The NCAA's Are Americana

  It’s that time again. When the world stops for college basketball. Okay, maybe not so dramatic, but certainly the sports world’s major focus is on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament. Where there is always drama, especially in the first round.  

For me, there has been no better timing. Saddled with what is becoming a chronic hamstring strain, my doctor and I have agreed to shut me down for a while in attempt an to heal the tendon and surrounding muscles. So I am pretty much house-bound.

Moreover, the Northeast welcomed Spring with flowers, blooms and a really soaking rain, with some heavy wet snow in New England. Where are you going to go in that mess?

As much as I love watching college basketball, I won’t see all of the games scattered on the four television networks. Plus I do tune into some other games—for instance on Thursday night, the Knicks visited the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokic, while the New York Rangers sent into TD Garden to face the Boston Bruins in a clash between Eastern Conference powerhouses and the New Jersey Devils hosted the Western Conference-leading Winnipeg Jets in a late season push for a playoff spot. (Denver won; NYR and NJD prevailed)

I even watched the Yankees play the Pirates in exhibition baseball—something I rarely do. Ostensibly it was to watch Aaron Judge return from his injury hiatus. I saw enough of him, new Yankee Juan Soto, a rejuvenated Giancarlo Stanton hitting monstrous home runs and second year shortstop Anthony Volpe finding the seats. Pitching will be the question mark for this Yankees team; the hitting will be fine. I managed to tune in on Sunday to see the split squad playing in Mexico City. 

I also found time to watch early morning baseball from South Korea. The Dodgers and Padres began the real season splitting a pair of games. But the bigger story surrounded Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter who allegedly stole plenty of money to pay gambling debts—or was the superstar helping him with infusions of cash? 

Don’t forget the National Invitational Tournament. ESPN carried some games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights where I caught glimpses of those schools not deemed worthy of the Big Dance. This always makes me wonder why some teams weren’t good enough to be included in the field of 68.

The NCAA Division I Wrestling Tournament called Kansas City home this week. I managed to check in on the action on the mats. In passing another TV set, the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC Championships for women’s gymnastics were all on. 

And I am into diversity. I watched the NCAA Division I Women’s Championship. After all there is Caitlin Clark; unbeaten South Carolina; last year’s star, April Reese and her LSU team; and of course, the UCLA of women’s hoops, Geno Auriemma’s UConn Huskies. 

In my down time from the TV set, I scoped articles from The Athletic, ESPN, CBS Sports, NJ.com while keeping up with current events, texting, talking on the phone and reading and answering emails. I still had time to eat, sleep and take care of myself. Occasionally I even talked with my wife and daughter. I guess I like my plate full, in actuality and metaphorically. 

Takeaways from the games in the opening rounds of the men’s tournament were many. Foremost is my constant complaint about how the Selection Committee fails to properly seed teams. It is great theater, but are those results really “upsets” or are they the product of not giving a lower seeded school is rightful credit for a season well done. 

Case in point is #13 seed Yale, which knocked off #4 seed Auburn. It is the prejudice of the big school from the SEC with its high ranking in analytics, as opposed to the Ivy League. 

The Ivy League winner usually receives a lower seed because the teams don’t play the big boys anywhere but on the road. Yale wins. Princeton went to the Sweet 16 just last season. The Tigers lost a fine player to Northwestern, which won in overtime, ousting Florida Atlantic, one of the previous year’s Cinderella squads. FAU only received greater recognition because the team made it to the Final Four in 2023. Ditto San Diego State. (FAU’s Dusty May has left the program to become the new Michigan head man)

In a perfect world, the top seeds would demolish the lower seeds in the early rounds. Then the competition would be much tighter as the tournament progressed. All four #1 seeds would make up the Final Four, with the top two teams meeting for the title, which would be won by the overall top seed.

