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3.31.2003
Final Four Set: The NCAA men's basketball tournament has their Final Four contestants after Sunday's games. The #1 seed from the South, the Texas Longhorns, held off a dogged Michigan State Spartans team 85-76 in a virtual home game in San Antonio to advance to the coveted Final Four spot while in another virtual home game, the Syracuse Orangemen upended the #1 East seed Oklahoma Sooners 63-47 in Albany to advance.
Neither game was ever really in doubt and after the scintillating Kansas games of the last few days, they seemed a bit dull in comparison. The Final Four looks like this:
Kansas v. Marquette
Texas v. Syracuse
An unfortunate side note to today's games is that police had to be called in to quell disturbances in the home of Michigan State, East Lansing, Michigan, after fans got unruly. Fans going nuts after sporting events seem less a function of fans being elated or pissed off as it's something that's expected of fans no matter what. How boring.
Baseball's back, is there gonna be trouble?: Although some members of the Jock Talk editorial staff consider baseball to be as about exciting as watching paint dry, some of us love it. The 2003 season got underway Sunday with the World Champion Anaheim Angels losing to the improved Texas Rangers, 6-3. Although there is labor peace for at least for more seasons, baseball is so poorly run that we fully expect Bud "Beezlebud" Selig to mismanage things at some point during the season. One big issue is: what to do about the Montreal Expos? They'll be drawing small crowds for most of the season and are supposed to move to either Portland, OR or the Washington, DC area but who really knows? We suspect that The Powers That Be at MBL HQ don't. Other storylines: Will the Cubs continue to suck? Can the Giants contend? Twins: Contenders or frauds? Can a buyer be found for both the Dodgers and the Angels? Will anyone dare pitch to Barry Bonds? Stay tuned.
3.30.2003
Cardiac Kids Strike Again: The Kansas Jayhawks seem to have the look of a team that could win the NCAA men's basketball tournament this year. Of course, Coach Roy Williams' teams have had that look in the past and it's usually ended up with Coach Roy crying at a press conference. But the vibe is different with this year's Jayhawks. Led by Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich, they play a solid team game and don't seem to crack under pressure. Hinrich was huge Saturday in KU's thrilling 78-75 victory over the #1 seed in the West, the Arizona Wildcats. He scored 28 points, had 5 assists and had a timely block of the Cats great guard Jason Gardner, who was attempting a game-tying 3 point shot with seconds left. After throwing away a 14-point lead in the second half, Kansas hung on to win to send them to the Final Four, the fourth in Coach Williams' 15 years in Lawrence.
That's two thrillers in a row for the storied Kansas basketball program who figure to have an easier time of it in the Final Four against the only real contender for "Cinderella" team (a term Cyd hates) left, The Golden Eagles of Marquette. Marquette humiliated the storied Kentucky Wildcats 83-69 in Minneapolis to book their first trip to the Final Four since their legendary coach Al McGuire led them to the title in 1977. Star guard Keith Bogans was hurt for Kentucky but to honest they didn't bother to show up on Saturday. The pressure on 'Cats coach Tubby Smith will be incredible now after seeing his team's 26-game winning streak disintegrate. The other two regional finals are on Sunday.
SARS in the NHL?: Two Buffalo Sabres players were ordered quarantined for 10 days, ending their seasons, after it was feared that they might have been exposed to the SARS virus, a flu-like virus that has swept through Asia. The players, Rhett Warrener and Brian Campbell, might have been exposed through a relative of Campbell's, who is a nurse in Toronto. We hope they are OK.
3.29.2003
Elite Eight Set: The NCAA men's basketball tournament picture got clearer on Friday as the Elite Eight was set after a round of games during the day.
There will be a new champion this year as defending champs Maryland lost a heartbreaker to Michigan State, 60-58 in San Antonio. Syracuse held off a furious rally by Auburn to pull out a 79-98 win in Albany, practically a home game for the Orangemen. While there's no true Cinderella team this year, Butler came closest to fitting the bill but they got bounced out of the tourney in convincing fashion by the East Region's #1 seed, Oklahoma. The #1 seed in the South, Texas, stayed the course by beating Connecticut by a score of 82-78.
