College Coaches Fail in The NBA

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Duke’s Coach K quickly dismissed the rumors that he would consider the Godfather offer from the Nets’ Russian playboy owner to coach and possibly be the GM of the New Jersey Nets. Why? Well, as much as Colin Cowherd wanted to try and make a topic for his radio show about how money could make Coach K and LeBron come to the eventual Brooklyn Nets and win titles together, not everyone can be bought. Coach K realized that his legacy is as a long-tenured coach at one institution where he has had tremendous success and there was minimal upside and maximum downside to trying his hand with the professionals. He was not a guy like Calipari or Pitino that had bounced from school to school and so a pro stop was just a big pay day along the road. He also knows these key reasons why college coaches do not have success in the pros very often.

I. Power
This is the biggest reason college coaches struggle in the pros. They are used to being the ultimate power with ultimate control over the roster, playing time and practice. In college, any and everything they say is the law, not just in the gym, but likely in the entire town where the school is located. The recent example was Urban Meyer’s handling of the media over a quote they printed. Urban is a big tough guy to intimidate the local Orlando college sports beat reporter. Do you really think the NY Post would take that crap? More importantly, the power structure is different in the locker room in the NBA. An NBA coach can’t use the juvenile punishment tactics that they use in college like taking away a player’s scholarship, removing him from the starting line up or dismissing him from the team. In most instances the players are making multiples of the coaches salary, so why would they listen to the coach? Did you really expect Vince Carter to listen to John Calipari?

This is a tough pill for the coach to swallow after he was given the biggest contract he’s ever gotten in his life and he is viewed as the savior by the local media. Then come in and command a locker room of guys that don’t have to respect you and guys that know the pro game is a different animal than the college game.

II. Different Offenses
I think every coach knows when they make the leap to the pros that the game itself is different and they need to make a tweak to the offense they were running in college. The NBA game is dominated by a two-man pick-and-roll game where the rest of the team is either spotting up or crashing the hoop. The college game is a more open court where an offense can hide players or highlight each players strength. Coaches in college have the ability to recruit the proper players to fit with their system, like Bo Ryan recruiting big men who do not have great post skills but are strong outside shooters which is essential in his swing offense. In the pros the coach takes over an already established roster full of guys in 3-5 year contracts and has to try and figure out how to run an offense around the guys he has. Yes, over time they can mold that roster into a team that fits their preferred offense, but the coaches rarely get that 4-5 year window that would be necessary. People would not be excited to see an intense drama movie with Tina Fey as the lead actress, but if you put her opposite Steve Carrell in a movie with a tremendous amount of physical humor and we’re talking about a highly entertaining movie.

III. Ego
The list of coaches that couldn’t hack it in the pros is a long list, and includes the full spectrum of quality of college coaches from very good to flash in the pan guys. Yet the result is generally the same whether it’s a college super star like Rick Pitino or John Calipari, a middle of the road guy like Mike Montgomery or a flash in the pan like Lon Kruger. They all end up back in college programs. The final thing that really hampers these coaches in their pro career is an outsized ego. Much like the power structure mentioned above, these coaches have huge egos because they have been pursued, recruited and wined and dined with the top of the line ammenities the NBA offers. Then they are thrown to the wolves and told they better win despite all the headwinds. That pressure and being unaccustomed to losing is a huge dent to those egos and can cause the coach to snap, like the infamous Rick Pitino “Larry Bird ain’t walkin’ through that door!” quote.

Thoughts on Duke's Win from Wine Country

Apologies for the sporadic posts the remainder of the week. I am out in wine country trying to figure out why we don’t just move out to California, get jobs in a winery and spend our days making wine and our nights relaxing in the moutains drinking wine. Seriously, why haven’t I done this yet? Every time I make a trip to California, I contemplate pulling a Don Draper and just disappearing out here for a couple months at a time.

Quick thoughts on Duke’s vicotry last night in the championship game over Buter:

- Has there ever been a more uninteresting close game? I was so unintrigued by the game that I found myself flipping back and forth between the game and random opening day baseball games on the free preview of the season ticket. I’ve never missed a minute of a championship college basketball game for anything, much less the opening game for a team that wasn’t the Brewers. Neither team was playing very well offensively and the flow of the game seemed dull.

- As I received multiple texts on the topic – Matt Howard wore his Adam Morrison “I have candy in my van with no windows” mustache about as well as……….well, Morrison. Note to Mr. Howard: You can only afford to look like a monster toolbox if you have the game to back it up (see Brandon Jennings and his flat top, Anthony Mason with things shaved in his head, or even Jason Terry’s high socks). And Mr. Howard, you don’t have the game for it.

- Howard’s game deserves its own post – has there ever been a more overrated, talked about non-factor player in a championship game? Howard was the Horizon league player of the year two years ago! (who else was in that conference? My high school team?) Matt Howard is that third scorer that Butler needs to step up to win the game! (why? He sat out with fouls and a concussion against Michigan State and they were better without him) The guy is a spaz who committed some of the dumbest fouls I’ve ever seen to guarantee his time on the bench, and basically was more of a liability than a benefit to the Bulldogs all night. At one point he was 1-6 from the field, 1-4 from the line and had 4 fouls. Thanks for showing up, pal.

- My friend Sal posed this question during the game: Could either of these teams compete with ANY of the past 15 championship teams? Typically you have to side with the most recent teams because of the increase in overall size and athleticism of all of the players. Looking at the Duke & Butler teams……that’s not the case at all. The only team we could come up with that might have struggled with Duke or Butler was the 2002 Maryland championship team. That team had Steve Blake, Juan Dixon, Chris Wilcox and Lonny Baxter – definitely not blowing anyone away with athleticism – although leaping ability was the only reason Wilcox fooled an NBA team to draft him in the top 10. Actually, that Terps team would be a really intriguing matchup for Duke, with Blake against Scheyer, Dixon against Nolan Smith, Wilcox against Singler, and Baxter versus Zoubek in the middle. I think I’d take Duke, but not by much.

Weekend Hangover - Love/Hate: NCAA Championship

LOVE

- Like Audrina Patridge in a bikini, you don’t have to like her to admit she looks good. Duke played their best game of the season on Saturday night and absolutely dominated West Virginia. They were on fire from the perimeter, they dominated the boards and completely manhandled the supposedly tough Mountaineers team. The Blue Devils looked like a team that belonged in the NCAA Championship game and that’s where they will be tonight when they take on Butler. I’m done with predictions since my predictions have been worse than once Audrina opens her mouth.

- Congratulations to Ms. Jessica Mack for winning the first Sports Addict Bracket Challenge! She was the only person to pick Duke to win the title and regardless of the result tonight, she has locked up the title. She will win University of Wisconsin gear and a some Sports Addict swag.

