Some words about this Final 4 clash between Duke and UNC that may kill me, from me, and from my friend who’s a Carolina fan. And the greatest debut entrance from anyone, ever, happens in Japan.

Apparently it’s Duke-Carolina week here at the blog, and I’m sorry, I know only a small percentage of you care about college basketball, but when the greatest rivalry in American sports finally finds its teams playing in the NCAA Tournament, and in the Final Four, no less, and it’s the biggest game they’ve ever played against each other, with the highest stakes, and it’s Mike Krzyzewski’s last year and this could be his last-ever game … I have to write about it.

Wanted to do something a little different here since it’s such an historic game coming up on Saturday at 8:49 p.m. Eastern on TBS. I am, of course, an enormous Duke fan, and I wanted to do sort of a “point counterpoint” column today, with first me writing about why this game terrifies me so much, and then turning it over to a good friend and enormous Tar Heels fan to give his thoughts on the game, and the rivalry.

First, my thoughts…

I have been a Duke basketball fan since 1986. I was 10 years old, growing up a sports-obsessed kid on Long Island, and I didn’t really have a college basketball team of my own. My sports passions had already hardened on the professional level, and in 1986 Mike Krzyzewski had his first truly great Blue Devils team. Johnny Dawkins, Tommy Amaker, Jay Bilas and Co. had an amazing season, going all the way to the Final Four and national championship game before losing to Louisville, and I was hooked. I was all in on the Blue Devils. Loved the way they played, loved the uniforms, loved Coach K, all of it.

And I’ve been all in ever since. And being all in means loving Duke, and equally as importantly, hating the Tar Heels. With a white-hot passion. I was incredibly fortunate to witness a few Duke-Carolina games in person in the late 1990s when I was a sportswriter in the state, and I’ve never been a part of anything else like it.
Two schools, eight miles apart, whose fans and students live so close to each other, possessing different levels of greatness and dominance for decades, is unmatched in American sports.

I live and die with each Duke-Carolina game, and I revel in it. I always, always root against the Tar Heels, and have trained my children to do so as well (My oldest, God bless him, knows to never hand me anything that’s colored light blue, be it a card-holder for our UNO games, or anything else).

Never have I dreaded a Duke-Carolina game, though. There have been times I knew in my bones Duke would lose, and times I feared they would. But they were always something to be cherished, to be welcomed.

Not this one. This NCAA Tournament has been so wonderful, as Coach K and a group of wildly-talented freshmen who are so young they have no idea Duke used to be the underdog team people rooted for, have toughed out four incredible wins to get to K’s 13th and last Final Four. It should all be gravy from here for us Blue Devils fans, and this week should be about enjoying the last few games of the greatest college hoops coach of all time.

Sigh. But it’s not. Because Duke is playing Carolina, and the Heels embarrassed the Blue Devils three weeks ago in K’s final home game, and UNC is playing incredibly well right now, and the fear I’ve been hearing and reading from every Blue Devils for the past four days is that the Heels will win Saturday night, send our legend into retirement, and lord that over Duke fans for eternity.

And it absolutely could happen. And so I’m terrified, because losing this game would hurt so, so much. Yes, I’m 46 years old, I have a wife and two kids and life is amazing and wonderful and of course it’s just a game played by teenagers.

It would not change my life in any material way. But any true sports fan knows what I’m talking about: This would be a big wound.
Duke will win Saturday. They HAVE to win. The alternative is intolerable.

Let’s go Duke!

**And now, a few words from my longtime friend Brian Hickey. Hickey, as he is called by everyone, went to the University of Delaware the same time I did, he became a fierce and fantastic journalist, survived a brutal hit and run accident a decade ago that nearly killed him, and still keeps on writing great stories.

For our purposes here, though, Hickey is an enormous UNC basketball fan. We’ve been taunting each other about Duke and UNC games for 15 years, and now the biggest one of them all is here. One note about this piece: “Sweet Lew” is my nickname from high school and college, and all Hickey and other college buds ever call me.

Hickey, the light blue floor is yours…

The date was March 28, 1992. I spent Spring Break from the University of Delaware at home in the burbs right across the Delaware River from Philly.

There, I faced a difficult decision: spend Saturday night drinking in the woods with friends that I hadn’t seen since high-school graduation, or head eight miles across the Walt Whitman Bridge to the Spectrum to watch a basketball game?

If North Carolina had been playing in the Tar Heel Blue uniforms—the ones that caught my fandom’s eye as a youngster—the latter would’ve won in a landslide. They weren’t. They’d lost a couple nights earlier down south. (Coughed up a halftime lead to the favored Ohio State Buckeyes despite 21 from Hubert Davis and Eric Montross each.)

The hated Duke Blue Devils were. I valued a cold-night reunion near a bonfire over screaming at devils incarnate Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Mike Kryzhoweveryouspellit, even if that coach skyrocketed to the top of the most-hated list when he knocked the once-in-a-generation Temple Owls out of the tournament a few years earlier.

I don’t remember a single detail of who was at the bonfire in the Van Sciver woods that night. To this day, though, I remember how I missed one of (if not the) best game in college-basketball history.

Duke fans like to bring up “the shot.” I like to remind them that Laettner should’ve been thrown the f out of the game when he stomped on Aminu Timberlake. Vile act. Vile player. Vile program.

