No Fooling' Come April

Well, the suits at CBS, Turner and Disney got what they wanted. Final Fours with BIG names. As did the NCAA. 

For the Men’s Final Four, it is one #1 seed (Kansas); two #2 seeds (Duke, Villanova); and a #8 seed with pedigree that is not at all playing like it entered the tournament (North Carolina). Each school has multiple titles. Each school has great coaches, history, players who will be in the NBA and rabid fan bases.

The 800 pound elephant in the room is Duke-Carolina. The Blue Devils and the Tar Heels. Two shades of blue which are as different as night and day. Could not have happened any better if the Selection Committee had planned it—which they did by putting the two bitter rivals in the same bracket on the off chance that both teams made it this far. 

Whether it was great foresight, just plain luck or a combination of the two, it is the consummate dream game, albeit one game short of the championship match. Coach K’s victory tour gets a tough roadblock to the Finals. Hubert Davis and his legion of suddenly Carolina Blue faithful can make history and give Duke and its coach an unceremonious goodbye as what happened when the Tar Heels had the temerity to upstaged the final party at Cameron Indoor Stadium by winning on National TV. 

St. Peter’s proved to be no stumbling block for the Heels in the East Regional Final. As much as the Peacocks were the media darlings, they reverted to playing like a #15 seed facing a white hot North Carolina team which had taken out UCLA, my favorite to win it all. When David meets Goliath, despite the mythology, eventually, if given a chance, the underdogs can only take down some good but flawed teams in Kentucky and Purdue. North Carolina had shown flashes of its potential during the season, but had not impressed the Committee enough with their resume. Thus bye bye and back to a heroes welcome in Jersey City for the little Jesuit school that could. 

Duke had its own tough path to the Final Four. In the West Region, absent the looming giant named Gonzaga, which again failed to get close to that elusive National Championship. The Blue Devils played up to expectations. The win over a fast and determined Arkansas team was evidence of how Duke has come together at the right moment.

So what the second game of the twin bill in New Orleans on Saturday will offer (you knew that this would be the late game, so that the West Coast audience can carry it into dinner time) is two of the highest profile college basketball programs, separated by mere miles, meeting for the first time ever in the NCAA Tournament, a legacy of the days prior to 1975 when only the ACC Tournament champ could advance to play for the national title. 

Add the drama of whether this will be Coach K’s swan song, it is compelling TV for the basketball junkie. For all the hype, this game could as easily be a dud similar to Duke folding weeks ago at home. Or it can be a rugged and close affair, the outcome uncertain down to the last possession. Someone will be celebrating late into the night on Bourbon Street. One school will eternally have bragging rights once this game concludes. 

The other semi-final game, or the prelim to the BIG game, features Villanova against the school with the most victories ever in college hoops—the University of Kansas. No chump change contest here. 

Villanova is a grind it out, great shooting squad that plays tenacious defense. At crunch time, the Wildcats are one of the best teams in finishing games. This has to do with their free throw shooting—on a record pace to set an all-time one season mark of over 82% attempts made.

But Villanova will be without a key player, who suffered an Achilles injury in the regional final, a methodical win over a Houston Cougars team which sought a return to the Final Four like last season’s success. Whether Jay Wright’s troops will play an emotional game in honor of their fallen colleague or Kansas’s speed and depth will overcome Nova remains to be seen. 

I think that Kansas has the potential to win it all. They are the remaining #1 seed still alive. They have looked like a top seed. In their Midwest Region victory over the University of  Miami the Jayhawks trailed at the half and absolutely shut down the Hurricanes in the second half. 

If Kansas wins over Villanova, I think they can prevail over the survivor of the Duke-UNC game. The emotions of the ultimate battle for North Carolina state basketball supremacy might take too much out of the winner. Sure, I know that Duke is on a mission to win it all for Coach K in a storybook ending. But playing the Tar Heels like this may prove to be the dagger in the heart of the team’s dreams. 

I have a bit to say about the Selection Committee. Before the plaudits go out to them for a great job, remember, the perfect body of work would have had a couple more #1 seeds making it to the Crescent City. 

I know that St.Peter’s busted brackets and was such a feel-good story. But that meant that a team like St. Peter’s which amassed a 10 game winning streak before falling on Sunday, was vastly underrated. Are the Peacocks a Top 8 school by virtue of being the first #15 seed to play in the Elite Eight? Nope. Maybe they are a nice Top 20 school in the end. For this season only. 

