Albert's other 3 games. Also: ESPN announcing follies

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The Bald Truth

Albert Pujols is one of the best hitters of any era. Any team would love to have him.

That being said, his World Series has consisted of one monster game ... and three others in which he went a combined 0-for-10. His Cardinals lost two of those three while scoring four total runs.

So let's be content with calling Albert merely great, and let's hold off on the comparisons to Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and Joe Montana, OK?

The Balder Truth

The Fraudulent Illini started the season 6-0 ... and very well could finish 6-6. But hey, at least they're bowl eligible! Time to extend Ron Zook's contract another five years.

THE BALDEST TRUTH

It would be hard to find a more entertaining sporting event than Saturday night's Michigan State-Wisconsin game, which featured numerous amazing plays and ended with a desperation TD heave that required several minutes of replay reviews before the Spartans were declared victorious.

The game -- especially the finish -- was so fantastic that it's a shame normally outstanding announcers Brent Musburger and Kirk Hirbstreit fell flat at the end.

Musburger kept calling the winning play a "miracle," as if he knew firsthand that God was getting Sparty and the points over Bucky Badger.

And Herbstreit offered this meaningless drivel disguised as analysis: "It comes down to a battle ... to see who wanted to win the game more."

Does Herbstreit really think Michigan State wanted the game more? Do people really think the Rams wanted to win the 2000 Super Bowl more than the Titans but didn't particularly want it two years later when they lost to the Patriots?

Such a declaration supposes something nobody possibly could know. While meant to praise the winner, it's a ringing indictment of the loser: If only he (or she or they) had just wanted it more.

It's a cliche, it offers no insight and Herbstreit knows better.

I mean, how many championships did he win as Ohio State QB? What's wrong? Didn't he want it badly enough?

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Marquette over Carolina? A man can dream ... that Duke showed Carolina how to lose

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If you're a Marquette fan like I am -- and really, isn't everybody? -- you have to be at least a little encouraged from the results of Thursday's games:

-- A nice victory by fellow Big East survivor UConn.

-- A superb team effort by the anti-Jimmers of Florida.

-- Butler's cool takedown of Wisconsin (leaving Marquette as the lone Cheeseheads still alive).

-- And especially, Arizona's defeat of defending champion Duke.

Wait? Did I say defeat? Arizona didn't just defeat the Dookies; the Wildcats destroyed them.

And so maybe, just maybe, another underdog can take down another ACC heavyweight.

All I know is that Marquette already is playing with house money. Many critics said The Gold shouldn't even have been invited to the tournament, and now here they are one of the final dozen still standing. So win or lose, it already has been pretty sweet.

My wife and I will be joining some fellow Charlotte-area Marquette alums area to cheer on our beloved Golden Warrior Eagles. We'll probably be outnumbered 50-to-1 at the sports bar, meaning there is potential for great public embarrassment if the Tar Heels thrash our lads from Milwaukee.

Nevertheless, this is sports. And in sports, you really do never know ... which is why it's the only reality TV worth watching.

The Dookies went down hard. Maybe next it will be Carolina's turn to fall.

I've got to admit I'd be a little more confident if Arizona would let us borrow Derrick Williams for a couple of hours.
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LeBron's tears, Bo's jeers and a Tea-Bagger's Marquette "career"

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Several Heat players were crying in the locker room after Sunday's home loss to the Bulls.

Sources say LeBron and Dwyane handed each of the weepers a hundy to dry their eyes.

In other basketball news, kudos to the marketing folks at The Ohio State University for their brutally brilliant response to Bo Ryan's unapologetic suggestion that Buckeyes star Jared Sullinger just "deal with it" after Wisconsin fans supposedly spat on him last month.

Before Sunday's rematch in Columbus, some 1,400 students were given red towels emblazoned with the phrase DEAL WITH IT. Sullinger and the Buckeyes then dealt with the Badgers, rolling to a lopsided win to wrap up a 29-2 regular season and Big Ten title.

Word is, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was so impressed that he ordered 50,000 of the towels to give to teachers in his state.

A day earlier -- the same day that my beloved Golden Warrior Eagles fell apart in a must-win game at Seton Hall -- I learned that Walker was a fellow Marquette alumnus. I was pretty depressed until just a little research revealed that the Tea Party darling isn't really a fellow MU alum at all. See, to be an alum, one must have graduated.

When Walker dropped out after three-plus years, he was nowhere near getting his degree. Seems he had flunked and/or dropped too many classes. He simply couldn't hack it.

Amazing. I pretty much drank non-stop for four years and still got a Marquette degree -- and then landed employment in my chosen profession despite a job market statistically worse than the current mess Walker has helped foster.

Hell, even Chris Farley managed to get a degree at Marquette, and he was stoned approximately 23 hours a day.