- Play Ball!!!! It’s officially opening day!! People everywhere are playing hooky from work and firing up the grill at the tailgate outside the stadium. The start of the baseball season is always a poetic time – the smell of the grill, the smell of the freshly cut grass, the feel of the peanut shells crunching under your shoes, and the taste of that first or tenth flat Old Style beer……….(okay maybe my memories are more of the old County Stadium bleachers than it is the newer stadiums like Miller Park where you can get all the flavors of Lienie’s or a premium beer)

- The Lakers are struggling lately, causing concern after cruising along as the best team in the Western conference most of the year. Is the Ron Artest crazy train the reason? Is Kobe beginning to tire out? Is Lamar Odom running out of Skittles to keep his sugar high? Or did Lamar finally realize he married the ugly Kardashian sister and now that Kim is single he’s having second thoughts? Either way, the best part is that it opens up the Western Conference playoffs and it wouldn’t be overly surprising to see Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, San Antonio or Utah right up there with the Lakers.

- Coach K is NOT taking the Nets job. Yes, the Russian playboy owner of the Nets is offering a ridiculous amount of money – like $12 to $15 million per year. Yet at the end of the day, there is no upside for him going to the pros. He turned down the Lakers job in 2004 when they already had Kobe Bryant and Shaq on the roster. The Nets have Devin Harris and Robin Lopez. He will be able to coach as long as he wants at Duke and will never be fired. He has been there for 30 years. Why would he mess up his legacy with a failure with the Nets? The number of failed former college coaches includes current college coaching stars….Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Mike Montgomery. Eddie Murphy was a successful comedian and actor, but the worst decision he ever made was an attempted music career. A choice he probably regrets as much as Coach K would regret a move to the Nets.

HATE

- The Donovan McNabb trade is such an indictment of McNabb by the Eagles it is incredible. Not only did the Eagles feel McNabb is not good enough to lead them to the promised land, they also showed they don’t think he’s going to be that hard to beat by trading him within the division!! There are tremendous differences between this and the Packers trading Brett Favre, not the least of which is that Favre was a lock Hall of Famer, and Donovan is possibly in the discussion. The Packers also knew that Favre still had gas in the tank and therefore wanted no part of playing him and traded him out of the division and out of the conference to the Jets (Favre still weaseled his way back into the division a year later by faking retirement ….again) While the media is spinning it that the Eagles showed respect for McNabb by not trading him to the Raiders, I think they showed him extreme disrepect by trading him within the division. Or maybe they just noticed the decline from 54-19 (.740) as a starter from 2000-04 to 36-26-1 (.579) from 2005-2009, and 17 games missed in the most recent 4 years with only a 2-2 playoff record.

And let’s immediately put away the ridiculous thought that the Redskins may be better than the Eagles next year. It’s not even close. The Redskins have a horrid offensive line, have awful wide receivers (Santana Moss? Malcolm Kelly? Compared to DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin?), a talented TE coming off an injury, and a collection of washed up running backs – Clinton Portis, Larry Johnson and Willie Parker. The Eagles still have tremendously more talent than the Redskins, but Washington definitely improved with this trade. Putting Jessica Biel into a terribly written and directed movie with a weak supporting cast does not make it a great movie.

- The first national semi final game on Saturday night between Michigan State and Butler was a hideously ugly game. It was worse than watching former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich trying to turn on a computer or send a text on the Celebrity Apprentice. (side note – has anyone seen this? The guy was a former governor and has absolutely no idea how to operate a computer or a cell phone. Who knew that his lack of tech skills would be more appalling than that awkward haircut? What the …….) As visually appealing as the Duke victory was, the first game was the exact opposite. It was a slugfest between two stout defensive and physical teams, which we knew coming in. What we didn’t know was that Michigan State was going to lose the game more than Butler was going to win the game. Michigan State missed lay ups they don’t normally miss, missed free throws, turned the ball over in uncontested situations, and had some painful looking jumpshots (sorry Draymond Green, those were some hideous bricks you threw up from the top of the key). Butler shot 30% from the field and won the game. Michigan State shot only 42%. Ugh. Michigan State had 16 turnovers, 5 of which were credited to Korie Lucious and I think the score keeper was being generous.

That being said, I don’t like whining about the officiating, but Green was fouled on his last drive to the hoop. As a coach, with 20-odd seconds remaining and down by one, you want a shot going to the basket so you either make the shot or get fouled and get to the line. Green did exactly that and got hit on the arm and didn’t get the call. It didn’t cost them the game – the turnovers and shooting 10-18 from the free throw line did that – but it was a terrible missed call at a very big moment.

- I watched a little bit of the opening night game between the Yankees and Red Sox last night, and nothing was more annoying than the ESPN feed being blacked out, forcing me to watch the game on the YES network. Michael Kay is among the worst announcers I have ever heard in my life and he ruined the opening night experience for me. He barely pays attention to the game and instead spends the entire broadcast name dropping to show off that he’s buddies with the players, and babbling on about random topics that don’t pertain to the game in front of him. It’s like he’s the annoying guy at the bar that keeps rambling on about the time he met a celebrity when you’re just trying to watch the game. We get it Michael, you have an enormous ego and you know a bunch of athletes that you sometimes have dinner with. He’s like the rest of the Jersey Chasers that used to go to the KK in Madison to try and work the football players in the back corner of the bar. Instead of the majestic call from John Miller and Joe Morgan, I was forced to listen to this idiot. I couldn’t stand more than a couple innings before I switched it off and never returned.

- The Milwaukee Bucks were playing the best basketball they had played since 2001. They were hot and have developed a chemistry between coach Scott Skiles and their team combining young talent like Andrew Bogut and Brandon Jennings with veterans Jerry Stackhouse and John Salmons. They were poised to put a major scare into either Boston or Atlanta in the first round of the playoffs. And now that has all gone up in flames when Andrew Bogut shattered his elbow in an injury that brought back memories for me of Larry Krystowiak blowing out his knee in Game 3 of the playoffs against the Pistons in 1989. Krystowiak worked hard to rehab the knee, including not cutting his hair in the back until he got back into a game the following season. So maybe Bogut could grow a mullet for next season?

Degenerate Friday!! Final Four Picks!

It’s finally here. No more trying to make up storylines. No more talk about expansion of the tournament (which is going to happen and is an AWFUL decision – but much like a Tiger Woods mistress, the NCAA will do anything for money). No more talk about if this is a bad Final Four – it doesn’t matter. These are the teams that won 4 games and are the only four that didn’t choke it away. And at the end of the day, any of the four could cut down the nets and it would not be a huge surprise. Butler is portrayed as the big underdog because they are the smallest school from the small town (Indy is not exactly a hick town, is it?) and the small conference, but they were a preseason top 10 team and have beaten higher seeded teams than Michigan State on their journey to the Final Four. So where do we put our betting money? Given my success thus far, my picks appear to be about as smart as Shawn Rogers carrying a loaded gun into airport security. Listen, I get forgetting things – I’ve gotten stopped multiple times for forgetting I had a water bottle in my bag – but you forgot a loaded gun? Why were you carrying a loaded gun? Like Vince Vaughn tells his boy Sue in Swingers: “What do you need a gun for? In case someone steps to you, Snoop Dog?”

