2:42 PMBucco Bruce is back in Tampa, along with those classic creamsicle uniforms. And the throwbacks seems to be helping - Bucs only down 21-17 to Green Bay at haltfime. Meanwhile, Raymond James Stadium has been playing all '70s music throughout the game.
2:33 PM The Monsters of The Midway are going through a horror show of their own right now - Chicago is down to Arizona 31-7 at the half. But will the Bears be who we thought they were by the end?
2:00 PM The new AP poll is out, and Ohio State is ranked ahead of USC, who is ranked ahead of Oregon. Um, who beat who again?
12:56 PMMemphis guard Allen Iverson didn't show for the Gristle's game last night here in Los Angles. Instead, it's being reported that he went to Atlanta "after receiving permission to leave the team to attend to personal business." I'm sure coach Lionel Hollins appreciate that, team Owner Michael Heisley.
Boringest is a word. Oh, it may not be in your fancy “dictionary” (whatever that is) or anything, but any one word that so perfectly encapsulates the five hours of brain-killing boredom that unfolded today on CBS is an absolutely legitimate part of the American vernacular. And these utterly drama-free contests sent fans scampering for the remote… or the Vivarin.
(Not even the rarely-seen “Reverse Bavarian Ear-Pooping” could save this snoozer.)
Perhaps we were spoiled by the epic ‘Nova-Pitt game from yesterday, but it’s always such a disappointment when there’s such a lead-up to such a letdown. MSU’s win wasn’t competitive in the last 10 minutes. But UNC? They barely even needed 10 minutes of their own to put Blake Griffin and Oklahoma away.
Any grousing about how the Big East didn’t deserve three 1 seeds in the tournament is pretty much dead and buried at this point, isn’t it? Aside from the fact that the original argument relied exclusively on “because it just shouldn’t be that way” rather than “because Memphis/Duke/Oklahoma earned it more than UConn,” it’s been proven true throughout the tournament, and especially today.
(FTW! No seriously, this was for the win.)
During the early game, UConn held off the same unusually frisky Missouri team that ran Memphis right out of the gym. The final was 82-75, with freshman (eep!) Kemba Walker scoring 23 points on just nine shots from the field (EEP!) for UConn.
That game didn’t hold a candle, though, to one of the best Elite 8 games of all time, as Pitt and Villanova (both Big East, mind you) went toe-to-toe, using every single bit of their 40 minutes before Villanova prevailed, 78-76. Read more…
A funny thing happened during Friday night’s Michigan State Sweet 16 victory over Kansas, the one game of four that wasn’t an absolute stinker. After a made free throw by a teammate, Spartans forward Idong Ibok went to go inbound the ball. The problem, of course, was that the ball wasn’t Michigan State’s to inbounds … it was Kansas’.
Clearly, the gaffe — which was first discovered by Yahoo!’s THE DAGGER blog — goes down in recent NCAA legend as one of the stupider plays in memory. No, it’s not Chris Webber for cross-state rival Michigan, or Georgetown’s Fred Brown flipping the ball to James Worthy … but it might have been if any kind of a technical could have been called against him, as opposed to a traditional “delay of game.” And you know what? Maybe they should have called a tech.
Even though South Carolina is something of a hotbed for basketball, you wouldn’t know it by watching the NCAA Tournament and looking at the sites for games. That’s because of one reason: the Confederate flag. NCAA rules ban any state that continues to fly a Rebel flag from hosting certain NCAA post-season events such as the NCAA Basketball Tournament. And that means no tournament games for South Carolina and Mississippi.
It’s obviously a touchy subject in those states, even if the reasons for continuing to have the flag are pretty indecipherable for those of us on the outside looking in. But columnist Ron Morris of the COLUMBIA (SC) STATE made a pretty compelling case for why South Carolina is shooting itself in its bare, slack-jawed foot by continuing to fly Old Dixie.
You can hardly blame the sports media for overhyping, at every single possible occasion, the importance of public smack-talk by teams before they play an important game. Not only does it make the media’s job of filling inches and radio time that much easier, but it also lets the media feel like they’re part of the game now, even when they aren’t. Whatever “bulletin board material” comes from the pre-game interviews probably has about zero effect on the game itself.