Yep, leave it to a college dropout to try to torpedo teachers. The world's a crazy place, no?
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Reporting to duty for Year 28

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Indulge me and my memories, folks. It was the week of July 4, 1982, that I began my journalism career.

During my rookie year in the business (with AP in Milwaukee), I was lucky enough to help cover the Brewers' only run to the World Series. I didn't have a laptop computer to use - hardly anyone did back then - so I had to dictate my stories via telephone to an editor.

Given what we know has happened technologically, it's hard to believe that things were so primitive barely more than a quarter-century ago. I mean, we might as well have been using chisels and stone tablets, right?

But you know what? No matter what method I had to use to submit my stories, it was absolutely thrilling to be a just-turned-22-year-old kid who was part of such a big event. My heart still races whenever I recall that feeling of urgency I experienced in October '82.

Later that year, I covered a Marquette Warriors game in which coach Hank Raymonds and point guard Glenn Rivers (you know him as Celtics coach Doc now) got into a shouting match. Actually, it was a one-sided argument, with Rivers basically telling Raymonds to sit down, shut up and leave the players alone.

Sure, Hank was semi-deaf and might not have heard what Glenn was saying. But can you imagine one of the Celtics saying such a thing to Rivers now and getting away with it? (That was one of the few times during these last 27 years that I covered anything involving my alma mater. I've become far too big a fan to attempt it again.)

After Milwaukee, my career took me to AP stops Madison, Minneapolis and Chicago and then to my dream job as columnist for the Copley Newspaper chain, which was bought two years ago by GateHouse, which decided in January that the only way it could survive the recession was to eliminate the Chicago sports columnist's $88 million salary.

Even though I'm now unempl ... um, between jobs ... I wouldn't have changed a thing. It's been a fun, fulfilling 27 years, with incredible assignments, travels to faraway lands and vivid memories.

Back in 1982, I was at the dawn of my career and didn't mind that I lacked a computer to use. Now, I have all the techno toys at my disposal but not so much of a career. I'm not sure if that's irony or just a kick in the crotch.

Still, as hard as the business seems to be trying to eliminate its workforce, it can't get rid of this stubborn clown so easily.

I thank AP for taking me back (as a freelancer this time) and my readers for keeping The Baldest Truth relevant.

I probably don't have another 27 years in me, but I'm not done yet.

Hats off to victors (Mizzou) - and even to victims (Marquette)

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Sunday's final four:

1. Because Michigan State somehow was chosen as Chicago's "home" team - even though Marquette has a massive alumni base here and is only an hour and a half away - I had to watch most of the Marquette-Missouri game on a laptop computer while Michigan State-USC droned on in the background on my beautiful HDTV. CBS's feed repeatedly froze and the network experienced a couple of long stretches of outages due to its own technical difficulties. It was like the Dark Ages, man, so ... so ... so ... 2006!

2. My lads fought valiantly but couldn't quite pull off the upset. I'd love to blame the refs or injuries or sunspots for the 83-79 loss, but Missouri earned the victory by playing extraordinarily well in the first half and then coming through in the clutch. Even though Marquette's season is over, I really enjoyed this edition of the Golden Warrior Eagles. The class of Jerel McNeal, Dominic James and Wes Matthews played hard and well for four years. As a fan, I never felt cheated, and there's not much more we can ask for from our athletes. 

3. Between Wisconsin's hack-first defense, the Badgers' slow-mo offense and the refs calling a foul every time a player on either team breathed on an opponent, the Wisconsin-Xavier game had all the pace and entertainment value of somebody changing a flat tire. I'm still trying to figure out how Wisconsin made the tourney, how the Badgers beat Florida State in the first round and how Xavier merited a No. 4 seed. I'd say that Xavier's stay in the tournament from here on in will be a short one, but its next opponent, Pitt, hasn't exactly been playing like the team so many folks (including this folk) picked to win it all.

4. How's your bracket? I'm not going to set any records, but I'm 37-11 after the first two rounds and still have seven of my final eight alive. (West Virginia? Oy! What was I thinking?) I'm looking forward to next weekend, when the stars really will shine. Who will emerge as the one transcendant star - the guy who, like Stephen Curry in 2008 - everybody will be talking about? Terrence Williams? Blake Griffin? Ty Lawson? Hasheem Thabeet? Gerald Henderson? DeJuan Blair? JaJuan Johnson? Tyreke Evans? Jonny Flynn? I'm thinking Griffin is really going to put on a show in carrying Oklahoma past Lawson, Tyler Hansbrough and the rest of the Tar Heels. Regardless of what happens, it will be fun watching it unfold.