Except what made the tournament great TV was the David versus Goliath aspect. On Thursday, Oakland, a school not too many people have heard of, eliminated blue blood Kentucky, which has won numerous titles. Oakland’s Division II transfers taking it to Kentucky’s five star recruits. Greg Kampe, Oakland’s coach who has been there forever (40 years), has a base salary of $329,000.  In comparison, Kentucky head man John Calipari makes so much money that his buyout, demanded by Wildcat fans angry for his team’s mediocre showing in the last four tournaments, is a paltry $33 million. That’s the disparity which creates drama when a lower echelon school goes shot for shot with the powerhouses. 

Rooting for the underdog is part of the fabric of the NCAA’s. Certainly there are strong ties to schools by groups of fans. But the majesty of schools like Colgate, Grambling State, Longwood, Vermont and Wagner having the opportunity to battle the better known basketball teams is pure entertainment—especially if the score remains close. Which is exactly what the NCAA and CBS/Turner are banking on with the behemoth contract to televise the games. 

After the carnage of the first round and the play-in, the top eight seeds made it to the next round. One #3 (Kentucky) and a #4 (Auburn) went out. Half of the #5 seeds were bounced (Wisconsin and St. Mary’s) and three of four #6 seeds (Texas Tech, South Carolina and BYU) failed to survive, ditto for one #7 seed (Florida), and that took a miracle shot in overtime to happen. 

That’s 8 seeds going down in 32 games—25%. The number of blowouts was limited, there were two overtime games, as the networks got more competitive contests for much of the time, keeping the fans on their toes when switching between the four networks.The breakdown by conference was this: ACC 4; Big East 3; Big 10 4; Big 12 5; Pac 12 4; SEC 3 and Other Conferences 9.

On Saturday, things got off fast in the tournament. A potent Arizona team handled Dayton; there was no 24-4 comeback for the Flyers like they had against Nevada. Gonzaga manhandled a depleted Kansas team which had barely hung on to defeat Samford in the opening round. That’s nine straight Sweet 16 appearances for the Zags. 

In a battle of schools which have won the tournament, top seeded North Carolina showed its strength in defeating Michigan State; the Spartans had surprised Mississippi State on Thursday. Iowa State demonstrated its speed and defense in shutting down Washington State, setting up a Sweet 16 clash with Illinois, which dispatched Duquesne, upset winners over BYU on Thursday afternoon. 

While Oakland was gallant, North Carolina State had too much size and a little bit more talent, prevailing in overtime. State has now won an amazing 7 games in the last 12 days. I thought this would be Oakland’s game since it was in Pittsburgh, which has a section by the same name as the school, where the University of Pittsburgh is located. Unfortunately, that kind of coincidence is just that—nothing cosmic. It’s another year with a #11 seed or lower in the Sweet 16 with the Wolfpack advancing.

One can either rejoice or lament that the games start just after noon EDT. The problem is that games like the double overtime thriller between Creighton and Oregon, won by Creighton, last until way after midnight on the East Coast, making staying up for the most dedicated fan almost impossible, yet makes watching on the West Coast easier. 

In Sunday’s opener, Marquette lived up to its former Warriors image with an impressive win in a tightly-contested contest with Colorado. The Buffaloes never should have been a play-in team as a #10 seed. They looked every bit as good as a #3 seed. If the Committee had put the Buffs at #7, I would have been satisfied. 

I honestly thought Utah State was better than they showed against Purdue. The Big Ten team was too athletic and had 7’4” Zach Edey. That meant no chance for the Aggies. When the Boilermakers meet Gonzaga, that will be a battle. 

Someone with a wry sense of humor thought this might happen if James Madison won as a #12 seed and the Duke Blue Devils won its opening game. JMU, nicknamed the Dukes, duking it out with Duke. Wow. Moreover, The Dukes were once coached by the late Charles “Lefty’ Driesell, a Duke graduate who is enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame.  

