I appeared on Sports Talk this past Thursday with Chris Michael and Joe Craig.  I always enjoy the repartee between Chris and Joe, and Chris and the guests.  The second guest was Brian Ludrof, Lafayette’s Assistant Sports Information Director, who just happens to be my grandson.

It was the 500^th Sports Talk and that deserves special mention.  Chris and Joe have continuously made this show better.  The guests have gone from just being very local to today, with the advent of Skype, where guests can be from pretty much anywhere.  The show continues to look and sound better and that’s a tribute to the “behind the scenes” group that deals with graphics, audio, and directing.  We all look forward to the next 500!

Chris always has a segment on the show called the “Roundtable Discussion”.  It is a rapid-fire reaction to some of the current sports stories of the day.  The five topics this past week were all intriguing so I thought I would elaborate on my thoughts:

• Is Bryce Harper worth $400 million?
  • The Washington Nationals’ may have the best player in baseball in Harper, but $400 million? Right now, Giancarlo Stanton of the Marlins is signed to a $325 million contract.  I have reservations about saying anyone is worth that much, but I also have no doubt $400 million is going to happen soon.  Harper is the most likely candidate to get it.

• Is the Oakland Raiders’ move to Las Vegas a good idea?
  • Not if you ask the NFL. The League would like to maintain the façade that they are not part of the sports gambling that is associated with the NFL.  Putting a team in the gambling Mecca of the U.S., I’m sure, does not sit well with the front office.  Secondly, Vegas is very small market compared to the rest of the NFL cities.  I do think the Raiders really want to stay in California, so it may very well have more to do with what the San Diego Chargers decide (stay in San Diego or move to LA).

• Should or will Carson Wentz play three or more games with the Eagles?
  • The Ravens’ Joe Flacco started right out of Delaware, but the Ravens were desperate. The Eagles are not.  Barring injuries to both Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel or a complete collapse of the team indicated by the win/loss record, I do not think Carson Wentz will play.  The Eagles would be best served to follow the Aaron Rodgers plan of learning behind a veteran (Brett Favre) for a few years and then making him the franchise QB.

• Name a rule change you would like to see in football at any level.
  • I have a few – (1) Make the NFL extra-point rule permanent; (2) Since there seems to be more cheap shots these days, immediate ejection after the second personal foul in one game; (3) Make “half-the-distance to the goal-line” penalties the full distance in order to attain a first down.  In other words, a holding penalty on first down at the offensive teams’ ten-yard line should put the ball on the five, but move the chains to make it 20 yards for the first down (that would still make it a true 10-yard penalty).

• Name a current athlete who captures your attention.
  • Right now, at this time of the year, it’s Jordan Spieth. He has become my Tiger Woods in the sense that I will watch the tournaments he plays in.  He is not dominating right now, but will most probably be ready for the next major at Oakmont.  I know I will watch.

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)
 

1. Joe Maddon, former Lafayette student, has the Chicago Cubs playing the best baseball in the majors by far. His team is already eight games ahead of the second-place Pirates in the National League Central.  The Cubs are winning 75% of their games!
2. Speaking of winning, how about those Phils? They are six games over .500, own the second best record in the National League, and are only one game out of first place.  Just amazing!!
3. RCN and The Lafayette Sports Network will be celebrating their 20^th year together bringing Lafayette College athletics this coming fall football season. It sure does not seem that long since I sat in the Lafayette Athletic office and cemented the relationship.  That was 1996 and it was a long time ago.
4. The Blue Mountain League baseball schedule started this past Thursday and RCN will once again have the BML Game of the Week starting Tuesday, June 21.
5. The US Open is at Oakmont this year which is in Pittsburgh. I played the course a few years back and found it to be the hardest course I have ever played.  I spent more time in the sand than I normally do at the beach.  My caddy put a sand rake in my bag so he would not have to walk for one every time.  On one hole, I avoided the sand, but caught him raking a trap anyway.  I asked what he was doing and he replied, “Just staying in practice”.  I tipped him anyway!

Gary will be returning with a new blog on May 16.  This week, he’s asked RCN’s Jim Best to guest blog.  Viewers should recognize Jim from RCN-TV’s coverage of high school wrestling.

About two years ago, when it was announced that the 2016 N.C.A.A. Division 1 National Wrestling Championship tournament was going to be held at Madison Square Garden in New York City, I thought to myself, Well, I will be watching the tournament on television that year because I am surely not dealing with the hassles and cost of getting in and around New York City for a wrestling tournament. However, as the tournament time got closer, and the tournament hype grew, I found myself purchasing tickets and making hotel reservations, and man, am I glad for the change of heart!

Much to my surprise, New York City and Madison Square Garden were more than ready to host such an event. Driving into the city on St. Patrick’s Day morning (the first day of the tournament), was a little tricky, but once in the city and parked, I found it easy to check-in to my hotel, walk to Madison Square Garden (which was only two blocks from the hotel), and get in and out of the arena efficiently, even with metal detectors at the front doors when fans entered for a round of wrestling. Over the course of the three-day tournament, I had a few conversations with folks who had come to the tournament from places like Iowa, Missouri and Oklahoma. For the most part, they too were pleasantly surprised at how manageable it was to get around the city, and most of them were doing some sight-seeing in between rounds of wrestling because this was their first trip to “the big apple.” The only semi-complaints that I heard were over the price of beverages, particularly the ones that are golden in color and are purchased in draft form…but those folks seemed to quickly adapt to the higher than expected prices!

