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03/16/2017

And We're Off....

[Posted early Wed. a.m.]

NCAA Basketball Quiz: Name the six players in the rotation for the 1974 NCAA champion North Carolina State Wolfpack, who beat Marquette (Maurice Lucas, Bo Ellis) for the title, 76-64.  Answer below.

NCAA Tournament Bits

The last AP Poll before the tournament begins....

1. Villanova (59) 31-3
2. Gonzaga (6) 32-1
3. Kansas 28-4
4. Arizona 30-4
5. Kentucky 29-5
6. North Carolina 27-7
7. Duke 27-8
8. UCLA 29-4
9. Oregon 29-5
10. Louisville 24-8
11. SMU 30-4
19. Wichita State 30-4
23. Michigan 24-11

So when matched with the NCAA Tournament seeds, two that stand out are SMU being tabbed a 6, while Wichita State was once again royally hosed and is an outrageous 10-seed, though, yes, it’s only two top 50 wins were against Illinois State.

One other some are bitching about is Middle Tennessee State (30-4) being slotted in as a 12.

--Duke is the favorite to win it all among some of the Las Vegas sportsbooks. The Wynn and Westgate Superbook each installed Duke as the 5-1 favorite after the bracket was released.  William Hill’s Nevada sportsbook, however, has North Carolina the favorite at 13-2, and MGM’s sportsbook listed Kansas as the 6-1 fave.

--Vanderbilt got a 9-seed in the West with a 19-15 record; the most losses ever for a team reaching the tournament with an at-large bid.

--As for the conference breakdown, we’ll see how some of the following do....

ACC (9); Big East (7); Big Ten (7); Big 12 (6); SEC (5); Pac-12 (4); Atlantic 10 (3).

--And as for my own selections, boy it’s kind of boring as I went through it game by game. 

My Elite Eight...

East – Villanova, Duke
West – Gonzaga, Florida State

Midwest – Kansas, Louisville
South – UNC, Wichita State

Final Four – Villanova, Gonzaga, Louisville, UNC

Villanova over North Carolina, the first repeat champion since Florida (2006-07).

My only upsets (defined as 11 or higher) are....

12 UNC-Wilmington over 5 Virginia; 13 East Tennessee State over 4 Florida; 12 Middle Tennessee State over 5 Minnesota...which I think, coincidentally, are Seth Davis’ three upsets.

I do have the Wake Forest-Kansas State winner beating 6 Cincinnati.

Speaking of which....

So my Demon Deacons were making their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament in seven years and us long-suffering fans expected a great effort in the play-in game in Dayton last night.

When the game started out, Wake gave up some easy baskets to K-State and I thought, OK, get a feel for the refs and how tight they might call the game and don’t commit any early tacky falls, especially in the case of John Collins.  It was 9-4 Wildcats. 

But even as the Deacs kept it close despite some awful turnovers, simply because they were hitting 17 of 18 free throws, what stood out was the performance on ‘D’.

“Ole!...Ole!...” Geezuz, talk about a matador defense, time after time, Kansas State just frolicked into the lane, one easy bucket after another, with zero interior effort on the part of the Deacs.

Yet we were only down 40-36 at the half and I thought, OK, we’ll tighten up in the second half and start to knock down some threes (after hitting only 3 of 14 in the first half).

But nooo!  It was more, “Ole!...Ole!....”  Kansas State ended up hitting a stupendous 31 of 47 from the field, 66%, for crying out loud.  Wake displayed zero toughness the entire contest.

Oh, we showed some fire on the offensive end, and it was still just 72-70 K-State, 5:28 to play, but then we gave up a three, and then a layup and one, and then a dumb foul by Keyshawn Woods, and it was 79-70, 3:59 left, and it was essentially over.  Final, 95-88.

It also needs to be said, Danny Manning was outcoached by veteran Bruce Weber

But, I haven’t gotten on Danny all season and the program is clearly on better footing, assuming one or two of our incoming class can step in immediately.  We have a helluva 4-guard rotation coming back, for one.  [Bryant Crawford will realize he’s not a first-round pick this ‘go round and opt to stay, is my guess.]

But no John Collins.  Would someone tell Clark Kellogg that the ‘super-soph’ is not returning...that’s he’s rapidly elevated his game to lottery status!

So now I’ll root for the ACC the rest of the way, even though I’m projecting Villanova to take it all.

--I was reminded Sunday how hard it is to listen to the aforementioned Mr. Kellogg and phrases like “scores the ball.”

You know how I’ve said I love the thought that if there is life on another planet, it’s probably like an octopus?  Highly intelligent, but I realize know they’d also probably speak like Kellogg.

“What does the alien mean, ‘Scores the ball?’” “We’re trying to determine that, Mr. President.”

--I was reading a piece in the San Diego Union-Tribune on San Diego State, which finished a highly-disappointing 19-14, 9-9 in the Mountain West, which only received one bid in the NCAAs.  A very depressing season for the Aztecs.  I didn’t realize an 80-game home sellout streak ended, plus it was the end of an 11-year streak of 20 wins, and the end of an 11-year streak of postseason appearances, including six NCAA appearances in a row, 2010-15.  Last season they went 28-10 and went to the semis of the NIT.  As Mark Zeigler wrote: “The end, perhaps, of an era.”

Coach Steve Fisher bemoaned the record in games decided by eight points or less, 2-11.

