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. 

Did I Leave Anything Out?

  I love baseball. It’s my favorite sport. Somehow I was good enough to play at the collegiate level. I talk, write or watch the sport as much as I can. 

Yet I won’t watch a lick of televised Spring Training games. Even if there is a phenom raking the ball, hitting moonshots and wearing a broad smile on his face. Because those games are meaningless. 

Look at Aaron Judge. He only started to play in exhibition games on March 1. And I am quite sure he won’t be getting on a bus to travel around Florida to the Spring Training sites of other teams. 

However, the fans are smitten with the games. They look at them as a way to get closer to the action, even if the prices continue to rise. Great marketing, I guess. 

I’d rather read the reports from Florida and Arizona to see who is hurt. Unfortunately, the Yankees always seem to have too many players with early injuries which will impact when they might play in the regular season. 

Seemingly, it is always at least one or more pitchers. Louis Gil, last season’s AL Rookie of the Year, has a stiff arm. Maybe because he was overused in his first full season? Reliever Scott Effross, coming back from Tommy John surgery is on the shelf due to a hamstring issue. 

I worry more about Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Clarke Schmidt and Carlos Rodon staying healthy. Those guys comprise the formidable Yankees starting rotation, which normally would include Gil if his arm was cooperative.

Yet I am not surprised that slugger Giancarlo Stanton is hurt. Except that the injuries go back to last season and haven’t healed. His tennis elbows, unlike my Golfer’s Elbow (different location on the arm), take a long time to heal. I can directly relate to that. One has to wonder what did he do to try to get better instead of landing on the IL and facing potential surgery which could leave him out of the lineup for considerable time? Is that on him, the Yankees, or both?

I am also troubled by the balky calf that third base candidate DJ Le Mahieu suffers from. For the past three seasons, the former hitting star has been hurt and unavailable. That’s why the Yankees had to get Jazz Chisholm, a second baseman, and throw him into the fire at third base. With Le Mahieu once more hurting, now who is going to play third, with Chisholm ensconced at his natural position, poised to make a dynamic middle infield duo with shortstop Anthony Volpe?

Here it is, the beginning of March, and the Yankees’ season is already up in the air. I’ve got to find something else to distract me from major league baseball.

Except that there is a movement afoot to remove the tarnish from the late Pete Rose. Rose had a lifetime ban from baseball for betting on games. Such a shame, given that he holds the record for most hits in a career and would be enshrined in Cooperstown if he hadn’t succumbed to gambling. 

President Trump is going to pardon Rose for his tax crimes. Now Commissioner Rob Manfred is willing to look into a petition to reinstate Rose. All this is happening posthumously. 

But will it matter? The Baseball Writers Association of America acts as the guardian of the game. Its members are the ones who vote on who has a plaque in the building. They include morality in their judgment. 

Are there some unsavory characters who weren’t voted in despite their playing abilities? Ty Cobb comes to mind. 

And we know that those who chose to use banned substances aren’t getting in. Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and Mark Mc Gwire immediately come to mind. 

Pete Rose goes in a different category. He played the game hard. He could hit like nobody else. On merit, this would have been a no brainer for the writers. 

Except that they can be a sanctimonious bunch. Even if the Commissioner reinstated Rose, will that sway their opinions? All because he bet on baseball and lied about it for a long while until he came clean?

Now that Rose and former Commissioners Bart Giamatti and Fay Vincent, who banned him from baseball for his sins, are dead, should this issue be put to bed and Rose be finally inducted into the Hall of Fame? I haven’t wavered on this subject—Rose deserves to be a Hall of Famer. What President Trump does has no relationship to what baseball will do. I hope the BBWAA and fans can accept that. 

Meanwhile, I have become engrossed in basketball. College basketball at the Division I and III levels, and the NBA. As I should, with D I and the NBA in their stretch runs and DIII finishing their post-season conference tournaments. 

I actually was present at Drew University on Saturday to watch the Rangers seek to win a berth in the upcoming D III NCAA Tournament by defeating the Catholic University Cardinals for a third time this season. Which they did, by a 85-70 score. 

The game started out tight. Then Drew pulled away, opening leads of over 20 points while amassing 50 points in the first half. 

Catholic came out firing in the second half, cutting the margin down to 11 points at one time. Drew proved to be resilient and, coupled with a lot of missed free throws by Catholic, they secured their spot in the Big Little Dance. To the great joy of a very packed Baldwin Gymnasium, full of Drew supporters waiting for the big moment. 

Both teams are quite good. Catholic may make the NCAA’s as a Pool C entrant; there are 43 automatic entrants and 21 at-large slots. Having seen teams from the NESCAC, Centennial, NJAC, UAA, MIAA and Middle Atlantic Conference among others, these are worthy tournament squads. Drew might even get a home game or two, which would be a big boost. 

