March Madness

NEW YORK – There’s no better way to describe a basketball tournament at The World’s Most Famous Arena than to take you step-by-step from Wednesday through Saturday with an old-fashioned, popular time-line.

Come along on the amazing journey:

Wednesday, March 8:

7:29am – Amtrak Acela pulled out from RTE-128 station in the western suburbs of Boston, heading south to Providence where we picked up some Friars fans and went on to Penn Station in New York, arriving at the brand new Moynihan Train Hall at 10:50am.

7:31am – This reporter started missing his dog (and family, too).

11:00am – First activity? Walked from 8th Ave and 33rd Street to 7th Avenue to enter The Garden and pass security only to walk back to 8th Avenue to pick-up BIG EAST media passes and entrance tickets. The “new” MSG actually has incredibly friendly security people and the place is spotless.

It was the first of about 25 trips from the 8th Avenue end of The Garden to the 7th Avenue entrance hub only to return to the 8th Avenue “Expo/Rotunda” end of the building.

11:05am – The well-oiled BIG EAST media relations and sports info staff had everything perfectly organized, allowing check-in to be done in :45 seconds. Two escalator rides up and into the “Expo,” as the finishing touches were being made to the media area, and we’re online. Nice job MSG!

12 Noon – All were summoned to The Theatre at MSG where Commissioner Val Ackerman was going to present the key awards for the BIG EAST regular season. It’s absolutely GREAT to see colleagues like Ackerman and head basketball man, Stu Jackson. In prelim to her presentations, Ackerman noted it’s 10 years since The BIG EAST broke away from the pack and formed the “basketball centric” conference.

12:05pm – Time well spent and congratulations offered to Jackson, who flew westward to headline a press conference as the new WCC Commissioner. As fyi, Gonzaga defeated St. Mary’s on March 7th to take the WCC title. At the conclusion of this tournament, Jackson will assume his duties as conference commish. He will be missed by all involved with BIG EAST basketball. His new opportunity, probably basing in the SF-Bay area will be tremendous.

At the same time, it was more congratulations to Bill Raftery, tv commentator extraordinaire, who was awarded the Jim “Ock” O’Connell media award for his work and his contributions to college basketball. “Ock,” longtime college and Olympic basketball writer for the Associated Press, was a terrific colleague who lost his battle vs. a series of ailments. He was only 64 at the time of his death in 2018. The press area at MSG is dedicated to O’Connell’s memory each year at the tourney. A fitting tribute.

12:30pm – Villanova first year forward Cam Whitmore has been selected BIG EAST Freshman of the Year. The conference’s head coaches make the selections and are not permitted to vote for their own players.

12:40pm – Marquette’s head coach Shaka Smart was named Conference Coach of the Year and point guard Tyler Kolek was named BIG EAST Player of the Year. Smart’s squad made the biggest leap in conference history, jumping from a No. 9 prediction in the preseason coaches’ poll to outright regular-season champion.

Kolek is the “maestro-style” point guard, averaging 12.7 points with a league-leading 7.9 assists per game, second nationally. The 6-3 junior from Cumberland, Rhode Island (how’d he get away from those Friars), ranks first in assist/turnover ratio at 3.3., which places him sixth amongst all NCAA Div. I players. He’s fifth in the BIG EAST in steals at 1.8pg and ninth in free throw shooting, making .814 percent. Kolek is one of five finalists for the Hall of Fame’s Bob Cousy Award as the nation’s top point guard.

2:30pm – As Butler and St. John’s warm-up, there’s a little more time with Raftery and his longtime chronicler of the BIG EAST and we lament of the loss of Gantry’s and The Sly Fox in Queens. He knew they’d closed down, while others present did not.

3:00pm – A wonderful rendition of the United States’ National Anthem and we’re tipping off the 41st rendition of the BIG EAST at The Garden, starting after three years when the conference finale was played in Providence, RI, Syracuse, NY and Hartford, CT consecutively.

In the opener, St. John’s handled Butler 76-63, advancing to the tough Thursday match-up vs. No. 1 Marquette. The victory spared Coach Anderson 24 more hours in the eye of the Red Storm (whatever a Red Storm is)?

