Jim Szoke's Sports Blog

Davidson & Goliath

Davidson College is just the kind of basketball story that makes the NCAA Tournament the greatest sporting event going.  Where else can you find a tiny academic oriented school compete, and beat, some of the best perennial basketball powers in the nation such as Georgetown.  Ironically, their first round upset came against Gonzaga, which put their school on the map over the past decade by making annual trips to the NCAA Tournament.  Add in that Stephen Curry is the baby-faced assassin, capable of putting up 40 points, with proud mom and dad watching from the stands, makes for great television.   

  I called Davidson's games as radio play-by-play announcer in the early 90's.  Coach Bob McKillop was just building his program up with a trip to the NIT for my last game at West Virginia in 1994.  Coach McKillop is the same now as he was then and in 19 years has done it the right way.  He's a humble man and class act, always crediting his coaching staff and players for the team's success.  McKillop is a wiz at recruiting internationally, including six current players from other countries.  I hope he's always at Davidson, but programs like NC State and South Carolina should be inquiring about his services.

Winthrop University has made a habit of making March Madness a yearly ritual.  Unfortunately, they got clobbered by Washington State in the first round, getting out-scored (42-11) in the second half after being tied at halftime.  Randy Peele had a tough act to follow in his first season as head coach, replacing Gregg Marshall, who led the Eagles to a first round upset of Notre Dame last season.  Marshall may wish he had stayed in Rock Hill after a bumpy (11-20) season at Wichita State.

Now, on to the self-important business of my brackets.  Forget about all of those wonderful upsets I told you to keep an eye out for last week.  Oh, the upsets happened, just not the ones I said.  You won't find Villanova or Western Kentucky in my Sweet-16.  While I had Davidson winning their first game, I did not push them through against Georgetown.  St. Joes, St. Mary's, St. Elsewhere...Drake?  Drat!  However, seven of my Elite-8 (thanks Georgetown!) and my Final Four are intact.  Thanks for caring.   

North Carolina is playing their best basketball right now, having put up 221 points in two games and looking like the strongest team in the NCAA Tournament.  After winning the ACC Tournament at Bobcats Arena, Coach Roy Williams correctly pointed out that it didn't matter.  He's right, more media and fans will get on him for losing to Georgetown in the NCAA's last year than will credit him for winning the ACC.  Except for small and medium conferences, the conference tournaments mean very little.  Davidson probably would not have even made the field of 65 without winning the Southern Conference tournament, and what a shame that would have been.  That means the Wildcats will be facing their sixth consecutive elimination game when they play Wisconsin.   

   

NIT Picking

Disclaimer...if you're not into the NCAA basketball tournament, then you may want to skip halfway down this blog of bracketology debates involving the merits of mid-majors, at-large berths and RPI ratings as they relate to seeding the regions.  In fact, I was bored just now when I re-read that sentence.  However, from this point henceforth, we prohibit the use of tournament slang such as the Big Dance, Cinderella and March Madness.  This is what happens when nerds analyze basketball because they can't shoot and dribble.

I'm way out on the limb in picking North Carolina to beat UCLA in the championship game.  I'm embarrassed to say that my Final Four contains three number-one seeds and a second-seed with Kansas and Texas also in my brackets.  For what it's worth, I did correctly pick the Final Four last year in winning our "survey challenge."  From past experience, I would say it's ok to love an underdog, just don't loooooove an underdog.  For every George Mason there is that dog that breaks your heart by coming up a point short of pulling the upset, which is still a loss last time I checked.

Of course I do have upsets in my brackets, such as 11-seed St. Joe's and 10-seeds Davidson and St. Mary's (over Miami) winning.  I also put Drake in my Sweet-16 and Xavier (over Duke) in my Elite-8.  I struggled over taking Oral Roberts versus Pittsburgh in the first round and Butler over Tennessee in the second round, but couldn't quite summon the courage to "click and drag" them into basketball greatness.       

Bob Knight looks comfortable in his new role as studio analyst for ESPN's coverage.  By comfortable, I mean he's wearing a green sweater instead of a coat and tie like the other fellas.  I also caught him yawning coming out of a commercial break.  I think they woke him out of a nap.  He stunningly predicts Pittsburgh to win the entire tournament, which will either make him look very smart or like all the dweebs he made fun of when he was coaching the game.  Welcome to the media, Bob.

I was thinking of starting an NIT office pool, but noboby wants to play.  Think of the fun of haggling around the water cooler with disgruntled Arizona State, Virginia Tech and Ohio State fans over who has the 66th best team in the country...all on company work time!    And to think college football fans think an eight-team playoff will make their lives better, when we can't even settle on the top 65 for basketball.

Nothing is free about free agency

The Panthers early days in the free agency period are more about addition by subtraction.  They've freed up big dollars under the salary cap by cutting ties with Kris Jenkins, DeShaun Foster and Mike Wahle.  Adding wide receiver Muhsin Muhammad just prior to free agency takes some of the pressure off that position.  The offensive and defensive lines figure to be the main areas of attention, as they should be since those two units can make mediocre talent behind them look much better when they do their job well.

Keary Colbert was a great guy who did not have great hands at wide receiver.  It's not a surprise that another team would take a shot a the former second round draft choice out of Southern Cal, but for Denver to jump early on a three-year contract worth over seven million dollars was stunning considering his lack of production.  It will be interesting to see if somebody takes a flier on former Panthers Dan Morgan and Mike Rucker, who have both taken a physical pounding in their NFL careers.

The Cleveland Browns will be sitting and watching on NFL draft day, but they look like they have really helped themselves with the additions of Corey Williams, Shaun Rogers and Donte Stallworth, while resigning Derek Anderson and Jamal Lewis.  Atlanta now has a terrific one-two running back tandem with Michael Turner joining Jerious Norwood.  The Jets have overpaid in landing past-their-prime players in Kris Jenkins and Alan Faneca with contracts that will choke them down the road. 

Now that the CIAA Tournament has rolled through Charlotte, there is plenty more college hoops on the way with the ACC Tournament, and then NCAA Regionals.  If you're a college basketball fan, it's got to be heaven.  And no, I don't have any tickets so quit asking.

Hank Steinbrenner is a chip off the old boss with the New York Yankees.  He's followed well in dad's footsteps by calling out Red Sox Nation as an invention of the team and ESPN.  Even better move by Red Sox principle owner John Henry making Hank an honorary member of Red Sox nation by sending him a membership car, that will give access to such items as the team newsletter, bumper stickers and Green Moster seats.