From that evening forth—fueled by self-loathing (c’mon, I should’ve gone to the Spectrum)—I’ve leaned into a morally, ethically sound disdain for the whiny Ratman Coach who never saw legitimate call he didn’t complain about, and disrespectful, out-to-hurt-other players like Grayson Allen (granting exemptions for JJ Redick, Seth Curry and Billy King for their respective services to the Sixers).

The town I grew up in was decidedly lower-to-middle middle class. The town next door was decidedly lower-to-middle upper class. If municipalities were higher-education institutions, we’d be the state school in Chapel Hill and they’d be the spoiled-ass rich kids in Durham. Not forgetting one’s roots means carrying loyalties to this day.

Which explains why it brings me joy to bust Sweet Lew’s balls from afar each and every time my adopted team beats his.

Earlier this month, I thought the 94-81 shellacking in Coach K’s last game in front of his spoiled-brat hometown fans would be peak schadenfreude. Lo and behold—be it through cosmic guidance or rigged athletics—the first-ever Final Four meeting between the teams (with Hubert Davis coaching the Heels, no less!) may damn well top that on an international stage.

If I sound bitter and jaded, I apologize. When it comes to this team, I am.

Carolina ending Coach K’s (illustrious, even I can admit) career would make for a memorable weekend, even if it doesn’t make up for missing the legendary weekend of 1992.

Japan's Tsuyoshi "Big Boss" Shinjo just entered the game on a hover craft for his managerial debut with the Nippon-Ham Fighters pic.twitter.com/3xCWFb2dZR

— Farm To Fame (@FarmToFame_) March 29, 2022

***And finally, the greatest entrance to anything you will ever see. Meet Tsuyoshi “Big Boss” Shinjo, the new manager for the  Nippon Ham Fighters of the Japanese baseball league.

He made his debut as boss the other day, and this is just about the most bad-ass entrance ever. Hovercrafts for everybody!

The Oscars happened, and Will Smith smacked the hell out of Chris Rock, and other than that, Mrs. Lincoln … Thoughts from a huge movie fan/guest blogger on all the craziness. And the Final 4 is set, and an apocalyptic Duke-UNC game is here. I am truly terrified.

Well that was some exciting Academy Awards telecast, huh? Wow.
Today I turn my annual Oscars review column over to an e-migo of mine. I’ve called my friend Peter Panagos my “pop culture soulmate” because since we’ve met on Twitter we’ve found we have so much in common. He loves “The West Wing” and great dialogue and has a great sense of humor. Pete is a New Yorker, has written a few published screenplays and has graciously agreed to write a guest post today on last night’s “normal until they were crazy” Oscars telecast. You can follow Pete on Twitter here. Take it away, Pete!

My grandparents got to see Bobby Thomson hit the “shot heard round the world” to send the New York Giants to the World Series. My parents got to see Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. My sister went to the disastrous Woodstock ‘99.

I got to watch the 2022 Oscars.

I have had a love/hate relationship with this award show for as long I can remember, but just like those two beautiful cowboys in “Brokeback Mountain,” I just can’t quit it.

I love films, I love Hollywood, I love the Oscars. Speaking of films I love, and maybe all too fitting, but, as I am writing this ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly’ just started (OK, not really, but this works better if it had, so just go with me). I have been watching this show for almost 30 years and just when you think you have seen it all and are losing interest, the Oscars have a way of slapping you right in the face just make sure you are paying attention.

Too soon? All jokes aside, and more on the Slap-Gate chaos later, let’s take a closer look at the ups, downs, and side to sides of one of the more eventful Academy Awards in recent memory.

The Good

The Academy Awards have never gone away, but due to Covid, the last two years have been bad telecasts. From Zoom acceptance speeches, to scattered attendance, the futility reached its peak last year when the producers decided to save Best Actor for the last award of the night, thinking it would be a culmination for Chadwick Boseman, only for the award to go to Anthony Hopkins (the producers do not know who the winners are) who wasn’t even in attendance to accept the award.

An award show has never ended with less enthusiasm. This year, producer Will Packer took the reins and made several fantastic changes. First, he brought back a host. This show NEEDS a host. There’s a structure missing from the show without one, and what’s better than one host?

Three hosts! Mr. Packer decided to go with the trio of Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, & Regina Hall. The ladies started with a short opening of one liners followed by individual bits and monologues scattered throughout the show. The three hosts did reunite for a funny bit about dressing up like their favorite movie character from this year. I was a bit skeptical when I first heard of a three headed hosting committee, but I have to say it mostly worked. All of them were funny, however, the MVP of the crew was Amy Schumer. She was funny and on point the entire night. She could have hosted the show by herself.

The next change I loved wasn’t so much a change but more of return to form and what seemed like a personal favor to me. I have longed complained that year after year the Academy Awards would start the show announcing the nominees with accompanying clips, only to ditch that approach when they would inevitably be crunched for time and end up rushing through the major awards with no clips. This year ALL the acting nominees had clips.

Yes, I am aware that I may be the only person who cares about that (Editor’s note: You’re not the only one, Pete!), but I appreciate Mr. Packer looking out for me. The best parts about it were how familiar it all felt. The categories were done in essentially proper order. It was like people who loved the Oscars were finally running the show again. Another thing I loved were the musical performances. The show started with an incredible performance from Beyonce and they did not let up through Megan Thee Stallion, Reba McEntire, and concluding with (eventual winner) Billie Eilish. The performances were bigger than normal, they were flashier than normal. I enjoyed them all.