The tournament unfolded over a three-day time period. Similar the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament, brackets for each of ten weight classes are pre-determined by “seeds”. Each weight class has 32-35 qualifying wrestlers, and the first round of wrestling begins on a Thursday morning. Unlike the March madness basketball tournament, every competitor who qualifies for the tournament has the chance to wrestle at least two matches due to a full consolation bracket. In each round, with the exception of the Saturday morning round (that round is all consolation bracket matches), a championship round is contested, and at least one consolation bracket round is contested, with the exception of the championship finals on Saturday evening.

As for the wrestling, the tournament was action-packed and full of upsets, as it usually is. From the very first round of wrestling, highly seeded wrestlers were tested, and in many cases, upset by lower-seeded or non-seeded wrestlers. The storylines of the tournament included Penn State handily taking another team title under the coaching of Cael Sanderson. Of the nine Penn State wrestlers who qualified for the tournament, five advanced to the finals. Of the five Penn State finalists, two were freshman (both lost in the finals), and two won their respective weight class. Both of Penn State’s champions were Pennsylvania products (Nico Megaludis and Zain Retherford), and Pennsylvania accounted for the most All-Americans (to be an All-American, a wrestler must place in the top eight in his respective weight class), as has become the norm in the last few decades.

Local wrestlers who competed in the tournament this year included Zach Horan (Nazareth/Central Michigan), Mike Ottinger (Parkland/Central Michigan), Corey Keener (Blue Mountain/Central Michigan), Randy Cruz (Bethlehem Catholic/Lehigh), Darian Cruz (Bethlehem Catholic/Lehigh), and Pete Renda (Brandywine/N.C.State). Both Pete Renda and Randy Cruz achieved All-American status. I am sure that I missed a few names in that mix, and I apologize greatly to those wrestlers, mainly because I know from personal experience, how hard it is to qualify for that tournament, and every wrestler in the tournament deserves special recognition! All of the local wrestlers competed well, and all are continuing to maintain District XI’s reputation as one of the “toughest wrestling districts in the country.”

At the conclusion of the tournament, the “buzz” among the fans was that the championship finals may have been the most exciting in recent history. Every match was action-packed, with both wrestlers risking potential disaster at times in order to score points on his opponent. The finals ended in dramatic fashion as Kyle Snyder, a twenty year old sophomore from Ohio State, defeated Nick Gwiazdowski, a two-time defending champion from North Carolina State, in a battle of giants at heavyweight, with a come from behind, sudden death overtime victory. In the sports world, it doesn’t get much more dramatic than that!

As I have described to some of my non-wrestling friends and colleagues, attending that tournament is the equivalent to a football fan attending the Superbowl, or a college basketball fan attending the Final Four-it just doesn’t get any better in terms of action and atmosphere. For three days in March, approximately 18,000 diehard wrestling fans converge at the site of the championships to watch the best college wrestlers in the country compete against each other, and then we get to meet at the local eating establishments, in between the rounds of wrestling, to discuss and relive the most exciting moments over a burger and some cold beverages…it truly is a “live, eat and breath” wrestling experience! Next year, St. Louis, will again play host to the tournament. I’m counting down the days!

As I hope you may have noticed, I have been away from my blog for a bit.  April is a quiet sports month for us here at RCN so it is a good time for me to reunite with my wife and with my golf game.  I managed to do both this past month – I went on a cruise and followed that up with a five-day golf trip.  Those obviously made the month fly by, but it is good to be back at the computer and looking towards the baseball championships coming up this month.

The last major sporting event that I watched prior to vacation was the Masters.  I have always been intrigued by the reverence that the announcers seem to pay to this event.  So I did some research and found that, in 1979, the radio and television announcers were given rules and a terminology guide from the Masters committee that they must follow.  Some have lost their job by not obeying the edict.  Here are a few of the rules:

• Never refer to the gallery or patrons as a mob or crowd.
• Never estimate the size of the gallery.
• Never refer to players’ earnings.
• Never refer to Masters prize money.
• De-emphasize the players’ antics.
• Do not compare any holes at Augusta National with those at another golf course.
• The water in front of the 13^th green is not to be called Rae’s Creek, but a tributary of Rae’s Creek.
• Make no reference to Masters tickets having been sold out.
• Make frequent mention of the presentation ceremony to be conducted at the end of the final round.
• Do not guess where a ball might be.
• Do not estimate the length of a putt.

 In addition, there is a Terminology and Style Guide which includes the following:

• Augusta National Golf Club – not Country Club or Golf Course.
• Patrons – the people in attendance are patrons, not fans or spectators.
• Second Cut – there is no rough; the higher grass should be referred to as the second cut.
• Bunkers – they are not sand traps.
• First nine/Second nine – not front nine and back nine.
• Groupings – not “threesomes” for rounds one and two.
• Hole number 1 – not 1^st
• 1st round – preferred term for rounds and Final round for 4^th

There are more rules and more terminologies, but you get the idea.  And… if you announce the Masters, you BETTER get the idea.  Gary McCord was fired in 1994 for saying that “bikini wax” was used on the Augusta greens to make them slick and that some of the bunkers around the course looked like “body bags”.  He has not been asked back.  Long-time announcer Jack Whitaker once referred to the gallery as a “mob scene” and the Augusta committee got him removed from the broadcast.

