Game On

College basketball has begun in earnest. Thursday night in my den I watched Rutgers almost blow a 15 point lead at home over a game Bentley team from the Northeast Conference. For me that represented the same old, same old. Which is why I question my sanity in that I gave up the opportunity to see the Giants and Jets clash at Met Life Stadium and instead I will sit court side as the Niagara Purple Eagles invade the RAC. Warm and comfortable in my anger as opposed to bundled up, exposed to the elements and wondering why am I in the Meadowlands with so many Giants fans?

As to the Giants and Jets, does it matter who wins? Perhaps in terms of draft choices and bragging rights, although who is really going to brag, given the awfulness of their collective seasons? I find it more interesting how the Jets might keep QB Sam Darnold upright and in a good position to throw, especially now when ex-Jet Leonard Marshall is on the Giants defensive line with plenty to show his old team. 

I think the Giants, a least on paper, are the better team. QB Daniel Jones is trying too hard to make things work out ok. A perfect example of that was in the loss to Dallas on Monday night, when he tried to run for a first down and fumbled the ball when hit while starting to slide to the turf. 

` Saquan Barkley will also be extra motivated. Barkley’s father is a die hard Jets fan, with a tattoo. Barkley would love to show his Dad that, while they shared their rooting interest in the Jets, he came out the winner in the game. 

Can the Jets win? Of course they can. If the right factors favor the Jets—not too many penalties, the offensive line congeals, the defense smothers the Giants receivers and puts pressure on the QB, along with the Jets limiting mistakes and turnovers. Yet the same applies to the Giants. I just think that they are the better team and will win this game.

It is a big Saturday in college football. #2 LSU travels to Tuscaloosa to meet #3 Alabama with all sorts of national championship implications on the line. Normally, one does not bet against Alabama at home. But with a banged up QB who is returning ahead of schedule and probably is not fully healed, Alabama is tipping its hand that they cannot win without Tua Tagovailoa at the helm. Alabama’s recent history with Clemson shows that the
Crimson Tide and Nick Saban play tight in bigger contests. Moreover, will LSU QB Joe Burrows rise to the occasion and win in a big game? 

Penn State and Minnesota meet in frigid Minneapolis. The Golden Gophers are 8-0 for the first time in well over 70 years. Penn State is ranked #4, but might be overrated. I can smell an upset here, which will throw the Championship rankings into chaos. Which is fine with me, for I cannot fathom how Ohio State is #1 and how Penn State is ahead of defending champions Clemson. Whatever way the games shake out in the coming weeks, the odds are that the Final Four will look a lot different at the end of the month, starting with the LSU-Alabama outcome.

Almost hidden in the lust for the big boys is the Dartmouth-Princeton game at Yankee Stadium. A capacity crowd will witness the decisive game for Ivy League supremacy between these undefeated rivals. This IS Princeton’s celebration of its part in the first college football game 150 years ago, and nothing could be more magical than to defeat Dartmouth, the team the Tigers used to play every year at home to end the season. 

When I was young, I used to devour the Sunday sports section of The New York Times. The Times catered to the Ivy League in those days. So I was fascinated about Columbia games at little Baker Field, that Dartmouth played a number of their Ivy League games on the road in bigger venues like Penn, Princeton, Harvard and Yale. I knew the season would end with Harvard-Yale, Brown-Columbia and Dartmouth-Princeton. I recalled Cornell and Penn annually, engaging in their battle on Thanksgiving. That Princeton would play either Harvard or Yale on the week before the Harvard-Yale game, depending on which school was host to The Game.

Such different times. The big boys do go to Dartmouth every other season. No more Thanksgiving contests. And the traditional rivalries aren’t so set in stone. Princeton and Penn have a local rivalry to end the season. And Columbia and Cornell play each other as well as Dartmouth and Brown. Maybe it is easier on travel. I liked it as it was. 

Amherst and Williams have their annual soiree this weekend. It is a down Amherst team which journeys to Williamstown. Meanwhile Middlebury goes for the NESCAC crown outside of Boston when it meets Tufts, while Wesleyan is in Hartford to get a crack at a lesser Trinity squad, hoping to lay claim to a tie for the NESCAC title with a Middlebury loss.

In Rutgers news, the best thing is that the Scarlet Knights don’t play this weekend. RU hosts #1 Ohio State next Saturday, a team which is sure to beat on Maryland his week. Ohio State had its star defensive player, Chase Young, suspended for accepting a loan from a family friend for expense money, which he had paid back. Not so fast says the NCAA. We must investigate. 

The Greg Schiano watch is moving quickly. The ex-RU coach has made his demands known to AD Patrick Hobbs, ones which certainly will require significant money to makeover the facilities to his standards. Schiano’s salary desire is unknown. The fact that interviewed candidate Butch Jones withdrew his name for further consideration, shows that the handwriting is on the wall. Unless Schiano is stringing RU out, which is always possible given his sudden departure from the New England Patriots staff this summer. 

To me, this is stupid. Young and his family made a mistake. He repaid the money. Let him play. This unlike the Memphis basketball scenario, where Tigers coach Penny Hardaway paid moving expenses for his star pupil James Wiseman to move to Memphis and play prep basketball—before Hardaway became the Memphis coach. 

The NCAA stepped in and said that the young man could not play. An injunction stayed the NCAA ruling and he played on Friday night, to the howls of the NCAA. This is going to be even uglier than the OSU-NCAA imbroglio. 

A couple of baseball notes. The Yankees are pursuing Brett Gardner, who they need to patrol the outfield one more season. New York signed a relatively unknown 33 year old pitching coach, Matt Blake, who has been described a pitching guru from those pitchers in the Cleveland organization who worked with him. 