Was this an exciting tournament thus far? You betcha. Will there be more thrills? Probably. I think the Selection Committee lucked out on this one and we, the fans, are the beneficiaries of their actions. Don’t get me wrong—they may have looked and thought of so many possible outcomes in developing the brackets—including Duke and Carolina meeting in the Final Four. But that, like St. Peter’s unplanned trip to Philadelphia, is the product of why they play the games. 

A more traditional path is ahead for the women. Three #1 seeds are in the Final Four. Stanford, South Carolina and Louisville were almost joined by North Carolina State, the other #1 seed. Instead, in an epic battle in Connecticut, the Wolfpack repeatedly took the best punch from the University of Connecticut women and forged tie after tie and forced a second overtime. 

Quiet for most of the first half, a resurgent Paige Bueckers, seemingly was better than most everyone else on the court despite her claims that she is not fully recovered from her lower body injury. Bueckers demonstrated why she has been regarded by Geno Auriemma, the winningest Head Coach in the women’s game, as a talent as good as Diana Taurasi , who may just have been the best of so many Huskies, men or women. With a nearly flawless effort, Bueckers lifted her team, willing them to a very hard-fought victory.

The reward? Bueckers gets to go home to Minnesota, where the Women’s Final Four will be held near her hometown. UConn now has made 14 straight Final Fours—that is an incredible accomplishment. 

However, like Villanova, the Huskies lost a key player and will be regarded as the underdog. Nonetheless, this Selection Committee did everything right, except for giving UConn an unmistakable home court advantage with a raucous pro-Huskies crowd in attendance in Bridgeport. This Final Four will have its own drama though Tuesday. 

Just a couple more things. Albert Pujols has returned to the St. Louis Cardinals, where he was beloved. It is a one year deal, which will allow him to face left-handed pitchers, play in the field and be a benefit with the universal DH. This way he can add to his glorious total of 679 home runs; Pujols was the first to reach 400 homers in his first 10 seasons. He is also the all-time leader in hitting into double plays. 

Don’t expect much from him, although he wears his familiar number 5 very nicely after all of these years. He joins a list of aging superstars who tried to get one more year in before waiting to be enshrined in Cooperstown. Names like Griffey and Ichiro returned to their old teams for their farewells. Willie Mays came back to New York, albeit with the Mets. Mickey Mantle just stayed on too long, losing his .300 average in his last season. 

Everyone will be happy in this reunion. And speaking of reunions, was the practice round that Tiger Woods had with his son and Justin Thomas at Augusta National a foreshadowing of his return to the Masters? 

A lot of teases here. I know the date at hand. No foolin’ come April.

At Least This Is A Fun Kind Of Madness

When I begin each blog, I sometimes have an idea about what I am going to write. Other times, I may begin with one item and then words start to flow. In the sports world, there is scant opportunity for writer’s block. 

There is always something happening in the week that passed. Right now, as seemingly in most months, we are in a period of overlap. Hockey and poor basketball are grinding towards the end of long regular seasons, seasons which feel longer because, at the start of COVID if the seasons happened at all, they were far shorter than they are now. 

When it’s your team which is underperforming, the end of the season cannot come soon enough. For those teams which make it to the playoffs, there is a renewed sense of hope for the fan base. Even if that optimism is much more emotional than logical. 

I think of the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers. I think of the Brooklyn Nets. I think of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals. None of these teams lead their respective divisions. 

Yet buoyed by the possible return of superstars or the continual play of their superstars, there is a belief that your team might catch fire and leap through opponents. After all, we love underdogs. Look at the groundswell for St. Peter’s University after two commanding victories in the NCAA Tournament over favored opposition. Ditto Iowa State, a team which was 2-22 last season, but with a new coach and judicious use of the transfer portal, the Cyclones are in the Sweet 16. 

` I heard Shaquille O’Neal, the former Lakers center, observe that Lebron James and company can emerge from the season-long funk that the team is mired in and actually beat the Phoenix Suns in a playoff series. How he arrived at that leap of faith is beyond me.