Yale, Grand Canyon and Northwestern were unable to get past high seeds. #1 seed Houston met #9 seed Texas A&M for the second time this season. Houston won the first meeting by four. This time, the Aggies, who tied the game on a miraculous buzzer beater which could have won the game had two previous scores been three point goals when the players’ feet were a smidgen behind the arc, took the Cougars to OT but succumbed to the Big 12 regular season champs. 

In the end, the ACC still has four teams alive and the Big East three teams in the Sweet 16, with the Big East having not lost a game in the tournament. The metrics the Committee uses just don’t work. While all top seeds remain alive, there is room in this group for two #5 seeds, a #6 seed and even a #11 seed. 

There will be some great matchups, including a rematch of last years final between UConn and San Diego State. Plus there are plenty of Cinderella stories which could be written as the tourney progresses to the Final Four. 

This year there are 21 colleges which placed a school in both the men’s and women’s brackets. On those campuses, basketball is peaking and the school AD’s are counting the incoming money. An interesting fact—only one school in the Power 5 conferences has never won a NCAA tournament game—Nebraska, losers to Texas A&M on Friday. 

I have peeked at some of the women’s games. Of course I watched Caitlin Clark and Iowa. The Hawkeyes had some trouble at the outset with Holy Cross, the Patriot League champions, before settling down. Ivy League winners Princeton gave a good run at West Virginia before losing. For the record, 25-4 Princeton was a reasonable #9 seed. WVU draws Iowa in Iowa City on Monday.

The UConn women were good at home after some early problems with Jackson State. Without a deep bench, the Huskies will face trouble soon. Head Coach Geno Auriemma turned 70 and celebrated with the win—if he did enjoy it momentarily. Knowing the Hall of Fame coach’s demeanor, he is locked in for the next game.

South Carolina looked dominant and every bit the favorite in blasting North Carolina. Dawn Staley’s team looks primed to run to the title game. 

Once again, Kim Mulkey is the center of attention. Known for her colorful outfits and the use of sparkles, the outspoken LSU women’s mentor went off about a future article on her in The Washington Post. She is so unlikeable that it detracts from how good her teams are—after all, LSU is the defending champion. It is hard to root for the Lady Tigers. For the record, LSU is on to the Sweet 16 after thrashing Middle Tennessee, which had previously upset Louisville. 

I am hooped out. If you didn’t tune into this basketball extravaganza or weren’t one of the 9,000 plus who didn’t pick one game correctly in their bracket, you must have been fly fishing or watching the Taylor Swift’s concert on demand for the umpteenth time. 

Get with the program. The NCAA’s are Americana.

A Real Mish Mash In March

  Usually, sports and the political arena are intertwined only so much. Besides the usual sports metaphors and occasional forays of ex-jocks into politics (see Senator Tommy Tuberville, the former Auburn head football coach and Rep. Jim Jordan, a multiple NCAA wrestling champion at Wisconsin), our heads seemingly can divorce the two entities outside of the White House visits for championship teams. 

This past week, sports and politics intersected in not such a nice way. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the son of the late Senator who was assassinated while running for President, and who is seeking to become President, spoke about two possible vice presidential running mates—both with connections to the sports world.  One was former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, who was a professional wrestler of some fame. 

The other name belongs to a present day competitor. That person is Aaron Rodgers, currently under contract to play quarterback for the New York Jets. Rodgers is coming off a serious injury to his Achilles tendon suffered in the first quarter of the opening game last September against Buffalo.

Evidently Rodgers has been in contact with Kennedy and they have discussed a number of their coinciding views. Just know that I do not share their visions. 

What was greater news was a report by CNN that Rodgers had some wild thoughts about the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. They were so outlandish and that information dominated the news cycle until Rodgers denied he said that the shootings weren’t real. 

It’s what he didn’t say which still is in question—if it was as the article reported, then Rodgers’ attempt to distance himself from the alleged comments was only smoke and mirrors. Which wasn’t at all addressed by the Jets hierarchy nor by my team representative when he randomly called this week and I broached the subject. 

