LOCAL SPORTS TALK HOSTS CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH ABOUT GUY V. LEWIS! - MIKE IN DA

         CATCH RALPH “THE GODFATHER”   COOPER WEEKDAYS 5-7 PM WEEKDAYS ON KCOH 1430 AM

Written by: Mike in DA
Date posted: 3/30/2011


The following is an excerpt from the January 20 version of the Peanut Gallery:


GUY V. LEWIS: THE ONLY WAY HE GETS INTO THE BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME IS BY BUYING A TICKET!



Much of local sports talk has become so bad, as it has been watered down so much over the last five years or so, that I don’t listen to it as much as I used to when I first came here in 1997. If I listened to it as religiously as HMW’s Lamont Mann does, my fingers would wear out from criticizing a lot of these guys.

On Tuesday night’s (1/18) Evening Show on SR610, Elvin Hayes was a phone guest with Barry Warner and Shaun Bijani, so you know that the name of former University of Houston coach Guy V. Lewis was going to come up in the conversation. People continue to say that Guy belongs in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA.



As I’ve been saying at least once each year on my phone call-ins to radio stations when the topic comes up, Lewis will never be in that Hall.

Back in February 1963, when Loyola (Chicago) came to play UH, Lewis chastised Loyola coach, George Ireland, before the game for starting “four Niggers”. If that isn’t racist, then what is? This was documented on one of ESPN’s Sport Century shows about a decade ago. Lewis later did apologize to Ireland for what he said after his team lost the game.


I mentioned this on SR610 a bunch of times and asked Guy Lewis or any of his family members to call in and refute my comment. So far, I’ve never heard from his camp. Hey Barry Warner, how about having Guy or one of his family on your show as a guest to refute me.

Of course, you’re going to say that Adolph Rupp (1969) and others inducted into the Hall were racist, but they were inducted into the Hall of Fame in earlier years before all this PC (“political correctness” for the acronym-challenged) and diversity stuff came along.

Then you’re going to say that Guy was one of the first Southern coaches to hire Blacks (Elvin Hayes and Don Chaney). Well, he saw how good teams with Blacks, such as Cincinnati (1961 and 1962) and Loyola (1963) win NCAA Championships in those years and he didn’t want to get left out, so when UH opened enrollment to Blacks, Lewis got smart.

And talking about racism, Jeppesen Gym was “racist city” in the late 50’s and early 60’s when Black players on opposing teams came in. Just ask Oscar Robertson, Jerry Harkness, Ron Miller, Dave Stallworth, and Chet Walker, just to name a few." END 

Well, I still haven't heard from anybody in Guy V.'s family or circle of friends refute me, so maybe "Nigger" is or was part of Guy V.'s vocabulary starting back in Arp,TX, where Guy was born.  



His resumé is impressive: a 592-279 career record (.675); five Final Fours; coached 15 All-Americans, 29 NBA players, and three of the NBA's 50 all-time greatest; and he had 27 consecutive winning seasons after his first three seasons with losing records at the University of Houston. It is said he re-invented the way championship basketball was played in the NCAA and was considered one of the most progressive coaches of his time. And he was the first coach in the South to integrate his team. But, his resumé includes one minor deletion: no Basketball Hall of Fame invitation.

Well, there are several reasons or theories as to why. You can google and check newspaper columns or blogs on why some think he’s not in.

Some say it’s because he was Houston basketball and there’s an East Coast bias. Well, if this were a valid reason, then it would only be logical that every single player and coach in the Hall would be from the East.

As if his on-court achievements were not enough, he single-handedly integrated a sport that saw no signs of easing the racial tensions in the South. In 1964, he went into the swamps of Louisiana and came back with two guys named Elvin Hayes and Don Chaney.


He literally put his job on the line for two reasons: to bring in better talent and, more importantly, to challenge the idea that white is better. Hayes went on to score 27,000 points in the NBA after he outplayed Lew Alcindor in "The Game of the Century."

