Billy Paultz Reconsidered

This really is one of the best sports days of the year, the culmination of The Madness plus real Opening Day for baseball.
I say real Opening Day because of what an abomination it is that ESPN messes things up by pushing a game to Sunday. This is the day you call in sick (if you work […]

[Read more →]

We are live from the living room with a Final Four blog event….
The opening montage - and yes, I forced myself to watch it for you, the home viewer - was relatively inoffensive as such things go. Sorry Mitch Albom, but it seems that Kid Rock is Detroit’s unofficial spokesman.
Yeah, I’m even watching commercials. Is […]

[Read more →]

I actually thought this would happen. Give credit to Bill Simmons, via one of his maibags, for acknowledging that it has:
Q: Clark Kellogg is talking about baking soda and Jim Nantz has to do everything including telling viewers that Blake Griffin is being doubled every time down the floor. Admit it. You miss me, don’t […]

[Read more →]

In which the best annual event in American sports tops itself (again)…
Lordy, what a great basketball game, tight and fiercely contested for 40 minutes. Verne Lundquist mentioned this one in the same breath Duke-Kentucky ‘92. That’ll be seen as sacreligious by some, but not me.
I have no idea if tonight’s classic was anywhere near the greatest […]

[Read more →]

We’re in the office for a long Saturday. Observations:
Can’t say it broke my heart to see Arizona, the team that supposedly justified its at-large bid by beating Utah and Cleveland State, get slapped silly by Louisville last night….
Had a very strange interview with very strange Darren Daulton this morning. He was doing a card show in Ephrata.
Somebody […]

[Read more →]

My brackets are now history (thanks, West Virginia), which is almost a relief, in that now I can just forget about them and enjoy the hoops.
Anyway, I spent the last few days at the games in Philly. Observations:
*It seems to me that most of the best high school players around here (meaning south-central Pa.) aren’t good […]

[Read more →]

First: I’m back, and reasonably happy to be, from a week’s vacation. Nothing to add, really.
As to the Dance,  I find it interesting that the debate over who’s in and out starts with a goes-without-saying assumption, which is that creating the strongest field possible is the only thing that can or should matter. I’m sure that […]

[Read more →]

It’s a rare Saturday night in the office. SEC championship (and BCS semifinal) game about to start. In high schools, Wilson just lost 38-35 in triple overtime to Bethel Park in the state AAAA semis. Both teams scored TDs in first two OTs. In the second Wilson faked an FG and threw a pass that got […]

[Read more →]

The guy’s been broadcasting college hoops since well before John Wooden quit coaching it. I don’t hate Packer, which evidently makes me a cult of one. Deadspin, in its’ understated fashion, today referred to him as ”The Archangel of Death.”
We can assume Phil Martelli and Dick Jerardi shared a long, tearful, celebratory hug. Maybe still are. And they aren’t […]

[Read more →]

Pat Flannery, who announced his retirement as head basketball coach at Bucknell Friday, is the only great coach I’ve been friendly with, and gotten to see up close. He is absolutely the most competitive human I’ve ever been around. He was so competitive, in fact, that the game ate at him and threatened his health.
I saw […]

[Read more →]