It means so little, but have I ever been accurate in recent post predictions/comments.
Northwestern made the tournament, won its first game and played well enough in defeat vs Gonzaga, the region’s top seed.
I stated Villanova would not repeat as NCAA Basketball champions and cited Wisconsin as a threat in the tournament. Wisconsin “second rounded” ‘Nova yesterday.
It was stated here that the United States World Baseball Classic team would have the intangibles vs The Dominican Republic when they met again. The United States team won and advanced to the semis.
In a splendid hour or so of conversation with The Hudson Union Society’s Joe Pascal, the great Phil Donahue entertained the audience with memories of his great career.
Phil was most informative, candid, gracious, humorous, all reasons that his talk show had such great success.
Mr. Donahue’s career start in Ohio, his time as a single father and references to his beloved wife, actress Marlo Thomas were all part of the talk.
Early in the evening Phil stated, “you are giving a talk show host free reign to talk” which combined with some good questions asked by Mr. Pascal, manifested in a truly great time with Phil Donahue.
Additionally, Phil Donahue was most gracious both before the presentation, citing he grew up in Cleveland, the city that houses the World Series opponent of Phil’s team, the Cubs and just after the interview, standing and talking about his two grandchildren, a girl and boy.
Some NCAA Tournament comments and predictions will follow.
In the South Region, ‘they’ will get the highly rated battle between UCLA and Kentucky, a ’75 finals redux but North Carolina will win the region.
I hope to be wrong but I do not see Villanova winning the title again. Duke would have been my choice, but their conference tournament victory leads me to pick elsewhere.
Kansas will make the national semis.
So Dean Smith related North Carolina and Kansas, as two to make the semis, no other picks, save Wisconsin as a threat, however, a team that easily could lose early.
After a surprising nice run, an easy victory today by Japan, eliminated the team from Israel in the second round of The World Baseball Classic.
The team from Israel won its first four games, the first three in and to advance out of the first round of the tournament.
However, teams from both The Netherlands and japan routed Israel and those two teams will be in semi-finals to be played at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Monday March 20th.
Last weekend in conference tournament play, both Duke and Michigan won 4 games on 4 consecutive days to win the ACC and Big Ten Tournaments respectively.
The link between Duke and Michigan could take me to Duke’s repeat title win vs Michigan in 1992 but instead takes me back to 1964 and 1965.
In those seasons, the great John Wooden won his first two titles winning finals games vs Duke in 1964 and vs Michigan in 1965.
Gail Goodrich, a great basketball player, led the 1965 title win vs Michigan, scoring 42 points. Later he teamed with # 44, the great Jerry West to form one of the great backcourt combinations in NBA history, with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The United States baseball team in the current world Baseball Classic finally played really well and easily defeated the team from Canada to advance to the final eight.
Surely the network and tournament organizers are happy with this result and the easy bracket certainly helped the U.S. team advance.
If and when they face the team from The Dominican Republic, the U.S. team will have the intangibles having already lost a close game to the team of Juan Marichal’s country.
Though Wisconsin pounded them in the Big Ten Tournament semi-finals yesterday, today will be an historic great day for Northwestern basketball as they will officially be selected for the NCAA Basketball Tournament for the first time in school history.
Thus within a span of four months and ten days, Chicago sports will have been rewarded with the Cubs’ first World Series win in 108 years and Northwestern gaining entry to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the 79 year history of the event which began in 1939.
Northwestern is projected to be an 8 or 9 seed and if that is the case, almost certainly will face a regional one seed if they win in a first ever tournament game.
If N.W. does that and plays fairly well vs the one seed/high seed, it would cap an already very good season. Anything more is “heavy duty gravy.”
I will say Northwestern will be a nine seed and win vs the eight seed in their first ever NCAA Tournament game either Thursday or Friday.
There could be big changes throughout the American League Central Division this season.
Sure they can do it, but after dissipating a three games to one lead in a bid to end a 68 year World Series drought, it will be difficult for the Cleveland Indians to get back on the World Series path.
I wonder about the Kansas City Royals, the 2015 champions and the Detroit Tigers can not buy a win in their Lakeland, Florida home, perhaps a bad sign.
Does this leave room for upstarts, the Chicago White Sox, and Minnesota Twins, the latter 30 years removed from the first of two World Series wins with the great Kirby Puckett and others in 1987.
The great player, Kirby Puckett pictured above.
The fact that TCU upset this week’s top ranked college basketball team, Kansas in the Big Eight, I mean Big Twelve Tournament, (did that on purpose, as the conferences are a mishmash, money, money thing, the ACC event is in Brooklyn, N.Y., not exactly Tobacco Road though the young that flocked there do smoke), means little and was not that big an upset.
Today a semi in the aforementioned ACC Tournament, in aforementioned Brooklyn matching long time rivals, North Carolina and Duke.
It also means little and just does not seem right being played in Brooklyn. It is the ACC.
Despite a perhaps “neglected” bladder, I stay for the movie credits.
I did so after the excellent movie, “The Last Word,” with the wonderful Shirley MacLaine, noticing a few coincidences, bringing back a memory or two.
In the credits a Robert Craft and Jim Gowdy.
Forty years before the Pats, of course owned by Robert Kraft, won a 5th title, a fine upstart Pats’ team was denied in a controversial game at Oakland.
Curt Gowdy was the NBC lead announcer and some years later “demonstrated” on me, the rough play on NE tight end Russ Francis.
It was an honor to play Russ Francis and certainly one to be “roughed up” by the great Curt Gowdy.
The great Shirley MacLaine, pictured above, shines in “The Last Word.”
Andy B Sports 