Then there are some of the opinion that John Wooden was the one lobbying against Guy’s addition to the Hall. He's never forgiven Guy V. and the Cougars for ending his winning streak back in 1968 in “The Game”. A while back, Bob Costas had some old classic interviews with legendary coaches and Wooden was one of them. Costas asked him about that loss, and while Wooden didn't say anything bad about Lewis or UH, he managed not to say much that was good, either. One would have thought the loss was a fluke and Wooden hadn't forgotten or forgiven.



Wooden had enough influence and savvy to keep Guy out, if he really wanted to. And if that is true then many would lose all respect for Wooden despite all his titles. With Wooden’s death last year, that would mean that that reason for keeping Guy out is no longer valid.

If you look at Lewis’ resumé, it dwarfs some of the coaches already in there. So I can see why many in the Houston area think that Lewis’ absence from the Hall of Fame is a gross injustice that maybe has gone on too long now. With some pretty impressive credentials, Lewis might even get my vote if I was a Hall of Fame voter. However, I’m not one of the four media members, or the NBA general manager, or one of the two Hall of Famers, or one of the two coaches, etc., that Hall of Fame Board Chairman, Jerry Colangelo, has put together in the 24-member committee.

To be inducted, finalists must receive at least 18 votes from the 24-member committee. The Class of 2011 will be introduced this Sunday (April 3) at the men’s Final Four here in Houston. The induction ceremony is at the Hall in Springfield, Mass., from August 11-13.

In addition to the North Americans who will be announced by Colangelo on Sunday, four others will be elected directly into the hall representing four categories: African-American pioneers before the mid-50s, veterans, the defunct leagues, and international.

So that means that once again without Guy Lewis being elected, people like Barry Warner (SR610) and John Granato (KGOW 1560) and other local sports talk hosts and callers will again complain about it.

Messrs. Warner and Granato will once again knock Lou Carnesecca and John Chaney for being in the Hall ahead of Guy V. and that pisses me off. Why pick on Lou and John just because your guy isn't in? Their credentials are just as impressive as Lewis' if not better.

Carnesecca was 526-200 (.725) as a college coach. In 24 years, he never had a losing season with 17-12 being his worst season. He also was important in keeping the American Basketball Association (ABA) alive with a strong New York presence in the New York Nets (at that time – he got Rick Barry and then Julius Erving to play there). He politicked for the building of Nassau Coliseum back then. In the 1950’s, he put his high school alma mater, St. Ann’s, on the map (now Archbishop Molloy) as a local New York basketball powerhouse. Former Houston Rocket, Kenny Smith, went there.

 

Animated and energetic Lou coached in a constant whirlwind of excitement and success. He followed in the footsteps of Hall of Famer Joe Lapchick. He kept St. John's University in the national spotlight even though he primarily recruited New York City players. He compiled eighteen 20-win seasons and averaged more than 20 wins a year. He led all of his St. John's teams to postseason appearances. His 1985 Redmen advanced to the Final Four, and his 1979 and 1991 teams competed in NCAA Regional Finals. His team won the 1989 NIT. He also coached the Nets to the 1972 ABA Finals. He was voted national Coach of the Year twice by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA); once by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC); and was Big East Coach of the Year three times (1983, 1985, 1986).

And as far as Mr. Chaney is concerned, he was 741-312 overall as a college coach, including 225-59 at Cheyney State for ten years, which was NCAA Division II national champ in 1978 and he was Division II National Coach of the Year in 1978. He was 516-253 at Temple in 24 seasons, including 17 NCAA tourneys and five Elite Eights. He had one losing season over 34 years. He was a coaching pioneer, as he was one of the first D-1 Black head coaches along with Will Robinson, John Thompson, and Nolan Richardson. He was assistant coach for the 1984 8-0 Olympic team. In 1988, Temple entered the NCAA tournament ranked #1 in the country. He is the winningest Black men’s coach in NCAA Division 1.



