magic of 1983’s incredible championship. Purdue is in the last four for the first time since 1980. These games are going to be tough. Should UConn continue to play at the level it has for the last few weeks, it is their time to win.  

On the women’s side, defending champion LSU showed swagger and tight defense in a 18-9 run in the fourth quarter against UCLA. Angel Reese taunted UCLA coach Cori Close after the All-American picked up her fifth foul. The officials acted like they didn’t see anything. So wrong. It got worse when Close re-tweeted a Los Angeles Times article maliciously maligning LSU. The Tigers have a big chip on their shoulders.

On Monday night, we get the game fans have been hankering for. Iowa plays LSU in a rematch of last year’s final. Caitlin Clark,  notwithstanding her magnificent career, has been carrying a chip on her shoulder—needing to go through LSU en route to a national championship. Too bad this isn’t the Final Four; nonetheless the hype building up to this game will be great. Expect a huge audience Monday night. ESPN will be very happy. 

The UConn women continue to try to match their male counterparts in wins. This UConn version is a far cry from the foreboding teams which won 11 titles. The depleted roster went out on Duke pretty handily and had to withstand a near fatal rally to hold on for the win. Next up for the women is top seed USC with its sensational freshman, JuJu Watkins. 

As expected, unbeaten South Carolina added Oregon State to its list of 2023-24 victims. It should be a big surprise not to see the Gamecocks in the Final Four or even the title game. North Carolina State took it to Texas. Big time. 

So NC State has two teams in the Final Four, making Raleigh the center of the college basketball universe at this moment. Should UConn and Paige Bueckers, who Huskies’ Hall of Fame Head Coach Geno Auriemma says is the collegiate best woman’s player, defeat the Trojans and Watkins, then we could have two programs with Final Four participants. The only way there two schools could meet in the men’s bracket is if they both win on Saturday; the women would face each other in the semi-finals. 

Right now, this is South Carolina’s tournament. Could they be knocked off by any of the surviving teams? Yes. Is that likely—we’ll see.

Continuing with basketball, as Golden State tries hard to maintain its foothold for the final spot in the play-in group for the Western Conference with the Houston Rockets hot on its trail, Draymond Green did it again. With the Warriors on the second game of a back-to-back contests in Florida, Green managed to pick up two technical fouls early in the first quarter versus Orlando for bumping a referee and then abusively running his mouth. 

Despite his histrionics, the ‘Dubs won behind Steph Curry’s brilliance. It was clear that Curry had had enough of this garbage from Green. He covered his eyes with his jersey after shaking his head when Green got tossed. And after winning the game with a punctuating three point basket, Curry kicked three court side chairs in obvious frustration/anger. 

In his post-game press conference, Head Coach Steve Kerr admitted that Green deserved to be sent to the showers. Still, he and Curry reiterated how important Green is to the team’s success, and Curry felt he could have done more to prevent his teammate and friend from being ejected.  

I read a piece on line written by Jay Mariotti, the brilliant former Chicago Sun-Times columnist and Around The Horn participant. He called for the NBA to ban Green permanently. Others have ridiculously blamed Curry for not being a leader and preventing Green from acting like he has. 

Yes, Green is seemingly invaluable to the Warriors winning. And his track record of ugly selfishness which has repeatedly hurt the teams is too long for me to elaborate. Something has to happen if there is another incident like this in Orlando or when he grabbed a Miami Heat player around the neck the night before. Commissioner Adam Silver needs to step in to protect the integrity of the league—even if it dooms the Warriors for the playoffs. 

This could really be the last round up for the trio of Curry, Green and Klay Thompson. While Curry continues to shine, the wear and tear of this season is evident, especially with Thompson’s diminished productivity and Green’s behavior on a team which simply does not have the talent to match teams like Denver, Minnesota or Oklahoma City. 

Should GSW not make it to the play-in, or lose during the mini-tournament, it may well be time for management to start to look to the future. A future which envisions Curry not playing too much longer and a team without Green and Thompson. 

