James Rowe

South Region

Moving on to Elite 8: Kentucky, Nevada

Regional winner and moving on to Final Four: Kentucky

West Region

Moving on to Elite 8: Gonzaga, Michigan

Regional winner and moving on to Final Four: Gonzaga

East Region

Moving on to Elite 8: Villanova, Purdue

Regional winner and moving on to Final Four: Villanova

Midwest Region

Moving on to Elite 8: Kansas, Duke

Regional winner and moving on to Final Four: Duke

Boomer Dangel

South Region

Moving on to Elite 8: Kentucky, Nevada

Moving on to Final 4: Kentucky

West Region

Moving on to Elite 8: Gonzaga, Texas A&M

Moving on to Final 4: Gonzaga

Midwest Region

Moving on to Elite 8: Kansas, Duke

Moving on to Final 4: Duke

East Region

Moving on to Elite 8: Villanova, Texas Tech

Moving on to Final 4: Villanova
Game to Watch: Villanova vs. West Virginia… Big offense against big defense. Villanova should run away with this game, unless they miss shots. They will not have trouble breaking past WVU’s full-court pressure. But it could tire them out to miss shots.

Team to watch out for: Not a secret any more, but Kentucky is likely headed to the Final Four. And to be frank, Kentucky would’ve won the region even the 1, 2 and 3 seeds advanced accordingly

Dan Nicotera

Here is the second episode of The Unlucky Irishman podcast. Music is A Taste Of Silver by Until The Ribbon Breaks. The Stats of the Day are provided by ESPN Stats & Info Twitter feed. Produced by Ashley Maciag and Boomer Dangel. Host is James “Preacher” Rowe.

In this series I look into whether a team could have gone on to do big things despite what the actual final outcome was and decide whether they could have done it or not.

In this very first piece of this Coulda Woulda Shoulda series I will look into whether the 2005 Washington Nationals could have made the postseason.

It was the first season in the Nation’s Capital for the team as they had just moved from Montreal and there was a lot of buzz in the air about a baseball team coming back to DC for the first time since 1971. The expectations were not high about the team’s performance, but that wasn’t anything to worry as the residents of DC and the rest of the baseball community were celebrating baseball returning to a city starved of the sport.

There were some trades made and some free agent pickups that looked decent, but never to the point where they thought it would be a postseason contender, let alone a winning record.

They lost their first game against the Phillies, but they would go on to finish the month of April with a 13-11 record. They certainly looked good, but it wasn’t enough to convince everyone that they could compete and that notion came even more into fruition when they struggled mightily with their offense and finished May with a 14-14 record for the month and 27-25 overall.

In June, it was a completely different storyline as they got hot, and I mean red hot. The pitching was absolutely lights out, the offense was scoring runs left and right, and nothing got past their gloves as they went 20-6 in the month including having a run of winning 10 consecutive games. They were 47-31 at that point and were the talk about baseball.

To start July, they were 5-5 going into the All-Star break, which was not a great record, but they were playing well in those games, just not getting the results they wanted. However they were 52-36 at the break, well ahead of their expectations.

Nick Johnson was having an All-Star like season (though he was snubbed from the roster) as he was driving in lots of runs including ones in the clutch and had an average around .340. Jose Guillen was driving in runs and hitting some clutch home runs. Ryan Church looked like he was going to be a breakout star. Livan Hernandez and Esteban Loaiza were solidifying the rotation. John Patterson looked like he was going to be a future ace. Chad Cordero looked to be a star  in the making as he was saving games left and right where it seemingly looked like the game was over when he entered. Any time it was a one-run game, the Nationals won basically every time. It was a good time to be in Washington, DC for the 2005 summer.

