Hi gang. Are there any true baseball fans around any longer? You know the ones, they eat and sleep baseball. The baseball season starts this Saturday, March 22nd, at 4:00 AM, Dodgers v. D-Backs in Sydney, Australia. Catch the games on the MLB Network, Channel 213 on DirecTV or consult you TV listings for other cable channels. The game is the first of three and then the teams head back to the USA to join Rip Van Winkle for the last ten years of his power nap before starting baseball on the grass of North America. Good luck mates. Just a reminder that Australia is home to ten of the most poisonous snakes in the known universe and a shark or two hundred. The regular 64 team mens D-I NCAA Tournament starts at 12:00, High Noon, on Thursday, March 20, on CBS Channel 2. If you are looking for the play-in games you will have to subscribe to a Cable service that carries TRU TV, the paid affiliate of CBS. On my DirecTV service, TRU TV is Channel 246. The play-in games start at 6:00 PM today with the NCAA Tip-off Show, followed by a double-header beginning at about 6:40 PM with the first game between SUNY Albany v. Mount St. Marys. The second game is scheduled to start at 9:00 PM between NC State and Xavier. All play-in games are being held in Dayton, Ohio. Tomorrow is the second double-header of play-in games with basically the same schedule on TRU TV. The NCAA TIP OFF Show begins at 6:00 PM, followed at 6:40 PM by the contest between Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo against Texas Southern. The second game is again scheduled for 9:00 PM and pits Iowa against Tennessee. Dayton, Ohio hosts the second days play-ins also. The NCAA Tournament started in 1939 (Oregon won) with eight schools. This year, 2014, there are 68 schools. How long do you think it will be before all mens D-I schools, now 336, will make the tournament? I thought it would be fun to pick out twenty-five (25) facts about some of the schools in this years tournament that you might find interesting. Or, at least, they are interesting to me. Did you know....... 1. The Dennys in Breaking Bad is directly across the street from the University of New Mexico. 2. Manhattan University is technically in the Bronx. 3. Stephen F. Austin University is named after WWE wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin. Only kidding, I wanted to see if you were paying attention. It is actually named after the Father of the State of Texas. 4. Wofford, the college in South Carolina, has the highest percentage of female sorority members (55%) than any other Division I-A school. 5. The mascot of Coastal Carolina University is the Chanticleer. The Chanticleer is a Rooster but it also is a character in Chaucers Canterbury Tales. 6. UConn offers a Masters Degree in Puppet Arts. 7. If you really want to win big bucks for the most accurate NCAA bracket you shoud enroll in one of the on-line courses offered by St. Josephs in Philadelphia, Pa. St. Joes offers an on-line course in Bracketology. Seriously. 8. All University firetrucks at Chapel Hill are painted Carolina Blue. 9. Shaka Smart, the Coach at Virginia Commonwealth University, was not yet born when Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim coached his first game. 10. The Michigan State Spartans actually went by the nickname, The Fighting Farmers from 1903 to 1923. 11. Get out your pocket protectors. The movie Revenge of the Nerds was filmed on the campus of the University of Arizona. 12. Quick, what college team won more games in one season than any other? The correct answer is the 2007-08 Memphis Tigers with 38 wins but it was short lived. The 2007-08 Memphis Tigers were coached by John Calipari. They had a record of 38-1 when they played the Kansas Jayhawks in the NCAA Tournament Championship game. Kansas won that game to become National Champs and drop Memphis to 38-2. But, in 2009 an NCAA investigation showed that Memphis star guard Derrick Rose cheated on his SAT. Memphis was sanctioned by dropping all 38 wins and one loss leaving the Tigers with a record of 0-1. The school also had to remove all banners in regard to the 2007-08 team and any of its players. 13. Louisville. 99% of you folks are pronouncing it wrong. It IS NOT LOUIS-Ville. It IS NOT LOUIE-Ville. The correct pronunciation is LOU-A-VILLE. If you are anywhere in the State of Kentucky and you pronounce the school (or the city) incorrectly you will get dirty looks and unkind words about your Mother. 14. Weber State. 90% mispronunciation. It is WEE-BER. 15. Xavier. Again mispronunciation, but only about 75%. The X is a Z. Not EX-AH-VEE-UR. It is ZAY-VEE-UR. Like Xavier Cugat. cuchi-cuchi. 16. Creighton. The Alma Mater of Warren Buffet and Bob Gibson. The #45 basketball jersey of Bob Gibson was retired by the Blue Jays. 17. Oklahoma State. The Alma Mater of T. Boone Pickens. He gives way more money to OSU than Buffet does to Creighton. But Pickens millions or a couple of billion are chump change to Buffet. 18. North Dakota State and Gonzaga (Washington State). Gonzaga is slightly more north than North Dakota State, but who is counting? Besides, in February whats the difference between -26 degrees and -25 degrees? 