Check out some of these player stats.  Zylan Cheatham scored 16, 15 and 16 points at the Diamond Head Classic over Christmas and was named tournament MVP, then didn’t score more than 13 the rest of the season in any contest.  Malik Pope didn’t get going until the end, the Mountain West tournament. Jeremy Hemsley shot 56.9 percent behind the 3-point arc in November and December, ranking seventh in Division I, and 27.3 percent since.

And so I’m formally dumping San Diego State as my ‘closet’ CBB team, especially now that Wake Forest’s program appears to be back.  Next year, it’s just going to be all about the Deacs.

I had a good reason to have a second pick the last seven years, with the Wake program in the wilderness, and I had fun as a supporter of SDSU and, one season, Murray State (which I nailed).  It was fun going to a game involving each, too.  Plus I never would have met Verne Lundqvist!

--In the NIT, Johnny Mac was ticked his UNC-Asheville squad didn’t get a bid, and you all know that tournament organizers decided to have some fun with 1-seed Syracuse, making them play UNC-Greensboro in their opener. [The committee chairman, Reggie Minton, told ESPN that when it came to matching these two up and taking a swipe at Jim Boeheim in the process, they “didn’t have that in our minds.” Right.]

The NIT is a solid tournament, and it gives schools like Akron (26-8) and UT Arlington (25-8) a second chance after losing their conference tourney finals and the automatic NCAA bid.  Ditto a conference regular-season champ like Monmouth (27-6).

--You know who isn’t likable?  The father of the Ball family out in Los Angeles.  LaVar Ball is looking for a shoe deal for his three sons of $1 billion.

Lonzo Ball is the freshman star at UCLA who is going to be a lottery pick, and LiAngelo and LaMelo are high schoolers who have committed to the Bruins.

“A billion dollars, it has to be there,” LaVar Ball told USA TODAY.  “That’s our number, a billion, straight out of the gate.  And you don’t even have to give it to me all up front. Give us $100 million a year.”

Cue Jeff Spicoli!  Yes, what a ----.

LaVar is the one who guaranteed UCLA would win the national title this year as well so we’ll see on that one.

But into the December file he goes, for all the wrong reasons.

NBA

--Last time I noted the racist statements by Golden State’s Andre Iguodala, such as “I do what master say,” and the NBA fined him $10,000 on Monday.  Iguodala said he didn’t have any comment on the punishment.

But before the league announced the fine, he said of his comments, including repeated use of the N-word: “I feel like it’s the wrong time because it puts my team in that situation and coaching staff in that situation.  I have a great relationship with Steve Kerr, and he knows that....We don’t even have to speak about it because he knew that in no way shape or form that I’m talking about him.”

--Golden State beat Philadelphia 106-104 on Tuesday, so the standings in the West....

Warriors 53-14
Spurs 52-14

--Knicks fans note the passing of a legendary voice of the franchise, John Andariese, “Johnny Hoops,” who died of dementia at the age of 78.

Andariese was an analyst on MSG Network or on the radio, mostly alongside Marv Albert, for nearly 40 years.  He was a New York guy through and through.  A standout player at Fordham and then doing his beloved Knicks games, starting in 1972 with Marv.

Andariese was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a media member three years ago. 

[You know, every time I type Marv’s name it reminds me just how incredibly lucky New York area sports fans, read Knicks, Rangers and Mets, were to have Marv (who did Rangers games on radio for years as well), and Lindsey Nelson, Ralph Kiner and Bob Murphy for the first 17 years of the Mets, until Lindsey left, and Murphy and Kiner long thereafter.  Now we’ve had Keith, Gary and Ron for years and love these guys.]

NFL

--Linebacker DeMarcus Ware announced Monday he is retiring at 34 after 12 NFL seasons, saying in a tweet that “long-term health and quality of life outweigh the spark and passion to play that I once had.”

“After a lot of thought and prayer, I’ve decided to accept the unknown and retire from my NFL career,” Ware said in a Twitter post.

Ware was a free agent and met with the Rams over the weekend.  The experience of that meeting must have sent him into a funk.  ‘You don’t want to play with the Rams,’ said the voice in his head.  ‘Retire.’

Ware is Dallas’ all-time sacks leader, with 117 (double digits seven seasons in a row), before finishing up with three years in Denver.

MLB

--In San Diego, Yadier Molina homered and hit a run-scoring single to lead Puerto Rico to a 3-1 victory against the Dominican Republic on Tuesday in the second round of the World Baseball Classic, breaking the D.R.’s 11-game winning streak in the W.B.C.

Puerto Rico had won Pool D in Mexico, while the Dominican Republic won Pool C in Miami.

As I go to post, Israel is playing Japan in a key game in Pool E in Tokyo.  Team USA and Venezuela square off tonight.

--Rockies first baseman Ian Desmond fractured his left hand after getting hit by a pitch in a spring training game.  Desmond signed a five-year, $70 million contract with Colorado after hitting .285 with 22 home runs and 86 RBI during his only season in Texas. He will be out about six weeks.  Veteran Mark Reynolds, who missed time last season from the same injury, signing a minor league deal with the Rockies during the offseason and could now replace Desmond.

Then on Tuesday, the Rockies lost catcher Tom Murphy to a broken hand.

