So, here we sit, less than a week from Selection Sunday with tournaments going on all over the place. What makes the next few days so cool is that all the bracketology becomes pretty meaningless because upsets blow up what everyone has been speculating about for the past two months.
That said, this past weekend certainly provided us all with a raft of interesting story lines.
I begin with Duke-North Carolina, not because Duke finally beat the Tar Heels at home to end a four game Cameron losing streak or because Duke tied for the ACC regular season title with Maryland by completely embarrassing the Tar Heels.
To me, the fascinating story line is this game was Carolina. Duke is good and will be a No. 1 or a No. 2 seed depending on what happens this week in conference tournament play around the country. Fine. I still don’t think the Blue Devils are a Final Four team. They’re too dependent offensively on their big three and if Brian Zoubek gets into foul trouble—as he often does—they’re in trouble against a team with a big front line. Who ever thought anyone would write that line: ‘If Brian Zoubek gets in foul trouble…’ The Plumlee brothers aren’t ready to be go-to guys in March. But we’ll see. One never knows how brackets will play out or who will get upset along the way.
What was tough to believe on Saturday night was how quickly Carolina disappeared. The game was pretty much over at 9-3. It isn’t as if the Tar Heels are often intimidated by loud crowds and the days when the Duke students (I refuse to call them by their cliché nickname) were clever enough to really distract anyone have long since passed. (“Our House?” That’s the best they can do? Last I looked it was Tyler Hansbrough’s house for four straight years.)
Carolina had nothing to lose Saturday and everything to gain. All the pressure was on Duke: four game home losing streak to the Tar Heels; needing to win to tie Maryland for the ACC title; senior night; not to mention the endless ESPN hype. Certainly Roy Williams isn’t scared to coach in Cameron. He sat next to Dean Smith on many a night when Dean told his players to, “listen for the silence,” at the end of the game and then walked off with a big smile on his face listening to just that. Even with the loss on Saturday, Ole Roy is 4-3 in Cameron.
So why did his players look scared? Why did they simply die when Duke hit three early three’s? The score was 53-26 at halftime. Are you kidding? Was that North Carolina or North Carolina-Asheville in the visiting uniforms? I know Carolina’s had injury problems this season and there’s no doubting the talent drop-off with Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green gone. But there’s still enough talent to be better than this team has been. The only team Virginia’s beaten in the last month is Carolina—in Chapel Hill, by double-digits.
Look, these aren’t Matt Doherty’s Tar Heels, the group that went 8-22 in 2002. This is a team coached by ROY WILLIAMS, who is deservedly in the Hall of Fame, who has won two national titles in five years and who has been to SEVEN Final Fours, which puts him behind only Dean Smith, John Wooden and Mike Krzyzewski. His numbers as a coach in 22 years are ridiculous.
In the last few weeks Roy has taken to pummeling himself in public, to doubting himself and his team to somehow comparing the way he feels about this season to what happened in Haiti. Frankly, it’s been sad to watch, especially if (like me) you like and respect Roy.
I’m not the least bit worried about him or his program long term. The fact that Ed Davis was having a disappointing sophomore season even before he got hurt may lead him to return next year. With Harrison Barnes signed up to join the cast, with Davis and some of the other young players back, Carolina should be much better—although Roy needs to find a point guard considerably better than Larry Drew II.
In the meantime though, it will be fascinating to see the approach the Tar Heels take to their Thursday evening first round ACC Tournament matchup with Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets may need to win two games in the tournament to make the NCAA field and if they fail, the argument can be made that they’ve had the most disappointing season of any team in the country given their talent level.
Tech will be—should be—a desperate team. Which Carolina team shows up? The one that won at Wake Forest nine days ago or the one that was back-pedaling the minute it set foot on the floor two days ago in Cameron? It’s actually okay for the Tar Heels to lose this game but if I was Ole Roy the next three days would be pretty miserable for my players. I’d call them a few names Coach Smith never used and challenge them to prove that they have pride in the name on the front of their uniform.
To me, the last two months have been shocking. I would not have been surprised if Carolina had been a bubble team this season. But a bubble team for the NIT? To quote the wise man John Patrick McEnroe Jr: You can NOT be serious.
Meanwhile, for me, the most disappointing outcome of the weekend was Winthrop’s upset of Coastal Carolina in the final of the Big South tournament. Nothing against Randy Peele, who is a good guy and has done a nice job replacing Gregg Marshall down there. Winthrop has now made the tournament nine of the last 12 years which is a great run at any school.
But Cliff Ellis making it back to the NCAA Tournament at the age of 64 after being fired at Auburn in 2004—one year after taking the Tigers to the sweet sixteen—would have been a wonderful story. Like Bobby Cremins at College of Charleston who came back six years after leaving Georgia Tech, Ellis came back after a three year sabbatical and did a wonderful job rebuilding the program in Conway, South Carolina. Now the Chanticleers will settle for the NIT, which is nice but not the same as The Dance.
Six days to Selection Sunday. It will be fun. As I’ve said here before, savor it, because if the NCAA has its way and ESPN throws enough Disney Dollars in its direction, this will be the last one where truly good teams will be on the bubble. A year from now a team like Carolina—16-15 and 5-11 in the conference—will go into the ACC Tournament figuring one win will wrap up a bid. Compelling stuff, huh?
Oh well, we can worry about that later. In the meantime, I’m psyched for the MAAC Final tonight. And then for The Southern Conference Final. Not to mention The Patriot League on Friday. You get the idea.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Feinstein-Wilbon feud of 2010 is over, will meet with Kornheiser as referee; Maryland fan behavior
I’m not exactly sure where to begin today or where to go once I get started.
So, let’s start with something easy that—for some reason—people seem to be interested in. The Feinstein-Wilbon feud of 2010 is over. Mike called me on Wednesday and we talked and agreed to get together—with Kornheiser serving as the referee—next week. We still disagree on Tiger Woods and no doubt will continue to do so. But we agree that disagreeing on any subject isn’t a reason to start publicly calling each other names.
Mike said one thing that’s absolutely true: This isn’t a lot different than the arguments we used to get into—with Kornheiser and Sally Jenkins usually joining in—in The Washington Post newsroom 25 years ago. We’d often scream at one another and, frequently, the subject was a coach or an athlete we disagreed on. Tony used to joke that Mike only killed people he didn’t have to deal with regularly. We always gave Tony a hard time because he liked attention (all attention) but particularly that which he got from the very wealthy. That may explain why he’s the one person in Washington who doesn’t hammer Dan Snyder on a regular basis. Sally got teased because she liked tennis players and NO one liked tennis players. She once declared the young Andre Agassi to be, “charming.” We declared her to be insane.
I got nailed for not dressing well (that certainly hasn’t changed); for always getting into fights with security people and for liking basketball coaches too much. The one area I’ve actually improved in is security people. I’m not perfect but I’m a lot better.
One of Kornheiser’s favorite stories that is, unfortunately, absolutely true took place at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. I had been stricken with gout, a really terrible case that made walking just about impossible. Any of you who’ve had the misfortune to have gout know how painful it can be. Thank God for modern medicine.
Tony and I were in transit from, I think, the swimming venue to the boxing venue and the bus system had broken down so we jumped into a cab. The cab couldn’t get around to the front of the LA Sports Arena where the media entrance was so it dropped us off in the back. I was really hurting by then.
So, I convinced Tony that we should try to talk our way into the back door, especially since the media workroom was literally 10 yards from there. We walked up to the guard and explained the situation, showing our badges—which had photo ID on them—to the guard.
He kept shaking his head and saying no he couldn’t do it. This was way pre-9-11 but because of the boycott by Eastern Bloc countries, security was very tight. I kept saying, ‘come on, the media room is RIGHT there. Don’t make me walk all the way around this building.”
The guy finally relented. “Okay,” he said. “Just this one time.”
We walked into the media room at which point I turned to Tony and said, “guy’s not even doing his job.”
YES, I was a jerk—or worse. The only good thing about it was that it gave Tony a story he could tell about me—without exaggerating—for years.
What happened with Wilbon and I the last couple of weeks really wasn’t different than what used to happen except it took place in public. Twenty-five years ago Tony and Mike didn’t have a TV show and Tony didn’t have a radio show and I wasn’t on radio all the time and there was no internet. Now, all of that is in play and that’s how this became a “story,” if you want to call it that.
