Enjoyed this, but why you gotta be poaching lyrics from The Cars to make your point?
Starting Five
Ky Is Their Guy
With the No. 1 overall pick in next month’s NFL draft, the Arizona Cardinals will select Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray.
Cut it. Print it. Next scene.
We’re not saying why we think they should or will, or enumerating those reasons (e.g, this is a team that faces Russell Wilson and the Seahawks twice per season), we are just flat-out telling you that the Cardinals are going to cut their one-year losses with Josh Rosen and move on to the reigning Heisman Trophy winner.
Kyler will be a Card.
2. Tennessee Chuxedo
The Vols battled back from an 18-point deficit, took a three-point lead, and then with Purdue inbounding and down 2 with under 3 ticks on the clock, fouled Carsen Edwards as he attempted a corner three.
No. No. No. No.
At the time Purdue was shooting 25% from the line, so you figured Edwards would not bury all three, but after missing the first he did drain the next two (“Onions!”) and the Makers Of Steam took over in OT.
Other Sweet 16 victors: Gonzaga, Texas Tech and Virginia (the last of whom will face Purdue on Saturday).
Also, TV producers: Don’t give away your age by constantly going to shots of older dudes such as Gene Keady and Phil Fulmer all night. Half your audience doesn’t remember who they are.
3. Chavez Ravine Ballnado
On Opening Day, the Dodgers held a baseball giveaway courtesy of the Diamondbacks, as Arizona yielded eight home runs. On octet of homers. That’s an Opening Day record.
Austin Barnes, Cody Bellinger, Max Muncy and Corey Seager all hit round-trippers, while Enrique Hernandez and Joc Pederson launched two. Whatever the odds were at Harrah’s, we really hope you didn’t lay a bet on the D-Backs winning the World Series.
Elsewhere, the Red Sox lost in Seattle (their second consecutive series on the West Coast, by the way) and Luke Voit, batting cleanup for the Yanks, sent a 428-foot, three-run rocket to dead center in his first at-bat of the season. Greg Bird whiffed thrice but also hit one out.
4. Tiger Beat The Bushes
On his knees.
Left-handed.
Club-face upside down.
On the green.
Tiger Woods has all the shots. Have the club pro work with you on that shot next week.
Tiger lost his match-play match in Austin yesterday, but who cares?
5. To Infinity! And Beyond!
A visitor from Hong Kong slipped and fell to his death (Rule No. 1) at the Eagle Point Observation Area at the Grand Canyon on Thursday. Another Grand Canyon visitor died on Tuesday although officials have not released details of that person’s demise. We always wonder if these people’s final thoughts are, But I’m on vacation!
Music 101
Smile A Little Smile For Me
British band The Flying Machine got a head start on all those one-hit wonder bands of the Seventies by being a one-hit wonder in the autumn of 1969. This tune rose all the way to No. 5 on the Billboard charts in the last months of the decade.
Remote Patrol
Sweet 16
7 p.m. CBS & TBS
An evening of 21st century champs versus excitable upstarts: Michigan State-LSU, North Carolina-Auburn, Duke-Virginia Tech and Kentucky-Houston. Who is most primed to be upset? We’ll say Sparty.
Doing a quick bit of laundry. Hear loud scream. Run into kitchen terrified, expecting to see @Chas10Buttigieg in pool of blood. Am thereupon informed that @Lin_Manuel is following my husband, whose life is now complete.
The headline here is “Presidential Candidate Does Own Laundry”
Starting Five
1. Play Brrrrr-ll!
March 28 is way too early by at least a week to begin playing ball games that count, but here we are, anyway. The Bronx (currently 34 degrees), Milwaukee (33 ℉), Philadelphia (38 ℉), Minneapolis (31 ℉) and Cincinnati (28 ℉) will all throw out the first pitch today.
