...begins with Jon Scheyer scoring 15 points to lead Duke over No. 15 seed Binghamton on Thursday. The 6'5" Sophomore from Northbrook, Illinois was 3 for 9 from the floor with 5 rebounds and 1 assist. The Blue Devils suit up tonight against the No. 7 seed Longhorns from Texas.
After singling them out in my blog Thursday I have to give props to Siena for knocking off No. 8 Ohio State in double overtime Friday night. The Saints will take on No. 1 Louisville on Sunday.
Western Kentucky upset my home state favorite, Illinois, on Thursday and will now play Bing Crosby's alma mater, Gonzaga. Another Big Ten team getting beat by a school I know nothing about! How can that be? So I did a little research on WKU. It's in the town of Bowling Green (why do so many colleges seem to be located in towns called Bowling Green? And where did they get that name from anyway?). The web site lists its leading alums. This ought to be good, I figured. Among them was Jim "Big Ick" Weaver, from the class of '28. Apparently he was the first Hilltopper to play professional sports. It doesn't say how he got that charming nickname and frankly I'm not sure I want to know. Just as I was moving into Full Smart Aleck Mode I noticed that Cordell Hull was an alum. He was secretary of state under FDR in the period leading up to and including the first few years of World War II. He also drew up the charter for the United Nations and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945. I always figured he was a classmate of Roosevelt's from Groton or Harvard, especially with an aristocratic-sounding name like that. But Hull grew up in a log cabin in Tennessee and graduated from law school before he was 21! Donald Kendall is also an alum. I'd heard of him, too. He was chairman and CEO of PepsiCo when it became one of the 25 largest corporations in the U. S. He started out in sales and ended up marrying some European baroness. Cool! Duncan Hines also went to WKU. I trust his name rings a bell with most people. He got his start by including in Christmas cards a list of 167 outstanding restaurants. After popular demand, he turned his list into an annual edition. I guess that was his era's equivalent of a blog. The list goes on and on and made me wonder if Illinois had as many distinguished alums.
Finally, I noticed that the women begin their tournament today, also. And I have to ask, does anybody really care? Does anyone besides the players' parents watch these games? Does the tournament really merit coverage in the New York Times or is this just political correctness run amok? Couldn't the average boys high school team beat pretty much any of these teams? And speaking of PC, I think Don Imus did the Rutgers team a huge favor by making his comments a few years ago. It got him canned but got the Rutgers women's basketball team more publicity than did winning the tournament. Would anyone have known that they were the national champs otherwise? Reality check: who won last year's women's tournament? Don't know? Don't worry, nobody else does, either.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
One of my readers tells me that the U Conn women's team is 30-0 going into the tournament and their average margin of victory is 30 points. Very impressive. But my question is, how far would they get in the Illinois boys high school tournament? Could they get past the first round?
Post a Comment