I’m not trying to say Mike and I weren’t pissed at each other; I’m not pulling some jock, “our comments were taken out of context,” move. We were both pissed. We’ve been mad at each other before, we’ll no doubt be mad at each other again. We’ll continue to disagree about Tiger. But that’s all there is to it.
*********
I’m almost hesitant to even bring this up because I know a lot of Maryland people will drag out the tired, “he’s a Duke grad,” argument but when is something going to be done about the behavior of the Maryland fans—particularly when Duke is in town?
Look, I was really happy for Gary Williams on Wednesday because he’s been a friend for more than 30 years and I think he’s done a remarkable coaching job this season. He’s going to be ACC Coach of the Year and Maryland will almost certainly do no worse than tie for the regular season title after being picked fifth in preseason. As he almost always does, Gary has squeezed every last drop out of his team.
Good for him and for his players.
But why do the Maryland fans HAVE to chant profanities constantly when their team is playing Duke. That was a great game Wednesday and it was sullied by the fans behavior—not to mention the 27 arrests after the game. To begin with, Maryland fans should have more respect for their team and their program. Maryland beating Duke isn’t exactly George Mason beating Connecticut.
Maryland won the national championship in 2002—that’s more recently than Duke. Maryland was ONE game behind Duke in the ACC standings going into Wednesday’s game. Maryland coach SHOULD be in the Hall of Fame someday soon, especially if the Hall of Fame nominating committee and voting panel stops being so NBA-centric.
So, Maryland beats Duke and the fans storm the court (I know part of that is caused everywhere by TV but it still makes no sense) after beating a team that is, for all intents and purposes, it’s peer? Then they take to the streets and the headline the next day becomes that, not Greivis Vasquez’s shot in the final minute but the arrests?
It’s ridiculous. I have a great deal of affection for Maryland and for a lot of people who have gone to the school and work at the school. In fact, having lived in the Washington area for more than 30 years and—given my relationship with Duke—I probably have closer ties to Maryland at this point in my life than Duke. That’s NOT to say that Mike Krzyzewski isn’t also a friend and he is obviously someone I have nothing but respect for.
All of that said, I wish the Maryland people would clean up their act. Oh, and by the way, don’t throw the, “Duke fans behave badly,” argument out there because it just doesn’t work—especially these days. In fact, I’ve said before that Krzyzewski has gone TOO far in reigning in behavior in Cameron. It’s good that there are no profane chants, but in toning the students down as he’s done, they’ve lost all their spontaneity and cleverness. I can’t remember the last time I heard a truly funny chant from the Duke students. Their whole ying and yang now is to paint their bodies and get on TV.
There’s a happy middle ground out there somewhere. Enjoy the game and be really loud. Be funny if you can be. My all-time favorite chant was years ago at Duke when the students, after being admonished by Duke President Terry Sanford for going too far during a game, decided to come up with a replacement for the tired, “b-----,” cheer. They replaced it with: “We beg to differ.” THAT was funny.
********
Last thing: For those of you who seem to think I confuse opinion with fact. Here’s a fact: Today is Friday, March 5th. Just about everything else you will ever read in this blog is going to be opinion. My suggestion to those of you who find my opinions somehow offensive or disconcerting is to read another blog. Seriously, why bother with someone who is always so wrong about everything? God knows I wouldn’t read Rush Limbaugh if he had a blog. Life’s too short. Read what you enjoy, not what makes your blood pressure go up.
So, let’s start with something easy that—for some reason—people seem to be interested in. The Feinstein-Wilbon feud of 2010 is over. Mike called me on Wednesday and we talked and agreed to get together—with Kornheiser serving as the referee—next week. We still disagree on Tiger Woods and no doubt will continue to do so. But we agree that disagreeing on any subject isn’t a reason to start publicly calling each other names.
Mike said one thing that’s absolutely true: This isn’t a lot different than the arguments we used to get into—with Kornheiser and Sally Jenkins usually joining in—in The Washington Post newsroom 25 years ago. We’d often scream at one another and, frequently, the subject was a coach or an athlete we disagreed on. Tony used to joke that Mike only killed people he didn’t have to deal with regularly. We always gave Tony a hard time because he liked attention (all attention) but particularly that which he got from the very wealthy. That may explain why he’s the one person in Washington who doesn’t hammer Dan Snyder on a regular basis. Sally got teased because she liked tennis players and NO one liked tennis players. She once declared the young Andre Agassi to be, “charming.” We declared her to be insane.
I got nailed for not dressing well (that certainly hasn’t changed); for always getting into fights with security people and for liking basketball coaches too much. The one area I’ve actually improved in is security people. I’m not perfect but I’m a lot better.
One of Kornheiser’s favorite stories that is, unfortunately, absolutely true took place at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. I had been stricken with gout, a really terrible case that made walking just about impossible. Any of you who’ve had the misfortune to have gout know how painful it can be. Thank God for modern medicine.
Tony and I were in transit from, I think, the swimming venue to the boxing venue and the bus system had broken down so we jumped into a cab. The cab couldn’t get around to the front of the LA Sports Arena where the media entrance was so it dropped us off in the back. I was really hurting by then.
So, I convinced Tony that we should try to talk our way into the back door, especially since the media workroom was literally 10 yards from there. We walked up to the guard and explained the situation, showing our badges—which had photo ID on them—to the guard.
He kept shaking his head and saying no he couldn’t do it. This was way pre-9-11 but because of the boycott by Eastern Bloc countries, security was very tight. I kept saying, ‘come on, the media room is RIGHT there. Don’t make me walk all the way around this building.”
The guy finally relented. “Okay,” he said. “Just this one time.”
We walked into the media room at which point I turned to Tony and said, “guy’s not even doing his job.”
YES, I was a jerk—or worse. The only good thing about it was that it gave Tony a story he could tell about me—without exaggerating—for years.
What happened with Wilbon and I the last couple of weeks really wasn’t different than what used to happen except it took place in public. Twenty-five years ago Tony and Mike didn’t have a TV show and Tony didn’t have a radio show and I wasn’t on radio all the time and there was no internet. Now, all of that is in play and that’s how this became a “story,” if you want to call it that.
I’m not trying to say Mike and I weren’t pissed at each other; I’m not pulling some jock, “our comments were taken out of context,” move. We were both pissed. We’ve been mad at each other before, we’ll no doubt be mad at each other again. We’ll continue to disagree about Tiger. But that’s all there is to it.
*********
I’m almost hesitant to even bring this up because I know a lot of Maryland people will drag out the tired, “he’s a Duke grad,” argument but when is something going to be done about the behavior of the Maryland fans—particularly when Duke is in town?
Look, I was really happy for Gary Williams on Wednesday because he’s been a friend for more than 30 years and I think he’s done a remarkable coaching job this season. He’s going to be ACC Coach of the Year and Maryland will almost certainly do no worse than tie for the regular season title after being picked fifth in preseason. As he almost always does, Gary has squeezed every last drop out of his team.
Good for him and for his players.
But why do the Maryland fans HAVE to chant profanities constantly when their team is playing Duke. That was a great game Wednesday and it was sullied by the fans behavior—not to mention the 27 arrests after the game. To begin with, Maryland fans should have more respect for their team and their program. Maryland beating Duke isn’t exactly George Mason beating Connecticut.
Maryland won the national championship in 2002—that’s more recently than Duke. Maryland was ONE game behind Duke in the ACC standings going into Wednesday’s game. Maryland coach SHOULD be in the Hall of Fame someday soon, especially if the Hall of Fame nominating committee and voting panel stops being so NBA-centric.
So, Maryland beats Duke and the fans storm the court (I know part of that is caused everywhere by TV but it still makes no sense) after beating a team that is, for all intents and purposes, it’s peer? Then they take to the streets and the headline the next day becomes that, not Greivis Vasquez’s shot in the final minute but the arrests?
It’s ridiculous. I have a great deal of affection for Maryland and for a lot of people who have gone to the school and work at the school. In fact, having lived in the Washington area for more than 30 years and—given my relationship with Duke—I probably have closer ties to Maryland at this point in my life than Duke. That’s NOT to say that Mike Krzyzewski isn’t also a friend and he is obviously someone I have nothing but respect for.
