by John Walters
A Medium Happy 100th to Gregory Peck, here in 1947 Best Picture Oscar winner Gentleman’s Agreement (like this year’s Oscar winner, our hero was an investigative journalist; it’s on HBO Now; catch it) Peck died in 2003.
Starting Five
Heroic? Yes. Triumphant? No. No one will forget Marcus Paige’s shot, even if it failed to result in a win.
Clutch Trumps Double-Clutch
So much epic from Villanova 77, North Carolina 74. Quick thoughts:
–This is the same Marcus Paige who somehow missed a lightly contested lay-up seconds earlier. And then somehow stole the ball and put it back in (and we never got a replay).
–Remember when Roy Williams reminded sportswriters on Saturday or Sunday that he’s smarter than all of us when it comes to basketball? That’s likely true, but then how come no one was guarding Kris Jenkins, who is only Villanova’s most reliable outside shooter, for the entirety of the final play? Not smart? Or not good at getting your players to execute your plan, which is bad coaching?
Jenkins: “I am not throwing away MY shot/I am not throwing away MY shot….”
—Charles Barkley leaping in the air as former Tar Heel Kenny Smith absorbs the defeat in the background is as good as spontaneous reactions get. Contrast to how Jay “Bang!” Wright reacted.
–If you’re a point guard and a four-year team captain, it’s impossible to cap a career in a more fitting way than Ryan Arcidiacono did. Find the open man and get the game-winning assist on buzzer-beater for the national title. He’ll be coaching a Final Four team before his 45th birthday, if not sooner. It’s nice when you can put “Final Four MOP” on your coaching resume.
–Nice cover by Sports Illustrated, ruined somewhat by all the extraneous verbiage. You put the name of the mag on the cover and then maybe “Super ‘Nova.” And that’s all. No need to put author’s name (I love Luke Winn, but he’s not quite Curry Kirkpatrick yet, and even if he were, Curry never had his name on the cover) or “2016 NCAA Champions.” Really? I’m not gonna dumb it down, Jerry!
Ochefu: Final Four MOPper
–I couldn’t find a picture of Daniel Ochefu mopping the court his own damn self before the final play, but that happened.
–Someone from Villanova tweeted, “That’s how you end a season, The Walking Dead.” Perfect.
–I try to avoid “of all time” or “in history” when comparing sports feats. It speaks to one’s ignorance of the past and failure to appreciate just how much time there was before we (or ESPN) existed. Most of the “of all time” convos concerning last night’s game assume that the first NCAA title game was between Bird and Magic (it was not).
For example, here’s footage of the 1944 NCAA title game from Madison Square Garden, in which Utah outlasted Dartmouth (which has a U, T, A, and H in its name) 42-40 in overtime. Notice that the Utes score a near buzzer-beating game-winner (at 25:51) taken not far from where Jenkins launched his.
–Jim Nantz gave Arcidiacono his red tie as a tribute to how well RA played. I hope RA gave him a ‘Gee, thanks,” a roll of the eyes, and a wanking motion in return.
2. One Shining Moment
Hey, it’s always schmaltz and it’s always fabulous. I loved the annoyed text I got from my friend (and Katie’s husband), Mike, who seethed, “Kansas got one shot and Notre Dame got an infomercial.”
You can’t do better than the image of the Texas player sinking to his knees after Northern Iowa’s half court buzzer beater. But where, I wonder, was Tyler Brogdon‘s one-shoe three in an Elite Eight game? And I needed more Thomas Walkup.
My good friend Brett McMurphy tweeted that he longed for the bracket leak to make OSM, too. That would’ve been beautiful.
3. Mr. Scorcese, Have You Seen Our Tracking Shot?
The most memorable scene in BCS so far included not a single character that we already know.
The most ambitious and audacious tracking shots (the camera never cuts away) of all time in my memory: the entry into the restaurant in Goodfellas (still the standard by which others are measured), the evading the bad guys night shot in True Detective, and now the opener of last night’s Better Call Saul. When you consider how much choreography among drivers had to happen to pull off this shot, it’s even more impressive.
4. Panama Papers
I’ll admit, I know NOTHING about them other than the term. Fortunately, CNN realizes that I’m far from the only dope out there and so they wrote a story titled “Panama Papers: Seven Things To Know.” I have not even read THAT yet, but I’m linking it here.
5. Yankee$: Affluence & Effluents
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=139&v=6J9viOvUbOY
I used to be a Yankee fan.
Then they built the new stadium, an unabashed monument to avarice unlike anything I’ve seen in sports, which is not to say they’re alone, but rather to say they just took it so far beyond what is even unacceptable that they lost my allegiance. They’ll survive.
You know I’ve been wailing this tune for years. On Sunday night, John Oliver chimed in.
Music 101
Alone
Not unlike Cheap Trick, Heart were a mid- to late Seventies staple of FM radio who prolonged their careers in the 1980s with a couple of mid-tempo power ballads. And both are now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I chose this tune and version partly for the duet with Carrie Underwood (who cemented her victory in American Idol by singing this song, after which Simon told her she’d not only win AI but sell more records than any artist previously to appear on AI, and he was right) and partly for the primal scream that Ann Wilson unleashes at about 2:31.
The tune spent three weeks at No. 1 in the summer of 1987, making it Heart’s biggest hit, even though Jann Wenner and pals consider it an abomination as compared to “Magic Man” or “Crazy on You.”
Nancy’s blonde sis, guitarist Nancy Wilson, used to be married to the man behind Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe.
How did a major bank or lender never coopt this song for an ad campaign? (“How do I get you a loan???”)