It will be sad to see, but great teams suddenly unfold in strange ways. Except that the Green scenario has been happening before our eyes for far too long with minimal repercussions. His anger on the court, which motivates him, has already cost the team another championship and may have largely contributed to Kevin Durant not returning. His dreadful act has run its course. 

Baseball season in the States is upon us. Yankees fans were delighted with the first series of the season—four wins at nemesis Houston. Mega star Juan Soto has been everything that was expected with his bat; he saved the Opening Day win with a laser throw to the plate to nail the Astros runner and he singled in the winning run on Sunday. Aaron Judge has started slowly. I wonder if his injury this Spring is still haunting him? And how about youngsters Oswaldo Cabrera and Anthony Volpe having nice starts to the season? The first ten games are a barometer of very little, as injuries and flawed mechanics can dictate how a team will actually do. 

Baltimore punished the Angels in the first two games until LAA won the finale. Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota and defending champion Texas started out fast. Atlanta beat up on the Phillies; the Phils won the final game on Sunday. Surprising Pittsburgh has taken it to the Marlins while the Brewers and Mets seems to have bad blood between the teams as Milwaukee won all three games. 

In the highly competitive NL West, all the teams have won a game. Expect the Dodgers to emerge from the pack, but not necessarily with the dominance experts have predicted. Wild Card teams are certainly a possibility with the Giants, D-backs and Padres all strong. 

Speaking about the Dodgers, superstar Shohei Ohtani is in the news—for all the wrong reasons. His long-time interpreter is accused of taking millions from the slugger to pay off gambling debts. While Ohtani has maintained his lack of knowledge that this was going on, the air seems to be rather murky as to what really happened. 

This is the kind of cloud over a player and a ball club which can fester deep into the season and affect all concerned. I want to hope that Ohtani is clean. It would be a major stain on baseball and demonstrates why the pervasive emphasis on sports betting—legal or otherwise—is a giant problem for all leagues to oversee. 

April is upon us. The excitement of college basketball along with the NBA, NHL and baseball have been conjoined at the hip. 

Add in college hockey and gymnastics. I haven’t learned from my basketball bracket failure. My wife and I are picking the winners of the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Tournament, going head-to-head with our daughter, who participated at the collegiate club level and remains knowledgeable in the nuances of the sport. 

At least I have somewhat learned my lesson. I am letting my wife pick the winning teams. She obviously is more astute at this than me. For this year. 

Bracketology. The science of male stupidity. That you can bet on. 

The NCAA's Are Americana

  It’s that time again. When the world stops for college basketball. Okay, maybe not so dramatic, but certainly the sports world’s major focus is on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament. Where there is always drama, especially in the first round.  

For me, there has been no better timing. Saddled with what is becoming a chronic hamstring strain, my doctor and I have agreed to shut me down for a while in attempt an to heal the tendon and surrounding muscles. So I am pretty much house-bound.

Moreover, the Northeast welcomed Spring with flowers, blooms and a really soaking rain, with some heavy wet snow in New England. Where are you going to go in that mess?

As much as I love watching college basketball, I won’t see all of the games scattered on the four television networks. Plus I do tune into some other games—for instance on Thursday night, the Knicks visited the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokic, while the New York Rangers sent into TD Garden to face the Boston Bruins in a clash between Eastern Conference powerhouses and the New Jersey Devils hosted the Western Conference-leading Winnipeg Jets in a late season push for a playoff spot. (Denver won; NYR and NJD prevailed)

I even watched the Yankees play the Pirates in exhibition baseball—something I rarely do. Ostensibly it was to watch Aaron Judge return from his injury hiatus. I saw enough of him, new Yankee Juan Soto, a rejuvenated Giancarlo Stanton hitting monstrous home runs and second year shortstop Anthony Volpe finding the seats. Pitching will be the question mark for this Yankees team; the hitting will be fine. I managed to tune in on Sunday to see the split squad playing in Mexico City. 