This Masters will be remembered for the collapse of Jordan Spieth in the final round, but I, for one, paid a bit more attention to every word that was spoken during the broadcast.  And, I am quite sure, so did every one of the announcers (if they wanted to keep the job).

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)

1. Some good news out of Philadelphia – a new Eagles’ quarterback, the Flyers made the playoffs, and, better yet, the Phillies are winning. Light at the end of what has been a very dark tunnel.

2. Speaking of Eagles’ football, Carson Wentz played for North Dakota State. I did a Lafayette-North Dakota State game in Fargo, North Dakota, back in 2011.  Boy, do they love their football.  It was a packed house at the indoor stadium with the loudest crowd I have experienced.  Lafayette lost 42-6.  There is not much else to do out there.  In the local pub the night before the game, dogs sat on the bar stools and they had a meat raffle!  What?

3. I mentioned Bourjos, Hernandez, Herrera, Franco, Howard, Galvis, Rupp, and Goedel as the Phillies position players to start the season. However, it has been the pitching staff, both starters and relievers, who have been responsible for the success of the team so far.

4. As I write this, every team in the National League East, except the Braves, is at .500 or better. The Phillies have the fourth best record in the National League and third best in the NL East.

5. Jim Best will offer up his blog on this site next week. Thanks to him, John Leone, and Scott Barr filling in for me.

Today’s “Behind the Mic” blog is written by long time RCN personality Scott Barr. He has covered a wide range of sports, including kickboxing, track and field, lacrosse, soccer, volleyball, football, and baseball. Most of our viewers, of course, will know him for his work with District XI wrestling. Fans across the valley have heard him call “Give him six!” after a pin, while working with three legends of Lehigh Valley sports—Gary Laubach, Ray Nunamaker, and Jim Best. Outside of RCN, Scott helps small businesses set up retirement plans for their employees, and lives in Macungie with his wife, Melissa, and their four children.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hard to Believe

I have a secret that I have been keeping from wrestling fans for years.  When I discovered this about myself, I wasn’t proud, and it took a long time before I could even admit it out loud.  Nonetheless, it’s true.

I like baseball better than wrestling.

There.  It’s out.  I feel a little better now.  Because this is a blog, and there’s space to fill, there is definitely room for explanation.

Many of you know that I have a son who played baseball at a high level.  He had a great career at Emmaus High School.  He was named to various “all-conference” and “all-area” teams as a hitter and a pitcher.  He went on to pitch in college, and was actually a member of an NCAA championship team.  My love of baseball is a direct result of his career.  Each year on opening day, he sends me a “BEST DAY OF THE YEAR!” message, and we both know that it’s true.

As his career got more competitive, my understanding of the game grew as well.  I began to focus on every pitch and every movement of each player.  I even began to appreciate a team’s approach to pre-game rituals, and how they chased after foul balls that went out of play.  Baseball, played well, is a beautiful symphony of activity.  While the pace of the game is often reviled, I appreciate the time to observe, reflect, and consider what is going on.  I really do love it.

Now, baseball for the Barr family has entered a new phase.  I have a younger son—nine years old—who is playing.  From a baseball standpoint, he is NOT his brother.  Let’s just say that he plays for the love of the game.  And I have to tell you, it is an absolute joy to watch.

The little guy has taught me the pleasure of baseball without the pressure.  He, like the vast majority of nine-year olds, does not have a perfect swing.  He’s not interested in a perfect swing.  He doesn’t have a cannon for an arm, but sometimes he will make a cannon sound effect when he throws, just to be cool.  He plays to be with his friends, to get dirty, and to wear a jersey with his name on it.

He is not a future major league prospect, and would rather build Lego sets or play Minecraft if he had his choice all the time.  He truly has fun with the game, and he allows me to have fun coaching.  There is no fretting over an error, or a bad call by an umpire, or a stupid play—by either of us.  As a coach, of course, I will teach the right way to play the game, but it is not the “perfect” model that it used to be.  It is nine-year olds becoming better baseball players than they were yesterday, and that’s it.

Sometimes, while I am on the road for work, I will pull into a parking lot at an empty baseball field and have my lunch.  The scenery, and the memories, relax me.  Of course, I remember the glory of an amazing career for my oldest.  But now, as well, I chuckle to myself about some of the travails of my youngest.  It’s a true yin and yang.  I didn’t even realize that anything was missing five years ago, but it truly was.

I will always be a wrestler at heart, but as my boys and I say, “we will always have baseball.”

Scott Barr

Gary will be returning with a new blog on May 2.  This week, he’s asked RCN’s John Leone to guest blog.  RCN-TV viewers should recognize John from the Lafayette College basketball broadcasts on the Lafayette Sports Network.