The Bad

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love to complain about stuff, but I honestly don’t have much to complain about this year. I really thought it was a well-done award show. For all the grief the producers took for cutting a few awards from the telecast, it seemed silly to show the nominees AND the acceptance speeches.

At that point, just keep them in and get rid of the random montages in the middle of the broadcast. The problem with award shows in 2022 is that there are far too many of them that are televised now. The problem with the Oscars being the final award show of the season, is that they usually become a little predictable. The 2022 Oscars fell prey to that as every major favorite won their category, Even “Coda” (which I absolutely loved, and couldn’t be happier that it won Best Picture) started the award season as an underdog, yet ended up the odds-on favorite to win.

The Ugly

By the time you read this you will have seen the clip 10 times, and you will have read no less than 2,500 tweets and 14 “think pieces” discussing it. I am not going to get into all the details that you already know.

Here’s my take: What Will Smith did was disgraceful. He embarrassed himself on what should have been the crowning achievement on what has been a 1^st ballot Hall of Fame career. Regardless of any condition Jada Pinkett-Smith has, Chris Rock made the single most benign joke any comic has ever made regarding female baldness.

Will Smith initially laughed at the joke, and only became the Terminator once he saw Jada’s reaction. If Will Smith had a problem with what Chris Rock said he should have dealt with it backstage or at one of the after parties. He completely hijacked and ruined the evening. It’s all anyone has been and will be talking about. Will Smith made an even BIGGER fool of himself (if that’s possible) when he accepted his award and referred to himself as a God sent “vessel of love.”

I am sure Chris Rock was really feeling that love an hour prior. Speaking of Chris, I want to give a special shoutout for how he handled the situation. He was an absolute pro about it and knew that the night was bigger than just him. A sentiment Will Smith should learn. But what can I say? Parents just don’t understand.

**And now, to college basketball.
I got about 20 hours of joy this weekend, after the Duke Blue Devils, a team I have rooted for since 1986, clinched a most improbable Final Four berth. Improbable because this team, despite having four or maybe five future NBA players on it, did not look at all like a Final Four team a month ago. Or two months ago. Or at any point this season.

But my goodness did they just play three magnificent games over the past week. First beating Michigan State, then squeaking past an outstanding Texas Tech team Thursday night in a game that had me so tense I may have pulled out a few of my seven remaining hairs, and then Saturday night playing a beautiful brand of ball in turning back Arkansas.

Mike Krzyzewski, in the final season of his legendary run, has brought Duke to the 13th Final Four of Coach K’s remarkable career. Thirteen Final Fours, out of 42 seasons coached at Duke. That’s 31 percent of the time, he’s made it to the summit of his profession. Insane.

So I reveled in this achievement, so thrilled for Paolo Banchero and Wendell Moore and Jeremy Roach, and then watched with dread the second game of the Elite 8 on Sunday. North Carolina vs. Saint Peter’s.

And the fantastic Peacocks, who have captured so many hearts, got slaughtered by the Tar Heels, and now the matchup that I have long, long, long feared, is happening: Duke-Carolina, in the Final 4, with not much on the line except for ETERNAL bragging rights, and the terrifying vision in my head of UNC not only spoiling Coach K’s final game at home, as they did three weeks ago, but possibly being the team that sends him into retirement in his final ever game, period. I cannot process it right now. No Duke or Carolina fan, and I’ve talked to a bunch of them the last 24 hours, wanted this game.

But here it is.
More thoughts on this historic game coming up Saturday, in a few days in this space.

— But a few more words about Saint Peter’s, what a wonderful, beautiful, lovely story it has been. This tiny college in Jersey City, N.J. came to the NCAA Tournament and beat Kentucky, Murray St. and Purdue, and did it with hustle and heart and tenacity and great shooting and a hell of a coach in Shaheen Holloway. Move over Loyola-Chicago, George Mason, and all others: Saint Peter’s will now be the Cinderella story all other basketball teams are measured against.

It was sad to see how badly they got beaten Sunday, but wow, what a treasure they have been.

Good News Friday: Kelly Clarkson sings “I’ll Always Love You” and it’ll gobsmack you. The Holderness Family video on Tom Brady retiring is hilarious. And MacKenzie Scott again comes through with an enormous philanthropic donation.

Happy Friday, my fellow humans! Spring has sprung, New York City has lifted its mandate on unvaccinated players so supreme egomaniac (but key member of my favorite NBA team) Kyrie Irving is allowed to play in Brooklyn again, and we’re in the throes of an excellent week of Sweet 16/Elite 8 NCAA Tournament games (I’m writing this before the Duke-Texas Tech clash Thursday night, so as you’re reading this Friday I’m either gloriously happy or crying into my cereal, muttering “We’ll miss you Coach K, don’t go!” Hopefully it’s the former, UPDATE: I’m gloriously happy!) and Sunday is Oscars night, always a highlight of my TV year.

Monday we’ll have a guest Oscars post from a friend and fellow writer, so you’ll definitely want to check it out.

OK, on with the show: Wanted to start out this week’s GNF with a smashing performance by Miss Kelly Clarkson. You know her from “American Idol” and a million other places, and recently on the Academy of Country Music Awards, she belted out just an exquisitely gorgeous version of Dolly Parton and Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.”

Just such a pretty song to get your Friday going right.