I have been following Franklin and Marshall College, my alma mater, throughout the season. At first, things looked grim. A stunning loss at home to Virginia Wesleyan after holding a large lead and a road loss to middle-of-the-pack Landmark League foe Elizabethtown College and in-conference losses to powerhouses Gettysburg and Johns Hopkins made me think this isn’t the year for the Diplomats. 

Then the team ran off victory after victory to secure home court for the entire playoffs. Which proved to be very important in a semi-final win over Ursinus College. The Diplomats nearly squandered another huge lead before scoring the victory. The reward—a date with Johns Hopkins on Sunday; Hopkins survived Gettysburg in overtime on Thursday. 

In a rugged defensive battle, F&M outscored its nemesis 60-47 to win the Centennial Conference and punch their ticket to the field of 64. I enjoyed the play-by-play of F&M alum Steve Ulrich, class of ’82. Ulrich is the excellent voice of F&M streaming sports. He is a DIII guru with his DIII Playbook and having been the long-time Executive Director of the CC. Ulrich made mention of CC and F&M all-time scoring champion Brandon Federici ’18. If you want to know what epitomizes F&M sports and you have Linkedin, look up Ulrich and Federici. 

Don’t look now—St. John’s is a powerhouse. Hall of Fame Coach Rick Pitino has his team primed to win the Big East Tournament and then go deep into the NCAA’s. Could they be the most interesting team in the New York Metropolitan area—more watchable than the Knicks?

I did view a bit of #18 Memphis and UAB. It reminded me why mid-majors are tall, talented and somewhat undisciplined. Also, I saw a bit of Michigan State and Wisconsin. Those are two very good teams. With even better athleticism and basketball acumen. 

Then again, Duke is really good and the experts are sticking with Auburn. How good is Houston? Tennessee? The regular season ends this week and the post-season conference tournaments start soon thereafter. I am sure that I will be getting into this topic in greater depth in the next two weeks, once Selection Sunday is upon us. 

By the way, the USC women destroyed UCLA for a second time this season. There is no one team which is head and shoulders apart from the other women’s teams. 

Have you noticed the amount of buzzer beater baskets to win games this season? Just this past week, a heave towards the far hoop, way beyond half court, gave Michigan State a big road win over a ranked Maryland team. And Michigan came all the way back after Rutgers had scorched the Wolverines in the first half to sink a game-winning three point shot as time expired, escaping with a home court win. 

As to the NBA, I saw how vulnerable Golden State is without Jimmy Butler playing. Butler suffered back spasms in the Thursday game at Orlando, where Steph Curry went off for 56 points in a win. Without Butler, the lowly Philadelphia 76’ers came alive, breaking a nine game losing streak by downing the Warriors on national TV. He has to remain healthy for GSW to have a prayer of a chance this post season. 

Plus don’t piss off the Cleveland Cavaliers. Boston ran out to a 25-3 lead on the Cavs, and superstar Jayson Tatum mocked the Cavs. Bad move. Cleveland won the game handily. The Cavs are that good. Kenny Atkinson for Coach of the Year?

My daughter has me watching Friday night SEC women’s gymnastics. Big crowds and sterling performers. Fun to watch these very skilled athletes. 

The outdoor hockey game between Detroit and Columbus at Ohio Stadium was a magnificent setting, drawing over 94,000 to the horseshoe. The NHL got it right—again. 

On TV at the gym I caught the final hole of this week’s golf tournament. A guy named Joe Highsmith made the cut by one stroke and won the whole event by two strokes. Amazing story and good for him—he really earned his $1.7 million prize. 

Two melancholy deaths this week. Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, who played the irascible coach in Hoosiers, died suddenly in New Mexico. Chess master Boris Spassky passed away, too. His matches versus the aloof Bobby Fischer were fraught with tension and unforgettable. 

Finally, Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce will return to the team for another season. Which I figured he would. The bigger question now is when will he propose to his girlfriend, pop star Taylor Swift. Will that happen before former Green Bay and New York Jets QB Aaron Rodgers finds a new team—perhaps the Giants or Raiders now that the Los Angeles Rams resigned their QB, Matthew Stafford?

Baseball. Basketball. Gymnastics. Hockey. Golf. A mention of the Oscars. Chess. Football. Taylor Swift’s engagement. Aaron Rodgers. Did I leave anything out this week?

Politics: The Bane Of Sports

  I tend to stay away from politics in my blogs. For good reason. The political world can be a mixture of righteousness and toxicity, with common sense at a minimum. 

Then again, the self-centered nature of college and professional sports, driven, as it is,  by money is a microcosm of the political world.

With the political climate in Washington and in many states which are known as “red states” in a state of measured chaos right now and with highly divisive agendas, it made me think about what could happen if the same mentality permeated the sports world. As it continues, we have no idea what the landscape of this country or the world will look like. 

How this tumult affects sports is a great question. These are uncertain times.

What you see now in sports may have changed in six months. Witness at the big wigs of the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference having a powwow in New Orleans this past week. 

These are the power brokers of collegiate sports. These are the two mega conferences where the vast amount of television money along with NIL payments reside. This is where the television networks and streaming services gravitate. March Madness would never have become such a big thing without CBS making it into a must-see event. 

