Plenty Of Madness

The madness has begun. The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament began on Tuesday with the play in games. Now, by the end of play on Sunday, the Sweet 16 is left to play the games which will determine who ultimately wins the big prize.

When the seeding and brackets were disclosed last Sunday evening, there were a few surprise teams in the field of 68. St. John’s and Arizona State were 11 seeds who needed to play a preliminary game to see who advanced. Belmont, everybody’s darling out of the Ohio Valley Conference but runner-up to Ja Morant and his Murray State teammates, won their play -in game on Tuesday against Temple, but was eliminated on Thursday with a two point loss to Maryland.

There was some question as to why Ohio State was in the field. Ditto Oregon as a 12 seed, Minnesota as a 10 seed. The Golden Gophers emphatically showed that they were a justifiable pick by ousting Louisville in the first round. Ohio State disposed of Iowa State and Oregon sent Wisconsin home early.

Some pundits questioned why Michigan State was a number 2 seed after winning the Big Ten regular season and tournament championships. Personally, I had no problems with Duke, with Zion Williamson back in the fold as the overall top seed and with North Carolina, Virginia and Gonzaga, despite a surprise loss to St. Mary’s in the WCC final. Plus I thought the number 2 sees, MSU, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee were correctly placed.

My brackets took an early hit, as I had Belmont, Mississippi State and Old Dominion advancing to the Sweet 16. And Cincinnati advancing to the Elite Eight. The true upsets went to Liberty as they knocked off Mississippi State; Florida defeating Nevada; UC Irvine squashing Kansas State along with the Ohio State, Oregon and Minnesota wins.

Besides Belmont’s near miss, Yale, Colgate and Northern Kentucky played above expectations. Then there were the number one seeds who had all sorts of early trouble with their opponents. North Dakota State gave Duke fits for awhile and North Carolina trailed Iona at the half. Virginia gave everyone a scare—they were significantly behind Gardner-Webb before gaining their composure to win—bringing up memories of last year’s disaster in their first round versus UMBC.

I don’t look at #9 seeds defeating #8 seeds as an upset. I think that these teams could flip flop in their positions. All four # 9 seeds won this year. 

Among the darlings who made it to the second round were Wofford, Auburn, Iowa, Oregon, Florida, Minnesota and Buffalo, where Bobby Hurley and his Arizona State Sun Devils had the unfortunate task of playing a strong Buffalo squad. The players on Buffalo were Hurley’s recruits before he left for ASU and they demonstratively showed their old coach how good they are.

The turnaround for the winners was a date approximately 48 hours later, which will determine the Sweet Sixteen. Those games had some blowouts and some very close games with a few surprising outcomes. 

Duke, the overall top seed, squeaked by with a 1 point victory over a game and determined University of Central Florida squad. UCF was up by four in the last top minutes and had a couple of real chances to win the game in the waning seconds. Two other number 1 seeds, Gonzaga and North Carolina, advanced with less difficulty. The last number 1 seed, Virginia, pulled away from Oklahoma to move on.

Kentucky smothered Wofford’s Fletcher Mc Gee, the all-time NCAA leader in three point field goals, forcing him into a head-scratching 0-12 from beyond the arc. Michigan State upended fellow Big Ten rival Minnesota. LSU defeated Maryland on a spectacular basket with 1.3 seconds left. Michigan took care of business with its win over Florida. Florida State manhandled Ja Morant and Murray State in its win on Saturday. 

Tennessee coach Rick Barnes was very upset with his players when they had a 25 point lead over Iowa in the first half of their contest. For good reason, because Iowa staged an epic comeback to tie Tennessee and force overtime. The Vols righted themselves by scoring the first 7 points of OT to secure the win. Bruce Pearl showed the same kind of frothiness with his Auburn team in their triumph over Kansas. This must be an SEC coaching mindset.

Texas Tech handled Buffalo very easily to secure its berth in the next round where Michigan awaits. Purdue blew out Villanova, guaranteeing that there will be no repeat champion this season. 

Virginia Tech and Liberty, separated by 94 miles in the Commonwealth of Virginia, had to travel to San Jose, CA to meet; the Hokies outscored the Flames significantly in the latter stages to obtain the victory. Buzz Williams and his team will meet Duke once again, this time for a spot in the Elite Eight.

So what do we have regarding the Sweet Sixteen? All of the seeds #1-3 will continue to play, plus two #4 seeds. The ACC has five teams still alive. The SEC has four still alive. The Big Ten has three of its elite teams in the last 16. The only interloper is Oregon, a #12 seed, who defeated UC Irvine, a #13 seed.

My brackets are broken, although my Final Four is intact. I cannot overcome a deficit, so my wife wins the head-to-head competition convincingly. The woman is astute and by watching Pardon The Interruption, she has used their information wisely. Unlike me, who had such great picks as Mississippi State, Kansas, Wisconsin, ODU, Belmont and Buffalo in the Sweet Sixteen and Cincinnati in the Elite Eight.