**Next up, I’ve written a few times here about my love of the Holderness Family videos that are huge hits on YouTube. My wife turned me onto the delightfully funny duo of Penn and Kim Holderness, and this recent video they did made me smile and laugh a lot.

It’s a spoof of Tom Brady announcing he’s retiring and coming home to wife Gisele, and her laundry list of things he needs to now do.

The “Bradenton?” part made me lose it, as well as the parent-teacher conference stuff, which will hit home for me big-time next year when both my boys are in elementary school.

Love the Holderness family!

**And finally today, I’ve written before about the incredible philanthropic efforts of Jeff Bezos’ former wife, MacKenzie Scott, who has donated more than $1 billion of her fortune of the last few years.

This week it was revealed that she and her foundation have donated a staggering $436 million to Habitat for Humanity, the great organization that builds homes all across America.

From Time.com: “Scott’s donation amounts to nearly 8% of the $325 million in donations that Habitat for Humanity International received in its 2020 fiscal year.

Reckford said Habitat for Humanity will use Scott’s donation of unrestricted funds to increase the supply of affordable housing, especially in communities of color. Though they approach the problem in varying ways, most local affiliates will pursue projects in their communities, while the international group will focus on broader advocacy and efforts to build homes for working-class families.”

Just fantastic. There is SUCH a need for housing in this country, affordable housing, especially, and Scott’s donation should make a huge difference.

She continues to be a shining light in philanthropy.

An incredible story of AP photographers in Ukraine. A beautiful moment during the Supreme Court nomination hearings this week. And a Star Wars hotel in Florida will set you back a few shekels.

Journalists who willingly go into war zones are some of the bravest people on Earth.
Reporters and cameramen fly all over the world into places like Bosnia, or the Middle East, or any of a thousand hotspots of conflict have my enduring respect. They try to get the word out about what’s happening, what’s really going on, not what some government leader is saying is happening.

The war Russia has declared on Ukraine is the latest incredibly dangerous place for journalists, and a couple of courageous Associated Press photographers have survived to tell the tale of what’s going on in the city of Mariupol.

Mstyslav Chernov is a video journalist for The Associated Press. This is his account of the siege of Mariupol, as documented with photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and told to correspondent Lori Hinnant.

The whole story is fascinating, but here’s the lede:

The Russians were hunting us down. They had a list of names, including ours, and they were closing in.

We were the only international journalists left in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, and we had been documenting its siege by Russian troops for more than two weeks. We were reporting inside the hospital when gunmen began stalking the corridors. Surgeons gave us white scrubs to wear as camouflage.

Suddenly at dawn, a dozen soldiers burst in: “Where are the journalists, for fuck’s sake?”

I looked at their armbands, blue for Ukraine, and tried to calculate the odds that they were Russians in disguise. I stepped forward to identify myself. “We’re here to get you out,” they said.

The walls of the surgery shook from artillery and machine gun fire outside, and it seemed safer to stay inside. But the Ukrainian soldiers were under orders to take us with them.

It’s really an amazing tale, check the rest out here.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-europe-edf7240a9d990e7e3e32f82ca351dede

 

 

Love how Ketanji’s hubby keeps crying. pic.twitter.com/325HWQHOdl

— Renee (@PettyLupone) March 21, 2022

**Next up today, you’re probably aware that the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson are going on this week in Washington, and we’ve been witness to the usual ridiculous Republican Senator grandstanding and going on about nonsense, talking about how Judge Jackson is “soft on pedophiles” and more ridiculous pandering to their base. (Quick aside: I said to a friend tonight, everything any Republican senator ever says these days is just pandering directly to the people who already vote for them. Don’t they ever want to make the tent bigger?)

I think Judge Jackson will be a terrific Supreme Court justice, and she’s more than qualified: I don’t want to focus on any of that today, though: What struck me from her opening statements was this beautiful moment (above) where she talked about her husband, Dr. Patrick Jackson, and as she gushed about him he was wiping away tears.

Just beautiful stuff.

**Finally today, this story kind of made me wonder if we really have run out of good ideas in our society, and if some people just have too much disposable income.

The Disney World folks in Florida have just opened a new hotel/theme park called the Galactic Star Cruiser, and it’s quite obscene: “The Galactic Starcruiser has been commonly referred to as a “Star Wars hotel.” It’s true there are beds, bunks, upscale toiletries, a restaurant and a bar among and surrounding its 100 rooms, tucked on the outskirts of Disney’s Hollywood Studios. But the similarities to anything resembling a hotel stop pretty much at those nouns. The Walt Disney World getaway is a live-in theme park. 

With standard cabin rates for two starting at approximately $5,200 (a family of four is looking at about $6,000) and plenty of pricy enhancements, the two-night voyage can be obscenely expensive. Is it worth the cost?”

There’s a lot of details about this hotel here, and maybe it’s because I’ve never been a big fan of the franchise but this seems utterly ridiculous to me. But hey, I’m sure a ton of people will go and pretend to be Luke and Leia.

 

A wild first four days of the NCAA Tournament, as Saint Peter’s (who??) reaches the Sweet 16, and my Duke boys barely survive to keep K’s career going. And a Kentucky state legislator with 2 minutes you need to hear.

Whew. I’m exhausted, my voice is hoarse from yelling, and I’ve had multiple screens going in my house for four days straight.