The marquee game on Saturday will be Arizona vs. Kansas at the Pond in Anaheim. The 'Cats are the #1 seed in the West but Kansas is coming off an emotional win over Duke, so they could have the mo' going in to the game. Kentucky should easily beat Marquette in Minneapolis, but they play the games for a reason: anything can happen.
No Yankees On TV In The Bronx:The details are too boring and depressing to go in to here (it's about the money, of course) but approximately 3 million New York City area Yankee fans will not be able to watch their team on cable TV this year after a deal brokered by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg between YES Network (the Yankees media arm) and Cablevision collapsed amid charges of "reneging" on deals and other invective.
Baseball seems to have a death wish and this is another example of something that the arguably best run sports league in the world, the NFL, would never allow to happen. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail and something can be worked out but with George Steinbrenner involved, who knows? It's hard to believe we're typing this but we actually feel a little sorry for Yankee fans tonight.
3.28.2003
Form Mostly Holds: Three of the four favorites won their Sweet 16 games Thursday at the NCAA men?s basketball tournament. Top seeds Arizona (over Notre Dame) and Kentucky (over Wisconsin), along with #2 seed Kansas (over Duke) advanced to the regional finals. The only upset was a mild one, as #3 seed Marquette held off #2 Pittsburgh.
3.27.2003
Queer as Kent: Jeff Kent of the Houston Astros showed what he?s made of last year when as a member of the San Francisco Giants he hesitated before taking his towel off in the locker room one day by asking the assembled media if there were any ?queers? or ?women'?among them.
Kent?s comments went largely unnoticed, but he defended himself in the current issue of ESPN the Magazine. Here is Kent?s explanation of the incident:
"I'm not John Rocker. I made a joke. I'd just come out of the shower. I'm about to drop my towel and I've got 30 media people around me. So I asked, 'Did you talk to Barry yet?' They said 'Barry gave us the bird.' I said, 'Then let me give you this.' I didn't see any women, so I dropped my towel and quickly pulled on my underwear. Everyone laughed. Then I said, 'I hope I didn't offend any women or queers in here.' Is it bad to say queer? Hell, there's a Showtime series called Queer as Folk. I went to Berkeley. I don't have a problem with homosexuals."
We?re not buying Kent?s reasoning. In his context, ?queer? was not said as a term of empowerment but rather as a putdown. He remains a jerk.
3.26.2003
Another Burkism: Martha Burk declared that broadcasting the Masters would be an insult to women in the armed forces. Maybe Martha Burk is an insult to women in the armed forces - she's worrying about CBS broadcasting a golf tournament when the quarter million women she's trying to stand behind are putting their lives at risk. Maybe she should protest all of the broadcast networks - afterall, the military has had a long history of promoting men over women and, since all the networks are broadcasting the war, they're supporting the military's oppression of women.
Cyd's Rant on Stanford: This may be completely uninteresting to anyone else, but I need to rip Stanford's Matt Lottich a - well, you get the picture. Before the Pac-10 tournament, I told a member of our discussion board that Lottich would be undone in the NCAA tournament by Lottich - who shoots with reckless abandon. In the Pac-10 tournament, a 1-7 stretch of his - shooting carelessly from beyond the arc - sent his team to a loss to USC. In the first round against San Diego, he shot 6-15 - not great, but not terrible. Then, against, UConn, the fool took 11 shots - eight from threepoint land - and hit only three. And, as I had predicted, he cost them their season. The two players who took as many shots as Lottich - Julius Barnes and Justin Davis - shot 15-26. I'm afraid Stanford coach Mike Montgomery had his great run in the late '90s and just doesn't have what it takes to win in the postseason. His postseason tourney record the last two years: 2-4.
3.25.2003
Don't Lose in Baghdad: Uday Hussein, eldest son of Saddam Hussein, has been accused of the brutal torture of Iraqi athletes who fail to do well in International competitions. Latif Yahia, a former body double for Uday, tells Sports Illustrated graphic details of athletes being electrocuted, beaten, and killed. Uday, known as "The Butcher's Boy," has been the head of Iraq's Olympic committee since 1984.
