Sports Then and Now

Who will follow Louisville as the NCAA Champions?

March Madness, unless you have fair idea of what it exactly is, is bound to leave you confused as to what it means! It’s a cool name given to the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s, that’s NCAA, basketball tournament for men and women teams, held from the second week of March into the first week of April. At the end of this high octane basketball marathon remains the undisputed national champion of basketball at college level. The NCAA oversees more than 1300 college and university members, and is managed by volunteers from these member institutes. Certain criteria are laid down to define active members, and these active members are allowed to participate in tournaments. Also, based on the number of sports sponsored for men and women by the schools and colleges, they are arranged in 3 divisions. Out of all the teams from Division 1, 68 men’s teams and 64 women’s teams are invited to the national championship. A selection committee sits before the tournament to decide upon the invitees. Read the rest of this entry →

Coach K congratulated the Mercer players and coaches on their well deserved victory.

When I read that Duke had lost in the NCAA tournament, I was not surprised, but when I heard what Coach K did showed me what true leadership really means.

In 2008, I had the opportunity to go to Catholic Mass in Durham, NC.  And low and behold, Coach K attended the same mass and was sitting less than 20 feet away from my wife and myself.  A tall man, I really appreciated his humbleness at mass and how he put his faith first.

Back to the loss to Mercer.  After loosing such a close game, Coach K in true leadership style went to the winners locker room and congratulated them on their accomplishment.

This is the true sign of a true leader who acknowledges his loss, but congratulates his opponent on a game well played.  Coach K is the epitome of a great leader, not only showing it on the floor, but even behind closed doors by emulating style and leadership for his players and anyone who needs a figure to look up to during this day and age.

Thanks for being a model of leadership for me Coach K!!

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Harvard will look to be a bracket buster for the second straight year when they face the fifth seeded Cincinnati Bearcats.

Now that the field for the 2014 Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament has been set, it is time for the best sports week of the year as millions try to complete the “perfect bracket.” This year the quest has taken on an even greater significance thanks to billionaire Warren Buffett and the Quicken Loans’ Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge.

The financier and Quicken Loan CEO Dan Gilbert, who also owns the Cleveland Cavaliers, have taken the traditional NCAA bracket pool to a new level.

But while the odds of selecting the winner in every single game is even greater than that of Vladimir Putin abruptly allowing Ukraine to become a democracy or the missing Malaysian airplane suddenly showing up on a runway in Florida, it isn’t keeping millions from trying to make the perfect picks.

The contest is being capped at 15 million entries, but even if no one gets every game correct, the top 20 brackets will each net $100,000.

To no surprise, the real “big” winners in this competition are going to be Buffett and Gilbert.

While there is no cost to enter, participants must provide their e-mail address and phone number and answer some questions about their mortgage. That means Gilbert’s company will have 15 million new potential customers to send e-mails and contact by phone.

Though Buffet isn’t part of Quicken Loans, he has already received plenty of press to continue stroking his public image.

What will be especially interesting will be to see if any of the 15 million entries can even make it through the first weekend of games undefeated.

Here is a look at five games that could make it tough to predict:

South Regional: #5 VCU vs. #12 Stephen F. Austin
It was just three years ago that VCU was the bracket busting tournament darling that went from the play-in game to the Final Four. This time the Rams are a highly respected fifth seed and many think they could again make a long tournament run. However, their journey could be mighty short if Stephen F. Austin has anything to say about it. The number 12 seed enters the tournament with a 31-2 record and has four players who average at least 12 points per contest.

South Regional: #6 Ohio State vs. #11 Dayton
The Buckeyes have made a sport out of dodging their high-caliber in-state competitors, but this time there is no escaping a date with the Fliers. Ohio State was one of the top squads in the country early in the season, but struggled through the second half and a long tournament run would be a huge surprise. Dayton is one of six NCAA Tournament teams from the Atlantic-10 and will have extra motive against OSU. Read the rest of this entry →

As one of the stories of the year, the Wichita State Shockers have gone undefeated in the regular season of their college basketball season. After making it to the Final Four the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament last year and earning a record of 34-0 this season, the Wichita St. basketball team is now where they have rarely been—in the limelight of sports prominence. For the casual sports fan, the Shockers have not often come to mind when it comes to choosing a winner for their March Madness brackets. However, Wichita St. basketball has come a long way since its beginning, starting under the name Fairmount College.

The Beginning of Shockers Basketball

Under the original name of the “Wheatshockers”, the Fairmount College basketball team competed in its first season in 1906. Head coach Willis Bates and his six players finished the season 2-4. You don’t need medical translation to know that going 2-4 isn’t the best start to a program, but Fairmount College would eventually make strides forward, including the development of the full-court zone press under Coach Gene Johnson.