Meanwhile, DJ Lemahieu picked up a Silver Slugger, emblematic of his being the best hitter at second base in the American League. I am still miffed that he isn’t in the top three for the A.L. M.V.P. award.

Giancarlo Stanton turned 30 this week. He campaigned for free agents Gerrit Cole and Steven Strasburg to come to the Yankees. If only this would happen…and Stanton can stay healthy and revive his home run stroke.

There is this great discussion about “maintenance days” for Kawhi Leonard and other stars. More so, because Leonard is on pace to play in 60-65 regular season games this season.

From the fan’s perspective, you are quite irritated if you are paying big bucks in the arena to see a star play and instead he is sitting this game out. Ditto if you are watching the game in LA or on the other teams TV outlet. Plus it deprives fans who watch nationally televised games—they don’t have the star playing and the game can be a let down if watched. This hurts ratings and makes ESPN and Turner think they vastly overpaid for a watered down product. 

“Maintenance Days” have always been in baseball. You go to a game as a child hoping that Mickey Mantle plays. But his knee might hurt or his hangover was too great. And when the teams clinch their post-season berths, the pitchers may skip a turn or be limited in their outing as to how many innings, and the starting lineup could be more populated with non-starters.

Football has those kinds of games at the conclusion of the regular season. If the playoff berth is set, Tom Brady may not be in the lineup, to prevent his getting injured in a meaningless affair. 

It has happened in the NHL. Philadelphia’s Bobby Clarke used to receive an in season vacation to a Caribbean island to rest up for the grind of the playoffs. I wonder if he put his false teeth in while he was sunning on the beach?

Michael Jordan rarely took a day off. Lebron James eschews resting, yet at age 35 his age may dictate some rest during the course of the long NBA calendar. These players, experts cite, are what made the NBA great and they don’t take a pass on playing night in and night out, when back-to-back games were much more prevalent.

It is a new normal in the NBA. Analytics drives the team, and even helps the coach who doesn’t utilize them. Which means if rest is required for a certain player and it show he is more effective after a day of rest, then rest assured he will miss a game then come back stronger. It worked for Leonard and Toronto last season. It isn’t going to hurt the Clippers this year. The fans be damned—unless Leonard wins the NBA Championship for Steve Balmer and for the perennially doormat Clippers.  

Back to college hoops. I applaud the opening night matchup at Madison Square Garden between the top four teams to start the season—Duke and Kansas, and Michigan State and Kentucky. When the dust settled, #1 MSU fell to the Wildcats and John Calipari, while Duke prevailed by 1 over the Jayhawks.

Also worthy of praise was how the ACC opened the 2019-20 season by holding 7 conference games. A lot of ACC teams weren’t too pleased. They would rather meet the cupcakes and put a few wins under their belts before they begin conference play. I liked this approach, as did the 7 who won—UNC, UVA, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Louisville and Boston College. As mentioned above, Duke had a much harder opener against Kansas. 

Which is why I was so angry at Rutgers for nearly losing to Bentley. This was supposed to be a nice opener. Now who knows what to expect from this crew. Gio Baker had a solid defensive game, but his shooting, like that of the entire team, was horrible over all and worse from the 3 point line. Freshman wunderkind Paul Mulcahy lived up to his hype with a solid 19 minutes of play. Still the free throw shooting is as bad as last year and the defense is not solid. I fear that RU will not be in the mix for the post-season if this game was a prophecy of what is to come. They must play better against the 0-1 Purple Eagles, losers at Drexel on Friday night, and build some confidence.

I leave you with this to start the college basketball year. The top 25 championship teams of all time. I think there aren’t too many surprises.

1.   UCLA 1971-72 30-0

2.   Indiana 1975-76 32-0

3.   San Francisco 1955-56 29-0

4.   Texas-El Paso 1965-66 28-1

5.   UCLA 1972-73 30-0

6.   UCLA 1967-68 29-1

7.   NC State 1973-74 30-1

8.   UCLA 1966-67 30-0

9.   UNC         1981-82 32-2

10. UNC         1956-57 32-0  

11. Duke         1991-92 34-2

12. Kentucky 1995-96 34-2

13. UCLA 1963-64 30-0

14. Cincinnati 1961-62 29-2

15. San Francisco 1954-55 28-1

16. Kentucky 2011-12 38-2

17. UCLA 1968-69 29-1

18. UCLA 1970-71 29-1

19. Ohio State 1959-60 25-3

20. Georgetown 1983-84 34-3

21. Arkansas 1993-94 31-3

22. UCLA  1969-70 28-2

23. Kentucky 1977-78 30-2

24. UNLV          1990-91 34-1

25. Loyola (Chicago)1962-63 29-2

The names are familiar, synonymous with the best in college basketball. UCLA and John Wooden. His players Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton. Bill Russell and K.C. Jones at USF. David Thompson of NC State. Michael Jordan and Dean Smith from North Carolina. The five black players at UTEP who, behind Don Haskins’ coaching, beat the mighty Kentucky team of all white players led by the legendary Adolph Rupp.

The list of players goes on and on. It is pantheon of greatness at the collegiate ranks. You might even put the 32-3 Virginia Cavaliers, last year’s winners at number 26, given their come back from the disastrous loss to UMBC the prior year, the first #1 seed to fall to a #16 seed. 

So let’s see if Michigan State can recover and win the Final Four. Or can Duke or Kentucky go unbeaten? Or if Rutgers goes to a post-season tournament. Those questions will be answered during the marathon which runs from November to the first Monday of April, 2020 at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. 

Game on.