Known as a teacher of life's lessons, Chaney's dawn practices at Temple University are legendary. While the time of day the workouts began was distinctive, more famous are the values the veteran coach was known for instilling in his players: discipline, teamwork, commitment, excellence, and execution. Chaney's teams, first at Cheyney State in the late 1970s and then at Temple, played hard-nosed, grind-it-out basketball, reminiscent of Chaney's playing days at Bethune-Cookman. He led his college teams to 26 postseason berths and upon revitalizing Temple's program in 1982, coached the Owls to five NCAA Regional Finals and seventeen NCAA tournament berths. At the time of enshrinement, Chaney had brought Temple to six Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament Championships and seven regular season titles and was Atlantic 10 Conference Coach of the Year five times (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, and 2000) and USBWA National Coach of the Year in 1987 and 1988.

So Barry and John, please don't show us your ignorance by demeaning Lou and John. If Guy Lewis deserves to be in the Hall of Fame so much, why don't you both encourage UH to do something about it.

If UH thinks Guy has been overlooked, the school’s Athletic Director, Mack Rhoades, must lead a major push to get Guy into the Hall. UH should have a marketing campaign that promotes Guy as a Hall of Famer. Getting Guy V. in the Hall is more important to UH than it is to Guy himself.



UH needs national coverage of its push to get him in the Hall. They need the media to realize what an injustice this is and must gather around to rectify the situation. Many here think Guy deserves it, the university deserves it, but most importantly, the Hall deserves it. Classing up the place with a presence like Guy wouldn't be such a bad idea.

So Houston get off your fuckin’ ass, stop complaining, and do something about it or shut the hell up.

MIKE IN DA

HMW

JOSH INNES ON FIRE AND UNLEASHED By LM

03-29-2011

There are times in history when a person knows he's on top of the world: W landing on the aircraft carrier, General McArthur returning home from War, Jay Z performing Encore "ONE DEEP" and Josh Innes' last 45 minutes with Boatie N Pearland.

If you don't know Boatie N Pearland, is quickly rising up the leader board in Sports Talk. 

Currently, his resume includes an interview with Travis Rodgers and Lesbian Craig, in addition to being a Jim Rome favorite. Now we can include another notch on his belt, Josh Innes.   Initially, the interview started choppy with minor technical difficulties but when it got rolling, it got rolling.  

Josh Innes is a young Caucasian male working in Sports Talk. Until this point in Houston, I think it's fair to say Josh has went through some ups and downs, clearly he is on the upswing of his career.  

To use a comparison, Josh arriving in Houston was more like Chris Farley, John Belushi with the "in your face" comedy, but now he has settled to George Carlin.  I am talking about the over use of the metro-sexual thingy, but now he has obviously realized it's not received well in Houston and therefore you are hearing Josh in a more masculine role with his girlfriend, etc.  Josh Innes is also one of the personalities in the market that would appear to be comfortable around African-Americans.  He goes out of his way to point out social injustices and the "fact of the matter" when it comes to black people.  

In addition to Josh Innes mildly changing up his game, he has made Drive Time on 610 AM tolerable again.  Sure, I still feel 610 AM as a whole can do a better job with audience interaction "in show" as well as ease off the "visual radio".  "Visual radio" meaning everything Gavin Spittle can use as a low budget movie for the radio (I will hit on this later).  I hear plenty of people say the show is trash or lack sports relevance, but they quickly forget how boring the show was six months ago.

THE INTERVIEW

In layman's terms, Josh Innes crushed it.  It started off as a normal interview with the typical questions, but when Josh begin to use profane language Boatie begin giggling like a school girl just as shocked as I were to hear a 610 AM employee CUT loose.

During the interview, Josh was asked about his guest appearances on the Jim Rome Show.  Josh keeping it 100, talked about being pleased to do the show and he realized what type of audience he was dealing with.  He also elaborated on the fact he knows he's not the Sklar Brothers (which he's a fan of) nor Jay Mohr.  