Baseball made it to the front pages notwithstanding the NCAA Tournament. Superstar Mike Trout from Millville, N.J., signed a 12 year $430 million pact to remain with the Angels. He relegated Bryce Harper’s recent contract to secondary status. Yankees fans immediately wondered what will the team pony up for Aaron Judge to get him to skip his arbitration years and remain the face of the team. Incredibly, last year Judge made $688,000.

Speaking of the Yankees, reliever Dellin Betances has joined Luis Severino on the sidelines with shoulder inflammation. Coupled with C.C. Sabathia joining the big club late in April, the team is stretched a bit thin right now. The signing of Gio Gonzalez, who pitched for Washington last season is a good and probably necessary move given the current circumstances.

MLB actually played two regular season games in Japan last week. Seattle swept the Oakland A’s, but that was not the most significant thing about the trip. It allowed Japanese superstar and sure Hall of Fame inductee Ichiro Suzuki to come out of retirement at age 45, and play in these two games in his native country before returning to retirement—this time for good. While he only managed one hit, it was Nirvana for his adoring fans. 

I, along with the millions who adored his style, flair, temperament and talent, salute this baseball great on the conclusion of his storied career. I think of pure hitters I have seen—Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Rod Carew, Wade Boggs, George Brett—and he is right there with them. The story has been repeatedly told that in batting practice, Ichiro could reliably reach the seats if he chose to. Instead, he honed his craft and utilized his speed to be as dangerous a hitter as there has been. His defensive abilities and the gun he possessed in right field saved countless runs for the teams he played on. I will miss him on the field, but I know that he will have some kind of great Hall of Fame ceremony in 2025.

Mets fan and super pain Fan X is upset over the Mets heading to Syracuse after camp breaks in Florida on Monday. This echoes the complaints of Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard, who also is miffed that the team has not conceded contract extension talks with fellow pitcher Jacob deGrom, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner.

My response is that this move is bush—the Mets will travel on a three hour bus ride to face the Orioles, then fly to Syracuse to practice in the Carrier Dome, which is not a baseball facility, instead of playing a game on the field at their Triple A farm team. After the workout, the Mets will fly to D.C. for its opener against the Nationals. All of this is the result of the MLB schedule starting on a Thursday in late March. Perhaps the geniuses who run the Mets could have scheduled an interim stop at Citi Field? 

On Thursday I can only hope that when Baltimore comes to open the 2019 Yankees’ schedule we don’t revisit the 1996 snowstorm in which David Cone pitched when the Yankees opened their home schedule with the Kansas City Royals .

With the number of domes and warm weather venues in Florida and California, MLB repeatedly challenges the unpredictable early Spring temperatures in the Northeast and Midwest. I have railed about this before—the California teams should automatically be home as well as the Florida teams—that’s 7 games out of 15 right there. Add in the Astros, D-backs, Brewers, Braves, Rangers, Seattle and you can pick from KC, St.Louis, Cincinnati to complete the slate. There is no need for games in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado, Cleveland (where the ice is still on Lake Erie)  or even in Maryland or DC. C’mom MLB—this isn’t the NFL!!

Finally, we attended the F&M baseball game at Drew University on a 60 degree Sunday afternoon. A see saw game for a while, F&M rallied in the 7th inning to tie the score at 4. The Diplomats, behind three hit relief pitching over 6 2/3 innings, winning the game by scoring a run in the top of the 13th inning. The Diplomats’ catcher became the pitcher in the bottom of the 13th to secure the victory with his first save to the season. F&M is now 13-4 in non-conference play while the Drew Rangers fell to 7-7.

Baseball has begun. The Big Dance is in full swing for the men and the women. The NBA is in its last two plus weeks of play. The NHL is finishing its season with some tight races for the final spots in the playoffs. Exciting times indeed. 

I can understand why The Big Bang Theory always gets pre-empted at this time of the year. Next year CBS won’t have that problem; Sheldon Cooper and his friends will be history. 

In the meantime, I will be most content to watch history unfold in the legitimate sports world. Otherwise, I might get sidetracked by following the exploits of teams at Wake Forest, Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and USC and their “players” who never played and the coaches who willingly accepted lots of payola from rich parents to take away spots from deserving students.

Now that is plenty of madness for me…

Canadian Hockey Excursion II

Day 1 (Tuesday)

It was nearly like any normal day—awakening at 4:50 a.m. Except this day had more urgency to it. Shower, shave, dress. Get the last minute items into the suitcase. My son and I were heading to Newark Airport to start our second NHL/Devils hockey adventure.

The drive to the airport was easy. We went to the kiosk, retrieved our boarding passes and luggage tags, dropped off our two suitcases and made our through TSA-Pre-Check without any trouble. We were actually stunned that Air Canada didn’t charge us for our luggage. I could not recall if I had pre-paid that, but it was certainly enjoyable to not have to use my credit card that early.

