Heartache, Hoops and Hockey

  I’ve ben a busy sports blogger this week. This is largely due to the plethora of sports which interested me, both in person and on TV. 

Before I get to the substantial portion of this week’s installment, I need to comment on the events surrounding the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory parade. What was a largely joyous celebration of a second consecutive title for Patrick Mahomes II, Travis Kelce and company turned into a nightmare when shots were fired near the venerable Union Station in downtown Kansas City. 

Up until that time, about one million fans celebrated this win in true KC fashion. Tomahawk chops and hoots and hollers echoed throughout the route and especially when the team arrive at the station. 

With the mayor concluding his remarks and the crowd ready to disperse into the beautiful day, chaos ensued. There were multiple active shooters whose shots resulted in many injuries and the tragic death of a local DJ. Children were among the victims. 

There were heroes galore in the hysteria. Some tackled apparent shooters trying to flee. Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid and number of payers comforted those who were in emotional distress. The pictures of police officers, weapons drawn, running outside and into Union Station, were constantly repeated, along with pictures of snipers poised on rooftops.

While the facts remain sketchy, apparently a dispute among groups which included juveniles led to this terrible situation. I immediately put my retired Public Defender hat back on, thinking of the unfathomable harm these alleged perpetrators unleashed and what would ensue for them. 

What was clear, though, was the reaction of the community—from the immediate fright to the heroic measures of the police and first responder medical personnel and the doctors who knew what was incoming. Everybody maintained their composure, no matter the outrage. 

Travis Kelce and his girlfriend Taylor Swift each donated $100,000 to a Go Fund me page for the murder victim. Mahomes and his wife visited the children wounded and still hospitalized. 

No matter what, the scars will run deep for years to come. Going to a celebration like this is becoming more and more dangerous. 

My wife asked me what would I go to a parade if the New York Jets finally won another Super Bowl title? At my age, freezing for hours would be a sufficient deterrent from attending a parade; had I been younger, I might have gone. 

Perhaps these public events need to be handled like New Year’s Eve in Times Square—with metal detectors in use—or held in the stadiums where everyone is scanned before entering. It is a terrible shame that once happy occasions are repeatedly marred by gun violence. We, as a nation, must get a grip on this issue; I heard that shooting deaths are the leading cause of death for black teenagers. These scenes cannot be endlessly repeated. 

Transitioning away from this horror, it’s been a pretty good week for the teams and individuals I root for. The Yankees began Spring Training and no pitchers have complained about anything thus far. Nor have the Jets screwed up anything more as the off season intensifies. 

The college basketball teams I follow have done particularly well this week. Franklin and Marshall returned home after getting trounced on the road by Johns Hopkins and Swarthmore, the two hottest teams in the Centennial Conference. Wins over Dickinson and Washington College propelled the Diplomats to a third seed in the upcoming CC playoffs. With Swarthmore defeating the Blue Jays on Saturday, Gettysburg unseated JHU as the top seed by virtue of the Bullets two wins over the Jays. The Garnet are the fourth seed and will face Ursinus; F&M must wait for a Monday play-in game between Dickinson and Muhlenberg to know their opponent.

Princeton won twice, including a win over Yale, which had been undefeated in conference play. Yale meets Cornell, the other top team, next weekend; Princeton must wait until March 2 to seek revenge from the Big Red. Sadly, the Ivy League will remain a one team league come NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday. 

We went to Drew University on Saturday, forgoing another trip to Lancaster due to the snowy conditions which prevailed early that day  The Rangers hosted Susquehanna to determine which team would be the second seed in the upcoming Landmark Conference tournament. 

This contest was played at break-neck speed. Both teams put up over 40 points in the first half. Solid defense plus timely shooting by Drew sent the home team to victory by a score of 94-82. Drew can be a thorn to top-seed Catholic, each winning on the road in the two games played against each other. Drew has also scored over 90 points in eleven games en route to a sterling 20-5 record. Drew will see either Goucher or Susquehanna in its playoff opener, having gone 2-0 versus Goucher and split its two games with SU. 

I was at Jersey Mike’s Arena on Thursday for the early evening match between Northwestern and Rutgers. Once left for dead near the basement of the Big Ten standings, RU has awoken with the addition of Jeremiah Williams. The transfer from Iowa State by way of Temple and Chicago, Illinois, has shown his talent and swagger in leading the Scarlet Knights. To four straight wins, including a come-from-behind win over the Wildcats. 