Stucknut is a Jim Rome fan page therefore they hit Josh with a vast amount of Jim Rome questions of how did it come about and what's going on during the show.  The most interesting part of that segment was Josh explaining how Rome's guys would tell him to pull back off of certain topics the one in particular being "Bret Favre's Pole".

After the Rome talk subsided, they began talking about "telling it like it is" and relating to people.  Josh opened by saying he realized that people want to hear sports, but they also want to hear the humanistic side.  He talked about how people text'n or sending emails about Josh doing stuff for effect as he explained it's what he believes and it's SHOCK because you are basically close minded.  In other words, if Josh's thinking don't align itself with yours, you want to call it SHOCK.  I can take that one,but I know for fact some things Josh has said is meant for Shock.  You can quickly tell when it's about to occur see ND Kalu, Bernard Pollard and Greg Koch.  It appears to me when a person of some sort of celebrity is in studio with J&R, Josh tends to get a tad bit more FLAMBOYANT.

THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW

The rest of the interview, Josh Innes went into WOLF MAN mode as he completely ripped the interview to shreds with his version of coming real.  Josh went sub-nuclear on the real chart and honestly, I believe he had to be juicing.  Earlier, I wrote that Josh plays on self-deprecation humor but he took that to a new level while calling his dad an "Ass kisser" to talking about creating fake names on message boards.  I mean it was like the guy was human and the people loved it. I thought Boatie was having a premature accident because he was so giddy.  Josh even talked about the rules given to him by the boss "Don't make it personal" as his cell phone continued to ring in the background.  The interview was a breath of fresh air to hear the guys let loose instead of this FCC regulated media talk gibberish.  


HMW'S ANGLE

Near the end of the interview, Boatie asked Josh "What did he think about Lesbian Craig?".  Josh was generous in response saying HMW were his boys and we talked about him in the past, but he appreciates what we are doing and he wishes the Houston Chronicle would do the same.  He also said he liked the fact that we "listen".  This was probably the only part of the interview I took exception with because in a round about away it feels as if he's dissing HMW by mentioning a major publication in lieu with HMW. I know, I know, that's petty but what brought about Lesbian Craig and HMW anyway?


JOSH FIRED THE FIRST SHOT

It's strange how things happen because Josh is one of the few personalities that has consistently praised the efforts of the blog. However, last summer when he was in the 10 O'Clock slot, he made fun of Mike in DA's delivery.  To make matters worse he began talking about these "group of guys calling themselves THE FRAT and I guess they are bloggers".  To make a long story short, Lesbian Craig went to one of Josh's remotes and days later, HMW "went in" on him.  This all happened around the time he first guest hosted Jim Rome in which we chronicled the feedback.  According to Steve with Stucknut, the response was positive but the national feedback we received was pretty brutal. Josh isolated himself from HMW,  but months later we slowly began talking again.  

Approximately three weeks ago, Lesbian Craig did an interview with Boatie and he was asked about Josh.  Lesbian Craig praised Josh's talents, but didn't feel Josh would make it in Houston if he continued the "fat goofy kid can't get a date" bit, therefore it was only fitting Boatie would ask Josh to respond.


Currently HMW and Josh are cool and when you see us call him "Big Baby" that should let you know.  That's similar to us calling John Lopez "Giggles" or "Sports Jesus".


COMEDY

If you can't tell, I like the art of comedy.  I am guessing that's why I think guys like Adam Clanton and Lance Zierlein are talented personalities with their multiple voice impersonations.  Josh's comedic value and personality reminds me of a very "under the radar" comedian.  When I hear Josh Innes, visions of Andy Kaufman comes to mind.  The late Kauffman was a comedian that wanted to approach comedy in a different way and was commonly ridiculed for his bits.  What he felt was funny, everyone else thought was weird and insensitive.  I personally like a person willing to go against the status quo because it shows me they are not a robot.  I just wonder if Josh is like Andy in that Andy hated doing "Taxi", but money and celebrity forced him.  