3.24.2003
NHL Playoffs Are Finally Wild: The Minnesota Wild clinched their first-ever franchise playoff berth with a 4-0 victory over the Detroit Red Wings. The Red Wings are tied for first in the West with Dallas; Minnesota is currently sixth in the West, but are just four points out of fourth.
Tiger . . . Again: Ernie Els was supposed to be the second-best player in the world. Tiger Woods left no doubt who #1 still is. At the Bay Hill Invitational final round on Sunday, Woods shot a 4-under 68 to finish the event 19 under par, 11 strokes ahead of second place. Els, who was in contention after the second day, finished with a +5 on Sunday, even for the tournament, 19 shots behind Tiger and light years from catching #1.
3.23.2003
One for the Ages: Arizona beat Gonzaga, 96-95, in double overtime Saturday in their second-round NCAA tournament game, in a contest already being called a classic. The top-seeded Wildcats had all they could handle from the Zags, who missed two game-winning shots in the final 10 seconds of the second OT. The single-elimination format of the NCAA tourney is why these kinds of games are memorable.
Please Shut Up: We had the misfortune of watching some of the ESPN?s tournament recap show. The highlights are great and the interviews interesting, but we get sick real quick of analysts Digger Phelps and the annoying Dick Vitale. Both of these ex-coaches exemplify the worst part of college basketball coverage?excessive coach-worship. Every winning coach is praised as a strategic and psychological genius, and even the losers are hailed for having their teams prepared. Just one time we would love to hear either of these suck-ups say a team lost because their coach stunk and was unprepared.
3.21.2003
Wild Finishes on Day One: The first day of the men's NCAA basketball tournament started with a thriller, as California matched North Carolina State's 3-pointer with seconds remaining to win the first game of the day, 76-74. In all, half of the first round games were decided by five points or less.
The exceptions to those close competitions were the games featuring the #1 seeds Arizona and Oklahoma. Against Vermont and South Carolina State, respectively, they asserted why they are two of the favorites to win it all, winning their two games by a combined total of 46 points.
Bibby Gets Latest Laugh: A day after Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal whined about Mike Bibby being on Team USA Basketball, Bibby scored two late baskets to help lead the Sacramento Kings to a 107-99 victory against Shaq's Lakers. With 16 games left, the Lakers are tied with the Jazz for the #6 seed and are four games behind Minnesota for the fifth seed.
Canadians Boo U.S. National Anthem: Canadians - from Montreal, it should be no surprise - booed the Star-Spangled Banner as it played before the Thursday game between the visiting New York Islanders and the Montreal Canadiens.
The team from the U.S. beat the team from Canada, 6-3.
3.20.2003
Unlucky to be a Catamount: The Vermont men's basketball team first drew #1-seeded Arizona on Sunday, then struggled just to make it to Salt Lake City in time to play the game. The Catamounts' flight was delayed in Denver due to a severe snowstorm, which meant the team finally landed in Salt Lake City at 11pm local time - just 14 hours before their game. Colorado's trip to Tampa, Fla., to play Michigan State was also delayed due to the snowstorm.
The Big Baby Whines: Shaquille O'Neal hasn't committed to playing on the U.S.A. basketball team, but he's already complaining about people who have committed to playing: namely, Mike Bibby. Said Shaq: "How did Mike Bibby get on the team? Any Cub Scout with Boy Scouts can do Boy Scoutish things. When (Bibby) was in the Cub Scouts, he was a Cub Scout. When he was with Vancouver, nobody heard about (him). Now that he's with Sacramento ... he's on the team. I ain't going." Waaa waaa waaa.
3.19.2003
The Tourney Gets Under Way: The NCAA Men's Basketball tournament got underway on Tuesday with an overtime game between the 64th- and 65th-seeded teams. UNC-Asheville became only the third team with a losing record to win an NCAA tournament game with the 92-84 victory over Texas Southern.