Breakfast consisted of bagels and cream cheese, with water for me and juice for Brian. Before long we were on board the plane and, after the expected Newark Airport delay to takeoff, we headed to Toronto. 

The skies were cloudy over New York State, but parted as we headed over Lake Ontario towards Toronto. The route into Pearson International Airport takes the plane very close to downtown, so we could clearly see the CN Tower, all of the high rise buildings which adorn the waterfront and head inland, as well as the Air Canada Centre, where the Maple Leafs and Raptors play, and Rogers Centre, home to the Blue Jays. 

Upon landing, we scurried to the Domestic terminal to pass through Canadian customs. Which was a line of 300 plus individuals and families, setting us into a small panic, even though we had about an hour and a half before takeoff. The line inched along for a while, adding to our angst, until we were able to turn the corner and see that Canada felt that 3 agents would be sufficient for their needs. For crossing into Canada was a mere formality.

Once rid of that issue, we made it to our gate, bought our lunch and snack supplies, filled our bottles with water and headed out to Alberta. Which is a fairly long flight.

Much of the flight was unimpressive, except seeing Lake Superior covered with ice, passing nearby well-known hockey towns like Thunder Bay, Ontario, Saskatoon, Red Deer, Alberta and grabbing a well-earned hour nap.

Surprisingly, Edmonton has a very nice airport about a half hour south of the city. When we claimed our bags, we hailed an Uber for the trip into the city. As you travel into the city, the plains become less and the route shows the signs of a typical Canadian suburb, populated by fast food establishments, auto dealers and other essential services. There is plenty of oil-affiliated business in and around the town, as would be expected. The downtown is not huge, and there are a few high rise buildings, but not nearly on a par with Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver.

After we worked out separately, my son and I found that within our hotel, the Westin Edmonton, the Share Restaurant was participating in “Downtown Dining Week.” The three course meal, at a cost of $30.00 CA each, was a tasting menu plus, and by far the best meal on the trip. The seared scallops in beet puree with squash and barley risotto and green onion was delectable. The entrees of Roast Cauliflower Steak and Pomegranate Chicken were equally delicious. Topping off this memorable meal was Saskatoon berry buckle with white chocolate ice cream. I still think of how good it tasted.

Day 2 (Wednesday)

Wednesday was a big day. My son had on his walking shoes and a route planned out for us. Fortunately, the weather, which just days earlier had included sub-zero temperatures, was more cooperative with a bright and sunny sky and temps in the 30’s, which created some icy and slushy conditions.,  We began by heading to the Alberta criminal courts. Would you have expected less from two attorneys? It was akin to a misdemeanor court. The most interesting event was when a counsellor entered a plea in absentia for his client and then a small fine was imposed.

We trekked past the Rogers Place, the modernistic new home of the Oilers, which replaced the Northlands Coliseum in 2016. On our northward journey to Nando’s, a fast food plus restaurant that my son loves from his semester in South Africa, we passed MacEwen University, a school built on the old CN Railway line headed to northern Alberta. Established in 1971, the school is quite sizable.

With my son fully sated with Nando’s chicken, we took leave and headed to the Alberta Parliament building some distance away. We toured the Ontario Parliament in 2016, so whenever we are in a city with a legislature, we head for the tour.

It is a beautiful building, modeled after the Minnesota State Capital in St. Paul and built in the early part of the 20th century. Among the quirky features inside are potted palm trees inside the dome area and a spot where the waters from the fountain below can be heard rushing through the pipes. We saw plenty of paintings of the Lieutenant-Governors and Premiers; a history of voting rights for women and the First Nation; a tour of the Legislative Assembly itself; a viewing of their ceremonial maces, swords, etc. which are ceremonial and necessary for the legislature to operate. When in session, there is a certain door which only the British monarch and a few individuals can enter, only upon three knocks and acceptance by the Lieutenant-General. The building reeked of history. We even had an incident when a member of our tour, a First Nation member, walked off the tour after recounting how the First Nation was so discriminated against in his youth in Edmonton; he recalled that signs at the doors to restaurants clearly said “no dogs and Indians.”

Our choice for dinner was the chain Old Spaghetti Factory nearby the arena. Heavily populated by Oilers partisans, my son in his red Devils jersey clearly stood out. The dining review: lousy food.

Rogers Place is state of the art and gorgeous. I liked it even better than the Air Canada Center and the Prudential Center. The fans are nice and knowledgeable. It is big league in its amenities and atmosphere. A first rate hockey environment.

The Oilers try to make the game day experience ultra fan friendly. From the multi-page free game day magazine to the pre-game flash mob light show, the fans are part of the entertainment. The same goes with the intermissions. There is DJ music, loud and hip; drumming; a mascot. Something for everyone.