SPORTS REAL TALK


Personalities like Dylan Gwinn and Josh Innes is a scorned fan's best friend because they are saying what we actually feel about the local team.  These are two personalities in Houston willing to call crap CRAP however this article is about Josh.  I am not sure if this is theatre or another bit by Gavin Spittle but Josh lets the audience know he gets in trouble for the things he say about the local teams.  As LM the fan, I love to hear a personality on radio to share in my pain and frustrations.  Outside of Bernard Pollard, Josh is known to speak the truth about the local teams but the "truth" is not to be confused with only negative because he give them "PROPS" when they do something good.  Lets not get it twisted, Josh is no Adam Wexler, Lance, Sean Pendergast or John Lopez when it comes down to game analysis of sport but he knows how to deliver his reaction.  To be honest, I can't even take Josh's sports takes seriously.  I am not going to Josh asking him "why did the Left Guard pull on a 33 Trap" but I will listen to his reaction of a team in general.

Too many of our local personalities have gotten caught up with  thinking "if they kiss up", these professionals will love them unless we are talking about Universal Unpopular players like Tracy McGrady but I challenge all of them to go observe who Andre Johnson is following.  Oh yea, this in an article coming.  Andre Johnson is beloved by the City of Houston. No one in Houston has a negative word to say about Andre but do you know who Andre follows in Houston?  Name me three local sports personalities in Houston Andre is following.  Andre Johnson follows ESG and Slim Thug   (Houston Rappers) and hardly any of the Local Sports Personalities.  As far as personalities, Andre follow more Miami Radio Shows and Sports Personalities than anything in HTOWN.  What I am trying to say is, it doesn't pay to kiss ass because these  athletes don't care about what you think.  What does that say about our personalities in Houston when a guy is following his Hometown Sports Shows but I am sure the few will say "well DUH, that's his hometown, this only makes sense and he won a National Championship there".  With that being said, I challenge anyone to go look at who Vince Young is following, I mean with that logic VY should be following every sports station and personality in Houston.  Good job Josh in calling crap CRAP with the exception of Bernard Pollard.


WRAP IT UP

The interview was off the leash and I liked Josh's patience with the technical difficulties at the beginning of the interview.  That was the part of the interview I was most shocked by because I perceived Josh as an arrogant person and I still do to a degree. However, his willingness to stick in the interview was solid. 

He's smart though, because once he realized the vibe was going in his favor with the profane language, he fed into it.  Yes, I know it's sad that this is where we have come as a society that we hear someone use profanity and we love it.  I am guilty of it.  All in all, it just feels good to hear a person speak openly, UNLEASHED.

A potential issue seems to be brewing.  Earlier, before Josh took the stage with Boatie, he was speaking about media critiques on his show.  The "Hair Balls" from the Houston Press mildly questioned the way J&R conducted their Babe Bracket. By the way, HMW feels that this is a KILT project, therefore they can dictate the rules, we have no issue with it.  With that being said, Josh invited the Houston Press and Chronicle. 

He will answer any questions asked, but during this segment he applauded the work of HMW and other media critics. However we did not receive an invite.  With that being said, we are not tripping because we are sure it was only a minor "hiccup".  We have interviewed Josh before and if we want to interview him in the future, we will. If not, then that's cool, too.


Boatie and Pooldoc, good job on the interview.  If you would like to listen to the interview in it's entirety, please visit Stucknut and choose it from the available audio takes.


Boatie, Pooldoc, Steve and the whole Stucknut FAMILY,  MADD PROPS.


