by John Walters

Starting Five

Cool and The Gang

It was a rather august group that gathered at the White House yesterday to receive the Medal of Freedom from President Obama: Michael Jordan (“The guy from Space Jam“), Tom Hanks, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, Robert Redford, Robert DeNiro, Vin Scully, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lorne Michaels and a very emotional Ellen DeGeneres, who was almost not allowed in when she forgot her proper identification.

 

They haven’t let me in to the White House yet because I forgot my ID. #NotJoking#PresidentialMedalOfFreedom pic.twitter.com/sHocwqChKV

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) November 22, 2016

I’m wondering how many of these recipients wondered if they were there to attend the turkey pardoning.

2. NCA—What?

The NCAA ordered Notre Dame football to vacate all the wins from its 2012 an 2013 seasons in what is an egregiously excessive punishment for an act committed by a female student trainer. So, yeah, that 12-0 start in 2012 AND Lennay Kekua were both just grand illusions.

 

Excessive sanctions to the point of absurdity. This was a student-trainer typing papers. Not institutional. https://t.co/7PdCcQdbgf

— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) November 22, 2016

As coach Brian Kelly noted, the penalty was discretionary and it was excessive. Notre Dame found out that student Ally Lopshire was doing some dirty deeds, so it instantly self-reported and suspended five key players. And the NCAA still brought down the hammer.

3. Fort Wayne Is A Relevant Basketball Town Again

You remember the Fort Wayne Pistons, who lost the decisive game of the 1955 NBA Finals to the Syracuse Nationals and were accused of throwing it for point-shaving purposes (they committed two turnovers plus a foul in the final :18)? You don’t? Well, they did.

And you know of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA D-League, who won the 2014 championship with Peyton Siva.

Another chapter in the northeast Indiana town’s history was added last night, as the Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne Mastodons shocked No. 3 Indiana in overtime, 71-69. Don’t you love that they’re the Mastodons?

I love Love LOVE what IUPUFW coach Jon Coffman said after the game. Extremely gracious to appreciate that IU took an in-state road game against a smaller school (Notre Dame used to visit Butler, but they’d lose).

Bloomington is 200 miles south of Fort Wayne, but the Hoosiers had not played there since 1967, when they beat Notre Dame.

SI’s Luke Winn, who cares more about college basketball than most of us do about our pets, had a wonderful tweet (since deleted for reasons we can only guess) about the aftermath. It read: “Finding out that those were paid court-stormers, incited by the media, cheapens Fort Wayne’s upset for me.”

4. The Election’s Over, But Cable News Remains Testy

Here’s CNN’s Wolf Blitzer pressing RNC spokesman Sean Spicer about why Donald Trump doesn’t do enough to disavow racists (you can jump to 5:00 mark). It gets, um, spicy…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mvaMeOvHSs
Here’s Fox News’ Megyn Kelly pressing GOP rep Sean Duffy about Trump potentially flip-flopping “You were the ones saying ‘Lock her up!'” Kelly says.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rXs3XaPU3s

And here’s CNN’s Brooke Baldwin reprimanding Charles Kaiser for using the N-word on live television. And yeah, I don’t know what he was thinking (by the way, how much does CNN pay Paris Dennard to appear daily? His main attribute seems to be that he’s America’s lone black Trump supporter).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUsBgHh2–k

5. “It is a tale. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”

That’s either from Shakespeare’s Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5) or it’s a review of every ESPN college football selection show. Dig: There are just TOO MANY games taking place this weekend that will not turn out the way the experts expect for anyone to really concern themselves about the College Football Playoff. Besides the obvious ones (Michigan-Ohio State and the Apple Cup), there’s Auburn-Alabama, Minnesota-Wisconsin, Michigan-Penn   State, Bedlam, and even Utah-Colorado and Florida-Florida State. All will potentially impact the playoff and not all will have the results the experts expect. Count on it.

My favorite part of last night’s telecast was when Greg McElroy reminded the set that it’s “not a four-team playoff, it’s a 65-team playoff.” Did you hear that, P.J. Fleck? Western Michigan never had a chance. “Forget it, P.J., it’s Chinatown.”

Music 101

Return To Innocence

This 1994 song by the German group Enigma obviously has a lot of international appeal. It hit No. 1 in 10 countries (and No. 4 here) and look how many YouTube views it has: more than 39 million. Meanwhile, the song’s chant was sampled from a pair of aboriginal Taiwanese, known as Amis, who later turned around and sued Enigma. The case was settled out of court but the Amis now are given partial credit on all releases of the song, plus royalties.

Remote Patrol

FRIDAY

No. 5 Washington at No. 23 Washington State

FOX 3:30 p.m.

Black Friday football may be my favorite sports day of the year. It’s an extra day of college football acting as an amuse bouche to Saturday’s main course. This is for the Pac-12 North championship and keeps U-Dubs playoff hopes alive, while Wazzu would love to return to the Rose Bowl for the first time since the 2002 season. It’s only the sixth time in the illustrious history of the Apple Cup that both schools have been ranked. Get loose on the Palouse!