It must be the greatest four days of the year, once again, delivering. Every year! Every year the NCAA Tournament’s opening week delivers joy and heartache, and madness and sadness, and so much great stuff.

It is my favorite sporting event, bar none, of the year and this past weekend once again gave us so many unlikely stories, and fortunately for me and my Duke-loving family, a likely story.

So much I want to get to, including the hero of the weekend maybe being an Indiana University cheerleader:

— OK I have to start with my beloved Duke Blue Devils. While Friday night’s game was easy as expected, Sunday was an absolute roller-coaster. The grooves in the carpet in my office were well-worn, let me tell you, as Duke and Michigan State played a thriller. Every game Duke plays now could be the last one of Mike Krzyzewski’s legendary coaching career, and Sunday night, with about 5 minutes left, it looked like the Blue Devils were done.

They had led most of the game, almost blew it open a few times, but Izzo’s Spartans, as always, refused to quit. But with Duke down five in the final minutes, Paolo Banchero scored a few big buckets, Jeremy Roach fearlessly drove and then hit a giant 3-pointer, and Trevor Keels, who’s been MIA for Duke for months, sank a huge 3-pointer as well.

And the young Devils, who have been so inconsistent in close games this year, pulled it out. I wasn’t emotionally prepared to say goodbye to Coach K yet, so I’m glad I didn’t have to. Now they play Texas Tech on Thursday night, and that should be another brutally tough game, but they all should be from here on in.

For now, the Duke dream is alive. And me and my 7-year-old, who I’m so pleased and a little frightened to report has TOTALLY gotten into this Tournament, are quite happy.

PEACOCKS. WIN. pic.twitter.com/Jf10r5zyb4

— Saint Peter’s Athletics (@SPUAthletics) March 18, 2022

— OK now I’ve got to talk about the most amazing story of this tournament: The Saint Peter’s Peacocks! A school that most people (OK, me also) weren’t sure where it was before Thursday (it’s in Jersey City, N.J., a stone’s throw from New York City) shocked the sports world with an enormous upset of Kentucky on Thursday night, then followed it up by beating Murray State on Saturday night.

The Peacocks have a former college legend as a coach (Shaheen Holloway) a bunch of unheralded players, a fantastic mustache in guard Doug Edert, and a story I can’t get enough of.

Their home arena is called Run Baby Run Arena, which is awesome, and this was the celebration of their fans after the Kentucky win (above). Stories like Saint Peter’s are why the Tournament is so great. I hope they keep winning; they play Purdue, another monster team, on Friday at 7 p.m. on TBS.

— Meanwhile, Kentucky. My goodness, what an absolute collapse. To lose to the Peacocks, with all that talent? Wildcats fans were calling for coach John Calipari to be fired after that loss, which is of course, ridiculous. But I enjoyed it. No fan base is more obnoxious than Kentucky’s (yes I understand as a Duke fan you might disagree and say it’s Duke) and I revel in their misery a little bit.

— Best game of the first four days was Davidson vs. Michigan State on Friday. Tight the whole way, two excellent teams, so much fun to watch. Just so well-coached, both of them.

— So, the cheerleader hero of the week: During Thursday’s Indiana-St. Mary’s game, the basketball got stuck in a very unusual and hard to reach place,  way behind the backboard. The referees tried to get it down, the players tried, they brought a chair out, but nothing worked.

Then finally, Hoosiers cheerleader Nathan Paris hoisted teammate Cassidy Cerny 13 feet up in the air, and this happened:

“The cheerleader saves the day!”

Serious athleticism on display pic.twitter.com/WaTIbJM0MH

— Lindsay Crouse (@lindsaycrouse) March 18, 2022

— Biggest non St. Peter’s surprise: North Carolina going up 25 points on Baylor, blowing ALL of that lead, going to overtime, and then prevailing. The Tar Heels have had a very inconsistent year, but they are clearly peaking at the right time and absolutely could beat UCLA in the next round.

— My Delaware Blue Hens did not, alas, pull off the miracle I was hoping for against Villanova. But my alma mater did exactly what could be expected and hoped for: Played hard and right with the much more powerful team for most of the first half, leaving by seven at one point, before folding in the second half and losing by 20. I was proud of them.

— Finally, one thing that does bother me about the NCAA Tournament, is when a coach has a hot run (like Shaheen Holloway at Saint Peter’s) he’s immediately connected to a big job opening at a bigger school. Like, let the little guy and his team have the moment, OK? We know he’s about to be swooped up by a bigger fish, but it’s really a disservice to the coach’s current school to have everyone salivating about where he’ll go next.

There’s plenty of time for that after the Cinderella run is over.

Please take 2 minutes and watch this till the end.pic.twitter.com/AQPNjh8jTt

— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) March 19, 2022

**And finally today, something for those of you who don’t care a whit about the NCAA Tournament, or sports. There’s yet another anti-choice bill up for vote in Kentucky, where once again old men are telling women what they’re allowed to do with their bodies, that they know best, and it’s disgusting and distasteful like usual.

A female legislator named Karen Berg, who is an actual physician, took two minutes and spoke beautifully, emotionally, and oh yeah, FACTUALLY, about what damage and pain bills like this do. Please watch this, it’s fantastic.

Good News Friday: A bunch of schoolkids create a “pep talk” hotline to cheer up their classmates. A Ukrainian soccer star gets bathed in love after scoring a big goal. And Steph Curry makes the day of a huge fan of his.