--Tim Tebow had his first hit for the Mets in a spring training game Monday; Tebow getting a surprise start due to the ongoing roster shortages with the World Baseball Classic.  Tebow also had a terrific sliding catch in left.  Good for him.  It’s funny...manager Terry Collins sincerely loves the guy.  “You like to see good things happen to good people,” said the skipper.  [Tebow played Tuesday as well and was 0-for-1.]

Golf Balls

--Muirfield is back in the The Open Championship rota, as Muirfield members finally voted to admit women to the 273-year-old club.  80.2 percent of the 621 men who voted came down in favor of mixed membership. [2/3s required.]  Last May the vote for change failed.

So the R&A immediately confirmed Muirfield will become a venue for the Open once again, probably in either 2022 or 2023.  It was last played there in 2013, when Phil Mickelson won it.

--Jaime Diaz of Golf World:

“It’s been a difficult rookie season so far on the PGA Tour for Bryson DeChambeau. The 2015 U.S. Amateur and NCAA champion is carrying a burden of high expectations. Not only as a player with historic amateur credentials, but even more as a self-described innovator who confidently asserts that he wants to revolutionize the game.  In his 11 months as a professional, the 23-year-old hasn’t met them.  DeChambeau came into the Valspar Championship having made just three cuts in his first 10 starts of the 2016-17 season.  He finished T-27 at Innisbrook Resort outside Tampa, his best performance of the year, which allowed him to climb to a still-disappointing 161st on the FedEx points list....

“There are plenty of possible reasons why.  A difficult transition from DeChambeau’s old clubs – a specially made, same-length set of irons – to a new club company that had to match the same exacting specifications for the only such set in big-time professional golf.  Some overscheduling, exacerbated by DeChambeau’s desire to do marketing for his new endorsers.  A distracting and confusing imbroglio with the USGA in which the putter he was using for his unique face-on putting style was originally deemed non-conforming and ended with DeChambeau switching to a conventional head with a 44-inch shaft that’s braced against his left forearm.

“And perhaps most important, the player who is known for his scientific approach – but possesses a high-strung, artistic temperament – has been feeling a lot of stress to live up to the hype.  It was evident at Valspar, where DeChambeau played well on the first nines of each of his last three rounds, but dropped down the leader board each day with shaky second nines that added up to a cumulative nine over par.”

DeChambeau turned professional last April, after his first Masters, where he finished T-21.  He then finished T-4 at Hilton Head in his pro debut and it looked like he would secure his Tour card but outside of a T-15 at the U.S. Open, he couldn’t.

Then he qualified for the Web.com Tour Final Series, winning one of its three events, so he got his card after all.

Alas, he has been a target of derision among this fellow tour players and he caught a lot of heat for dropping out after 28 holes at last month’s Genesis Open (Riviera), where he had received a sponsor’s exemption.  Some players went after him on Twitter.

Many just see him as an eccentric.  He certainly didn’t get off on the right foot.

F.A. Cup

Chelsea defeated Manchester United for the final berth in the semis, 1-0, on a N’Golo Kante goal, setting up a semifinal with Tottenham; the other Manchester City vs. Arsenal.

Man U Manager Jose Mourinho, who won three titles at Chelsea before he was canned, had to deal with some taunting from the home crowd at Stamford Bridge.  “You’re not special anymore,” sang the fans (among the tamer ditties), to which Mourinho directed three fingers at the fans who once adored him, signaling the three Premier League titles Chelsea won with him.

But in his first season at United, Mourinho is in sixth place.

Champions League

After today, Wednesday, the quarterfinals will be set...two more matches...

Atletico Madrid v. Bayer Leverkusen
Manchester City v. Monaco....winners joining...

Bayern Munich, Juventus, Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid, and...Leicester City!

Leicester?!  I thought just two weeks ago they were in relegation danger in the Premier League.

But the Foxes qualified for the Champions League because of last year’s Premier League title and they’ve played great in this ultimate, best of Europe, competition.

So Tuesday, after a first-leg, 2-1 loss in Spain to Sevilla a few weeks ago, they defeated Sevilla 2-0, aggregate 3-2, and advanced.  Since Claudio Ranieri was fired as manager (after the 2-1 initial loss to Sevilla), Craig Shakespeare has got his team back in 2015-16 form.

College Hockey

Coaches Poll

1. Denver (48)
2. Harvard (2)
3. Minnesota-Duluth
4. Massachusetts-Lowell
5. Minnesota
6. Union
14. Boston College

St. Lawrence is out of the top 20.

The playoffs have started so I’ll rely on college hockey expert Pete M. to keep me apprised the rest of the way.

For now, with the NCAA Tournament starting the weekend of March 24-26, this coming weekend sees all the major conferences in their playoffs.  It all culminates in the Frozen Four in Chicago, April 6 and 8.

In the Hockey East conference tourney this weekend, the four entrants are Boston College, Boston University, Notre Dame and UMass-Lowell.

In the ECAC tourney, it’s Harvard, Quinnipiac, Union and Cornell.

Stuff

--We note the passing of the great English race driver, and seven-time world motorcycle champion, John Surtees.  He died in London at the age of 83 last weekend.

Surtees was among Britain’s most celebrated auto racers of the 1960s, the golden age of racing that saw the likes of Graham Hill, Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart as Formula One champions in that decade.

Surtees almost died in a crash in Canada in 1965 but returned the following year, telling the Associated Press, “As long as I can remember, speed and machines have been a part of me.”

Surtees won the 1964 Formula One championship by a single point over Graham Hill and he won six Formula One races overall.  His title was in a Ferrari.

