My March Madness Mantra ... (MMMM)

I used to start the season and root for a trip to the Final Four,

Then I was happy with an Elite 8,

Then a trip to the Reg. Finals/Sweet 16,

Then, it happened.

I was happy at the NCAA Western Regional,

When Kentucky's Joe B. Hall became Joe "Be" History,

And we connected from Denver to Cincy/Lexington via Peoples Express,

In Newark... and we rented a "red" car.

Then, it happened.

Mully and Mark, Walter Berry and the rest of the team,

Made it to the Final 4.

And it was fun and there was much rejoicing,

But then, it started to happen.

I used to hope for an NCAA berth,

And Selection Sunday made me anxious.

I was usually rewarded with an "At Large" bid,

Then, it happened.

I used to be happy to witness an NIT championship (1965, 1989, 2003),

Then I was happy with the NIT Finals or semis @ MSG,

Then an invitation to the NIT and a home game at Alumni Hall,

Then, it happened.

I used to be happy with a BIG EAST championship,

Then an appearance on Friday or Saturday night at the BIG EAST.

I was always happy to play a good game against Syracuse or Georgetown,

Then, it happened.

I used to be happy with a berth in the BIG EAST tournament,

and a first round win over some former also-ran like Rutgers or DePaul.

I was always happy with a first round win over Seton Hall, Providence or BC.

Then, it happened.

I used to be happy if the team went .500 and was eligible for a post season tourney,

And I would love it when the Johnnies had one of those big regular season wins

Against Duke, Georgetown, UConn or Notre Dame.

But, then it really happened.

I used to be happy to get a few wins over Fordham, Hofstra, St. Francis and LIU,

or a Holiday Festival crown over Cornell, Manhattan, BU and some other team.

I was always happy at the Holiday Festival and had great memories of years gone by,

But, then it happened.

I used to be happy with a berth to the new College Basketball Invitational,

And would start to watch my friends "in the business" coach their own teams.

I was always happy for Coach Bob McKillop and the Davidson Wildcats,

Then, it happened.

I used to be happy watching Davidson make an incredible run in the NCAAs,

And I would be happy for Jay Wright, Tom Izzo, Coach K, Tom Crean (Marquette) and a few of the other great coaches I met along the USA Basketball trail.  I honestly felt some connection to their programs and would follow them all year long, hoping for some magic,

But, then it happened.

I used to "hate" Coach Thompson or Coach Boeheim and would root against them

At all costs... "Anybody but Georgetown" chants at the '85 Final Four in Lexington started in my section at Rupp Arena, tickets courtesy of Villanova by the way.

Then, it happened and I got to know Coach Thompson and Coach Boeheim and they earned my immediate respect and admiration, much the same way that Louie and Coach Kresse earned that unconditional love and respect when I was growing up and watching Johnny Warren.

I used to be happy, when it was tournament time.

But, then it happened.

They hired Coach Mike Jarvis.

And the rest is history.

It is tournament time, 

And, I still love the NCAAs and I'll always love St. John's.

I just need to get over Coach Mike Jarvis.

(That was the last time I will type his name).

I am happy again,

It's tournament time.

Maybe it will happen again.,

Let's hope so.

The Good Ole Days of the Redmen ...

St. John's brings back nostalgia

By S.E. Cupp on CNN/SI.com


(I was surprised and quite amused to read this column on CNN/SI today. I can't say I had too many PBRs but did enjoy a Shaeffer or Schmidtties now and then. Check it out and let me know your St.J memories.)

A lady never reveals her age. But since I've been known to drink Pabst Blue Ribbon straight out of the can while watching NASCAR with a horde of foul-mouthed dudes, the classification has been understandably questioned from time to time. So here you go: I'm turning 30 this year. And yes, it's a bit of a problem.

I've enjoyed my 20s, despite working incredibly hard, and would very much like to remain here. It's been quite a nice place to live. Successes in one's 20s are seen as laudably premature, and mistakes are lovingly forgiven. But I've been assured by dozens of famous actresses and countless self-help gurus that my 30s and 40s will be even better, and I think they're all lying. Right to my still un-botoxed face.

Getting older is a clumsy and disheartening process. I no longer have the energy for all-night benders, and everyone around me is suddenly procreating. Increased fiscal responsibilities and a whole new set of medical exams I'll now need annually are constant reminders that I am, in fact, mortal.

But nothing has been more of a downer than a recent trip to watch a college basketball game at Madison Square Garden.