RU dug a real hole for itself. Boo Buie, Northwestern’s star guard, annihilated the Knights in the first half, sinking the first seven three point attempts he took. The persistent RU defense shackled Buie and the Wildcats in the second half, overcoming an eleven point deficit to win 63-60. 

Buie is a really good point guard; he probably has pro potential. However, he was repeatedly using his off arm to push away defenders without getting called for an offensive foul. This enraged the RU faithful, who continually let the referees know about this egregious affront. 

I don’t know what will happen for the remainder of Rutgers’ season. Nothing is really a lock. Maybe the NCAA or NIT might eventuate if the play continues to shine. Although a 81-70 loss at Minnesota didn’t help the cause. #2 Purdue, losers to cellar-dwelling Ohio State, is next. Momentarily RU Nation has something to cheer about. 

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark broke the women’s all-time scoring record with a signature 49 point performance. She is an ambassador for young women, and her game is outrageous. Plus she is dating the son of the Iowa men’s head coach; think she is enjoying life?

Switching to the pros, Golden State won three of four before the All-Star break. Steph Curry shined, as he has been while the Warriors have resurrected their dormant playoff hopes. 

What was momentous was the benching of future Hall of Fame player and fellow Splash Brother to Curry, Klay Thompson. Head Coach Steve Kerr said Thompson did not take it well. Rather than sulk, Thompson took his demotion personally, scoring 35 points on Thursday against Utah. It was nice to see; whether this offensive surge continues is anybody’s guess. Too bad the Warriors couldn’t get traction on their interest in trading for Lebron James at the trade deadline. How delicious would that have been—Curry and James paired together?

NBA All-Star Saturday is a favorite of mine. I was mildly amused with the Skills contest. I was more engrossed in the 3-Point Shooting Contest. Damien Lillard, formerly with Portland and now with suddenly spiraling Milwaukee Bucks, repeated as champion, sinking a money ball on his final shot. Great theater. 

Also fun to watch was G-League player Mac Mc Clung defending his dunk title. He cleared 7’1” Shaquille O’Neal to score a resounding victory over Jalen Brown of Boston. Mc Clure also scored 12 points in Friday’s Futures Game. Why this kid isn’t on some NBA team baffles me. 

The tour de force for the Saturday event at the home of the Indianapolis Colts was a meeting of Curry, the NBA all-time three point leader, with the WNBA three-point champion, Sabrina Ionescu of the New York Liberty. Ionescu used the WNBA basketball but shot from the longer NBA three-point line. She projected confidence in the pre-match interview with Ernie Johnson of TNT. 

Sabrina was uncanny, compiling 26 points in her round. This put pressure squarely on Steph, who knows how to handle it. Struggling just a bit, Curry righted himself and ended with a flourish by sinking his last two shots to win 29-26. Ionescu did not fail—she went against one of the greatest competitors ever and she pushed him hard. In comparison, McClung would have stood no chance versus Michael Jordan in his prime in a dunk contest as a reference point. 

It was wonderful. It was magnificent. Use all the cheerful and demonstrative words you choose to apply. Ionescu had every reason to be a proud and humble as Curry. She joined Clark as a second worthy face of women’s basketball. Now if he salaries could match the talent levels and become more commensurate with those in the NBA. 

Could there be an encore? Could Clark join Sabrina and face Steph and Klay? We shall see. It was one glorious competition. 

Add into the mix the NHL Stadium Series landing at Met Life Stadium this weekend. Philadelphia and the New Jersey Devils clashed in the NJ Turnpike rivalry while the Rangers and Islanders faced off. Two crowds of 70,000 willing to freeze for their teams. Talk about devotion. I was more than happy to watch from the warmth of my home. For the record, NJD won 6-3 and the Rangers were the first NHL team to rally from three down to emerge with a win, by a score of 6-5 on a goal 10 seconds into OT.

It was what was needed in a week of heartache, hoops and hockey. 

Super Bowl LVIII

  There seemed to be more hype and buildup for Super Bowl LVIII than just the regular overblown coverage. Maybe that is the nature of the beast, but I wonder how much viewers really care—or is it a way for the networks to cash in big time with so many commercials which are new? 

