Despite the fact that Villanova (a “1” seed) was eliminated by North Carolina State and Virginia (a “2” seed) was eliminated by Michigan State, the NCAA “Sweet Sixteen” has a number of traditional powers and regular season standouts still in contention.
It was in the East Region that the top two seeds were eliminated.
That leaves Michigan State, the region’s “7” seed to face “3” seed Oklahoma in one regional semi-final game on Friday night.
In the other, “8” seed North Carolina State faces Louisville which is the “4” seed. Those schools were part of a great Final Four in 1983.
Each faced powerful Houston–Louisville losing a truly fun game to watch vs Houston in the “semis,” before upstart NC State, coached by the late Jim Valvano, shocked Houston in the final, to win an incredible NCAA title.
I expected a great show and reality more than exceeded my expectations as Frankie Valli and Company put on a tremendous show at the beautiful, historic and recently reconstructed Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, New York last night.
There are so many hits both from Frankie’s days with the immortal Four Seasons group and his solo career.
Mr. Valli sang so many and so well, with his singers also doing a great job. The orchestra was superb. Frankie paid special tribute to his musical director, Robbie Robinson, with whom he has been working with for 36 years.
Most of it all, the evening was about the greatness and sheer volume of Mr. Valli’s work as the incredible number of big hits and great songs kept coming.
A resounding version of December 1963 “Oh What A night” was the highlight for me, as my relatively old bones joined the others standing, singing and dancing, which made for an incredible sight.
With Valli, there was so much: “Dawn,” “Sherry,” “Walk Like a Man.” And, an interesting story about “Got You Under My Skin.” Valli and The Four Seasons had a night off at the famed Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami and went to see Frank Sinatra at The Eden Rock. They were blown away by his version of the Cole Porter classic and Valli recorded his version as a tribute. Closing the show was “Let’s Hang On.”
Back to Valli’s smash 1975/1976 hit, I use “What a Night” because that is what it was and that is the word!! (Alas “Grease” which also “is the word” opened the spectacular show.)
It was seeing greatness as Valli sings and rocks on, both his talent and longevity truly incredible.
Football legend Chuck Bednarik died today at age 89. He played just before my time, but his greatness is known to all ages.
He was a magnificent player, playing his entire career with the Philadelphia Eagles with whom he won two NFL titles including the Eagles’ most recent one in 1960.
Bednarik made the final tackle in that game as the Eagles held off the Green Bay Packers (17-13), the only time Vince Lombardi ever lost a post season game.
Chuck, who was elected to The Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1967, was the last true two way player in the NFL. He was a good offensive center and an all time great (defensive) linebacker.
Recently I had occasion to see the versatile, extremely talented and beautiful Linda Purl perform in concert.
She was magnificent. Her voice is great and her remarks weaved throughout the show surely enhanced her performance.
Her music included songs from The Great American Songbook accomplished with a beautiful voice and an endearing style.
One story included the Dalai Lama looking for his expensive watch after a talk Linda attended.
Ms. Purl’s versatility which includes a recurring role on the CBS show “Reckless,” will really be on display in two upcoming theater performances.
She will be in “The Year of Magical Thinking” a one woman show adapted for the stage by the great Joan Didion. That performance will be at The Lensic Theatre at 211 West San Francisco Street in Santa Fe, New Mexico on March 28th.
Next Linda will perform in “Love Loss And What I Wore” at The Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach, California from June (3-7). The playhouse is located at 606 La Guna Canyon Road, a magnificent setting.
A last note is that Ms. Purl is a charming, nice individual who took extra time to talk and pose for pictures after the concert.
Visit Linda Purl’s website: click here.
Talk abounds today about the upset filled start to the NCAA Tournament. Two “14 seeds” shocked “3 seeds” with victories, and another came very close to victory. U.A.B. and Georgia State pulled the big upsets while Northeastern came close.
Looking ahead, theoretically, the elimination of the “three seed” in a region helps all the teams especially the “two and one seeds.”