Is he trying to drum up ratings for TNT, where NBA post-season contests will be telecast? He might as well be on the unmanned rocket on the launch pad at Cape Kennedy waiting to send its payload to the Moon. 

But the faithful for so many teams want to hear from supposed experts or their former stars that their team can actually win it all despite some mortifying games through the course of the regular season. I am sure that the loyal supporters of the Toronto Maple Leafs feel that way—no Stanley Cup in Ontario since 1967, which was before the first expansion. 

It is what fueled the loyalists of the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs when those two franchises were in the doldrums until they attained the Holy Grail. I imagine that the fans of the San Diego Padres are still optimistic, even when superstar Fernando Tatis, Jr. went on the injured list after a foolish off-season motorcycle ride. For the Padres have NEVER won the World Series. 

In football, the off-season is full of twists and turns. In this time of free agency and trades, a seismic change in the landscape of the NFL can occur in the blink of an eye. With Carson Wentz gone, Indianapolis Colts fans wondered what was next? Well, Atlanta gave up on QB Matt Ryan, a fixture for the Falcons, and “Matty Ice” finds himself the man now in Indiana. 

How about the fate of the Kansas City Chiefs, Miami Dolphins and New York Jets being intertwined by movement with one player? When Hill rejected the Jets offer for him, and chose Miami as his destination,  Miami fans swooned over their new acquisition, while Jets fans were once more enraged over the team’s inability to effectuate meaningful change. 

All the while, KC re-tooled its wide receiver corps with some quality players, which should not hurt Patrick Mahomes II as the Chiefs compete in the now-loaded AFC West, where QB’s Justin Herbert (San Diego); Derek Carr (Las Vegas); and former Seattle QB Russell Wilson, the guy whose wife is Ciara (Denver). Those exhalations in San Diego, a city which hasn’t had a winner forever—and I mean forever—may be replaced with sighs as the recycling of players continues and injuries inevitably mount when the games begin to be played. 

Think of how the fans of the Golden State Warriors are feeling right now. The season began with such promise. A big lead in the standings. Pundits pronouncing that the Warriors were unbeatable and the undeniable favorite to win the NBA Championship. Steph Curry set the three point record. 

Then Draymond Green fell to injury. His influence on the way the team operates is everything. He is the  motor that drives the bus. And the team began to struggle. 

Sure, sharpshooter Klay Thompson returned from his long rehabilitation after his knee injury. That provided a boost. Green finally came back, and things seemed to be rosy again. 

Until Steph Curry went down with a foot injury and James Wiseman suffered a setback in his rehab from his knee injury. With the playoff looming in mid-April, what seemed like a great chance for the Warriors to have another dream run to the title is now definitely in question. 

This has resulted in a rollercoaster ride for the faithful. While they have hope, that optimism is certainly tempered by the reality of what has happened during the season. 

With the news that Mayor Eric Adams has lifted the vaccination mandate for athletes and performers in New York City, the Kyrie Irving saga has taken a new turn. Irving can now pair with Kevin Durant on the floor of Barclays Center, taking the stress off the best player on the planet as he tries to guide the Nets to a championship. Having Irving on the court makes the Nets more formidable—except in Canada, which is where the Toronto Raptors await as a likely play-in opponent. The vaccination mandate still is in place in the Great North. 

So, while Nets fans have had a fateful twist in the Irving odyssey, they continue to have angst over his vaccination status. This will be the same for Yankees fans who must endure Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo not being able to play in Canada for 9 games—which could make all of the difference in the world in what promises to be a tight AL East where the Blue Jays, Red Sox, Rays and Yankees are all playoff contenders. 

I can tell you that my wife, a lifelong Yankees fan, has lost respect for Judge. It didn’t help that Judge tweeted support for Irving when news of the lifting of the vaccination mandate was announced. Two peas in a pod. Let the fans be damned. 

Judge is headed to salary arbitration with the Yankees if the team and player cannot reach a new multi-year agreement. Judge asked for $21 million for the 2022 season. The Yankees countered with a paltry $17 million. 

Arbitration is a rough sport. The player cites how good he is and why he deserves the amount requested. The team then trashes him, pointing to how badly the player performed—his strikeouts, men left on base, games missed due to injury, etc. 

The Yankees beat up relief specialist Dellin Betances a number of years ago and it has weighed on Judge. He has said all of the right things about wanting to be a Yankee for life. Just as long as they pay him what he wants. While remaining unvaccinated. 

