STARTING FIVE

1. Warriors Came Out and Play-aaaayed

After one quarter, at home, Golden State trailed Toronto by 17 points, 36-19.

At halftime, they trailed by the same margin, 65-48.

In the third quarter, the Raptors opened up the lead another 10 points to go up by 27. The score was 75-48 with 9:19 to play in the third quarter.

Then the train left the station. The Warriors outscored the visitors 64-28 the rest of the way, and 42-15 in the fourth quarter.

Their fourth-quarter comeback was the best the franchise had seen in 51 years, two cities ago in their history. The centers on the court the last time Golden State came back from a larger fourth-quarter deficit (19 points) were Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Ruerssell (February 9, 1962).

The Warrior players attributed the kick-in-the-seat motivation to a halftime speech by 18-year vet Jermaine O’Neal. No one would reveal what O’Neal, who was a beast in the paint on both ends in the fourth quarter, said, but my guess is that he did not use the word “please.”

Oh, and the Warriors, who again were down by 27 at one moment in the second half, covered the seven-point spread.

2. Tramps Likes Us…In the BCS

Forgive me. Somehow four years have passed since the book on the left was published and my finally picking it up. As an avid runner, I’m ashamed of myself (as a human being, I’m ashamed of myself, but that’s a different story).

In “This Week in BCS Controversy”, writers and pundits whom I like and admire are tossing out the SOS argument. Is a one-loss Auburn (what about Missouri and Michigan State?!?) more worthy than an undefeated Ohio State (what about Florida State?!?)? My friend Ralph Russo at the AP asked on Twitter, “If 1 loss can be excused because of SOS than why not 2 if that team played an even tougher sked and has even better wins than a 1-loss team?”

Which brings me back to the tome on the left. There’s a scene in which the legendary distance-running coach, Joe Vigil, whose Adams State College teams won 26 national championships in 33 years, has a Eureka! moment. Vigil, observing the Leadville 100 trail race, realizes that the next step in athletic performance, beyond genetics, beyond training, beyond talent, is character.

Which brings us to what Florida State and Ohio State (okay, and Northern Illinois) and nobody else has done this season: Win every game they played. People calculate Strength of Schedule all the time but is there a quantifiable metric for the ability to win when the opposing side is giving its best effort of the season, of the players’ lives. You watched the Iron Bowl. You watched Ohio State-Michigan. Was that the same Wolverine team you’d seen in Iowa City, in Evanston, in East Lansing. In fact, the last time M Go Blue had looked that sharp was in September, versus Notre Dame.

Character. Inspiration. Motivation. It plays a HUGE role in college football and we all neglect it far too much. Does Oklahoma State jump on Baylor 34-3 after three quarters if the Bears are, say, 8-2? I highly doubt it. Character. Perseverance. Grit. The gulf between 12-0 and 11-1 is wider than you might want to believe.

Unless the Seminoles or Buckeyes lose on Saturday, this year’s “controversy” is completely manufactured.

3. Jacoby’s Ladder

The New York Yankees just went out and spent $153 million on a dude who cannot pitch.

They went out and paid outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury,  30, about eight times what they paid Brett Gardner, who is about two weeks older than the former Boston Red Sox, to do last season. They will pay Ellsbury more than they paid Curtis Granderson who, yes is two years older and was injured much of last season, but who in the previous two season smacked a total of 84 home runs. Granderson is a free agent and he sure ain’t returning now.

Mostly, though, the original point. Offense fills seats, but pitching gets you to October. The Yankees finished 18th in team pitching last season. Ten of the top 15 pitching teams in baseball made the playoffs last season. Nobody outside the top 15 did.

Naturally, fans in Boston handled Ellsbury’s exodus well. Memo to Chad Finn: every professional athlete is a mercenary. So is every sports writer I’ve ever met.

As for Robinson Cano, does this mean the Yanks have forfeited their chance to re-sign him? Not to me. I think this was done to demonstrate to Robbie that they want to improve. Again, though, they are more in need of pitching.

4. Duck Dynasty

Last month Mary Cain, the most celebrated high school phenom since Mary Decker (and worthy of the hype) announced that she was moving to Oregon for college…just that she was NOT going to be attending Oregon or running for the Ducks. No, Mary was turning pro and she’d most likely attend school in the Portland area (might we suggest the University of Portland, a fine Catholic institution?)

And while that announcement may have put Ducks coach Vin Lananna in the doldrums for a fartlek or two, he should soon be over it. Why? Because Sarah Baxter, who just won her fourth consecutive state cross-country individual championship in that tiny state known as California, has committed to attending college in Eugene. The Simi Valley High School senior wrapped up her fourth championship with a 16:42.7 on the 5-K course (three seconds off the course record she’d set one year earlier) in Fresno’s Woodward Park.

Baxter, the daughter of two California Highway Patrol officers, never lost a race in high school.

5. The Air Down There

“All is Lost.”

“Captain Phillips.”

“Gravity.”

And now, Harrison Okene. The Nigerian tugboat sailor survived three days underwater when the tugboat on which he was the cook sunk. The other 11 crew members perished but Okene survived by finding an air pocket and fortunately, by being rescued before his oxygen supply ran out. This all happened last May, but the video only went viral this week.

 Reserves

Tycoon and Oklahoma State booster T. Boone Pickens is engaged to Toni Brinker, ex-wife of the founder of Steak & Ale. Godspeed, kids, and remember, most marital disputes are about money, so save accordingly. Pickens is a pretty easy character to like, if you’ve ever seen him on TV. A straight shooter.

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Jack in the Box Score

Grinnell’s Jack Taylor, our favorite player ever to eclipse 100 points in two different games, followed up his 138-point effort versus Crossroads last month by going 0-5 from the field and finishing with three points in an 88-79 defeat of Wartburg. The Pioneers are 5-0 and Taylor is averaging 45.8 points per game, which not surprisingly leads all players at all levels of college basketball.