And if that isn’t enough, there is the betting aspect. Whether it has been through regular commercials or associated with the game, there are tons of betting opportunities called prop bets. You can bet on what dish Taylor Swift is going to eat first in her suite. Or the over/under in yardage gained after the catch for her boyfriend, Travis Kelce. This is the biggest day of the year for the gamblers, and there is no better place for a game which emphasizes betting than to be in the betting capital of the world, Las Vegas. (For the record, Vegas took a bath with the 9-1 odds on the game ending in overtime)

I am a purist to a degree. While I can enjoy gambling occasionally, it is not my kind of addiction. Watching the games themselves is all this guy needs to feel good. Gambling would make me insane, watching the points being scored while rooting for the oddsmaker’s favorite. It is far more enjoyable to see Steph Curry drain a ridiculous three point shot like he did with 2.7 seconds left versus Phoenix on Saturday night than to worry if the Warriors covered the point spread. 

Mercifully, I limited my TV watching to part of a retrospective on The NFL Today, which included having Brent Musberger, the face most associated with the program, and Jayne Kennedy, he first black woman to host this kind of studio show. Otherwise, I watched Caitlin Clark get shut out in the fourth quarter in her quest to become the leading scorer in Division I Women’s history, with Nebraska overcoming a deep deficit to send the #2 Hawkeyes to a crushing defeat. 

Before the game really began, I actually traveled to Denville, New Jersey to pick up Chinese food from my favorite place. I guess this showed where my mindset was. It didn’t help that there was an accident on Interstate 287 which slowed things down, nor was I happy that the restaurant ran out of one essential ingredient and the order had to be changed. 

Perhaps that was a harbinger of things to come. Nothing was going to be ordinary regarding the day, especially the Super Bowl.

It is not for me to recap each part of the game. Unless you live under a rock, which isn’t likely because you are reading this blog, you know the outcome of the game. Final score: Kansas City 25 San Francisco 22 in overtime. 

Instead, this was a game determined by ebbs and flows of emotion and expertise. Plus some luck. 

If the game was only three quarters long, then the Niners would be World Champions. San Francisco was the better team for much of the game. 

But the Kansas City Chiefs were defending champions for a reason—resiliency. Along with some really terrific football players who executed on the field. And a coaching staff which countered any moves from their opponents. 

Look, Brock Purdy did a most capable job playing in his first Super Bowl. The kid drafted last in his class, “Mr. Irrelevant” as the final draftee is called, is a solid quarterback. He managed the game well and actually put the Niners in a position to win the game in regulation. Moreover, he led the team to a field goal in the overtime period and asked his defense to make one more stop.

The Niners defense put plenty of pressure on Patrick Mahomes II at the start of the game. So much so that when Mahomes threw an interception, that broke a long streak of clean attempts in the playoffs. 

With the San Francisco offense operating in rhythm, fueled by the running of Christian Mc Caffrey and the accurate throws from Purdy, the game could have easily remained in the dominating grasp of SF. With the time of possession favoring the Niners, it was nearly miraculous that the Chiefs managed to stay within hailing distance at 10-3 with a late second quarter field goal. 

The game featured turnovers. Both teams had their share. For much of the game, it was really the kickers who prevailed. San Francisco’s Jake Moody broke a Super Bowl record with a 54 yard boot, only to be topped by Kansas City’s Harrison Butker later kicking a 57 yard field goal. 

Yet the singular play which changed the complexion of the game came upon an extra point. Kansas City managed to block the kick, which made the differential three points instead of four. This would later allow Butker to kick the game tying field goal with under ten seconds left in regulation to force OT. 

There has been much criticism about San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan opting to take the ball after winning the overtime coin toss. Some of his players said there was little if any discussion about the new rules for overtime which gives both teams a shot at the ball, even if the first team scores a touchdown. 

While KC players said they were familiar with the rules, in the end, it came down to what happened on the field. The Niners went deep into KC territory but their drive stalled. Faced with a 4th and 4, Shanahan fatefully sent the field goal unit onto the field where the resulting three points put the pressure squarely on the Chiefs. 

And that is where Mahomes, Kelce and the KC offense shined. Marching 75 yards downfield, Mahomes connected with a wide open Marcus Hardman (you recall him, Jets fans, and how the team misused him before sending him back to KC where he is once more a Super Bowl champion) and the celebrations began. 

Remember that the game wasn’t won just on this play. San Francisco had dominated play early on yet allowed the game to be a one score battle at the half. 

To me, what won the game was the moxie of the Chiefs. Defensive star Chris Jones held an impromptu meeting of the defensive players, exhorting his teammates to step it up. Which they did, executing the brilliant defensive strategies of Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnola. That turned the tide for Kansas City, along with a little luck when a punt struck a San Francisco players foot and the Chiefs recovered. 

Sure, the Niners scored on the Chiefs, including the trick play double pass which resulted in a touchdown. But when it came to crunch time, the KC defense was superb, giving Mahomes and the offense the chance to win the game. 