New York hasn’t won a crown since 2009. In Yankeeland, that seems like an eternity. Judge, Gerrit Cole, Giancarlo Stanton and all of the high-priced Bombers are eternally on the clock with the toughest and most loyal fanbase. 

So my wife and I are in the company of so many others who wish, hope, pray and do how many other ungodly things to root their hearts out for their teams, based on promises, conjecture and the projections of those supposedly in the know. 

Thankfully, there is the NCAA Tournament for a diversion. Until April 4, when it comes to an end in New Orleans. There are only 16 teams left and everyone’s bracket is busted. 

At least this is a fun kind of madness. 

I Already Have Indigestion!

All I wanted to do was enjoy the NCAA Tournament. The time of year when euphoria and bitter disappointment merge in a great confluence of emotions. Besides the Super Bowl, I cannot think of any sporting event which captures the minds of the country. Especially now with skyrocketing gas prices and a very discomforting war in Ukraine which has many on edge as to Vladimir Putin’s next move. 

Of course I am going to talk about the NCAA’s. How could I not? I love the Selection Show, the stories behind the stories. The upsets. Along with the heartache which comes with the agony of defeat. 

More on that later. For baseball is back. With a frenzy of trades and free agent signings. Even exhibition games have begun. 

The Yankees were big participants in this mad dash to Opening Day on April 7. A big trade with the Minnesota Twins, a team which had already started in the trade wars by diong some swapping with the Texas Rangers, netted 3B Josh Donaldson and SS Isiah Kiner-Falefa. (I can’t wait for Michael Kay and Paul O’Neill to repeatedly pronounce his name!). Gone were Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela. 

Urshela will be missed. He was beloved by his teammates, especially 2B Gleyber Torres. Not so Sanchez , who had played out his time in New York with uninspired play and horrible numbers at the plate and behind it. 

The backstop duo of Kyle Higashioka and the third man in the Twins trade, Ben Rortvedt may become a righty/lefty platoon. With considerably more defense than Sanchez offered and possibly more productivity at the plate. One thing Rortvedt has is huge arms. If you can, get a look at those beasts. Unfortunately, he has injured his oblique muscle, placing his Opening Day status in doubt. 

New York was not done. GM Brain Cashman brought back free agent Anthony Rizzo to man first base. This was a good move. 

One which made oft-injured Luke Voit expendable, as expected. Off to San Diego he went, with a highly coveted pitching prospect coming to the Yankees. I wish him well—he was exciting at times (he won the AL Home Run title in 2020) and very professional. He should be a great DH there—if he remains healthy. 

The Yankees are supposedly interested in former Rockies’ SS Trevor Story. Along with the Astros, Giants, Rangers, and, gasp, the Red Sox. Story wants to play short. Many of those teams already have a player manning that spot, for example, Bradley Crawford in San Francisco and high-priced free agent signee Corey Seager in Texas. So Story might have to make a position switch for the money he covets. And he chose the Red Sox, for a six year, $140 million deal. 

So I have two questions about the Yankees interest in Story. One is why did they go and get Kiner-Falefa? And even without Story joining the ranks, where were they going to play the hitting machine known as D.J. LeMahieu? 

Correspondingly, is there a trade involving Torres that might be in play if the Yankees get Story and insert LeMahieu at his natural spot at second base? Will it be for more starting pitching? 

More disturbingly, there was a give and take with reporters and Yankees slugger Aaron Judge this week. Given the mandate in New York City and in Canada requiring athletes to be vaccinated in order to play, Judge alarmingly avoided clarifying his vaccination status. Which makes him a big question mark if he cannot play home games and in Toronto. That’s roughly 90 games unless the mandate is lifted. Rizzo also falls into this category. 

This is a guy looking for a big payday. The Yankees undoubtedly would like to keep the fan base happy by signing Judge to a long term deal. But all seems in disarray if he isn’t vaccinated. He would become another Kyrie Irving, and we all know how well liked he is. Even when he scored 60 points in Orlando this past week. 

Maybe Judge is gambling his long-term future, or maybe he is anticipating that the mandates will be lifted in New York City by the start of the baseball season, which nearly coincides with the start of the NBA Playoffs. 

