NCAA tournament
OK, March Madness is back in action starting tonight.
Good times. Here are two things to keep in mind.
First, we had several folks with Gonzaga as the last double digit seed standing. Congrats to Todd C. (Virginia as his one seed), Terry (Oregon), scole023 (UNC) and Bob (Virginia) for having the Bulldogs to keep playing. If the Zags beat the Bulldogs, the first 1 seed out will lead us to the winner. If it's Kansas, which none of the four have, it will be a Final Four tie-breaker for all of you folks. If it's Virginia, Todd C. and Bob will have a Final Four tie-breaker.
If Syracuse wins, Mark S. wins. (He was part of the entries we could not find last Friday.)
So there's that.
As for the rest of us, who have had our brackets annihilated and are looking for some incentive, well, let's try to figure out a way to get motivated with the eight games tonight and Friday combined (this is in interest level for us).
OK, the Indiana-UNC match-up is legit and could be a Final Four game. That said, we'd jump all over the 5 on the number of times IU being underseeded as a No. 5 seed.
Kansas-Maryland may have the most future NBA players, so that's exciting, if you like athleticism combined with dunks and missed open jumpers and turnovers. Good times.
Texas A&M-Oklahoma could be intriguing because the Aggies are playing with house money. And teams (and entertainment seekers) playing with house money can start to light things up.
Virginia-Iowa State is a complete contrast in styles. That said, we like the chances of the Cyclones - and Todd and Bob, accordingly - in this one.
Duke-Oregon. Man, 90 percent of the country wants the Ducks to win, right?
Villanova-Miami. Miami could be a legit title contender. Miami could lose this game by 25. Aw, Hurricanes basketball, the Auburn football of the NCAA tournament.
Notre Dame-Wisconsin. Not saying there's limited athleticism here compared to say the Nova-Miami game but the over/under on dunks 3. (Take the under.)
Syracuse-Gonzaga. Well, we're pulling for the Zags - sorry Mark S. - because we want the drama to go to a tie-breaker. And there's the little mater of Jim Boeheim being kind of a scumbag, so there's that.
LeBron's awful week
We'll start this with a caveat.
Being a megastar in today's 24/7 sports media tsunami has changed the dynamic of not if you misspeak, but when you misspeak to the media. It's almost a lead-pipe certainty because of the sheer number of chances you have, be it press conferences - which now come in the post- and pre-game varieties - social media, or what have you.
That in no way is meant as an apology for LeBron James, who has turned a bad week into an awful one with his low-blow rant about Northern Iowa. And that's with everyone around these parts knowing we are a high-ranking James apologist and a supreme fan of the Cavs star. We discussed this on Wednesday on Press Row, but it's worthy of this forum, too. (Also, TFP ace sports columnist Mark Wiedmer used his talented and sharpened pen on the topic, at least in part, today.)
How many true superstars made it through the modern sports age - a bulk of their career in the last 10 years that have overlapped Twitter - without a hiccup? Jeter, maybe. Tim Duncan is a mega-super talent, but he's not a mega-super-star. (Quick name one commercial you've ever seen Duncan in. Exactly.)
Still, that's hardly a rationale to defend the terrible message James delivered this week. Here's his awful quote about Northern Iowa, which blew a historic lead in the waning seconds of its second-round NCAA tournament loss to Texas A&M last Sunday:
"I did see a clip of the last 20 seconds of that game, and I would quit basketball. If I was on Northern Iowa, I would quit. You're up eight with 20-plus seconds, you up five with 10 seconds - I would quit. Yeah, I would quit."
Awful in its awfulness.
In fact, we'd expect some sort of apology or clarification from James in the next day or so.
But this is just the latest public relations debacle for a guy that has normally been as smooth in front of the media as he has been in the open floor.
Consider that Monday's social media flop - and unbelievably awkward postgame interview and we'll do more on that in a minute - started when James unfollowed the Cavs on Twitter.
When asked about it, James froze and looked confused and angry. He and his camp later said this is the beginning of his annual "social media blackout" as the season ends and the playoff starts. But if that's truly the case, why not say it Monday night when asked as opposed to stammering and acting like Nixon during the Kennedy debates? (Then why the two orders? Colonel?)
(Side note: The fact that professional NBA reporters sounded that almost afraid to ask LeBron a tough question is embarrassing. In fact the only thing worse than starting the question with an apology - which happened here - was the guy with the follow-up question who quickly wanted to know something about some meaningless stat when the major story of the entire event was unfolding. Gross.)
