Sat, May 17, 2008

Mens Basketball

A to Z …

Our analyst dots the I's, crosses the T's in preparing to follow March Madness '08
By Patrick Finley
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.19.2008
A Act. One of the best acts by Michigan State guard Drew Neitzel's father was to force his son to brush his teeth left-handed, encouraging ambidexterity. He is a natural righty who now shoots left-handed. Act is also a fluoride rinse — see, we're clever.
B Baylor, the best story in the tournament. Five years ago, a Baylor player was murdered; a teammate pleaded guilty, and coach Dave Bliss resigned after trying to portray the victim as a drug dealer. Two years ago, the Bears played only a half-season when the NCAA took away their nonconference schedule.
C Coppin State coach Fang Mitchell. He earned the name when his raspy voice reminded friends of an old Soupy Sales character named White Fang. The "White" was dropped "for obvious reasons." He is black and the coach of a historically black college.
DDelta Devils. Mississippi Valley State's first athletic director picked the nickname in 1950; the school is on the Mississippi delta, which, according to legend, people said was "hot as a devil."
E Examine our All-Name Team — Mississippi Valley State's Stanford Speech, Texas-Arlington's Rog'er Guignard, Oklahoma's Longar Longar, Georgia's Sundiata Gaines and San Diego's Gyno Pomare.
F Facebook. CBSSports.com has established an application to be used on Facebook, which would allow users to make bracket picks through the networking system.
GGaels. St. Mary's College calls itself the Gaels. It's not a wind reference — that's g-a-l-e — but a reference to Gaelic people. In 1926, San Francisco Call sportswriter Pat Frayne dubbed the SMC football team the "Galloping Gaels," in part after Irish coach Edward Patrick "Slip" Madigan.
H Hansbrough. North Carolina's Tyler might be the best player in the country; brother Ben plays at Mississippi State. Other brothers in the tournament — Mount St. Mary's siblings Sam and Shawn Atupem; Kentucky's Joe Crawford and Indiana's Jordan Crawford; Oklahoma's Blake and Taylor Griffin; and Stanford's Brook and Robin Lopez.
IInternet. In maybe the best use of the Web ever, fans can now watch all 63 NCAA tournament games live and for free on cbssports.com. We won't tell the boss if you won't.
J Jones, Rob. The freshman forward at the University of San Diego is the grandson of Jim Jones, the founder of the People's Temple and the leader behind the Jonestown Massacre.
K Kids. Sons of famous coaches, now coaches themselves, have led their teams into the tournament: Drake's Keno Davis (dad Tom), Washington State's Tony Bennett (dad Tony), Baylor's Scott Drew (dad Homer) and Oral Roberts' Scott Sutton (dad Eddie).
L Local dude. Mark Sanchez, who attended Desert View High School and Pima College, averages 9.6 minutes per game for Boise State.
M Mount St. Mary's, not to be confused with St. Mary's. The Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers hail from Emmitsburg, Md., and play in the Northeast Conference. The country's oldest independent Catholic college beat Coppin State on Tuesday night in the play-in game. St. Mary's College is located in Moraga, Calif., and is a member of the West Coast Conference. This St. Mary's plays Miami on Friday.
N Nixon. Richard Nixon was president the last time Drake made the dance — 1971.
O Omissions from our all-name team — Baylor's Tweety Carter, Kansas' Brady Morningstar, Wisconsin's Wquinton Smith, Connecticut's Hasheem Thabeet, Tennessee's Tanner Wild, UNLV's Wink Adams and Davidson's Can Civi.
P Prince. Remember J.P. Prince? The ex-UA guard now averages about 18 minutes and 8.3 points per game for No. 2 seed Tennessee.
Q Question — who's calling Thursday's game? Glad you asked. Craig Bolerjack and Bob Wenzel will broadcast the Arizona-West Virginia game for CBS. Bolerjack is a former Kansas State football player who calls play-by-play for the Utah Jazz. Wenzel coached Rutgers from 1989 to '97, leading the Scarlet Knights to two Big Dance bids.
R Rojo. The Stanford Cardinal plays the Cornell Big Red in a battle of hues.
S Strength of schedule. The Arizona Wildcats played 10 teams during the season that made the tournament — Washington State, Kansas, UNLV, USC, Cal State-Fullerton, Memphis, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA and Texas A&M. The last three teams Arizona has played in the Big Dance made it again this year — Purdue, Villanova and Wisconsin.
T Typo! When West Virginia won the NIT last season, the championship T-shirts omitted the third I in the school's name. (Pronounce it out loud, then giggle away). The moral — if you go to the Verizon Center, bring a proofreader to the gift shop with you.
U USA! The tournament features Governors (Austin Peay), Patriots (George Mason), American University and the University of South Alabama — or USA for short.
V Volunteer State. Five teams from Tennessee made the tourney — Memphis, Vanderbilt, Austin Peay, Belmont and Tennessee.
W Welcome, to first-time participants. Portland State, Maryland-Baltimore County, Texas-Arlington and American University.
X Xavier will graduate three seniors after the season, bringing the total to 73 straight.
Y Young, Brigham. The school that bears his name will play Thursday, giving it a potential Saturday second-round game. In 2003, UA athletic director and BYU grad Jim Livengood was on the panel that slotted the Cougars to play Sunday — something they don't do for religious reasons.
Z Zero. Tourney teams from Illinois.