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Start of Success

The Shockers would begin to see success after joining the Missouri Valley Conference, when the school hired Ralph Miller from East High in 1951. Miller convinced his star player in high school, Cleo Littleton, to come with him to the college. Littleton became one of the first African-American players in the Missouri Valley Conference. He was also the first to score 19 points per game as a freshman—a school record that stands today. Under Miller in the 1964, Dave Stallworth would become the Shockers’ first consensus all-American, scoring a career average 24.2 points per game. Miller would later be inducted into Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame after building the Shockers’ basketball program.

Wichita State’s First Great Season

In the season following the school’s induction into the state university system as Wichita State University, the Shockers would go 19-7 and win the Missouri Valley Conference in the 1964-65 season under Gary Thompson. In the NCAA tournament of that season, Wichita St. would defeat SMU and Oklahoma St. in order to earn a berth into the Final Four—an accomplishment tied for the school’s deepest-ever run in the tournament. In their Final Four matchup, Wichita St. would lose to defending national champs UCLA Bruins by a score of 108-89.

One More Run Before Insignificance

11 years after Wichita St.’s greatest season at that point, the Shockers would win their next Missouri Valley Conference title. With one of the school’s best-assembled teams, including freshman-phenom Cheese Johnson, the 1975-76 Shockers returned to the NCAA tournament. A heart-breaking loss by one point to Michigan—the eventual runners-up—in the first game of the tournament would then be followed by the Shockers’ Elite 8 season in 1981 in which Wichita St. defeated Kansas. The Shockers would subsequently go through a period of mediocrity through the 1990s.

Return of the Shockers

Under new Athletic Director Jim Schaus, Wichita St. would begin to see success again in the 2000s. The hiring of coach Mark Turgeon would prove advantageous as he brought the team to three consecutive 20-win seasons and the school’s first conference championship in 23 years. The program has continued to gain momentum as the Shockers won the NIT tournament in 2011 and reached the Final Four of the NCAA tournament last season. Now, Wichita St. is poised to make a deep run in the tournament with the likelihood of a one seed and the confidence that only an undefeated season can give you.

LeBron James’ recent offensive performance scoring 61 points against the Charlotte Bobcats makes him the 64^th player to score at least 60 points in NBA history. It seems almost impossible to beat that record, or to top James’ sheer brilliance of mixing skill with durability and consistency throughout a single game. However, five players have surpassed that feat and propelled themselves into one of the most exclusive groups in sports: the 70-point club.

Wilt Chamberlain

Without a doubt, the king of single-game scoring is Chamberlain. The Lakers legend scored at least 70 points in a single game six times, which is easily the most ever. Chamberlain also holds the overall record for points in a game, with 100 for the Philadelphia Warriors against the New York Knicks in a 169-147 victory in 1962. The 100-point performance shattered the previous record, which Chamberlain had set less than three months earlier, of 78 points. Perhaps the most impressive part of his 100-point record was the fact that Chamberlain made 28 of 32 free throws as a .511 free-throw percentage shooter. Chamberlain would also score 70, 72, and 73 points in NBA games.

Kobe Bryant

Another Lakers great scored the second most points in a single NBA game ever. Bryant was simply unstoppable in his 81-point performance that lifted the Lakers over the Toronto Raptors in 2006. On his own, Bryant outscored the entire Raptors team 55-41 in the second half. The Raptors would have needed a Columbia utility vehicle in order to stop Bryant in the final 24 minutes of that game. Bryant shot the ball relatively few times considering his 81 points. He made 28 of 46 from the floor and added 18 points via free throws. Read the rest of this entry →

After colliding with Gilbert Arenas, Marquis Daniels was motionless on the court for several minutes.

People don’t often think of basketball when they think of gruesome injuries. The reality is that basketball is a dangerous sport, and the NBA has seen it’s share of blood and gore over the years. With huge men running at full speed and jumping to grab the ball, there is plenty that can go wrong. Take a look at five of the worst injuries the National Basketball Association (NBA) has ever seen.

Joel Pryzbilla‘s Knee
On December 22nd, 2009, Joel Pryzbilla of the Portland Trailblazers suffered one of the worst knee injuries in the history of the NBA. Pryzbilla was playing center against the Dallas Mavericks. Pryzbilla was attempting to jump up to grab an offensive rebound when he landed awkwardly on his right leg. The result was a ruptured and dislocated patella that caused Pryzbilla to miss substantial time away from the court. Pryzbilla missed the remainder of that season after surgery, and his career was never really the same after that.

Rudy Tomjanovich‘s Face
Rudy Tomjanovich suffered one of the most incredible and gruesome facial injuries in NBA history on December 9th, 1977. Tomjanovich was a forward, and he was playing against Kermit Washington’s Los Angeles Lakers. There was a scuffle on the court. Washington unloaded a vicious punch on Tomjanovich that broke his jaw and actually caused life-threatening head injuries. He was sidelined for five months, but he eventually did make a full recovery.
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