All of that said, I wish the Maryland people would clean up their act. Oh, and by the way, don’t throw the, “Duke fans behave badly,” argument out there because it just doesn’t work—especially these days. In fact, I’ve said before that Krzyzewski has gone TOO far in reigning in behavior in Cameron. It’s good that there are no profane chants, but in toning the students down as he’s done, they’ve lost all their spontaneity and cleverness. I can’t remember the last time I heard a truly funny chant from the Duke students. Their whole ying and yang now is to paint their bodies and get on TV.
There’s a happy middle ground out there somewhere. Enjoy the game and be really loud. Be funny if you can be. My all-time favorite chant was years ago at Duke when the students, after being admonished by Duke President Terry Sanford for going too far during a game, decided to come up with a replacement for the tired, “b-----,” cheer. They replaced it with: “We beg to differ.” THAT was funny.
********
Last thing: For those of you who seem to think I confuse opinion with fact. Here’s a fact: Today is Friday, March 5th. Just about everything else you will ever read in this blog is going to be opinion. My suggestion to those of you who find my opinions somehow offensive or disconcerting is to read another blog. Seriously, why bother with someone who is always so wrong about everything? God knows I wouldn’t read Rush Limbaugh if he had a blog. Life’s too short. Read what you enjoy, not what makes your blood pressure go up.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Updated - This week's radio segments
Yesterday I joined The Sports Reporters' Steve Czaban and Andy Pollin in the normal timeslot (5:25 ET on Wednesday's). Click the permalink, then the link below, to listen to the segment. This week we talked about the Duke-MD game that was to be played Wed night (and as we now know, Maryland squeezed by), Maryland's best players in history, the Patriot League and the PGA Tour's disciplinary system.
Click here to listen to the segment: The Sports Reporters
--------------------
This morning, I was on my regular time on Tony's newest version of The Tony Kornheiser Show at 11:05et. This week we talked about the rumored return of Tiger Woods to action including expectations going forward, Maryland basketball and various other topics.
Click here to listen to the segment: Tony Kornheiser Show
-------------------
Afternoon update -- John was caught in a busy morning, and long day at this week's PGA Tour event, and as such he's not getting a new daily post out today, but will be back to normal tomorrow (Friday).
Click here to listen to the segment: The Sports Reporters
--------------------
This morning, I was on my regular time on Tony's newest version of The Tony Kornheiser Show at 11:05et. This week we talked about the rumored return of Tiger Woods to action including expectations going forward, Maryland basketball and various other topics.
Click here to listen to the segment: Tony Kornheiser Show
-------------------
Afternoon update -- John was caught in a busy morning, and long day at this week's PGA Tour event, and as such he's not getting a new daily post out today, but will be back to normal tomorrow (Friday).
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
John Daly situation brings back the PGA Tour discipline policy; Comments on comments
I have been saying and writing for years now that The PGA Tour’s policy on disciplining players is a joke. Unlike other sports which routinely announce player fines and suspensions, the tour keeps them a deep, dark secret. The theory, according to Commissioner Tim Finchem, is that the tour is built on the players being thought of as gentlemen and announcing fines for profanity or misbehavior of any kind undercuts that image.
My belief—as I’ve said to Finchem and others in authority at the tour—is that that’s a bunch of hooey. To begin with, by letting the public know that it doesn’t tolerate misbehavior, the tour actually strengthens the image that it wants. More important than that, by announcing fines or suspensions, the tour sends a message to the players that it isn’t messing around. The only way to make fines a deterrent is by making the players who misbehave deal with what they’ve done in public.
There’s no better example than Tiger Woods, who has often complained about the fact that he is the most fined player in the history of the tour. Woods has been fined innumerable times for on-course profanity; for throwing clubs and for the behavior of his vigilante caddie, Steve Williams.
But the tour has never once announced any of his fines. Woods, as we all know, isn’t just a golfer he’s a corporation. Until November 27th he was the most carefully marketed athlete in history, his image burnished at every turn by the corporations he was in business with.
It is impossible not to wonder how Woods, his corporate sponsors and his image-makers would have felt if every week a story had appeared on how much money he’d been fined for misbehavior. There’s no doubt such stories would have undercut his image long before his serial affairs destroyed that image.
Everyone knows when you punish a child you don’t just say, ‘don’t do it again.’ You attach a consequence in the hope that the child will think twice before repeating the offense. No one ever attached a consequence for misbehavior to Tiger—or to anyone else on the tour. The money doesn’t matter, certainly not to Tiger and not to 99 percent of the players out there.
Most players like to tell stories about how they got fined: Paul Goydos once got fined for yelling profanities at the tape in the PGA Tour travel office when it wasn’t open on a Saturday afternoon. He likes to tell people that several of his fellow pros took up a collection to pay the $500 when the travel office changed its hours after his call.
Jay Haas tells the story about his one and only fine on tour. On the 18th hole of a miserable third round in Milwaukee he skittered an awful chip all the way across the green. As he walked to his ball he heard someone yell, “Haas, you suck!”
Normally the most mild-mannered guy you’ll ever meet, Haas snapped for an instant and yelled, ‘f---- you.,’ back at the guy.
The next day when rules official Wade Cagle called him into ask about a report that had been filed on the incident, Cagle said, “I’m sure you were misheard Jay, you were probably saying, ‘thank-you.’”
“Nope,” Haas said. “I said ‘f----- you.’ How much do I owe you?”
Those stories are funny because they involved guys who generally behave well. For them, a fine is an aberration just like Brad Faxon’s fine years ago for criticizing Scott Hoch for not playing in The British Open (criticizing another player publicly—conduct unbecoming) was an aberration.
Woods’s lousy behavior was never an aberration. It was who he was and no one seriously called him on it until Tom Watson brought it up several weeks ago.
The same is true of John Daly. John’s problem hasn’t been cursing or club-throwing. In fact, John Daly is about as nice a guy as you’ll meet on the golf tour. But, as everyone knows, he’s had serious issues since he first burst onto the scene in 1991 that go way beyond the occasional profanity.
Two days ago, Garry Smits broke a story in the Florida Times-Union that shows definitely how the tour has enabled Daly for almost 20 years. Because Daly had filed a libel suit against The Times-Union that was thrown out of court, Smits was able to gain access to the tour’s 486-page file on Daly, which was part of the court record.
Daly, it turns out, has been suspended six times during his career, has been fined more than $100,000—a drop in the bucket for someone who has lost that in a couple hours playing blackjack during his life—and has been ordered to go to counseling or rehab by the tour on seven different occasions. He was fined 11 different times for ‘conduct unbecoming,’ and was reprimanded TWENTY-ONE times for failing to give full effort.
At least two of the suspensions have been in the public domain because Daly talked about them. That said, what the file makes clear is that Daly was a repeat offender in all these areas and the tour did very little to try to stop him—or help him. When Daly was last suspended (and didn’t keep it a secret) at the end of 2008 I wrote that Finchem should call his fellow commissioners around the world and ask them to extend the suspension so that Daly couldn’t play golf ANYWHERE until he got help. He didn’t and Daly kept on playing—usually for appearance fees, which are allowed overseas.
Now Daly is trying once again to rebuild his life. He’s had surgery on his stomach to keep his weight down—he’s lost about 100 pounds—and he says he wants to take one more serious shot at being competitive on the tour again. Of course a few weeks ago, after missing another cut, Daly announced his retirement. Then he played a week later.
We can all root for John Daly because there’s no malice in him. That said, the tour did him no favors by covering up all the discipline he has faced through the years. It doesn’t do ANY of the players a favor by covering up their misbehavior. Maybe Finchem needs to spend less time defending Woods and more time thinking about how poorly his tour’s policies on discipline have worked out for—arguably—its two best-known players.
*********
I really enjoyed a lot of the comments from yesterday on my dust-up with Michael Wilbon. If nothing else, they showed that people really do pay attention to what people in our business say and write.
Two quick things: For the record, so there is no confusion, my issues with Tiger Woods date to 1996—WAY before Rocco Mediate approached me about writing a book—when I compared his father to Stefano Capriati (which, in retrospect may have been unfair to Capriati) and criticized him for blowing off a dinner in his honor (college player of the year) because he was, ‘tired,’ and for turning down an invitation to join Rachel Robinson and President Clinton in New York after he won The Masters on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s Major League debut. (To Tiger’s credit, he wrote Mrs. Robinson a couple of years later to apologize for not being there).