While the crowd was predominantly dressed orange or blue Oilers jerseys or shirts, small pockets of Devils fans were there, clad in the home red New Jersey uniform.

The Edmonton faithful came expecting a win against the lowly Devils, having come off an impressive win two night earlier against Vancouver, while Jersey had been trounced by Calgary 9-4 one night before. There was a fight early in the first period which set the tone for a physical contest. Edmonton superstar Connor Mc David, flashed his moves and collected two assists in helping Edmonton take an early lead. Those two assists put Mc David over100 points for the season, an impressive feat over a very average team.

An early Oilers lead was overcome by the Devils dominating the second and third periods. Playing a smart and tough style of hockey, coupled with a porous goaltending effort by Edmonton, the Devils prevailed 6-3 behind scoring from New Jersey native Kenny Agostino who, along with Damon Severson and Kevin Rooney, tallied a goal and and an assist. The Oilers faithful in the nearly full arena which seats over 18,000 was sent into the cool Edmonton evening grumbling and grousing abut the team’s lack of effort.

At the Westin we quickly rejoiced over a surprisingly easy Devils victory, a nearly 27,000 step day with new highs in steps, calories burnt and exercise according to my Apple Watch. Then it was time for sleep; we had a noontime flight to Vancouver on Thursday.

Day 3 (Thursday)

Another Uber ferried us to Edmonton, where we had breakfast, picked up lunch and snacks, and boarded our Air Canada plane for the next leg of the journey—Vancouver. A much shorter flight over the spectacular Canadian Rockies deposited us at the Vancouver airport, where there was a coolness in the cloudy day, but without snow on the ground.

With some minimal difficulties in arranging payment for the train into the city (we learned that, for at least the train kiosks, US debit cards are treated as credit cards), we made it to downtown and another Westin. The reason we chose Westin hotels on the trip was based on location—both were in reasonable walking distance to the arenas and in Edmonton, that was where the Devils were staying, along with a horde of tall young women, in town for the Canadian collegiate volleyball championships at the University of Alberta. 

Both of us exercised separately, then we decided, with some effort, to locate a Japanese restaurant which would be suitable for my son’s more experiential palate and my narrower tastes. We hiked through a rainy, bustling city of high-rise buildings ad people venturing out for the evening to our destination. 

My son elected a number of sushi items for his meal. I chose chicken teriyaki and California roll for myself. While the meal overall was tasty—especially the sushi—the teriyaki was breaded and fried, to my surprise. After returning to the hotel, we opted for some Dairy Queen for dessert—my son had a shake and I had a cup of vanilla soft ice cream.

Day 4 (Friday)

I know I was in trouble when I awoke to an upset stomach. I confused hunger pangs with what would later disable me. Since it was my late father’s 100th birthday, we had decided that our meals would be a bagel and lox for breakfast and a Chinese lunch. 

It took us some effort to locate the bagel place we wanted. The whole wheat “bagel” was definitely not a New York-style bagel, but it was most enjoyable. Except that, even with the water I brought with me to wash it down, the ingesting of this breakfast only enhanced my stomach’s woes.

We had a solid morning agenda, with a trip to the waterfront, the adjacent, quaint Gastown and its unique steam clock and then over the water to the Olympic Village. Even with utilizing the rails for part of the trip, we logged 13,000 steps that morning. 

As we hit the the hotel, I was finished. I had to lie down. I was weak, nauseous, and tired. I slept the majority of the afternoon, while my son alighted to the Vancouver Nando’s, which he found to be disappointing compared to his Edmonton Nando’s meal. I was more interested in surviving.

He left me for more sightseeing, and I made it to the bathroom on numerous occasions, hoping to vomit out the trouble that I had ingested and to try to get some fluid inside of me, as I had severely dehydrated. I threw up mucous, which helped me break a sweat, which is a usual sign that I was recovering. Except that I felt even lousier. 

The two lawyers negotiated a deal—if I could keep a bowl of soup down, I could attend the game that night. Brian went to dinner on his own. We tried to separate our hockey tickets, but Ticketmaster was giving us all sorts of trouble in that department. 

I decided that I had to go to the game—that was the reason why we were in British Columbia—and it was two days before his 34th birthday and I could not disappoint Brian. Summoning up all out all of my strength, I made it to the adjacent IGA Supermarket and purchased a cup of chicken with wild rice soup. In front of my son, I somehow kept the broth, rice and vegetables down and I pronounced myself fit to attend the game. I knew I was lying to myself, and I swore that I would take a period by period approach to the contest.

Even if the walk was only a couple of blocks, it felt like a marathon. We entered the Rogers Arena, the home of the Canucks and where the Canadians defeated our US team to take home the men’s hockey gold medal in 2010. My son still despises Sidney Crosby for scoring the game winner.

