Tag Archives: Houston Cougars

Let’s Dance!

March Madness is upon us and MAD she is! Three teams from the state of Alabama have been shipped to Upper Siberia as punishment for whatever sins it is that those three teams have committed.Can you say, Spokane? (In my best Mr. Rogers voice). And here’s the kicker. It is the EAST Regional. Washington state is on the WEST coast. What am I missing here?

Evidentially it is the Pod system, that the geniuses at the NCAA have devised, that created this head-scratching predicament. Remember the Led Zeppelin song Dazed and Confused? Sports fans, that would describe my state of mind. Pods are for peas or they’re containers that people rent when they clean out the garage.

Aight! That’s off me chest. Let’s get down to it. In spite of the perceived ineptitude of the NCAA, the Big Dance remains one of “amatuer” sports grandest spectacles. Great fun! And millions of people from around the globe either fret and fume debating who defeats whom or they whimsically fill out their brackets without a second thought. Some enter contests which award prizes and cash. Others dutifully comply and participate in the office pool. I fill out one bracket as does my wife “Paul”. I have only tweaked mine a slight bit since the initial run through it. I had three SEC teams in the Final Four and decided one of those had to go. It was Kentucky. I don’t think the Cats have the defense to make that deep of a run.

Ok! A couple of memories and I’ll share my Final Four and which team I think will win it all.

My earliest memories go back to the year 1961. That was when I began my deep dive into an all consuming passion for sports of every ilk. Football, baseball, basketball, and even a dip into golf. I followed college and professional athletics. I pored over the sports sections of mutiple newspapers. I even followed high school sports in the state of Alabama. The Robert E. Lee Generals and Sidney Lainer Poets rivalry garnered my attention. I was a Lee guy. And, of course, I lived and died with my Auburn Tigers.

I collected professional sports cards, memorizing batting averages, home run and RBI totals, yards rushing and passing, points per game, wins and losses.

Naturally, Auburn athletes were my primary focus. My heroes included Bobby Hunt and Dave Edwards, Jimmy Sidle and Tucker Frederickson, Tom Bryan, Loran Carter, Freddie Hyatt, Tim Christian, and my favorites, the dynamic duo, Pat Sullivan and Terry Beasley.

The earliest in the pro football ranks were Baltimore Colts stars Johnny Unitas and Raymond Berry, Jimmy Taylor and Paul Hornung of the Green Bay Packers. And even an alumnus of the University of Alabama was high on my list. The brash young quarterback of the New York Jets, Joe “Willie” Namath.

There is neither the space or time to get into Major League Baseball. Aaron, Musial, Mays, Drysdale and Koufax, Luis Aparicio and Maury Wills (the base thieves), Frank and Brooks Robinson. But my favorite team was the Yankees. And Mickey Mantle was my all-time sports hero. Millions of kids worshipped The Mick.

Before I attrmpt to climb out of this rabbit hole I must give a nod to Bob Cousey, Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain, Jerry West, and Oscar Robertson of the NBA.

And God bless Arnold Palmer. My PGA hero. (Also I do love that iced tea and pineapple juice mocktail !)

Reel ‘er in, Bird.

Yes! The Big Dance! Let’s cut to the chase!

At the earliest she takes me back to the incomparable John Wooden and his UCLA Bruins. Ten Nattys. Adolph Rupp and Kentucky. Both dominant forces in my formative years. Bobby Knight and the Indiana Hoosirrs came along later. How about Dean Smith and his “Four Corners” rolling down Tobacco Road?! Then there was Jimmy Valvano and the miracle his NC State Tar Heels pulled off.

Auburn was pulled off the mat by Coach Sonny Smith with a five year “dance” run beginning in with Charles Barkley in 1984. (We won’t mention my Tigers lost to the Richmond Spiders in the first round). Now Auburn finds itself a basketball school. What Coach Bruce Pearl has done on the Plains speaks ever so loudly and clearly and is, indeed, utterly remarkable.

My Final Four. (I’d LOVE to hear yours!)

From the East! The Auburn Tigers!

From the West! The Arizona Wildcats!

From the South! The Houston Cougars!

From the Midwest! The Tennessee Volunteers!

I have it all boiling down to Auburn and Houston from the hardwood in Phoenix, AZ.

In a heart-stopper! The 2024 NCAA Men’s National Basketball Champions!

The Auburn Tigers!!!

