Tiger Woods (R) and caddie Steve Williams look over a shot on the 7th hole during the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge on March 26, 2011 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)Sam Greenwood/Getty Images
Just like that, March Madness is nearly over. I think we can guarantee that whoever is winning your bracket pool this time around either knows NOTHING about college basketball (i.e. picked VCU for the Final Four because they're an Airies and VCU's nickname is the Rams) or because they're the best of a sorry lot. The question now is, given how the Buffalo Sabres are playing, what is more likely, VCU or Butler winning the NCAA tournament or the Leafs making the playoffs? That would have been an easy bet three weeks ago.
On to the links.
1. Shaka Smart: forger of upsets; bookworm; baby brother
The head coach of VCU, the Cinderella of Cinderella's at March Madness, are coached by 33-year-old Shaka Smart; half-brother of film critic J.M. Tyree, who wrote about the VCU coach's budding fame for Slate.com: After the Purdue game, a Sports Illustrated writer reveled in a courtside hug between my brother and my mom. When I called mom to ask about it, she said she'd just gotten off the phone with the Washington Post. "The reporter was asking about his early character-building experiences," she said.
With different dads, different last names, and different ethnic backgrounds, most people wouldn't assume we're related. Certainly not when it comes to sports. My younger brother had many great sports mentors. I am not one of them. No, I was the kid who got beaned in the back of the head because he was watching the clouds during baseball practice. I bombed out of high-school basketball as a benchwarmer on the freshman "B" team. The last time I played a serious pickup game I broke three bones in my foot. Yet when I visited VCU's basketball arena recently, I couldn't resist shooting around. Shaka, ever the motivator, told me, "You're improving!" Very funny, coach.
The story includes one of the great Tweets in Twitter history; this from the librarian at Kenyon College, where Smart played basketball and studied, apparently: Proud of Shaka Smart, VCU coach. Was outstanding stdnt & freq library user when I was a librarian at Kenyon College. Knew he'd be successful
2. For every Cinderella there's a favourite (Kansas) that gets crushed:
The story of VCU's unlikely run from the First Four to the Final Four is astounding, but there's always a flip side and in this case it's a perennial power (Kansas) that gets tripped up by a carefree opponent (VCU) shooting the lights out (12-of-25 from deep). It's not fun: What VCU did in the first half to the Jayhawks might have been the most astonishing thing I've seen covering college basketball. The huge underdogs punked the unraveling Jayhawks. Woofed in their faces. Embarrassed them.
Even after spotting Kansas the first six points of the game, VCU went on to lead by as many as 18 in the opening half. The Rams made nine 3-pointers in the first half -- three of them by big man Jamie Skeen, who came into the game with four made 3s in the entire tournament. They heated up the Jayhawks with their pressure defense, forcing them into a spree of turnovers (six in the first half alone by Markieff Morris). They played with complete certainty that they belonged on this big stage.
And Kansas played like it has so often in March under Bill Self. The Jayhawks flat gagged in the first 20 minutes.
3 . John Calipari (and Kentucky) ermerge from the New Jersey swamp:
Before Calipari was coaching 'plucky' University of Kentucky to an 'upset' win over North Carolina to make it to the Final Four for the first time since 1998; he was the disgraced coach of the New Jersey Nets. Naturally some reporters -- like the incomparable Dave D'Allesendro of the New Jersey Star-Ledger - remember him when: He's a coach, a recruiter, and spokesman for the There But For the Grace of God Society. But mostly he's a salesman who traffics in optimism, and nobody does it better. Wait, don't say it: He'll never pass the cynic's smell test. You think he is self-involved to the point of psychosis. You say his is a world of street snakes, sneaker reps and extended families that always include a fat guy named Bubba. You say he promotes the one-and-done culture, responsible for making the AAU mentality viral. He's not running a college program, he's running a pre-NBA camp for kids who want to game the system and sleep through spring semester. Just like he was asleep at the switch when the seasons at UMass and Memphis were blown up by Marcus Camby's hookers and Derrick Rose's SATs. If you're looking for an apology for this or anything else, find someone else. But more than ever, it's the life-coach aspect to his job that is most important to him, and judging by last year's draft - when he fast-tracked five kids, including four freshmen, into the NBA job market - this is how he will define success, even if it complicates his own life to no end.
4. Unfortunately for the Leafs; there's been a resurgence in Buffalo:
Perhaps the main reason the Leafs haven't really made up any ground in their efforts to steal the final playoff spot in the East has been the steady play of the Buffalo Sabres, who refuse to step back. This is an interesting story in the Buffalo News regarding the way the Sabres have surged after a weak start, with Lindy Ruff crediting time he spent around Jacques Lemaire at a Team Canada evaluation camp in 2009 for improving him as a coach: Sound defense and good goaltending can take a team a long way, which Lemaire has proven for years. Blame him for the neutral-zone trap if you must, but he didn't invent the boring style so much as master it. The New Jersey Devils won their division last season under him. Ruff reveres few others in hockey the way he does Lemaire.
"I have the utmost respect for the way he coaches his team, the way he treats his players and how hard he works to teach just the little things in the game," Ruff said. "All those little things -- not going into detail -- is what made us a better team."
Often, it's the little things that create the mess, and the little things that clean it up.
The Sabres took another step in their march toward the playoffs with a 2-0 victory over the Devils, and that was no small thing. Buffalo has been one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference since December, and they kept up the good work Saturday against a New Jersey team that finally emptied the tank.
5. Sidney Crosby continues to put on fantastic skating and stick-handling exhibitions:
There is still no word on his return to competition, but Crosby put in 45 minutes of work before the Penguins' 2-1 win over Florida Sunday. It's impossible not to interpret that he'll be playing for real sometime soon. There is justifiable concern that the rust could make him prone to some kind of injury, but as you watch this video from his workout on Friday, he does seem to have some talent to help insulate him. Remarkable.
6. Ricky Romero struggles as Jays opener nears:
I'm a big fan of Ricky Romero. He just seems to have a great demeanour on the mound and in my experience is a level-headed; approachable guy in the clubhouse. But being the No.1 starter on a team with a fanbase dying for some success requires much more than that, and Romero's spring hasn't been Roy Halladay-esque: Toronto's opening-day pitcher, ended his spring the same way he started it, getting knocked around, giving up runs and getting frustrated. On Sunday, Baltimore tagged him for eight hits and five runs in 5 1-3 innings before the Blue Jays rallied to beat the split-squad Orioles 9-5. Toronto's Rajai Davis went 5 for 5 with two doubles and a triple and scored three times."I've said many times I hate giving up runs, especially when (I'm) going good and feeling good. I'm just glad (spring training) is over and we can move on to the season," said Romero, who allowed 17 runs and 24 hits over 19 1-3 innings in five starts."I've done everything I had to do to get my body ready and my confidence is good. I know what I can do when the lights turn on," he said. "I'm ready for Friday. I can't be happier than it's going to be here pretty soon."
7. Tiger struggles at Bay Hill, should do some video work:
In his final competitive round before The Masters Tiger Woods proves his game is still a work-in-progress as he finished bogey-double-bogey and tied for 24th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational Sunday. We're suggesting he watch some of this old tape of him as a child prodigy to see if that can help him get his game on. As an aside; when you watch this video you can see why Woods' nickname at Stanford was Urkel