As for his 1965 accident, it was at Canada’s Mosport Park in Ontario. As described by the New York Times’ Richard Goldstein: “He was critically injured...when a suspension upright on his Lola failed, pitching the car into a barrier. The car somersaulted at impact and landed on top of him, fracturing his pelvis, seriously damaging his left leg and spine and rupturing his kidneys.”

“It was touch and go for a while, but ultimately I healed almost completely,” Surtees recalled.

[This story makes me want to see the great all-time racing movie, “Grand Prix,” again, which pegs the era perfectly.  Surtees was portrayed by Yves Montand.  Man, forgot this awesome actor died all the way back in 1991.]

Surtees last of six wins was in a Honda, the 1967 Italian Grand Prix.  I remember this very cool car vividly.

[My brother is partial to the 1961 Ferrari, and the 1970s versions with Lauda and Villeneuve.]

In July 2009, Surtees’ son, Henry, died at 18 while driving in a Formula Two race at Brands Hatch in England “after he was struck in the head by a flying wheel that had come off a car that hit a barrier.  He was knocked unconscious and crashed into a wall.”  [Goldstein]

--Ed Whitlock, the masters running champion I‘ve written of before, died on Monday in Toronto.  He was 86. The cause was prostate cancer.

Whitlock broke three hours in the marathon in his 70s, and last fall became the oldest person ever to run 26.2 miles in under four hours.

His training regimen consisted of running laps around the cemetery near his home in Milton, Ontario.

--From the Daily Telegraph:

Cats might have a reputation for being a bit sneaky or scheming – but, according to science, we really ought to be keeping an eye on dogs if we’re worried about our pets running rings around us.

“A new study, published in the journal Animal Cognition, has found pet dogs will deliberately deceive humans in order to get something they want.

“Researchers at the University of Zurich studied 27 dogs, pairing each one with two human partners: a ‘co-operative’ one who would allow the dogs to eat treats, and a ‘competitive’ one who withheld the teats.

“ ‘During the test,’ the researchers explained, ‘the dog had the options to lead one of these partners to one of the three potential food locations: one contained a favored food item, the other a non-preferred food item and the third remained empty.

“ ‘After having led one of the partners, the dog always had the possibility of leading its cooperative owner to one of the food locations. Therefore, a dog would have a direct benefit from misleading the competitive partner since it would then get another chance to receive the preferred food from the owner.

“ ‘On the first test day, the dogs led the cooperative partner to the preferred food box more often than expected by chance and more often than the competitive partner.

“ ‘On the second day, they even led the competitive partner less often to the preferred food than expected by chance and more often to the empty box than the cooperative partner.

“ ‘These results show that dogs distinguished between the cooperative and the competitive partner, and indicate the flexibility of dogs to adjust their behavior and that they are able to use tactical deception.’

“Researcher lead Marianne Heberlein told New Scientist the animals ‘showed an impressive flexibility in behavior.  They’re not just sticking to a strict rule, but thinking about what different options they have.’”

‘Dog’ remains No. 1 on the All-Species List. I posted a new top ten on Monday.  Shook things up again.  Check out the site.  And watch BBC America’s “Planet Earth 2”!

--I forgot to note a study from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries that my brother passed on the other day.  A multiyear study of great white sharks has quantified what tourists have known for years: Cape Cod is a great place for whitey to spend the summer.

The sharks are still after abundant seals, not humans, but it’s a matter of time, as you all know.

Researchers using a plane and boats spotted 147 individual great white sharks last summer, up slightly from 2014, but significantly higher than the 80 spotted in 2014, the first year of the study, funded by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.

100 sharks have now been tagged to track their movements.

So since scientists can’t spot all of the sharks, the population isn’t 147, but probably more like 98,000, using my back of the beer coaster calculation.

The last fatal great white shark attack in Massachusetts waters was in 1936.  But in 2012, a man was severely bitten swimming off Truro, and in 2014, two young women kayaking off Plymouth were attacked, although neither was bitten.

Bar Chat is forecasting a bloody 2017.

Top 3 songs for the week 3/12/66: #1 “The Ballad Of The Green Berets” (SSgt Barry Sadler)  #2 “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” (Nancy Sinatra) #3 “Listen People” (Herman’s Hermits...underrated tune...)...and...#4 “California Dreamin’” (The Mamas and the Papas)  #5 “Elusive Butterfly” (Bob Lind...I say this once a year...loved this song when it first came out and that doesn’t make me a sap....plus now we know a lot more about butterflies...which are smarter than humans....)  #6 “19th Nervous Breakdown” (The Rolling Stones)  #7 Nowhere Man” (The Beatles)  #8 “Lightin’ Strikes” (Lou Christie...in my top 40 all time...)  #9 “I Fought The Law” (Bobby Fuller Four)  #10 “Homeward Bound” (Simon & Garfunkel...just another fantastic week...)

NCAA Basketball Quiz Answer: Six in the rotation for the 1974 N.C. State Wolfpack: David Thompson, Morris Rivers, Monte Towe, Tom Burleson, Tim Stoddard, and Phil Spence.

Of course sports fans know that Stoddard then pitched 13 seasons in the big leagues as a reliever, going 41-35, 76 saves, 3.95 ERA.  His best years were with Baltimore.

Next Bar Chat, Monday.  Enjoy March Madness!!!