Below is some of the interview 





OUT

LM

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY (X-RATED) - MIKE IN DA

         CATCH RALPH “THE GODFATHER” COOPER WEEKDAYS 5-7 PM WEEKDAYS ON KCOH 1430 AM

 COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY (X-RATED)

Written by: Mike in DA
Date posted: 3/28/2011

HOW SWEET IT WAS!

If you watched college basketball over the weekend and did not enjoy the games, that can only mean that the school you graduated from lost or that you actually had a live bracket going and had it destroyed or you lost a big wad of cash betting on the games. Other than those kinds of misfortunes, it is hard for me to believe that a college basketball fan could not have had a great weekend in front of the TV. 

Looking at the Final Four teams, here is a lesson that ought to hold sway in the future, but certainly will not. VCU was deemed “unworthy” by many of tournament participation and their presence denied the rightful team, Colorado and/or Virginia Tech depending on your preference, a chance to play. However, not a single one of the critics back then would have said that Colorado or Virginia Tech was a viable Final Four candidate. Many forgot that VCU won the CBI last year, but the Crier rode them all the way to that championship last season going 5-0 ATS and is not as surprised about the Rams' recent run, especially since he is 5-0 ATS with them in this year's NCAA tourney. 

 The lesson here is that is why you play the games and why seedings and RPI rankings and the like are merely tools and not data that feed into the results.




And while I am at it, have you seen enough of Alec Baldwin already?

DID YOU KNOW HITLER WAS A MICHIGAN ALUM? 

SCREAMIN' GUS JOHNSON!

As the PG said Sunday (3/27), most sports talkers like CBS’ Gus Johnson as an announcer, but the PG doesn’t.

CBS continues to hand some of the biggest games to Johnson who tries to impose his will and ego on us, making terrific games hard to listen to.

In Saturday’s (3/26) Butler-Florida game. Johnson once again screamed his way all through regulation time and then into overtime. He once again tried to wreck a telecast by providing the TV audience with his hysterical radio calls. That included screaming calls of free throws. Gus also tried to force clever banter and jokes with his analysts, Len Elmore and Reggie Miller, that continually failed.


As stand alone analysts, Miller and Elmore are among the best. Working alone with a play-by-play man gives them an opportunity to develop their analysis. They don't have to rush making points, but working in a three-man booth they forced things. Miller and Elmore seemed more concerned with staying out of each other's way.

Johnson's presence made their job harder. He likes to talk and didn't adjust his game to accommodate his partners, as this was another exciting game that was sabotaged by Johnson screaming about almost everything. Even in the pre-game analysis, know-it-all Johnson told us that Butler’s Shelvin Mack is going to be a pro. This is the same guy who on Thursday night asked his broadcast partners if BYU should foul with less than 15 seconds left in a tie game.



Johnson continued with the exaggerated excitement when Mack hit a trey in the first minute. Johnson screamed that Mack is a pro. Johnson continued to shout a lot of nonsense for the next two hours plus. So what else is new?

With less than a minute left in regulation and Mack dribbling the ball, Johnson screamed that Mack was a senior. He’s a junior, so credit Johnson with a flub. Then in overtime, with less than 30 seconds left, and Butler up, 72-71, the Gators called a timeout. Johnson said that Florida coach, Billy Donovan, burned his last timeout. Burn a timeout? Why should he save it? Donovan’s team is down by one and trying to win the game, so he wants to make sure he has his best shooters/offensive players on the floor. I guess Gus didn’t think of that.

CBS continues to let Johnson do these big games. Can’t Sean McManus who is the president of CBS Sports or one of his underlings tell Johnson to cool it and reduce the screaming, shouting, hollering, etc. And as the game ended with the Butler supporters in a frenzy, Johnson couldn’t keep his mouth shut, but instead tried to shout over all the crowd noise. Whatever he was shouting, I couldn’t make out. And maybe that was a good thing.


And of course, Reggie Miller, Johnson’s partner didn’t sound too bright when Florida took a 2-0 lead in the first 15 seconds on Alex Tyus’ jumper. Miller said that it was important that Butler get off to a good start, as they play much better when they're ahead, as they don’t have the offensive personnel to come back in the game.