I purchased a Gatorade, a bottle of water and a soft pretzel, which would prove to be the second part of dinner. Unlike Edmonton, the inside of the arena is not as new and there are railings to lean on—a throwback to the old Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The Canucks had all of the bells and whistles needed to attract the younger crowd plus marching drum corps. Of course, there were plenty of Canucks shirts, but the number of Devils gear grew and some of the people were familiar, which surprised my son, who thought we were crazy to undertake this venture.

Gnawing at my pretzel and drinking my Gatorade, I watched the teams battle through a scoreless first period. The Canucks, fighting for a playoff berth just like the Oilers, looked listless.

During the second period, the Canucks came to life, tallying twice and making the Devils look like they were not going to score on this evening. The second period ended with New Jersey in deep trouble.

Somehow, the Devils came to life with about 6 minutes left in the game, scoring twice to tie the score, and stunning the late arriving, date night, beer guzzling younger crowd. (For the record, hockey fans everywhere drink beer, but the Canadian fans love their Molson). After completing a 5 minute, 3 on 3 overtime session, a thrilling 8 round shootout was won by the Devils, giving them the win and sending the Canucks fans in pursuit of other activities to wash away the bad loss.

For us, we had two surprising wins. For me, I was very happy that I made it through the game and back to the hotel. I felt like crap and we had a 5:30 wake up call for our return flight to Newark.

Day 5 (Saturday)

I had a bad night’s sleep, sweating and awakening multiple times. My stomach was still queasy, but I had no choice to soldier on to the airport. Encountering more trouble with the train ticket kiosks, somehow, with the assistance of a polite railway agent, we were able to enter the US and International terminal. Which was a madhouse. 

Brian deftly maneuvered himself to a spot where we could secure our travel documents and get our bags checked. From there we separated, as I had Global Entry and he didn’t. I made it past security without issue. The US Customs kiosk was slightly balky when scanning my passport, but in the end, I was though to the gate and I eventually met Brian. The best we could do was get a greasy croissant sandwich from Burger King for breakfast and a turkey on whole wheat for my lunch in the little time we had left before boarding the massive Air Canada Boeing 787 headed to Newark.

I valiantly tried to remain awake to take in the sights. The Canadian Rockies wee even more magnificent with their snow cover. We flew over much of lower Alberta, entering the US airspace in eastern Montana. Everything was snow covered, but I was able to discern Minneapolis and St.Paul, Milwaukee, Lake Michigan. We made one short return to Canadian airspace east of Detroit before heading along the New York-Pennsylvania border and into the New York Metropolitan area.

Our landing was a bit bumpy due to some wind at Newark. After retrieving our baggage after a long wait to dismount the gigantic plane, I was very happy to seem wife as she sat in our Toyota outside Terminal A. 

Brian went on to a party in Hoboken and celebrated his birthday in New Jersey. I surprised my wife with a Chinese dinner, a day late to honor my father. I was finished with the egg drop soup, but I managed to have some of the chow mein and egg foo young, staples of my childhood. 

I had every intention of watching the Golden State Warriors play the Oklahoma City Thunder. My man cave couch said too bad, and I slept through about four-fifths of the game won by Golden State. Staying up solely to text Brian birthday wishes, I went out like a light @ 12:15 a.m…and slept most of Sunday.

Postscript (Tuesday)

I still have the crappy illness and and the gas and discomfort. I am no longer nauseous but I have had difficulty enjoying what I am eating and my sleep patterns are in disarray, having slept the majority of Sunday but little since then. My nephrologist believes that it is an airplane-derived illness, which is apparently quite common. I am not so sure this malady wasn’t from the Japanese food and the bagel, too. 

Brian is now 34 and back at work. Besides seeing my friendly nephrologist, I had 5 needles injecting pain relievers into the area around my soleus tendon and fibula. I am grounded for a couple of days. The Devils reverted to their former ways and were shut out 3-0 by Colorado to end their road trip. They are home this week against Washington and Boston. 

Just as well. It was a very worthwhile whirlwind 60 hours of sightseeing, extensive travel, Canadian food and, most of all, two New Jersey Devils victories. I am in need of some time to recover. In 17 days my wife and I are off to New Orleans to visit our daughter and to take in the Golden State Warriors game against the Pelicans.

March Is Upon Us

Finally. Bryce Harper and the Philadelphia Phillies ended all the speculation by reaching an agreement. And it is some agreement. 

Philadelphia is on the hook for $330 million for 13 years. There is no opt out clause and there is a no-trade clause. Harper has the highest total contract amount, topping Giancarlo Stanton’s $325 million. There are incentives in addition to the yearly figure which will make Harper even richer.

This is a team friendly deal in the amount, but can turn ugly for the Phillies if Harper doesn’t produce like he did in Washington and/or he suffers significant injury. Agent Scott Boras said that Harper wanted to be in one place where he can thrive, as well as have the biggest contract.

