RIP Bill Walton

Bill Walton was mostly before my time in the worlds of college and pro basketball, but he was so much bigger than life that it was impossible not to feel his presence long after his playing days.

Memories of Walton for me were mostly when I was obsessed with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s and his playing days were winding down and he was starting anew as an NBA color commentator. He would always do hilariously weird things in his tie-die shirts like rubbing dirt all over his body, making casual references to how much he liked doing drugs, being part of the Grateful Dead culture, eating birthday cakes and cupcakes with the candles still lit, and bringing fun-hearted spiritual-hippie presents to his colleagues.

Walton, who passed away this week from cancer at age 71, was a winner. He won 49 straight games and two high-school championships in California. He won 88 straight games at UCLA and national championships in 1972 and 1973. He was picked first in 1974 by the Portland Trail Blazers. He was league MVP in 1978 and won championships with the Blazers in 1977 and Boston Celtics in 1986.

Also passing away this week was Amy Winslow, who was once the manager of my second-favorite band Guided by Voices. She also worked with Yoko Ono, Surfer Blood, Kiwi Jr., and helped launch the Rachel Maddow Show. The cause was breast cancer at age 59.

And Tony Scott, who played for six years through the end of the 1970s into the 1980s for the St. Louis Cardinals, passed away at age 72. He stole 87 bases during that period as the Cards' centerfielder. 

RIP Eric Montross

The years 1993 to 1997 were my most sports-crazed years as an adult. I worked as the sports editor at The Alestle, the student newspaper of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. I also was a frequent guest on my buddy Wayne Frazer’s local-cable TV college basketball and baseball shows. Then I went on to be a sports reporter for two years at the daily newspaper the Centralia (Illinois) Morning Sentinel.

I couldn’t get enough of sports, and I couldn’t really get away from sports either. I eventually decided I couldn’t be a sports reporter if I was going to continue loving following sports. Since I was about 12, I had loved college basketball, namely the North Carolina Tarheels. So when center Eric Montross led them to the national championship in 1993, I was deep into my sports love affair, so those Heels will always hold a special place for me. It’s really sad that Montross had recently been diagnosed with cancer and died this week at the age of 52.

His Tarheels team is among my all-time favorites, led by Coach Dean Smith, forward George Lynch, and sharp-shooting guard Donald Williams. North Carolina knocked off #3 Michigan 77-71 in the NCAA championship in part due to a timeout called by Michigan’s Chris Webber when his team didn’t have any timeouts. 

Another memorable game (pictured above) was when Montross played Duke with blood streaming down his face, leading to his nickname Bloody Montross. That made sense because he really did fight tooth and nail for his team at all times. The 7-footer went on to be drafted by the Boston Celtics and played eight years in the NBA.

Bonus basketball RIP also goes to former Philadelphia 76er George McGinnis, who died this week at 73 and helped usher in a trend of big men being able to handle the ball throughout the rest of the court.

RIP Bobby Knight

I've got a lot of ties to Coach Bobby Knight, who has passed away at age 83. For starters, I was born in southern Indiana and feel that kinship. My dad went to Indiana University in Bloomington. My wife went there too. 

The only time I've ever set foot in Assembly Hall, Knight's classroom of basketball, was not to see a Hoosiers game but was rather to sneak up near the stage to see John Cougar Mellencamp's dozens of guitars spread across the stage hours before that local boy performed there. 

I was shooed off by security when they spotted me. No biggie, my real task on that trip was to determine whether I wanted to attend grad school at IU, which had offered me a full scholarship to the journalism program. But even in that short time standing in that hallowed ground of college hoops, I truly could feel Coach Knight's presence.

His accomplishments are mouth dropping: mainly his four national championships (one at Ohio State as a player and three as IU's coach). He retired in 2008 with 902 NCAA coaching wins, which was the most in history at the time and is now sixth most. Perhaps even more impressive were the ways he focused on not cheating, making kids actually go to class, his ultimate game preparation, his wit in interviews, and his frequent charitableness and kindness. 

Of course, many people didn't like him, and Knight gave them good reason, with his tirades bordering on serious abuse at his players and the famed chair throw across Assembly's floor.

Michael Jordan shocked by Coach Knight and IU

But I still loved Knight and the drama he brought to every game he coached. I had started following college basketball around 1982 and North Carolina was and still is my team, and my first memories of Knight began with his Hoosiers winning one of the sport's biggest upsets ever in the 1984 championship over UNC. That Tarheels team had an absolutely sick confluence of future NBA stars: Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, Brad Daugherty, Kenny Smith, and Joe Wolf. In fact, that's probably my favorite team ever.

But, as can sometimes be the lack of logic in the ways we express our sports fandom, I still don't hold it against Bobby Knight.

Pop Week: How a big event like the Super Bowl is so rare these days

This is a new column I've promised myself each week, to tie all the random TV, movies, magazine articles, books, and more that I've ingested each week into a loosely-tied-together glimpse on what the world might mean at that very moment. Call it an experiment. Here goes ...

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The Super Bowl set up a pretty phenomenal pop-culture week, with its satisfying ending for anyone who loves high drama but its very unsatisfying ending for those who still retained a glimpse of hope that the Steelers would remain the greatest football franchise of all time instead of the Patriots.

It was the rare event that brings the nation together in a common conversation, like All in the Family and, to a lesser extent, Seinfeld, used to do.

