March 21, 2019
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Mar 22 Incarnate Word BASEBALL 5:45 PM
Mar 23 Incarnate Word BASEBALL 2:45 PM
Mar 24 Incarnate Word BASEBALL 12:45 PM
Mar 26 at LSU BASEBALL 6:35 PM
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HEY REF THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
Jim Valvano famously said the goal of the NCAA Tournament is “survive and advance.” In that light, let’s ignore Michigan State and Duke and focus on the four team regional LSU will play in this weekend.
Actually, I want to look back for a quick moment and say how glad I am that Florida is not in the near future for this basketball team. I can’t remember a time where LSU played a team three times and every game was exactly the same. Not only alike, but frustrating in the same way. All three games, LSU should have been leading by more at half. Each game, LSU played poor defense in the second half and was loose with the ball on offense. Finally, the end of each game came down to which team received good “fortune.”
As a result, I have been listening for a week as people speculate how LSU is going to perform in the NCAA Tournament. But it should be clear, especially if we are going to use Florida as a measuring stick, that this team is going to be what they have been since January.
LSU is going to offensive rebound like crazy, but the defensive rebounding will be spotty. LSU will make some great drives and finishes at the rim, but make poor decisions other times and commit silly turnovers. The outside shooting will be hit and miss, as will the defensive focus. Typically, two players out of Mays, Smart, Reid, and Waters will have good offensive games while the other two will struggle.
As a result of these factors, LSU will play more tight games than they should. Fortunately, in those games, LSU is usually the more talented team with more playmakers and wins more than its share of close games.
Therefore, I fully expect LSU to get a lead on Yale at some point, and then allow Yale to comeback at some point. Down the stretch, the hope is LSU can make more plays. The scary thought in this game is that Yale has a player with NBA talent who can make plays down the stretch, and they have good size to get key rebounds.
Normally, I would go ahead and make a prediction at this point, but I am extremely gun shy. A few weeks ago I was writing about this spring having great potential. Then the baseball team couldn’t throw strikes, the offense stopped hitting, and Will Wade was put on administrative leave. For now, I will give perspective, not predictions.
As for the other teams in the Jacksonville, I am expecting Belmont to play Maryland, but I am not making predictions, so who knows? Honestly, I don’t know much about Temple, but I have seen Belmont play a few times this year. In years past, Belmont is the type of team that would beat LSU 4 out of every 5 times. This year, though, LSU has performed well against a perimeter oriented team that isn’t extremely athletic. St. Mary’s and Furman jump to mind right now, and LSU was able to beat both of those teams because of its athleticism inside.
Maryland clearly has the potential to be a bad matchup for LSU, but Temple and Belmont appear to be a bad matchup for Maryland. Maryland is very much on upset alert because they have been up and down this year, especially finishing the year down.
I will state with confidence that LSU is the most talented team in Jacksonville. That includes the other four teams that are not in LSU’s region (Kentucky, Abilene Christian, Wofford, and Seton Hall).
Hopefully, LSU can take the next step in maturity I have been waiting for since the middle February when we all knew LSU had a chance to win the SEC. Taking care of little details would make it more challenging for teams of less talent to hang around until late in the game. We all know the NCAA Tournament lends to strange endings if games are close late. The best bet for LSU to survive and advance to the Sweet Sixteen is to value the ball and defensive rebound.
BY DENNIS DEARIE
VETERAL LOUISIANA HS REFEREE
As I watch the money being paid out to professional football players, baseball players too but for this week I’m just going to focus on the NFL. The following column ran in this space back on April 26, 2012. How soon we forget the problems facing NFL owners. In the most recent past not so long ago the NFL owners got together and cried like babies claiming they were going broke if things didn’t change as far as money being collected by the players. And everyone knows I hate to toot my own horn but as the cost of players continues to climb at unbelievable speed, once again “Hey Ref” explains things we can all understand and yes, he is right on target.
Just take a peek at what I wrote just seven years ago. As more and more fans are being priced out of attending live games cable companies are going frantic as they’re trying to figure out a way to increase costs of such add-ons like NFL Sunday ticket. If you are lucky to subscribe to certain cable companies you’ll get your NFL fix at a discounted price but that too will soon become something you’ll talk about by saying “Remember when”? So let’s take a short cruise down memory lane and recall it wasn’t that long ago NFL owners were crying “wolf” as they were headed to the poor farm.