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Bar Chat

03/16/2017

And We're Off....

[Posted early Wed. a.m.]

NCAA Basketball Quiz: Name the six players in the rotation for the 1974 NCAA champion North Carolina State Wolfpack, who beat Marquette (Maurice Lucas, Bo Ellis) for the title, 76-64.  Answer below.

NCAA Tournament Bits

The last AP Poll before the tournament begins....

1. Villanova (59) 31-3
2. Gonzaga (6) 32-1
3. Kansas 28-4
4. Arizona 30-4
5. Kentucky 29-5
6. North Carolina 27-7
7. Duke 27-8
8. UCLA 29-4
9. Oregon 29-5
10. Louisville 24-8
11. SMU 30-4
19. Wichita State 30-4
23. Michigan 24-11

So when matched with the NCAA Tournament seeds, two that stand out are SMU being tabbed a 6, while Wichita State was once again royally hosed and is an outrageous 10-seed, though, yes, it’s only two top 50 wins were against Illinois State.

One other some are bitching about is Middle Tennessee State (30-4) being slotted in as a 12.

--Duke is the favorite to win it all among some of the Las Vegas sportsbooks. The Wynn and Westgate Superbook each installed Duke as the 5-1 favorite after the bracket was released.  William Hill’s Nevada sportsbook, however, has North Carolina the favorite at 13-2, and MGM’s sportsbook listed Kansas as the 6-1 fave.

--Vanderbilt got a 9-seed in the West with a 19-15 record; the most losses ever for a team reaching the tournament with an at-large bid.

--As for the conference breakdown, we’ll see how some of the following do....

ACC (9); Big East (7); Big Ten (7); Big 12 (6); SEC (5); Pac-12 (4); Atlantic 10 (3).

--And as for my own selections, boy it’s kind of boring as I went through it game by game. 

My Elite Eight...

East – Villanova, Duke
West – Gonzaga, Florida State

Midwest – Kansas, Louisville
South – UNC, Wichita State

Final Four – Villanova, Gonzaga, Louisville, UNC

Villanova over North Carolina, the first repeat champion since Florida (2006-07).

My only upsets (defined as 11 or higher) are....

12 UNC-Wilmington over 5 Virginia; 13 East Tennessee State over 4 Florida; 12 Middle Tennessee State over 5 Minnesota...which I think, coincidentally, are Seth Davis’ three upsets.

I do have the Wake Forest-Kansas State winner beating 6 Cincinnati.

Speaking of which....

So my Demon Deacons were making their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament in seven years and us long-suffering fans expected a great effort in the play-in game in Dayton last night.

When the game started out, Wake gave up some easy baskets to K-State and I thought, OK, get a feel for the refs and how tight they might call the game and don’t commit any early tacky falls, especially in the case of John Collins.  It was 9-4 Wildcats. 

But even as the Deacs kept it close despite some awful turnovers, simply because they were hitting 17 of 18 free throws, what stood out was the performance on ‘D’.

“Ole!...Ole!...” Geezuz, talk about a matador defense, time after time, Kansas State just frolicked into the lane, one easy bucket after another, with zero interior effort on the part of the Deacs.

Yet we were only down 40-36 at the half and I thought, OK, we’ll tighten up in the second half and start to knock down some threes (after hitting only 3 of 14 in the first half).

But nooo!  It was more, “Ole!...Ole!....”  Kansas State ended up hitting a stupendous 31 of 47 from the field, 66%, for crying out loud.  Wake displayed zero toughness the entire contest.

Oh, we showed some fire on the offensive end, and it was still just 72-70 K-State, 5:28 to play, but then we gave up a three, and then a layup and one, and then a dumb foul by Keyshawn Woods, and it was 79-70, 3:59 left, and it was essentially over.  Final, 95-88.

It also needs to be said, Danny Manning was outcoached by veteran Bruce Weber

But, I haven’t gotten on Danny all season and the program is clearly on better footing, assuming one or two of our incoming class can step in immediately.  We have a helluva 4-guard rotation coming back, for one.  [Bryant Crawford will realize he’s not a first-round pick this ‘go round and opt to stay, is my guess.]

But no John Collins.  Would someone tell Clark Kellogg that the ‘super-soph’ is not returning...that’s he’s rapidly elevated his game to lottery status!

So now I’ll root for the ACC the rest of the way, even though I’m projecting Villanova to take it all.

--I was reminded Sunday how hard it is to listen to the aforementioned Mr. Kellogg and phrases like “scores the ball.”

You know how I’ve said I love the thought that if there is life on another planet, it’s probably like an octopus?  Highly intelligent, but I realize know they’d also probably speak like Kellogg.

“What does the alien mean, ‘Scores the ball?’” “We’re trying to determine that, Mr. President.”

--I was reading a piece in the San Diego Union-Tribune on San Diego State, which finished a highly-disappointing 19-14, 9-9 in the Mountain West, which only received one bid in the NCAAs.  A very depressing season for the Aztecs.  I didn’t realize an 80-game home sellout streak ended, plus it was the end of an 11-year streak of 20 wins, and the end of an 11-year streak of postseason appearances, including six NCAA appearances in a row, 2010-15.  Last season they went 28-10 and went to the semis of the NIT.  As Mark Zeigler wrote: “The end, perhaps, of an era.”

Coach Steve Fisher bemoaned the record in games decided by eight points or less, 2-11.