(Not the team you want to talk trash about)
That said, if you’re going to question a team’s credentials, don’t do it if they’re eight seeds better than your team, and really don’t do it to the point where you suggest their team’s no better than yours. Coaches (and 99% of America) know this, and that’s why their players are coached to be boring, generic talking point robots; let’s keep the embarrassment on the court, etc. etc. But then there’s Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez, whose only problem has ever been, um, “caring too much.” Someone asked him a loaded question about Memphis’ strength of schedule, and the star Terrapin answered with the kind of honesty that makes coaches want to quit.
O Glorious Day! The zenith of nascent spring has arrived! Today, you can call in sick to work (tell them you need to prep for your World Series-winning colonoscopy), crack open a beer before 9:30 am on the West Coast, and stare intently at teenagers in short pants for four straight days without so much as a cocked eyebrow from your loved ones.
(2008 Final Four coverage from SPORTSbyBROOKS)
(Hint: timing’s everything on this one. One weekend in the wrong direction and you’re stuck programming your GPS to stay 200 yards from schools for the next five years.)
Here’s your morning NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament storylines:
UNC guard Ty Lawsonwill not play against Radford in the first round. Please adjust your money line bets accordingly.
However, Michael Jordan’s son will likely play more for Illinois during the tourney due to injuries. (Odd how MJ doesn’t even provide a drop quote for his son to the NEW YORK TIMES, leaving all the talking to Mom.)
Mike Krzyzewski got his back out of whack when he heard President Obama didn’t even pick Duke to go to the Final Four. (Worse: he picked Lawson’s team to win it all.) Don’t get excited, Coach K… he did pick your team to be prepared for a little thing called “life”.
Gus Johnson will call games in Memphis with as much gusto as he calls out bad service in a restaurant: loudly enough to get handcuffed.
Finally, if you haven’t filled out your brackets yet, follow our advice: you can never go wrong shaking the Big Ten teams off your sheet like Mateen Cleaves works a towel.
The United States lost to Venezuela 10-6 in second-round WBC action with slightly more meaning than a rerun of “Maude” since both teams had already advanced to the semifinals.
If you want to see what poor support at home looks like, follow Cuba back to the island after they were eliminated by Japan in a repeat of the 2006 final.
The Cubs are retiring the number shared by Fergie Jenkins and Greg Maddux. Cubs fans would have settled for retiring Dallas Green before letting Maddux escape to Atlanta in his prime.
If you’ve been watching college basketball the past three days, you probably noticed that, among the other teams on upset runs (Temple, Syracuse, enter your own favorite here), Baylor is getting some notice. The Bears are on a tear, and they’re one win away from a Big XII title and return berth in the NCAA tournament after upsets of both Kansas and Texas. The state of Kansas didn’t exactly take the news all that well: According to THE GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPION (via DEADSPIN), Kansas state senator David Wysong sponsored and pushed through a resolution that says Kansas no longer has to play teams whose name starts with the letter “B” in March.
(What you didn’t know is that the expletive started with the letter “B”.)
If it makes Kansas feel any better, this Baylor upset thing is happening to other teams, too. Unless Missouri wins the conference title, the Bears will pull off three-straight big upsets. So, why are Wysong and his colleagues stoking up so much attention? Well, maybe they have other matchups in mind. Think about it: This resolution also gives the Jayhawks an out if they have to play Butler, Boston College, Boston University, Bowling Green … the list goes on and on. And there’s precedent for this “KU being upset in March by a team starting in ‘B’” thing. Remember Bucknell and Bradley? Clearly, Wysong never saw those teams coming.
Heading into selection weekend, the NCAA tournament bubble is probably more crowded that at any time in the last few years. With so many teams jockeying for position, how do you stand out in the eyes of the committee, especially if you melt down spectacularly in your conference tournament?
Well, if you’re Saint Mary’s, you schedule an extra game that just happens to fall two days before selection Sunday. In an unusual, but completely legal move, the Gaels have added one more home game this Friday against Big Sky doormat Eastern Washington. Coach Randy Bennett says it has nothing to do with showcasing his team to the committee with star Patty Mills in the lineup, who missed the weeks leading up to the WCC tourney with an injury. Right.
What’s not to love about vasectomies? You get to have unprotected sex for life and you never have to worry about another mouth to feed. The only downside is that you need a few days of rest, so you might get a little bored being stuck in the house. But what if you did it when basketball was on all day?