DePaul vs Seton Hall was the first incredibly hard-fought, close, get-The-Garden-rockin’ game of the tournament and DePaul upset the Hall, plopping them into the group of NIT hopefuls, 66-65. The finish was about as entertaining as three free throws can be as DePaul’s guard Umoja Gibson stepped to the line with his team trailing, 65-63, and drained three consecutive FTs after being fouled with :04 remaining in the 2nd Half. Gibson gets “the Doug Collins Award” for calmly stepping to line in a very loud MSG and hitting nothing but net. DePaul was (3-17) in Conference while Seton Hall was (10-10). (Collins did just that but with two FTs in the 1972 Olympics under incredible pressure after being tackled by the USSR in the controversial gold medal game, stolen from the USA by incompetent table officials, the FIBA President, Renato William Jones of Great Britian and the game officials who followed their instructions blindly). … If you’re young and didn’t see it or don’t remember the game, DO NOT watch. It will haunt you for the rest of your life). … Trust me, too. It wasn’t a “Stop the Steal” thing. The FIBA President came out of the stands to add three seconds to the clock after a series of debacles in the waning moments of the game, including an errant pass by the USSR that should’ve been the official end of the gold medal game. … But, I digress!

In the Villanova vs Georgetown nightcap, everyone was thinking that the ticket stub would be a saver, as it was possibly Patrick Ewing’s last game as the head coach of the Hoyas after a (2-18) BIG EAST record. After a 6-6 start, ‘Nova went on a leisurely 14-2 run and that was it. The halftime score of 41-20 – Villanova – was indicative of the season-long effort from PAT-TRICK Ewwwwwing’s team.

Final score? 80-48 in favor of Villanova and by Thursday morning, yes, Ewing was fired.

Thursday, March 9th

Now, don’t plan on reading a recap of each and every game, but instead, a brief commentary on the incredibly interesting and entertaining basketball tournament.

12 Noon – The “morning” game when the lightly-tested, Butler-besting Johnnies did the quick turn-around to face No. 1 seeded Marquette was another WILD and CRAZY BIG EAST game. A good crowd filled the building from the get-go. Non-St. John’s fans who flocked to New York to support their own schools jumped on the Johnnies’ band wagon to root against the favored Golden Eagles.

That Garden magic propelled a highly inconsistent St. John’s team to play one of their better games of the 2022-23 season. You must note that St. John’s and Marquette closed out their respective regular seasons with one of the crazier finishes as the Golden Eagles led by 10 with 30 seconds remaining but found themselves needing game ending free throws to earn a 96-94 victory.

In the tournament, it was the opposite. Marquette found themselves trailing by 10 at the half, 36-26, but when the second half began, you truly believed the Johnnies’ scoreboard was stuck on 36 as Marquette held the Red Storm scoreless for the first 4:14 and the first TV timeout showed a one point, 36-35, St. J lead after the momentum and confidence factor did a 180-degree turn.

Fast-forward to the ending and St. John’s A.J. Storr hit three consecutive FTs with 23 seconds remaining to cut a four-point lead to one. Two turnovers (from two steals) later, a Marquette FT by Olivier-Maxence Prosper and then a Dylan Addae-Wusu lay-up tied the game with 10 seconds left. A final scramble resulted in a missed three pointer at 61-all and the morning game went into OT, sending the Garden into another frenzy.

Overtime was physical and the majority of scoring was done from the FT line as the only field goal was Cam Jones’ bucket 30 seconds into OT. In the end, a beautifully designed play with the Storm down by two, saw St. John’s guard, Posh Alexander, launch a three-point FG that looked like all net from one angle of The Garden but it fell short for a 72-70 survive and advance for No. 1 ranked Marquette.

3:00pm – As you might expect, the entire State of Connecticut jammed their way past the turnstiles to fill The Garden with a partisan Huskies crowd and the team delivered against neighboring Providence of Rhode Island. UConn was up by 16 at the half as led by as many as 26 with 12:06 remaining in the 2nd half.

Then it was Rhode Island’s turn to cheer as Providence head coach, Ed Cooley – showing his coaching abilities, his faith in the players and a whole lotta love for the program he’s built – as he “kept his cooling and wasn’t fooling” as the Friars made their way back and trailed by only five points with 48 seconds to go.

UConn prevailed, 73-66, when Tristen Newton drilled a pair of FTs for two of his 16 points off the bench.

7:00pm – In the night session, the best teams prevailed but it took quite an effort for No. 15 (national ranking) Xavier to knock-off the pesky DePaul Blue Demons. DePaul sustained their high-energy in a big way and led 49-40 at the half.

BIG EAST men’s basketball Scholar Athlete of the Year in 6-10 center Jack Nunge had 23 points and 10 rebounds, while Colby Jones scored 22 and the Musketeers pulled off a late comeback to beat DePaul, 89-84.

Coach Sean Miller, all mic’d up for the evening, noted to his team post game that he kept calling Jones’ number and the player delivered time-and-time again, allowing his Xavier team to experience one of the “greatest things,” in sports – “playing on Friday night at the BIG EAST tournament at The Garden.”

It’s magical.

9:50pm – Late night at The Garden provided for Creighton’s 87-74 dismissal of the former lock for BIG EAST champions in Villanova. The ‘Cats aren’t as tough as they were under retired coach Jay Wright, as they ended the season with a 17-16 record and will end a 10-year streak of NCAA appearances in exchange for an NIT bid.