Check out some of these player stats.  Zylan Cheatham scored 16, 15 and 16 points at the Diamond Head Classic over Christmas and was named tournament MVP, then didn’t score more than 13 the rest of the season in any contest.  Malik Pope didn’t get going until the end, the Mountain West tournament. Jeremy Hemsley shot 56.9 percent behind the 3-point arc in November and December, ranking seventh in Division I, and 27.3 percent since.

And so I’m formally dumping San Diego State as my ‘closet’ CBB team, especially now that Wake Forest’s program appears to be back.  Next year, it’s just going to be all about the Deacs.

I had a good reason to have a second pick the last seven years, with the Wake program in the wilderness, and I had fun as a supporter of SDSU and, one season, Murray State (which I nailed).  It was fun going to a game involving each, too.  Plus I never would have met Verne Lundqvist!

--In the NIT, Johnny Mac was ticked his UNC-Asheville squad didn’t get a bid, and you all know that tournament organizers decided to have some fun with 1-seed Syracuse, making them play UNC-Greensboro in their opener. [The committee chairman, Reggie Minton, told ESPN that when it came to matching these two up and taking a swipe at Jim Boeheim in the process, they “didn’t have that in our minds.” Right.]

The NIT is a solid tournament, and it gives schools like Akron (26-8) and UT Arlington (25-8) a second chance after losing their conference tourney finals and the automatic NCAA bid.  Ditto a conference regular-season champ like Monmouth (27-6).

--You know who isn’t likable?  The father of the Ball family out in Los Angeles.  LaVar Ball is looking for a shoe deal for his three sons of $1 billion.

Lonzo Ball is the freshman star at UCLA who is going to be a lottery pick, and LiAngelo and LaMelo are high schoolers who have committed to the Bruins.

“A billion dollars, it has to be there,” LaVar Ball told USA TODAY.  “That’s our number, a billion, straight out of the gate.  And you don’t even have to give it to me all up front. Give us $100 million a year.”

Cue Jeff Spicoli!  Yes, what a ----.

LaVar is the one who guaranteed UCLA would win the national title this year as well so we’ll see on that one.

But into the December file he goes, for all the wrong reasons.

NBA

--Last time I noted the racist statements by Golden State’s Andre Iguodala, such as “I do what master say,” and the NBA fined him $10,000 on Monday.  Iguodala said he didn’t have any comment on the punishment.

But before the league announced the fine, he said of his comments, including repeated use of the N-word: “I feel like it’s the wrong time because it puts my team in that situation and coaching staff in that situation.  I have a great relationship with Steve Kerr, and he knows that....We don’t even have to speak about it because he knew that in no way shape or form that I’m talking about him.”

--Golden State beat Philadelphia 106-104 on Tuesday, so the standings in the West....

Warriors 53-14
Spurs 52-14

--Knicks fans note the passing of a legendary voice of the franchise, John Andariese, “Johnny Hoops,” who died of dementia at the age of 78.

Andariese was an analyst on MSG Network or on the radio, mostly alongside Marv Albert, for nearly 40 years.  He was a New York guy through and through.  A standout player at Fordham and then doing his beloved Knicks games, starting in 1972 with Marv.

Andariese was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a media member three years ago. 

[You know, every time I type Marv’s name it reminds me just how incredibly lucky New York area sports fans, read Knicks, Rangers and Mets, were to have Marv (who did Rangers games on radio for years as well), and Lindsey Nelson, Ralph Kiner and Bob Murphy for the first 17 years of the Mets, until Lindsey left, and Murphy and Kiner long thereafter.  Now we’ve had Keith, Gary and Ron for years and love these guys.]

NFL

--Linebacker DeMarcus Ware announced Monday he is retiring at 34 after 12 NFL seasons, saying in a tweet that “long-term health and quality of life outweigh the spark and passion to play that I once had.”

“After a lot of thought and prayer, I’ve decided to accept the unknown and retire from my NFL career,” Ware said in a Twitter post.

Ware was a free agent and met with the Rams over the weekend.  The experience of that meeting must have sent him into a funk.  ‘You don’t want to play with the Rams,’ said the voice in his head.  ‘Retire.’

Ware is Dallas’ all-time sacks leader, with 117 (double digits seven seasons in a row), before finishing up with three years in Denver.

MLB

--In San Diego, Yadier Molina homered and hit a run-scoring single to lead Puerto Rico to a 3-1 victory against the Dominican Republic on Tuesday in the second round of the World Baseball Classic, breaking the D.R.’s 11-game winning streak in the W.B.C.

Puerto Rico had won Pool D in Mexico, while the Dominican Republic won Pool C in Miami.

As I go to post, Israel is playing Japan in a key game in Pool E in Tokyo.  Team USA and Venezuela square off tonight.

--Rockies first baseman Ian Desmond fractured his left hand after getting hit by a pitch in a spring training game.  Desmond signed a five-year, $70 million contract with Colorado after hitting .285 with 22 home runs and 86 RBI during his only season in Texas. He will be out about six weeks.  Veteran Mark Reynolds, who missed time last season from the same injury, signing a minor league deal with the Rockies during the offseason and could now replace Desmond.

Then on Tuesday, the Rockies lost catcher Tom Murphy to a broken hand.