We’ve never attempted to swing at 95 m.p.h. heat in 30ish degree weather, but you have to imagine that anything less than a square connection on the bat is going to hurt fierce. It’ll be interesting to see what kinds of attendance these games do, as we’ve long advocated for playing the first week to 10 games at spring training sites. Why not? You’d have two home openers for each franchise, and the players would get to play in far more clement climes.
Related: It’s currently 54 degrees in the Phoenix area on its way up to the low 80s this afternoon.
2. Mean Girls
Betsy DeVos. Kirstjen Nielsen. Kellyanne Conway. Sarah Sanders. What do they all have in common? An uncanny aptitude for not only demonstrating no empathy for anyone outside their own ethnic and fiscal demographic, but then also taking offense at being called out for the very things that they do. While being unable to invalidate the accusations being levied against them.
Take DeVos, for example. On Wednesday the heiress of billionaires appeared before a House Appropriations Subcommittee and referred to journalists as “shameful” and “counterproductive” for scrutinizing her budget cuts, specifically the $17.6 million defunding of the Special Olympics…then she later admitted that, yeah, the reporting is all accurate.
Shameful. But accurate.
Dig, the Special Olympics already receives the lion’s share of its funding through private donations. But what would it hurt for the federal government to just say, You know, we’re going to maintain a token amount of fiscal support (say, $9 million) just to demonstrate that we believe in its mission. Nine million dollars. Hell, that’s one weekend of Air Force One and Secret Service costs at Mar-A-Lago. Likely less.
But this is what DeVos and the rest of the White House’s Mean Girls do. “How dare you call me a child abuser!?!” Yes, but you’re locking up children in cages for an indeterminate amount of time without even telling them where their parents are because you don’t even know, right? “Oh, sure, we’re totally doing that, but I am NOT a child abuser.”
Oh, okay. It’s like Jeffrey Dahmer being offended at being called a serial killer and cannibal while showing you his assortment of human heads in the freezer.
3. Making A Millionaire
Someone from Wisconsin just won $768 million (before taxes) in the Powerball lottery and we kinda hope it’s someone related to Steven Avery (but not his brother-in-law, who is probably the real killer). That’s a lot of cheese.
4. Strange Magic
The world’s greatest Nikola since “An Affair To Remember”
Don’t look now, but the Orlando Magic have won six in a row and vaulted into eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings. Can you name two Magic players? One?
On January 30th, the Magic were 20-31 after losing their fourth in a row. They’ve gone 17-7 since and currently have supplanted their Sunshine State neighbors for the final spot in the playoff race. Disney World may be in Orlando, but we imagine Disney execs would rather see Dwyane Wade and the Heat in that final spot.
Since you nearly asked, the Magic are led by 7’0″ Montenegro native Nikola Vucevic, who leads the squad in scoring (20.8) and boards (12.1) and probably in WAR if that is not a hoops stat yet. So we could have a first-round playoff series pitting Greece’s best versus Montenegro’s best in the Adriatic Division. Sweet!
And no, you didn’t dream it, but 10 years ago this June the Magic actually played in the NBA Finals. They lost in 5 games to the Lakers, but they were there. Allegedly. In case you were wondering, cuz let’s face it, we won’t be doing a Magic item again likely for at least a year or two, the Magic’s all-time NBA Finals record is 1-8. Then again, at least they’ve been there. We’re looking at you, Atlanta Hawks.
5. Oops, He Did It Again
Another Suns loss. Another Devin Booker 50-point game, his second in a row in the span of three days. Last night he went for 50 after a 30-point first half in a 124-121 loss to Washington at Talking Stick Arena.
Here’s a list of the other nine players who have posted consecutive 50-point games and there’s only one name on that list who is not a (future) Hall of Famer: James Harden, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Bernard King, Antawn Jamison, Allen Iverson, Rick Barry, Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor.
And our guess here is that none of them were 22 or younger when they accomplished this feat, as Booker is. He also now has three career 50-or-more games, all Suns losses.
Booker also has four, count ’em four, 40-or-more-points performances this month.
