Hey Kids, shake it loose together: Elton John, here playing Dodger Stadium in 1975, turns 69.
Starting Five
Shandling was 66
1. Garry Shandling
It’s R.I.P. City this week (this year?) with the deaths of Ken Howard, soccer legend Johann Cruyff, Phife Dawg, Rob Ford, Joe Garagiola and of course, comedian Garry Shandling, who was 66 and suffered a massive heart attack yesterday.
Loved The Larry Sanders Show, a staple of Sunday night viewing on HBO in the mid-90s’. “No Flipping” is Garry’s trademark and Hank Kingsley’s “Hey Now!” , especially, has long outlived the show (1992-1998).
Shandling will best be remembered for how original The Larry Sanders Show was. While Fernwood 2 Night (Martin Mull as the host) broke the seal of the faux late night talks show, and Buffalo Bill (Dabney Coleman) did the lovable host/miserable creature in real life bit, his show took both ideas to a new level. Also, when you see celebrities lampooning themselves on shows such as Extras, that comes from TLSS. Also, actors such as Jeremy Piven and Janeane Garofalo and Bob Odenkirk got their starts there, while others such as Jeffrey Tambor and Rip Torn did some of their best work on that show.
Garry Shandling was the star of that show, but he let most of the supporting cast be the freaks and funny ones. Rip Torn was tremendous.
This, from Conan O’Brien, last night, is marvelous:
Everybody needs some time on their own/Everybody needs some time all alone (but Axl may have overdone it some)
Is it true? Is Axl Rose joining AC/DC? Whither Brian Johsnon? Whither Guns ‘n Roses show at Coachella? Whither people every using the word “whither” in everyday speech?
Anyway, Johnson has hearing problems (whereas Rose always had listening problems) and he has been scrapped for the Aussie band’s 10 remaining U.S. shows. It appears that AC/DC would use him for those shows and they’ll figure out how to work in Rose for the Coachella shows in April.
Apparently, AC/DC never saw the film “Rock Star”
What I don’t understand: Wasn’t Chris “Izzy” Cole available?
3. Chalk, Chalk, Jayhawk, etc.
Of course you should shoot it from there, Kris Jenkins (swish!). He had a team-high 21, along with Ryan Arcidiacono, who as an Italian-American, is probably my mom’s favorite remaining player in the tourney.
In the NCAA tournament, all four favorites won last night, and each by at least 14 points: Kansas and Villanova move on in the South, while Oklahoma and Oregon (OU versus UofO) move on in the West. Observation: No. 2 seed Villanova, the lowest-seeded 2-seed, is very, very dangerous, and currently shooting out the lights. The Canes shot 53% and still lost by 23.
4. Chalk, Chalk, Emory Students Need To Grow a Pair
Apparently the world’s oldest writing tool is now stoking hysterical fear in millennials.
Listen, punk: there are SO MANY things that you don’t deserve, but “to feel afraid at my school” is not in the top 100. I’m sorry. I think we need a mandatory draft again. Maybe even a land war in southeastern Asia. Just how poor a job did these students’ parents do?
And, yeah, overreactions such as these incite overreactions to the opposite extreme that are part of the reason the name that was chalked is leading in the GOP race. Figure it out, kids.
5. Apologies: Domer Homer Item
Get rid of (Madison) Cable? Never. And that doesn’t make them Irish Settlers
So, both the Notre Dame men’s and women’s basketball teams play tonight in the NCAA tournament. The men have reached the Sweet 16 for the second straight season and the women are 33-1, their lone loss coming to No. 1 Connecticut (they’ll face Stanford tonight).
Also tonight, in men’s hockey, No. 2 Notre Dame faces No. 3 Michigan in the NCAA Midwest Regional.
Two weekends ago distance runner Molly Seidel won NCAA Indoor Championships in BOTH the 3,000 and 5,000, to tack onto last autumn’s NCAA Cross Country Championship. That’s THREE individual national titles in one academic year, which means that hopefully I will no longer mistakenly refer to her as Molly Huddle.
Seidel is a three-time national champion this year.
The women’s fencing team is ranked first in the nation. The men’s lacrosse team is ranked second in the nation.