When a college has been around for nearly two centuries as Lafayette has, it stands to reason that it not only bears witness to significant historic milestones, but that it also has a hand in producing them. Francis March, for example, occupied the chair of English language and comparative philology at Lafayette College from 1857 to 1907. It was the first post of its kind. March was one of the first professors to advocate and teach English in colleges and universities. Over the years, Lafayette graduates have pioneered the use of laparoscopic surgery, orchestrated cyber-security breakthroughs, and built new companies from scratch. And of course, we loyal Leopards love to trumpet the fact that the use of “The Football Helmet” and “The Huddle” originated on College Hill.

Indeed, innovation – academic and otherwise – has been a staple of the place seemingly forever. But as the calendar turns and we close the book on a dynamic college basketball season, I’m reminded of yet another. It was the spring of 1951 when Lafayette’s former coach, player, and then-Athletic Director, Bill Anderson ’19, reached out to Butch Van Breda Kolff and brought him in as “The Coach.” He was immediately introduced to his senior point guard-in-waiting, Pete Carril, who’d someday carve his own niche among the game’s greatest coaches. That introduction was not only the beginning of a long and beautiful relationship, it spawned a style of play that would impact the game for decades to come.

VBK and Pete saw the game through a different lens as early as the late 40’s. And while the evolution of the game cannot be denied, its basic tenets remain. The pick and roll and the give and go (well, maybe not the give and go so much these days – unless it happens by accident) are still pervasive in today’s game. There is also no denying the fact that the best coaches still manipulate talent to fit into an offensive system. They plug their respective pieces into places on the court where they can be most productive – and, sadly in many more cases, where they can do the least damage. It’s called “good coaching,” and to be sure, it has its place. But too often, that process can devolve into basketball’s version of a Rube Goldberg machine – parts and pieces plugged into spaces with rigid, pre-determined roles and little opportunity for the participants to see and think and do things creatively – and in concert with the four other guys.

I’m struck by the similarities in so many of the offenses that I see these days. What made Butch’s offense so difficult to defend was the fact that it was virtually impossible to prepare for in any conventional way. After all, how could the defense predict what an offense would do if the guys running it didn’t know themselves – that is, until they saw it develop spontaneously? Even Coach Carril’s use of Butch’s basic movement and its principles took on much more structure as he developed his great Princeton teams.  Still, the fundamental premise was for players to see, think, and do – in precisely that order. After all, “the smart do take from the strong”, as Coach Carril points out in his book.

Butch would be the last to use flowery metaphors to explain his offensive philosophy. But watching him implement and grow it virtually every day for the four years we spent together gave me a special window into his genius. He called it “organized confusion”. It was jazz, not classical. And he was the ultimate maestro. Yes, it has its principles and parameters – primarily floor balance and spacing – but what makes it great is its capacity for improvisation, not necessarily off the dribble, but as much without the ball as with it.  Every move is predicated on “seeing” the guy in front of you, reading the defense, and playing “smart”. Each possession becomes a kind of snowflake – virtually never the same as anything that came before it. Put guys in the right spots on the floor, give them a template for intelligent movement, and a coach can create spontaneity. An oxymoron? For sure, but not surprising, since Butch’s life was a paradox. This, after all, was the fun stuff. Butch and Pete would simply call it “playing the game right.”

On the eve of his national championship in 1987, Bob Knight was asked by a reporter which coaches had the greatest influence on him. After invoking the names of guys like Hank Iba and Pete Newell, he told the Times-Picayune in New Orleans that “Butch Van Breda Kolff’s offense at Princeton (1962-66) always mesmerized me.”

In the four years that I worked with Butch at Lafayette, a different position player led us in scoring each year: a center, a forward, a point guard, and an off-guard. Butch refused to put numbers on players. It was no accident, but rather the product of playing the game in a way that allowed the ball to find the right guy at the right time. It would always take a little more time. But around mid-January to early February, the music and the voices would begin to harmonize.

There are plenty of folks who watch the game, whether sitting in packed arenas or flipping channel to channel to witness the thrills and upsets of March Madness.  There are far fewer who see the game. Still fewer have the unique ability to translate and convey what they see into the kind of choreography that allows five bodies to move to the rhythm of a single brain. It’s a different way to coach and teach the game, but the rewards are – at least in my view – infinitely greater.

This point was driven home to me again just last December when I had lunch with Coach Pete. Whenever we meet, we invariably talk basketball – even if not in the same language that most others might understand. I’m not nearly as wise as The Coach, but I always sense that I can “see” what he’s thinking. Pete’s record at Princeton is now the stuff of college basketball legend. But I was struck when the “Old Professor,” an icon in his own right, glanced away wistfully and suggested, “Nobody saw the game like Butch.” High praise from the guy who gave us the Princeton Offense. But Pete still calls him “Coach,” and that’s good enough for me.