“Well let’s dance, well let’s dance
We’ll do the twist, the stomp, the mashed potato too,
Any old dance that you wanna do
But let’s dance, well let’s dance”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The March To Tampa: Let The Hype Begin

It’s that time of year. On Monday, three major college football publications, Lindy’s, Athlon, and The Sporting News, released their Preseason College Football rankings for the 2016 season. Ever since I was a kid, waiting for Street and Smith’s to publish their preseason magazine, this has been a much-anticipated time for me.

Where is Auburn? Alabama! Again? That refrain rings true once more as Auburn is nowhere to be found in any of the three polls and Alabama resides in the top spot in all of them. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

There are a great many of the usual suspects, from years past, that also find themselves in the hunt. Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, and USC would count among those teams. There are also a few teams that would not have been rated back in my younger days. They would include Baylor, TCU, Louisville, Clemson, Houston, Oklahoma State and Oregon.

And here they are with links:

Lindy’s Athlon The Sporting News
1. Alabama 1. Alabama 1. Alabama
2. Clemson 2. Florida State 2. Clemson
3. Oklahoma 3. Ohio State 3. Oklahoma
4. Ohio State 4. Clemson 4. Ohio State
5. Baylor 5. Michigan 5. Baylor
6. Tennessee 6. Oklahoma 6. Florida State
7. Michigan 7. Tennessee 7. Ole Miss
8. Florida State 8. Notre Dame 8. Michigan
9. LSU 9. LSU 9. Stanford
10. Stanford 10. Ole Miss 10. Notre Dame
11. Notre Dame 11. Washington 11. Michigan State
12. Houston 12. Stanford 12. LSU
13. Ole Miss 13. Michigan State 13. Tennessee
14. Louisville 14. Baylor 14. Houston
15. Iowa 15. UCLA 15. USC
16. Oklahoma State 16. Houston 16. Oklahoma State
17. USC 17. Georgia 17. Iowa
18. Georgia 18. TCU 18. North Carolina
19. San Diego State 19. Louisville 19. Oregon
20. TCU 20. Iowa 20. Georgia
21. Washington 21. Florida 21. Washington
22. Michigan State 22. North Carolina 22. Louisville
23. UCLA 23. USC 23. Arkansas
24. Oregon 24. Oregon 24. Texas
25. North Carolina 25. Oklahoma State 25. TCU
In the SEC, we have Alabama, Tennessee, LSU, Ole Miss, Georgia, Florida, and Arkansas. That’s half of the league in and half of the league out. Auburn would be the most prominent exception. Now, lets take a look at all of the SEC teams that made their way in and what the average ranking of each, between the three magazines, would be. We will divide the total of each team’s ranking by three, thus, Alabama 3 divided by 3 = 1. I was hell in arithmetic.

Alabama – 1.0

Tennessee – 8.67

Ole Miss – 10

LSU – 10
( A tie. Interesting.)

Georgia – 18.3

Florida was ranked just once, at 21 by Athlon. Arkansas was also ranked only once and that was at 23 by the Sporting News. I suppose they would both fall into the “others receiving votes” in our combined poll.

And so, that leaves only four teams, Alabama, Tennessee, Ole Miss and LSU as being unanimously ranked. That is not what the SEC is accustomed to. Does that mean it will be a down year for the SEC? I don’t know. I could see Auburn making it in when all is said and done. But Missouri, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Mississippi State, and Texas A&M? No.

The way I’m looking at it, there would be a maximum of seven SEC teams being ranked when the final poll results are in. A maximum, but there, obviously, could be fewer than that.

I mentioned only four teams that are unanimously ranked in the three publications, and they all fall within the top ten. There is certainly a chance that some of those four teams do not meet expectations.

Will Alabama, truly, be as good as they were last year or in years before? Danny Sheridan, oddsmaker and Bama grad, thinks the Tide could lose a couple of games and finish behind LSU. Alabama also lost Kirby Smart to Georgia. How about them Dawgs? There is an entire new coaching staff, and system, that the Bulldogs have to adjust to.

What about LSU? And Tennessee? There are pundits who are beginning to surmise that these teams are overrated. I disagree. In fact, the more I think about these two, the more I like them.

Tennessee, and Butch Jones, have been steadily building this program and those freshmen that were talented, but green, back in 2013 are bigger, stronger, and experienced. The Vols are also deep. I fully expect them to win the East and play for the SEC Championship.

LSU? Same thing with Brandon Harris, Leonard Fournette and their fellow Tigers. I’m beginning to see Danny Sheridan’s point of view and I understand why he thinks the Bayou Bengals will win the SEC West. It could happen.

Hype! Hype! Hype! That’s all we’ve got until September 1 when South Carolina and Vanderbilt open SEC play. And that, my friends, is only 98 days away!