I also found time to watch early morning baseball from South Korea. The Dodgers and Padres began the real season splitting a pair of games. But the bigger story surrounded Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter who allegedly stole plenty of money to pay gambling debts—or was the superstar helping him with infusions of cash? 

Don’t forget the National Invitational Tournament. ESPN carried some games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights where I caught glimpses of those schools not deemed worthy of the Big Dance. This always makes me wonder why some teams weren’t good enough to be included in the field of 68.

The NCAA Division I Wrestling Tournament called Kansas City home this week. I managed to check in on the action on the mats. In passing another TV set, the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC Championships for women’s gymnastics were all on. 

And I am into diversity. I watched the NCAA Division I Women’s Championship. After all there is Caitlin Clark; unbeaten South Carolina; last year’s star, April Reese and her LSU team; and of course, the UCLA of women’s hoops, Geno Auriemma’s UConn Huskies. 

In my down time from the TV set, I scoped articles from The Athletic, ESPN, CBS Sports, NJ.com while keeping up with current events, texting, talking on the phone and reading and answering emails. I still had time to eat, sleep and take care of myself. Occasionally I even talked with my wife and daughter. I guess I like my plate full, in actuality and metaphorically. 

Takeaways from the games in the opening rounds of the men’s tournament were many. Foremost is my constant complaint about how the Selection Committee fails to properly seed teams. It is great theater, but are those results really “upsets” or are they the product of not giving a lower seeded school is rightful credit for a season well done. 

Case in point is #13 seed Yale, which knocked off #4 seed Auburn. It is the prejudice of the big school from the SEC with its high ranking in analytics, as opposed to the Ivy League. 

The Ivy League winner usually receives a lower seed because the teams don’t play the big boys anywhere but on the road. Yale wins. Princeton went to the Sweet 16 just last season. The Tigers lost a fine player to Northwestern, which won in overtime, ousting Florida Atlantic, one of the previous year’s Cinderella squads. FAU only received greater recognition because the team made it to the Final Four in 2023. Ditto San Diego State. (FAU’s Dusty May has left the program to become the new Michigan head man)

In a perfect world, the top seeds would demolish the lower seeds in the early rounds. Then the competition would be much tighter as the tournament progressed. All four #1 seeds would make up the Final Four, with the top two teams meeting for the title, which would be won by the overall top seed.

Except what made the tournament great TV was the David versus Goliath aspect. On Thursday, Oakland, a school not too many people have heard of, eliminated blue blood Kentucky, which has won numerous titles. Oakland’s Division II transfers taking it to Kentucky’s five star recruits. Greg Kampe, Oakland’s coach who has been there forever (40 years), has a base salary of $329,000.  In comparison, Kentucky head man John Calipari makes so much money that his buyout, demanded by Wildcat fans angry for his team’s mediocre showing in the last four tournaments, is a paltry $33 million. That’s the disparity which creates drama when a lower echelon school goes shot for shot with the powerhouses. 

Rooting for the underdog is part of the fabric of the NCAA’s. Certainly there are strong ties to schools by groups of fans. But the majesty of schools like Colgate, Grambling State, Longwood, Vermont and Wagner having the opportunity to battle the better known basketball teams is pure entertainment—especially if the score remains close. Which is exactly what the NCAA and CBS/Turner are banking on with the behemoth contract to televise the games. 

After the carnage of the first round and the play-in, the top eight seeds made it to the next round. One #3 (Kentucky) and a #4 (Auburn) went out. Half of the #5 seeds were bounced (Wisconsin and St. Mary’s) and three of four #6 seeds (Texas Tech, South Carolina and BYU) failed to survive, ditto for one #7 seed (Florida), and that took a miracle shot in overtime to happen. 