But the second half, things went awry as they were now losing those one-run games they were winning in the first half. The defense took a tumble and the offense was not producing consistently like they were before. Church got hurt earlier in the season and when he came back, he was not the same. Johnson, though finished with a .289 average, dropped off significantly in the second half as he hit a slump. They were playing well, just not playing well enough considering their pitching was outstanding. What happened!? To be honest, I’m not quite sure. There was some underachievement and there was some bad luck. The team even went and got Junior Spivey and Preston Wilson in trades, and picked up Mike Stanton via free agency, but that was just not enough. Getting Jose Vidro back from injury seemed like that this was destiny for the team, but not even that could help. It also didn’t help that the Braves, Mets, Marlins, and Phillies got hot in the second half as they all made a push for the playoffs where they were plucking wins off from the Nationals. The worst case scenario possibly imagined came to fruition. They just so happened to be in the best division in terms of record that season.

But what if they kept up that same type of play in the second half? Would it have been realistic of them to make the playoffs?

To be honest, they could have made the playoffs.

However, I don’t think the Nationals would have won the division as the Braves were just better than them, though the Nationals had the edge in pitching. It was also a very weak National League so there could have been a good chance at the Wild Card. The likelihood of even making it out of the Division Series would have been very slim as they would have matched up with the Cardinals who won a 100 games that season. St. Louis was way better than them.

If they had in fact won the division (I’m being hypothetical right now and not realistic), there they would have played the Padres unless the Astros had beaten out the Braves for the Wild Card. The Padres were not a very good club that season where they won a division in an incredibly weak National League West as their final record was 82-80. Nationals would have won that series as their pitching was way better (though San Diego had a decent bullpen). I am not sure if the Nationals would have beaten the Braves in the NLCS that year, but if it came down to pitching, they most certainly would have won that matchup. Now if they would have won that series, in the World Series, they would have faced the White Sox who were just too good to be beaten. The Pale Hose would have taken home the trophy with ease (which they actually did as they swept the Astros though the games that were played in that series were very close). If they had played the Astros in the Division Series, Houston would have won. Maybe I should do the simulator to see if these scenarios would have panned out.

What would have really helped the Nationals going into the playoffs was their bullpen. It was phenomenal all year long as Jon Rauch, Cordero, Luis Ayala, Hector Carrasco, Gary Majewski, Stanton, and Joey Eischen were each fantastic with Stanton being the weakest link. The rotation was good, but after Loaiza, Hernandez, and Patterson, a fourth starter was not their strongest suit as it would have likely been Tony Armas who was not that great after coming from the disabled list. If they had kept Tomo Ohka, then it would have been fine for the squad.

However, if it wasn’t for that such dominant bullpen and solid rotation, this team would have never come close to making the playoffs. There just wasn’t enough talent on offense to carry the club. I really believe that they overachieved a bit in the first half, but severely underachieved in the second half. I do, however, think they would have made the playoffs that season.

Ireland Vs England

James: “Ireland is the Six Nations Champions, but they are going for something even greater, they are looking to win a Grand Slam. That will be no easy task as they will have to take on England. England is very talented, but they don’t seem to be in form as they struggled against France last week. With Ireland peaking after a great win over Scotland and England floundering, I think Ireland gets that coveted Grand Slam. Winner: Ireland.”

Aaron: “Ireland.”

Italy Vs Scotland

James: “Scotland did not perform well at all against Ireland last week as they could not get into a rhythm, but they should have no problem this week getting back into one as they play Italy who was squashed by Wales last week. Scotland could theoretically finish second if they beat Italy big, but I don’t think that will be a problem. Winner: Scotland.”

Aaron: “Scotland.”

Wales Vs France

James: “The French defense looked superb against England last week in their upset win over the English, but will have to face Wales this week which is no easy task. Wales showed how potent offensively they are by putting up 38 points against Italy. This could make out into a great match to watch. Winner: Wales.”

Aaron: “France. They are the hotter team right now.”