Friday, March 10th

With an afternoon off to “recover” from the Wednesday/Thursday marathon sessions, the BIG EAST semi-finals, a.k.a. “Friday Night at the Garden” tips-off at 6:30pm and can be described as “magical,” as in The Magical World of Madison Square Garden Center – the tagline coined by the late John Condon on the MSG public address in the late ‘60s.

The four teams that make their way to Friday night are pretty much locks for bids to the NCAA tournament, so they play for the pride and glory of being BIG EAST champions. It never disappoints.

Never.

The Garden is packed. Everyone in the building (usually with friends, college buddies, family) is happy to be right here, rather than anywhere else on earth. It’s a bit like sitting in your seat a few minutes before the curtain rises at Hamilton the Musical. There’s no place else you’d rather be.

6:30pm – Marquette vs. UConn is the first semifinal, but there’s no BIG EAST basketball fan who wouldn’t prefer to see those two teams meeting Saturday night in the BIG EAST Final. Conference Coach of the Year, Shaka Smart is matching basketball minds and chops vs. UConn’s Dan Hurley, one-time Seton Hall guard, Wagner and Rhode Island head coach. His brother, Bobby, is head coach out at Arizona State and has a chance of an NCAA berth. Their father, Bobby Hurley, Sr., is a Hall of Fame high school basketball – as in THE Basketball Hall of Fame.

You probably have read the game stories by now, but Marquette vs UConn was what we attendees of the 1983 BIG EAST tourney, the first here at MSG after three nomadic efforts in Providence, Syracuse and Hartford, might call “an Old-Fashioned” BIG EAST game.

IT’s WILD.

Smart’s Golden Eagles somehow turned back a better UConn squad in another survive and advance mode.

In the Semifinals, Marquette won 70-68 to send at least 12,000+ UConn crazies home disappointed. Without the pre-electronic ticket ability to scalp tickets from the losing schools right on the premises, UConn fans work the Stub Hubs and the Vivid Seats and the Ticket Geeks and even the Box Office and TicketMaster to gobble up every available seat in The Garden.

9:10pm – In the nightcap, No. 15 Xavier rolled on No. 24 Creighton, 80-62.

After all of the pressure-packed, exciting games, the late night semi was one of the few games not to deliver the juice as The Garden gradually emptied out.

By day’s end, St. John’s head coach. Mike Anderson, had a faded red slip and all the rumors had Iona’s disgraced coach, Rick Pitino, as signed sealed and delivered to yet another Catholic School, as he was still coaching his Iona Gaels towards the MAAC championship. (They defeated Marist, 76-55, to advance to the Big Dance with Pitino apparently holding a contract offer from one NYC school as he coached their rival Westchester County foes). Go figure, as St. John’s Anderson and Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing walked into The Garden and the tournament with a pair of the most prestigious coaching jobs in all of sport, and they walked out on the unemployment line.

Saturday, March 11th

6:30pm – No. 1 seeded Marquette, ranked No. 6 nationally, marched off to to 12-2 start and never looked back in the BIG EAST Championship game. They led 33-10 when Conference Player of the Year Tyler Kolek made a lay-up with 7:04 left in the opening half.

Kolek led the Golden Eagles with 20 points, eight rebounds and three assists and Marquette won its first-ever BIG EAST men’s basketball championship in a 65-51, one-sided rout.

In the end, the tough, physical Marquette defense – coach Shaka Smart called it violent – was the reason the championship trophy took a ride to Milwaukee after the all Midwest/Rustbelt BIG EAST final.

Hello? Amtrak?

 

WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: With apologies to Billy Joel – who is now on tour with Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks – “It’s 5 AM on a Saturday and Ohtani gives me a smile, because the World Baseball Classic can be, one of the most entertaining events you can see, when the fans at the Big Egg cheer for a while.”

Saturday morning, Japan defeated the Czech Republic, 10-2, at Tokyo Dome (a.k.a. The Big Egg) and are now 3-0 in their pool.

The USA has yet to play but will open Saturday evening with a game against Great Britain at Chase Field in Arizona. For you early morning readers on Sunday, FS1 will be televising Japan vs Australia at 6:00AM (ET).

Much like the FIBA World Cup, this event struggles to get traction in the USA, but the fans around the world seem to love it, especially in Japan. You can count Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic, Mexico and Venezuela amongst the national teams with the most support.

You must credit Major League Baseball with their efforts to fund and keepin’ on, keepin’ on with the event. If they continue to pound the drum, the event will thrive. It’s halfway there in the USA and Canada.

The time zone challenge is a lot like what the USA TV viewers face when World Cup level events are in Australia, Asia and the Middle East.