When I was in high school I'd watch Marcus Camby at UMass, Tim Duncan at Wake Forest, and Elton Brand and Shane Battier at Duke and think, these are men. They were massive and lumbering, and carried their bulging muscles up and down the court with the weight of grown-ups who had far greater responsibilities than I. And even though Battier and I were the same age (and we went to middle school together) on television he looked 40 to me.

But as I sat courtside the Garden on Sunday to watch St John's play Louisville, I was the one who felt 40. Coming face to face (and at one frightening point, ball-to-face) with these elfin collegians, who seemed to flaunt their uncanny agility and boyish swagger, felt unnecessarily mean. Kudos on the boundless energy, and enjoy the frivolity of 14 tattoos. And thanks very much, adorable, pint-sized Red Storm cheerleaders who don't look old enough to babysit, for piling on. Is it too much to ask that my front-row seats don't come with a big gulp-sized ration of depression?

Thus in order to refrain from walking out of the Garden and throwing myself in front of an oncoming cab (driven by someone who's also probably younger than I am), I decided a change of seat was imperative. I needed to immediately recreate the comforting distance of watching these infants on television. So I hauled my aging betrayal of a body up a few flights to sit with Nick and DanMarino, a father-son team who are diehard, lifelong fans of St John's basketball.

Nick, a Long Island attorney, inherited season tickets from his father, a St John's alumnus who started taking his son to games back in 1962, just three years before the great Lou Carnesecca would descend on the Queens campus. Dan, a 23-year-old Albany graduate who works for the government, has been going to games for the past 20 years. And Dan's friend George Layer, a 24-year-old high school math teacher, has been their constant companion.

At the onset, meeting up with two twentysomethings may not have been the best plan. As I sat down next to them, I worried that Dan and George could see in me the fragile mania of a woman on the verge. But as they began to wax poetic about their favorite team like grandfathers ushering their offspring's offspring into the storied corners of their world, I knew I had found just the right fans to turn this day around for me.

They spoke with the gravitas and well-worn fandom of loyalists who had been through a war. There had been serious carnage in the two decades that Dan and George had been going to St John's games, and, as a New York Mets fan, I could relate.

"I've been through the scandals, all the troubles," said Dan.

In 1983, St John's established the Red-White Club to help support the basketball team, and Nick's seats were moved a dozen rows back to accommodate club donors.

But through it all, they have remained devout. "I just hope they get better," said Dan. "We're not fair-weather fans. We have loyalty. We're rooting for them for the name across the jersey."

As the game wore on, and Rick Pitino's boys held St John's to a fractional lead that would become a growing deficit, Nick, Dan and George alternated tales of regret and disappointment with ones of awe and pride.

"I was here in 1999 for the best college basketball game I've ever seen," said Dan. "It was the overtime game against Duke when Ron Artest had a three-pointer at the buzzer to put it into overtime."

They talked about old traditions that made games great. "They used to have 'flag boy' in the 90s," said Dan. "He would run back and forth down the court and the fans would count how many times he could go. All those rituals are gone now."

They recalled games against UConn, which is still a great rivalry no matter what their records.

They discussed the successes of Norm Roberts -- "Well, he's better than Mike Jarvis," George said. And they sunk into a nostalgic reverence for the legend that is Carnesecca.

"There was a time, a long time, that New York was St John's basketball," said Nick. And of course he's right. In 101 years of basketball, St John's is the seventh-winningest team in college basketball history, and has sent 59 players to the NBA draft. The school has two Wooden Award winners and six players in the Basketball Hall of Fame. And this team that plays in the greatest arena on earth, they hope, can be great again some day.

"The coaching staff really cares," George said. "They're honestly trying to turn the team around." But he's not a kid anymore, and George has seen it all, so he adds a careful and cautious caveat for good measure. "Next year they should be better, but not where they used to be. They'll be rebuilding for a while."

In the end, St John's lost, 60-47, but I knew that the score didn't tell the whole story for Nick, Dan and George, who would be back for the next home game to watch their team fight the good fight. And I remembered that there's something about the experience and wisdom that comes with age, and that the accumulation of memories only makes a fan better, less naive, more passionate.

They had stories to tell, and the stories made me want to be a part of their Red Storm experience. And thanks to some twentysomethings who seem to be far more mature than I am, for one day, I was. So I can forgive the basketball team for their rude awakening -- really, I'm just jealous. But next time, I'll remember to sit a few rows back.

TL Comments ... Wow. Did I relate to this column. I realized this week that the 2008-09 basketball season was churning along and I hadn't seen my beloved St. John's University Redmen play a game. I caught a few minutes of Redmen basketball against Seton Hall and a glimpse or two of some other games on TV, but nothing in person.

The streak of watching at least one St. John's game LIVE began in 1968-69.