Who's Playing During the War: It seems everyone has a different way of handling sports competitions during the upcoming war with Iraq. The NCAA decided that it will, barring a catastrophic event, play its tournament games this weekend. Major League Baseball grounded games that were to take place between the Seattle Mariners and the Oakland Athletics, which was to feature the Mariners' Ichiro Suzuki's return to his home country. Meanwhile, the NFL has decided to send its players overseas for camps in the NFL Europe league.
Rudy Has Cancer: Houston Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich has a tumor on his bladder that will be treated without surgery. The Rockets, without Rudy, lost on Tuesday to the Seattle Supersonics, 100-94.
3.18.2003
NCAA Tourneys May Not Start This Week: If (or, make that when) the United States launches an attack on Iraq this week, the NCAA may postpone all tournaments this weekend, including the men's and women's basketball national championship tournaments.
UCLA Moves On - Finally: The worst kept secret in college basketball finally leaked out of Westwood on Monday: UCLA head coach Steve Lavin would no longer be with the Bruins. The much-maligned coach finished the 2002/03 season with a 10-19 record, which was the first losing season for UCLA in a bajillion years. While Lavin took UCLA to five Sweet 16's, he was never able to break into the upper echelon of teams, which other Pac-10 teams (Arizona and Stanford) made it to the Final Four and beyond. The rumor list of his potential replacements is too long to get into here.
3.16.2003
Hull Still Scoring: Brett Hull moved into 5th on the NHL all-time scoring
list on Saturday with his 709th goal as the Detroit
Red Wings beat the Colorado Avalanche, 5-3. He is now
eight goals behind fourth (Phil Esposito) and 185
goals behind #1 Wayne Gretzky.
Texas Wins Big Tournament: With three of the top ten teams in the nation in the
Big XII, their women's basketball conference
tournament was highly anticipated; #7 Texas came
through. They beat #9 Texas Tech, 67-57, to head into
the NCAA tournament with a #1 or #2 seed and a lot of
momentum.
Another Bird Heads South: The Philadelphia
Eagles let another top defensive player get away, as
Hugh Douglas signed a five-year, $27 million contract
with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Last year, the Eagles
lost highly regarded Jeremiah Trotter to the
Washington Redskins in free agency; their defense
barely lost a step last year from that loss.
3.15.2003
Just 20 Seconds Less: Embattled UCLA had everything it wanted in its grasp. After the final television timeout, they had a double-digit lead over Oregon and were just minutes away from the Pac-10 tournament finals - and a Tuesday date with UNC-Asheville in the play-in game of the NCAA tournament. Then, an all-too-familiar theme came into play for the Bruins: Steve Lavin started coaching.
Instead of playing the game that had gotten them to the lead, Lavin had his players sit on the ball, holding it until the shot clock ran down, heaving up a last-second desperation and running down the court to play defense.
The problem: Oregon is a damn good shooting team. Just like that, Luke Jackson hit a 3-pointer with 17 seconds left to life the Ducks over the Bruins, 75-74, and end Steve Lavin's coaching career at UCLA.
The Pac-10 final will, strangely, be a rematch of last year's Pac-10 final as #5 Oregon faces #7 USC.
"Can I Get My Money Back? After Texas Tech head coach Bob Knight returned his $250,000 salary for this year after his team "underperformed," Knight has his Red Raiders two wins from an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. Seeded 7th in the Big XII, Tech's 17-11 record, and short run in the conference tourney, could even be enough to get them an at-large bid; a win over Oklahoma on Saturday would surely secure that.
3.14.2003
Big Guys Fall in the West: It was not a good day to be a top-seeded team in the Pac-10 tournament. After top-seeded Arizona fell to the UCLA Bruins in overtime, 96-89, Oregon and USC kept their hopes of an NCAA tournament berth alive by upsetting Arizona State and Stanford, respectively. Those three upsets also provided a lot of excitement as they were decided by a combined 13 points. California was the only favorite to win on Thursday, beating Oregon State in the sloppiest game of the day, 69-46, after leading at halftime by only two.
