Wow! Just watched what might have been the best NCAA basketball championship game ever. Nova won, but no reason for Carolina players not to hold their heads high. The intensity, skill, performance under pressure, shots at the end, and much more defined this game and made it a game for the ages. I just love this tournament.
I decided to re-post this earlier post after listening to Susan Sarandon’s comments on the Chris Hayes Show. Surely they will elicit much commentary and reaction – positive and negative – like Charles Blow’s insightful oped article in NYT this morning. I do hope this controversy will loose its steam (and I think it will) as we move beyond the primary season and into the general election. At that point a new reality with an unmistakably sobering and exceedingly dangerous side – Trump or Cruz sitting in the White House – will shape the perceptions of voters. Sam
There it was on my Facebook feed. An image of a young woman and beneath it the slogan, “Bernie or Bust.” Catchy enough, I thought. But what does it mean? Two very different interpretations came to mind.
One is that Sanders’ supporters are going all out, taking his campaign as far as it can go (and it’s gone further than many political observers thought only a few months ago), but no matter who wins the Democratic Party nomination this summer, supporting the nominee in the fall.
Dan O’Shaughnessy, Boston Globe sports columnist, caused a stir across the sports world, when he tweeted two days ago, “UConn Women beat Miss St. 98-38 in NCAA tourney. Hate to punish them for being great, but they are killing women’s game. Watch? No thanks.”
The reaction was immediate and mainly very negative. Leading the pack was, not surprisingly, Connecticut basketball coach Geno Auriemma.
“Nobody’s putting a gun to your head to watch,” he said. “So don’t watch. And don’t write about it. Spend your time on things that you think are important.”
And others joined the chorus of criticism against O’Shaughnessy. And they all have a point, in fact, many points. The greatest dynasty in college basketball was John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins. His teams won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period, including a record seven in a row.
But no one took them to task for their dominance. Both Wooden and his players were rightly celebrated. It was a great run.
Similarly, Connecticut women basketball players owe no one any apologies for their dominance. They earned it the hard way – constant repetition, unselfishness, teamwork, skill development, and superb coaching. And they should be celebrated every bit as much as Wooden’s UCLA teams were in their time. What these young women and their coaches have accomplished will likely not happen again for a long time.
That said, O’Shaughnessy has a point. When you are beating teams by as much as 30 and 40 points in game after game and season after season, something is out of whack. Something has to be done – not to cut Connecticut women down to size – but to raise the competitive level of the rest of the teams.
Otherwise interest in a sport that is already struggling for an audience, will wane. And that would be a shame. For women’s basketball has turned into a wonderful game to watch. There is no lack of excitement or skill or artistry. If you doubt me, tune into next weekend’s final four games. See for yourself. You won’t be disappointed – especially by the Connecticut women.
In their own way, their play is like listening to a great symphonic orchestra performing a great classical piece. Different and seemingly dissonant parts blend into a beautiful composition on the court. How they play is as much art form as sport. I won’t miss their bravura performance and I hope you don’t either.
March Madness just lived up to its name. Syracuse, a 10 seed, overcame a double digit deficit in the second half to beat Virginia, a 1 seed. What made the difference was Syracuse’s decision to use a full court press early in the second half that got Virginia out of its deliberate tempo and played to Syracuse’s superior athleticism. With Syracuse’s win, 3 of the 1 seeds have lost, and the fourth, North Carolina, is playing Notre Dame, as I write.
A touching moment came at the game’s end in an interview with Virginia coach Tony Bennett outside his team’s locker room. Bennett said he drew on scripture to console his dejected senior-laden team after what was a crushing defeat, telling them, “Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.”
As someone who played basketball in grade school, high school, and college, my guess is Bennett is right. Virginia’s players will feel the pain of this defeat for a while, but joy will come in the morning as they reflect, not on the outcome of a single game, but on their whole career.
Amid everything else going on this week, Bernie Sanders’ speech on the Middle East crisis didn’t receive the attention that it deserved. It went far beyond the traditional talking points of the Democratic Party and contrasted sharply with Hillary Clinton’s presentation on the same subject at the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington, D.C.
One can quarrel with one or another aspect of the speech, but taken as a whole it presented an honorable, just, and realistic way out of the crisis in Middle East – beginning with the longstanding conflict between the Israeli government and the Palestinian people, whose legitimate aspirations for statehood and justice have been too long denied. It’s well worth reading.
https://berniesanders.com/sanders-outlines-middle-east-policy/
