The Day That March Went Mad

We all have a compulsion for underdog stories and great theater, which is why the NCAA Tournament, commonly known as March Madness, is very popular. However, this year's edition did not really feature much madness, even though Duke was trying like hell to provide it. (Why didnt Johnny Dawkins have UCF foul up 3?). So I have decided to tell a tale from yesteryear in order to fill that sense of chaos. A story of March 14, 1981: The Day That March Went Mad.

At that time, the tournament was at NBC, and they were covering games in the original regional style that CBS was doing up until their partnership with Turner Sports. These games were also not staggered so that they ended up ending at the same time. The first salvo of this insanity took place in Dayton when #1 seed DePaul (No, this is not a typo) was facing #9 seed Saint Joseph's. The game was close all day and with 12 seconds left, DePaul had a one point lead and the ball. St. Joe's had no choice but to foul Skip Dillard, an 85 % FT shooter, and send him to the line for a one and one. Remember this is before the advent of the 3 pointer, so if Dillard hit both, the game would have been iced. Bryant Gumbel with the highlights to start and Don Criqui has the call:

Ray Meyer came close a few times but never won a title with DePaul and after his retirement, his program slowly sunk into the nothingness that DePaul currently is. 

And this was just the beginning.

The second and third acts of this "madness" took place almost simultaneously, which would force NBC to use its technological prowess. The two games were #5 seed Arkansas vs #4 seed Louisville (the defending champs) and #8 seed Kansas State vs. #1 seed Oregon State (again not a typo). Both of these games were close. Louisville had just taken the lead with 6 seconds to go, while KSU and OSU were tied with 90 seconds to go (Also remember, the NCAA would not introduce the shot clock for another 5 years so teams could just dribble and shoot with no urgency).

So NBC did something very bold. They switched away from the L'ville game to the K-State game for a few seconds as Arkansas was in a time out. They stayed there for 30 seconds as K-State had the ball and was dribbling, then went back to the end of the L'ville game. Marv Albert was on the call and this transpired.

                                 

US Reed would make plenty of due on that one shot. And Arkansas sent the defending champs home to bed. But what about the other game? Well, NBC switched back to that game. Jay Randolph is on the call, and THIS transpired.

                                      

Within a minute of each other, NBC had captured two of the greatest buzzer beaters in the history of college basketball and did it deftly. Oregon State, under Ralph Miller, would also get close and fail to reach the top. Incidentally,  if you listened to Jay Randolph closely, he also mentioned that #3 seeded UCLA under Larry Brown also lost that day to #6 seed BYU.

While most people credit the 1979 NCAA final between Larry Bird's Indiana State Sycamores and Magic Johnson's Michigan State Spartans as the crux of college basketball's popularity in modern culture, I think this day does more because it provided the fever pitch that we are used to in the NCAA tournament. It's a place where any team on any day can lose and that is what makes it truly mad. It was not seen this past weekend. but hopefully we can see some good college basketball in the next round of games beginning on Thursday.

For more information on this particular day, read Tim Layden's SI article about the day and the broadcasting around it

https://www.si.com/more-sports/2012/03/14/1981-madness

Talk to you soon.

The Venerable Venable

In this new year, I have discovered that I have a new "obsession", which is probably a wrong word for it but it will have to do for now. I have found myself watching QVC and more specifically, the shows hosted by this man:

His name is David Venable and he is QVC's resident food expert. When I was younger, and my sister can attest to this, I went through a Food Network phase, before they became all competition shows. and I suppose I am going through the same kind of thing here. I never thought that shopping television would be entertaining but this man makes it so. First off, he looks like a frickin' Muppet in human form. The second thing is that he seems to enjoy what he is doing. I mean, it probably must be draining to be selling stuff all the time; I have experience in this department.

But David seems to have fun exploring the different products, no matter how boring they are, and making them seem important, no matter how specialistic they seem to be. And especially when he tries different types of food. This is where he seems to shine:

           
                                         

As with a lot of my trends, I discovered this guy by accident. I was studying infomercials and I was looking at Ron Popeil doing a demo on QVC with his turkey fryer. I don't know how I connected to him at first, but now I know why I stay. Each program goes about 2-4 hours and it is just simple television. You just are entertained. And no, I haven't bought anything from his show; but it is entertaining to see him sell to people with excessive incomes who are desperate for food related frivolities. It has become my new pastime.

Tough Goings On

The last month or so, there have been some major things happen in my life for the worse. A couple of them are family related so I don't wish to go into them at this present time. I do want to talk about the third one, because even though it seems out of left field, it isn't. And I will tell you why.

About a half hour ago, Alex Trebek revealed that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He is going to try and fight, but the odds are long.

This news hits me pretty hard, I even teared up a bit. Because this man has been on my TV screen basically my whole life. When I was young, I watched Jeopardy! a lot. In our old playroom/living room we had a couch that was a 2 piece couch and it was shaped like an "L". Whenever J! (for brevity) came on, I would go behind the couch that was not back against the wall and basically choose the contestant that I would want to win. And I would stand there and press down on the top of the couch like a buzzer. And hopefully the contestant whose place I was standing in, won.

I've gone off and on when it comes to watching J! but all I know is that it has always been there. And along with that, he has always been there. The brainy quizmaster who plays it straight yet has a very wry sense of humor. I may go into more detail about him, if (hopefully) and/or when the time comes. But it's just sad that rocks of your existence begin to crumble. Eventually it would happen anyway, but out of the blue like some of these things can be a bit much. And I know it's kind of stupid to call a game show host a rock, but he has always been there. And it just seems to add a bit to the entropy that has gone on in my life,

Of course, prayers to him and his family. I hope he wins.

Thank you.