WTF! That's the opposite of what Butler has done in the tournament. The same thing can be said of last year’s Butler NCAA run. Last week, Butler came from behind to beat Pitt, and came from behind the game before that vs. Old Dominion. And with under ten minutes left in regulation on Saturday, they were down by 11, 51-40. So there goes Reggie's theory that it's important that Butler get off to a good start.

A SAD JAYHAWKER!

WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' FINAL FOUR THREESOME!

Except for Gus Johnson, there’s not much that you can belittle the CBS/Turner Broadcasting coverage of this year’s NCAA tourney for. However, next weekend, CBS will have a threesome of Jim Nantz, Clark Kellogg, and Steve Kerr for the Final Four and Championship Game.

As the idiom goes, “If it isn't broken, don't fix it”, so why does CBS need another guy on the Final Four broadcast team. Nantz and Kellogg have been a team for two seasons. They have developed their own chemistry.

In an attempt to get some experience with Nantz and Kellogg, Kerr worked with them on a couple of Big Ten Tournament games earlier this month. The results were not that good as analysts Kellogg and Kerr tried to "bogart" the mike as Ralph Cooper is wont to say, which caused Nantz to be a mediator, which he didn’t do too well. To expect this threesome to be rock solid during the Final Four and Championship Game is expecting a lot. It's strange that on college basketball's two biggest nights, CBS will be experimenting, using a broadcast team that's rarely worked together.

As mentioned above, CBS and Turner also merged mouths for the Sweet 16, adding TNT's Reggie Miller to the CBS team of Gus “Mr. Excitable” Johnson and Len Elmore. It wasn't a complete disaster, but it was definitely awkward at times.

However, I do understand the reason for these forced three-guys-in-the-booth arrangements and it's all about money. It has nothing to do with what's in the best interest of the viewers. Turner is shelling out a nice chunk of the $10.8 billion it and CBS are paying for tourney rights for the next decade or so. That means Turner has paid for the right to have its marquee NBA voices on air during the tourney telecasts, even if “three’s a crowd”.

THE PEANUT GALLERY BEATS OUT THE FOUR HOUSTON CHRONICLE “EXPERTS” IN THE BRACKET CHALLENGE!



Although the NCAA Tournament is not over yet, the bracket challenge is all over with the Peanut Gallery beating out the Houston Chronicle’s four experts (Jeffrey Martin, Richard Justice, Kevin Pender, and Jerome Solomon).

Jeffrey had none of his Final Four left after the first week and only seven of the Sweet Sixteen.


Richard had two (Ohio State and Kansas) of his Final Four left going into the Sweet Sixteen and nine of the Sweet Sixteen.


Kevin had two (Ohio State and San Diego State) of his Final Four going into the Sweet Sixteen and nine of the Sweet Sixteen.


Jerome and the Peanut Gallery both had all of their Final Four teams left going into the Sweet Sixteen with the PG having ten of the Sweet Sixteen and Jerome having eight of Sweet Sixteen.


Unfortunately, none of the above has any of his Final Four teams left, but the Peanut Gallery with the most wins and with all its Final Four teams alive going into the past weekend comes out on top.


Once again, the so-called “experts” fail.

IT'S ABOUT TIME SPORTS TALKERS JUMPED ON PLAYERS' BEHAVIOR THAT HELPS TO LOSE BIG GAMES!

It’s surprising how many basketball and football games, sometimes even some of the biggest games of the season are determined by stupid player behavior.

Put on your TV and you can see this happen at least once a day. Yet, the announcers and sports talkers seem to ignore this behavior, as though it is unpreventable and thereby more forgivable than missed free throws, turnovers, fumbles, dropped passes, wide-right FGs, etc.