Rose Looking Rosier: Pete Rose's biggest hurdle to being reinstated into baseball has long been MLB commissioner Bud Selig. That hurdle may be lowering a couple notches as Selig has confirmed that he is actively considering Rose's application for reinstatement. In a comment, Selig said that he has let Rose's request sit on his desk for 5 1/2 years - and that is long enough.
Flyers Trade Pays Quick Dividends: Fresh off the NHL's trade deadline, Philadelphia's newest Flyer, Tony Amonte, scored a goal and had an assist in the team's 5-3 victory over the Hurricanes on Thursday. The win leaves the Flyers just two points behind New Jersey in the Atlantic Division.
3.13.2003
Lakers Heading South: The Lakers' sudden road trip slide continued on Wednesday, losing at Detroit for the first time in 12 years, 111-88. Los Angeles is now .5 games behind the Jazz for the sixth spot in the West and are now five games behind the T'Wolves for fifth place - with only 20 games to go.
Virgins at the Dance: This year's men's NCAA basketball tournament will already feature a number of teams who have never been to "The Big Dance" before. The Wagner Seahawks from the Northeast Conference are the latest tournament virgins to get in. IUPUI, San Diego, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee are also tournament virgins who will be playing next weekend.
3.12.2003
Streak Ends at 70: The Connecticut women's basketball team had won 70 in a row. Now, they enter the NCAA tournament on a losing streak. Villanova upended the Huskies, 52-48, to win the Big East Tournament and take the conference's automatic NCAA tournament bid. In that 70 game streak, Connecticut had beaten Villanova three straight times by a combined 97 points.
Lakers Give Fans a Wake-Up Call: This is the Laker's problem. Suddenly re-annointed as "the team to beat" in the NBA, they go on the road, visit the lowly Chicago Bulls, and get killed, 116-99. The loss puts the Utah Jazz back in a tie with the Lakers for the 6th seed in the Western Conference and keeps them 4.5 games behind Minnesota for the 5th seed. The Lakers, who are 11-16 on the road, play 14 of their last 21 games on the road.
Walton Gets a Thumbs Up: If you haven't tuned into ESPN to check out Bill Walton's Long, Strange Trip, find time to do so. The show features Walton travelling around the country, talking with popular sports, entertainment and political figures about things like his "upcoming" talk show, the Grateful Dead, schooling Kevin McHale in one-on-one, and the like. He's got a great sense of humor and it shines throughout the show.
3.11.2003
Knight Isn't Worth His Salary: At least, that's what Bob Knight, the head men's basketball coach at Texas Tech, told Tech this week. The Red Raiders finished 7th in the Big XII this season - below Knight's expectations - which has driven Knight to not accept his salary for this season; for his team to make it to the NCAA tournament, they'll have to win the Big XII tournament. Knight would have earned $250,000 this year.
Gonzaga Finally Knocked Off: The Gonzaga Bulldogs have enjoyed several years atop the West Coast Conference; it took a home team to end it. The University of San Diego Toreros beat Gonzaga - seeded #1 in the WCC tournament - in San Diego, 72-63, to take the WCC title and the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Gonzaga, hovering around an RPI of #40, will have to wait until Sunday to see if they make it into the tournament.
3.10.2003
This One May Hurt Duke: As Duke was angling for a #2 seed in the NCAA men's basketball tournament, their fiercest rival had a hand to play in their fate. North Carolina came up with their biggest win of the season in beating Duke, 82-79, for only the second time in their last 13 meetings. Not only did the loss send the Blue Devils to a #3 seed in the NCAA tourney (or worse), it also stripped them of the #1 seed in the ACC tournament.
3.9.2003
The New Buster Douglas: Corrie Sanders will now be remember up there with Buster Douglas as one of the little guys who took down a champion. Sanders knocked out Wladimir Klitschko just 27 seconds into the second round of their boxing match, making Sanders the new WBO heavyweight champion. It was only the second loss in Klitschko's 42 match boxing career.
Outcomes Stay the Course: In college basketball on Saturday, though, there were no upsets to be found. All 13 games featuring at least one Top 25 team went according to ranking, featuring wins by the top to teams in the country: Arizona and Kentucky.