It’s also the start of the baseball season this weekend, and since the weather has finally turned nice here in New York, there’s nothing better than that hope at the beginning of the baseball season for the 12 teams that have a chance at the playoffs and the 4 that actually could win it all. And at least the Brewers improved their chances of making the playoffs by finding an excuse to keep Jeff Suppan away from active pitching duty by placing him on the DL.

Game #1: Michigan State (+1) over Butler

Celebrity Doppleganger Matchup: Nikki Cox vs. Hilary Duff
The Spartans resemble Cox because you knew she had talent (Unhappily Ever After), she disappeared from your radar for a while, returned with authority (Las Vegas), then has irrevocably changed due to surgery. Michigan State had talent, disappeared in the middle of the season due to some chemistry issues, then has come back with authority in the tournament, only to be changed by an injury/surgery to Kalin Lucas. By the way – someone send a picture of the “new” Nikki Cox over to Heidi Montag as a warning as to where she’s headed.

Hilary Duff started out as a cute young Disney star (she laid out the path for the success of Miley Cyrus) and it’s hard to believe she is 23 and has been on numerous television shows and movies. Butler is still viewed by many as the small Disney feel good story when in reality, they are very talented and have made the leap to a regular on the Hollywood acting scene. And it’s not just because of her threesome scene on Gossip Girl with Jessica Szohr.

The Game:
This is an extremely hard game to predict because on paper, Butler has the advantage. Gordon Hayward is a match up nightmare for Michigan State and they also have Shelvin Mack to take advantage of Korie Lucas, which is where missing Kalin Lucas will be the most glaring. Butler also rebounds extremely well and does not allow teams to get transition baskets against them. The Bulldogs very much resemble a Big Ten team in terms of their stingy defense, average athleticism and disciplined offensive structure. That is an advantage for Michigan State which has been playing the majority of their season against teams with that exact same profile. Unfortunately for Butler, the home crowd will not be as much of a factor on Saturday as it would be on Monday when fans of the teams that lose Saturday night bail out of town and sell off their tickets to the locals which will likely be Butler fans. The biggest mismatch? On the bench where Brad Stevens is 88-14 in his 3 years on the bench, but is no match for the best game coach in the country, Tom Izzo. When it comes down to where to place your money, go with Izzo. Look for the Spartans to be back in the championship game for the second year in a row.

Game #2: West Virginia (+2) over Duke

Celebrity Doppleganger Matchup: Colin Farrell vs. Tom Cruise
Maybe I needed to use Tom Cruise because I saw Katie Holmes and their little girl, Suri, in a Le Quioden (it’s like an Au Bon Pan or Panera Bread and I’m sure I just misspelled it but I’m not looking it up – like you’d know the difference if I did) last night. There was a huge crowd of paparazzi at the door, setting up their cameras so they could get the shot when she walked out. She also had a sizeable and bad ass security team that was standing by the window where she was seated making sure everyone kept moving and took no pictures while she ate. Kind of left me with the feeling of “so you want to be a celebrity? You can’t even grab a sandwich without a team of security guards. That sucks.” Anyway, Duke is like Tom Cruise – had tremendous success, easy to hate for so many obvious reasons (like Cruise barely topping 5’6”), but you can’t deny they have talent.

West Virginia is a pretty good fit with Colin Farrell. They are foul-mouthed (have you ever heard a clip of Bobby Huggins at a practice? The guy makes the paint peel with his liberal use of profanity – it’s an art form to him), rugged, rough and tough. Yet they are immensely talented and have put on some pretty good shows. I’m personally a huge fan of The Recruit, enjoyed Phone Booth, and he was even in Minority Report with Tom Cruise.

The Game:
The key to the game will be West Virginia’s defensive ability to rough up the Duke shooters and prevent them from getting hot from beyond the arc. Their 1-3-1 zone will give the Blue Devils trouble, but could be a chance for Greg Zoubek to be a hero by taking advantage of his size mismatch inside against the smaller Joe Mazzulla, a task that All-American DeMarcus Cousins couldn’t do for Kentucky. I don’t think Coach K will put Kyle Singler on De’Sean Butler like he did against Baylor’s main scoring guard (LaceDarius Dunn) because it definitely impacted Singler’s offense and Duke will need all the scoring they can get. I expect Singler to be matched up with Kevin Butler who can be a threat from the inside and the outside. In the end, West Virginia’s height and stingy defense will be enough to carry them past the Blue Devils and on to the National Championship game. Get ready for Bobby Huggins and his Jersey Soprano-wannabe track suit on the biggest stage on Monday night.

Everyone Hates Duke - Are They Really Different This Year?

Obviously the story lines for this year’s Final Four stink. There are not a ton of stories because of the lackluster teams and the lack of star players. Instead we started the week with a bogus story about Tom Izzo being offered the Oregon job (side note – Oregon hired the worst recruiter in the history of the world. They were hired to target coaches and they came up with…..drumroll……….Tom Izzo. Really? That’s what they got paid for? What did they do for research – open the newspaper and watch SportsCenter? Everyone knows Izzo is the best coach in the sport. Why not just throw Coach K, Jim Boeheim and Roy Williams out there as candidates?). In other breaking news……Katy Perry can fill out a bikini. And now we’re on to an even more ridiculous story about why people hate Duke and whether it’s warranted that people dislike them.

People dislike Duke for a multitude of reasons, including jealousy, rivalry, ignorance and stupidity. And at the end of the day, so what? I’m not going to go through the reasons and prove or debunk them because people are locked into their opinions. People are not going to change their minds because some sportswriter pens a diatribe about how this year’s Duke team is different than the past teams and their dislike is “an outdated cliché.” Dude, your article is a waste of time. Let people dislike teams like Duke or Notre Dame or the Yankees with absolutely no sane reason for it. That’s part of being a fan.

More interesting to me was the notion that this Duke team is really different than those previous teams that everyone disliked. Are they? They have a tough-nosed white point guard who can shoot from the outside, an athletic wing man, and a tweener white guy who is more athletic than he looks and can shoot or go inside and they are coached by a guy that looks like an owl. That was Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, Christian Laettner and Coach K in the early ‘90’s. It was JJ Reddick, DeMarcus Nelson, Josh McRoberts and Coach K in the middle of the 2000’s. And now it is Jon Scheyer, Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler and Coach K. It is the exact same formula Coach K has always employed. And feel free to make your comparisons of Cherokee Parks to the Plumlee brothers or to Greg Zoubek.

So this year’s team is pretty much a clone of previous Blue Devil squads. Feel free to hate on them if you want, as long as you understand that disliking any team is almost always based on nothing rational. My guess is Duke doesn’t really care what you think of them and that your feelings about them will have less than no impact on whether they can get past the Mountaineers on Saturday night.

Weekend Hangover - Love/Hate: Down to Four

LOVE

- Coaching carried teams to the Final Four this year:

o This is probably the most surprising and least talented team Tom Izzo has taken to the big stage, but like all of his teams they were tougher and more disciplined than their opponents. His decision to intentionally miss the final free throw after taking a one point lead with 1.8 seconds left was genius, despite the officials screwing up the clock (you have to have possession to call time out, and the clock is supposed to stop when the official recognizes the time out, not when it is called. According to the refs, that all took 0.2 seconds). However the other positive outcome from Izzo’s decision was that Tennessee couldn’t run the baseline like they could after a made basket. As much as it pains me to say it, Izzo is THE best coach in all of college basketball, hands down, without question. 6 Final Fours in 15 years is beyond impressive.

o Mike Krzyzewski has taken some heat in the past decade that he has taken his focus off of leading Duke to the Final Four and that he is coasting after all of his success in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Well, he’s back in the Final Four with a team that plays as well together as any team in recent memory. This is his 11th trip to the Final Four with the Blue Devils and you can very easily make the case that the winner of the Duke-West Virginia semifinal will be the overwhelming favorite to cut down the nets. He is the Cindy Crawford of coaches in that he continually gets it done even as the years pile up.

o West Virginia confused and confounded Kentucky with their 1-3-1 zone and Bob Huggins outcoached John Calipari. As great of a recruiter as Calipari has proved to be, he had no X’s or O’s to solve a defense where the base at the bottom of the zone was a point guard and Coach Cal couldn’t find a way to get his big men the ball against the undersized Joe Mazzulla. Bob Huggins is back in the Final Four for the first time since 1992. But don’t listen to any interviews with him this week because he sounds as enthusiastic about it as Russell Crowe is about the papparazzi.

- Speaking of West Virginia, the prospect of hearing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” blasting from the Lucas Oil Arena while the Mountaineers cut down the nets is becoming more and more of a reality. Nothing like a little John Denver magic for a theme song.

- It is probably part of the Coach K leadership, but the poise of Duke was among the key contributors to their victory over Baylor. The game was already teetering on slipping away with 1:30 left when Baylor gets a technical foul for absolutely stupidity. It iced a game that was slipping away. Why are you trying to intimidate a guy and get up in his face when you’re down 7 with under 2 minutes left in the game? As athletically talented as Baylor is, I’m pretty sure most of their team could not spell Duke if you gave them the D and the U.

- If you need something to fire you up for work this week (especially if you’re anywhere in the Eastern US where rain is punishing the entire coast), just check out the Gus Johnson soundboard and listen to his classic quotes and yells. Among my favorites is the “Rise and Fire” or the “Slipper” where Gus proclaims “…and the slipper still fits!” with the excitement of a guy who just got out of the movie where Amanda Seyfried get naked.

HATE

- Is this the worst Final Four every? While we have coaching stars in this year’s Final Four, there are not a lot of intriguing player story lines or very exciting players to watch. There is not an All-American candidate in the Final Four, which has only happened once in the past 10 years. In 2006, when no #1 seeds made the tournament (#2 UCLA, #3 Florida, #4 LSU & #11 George Mason) there were no All-American candidates, and that Final Four was not very interesting. Even in 1980, the other time when a #1 seed did not make the Final Four, Joe Barry Carroll of Purdue and Darrell Griffith of Louisville were All-American candidates. However, despite the surprise teams and lack of exciting players, it is tough to say this is the worst Final Four ever (despite my texts asking exactly that to my brother and Sal on Saturday night). At least this year has the coaches and a #1 seed still playing in it.

- Well I mentioned last week that West Virginia wanted to ugly up the basketball like Sarah Jessica Parker to have a chance to win. Well, they definitely did that on Saturday night. The Mountaineers did not hit a single 2 point basket in the entire first half of the game, going 0-16 from inside the arc. And Kentucky didn’t hit a 3 point shot until there were less than 4 minutes left in the entire game, ending up shooting 4-32 from beyond the arc. That was about as painful as your girlfriend forcing you to watch that Remember Me movie with the vampire guy and some random girl.

- Why do teams call timeouts after baskets in the final minute when they are down more than five points? For the past few years, the clock stops after a made basket, so there is no need to call time out. I get the concept of “setting up your defense” but when you are already down more than 5 points, you probably need the scramble to have a better chance at a steal and a turnover. You are going to foul immediately, so why bother with the timeout? Wouldn’t you be better served to save the time out for when you potentially get a rebound or steal in the final seconds and need to set up a play or stop the clock for a full-court heave? Just a random thing I noticed that teams call the time out to stop the clock when it is already stopped.

- Did anyone else notice the crowd in Houston for the Duke-Baylor game? It was heavily in favor of Baylor, which makes sense with the proximity to their Waco campus, but it also appeared very sparse on television. The game was played in the cavernous Reliant Stadium – home of the NFL’s Texans – so maybe it was just some of the angles that the television cameras were catching, but there appeared to be an inordinate number of empty seats for a regional final game. Is that a bad sign for next year’s Final Four which will be played in that exact venue? There will likely be the same neutral court issues in the Final Four next year, so will it be a full stadium?

Degenerate Friday - Sweet 16 Part II

Yesterday I didn’t get a chance to get to the gym and in order to maintain this Adonis physique that I fuel with scotch, beer and wings, I decided to combine a workout with watching the games. I would do 10 push ups for every made three point shot during the games that were on television (meaning if they did a look in and showed a 3 pointer, it’s push up time). It started slowly with Syracuse turning the ball over more than they made shots, but unfortunately for me they turned it up in the second half. Combine that with the ridiculous 3-point bombs Xavier and Kansas State traded late in regulation and both overtimes, and I ended up doing 370 push ups last night. So if my typing becomes as clear as why Kei$ha uses a dollar sign in her name (or why she’s a pseudo-celebrity), it’s because I’ve lost feeling in my arms. At least I was able to get the two late games correct to end up 2-2 last night. And I’m especially happy to see Cornell head home after they finally cooled off from behind the arc and faced an athletic team that could switch on screens (something Wisconsin and Temple could not do because their bigs are not athletic enough to keep up with the Cornell guards). Anyway……on to the Friday games.

Game #1: #2 Ohio State (-4.5) vs. #6 Tennessee

The Volunteers are easy to root for because they have a lovable coach in Bruce Pearl, play an inordinate number of walk-ons, and have gotten better after dismissing one of their more talented players because he was a jag off. Scottie Hopson can fill it up from the outside and Wayne Chism is a tough match up inside if he is plugged in. Unfortunately for the Vols he gets frustrated too easily and disappears for long stretches. Against a well-rounded but thin Ohio State team, they can’t afford to allow the Buckeyes to come up for air. William Bufford will likely have the assignment of controlling Hopson and Dallas Lauderdale will try to slow Chism, though Lauderdale is way too slow to stop him on the perimeter. If Tennessee can stay hot from outside the arc, they have a chance to make a game of it, but if they have even an average game, the Buckeyes will be more than they can handle.