I never thought I would say Aaron Judge’s name in the same sentence, and for the same reason as Aaron Rodgers and Irving. I am not fond of the last two. I am losing my fondness and patience with my current favorite Yankee. 

I felt a twinge of sadness for Baker Mayfield. The Browns QB was hung out to dry when the team went into the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes. Mayfield was a bit of a miscreant in college, but he became a better person in the pros and his cute commercials helped even more to make him likable. 

While Watson was absolved of all criminal conduct for sexual assault, the civil suits involving the 22 complainants are still out there. Plus the NFL may still have something to say about a potential sanction for his alleged conduct. 

Mayfield rightfully asked for a trade. Yet the Browns have denied his request, probably because they anticipate Watson being unable to play in some portion of 2022, if not the entire season.

Mayfield indicated he would like to go to the Colts. They have a need for a QB with Carson Wants off to Washington. Wherever he lands, I wish him well. He is deserving of that. 

Steph Curry hurt his foot on a questionable play in the game against Boston on Wednesday night. Just as Draymond Green had energized the team with his return on Monday night versus Washington when Steph went for 47 points on his birthday, the team is now going to be highly questionable for a deep run in the playoffs.

Finally, there is the NCAA Tournament. Rutgers played in a great 2 OT game against Notre Dame. As I watched the clock read 12:00, I knew that RU was finished. It was St.Patrick’s Day and the luck of the Irish was going to prevail. 

RU should hold their heads high. Geo Baker, Ron Harper, Jr and Caleb McConnell will be gone. They brought the Scarlet Knights to prominence and out of the NCAA purgatory they had resided in for 30 years with 2 bids (a third would have happened but for COVID). While I am sad that the team did not go on (Notre Dame routed Alabama in the first round—I had picked Rutgers to win over the Irish and Crimson Tide), reflecting upon what these three have accomplished makes me happy. If you have a chance, read the open letter Baker penned after the painful loss. This, to me, epitomizes what a student-athlete is about. I wish him nothing but success in the future. 

St. Peter’s shocked the basketball world with its upset of blue blood Kentucky. Shaheen Holloway’s squad made the basketball world take notice of how good they are, how overrated UK was and how good a coach the former Seton Hall star is (Icon Rick Pitino, now at Iona, has advocated for the Hall to grab Holloway if current Pirates’ coach Kevin Willard leaves for Maryland as anticipated). The Peacocks made it to the Sweet Sixteen with a demonstrative win over Murray State.

The first couple of days have been magnificent to watch. The “lesser” conferences  have made the big boys from the Power 5 scramble to win—or sometimes lose, as Richmond downed Iowa. Wisconsin had trouble with Colgate. Arkansas narrowly beat Vermont. Ditto Michigan State over Davidson. New Mexico State toppled UConn. Chattanooga led Illinois for all of 30 seconds, but those 30 seconds gave the Illini the win. 

I expect more close contests and upsets to happen as the games continue. Top seed Gonzaga struggled mightily against Memphis. North Carolina knocked out defending champion Baylor. Michigan upended Tennessee, a #3 seed in the South Region. 

I have UCLA to win in my bracket. My Final Four remains intact. I am leading my wife in her bracket, but not by much. My college roommate has me by two wins and is grousing he should have bet me a Harold’s gigunda corned beef sandwich as to who would prevail. 

With all that I have chronicled above, plus having celebrated our son’s birthday with a bevy of  non-dietetic foods, I already have enough indigestion!

I Also Heard Baseball Is Back

This is one of my favorite times of the year. It is tournament time. Every college team has played in one, at all levels of NCAA Divisions, except maybe one or two teams which are ineligible for whatever reason. 

I fell in love with the concept of tournaments in my youth. I can recall the great teams of Cincinnati led by the Big O—the one and only Oscar Robinson. Or West Virginia, who had this phenom guard named Jerry West; I wonder what happened to “ Zeke from Cabin Creek?”

(A footnote here—Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. was also from that small hamlet) Then there was Ohio State, with two stars who are in the Hall of Fame: Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek. And UCLA, coached by the legendary John Wooden, a.k.a. “The Wizard of Westwood.”

I knew that the Southern Conference was the originator of the post-season college tournament. I have learned that the University of North Carolina beat Mercer, a non-conference foe in the first tournament. 