The SEC has sixteen members. There are the flagship public universities of 12 states. Additionally, there are three public land-grant universities and one private research university. The conference headquarters is in Birmingham, Alabama. Every member either makes a profit or breaks even on expenses compared to revenue generated; those figures are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Even with four schools (Georgia, Auburn, Texas A&M and South Carolina) competing in Equestrian events as a SEC-sanctioned sport.  

Meanwhile, the expanded Big Ten has 15 of 18 schools enrolling more than 30,000 students, with all public universities, with the exception of Northwestern University and the University of Southern California. All except Nebraska are members of the Association of American Universities, while USC is the only non-member of the Universities Research Association. These schools educate more than 520,000 students and are purported to have 5.7 million living alumni. Big Ten headquarters is in Rosemont, Illinois. Moreover, Johns Hopkins University is an affiliate member for lacrosse, while Notre Dame University is a member solely in ice hockey. 

These conferences extend from the West Coast to the East Coast, up and down the Eastern Seaboard and states abutting the Gulf of Mexico or America, as some now must refer to that body of water. That covers a lot of territory which is full of political ammunition and entrenched power. 

Which is why, in this politically-charged environment, a cartel is forming and will certainly be protected like other big businesses will be. The fact that the two conferences each want to have four guaranteed spots in the College Football Playoffs shows their strength and avarice. 

Expect that to translate to basketball—I believe that upwards of nine schools from each conference will likely make the Big Dance. That will diminish the opportunities for upsets by small to mid-major schools over the big boys, because the marginal spots in the tournament will go to one of the Big Ten or SEC schools on the bubble. 

Don’t expect the state legislatures to act against what is going on. Nor, in this time of wholesale change in government, where reckless downsizing is happening with abandon, will this overriding of the collegiate sports landscape be halted. 

The only thing which will serve to hurt the SEC-Big Ten conglomerate will be what affects it the most—money. While the revenue seems to be guaranteed, if there is a downturn in the nation’s economy, which many believe will occur with a slowing of economic growth coupled with rising inflation, then the dollars spent on everything from merchandise to luxury suites won’t necessarily be there. 

The NCAA seems to be toothless in its governing of its membership. The CFP is not part of the NCAA, and football is the driving sport in the equation. What is going on isn’t good. But in this day and age, no one is going to decry what is happening—except maybe a negative blogger or two who thinks conference expansion and TV money are the root causes of all evil in collegiate sports and who prefers to watch the clarity of competition at the Ivies, Patriot League or Division III, where few worry too much about NIL and even fewer go on to play professionally. 

Sure, I watched the glitz and glamor of Friday night SEC women’s gymnastics on ESPN.  Just like I tuned into Michigan State-Michigan and USC-Rutgers in men’s basketball. 

Yet I found myself at peace watching Franklin and Marshall vie with Gettysburg for the regular season title in the Centennial Conference, and home court advantage in the upcoming playoffs. Two schools in historic areas, with the word College affixed to their names. 

Not too many people cared to watch on their computers—there isn’t any commercial appeal for these games nor are there any TV time outs at regulated times. Just a number of kids playing their hearts out in a less-than packed small gymnasium. 

Simplicity in sports. What a novel idea. Which, at that level, will seemingly endure. Unlike what is happening in Division I. (For the record, F&M won)

Returning to the theme I began with, I worry where this new government will be heading regarding sports. I see a President who appeared at the Super Bowl, staying for a half, then heading to Daytona for the big race, and providing such a stirring pep talk to the USA hockey team before the 4 Nations championship game versus Canada, complete with references to our neighbors to the north as the 51st state. He didn’t fare too well after praising supporter Brittany Mahomes, wife of the Kansas City quarterback nor were his words impactful on the USA team, which lost in overtime to its northern rivals. Heck, I hope he doesn’t weigh in on the efficacy of the “Tush Push.”

No, I am concerned that he and his fans will seek to quash the number of players from other countries entering the United States. The impact will be catastrophic for professional and college sports at all levels. In keeping with the theme of less reliance upon other nations while angering their residents and leaders, I don’t see this outside the realm of possibility. Especially if there is an economic decline. 

You won’t see players like Frenchman Victor Wembanyama display his enormous talent in a nation alien to his interests once he is medically cleared to return from the deep vein thrombosis which has sidelined him for the remainder of the NBA season. Who knows how the anti-vaccine beliefs permeating government will align with the safety of foreign players coming into our country—that is a serious potential issue. 

In this changing world, will the National Football League be welcome in its outreach and games outside of the US? Ditto the NBA and all of the foreign-born players in so many other sports. And will the Olympic ideal be lost to political vitriol? 

Outlandish, you think? No more than the changes which are happening on a daily basis in Washington and resonating throughout our Nation. 

I love to discuss sports. My beliefs are my own. When politics overwhelms sports, I worry.

Politics. The bane of sports right now and in the future.