Tiger and I had a lengthy dinner in 1998 during which we discussed a lot of this and agreed to disagree. If you were to check what I’ve written about him through the years, I’ve said a LOT of good things about him too—especially about his golf which is, clearly, unassailable. For Wilbon—or anyone—to imply that my criticism of him since November 27th has anything to do with the Rocco book is just silly and false. I TOLD Rocco when he approached me about the book that Tiger wasn’t going to talk, certainly not to me, probably not to anyone. It was ROCCO who was angry when he didn’t talk, not me.
I don’t have an axe to grind with Tiger. He’s been great for the game of golf. Watching him play is amazing. But I’m not going to find ways to defend him: “no one cares, it’s no one’s business…” just so he’ll call me by name when he returns to the tour.
Finally to Nathan: Thanks for the explanation of your question to Mike. For the record, my regular Sunday column has appeared in The Post the last two Sundays. As I’ve said, The Post isn’t ESPN. In fact, if you listen to Tony’s radio show he often says, “I love Sally (Jenkins) but her column today was ridiculous.” In fact, he often says it to Sally. Unlike some people, she LAUGHS about it…
Finally: One last time on the “Junior,” nickname. Tony put it on me 30 years ago after I first wrote a long piece on John McEnroe. Because we got along—and because I was the youngest guy on the sports staff at the time—he put “Junior,” on me because that was McEnroe’s nickname. I’ve pleaded with him since, I guess I turned 40, to drop it because at 23 it was fine, at my age now I find it silly. He can’t stop himself—so I deal with it. When strangers use it I find it not so much offensive as disrespectful. I don’t call anyone I don’t know by a nickname. To me, that’s between friends unless the person calls himself that as in Don Imus calling himself, “The I-Man.”
My belief—as I’ve said to Finchem and others in authority at the tour—is that that’s a bunch of hooey. To begin with, by letting the public know that it doesn’t tolerate misbehavior, the tour actually strengthens the image that it wants. More important than that, by announcing fines or suspensions, the tour sends a message to the players that it isn’t messing around. The only way to make fines a deterrent is by making the players who misbehave deal with what they’ve done in public.
There’s no better example than Tiger Woods, who has often complained about the fact that he is the most fined player in the history of the tour. Woods has been fined innumerable times for on-course profanity; for throwing clubs and for the behavior of his vigilante caddie, Steve Williams.
But the tour has never once announced any of his fines. Woods, as we all know, isn’t just a golfer he’s a corporation. Until November 27th he was the most carefully marketed athlete in history, his image burnished at every turn by the corporations he was in business with.
It is impossible not to wonder how Woods, his corporate sponsors and his image-makers would have felt if every week a story had appeared on how much money he’d been fined for misbehavior. There’s no doubt such stories would have undercut his image long before his serial affairs destroyed that image.
Everyone knows when you punish a child you don’t just say, ‘don’t do it again.’ You attach a consequence in the hope that the child will think twice before repeating the offense. No one ever attached a consequence for misbehavior to Tiger—or to anyone else on the tour. The money doesn’t matter, certainly not to Tiger and not to 99 percent of the players out there.
Most players like to tell stories about how they got fined: Paul Goydos once got fined for yelling profanities at the tape in the PGA Tour travel office when it wasn’t open on a Saturday afternoon. He likes to tell people that several of his fellow pros took up a collection to pay the $500 when the travel office changed its hours after his call.
Jay Haas tells the story about his one and only fine on tour. On the 18th hole of a miserable third round in Milwaukee he skittered an awful chip all the way across the green. As he walked to his ball he heard someone yell, “Haas, you suck!”
Normally the most mild-mannered guy you’ll ever meet, Haas snapped for an instant and yelled, ‘f---- you.,’ back at the guy.
The next day when rules official Wade Cagle called him into ask about a report that had been filed on the incident, Cagle said, “I’m sure you were misheard Jay, you were probably saying, ‘thank-you.’”
“Nope,” Haas said. “I said ‘f----- you.’ How much do I owe you?”
Those stories are funny because they involved guys who generally behave well. For them, a fine is an aberration just like Brad Faxon’s fine years ago for criticizing Scott Hoch for not playing in The British Open (criticizing another player publicly—conduct unbecoming) was an aberration.
Woods’s lousy behavior was never an aberration. It was who he was and no one seriously called him on it until Tom Watson brought it up several weeks ago.
The same is true of John Daly. John’s problem hasn’t been cursing or club-throwing. In fact, John Daly is about as nice a guy as you’ll meet on the golf tour. But, as everyone knows, he’s had serious issues since he first burst onto the scene in 1991 that go way beyond the occasional profanity.
Two days ago, Garry Smits broke a story in the Florida Times-Union that shows definitely how the tour has enabled Daly for almost 20 years. Because Daly had filed a libel suit against The Times-Union that was thrown out of court, Smits was able to gain access to the tour’s 486-page file on Daly, which was part of the court record.
Daly, it turns out, has been suspended six times during his career, has been fined more than $100,000—a drop in the bucket for someone who has lost that in a couple hours playing blackjack during his life—and has been ordered to go to counseling or rehab by the tour on seven different occasions. He was fined 11 different times for ‘conduct unbecoming,’ and was reprimanded TWENTY-ONE times for failing to give full effort.
At least two of the suspensions have been in the public domain because Daly talked about them. That said, what the file makes clear is that Daly was a repeat offender in all these areas and the tour did very little to try to stop him—or help him. When Daly was last suspended (and didn’t keep it a secret) at the end of 2008 I wrote that Finchem should call his fellow commissioners around the world and ask them to extend the suspension so that Daly couldn’t play golf ANYWHERE until he got help. He didn’t and Daly kept on playing—usually for appearance fees, which are allowed overseas.
Now Daly is trying once again to rebuild his life. He’s had surgery on his stomach to keep his weight down—he’s lost about 100 pounds—and he says he wants to take one more serious shot at being competitive on the tour again. Of course a few weeks ago, after missing another cut, Daly announced his retirement. Then he played a week later.
We can all root for John Daly because there’s no malice in him. That said, the tour did him no favors by covering up all the discipline he has faced through the years. It doesn’t do ANY of the players a favor by covering up their misbehavior. Maybe Finchem needs to spend less time defending Woods and more time thinking about how poorly his tour’s policies on discipline have worked out for—arguably—its two best-known players.
*********
I really enjoyed a lot of the comments from yesterday on my dust-up with Michael Wilbon. If nothing else, they showed that people really do pay attention to what people in our business say and write.
Two quick things: For the record, so there is no confusion, my issues with Tiger Woods date to 1996—WAY before Rocco Mediate approached me about writing a book—when I compared his father to Stefano Capriati (which, in retrospect may have been unfair to Capriati) and criticized him for blowing off a dinner in his honor (college player of the year) because he was, ‘tired,’ and for turning down an invitation to join Rachel Robinson and President Clinton in New York after he won The Masters on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s Major League debut. (To Tiger’s credit, he wrote Mrs. Robinson a couple of years later to apologize for not being there).
Tiger and I had a lengthy dinner in 1998 during which we discussed a lot of this and agreed to disagree. If you were to check what I’ve written about him through the years, I’ve said a LOT of good things about him too—especially about his golf which is, clearly, unassailable. For Wilbon—or anyone—to imply that my criticism of him since November 27th has anything to do with the Rocco book is just silly and false. I TOLD Rocco when he approached me about the book that Tiger wasn’t going to talk, certainly not to me, probably not to anyone. It was ROCCO who was angry when he didn’t talk, not me.
I don’t have an axe to grind with Tiger. He’s been great for the game of golf. Watching him play is amazing. But I’m not going to find ways to defend him: “no one cares, it’s no one’s business…” just so he’ll call me by name when he returns to the tour.
Finally to Nathan: Thanks for the explanation of your question to Mike. For the record, my regular Sunday column has appeared in The Post the last two Sundays. As I’ve said, The Post isn’t ESPN. In fact, if you listen to Tony’s radio show he often says, “I love Sally (Jenkins) but her column today was ridiculous.” In fact, he often says it to Sally. Unlike some people, she LAUGHS about it…
Finally: One last time on the “Junior,” nickname. Tony put it on me 30 years ago after I first wrote a long piece on John McEnroe. Because we got along—and because I was the youngest guy on the sports staff at the time—he put “Junior,” on me because that was McEnroe’s nickname. I’ve pleaded with him since, I guess I turned 40, to drop it because at 23 it was fine, at my age now I find it silly. He can’t stop himself—so I deal with it. When strangers use it I find it not so much offensive as disrespectful. I don’t call anyone I don’t know by a nickname. To me, that’s between friends unless the person calls himself that as in Don Imus calling himself, “The I-Man.”
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
'Championship Week’ was one brilliant idea from ESPN - March Madness starts tonight; Wilbon talk
While the big-name college basketball teams are sorting themselves out over the next 12 days—the top teams trying to pin down high seeds; the mid-level teams in the power conferences trying to play their way from the dreaded bubble into the NCAA basketball tournament—this is also the time when the little guys get their moment in the sun.
March Madness actually begins tonight. The Big South starts its postseason tournament. By the end of the weekend, if you count The Ivy League, five automatic bids will have been handed out.
For me, the one bid tournaments are about as much fun as anything that takes place during the basketball season. Very few of the kids playing are going to be one-and-done and you aren’t going to hear a lot of speculation about their pro futures. All they care about at that moment is the game they are playing because most are one loss away from the end of their season. A majority of the seniors are one loss away from the end of their careers.
That’s what makes these tournaments so much fun. When Mike Brey was coaching at Delaware he often said that winning The America East Tournament was the equivalent of getting to The Final Four for Duke—which was where he had coached prior to moving to Delaware. “And winning a game in the NCAA Tournament is like winning the national championship,” he added.
We all know that on rare occasions one of the little guys will slip through to the sweet sixteen. George Mason’s Final Four run in 2006 belongs in a different category but it is worth remembering that the Patriots didn’t come out of a pure one-bid league. In fact, they got into the tournament as an at-large team, much to the chagrin of Jim Nantz, Billy Packer and others.
The real one bid leagues are the one where no one even discusses an at-large bid, where the committee has already penciled the champion in as a No. 15 or No. 16 seed most years. Of course there can be exceptions going in either direction. In 2006, coming off a first round upset a year earlier over Kansas, Bucknell came out of The Patriot League as a No. 9 seed—and promptly lived up to it by beating Arkansas. This year, the opposite is true in the league. The only conference team likely to avoid being sent to the dreaded play-in game in Dayton is top-seeded Lehigh. Anyone else wins the PL Tournament—which begins tomorrow but doesn’t end until March 12th because of (you guessed it) television—and they’re probably headed for Dayton. At the moment that teams cuts the nets down though, it won’t be thinking about Dayton. It will be nothing but pure joy.
That’s why Brey’s description is so apt. When you watch these teams play for their championships you can see how much it means to them. None of them are thinking about the fact that they may face a first-round game against Syracuse, Kansas or Kentucky. Or that they might be going to Dayton. It doesn’t matter. They want to be champions and they want to see their name go up on the board on Selection Sunday and they want to be part of The Dance.
Sure, it is all cliché but it is real. I remember being in Lafayette’s locker room after the Leopards beat Navy 10 years ago to win The Patriot League title when I was researching, “The Last Amateurs,” and it was about as joyous a place as I’ve ever been. A week later, as a No. 15 seed, the Leopards were beaten badly by Temple but that didn’t change the memories or the feelings they had for one another after beating Navy.
The little guy that no one wants to play this year is Cornell. It will be interesting to see how the committee seeds The Big Red. They have one bad loss—at Penn—but their other three losses are to Seton Hall and at Kansas and Syracuse. They’ve won road games at Alabama, at Massachusetts and at St. John’s. They played a tougher non-conference schedule than most schools in the BCS conferences play.
Jim Boeheim has said Cornell should be a No. 4 to a No. 6 seed. That won’t happen. I think if they had run the table in the Ivy League they might have sneaked into a No. 9 seed ala Bucknell four years ago. Now, I think they’ll be more like a No. 11. One thing about the committee—they hold a bad loss against a little guy against it more than they do a big guy.
That’s all for a week from Sunday. For now, the next 10 days are about the little guys having that moment they will all remember forever. If you think the U.S. hockey team looked heartbroken, check the faces of some of the losers in these conference tournament finals—especially after a last-second game-decider. The Olympians all believe they’ll get another shot in Sochi in four years and many will. Most of the kids who lose one-big finals know they won’t get another shot. Most teams that rise in these conferences are led by seniors so this may be their last chance.
ESPN has done a lot of bad things through the years but ‘Championship Week,’—giving the one-bid kids their moment in the sun—was brilliant. It also wasn’t a coincidence. It was the brain-child of Tom Odjakian, who worked at ESPN then and works at The Big East now. Odjakian is a Lafayette graduate. He wanted his school and others like it to have a chance to play their championship game on national TV. This is what he came up with. Good for him. This will be fun.
The money teams will be everyone’s focus soon enough. For now, let’s get fired up for a potential Coastal Carolina-Radford final in The Big South. Or Stony Brook-Vermont in The America East.
Let the you-know-what begin.
*******
Okay, I had a number of people contact me yesterday about comments Michael Wilbon made about me during an online Washington Post chat yesterday. Wilbon’s angry with me because we have a fundamental disagreement about Tiger Woods—and, I guess it is fair to say star athletes in general.
This though is about Woods. He defends him. I don’t. There’s really no need to go through the details: What we’ve both written and said is out there if you want to find it.
Wilbon got mad two weeks ago because I joked on Tony Kornheiser’s radio show that he had put aside his professionalism when it came to Tiger. As he proudly told The Post in his chat he called my cell phone and left a profanity-filled message. I responded by leaving him a message that was, I think he’d agree, considerably calmer but sticking to the essential point: we disagree on Woods. He isn’t going to back away from his position; I’m not backing away from mine.
I don’t know if the question during his online chat yesterday was a setup. I do know the person I’m really mad at is some guy I’ve probably never even met calling me, ‘Junior.’ Anyway, Wilbon responded by saying on the one hand he didn’t ‘give a damn,’ what I thought but on the other hand said he’d called and screamed profanities at me. If nothing else, the profanities let me know he cared. I was touched. He also said something about not being ‘subservient,’ to me. I don’t think I’ve ever asked Wilbon or anyone I’ve worked with to be subservient to me. In fact, I’ve never written these words: “As I was being driven from Bristol to New York on Sunday.” (Nor will I).
The only thing Mike said that’s just untrue is that I confuse my opinions with facts and legitimacy. Having been a columnist for a long time now I not only know the difference between opinion and fact I’m accustomed to people disagreeing with my opinions—sometimes angrily. It’s part of the job. As for legitimacy, that’s clearly up to the readers too.
Wilbon also says he’d put his journalistic credentials up against mine any day. That’s fine. Mike’s been very good at what he does for a long time. I feel pretty comfortable with my journalistic credentials though and here is where we differ (in my opinion): Guys like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Shaq—the rich and famous guys Wilbon thinks of as friends—have public relations machines that tell the world how great they are. If they do something good, it should be reported. But when they screw up, they don’t need us taking a bullet for them. The people in sports who maybe need a boost every now and then (when they do something good) are the kids in The Patriot League; the football players at Army and Navy; the golfers who end up in Q-School.
Those are the stories I enjoy doing the most and the people I tend to gravitate towards. That doesn’t mean the big names don’t have stories to tell—I think I’ve told my share of those stories too. And gotten to know many of them along the way. WIlbon loves hanging with big names and telling people about it. I'm looking forward to dinner with Paul Goydos this week. Neither one of us is right or wrong. We're just different.
Let me close by saying this: When Abe Pollin fired Jordan several years ago Wilbon was one of many in Washington who ranted against him for doing it. Pollin’s decision was proven correct when Ernie Grunfeld came in, hired Eddie Jordan as coach and rebuilt the Wizards into a playoff team—four straight years—before Gilbert Arenas’s injuries and stupidity brought the team down again. When Pollin died, instead of simply writing the words, ‘I was wrong,’ about Pollin’s decision (hell, we all get it wrong sometimes; I thought Tiger would be playing golf this month) he went off on some tangent about how it was a shame Abe never forged a better relationship with Jordan.
Come on Mike, you’re better than that.
In conclusion? Wilbon and I have been friends for 30 years. We’re pissed at one another right now. I hope we’ll sit down and agree to disagree and move on at some point in the future. In the meantime though I guarantee this: I will NOT criticize his clothes. He dresses VERY well.
Final note of the morning to poster Case: Not sure if you were joking but I was never scheduled to work The Patriot League quarterfinals. I’m in Florida right now—it’s raining dammit—to do some golf this week and some baseball. The league’s known since August I was going to miss that game. I’ll be back for the semis on Sunday. But thanks for paying attention!
March Madness actually begins tonight. The Big South starts its postseason tournament. By the end of the weekend, if you count The Ivy League, five automatic bids will have been handed out.
For me, the one bid tournaments are about as much fun as anything that takes place during the basketball season. Very few of the kids playing are going to be one-and-done and you aren’t going to hear a lot of speculation about their pro futures. All they care about at that moment is the game they are playing because most are one loss away from the end of their season. A majority of the seniors are one loss away from the end of their careers.
That’s what makes these tournaments so much fun. When Mike Brey was coaching at Delaware he often said that winning The America East Tournament was the equivalent of getting to The Final Four for Duke—which was where he had coached prior to moving to Delaware. “And winning a game in the NCAA Tournament is like winning the national championship,” he added.
We all know that on rare occasions one of the little guys will slip through to the sweet sixteen. George Mason’s Final Four run in 2006 belongs in a different category but it is worth remembering that the Patriots didn’t come out of a pure one-bid league. In fact, they got into the tournament as an at-large team, much to the chagrin of Jim Nantz, Billy Packer and others.
The real one bid leagues are the one where no one even discusses an at-large bid, where the committee has already penciled the champion in as a No. 15 or No. 16 seed most years. Of course there can be exceptions going in either direction. In 2006, coming off a first round upset a year earlier over Kansas, Bucknell came out of The Patriot League as a No. 9 seed—and promptly lived up to it by beating Arkansas. This year, the opposite is true in the league. The only conference team likely to avoid being sent to the dreaded play-in game in Dayton is top-seeded Lehigh. Anyone else wins the PL Tournament—which begins tomorrow but doesn’t end until March 12th because of (you guessed it) television—and they’re probably headed for Dayton. At the moment that teams cuts the nets down though, it won’t be thinking about Dayton. It will be nothing but pure joy.
That’s why Brey’s description is so apt. When you watch these teams play for their championships you can see how much it means to them. None of them are thinking about the fact that they may face a first-round game against Syracuse, Kansas or Kentucky. Or that they might be going to Dayton. It doesn’t matter. They want to be champions and they want to see their name go up on the board on Selection Sunday and they want to be part of The Dance.
Sure, it is all cliché but it is real. I remember being in Lafayette’s locker room after the Leopards beat Navy 10 years ago to win The Patriot League title when I was researching, “The Last Amateurs,” and it was about as joyous a place as I’ve ever been. A week later, as a No. 15 seed, the Leopards were beaten badly by Temple but that didn’t change the memories or the feelings they had for one another after beating Navy.
The little guy that no one wants to play this year is Cornell. It will be interesting to see how the committee seeds The Big Red. They have one bad loss—at Penn—but their other three losses are to Seton Hall and at Kansas and Syracuse. They’ve won road games at Alabama, at Massachusetts and at St. John’s. They played a tougher non-conference schedule than most schools in the BCS conferences play.
Jim Boeheim has said Cornell should be a No. 4 to a No. 6 seed. That won’t happen. I think if they had run the table in the Ivy League they might have sneaked into a No. 9 seed ala Bucknell four years ago. Now, I think they’ll be more like a No. 11. One thing about the committee—they hold a bad loss against a little guy against it more than they do a big guy.
That’s all for a week from Sunday. For now, the next 10 days are about the little guys having that moment they will all remember forever. If you think the U.S. hockey team looked heartbroken, check the faces of some of the losers in these conference tournament finals—especially after a last-second game-decider. The Olympians all believe they’ll get another shot in Sochi in four years and many will. Most of the kids who lose one-big finals know they won’t get another shot. Most teams that rise in these conferences are led by seniors so this may be their last chance.
ESPN has done a lot of bad things through the years but ‘Championship Week,’—giving the one-bid kids their moment in the sun—was brilliant. It also wasn’t a coincidence. It was the brain-child of Tom Odjakian, who worked at ESPN then and works at The Big East now. Odjakian is a Lafayette graduate. He wanted his school and others like it to have a chance to play their championship game on national TV. This is what he came up with. Good for him. This will be fun.
The money teams will be everyone’s focus soon enough. For now, let’s get fired up for a potential Coastal Carolina-Radford final in The Big South. Or Stony Brook-Vermont in The America East.
Let the you-know-what begin.
*******
Okay, I had a number of people contact me yesterday about comments Michael Wilbon made about me during an online Washington Post chat yesterday. Wilbon’s angry with me because we have a fundamental disagreement about Tiger Woods—and, I guess it is fair to say star athletes in general.
This though is about Woods. He defends him. I don’t. There’s really no need to go through the details: What we’ve both written and said is out there if you want to find it.
Wilbon got mad two weeks ago because I joked on Tony Kornheiser’s radio show that he had put aside his professionalism when it came to Tiger. As he proudly told The Post in his chat he called my cell phone and left a profanity-filled message. I responded by leaving him a message that was, I think he’d agree, considerably calmer but sticking to the essential point: we disagree on Woods. He isn’t going to back away from his position; I’m not backing away from mine.
I don’t know if the question during his online chat yesterday was a setup. I do know the person I’m really mad at is some guy I’ve probably never even met calling me, ‘Junior.’ Anyway, Wilbon responded by saying on the one hand he didn’t ‘give a damn,’ what I thought but on the other hand said he’d called and screamed profanities at me. If nothing else, the profanities let me know he cared. I was touched. He also said something about not being ‘subservient,’ to me. I don’t think I’ve ever asked Wilbon or anyone I’ve worked with to be subservient to me. In fact, I’ve never written these words: “As I was being driven from Bristol to New York on Sunday.” (Nor will I).
The only thing Mike said that’s just untrue is that I confuse my opinions with facts and legitimacy. Having been a columnist for a long time now I not only know the difference between opinion and fact I’m accustomed to people disagreeing with my opinions—sometimes angrily. It’s part of the job. As for legitimacy, that’s clearly up to the readers too.
Wilbon also says he’d put his journalistic credentials up against mine any day. That’s fine. Mike’s been very good at what he does for a long time. I feel pretty comfortable with my journalistic credentials though and here is where we differ (in my opinion): Guys like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Shaq—the rich and famous guys Wilbon thinks of as friends—have public relations machines that tell the world how great they are. If they do something good, it should be reported. But when they screw up, they don’t need us taking a bullet for them. The people in sports who maybe need a boost every now and then (when they do something good) are the kids in The Patriot League; the football players at Army and Navy; the golfers who end up in Q-School.
Those are the stories I enjoy doing the most and the people I tend to gravitate towards. That doesn’t mean the big names don’t have stories to tell—I think I’ve told my share of those stories too. And gotten to know many of them along the way. WIlbon loves hanging with big names and telling people about it. I'm looking forward to dinner with Paul Goydos this week. Neither one of us is right or wrong. We're just different.
Let me close by saying this: When Abe Pollin fired Jordan several years ago Wilbon was one of many in Washington who ranted against him for doing it. Pollin’s decision was proven correct when Ernie Grunfeld came in, hired Eddie Jordan as coach and rebuilt the Wizards into a playoff team—four straight years—before Gilbert Arenas’s injuries and stupidity brought the team down again. When Pollin died, instead of simply writing the words, ‘I was wrong,’ about Pollin’s decision (hell, we all get it wrong sometimes; I thought Tiger would be playing golf this month) he went off on some tangent about how it was a shame Abe never forged a better relationship with Jordan.
Come on Mike, you’re better than that.
In conclusion? Wilbon and I have been friends for 30 years. We’re pissed at one another right now. I hope we’ll sit down and agree to disagree and move on at some point in the future. In the meantime though I guarantee this: I will NOT criticize his clothes. He dresses VERY well.
Final note of the morning to poster Case: Not sure if you were joking but I was never scheduled to work The Patriot League quarterfinals. I’m in Florida right now—it’s raining dammit—to do some golf this week and some baseball. The league’s known since August I was going to miss that game. I’ll be back for the semis on Sunday. But thanks for paying attention!
Monday, March 1, 2010
This week's Washington Post article on Herb Magee; AP Top 25 ballot
When Herb Magee first walked onto the campus of Philadelphia Textile University as a 5-foot-9, 150-pound, jump-shooting freshman, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president of the United States. There have been 10 presidents since Eisenhower and Philadelphia Textile is now Philadelphia University. The basketball landscape has changed in ways almost impossible to describe.