And we haven’t even mentioned Evan Turner, the best player in the game. Turner will face a difficult matchup against JP Prince because Prince is long and quick defensively. In a previous collumn I already compared Turner to Marissa Miller with a supporting cast of the rest of the Victoria Secret models. I’m going to stick with that theme and I guess that makes Bufford, Lighty and Jon Diebler the Miranda Kerr, Candice Swanepoel and Alessandra Ambrossio of the big dance. The Victoria’s Secret models are enough to distract Bruce Pearl and Vols, giving the Buckeyes the edge they need.

Gambler’s Delight: Ohio State (-4.5)

Game #2: #3 Baylor (-5) vs. #10 St. Mary’s

If a game is played Houston and no one pays attention, does it really happen? This is the most overlooked game of the sweet 16 because it pits an underdog from a small western conference against an upstart team from a big conference that doesn’t have the tradition of its big conference colleagues. Yet Omar Samhan has arguably been the most dominant player in the entire tournament during the first weekend for St. Mary’s and Baylor has quietly taken care of business all season. The Bears rank in the top 12 of the nation in field goal percentage, field goal percentage allowed, rebound margin, blocks per game and scoring margin. Pretty impressive stats for a team of mostly unknown players outside of the Big 12.

Baylor has the size inside with Ekpe Udoh and Josh Lomers to do battle with Samhan, something that neither Villanova or Richmond had. Baylor also has strong guards in Tweety Carter and LaceDarius Dunn to compliment the inside game. Will that be enough to overtake the Australian sharpshooters of St. Mary’s? The Bears are like Talulah Riley - successful, well-rounded, yet it might just be the name that is holding them back from being an a-lister.

Gambler’s Delight: Baylor (-5)

Game #3: #5 Michigan State (-1) vs. #9 Northern Iowa

Everyone is jumping on the Northern Iowa bandwagon after they knocked off Kansas and Michigan State lost their best player to injury. Yet something tells me that the experience of Tom Izzo and Michigan State in the tournament gets more valuable as the tournament progresses. (Yes, Kansas had experience as well, but they had Bill Self) Northern Iowa returned home to be treated like rockstars and their coach Ben Jacobsen was given a well-deserved 10-year contract extension. All of that adds up to a little loss of focus and an Izzo team only needs a crack to force their way in the door.

I think Korie Lucious learned a valuable lesson when Kalen Lucas was out earlier in the year and I expect him to play much more in control than he did in his start against Illinois. I also expect the Michigan State guards to harass the Northern Iowa backcourt more than Kansas did and not allow as many open looks from beyond the arc. I really like the story of Northern Iowa, but in the end, the experience, poise and physical play of the Spartans will be too much for the Huskies, setting up an all-Big Ten Regional Final. When it comes down to it, I’d take George Clooney’s injured ex-girlfriend, Sarah Larson, over Miss Iowa.

Gambler’s Delight: Michigan State (-1)

Game #4: #1 Duke (-8.5) vs. #4 Purdue

This game matches up the team that everyone wants to get eliminated (Duke) against the team that everyone thought already would be eliminated (Purdue). Yet both teams continue to win and are just two wins away from the Final Four. Duke has many similarities to Jude Law because you hate him for having blown it with Sienna Miller the first time around, yet you have to admit the guy has talent and his movies draw you to the theatre and are successful over and over again. Duke is playing extremely well and has an experienced backcourt, solid shooting and Brian Zoubek has given them an inside presence they were missing. They have all of the ingredients to continue marching to Indy.

Purdue was among the teams to beat with Robbie Hummel and seems to have figured out how to play without him in wins over Siena and Texas A&M. The Boilermakers are a difficult matchup for Duke because they play physical stingy defense which can throw off the usually soft Duke squad (see their loss at Wisconsin early in the year). The Boilers also have the right personnel to match up, with Chris Kramer attached to Jon Scheyer’s hip pocket, E’Twaan Moore blanketing Kyle Singler and JaJuan Johnson able to match Zoubek. The Purdue defense will keep them in the game and make it close at the end, but expect Duke to pull out the straight up win.

Gambler’s Delight: Purdue (+8.5)
(take Duke to win straight up)

Saturday & Sunday Games:

#1 Kentucky vs. #2 West Virginia

Expect the young Wildcats to complete their march to the Final Four in a game that may not be pretty on the eyes. West Virginia wants to ugly up the game the way Sarah Jessica Parker does to any show, movie or photo she appears in. Like a New Jersey frat guy in a spring break club, the Moutaineers prefer to grind it out ugly-style. Kentucky should be able to break down the Mountaineers offensively and stymy the WVU offense. John Wall is as fast as anyone I’ve ever seen with the basketball in his hand and is an automatic one-man fast break when he gets a rebound. Look for Kentucky to get to the Final Four.

#2 Kansas State vs. #5 Butler

I have been a hater of Butler ever since my first college basketball breakdown column. I still don’t really know what they do well. They didn’t shoot well against Syracuse, had too many turnovers, and allowed a poor playing Orange team to stay in the game too long. Yet they keep winning. Can they keep it up against K-State? No. Look for the Faces of Frank Martin to march on to Indianapolis behind the sharpshooting of Denis Clemente and Mos Def look-alike, Jacob Pullen. The unsung hero for the Wildcats has been the UConn transfer Curtis Kelly who displayed a great array of moves around the basket and the ability to face up and knock down a jumper against Xavier. He could be the difference maker against Butler.

Assuming I’m correct in picking Friday night’s games……..

#2 Ohio State vs. #5 Michigan State

Ohio State is too familiar with the Spartans to not be ready for their physical play and lack of offense without Kalen Lucas. Izzo’s motivation and schemes can only carry a gimped team so far. Buckeyes Victoria Secret fashion show rolls to the Final Four.

#1 Duke vs. #3 Baylor

Baylor has the athletes to keep it close, and will have the home court advantage with the game being played in Houston. Yet their lack of experience will prove too much to overcome and the Blue Devils make their reservations for Indy.

Degenerate Friday on Thursday! Sweet 16

Before we talk basketball, a quick reminder that you get what you pay for. My wife and I had received passes to a free screening of the new Dreamworks movie “How to Train A Dragon” in Times Square. Of course, they had given out too many passes, so after waiting in line for a while, we were told the theatre was full and we were out of luck. The guy behind me starts to complain loudly that he’s super annoyed, it’s not fair and they should do something to make up for it. The guy is a roughly 40 year old black man wearing glasses with yellow lenses, who is there by himself to see a childrens movie. And he’s complaining about how he’s being treated at a FREE screening. Really, dude? At the end of the day, what are you out – 20 minutes of your time? I’m pretty sure he would have spent that time creeping like he did on the Indian girls behind him he was eavesdropping on when he interrupted to ask them “Wait – are you having trouble getting laid? I find that hard to believe.” You stay classy, New York.