The football team came two plays away from being 12-0 last season (before being crushed in the Fiesta Bowl by Ohio State).
Jack Swarbrick, a Notre Dame alum, can take a bow. He’s earned it.
Music 101
Levon
In the early 1970s, Elton John was the world’s biggest solo act, and deservedly so. He wrote an actual slew of classics, not all of which later were featured in films. This is one of my favorites. The song was released in 1971, off the “Madman Across The Water” album, and rose as high as No. 24 on the Billboard chart. Bernie Taupin, Elton’s muse and co-writer, has said that “Alvin Tostig” is a fictional character and that Levon is not taken from Levon Helm, the drummer for The Band (I don’t fully believe him).
Remote Patrol
March Madness
7:10 CBS
Iowa State-Virginia; Gonzaga-Syracuse
7:27 TBS
Wisconsin-Notre Dame; Indiana-Notre Dame
Malcolm Brogdon: Under-the-radar star….
Why are tonight’s two marquee games on TBS? Because Turner is hoping to wean you off CBS to prepare you for next weekend’s Final Four (and the following Monday night’s championship game) that will be aired on TBS. So that next Saturday someone in Little Rock isn’t screaming, “AGNES, WHERE’S MY FREAKING BASKETBALL GAME?!?!” I can see this curbing domestic violence by at least 40%. Related: domestic violence isn’t funny. Anyway, I like the Cavs, the Zags, the Irish and the Hoosiers tonight. Let’s just hope some game is closer than 14 points.
“I’m sorry, Jacob, the correct answer was ‘Villanova.’ We will have some lovely parting gifts for you, though: a year’s supply of Windex and a bound copy of ‘The Annotated Pressers of the Spokane Sub-Regional. Thank you for playing!
So, who’s left?
Kent Brown, Andy Roberts, Bret Keyes, Jordan B., Mark Stackow, Sean Sullivan, Brian Murphy, myself, and the one and only female in the group, AIR.
I’ve already taken Miami, Villanova, Duke and Oregon, so my selections are rather limited. And this may be a mistake, but I’m not ready to take Kansas yet. So I only have one game from which to choose, and I’m going with Buddy Hield and Oklahoma.
Our third straight 40th birthday in as many days. A Medium Happy 40th to Peyton Manning. Omaha!
Starting Five
The Aztecs, who are headed to Madison Square Garden for the NIT semis, finished 3rd in the nation in Scoring Defense
1. NIT-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players
Of the four schools that have advanced to the NIT semifinals—BYU, San Diego State, George Washington U. and Valparaiso—at least three of them belonged in the NCAAs. The Aztecs, for example, are 28-9 overall and 21-3 since losing to Kansas three days before Christmas.
The Committee tells mid majors to play tough opponents. Six of SDSU’s 9 losses are to teams that made the tourney, three of whom won at least one game. Valpo is 29-6 with a six-point loss at Oregon, a No. 1 seed. BYU is 11-3 since the end of January, with two of those losses coming to Gonzaga who, like Oregon, is still dancing.
The Selection Committee needs to take a cue from a group with which it should be familiar: admissions departments of prestigious colleges. The best admissions departments don’t simply take the students with the highest SATs, ACTs and/or GPAs. Those are strongly considered, but you also look for people with unique talents (maybe that dude who’s really good at balancing things, for instance?).
If the SelCom is so wedded to the idea that every conference tournament champ MUST have an automatic bid, why not be wedded to the idea that no conference may have more than five schools (we know the answer, of course: the Power 5 are like big oil and big banking)? If you watched Stephen F. Austin or Northern Iowa this weekend, you know how much more fun and exciting the tournament is with an inspired mid-major as opposed to a perfunctory Power 5 team (USC, Colorado, Vanderbilt, Michigan, Texas Tech, Pittsburgh etc.).
Monmouth, for example, finished 28-8 and beat USC and Notre Dame (something only Stanford football usually does in the same year). The Hawks were also as entertaining as anyone in Division I. When you get down to it, even in the most parity-filled years, there are no more than 16 schools with a realistic shot of winning it all. Why not fill out the other three-fourths of your tourney with deserving teams and overachievers? As it stands now, the SelCom is that stuffy admissions office that would rather accept the B-minus student from The Dalton School as opposed to the straight-A student from the inner-city, blackboard jungle school. How dead inside must you be to behave this way?