Happy Friday, y’all! Hope all is well in your world! We are one day into March Madness and I can barely come up for air, so deep am I into the wonderful college basketball all over my screens on Thursday. We had great upsets as always, with Richmond surprising Iowa, New Mexico State knocking out UConn, and oh yes, Kentucky getting stunned (stunned!) by No. 15 seed Saint Peter, making my heart happy.

But of course there is more going on in the world, and I’ll have you know that the best news of the week was my finally getting a Wordle on the second try! OK maybe that’s just MY best news of the week, your mileage may vary. Still, I was excited.

OK we kick off GNF this week with a wonderful story of an elementary school in California that has created a “pep talk hotline” for kids who are struggling.

Kids create a bunch of uplifting, positive messages that are saved to the hotline, and when other kids call in they get to hear recorded notes that will give out inspirational pep talks.

The hotline now gets 9,000 calls PER HOUR, which is amazing. What a nice gift for students to give to their peers.

https://twitter.com/JPW_NBCSports/status/1503032964178923520

**Next today, check out this moment from last weekend in the British Premier League, as West Ham star Andriy Yarmolenko scored a big goal for his team, was bathed in love from the crowd (as all Ukraine athletes everywhere seem to be these days) and emotionally broke down in tears.

A beautiful moment.

**And finally today, another beautiful gesture from the legendary Steph Curry. There was a viral video last week when a young 10-year-old fan named PJ O’Byrne, a huge Curry fan who lives in Denver, broke down in tears upon finding out Curry wasn’t in Colorado for the Warriors-Nuggets game. He’d been sent home to rest by the team, a common NBA occurrence.

Well, Curry was back a few days later and had heard P.J. was upset, and made it up to her in a major way.

It takes so little for these superstars to make people happy, and Curry always goes above and beyond. How could anyone not love this guy?

A hiker gets lost and rescued, and lost and rescued a second time: Some people are too stupid. A PSA from London on how men talk to women is powerful. And March Madness is just about here! A couple more thoughts before it all gets started Thursday.

There is a phrase, an un-kind one, that says certain people are “too stupid to live.”

Well, there should be another phrase that gains popularity, called “too stupid to be rescued.” I believe that applies to the gentleman in our first story, a 28-year-old man named Phillip Vasto, from New York.

Mr. Vasto was in Arizona on a business trip, and decided to go hiking. I’ll let the website Adventure-Journal take it from there:

“On March 2, he set out to hike to the top of 12,633-foot Humphreys Peak near Flagstaff, Arizona. Vasto, who lives in Brooklyn, was in Arizona for work when he decided to hike the state’s tallest peak. He spent some time looking at trails on phone apps and planned his route.

That hike did not go well. He began his hike at 2:30 pm, expecting it to take roughly three hours to traverse 10 miles and 3,000 feet of elevation gain. There was snow obscuring the trail and it was slow going. Vasto became disoriented as darkness fell, so he called 911. Rescuers found him at about 10,000 feet and counseled him to try again in a few months when the snow was gone.”

OK I’m going to interrupt the story right there, for a minute. So, no big deal, guy tries a hike that’s too difficult for him, gets lost and disoriented, calls 911, and he’s rescued. Perfectly normal thing. Ninety-nine point nine percent of humans listen to the rescuers and say to themselves, “Maybe next time, or maybe this trail is too difficult for me.”

But NOPE…

“Instead, Vasto laced up his hikers again the next day and returned to the trailhead. This time, he got a much earlier start, showing up at 9:30 am. He joined two other hikers heading for the summit but by 3:30 or so, his fellow hikers turned back, unwilling to be caught on the mountain after dark.

Vasto pushed on. You can imagine what happened next.

He slipped off the trail, hurt his leg, and began feeling lightheaded and numb. Out came the phone, and another call to 911. A hiker passing by encountered Vasto, recognized he was in trouble, and stayed with him until SAR arrived.

“I did not know just how cold it would be to be up there at that time of year,” Vasto said. “I decided, at the very minimum, let me call somebody because that way they can at least know that I’m out here.”

SAR dispatched a helicopter this time and flew Vasto to safety. Once on the ground they sternly advised him to not try the hike again.

In Arizona, rescues are funded through taxes, so Vasto won’t see a bill.”

This is INFURIATING to me! How freaking stupid is this guy, and how reckless, and what an enormous waste of resources for the personnel in Arizona! Honestly I wish when the call came in and they said the guy’s name again, and remembered him from yesterday, they just refused to save him.

Some people are just too stupid to be saved.

**Next up today, this came across my radar Tuesday and I thought it was pretty fantastic. The Mayor’s Office in London has put out this terrific PSA about misogny, the casual way men speak to women, and how it’s up to other men to prevent it.

It very accurately says how casual misogny like this absolutely could lead to domestic violence, or violence against women, and it is up to other men to step in and stop this disgusting behavior.

I would like this PSA shown everywhere.

**And finally today, the Madness of March is almost here! I know the play-in games started Tuesday night but come on, we all know the real Madness doesn’t start until Thursday.

I locked in my Final 4 today, I’m going with Gonzaga, Kansas, Purdue and Illinois, my picks on those last two simply because they’re due. They’ve both been knocking on the Final 4 door for a while, and I feel like they’re going to break through.

My two big Cinderella picks are St. Mary’s to the Elite 8 as a 5 seed, and Colorado State to that round as a 6.

Happy picking, everyone!