For instance, last Thursday night (3/24) on CBS, SDSU (San Diego State University for the acronym-challenged) was a slight underdog, which lost to Connecticut in the Sweet 16. The outcome was determined by some very preventable and excessive player misconduct.

Kawhi Leonard, SDSU’s best player and a future NBAer, was called for a foul, then talked trash to a UConn player. After a referee warned Kawhi to cool it, but Leonard didn’t, so he was assessed a technical foul. That cost SDSU a giveaway point and just four minutes into the game, put Leonard on the bench with his second foul. Leonard who played over 45 minutes in SDSU’s double-OT win against Temple in the previous game, played just 29 minutes Thursday because of foul trouble, one for failure to shut the fuck up.

Then with about nine minutes left in the game and SDSU up by four, 53-49, and on a 21-9 run after falling behind by eight, Jamaal Franklin hit UConn’s Kemba Walker with a shoulder as both headed to their benches following a UConn timeout. Another technical. That cost SDSU another two points. Soon UConn would have the lead and a 74-67 win.



On CBS, the two announcers (Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery) didn’t ignore either episode, but they didn’t make a big thing of what was a very big thing. And the next day on local sports talk, I didn’t hear our sports talkers make a big deal about the players’ behavioral problems. Here was a chance for our local sports talkers to scream about something worth screaming about, that is, the behavioral issues on the court and on the field. But once again, nothing on this subject.

But then, maybe they didn’t watch the game.

PLAY BALL!



For those of you who have been successful following the Crier and the SR Crew in football and hoops and wish to follow them in America’s pastime of baseball, you can get the selections at the SR website starting this Thursday.

You can use the same user name (astrosmike) as for hoops and football, but please note the password has been changed to “yankee”.

Good Luck!

CRIER'S CORNER

BASKETBALL ACTION


Yesterday’s Record ATS: 2-1

L - MIAMI* (-8.5) over HOUSTON

Newark, NJ (Prudential Center)
W - KENTUCKY (-1) over NORTH CAROLINA

San Antonio, TX (Alamodome)
W - VCU vs. KANSAS (TOTAL UNDER 146.5)

Cumulative Season Record ATS (excludes “pushes”): 574-347

Today’s Action (for reading purposes only):

NBA

MILWAUKEE at CHARLOTTE* (Over 177.5)
You never really know which Bucks team will show up. Will it be the one that put up 110 beating Cleveland early in the month, or will it be the squad that mustered only 56 three games later? Stephen Jackson still stirs the drink for the Bobcats, but D.J. Augustin has made good decisions distributing the ball all season. CHARLOTTE, 101-96

PHILADELPIA (+10) over CHICAGO*
Philly came into the Windy City in late December, but they were there only in spirit. Chicago won every single quarter, had a commanding lead going into the fourth stanza and this was without the services of starting center Joakim Noah. Ronnie Brewer is not only a lockdown defender, he gives the Bulls the ability to get out and run. CHICAGO, 99 -96

UTAH* (-11.5) over WASHINGTON 
The Washington players have to be tired. They will be playing in the fifth and last game of a road run and had to fly last night after playing the high-flying Golden State Warriors. The Wizards did beat this team in January, but there were reasons. John Wall had a tremendous game and the Jazz lost the war on the boards. That figures to change this time. UTAH, 100-80

PORTLAND (+3) over SAN ANTONIO*
As noted in the newsletter, Portland caught the Spurs when San Antonio was in a 10-game winning streak the last time the teams met. This time around, they catch the Spurs in the second of back-to-backs, off three losses, with Tim Duncan out and Manu Ginobili hurt in yesterday’s game. 'I'll get some rest and some treatment, and then we'll see how it feels tomorrow,' said Ginobili. How much rest and treatment can you get in 24 hours, when the last game was on the road? The guy’s gotta sleep and eat, right? PORTLAND, 98-94


COLLEGE HOOPS

CBI
OREGON (+5) over CREIGHTON*


MIKE IN DA


HMWCBI