Everyone in Arizona knew before this week began that Booker was the Suns’ top player, that he was the building block for the future. The upcoming draft will demonstrate that the Suns need to draft—or trade—a probably top three pick with the idea of building around his production. Should be an interesting and hot June in the Valley of the Sun.
Here’s a thought considering the five most likely draft picks (assuming the worst the Suns, who have the NBA’s 2nd-worst record, do in the draft lottery).
—R.J. Barrett, Duke: No thanks. He’s a terrific scorer, but he, like Booker, needs the ball in his hands to maximize effectiveness.
—Brandon Clarke, Gonzaga: We are elevating the Zag forward (he’s closer to a 6-15 pick) because we love his energy and his defense. Not unlike Nassir Little of North Carolina. Either would be a terrific piece because both are great glue guys, something the Suns need desperately.
—Zion Williamson, Duke: Well, of course. Who wouldn’t want him? Phoenix already has a dedicated rim protector/rebounder in De’Andre Ayton, but Zion would demand attention giving Booker even more shots.
—Rui Hachiamura, Gonzaga: He’s a four who can score, which Phoenix also needs. Also an underrated ball-handler with terrific foot work and he just seems like he’d be a fantastic teammate. He would not be the first Japanese player to wear a Suns uniform, by the way (remember 5’9″ Yuta Tabuse?), just the first one over six feet.
—Ja Morant, Murray State: We think this is the most likely choice. It just feels fated that the Knicks will land Zion (good for the NBA, for the commish, for NYC, and of course for Spike Lee) and if the Suns get the 2nd pick, this human windsock is perfect. He’ll get Booker (and others) more open shots and he’ll captivate the Valley.
Yes, we are devoting entirely too much space to an NBA franchise that is 17-59. It’s been a long, dry decade, though.
Music 101
Lost Horizons
Tonight, the Gin Blossoms are playing Sun Devil Stadium. Seriously. I’ve seen three bands play Sun Devil Stadium: the Rolling Stones (1981), The Who (1982) and U2 (1987). Yes, I’m well aware they’re from Tempe but this is a venue they could never hope to play in their early Nineties prime.
Speaking of which, this is the first track from their second album, New Miserable Experience, released in 1992, but this performance took place three years earlier. And yes, that is Penn Jillette introducing them.
Looking for pathos? The song was written by lead guitarist Doug Hopkins (playing here), but during the recording of the album Hopkins, who wound up also writing the band’s breakout Top 40 hit, “Hey Jealousy,” was fired. Reason? Persistent alcohol problems (listen again to the lyrics of this tune). Then, more than a year after this album’s release, it finally blew up due to the aforementioned Top 40 hit—and that’s when Hopkins committed suicide.
Technically, this is not a debut album, but it may as well have been. And it still holds up 27 years later. There’s more than a good song or two on it. So if you’re in the Valley of the Sun tonight, Sun Devil Stadium will be rocking.
Remote Patrol
Orioles at Yankees
1 p.m. ESPN
Florida State-Gonzaga
7 p.m. CBS
Purdue-Tennessee
7:30 p.m. TBS
Texas Tech-Michigan
9:30 p.m. CBS
Oregon-Virginia
10 p.m. TBS
“Here come the Judge, here come the Judge, here come the Judge…”
It’s a YUUUGE day of sportsball as Major League Baseball’s Opening Day collides with the Sweet 16!
Grateful that Gregg Popovich wasn’t alive to see this. Wait, what?*
*The judges thought of making this an item and heading it “It’s Not Easy Being (Jeff) Green,” but we simply have more respect for you than that.
Starting Five
We Jussie Don’t Care
We’ve never seen even five seconds of Empire.
We’d never heard of the actor.
Just because it’s on Twitter doesn’t mean we have to care about it. Sure, we could follow that guideline more often, but this time, we jussie don’t care.
This much we will say: Don’t expect him to be showing up as a new character on Chicago Fire, Chicago Medor Chicago PD.
2. Intolerable Cruelty
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, whom you may recall has pledged to keep our nation’s public schools free of grizzly bears, submitted her 2020 budget proposal. Her proposed budget would eliminate funding or Special Olympics.
