Starting Five
1. Jack Taylor, who was arguably the hottest member of Duran Duran (Whaaaaaat?), scores an NCAA-record 138 points as Grinnell (3-0) beats Faith Baptist Bible College (0-5), 179-104. We were able to hang with head coach Dave Arsenault (and assistant coach David Arseneault) last March because our editor at The Daily, Chris D’Amico, was cool enough to know a good story when he saw one. The story here is not about Taylor, but about Arsenault’s hoops philosophy. Against this same team last season Grinnell had an NCAA-record 19 different players make at least one three-pointer. It had been a pre-game goal of team.
Taylor will make his feature film debut in “Hoosiers 2: Three-Point Boogaloo”
2. Boxer Hector “Macho” Camacho, 50, is on life support after being shot in the face in Puerto Rico. Camacho, 79-6-3, won world titles in three classes in the 1980s. He was seated in the passenger seat when a gunman approached the vehicle and opened fire. The driver, Mojica Moreno, was mortally wounded. Police told espn.com that Moreno had nine bags of cocaine in his possession — and a tenth one open– at the time of the shooting. UPDATE: Camacho has been taken off life support and is brain dead, per ESPN.
3. YouTube sensation Sam Gordon gets her (first?) moment of fame, with a Wheaties cover and an appearance on both “Good Morning, America” (where host Josh “Misdemeanor” Elliott unabashedly flirted with the nine year-old girl gridiron sensation) and ESPN “SportsCenter.” For those keeping score, Harvard baseball team mash-up of “Call Me Maybe” has 16.8 million views, while this video of Gordon running to daylight has 951,000 views.
Sam Gordon: Gary Barnett has already said she cannot play for him.
4. “And it’s one, two, three/What are they fightin’ for/Don’t ask us, we don’t give a damn/Next stop is the Holy Land…” Okay, so we tweaked the lyrics of “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixing-To-Die-Rag”, the Vietnam era protest tune by Country Joe and the Fish, but we still have to ask: Isn’t everyone in the Middle East tired of fighting? We know: it’s a naive question. Still… And another thing: Country Joe was pretty badass.
5. Today’s non-story of the day: USC quarterback Max Wittek saying, “We’re going to win this ballgame.” Of course ESPN turns this into Joe Namath’s Super Bowl III guarantee because breathless, young, ambitious ESPN producers who kneel before a statue of Jamie Horowitz each night before they hit the pillow (or is that “the other side of the pillow?”) have no time for nuance or perspective or insight — that won’t reel in viewers! Wittek spoke those words on ESPNRadio Los Angeles and bully for him, before making his first start, for expressing confidence and letting his teammates know that he believes in them. That’s exactly what he should say, isn’t it? Our thoughts on pre-game guarantees go thusly: As soon as you’re willing to put $1,000 down on that statement, we’ll take you seriously ($100,000 if you’re a pro athlete).
The Max Factor: USC’s quarterback says, “Fight on, Irish.”
Reserves
Our 2 1/2 cents (“ceennnnnts”) on the Irish-Trojan tussle to take place on Saturday night. Some unbeatens enter a game like this feeling as if they have something to protect (witness No. 1 Notre Dame, then 11-0, defending national champions and owners of the nation’s longest win streak, 23 games, heading to Miami to face the No. 7 Hurricanes). Others, such as the ’88 Irish, have yet to taste such success and are hungry to do so. That squad also traveled on Thanksgiving weekend, then to face No. 2 USC, and obliterated the Trojans. The game was not as close as the 27-10 final score. ESPN sent Tom “Teardrop” Rinaldi to South Bend this week and the angle by Rinaldi, a former South Bend-based broadcaster, was the pressure on the Irish now that they’re No. 1.
As Col. Potter used to say, “Horse hockey!”
Sherm often has this reaction to Rinaldi’s pieces
There’s no pressure on the Irish. This entire season is gravy, having gone from unranked to No. 1 in a dozen weeks. The older players on this squad (Te’o, Theo, etc.) experienced too much humiliation earlier in their careers to shrink from this moment now. The younger players (Golston, Nix) are having too much fun to care. Did you ever head into a final exam after really studying diligently for it and saying to yourself, “I got this?” It might’ve been a tough exam, but you knew you’d prepared adequately enough (“I can do stoichiometry in my frickin’ sleep!”)
USC will be this easy for the Irish
Anyway, that’s how we think Notre Dame feels about USC. They’ve studied hard and they simply cannot wait to take the exam, then head back to the dorm and crack open a few Keystone Lights. After all, they’ll have about 46 days until their next final.
This only LOOKS like Jake Golic. Trust us, it’s Keith Stone.
Will Notre Dame win? I’m not going to go Wittek on you, but what I do know is that they won’t feel any pressure. They’ll be chomping at the bit to play this game. May the better team win.