Here at Rowe Sports Talk Network, we decided to do our predictions for this year’s version of the NCAA College Basketball Tournament (or as it’s commonly known as March Madness). Here are out predictions:

Dan Nicotera:

Advances to Round of 16: Villanova, Wichita State, Texas Tech, Purdue

Advances to Sweet 16: Kansas, Auburn, Michigan State, Duke

Advances to Sweet 16: Xavier, Gonzaga, Michigan, UNC

It shouldn’t have to come down to the FBI doing this, but it goes to show how bad of an organization the NCAA really is. We’ve all known that for a while that schools try to recruit players in the least ethical ways and hope they don’t get caught, but it seems as though the NCAA turned the other cheek and allowed so much corruption to happen that even the most powerful investigative agency in not only the country, but possibly the world to step in and uncover all of that. This isn’t the first time the FBI has done something like this as they helped uncover all of the corruption happening with FIFA. The FBI shouldn’t have to and shouldn’t be getting involved, but considering the NCAA can’t check themselves or check possible violators, something had to be done.

Yahoo! Sports recently published an article about the FBI’s investigation that showed around 20 of the top schools in college basketball were implicated in possible NCAA rules violations. According to the ESPN article that wrote about what Yahoo! Sports had published, here were some of the violators:

Potential impermissible benefits and preferential treatment for players and families
Alabama, Duke, Kentucky, LSU, Maryland, Michigan State, NC State, North Carolina, Seton Hall, Texas, USC, Washington

Schools named in former ASM Sports employee Christian Dawkins’ expense reports (seeking reimbursement for thousands of dollars he paid to college and high school players and their families)
Clemson, Kansas, Louisville, Michigan State, South Carolina, Texas, USC, Utah, Wichita State, Xavier

Schools that had players/families listed as meeting with Dawkins
Alabama, Creighton, Duke, Iowa State, Kentucky, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Texas, Vanderbilt, Virginia

Schools with active players implicated
Alabama (Collin Sexton), Duke (Wendell Carter), Kentucky (Kevin Knox), Michigan State (Miles Bridges), South Carolina (Brian Bowen), Texas (Eric Davis Jr.), USC (Bennie Boatwright)

Schools with former players implicated
Clemson, Creighton, Iowa State, Kansas, Louisville, LSU, Maryland, NC State, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Seton Hall, Utah, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Washington, Wichita State, Xavier

However, the is no bigger possible violator in all of this than University of Arizona. FBI had wiretapped intercepted telephone conversations between Arizona head coach Sean Miller and a man named Christian Dawkins (this name was mentioned earlier and a very important name to this investigation by the FBI) where Miller talked about paying $100,000 so that DeAndre Ayton, Arizona’s star freshman, would attend the school. The next day after the report, Miller did not coach Arizona’s game against Oregon as both he and the school agreed to him not coaching the game claiming “best interests of the University and the basketball program.”

So who is Christian Dawkins? Well before we get into who he is, you need to know who Andy Miller is. According to the ESPN article this is what was said who he is:

“A prominent former NBA agent and the founder of ASM Sports. He represented the likes of Kevin Garnett, Kristaps Porzingis and Kyle Lowry, but relinquished his certification in December amid unfolding allegations that his agency was heavily involved in the college basketball scandal. Miller’s computer was seized last year in an FBI raid. Teaming with Dawkins, Miller issued four- and five-figure payments to several high school and college players, according to Yahoo! Sports.”

Now you know who Miller is, but what about Dawkins? This is what the ESPN article had to say:

“The sports agent, former youth tournament director and AAU figure who is alleged to have been instrumental in conspiring with others implicated in the scandal to arrange payments to each of the four assistant coaches arrested in September. Before opening his own agency, Dawkins, 25, worked for Miller’s ASM Sports.”

According to the article, a few former players were listed in the documents such as Dennis Smith Jr (NC State), Isaiah Whitehead (Seton Hall), Bam Adebayo (Kentucky), Markelle Fultz (Washington), Kyle Kuzma (Utah), PJ Dozier (South Carolina), Josh Jackson (Kansas) as to having received money from their schools.

I also copy and pasted from the article some other key elements like people who are involved and the timeline of the FBI probe:

Chuck Person: The Auburn assistant employed by coach Bruce Pearl since 2014. Person previously served as an assistant with four NBA teams after 14 seasons as a player in the league. He played at Auburn from 1982 to 1986. He was fired after the November indictment.

