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TGS SUPER BOWL ISSUE NEXT MONDAY, JAN. 30! NEW TGS WEEKEND HOOPS ISSUE AVAILABLE NOW!
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NEW TGS HOOPS...PART II: SHAKE DOWN THE THUNDER AT NOTRE DAME! The Johnny Dee regime at Notre Dame never hit another crescendo as it did against UCLA that late January afternoon in 1971 when Austin Carr scored his 46 points. Everything else seemed anticlimactic thereafter for that Fighting Irish side, even the NCAA Tournament, when Notre Dame was placed in the Midwest Regional. After staving off Southwest Conference champ TCU by a 102-94 count in the first round, Notre Dame advanced to regionals at Wichita, but was upset by Maury John's Drake Bulldogs, 79-72, at the Sweet 16. Completing the ignominy was a wild 119-106 loss to Guy Lewis' Houston Cougars in the regional consolation game (yes, they used to have such games).
An era ended that weekend in Wichita for the Irish, as the bulk of that year's team, including key seniors Carr, Collis Jones, and Sid Catlett, would all graduate Read more... |
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TGS HOOPS SPECIAL REPORT...SHAKE DOWN THE THUNDER AT NOTRE DAME! Wake up the echoes, indeed!
We teased in our most recent edition of TGS Hoops, covering last weekend's action, about the unlikelihood of Notre Dame recalling past great upsets at home when it hosted top-ranked Syracuse on Saturday at the newly-named Phil Purcell Pavilion (formerly known as the Joyce Center and, before that, simply the Athletic and Convocation Center). We joked about John Shumate, Gary Brokaw, and Dwight Clay, architects of the most memorable upset in Notre Dame history over UCLA in 1974, breaking the Bruins' 88-game win streak in the process, not having any more eligibility to help the Fighting Irish Read more... |
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TGS NFL SPECIAL REPORT...THE DAY PRO FOOTBALL CHANGED  A few weeks ago marked the 43-year anniversary of the game that really put the Super Bowl on the map...but nonetheless remains a bit of mystery. We reprise our recount of the events of January 12, 1969, and Jets-Colts...
Forty-three years later, Jets 16-Colts 7 seems as hard to believe today as it was way back on January 12, 1969. And we're not the only ones who still wonder what happened that afternoon at the Orange Bowl. Not to suggest that something was going on under the table that day in Miami, but the way that game unfolded has always invited some curious speculation Read more... |
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PRO FOOTBALL BONUS...ALL-TIME TGS SUPER BOWL RANKINGS!  Where did we place last year's Packers-Steelers matchup in our our all-time Super Bowl rankings? It was somewhere in the top half, that's for sure. Click through to see our new updated list, from No. 45 to No. 1...
XLV, Green Bay 31 - Pittsburgh 25 (at Arlington)...This one teased at becoming a memorable classic as the Steelers hinted at a dramatic comeback throughout the second half, but in the end there would be no last-minute thrills as the Packer defense kept Pittsburgh far away from another last-minute miracle. Three costly giveaways including a poorly-thrown Ben Roethlisberger pass returned for a TD by Nick Collins late in the 1st Q put the Steelers Read more... |
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PART II: THE GREAT CHICAGO DOUBLEHEADER OF 1963...AND HORIZON LEAGUE UPDATE We again harken to a bygone era in college hoops and present Part II of "The Great Chicago Doubleheader of 1963," focusing on the second game of that January 26 twin bill at Chicago Stadium between the first and third-ranked teams in the country, Cincinnati and Illinois. Excerpted from the upcoming book, Ramblers and Bearcats, this portion precedes a TGS update of the Horizon League, the current-day affiliation of Loyola-Chicago, featured prominently in Part I in our last issue... Read more... |
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TGS HOOPS SPECIAL REPORT...THE OLD CHICAGO DOUBLEHEADERS, AND WCC UPDATE  In this issue of TGS Basketball, we continue our recurring updates on hoop leagues across the land, this time featuring the West Coast Conference, to be followed by the Horizon League in our next edition. We'll get to those reviews in just a moment.
