Hi gang. Yesterdays game was one of the best I have seen in years. Of course, I am speaking about the Wichita State-Kentucky NCAA B-Ball game won by the Wildcats 78-76. I am sure that I am one of many who was unhappy with the choice of the play called by Wichita with 3.2 seconds left and two points down. I am also 100% sure that to criticize that one play, either in its choice or in its execution, is nitpicking an otherwise super duper season by the Shockers Coach Gregg Marshall or the players. The last play was called Havlicek. The inbound passer, Teleke Cotton, had three options; 1. throw a lob to Cleanthony Early cutting off a screen to the hoop, 2. inbound to Guard Ron Baker coming off a screen at the foul line going into the near corner, or 3. inbound to Point Guard Fred Van Vleet popping free at the top of the key. Kentuckys Coach, John Calipari, love him or hate him but admit one thing, he is no dummy. Early, who already had 31 points and, notwithstanding that Kentucky had about seven future NBA players on their roster, was the best player on the floor. Calipari had the entire City of Lexington guarding Early when he moved one inch. Early must have been wearing size XXXL shorts because at least three Kentucky players were inside his shorts with him. Ron Baker cut to the corner only to have two Wildcats blue shirts switch onto him. So the ball went to Van Vleet. Early is no dummy either. He cut to the hoop but could see nothing but blue so he reversed his direction and popped back out to the foul line extended left. All Van Vleet had to do was look to his left and he would have seen Early five feet away as the Kentucky defenders hadnt recovered quickly enough. But he looked right to see if Cotton, who had inbounded the ball, was free when he stepped back onto the court. He wasnt and Van Vleets 3 pointer his back rim and out. Okay, they played a great game. All of the talking heads agreed that Kentucky needed to have their sneakers checked to see what they had stepped in because last night was the best game they played all year. They made shots off the backboard they had no business making, they shot foul shots at a percentage they couldnt duplicate again if their collective lives depended upon it and they didnt commit their usual 15 stupid fouls. I dont want this to sound like sour grapes or a put down of the Wichita coaches, I just disagree with the final play called. Cleanthony Early was The Man last night. I would have called the final play for Early to shoot a three to win or a clean path to the hoop to tie. How, you ask. A screen, a double screen, a triple screen, a quadruple screen. Have a kid on the bench run out to the parking lot and drive the team bus onto the court for Early to shoot behind. Anything to get Early the ball. Wichita State was down to one shot. Ill be damned if that last shot was going to be in the hands of anyone but Cleanthony Early last night. It was a nice ride. The players should be proud of what they accomplished. Coach Marshall, and his staff, should be proud also. He did one heck of a job. Gregg Marshall can coach for me any day. The students should be on Cloud 9. They should be bragging about their team and their school for the next five years. Wichita State officials, from the sports administration people to the President of the school, should be puffing out their chests. If Wichita State were a business instead of a school, and the NCAA were not made up of morons, there would be a little something in the players pay checks this week. Just wishful thinking. Now. we can turn our attention to the second best team in the country, the UConn Huskies womens team. Yesterday, the #1 seed and #1 ranked undefeated team in the USA, UConn ladies began their NCAA womens D-1 title run against #16 seed Prairie View A & M. The game was supposed to be an easy one but dont be cocky especially when your team only goes 7 or 8 deep and hasnt played in two weeks. So, what happened. UConn held Prairie View to 12 points in the first half while they scored 44 themselves. At the end, UConn had all five starters in double figures beating Prairie View 87-44. UConn was led by Breanna Stewart with 19 points and 10 boards. Stefanie Dolson, from Minisink Valley, had 11 points on 3-4 from the field and 5-6 from the charity stripe. Dolson also pulled down 6 rebounds and had a team high 6 assists. By the way, it is not unusual for the 65 Stefanie Dolson to lead UConn in assists as she is unanimously considered the best passing center in the nation. Next up for UConn is #9 seed St. Josephs at 7:00 PM on Tuesday from Lincoln, Nebraska. Check your TV listings especially one of the ESPN channels. Last night the UConn v.Prairie View game was on ESPN2. Quick trivia question, what NBA and ABA center played his college ball at Prairie View? Answer. The Big Z. 69 center Zelmo Beaty. On March 24, 1962, Emile Griffith beat Benny Kid Paret to regain his Welterweight Championship in Madison Square Garden. Griffith beat Paret so savagely in the twelfth round that Paret had to be taken