Does this make Philadelphia the NL front runners? Perhaps, yet they have to run the gauntlet of the fine starting pitching in Washington and New York, and the Atlanta Braves won the NL East last season.  Thus, the addition of Bryce Harper immediately bolsters the Phillies lineup and reduces the pressure on prodigy Rhys Hopkins. The new acquisitions who played for the Yankees last season, outfielder Andrew McCutcheon and reliever David Robertson, will have an impact—but the question is how much, as McCutcheon is not the slugger who won the N.L. M.V.P. Award while with Pittsburgh and Robertson struggled away from the Bronx during his stint with the White Sox. Add in questions about the starting pitching and the quality of the young lineup, and it is not so obvious that Harper’s joining the ensemble warrants a declaration that the Phillies are the favorites in the N.L. Milwaukee and St.Louis are very solid teams, Cincinnati is improved, the Cubs are a factor. I heard that San Diego picked up a really good player this off season to go with the young corps that will develop into a contending team.

There is another hint that the Phillies believe they need more talent than they currently have. That is the speculation about South Jersey native Mike Trout coming back to the Philadelphia area once he is a free agent in two years. To me, this means that the Phillies are a superstar player short of having a championship team. 

Whatever the outcome, Harper has already made an impact. About 350,000 tickets have been sold since he signed. That translated to nearly $14 million in revenue, without adding in parking, concessions, merchandise. 

His first exhibition game was a sellout and 1,500 standing room tickets on the berm were sold. Harper’s teammates and coaches found him to be warm and accessible. After Harper hit a homer in a simulated game off of major league pitching, McCutcheon dryly remarked that “we’ll keep him.”  McCutcheon knows baseball and a winner.

Before I get to basketball, I would like to acknowledge that Rutgers had two Champions for the first time ever in the recent Big Ten Wrestling Championships. F&M is actually sending 1 wrestler to the NCAA’s in Pittsburgh, as the Diplomat wrestlers recorded their best finish in the EIWA Championships in years. 

Upon traveling to Iowa City and beating Iowa minus its head coach, Fran Mc Caffery , who was suspended for verbal abusing the officials in a road loss at Ohio State, talk started about Rutgers being on the cusp of an NIT bid. Reaching .500 at 14-14 was an achievement. Especially where the team was a month ago. But as RU head man Steve Pikiell calmly said, to keep his team focused, they only play one game at a time. 

Obviously, they weren’t focused enough on Wednesday night. A cold shooting first half put the Scarlet Knights behind 31-17 before a sold out RAC. Geo Baker, the sophomore guard, had a horrendous night, shooting 0-10 from the field and scoring 0 points. Still, RU staged a furious comeback, as they had two chances to put in the game winner off of a Baker missed three point attempt. Alas, Penn State won 66-65, greatly diminishing RU’s chances for the post-season. 

Rutgers concluded its regular season with a resounding 89-73 defeat at the hands of Indiana in Bloomington on their Senior Day. The Knights did little to help their cause both offensively and defensively. 

This may have been a hangover from the Penn State loss and the horrible situation forward Issa Thiam put himself into on early Friday morning. Thiam was arrested in Piscataway on seven counts; no other details were given. Coach Pikiell suspended Thiam indefinitely. 

Thus, RU limps into the Big Ten Tournament, playing at the number 12 seed against number 13 seed Nebraska. This is a far cry from where RU hoped they would be. To have any chance at reaching the NIT, RU would have to go 2-1 in three consecutive nights. That is very daunting. While they did make a run last year at Madison Square Garden based on the outstanding play of Corey Sanders, this team does not seem to have that makeup. 

It has been a very significant building season for Rutgers. They didn’t finish in the Big Ten cellar. RU won 7 league games, their high total in the league. Had the miraculous shot that Iowa converted to win a game at the RAC hadn’t fallen and if the Knights converted the rebound at the end of the Penn State game, the team would be16-14, not playing on Wednesday night, and perhaps ahead of schedule in the team’s overall development. With the youth on the team and the chemistry that has been building, 2019-20 has promise, These words have not been echoed on the Banks of the ‘ol Raritan for awhile.   

I was at the Prudential Center on Wednesday night to see Marquette play Seton Hall. The Pirates were fighting for an outside chance at an NCAA berth, while Marquette wanted to end a two game losing streak and remain in contention for the Big East regular season title.

A lot like the RU game, Seton Hall fell behind the Golden Eagles, trailing 37-31 at the half. Marquette was dominating off the glass and scoring on three pointers, despite guard Markus Howard, the leading scorer in the Big East, having a subpar night. 

Behind by at least 12 points in the second half with more than 10 minutes gone by, Seton Hall went on an 18-0 run to close out the game, which included a streak of 10 straight points by guard Myles Powell, who ended the contest with 34 points. 