First, however, we wanted to recall a golden era in Chicagoland sports when high-profile college hoops doubleheaders would be staged at the old Chicago Stadium, promoted by the legendary Arthur Morse, who would bring schools from across the country to be featured in twin bills almost always involving current Horizon rep Loyola-Chicago and, usually, Illinois Read more... |
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TGS COLLEGE HOOPS UPDATE...AN UPDATED LOOK AT BRACKETOLOGY!  Now that college football is finally complete, it's time to get switch gears to college hoops. Be prepared to get familiar with Joe Lunardi (ESPN's resident "Bracketologist"), "bubble teams" and "protected seeds" and all of the other terminology that relates to the Big Dance, now only two months away.
This week, we provide our second "Bracketology" update with several changes from our first installment two weeks ago. Which is normal, as teams can quickly play their way in our out of Big Dance consideration at this time of the season. It becomes a bit harder to move as quickly on the big checkerboard the later we get into the regular season, but for now the composition of the eventual Read more... |
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TGS HOOPS UPDATE...A-10 UPDATE AND THE BEST TEAM YOU NEVER SAW  College basketball has been a big deal in the East for a long time. Which might surprise some of the ESPN generation who could be excused for believing that hoops in the region didn't really begin until the Big East was formed at roughly the same time as was ESPN. Indeed, the parallels between the Big East and the "sports leader" are remarkably similar. Each used the other quite effectively to establish their respective brands. The success in Big East hoops even motivated the league to branch out and form a football division, long considered out of the question for the many major Eastern independents, especially so since Penn State never had any inclination of casting its football lot with a regional conference. Joe Paterno was Read more... |
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TGS HOOPS UPDATE...PAC-12 PREVIEW AND REVISITING THE DEEP FREEZE  Bob Boyd was a shrewd tactician, and indeed had nearly knocked Wooden's first national title team out of 1964 Big Dance in a nailbiter at the West Regional in Corvallis. Boyd's Seattle side led that game deep into the second half until the Chieftains ran into foul trouble, and Wooden's Bruins escaped by a 95-90 count. But Boyd realized he had to do something different to compete with the Alcindor's UCLA and decided to dust off one of the oldest and least popular strategies in the books.
It was the stall, or, as Boyd prefers, the "slowdown" style. (To this day, the old coach will chafe when one mentions the term "stall" in his presence). Call it what you want, but Boyd Read more... |
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TGS SPECIAL REPORT...NEW TWISTS TO NCAA ENFORCEMENT  Former hoop coach Jerry Tarkanian and his past battles with the NCAA are well known. And that long-running feud (in which Tarkanian eventually won a significant court settlement) prompted an unforgettable quote by Tark that we often recall when the subject of college sports' governing body arises.
"The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky," Tark said in the mid '80s, "that it put Cleveland State on probation instead." Tark, of course, was referring to long-perceived selective enforcement procedures by the NCAA, which for Read more... |
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TGS HOOPS SPECIAL REPORT...NBA 2011-12 PREVIEW AND SEASON WINS PROJECTIONS!  Well, it's about time!
The long-delayed 2011-12 NBA campaign finally gets underway on Christmas Day. Better late than never, we suppose, as it looked for much of the autumn like we might not have an NBA season at all. Instead, we're presented with a unique challenge as we preview the campaign with our annual best recommendations for season "wins" pricing. We suspect that dynamics such as continuity and depth will be extremely valuable assets in the NBA this term, especially in the early going of the campaign. Due to the extended lockout, there was no traditional offseason as such beyond the NBA Draft in late June Read more... |
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TGS SPECIAL REPORT..."CRONY CAPITALISM" IN THE BCS?  The phrase "crony capitalism" need not be limited to mention on CNN and Fox News.
ESPN might as well start wearing out the term in reference to the BCS and college bowl season, too. Alert college football observers know what we're talking about in regard to the latest crass move by the BCS network when Virginia Tech, humiliated in its ACC championship game against Clemson, was nonetheless invited to the Sugar Bowl. And the bowl execs and BCS head honchos Read more... |
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TGS HOOPS UPDATE...REMEMBERING OHIO STATE-MINNESOTA '72  Every once in a while, and as long as no one is seriously hurt, it can be argued that college basketball is inadvertently well-served by the sort of incident that marred last weekend's Cincinnati-Xavier battle at the Cintas Center.