Before we get to the breakdown, I’m pretty sure I need a pep talk after the shellacking I took in the second round…….yup, this should do the trick.
Game 1: #1 Syracuse (-6) vs. #5 Butler

Everyone’s favorite sleeper team in the sweet 16 is Cornell, but the team that most resembles Hickory High from Hoosiers is actually Butler. Yes, Cornell has never advanced to this round before, and yes the Ivy League does not have the athletic budgets like the major conferences. However, these are kids in the Ivy League where they don’t give out athletic scholarships or allow people to take the SATs for their recruits (like John Calipari teams….alledgedly). Cornell is full of smart kids that likely have a decent future ahead of them due to an Ivy education. So they’re not really underdogs. Butler is in the middle of nowhere Indiana, in a small conference, and not known nationally academically. They are the true underdog story.

Unfortunately, this underdog story is going to end with the loveable dog getting hit by an orange bus speeding along to the next round. Syracuse has its own underdog angle, as they do not have a single McDonald’s All-American on their roster, which is practically unheard of for a national power. They are too long, too athletic and play a defense that will fluster the Bulldogs. Wes Johnson and the Orange are more than Shelvin Mack and the Bulldogs can handle. Butler has won 22 straight games, but even their two tournament wins were against other mid-major teams (UTEP & Murray State). Their first test against a major power in the tournament will not go well.

Gambler’s Special: Syracuse (-6)

Game 2: #2 West Virginia (-4.5) vs. #11 Washington

This could be the most competitive game of the night. West Virginia lost their starting point guard (his nickname was “Truck” – not exactly flattering for a point guard, right?) but they have a replacement in Joe Mazzulla who has started in the past. However, Mazzulla is not an offense threat at all, which will allow Washington to pay more attention to De’Sean Butler and the other offensive Mountaineers. In addition, Mazzulla will be the only primary ballhandler for the Mountaineers which will be difficult giving the pressure that the Washington guards will put on the ball.

Washington is talented and underperformed early in the year which knocked expectations down. They were ranked in the low teens in most preseason rankings, and fell out after a slow start. Look for Pondexter and Thomas to carry the Huskies to the Elite Eight. When the Mountaineers fall, it’s just another example of Bob Huggins underperforming in the tournament, which means we should probably expect his tournament performance to resemble Lindsay Lohan stumbling out of a club.

Gambler’s Special: Washington (+4.5)

Game #3: #2 Kansas State (-4.5) vs. #6 Xavier

This should be the most entertaining game of the night although it will probably draw the least interest. The second-most recognized team in the sunflower state versus a team that refuses to be lumped in with the mid-majors that is led by a guy that “dunked” on LeBron James. Not exactly riveting story lines for the media to jump on. Yet the guard play at Kansas State has been extremely strong in the tournament and they are playing with some serious swagger. In addition, they can lean on the fact that they handled Xavier comfortably earlier in the season. Kansas State is forcing their way into the conversation as a contender for the national title in the same way Miley Cyrus is forcing her way into the discussion about any pop culture as she sings, acts and suddenly shows up as a guest judge on American Idol.

Xavier is familiar with this round of the tournament as this is their third straight trip to the sweet sixteen (though first with their current coach), and has major conference talent in Jordan Crawford surrounded by strong play from Terrell Holloway and Jason Love. They will not be intimidated by the moment, which should allow them to keep it close until the closing moments.

I thought Kansas State would struggle early in the tournament because of the emotional highs of their coach and their point guard, but they have shown that those emotions can be harnessed. If they continue to play like they have, they have a great shot to get past the Musketeers and the Orange en route to the Final Four.

Gambler’s Special: Kansas State (-4.5)

Game #4: #1 Kentucky (-8) vs. #12 Cornell

The media is all over this game because it pits the lowest remaining seed against the highest remaining seed and a basketball powerhouse against an academic powerhouse. Also add in the rabid Kentucky fanbase against the large Cornell alumni network in New York and near ESPN’s Bristol headquarters and you get more hype than this game really deserves. Cornell is a great story about a bunch of nerds who are good basketball players that play the game really well and have advanced further than anyone predicted. Their run very closely resembles that of Davidson in 2008, where Davidson was a very disciplined team with one deadly scorer (Stephen Curry), and took advantage of beating solid, but not very athletic teams during their run (Gonzaga, Georgetown & Wisconsin) before they ran into Kansas.

This time around, Kentucky is that team that just has too much for Cornell to handle, with 3 potential first round draft picks. John Wall will be able to handle Louis Dale defensively, and should be able to blow by him on the offensive end. Eric Bledsoe has the ability to stay with Wittman if he maintains his discipline, and DeMarcus Cousins will expose Jeff Foote as the slow, plodding center that he is. Add to that the experience and ability of Patrick Patterson and this game may not be competitive.

All the analysts want to point out that if Cornell can keep the game close late into the game, the fact that the crowd will be pro-Cornell (close to campus in Ithaca, the NY alumni contingent driving up to Syracuse from NYC, and fans rooting for the underdog) may put tremendous pressure on the young Wildcats team. But keep in mind that the Kentucky players have played in major league atmospheres all season and have dealt with the stress and pressure of an SEC tournament. This is the biggest stage these Cornell kids have ever seen. And expecting them to stay close until the closing minutes is a very large task – like asking Mischa Barton to stay off drugs. Overall to quote Joe Biden, the talent gap between Kentucky and Cornell is a “big f—king deal.”

Gambler’s Special: Kentucky (-8)

Lessons Learned from the NCAA Tournament

Well, after getting slaughtered by the second round of the tournament (7 of the sweet 16? Embarrassing!), it’s time for the autopsy to determine what went wrong and what can be improved when picking the sweet sixteen games.

First, since everyone is talking about the “health care reform” package that moved closer to reality, I found a hilarious quote. I don’t actually care what side of the political wall you fall on, you have to appreciate this sentiment: “Shove it down our throats now; we’ll shove it up you’re a$$ in November.” Classic angry protesters. I also found it interesting that the approval rating for the Skeletor look-alike, Nancy Pelosi, was 8%. That’s not a typo. EIGHT percent. 92% of the people disapprove of you. As bad as my picks were for the tournament, I got a lot more than 8% right.

Lesson #1: Offense can trump defense

I’m not ready to declare defense dead, but in this year’s tournament, offense was the king. Kansas had the 5th ranked defense (efficiency adjusted according to Ken Pomeroy), and was shredded by the Northern Iowa attack. Temple and Wisconsin were among the best in the country for fewest points allowed per game. Cornell shot over 50% against both teams and lit them up for 78 and 87 points. Pittsburgh plays a tough physical defensive style, yet it was no match for the offense of Jordan Crawford of Xavier. Obviously, offense is easier on the eyes, much like it was much more enjoyable to watch Erin Andrews on Dancing With the Stars than it was to watch the heavy set woman from Reno 911 (I legit don’t know her name, don’t really care and am too lazy to look it up). Side note: Andrews was fairly impressive on the dancing show but I have less than zero standing to judge dancing, as in my opinion the best dancing I have seen was Usher & Chris Tucker dancing a tribute to Michael Jackson.