Lamont Evans: Fired on Sept. 28 by Oklahoma State after six months on the job. Evans previously worked at South Carolina and was alleged, while at both schools, to have accepted payments.

Emanuel “Book” Richardson: The Arizona assistant employed by coach Sean Miller at the school since 2009 and previously at Xavier. Richardson was accused of accepting payments to steer players. He was fired on Jan. 11.

Tony Bland: The USC associate head coach employed by coach Andy Enfield since 2013. Bland was accused of accepting payments to steer players and was fired in January by USC; he was the last of four assistants named in the original report to lose his job.

Jim Gatto: The senior Adidas marketing executive at the center of the scheme, according to federal officials, to direct payments to prep players and their families in exchange for their commitments to play at Adidas-sponsored college programs. He was widely known in college basketball as a key dealmaker in the apparel and shoe industry.

Merl Code: The Adidas consultant, former Nike employee and Clemson basketball player charged with federal wire fraud for his work with Gatto to funnel payments to prep players and their families.

Brian Bowen: The No. 14-rated prospect in the recruiting class of 2017, he signed with Louisville and ultimately played a key role in the toppling of coach Rick Pitino. Bowen was identified in the initial FBI findings as a prospect who received payment. Yahoo! reported that Dawkins paid for $1,500 in plane tickets for Bowen and that his family received at least $7,000 in benefits. Bowen joined coach Frank Martin’s team at South Carolina in January and has not been cleared by the NCAA to play.

Jonathan Brad Augustine: Former AAU director and youth coach implicated in September as a co-conspirator in the scandal. Federal prosecutors asked a judge in early February to drop charges against Augustine.

Munish Sood: The financial adviser named in September by federal officials, he was accused of arranging at least $22,000 in payments to Evans. Sood formed a sports management firm in 2017 with Dawkins and also directed payments to Bland and Richardson in exchange for influence, according to the feds. Sood was not among the eight men indicted in November.

Rashan Michel: The former NCAA referee arrested in September who owned an Atlanta-based clothing company and was alleged to have arranged $91,500 in payments to Person for the coach’s influence. Michel reportedly outfitted many NBA and NFL stars.

Timeline of events

Sept. 26: The FBI and United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced the arrests of 10 men, including assistant coaches Person, Evans, Bland and Richardson, in connection with fraud and corruption schemes under investigation since 2015. The federal officials alleged that the coaches took cash bribes from business managers and financial advisers in exchange for the coaches’ influence to direct selected players and their families to retain the services of the advisers who provided the bribes once the players entered the NBA. Additionally, a senior executive with Adidas was accused by the feds of working with the corrupt advisers to funnel payments to high school players and their families in exchange for the players’ commitments to attend Adidas-sponsored schools.

Oct. 16: Pitino was fired by Louisville, completing the Hall of Fame coach’s separation from the school after he was placed on administrative leave on Sept. 27 — one day after the unveiling of the scandal by federal officials. Louisville was fingered by the feds for directing money from Adidas to two high school prospects, including Bowen.

Oct. 18: Tom Jurich was fired with cause as athletic director at Louisville.

Nov. 7: Eight of the 10 men arrested in September — the four coaches, plus Gatto, Code, Dawkins and Michel — were indicted by a federal grand jury in New York.

Feb. 15: A U.S. district court judge denied a motion to dismiss charges against Gatto, Code and Dawkins.

Feb. 23: Yahoo! Sports publishes documents from the FBI’s investigation into college basketball corruption that show possible NCAA rules violations by more than 20 Division I teams.