Play ball!!  Those are the words that baseball fans heard this week when the 2016 season began on Sunday.  Hopes are always high as the new season begins.  Fans from Toronto, Texas, Kansas City, St. Louis, LA, and New York hope their teams can repeat as Divisional champions.  Royals’ fans are hoping for a two-peat as Kansas City defends their World Series championship.  And Phillies fans are hoping for great improvement and a possible miracle on Broad Street.  This is how I think the divisions will go:

American League
West

1. Houston – Wild card entry last year; lost to Kansas City in the playoffs; needed a closer and got the Phillies Ken Giles; will win division this year.
2. Texas Rangers – Weak in the outfield and at starting pitching; could finish lower, but not higher.
3. Seattle – Rookie manager; weak pitching rotation; almost a whole new roster.
4. LA Angels – With Trout and Pujols, you would think they would be better, but pitching makes them “not so good”.
5. Oakland – Play poor defense and bullpen is weak; lost 35 games by one run last year – turn those around and…

Central

1. Kansas City – Defending champs; fundamentally they are terrific; offense and bullpen overcome an average starting rotation; will win division easily.
2. Cleveland – Excellent rotation; little offense; no attendance = no money to get even better.
3. Chicago – Poor offense; poor bullpen; poor rotation = poor season.
4. Detroit – 74-87 last year, horrible bullpen, but team is better than last year with off-season deals.
5. Minnesota – Manager Paul Molitor is their greatest asset; performed miracles with this team last year; not again.

East

1. Toronto – First place last year; first place this year; best offensive unit in the AL overcomes any other weaknesses.
2. Boston – “Big Papi’s” last year; might drive the Sox to emotional title, but pitching staff as a whole is very questionable.
3. New York Yankees – Great bullpen (I mean “Great!”); aging lineup; this team could finish first or last depending on starters.
4. Tampa Bay – No fan support, no money, no bullpen; starting rotation is pretty good and makes them better than the Orioles.
5. Baltimore – Can score (hit 129 HR’s last year), but can’t keep other team from outscoring them.

Kansas City will win the American League pennant.

National League
West

1. San Francisco – The Giants win in even-numbered years (what? – I read it somewhere); upgraded their pitching staff; need to upgrade their batting stats.
2. LA Dodgers – Clayton Kershaw will win almost every five days and this team is solid in every way, but team chemistry is a problem (ask fired manager Don Mattingly).
3. Arizona – Could win the division after acquiring two very good starters; bullpen is suspect for sure.
4. San Diego – Will not contend; rebuilding after trying their best with deals last year.
5. Colorado – Stadium helps them offensively, but seems to help the opponents even more. Among the worst teams in baseball.

Central

1. Chicago – Joe Madden! Joe Madden!  No real weaknesses except their own history.  Last title in 1908.
2. St. Louis – Great manager in Matheny; not as strong as last year when they won 100 games, but they always seem to be at or near the top.
3. Pittsburgh – outstanding outfield both offensively and defensively; Melancon led majors in saves; happen to be in a very tough division.
4. Milwaukee – While being weak to begin with, they got weaker in spring training when they lost their closer; pitching was bad anyway.
5. Cincinnati – Had an all-rookie starting lineup for the last third of the 2015 season; still rebuilding; not good.

East

1. NY Mets – Great pitching; same lineup as last year, except for Daniel Murphy; should win it again.
2. Washington – With Bryce Harper and their pitching, they still find a way to lose (injuries); maybe first-year manager Dusty Baker can finally get them over the hump.
3. Miami – Eighth manager (Don Mattingly) in last seven years and Barry Bonds as hitting coach makes one go “hmmm”; and still they will be better than the Phillies and the Braves.
4. Philadelphia – Pete Mackanin will have the team playing hard, but the talent level is low ( except for Franco).
5. Atlanta – Worst team last year in runs scored; won four more games than the Phillies last season; four less this year?

Chicago will beat the Mets for the N L pennant.
Cubs win it all!!

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)

1. As bad as my bracketing was this year, I did manage to pick the correct winners in the semifinals in last week’s blog – North Carolina and Villanova. As I write this on the National Championship morning and if “defense wins championships” then Villanova will win the 2016 NCAA Championship.
2.  With North Carolina in the title game, it brought back memories of Catasauqua’s Larry Miller who I played against in the 1963 District championship game at the Harrisburg Farm Show Arena. He scored 42 points and we lost the game.  The following year, Larry scored 46 of his team’s 66 points while beating Steelton in the 1964 state playoffs.  He went on to play for Dean Smith and North Carolina and was the ACC’s Men’s Basketball Player of the Year in both 1967 and 1968 and was named as one of the fifty greatest players in ACC history.
3.  I also remember back to April 1, 1985, when Villanova, under Rollie Massimino, beat Georgetown 66-64 in a big upset to win the NCAA National Championship. They were led by Ed Pinckney.  By the way, they beat North Carolina that year in the Southeast Regional final 56-44.
4.  Bourjos, Hernandez, Herrera, Franco, Howard, Galvis, Rupp, and Goedel will be the Phillies position players to start the season. Bring a scorecard – remember, “You can’t tell the players without a scorecard”.  This has never been more appropriate.
5.  And, finally, the UConn women won their 74^th consecutive game on Sunday destroying Oregon State 80-51 and will play Syracuse on Tuesday for the Women’s National Championship. A UConn win for Coach Geno Auriemma would be his 11^th national championship and move him past UCLA’s John Wooden for the most all-time.  The two teams are meeting for the first time this year or last year and no team who hasn’t played them in the last two years has beaten them in the last decade!  No need to go out on a limb – UConn wins their 4^th straight championship and their 75^th straight game!!