I plan to attend the St. John's vs Duke game at MSG next week, although I can not say I am optimistic about the outcome.

For some good St. John's memories, search my blog for 100 Years of St. John's basketball.

I still have NOT forgiven Mike Jarvis.

Can You Believe This?

BAY CITY, Mich. -- Officials in central Michigan say a 93-year-old man who owned more than $1,000 in unpaid electric bills froze to death inside his home -- where the municipal power company had restricted his use of electricity.

Neighbors and friends of Marvin Schur want answers as to how this could happen.

“Now that we do know it was hypothermia, there’s a whole bunch of feelings that I’ve got going through me,” said Jim Herndon, a neighbor of Schur’s. “There’s anger, for the city and the electrical company.”

Bay City officials said changes are on the way in an attempt to not let another instance like this happen again.

An autopsy determined Schur, 93, died from hypothermia in the home he lived in for years.

Bay City Electric Light and Power sent Schur a shutoff notice through the mail a few weeks ago.

Then crews placed a shutoff notice on his front door. A few days later, Schur was found by neighbors.

Bay City Electric Light and Power, which is owned by the city, said a limiter was placed on Schur’s electrical line.

The device limits the power that reaches a home, and it blows out like a fuse if power consumption rises past a set level.

The manager of Bay City said the limiter was tripped sometime between the time of installation and the discovery of the man's body.

The city manager said city workers keep the limiter on a house for 10 days, then shut off power entirely if the homeowner hasn't paid utility bills or arranged to do so.

A medical examiner who conducted the autopsy on Schur told TV5 and WNEM.com that Schur died a painful death due to the hypothermia.

Dr. Kanu Varani has done hundreds of autopsies, and he said he’d never seen a person die of hypothermia indoors.

A neighbor who lives across the street from Schur is angered that the city didn’t personally notify the elderly man about his utility situation.

Schur’s neighbor, Herndon, said Schur had a utility bill on his kitchen table with a large amount of money clipped to it, with the intention of paying that bill.

Right now the city said the situation is still under investigation. Marvin Schur was a World War II veteran.

(Copyright 2009 by WNEM.COM. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

***

The news brings some terrible stories to our doorstep or computer screens each and every day. Some stories seem to hit harder than others. The story above knocked me down.

***

On a lighter note...

The good news is that they suspended Mike Jarvis and the bad news is that they didn't extend the suspesnion of Mike Jarvis:

See:

Jarvis returns to bench Thursday for FAU
Florida Atlantic coach Mike Jarvis will be back on the bench Thursday. The Sun Belt Conference decided not to extend Jarvis' one-game suspension, and he'll coach the struggling Owls in their home game against Arkansas-Little Rock. The school suspended Jarvis after he received three technical fouls and was ejected during a loss last Thursday against Louisiana-Monroe.

A tale of two programs ...

My New York Times was wrapped in a rubber band to keep the Saturday paper connected with the inserts for tomorrow's multi-section edition. The SportsSaturday section of the paper included two interesting stories. The first, a take-out on the Davidson College basketball program, featuring longtime friend and head coach of the team, Bob McKillop. The other was a story a news item on the St. John's men's basketball program announcing that they will honor Norm Roberts' final year on his contract and the proverbial 'vote of confidence' to allow Roberts to continue to recruit players for the year to come.

Two programs. Two different directions.

If St. John's had only hired McKillop instead of Mike Jarvis, I can only imagine what March would be like for college basketball at St. John's.

Small and Quirky Davidson Faces Uphill Fight

By JOHN BRANCH
DAVIDSON, N.C. — Among the unusual facets of Davidson College, besides a basketball team with the nation’s longest winning streak, is a low-slung building amid the stately ones made of red bricks and white columns.

The Lula Bell Houston Laundry is where the 1,700 Davidson students can drop off their dirty clothes, to be cleaned and folded at no charge. Last week, the center did 815 bundles of laundry weighing 7,913 pounds — nearly four tons — so that the students could focus on other things.

“You drop it off, and two days later it’s folded in a big paper bag for you, in a bundle,” said Stephen Curry, the team’s silk-shooting sophomore guard. “It’s pretty nice.”

Davidson has its quirks. An honor code allows students to schedule their own final exams, and tests are taken without proctors. Davidson recently eliminated student loans, relying instead on grants and work-study programs, so that no student graduates with debt. The campus sits in a cocoon of a village 15 miles north of sprawling Charlotte, far closer in feel to North Carolina’s fictitious Mayberry.

But the most surprising aspect of Davidson may be the basketball team, led by Bob McKillop, a 57-year-old from Queens who has quietly rebuilt a once-proud program at one of the most elite liberal arts colleges in the country.