I don’t ever remember being in an arena when such a comeback has happened—I have seen big runs to start a game, but never this. I don’t know that Seton Hall really is an NCAA team, even with big wins over Kentucky, Maryland and now Marquette plus Villanova. And I think Marquette rises and falls on Howard being on, so the key to defeating the Golden Eagles is to shut down Howard. Villanova simply lost too much talent to be a championship threat.

In other basketball news, Swarthmore made the D-III Final Four and a trip to Salem, VA. The Garnet face Christopher Newport in the Friday opener, with Wisconsin-Oshkosh meeting Wheaton in the nightcap.  The winners collide on Saturday for the title. With Swarthmore making it to the Final Four, this is another instance of a school sacrificing academics for athletics. Scandalous. Lol.

I enjoyed the Golden State-Philadelphia contest on ABC last Saturday night. Each team played without one star—Klay Thompson had been experiencing knee problems and Sixers big man Joel Embiid was slowly working his way back from an injury. The game had a definite playoff feel. PG Ben Simmons led the Sixers, but in the end, the see saw battle was won by the Golden State duo of Kevin Durant and Steph Curry. 

This Warriors team can be as exciting as in the past. It may have more losses than prior teams had. And this is probably the last run at a title—which by no means is a given. Whether Golden State triumphs or falls short, it has been a blast watching this team. 

I saw on Tuesday night some of their shortcomings when a schizophrenic Boston team dismantled GSW at Oracle Arena. Without a healthy Klay Thompson and his efforts on defense, the Warriors are a very average to below average team. No matter that DeMarcus Cousins is a bull in the paint, a prodigious center has not been part of the arsenal the makes the Warriors so good. I think he is a liability. The fact that Golden State is looking to bring back an aging Andrew Bogut to help at center demonstrates a major problem underneath for this team and that the flow and spacing, which was the Warriors trademark, hopefully would return with a player like Bogut. 

Without Bogut, the Warriors took down the Denver Nuggets on Friday night. Denver is the closest threat to the Warriors’ superiority in the West. With Klay Thompson back in action, defending like a man possessed, arguing with himself for not playing harder, Klay went off for 39 points, which included 9 from beyond the arc. As important as Curry and Durant are, Klay Thompson’s importance on both sides of the court should never be forgotten.

The bad Warriors showed up on Sunday evening as the lowly Phoenix Suns came into Oracle and emphatically broke an 18 game losing streak to Golden State. The Suns played with passion; the Warriors did not. Devin Booker out hustled and outplayed the Golden State defenders. Phoenix benefitted from sloppy play by Thompson and Curry at the end of the game as well as horrid shooting from 3 point range by Golden State. 

It is not the “lack of energy” of the Oracle Arena crowd which Thompson mentioned after the Phoenix loss. I am firmly of the belief that the initial distractions at the start of the year morphed into a disease among the players. Draymond Green is not the player he was 4 years ago. The passing is not as crisp as in previous years. There is too much emphasis on the 3 point shot and too many isolation plays without movement. Also, outside of the key addition of Durant, the role players on Golden State have not improved the team, whereas the contenders have gotten younger and better. 

The veterans like Curry and Thompson feel that when the playoffs begin that they will be able to turn on the energy again and win one more title. I doubt that this attainable given that the Western Conference is so much better. Teams like Utah, Portland, Oklahoma City, and Houston will be true tests for the Warriors—which I don’t see them necessarily being favored to win the series. As a matter of fact, the way the team is playing, their lead atop the Western Conference is perilous and they almost certainly will not have home court advantage against 2-3 Eastern Conference foes if the Warriors reach the NBA Finals.

It has been a great run, with a lot of fun games. There is a time when all good things must end. Unfortunately for Golden State, it is looking like this season. For once, I would love to be wrong.

The NBA does have two train wrecks performing in two of its most venerable cities. The Lakers and Celtics are out of sorts right now. And who are the causes of this disjointedness? Why those two pals and former egomaniacal teammates who couldn’t stand each other—Kyrie Irving in Boston and LeBron James with Los Angeles. 

LeBron and his cronies have absolutely ruined the glamorous image of the Los Angeles Lakers. “Showtime” is no NO time. Because he is the greatest player ever to have played the game (in his mind but there are plenty of doubters on that subject), LeBron believes he is the only one who can play the game right. He is easily frustrated by teammates—that was also the case in Cleveland. Because they aren’t as immortal as he is. Coaches are mere folly to his superior knowledge. 

Certainly LeBron has scored a ton of points in his career, surpassing Michael Jordan for fourth place all-time in NBA annals. James has also played way more minutes, and played in far more playoff games.

Even coupled with his championships and title game appearances, this does not give him the right to drop himself upon the Lakers and try to take over running the franchise. Despite protestations to the contrary, he has no regard for Luke Walton, the current LAL coach who ran off an impressive string of victories a couple of years ago at Golden State when Steve Kerr was incapacitated with back trouble. It is so bad for Walton, that his father, legendary UCLA and NBA champion Bill Walton, has started actively campaigning for Luke to land at his alma mater to regain National Championship form at the school. 