Lesson #1 in the Sweet 16: Duke vs. Purdue
Purdue has gotten to the sweet 16 despite the loss of Robbie Hummel by redoubling their defensive focus and holding Siena and Texas A&M to 64 and 61 points, respectively. They will attempt to apply that same defensive grind to the shooting attack of Duke which is led by the perimeter trio of Jon Scheyer, Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler. Will the physical defense of Chris Kramer, E’Twaan Moore and JaJuan Johnson be able to keep the Blue Devils in check? Purdue also was able to harness the lack of respect card (even the President picked them to lose in the first round), but that motivation may wear out by the time the second weekend rolls around.

Lesson #2: Coaching Matters

In the one-and-done format of the NCAA tournament, coaching is critical, especially for the second game of the weekend. The best veteran coaching minds in the game, Tom Izzo, Jim Boeheim, and Thad Motta are still alive. Joining them are the young impressive coaches like Cornell’s Steve Donahue, Northern Iowa’s Ben Jacobsen and Kansas State’s Frank Martin. These coaches have the ability to make adjustments during the game like Tom Izzo after his team lost Kalin Lucas, or the ability to rally his team to believe they can beat anyone like Ben Jacobsen and Steve Donahue. It’s much like Buzz Aldrin on Dancing With the Stars, who was brave to try dancing at 80 years old, but definitely could not really do the required dancing. Yet because he had a good dance partner/coach, he was able to go out there and not embarrass himself.

Lesson #2 in the Sweet 16: Michigan State vs. Northern Iowa
If someone told you there was going to be a matchup with a team that just beat the top-seeded team in the tournament against another team that just lost its best player to a torn Achilles tendon, it would sound like a mismatch. If you then add in that the first team is a mid-major and the second team lost its top player, yet hails from the best conference in college basketball, you might hesitate for a second. And finally, if you find out that the team that lost its best player has the game’s best coach on its sideline, now you’re really struggling with picking the game. That’s exactly what’s happening with the Northern Iowa and Michigan State game. Tom Izzo is the best coach in the country during March, and he is the only reason you don’t count out Michigan State to beat Northern Iowa.

Lesson #3: Success Formula for Non-Majors

Some people are claiming that parity has arrived in college basketball. I don’t buy it. Every couple years the tournament has a season when there are an inordinate amount of upsets, everyone claims we’ve never seen a tournament like that before, and the next year we get three #1 seeds in the final four. I think what’s more interesting than the potential parity is that the teams from the non-major conferences that are having success have found a formula for success: An intelligent coach, a serviceable big man and one star shooter/scorer with the rest of the team guys that can knock down jumpers. Look at Cornell – a strong coach, 7-foot center, a son of an NBA player who can fill it up, and then a cast of screeners who are capable of knocking down a jumper on occasion. St. Mary’s has a big man in Omar Samhan and surrounds him with a bunch of Australian guys who can shoot from anywhere. Butler has effective size and bunch of guards who knock down open three-pointers. It’s the same formula Davidson used with Steph Curry. It’s the same formula George Mason used in 2006 with Jai Lewis inside and Tony Skinn & Will Thomas on the perimeter.

Lesson #3 in the Sweet 16: Cornell vs. Kentucky
Cornell will take that formula into their battle with top-seeded Kentucky this weekend. The Big Red will hope that their disciplined application of the formula will be enough to frustrate the young Wildcats. Side note – why are the supposed “smart” people in the Ivy league too dumb to come up with a better nickname for their teams than a color? The Cornell Big Red and the Harvard Crimson. Rally around a color? Syracuse is the Orange, but that was a change to political pressure from the former name Orangemen. Anyway – back to the point…..Cornell will try to ride the hot shooting to overcome the major talent gap between its players and those at Kentucky. If Cornell can stay hot from the outside and their big guy can slow the inside game of DeMarcus Cousins, the Big Red has a chance to stay in the game.

Weekend Hangover - Love/Hate

Well my bracket is completely busted after the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, so that’s the hate of the week………….the link is on the right to check the standings of the Sports Addict Brackett Challenge and see how awful my picks were.

LOVE

- Who was the biggest hero of the weekend? It definitely wasn’t the politicians who want to celebrate the fact that they actually did something over the weekend. And let’s face it, they really didn’t do anything since there are still more hoops to jump through. The real hero of the weekend was Ali Farokhmanesh, the Northern Iowa kid who hit the 3-pointer that sent home tournament #1 seed Kansas. His shot wasn’t just a clutch shot, it was one of those shots where the coach is yelling “Noooooooooooo! Yes!!!” because you’re up 1 with under a minute to play and typically the coach wants you to run some clock before shooting. Yet the Kansas defended backed off Ali, and to quote the great Gus Johnson, Ali decided to “rise and fire” from beyond the arc. Immediately after he hit the shot I got a text from my brother “that kid has balls the size of….well…….Iowa.” Enough said.

- The other contender for hero of the week? Korie Lucious of Michigan State, hitting the game winning shot to send the Spartans past Maryland into the Sweet 16. In a highly entertaining game that went back and forth in the final minute, Lucious carried a team that lost its best player, Kalen Lucas, and was also dealing with an injury to Chris Allen. It also ended the career of Maryland’s star guard, Greivis Vasquez, and it will be interesting to see where Vasquez’s pro potential ends up. The Spartans will have their hands full dealing with the Northern Iowa team next week, especially if the Lucas injury is a torn achilles heel like it appeared to be.

- So what is the best conference this year? There are 11 conferences represented in the sweet 16 which is a great illustration of the parity and thin line between the major conferences and the mid-majors. There is only one conference with more than 2 teams still alive: The Big Ten (Michigan State, Ohio State & Purdue). The Big 12 (Kansas St & Baylor), Big East (Syracuse & West Virginia) and SEC (Kentucky & Tennessee) have two teams each, and the rest are single teams from conferences including the ACC, Pac-10, Ivy, Atlantic-10, Missouri Valley, West Coast and Horizon. It was a very impressive showing for the much-maligned Big Ten.

- On the other side of the spectrum, it was enjoyable to watch teams that were definitely overrated show how overrated they were. I’m talking directly to New Mexico, a team that cried about a lack of respect for their great record and then they completely wet themselves in the tournament. They were completely dismantled by the 11th seeded Washington team. Other teams that were exposed as frauds during the first weekend: Temple, Vanderbilt, Richmond, Pittsburgh and yes, Wisconsin. It happens every March when teams cry for respect or build up expectations, only to deliver a performance like Jennifer Lopez like Gigli.

- The quote of the weekend. It had nothing to do with basketball, and took place at dinner Saturday night with a group of friends discussing how a girl should pace herself drinking on a date to roughly match the amount that the guy is drinking. We got into a discussion of a girl who was drinking 4 cocktails to 1 for her date because she figured it was free drinks and she knew the date wasn’t going to lead to a second date (or even a second bar). To which my friend just deadpans “Why would you waste a hangover on a bad date?” Well said.