Basketball polls have the Wildcats at the edge of the top 25, but the 2008 U.S. News & World Report rankings placed Davidson ninth on the list of top liberal-arts colleges, a list devoid of other Division I basketball powers.

Davidson can brag of 23 Rhodes scholars, but it has not produced a single N.B.A. All-Star. That has not kept McKillop from believing, 19 seasons into his tenure, that Davidson can reclaim the elite basketball status it had 40 years ago under Lefty Driesell.

Behind Curry, the son of the former N.B.A. star Dell Curry, and an assembly of perfectly cast role players, the Wildcats (22-6) have won 18 games in a row. They are 19-0 in the Southern Conference heading into Saturday’s regular-season finale at second-place Georgia Southern.

If any team in the country is positioned to play the spoiler at this year’s N.C.A.A. tournament, it is this one — if Davidson makes the 65-team bracket.

The Ratings Percentage Index seems to hold more sway than records or rankings, and Davidson was at No. 61 in the most recent R.P.I., just inside the tournament’s proverbial bubble. It tried to combat its weak conference schedule with difficult nonconference games.

“They gave Carolina all they could take, they gave Duke a good game, and they had U.C.L.A. down 18 points in the first half,” said Kenneth Norton, 79, who has provided haircuts in Davidson since he was 14 and who summed up this season from behind his chair at Raefords Barber Shop.

Davidson could not complete the early-season upsets, losing to No. 1 North Carolina, 72-68; to No. 7 Duke, 79-73; and to No. 7 U.C.L.A., 75-63. The Wildcats may have to win their conference tournament, as they did the past two years, to guarantee another chance to win their first N.C.A.A. tournament game since 1969. The Southern Conference has never received an at-large bid.

“We understand that,” McKillop said in his office, where classical music played in the background. “That’s the dynamic we have to deal with.”

McKillop might be the most unusual Davidson feature of all. The son of a New York City police officer, he played college basketball at East Carolina and Hofstra. He made a bigger name for himself as a New York high school coach, at Holy Trinity and Long Island Lutheran.

He took the job at Davidson in 1989, seeing a slingshot to bigger college programs. His team did not finish above .500 until his fifth season, and he said he felt fortunate not to have been fired.

“I was a cocky high-school coach who enjoyed great success because I had great players,” said McKillop, whose silver hair and assuring voice give him the air of a trusty news anchor. “I came here thinking I could wave a magic wand and move up the basketball ladder.”

Instead, he has pulled Davidson up the rungs gradually. McKillop has often been a candidate for jobs in the Northeast, including at St. John’s, Seton Hall and Boston College in recent years. But no one has yet pulled him from Davidson, where he and his wife, Cathy, live in a white house across from campus, with a Wildcats flag on the porch and a wreath on the door.

Two of their children graduated from Davidson. Their youngest, Brendan, is a freshman on his father’s team.

“How many Division I basketball coaches have been able to raise three children in the same house?” athletic director Jim Murphy said.

McKillop has embraced the town’s intimacy and the college’s hurdles — its small size (and fan base) and its academic standards: 88 percent of this year’s freshmen finished in the top 10 percent of their high school class.

After a 68-55 victory against Appalachian State on Wednesday, McKillop and his coaches and players mingled with family and fans, as they always do, at the Brickhouse Tavern. Five players soon left for the campus library, where they stayed until nearly 1 a.m. McKillop is one coach without the constant worry over what his players are doing.

“I’m not suggesting that we have nerds,” McKillop said. “But I am suggesting that there is a measure of accountability and responsibility that permeates the campus.”

Davidson has more international players (six) than players from North Carolina (three) on its roster. This season’s team, however, rides largely with Curry, the slippery shooting guard from Charlotte who is averaging 25 points. Overlooked by bigger programs because of his slight frame (still growing, he is 6 feet 3 inches and 185 pounds), Curry has a quick release and a deft passing touch, which he may hone further next season as the point guard.

“I wouldn’t want my son to play for anybody else,” Dell Curry said while sitting among Wednesday’s sellout crowd of 5,838 at Davidson’s Belk Arena.

Stephen (pronounced STEFF-in) Curry and the senior Jason Richards, who leads N.C.A.A. Division I in assists a game, could be the nation’s best backcourt tandem, and probably the most underrated.

Add a bevy of midsize bangers, like Thomas Sander (from Cincinnati), Boris Meno (Paris) and Max Paulhus Gosselin (Carignan, Quebec), and the Wildcats could be a dangerous tournament team.