Everybody into the pool! It’s NCAA Tournament time, and I break down some good upsets to pick and my early Final 4 choices. And a hilarious NBA uniform screwup reminds me of my youth sports childhood.

It’s, the most wonderful time, of the YEAR!

It’s Sunday night, Selection Sunday night, and your humble correspondent is giddy and exhausted as usual. Giddy because after not having an NCAA Tournament in 2020, and having a strange, all-in-one-place one last year, we’re finally back to having a “normal” NCAA March Madness this year! Whoo-hooo!
Not going to re-hash all my old reasons as to why this week is basically my favorite of the year, but I’m so jazzed and excited that March Madness is here!!!

I’m also exhausted from spending five days at the ACC Tournament in Brooklyn; it was fabulous, I loved every second of it, college pep bands are awesome, I got to walk through a tunnel and into a smoke machine (it was super cool, check it out here) but my body is so far gone from sportswriter hours that 4-5 straight days of late nights has taken its toll. Can’t wait till the ACC Tournament comes back, if it ever does, to Brooklyn.

Anyway, the most glorious four days of the sports year are almost upon us, but before we get to that, I think the Tournament Committee did an excellent job this year. They overseeded Duke, underseeded Tennessee, gave overall No.1 Gonzaga the toughest region, but overall the committee got a lot right. Nobody who was left out should be screaming bloody murder.

Some early thoughts on the bracket, to hopefully help you with your office pools. I follow college basketball pretty closely and yet I never seem to do well in these brackets, so, you know, there’s youre warning:

— Gonzaga, woo-boy, that West region is more stacked than the towels at Bed Bath and Beyond. It could have to play a resurgent Memphis team, then UConn, than either Duke or Texas Tech to survive. I don’t know if it can survive that gauntlet.

— I think Kansas got a much weaker region, with a struggling-lately Auburn as a 2, a strong Wisconsin as a 3, and a Providence team ripe for an upset at 4.

— Some fascinating first-round matchups as always: Take my word for it, that Murray State-San Francisco 7-10 game at 10 p.m. Eastern on Thursday night will be terrific. I also love the Davidson-Michigan State game (9:40 p.m. on Friday), the Illinois-Chattanooga battle (Friday at 6:50 p.m.) and the Colgate-Wisconsin game could be excellent as well (9:50 p.m. Eastern on Friday)

— Duke, coming off a bad loss Saturday night to Virginia Tech in the ACC final, has a brutal draw in Mike Krzyzewski’s last NCAA Tournament. Michigan State or Davidson in the second round, and then possibly a physical, excellent Texas Tech team in Sweet 16 before even getting to play Gonzaga again. I’d love to pick the Devils to go to the Final 4, but I just can’t.

— For my fellow Delaware Blue Hens fans, our plucky underdogs drew a 15 seed and will play Villanova Friday at 2:45 p.m. A rival school UD knows well, it was always going to be a tough matchup. Let’s go Hens, shock the world!

— OK finally, my early Final 4 picks are Gonzaga, Purdue, Illinois and Wisconsin. Take it to the bank!

Whoops!

Grizzlies and Thunder both wore white jerseys and somehow no one noticed until they took the court 🤣

(via @GrizzOnBally)pic.twitter.com/bQUfm1mYDB

— Ball Don’t Lie (@Balldontlie) March 13, 2022

**Next up today, this was pretty funny: At an NBA game Sunday, both the Oklahoma City Thunder and Memphis Grizzlies came out for the opening tip wearing white uniforms.

Which, obviously, could not stand. “Hey, pass it to the guy in white!” “They’re ALL in white!”

Apparently one team thought the other was wearing their dark jerseys. I loved this; reminded me of my Commack Soccer League days, when we’d wear green and gold reversible jerseys.

Many, many times I showed up for a game wearing the green side, then got there saw all of my teammates wearing gold, then quickly took off my shirt and turned it inside out.

Good times! 

 

 

This #Russia-dropped bomb would flatten a building — and yet these #Ukraine EODs defuse it with 2 hands and a bottle of water, while shells audibly land nearby.

Mind boggling bravery.pic.twitter.com/KvCZeOxRyz

— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) March 9, 2022

**And finally today, nothing to see here, just an incredible display of bravery and calmness by some soldiers in Ukraine, defusing a bomb dropped by Russian military forces with their hands, and a bottle of water.

Move along, nothing to see here. My goodness, can you imagine the nerves you have to have to do this? One wrong move, and, ya know, kablooey!

 

Good News Friday: The amazing entertainer that is Red Panda. Andy Murray donates all 2022 prize money to Ukraine relief. And Yo-Yo Ma, with a cello solo that’ll move you.

Happy Friday, humans! We are in one of my absolute favorite periods of the calendar every year, mid-March! I’ve spent most of the week at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, watching and covering the ACC Tournament, one of my favorite events.

I would post links of the stories I’ve been writing but sadly they’re all paywalled; but hey, if you have any friends and family in Fort Wayne, Ind., tell them to read my Notre Dame stories this week! And most certainly check this space Monday for my annual “guaranteed” NCAA Tournament picks, as Selection Sunday happens this Sunday night.

Our first Good News Friday item comes from Barclays Center, as a matter of fact. Let me tell you about the amazing wonder that is Red Panda. Red Panda, if you don’t know her, is a woman in her, oh I’d say now her 50s, who travels the country doing unicycle juggling performances at sporting events, county fairs, and the like.