That's because, if nothing else, the resultant outrage over these sorts of on-court brawls acts as a deterrent from similar melees erupting across the country. What hoops fans must understand, however, is that on rare occasions these sorts of unwanted developments are going to occur, a byproduct Read more... |
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TGS HOOPS UPDATE...COLLEGE BASKETBALL SPECIAL TICKER!  Marquette...Undefeated Golden Eagles are without C and 2nd-leading rebounder Chris Otule, who injured his knee two minutes into the Dec. 6 game against Washington and sat out last Saturday's Green Bay game. Marquette beat the Phoenix 79-61, but couldn't quite get the cover Saturday in part due to the fact that they dressed just eight players due to injuries. Besides Otule, reserves Juan Anderson (shoulder) and Jamil Wilson (4 ppg, 3.3 rpg; ankle) were also in street clothes.
Michigan...Leading scorer G Tim Hardaway Jr. (15.6 ppg) was limited to 19 minutes and scored Read more... |
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TGS COLLEGE FB SPECIAL REPORT...CHANGE OF COURSE FOR BCS?  While we await the commencement of yet another likely-to-be-unmemorable bowl season, for the first time in memory there is reason to believe that something better and much more fulfilling for college football fans is on the horizon.
That is, some form of a legitimate a playoff could be coming in the very near future. Word has leaked within the last week of a shift in college football's tectonic plates, wherein some of the former no-playoff crowd seems to have changed its tune. We're not talking about a full-scale tournament; instead, expect something Read more... |
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TGS COLLEGE HOOPS SPECIAL REPORT...FLYING UNDER THE RADAR  Indiana...It won't take long before everyone knows that the Hoosiers are playing some serious basketball once again. Indeed, a win this weekend against Kentucky would signal that IU is back and ready to cause some serious damage. And it's about time, some Hoosier backers say, for HC Tom Crean to make his mark after three years of rebuilding the program and various growing pains. Some in the region had indicated that Crean was on the hot seat this season to get back to the Big Dance.
Crean, however, looks to have the Hoosiers poised for a return to national contender status thanks to the biggest recruiting coup of his tenure at Bloomington Read more... |
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TGS NFL SPECIAL REPORT...THE TIM TEBOW FACTOR IN DENVER  We've been watching the Tim Tebow phenomenon in Denver while at the same time trying to detach ourselves from some of the hysteria (both pro and con) that seems to surround what has rather remarkably become the most polarizing figure we ever recall in pro football.
Not that players, coaches, and owners haven't occasionally become lightning rods in the past. Often, it's unusual or criminal-type behavior that encourages the extreme emotions involved in the Tebow debate. But, for what it's worth, the ex-Gator is about as far from the Read more... |
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TGS COLLEGE HOOPS SPECIAL REPORT...MID-MAJOR ALERT PART II  Santa Clara...The temptation was to dismiss the Broncos, last year's surprise CIT champs, when word came that 6-9 Canadian sr. PF Marc Trasolini would miss the season due to a preseason knee injury. An early loss at UCSB confirmed some of those beliefs. But fifth-year HC Kerry Keating (with a newly-signed contract extension in hand) quickly recalibrated the Broncos, whose aggression and spunk were in evidence at last week's 76 Classic in Anaheim. Scoring the last ten points to defeat Big East Villanova after an opening-round win over Mountain West preseason favorite New Mexico confirms Keating's belief that the Broncos' quickness both on the perimeter Read more... |
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TGS COLLEGE HOOPS SPECIAL REPORT...MID-MAJOR ALERT PART I  Cleveland State...Underestimate CSU coach Gary Waters at your own risk. Waters, who once upon a time put together a powerhouse program at Kent State, has found his perfect niche in the Horizon League at nearby Cleveland State after an ill-advised adventure at Rutgers. While some observers believed the Vikings might be in for a downturn this season following the graduation of do-everything G Norris Cole (21.7 ppg last year), it was worth noting that Waters returned every other starter from last year's 27-win team that reached the second round of NIT play. And the Vikings can still run their 3-guard offense with a collection of experienced Read more... |
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