from the ring to a hospital in a coma. He would die 10 days later. It was believed by many that if the referee had done his job and stopped the fight when it was clear that Paret was defenseless disaster could have been avoided. The crowd at the fight and the general public (the fight was nationally televised) blamed Griffith. He was treated like a criminal for many years. People spit on him in the street, accosted him and booed him when he was out in public in NYC where he lived. The general consensus was that Griffith, who was from the Virgin Islands, was taunted by the Cuban Paret, who called him a Maricon at the weigh in. Maricon is an especially nasty Spanish curse which means Faggot in English. Griffith had 112 career fights, held both the Welterweight and Middleweight Championships and died at age 75 with Pugilist Dementia from all of the punishment he had taken over the years. For the majority of his fights, especially the ones held in MSG, Emile Griffith trained at the Concord Hotel in the Catskill Mountains, two hours away from his NYC home, in Sullivan County, N.Y. On March 24, 2006, the United States Postal Service unveiled its new Baseball Sluggers postage stamp set at Mickey Mantles Restaurant in NYC. The set of four stamps will be first issued at Yankee Stadium on July 15 prior to the game between the Bronx Bombers and the White Sox. The stamps depict four Hall Of Fame sluggers with ties to New York City; Mickey Mantle (Yankees), Mel Ott (Giants), Roy Campanella (Dodgers) all of whom played their entire careers in the Big Apple and Hank Greenberg who played for the Detroit Tigers but set schoolboy records at James Monroe High School in the Bronx. On March 24, 1975, Muhammad Ali TKOs Chuck Wepner in the 15th round to retain his Heavyweight Championship. Wepner, from Bayonne, N.J., was a journeyman fighter known as the Bayonne Bleeder. He was the inspiration for Sly Stallones Rocky movies. For the 1975 fight with Ali, which took place in Ohio, Wepner trained for seven weeks in New York States Catskill Mountains. On March 24, 1973, Nate Tiny Archibald became the first player in NBA history to lead the league in both scoring (34.0 ppg) and assists (11.4 apg) in the same season. On March 24, 1979, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson lead their respective college teams to victory and into the NCAA Tournament finals against each other. Magic led Michigan State in destroying Penn State by the score of 101-67. Birds Indiana State team beat DePaul 76-74. Both Magic and Bird had outstanding games. Magic registered a triple-double with 29 points to go along with 10 rebounds and 10 assists, as he was nearly perfect by going 9-10 from the field and 11-12 from the charity stripe for his 29 points. Bird narrowly missed his own triple-double registering 35 points, 16 rebounds and 9 assists. The 2014 mens D-1 NCAA Basketball Tournament resumes on Thursday, March 27th with the Sweet Sixteen. In case you are a stat person, the sixteen teams remaining break down as follows; #1 seeds-3, #2 seeds -2, #3 seeds- 1, #4 seeds- 4, #5 seeds- 0, #6 seeds- 1, #7 seeds- 1, #8 seeds- 1, #9 seeds- 0, #10 seeds- 1, #11 seeds- 2. There are no teams left which were seeded from 12-16. The Selection Committee has 10 of the Sweet Sixteen seeded between 1-4, not bad. I am going to give you two trivia questions regarding the NCAA finals. 1. How many times have teams from the SAME CONFERENCE met in the NCAA finals? Answer: Three. Indiana-Michigan (Big Ten, 1976), Villanova-Georgetown (Big East, 1985), Kansas-Oklahoma (Big Eight, 1988). It could happen again this year. 2. How many times have schools from the SAME STATE met in the finals? Answer: It has happened twice but both times it was the same two schools. Cincinnati and Ohio State met in the finals twice, in 1961 and 1962. It can not happen this year. The 2013 finals pitted Louisville against Michigan (Louisville won.) In 2014 both Louisville and Michigan are in the Sweet Sixteen but since they are both on the same side of the brackets the best that can happen is that they could meet in the semi-finals of the Final Four but not in the final game for the championship. I have to throw out Kudos to Albert White from Fallsburg who was the first fan to express his dissatisfaction with Wichita States final play last night. Albert was also the first basketball fan to throw out the best alternative play. Nice calls Albert. We may have a future College or NBA coach hiding in Fallsburg. Okay, the mens NCAA is now just for fans to root for an Alma Mater or to see a coach who you dont like get his butt kicked. I can hear everyone taking sides between Pitinos Louisville Cardinals and their intra-state rivals Caliparis Kentucky Wildcats. It is now time to get on the UConn womens bandwagon. Stefanie Dolson and all of Minisink Valley could always use more fans. Hop aboard the train is leaving soon. Stay safe. See ya tomorrow.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 15:10:17 +0000
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