The only other post-season conference event was the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, the brainchild of Everett Case, the coach at North Carolina State, who saw a way to make money. The games were conveniently held in Raleigh for the early years, giving the Wolf Pack a home court advantage. The ten part series on ESPN aptly named “The Tournament” just finished its run on Monday. It is a must-see for the basketball junkie who also loves the anecdotal historical information within the programs. 

The ACC was where I learned about “Thacker and Packer.” Jim Thacker was the announcer and Billy Packer, a former star at Wake Forest, provided the color commentary. Their telecasts, produced by TV entrepreneur C.D. Chesley, led to the emergence of college basketball on TV, both regionally and nationally. 

Of course, there was the NCAA Tournament. Taking only conference champions at that time, it was small and limited in scope. I can recall some of those games involving Cincinnati and Ohio State in the early 1960’s; I had heard about the great Bill Russell and his San Francisco Dons, winners in the mid-50’s. Of course, there was Jerry Harkness and Loyola of Chicago in 1963. Unforgettably, there was UTEP in 1966, with its black players, downing the great white Kentucky team of Adolph Rupp. Plus being a historian, I knew of previous winners such as Kentucky, North Carolina, which downed Wilt Chamberlain and Kansas in 1957; Indiana; Oklahoma State coached by Henry Iba, idolized by so many coaches including Bob Knight. California and Stanford both won the title; so had Wisconsin, Utah, Wyoming, Holy Cross and La Salle. 

But the NCAA Tournament was considered inferior to the National Invitation Tournament. Held in New York at Madison Square Garden, that was the premier post-season tournament when I was growing up. I thought, from watching the games on TV, that it was an affair for Bradley, Dayton, St. John’s, Providence, Villanova and NYU, as those colleges repeatedly were in the field or the finals. 

I knew the history of CCNY, the only team to win both the NCAA and NIT crowns in the same year, which was 1950. I also knew that Seton Hall won the NIT in 1953, behind the efforts of the giant center, Walter Dukes. 

Which leads me to the upcoming week. It will be 55 years since Rutgers, with stalwarts Bobby Lloyd and Jim Valvano, caught the conscience of Central New Jersey and the NY Metropolitan area with its run to a third place victory over Marshall at the Garden. My friends and I listened intently to the broadcasts on WCTC 1450. 

Upset wins over Utah State and New Mexico thrust the Scarlet Knights into a semi-final matchup against Southern Illinois, the NCAA Division II champion; the NIT was so powerful then that it could invite anyone it wanted. The Salukis, led by a player who would become an icon in New York, Walt Frazier, downed RU 67-60 in a very close affair. 

Thinking RU might prevail versus SIU, but aware that even if they lost, Lloyd and Valvano would have one final game in their careers, I went to the RU box office and scored student tickets in the balcony of the old Garden on 8th Avenue at 49th Street. The price was $2.50 per seat. 

Rutgers downed the Thundering Herd and the Salukis beat Marquette for the title. It was bitter cold as we huddled outside of the Garden, waiting for the doors to open. I recall it was 12 degrees on the morning of March 18th; I checked and saw that the high and low for the date was 20 and 10. Freezing as I was, I was hooked for life when I entered the Garden. 

Which is why I am so invested in college basketball and the tournaments. I went back for two more NIT games when RU was in it. I have been to the Big East Tournament at MSG multiple times, with Seton Hall fans and rooting for Rutgers. I have been to NCAA Tournament games at the Division III level, having seen F&M in Lancaster, Wayne, New Jersey and in the Final Four in Salem, Virginia. 

And have I ever watched the post-season on television. All those winning UCLA teams. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson meeting for the first time in 1979 when Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores took on Magic’s Michigan State Spartans. Duke became a regular, beginning with the heroics of Christian Laettner. UNC is almost always there, with Michael Jordan, from 1981-84, informing the world he had arrived. 

Name a game and I have probably watched it or know of it. I was reminded this week of Kemba Walker taking UConn through 5 memorable wins in the Big East Tournament, then 6 more in the NCAA’s, culminating in a National Championship for Coach Jim Calhoun’s squad in 2011. Unheard of stuff. 