2. Delawhere Are You?
Last night the Philadelphis 76ers were one second and 40 or so feet away from achieving their 10th win of the season, which would give them one more victory than the worst team in NBA history (the 9-73 Sixers of ’72-73). Then Enmanuel Mudiay and this happened:
Also last night, Russ Smith, who plays for the Sixers’ D-League affiliate, the Delaware ’87ers, scored a D-League record 65 points. Smith, who helped lead Louisville to the 2013 NCAA title, only made one three-pointer, but was 24 of 42 from the field and 16 of 20 from the line. Smith is only 6’0″ tall, but still, you have to wonder the Sixers could use him for a few games.
Smith scored nine times his team’s name, plus two
3. It Keeps You Running
It’s not Dave’s first lap in the Caribbean…
The feeling is: If Dave’s happy, I’m happy. We owe him too much to ever want anything more for him than that he enjoys a good, pain-free jaunt. And it’s hardly his first in St. Bart’s….
When he was still a working stiff
4. First—and Last—Tango in Buenos Aires*
Is it too late for 44 to enter Dancing With the Stars?
POTUS and the missus are visiting Argentina, and they both got their groove on last night. This appeared to upset David Gergen and other CNN analysts, because he should be home moping about Brussels. There have been 84 days in the year so far and 57 terror attacks worldwide in which at least 10 people were killed, and how can we defeat ISIS if every time there’s a terrorist attack the prez is not home in the Oval Office mourning and/or worrying about what to do next?
Or maybe David Gergen and his ilk only care when there’s a terrorist attack in Europe. Terrorist attacks abroad: bad. Altering how you govern here as the LotFW, though, is sort of their goal. Why ever give in?
*The judges will also accept, “Whiskey, Tango and No Foxtrot,” as well as “Getting a Leg Up on the GOP”
5. Golden State Wins, FiveThirtyEight Drives Us Insane
The Golden State Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers last night, 114-98. There was much rejoicing and many Vines were created. Of course, now ESPN feels compelled to promote its boutique site, FiveThirtyEight, by running in the crawl the Dubs’ chances, in percentages, of finishing 73-9 (70%)or of finishing 72-10 (85%).
I’m sorry. I do not accept these numbers. I do not accept this soft science. I do not accept Nate Silver and I can’t believe ESPN employs someone who can suck more of the joy out of sports than Darren Rovell, but they do.
There is a 99% chance that this guy did not even try out for his high school basketball team
Dig: You can estimate the odds of a coin landing tails or heads (50%) because you can replicate the tossing of a coin thousands and thousand and thousands of times over (If you have time, go ahead and flip a coin 100 times; my guess is that it will land heads, at the very least, 47 times, and at the max 53). You cannot replicate what the Warriors are trying to accomplish more than once. There are so many variables and so may unique circumstances and when all is said and done, just how meaningless is that 70% number anyway.
Chuck Klosterman had it correct: Any random, unrepeatable (in terms of variables) event will either happen or it won’t. Those are your only two options. So it’s 50%. That may not make Nate Silver look like a genius, but it’s the truth. The Dubs will either win 73 games or they won’t. We’re never going down this road with the same players, at the same times in their careers, against the same competition, with the same health issues (How do you factor in Luke Walton’s contribution?) for all.
I’m not totally for or against advanced stats. I’m against people like Nate Silver believing that everything is quantifiable. It’s simply not.
Music 101
I Shot The Sheriff
The Legend himself, Bob Marley, wrote this tune in 1973 though you’d never know it to have listened to AM and FM radio in the mid-1970s. Eric Clapton’s cover of Marley’s song shot to No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1974. I don’t know if Bob’s version ever even charted.
Remote Patrol
March Madness
7:10 p.m. CBS
7:37 p.m. TBS
Angel Rodriguez will represent The U
Miami and Villanova followed by Maryland and Kansas on CBS, representing the South. Oklahoma and Texas A&M followed by Duke and Oregon on TBS, representing the West.