The odds that Rodgers will receive the Kennedy nod for vice president are probably slim. But wouldn’t that be fitting for the team which has the longest drought for post-season play in any professional sport—to have their star QB/savior divert his focus from the team to politics? 

The off season free agency signings have been fairly good for the Jets, especially addressing the poor offensive line which is being assembled to protect the aging 40 year quarterback. Combined with the potential for a positive draft in April, the pieces that could make this a really good season for the Jets are begin g to fall into place if Rodgers is healthy and returns to his Hall of Fame form. 

But, as Tony Kornheiser, co-host of Pardon The Interruption on ESPN likes to say, these are the Jets. They never get it right. And now their quarterback has the team embroiled in politics as an added distraction. You cannot make this up.

Yankees fans went ballistic this week when it was discussed that ace pitcher and reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole had soreness in his pitching elbow. This was to be the season of redemption after last season’s unacceptable 82-80 record. Cole was counted on as a mainstay in the starting rotation. 

That no longer is the case. While the MRI came back clean and a visit with famed orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neil ElAttrache confirmed that surgery is unnecessary at this time and a conservative treatment regimen which includes a PRP injection and rest could return Cole to the mound in a couple of months, there remains great uncertainty. 

Look no further than former Mets star Jacob deGrom and what happened when he joined his new team in Texas. He too felt soreness in his elbow and tried the rest routine before attempting to come back early in the season. Except that he reinjured the arm and ultimately needed Tommy John surgery to repair the UCL ligament in his throwing arm. Despite losing deGrom, the Rangers went on to win the World Series. 

New York fans can take solace that a former Yankees pitcher, Masahiro Tanaka had similar problems and fared well without surgery. However, his story seems to be in the minority with these types of injuries. 

Coupled with the news that star outfielder Aaron Judge has a core injury which he has been resting, the injury bug has once more struck the Yankees as the team seeks to quiet fans clamoring for the first World Series title since 2009, an eternity for the rabid fan base. Perhaps the talent in the minors, which has shown flashes of brilliance this Spring, will save the day until Cole returns. Or if Cole’s injury persists, is this another season in tatters?

Less than two weeks until Opening Day in Houston. Too many unanswered questions for this 2024 team throughout the lineup. Who sanely would have expected less?

I have this crazy little streak. Every year I watch the NCAA Selection Show on CBS as the Field of 68 is announced. Some years I have a team I am watching in the draw. Other years, it is purely the interest of a college basketball junkie. 

In my last blog, I discussed some the teams likely to lose berths in the playoffs if they failed to win their conference tournaments. Naturally, that happened in a number of leagues. I am not and never have been a proponent of post-season tournaments to decide the league winner. This cuts across all intercollegiate sports at all levels. To me, a post-season championship can easily allow for an upset, thereby negating a dominant effort by a school in the regular season. 

Twenty-one top seeds didn’t make it to the conference finals. Many of them, like Princeton, which succumbed to a below .500 Brown, or Missouri Valley Conference regular season champion Indiana State, won’t get to the Dance even with sterling records. Such a shame. Yet teams like NC State get hot in a five day span and win the Atlantic Coast Conference, depriving a team which successfully navigated a tough regular season in their particular league the chance to go forward as the might have in the once-dominant Big East Conference, which has only 3 schools in the field of 68. 

I have attended the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden. It is a spectacle like no other. Outside of the ACC Tournament, it is probably the best and  most enjoyable one to watch. Given its location in the biggest city and in “The World’s Greatest Arena,” no wonder the seats are still filled and the location will remain the same though 2032.

Watching other neutral site conference tournaments, there are so many empty seats, including the Power 5 locations that the funding from TV makes these get together so profitable. The ACC ventured from its Tobacco Road roots to be in Washington, D.C. this year. Which makes very little sense since the initial reason the conference left its Greensboro home was to placate the University of Maryland. Maryland has long abandoned the ACC for the Big Ten, so going to DC wasn’t the wisest move. Thus, the number of empty seats is the result of poor planning coupled with TV avarice. 