With losses by three seeds, Iowa State (U.A.B. was the 14 seed that beat them) and Baylor (Georgia State was the 14 seed that beat them) and two seeds Gonzaga and Arizona improved their chances.
Also, unofficially, underdogs have beaten the spread in 16 of 19 games.
Do not count on anything in what has been an upset filled tournament to this point.
I tuned in to catch the Notre Dame vs Northeastern finish. It did not take long, less than a minute, for me to get upset with the NCAA basketball coverage on CBS TV.
After seeing Northeastern turn the ball over down by two points giving Notre Dame the ball with just one second left, a subsequent free throw gave Notre Dame a three point lead. Next a timeout was called.
At this point, lead announcer Brian Anderson said, “We are in for quite a finish here” as the game went to one of the interminable number of commercials.
Why say that? Why the hype? A good announcer like Bob Costas would just let the game speak for itself. If Anderson felt the need to embellish the contest, he should have done it when Northeastern had the ball down 1 in the last half minute.
At that point, they had at least a realistic chance of winning the game.
Down 3 with one more free throw coming for the leading team, Notre Dame, the trailing team, Northeastern, had little if any chance to win. Yet Anderson “hyped” at that point. Why???!!!
Notre Dame made the free throw and won the game by four points.
Despite last night’s surprise overtime home win vs the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, it has been a very disappointing season for the New York Knicks and their first year coach Derek Fisher.
But it was a good effort on their part last night, which is not what Spurs’ coach Greg Popovich thought about his team’s performance as he was most critical.
I envision improvement for the Knicks, and that the Spurs embarrassing loss will provide motivation for the Spurs, who seek their 6th NBA crown and first ever back to back titles.
Yesterday I hinted at my final four predictions with mention of three teams with the nickname Wildcats and today I will make my final four predictions.
It would be “foolish” not to predict Kentucky to win the Midwest region. In fact, I will pick Kentucky, surely prohibitive favorites, to win the Midwest Region.
Their opponent in the national semi-finals will be Arizona which would be a redux of the 1997 final, won by Arizona. The Arizona Wildcats are my pick to win the West Region.
Despite a warning by a respected and knowledgeable friend, I will pick yet another Wildcats team to make the final four and that is Villanova to win the East Region.
The only “non Wildcats team,” I am predicting to make the semis/final four is Duke. The Blue Devils, a viable title threat even vs Kentucky, will win the South Region.
The NCAA Tournament can be called the “Wildcats” tournament just on the fact that top rated (35-0) Kentucky is better than an even money favorite to win it all.
In addition, two other teams with the nickname Wildcats are among the top contenders and have a great chance to emerge as champions if those other Wildcats (Kentucky) do not.
One of those teams is Villanova University, the Philadelphia school, hoping to win the title 30 years after their incredible title win in 1985. That is their only title to date.
Villanova is the top seed in the East Region.
The other Wildcats with a big chance are the Arizona Wildcats, who won their only title 18 years ago in 1997.
Arizona is the second seed in the West Region.
No matter the result of today’s American Athletic Conference Championship game, some credit has to be given to the University of Connecticut’s basketball team. The question is how much?
First off, their title last was an example of how an unexpected team can win the NCAA Tournament, especially with a few breaks.
Connecticut’s big break was playing the Regional Finals at Madison Square Garden, where they enjoyed a nice home advantage.
That stated, their improbable run to a fourth men’s title in fifteen seasons was truly impressive and will resonate in college basketball lore.
This year they are one win away as today they are slight underdogs vs regular season champion S.M.U. (coached by Larry Brown) from qualifying for the NCAA Tournament despite at best a mediocre regular season.
Playing virtually at home in Hartford Connecticut, “U. Conn” was a huge favorite in its first game, just a slight underdog in its second game, a slight favorite in its third and as cited, a slight underdog in today’s title game.
Thus their chances of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament were not that formidable but bottom line is this Kevin Ollie coached team has won 9 consecutive must win games over a two season span and that is a true accomplishment in just about any sport at any point in time.
Kevin Ollie
Andy B Sports 