I have been around Lehigh Valley sports for a long time.  Some of you may think it’s been too long.  I hope that is not the majority opinion.  But I digress.  Each year, I attend the VIA All-Star Basketball Classic Banquet.  I am always impressed with the quality of the speakers (Michael Irvin and Chuck Dibilio this year), the formal venue, the attendance and, especially, the Hall of Fame selections.

By my count, there have been 186 individuals inducted into the VIA Lehigh Valley Basketball Hall of Fame.  I have had personal contact, either as a player, coach, or broadcaster with 138 of them – 74%.  The few I did not come in contact with accomplished their success either before I was born or when I was a young child.

This year’s group is no exception.  I know them well.

Darnell Braswell played for William Allen under Doug Snyder from 2002-2006.  In his senior year, he helped lead his team to both the LVC and District XI championships.  He was the second leading scorer that year behind Terrence Roderick.  I remember that season very well.  Darnell went on to play four years at DeSales University under Hall-of-Famer Scott Coval.   He is the all-time leading scorer at DeSales and two-time player of the year in the conference.  His coach thought so highly of him that he is now the assistant coach and Coordinator of Athletic Recruiting.

Deanna Rayam played basketball at Freedom High School during the exact same years as Darnell.  And I remember Freedom’s late-season run.  RCN was there.  In 2006, her team won the District Championship by upsetting Parkland and went on to the third round in state playoffs.  She was the third girl to score 1,000 points at Freedom and was third-team All-State.  She went on to play at East Stroudsburg University leading the team in scoring, rebounding, and assists in the same season!  No one had ever done that before.  She scored 1,000 points at ESU, too.  The ESU coach wants her to be her assistant, but she has chosen to devote time to her family.

I REALLY remember Ron Hassler because I followed him as a player and continued to watch his career as a coach.  I broadcasted the game when he scored 48 points against Bangor in 1974.  I announced many, many of his games when he coached at Catasauqua, Whitehall and Central Catholic.  He won six League championships and 10 District championships.  Basketball has been his life and a Hall of Fame one, for sure.

Jack McCallum is a nationally known journalist who has spent the past thirty years at Sports Illustrated.  He has covered Super Bowls, Final Fours, the Masters, the NBA and he has written 11 books, including the New York Times bestseller, The Dream Team.  He is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.  So how do I know this elite writer?  When I was pitching for Moravian College (1964-1968), Jack covered our games for the Bethlehem Globe Times.  I will always remember his article when I lost a “perfect game” after 6 2/3 innings pitching against #9 Temple University.  His article turned out to be much, much better than the outcome.  I did not register another out!

It is a pretty good career when you have rubbed elbows and, in some cases, thrown elbows with the elite of Lehigh Valley basketball.  I wish I would have known the other 36%.   But then I would be even older!

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)

1. Syracuse and North Carolina will play each other next Saturday in the Final Four. North Carolina beat them twice this year.  Both schools have suffered from accusations of “academic fraud” and I am sure there will be plenty written about that this week. North Carolina should win this game.

2. I, for one, did not like the Notre Dame strategy of holding the ball until there were ten seconds on the shot clock. That approach appeared to me to force Notre Dame into desperation mode each possession while North Carolina was scoring by running their offense.

3. Can Villanova beat Oklahoma? Can anybody stop Buddy Hield of Oklahoma?  He scored 37 against Oregon and has averaged 29.3 points in the tournament.  This Villanova team has an air about them, however.  They held Kansas All-American, Perry Ellis, to four points.  There is a will and tenacity about this team and big-man, Daniel Ochefu, could be the difference.  I like Villanova.

4. I love “Match-play” golf. This week, the PGA featured the WGC-Dell match Play championship.  Scores do not matter – what matters is how many holes have you won against your opponent.  There is a winner every match and a loser.  One goes on; one does not.  Every hole matters.  That’s what I like to play and that’s what I like to watch.

5. As I write this, the Flyers will make the NHL playoffs. They are tied in points with the Red Wings, but own the tie-breaker.  That’s the good news – the bad news is they would play the Washington Capitals, the best team in the NHL.  Do you believe that the ‘76ers have still not won 10 games?  I wrote this same sentence last week.  As of this Monday, they were 9-65, losing four more games this past week.  The Phillies are coming!  And, once again, thank goodness for Villanova.

“Amusement” is defined as, “the state or experience of finding something funny”; “the provision of enjoyment of entertainment”; “something that causes laughter or provides entertainment”.

RCN, like many companies I’m sure, runs an NCAA basketball bracket pool that is strictly “for amusement only”.  There is no fee to enter; there are no financial rewards, except for a modest gift certificate.  The REAL big prize, however, is owning the bragging rights that come with winning and, trust me, that is the best gift of all.

There is a little extra pressure that accompanies my selection because I am the Sports Director and expected to know what I am talking about (a mistake in their judgment, not mine).  And, when I handed in my pool, it certainly did not help when I bragged at our staff meeting that there was not much sense in anyone else entering the competition.  They would just be wasting their time.  The winning bracket had been filled out and handed in BY ME.