The funds in question are $18 million, a drop in the bucket for someone such as DeVos or her big boss. And likely some billionaire will step up and fill the void. But what’s the motivation behind being so unnecessarily cruel? Does DeVos think that Special Olympians are Puerto Rican?
We’ve worked a Special Olympics event and here’s what we know: We’ve never, I mean ever, come across athletes who were more genuine and thrilled to compete. They are so grateful for the opportunity, which is an offshoot of Rule No. 9 (some day, we promise, we are going to write a list of the 100 Rules), which is, “How Grateful Someone Is For What They Have Is Inversely Proportional To How Much They Actually Have.” Need more proof? This, which was all over Twitter yesterday.
We hate to return to the Nazi comparison again, but if the Heil fits…Hitler’s Reich was all about eliminating the mentally challenged and other handicapped folk from the general population (but yeah, the irony is that he would not remove himself). What so ever you do/To the least of my brothers/That you do unto me.
3. Fredric March Madness
March with Myrna Loy, another all-time great, in The Best Years Of Our Lives
Our favorite channel is honoring the ultimate pro’s pro of an actor this month, Fredric March. The only male actor, ever, to win two Oscars and two Tonys, March is one of those old-timey actors who flies under the radar. You know Bogart and Brando, Gable and Grant, Cagney and Lacey (wait, there’s no Lacey!)—and Cooper, Jimmy and John (Stewart and Wayne).
But Fredric March is a name most casual fans don’t recall. He’s worth watching. Begin with The Best Years Of Our Lives, for which he won a Best Actor Oscar in 1947 (shoulda been Best Supporting, which would have allowed Jimmy Stewart to win Best Actor for It’s A Wonderful Life, same year). We’ve combed through most of AFI’s “Best 100 Movies” list, at least of those made after 1933 or so, and the more we watch TBYOOL the more we feel that not only is it the most representative film of American Life in the mid-20th century, but it’s just one of the 10 best all-time. Far superior to, say, Citizen Kane.
Also, it may have the most poignant final scene of any movie you can think of.
Then you can watch A Star Is Born (the original, 1936) and Inherit The Wind, where an older March jousts with Spencer Tracy (another more famous name, but also a pro’s pro among thespians). So yes, Fredric March being honored in March. We look forward to Virginia Mayo month and June Allyson month later this spring.
Final note: There’s a great line from Gene Kelly, as a journalist, to March in Inherit The Wind, which is a re-telling of the Scopes Monkey Trial. “A journalist’s job is to bring comfort to the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.”
Somewhere off camera Jesus heard that line and said, “That’s my jam!”
One more March item we nearly forgot: The Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1947 went to one of March’s castmates in TBYOOL, Harold Russell. A double-arm amputee—military wounds in World War II—Russell was not an actor. But William Wyler, the director, saw him in a training film and decided to cast him. Russell credited March with taking him aside on set and giving him pointers on how to act on camera and the result was a golden statuette.
As brilliant of an actor as March was, he was an even better acting coach. And, judging from that anecdote, an even better person.
4. Pause Interference
That zebra in the background? Blame him. “I’m the guy doing his job; you must be the other guy.”
We’ll never forget the cross-generational conversation we had with a sports writer about instant replay. I said that the rhythm of the game is a more important aspect than the average person appreciates and he fixed me with a rather smug look and said, “I just want them to get the calls right.”
Well, everyone does. But the advent of video review has only demonstrated that while, yes, sometimes egregious errors are fixed, often they are not. It still requires human interpretation and there are still times when the eye in the sky (or the guy in Chelsea or Secaucus) doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground. Meanwhile, we wait and the contest has all the momentum sucked out of it.
So now the NFL has, in its infinite wisdom, passed a rule saying that not only is pass interference reviewable, but that the non-call of pass interference is reviewable. It still goes to a coach’s two challenges per game, and can only be used in the final two minutes of a half.
