All basketball is fun, and winning basketball - as at Ardrey Kell and Marquette - is most fun of all

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Our seniors -- from top, Steph, Riley, Nia, Kennedy and Deeya (manager) --
make a pyramid with Coach Buseick.

On Jan. 4, our Ardrey Kell Lady Knights opened the 2019 portion of our schedule with a loss to our archrivals, South Mecklenburg High. We blew a 12-point fourth-quarter lead. It was our 3rd loss in 4 games, a highly unusual stretch for a program that has been consistently ultra-successful. And it gave us a 1-2 conference record, with both losses coming at home.

We were hurtin'.

Our fine coach, Jeff Buseick, had talked about the Buster Douglas-Mike Tyson fight earlier in the season, and I decided to expound on that theme after one of our practices.

Remember how Coach talked about the Douglas-Tyson fight? Well, he was only a few years old when that took place while I watched it live, but he still did a great job talking about all of the highlights. The one thing he left out was this: Tyson actually knocked Douglas down in the 8th round. The ref was counting ... 1-2-3-4 ... if it gets to 10, Tyson wins by knockout ... 5-6-7 ... Buster is in trouble ... 8-9 ... Douglas got up at 9 and then the bell rang. He literally was saved by the bell. And then, 2 rounds later, Douglas knocked out Tyson to complete probably the greatest upset in the history of sports.

Well now, we've been knocked down. At AK, we're not used to it, but it has happened. How are we gonna respond? Six of our next 7 games are on the road, including games against the 2 teams we just lost to. What are we gonna do? Are we gonna quit, or are we gonna get up off the mat and fight? Let's get up off the mat, ladies, and show the world we're still AK!

The girls all cheered and it was a feel-good moment for us. As an assistant coach, I don't usually get to give rah-rah speeches.

Fast-forward to the present. Last night, we finished the regular season by rallying for a great win over Olympic on Senior Night. It was our 9th straight conference victory since that 1-2 start, and we're near the top of the league standings again.

I'd love to say that my speech had a single doggone thing to do with it, but I know better. These girls are tough-minded and talented, and they deserve all the credit.

Besides, given the way we've dominated the conference the last many years, one could argue that WE are Mike Tyson in this analogy!

Whatever, it's fun to be winning again.

We take a 19-5 record into next week's conference tournament. The state tourney is the week after that. This time of year is so much fun.

Go AK!

One of our players called this photo
"Ending Segregation."

+++

And speaking of basketball ...

Huge win Saturday for my Marquette Warrior Eagles, the No. 10 team in the nation!

A few days earlier, we had lost at home (to St. John's) for the first time all season, and now we were playing the defending national champions.

We got 38 points from our star, Markus Howard, and solid contributions from several other players, and defeated No. 14 Villanova 66-65.

Getty Images

It was what we call "National Marquette Day," when folks from all over the country gather in their cities to watch the event on TV.

I was "volunteered" to run our event in the Charlotte area.

We had a nice turnout and a lot of fun!

Followed that up last night with a decisive victory against DePaul. It was fun going to a sports bar with Robbie to watch that game right after the AK girls had defeated Olympic -- a great double-header for me.

We're ready to take the Big East title and have a great run in the NCAAs.

We Are Marquette!
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Wow! What A Day!

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I'm thinking that there will be even better days to come, but it will be pretty hard to top Jan. 24, 2017.

To date, it's my favorite day of 2017 ... BY FAR.

++ This morning, I received word that the captain and point guard of my girls basketball team, Ritika, was medically cleared after having suffered a mild concussion that had kept her out of four games. We had managed to win our first playoff game without her thanks to a tough-minded (albeit a little sloppy) effort by the rest of girls, but Ritika is the best player in our league and she makes everybody better. I was happy for my Eagles that she would be returning and, selfishly, happy for myself. But mostly I was happy for Ritika, because I think she loves basketball more than any player I've coached. Sitting out was driving her nuts!!!!!

++ A few hours later, we played our semifinal game and we were outstanding. Ritika was absolutely amazing - watching her, one never would have believed she had been sidelined. She and her teammates dominated our outclassed opponent in every facet of the game. We were up 18-2 when I called off the press in the second quarter, and we cruised to victory to advance to the conference championship game for the third consecutive season. Thursday, we go for our second straight title.

