College hoops not just filling empty time
By By Stan Torgerson / sports columnist
March 10, 2003
Those who still believe the old cliche that college basketball is just something to occupy a sports fan's attention between the end of the football season and the start of spring practice are going to need something to occupy their time and their attention for the next few weeks. Basketball will be the only real choice they will have.
There will be more basketball games on the telly than ads for Richard Schwartzand the rewards will be larger. His ads featuring checks for $50,000, $100,000, even $250,000 will look like chump change when the NCAA hands out the money for going to college basketball's Sweet 16 and beyond.
And nobody has to get busted up in a car wreck to get it. Just a few skinned knees and elbows will be enough. On the other hand a lot of losing coaches will steal Richard's "one call, that's all" slogan but they will be referencing referee whistles rather than a lawyer's telephone.
Admittedly the season started last November but few paid much attention until after the football bowl games.
Then along came other distractions such as the Super Bowl, the football recruiting season, and speculation about the NFL draft with a little Tiger Woods thrown in and an occasional reference to the NBA.
All that Mickey Mouse stuff is now in the past as college basketball takes over this week with conference tournaments.
Ole Miss and Southern Mississippi will probably last as long as a hiccup in theirs. The Rebels are seeded fifth in the SEC West and would have to beat Tennessee, then Mississippi State, then probably Florida to hang around and that's not going to happen.
Southern Miss is seeded 12th in the 12 team Conference USA tournament. You really would have to believe in miracles to project the Golden Eagles from playing more than 40 minutes before packing their bags and returning home.
Mississippi State, however, has a chance to hang around until at least Saturday's SEC semi final round since they're in the same bracket as Ole Miss and Tennesseeand don't remind me the Vols bit the Bulldogs' tail just a week ago. MSU is just plain better than the Rebs or the Vols.
The limb I crawled out on a few weeks back with a rave notice of Kentucky's defensive skills, was sawed off Saturday by Florida which made the Cats look foolish with an assortment of back door cuts and weak side passes for easy baskets.
Yes, UK won by the skin of their teeth, but another display like that might just put a black mark on their lily-white 16-0 season record.
Then the week after the SEC neighborhood gathering, basketball gets down to the heavy stuff, the NCAA Tournament, which this year winds up in New Orleans.
That may be the best three weeks of interest and action college athletics has to offer. The buildup to the Final Four catches the attention of even those who don't know a two handed chest shot from a slam dunk. It may be the peak period of the year for pizza places with home delivery.
The winners? Don't ask. Alright if you insist. Kentucky in the SEC Tournament. Arizona in the NCAA. The losers? Anybody who places a bet based on the above.
One Man's Opinion:
How many chances does Jim Harrick get? The Georgia coach was fired at UCLA for lying on an expense voucher. He left Rhode Island with a multitude of unanswered questions about violations of NCAA rules, both academic and athletic.
Now his son, assistant coach Jim Herrick Jr., who can hardly be called unacquainted with his fathers win-at-any-price philosophy, is fired for allegedly illegally paying a player's bills and giving him an "A" in a course the son taught but the player never attended.
How can a man with Harrick senior's track record find high paying job after high paying job in college basketball?
Yes, he wins, but how? And why is winning so important that an athletic director and a school president believe it supercedes character?
And did you happen to notice the former Georgia player involved, Tony Cole, was arrested last week for writing a bad $578 rent check.
I guess it really is true. You do get what you pay for.