--Tim Tebow had his first hit for the Mets in a spring training game Monday; Tebow getting a surprise start due to the ongoing roster shortages with the World Baseball Classic.  Tebow also had a terrific sliding catch in left.  Good for him.  It’s funny...manager Terry Collins sincerely loves the guy.  “You like to see good things happen to good people,” said the skipper.  [Tebow played Tuesday as well and was 0-for-1.]

Golf Balls

--Muirfield is back in the The Open Championship rota, as Muirfield members finally voted to admit women to the 273-year-old club.  80.2 percent of the 621 men who voted came down in favor of mixed membership. [2/3s required.]  Last May the vote for change failed.

So the R&A immediately confirmed Muirfield will become a venue for the Open once again, probably in either 2022 or 2023.  It was last played there in 2013, when Phil Mickelson won it.

--Jaime Diaz of Golf World:

“It’s been a difficult rookie season so far on the PGA Tour for Bryson DeChambeau. The 2015 U.S. Amateur and NCAA champion is carrying a burden of high expectations. Not only as a player with historic amateur credentials, but even more as a self-described innovator who confidently asserts that he wants to revolutionize the game.  In his 11 months as a professional, the 23-year-old hasn’t met them.  DeChambeau came into the Valspar Championship having made just three cuts in his first 10 starts of the 2016-17 season.  He finished T-27 at Innisbrook Resort outside Tampa, his best performance of the year, which allowed him to climb to a still-disappointing 161st on the FedEx points list....

“There are plenty of possible reasons why.  A difficult transition from DeChambeau’s old clubs – a specially made, same-length set of irons – to a new club company that had to match the same exacting specifications for the only such set in big-time professional golf.  Some overscheduling, exacerbated by DeChambeau’s desire to do marketing for his new endorsers.  A distracting and confusing imbroglio with the USGA in which the putter he was using for his unique face-on putting style was originally deemed non-conforming and ended with DeChambeau switching to a conventional head with a 44-inch shaft that’s braced against his left forearm.

“And perhaps most important, the player who is known for his scientific approach – but possesses a high-strung, artistic temperament – has been feeling a lot of stress to live up to the hype.  It was evident at Valspar, where DeChambeau played well on the first nines of each of his last three rounds, but dropped down the leader board each day with shaky second nines that added up to a cumulative nine over par.”

DeChambeau turned professional last April, after his first Masters, where he finished T-21.  He then finished T-4 at Hilton Head in his pro debut and it looked like he would secure his Tour card but outside of a T-15 at the U.S. Open, he couldn’t.

Then he qualified for the Web.com Tour Final Series, winning one of its three events, so he got his card after all.

Alas, he has been a target of derision among this fellow tour players and he caught a lot of heat for dropping out after 28 holes at last month’s Genesis Open (Riviera), where he had received a sponsor’s exemption.  Some players went after him on Twitter.

Many just see him as an eccentric.  He certainly didn’t get off on the right foot.

F.A. Cup

Chelsea defeated Manchester United for the final berth in the semis, 1-0, on a N’Golo Kante goal, setting up a semifinal with Tottenham; the other Manchester City vs. Arsenal.

Man U Manager Jose Mourinho, who won three titles at Chelsea before he was canned, had to deal with some taunting from the home crowd at Stamford Bridge.  “You’re not special anymore,” sang the fans (among the tamer ditties), to which Mourinho directed three fingers at the fans who once adored him, signaling the three Premier League titles Chelsea won with him.

But in his first season at United, Mourinho is in sixth place.

Champions League

After today, Wednesday, the quarterfinals will be set...two more matches...

Atletico Madrid v. Bayer Leverkusen
Manchester City v. Monaco....winners joining...

Bayern Munich, Juventus, Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid, and...Leicester City!

Leicester?!  I thought just two weeks ago they were in relegation danger in the Premier League.

But the Foxes qualified for the Champions League because of last year’s Premier League title and they’ve played great in this ultimate, best of Europe, competition.

So Tuesday, after a first-leg, 2-1 loss in Spain to Sevilla a few weeks ago, they defeated Sevilla 2-0, aggregate 3-2, and advanced.  Since Claudio Ranieri was fired as manager (after the 2-1 initial loss to Sevilla), Craig Shakespeare has got his team back in 2015-16 form.

College Hockey

Coaches Poll

1. Denver (48)
2. Harvard (2)
3. Minnesota-Duluth
4. Massachusetts-Lowell
5. Minnesota
6. Union
14. Boston College

St. Lawrence is out of the top 20.

The playoffs have started so I’ll rely on college hockey expert Pete M. to keep me apprised the rest of the way.

For now, with the NCAA Tournament starting the weekend of March 24-26, this coming weekend sees all the major conferences in their playoffs.  It all culminates in the Frozen Four in Chicago, April 6 and 8.

In the Hockey East conference tourney this weekend, the four entrants are Boston College, Boston University, Notre Dame and UMass-Lowell.

In the ECAC tourney, it’s Harvard, Quinnipiac, Union and Cornell.

Stuff

--We note the passing of the great English race driver, and seven-time world motorcycle champion, John Surtees.  He died in London at the age of 83 last weekend.

Surtees was among Britain’s most celebrated auto racers of the 1960s, the golden age of racing that saw the likes of Graham Hill, Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart as Formula One champions in that decade.

Surtees almost died in a crash in Canada in 1965 but returned the following year, telling the Associated Press, “As long as I can remember, speed and machines have been a part of me.”

Surtees won the 1964 Formula One championship by a single point over Graham Hill and he won six Formula One races overall.  His title was in a Ferrari.