Remote Patrol
Connecticut vs. Syracuse
ESPN 8:30 p.m.
The CEO
Mike Tyson. Michael Phelps. Tiger Woods. Serena Williams. Mount Union football. None of them are “ruining” their sports or did so in the past. Neither are Geno and the Huskies. Appreciate mastery when you witness it….
Lost in the craziness of the last five seconds was the very suspect foul called on Brice Johnson with 13 seconds left and Carolina down one. And, like the Paige layup, didn’t get a good replay of it from CBS.
Also, do we really need confetti cannons going off at the end of these games? They were louder than normal last night and pretty distracting. And I think all that stuff flying around the court takes away from some of the great images we get when a game ends like that one did.
Agree with you on “best ever” coronations, even with a proper value of history, at some point it becomes subjective and even when we vote on things, “The Artist” is able to beat “Midnight in Paris” for Best Picture.
Aaaaand with that preamble, I’m going to say that was the best NCAA Championship game ever! (Not quite full disclosure: I’ve always hated North Carolina). I’ll still give David (Thompson) beating Goliath (UCLA) in overtime in the semis in 1974 the single best game, if for nothing more than the enormity of the moment.
(I clicked on the Utah/Dartmouth game and eliminated it after the fifth air-balled hook shot from inside six feet.)
What was funny to me was how many of the “old guard” on Twitter last night were rushing to say that we can’t crown last night’s game, cuz what about NC State’s miraculous upset of Houston in 1983 (which also included a buzzer-beating game winner)? That game sucked!
The winning basket was bizarre and heroic and Jimmy V’s running around the court made it an awesome 45 seconds (and yes, his heartbreaking death helped put a shine on that game), but the truth was Houston completely blew it. I was 17 at the time, and like most sports fans I almost always root for the underdog, but that wasn’t the case for that game. Me and all my friends (mostly hockey players in Minnesota) loved Phi Slama Jama (Houston) and we all wanted them to win the title. (It felt like most of the country did too.)
Instead of them throwing down 15 fast break slams on the way to a easy win, Guy Lewis got completely out-coached in a sludgefest.
Great game? NC State shot 39% and Houston shot 38%. Houston had scored 94 and 89 points in their previous two games and crawled to 52 in the championship. Their two leading scorers on the season, Michael Young and Clyde Drexler, combined for 10 points. Yuck.
The year before, when apparently Mike became Michael, was a far better game, two number one seeds slugging it out. What history forgets is that Patrick Ewing was by far the more acclaimed freshman that year and even in that game. Ewing was like a super hero. If my memory serves, the Tar Heels first five or so hoops were goaltending calls where Ewing swatted the ball 20 rows deep. Ewing made honorable mention All American that year, Jordan didn’t (losing out to such luminaries as Steve Barker of Samford, Riley Clarida of Long Island and Brad Leaf of Evansville.) If you would have told everyone who watched that game that a player involved would go on to be the best player ever, MJ himself might have been the only person to not guess Ewing. (Not that Ewing was THAT great, but given the statement, he would have been the only guess.)
Anyway, all opinions aside, all those who surmised this was going to be a great tournament because there were no dominant teams and no real superstars (Buddy played the part, but he might only be a sixth man in the NBA), were proved to be dead on. So many fantastic moments. And the cherry on top is that, at least in my eyes, the team that always looked to be trying the hardest won the whole thing.
Full disclosure: I went to bed with six minutes left. I’m not kidding. What can I say, I was really tired. I hit record, went upstairs, put on my pjs, brushed my teeth and got into bed. I grabbed my phone to check Twitter for a final score only to see that I’d missed THE GREATEST ENDING EVER!
Oh well, who cares, it’s Masters week.
I only watched the last 10 minutes of the game & wished I had watched all. What a finish! Even though I was rooting a bit for UNC & feel for them, I’m happy for Villanova’s players, coaches, students, alums & fans. What a ride they had!
I STILL hate the Final 4 & NCG being held in a freakin football dome!
And of course Geno & an undefeated UCONN are not “killing” women’s basketball, it’s just that 99% of the exceptional high school girl players all want to play for him eventually. Which keeps the “dynasty” going & all the other schools desperately trying to catch up. As much as I admire what Geno has done with UCONN, it’s still more fun & exciting when there are at LEAST two top teams battling, as in the days of Tenn & UCONN. Goliath without a David is just a bully & David without a Goliath is just another shepherd with a slingshot.
Question – do you know how many of Geno’s former players are coaching college basketball? And how they’re faring? Just curious if Geno’s “technique” &/or methods transfer or if his success is more based on his ‘cult of personality’. YOU spent a year observing the program, do you think his methods could be used successfully by others?
BTW, do you REALLY wonder why more men are coaching women’s college basketball these days? More money/TV exposure brings men. NO mystery.
I’m late on this – I didn’t read Sepinwall’s TWD review but I can imagine he was less than thrilled. I HATED Sunday’s episode! However, I feel very different than you – I still want all of Rick’s group to live & am sick & tired of yet another big bad guy who will kill at least some off. And while I like JDM (the actor), I thought “oh, that’s how Negan kills ’em…from BOREDOM with that stupid speech!” And then the writers/producers thought it would be great to end the season LIKE THAT? What was worse was their insufferable smugness sitting on the ‘Talking Dead’ couch afterwards. ARGH! Now a GREAT ending would have been if Negan had been shot, right thru the friggin forehead as he was winding up that damn bat. Would have sent all the comicboyz into a frothing fit! And NOBODY would have seen that coming.