So LeBron is unusually discombobulated.
Let's try to figure out why from 20,000 feet.
He's either hungry for attention - let's face for the first time in his career since arguably his rookie season, he's not the top storyline nor clearly viewed as the best player. Also, his team is not a top-two title favorite for maybe the first time.
That leads us to the realization of career mortality, which could range from personal to team-related. (And maybe it has dawned on him in the last month that maybe a 30-plus-year-old LeBron can't win one in Cleveland with this cast. And his biggest failure there may end up being talking the organization into dealing Andrew Wiggins and pieces to Minnestoa for Kevin Love.) Now would be a fair time to throw out this different quote from LeBron this week, when he said he'd take a pay cut to play with buddies Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwanye Wade for a year or two down the road. (Pssttt, King James, that's not going to work either, unless you guys are looking to win the over 35-league down at the Y. Who on that team is guarding Steph, and no matter the pay cuts, to have four star-level salaries on this unicorn team, the last three guys in the rotation would be me, Stewwie and Spy? Exactly.)
That realization about the unbreakable ceiling in Cleveland also could lead him to the knowledge that if he leaves the 'Land one more time, he may not be allowed back into his home state of Ohio again.
And that's really just the social media angle of this. The quote about Northern Iowa as it was presented was snide and mean and in truth, below James' lofty standards to this point.
It's more than that though for a lot of us who have taken great joy in James' career - on and off the court.
It's disappointing.
Political puzzle
Want to know some characteristics that make this the strangest election process of our lifetime?
Consider the following:
Business Insider has a hair surgeon discussion what's wrong with The Donald's hair.
The discourse now between the GOP front-runners has switched to wives. What's next, "My dad can whip your dad" rhetoric?
The Democrats are picking between a socialist and someone who could be dancing between federal indictments this summer.
This doesn't even cover the Emory students who were emotionally distraught over the chalk support on campus of Donald Trump. Sadly, this is 100 percent serious. Here's our A2 column on the debacle.
This will be a political race that will be studied for generations.
In fact, if/when the aliens come - and if we've learned anything from the factual biopics Will Smith stars in like Concussion and Independence Day, the aliens are coming, it's just a matter of when (ask Randy Quaid) - they will look back at this election for the leader of the free will and "Think, maybe we should eliminate the monkeys and dolphins first since that's the intelligent life forms on this planet."
This and that
- Luke Murray - Bill Murray's son - is an assistant coach at Xavier and the father-son storyline had some nice vibes this weekend in the NCAA tournament. Still, it's more than a touch stunning that Luke has never seen "Caddyshack" right? Well, that answers the question about which over 25-year-old white dude in America has never seen Caddyshack, so there's that.
- Lookouts trotted out new unis. They are more like the tradition versions the team wore when they were connected to the Reds. The alternative uniforms are a little interesting, to say the least, but we've never been really keen on the whole 'Nooga reference to the city.
- Here are some excellent spring football updates from a couple of TFP aces. First, Downtown Patrick Brown tells us about Alvin Kamara's training habits and David Paschall tells us why OJ Howard returned to Alabama. Here's betting that each of those cats makes an All-SEC team by season's end.
- Maybe Stevie Williams is right about this one http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/03/tiger-woods-ex-caddy-thinks-tiger-caused-his-own-injury-problems or maybe he's wrong. The debate about lifting too many weights for golfers is an interesting one and one that has support on each side. Still, every time Stevie opens his pie hole about Tiger he should work in a "Thanks for making me a millionaire and the most famous sporting side kick since Scottie."
- Finally, the Missouri state legislature is pondering a bill to make the St. Louis Cardinals the state's official MLB team. That's talking the real issues, there gang.
Today's question
Ken Howard died. He was 71.
Been a tough week for legends of previous lives. Phife Dawg of Tribe Called Quest died this week. So did Joe Garagiola, the former baseball announcer.
Tough week.
Howard, of course, was best known as Coach Ken Reeves on "The White Shadow" and that was the first 'can't-miss' TV show of our young life. Good times.
We make a monster deal about sports movies. What's on the Rushmore of sports-based/related TV shows?
(And since the weekend is almost here, this one is really half as easy since "The White Shadow" and "Friday Night Lights" are no-brainers for this category.)
Go. (And remember the mailbag.)