I also placed my selection in a “hermetically sealed envelope” (I have no idea what that means) so that no one could see my picks until the games actually began.  When asked which team I selected to win it all, I refused to answer or, even worse, offered up some obnoxious answer.

Now, truth be told, after last year’s results, my confidence level was way down.  I went into the Championship game needing only favored Wisconsin to knock off Duke and, as it should be, the championship of RCN Bracketology would be mine.  But Duke won!  Not Wisconsin! And I lost to Linda (not her real name – I wish I didn’t have to use my real name either) who made her picks based on uniform colors, nicknames, team mascot, the handsomeness of the coach, or some other nonsense.  Suffice it to say, she knew NOTHING about college basketball.  AND SHE WON!  (I hope I don’t sound bitter).

Linda (still not her real name) rubbed her victory in my face and just this past week offered to aid me with my picks this year and made sure others in the company knew she was willing to “help” me make my selections.  My response was not very nice and, as you can imagine, I could not wait to conquer this year’s bracket and put her in her place.

Until… Friday!  #15 Middle Tennessee State (who?) beat Michigan State 90-81!  You see, I picked Michigan State to win it all!  I did not pick them to lose in the FIRST ROUND, SECOND ROUND…!!  (Did I mention I am the Sports Director?).  And then, to make matters worse, Middle Tennessee State lost in the second round to Syracuse by 25 points!!

So as I sit here at my desk ripping up my copy of the NCAA bracket, I await the wrath of my fellow workers.  The worst response will most certainly come from Linda (I hope I never hear her real name again).  She has North Carolina and Kansas in the final and both are STILL ALIVE.  Geez!

So I can assure you, as far as I am concerned, this exercise is far from “for amusement only”.

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)

1. It was nice to see Villanova get by the second round of the NCAA Tournament. And they did it with ease, beating Iowa 87-68, so that no last-second heroics were necessary.  It is their first Sweet Sixteen appearance since 2009.

2. Temple and St. Joseph’s were not so fortunate. Temple lost in the first round 72-70 to Iowa on a last second put-back.  Replays showed the scorer pushed off to get the rebound and should have been whistled for a foul.  And St. Joseph’s put up a strong fight against #1 Oregon losing by five.  That game kept me up until 12:05 on Monday morning.  I find it hard to leave any game once I look in because almost all the games come down to the last few possessions.

3. The team that beat Parkland and knocked them out of the PIAA AAAA Basketball championship in the quarterfinals won the state championship on Saturday night. Roman Catholic beat Alderdice 73-62 and repeated as state champion.  Alderdice was ranked #1 all year long and had only lost one game until Saturday.  So, Parkland lost to the best 73-60.  No shame there.

4. Private schools continue to dominate both the boys’ and girls’ basketball championships in Pennsylvania. They won six of the eight titles this past weekend.  The complaints of an “unlevel playing field” will certainly continue.

5. As I write this, the ‘76ers and the Flyers will not make the NBA or NHL playoffs. Do you believe that the ‘76ers have not won 10 games?  As of this Monday, they were 9-61.  Unbelievably bad!  The Flyers still have a chance.  Thank goodness for Villanova.

It happened again!  This past Wednesday, Holy Cross stunned the Patriot League and Lehigh by winning the Patriot League Championship and getting the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.  Because they were the ninth seed in the Patriot League tournament, won four road games, after not winning an away PL game all season, and ended the pre-tournament season with a 14-19 record, they will play in Dayton on Wednesday, March 16, at 6:40 PM against Southern to get to the 64-team tournament.  Holy Cross became the lowest-seed to represent the League.

The fourth-seeded Lafayette Leopards won the tournament last year and, at that time, they were the lowest seed from the PL to win the conference title.  For two straight years, regular season champion Bucknell did not represent the Patriot League in the NCAA tournament.  It should be mentioned that the regular season champ does get an automatic bid to the NIT tournament.

So the question that needs to be asked – is it time to stop rewarding the conference champion with an automatic bid?  The answer is not so simple and just leads to more questions:

1. Does a conference want their best team (the regular season champ) to represent them in the NCAAs or do they want their “hottest” team (tournament champion) in the “dance”? The Patriot League will probably NEVER get both.
2. Is it fair to the team that played exceptionally well all season to be beaten out by a team that played exceptionally well for 120-160 minutes over one week?
3. If you favor the regular season champion to represent the league, must you eliminate the tournament all together or give every team one last hope to continue their season?
4. Financially, do these tournaments just make economic sense? The Holy Cross vs. Lehigh championship crowd was the largest in PL history to see a championship.  That cannot be bad for the institutions or the league.
5. Which team deserves the NCAA and which deserves the NIT?

I love the tournaments.  They create terrific basketball with great finishes.  But, I am not sure, like many others, what the answers should be to the questions posed.  I will leave you to ponder your responses.  And I am well aware that, right now, you probably only care about your office pools.

Remember, these pools are for “amusement only”.  That is not the case for conference tournaments as they exist right now.  They are much, much more important!  Should they be?

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)
 

1. Our local basketball season came to an end this week in Hamburg and in Southampton when the Parkland boys and the Bethlehem Catholic girls lost in the PIAA quarterfinals. It was a great year!  And with all the talented underclassmen coming back next season, both the Lehigh Valley boys’ and girls’ team should, once again, provide plenty of excitement.

