Baskets And Other Things

  I have been lax discussing college basketball. My cousin dissed me fro not talking me about UConn hoops—men’s and women’s. My college roommate always chides me about more over that subject. My former Rabbi chastises me over North Carolina basketball and Duke. 

I admit that college basketball hasn’t been the first thing on my sports radar this winter. The NBA has taken up much of my time. And that is where I am going to leadoff this blog. 

In the last week or more I have gotten to see many of the so-called marquee teams. The frontrunners—Boston, Minnesota, Oklahoma City and Denver. The second tier—New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Milwaukee. Plus those which are on the fringe: Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State and Dallas. 

While games can be entertaining among the aforementioned teams, there is a wide gulf between the lower and middle rungs and even more so with the elite teams. To me, there are two teams which are set apart from the remainder of the league: Boston and Denver. I have my doubts about everyone else. 

There is certainly a buzz around some of the contenders. Minnesota has been leading the Western Conference almost all season; I just don’t think they have the personnel to win it all. Oklahoma City seems to be better in the West—the young talent is enormous—but will the lack of experience hurt their chances? Sacramento is an enigma—I thought they would have progressed more.

Cleveland falls into the same category as OKC—talented but not proven. Milwaukee needed a coaching change to make headway—will that be enough? Philadelphia goes as Joel Embiid goes—and he’s still injured. New York now has Jalen Brunson hurt along with Julius Randle—their two most important pieces; another season of not enough at MSG. 

Golden State and the Lakers have been paying well lately. Except that the Warriors and Lakers could not fend off the Nuggets and Boston blew GSW out on Sunday in a near-record performance. 

Boston has a lineup similar to the glory days—player after player who can flat out play. There is a reason the Celtics have lost only 12 games thus far—they are that good. 

Denver has arguably the best player in the NBA in Nikola Jokic. When paired upon with Jamal Murray on the pick and roll, it is a lethal combination. The remainder of the lineup is full of good shooters and highly competent defenders. 

So unless a team emerges from nowhere, or significant injuries impact the remainder of the schedule, expect to see the Celtics and Nuggets vying for the title. It might be that simple. 

Has anyone noticed that the Florida Panthers have passed Boston, the New York Rangers and Vancouver for the most points in the NHL? It wasn’t a fluke last season when the Panthers unceremoniously dumped the record-setting Bruins out of the playoffs in the first round before losing in the Stanley Cup Finals to Vegas. 

It would be folly for me at this time to pick who will make the Finals this season. The Devils, last year’s upset darlings, are on the verge of not making it to the playoffs. Even with Auston Matthews goal sniping, Toronto doesn’t seem to have enough, to the unforgiving dismay of Leafs fans. The thought of an all-Canadian Toronto-Edmonton Finals with Matthews and Connor Mc David facing each other sounds too good to be true. Really.

Remember—all it takes is a hot goalie to carry a team. Experience and talent helps too. More on hockey in another blog. 

Besides watching a ton of televised sports, I went to two distinctly different events. On Saturday, I took my wife and daughter to a quad men’s gymnastics meet at Rutgers involving RU, Cornell, West Chester and Ursinus. A small but enthusiastic crowd watched the four teams rotate between beam, bars, floor and vault. 

What we saw was mid-level college gymnastics. Rutgers is ranked #44—a far cry from what is shown on ESPN with the top teams like Oklahoma, Michigan, LSU, Florida and more. Cornell and West Chester are ranked in the 60 range and Ursinus, a DIII school, is sequestered at #78. 

The scores are in the upper 9’s for many of the athletes. No one could possibly score a 10.00 as I saw with Oklahoma. Nor is there a sellout  with cheerleaders and a pep band like my daughter witnessed when she saw Arkansas match with LSU in Baton Rouge.

Nonetheless, they pushed themselves and the team crowded around each performer after a competed routine. It was fun—college sport at its purest. 

On Sunday, we traveled to Yogi Berra Stadium in Montclair to see my F&M Diplomats play the Red Hawks. Montclair State won both games; the umpiring in Game 1 didn’t benefit the visitors, resulting in plays which allowed MSU to score the two runs it needed to win. 

F&M may be 0-5, but the talent is there. Conversely, MSU is 5-1 and looked more polished and confident. It will be interesting to see where the teams end up at the end of the season. One thing for certain—the weather was beautiful—70 degrees on March 3rd is a real blessing in the Northeast. 

The Sweet 16 is set in Division III men’s and women’s basketball. The NESCAC has three schools still in the hunt on the men’s side—Williams is there and Tufts and Trinity play each other in the next game. The ODAC has its top two schools alive in highly-ranked Randolph-Macon and Hampden-Sydney (along with leading the tournament in hyphens). And the UAA has Washington (Mo.) and Case Western still playing. 

There are a lot more hyphenated schools which made the Women’s Sweet 16. NYU is the top seed. There are three Wisconsin schools in the next round—Oshkosh, Stout and Whitewater. NESCAC schools Bates and Bowdoin are prominent. 

A Final Four will  be set next weekend for both draws. Only one school has more Hope than others in each bracket—because Hope College has its teams still trying to move forward.

As for the D-I women—it was all about Caitlin Clark again. The Iowa star set the all-time scoring record for men and women, passing the legendary Pete Maravich. While Clark is a phenomen who will take her talents to the WNBA next year, she is simply not anything like Maravich. Had he been able to shoot three-point shots, his record would have been untouchable.

With the men, I have seen UConn, Purdue, Houston, Tennessee and North Carolina recently. All legitimate title contenders. But I am not sure each will even win their conference tournaments let alone the NCAA Tournament. North Carolina had enough trouble with NC State on Saturday—the Wolfpack look like a NIT team. And yes, cousin, UConn should have routed Seton Hall. It is really hard to repeat. Houston has injuries. Purdue is a Big Ten team. Tennessee is enigmatic. I argue that any Top 20 team could win this year—nobody sets themselves so far apart from their brethren. 

The fun will be watching the lower-seeded teams rise up to defeat the big boys. It happened last year and it could easily occur this year. After Princeton’s performance last tourney, it would be a horrible shame if the Ivy League is limited to just one school—the Tigers have only 3 losses in 2023-24 yet are tied with Yale and Cornell at the top of the standings. 

South Carolina remains undefeated and atop the women’s leaderboard. Watch for Stanford and Ohio State to be there near the end. I don’t see Clark and Iowa making a run, nor LSU, last season’s winner. 

I will mention that the most expected retirement in the NFL occurred with Jason Kelce’s announcement on Monday. Of course his brother Travis was there—not in Singapore like some misinforming Facebook posts have said. I don’t think Taylor Swift would have wanted it any other way. The Eagles will miss his locker room presence—they have able replacements to fill his large shoes.

It is still exhibition season in Florida and Arizona. But it is now just over three weeks until the regular season begins in earnest. The Dodgers and Padres meet in two games on March 20 & 21 in Seoul, South Korea to whet baseball fans’ appetites.

It is too early for me to get excited over the Yankees. At my age, I temper my enthusiasm. A nice meal has more panache. 

Baskets and other things. A great segue into March.