A little hockey. I watched the Carolina Hurricanes dominate the New Jersey Devils on the road. They are the best team I have seen this season. Then the New York Rangers, a strong team, went to Raleigh and shut out the ‘Canes. 

What is certain is that there is no clear cut favorite in either conference. Any team could get hot and make its way to the Stanley Cup Finals. Handicapping the 2023-24 playoffs would be ludicrous . In a month, the field will be set. Let the insanity reign.

By the way—who wasn’t thinking when they scheduled the Islanders and Rangers at MSG on St. Patrick’s Day? Are you kidding me? With all that venom already existing between the fan bases now fueled by inane drunkenness? That’s a recipe for big trouble.

Lastly, Steph Curry returned from his ankle injury to meet the Lakers at the Staples Center on national TV. It was great TV until the end when a malfunctioning clock coupled with reviews of plays elongated the game by nearly 25 minutes. The seemingly ageless Lebron James scored 40 in a losing cause while Steph and Klay Thompson shined. Still, Golden State wouldn’t have won but for an unfortunate eye injury to Lakers center Anthony Davis which removed him from the game after the first quarter. 

That’s a wrap. Go fill out your brackets. It’s all a real mish mash in March if you ask me.

It's Tourney Time, Baby!

  This is the weekend when a number of non-Power 5 conferences have their conference tournaments while the big boys end the seemingly unending regular season. This is a time when automatic bids are earned and a lot of marginal teams begin to sweat their chances to advance to the Big Dance. 

We know that the Power 5 leagues will once again dominate the minds of the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Selection Committee. In many instances, that is a logical way to proceed.

However, those on the committee must not forget the runs of the eventual champion University of Connecticut, Florida Atlantic University, the University of Miami and San Diego State University in the previous tournament. That would be a #4 seed (UConn); two #5 seeds (UM and SDSU); and a #9 seed (FAU). If they want to make a truly competitive tournament, then deference must be given to champions and other teams from conferences like the Sun Belt, WAC and Ivy League—these teams can flat out play and the Power 5 schools tend to avoid playing those conferences lest they are upset and suffer a Quad 2 or 3 loss and damage their resume. 

I look at a one school conference like the America East Conference and see perennial league power Vermont atop the regular season standings. Last season the Catamounts were a #15 seed and gave Marquette a battle in the opening round. This year, UVM has a win over Ivy League co-leader Yale and some close losses to good mid-major teams. Without winning the tournament, they go home. And even if UVM does make it to the Dance, will they be sequestered in a #15 slot again despite a 28-6 record. 

The same applies to High Point of the Big South; Charleston of the Colonial Athletic; Oakland out of the Horizon League;  Sam Houston in Conference USA; Quinnipiac from the MAAC; Akron in the MAC; SoCon’s Samford; 28-3 Mc Neese State, the runaway champ in the Southland; and the leaders in the Big Sky, Big West, Northeast and Ohio Valley Conferences among others—win or go home.  Not that any of these schools realistically has a shot at the title, but great seasons can only end up in the National Invitational Tournament, which is on its last legs. 

It gets complicated with other conferences. Let’s start with the Ivy League. For much of the regular season, Cornell, Princeton and Yale have been in a dead heat for the lead. Princeton has put together a stellar 23-3 record, even if the losses all came in league play and the non-conference schedule was not extraordinarily challenging. Remember that the Tigers beat #2 seed Arizona and #7 Missouri before falling to Creighton in last year’s Sweet Sixteen. 

Yale and Cornell did not fare particularly well versus better programs —should that be held against the as both teams did not suffer more than eight losses should either win the league playoff? No one expected much from Princeton—and how did that work out?

Moreover, if Princeton was to lose to either school and not win the Ivy automatic bid, should they not receive strong consideration for an at-large berth which might normally go to a team which finished atop above .500 in a power conference? If track records speak for themselves, then Princeton could make it into the tournament—as a regular seed or in a play-in game.