19. School connections. Florida Coach Billy Donovan, was a guard on the 1987 Providence College Friars coached by Rick Pitino which went to the Final Four. Pitino now coaches the Midwest Region #4 seed Louisville. Interestingly, five former Providence Friar players became college coaches, two went on to coach in the NBA and four, so far, are in the Hall Of Fame. They are Dave Gavitt, John Thompson, Rick Pitino, Lenny Wilkens and Billy Donovan. 20. Tennessee. The mens team wishes it could suit up former womens team members Candace Parker and Chamique Holdsclaw, and lure womens All Time great coach Pat Summitt to teach the mens team a few things. 21. Query? How many schools, since 1986, have won the NCAA Championship that were NOT named after a city or a state? Drum roll please,....only one, Duke. P.S. When you give 40 Million Dollars to tiny Trinity College (in 1924) the school might just ask for your name. Maybe they are going to name a dorm after you or the science building. So, you tell them, my name is James B. Duke. Does the school name a building after him? No. They change Trinity College to Duke University. Hey, 24 Million Bucks in 1924 is 500 Million Bucks today. 22. If you want to talk sports programs at a college instead of just basketball UCLA will oblige. UCLA has won 110 D-I sports Championships, more than double the combined titles of Duke, Kansas, Notre Dame and Kentucky. 23. Wisconsin. We dont need no stinking Badgers. As a matter of fact, the nickname Badgers did not originally come directly from the animal only tangentially. The nickname originally comes from the way the State of Wisconsins 19th century miners burrowed in shelters underground, like badgers. Today, the Wisconsin costumed mascot for the school goes by the moniker of Bucky Badger. 24. Cincinnati. He may have graduated in 1960 but the Big O, Oscar Robertson, still holds the scoring and rebound records at Cincinnati even though he played only three seasons because eligibility rules prohibited his playing as a freshman. Robertson, who once went an entire pro season averaging a triple-double for the Cincinnati Royals, is shockingly only fourth in career assists at his Alma Mater. Do you know why? While Oscar had only three seasons to accumulate points and rebounds, he had only two seasons to record assists because assists were not kept as a stat until Oscar Robertsons Junior year at college. 25. Nebraska. The Cornhuskers have been known as a football school throughout the years. The school has not been invited to March Madness in 16 years, since 1998, but even when they have participated in the NCAA Tournament they have not done well. As a matter of fact, Nebraska has never won a game in the NCAA Tournament, going 0-6 lifetime. I hope you enjoyed some lighthearted facts to warm you up for the NCAA Tourney. Just a couple more things for today. Queen Latifah, the multi-talented music producer, director, hip hopper, TV star, etc. was born on March 18, 1970. Her mother was a teacher and her father (and brother) were cops. Her given name is Dana Elaine Owens. Among her many accomplishments is basketball star. At Irvington High School, the almost 510 Dana Owens played power forward on the Girls Basketball Team. She led her team to Two New Jersey State Girls High School Championships. Brains, Beauty, Talent and B-Ball Skills, quite a package. One of my All Time favorite actors was born on this day (March 18th) in 1886. His name was Edward Everett Horton. He had a long and distinguished career in film, theater, radio, television and voice work. He did numerous films with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. He also did acclaimed character roles in such giant films as Front Page (1931), Lost Horizon (1937), Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Pocket Full Of Miracles (1961) and Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963). He was at his best, however, when he narrated the Fractured Fairy Tales on the various Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle Moose Shows. He died on September 29, 1970 at 84 years old. Edward Everett Horton was a treasure, Aesop loved him. This one is for a friend of mine who grew up on Garden Drive in Monticello and runs the best Office Supply Store in the known universe, Les Kristt. Les graduated from Cornell and is a big fan of the Big Red. On March 18, 1972, Cornell Universitys NCAA hockey streak of 225 games without being shut-out is finally broken when Boston University did them in. Can you believe it, 225 games without being shut-out. Amazing. Errands to run. Hands to shake. Babies to kiss. Snacks to buy. B-Ball starts 6 PM TRU TV tonight. REMINDER. If you are a resident of the Village of Monticello you must go vote today. Get off your duff and go vote. You have no right to complain if you are too lazy to vote. The U. S. Constitution gives you Freedom of Speech, it DOES NOT mean others have to listen. Your vote is your right for people to listen Go VOTE, NOW. Stay safe. See ya tomorrow.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 16:01:46 +0000
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