Sadly, the NIT was taken over by the NCAA and relegated to secondary status. It isn’t even played at the Garden anymore, lately having been contested in that basketball hotbed, Frisco, Texas. Yet to those schools that make the finals, going for a championship is still a big deal. 

Which is why, for those teams on the bubble for this year’s NCAA, the NIT could still be the salvation of a season and a nice trophy to display in the arena along with a big banner. Regular season MAAC champion Iona is likely headed to the NIT, as they lost in the early rounds of their conference shindig.  

Rutgers is still one of those teams whose fate will be up to the NCAA Selection Committee, already ensconced in hotel rooms in Kansas City, armed with tons of data, still based on metrics which favor the power conferences, to interpret. Conference tournament games still have to be played. Texas A&M, TCU, Michigan, Indiana, Memphis, BYU, San Francisco, Miami, Florida, Xavier and SMU all have to worry about their status—so stay tuned to the Selection Show on March 13. 

Once the Big Dance partners are announced, March Madness will be in full swing, after having this awesome first act. There are four schools which have never sent a team to the NCAA Division I Tournament: Army, The Citadel, St. Francis, Brooklyn and William & Mary. And it looks like they aren’t going this year. Dartmouth has not been back since 1959, the longest current streak of non-appearance other than the four I mentioned. 

Conversely, blue blood Kansas looks to extend its streak of 31 consecutive appearances. Michigan State, with 23 straight visits and Gonzaga, with 22 years running, follow the Jayhawks, and will continue their streaks. Exciting stuff. Count me as glued to the set. 

Oh, I also heard that baseball is back. 

I Am Grumpy

I sure am grumpy. Perhaps it’s the 6 vials of blood drawn from me on Thursday morning before 7:30. After a while, the technician had to push my forearm to fill the last big container and then the two smaller bottles. At least I exceeded expectations with my urine sample. 

I know I am not happy about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I find myself a prisoner of news transmitted from CNN on my cell phone and then when I watch local news on WCBS or national news reported by Lester Holt on NBC. What is happening is almost unthinkable and it is going to get a lot worse. Any mention of nuclear weapons harkens me back to our grammar school hide-under-the desk drills during the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

Maybe it’s the inordinate amount of stuff I am doing at home to pare down the place in anticipation of completing the second phase of our makeover. It takes a ton of planning and manpower to complete the plethora of tasks before the project is over. 

Possibly it is the movement away from pandemic precautions. While the transmission rates and hospitalizations are down dramatically, I am still seeing over 1,000 daily hospitalizations in New Jersey. Applying my crude math, that is between 30-45,000 new cases per month. In this phase, it is at least 500,000 cases per year. Just in the Garden State. 

Yet the move is to open up the country to reflect how we have conquered COVID. Politicians berate children about wearing masks while some reports have state that the vaccine does not effectively protect younger children. The NFL and NFLPA have relaxed their protocols going forward. Yet the Phoenix Suns lost star player Devin Booker to COVID protocols as the NBA stretch run is in earnest. 

Without a defined plan as to how to protect the country going forward if another strain infects us like did like Omicron did in December and January, are we fooling ourselves? Making mask wearing offensive is not necessarily the right message to everyone, including athletes. 

I happen to be hypersensitive about this subject because I had a pretty rough experience with the disease just under two months ago. I am hardly convinced that we have the right mindset or even the tools ready to deal with another wave. 

I have been tempted to go to games again. I would like to go to Madison Square Garden to see the Devils and Rangers there on Sunday night—if I can get by the ridiculous prices the tickets are going for in the upper levels. At least there, there remains a proof of vaccination requirement. 

I found it both hysterical and stupid to see the outrage over New York City’s mayor  to changing the rules regarding vaccines so that Kyrie Irving can play with the hometown Brooklyn Nets.  Yes, Kevin Durant is finally healed after being out for 23 games due to a MCL sprain. Sure, fans would love to see the Nets become instant title contenders like the Sixers became when James Harden joined Joel Embiid in Philadelphia. At least in the City of Brotherly Love the mayor didn’t have to think about altering the rules to accommodate the fans and critics. 

Rutgers sure has me fired up. I cannot watch them in the first half of games, digging holes that many times they cannot extricate themselves from. Wednesday night in Bloomington, Indiana was another one of those instances. 