2. The success of District XI wrestlers at the PIAA AAA state finals was even more astounding – seven champions, 10 finalists, 20 medalists, and Bethlehem Catholic and Nazareth finishing as the top two teams in the state. Andrew Gunning won Liberty’s first state championship title in 31 years and garnered Coach Jody Karam’s first individual championship in his 23-year career at Liberty.  Kudos to all!!

3. Oh, the internet – the NCAA brackets were tweeted out before CBS was able to get through the brackets on their Selection Show. And CBS pays how much to be the network that gets to announce the brackets?

4. I had my first Friday night off in a long time this past week and went to see the Red Hot Chili Pipers (not a misspelling), a “bagrock” group made up of bagpipers and others. They were joined onstage for a number of songs by the pipe and drum members of the Liberty Grenadier Band.  The young people were outstanding, thrilled to be performing and reminded me, once again, that there is more to high school athletics than just the teams.  The bands and cheerleaders work just as hard!

5. There was also a little bit of creativity by the “captain” of the Liberty pipers. When he had a chance to play by himself with the Chili Pipers, he took the opportunity to ask a fellow member to the high school prom.  She accepted and it was an “aww” moment.

There are always “feel-good” stories every year in my world of Lehigh Valley basketball.

Just look a little deeper into the success of the Southern Lehigh girls’ basketball team.  They play with basically an iron five and four of them are underclassmen.  Only Sydney Cyr, who is outstanding, by the way, is a senior.  They won the Colonial League, but Colonial League teams are not expected to win Districts against teams from the bigger conferences.  Even though they appeared in their 31^st District tournament, they were 16-30 in those appearances and 0-2 in the championship games.  That changed this year when they beat a very good Bethlehem Catholic team and won their first District XI title ever!  As I write this, they have won 27 straight games and are into the second round of the PIAA state playoffs.  Obviously, Coach Matt Cooper has done an outstanding job with this young team.  This is a great story which, perhaps, can only get better.

The Easton girls’ basketball team last won a title of any kind in 1970 – 46 years ago.  Head Coach Dave Lutz is a physical education teacher and he has had to stare at the banner every single day as it hangs in the gymnasium.  Even approaching the championship game this year, history showed that they had lost five and won none.  When his team won the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference championship, the first thing he told me was how he could not wait to see the new banner hanging in his office which is the gymnasium.  He knew he would have a good team, but he did not expect to go through almost the entire season without the full roster of players available to him.  This team suffered through injuries, heart arrhythmia, and mononucleosis.  Even now, as they prepare to play the second round of the state playoffs, their starting center, leading rebounder, and tallest player is not available.  Yet, they have continued to win.  They are the only District XI AAAA girls’ basketball team still playing.  Another chapter awaits them this week.

And then there is the Bangor boys’ basketball team.  They won the Colonial League, but that is “ho-hum” for them, having won three of the last four.  What is not “ho-hum” is winning in the District playoffs.  The last time they were in a District championship was in 1988 – 28 years ago.  The best player on that team was Bron Holland, who just happens to be the head coach of this year’s squad.  Bangor was not going to beat Parkland for the District championship.  They are ranked third in the state and no team has beaten Parkland since they got all their championship football players back.  Parkland has won 24 games in a row.  Take that game off Bangor’s schedule and they have won16 straight – 26 overall, a school record for wins.  This team has electrified and solidified a town.  Rumor has it that the town of Bangor is empty when the Slaters play on the road.  Some imply even the police attend (probably just the off-duty ones).  Now they are in the second round of the PIAA playoffs, unheard of for a AAAA Colonial League team.

As I watch the basketball season wind down, these are a few of the stories I will not forget.  They make me and, hopefully, our viewers “feel good’!

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)

1. It must be nice to go out on top. Peyton Manning did it this past week.  He retired from football this past Monday after winning the Super Bowl for the Denver Broncos.  Only John Elway retired after winning the Super Bowl for the same team and becoming their General Manager.  Manning walked away from a guaranteed $19 million contract.

2. I am usually not that interested in NBA scores during the regular season. But, on Sunday, the awful LA Lakers (13-51) beat the Warriors (yes, Stephen Curry’s Warriors), a team that is on track to go down as the greatest regular-season team in history. The Lakers entered with a .190 winning percentage compared to the Warriors’ .917 percentage. By percentage differential, it was the biggest upset in NBA history.

3. The NCAA selection Sunday is March 13 with the NCAA Tournament beginning in Dayton, Ohio March 15-16. Time to jump into the “pool”.

4. Lehigh or Holy Cross will represent the Patriot League in the tournament for the men. Whoever wins their championship game on March 9 may very likely play in Dayton.  The women’s final is Saturday, March 12.

5. As of Monday, March 7, six of our high school basketball teams are still alive in the state playoffs (Easton, Southern Lehigh, Bethlehem Catholic girls; Bangor, Parkland, Emmaus boys). And, even better for our wrestling fans, District XI wrestlers captured EVERY title in the PIAA AAA Northeast Regional wrestling tournament.  On to the State Championships for them.