As for his 1965 accident, it was at Canada’s Mosport Park in Ontario. As described by the New York Times’ Richard Goldstein: “He was critically injured...when a suspension upright on his Lola failed, pitching the car into a barrier. The car somersaulted at impact and landed on top of him, fracturing his pelvis, seriously damaging his left leg and spine and rupturing his kidneys.”

“It was touch and go for a while, but ultimately I healed almost completely,” Surtees recalled.

[This story makes me want to see the great all-time racing movie, “Grand Prix,” again, which pegs the era perfectly.  Surtees was portrayed by Yves Montand.  Man, forgot this awesome actor died all the way back in 1991.]

Surtees last of six wins was in a Honda, the 1967 Italian Grand Prix.  I remember this very cool car vividly.

[My brother is partial to the 1961 Ferrari, and the 1970s versions with Lauda and Villeneuve.]

In July 2009, Surtees’ son, Henry, died at 18 while driving in a Formula Two race at Brands Hatch in England “after he was struck in the head by a flying wheel that had come off a car that hit a barrier.  He was knocked unconscious and crashed into a wall.”  [Goldstein]

--Ed Whitlock, the masters running champion I‘ve written of before, died on Monday in Toronto.  He was 86. The cause was prostate cancer.

Whitlock broke three hours in the marathon in his 70s, and last fall became the oldest person ever to run 26.2 miles in under four hours.

His training regimen consisted of running laps around the cemetery near his home in Milton, Ontario.

--From the Daily Telegraph:

Cats might have a reputation for being a bit sneaky or scheming – but, according to science, we really ought to be keeping an eye on dogs if we’re worried about our pets running rings around us.

“A new study, published in the journal Animal Cognition, has found pet dogs will deliberately deceive humans in order to get something they want.

“Researchers at the University of Zurich studied 27 dogs, pairing each one with two human partners: a ‘co-operative’ one who would allow the dogs to eat treats, and a ‘competitive’ one who withheld the teats.

“ ‘During the test,’ the researchers explained, ‘the dog had the options to lead one of these partners to one of the three potential food locations: one contained a favored food item, the other a non-preferred food item and the third remained empty.

“ ‘After having led one of the partners, the dog always had the possibility of leading its cooperative owner to one of the food locations. Therefore, a dog would have a direct benefit from misleading the competitive partner since it would then get another chance to receive the preferred food from the owner.

“ ‘On the first test day, the dogs led the cooperative partner to the preferred food box more often than expected by chance and more often than the competitive partner.

“ ‘On the second day, they even led the competitive partner less often to the preferred food than expected by chance and more often to the empty box than the cooperative partner.

“ ‘These results show that dogs distinguished between the cooperative and the competitive partner, and indicate the flexibility of dogs to adjust their behavior and that they are able to use tactical deception.’

“Researcher lead Marianne Heberlein told New Scientist the animals ‘showed an impressive flexibility in behavior.  They’re not just sticking to a strict rule, but thinking about what different options they have.’”

‘Dog’ remains No. 1 on the All-Species List. I posted a new top ten on Monday.  Shook things up again.  Check out the site.  And watch BBC America’s “Planet Earth 2”!

--I forgot to note a study from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries that my brother passed on the other day.  A multiyear study of great white sharks has quantified what tourists have known for years: Cape Cod is a great place for whitey to spend the summer.

The sharks are still after abundant seals, not humans, but it’s a matter of time, as you all know.

Researchers using a plane and boats spotted 147 individual great white sharks last summer, up slightly from 2014, but significantly higher than the 80 spotted in 2014, the first year of the study, funded by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.

100 sharks have now been tagged to track their movements.

So since scientists can’t spot all of the sharks, the population isn’t 147, but probably more like 98,000, using my back of the beer coaster calculation.

The last fatal great white shark attack in Massachusetts waters was in 1936.  But in 2012, a man was severely bitten swimming off Truro, and in 2014, two young women kayaking off Plymouth were attacked, although neither was bitten.

Bar Chat is forecasting a bloody 2017.

Top 3 songs for the week 3/12/66: #1 “The Ballad Of The Green Berets” (SSgt Barry Sadler)  #2 “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” (Nancy Sinatra) #3 “Listen People” (Herman’s Hermits...underrated tune...)...and...#4 “California Dreamin’” (The Mamas and the Papas)  #5 “Elusive Butterfly” (Bob Lind...I say this once a year...loved this song when it first came out and that doesn’t make me a sap....plus now we know a lot more about butterflies...which are smarter than humans....)  #6 “19th Nervous Breakdown” (The Rolling Stones)  #7 Nowhere Man” (The Beatles)  #8 “Lightin’ Strikes” (Lou Christie...in my top 40 all time...)  #9 “I Fought The Law” (Bobby Fuller Four)  #10 “Homeward Bound” (Simon & Garfunkel...just another fantastic week...)

NCAA Basketball Quiz Answer: Six in the rotation for the 1974 N.C. State Wolfpack: David Thompson, Morris Rivers, Monte Towe, Tom Burleson, Tim Stoddard, and Phil Spence.

Of course sports fans know that Stoddard then pitched 13 seasons in the big leagues as a reliever, going 41-35, 76 saves, 3.95 ERA.  His best years were with Baltimore.

Next Bar Chat, Monday.  Enjoy March Madness!!!