That is a lot to digest, but it doesn’t stop there. Clearly the NCAA were sitting on their hands and not doing a good job of keeping schools in check. Simply, they did not do their job or they did not do it well. It seemed like the NCAA was apathetic to keeping up with their standards and turned their cheeks to being ethical. The NCAA also has a history of committing some cold and heartless acts, along with some minor but petty ones too, as they have penalized schools for violations that are, for a lack of a better term, harsh. Actually, that might be an understatement as I would categorize it as cruel. A coach took one of his players, who had just lost a parent, out to lunch before putting him on a plane to go back home and the NCAA deemed that as a violation. That’s a violation you turn the other cheek on instead of turning your cheek on something thats a lot more serious because you either don’t want do your job to investigate it or you’re too incompetent to do it. Here is a segment that John Oliver did that talks about the NCAA as an organization.

Then there is the president of the organization Mark Emmert who came out with a statement after the Yahoo! Sports article:

“These allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America. Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports. They are an affront to all those who play by the rules. Following the Southern District of New York’s indictments last year, the NCAA Board of Governors and I formed the independent Commission on College Basketball, chaired by Condoleezza Rice, to provide recommendations on how to clean up the sport. With these latest allegations, it’s clear this work is more important now than ever. The Board and I are completely committed to making transformational changes to the game and ensuring all involved in college basketball do so with integrity. We also will continue to cooperate with the efforts of federal prosecutors to identify and punish the unscrupulous parties seeking to exploit the system through criminal acts.”

Charles P. Pierce had the most perfect response to Emmert’s comments in his Sports Illustrated article:

“For the love of heaven, please shut up. There is some talk abroad in the land that the findings of this investigation will lay amateurism to rest once and for all. Read Emmert’s statement again. He sees this as an opportunity to position the NCAA again as the guardians of academic and athletic purity, as a way to break its two-year losing streak and regain control over the help. If you need more evidence that this is Emmert’s long game, consider that the FBI already has said that the universities involved are not objects of the investigation. So, players get named and shamed. Coaches get fired. Agents go broke on legal fees. But Boards of Regents go merrily on, waving their foam fingers in the air and grazing the buffet tables and groaning boards paid for by their ‘corporate partners.’

Emmert gets to puff himself up about ‘those who play by the rules’ while his lawyers equate the athletes who pay his salary with convicts working in prison sweatshops. (There’s a very audible dog whistle in there, too.) From all this I conclude that this FBI investigation, while a colossal waste of time and money, is one of the best things that ever happened to the NCAA and to its status quo, a status quo that remains an affront to common sense and simple justice. And the FBI, god knows, should have better things to do than to gumshoe around trying to figure out who paid for somebody’s sandwich.”

Thank you Charles, you cannot say it any better. Emmert is trying to make himself look serious, but I for the life of me cannot see him that way. Considering how adamant he is that players are just amateurs and shouldn’t be paid, he seems as though only cares about the money. In our article about the Larry Nassar trial, we mentioned that The Athlete’s Nicole Auerbach came out saying that NCAA president Mark Emmert was informed about 37 incidents at Michigan State that Nassar committed in 2010 and did nothing. So there are two hypotheses here about Emmert, he either only cares about the two money grabbing sports in football and in men’s basketball or he is incompetent. It also could be a combination of both, but with how much money the NCAA makes from television ad revenue during the Division I men’s basketball tournament (in the billions of dollars range), you cannot rule out corruption. Did the NCAA not learn from the mistakes of corruption from the FIFA scandal? Also, the FBI should not be coming in to do the NCAA’s job of investigating these violations. And lastly, with this probe, the NCAA should have done their job of suspending the players such as DeAndre Ayton because of the violations which would have made him ineligible (there is a rule that says that if a player accepts money from an agent, they are deemed ineligible). It didn’t though and because it was so close to the tournament, the NCAA let it be because they probably didn’t want a star player sitting out of their biggest money grabber (the NCAA had deemed a few players ineligible, but no big time names which only goes to show that money is only on their minds). Ayton is likely to be gone after this season anyways as he is probably going into the NBA draft, but over the offseason, the NCAA will have to do a lot of work. Clean up the mess and clear out any trace of corruption. But most importantly, the NCAA needs to do a better job of cracking down on schools.