++ Right after our game, the school's boys team played really well to win their quarterfinal game. I was so caught up in the action that I made a few mistakes running the clock for the game. My girls, many of whom stuck around to watch their classmates, now have something they can make fun of me for. Or maybe I should say they have something ELSE they can make fun of me for!

++ Finally, my Marquette Golden Warrior Eagles stormed from behind to beat defending national champion Villanova - the No. 1 team in the country - in a thrilling finish. Students and others in attendance stormed the court to celebrate the "signature win" for third-year Steve Wojciechowski, which came just three days after a huge road victory over No. 7 Creighton. Tuesday was the first time we had beaten a No. 1-ranked team since Dwayne Wade led the 2003 group into the Final Four with an incredible win over Kentucky. Wow!

I'm still flying pretty high from all of the day's excitement, and I'm already looking forward to the rest of what's shaping up as one heck of a week.
^

Cubs: "We'll have the usual, thank you"

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The Bald Truth

Gee, is spring training over already? Why, it seems as though pitchers and catchers reported only a few millennia ago. 

I think Octo-Mom popped out a half-dozen more kids - and Madonna adopted them - since spring training started ... and yet Rich Harden still looks like he needs another month to get ready for the 20 or so starts he'll make this season for the Cubbies.

Anyway, the season has started with Sunday night's Phillies-Braves game (not to mention the White Sox's announcement that Monday's scheduled opener already has been rained/snowed/sleeted/frozen out), so let's finish the official BTB baseball predictions for 2009.

I'm already on record with my division winners: Both Chicago teams as well as the Phillies, Diamondbacks, Red Sox and Angels. The postseason field also will include the wild-card-winning Yankees and Dodgers.

In the first round of the playoffs: Red Sox over White Sox; Yankees over Angels; Phillies over Dodgers and Diamondbacks over Cubs in (of course) a three-game sweep. Because what is a Cubs postseason under Lou Piniella without a demoralizing, humiliating broom job at the hands of the NL West champion?

The Red Sox will top the Yankees in the ALCS while the Phillies handle the D-Backs to win another NL pennant. 

And for the third time in six years since becoming un-cursed, Boston wins the World Series.

Now for some individual awards:

AL MVP: Mark Teixeira, Yankees.

NL MVP: Albert Pujols, Cardinals.

AL Cy Young: Roy Halladay, Blue Jays.

NL Cy Young: Derek Lowe, Braves. (I wrote this before he humbled the Phillies on Sunday - honest!)

AL First Manager Fired: Ron Washington, Rangers (but Joe Girardi had better not have another lousy April in the Bronx).

NL First Manager Fired: Cecil Cooper, Astros (but Dusty Baker has to watch his back with Walt Jocketty now running the Reds).

The Balder Truth

After Michigan State impressively thrashed his UConn Huskies, it was interesting to hear Jim Calhoun get all introspective when it comes to his career. He might keep coaching, he might not, he'll let us know later.

Well, if he was going to get all deep and metaphysical, maybe he should think about his team not taking part in the time-honored tradition of cutting down the nets after it advanced to the Final Four by winning the West Regional. He said he and his lads simply wanted to wait until they got to cut down the nets after the national championship game.

That would have been like the Tampa Bay Rays not celebrating following each postseason round last season because they wanted to keep the champagne on ice until after the World Series.

One of baseball's fun traditions is the celebration after the clinching of a playoff berth and then again after each round. The champion gets to celebrate four times in a month. How cool! Cutting down the nets - after winning a conference title, a regional title and/or a national title - is every bit as cool.

The UConn players might never get another chance. And the way Calhoun was talking, he might have cut down his last net five years ago when he could have experienced the thrill again just last week. What a shame.

THE BALDEST TRUTH

What was that I said a few days ago? UConn vs. Villanova for the NCAA title? Ugh. Don't remind me.

Time for yet another mulligan!

First, I have to ask myself a question: How could I have picked anybody to beat North Carolina, clearly the best team in college basketball?

Sorry Tar Heels ... it's kiss-of-death time:

North Carolina 83, Michigan State 74.

Kentucky has tradition - but not the best job

^

Sunday's final four:

1. Why, why, why on earth would Tom Izzo, John Calipari, Billy Donovan or any other coach who already has built a top-tier program be even the least bit interested in going to Kentucky now that another good coach has been driven away from Bluegrass country?

Izzo is back in the Final Four with Michigan State, which for the last decade has established itself as the premier program in the Big Ten and one of the very best in the country - far better than Kentucky, in fact.

Calipari is worshipped in Memphis, where he is king of Conference USA and where he successfully recruits some of the very best players in the land.  According to several ratings services, he is bringing the No. 1 class of 2009 to Memphis. At Kentucky, the alums and other hard-core fans probably would expect him to do better than No. 1. Who needs it?

Donovan has won two national titles at Florida and continues to bring top talent to Gainesville, where he is revered for having already given the thumbs down to Kentucky once.

As a bonus - a huge, enormous, gigandulous bonus - none of these guys faces the kind of scrutiny and pressure in his current job as he would at Kentucky. As an extra bonus, all are paid the same kind of outrageous salaries they'd get from the Bluegrass boyz.

There are a handful of traditional powerhouse programs and Kentucky is one of them. (Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, Indiana and UCLA also leap to mind.) But I'd say that many others, including Michigan State, Memphis and UConn, have pulled alongside - and, in many cases, surpassed - those traditional powers. 

Funny thing about tradition in sports: It guarantees nothing. Just ask the Cowboys how much tradition has been worth on the playing field the last few years. New traditions get established all the time in sports; witness the Red Sox now being clutch winners while the Yankees have become chokers.

Tom Crean left Marquette for Indiana, saying it was a slam-dunk decision because "Indiana is Indiana." Well, Indiana hasn't been Indiana for awhile now, including Bobby Knight's last half-dozen years there, and Marquette - thanks in great part to Crean - has surpassed Indiana by miles. Crean is counting on tradition helping him recruit better players to Indiana than he did to Marquette, but most ratings services say his Marquette replacement, Buzz Williams, will be bringing in a group as good as or better than Crean will to Hoosierland.

Of course, once upon an Al McGuire time, Marquette was one of those traditional powerhouses. 

Yes, Kentucky has tradition out the ying-yang. But so do many other places where the pressure isn't so great a coach feels like killing himself 50 times a year. There are too many other fantastic schools at which a coach can win big without putting himself through the torture.

2. Saturday's Villanova-Pitt game was so good, I found myself actually cheering several plays - something I very rarely do because I'm more of a detached appreciator of excellence than I am of a fan. I must admit: It was pretty darn fun.

3. As usual, the "experts" couldn't stop talking about the distractions facing UConn after word of possible NCAA recruiting violations surfaced before the weekend. Ridiculous. Why would UConn players be even the slightest bit distracted by this? Turns out, they weren't, as the Huskies took down Purdue and Missouri to get to the Final Four.

4. In honor of  Tiger Woods officially being back, it's time to take a mulligan on my Final Four picks. What other choice do I have, since I managed to go a sterling 0-for-4?

As much as I appreciate Izzo's Spartans, UConn can play whatever game Michigan State wants to play - and play it just a tad better. On the other side of the bracket, I'm going with the upset: Villanova's tough, talented perimeter players, augmented by vastly underrated Dante Cunningham, making Carolina blue.

And in the all-Big East title game ... UConn 80, 'Nova 74.

Call your bookies and pull out those wallets, folks. I mean, I haven't steered you wrong yet!

A League of Its Own

^

Thursday's final four:

1. Two words, my friends: Big East. Instead of wondering if there will be four No. 1 seeds in the Final Four for the second straight year, we probably should wonder if one conference will capture all four spots for the first time ever.

2. How 'bout Mizzou? Or maybe a better question is this: How the hell did the Tigers get trounced by Illinois back in December? DeMarre Carroll just might be the best player most of America doesn't know. As usual, the kid was everywhere for Missouri in its impressive win over Memphis to reach the Elite Eight. It's hard to imagine the Tigers taking out UConn in the West final, but they've done a pretty good job smacking around doubters - and opponents - so far.

3. In Villanova, Duke ran into a faster, stronger, defensively superior version of itself. The result was so predictable ... I'm mad as hell I didn't predict it.

4. Hey, look at those oft-maligned (quite oft by me) Chicago Bulls! They're playing so well lately, they probably could win a couple of NCAA tourney games.