RU battled back from 8 points down, holding the Hoosiers in check until the end. That’s when junior guard Paul Mulcahy, having a rough night and clearly frustrated by the physicality of the Indiana defense, lost his cool. He swung his arms at an opposing player on a play near the Rutgers bench, earning a Grade 2 offense and ejection. IU converted all their free throws and were able to sink a three point shot with just under 11 seconds left to tie the contest. 

It took a Ron Harper, Jr. clutch three point shot to put the Knights ahead for good. Harper then seated the inbounds throw, ending Indiana’s last gasp. Too gut-wrenching for me. 

Just as aggravating are the “bracketology” experts. These so-called experts still have RU looking in from the outside regarding the NCAA Tournament. This team has beaten every school above them in the Big Ten, plus Michigan and Indiana. With a win against Penn State on Sunday in what will surely be an emotional day for super senior Geo Baker, now deemed a must win for entry into the NCAA’s, RU will end with a 12-8 record in one of the three toughest conferences in America. 

What more will they have to do to prove how good the team is? Why are Quad 3/4 losses from the beginning of the season—to programs like UMass, De Paul and Lafayette—used against them when their resume from January on is demonstrably better than a lot of other schools? Will they have to win in the Big Ten Tournament to insure their place in the field of 68? I just don’t get it and it rankles me. 

Don’t get me started on the musings about Tom Brady—will he or won’t he play again? Give me a break!

And my teams are in the dumpster. The Jets haven’t been good for a long while. Ditto the Devils, and the playoffs last year was a one year aberration for the Knicks. 

Golden State is slumping terribly. As much as the Nets badly missed Durant, the Warriors really miss Draymond Green. Watching the team flounder without Green and an ill Play Thompson is unbearable. 

I can’t even fathom what the Yankees are going to be like. Because everything is in limbo. 

Thus, my biggest bit of hostility is directed towards baseball. Fittingly so, given the level of hatred among the parties. 

I have tried to think of every bad descriptive word for the MLB and MLBPA. I will spare you that long list. That’s the level of vitriol the sides have for each other. 

Watching video of Commissioner Rob Manfred, in golf clothes, practicing his golf swing on a balcony of Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida, was a visual I could not bear. It explained everything I needed to know about the cavalier attitude of the owners. 

Speaking of owners, on Monday, the terse announcement came from Derek Jeter and the Miami Marlins that the famed Yankees’ shortstop was stepping down as the Marlins’ CEO and divesting himself of his 4% ownership stake. Jeter felt that the team wasn’t going in the right direction. The Marlins thanked Jeter for his work.

Read between the lines here. There is a group of “hawks” among the owners—from a minority of small market teams—who would like nothing more than to break the union. The enmity created by previous negotiations through the years has completely consumed those “billionaires’” as they have been aptly described.  I said to a few people that they remind me of the “Robber Barons “ of yesteryear. Profiteering at its finest.

I don’t hold Tony Clark and his group of players without responsibility. Competitors by nature as ballplayers, they want what they consider is fair given the money that is available. Which is a huge sum. And it is why the factions cannot seem to find a common ground. 

Both groups forget who is really being held hostage. It is the fans. While continually pledging loyalty to the followers of the sport, the warring sides have forgotten how much is spent to go to a game, to purchase TV packages, merchandise, etc. In households where they are not making nearly the minimum salaries young ballplayers are making right now. 

Pardon me for being so cynical. Baseball is losing its grip on the product and what it means to the country. Public arguments over this mind of money sickens me. It is a game, not something involving life and death as is happening in Eastern Europe, where families flee the onslaught of war and many will face shortages of food, water and lives. 

Where will all of this end? I don’t know. Will I go to see baseball this year? Yes, because I made myself a promise to see all of the MLB teams play at home and I have intentions of seeing four of the five parks I have left to visit. 

But I will go holding my nose. I will watch the Yankees with disdain, which will heighten my misery if they once again fail to win. Baseball—and its partners in crime—just don’t seem to get it. 

Writing this diatribe didn’t make me any happier. Sure I will have to wake up and go to another rough session of physical therapy for my ongoing issues. I will continue to wear a mask to protect myself until I have greater assurances that my safety will not be compromised. I will watch gas prices rise like yeast. And I will go to Home Depot and Shop Rite to pay inflated prices. While the sports world gives me very little solace.

Yes, I am grumpy.