NCAA tourney delivers - as usual

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Friday's final four:

1. If you don't love the NCAA basketball tournament, why even bother loving sports? Those who were a little disappointed that the first-day action didn't produce more thrills needed to wait only a few hours. Friday included victories by the 13th-seeded Cinderfellas of Cleveland State, classic 12/5 upsets pulled off by Wisconsin and Arizona, and a month's worth of late-game heroics. There is nothing - nothing! - better than this. It is the one major sporting event that never fails to live up to the hype.

2. The only thing more stunning than Cleveland State's victory over No. 4 Wake Forest was the ease in which it occurred. The Vikings were in control from the opening tip to the final horn in knocking out a team many thought could sneak into the Final Four. Another popular choice as a possible Final Four crasher, fifth-seeded Florida State, was victimized by Wisconsin. As I watched the game, I was thinking: "Remember when Trevon Hughes was going to be the Badgers' next great player? What ever happened to that?" Well, it was Hughes who came through with the huge, old-fashioned, drive-and-a-foul 3-point play to give Wisconsin an amazing triumph. I still don't think Wisconsin deserved a bid ... but as long as they were invited to the party, they are to be praised for showing up ready to rock and roll.

3. Kudos to CBS for the spectacular way it handled the tense moments in two OT games that were unfolding simultaneously: Wisconsin-Florida State and Siena-Ohio State. The network slickly provided every big play live for its audience, and the announcing teams (Craig Bolerjack/Bob Wenzel for UW-FSU and Verne Lundquist/Bill Raftery for Siena-OSU) were spot-on in capturing the drama. The time I spent watching the endings of both games was about as much fun as a guy can have sitting alone in his recliner.

4. After the first round, my prognostication record stands at 26-6. Not great, for sure, but more than twice as good as Hoopster in Chief Barack Obama. Really, Mr. President? 19-13? Here's hoping you're better at fixing the economy than you are at filling out a bracket.

Bo should know the NIT

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The Bald Truth

If Wisconsin gets invited to the NCAA tournament, it will because of reputation alone.

The Badgers are 19-12 and have one victory all season over a ranked team - at Michigan in their Big Ten opener. That also serves as their most "quality" road victory. 

They even lost at Iowa - and that's not easy.

Though the selection committee might end up ruling differently, logic suggests the Badgers had to beat Ohio State in the conference tourney Friday to sew up an NCAA bid ... and they couldn't do it.

Bo Ryan is a great coach, but this isn't one of his better teams. It certainly isn't a team worthy of playing in the NCAAs. 

The Balder Truth

Syracuse players are many things, including tough, resilient and well-conditioned. Given their ability to follow a six-overtime victory over UConn with a run-of-the-mill single-OT triumph over West Virginia, "impressive" works well, too. 

OK, now can all commentators please stop with all the talk of "courage"?

The Orangemen didn't rush into a burning building to save lives, didn't go off to war, didn't even take a difficult public stand on a controversial issue.

They are basketball players who played lots of basketball.

Yes, they played it very well, but I sure hope that's not how we're defining "courage" these days. 

THE BALDEST TRUTH

Jon Scheyer clanked the front end of a 1-and-1. Boston College then grabbed the rebound and the Eagles, who trailed Duke by one point in the ACC quarterfinals, were steaming up court with a chance to win the game.

That's when coach Al Skinner called a time out.

And he wasn't finished showing how smart he was. Oh no, not even close.

BC got the ball inbounds and advanced it into the frontcourt ... when Skinner called time again. Now there were only 5.5 seconds left.

When play resumed, Duke overplayed Skinner's first option - Tyrese Rice - and BC ended up taking a wild, challenged shot that didn't come close to going in.

Why didn't Skinner simply trust his players, especially Rice, after that missed free throw? Isn't that why the Eagles had spent the last six months practicing, for those exact kind of situations?

With the Dookies scrambling to get back into defensive position, BC had every advantage.

Until Skinner called time. Twice.

Coach S apparently wanted to prove he was smarter than Coach K.

Gee. How did that work out?

Call 'em the DePaul Droopy Demons

One is DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright. The other is cartoon legend Droopy Dog. Won't say which is which, but both have the same number of Big East victories this season.

The Question

Were those really Bo Ryan's usually fundamentally sound Wisconsin Badgers who kept committing shot-clock violations even though they trailed Illinois by double digits with less than 10 minutes to play?

THE BALDEST TRUTH

Always a friend of the referees, Bobby Knight said officials would do a better job if they worked fewer games each week because they'd be less fatigued.

I suppose. And coaches might not be so stressed out if they didn't eat, drink, walk and talk basketball 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. 

If a coach takes more down time, though, he might lose an edge because other coaches wouldn't. Which could cost him his paycheck. And if refs only work three times a week, it would affect their standard of living.

Everybody would like more time to just chill ... but it isn't always practical now, is it?