Blogging Basketball

  My editor is away, communing with the Pharaohs. More likely the monuments than the Egyptian National Football team, a.k.a., the Pharaohs. The typos and grammar may be a little off, not the result of a Mummy’s Curse. 

With that, I apologize for calling New York Yankees pitcher Luis Gil Louis Gil in last week’s blog. I know better. Spell check doesn’t. 

College basketball is in its playoff mode. Division III has reached the Sweet 16 in both the men’s and women’s brackets. The regular season has concluded in Division I and many conferences are deep into their post-season tournaments. And the weather is beginning to moderate around the country. This time in college basketball is a true harbinger of Spring.

First the bad news for me. I watched my Franklin and Marshall College Diplomats get clobbered on its home floor by a very hungry Catholic University squad. I had seen CUA lose  handily to Drew University less than a week ago and I still thought that they were an able team, worthy of inclusion in the Tournament. 

Was I ever right abut that. The next night, the Cardinals eliminated a very highly-regarded Randolph-Macon team. For their efforts, Catholic next plays Roanoke, which edged Christopher Newport, another ranked team. Should CUA continue its run, then they get the winner of Trinity (CT) and Western New England.

As for Drew, they were smoked in the first round by Mary Washington. MWU draws Emory, easy winners over Huntington and Berry. For the Rangers, the loss stung, but this was a magical season nonetheless. 

Other members of the DIII Men’s Sweet 16 are the two top-rated teams—Wesleyan and NYU—along with WPI, Wisconsin-La Crosse, Washington University, Hardin-Simmons, Redlands, Wisconsin Lutheran, Hampden-Sydney and perennial power Illinois Wesleyan (I actually saw both Wash U and IWU’s campuses this past Summer). 

On the women’s side, is this the year for NYU to win in both brackets? A lot of experts believe that is possible. The Lady Violets routed Gallaudet and Trinity (CT) to advance to a clash with SUNY-Geneseo. The Centennial Conference has two schools in the Sweet 16—Johns Hopkins and Gettysburg. There is a game to eliminate a Wisconsin school, as Stout and Whitewater meet. A third Wisconsin school, Oshkosh, is still playing, taking on Illinois Wesleyan. Plus there is a battle of Ohio schools, as Ohio Wesleyan and Baldwin-Wallace tangle. Bowdoin, Randolph-Macon, Scranton, Smith, Mc Murry and Gustavus Adolphus are the other schools still in the tournament. 

If you noticed a number of names repeated on the men’s and women’s side, that is true.  By my count, an astounding 12 colleges and universities are represented in both tournaments. That’s 24 of 128 bids or over 18% of the available slots. And schools like NYU and Illinois Wesleyan are poised to make big runs. 

It’s not that this doesn’t happen with the big boys. UConn has won both the men’s and women’s tournaments in 2004 and 2014. Last season, NC State made the Final Four in both tournaments. 

Duke is going to have two teams in the running, this season, as the women downed NC State to win the ACC Championship. Right now, UCLA and South Carolina may have teams playing in both tournaments. High Point, too. More will surely make the Big Dances—that will be decided by next Sunday. Tennessee Tech on the women’s side and Lipscomb in the men;’s bracket didn’t win their conference tournaments but got in because the teams which won were not yet eligible to play in the NCAA’s, having transitioned to Division I and are within a five gear probationary period. 

I watched Rutgers’ final home game against Minnesota. Both teams were vying for the 11th seed in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis beginning on Wednesday. 

These were two evenly matched teams. While Rutgers had a lead of 11 at one time and went into the second half with a nine point margin, the Golden Gophers outworked their opponent on its home floor, even forging ahead by three points. 

The two teams exchanged shots, but in the end, the game had to be settled in overtime. That’s when Dylan Harper, Rutgers’ super freshman, took over. In what was likely his last collegiate home game before he hears his name called as the probable second pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, Harper showed his excellence and poise.

Sure, at times he plays like a freshman and makes mistakes. He can be a bit lazy on defense. Yet it is unmistakable that the pedigree is there—his father won multiple titles in the NBA and his brother was a star preceding him at RU. 

Harper set the school freshman scoring record, as he averaged over 19 points per game in a season where he suffered an ankle sprain and went through a period of illness. He was among the elite players in a conference with plethora of them. 

His running mate, 18 year old Ace Bailey, showed flashes of his NBA future in every game, yet he appears to need more work in the weight room and to exercise better shot selection to succeed at the next level. While he is projected to be a lottery pick, I think that he is not ready to start, whereas initially Harper should see much more playing time in the pros. 

As for this disappointing season in Piscataway, RU draws USC in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. While RU downed the Trojans at home, this is no gimme win for the Scarlet Knights. Should RU prevail, Thursday’s opponent is a seasoned Purdue team, which humbled the Knights earlier in February by 29 points in West Lafayette, Indiana. 

I also saw the heavyweight battle between Auburn and Alabama. The visiting Crimson Tide took it to the Tigers on Auburn’s home court. While it took overtime for Nate Oates’ team to win, both are title contenders. 

So, too, is Florida, which is a vastly underrated team. I have been impressed with Michigan State’s dominance in the Big Ten, along with St.John’s winning the regular season Big East crown. 

It is not easy to pick who will win the NCAA men’s championship. There are plenty of schools in the Top 25 which can scare any other member. Look for large numbers of schools from the SEC and Big Ten making the tournament. 

On the women’s side, how dangerous are UCLA and South Carolina? Both were winners of their respective conference tournaments. Notre Dame, USC, UConn and Texas are legitimate threats on the women’s side. 

UCLA finally defeated JuJu Watkins and USC to win the Big Ten. If nothing more, the Bruins are resilient, overcoming a double digit deficit to win over their arch rivals. 

I had the pleasure to watch Golden State play both the Knicks and Nets. Steph Curry is so energized and playing like the icon he has become. He sank shits form near mid-court in games agains Charlotte and both NY teams. He crossed the 25,000 point mark versus Detroit on Sunday.  He is the 26th to pass that threshold and the 10th to do it with one team (the others are Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, Hakeem Olajuwon, Tim Duncan, John Havlicek, Reggie Miller, Jerry West and one Michael Jeffrey Jordan.) 

It would take 3,580 points for him to surpass Shaquille O’Neal for 10th place. Curry won’t likely catch James Harden, who is still firing up shots for the Clippers, but he will catch and rush past Russell Westbrook, the two active players in front of him.

Teammate Draymond Green got into the debate over Curry. He felt that his friend should be in the conversation for G.O.A.T. Yes, he can be. But that the discussion should include Jordan, Lebron James, Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant, too. What is undeniable is that Curry is the greatest three point shooter and long range gunner ever. 

Teamed with Jimmy Butler, the Warriors are now as exciting a team as there is in the league. So are the Los Angeles Lakers, except that James suffered a groin injury which will curtail his playing time for an undetermined period. Still, Cleveland and Oklahoma City remain the teams to beat in each conference. 

One more Steph Curry note. It was announced that he has accepted a role at Davidson College, his alma mater, to be Assistant General Manager for college basketball. His goal is to raise an 8 figure amount to sustain the Wildcats in this NIL world. Would I doubt is ability to reach that goal? 

There it is. Almost an entire blog devoted to basketball. Virtually no Yankees baseball mentioned. I can’t right now.