Friday, March 16, 2012

A WIN IS A WIN

***SYRACUSE SURVIVES NC-ASHVILLE***
It took a couple of disputed calls at the end, but the Orange managed to outlast a game Ashville team. It took me one replay to see that an Ashville player invaded the key before Jardine released his shot, but after four replays, the crack(ed) announcing team still didn't. Then there was a bad no-call with 30 seconds left. Triche was clearly fouled on the in-bounds play, but that was ignored, along with the fact that the ball went out of bounds off Triche. I think Ashville would have been happier with either call than with no whistle at all.
Syracuse now knows what it will take to win games without Melo under the basket. We'll see tomorrow if they can execute.

## The NCAA will demand stricter standards for university's Academic Progress Rate. The rate will be 50%, and teams that don't meet that level may be banned from the March Tournament. If that rule was in effect now, teams like Syracuse, Connecticut, Indiana and St. Bonaventure, would be ineligible. The national average for men's basketball is 67%, while the women's average is a healthy 89%.
What is the NCAA thinking? Here are these kids busting their butts to bring national glory to their respective schools, attending practices, running drills and traveling all over the country to participate in their sport, but now the NCAA wants them to do things like attend classes, write term papers and read books? Don't they realize what a hardship this will create? Why, these student-athletes (snicker) wouldn't even have time to go out, drink beer and get into bar fights anymore. Listen to what Ashton Gibbs, Pittsburgh Panther cager, had to say on why his 16-16 Panthers would welcome an NIT bid: "That's what we came to college for. To play basketball."

## Bobby Valentine better stick to picking on the Yankees. They have too much class to lower themselves to trading barbs with baseball's premier attention hound. When Boston was playing the Marlins in a spring training game, Florida's manager Ozzie Guillen got himself thrown out of the game. Valentine couldn't resist standing up and waving goodbye to Ozzie. When he was told what Bobby had done, Ozzie replied, "*&$% him!" Not very imaginative, but effective.

## Japanese phenom, Yu Darvish, is impressing some people with his array of pitches. However, some scouts have noticed that he often wipes the sweat off his brow and then rubs the baseball while still standing on the mound, a clear violation. If Diasuke Matsuzaka gave us the 'Gyro Balls,' then Darvish must be giving us the "Schweaty Balls."

## Gee, maybe the experts were right for once. I mentioned in an earlier post, that everyone seem to be picking the lower seeds. In yesterdays' first full round, 14 of the 16 games were won by the lower seed. The upsets: #11 seed Colorado beat #6 UNLV, and, as usual, a #12 beat a #5, VCU over Whicita St.

***THEY SAID IT***
"Q. What do you call a photo series of Miss July, Jessa Hinton, and nine other Playboy playmates Tebowing? A. Ten of my favourite prayers." -- RJ Currie
"The Canadian Opera Company has added two sumo wrestlers — including 6-8, 625-pound Emanuel "Tiny" Yarbrough — to the cast of the opera "Semele" for its May 9-26 run in Toronto. In other words, no need to wait till the fat lady sings." -- Dwight Perry
"The most maddening part about March Madness: "Watching a million schmaltzy CBS ads for the Masters." -- Jerry Perisho
"Mike D’Antoni resigned as coach of the New York Knicks. Clearly he could handle Linsanity better than Melo-ness." -- Janice Hough
" A fifth-grader at Omaha's Columbian school got in trouble for organizing an NCAA Tournament pool. Great. We have one kid proving he has what it takes to join the American workforce and he's in trouble. Why is he in trouble? He charged $5 to enter the bracket. The kid has a better economic plan than anyone on our City Council." -- Brad Dickson

CP-

No comments: