SportsNetUSA Blogs

Just in case you missed it, the women are having their Final Four this weekend as well.  The women are not close enough to the men to say they live in their shadow.  When basketball fans say their bracket or March Madness they are not referring to the women.  I will admit that most of the time I prefer to watch the men play as well.  Having said that, I do not prefer men’s basketball over women’s basketball all of the time.  I want to encourage you all and especially you men that never watch the women play, watch them this Sunday.  Put away just a little of your machismo and save some time to watch some of a women’s game.  You will be entertained and maybe even surprised just how talented some of them are as basketball players.  I did not say as women basketball players, just as basketball players.  No, they do not run as fast nor jump as high.  They do pass the ball and they do shoot free throws better than some of the men’s teams.  That last  one was for you superstars at Kentucky.  It is not even an argument that the women do not get the coverage they deserve because they don’t.  Let’s do a run down of the remaining teams.

Let’s begin with Oklahoma, probably the least publicized team left. This is life after Courtney Paris who graduated as the only four time All American in Women’s College Basketball.  The Sooners are in the final four for the ninth time.  There is a California connection as #34 Abi Olajuwon is from Marlborough High School in LA.  She is the daughter of Hakeem Olajuwon.  The Sooners take on Stanford.

Stanford is the last team to beat UConn and gave the Huskies a fairly close game in December.  They lost that game 80-68 and I believe that is the closest game the Huskies have had all season.  Tara VanDerveer is an all time great coach.  Her teams are disciplined, smart and more athletic than they are given credit for.  They beat Xavier in their last game by two when guard Jeanette Pohlen went the entire length of the court and put the ball up just before the buzzer went off.  Pohlen was a former Gatorade High School Player of the year from Brea Olinda.  One of the greatest ever from Orange County.  She is a junior and will be joined next season by Sara James from Oak Ridge High School from El Dorado Hills up here in Northern California.  I saw her in person and in the State Championship against Long Beach Poly on TV.  Long Beach heavily favored and going for five titles in a row were torched for twenty points in the first half by James.  She is one of the most complete all around players you will see at the high school level and I expect she will have much success at Stanford.  Yes, I am hoping the Cardinal can get by Oklahoma and upset UConn.

The Baylor women will be riding the talents of freshman Brittney Griner.  I saw her for the first time a few weeks before the season ended.  She is 6′8″  and fast and athletic.  She does things in a manner that you have not seen before.  I think she will be over matched against the Huskies but she will be something these next couple of years.  You need to check her game out.

We could spend forever talking about the Huskies and their dominance.  They have won 76 games in a row and are looking to go undefeated for the second year in a row.  They have won six National Championships under coach Geno Auriemma.  They beat their last tournament opponent Florida State by the score of 90-50!  Auriemma took over a team that had one winning season in its 11 year history.  He went 12-15 his first year in 1985-86.  That was his first and only losing season.  His teams have gone undefeated three times and they have won 30 games or more 15 seasons!  His coaching record at Connecticut is 730-122.  Diana Taurasi went from Don Lugo High School in Chino all the way across the country to win three National Championships with the Huskies.  Current player, Maya Moore is a three time All American and can join Courtney Paris as the only other four time All American.  What I have shared here does not even begin to tell of their true domination.  Their next two opponents may be looking for divine intervention or maybe just a slight case of food poisoning.  Regardless you need to watch them even if only for the first ten minutes or so.  You can watch one of the greatest teams of all time and Brittney Griner at the same time. 

So there it is guys.  Do yourself a favor and check at least part of these games out.  Who knows you might be inclined to let the lawn go for one more week.

I know all of the talk the past weeks has been about the brackets for the men’s tournament.  Only one number 1 seed made it to the final four and all of the lower seeds busting the brackets.  I did fill out a bracket and it got busted but for me it always gets back to the game and the human stories connected with the games.  This year there are tons of stories of interest.

First some thoughts as I watched the games last weekend.  Watching John Wall I could see what all of the fuss was about.  I wondered how does one move that fast and especially move that fast dribbling a basketball.  I also thought that obviously he was another one and done player.  I personally think that NBA rule is stupid.  It is not John Wall’s fault that he wanted to go to the NBA but did not have the option.  Some free and unsolicited advice for Kentucky coach John Calipari.  Whatever free throw shooting drills you have your team doing; stop them now!  Don’t do anything.  If your team is shooting free throws at the end of practice just end practice and send them to the showers.  Your drills did not work at Memphis  and did not work at Kentucky.

I was also wondering how those BCS computers would do in picking the winners.  Would some of you out there admit how nice it is to have teams decide the winner on the court instead of on paper.  Would Butler have made it in the final four?  Would St. Mary’s have made the sweet 16?  I know that Cinderella does not win it all, so what.  The kids at Northern Iowa and St. Mary’s want to win but more than that they want the opportunity to compete and win.  Here is the insanity.  College football has the opportunity to improve their sport and won’t.  College basketball has a great thing going and now may expand the field to 96 teams.  Forget student athlete, forget tradition it all comes down to money and who is controlling that money.

Let’s take a look at only some of the story lines, big and small.  Duke the only team seeded number one to make it to the final four.  Mike Krzyzewski has quietly led his team.  One would think coach K would not have to defend himself but he is another coach that gets penalized for being such a great coach.  In other words he is judged against his own tremendous previous success.  Nolan Smith is the story here.  He is a guard and the son of former Louisville great Derek Smith.  Derek was a star on the 1980 Louisville National Championship team in Indianapolis.  He died of a heart attack at age 35.

West Virginia is back in the Final Four for the first time in 51 years.  That squad was led by the great Jerry West.  Jerry’s youngest son, Jonnie is on the roster and averaged 1.5 points per game.  Bob Huggins who has had many personal problems is back at his Alma Mater seeking atonement and rewarding the WV administration for his hiring.

Michigan State loses Kalin Lucas and still gets to the final four.  I will not even go into if Tom Izzo is one of the greatest coaches or not.  He is period.  I love to watch his teams play, you can see how well coached they are, even when they lose.  In Izzo’s 14 years as head coach 86% of his kids that complete their eligibility get their degrees.

My personal favorite, the Butler Bulldogs.  I hate to admit it but I did not even know that Butler was in Indiana!  They are the home team their campus just around six miles from Lucas Arena.  They have an enrollment of around 4,000 compared to Michigan State’s 47,000.  They play in the powerful Horizon League, that is right The Horizon League.  Their coach Brad Stevens looks young enough to be a player on the team.  This young man is quite impressive.  They make it to their first Final Four ever and it is in Indianapolis.  Now throw in the fact that Bobby Plump played at Butler after playing on the State Championship Milan team in 1954. Yes it is Hoosiers all over again.  Bobby Plump was the actual real life model for Jimmy Chitwood the fictional character based on the real life Plump.  Are you following me?  Let us add also Gene Hackman played the coach in Hoosiers was born in San Bernardino.  So there is a California connection.  This  story is  my personal favorite, go Bulldogs.  Enjoy the final four.

SportsNetUSA.net may have a new “King of the Prognosticators.”  It seems this person had predicted the NAIA Player of the Year (after only six games into the season), also with a little help from his son, which GSAC team would be in the NAIA final game on the women’s side, and was one game away from getting his sleeper pick into the last four teams remaining in the NCAA field.  You all know and love him but we won’t say his name because we don’t want to stroke his ego too much. Speaking of those final four teams that survived and advanced, the unknown “mid-major” finally has a legitimate chance to cut down the nets when it is all said and done. Kudos to the Butler Bulldogs for being what Gonzaga was supposed to be for the last ten years.

We have heard recent grumblings about reseeding the NCAA Tournament field as each round is completed to make it fair for the top seeds. This suggestion comes off the heels of possible filed expansion to 96 teams. There is no need to reseed the brackets. The tournament is fair as is. Upsets are part of the reason this event is so exciting, anticipated and the best three weeks in sports. As far as expansion, if teams don’t qualify as one of 65 teams, do we really want to see them? If teams win the games they are supposed to win, then a chance at being one of the 65 should not be a problem.  Every year teams and coaches and fans whose teams are left out complain that if their team got a chance to dance then their team would win it all; maybe, maybe not; but every tournament is filled with drama and the best team may not always win but like Kurtis Blow said, “these are the breaks.”

Finally, in honor of the bracket, here are my matchups in the best afros in sports tournament:

1.  Oscar Gamble (baseball)  vs.    8.   Robin Lopez (basketball)

2.  Julius Erving (basketball)     vs.    7.  Bake McBride (baseball)

3.  Darnell Hillman (basketball)  vs.  6.  Carlos Valderama (soccer)

4.  Ben Wallace (basketball)        vs.    5.  Flo Hyman (volleyball)

I know there are many more players that I may have missed but these are the eight that I am going with. For pure iconic glory, Julius Erving would get the vote. Oscar Gamble would get the “pick” for sheer mass and the afro puffs. Darnell Hillman would be my choice for the cleanest. It is a difficult decision because there could be an upset along the way like a 5 or 6 seed. That is why I will leave it up to you and pick your favorite afro.

You often will hear on SPORTSNETUSA.NET the bantering of Title IX, Pedal to the Metal, Big E, Stick boy, and The Franchise about sports; where they were, how far they have come and where they might be going as a viable, competitive, watchable product to the public. Some of our honored group would go so far as to tell you that Hockey and Pro Basketball are on the rise.  But let us be realistic, the more butts you can plunk into seats the more whatever product you are watching will look more popular.

Take for example this past Sunday (3/7/2010), just in the LA/O.C. market alone on cable television, you were offered 20 college basketball games. Throw in four high school games and three pro games and you would say the sport is popular. But how true is that statement and how true are those numbers? If a marketer were to call the average sport’s viewer and ask if they watched a basketball game there is a very good chance that they watched a few moments of one of twenty games. If you do that in enough markets it makes the game seem as if it is growing in popularity. This kind of chicanery is played by many major sports throughout the country and we, the viewers, are supposed to buy into popularity over boredom.

STATEMENT FROM NEILSEN RATINGS: 
The National Basketball Association has achieved a rapid rise and fall in television ratings since the 1997-1998 NBA season, when ratings for the NBA Finals achieved a record high, to the 2002-2003 NBA season, when ratings for the same event hit an all-time record low.

Blame for this rise and fall has been pinned on the destructive NBA lockout which occurred right after the 1998 season. The lockout wiped out thirty-two games of the 1998-1999 season and caused fan apathy. As well as heavy competition from prime time programming such as American Idol, the CSI franchise, and Dancing With The Stars.

Despite the fall in ratings, the NBA’s regular season ratings average is only slightly lower than Major League Baseball’s, and ratings for the finals continue to outdraw competing events that occur during the same month, golf’s U.S. Open and the Stanley Cup Finals.  So why do my compatriots continue to try and tell me how popular a sport is that seems to have no popularity at all?

It is this, my partner TITLE IX is the voice for one of the more successful woman’s program in college basketball, Vanguard University. He has the luxury to watch a product that is superior on a daily basis and that influences his perception of the game. On the other side of the table is The Franchise who works with a major professional organization in basketball and also has the
pleasure of touting some of the best young talent on the high school level. Ah, to wear rose colored glasses. The trifecta of this group, is the wishful announcer of Cal State University Fullerton Basketball, the Big E. Okay, I know that is a giant leap from the other two; at least they have something to root for on a high school, pro or college level. Let me give credit where credit is due. CSUF has made it to the tournament before and Big E is a “half full glass” type of person.

But gentleman, the door is starting to close and it will continue to close on your sport and others when the foundation of your sport and its fans forget what made yours and other sports famous … history.  History is a lost story in basketball, we only hear of number 23. History is a lost sport in hockey, we barely ever hear of number 99. And in baseball, the history stopped.  So guys, your sport is not as popular as you’d like to think, because no one cares about who did what whenever. Well I guess I should not say that. I, at least, know three who care.  It’s just that they need to yell a little louder.

By the way Mr. Neyland my all-GSAC team is the following:
Teresa Kamp: Fresno Pacific
Becki Huddle: Vanguard University
Kelly Boeke: Vanguard University
Lisa Faulkner: Vanguard University
Kelly Schmidt: Vanguard University
Erin Kella Point Loma
Colleen Planeta: Point Loma
Lindsey West: Azusa Paciific
Stephen Patten: Azusa Pacific
Sonia Ackerman; Cal Baptist
Gittie Mejer: Concordia
(Whomever I missed I know TITLE IX covered)