No disrespect, but Illini simply not good enough

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Thursday's final four:

1. Illinois wasn't a fashionable pick as an upset victim only because it was being "disrespected" (as the Illini and their supporters loved to claim). Nor was it simply that Illinois was the No. 5 seed in the dreaded 5/12 matchup. No, those of us who have seen the Fighting Illini a lot this season knew how flawed they were - and that was with leader Chester Frazier, who was injured and unavailable for the NCAAs. 

Sure enough, as predicted, the Illini were beaten Thursday night by Western Kentucky. It wasn't an out-of-left-field pick. The Hilltoppers probably were too good to be seeded 12th, and Illinois had no business being a No. 5.

The Illini played hard at the end to make it close, but all too often, they were feeling sorry for themselves, getting beaten to the ball and playing foolishly. 

Why didn't Mike Davis - the best matchup advantage they had - have more touches down low? Why was Demetri McCamey seemingly going through the motions? Where was Mike Tisdale? Why did Frazier spend most of the night pouting, looking frustrated and burying his head in his hands when his teammates needed him to lift their spirits? 

In many ways, Bruce Weber did his best coaching job this season. In the end, however, several years of less-than-stellar recruiting caught up with Weber and his lads. For example, with Frazier out, Weber had to give former walk-on Jeff Jordan major minutes. 

Help is on the way, as Weber has landed several big-time recruits. The Illini exceeded expectations all season. That won't be easy to do next year, when expectations will be significantly higher.

2. It's patently unfair that the selection committee let Villanova play its first two games in its home town of Philadelphia. This wasn't the same as letting Illinois play in Chicago back in 2005; it was more like letting Illinois play NCAA tourney games in Urbana. Even though I picked 'Nova to advance, I found myself rooting for its plucky opponent, American. The Eagles controlled most of the game before wilting at the end. Too bad.

3. Note to media mopes covering the tournament: Stop taking the microphone at press conferences and addressing a coach or an athlete by saying: "Talk about ... " Don't be lazy, for cripe's sake. Think of an intelligent question and ask it.

4. Both the Big Ten and the NCAA tournament are better when Michigan is good. It's almost impossible to believe it had been more than a decade since the Wolverines last qualified for the tourney. They aren't quite experienced enough to make serious noise this time around, but John Beilein is an excellent coach and Thursday's opening victory over Clemson shows that the program is on the way back. Michigan might make it all the way back next season if Manny Harris, truly an NBA talent, means it when he says he'll return.

(I went 15-1 as a prognosticator on Day 1, missing only on my Mississippi State over Washington upset shot. I'd happily take 1-15 on Day 2 - as long as the 1 is my Marquette Golden Warrior Eagles! Back at you Friday.)

Missing Tiger, whiffing Cubbie

^

The Bald Truth

First, he lost in match play to some dude who had to use a long putter, and now he's tied for 40th place at Doral?

Hey, I thought this Eldrick Woods guy was supposed to be good.

The Quote

"If I used a DH today, I would have a big headache, so we'll let Carlos get his at-bats." - Lou Piniella

Oh, Carlos Zambrano got his at-bats in Thursday's exhibition game against the Japan WBC team. Two of them. Result: 2 Ks, 4 LOBs.

Who does Cra-Z think he is? Kosuke Fukudome?

At least Zambrano fessed up to caring deeply about being named the opening day starter for the fifth straight season. He had been saying it didn't matter.

It matters to Carlos. And to anybody who wants to see the Cubs win the opener. In four career first-day starts, Cra-Z is winless and has a 5.59 ERA. 

He has admitted that he puts too much pressure on himself, which kind of makes you wonder why not just let Ryan Dempster take the start this year at Houston.

Maybe Lou just wants Zambrano's bat in the lineup against Roy Oswalt.

THE BALDEST TRUTH

I felt kind of bad after watching my Marquette Golden Warrior Eagles battle back from a 17-point deficit only to lose at the buzzer to Villanova. Then I saw some of Thursday's other scores.

Pitt, the team I declared the nation's best just a few days ago, was smacked around pretty good by West Virginia. Oklahoma and UConn, two other possible NCAA tourney No. 1 seeds, were upset by Oklahoma State and Syracuse, respectively. Kansas lost to Baylor and Clemson fell to the ACC's last-place team, Georgia Tech.

Hey, at least Villanova is one of the best dozen teams in the country.

Yeah, I know: Moral victories are for wimps.

Guilty as charged.