*Tali Raphael’s column about the probe is linked as well. A great read for any college basketball fan.

Sources:

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/22555512/explaining-ncaa-college-basketball-scandal-players-coaches-agents

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/college-basketballs-fbi-probe-gets-specific-with-players-teams-named-in-report/

https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2018/02/26/ncaa-fbi-investigation-recruiting-violations-mark-emmert

https://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2018/2/23/17043928/fbi-corruption-investigation-dennis-smith-asm-miles-bridges

So one might think the state of North Carolina is taking the College Basketball scene by storm as they have UNC, Duke, NC State, NC Central, and UNC Greensboro in the NCAA Tournament this year, but people are over looking a city in Ohio where College Basketball has become a hotbed. That city is Cincinnati. I have lived in this city for two years so I am watching my third season of college basketball in the Queen City and came in not knowing what to expect. I am from D.C. and went to college in North Carolina, two environments where the sport thrives, so I know my college basketball. What is going on here in Cincinnati is just simply incredible. The city has two programs in Xavier University and University of Cincinnati where they have been absolute powerhouses this year including both being in the top five in the AP Rankings at one point. Xavier is ranked the highest it’s been in school history (3) and also got their first ever one seed while UC is ranked 6 in the nation and have a two seed. These two schools also have a rivalry between them as they play each other at least once per season which is dubbed the Crosstown Shootout. While it is not at the same level nor anywhere near the hype of a type of rivalry like UNC-Duke, the hatred is there and bragging rights are on the line for the next 364 days. The city seems to shutdown just to watch that game. College Basketball is huge here. But with that, let’s look at the teams:

University of Cincinnati

While this team won’t hurt too much when putting points on the board, don’t underestimate these guys, they are really freaking good. Led by Mick Cronin, this team relies on it’s defense as they only allow 57.2 points per game which is second in the nation, while also nabbing 39.1 rebounds per game (tied for 20th in the nation). On offense, Gary Clark is their best player, but they have got some other guys who can do damage in Jarron Cumberland, Cane Broome, and Jacob Evans. However, beating these guys is no easy task as they could literally ride their defense to victory. While, their offense is not overwhelming, it’s not too shabby either.

Xavier

While University of Cincinnati might be a defensive brickhouse, Xavier is an offensive juggernaut putting up 84.3 points per game which is 11th in the country and they average 16.6 assists per game (21st in the nation). So they clearly move the ball around a lot and it seems like they share a lot too. That must be why they are so good offensively. Chris Mack is the head coach and is honestly very good at his job. The team is led by Trevon Blueitt on the court as he may be one of the most underrated players in College Basketball, but he is also backed up by J.P. Macura, Naji Marshall, Kerem Kanter, and Quentin Goodin who are all capable of being dangerous especially when Blueitt is on the bench. Goodin drives this offense as well as he puts up 4.9 assists per game. Although the defensive numbers suggest they are poor as they average 74.5 points allowed per game (235th in the nation), they actually aren’t bad with a pretty solid zone defense and they nab 38.4 rebounds per game (42nd in the nation). Plus they play in a tougher conference. Xavier is well balanced, deep, and just really talented with an explosive offense and solid defense. People seem to underestimate them (I know I did earlier in the season), but this team could bring a championship to the city. Honestly, this is one of the most balanced and deep teams I’ve ever seen.

Be on the watch out with these two schools in this tournament as lot’s of analysts think that both these squads are favorites to make the Final Four. If the stars do align here, there is a possibility that both these schools could face off in the Final Four which would cause this city to go into a frenzy. Both fanbases should be excited for this tournament and both should be excited for what could possibly happen, but for now, the rest of the country needs to take notice of both these schools as they are both very talented. Oh, and the rivalry might be given that national recognition the city wants and deserves.

Since the NCAA Division I Tournament is upon us, I figured I would post my five favorite games from March Madness to get not only myself excited for the tournament, but for you the readers.