Back in the fall of 1959 when Magee was a freshman, his nickname was "the King." More than 50 years later, after scoring 2,275 points as a player and turning down a chance to go to training camp with the Boston Celtics in 1963 as a seventh-round draft choice, Magee is still at Division II Philadelphia U. Tuesday night, he won his 903rd game as a college coach, one more than Bob Knight, setting off a wild celebration on the tiny campus tucked into the East Falls section of Northwest Philadelphia.
"Once the King always the King, " said Temple Coach Fran Dunphy, one of many Philly hoops luminaries who showed up for Magee's latest coronation. With the victory, Magee set a new record for wins in men's NCAA-sanctioned basketball games. Don Meyer, the coach at Northern State in South Dakota, had 923, entering Saturday night's game, but many of those victories were at an NAIA college.
Click here for the rest of the column: By passing Bob Knight, Herb Magee truly became 'the Kind'
----------
My ballot for this week's AP Top 25 poll
1 Syracuse
2 Kansas
3 Kentucky
4 Duke
5 Kansas State
6 New Mexico
7 Ohio State
8 Butler
9 Purdue
10 Gonzaga
11 Villanova
12 Michigan State
13 Tennessee
14 Temple
15 West Virginia
16 Maryland
17 Vanderbilt
18 Pittsburgh
19 Wisconsin
20 Baylor
21 Northern Iowa
22 BYU
23 UTEP
24 Georgetown
25 Cornell
Back in the fall of 1959 when Magee was a freshman, his nickname was "the King." More than 50 years later, after scoring 2,275 points as a player and turning down a chance to go to training camp with the Boston Celtics in 1963 as a seventh-round draft choice, Magee is still at Division II Philadelphia U. Tuesday night, he won his 903rd game as a college coach, one more than Bob Knight, setting off a wild celebration on the tiny campus tucked into the East Falls section of Northwest Philadelphia.
"Once the King always the King, " said Temple Coach Fran Dunphy, one of many Philly hoops luminaries who showed up for Magee's latest coronation. With the victory, Magee set a new record for wins in men's NCAA-sanctioned basketball games. Don Meyer, the coach at Northern State in South Dakota, had 923, entering Saturday night's game, but many of those victories were at an NAIA college.
Click here for the rest of the column: By passing Bob Knight, Herb Magee truly became 'the Kind'
----------
My ballot for this week's AP Top 25 poll
1 Syracuse
2 Kansas
3 Kentucky
4 Duke
5 Kansas State
6 New Mexico
7 Ohio State
8 Butler
9 Purdue
10 Gonzaga
11 Villanova
12 Michigan State
13 Tennessee
14 Temple
15 West Virginia
16 Maryland
17 Vanderbilt
18 Pittsburgh
19 Wisconsin
20 Baylor
21 Northern Iowa
22 BYU
23 UTEP
24 Georgetown
25 Cornell
Olympic gold medal game leads to amazing joy and heartbreak
Yup, I cried.
I cried when I saw Ryan Miller crying. I cried when they played ‘Oh Canada,’ and the entire arena belted out one of the great anthems ever written. I cried at the looks on the faces of the American players who should feel nothing but pride.
The National Hockey League is thinking of not taking part in the 2014 Olympics? Are you kidding me? Let me tell you something: SPORTS doesn’t get any better than what we saw on Sunday afternoon in the Olympic gold medal game. Sure, the Hollywood ending didn’t happen; the Ottawa ending happened. This would NOT have been Miracle on Ice II for the U.S. (actually Miracle on Ice II was 1980; Miracle on Ice I was 1960) but it would have been an extraordinary achievement.
Playing in front of a rabid pro-Canada crowd, falling behind 2-0 early, coming back to tie the game with 25 seconds left in the third period and then sending it into overtime was simply amazing. An overtime goal for a gold medal would have been one of the most memorable moments in recent sports history—certainly in recent AMERICAN sports history.
But Sidney Crosby wouldn’t let it happen. You can say a lot of things about Sid the Kid. He’s reviled here in Washington because Capitals fans believe Alexander Ovechkin is a better player than he is but—in their minds--the Canadian/American media (outside of Washington) won’t give him his due because he’s Russian and Crosby is Canadian.
Ovechkin is the more spectacular player. He’s likely to have the goal-of-the-year just about every year. He’s extremely physical—maybe too physical. The only truly great player who was comparable when it comes to getting his elbows up was Gordie Howe. His numbers are better than Crosby’s and he’s less prone to injury—although he did miss some time early this season. And he’s won back-to-back MVP’s.
There’s just one problem. Crosby has his name on The Stanley Cup. In fact, his team has reached The Cup finals two years in a row. And now he has scored arguably the most important goal in his country’s history—the overtime shot, off a gorgeous pass from Jerome Iginla—that beat Ryan Miller and won the gold medal for Canada.
There is no way to understate how important that goal and this game were to Canada. Hockey is THEIR game. The country went into a near-panic a week ago Sunday when the U.S.—thanks to a remarkable performance by Miller—beat the Canadians 5-3 in group play. That meant Canada had to play Russia in the quarterfinals—that would be a Russian team led by Ovechkin. The Canadians routed the Russians then slipped past Slovakia in the semifinals to set up the rematch with the young American team.
The only U.S. player who is considered a big-time star in the NHL is Miller, the Buffalo Sabres goalie who many think is the best goaltender in the game right now—especially with Martin Brodeur finally showing signs of wear because the New Jersey Devils insist on playing him EVERY single night at the age of 37.
Canada made a rousing comeback the second week of these Olympics after a slow start. Even though the U.S. set an all-time record for medals in a Winter Olympics (37—a somewhat deceiving mark because there has been such an increase in events in the past several Olympiads) the Canadians roared past everyone to set an all-time record for gold medals with 14.
But all of that would have seemed hollow to many Canadians if not for the 14th gold—and Crosby’s shot. The memory of Zach Parise’s tying goal after goalie Roberto Luongo (who replaced Brodeur in net for Canada after the first game against the U.S.) couldn’t handle a shot with the U.S. net empty at the other end, might have haunted the country for years. To lose to the U.S.—whose previous Olympic successes were generally considered home-ice flukes around the world—on Canadian ice might never have been lived down.
That’s why you couldn’t help but feel good not so much for the Canadian players as for their fans when Crosby scored in overtime. But when you saw the faces of the American players, so spent, so drained, so STUNNED that they had lost after they had tied the game, you couldn’t help but feel awful for all of them but especially for Miller, who clearly felt responsible for the loss.
The great ones always feel that way. Miller was brilliant the entire tournament. He was voted the MVP even though his team didn’t win. But you can bet he won’t remember the dozens of saves he made but the one that he didn’t make. If anyone deserves some kind of happy ending in the future it is Miller, who in addition to being a superb player, is about as bright and thoughtful as any athlete you are likely to meet anywhere.
As for Crosby and Ovechkin, well, the one score that matters is now Crosby-2, Ovechkin-0. Crosby has a Stanley Cup and an Olympic gold medal. Ovechkin has never been past the conference semifinals and has no Olympic medal of any kind. Of course that can all change since both players are so young.
The next Olympics will be played in Russia. The favorites should be the Russians, led by Ovechkin, who will not yet be 30. What’s more, his Capitals appear to be a better team than Crosby’s Penguins this season. They’ve beaten them in both games they’ve played, coming from behind both times. They are well ahead of them in the Eastern Conference and appear likely to be the No. 1 seed in the east. Of course the trading deadline can always change things. Last year the Penguins acquired Bill Guerin at the deadline and he was a big difference-maker in Pittsburgh’s Stanley Cup run.
I wrote a column in The Washington Post at about this time a year ago saying the Caps needed to make a trade for a goalie if they wanted to win The Stanley Cup. I just didn’t think Jose Theodore had what it took to get through four rounds of postseason. A lot of Caps fans posted comments basically saying, ‘what the hell does this basketball writer know about hockey?’
Maybe nothing. But Theodore got yanked after one playoff game and was replaced by Semyon Varlamov, who played very well but, in the end, not well enough. He is still the Caps future in goal—if he can stay healthy. I’ll say what I said a year ago: George McPhee needs to make a move this week for a goalie. A solid defenseman wouldn’t hurt either: check the Caps goals-against numbers recently.