That’s 8 seeds going down in 32 games—25%. The number of blowouts was limited, there were two overtime games, as the networks got more competitive contests for much of the time, keeping the fans on their toes when switching between the four networks.The breakdown by conference was this: ACC 4; Big East 3; Big 10 4; Big 12 5; Pac 12 4; SEC 3 and Other Conferences 9.

On Saturday, things got off fast in the tournament. A potent Arizona team handled Dayton; there was no 24-4 comeback for the Flyers like they had against Nevada. Gonzaga manhandled a depleted Kansas team which had barely hung on to defeat Samford in the opening round. That’s nine straight Sweet 16 appearances for the Zags. 

In a battle of schools which have won the tournament, top seeded North Carolina showed its strength in defeating Michigan State; the Spartans had surprised Mississippi State on Thursday. Iowa State demonstrated its speed and defense in shutting down Washington State, setting up a Sweet 16 clash with Illinois, which dispatched Duquesne, upset winners over BYU on Thursday afternoon. 

While Oakland was gallant, North Carolina State had too much size and a little bit more talent, prevailing in overtime. State has now won an amazing 7 games in the last 12 days. I thought this would be Oakland’s game since it was in Pittsburgh, which has a section by the same name as the school, where the University of Pittsburgh is located. Unfortunately, that kind of coincidence is just that—nothing cosmic. It’s another year with a #11 seed or lower in the Sweet 16 with the Wolfpack advancing.

One can either rejoice or lament that the games start just after noon EDT. The problem is that games like the double overtime thriller between Creighton and Oregon, won by Creighton, last until way after midnight on the East Coast, making staying up for the most dedicated fan almost impossible, yet makes watching on the West Coast easier. 

In Sunday’s opener, Marquette lived up to its former Warriors image with an impressive win in a tightly-contested contest with Colorado. The Buffaloes never should have been a play-in team as a #10 seed. They looked every bit as good as a #3 seed. If the Committee had put the Buffs at #7, I would have been satisfied. 

I honestly thought Utah State was better than they showed against Purdue. The Big Ten team was too athletic and had 7’4” Zach Edey. That meant no chance for the Aggies. When the Boilermakers meet Gonzaga, that will be a battle. 

Someone with a wry sense of humor thought this might happen if James Madison won as a #12 seed and the Duke Blue Devils won its opening game. JMU, nicknamed the Dukes, duking it out with Duke. Wow. Moreover, The Dukes were once coached by the late Charles “Lefty’ Driesell, a Duke graduate who is enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame.  

Yale, Grand Canyon and Northwestern were unable to get past high seeds. #1 seed Houston met #9 seed Texas A&M for the second time this season. Houston won the first meeting by four. This time, the Aggies, who tied the game on a miraculous buzzer beater which could have won the game had two previous scores been three point goals when the players’ feet were a smidgen behind the arc, took the Cougars to OT but succumbed to the Big 12 regular season champs. 

In the end, the ACC still has four teams alive and the Big East three teams in the Sweet 16, with the Big East having not lost a game in the tournament. The metrics the Committee uses just don’t work. While all top seeds remain alive, there is room in this group for two #5 seeds, a #6 seed and even a #11 seed. 

There will be some great matchups, including a rematch of last years final between UConn and San Diego State. Plus there are plenty of Cinderella stories which could be written as the tourney progresses to the Final Four. 

This year there are 21 colleges which placed a school in both the men’s and women’s brackets. On those campuses, basketball is peaking and the school AD’s are counting the incoming money. An interesting fact—only one school in the Power 5 conferences has never won a NCAA tournament game—Nebraska, losers to Texas A&M on Friday. 

I have peeked at some of the women’s games. Of course I watched Caitlin Clark and Iowa. The Hawkeyes had some trouble at the outset with Holy Cross, the Patriot League champions, before settling down. Ivy League winners Princeton gave a good run at West Virginia before losing. For the record, 25-4 Princeton was a reasonable #9 seed. WVU draws Iowa in Iowa City on Monday.