*Note: These will not be in order, it’s just my five favorite

University of North Carolina-University of Kentucky: Elite 8 2017

As a UNC fan, this game went from scary to jubilation in mere seconds. Kentucky had just tied the game at 73 after scoring on a three pointer and I thought to myself “Well, this is going into overtime.” UNC ran down the court getting the ball into Luke Maye’s hands and he scored with 0.3 seconds left in the game. I was in a bar, being the only UNC fan in a bar filled with UK fans, and I saw them jumping and screaming over them tying the score, but I had never seen it go so quiet once Maye scored that basket and my voice was the only one screaming. An incredible wave of emotions. Otherwise it was such a great game to watch as it was so back and forth and the fact that it came down to the last seconds of play.

Gonzaga-UNC: Championship 2017

The year before ended in heartbreak. This one was great as UNC was able to give their fans the championship that alluded them the year before. But don’t get me wrong, it was not an easy game to watch as it was very close. Gonzaga was a very good team and at one point I thought they were going to win it. It was as late as 27 seconds left in the game that UNC was ahead by only one point, but they came away with a win and with the national championship.

University of Alabama-Birmingham-Iowa State: Round of 64 2015

This game was a power struggle and having been in Birmingham two years earlier, this one meant a lot to me as friends had lost the football program and people were still bitter about it. This win in the tournament was absolutely needed for those in the Magic City. Honestly, in terms of fundamentals, it was not a good game. However, in terms of the how exciting the game was, it was incredible. UAB could not shoot a three all game until Robert Brown nailed one with under a minute to go. While it was not the game winner, it was the difference in the game as UAB pulled off the upset.

Maryland-Indiana: Championship 2002

This was back when I was a Maryland fan. This team I loved as it had my all time favorite College Basketball player in Juan Dixon, and it also featured Steve Blake, Chris Wilcox, and Lonny Baxter. That team was deep and very talented. The game seemed closer than the score suggested, but at the time this was the single greatest game I had watched (Yeah, this might be a bit biased).

George Mason-UConn: Elite 8 2006

There will never be a better and incredible game as this one. No other game, no matter who plays, will top this game. George Mason was making a cinderella run, but they had to face the mighty UConn Huskies in the Elite 8 in order to make the Final Four. UConn was clearly more talented, but George Mason wanted it more. The wave of emotions was all over the place. Watching players like Lamar Butler and Jai Lewis who led this team to this moment and the coolest part of this was everyone in the D.C. area was cheering on the team. When the final buzzer went off and George Mason won, it was as if they had just won the National Championship. It was a really special moment and if anyone could understand the magnitude of this and why there could never be a game more incredible than this one.

A sense of complacency and ennui underpins the spectre of college basketball. While the play on the court has been exemplary as ever, and March Madness is nearly upon us, the focus has largely been off the court this season. Scandals at Louisville, North Carolina, Oregon, and, most recently, Arizona, have shaken the college basketball schema to its roots.

But, in the midst of all the scandal, has anything actually changed? And did any new knowledge arise for the people who care about college basketball?

I would posit that the answer to both of these questions is no. UNC had paper classes for athletes. They had protections within the NCAA, good lawyers, and one hell of a technicality, so they go unpunished. Louisville complied with the NCAA investigation, got caught by the FBI, and now they are dead and buried. Rick Pitino is unemployed. Life, for the NCAA, at least, goes on.

But now we have something different: an up-and-coming coach in Sean Miller, caught on tape discussing payments to recruits. And his school supports him (whether it be for contractual obligations if they fire him or just stubbornness- who knows. Cynical ole me has suspicions on the former).

With Miller, we now have a case so blatant to the ills and perils of college basketball, of the entire system of recruiting and cultivation of young athletes, that the entire system begs to be examined more closely. The powers that be refuse to do so, because it will cost them severely to take stock of the system of free entertainment currently under heel.

Any talk of “but they receive an education” is blind to reality that, no, these 18 year olds are not getting anything of financial value out of the 1 PM communications class that they were signed up for, barely attend, and theoretically tutored for.