Mahomes reminds me of Steph Curry. Two very flashy and exciting players who know what the bright lights mean and can win championships when given the opportunity. This kind of DNA is hard to find. The parallels are this—both had fathers who played professional ball at the highest levels with success—Curry’s dad in the NBA and Mahomes’ father played baseball. Being around professional athletes at such a young age is a tremendous learning experience; it doesn’t hurt to be gifted with extraordinary talent too. 

Let’s shelve the talk about whether Mahomes is the greatest QB in NFL history. He’s young and he has produced better than anyone preceding him. We have to compare him to the bodies of work of Joe Montana and Tom Brady. It is simply too early to do that. 

As for talk of the Kansas City dynasty—that is fact. They are among a rare group of teams that are repeat Super Bowl champions. 

The talk of a there-peat is natural, although the odds are against that. Recall that KC was fortunate to navigate the land mines of games at Buffalo and Baltimore this season and get to the Big Game. 

For now, fans, like me, should savor one of the best games of Super Bowl history, watched by more people for a sporting event period (Thank you, Swifties, for your participation). This audience was surpassed only by the moon landing—which was the ultimate in sports TV.

That’s it. Super Bowl LVIII. 

Coaches

I attended two basketball games and two squash matches this weekend. All at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Only one ended up on the plus side for my alma mater. Yet it was enjoyable to be there. 

F&M plays big time squash. The squash courts of my days on campus have been converted into offices and meeting rooms. Now they are brightly lit in an area we knew as “The Pit,” a dank, dusty small dirt area where the spring teams used to practice, at its best when the dirt was softened by watering or at its worst when dry or muddied. 

I have many memories burned in my brain in that dimly lit part of the bowels of Mayser Center, the hub of F&M indoor sports. My Bobby Murcer bat was broken on the first swing in batting practice. Catching various pitchers left with me with assorted bruises, as I was the emergency catcher. And running sprints was pure hell with all the junk which circulated in that cold environment. 

It was a revelation to see the beautiful home of F&M Squash. Large pennants adorn the walls over the more than modest seating area by the courts. With the old windows overlooking the expanse, one can also get a birds eye view of the matches. There are modern scoreboards for each court and an array of stationary bicycles for the players to warm up their legs before and after the matches. 

What got me thinking about today’s topic arose from the basketball games. Seated seven rows behind the F&M bench, I was able to observe all of the coaching staffs in action. 

Plus in the stands was the legendary Glenn Robinson, whose name is painted on the floor at Mayser, a tribute to the man who has won the most games at the Division III level, and whose teams made five Final Fours, with banners flanking the wall by the main scoreboard. Many of his players made All-American status, and there is a listing of those individuals on another banner; Chris Finch, the head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, has his name on that piece of cloth. 

My observations in this blog are about coaches. Whether we have played sports or watched games, coaches are omnipresent. For good reason. To make the players better and to try to bring success with their individual and collective actions. 

Most of the coaches cajole and yell in some fashion in an attempt to motivate their players. Others use sidebar methods of getting their less than subtle messages across. 

For some, they are highly successful. Of course, that depends on the receptivity of the players and their innate athletic ability to execute the game plan in the heat of competition. 

Styles and approaches vary. Almost every coach competed at some level. In the path to their latest stop, they have been influenced greatly by a number of leaders—both positively and negatively. 

Additionally, a coach is a salesperson. They have to sell the product to the player—and the families of those players too. There is a whole lot which goes into that piece to close the deal. 

We also hear many call coaches “teachers.” For many, especially at the secondary school level, they are in an actual classroom, working from a curriculum, addressing a wide array of individuals.  The ability to connect with students can be transferred to the playing fields in some degree. 

We lionize the ones most successful at their craft. And we castigate and fire those who fail at delivering victories. Bill Belichick, who recently left the New England Patriots after a couple of down years, has been lauded as the greatest coach ever in the National Football League for his teams’ six Super Bowl wins. Nick Saban, who recently retired from coaching after a journey which included stops at Michigan State, LSU, and an unsuccessful foray in the pros with the Miami Dolphins before landing at Alabama for the past 17 season, is widely considered to have been the greatest college football coach of all time based upon the winning so many national titles.

Walking through New York’s Penn Station on Sunday, I encountered a large sign promoting St. John’s basketball as the city’s college basketball team, probably due to its membership in the Big East Conference, a high level Division I group. What stood out besides the backdrop of the city was that St. John’s was promoting two Hall of Fame coaches—the gesticulating Lou Carnesecca and the mercurial current head man, Rick Pitino, who has won national titles at Kentucky, Louisville and did a stint as coach of the Knicks. 

The goal was to sell tickets for games at the arena above the station, Madison Square Garden. It had little to do with academics. St. John’s is not comparable to Princeton, where Mitch Henderson, the current coach at that institution, is an alumnus and judging by his successful teams, evidently knows how to reach his student-athletes who are potentially on a different academic level from St. John’s or most other schools.

Look at the recent managers of the New York Yankees. Both Joe Girardi and Aaron Boone are college graduates—Girardi from Northwestern and Boone from USC. While Boone hasn’t won a World Series like the former Yankees catcher, his laid back approach to the players was what was desired as opposed to the hardness of Girardi. No one questioned their fierce desire to win; it was a matter of how to reach the modern player which mattered. That was further demonstrated when Girardi was summarily fired mid-season in Philadelphia. 

I read a book about the legendary football coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant. The Junction Boys was an expose about the cruelty of the man at Texas A&M and how he brutally molded a team into a winning squad under incredibly horrible conditions in the hot Texas heat and humidity. It mortified me. 

Vince Lombardi became the head man at Green Bay. Clips of his style of yelling and cursing out his players have been replayed repeatedly. As have the rims showing his players carrying Lombardi off the field after triumphs in the NFL Championship and the Super Bowl. 

Fans and sportswriters adored the scholarly Lombardi, a graduate of St. Cecilia High School in Kearney, New Jersey and Fordham University, where he starred as one of the mythical “Seven Blocks of Granite.” Yet he employed and extolled toughness as a necessary evil. 

Contrasted with the cerebral, sarcastic nature of Phil Jackson dealing with superstars egos on the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers. Or how William “Red” Holtzman used his Brooklyn/CCNY smarts to reach a collective group of exceptionally intelligent basketball 

players on New York Knicks championship teams of 1970 and 1973.

My exposure to coaches began early when I would ride my bicycle to watch the high school football team practice and play. I became a favorite of the head coach who let me play as an undersized freshman but mercifully led me to become the statistician for the team and be allowed to attend Sunday morning prep sessions for the next game and have a doughnut as my reward for delivering extensive statistics from the previous day’s contest. 

There, like in basketball, where I was the manager and scorekeeper, I observed a calmer, more focused demeanor off the playing surface, designed to select strategies most likely to result in wins. Which they largely did. But neither man was above screaming at players for mistakes made or to light a fire under the individual to perform better. 

One early baseball coach I had would not let me swing at the first strike. Which always looked so tantalizing. I got my first freshman and first varsity hits on the first pitch I saw. Because my coaches encouraged me to swing the bat. 

With cable TV, we now have access to NFL locker rooms and coaches like we never did before. This season we saw Robert Saleh and the New York Jets in training camp. Ivy Leaguer Mike Mc Daniel and his Miami Dolphins were the focus of the in season Hard Knocks. Two different coaches employing two different styles of leadership. 

The way sports is, coaches are a necessary evil. How we see them is determined by a prism and what shades we want to use. Boston Celtics Head Coach Arnold “Red” Auerbach was a pure S.O.B. Yet his players would run through a wall for him. Jets head man Rich Kotite could never garner the respect of his team, which led to the worst record in franchise history and his subsequent departure from his chosen profession. 

Watching the four coaches on the basketball floor, I saw four different approaches. There was more yelling from the male Muhlenberg women’s coach. His female counterpart seemed lost in strategy, perhaps trying to impart something late to a losing team in another losing game.

The men’s coach at Muhlenberg was more of an exhorter than the F&M coach, who was quiet, yet his demeanor and side comments to his assistants and players showed a different side of his methods. 

Glenn Robinson sat in the stands on Saturday, making a rare appearance since his retirement. He was a screamer on the sidelines, an obvious harsh taskmaster who worked towards perfection as much as possible. Which made his teams quite good. 

What struck me on this Basketball Alumni Day were the throngs of his former players who came back to campus. All gleeful and remaining, hugging the coach’s wife and chatting with her as well. 

Whatever his way of doing things was, his boys, now grown men with families, were  drawn back, happy to see their mentor. It was rewarding to see how the coach-player dynamic can create such relationships. In this instance.

I can go on and on about coaches, citing individual after individual I have seen over the years. Whether it was religious men molding players or stars like Deion Sanders who sold their personalities. There are too many to relate in in this short a session. 

But that is what motivated me today. To write about them. They must have had a lasting impact on me. Coaches.