The UConn women were good at home after some early problems with Jackson State. Without a deep bench, the Huskies will face trouble soon. Head Coach Geno Auriemma turned 70 and celebrated with the win—if he did enjoy it momentarily. Knowing the Hall of Fame coach’s demeanor, he is locked in for the next game.

South Carolina looked dominant and every bit the favorite in blasting North Carolina. Dawn Staley’s team looks primed to run to the title game. 

Once again, Kim Mulkey is the center of attention. Known for her colorful outfits and the use of sparkles, the outspoken LSU women’s mentor went off about a future article on her in The Washington Post. She is so unlikeable that it detracts from how good her teams are—after all, LSU is the defending champion. It is hard to root for the Lady Tigers. For the record, LSU is on to the Sweet 16 after thrashing Middle Tennessee, which had previously upset Louisville. 

I am hooped out. If you didn’t tune into this basketball extravaganza or weren’t one of the 9,000 plus who didn’t pick one game correctly in their bracket, you must have been fly fishing or watching the Taylor Swift’s concert on demand for the umpteenth time. 

Get with the program. The NCAA’s are Americana.

A Real Mish Mash In March

  Usually, sports and the political arena are intertwined only so much. Besides the usual sports metaphors and occasional forays of ex-jocks into politics (see Senator Tommy Tuberville, the former Auburn head football coach and Rep. Jim Jordan, a multiple NCAA wrestling champion at Wisconsin), our heads seemingly can divorce the two entities outside of the White House visits for championship teams. 

This past week, sports and politics intersected in not such a nice way. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the son of the late Senator who was assassinated while running for President, and who is seeking to become President, spoke about two possible vice presidential running mates—both with connections to the sports world.  One was former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, who was a professional wrestler of some fame. 

The other name belongs to a present day competitor. That person is Aaron Rodgers, currently under contract to play quarterback for the New York Jets. Rodgers is coming off a serious injury to his Achilles tendon suffered in the first quarter of the opening game last September against Buffalo.

Evidently Rodgers has been in contact with Kennedy and they have discussed a number of their coinciding views. Just know that I do not share their visions. 

What was greater news was a report by CNN that Rodgers had some wild thoughts about the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. They were so outlandish and that information dominated the news cycle until Rodgers denied he said that the shootings weren’t real. 

It’s what he didn’t say which still is in question—if it was as the article reported, then Rodgers’ attempt to distance himself from the alleged comments was only smoke and mirrors. Which wasn’t at all addressed by the Jets hierarchy nor by my team representative when he randomly called this week and I broached the subject. 

The odds that Rodgers will receive the Kennedy nod for vice president are probably slim. But wouldn’t that be fitting for the team which has the longest drought for post-season play in any professional sport—to have their star QB/savior divert his focus from the team to politics? 

The off season free agency signings have been fairly good for the Jets, especially addressing the poor offensive line which is being assembled to protect the aging 40 year quarterback. Combined with the potential for a positive draft in April, the pieces that could make this a really good season for the Jets are begin g to fall into place if Rodgers is healthy and returns to his Hall of Fame form. 

But, as Tony Kornheiser, co-host of Pardon The Interruption on ESPN likes to say, these are the Jets. They never get it right. And now their quarterback has the team embroiled in politics as an added distraction. You cannot make this up.

Yankees fans went ballistic this week when it was discussed that ace pitcher and reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole had soreness in his pitching elbow. This was to be the season of redemption after last season’s unacceptable 82-80 record. Cole was counted on as a mainstay in the starting rotation. 

That no longer is the case. While the MRI came back clean and a visit with famed orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neil ElAttrache confirmed that surgery is unnecessary at this time and a conservative treatment regimen which includes a PRP injection and rest could return Cole to the mound in a couple of months, there remains great uncertainty. 

