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Thursday, February 15, 2007
Mark Bradley’s Friday Fallout
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Every Friday until the end of the regular season, we’ll look at who’s up, who’s down and what you should be watching as the countdown continues to the Final Four in Atlanta.
RISING
Georgetown has won eight in a row to draw within a half-game of Pittsburgh for the Big East lead. The Hoyas followed an 18-point thrashing of Marquette with an 18-point dismissal of West Virginia. Center Roy Hibbert (below) and forward Jeff Green are the Big East’s best tandem. Patrick Ewing Jr., who played at Marietta High, averages 3.4 points and wears his famous dad’s old number — 33.
FALLING
Ranked No. 9 in the land five weeks ago, Oklahoma State has lost five of nine. Two of the victories came in multiple overtimes, and only one of the losses has been closer than 10 points. Included in the slide: A 30-point wipeout at Kansas and a 29-point embarrassment at Texas on Monday. Sean Sutton’s team stands sixth in the Big 12 and is fast playing its way down the NCAA seeding grid.
THE TOP SEEDS
If the season ended today, here’s what the top four seeds in each region should look like:
SAN ANTONIO
1: Florida
2: Kansas
3: Memphis
4: Southern Illinois
SAN JOSE
1: UCLA
2: Ohio State
3: Marquette
4: Nevada
EAST RUTHERFORD
1: North Carolina
2: Pittsburgh
3: Washington St.
4: Butler
ST. LOUIS
1: Wisconsin
2: Texas A&M
3: Georgetown
4: Virginia Tech
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS AT BUTLER, 4 p.m. Saturday, ESPN2
It’s the marquee game of the made-for-TV Bracket Buster weekend: Southern Illinois is No. 16 in the Associated Press poll but No. 1 in CollegeInsider.com’s mid-major rankings; Butler is No. 13 according to AP but No. 2 according to the mid-major survey. The Salukis seem the hotter team, having won Tuesday at Missouri State. The Bulldogs lost by 12 to Wright State on Saturday.
MID-MAJOR OF THE WEEK
Akron is 19-5, its losses coming by an aggregate 18 points.
The Zips lead the Mid-American Conference’s East Division and rank among the nation’s top 10 in scoring margin. Akron is coached by Keith Dambrot, who tutored the young LeBron James at Akron’s St. Vincent-St. Mary High. Note to prospective suitors: Dambrot is an Akron grad whose mom taught in the psychology department.
NAME TO KNOW
Andy Kennedy, Ole Miss — Thrust into the Cincinnati job when Bob Huggins was fired in August 2005, Andy Kennedy came within a Gerry McNamara miracle of taking the Bearcats to the 2006 NCAA tournament. When Cincy wouldn’t commit to keeping the interim man, Kennedy left for Ole Miss and has lifted the Rebels into first place in the SEC West. Cincinnati is 1-10 in the Big East under new coach Mick Cronin.
FUN WITH NUMBERS
3 — Games that Huntington (W. Va.) High guard O.J. Mayo will miss during his suspension for bumping a referee in January. Three is also the number of schools — in three different states — Mayo has attended over the past five years. Ranked by some as the nation’s No. 1 recruit, Mayo has signed with Southern Cal.
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NASCAR fails to hand out real penalties
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Daytona Beach, Fla. — Michael Waltrip almost didn’t drive in Thursday’s Gatorade Duel. He didn’t, he said, “want to damage the integrity of the sport any further by going out and having people say, ‘What’s he doing out there?’?”
Since he mentioned it … what was he doing out there?
Waltrip’s crew chief and the vice president of Michael Waltrip Racing were suspended after NASCAR inspectors found a fuel additive in Waltrip’s car. Yet there Waltrip was, driving a backup Camry and still managing to qualify for Sunday’s Daytona 500. This is the rough equivalent of penalizing a baseball team’s manager and GM after the team’s slugger tests positive for steroids — but letting the slugger take his hacks in the World Series.
A year ago, Jimmie Johnson won the Daytona 500 without crew chief Chad Knaus, who’d been suspended. This week, NASCAR disciplined chiefs of four cars, three owned by Ray Evernham. And now, worst of all, comes Waltrip. Penalties are levied, but drivers roll merrily along.
NASCAR acts as if it’s trying to get tough with cheaters. It should try harder. It should hold the driver at fault, no matter what. If any member of his team does anything funny, the driver sits on Sunday — no Nextel Cup points, no purse money, nothing. That’d clean things up overnight.
The drivers, though, seem immune to real punishment. (Waltrip was docked 100 points, but even he admitted, “I can get those points back.”) After what happened with Johnson last year and the rampant misdoings of this week, NASCAR has itself a big fat image problem. Waltrip again: “This is the Daytona 500, and we’re not supposed to be talking about some fuel thing we put into the car. We’re supposed to be talking about the glory and pageantry that comes from trying to win this race.”
Instead Thursday morning was given to Waltrip’s remorseful appearance in the infield media center, and the afternoon was spent watching his effort to partake yet again in the race he won in 2001 and 2003. He spoke of his sorrow for Toyota, which is making its NASCAR debut in something less than the grand fashion it envisioned: “We disappointed them. This is supposed to be a time to celebrate. … You can’t be skeptical of Toyota; you have to look straight at me. … I hope we can separate Michael Waltrip Racing from Toyota.”
Can we ever separate Michael Waltrip’s car from the man himself? Richard McGinn, a fan from Kent Island, Md., stood outside the glass-windowed Nextel Inspection Station in the infield Thursday and watched assessors do their pre-race work. “It’s bad for Toyota,” he said, speaking of the Waltrip tangle. “It’s a black eye.”
And what of Waltrip? Said McGinn: “I don’t think they should let him in this race [today]. He’s the team owner. He had to know something was going on.”
Therein hangs NASCAR’s dilemma. It’s trying to rid itself of the old anything-goes image — ? “Rubbin’s racin’,” et cetera — but it’s so beholden to the golden boys that it dares not strike them too heavily. They’re the ones who move the merchandise, who pull the sponsorship millions, who drive, so to speak, the bus. They’re the ones the hundreds of thousands of fans pay to see.
Come Sunday, everyone will get to see the owner/driver of a car found to be illegal competing in the Great American Race. Asked about Waltrip, former teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. said: “From what I read, they found something in his fuel. That’s a pretty serious offense. … When a driver is the owner, he should have quite a bit of knowledge as to what’s going on, wouldn’t you think?”
You would. But as dusk fell over the massive track, even Waltrip wasn’t sure what to think. “I’m probably the most depressed guy you’ve ever seen make the Daytona 500,” he said. And then: “There aren’t that many Michael Waltrip fans, but I feel sorry for them.”
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Braves need a real savior
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
It’s not the Braves’ new owner I’m wondering about. It’s the Braves’ next owner after Liberty Media. I figure this conglomerate holds the team a year or two tops and then sells it again. And then what?
Does Arthur Blank, rebuffed in his first attempt to break into baseball, try again? Does David McDavid buy the club from Liberty Media just to spite his nemesis Time Warner? Does Ted Turner ride to the rescue on a raging buffalo?
I figure the Braves are no worse, and also no better, today than they were the last few seasons. Time Warner didn’t concern itself about baseball, and Liberty Media won’t, either. Liberty Media cares about its tax break. Liberty Media is a caretaker that won’t care much one way or another what happens at Turner Field.
Bottom line: After waiting forever to see this sale consummated, we’ll all get to twiddle our thumbs while another transaction is brokered a year or two from now. And yes, you’re absolutely right: It gets harder and harder to care about professional sports with every passing day.
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