Moreover, the rumor that LeBron coveted Eric Spoelstra, his former coach at Miami who still coaches the Heat is laughable. While LeBron won in Miami, he was surrounded by Chris Bosh and Dewayne Wade, two certain Hall Of Fame indictees. He scoffed at Spoelstra during his time in Miami, but James behaved a lot better because Pat Riley, the power behind the throne for the Heat, was a person not to mess with.

While Walton could get scooped up by many other franchises because he is that good, the question remains why would he put up with the constant headaches associated with Team LeBron? There is no certainty that agent Rich Paul, who is LeBron’s long time friend, will be able to still pick off Anthony Davis after his blatant attempt to control the market at the trade deadline not only failed, but sank the Lakers as a team-everyone was expendable under the way Paul wanted to do business, so their future in LA was bleak. 

Add into the mix that Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram will miss the remainder of this lost  season. Monitoring LeBron’s minutes actually may extend his career. 

I look at Magic Johnson and Jeannie Buss. Where is their assertive leadership? How have they allowed the once proud franchise to deteriorate as it has? Is LeBron, his entourage, his vision as an entrepreneur in the music, TV and movie industries and his pouting worth all of this? What will the fan base tolerate if the Lakers cannot sign a top free agent in the off season? It is a mess.

Boston is no better. Kyrie Irving is as disruptive a force on the court as he is in the locker room and with the press. He is sullen, sulks, is petulant and not a real team player—it is all about Kyrie. Danny Ainge, who handles the basketball operations, is highly supportive of his young and talented coach, Brad Stevens. 

Oveall, Boston has played well, sometimes better without Irving on the court. They went through a stretch of losses, then they put two impressive road victories together this week at Golden State then in Sacramento the next night. The talent is there. The Celtics’ chances to win the Eastern Conference are equal to their rivals. Last season, the team came up one game short without Irving. The question is whether they can put aside the rancor, act professionally and play together as a team. If that is the case, they can make the NBA Finals. Should selfishness and ego take control, Boston is doomed this season.

On Saturday night, the NBA conveniently arranged for the Celtics to be on an extended road trip away from the Garden, with a stop in LA to take on the Lakers at the Staples Center.This was an all-Boston affair, as the Lakers were forced to utilize bench players and call ups from the G League. Watching this dismal game was not a highlight for a Saturday night, for ABC or me. 

Duke traveled to Chapel Hill on Saturday night for part two of their annual rivalry. While inching closer to playing, Zion Williamson was only a spectator. Unless the two teams meet in the ACC Tournament next week or in the NCAA Tournament, his participation in this storied series will be just under 1 minute—the time the it took for his Nike shoe to disintegrate.

Carolina prevailed again, this time by a score of 79-70. Tough, aggressive defense along with some clutch 3 point shots  by Coby White helped the Tar Heels withstand a serious scoring drought to hold off the late charge by the Blue Devils. R.J Barrett of Duke showed why he will be sensational at the next level in leading his team with 26 points.

North Carolina tied Virginia for the ACC regular season title, with a 16-2 record. Virginia will have the top seed in the ACC Tournament which is later this week in Charlotte. Coach K says it is likely Zion Williamson will return for the tourney games. How effective Zion will be after a long period of inactivity remains to be seen. He could provide Duke with an emotional lift and lead them to the ACC title. To get there, #3 seeded Duke likely will have to finally defeat Carolina and then UVA. 

ACC fans and maybe the Big East fans at Madison Square Garden always seem to be the luckiest based upon the strength of their leagues. Big Ten rooters who migrate to Chicago might take exception. 

I am an opponent of conference tournaments deciding championships and NCAA bids, as this especially hurts the non-major conferences. Just because Seton Hall and Indiana have a number of Quad 1 wins, something Belmont or Loyola (Chicago) cannot possibly attain, does not mean that the Pirates or Hoosiers should be rated ahead of a runner-up in the Ohio Valley Conference or a school which reached the Final Four last year.

Nonetheless, it is the start to an exciting time of the year for basketball enthusiasts. Which is why some question the reason I am headed to Edmonton, where the lows will be in the teens and the high temperatures will make it into the balmy (for them) mid-30’s. 

The answer is simple: this is when the Devils are scheduled to play the Oilers and Canucks. This is once in a lifetime for me and my son. Anyway, I will get to watch the ACC Finals when I arrive home from this fun trek. That’s definitely like having your cake and really enjoying it after the fact.

Besides, if you want to know when March Madness officially kicked off this year, it was Saturday night in the Bahamas. The Bahamas? That is where A-Rod proposed to J-Lo, who said yes and now sports a $1,000,000 ring on her hand…everything else is secondary, I guess.