Sports Then and Now

Roy Williams and the defending NCAA Champion North Carolina Tar Heels have struggled in 2010.

To start this off I am going to tell you UCLA and Kentucky are the teams with more action and most championships titles after they survived March Madness, here are some things that I have considered before my making my final March Madness picks:

Kansas, with 3 titles, is one of my favorites for March Madness. The Jayhawks are gunning for a perfect regular season and are trying to make this season their best conference performance ever; they are leading the nation in scoring and victory margin, winning eleven straight games. Kansas is ranked at number one, meaning they are always favorites in any NCAA basketball odds. 

UCLA, the team with eleven Big Dance victories in college basketball, is having an embarrassing campaign this season. With 12 wins and 13 losses, the Bruins haven’t improved their work, and I can’t even imagine them in the final 64. The Bruins seem to be far away from the glory days and the good times in the past, their last title was in 1995.

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Bevo Francis captured the imagination of the nation during his two seasons at Rio Grande College.

If you followed sports in the early 1950s then you probably have heard the name Clarence “Bevo” Francis. However, to most of America his name and legend are an unknown part of sports history. Quite frankly, he was the most prolific basketball scorer of his time.

It was 56 years ago today, February 2, 1954, that Bevo Francis of Rio Grande College forever sealed his name in college basketball lore by dropping 113 points on Hillsdale College in a 134-91 victory for an NCAA single game scoring record that will likely never be matched.

Heck, the closest any college player has ever gotten happened just 11 days later on February 13, 1954 when Frank Selvy from Furman scored 100 points against Newberry College. The closest anyone has gotten to 100 points in a single game in the ensuing 56 years is 81 points by Freeman Williams of Portland State against Rocky Mountain on February 3, 1978.

What is even more remarkable about Francis and his scoring record is that his 113 point game wasn’t even the best of his career. He scored 116 points the previous season against Ashland Junior College in a game that was not recognized by the NCAA.

The story of Rio Grande, with just 38 men in the entire and a basketball team that couldn’t lose spread like wildfire across the country. A 6-foot-9 center and the best player on the team, Francis became a national folk-hero in a time before ESPN and even Sports Illustrated (which started in August 1954).

During the 1952-53 season Bevo Francis averaged 50.1 points per game playing against a schedule that included some legitimate four-year college programs, but also an assortment of junior colleges. In all, the 1952-53 Rio Grande Redmen played 39 games (going 39-0) and Francis scored an amazing 1,954 points. Read the rest of this entry →

The UNLV Runnin' Rebels are relevant again in college hoops.

Not since 20 years ago have the UNLV Mens Basketball Team drawn this much excitement as the decade comes to a screeching halt next Friday. In his sixth years as the coach of the Runnin’Rebels, Lon Kruger and 2009-2010 edition is certainly invoking memories of Greg Anthony, Larry Johnson and Stacy Augman.

Ranked 20th in this week’s ESPN/USA poll the Rebels are in Hawaii this week for the inaugural Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic. Being the only ranked team there is not a guarantee to the championship for the 10-1 Rebels. In the other side of the bracket lies USC and St Marys, both teams that have beat ranked opponents this year.

However,if last nights drubbing of SMU is any indication just how strong and how deep these Rebels are, then it looks like it’s going to be a year where UNLV and perhaps even three other Mountain West teams will be joining them in the big dance in March 2010.

Last night the Rebels used 11 men to roll to a one sided 67-53 win over the Mustangs from SMU. The final score was no indication of the beating that took place on the floor.

The Rebels jumped out to a 42-19 halftime lead and never looked back. They increased the lead to 28 midway through the second have and allowed the SMU Mustangs to get as close as 12 points with about 2 minutes to play.

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Power and Greed seem to be running rampant in sports.

In a week in which the New York Yankees claimed the World Series title it seems fitting to look at greed and power in the world of sports. Unfortunately, it isn’t very hard to find, even in the case of college athletics.

It’s All In The Shoes

Given that his father is synonymous with the company, it is likely that Marcus Jordan had a Nike swoosh on his pacifier as a baby and certainly grew up wearing shoes and clothes designed by the famous sports apparel company.

Now a freshman basketball player at the University of Central Florida (UCF), the young Jordan has become a central figure in a “shoe war” even before playing his first college game.

Seems that UCF has a long-term relationship with adidas and recently agreed on a new 6-year, $3-million deal that called for all UCF athletic teams to wear adidas apparel and equipment.

Evidently, at the time Jordan was being recruited to UCF, he asked if he would be able to wear a Nike shoe endorsed by his father instead of the adidas shoes provided to the school. According to all accounts from UCF, the regional adidas representative gave approval for Marcus to wear Nike shoes during games. I’m willing to bet it was an important component of why he ultimately chose UCF.

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