Armadillo: Thursday's six-pack
Favorites to win the college basketball national title next April:
-- Duke 7-2-- Blue Devils were only 11-7 in ACC last year.
-- Kentucky 7-1-- Wildcats are 71-17 in SEC games last five years.
-- Villanova, Kansas 8-1-- Defending champs still highly regarded.
-- Michigan State, North Carolina, Oregon-- 15-1
-- Louisville, Virginia, Arizona-- 20-1
-- Indiana, Xavier 25-1-- Musketeers starting to gain national recognition.
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Armadillo: Thursday's List of 13: Doing some thinking out loud.......
13) Mariners 6, White Sox 5 (11)-- Can't remember ever seeing a pitcher, umpire go at it over balls/strikes in first inning of a game. Plate ump Andy Fletcher blatantly missed a 3-2 pitch to Justin Morneau that put two on with two out in the first inning, and Hernandez let him have it, with Fletcher taking off his mask and yelling back.
When Todd Frazier hit the next pitch for a 3-run homer, Felix' return from the DL was off to a very bad start.
12) RIP Garry Marshall-- A TV genius in the 70s and also a movie maker, he passed away this week at age 81. Odd Couple, Happy Days, Laverne/Shirley, Runaway Bride, just some of Marshall's handiwork. RIP, sir.
11) New Orleans Saints rookies are already in training camp at Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia- their first regular season game isn't until September 11th.
10) James Loney got thrown out at the plate in top of 4th inning with Mets down 3-0 Wednesday, but replays showed he was safe, but the Mets never challenged the call. No bueno. Some teams have much better replay coaches than others.
9) So I spent much of Wednesday and will spend all day today at the adidas Uprising basketball tournament in downtown Las Vegas; saw lot of good games last night, lot of good players. Seven games going on at once under one roof in the Cashman Center, a convention center next to the ballpark where the Mets' AAA team plays.
8) Very well-run event; good officials, a main court where the game is shown on a big screen on the wall, comfortable place to watch kids play ball. Lot of the coaches you see on TV all winter were there to recruit- this is the last part of this recruiting season.
Player of the Game is brought to a platform where he is interviewed on camera, which is a good prep for when he goes to college and meets the press.
7) With seven games going on at once, how do you choose which game to watch? If you want to see elite players, you look at which big-name coaches are watching each game. If Tom Izzo and Lon Kruger are at one court, thats a good place to be.
If you just want to be comfortable, then pick one spot, stay there and hope the games on that court turn out to be good ones. There are so many good players, the games I saw were mostly all hard-fought, competitive games.
6) For kids playing this week, their goal is to get a college scholarship, or land one at as good a basketball program as possible.
One way not to get a scholarship is this: Your team is up 3 with 0:57 left, shot clock is at 0:19-- ball is reversed to you and you quickly jack up a 3-pointer, when the play is to hold the ball, milk the clock-- you can get a 3-pointer anytime.
Basketball IQ is a valuable asset to impress coaches with.
5) Surprisingly, the 30-second shot clock came into play a few times; you'd think in AAU games, it would be very fast-paced, but couple teams put on 1-2-2 presses and that slowed their opponents down, so the shot clock did matter.
I was talking to a high school coach from Georgia; his son had never played with a shot clock during his high school career, so this was all new to him.
4) A team from Virginia subbed five guys at a time, which makes it tough when a close game comes down to the wire, because which five do you play, or do you mix/match and have kids play together who haven't played together the whole game? This team got beat at the end by a Minnesota team that probably wasn't the better team.
3) One of my cab drivers is from Iraq; his English wasn't good, but I asked him what he thought about Donald Trump when he drove past the Trump Hotel, which is just off the Las Vegas Strip. He didn't want to answer, saying "my English isn't too good". He has only been in America three years-- he was a pleasant guy.
2) Had chance to talk with North Carolina assistant coach Hubert Davis for a few minutes-- terrific guy. He enjoys coaching more than he did working on ESPN-- he did not like the travel too much that came with working on television.
1) I'll have a lot more on this tomorrow, but championship game of this event will be Sunday at 6:00 ET on ESPNU.