That’s the idea behind two clinics’ competing March Madness promotions. They figured that if you’re going to be sitting around the house all day watching the tournament, you might as well have a vasectomy the day before. Can’t argue with that logic. The only problem left is choosing where you’re going to get it done: Snip City or Vas Madness. And yes, those are both awful, terrible names.
So, here’s what we know: Alex Rodriguez is hurt. Beyond that, we know nothing. From what I hear, he could be out for anywhere from an hour to seven years. What’s really going on is so elusive that A-Rod’s brother was being used as the definitive source on his injury for the first half of Thursday. One SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE writer is saying that the “mystery” surrounding the injury is reminiscent of Barry Bonds‘ knee troubles in 2005.
Now, instead of surgery that would keep him out for 10 weeks (which was the brother’s story), Brian Cashman is saying that the Yankees are planning on taking a “conservative approach” to the injury, which involves a bunch of rest and rehab with the hopes that surgery won’t be necessary. But how long do you go with that? Cashman admitted that the surgery would probably keep A-Rod out for four months. But if they try this rehab thing for another few weeks, then are stuck with the surgery, suddenly he’s looking at no earlier than mid-to-late August for a return. But, as we all know, if A-Rod’s going to miss four months, it’s much better for all involved that it’s the last four.
Dr. Louis Romeo, director of the Joint Replacement Center at Stony Brook University Medical Center, said the surgery to treat an ailment of A-Rod’s type - probably a procedure called a hip arthroscopy - is not the most predictable procedure.
“It’s controversial because the results are not as predictable as you’d like them to be,” said Romeo, who is not involved in the Yankees third baseman’s treatment. “A knee replacement or a hip replacement, you can give someone a 90 percent success rate. Hip arthroscopy, depending on the underlying pathology, may not have as high a success rate.”
(Yeah, I suppose you could go the Bernie Williams route, Alex)
(I’m taking advantage of any excuse to run these pictures of Bruce Pearl)
Sean Averymade his return to ice last night in the Rangers’ win over the Islanders. Fortunately, Mike Comrie was recently traded away from the Islanders so Avery didn’t have a chance to get it any Hilary Duff-related blasts. Avery was actually well-behaved, and it seems as if he may be content to fly under the radar for the rest of the year. Mostly, Avery’s just glad to be back in New York so he can go to the Project Runway finale.
“It’s depressing,” Suzuki told Japanese media on Friday. “After the game I got picked for a doping test — things are going from bad to worse.”
• Now that A-Rod may be out for a while, the Yankees need to find someone to play third base in the interim. Cody Ransom? Angel Berroa? The NEW YORK POST thinks the team might want to consider some outside options. Like Aaron Boone, apparently.
• A dad at the Iowa state 5th-grade girl’s basketball tournament set some sort of record when he got tossed from a game by the ref just 30 seconds into the game, according to the DES MOINES REGISTER. And yes, I have the same question you do: there’s a state tournament for 5th grade girls?
• Remember last year, when Drake was one of the best stories in college basketball and ended up with a 5 seed, but then was heartbroken on a buzzer beater by Western Kentucky? Yeah, they never quite got over that. They lost to Indiana State in the first round of the MVC tournament last night and are likely not headed to the postseason.
• Some good news from COLONIAL HOOPS: It looks like one of the greatest names in the NBA, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, is going to sign with Toronto for the rest of the year. Pops just wrapped up a 10-day contract with the Spurs, after playing for their D-league team most of the year.
• The NBA shot of the night comes from the Nuggets’ J.R. Smith, who nailed a (nearly) half-court shot at the end of the first half against Portland. Unfortunately, it was all a big hoax perpetrated by one of his friends.
• Need more proof that we’re in a recession? The MILWAUKEE JOURNAL-SENTINEL says Miller Park is implementing a $1 menu at their concession stands. You’re only going to get one peanut, but hey, it’s something.
• The University of Alabama has admitted to a number of NCAA violations…regarding the distribution of textbooks. So, athletes get too many textbooks and that’s a problem? Shouldn’t we be thrilled they’re bothering to get any? CBS SPORTSLINE has the horrifying details. Certainly, ‘Bama deserves the death penalty for this.