Which we do not understand. If your gripe is that video replay erases egregious errors—this all a reaction to the horrible missed call at the end of the Rams-Saints NFC title game—then why would you compromise and only employ it for a limited time? What happens when a similarly egregious missed call happens with, say, 2:05 remaining in the Super Bowl?
People (in this case, referees) have jobs and it is their duty to do those jobs well. Mistakes will occasionally be made. But as soon as you employ this safety net, then all you guarantee is that these people will not do their jobs any better. If anything, worse. Meanwhile, the four-hour football game is upon us, as we’d imagine there are at least 60 passes attempted in any NFL game.
No one wants bad calls. It’s just a matter of what you’re willing to sacrifice in order to eliminate them, and the understanding, with years and years of evidence, that even video review will not change the fact that bad calls will happen. It’s a football game. Not asbestos litigation.
5. Bruce Almighty!
We love this.
The World Cross Country Championships are this weekend in Arhus, Denmark (“Arhus/In the middle of our street/Arhus!”). But most premium athletes bypass the event as it’s not as prestigious, or as lucrative, as being paid to appear in 10-Ks, half-marathons, what have you. It’s also done off-road where there is greater chance for injury.
This year, the WCCC have allowed that any runner who meets the relatively doable (not for the average runner, but for the guy or gal who finishes in the top 5 of a local 10-K) times of 33:00 for men or 37:00 for women may enter. Which opens up the field a lot. But you still have to get yourself to Arhus.
So LetsRun.com, the ultimate runners’ site, has decided to foot the bill to send one qualifying runner to the meet, and that person is Kelsey Bruce, above. She’s 26, a native of tiny Bracketville, Texas, and a former D-II runner at Dallas Baptist. Bruce’s best marathon time is a 2:31, which is excellent but only three years ago she was running 2:48, which is terrific but nowhere near Olympic class.
Anyway, she gets a free trip to Denmark and a chance to be a world champion this weekend, thanks to LetsRun. That’s kind of cool.
Music 101
Relax
Few catchphrases in music history more annoying than “Frankie Say Relax,” which may be why it became such an iconic t-shirt (Ross Geller owned one, but it was a little snug by the time he became a paleontologist). In the autumn of 1984, though, as New Wave peaked, Frankie Goes To Hollywood‘s breakout hit was playing in every dance club in America. I’d have paid to see these guys an Duran Duran engage in a winner-take-all slap fight.
Remote Patrol
The Dirt
Netflix
Arguably the most distressing thing about sitting through a 107-minute biopic about Motley Crue is accepting that the soundtrack of the film will feature wall-to-wall Motley Crue tunes. The Crue didn’t invent hair metal (Alice Cooper and also the New York Dolls) but they were its most audacious ambassadors during its mid- to late-Eighties zenith. And if your band’s drummer banged wed both Heather Locklear and Pamela Anderson, then we’ll rescind that statement.
Bonus: Mick Mars is played by Iwan Rheon, whom you may recognize as Ramsay Bolton from Game Of Thrones.
So it turns out that, at least according to William Barr’s book report of the Mueller investigation, that the collusion-obstruction of justice suspicions were a huge nothing burger? Or is that nothingberder?
We honestly haven’t dived in too deep other than to realize that impeachment ain’t happening. Now please remind your Republican friends who are clutching their pearls about all this that folks are still chanting “Lock her up!” at Trump rallies.
2. The Porn Star Lawyer And The Extortion Scandal
Was it only a year ago that Michael Avenatti was flitting between MSNBC and CNN green rooms and dining with Christie Brinkley on the sly in Sag Harbor? Yesterday the FBI arrested Avenatti and charged him with attempting to extort $20 million from Nike relating to their latest sneaker deal scandal. Also, his alleged co-conspirator, Mark Garagos, is the same lawyer who brokered Colin Kaepernick’s monster payout from The Swoosh. Hmm.
If you’re keeping score in the Michaels Avenatti and Cohen-slash-Donald Trump-slash-Stormy Daniels ecosystem, the porn star is the person of integrity here.