Just re-reading that paragraph, I realize I fall woefully short in describing her awesomeness. She’s on a unicycle, and an assistant or volunteer throws her plastic bowls, and RP balances them on her foot, and then tosses them, with her foot, onto her head and balances them there.

It’s incredible. I’ve seen A LOT of halftime entertainment in my career as a sportswriter, and Red Panda is the best.
Wednesday night at the ACC Tournament, I became giddy with excitement when word spread she was in the arena, and would be performing. The above performance wasn’t taped by me, but by the guy standing next to me, so you can hear my gleeful and amazed reactions.

Red Panda, I bow to your greatness. You make me and millions of others very happy.

**Next up today, the great tennis player Andy Murray continues to show he’s a good human who cares about the world.

The former Wimbledon champion and world No. 1 announced this week that he’d be donating all his 2022 tournament prize money to help children in Ukraine.

The three-time Grand Slam champion said he’s working with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to provide urgent medical supplies and early childhood development kits. Murray also highlighted how the war in Ukraine is disrupting children’s schooling.

“It’s vital education continues, so UNICEF is working to enable access to learning for displaced children, as well as supporting the rehabilitation of damaged schools, together with replacement equipment and furniture,” he wrote.

Murray’s comeback has been going very well, so it’s likely to be a six-figure donation, at least, to Ukraine relief.

Andy Murray is an athlete who just gets it.
Bravo, Andy.

https://twitter.com/eltiempolatino/status/1500952983303073800

**And finally, the legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma, playing his instrument in Washington, D.C. this week, under a street that has been temporarily renamed “Zelensky Way,” in a tribute to the leader of Ukraine.

Some nice, sweet music from a master to ease you into the weekend.

My alma mater is going to the Big Dance, whoo-hoo!. Kate McKinnon takes on this horrendous new” Don’t Say Gay” law in Florida. And the Ukrainian girl singing “Let It Go” will give you all the feels.

I wasn’t planning on writing about college basketball today.

Honest. I swear I wasn’t. The lede to this blog post was going to be about this bizarre story, a man in France who was trying to regulate his son’s online behavior and ended up jamming his entire town’s Internet signal. (It’s a story that’s left me with many funny questions, here, go ahead and read it.)

But then, Monday night my alma mater, the University of Delaware, a place I loved for four years and continue to love (gulp) a quarter-century after graduating, won its conference semifinal game over top-seeded Towson, and the Blue Hens (yes I know our mascot is ridiculous, what do you want from me) were one game away from a rare berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Could they do it? Would they do it? They were underdogs, again Tuesday night, against UNC-Wilmington, who, like Towson, had beaten Delaware twice this season.

But hot damn and hold the potato salad, my Blue Hens got it done. They scrapped and clawed and squeaked out their third win in three days, 59-55, and they are going dancing, baby!

I am over the moon excited. As soon as the game ended I was texting and calling my UD alum friends, posting on Facebook and Twitter and yelling loud enough to wake my kids (don’t worry, they slept through it).

My school is not UCLA or Ohio State or Connecticut or Michigan, OK? The national sports spotlight doesn’t shine on us too often. This is only the seventh time in 80 years my Hens have made it to the NCAA Tournament in men’s basketball, so it’s pretty damn cool.

The governor of Delaware was at the game Tuesday night, and oh you may have heard this,  the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. went to UD and kinda likes the state. How incredible would it be if the President went to Delaware’s first-round NCAA Tournament game? (Not so incredible for the fans there, who’d have to wait hours going through security. But, ya know, for the rest of us it would be cool.)

It’s a rare, joyful moment for my little school, which brought me so much joy over the years. My memories of Delaware (many of which are hazy because, ya know, it was college and there may have been a few substances in my body from time to time) are filled with good times and the rare big sporting victory.

This Blue Hens basketball team has made us all proud, coming from the No.5 seed to reach the Big Dance. We’ll find out Sunday where they’re headed and against which major power they’ll face (I’m guessing either Ohio State or UCLA).

Can’t wait! If you know a Blue Hen, give them a huzzah or a high-five today. It’s a day to celebrate the university of the first state.

Little girl singing "Let it go" in a shelter#UkraineRussianWar #Ukraine #UkraineUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/6gfcUoiwJJ

— Ankita Jain (@Ankita20200) March 6, 2022

**Next up today, I saw this on Twitter amid all the doomscrolling and joy-finding I normally do on there and it stopped me cold.

I don’t know the name of this girl, but I can only imagine the horror of her situation. A little girl in a shelter in Ukraine, trying to find any slice of happiness she can, belts out an absolutely beautiful rendition of the famous “Let It Go” song from the movie “Frozen.”

Just look at the expressions on the faces of those around her: Clearly happy to have a little bit of beauty in what has been such a horrible time in that country.

**And finally today, I’m an enormous fan of actress Kate McKinnon, of “Saturday Night Live” fame. She’s an incredibly versatile actress, playing a ton of brilliant characters on the show, and her performance in the cold open of “Hallelujah” right after the 2016 election is something I’ll never forget.

She was on “Weekend Update” last week talking about Florida’s ridiculous new  “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which would limit what classrooms can teach about sexual orientation and gender identity.

Under this legislation, these lessons “may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”

And most egregiously, The bill would also allow parents to sue schools or teachers that engage in these topics.