A New Low in Jersey: The 2003 New Jersey Nets can add two infamous team records to their season: lowest point total in a quarter (8) and lowest point total in a half (24). The low-scoring half came in an 84-71 loss to the Houston Rockets, which was the Nets' fourth straight loss.
3.8.2003
No Longer a Giant: Jason Sehorn has been the ultimate gay NFL icon--a model?s face and circuit boy?s body that he never was shy about showing off. His marriage to actress Angie Harmon didn?t dull the allure. Sehorn, though, is temporarily unemployed after being cut by the New York Giants, who had wanted the cornerback to take a $3 million pay cut.
Sehorn was overrated the past couple of years; being telegenic, articulate and based in New York gave him a higher profile than his skills deserved. But he had some memorable moments. Giants fans will remember a play in the 2000 playoffs in which he tipped the ball while diving, caught it and then got up and ran for a touchdown. We?ll always remember, though, the time he had to slow down while trying to make a tackle because his pants were falling down and he stopped to pull them up; he missed the tackle but kept his dignity.
3.7.2003
NFL Game 1 Announced: The New York Jets will travel south to take on the Washington Redskins in the first game of the 2003 NFL season, set to start Thursday, Sept. 4. ABC will broadcast the game in lieu of their final Monday Night game for Week 17. That final MNF game will be abandoned to avoid a situation where a team has to play a Wild Card game after a short week (as the San Francisco 49ers did this past year).
Martha Burk Won't Be Outdone: In the latest round of "who will protest the loudest," Martha Burk filed a request for 48 people to protest at the front gate of Augusta National during the Masters. Burk also has requested to have 200 protesters along Washington Road - something the county sheriff has already said he won't allow because of the traffic on Washington Road. You know, if this isn't all about publicity, I wonder how many protesters are there when the cameras aren't there.
3.6.2003
Chargers Making All the Moves - Literally: The San Diego Chargers have had a roller coast week. First, they triggered a clause in their stadium lease that will allow them to seek a new city in which to play. The "trigger" angered many in San Diego - including the Mayor and City Council, who formed a Chargers task force due to report back to the City Council on March 18.
On Wednesday, the Chargers landed one of the biggest names on the free agent market: wide receiver David Boston, who was a free agent after four years with the Arizona Cardinals. Boston will replace recently released Curtis Conway as Drew Brees' #1 receiver.
The Last To Win One: Every Division I NCAA basketball team now has a win. The North Carolina A&T Aggies, now 1-23, beat Norfolk State (12-14), 61-54 in not only a rare win for them, but a rare road win. Don't expect the Aggies, from the Mideastern Athletic Conference, to make a run to the NCAA Tournament: they are dead last in RPI ranking at #327.
3.5.2003
The Bonnies Say Bye-Bye: The St. Bonaventure's men's basketball team decided to forfeit its two remaining games of the season. The forfeiture is a protest against the Atlantic 10's decision that the team would have to forfeit six conference wins in which junior center Jamil Terrell played, and sit out the A-10 tournament. The conference recently declared that his transfer from a J.C. was not kosher because he had failed to meet certain academic requirements. The Bonnies were set to play UMass and Dayton this weekend. The forfeitures have caused a bit of a mess for the A-10 conference tournament.
Georgia's Harrick Speaks; Then His Team Hollers: Georgia head basketball coach Jim Harrick sat down with ESPN's Dick Vitale and gave his side of the scandal that is rocking his basketball program. A former player has accused Harrick and his son of giving him money and helping him cheat to get better grades. Harrick on Tuesday denied the allegations and said that everything would come out in the next week.
Harrick's team Tuesday night pulled off their biggest win of the season, toppling #3 Florida with a bank shot with under 20 seconds left in the game, 82-81.
Rice To Play 'Til 46? Jerry Rice signed a six-year, $30 million contract extension to remain with the team, potentially, through his 46th birthday. "It could happen," Rice's agent, Jim Steiner said. "He takes it year to year based on how he feels and how he's playing. Who knows." Rice made 92 catches for 1,211 yards and seven touchdowns last season.