The Nike Soulburst, coming to a Foot Locker near you…
That said, let’s not pretend that Nike or other shoe companies are clean. They cannot pay college (or high school) athletes, so instead they pay coaches. Coaches are competitive people and many of them are not yet Mike Krzyzewski but they aspire to be. So why not funnel some of that loot to players in hopes that they will play for me? It’s a dirty biz and if Nike, Under Armour and the NCAA wanted to clean it up, there’d be no restriction in paying the players directly. No one’s tuning in to see Sean Miller wear Kyrie 4’s, after all.
3. Booker Mark
Remember, Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker is still just 22 years old. Two years ago in late March the former Kentucky guard put up 70 points against the Boston Celtics, in Boston. Last night, in a 33-point defeat at Utah, Booker put up 59 against the Jazz. It’s the most points scored in a 30-plus points defeat in NBA history, a dubious mark if ever there were one.
Five other players in NBA history have had multiple 59- or better point games. Here’s the list: Wilt Chamberlain, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Elgin Baylor, James Harden (who’s done it this season). That’s it. Not Kareem. Not Larry. Not Barry. Not LeBron.
And he’s only 22. By the way, the Suns took Booker out of the game hopelessly trailing by more than 25 with 5 minutes to play. He had 56 points. Then they reinserted him, likely in an effort to get him to 60. He finished one point shy as the Jazz fouled a teammate intentionally with :16 to play in order to deny him.
4. Royal D-Bag
Here is the video of UC Irvine head coach Russ Turner explaining his reasoning for calling Oregon freshman Louis King “Louis Queen” during the game. pic.twitter.com/2xGnCsYyWa
Here’s UC-Irvine head coach Russ Turner glibly explaining that he called Oregon player Louis King “Queen” (get it!?!) during the Anteaters’ second-round loss to the Ducks (Chicks?) Sunday.
I actually want to thank him, only because he inadvertently provided a counter-balance to the Tom Izzo defenses all weekend. See, if you have a problem with what Turner did, I can use all of the same excuses some of the national cognoscenti used to defend Izzo: “It’s none of your direct business, stay out of it”; or, “Stop being offended by every little thing” or, my favorite, “He’s passionate and this is how he molds young men and makes them winners” argument.
Listen, neither Izzo’s or Turner’s offenses are that big of a deal. Just know that if Izzo’s actions didn’t bother you, you best not turn on that spigot of righteous indignation about Turner’s. Otherwise, maybe you’re just admitting that this is really about the cult of personality and that you like and know Izzo, while you don’t really know Turner.
One man’s physical intimidation is another man’s gay slur of an opposing player. The common denominator? Grown-ass millionaire coaches acting in a way that they’d never accept from their own players. Or that most of us wouldn’t.
5. Meet Us In Kelowna
You live on a continent more than half a century, you think you know it, right? Then you meet an amiable Canadian couple (going against type!) who tell you about the lovely inland British Columbia haven of Kelowna. A seven-hour drive west of Calgary, a 4 1/2-hour drive east of Vancouver, located on the shores of Okananagan Lake.
What a haven. Vineyards that come right up to the shore. Mountains and Banff National Park (relatively close). Fewer than 200,000 inhabitants. Do they have WiFi? A bartender shortage? Do they sell Ding Dongs? If so, sounds ideal.
Music 101
Misery
Thoughts on Minneapolis-based Soul Asylum: 1) Never thought Dave Pirner and the gang fully got the love they deserved, 2) always seemed as if they’d have been just as happy playing bars in Uptown and along Hennepin their entire careers, and of course the annual Basilica Block Party every July, as they were becoming “modern rock” stars. This was their lone hit, in 1995, from Let Your Dim Light Shine, their follow-up album to the 1993 smash Grave Dancers Union.
