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HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY
FROM TGS! |
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TGS COLLEGE HOOPS SPECIAL...FINAL "BRACKETOLOGY" UPDATE!  Where did the time go? Good fun as always making our TGS NCAA Tourney projections, but after today, we can start to worry about the real thing. Funny how "Bracketology" gets so much attention for a month or so leading up to Selection Sunday, but none after 7 PM EDT today!
Here is our last "Bracketology" update on Selection Sunday, just a few hours before the official announcements are made in Indianapolis. The "bubble" got a lot more crowded on Saturday, with upsets in the finales of C-USA (Houston over UTEP) and the WAC (New Mexico Read more... |
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TGS BIG DANCE PREVIEW...PAST "OFF" CONFERENCE NCAA RESULTS  Following are straight-up and pointspread results for all of the "off" conferences in NCAA Tournament play since 1994. Straight-up wins are certainly not common for these lower-echelon conference reps in NCAA action, but it's worth remembering that the best of these teams have also been winning first-round games in recent years, as Davidson & Siena have proved in recent seasons, as did Winthrop, Montana, Northwestern State, Bucknell, and Vermont in preceding campaigns.
Some of these lower-rung leagues have definitely done worse than others vs. the pointspread in NCAA play Read more... |
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TGS SPECIAL REPORT...GLORY DAYS NO MORE IN BIG WEST  "We used to be a contenda."
We're paraphrasing the famous quote by Marlon Brando's Terry Malloy character in the classic film On the Waterfront, in reference to the Big West Conference, formerly known as the PCAA. And whenever March Madness rolls around these days, those of us who recall the glory days of the league can't help but feel a bit of sadness at what has become of a loop that used to routinely produce championship-caliber teams for the Big Dance and NIT. But not any longer. The conference tournament at the Anaheim Convention Center this week confirms as much; sadly, in a basketball sense, the Big West is mostly Read more... |
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THE BEST OF TGS...CONFERENCE TOURNEY TRIFECTA!  Following is our latest "Best of TGS" installment, reprinting our account of our whirlwind 3-day conference tourney trip across the country in March 2008, with a few surprises along the way...
It's been said that conference basketball tournaments are a lot like bowl games. There's some excitement before the games are played, and the games themselves can often be quite good, but nobody remembers much about them afterwards. By us, however, there are some other significant differences between the conference hoop tourneys and the bowl games. Mainly, the basketball get-togethers across the country each March really do mean something. After all, the Read more... |
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MICHAEL JORDAN...STILL MAD, AFTER ALL OF THESE YEARS!  We have been curious to gauge the media's response to this week's announcement from Charlotte that a group led by Michael Jordan was going to buy the majority interest in the NBA Bobcats from Robert Johnson, with whom Jordan has been a minority owner and head of basketball operations since 2006. Johnson, the founder of BET, was said to be hemorrhaging money with the team, and approval for Jordan and his group is expected to come quickly from the NBA Board of Governors.
To no one's surprise, Jordan's usual band of sycophants and cheerleaders in the media have jumped on the Michael bandwagon, reminding all of Jordan's Read more... |
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TGS SPECIAL REPORT...JIM BUNNING'S OTHER BEANBALL  We were unknowingly hurtled into a trip down on our own memory lane this week when Sen. Jim Bunning's name popped into the news. Although it might be a bit different memory than most have of the old Hall of Famer.
Our specific memory of Bunning the baseball pitcher doesn't recall his glory days with the Tigers or Phillies, but rather his short stint, late in his career, with Pittsburgh, and a particularly memorable night in 1968. Even longtime baseball fans can be excused for not having much recollection of Bunning with the Buccos, to whom he was traded from the Phils after the '67 campaign in a multi-player swap that saw, among others, Woodie Fryman and Don Money sent to Philadelphia. On the downside of his career, Bunning labored to a Read more... |
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TGS BASEBALL UPDATE...HALL-OF-FAME VOTING REVIEW  We have long wondered about some of the voting patterns displayed by the "knights of the keyboard" (as Ted Williams used to refer to the baseball writers) in the annual Hall of Fame elections. And the results of this year's election, announced Wednesday, are no different.
We have no qualms with Andre Dawson finally securing admission to the Hall on his ninth try. "The Hawk" was a state-of-the-art as they come from the late '70s thru to the early '90s, and one of the last superstars of the game to precede the steroid era. Besides his noteworthy hitting stats, Dawson also played defense, had a wicked arm, and could run the bases. Congrats to The Hawk Read more... |
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EURO SOCCER WEEKLY UPDATE...WORLD CUP DRAW REVIEW!  Sports star of the day...Charlize Theron?
Maybe not, but we guarantee Charlize never had an audience for one of her movies as big as the one that saw her considerably brighten the festivities as the hostess of the 2010 World Cup draw held Friday in Cape Town. South Africa's most famous export with an American accent distracted attention much as Heidi Klum did at the World Cup 2006 draw in Germany, moving gracefully around the stage in Cape Town while struggling to open those little soccer balls with the group designations. Indeed, the whole stage at Cape Town more resembled something out of the National Lottery, with several glass pots filled with little soccer balls to be drawn by Charlize and numerous dignitaries Read more... |