3.4.2003
Girls Basketball Team Scores 7 Points - and Wins! Yes, you read that correctly. And, not only did Chester County of Tennessee score only seven points, but it took them overtime to do it. Their 7-4 victory over McNairy Central in the girl's AA tournament game is believed to be the lowest scoring girls' basketball game in state history. This game has now been entered as state's evidence Exhibit A why there should be a shot clock at every level of basketball.
The Queens of NASCAR: At the beginning of Sunday's NASCAR race on Fox the announcer, Chris Meyers, referred to his two side kicks (Jeff Hammond & Darly Waltrip) as..."the Segfried & Roy of Nascar" ... to which Waltrip replied ... "we're not the QUEENS, we're the kings of Nascar." Not the most offensive thing they could have said, but pretty offcolor nonetheless.
Gay Marriage Meets Warren Sapp: Since we were busy watching the Super Bowl, we're just now hearing about Bravo's clever graphics that introduced their Super Bowl counterprograming: Gay Weddings. The graphics incorporated football terminology with bits from their Gay Weddings series. You can see some of the creative here
3.3.2003
It's Woods Again: No player ranked higher than 19th had ever won the Match Play Championship. No player had ever won all four tournaments in the World Golf Championships. Tiger Woods ended both droughts on Sunday, beating David Toms 2 and 1 to win his first Match Play Championship and round out his WGC trophies. Woods was up four shots early, but Toms hung in there and made Tiger fight for the win all the way to the 35th hole of the 36 hole championship round.
In case you were wondering, the "2 and 1" score in a match play competition means that the victorious player was up by 2 holes with only 1 hole to play. Each hole is scored as one point, with it either going to one player or being "halved" where no player gains on the other.
St. John's Gets Improbable Dozen: Duke's chances of a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament took a solid hit Sunday when they squandered a very late 11-point lead at St. John's, losing the Red Storm (13-12), 72-71. St. John's scored the last 12 points of the game after trailing 71-60 with 4:05 left. With the loss, Duke slips to #7 in the coveted RPI rankings - and should slip in the two polls as well.
3.2.2003
Swiss Win Americas Cup: It may seem odd, but a landlocked country has won the Americas Cup by beating a country surrounded by water. Switzerland's Alinghi didn't just beat New Zealand, they shut them out, taking all five races run over the last couple of weeks in New Zealand. The Swiss will have to defend their championship on the shores of another country in 2007 - probably somewhere in the Atlantic or Mediterranean.
Salukis get big win: The Southern Illinois Salukis, the subject of fun trivia questions for the last year since their appearance in the NCAA tournament in 2002, made a strong statement for a return to the tournament with a 70-62 victory over Creighton on Saturday. Southern Illinois' coach's name, it may be of interest to some, is Bruce Weber. With players like David Carney and Brad Korn, that shouldn't be a big surprise to anyone. Find out what's a saluki.
3.1.2003
"She" Joins Parcells In Dallas: The least likely player for Bill Parcells to go after in the offseason is, instead, the first one to join him in Dallas. Terry Glenn, whom Parcells coached in New England during their Super Bowl run, was a thorn in Parcells side while they were together; Parcells made it widely known that he did not want to draft Glenn while Patriots owner Bob Kraft all but forced him to. Of course, now the two men are saying they're long-lost lovers who have been kept apart for far too long. What we do know is this: Glenn could only help the Cowboys' passing offense, which was ranked ahead of only Houston last year.
Lakers Look Like Clippers: This time, they can't blame Shaq being on the bench. They can't blame Kobe's bad leg. They'll probably try to blame it on missing coach Phil Jackson, who was out for the third straight game; but, we won't buy it. No, the Los Angeles Lakers, who were on their way to being reannointed everyone's favorite to "win it all," hit a wall in Seattle by the name of Ray Allen; and they have a 107-90 loss to show for it. Seattle, despite being the fourth worst team in the West, reopened some eyes to the Lakers' Achilles heal in their run next month at the Championship: they're 11-16 on the road which, for a team who probably won't have homecourt advantage once in the postseason, isn't a good thing.