Look no further than former Mets star Jacob deGrom and what happened when he joined his new team in Texas. He too felt soreness in his elbow and tried the rest routine before attempting to come back early in the season. Except that he reinjured the arm and ultimately needed Tommy John surgery to repair the UCL ligament in his throwing arm. Despite losing deGrom, the Rangers went on to win the World Series. 

New York fans can take solace that a former Yankees pitcher, Masahiro Tanaka had similar problems and fared well without surgery. However, his story seems to be in the minority with these types of injuries. 

Coupled with the news that star outfielder Aaron Judge has a core injury which he has been resting, the injury bug has once more struck the Yankees as the team seeks to quiet fans clamoring for the first World Series title since 2009, an eternity for the rabid fan base. Perhaps the talent in the minors, which has shown flashes of brilliance this Spring, will save the day until Cole returns. Or if Cole’s injury persists, is this another season in tatters?

Less than two weeks until Opening Day in Houston. Too many unanswered questions for this 2024 team throughout the lineup. Who sanely would have expected less?

I have this crazy little streak. Every year I watch the NCAA Selection Show on CBS as the Field of 68 is announced. Some years I have a team I am watching in the draw. Other years, it is purely the interest of a college basketball junkie. 

In my last blog, I discussed some the teams likely to lose berths in the playoffs if they failed to win their conference tournaments. Naturally, that happened in a number of leagues. I am not and never have been a proponent of post-season tournaments to decide the league winner. This cuts across all intercollegiate sports at all levels. To me, a post-season championship can easily allow for an upset, thereby negating a dominant effort by a school in the regular season. 

Twenty-one top seeds didn’t make it to the conference finals. Many of them, like Princeton, which succumbed to a below .500 Brown, or Missouri Valley Conference regular season champion Indiana State, won’t get to the Dance even with sterling records. Such a shame. Yet teams like NC State get hot in a five day span and win the Atlantic Coast Conference, depriving a team which successfully navigated a tough regular season in their particular league the chance to go forward as the might have in the once-dominant Big East Conference, which has only 3 schools in the field of 68. 

I have attended the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden. It is a spectacle like no other. Outside of the ACC Tournament, it is probably the best and  most enjoyable one to watch. Given its location in the biggest city and in “The World’s Greatest Arena,” no wonder the seats are still filled and the location will remain the same though 2032.

Watching other neutral site conference tournaments, there are so many empty seats, including the Power 5 locations that the funding from TV makes these get together so profitable. The ACC ventured from its Tobacco Road roots to be in Washington, D.C. this year. Which makes very little sense since the initial reason the conference left its Greensboro home was to placate the University of Maryland. Maryland has long abandoned the ACC for the Big Ten, so going to DC wasn’t the wisest move. Thus, the number of empty seats is the result of poor planning coupled with TV avarice. 

A little hockey. I watched the Carolina Hurricanes dominate the New Jersey Devils on the road. They are the best team I have seen this season. Then the New York Rangers, a strong team, went to Raleigh and shut out the ‘Canes. 

What is certain is that there is no clear cut favorite in either conference. Any team could get hot and make its way to the Stanley Cup Finals. Handicapping the 2023-24 playoffs would be ludicrous . In a month, the field will be set. Let the insanity reign.

By the way—who wasn’t thinking when they scheduled the Islanders and Rangers at MSG on St. Patrick’s Day? Are you kidding me? With all that venom already existing between the fan bases now fueled by inane drunkenness? That’s a recipe for big trouble.

Lastly, Steph Curry returned from his ankle injury to meet the Lakers at the Staples Center on national TV. It was great TV until the end when a malfunctioning clock coupled with reviews of plays elongated the game by nearly 25 minutes. The seemingly ageless Lebron James scored 40 in a losing cause while Steph and Klay Thompson shined. Still, Golden State wouldn’t have won but for an unfortunate eye injury to Lakers center Anthony Davis which removed him from the game after the first quarter. 

That’s a wrap. Go fill out your brackets. It’s all a real mish mash in March if you ask me.