That’s for later. This weekend was about one of the most dramatic hockey games every played and even if the outcome was disappointing for the U.S. it was still absolutely brilliant—the whole thing. And ‘Oh Canada,’ can make you cry, well, BEFORE a hockey game much less after one as heart-wrenching as Sunday’s.
Hockey absolutely belongs in the Olympics with the world’s best players on the ice. Unlike basketball and tennis where the pros are dragged kicking and screaming to play more often than not, these guys WANT to be out there. Which makes it even better to watch—the joy and the heartbreak. I’m exhausted.
*****
There was one other great Olympic moment this weekend and that was Steve Holcomb and his three teammates winning the four man bobsled—the U.S.’s first gold medal in bobsled in 62 years. Holcomb looks more like your UPS guy than an Olympian but who the heck cares? He and his ‘Night Train,’ teammates beat the seemingly unbeatable Germans to win the gold medal. Seeing their coach, Brian Shimer, leaping into the sled after they finished brought back another cool Olympic memory—Shimer, in his fifth and last Olympics in 2002, winning a bronze medal in his very last Olympic event…
Finally, one brief comment on Mr. Anonymous who actually ripped me Friday for NOT having satellite radio after I had already made fun of myself for it and then claimed I should be ashamed for standing up for a CHARITY event (yo dude, the point isn’t that I’m involved in the charity it’s that the charity raises lots of money for kids who need it). So here’s my question: Why are so many Georgetown fans ALWAYS angry? They need to be calm and laid back…like me.
I cried when I saw Ryan Miller crying. I cried when they played ‘Oh Canada,’ and the entire arena belted out one of the great anthems ever written. I cried at the looks on the faces of the American players who should feel nothing but pride.
The National Hockey League is thinking of not taking part in the 2014 Olympics? Are you kidding me? Let me tell you something: SPORTS doesn’t get any better than what we saw on Sunday afternoon in the Olympic gold medal game. Sure, the Hollywood ending didn’t happen; the Ottawa ending happened. This would NOT have been Miracle on Ice II for the U.S. (actually Miracle on Ice II was 1980; Miracle on Ice I was 1960) but it would have been an extraordinary achievement.
Playing in front of a rabid pro-Canada crowd, falling behind 2-0 early, coming back to tie the game with 25 seconds left in the third period and then sending it into overtime was simply amazing. An overtime goal for a gold medal would have been one of the most memorable moments in recent sports history—certainly in recent AMERICAN sports history.
But Sidney Crosby wouldn’t let it happen. You can say a lot of things about Sid the Kid. He’s reviled here in Washington because Capitals fans believe Alexander Ovechkin is a better player than he is but—in their minds--the Canadian/American media (outside of Washington) won’t give him his due because he’s Russian and Crosby is Canadian.
Ovechkin is the more spectacular player. He’s likely to have the goal-of-the-year just about every year. He’s extremely physical—maybe too physical. The only truly great player who was comparable when it comes to getting his elbows up was Gordie Howe. His numbers are better than Crosby’s and he’s less prone to injury—although he did miss some time early this season. And he’s won back-to-back MVP’s.
There’s just one problem. Crosby has his name on The Stanley Cup. In fact, his team has reached The Cup finals two years in a row. And now he has scored arguably the most important goal in his country’s history—the overtime shot, off a gorgeous pass from Jerome Iginla—that beat Ryan Miller and won the gold medal for Canada.
There is no way to understate how important that goal and this game were to Canada. Hockey is THEIR game. The country went into a near-panic a week ago Sunday when the U.S.—thanks to a remarkable performance by Miller—beat the Canadians 5-3 in group play. That meant Canada had to play Russia in the quarterfinals—that would be a Russian team led by Ovechkin. The Canadians routed the Russians then slipped past Slovakia in the semifinals to set up the rematch with the young American team.
The only U.S. player who is considered a big-time star in the NHL is Miller, the Buffalo Sabres goalie who many think is the best goaltender in the game right now—especially with Martin Brodeur finally showing signs of wear because the New Jersey Devils insist on playing him EVERY single night at the age of 37.
Canada made a rousing comeback the second week of these Olympics after a slow start. Even though the U.S. set an all-time record for medals in a Winter Olympics (37—a somewhat deceiving mark because there has been such an increase in events in the past several Olympiads) the Canadians roared past everyone to set an all-time record for gold medals with 14.
But all of that would have seemed hollow to many Canadians if not for the 14th gold—and Crosby’s shot. The memory of Zach Parise’s tying goal after goalie Roberto Luongo (who replaced Brodeur in net for Canada after the first game against the U.S.) couldn’t handle a shot with the U.S. net empty at the other end, might have haunted the country for years. To lose to the U.S.—whose previous Olympic successes were generally considered home-ice flukes around the world—on Canadian ice might never have been lived down.
That’s why you couldn’t help but feel good not so much for the Canadian players as for their fans when Crosby scored in overtime. But when you saw the faces of the American players, so spent, so drained, so STUNNED that they had lost after they had tied the game, you couldn’t help but feel awful for all of them but especially for Miller, who clearly felt responsible for the loss.
The great ones always feel that way. Miller was brilliant the entire tournament. He was voted the MVP even though his team didn’t win. But you can bet he won’t remember the dozens of saves he made but the one that he didn’t make. If anyone deserves some kind of happy ending in the future it is Miller, who in addition to being a superb player, is about as bright and thoughtful as any athlete you are likely to meet anywhere.
As for Crosby and Ovechkin, well, the one score that matters is now Crosby-2, Ovechkin-0. Crosby has a Stanley Cup and an Olympic gold medal. Ovechkin has never been past the conference semifinals and has no Olympic medal of any kind. Of course that can all change since both players are so young.
The next Olympics will be played in Russia. The favorites should be the Russians, led by Ovechkin, who will not yet be 30. What’s more, his Capitals appear to be a better team than Crosby’s Penguins this season. They’ve beaten them in both games they’ve played, coming from behind both times. They are well ahead of them in the Eastern Conference and appear likely to be the No. 1 seed in the east. Of course the trading deadline can always change things. Last year the Penguins acquired Bill Guerin at the deadline and he was a big difference-maker in Pittsburgh’s Stanley Cup run.
I wrote a column in The Washington Post at about this time a year ago saying the Caps needed to make a trade for a goalie if they wanted to win The Stanley Cup. I just didn’t think Jose Theodore had what it took to get through four rounds of postseason. A lot of Caps fans posted comments basically saying, ‘what the hell does this basketball writer know about hockey?’
Maybe nothing. But Theodore got yanked after one playoff game and was replaced by Semyon Varlamov, who played very well but, in the end, not well enough. He is still the Caps future in goal—if he can stay healthy. I’ll say what I said a year ago: George McPhee needs to make a move this week for a goalie. A solid defenseman wouldn’t hurt either: check the Caps goals-against numbers recently.
That’s for later. This weekend was about one of the most dramatic hockey games every played and even if the outcome was disappointing for the U.S. it was still absolutely brilliant—the whole thing. And ‘Oh Canada,’ can make you cry, well, BEFORE a hockey game much less after one as heart-wrenching as Sunday’s.
Hockey absolutely belongs in the Olympics with the world’s best players on the ice. Unlike basketball and tennis where the pros are dragged kicking and screaming to play more often than not, these guys WANT to be out there. Which makes it even better to watch—the joy and the heartbreak. I’m exhausted.
*****
There was one other great Olympic moment this weekend and that was Steve Holcomb and his three teammates winning the four man bobsled—the U.S.’s first gold medal in bobsled in 62 years. Holcomb looks more like your UPS guy than an Olympian but who the heck cares? He and his ‘Night Train,’ teammates beat the seemingly unbeatable Germans to win the gold medal. Seeing their coach, Brian Shimer, leaping into the sled after they finished brought back another cool Olympic memory—Shimer, in his fifth and last Olympics in 2002, winning a bronze medal in his very last Olympic event…
Finally, one brief comment on Mr. Anonymous who actually ripped me Friday for NOT having satellite radio after I had already made fun of myself for it and then claimed I should be ashamed for standing up for a CHARITY event (yo dude, the point isn’t that I’m involved in the charity it’s that the charity raises lots of money for kids who need it). So here’s my question: Why are so many Georgetown fans ALWAYS angry? They need to be calm and laid back…like me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)