Biblio Files
The Great Brain
You may love to read because a certain childrens’ series hit you and hard. I’ve already noted The Hardy Boys from my childhood and certainly anyone under the age of, say, 30, absolutely spent hours and hours in their bedroom devouring Harry Potter. Chip Hilton. Jupiter Jones. Encyclopedia Brown. Nancy Drew. Etc.
One of the lesser-known series, I think, is another favorite of mine. The Great Brain books by author John Dennis Fitzgerald are all based on the author’s actual childhood, growing up in Utah in the late 19th century as the younger brother of a boy genius. There were three brothers in all. Narrator John Fitzgerald is the Nick Carraway to older brother Tom’s Jay Gatsby, except that this is all pre-pubescent or adolescent hi-jinks in the American southwest.
Eight books in all, but my favorite was The Great Brain At The Academy.
On its own merit, Duke 77, UCF 76 was a classic almost as dramatic as the Christian Laettner game from 1992. If the Knights convert that alley oop with 1:56 to play they’re up 6 and the arena in Columbia is going bonkers. Alas, UCF boofed that bunny and the game-ending tip-in and allowed a pair of costly offensive boards in Duke’s final trip on offense, the latter being converted to the game-winning tip-in.
The Blue Devils survived, barely; the empire is safe. And sure, Zion got away with a charge on Duke’s final offensive sequence, but the refs were not about to call two charging violations on the most lauded player in the game in the final four minutes. Wasn’t fair, but it wasn’t happening.
Heeeeeeeeeeere’s Johnny!
What added an extra layer to this contest is that the player who missed those two UCF bunnies was Aubrey Dawkins, whose dad is not only the coach at UCF, Johnny Dawkins, but was also Mike Krzyzewski’s first big-time recruit 37 years ago. In 1982, when the ACC had the likes of Ralph Sampson and Michael Jordan, Coach K was just a dude in his mid-thirties struggling to hold onto his job. But that winter he landed his first elite recruiting class: Dawkins, Jay Bilas, Mark Alarie and David Henderson. By the time they were seniors they were playing for the national championship (losing to Louisville and freshman phenom Pervis Ellison).
If Coach K fails to land Dawkins, the class of that class, his ascendance at Duke is at best delayed and at worst never takes place. And here is Dawkins, nearly four decades later, with a chance to bounce his mentor from the tourney, with his son, who would score 32 points in an otherwise outstanding performance, only needing a tip-in at the buzzer to complete the odyssey.
Didn’t happen. But what a dramatic twist. It was Dickensian. It was Dawkinsian.
Elsewhere…
—Tacko Fall won the posterization battle with Zion, who likely had never played against someone 11 inches taller than he. The 7’6″ Senegal native finished with 15 points and six boards and UCF’s program and fans will always wonder what might have been if he hadn’t fouled out on that final Zion drive. If he’d had 3 fouls heading into that play, he likely grabs the missed free throw.
–Teams seeded 1-4 in each region finished a combined 29-2 in the first and second rounds. The lone losses both came out of the Sunflower State: Kansas, a 4, lost in the second round to Auburn and Kansas State, also a 4, to UC-Irvine in the first round.
–The Sweet 16: Five ACC schools, four SEC schools, three Big Ten schools, one Big 12, one Pac 12 and two mid-majors: Gonzaga and Houston, 32-2 and 33-3, respectively. Cinderella got stood up.
–We’re huge fans of North Carolina freshman Nassir Little, whose spirit animal is Dennis Rodman. The 6’6″ frosh is a muscular, athletic dynamo. It doesn’t look as if he could even finish third in a rec league game of (below-the-rim) horse but all he does is make plays and be in the right place at the right time. Little, UNC’s sixth man, has played 37 minutes in the Tar Heels’ two games, and has 49 points. Pretty damn good.
–Yes, in terms of games, the tourney is more than 75% complete. And through 48 games we’ve had just one contest that people will remember a month from now. The upside is that with so much chalk advancing, next weekend should promise some tight match-ups. Our top three:
Gonzaga-Florida State
Auburn-North Carolina (the “Inside the NBA” family feud)