Before I get to what I need to get off my chest this week I’d like to say “why are NFL owners being crybabies when we talk money for players”? The answer of course is so they can keep more for themselves. Something I’d like all fans to understand that Billionaires didn’t get that way (or will stay that way) by giving away their money. So when one comes to you and says “they feel our pain” please show you know that two and two equals four!
Case in point; this past spring owners claimed they weren’t making money and players have to take a huge pay cut in order for the league to remain profitable. Our lovely New Orleans Saint’s owner Tom-Boy spent in excess of $325million dollars for a professional basketball team that can’t win its way out of an elementary school gym! We’ll NEVER know the true cost he paid or for that matter the true cost to Louisiana’s TAXPAYERS.
Very common sense tells me the owners in the big leagues love New Orleans simply as a huge playground for the rich and famous. What are the benefits going to be for the working men and women in the “Big Easy”? Plenty of low paying service jobs. As the board of directors will say, behind tightly closed doors, “somebody’s got to make my bed and clean up after me”!
We’re selling our souls for jobs as maids, cooks, ushers, parking lot attendants, ticket takers, concession stand hot dog vendors, part time bar tenders, janitors and on and on. The list is seemingly endless to low paying service jobs. I know I can hear it now “at least we’ll have a job”. Don’t get me wrong there’s not a damn thing wrong with an honest day’s work but I’m sick and damn tired of my fellow Louisianans scraping the bottom of the salary bucket.
We’ve got the biggest oil, chemical and natural gas industries on this planet! Why do we as wage earners continue to be paid somewhere between 46th - 49th place out of 50? Why is our standard of living always near the bottom of every list? Why is our educational system second to all never first not even if compared to Mississippi? The answers aren’t simple, no, I can agree but I get so pissed when I see the money being paid out to PRIVATE BUSINESSES AND THEIR OWNERS and the players and coaches at every level!
This year alone Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson who was the sixth player in NFL history to run for more than 2,000 yards was rewarded with a pay raise reported to go from $1.06 million earned in ’09 to a paltry $53.5 ($30 million guaranteed) till 2016. Do the math and he’ll be paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $10.2 million a year with incentives!! WHAT, INCENTIVES? More than $10 million and you need incentives?
Now, closer to home, LSU ASSISTANT Coach John Chavis will be getting a small raise to just a mere $900,000.00 this year with increases to $1.1 mil for ’13 and $1.3 mil for ’14! Before you claim it’s needed to KEEP the best available coaches in Baton Rouge why don’t we use that same reasoning when we talk teachers, policemen, electricians, EMS and fire fighters? They just keep our lives safe and every once in a while save some of our loved ones. A lot of them can’t afford the price to educate their children. I don’t want to hear again how this “TOPS” program is helping educate our children because for most of those college educated individuals they must leave Louisiana to find a job that pays more than $15.00 dollars an hour.
No wonder the rest of the world can’t understand how Americans think and question what we feel is important in our lives. So, just remember what’s important when these leaches (politicians) ask for your vote or promises they’ve got the answer to creating good paying jobs. If you believe them then you’ll bet your last dollar Louisiana has honest politicians in its legislature.
Now, to what I want to get off my chest. Two weeks ago I wrote how sad it was to learn that Miami had suspended its baseball manager, Ozzie Guillen for speaking honestly and publicly praising Cuba’s Fidel Castro. It wasn’t what he said that upset me but the fact he was punished for speaking freely! These were his comments not the Major Leagues or his employer the Florida Marlins but rather his own personal thoughts. If he upset people so be it, in America people are upset every day of the week by what people say. It wasn’t that long ago when Americans really did have freedom to speak their minds but not anymore since it must first satisfy the Political Correct Police.
It just so happened that the Friday after my column came out I was having lunch with my parents at a Central restaurant, which is a weekly custom in my family. Behind my father sat a Navy Special Forces Veteran serving for nearly 20 years with tours in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iraq. He heard our discussion on what I’d written and just listened for about ten minutes. He interrupted not to disagree with me but to actually say he was glad somebody wrote exactly what I had.
His opening remark to me I’ll never forget “I’m getting out next year, I’ve had it, I’ve put my life on the line so people back home in this country can have freedom. Free to speak your mind yet when somebody says what’s on their mind and the press wants to make an issue out of it and they get crucified”! For the record neither of us are fans of Castro, we both are disgusted by him but every day more of our freedoms are being slowly eroded away.
I’ll end this week on that note so that everyone can stop and think about what’s really going on not only in the sporting world but in America as well.
Till next week… …
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