2.28.2003
Everyone Wants To Protest at the Masters: At first it was the women. Then it was Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. Now, the Ku Klux Klan is getting in on the hippest new act in sports: protesting at the Masters. Yes, those guys in white hoods will stand opposite Reverend Jackson and Martha Burke in their show of support for Augusta National's policy to only allow male members at their club. Joining the KKK in support of the Masters, and no, we did not make this up, will be WAMB, or Women Against Martha Burk.
Cats Looking Very Good: With a trip to the Bay Area as their last real competition before the Pac-10 and NCAA Tournaments, the Arizona Wildcats looked good in their victory at Berkeley, beating the #23 Golden Bears, 88-75. Arizona can put away the regular season Pac-10 title on Saturday by beating Stanford - a team to whom they lost at home four weeks ago.
2.27.2003
Gay Rumors Haunt Ugandan Soccer Team: "Homosexuality is bad. It destroys even stars and we must fight it by whatever means. We condemn it in the strongest terms possible."
Those are the words of Haruna Mawanda, Secretary of the Ugandan Football Association (FUFA) commenting on the notion that has stirred up in Uganda that one of the teams in the League, SC Villa, is performing badly because the players on the team are gay.
The Monitor in Kampala is reporting that an unnamed club official "induces the players into homosexuality", targeting players "who like a high lifestyle and have no responsibilities". That official, Sports Club Villa official Chris Mubiru, told the Monitor, "This thing has been investigated before but I am telling you from the bottom of my heart that I am not gay." When asked why this same rumor continues to surface, Mubiru said he didn?t know. Mubiru is not married, but has two children.
The coach of the team, Sredojevic Milutin, popularly known as 'Micho', said of the allegations: "my players, like their coach, like nothing better than football and women."
SC Villa last week sent a strong statement to the rest of the continent by dispatching their opponent in the African Champions League, Muzinga of Burundi, by a the score of 4-1.
It Doesn?t Pay to be Hot: Ernie Els was the hottest golfer; Oklahoma was the hottest college basketball team. WAS is the operative word here.
Els suffered a first-round loss in the Match Play Championship to 16th-seeded Phil Tataurangi on the third playoff hole of their match. Third-ranked Oklahoma took it hard on the chin against Missouri, losing 67-52 after beating Kansas several days earlier.
2.26.2003
A Good Night to Stay Home: It was not a good night to be an underdog on the road. Three teams had to play Top 25 teams in men's basketball on Tuesday; those three teams lost by an average of almost 33 points. The fact that the visitors - South Carolina, Clemson and Indiana - all were .500 or better before the game made the victories - by Florida, Maryland and Illinois - that much more impressive.
Try this hole: Jim was mentioned in a story on a straight but not narrow Web site the name of which he said had the word "hole" in it. In doing an internet search for "hole sports," low and behold, we stumbled across Glory Hole Sports. Think they know the other meaning?
2.25.2003
Fantasy Sports: After reading about Sandy Koufax severing ties with the Dodgers over a gay gossip item, a reader wrote us upset at Koufax?s reaction. And it has even affected his fantasy. The DC-area reader wrote:
?We have a local gay paper here in D.C. called Metro
Weekly that routinely interviews a different local gay citizen each week, asking provocative questions including ?If you could travel through time and have a chance to see a historical figure naked, whom would you choose?? My immediate answer was always Sandy Koufax. But his current actions have made me lose a lot of respect for him, so I think I'll switch over to Steve McQueen.?
Now, is this the ?Great Escape? McQueen or the ?Papillon? version?
NHL Doings:Welcome back to Steve Yzerman, the Detroit Red Wings star, who played in his first game of the season Monday after recovering from knee surgery. ? On Sunday, Joe Nieuwendyk became the 65th player in NHL history to reach 1,000 points with a third-period goal in New Jersey's 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Nieuwendyk had 616 points with Calgary and 340 with Dallas before joining the Devils last season. This is also the sixth out of seven matches this season the Devils have edged the Penguins.