I have been following James Madison University. Coming off a marvelous season in football and making a bowl game, the Dukes have starred in the Sun Belt Conference while amassing a 28-3 record. The problem for JMU is that Appalachian State went 16-2 in the league with a 26-5 record, one game ahead of its rival and earning the conference tournament top seed. ASU defeated JMU twice. JMU won its opener on the road at Michigan State, a team on the ropes for selection into the Dance.

So what to do if JMU loses one more time to App State? Are they relegated to the NIT while Michigan State makes the NCAA’s? I hope not. 

While FAU finished second in the AAC to South Florida, both schools merit a place in the tournament. Is the Atlantic 10 a three team invite with Richmond, Loyola and Dayton? Does the strength of the Missouri Valley Conference allow for Indiana State, Drake and Bradley all to go? Ditto in the Mountain West with Utah State, Nevada and Boise State?

Is the venerable ACC only going to send its historically best schools—Duke and North Carolina—or do overrated schools like UVA, Pitt, Clemson and Syracuse get nods instead of somebody from a lesser conference? Could the Big 12 send as many as eight schools? Should Seton Hall, Providence, St. John’s and Rick Pitino and Villanova receive more appreciation?

What about the Big Ten? Is Purdue really a top seed? Look at their post-season record and it is evident that they receive too much credit. Eight schools from the Big Ten are too many. In its last run in the NCAA’s, the Pac-12 should only send three teams, although Oregon at 11-8 is going to get a big look see. No more than six from the SEC, please, while Mississippi State, Texas A&M and LSU are lurking dangerous close to .500 in league play. And please consider Santa Clara from the WCC to join St. Mary’s, Gonzaga and San Francisco. 

There are only 68 slots to be filled. Nothing I have laid out accounts for the biggest wild card of them all. Upsets in confidence tournaments. Those happenings wreak havoc and end up excluding teams which, other face, would normally be worthy of a spot in the draw. 

I have heard talk of expanding the size of the field. How the NCAA would go about that is unclear. Would teams on the bubble have a better opportunity to receive a place in the Big Dance? Would the big boys once more receive greater preference or will the smaller guys actually get seat at the men’s basketball table? No matter what, there always will be some team left out in the cold, with an aggrieved fan section.  

In about a week, we will have the field. Will it be replete with surprises or just have the usual suspects in the usual places, over seeded and ready to fail once more? Or is that the beauty of the flawed being known as the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship?

Staying with the money maker known as collegiate basketball, little did my wife, two college friends and I have an idea that seeing Penn defeat Dartmouth would have some meaning later this year. These two teams finished far behind their Ivy League brethren. 

But that’s not the real story. The Dartmouth team has voted to form the first labor union for college athletes. A lot has to happen to make this a reality. When it does, the entire landscape of college athletics will change. As will the NCAA, if that organization survives the pillory at the hands of the SEC and Big Ten in football. 

When Northwestern football players unsuccessfully tried to unionize, their failure was scoffed at. Now, more than likely, we observers of collegiate sports are at the precipice of something huge, with undetermined outcomes. This story bears close watching as it unfolds. 

For now, we have basketball on our radar. Whether it is setting the DIII Final Four (Hampden-Sydney plays Guilford and Trinity and Trine tangle on the men’s side while NYU goes against Transylvania and Smith and Wartburg meet on the women’s side) or watching the conferences determine champions for men and women, there is no more exciting time for college athletics. 

Sure, the Boston Celtics hit a rough patch in losing two straight to Cleveland, after blowing a 22 point fourth quarter lead, and then to Denver with Nikola Jokic just dominant for the defending champs. And sure, Steph Curry rolled another ankle late in the season, jeopardizing the Warriors chances to make the playoffs. And yes, the Yankees’ season opener is less than three weeks away.

So what. It is tourney time, baby!