“You saw what we did against those big-name teams in the beginning of the season,” Richards said. “Yeah, we didn’t win, but came really close, and we kind of proved to ourselves that we can play with anyone.”

Davidson is motivated by the recent successes of small programs. Gonzaga is a basketball power. George Mason reached the Final Four two years ago. The likes of Butler, Drake and Kent State are surging this season.

But Davidson does not have to look elsewhere for inspiration. On a table in McKillop’s office are two Sports Illustrated magazines in clear vinyl sleeves. One, from 1968, cast three contenders to U.C.L.A. — North Carolina, Kentucky and Davidson; Davidson lost to the Tar Heels in the national quarterfinals. The other, from 1964, tabbed Davidson as the preseason No. 1 team. It finished 24-2 and ranked sixth, but missed the N.C.A.A. tournament because it was beaten by West Virginia in its conference final.

“Each day I walk into the office, and I keep them in my vision as a reminder that it has happened here,” McKillop said. “Now, can it happen again? The stars have to be so uniquely aligned for it to happen again.”

McKillop smiled. The stars are on the move.

***

MEN’S COLLEGE ROUNDUP
St. John’s Says Roberts Will Stay

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The St. John’s men’s basketball coach, Norm Roberts, will return next season to finish his contract, and the athletic director Chris Monasch said Friday that he would meet with Roberts after the season to pursue an extension.

The Red Storm (10-17, 4-11) enters Saturday’s home game against Seton Hall one game behind the 12th and final berth for the Big East tournament.

“In recent weeks there has been speculation regarding the status of Norm Roberts’s future as head men’s basketball coach at St. John’s University,” Monasch said in a statement. “Most of those comments focused on the pace of progress measured solely by wins. Our assessment of what Norm and his staff have accomplished over the past four years is broader than that.”

Roberts’s record at St. John’s is 47-65 in four years, including 19-44 in the Big East.

Ramble On ... Starting Over

Click on the Ramble On headline above to see the play-by-play of the DePaul at St. John's game played Saturday, Jan. 12th at Carnesecca Arena (formerly Alumni Hall). It shows the fact that the Johnnies were up by nine with about 16 minutes left. It shows the Johnnies up 41-35 with 9:25 left.

Then, it shows the DePaul Blue Demons up 51-41 at the 4:43 mark.

St. John's cut it to 51-48 when Larry Wright made a 3-pointer with 2:07 left. but DePaul took control down the stretch, hit their free throws and won, 60-54, to a sparse crowd of boo-birds in Queens.

It was far worse than the play-by-play indicates.

The St. John's faithful is calling for coach Norm Roberts' head.

To his credit in a post game interview on radio, Roberts spoke frankly and admitted the obvious team falts to strong, pointed questions from Tarik Turner.

Too many turnovers.
Forcing the ball into people that St. John's should not be forcing the ball into (Gene Lawrence into Tomas Jasilionis).
Soft, lazy passes.
Missing easy close-range shots - over and over again.

Roberts, now mid-way in January and in the BIG EAST season, is searching for combinations in his lineup. No shooting. Nof offensive fluidity. Poor defense.

If he plays Larry Wright (decent, not great shooter), he loses size and defense. Wright can't guard anyone at Div I level, never mind the BIG EAST.

If he goes with size and added rebounding with Jasilionis, he allows the offense to be stagnated by the presence of the big Lithuanian who can't shoot or pass at all.

Malik Boothe certainly ran the team far better than Eugene Lawrence can, but Boothe can't shoot at all.

Here is the sentiment, copied/psted from a St. John's fan bulletin board on Redmen.com:

Usually we stay til the bitter end, but this game..

I don't know..

I've had season tickets with my buddy the last 5 years, and we've sat through some horrible, dreadful, basketball.

And yet this is the angriest I've ever been. And you could sense it from everyone in the crowd. If someone wants to challenge my point, feel free, but I can't remember an Alumni Hall crowd as fed up and more importantly, "NYC sarcastic" as this one was. The cheers during a couple of the substitions at the end - by the way Norm, 16-0 run and NO SUBS???????? - said it all.

I always want the "W" obviously. I really wanted it today watching those fans behind the DePaul bench.

Whatever.

I'm the idiot who continues buying the season tickets.

The St. John's loss was underscored when I headed home to watch ND at Marquette in a BIG EAST matchup and I watched with amazement as a sold out Rupp Arena in Lexington helped Kentucky upset previously undefeated Vanderbilt in double OT.

I long for the days when St. John's would (could) sell-out at their 6,000-seat disgrace of an arena in Queens -- nevermind a sellout at the 19,500+ seat Garden. What happened?

Can it all be blamed on Mike Jarvis?

Yes.