HATE

- The performance of Wisconsin was pitiful. First, Cornell was flat-out better than the Badgers in every aspect of the game. Their big slow white guy was better than Wisconsin’s guy, Nankovil. The Cornell scorer (Wittman) was equal to the Wisconsin scorer (Leuer). The Cornell undersized point guard played under control, didn’t turn the ball over and made shots – all things that Trevon Hughes did not do. The Cornell shooter (Jacques) made his shots, and Wisconsin’s shooter (Bohannon) could barely hit the ocean if he fell out of a boat. Cornell had guys coming off the bench that made contributions, and the Badgers did not. At the end of the day, there are not many teams that can out-fundamental a Bo Ryan team, and Cornell did that.

The most disappointing aspect was the disappearance of the Badger senior backcourt of Hughes and Bohannon. When the Badgers got hot near the end of the regular season after Leuer returned from injury, those two were driving the bus. In the Big Ten tournament and in both NCAA Tournament games, they drove the bus into a ditch and lit it on fire.

- In addition to the Wisconsin veteran backcourt collapsing, the same happened to Kansas and Villanova. Kansas’s Sherron Collins was awful in the Jayhawks debacle and he wasn’t able to step up and carry the team like you would expect from a senior All-American point guard. Similarly, Scottie Reynolds couldn’t get Villanova past St. Mary’s in the second round, proving that the first round struggles were not a fluke and Villanova was not nearly as good as everyone thought. Time to change the thought that an experienced floor leader is what is needed to advance in the tourney. And it also put an end to my “Fat Point Guard Theory.”

- If you were a pseudo-small market team and were about to sign your franchise catcher to the biggest contract in the history of the franchise (and among the top 5 contracts ever in the sport), wouldn’t you want that to be the lead story in sports? Wouldn’t you want your team to get the publicity it deserves for keeping its star player? The Twins signed the best catcher in the game, Joe Mauer, to an 8-year, $184 million contract that will keep the Minnesota-native home and keep the Twins competitive. Yet they announce it on a Sunday when all the national sports outlets are spending their time on the NCAA tournament and the Tiger Woods interview. Wouldn’t they have been better served holding on to the announcement until Tuesday when the college hoops dies down and they can get the attention of the media?

(and I say pseudo-small market because Minneapolis is not Milwaukee, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Baltimore, Tampa or Cincinnati)

Every Monday I give a quick recap of some things during the weekend that were a “love” – enjoyable, good, or entertainment – or things that were a “hate” – things that stunk, bad plays, or other things that were painful to watch.

Degenerate Friday - Day 2 of the Tournament

What a day of games yesterday – a double overtime game, a single overtime game, a 3 point win, two 9-seeds over 8-seeds, and 5 other double digit seeds pulling off upsets. That is why the tournament is the best sporting event in the world. The staggered games keep you glued to the television for a continual stream of big finishes. Incredible. A couple quick gambling picks of the day, and then some quick thoughts on a day that wore me out just watching the games.

Duke (-23) over Arkansas-Pine Bluff
UAPB is just happy to be here after beating Winthrop in the play-in game and will be intimidated just by taking the court with the college basketball royalty that is Duke. UAPB started the season 0-11 and is now 18-15, so they have played better lately, but that will not be enough against the Duke pressure defense. Despite Duke struggling in the first round in recent years – in the past 5 years (2 #1 seeds, 2 #2 seeds and a #6 seed) they have only won by more than 20 once and lost a game – they should be able to run the Golden Lions off the court.

Texas A&M (-3) over Utah State
Typically during the tournament one of the first days has all the drama and the upsets and the other first round day is more routine. That especially is the case when Thursday is full of drama and upsets. The reason is the coaches of the favorites playing on Friday has the opportunity to remind his players of what happened yesterday so that they don’t take their opponents lightly. Thursday was the day of drama and upsets. Sloane will be too athletic for Utah State and A&M will win this battle of the Aggies. A&M also defends well enough to slow the Utah State 3-point attack.

Quick Thoughts…………………

A brief break from college basketball to talk about Ron Washington, the manager of the Texas Rangers. The guy tested positive for cocaine last season during a random test, came clean to the Rangers about it, called it a one-time mistake and they decided not to fire him. I had two initial thoughts. First, are we really surprised? He played in the 80’s when guys like Otis Nixon relied on the head-first slide because he didn’t want to break his coke vial in his back pocket. (Otis may have been the inspiration for Dave Chapelle’s skits) My nex thought was that no one starts out with cocaine. No one wakes up and decides to start doing drugs by doing cocaine – it is not a starter drug. Just look at the downfall of Lindsay Lohan, Corey Haim, Brittany Murphy, etc. Wait – Lindsay hasn’t overdosed yet? It’s unfortunately just a matter of time. If Washington tested positive for cocaine there is a really high probability he smokes weed and probably does other drugs. Lo and behold the news now out that he admits to smoking pot and taking anphetamines during his playing days. I just hope he can get his problem under control.

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Not an impressive showing by the Big Least yesterday. They went 1-3, with all three losses to double-digit seeds. And their one win was in overtime over a number 15 seed (with some dubious calls, which I will touch on in a minute). Ouch – awful. At this point, I am not feeling good about picking Louisville in the first round and I’m really nervous about the 3 elite 8 teams I picked from the Big East. The most shocking was the lack of effort and lack of defense from Georgetown in giving up 97 points to Ohio, a team that lost 14 games during the regular season in the MAC conference.

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On to the officiating the Villanova-Robert Morris game. I thought there were some suspect foul calls that very easily could have been jump balls. I won’t go as far as saying that Robert Morris got screwed or that they had the game taken away from them. Why would the officials not want the upset to happen? The upsets are what makes the tournament great – so why would the referees try to prevent that? It doesn’t make any sense. Did they miss the calls? Maybe, but depending upon their angles and seeing the game at live speed, they called what they saw, or thought they saw. If you’re Robert Morris, does it stink? Yup. At the same time, if Robert Morris doesn’t turn the ball over 20 times, it wouldn’t have been that close. Scottie Reynolds had a horrible shooting game, but he did what he needed to do, crashing the rim and getting the calls to get to the free throw line.

Now for the sake of my bracket, I hope Villanova takes that as a their wake up call and is ready to take on St. Mary’s.

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Random nugget for what it’s worth, Doug Gotlieb just named his top 5 coaches for getting the most out of their players and making in-game adjustments. They included Tom Izzo, Bo Ryan, Thad Motta, Bill Self and Bruce Pearl. Interesting that there are 3 Big Ten coaches and a former Big Ten coach (Self), and not a single coach from the Big Least. He talked about guys that are great recruiters but aren’t as good at in-game adjustments, which included Roy Williams, John Calipari and Jim Calhoun. Just a random thought worth noting.