The NCAA will not change of its volition. AAU ball will not change of its own volition. It does not behoove the NBA to start paying for the development and curation of talent which it has always gotten for free to this point. We are left with the status quo unless the NBA makes a change in its collective bargaining agreement to more closely mirror to less offensive draft schemes of the NHL and MLB, or unless young athletes take a stand. That seems somewhat likely, as the current commissioner, Adam Silver, likes to keep the players happy, and wants to develop the G League as an alternative to college, especially considering the steep learning curve at the NBA level for one-and-done college prospects.

But the last option is a compelling one. In a world where young athletes take a stand against the use of their talents for a system that does not pay them one cent of the NCAA Tournament TV package, which only even reluctantly feeds them for their labor, and continues to uphold megalomaniacal coaches who utilize the athlete’s talent for personal glory, a resistance to that system seems inevitable. With all the social and political movements being led by teenagers over the past few months, perhaps there is room for one more. Lord knows, the ethical considerations of the sport need it.

On February 23rd of this year, former Miami Dolphins offensive lineman Jonathan Martin, posted a story on Instagram a picture of a gun with the high school he attended, the Dolphins, former teammate Richie Incognito, and a couple of other people tagged in it. In the caption it said “When you’re a bully victim & a coward, your options are suicide, or revenge.”

Many may remember an incident with Martin when he was with the Dolphins about five years ago when the team asked Incognito to toughen up Martin and when doing so he bullied Martin calling him the derogatory term for an African-American and did several other horrible things. However, it showed a problem that is not only deeply engrained in sports, but in our culture. It showed that bullying still persists. We all talk about combating it, including our first lady, but with the new age in the internet, bullying is alive and well.

Another thing to consider is mental health. Bullying does take a toll on one’s mental health. When you are constantly being harassed, there is always a breaking point. But the question is what happens when you reach it. There are some people who can take it because mentally they are strong, but there are some who are not quite that way. Martin falls in that category.

I was bullied a lot when I was in school. I was small and weak so I was a perfect target for a bully. It wasn’t great in elementary school, but I got through it. The worst was in high school. There was one kid who did not like me at all for whatever reason and I was their target. They created a fake profile of me on Facebook and impersonated me in a group that was dedicated to the future college I was about to attend. Luckily enough, people who I was about to attend college with, figured out that it was a fake. That person did some damage, but it wasn’t enough. It actually became a joke among some people I went to school with. But this person really had a vendetta against me as he tried hard to ruin my life. Eventually that person went away, but the emotional scars were there.

I was also on my high school basketball team, which the same kid played on, but he wasn’t the only one on my squad who were flat out mean to me. There were times they got in my face and that’s when my breaking point came, but it could have been much worse as I would just push them. No punches thrown, nothing too serious. I know why they disliked me (or at least had a great idea of why they didn’t), albeit it was very ridiculous as to why they were. In fact, it was hypocritical as I was essentially a benchwarmer and they were upset when my coach praised my work integrity. It was immature and childish, but it was high school. Things might have been different now, but at the time it was ridiculous.

I did bend, but did not break. While there were times I thought about quitting to just get away from their shenanigans, I thought to myself “Then they would win,” and decided to not do so.

Others are not lucky though as this is a serious issue in our country. I would love to see the research about the correlation with mental health and bullying as someone who has experienced it, it’s not a fun thing to go through. I’m not an expert in psychology, but what I do know is that bullying takes a toll on mental health even as evidenced with Jonathan Martin, who even admitted a month after retiring that the reason why he decided to leave the sport was because of mental health struggles and suicide attempts. What happened with Martin was absolutely scary and it shows how fragile the human mind really is. Playing sports should be fun and it should be able to allow anyone to get away from bullying, but as evidenced, it does not. Maybe we should as coaches and teammates try to help end bullying in sports by calling it out. Bullying should have no place in sports let alone our culture as it shows it could hurt someone’s mental health. Sports are meant to be fun and no one should have to be harassed in it.

*Here’s a link detailing the whole story