My favorite magazine read of the week was "The Social Medium is the Message" in WIRED's special section of the 49 trends that will shape the very near future. It looked at how we need to seriously re-examine our Facebook and Twitter use. In a country still tragically lacking in media literacy (how we use and can understand media), Marshall McLuhan would have recognized Donald Trump's Twitter propaganda as eerily similar to how fascist leaders of the 1940s spoke to their citizens. Further, he would have recognized how our avalanche of information and misinformation (heavy thanks to social media) could foster fear and anger about the world.

Another example of how our society has gone from major to meta is Archie Andrews. Long ago, every kids read the comic-book in the newspaper or watched him on TV, but nowadays, he's just another of the many dozens of shows that premier each week. But man is Riverdale a good one, and it is my favorite TV show of the week. It takes Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, and all the other players to deep, dark places in ways the comic books never did. It's like a new remake of 90210, but only much better than that recent semi-fiasco and much more suspenseful.

Ryan Reynolds continues to underwhelm me, after a promising early career. I know he's sort of like the Tom Brady of actors to many people and Deadpool is like the Superhero Super Bowl to some, and I appreciated it's yearning to be a different, more adult version of a superhero movie. But it's just too winking-nudge-nudge-hipster for my tastes. There are some fun scenes, but Deadpool is the most boring movie of the week. Cool-looking Spider Man-looking knock off though. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

For what very well may be the most boring (but important) article I wrote for the week, see
"New services are moving fast, and cities are looking to update procurement processes to keep up." It could definitely make the ears of government groupies pop up.

And finally, now that football is over, the world of college basketball is starting to seriously heat up. It continued to be a rough year using my season tickets to Georgetown games. In what often seems like a talented team with Coach John Thompson III not necessarily all there, the Hoyas at least had a little fight in losing at home in overtime to Seton Hall and then on the road to #2 Villanova. My teams completed the win-challenged week with North Carolina barely losing at Duke.

Stubb's BBQ is First Stop on Austin 3-Day Work Trip

I finally landed in Austin, Texas today after significant weather delays on American Airlines. But the weather is beautiful here and there was just enough time to stroll around town before the NCAA championship game between UConn and Butler started.

My destination: the legendary music club/meat joint known as Stubb's BBQ. I saddled up to the bar and got one of the best beef briskets ever, along with mashed sweet potatoes and walnuts, a side salad, and a couple of Real Ales from Texas Hill Country.

Stubb's is a rustic, roadhouse-like place with two levels. There is a stage inside but there is also a huge backyard that stretches out and allows some of the biggest names in music to perform. It would be a fun place to see a show, espially if I ever make it back here for the SXSW festival.

It's good to be here and I'm looking forward to leading a messaging workshop for The Nature Conservancy's "climate adaptation team" and attending a conference on "freshwater" as well.

Ugly Stars Dot Georgtown Hoya Universe

Another year of season tickets ended Saturday with a great time had with seat-mates Peter and Justin. Unfortunately, it was a pretty sour note to watch our Georgetown Hoyas lose our last two home games. The first loss was to Cincinnati that included an ugly broken hand for star Chris Wright. The last loss was to the always-despised Syracuse Orangemen and their rabidly annoying fans.

The only redeeming part of the Syracuse game was the star power in the Verizon Center. Georgetown grad Bill Clinton sat near the Hoya cheerleaders and got his photo taken with them. Former NBA and Hoya great Alonzo Mourning received an award at halftime and also chatted for a bit on the sidelines with Clinton.

And ugly was in the house. Although he actually didn't seem like a bad-looking guy at all, Sam Cassell, voted "Ugliest NBA Player of All Time," sat next to us in the scout section (see photo above).

Another proud member of that list was in the house. The seventh ugliest NBAer, big man Gheorghe Muresan, sat alongside the truly primitive Geico Caveman.

Speaking of ugly, it was pretty rough having to sit through home defeats this year to Cincinnati, Syracuse, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh. Let's hope the Big East and NCAA tourneys, as well as next year, look a little better.

Winter Wonderland Hits D.C.; Hoyas Smack #2 'Nova

I enjoyed the biggest snow storm in D.C. since moving here in 1999. The craziness began when I ventured out at 8 p.m. Friday to help DJ my friend Jason's birthday party at Yanni's Greek Taverna in Cleveland Park. It was already blizzard-like on my walk to the metro. By the time I arrived at the party, I had heard it reported that there were hurricane-like winds (which we could see out the front window of the bar along Connecticut Avenue) and "snow thunder!"

We had a great time celebrating with Jason and the turn-out was impressive (everyone loves Mr. Gallo). Several of us waited as long as possible to get to the metro. We caught the last train around 3:30 a.m. I spent the night at Dan's house since I needed to get to the Georgetown hoops game on Saturday at noon against #2 Villanova. The walk from Farragut North to Dan's apartment in Thomas Circle was intense, with bitter winds blowing in our faces and a fallen tree slicing a snow-drifted L Street in half.

Peter and I walked to the Hoyas game which, although I was beyond exhausted from the night before, was one of the season's best (and that's saying a lot because it's been a great season). Georgetown won 103-90, although it wasn't necessarily that close, in front of a surprisingly near-full arena.

Looks like we'll end up with somewhere around 18 to 20 inches over the past 36 hours or so. In places, it seems we may have actually gotten quite a bit more. Fun stuff. There hasn't been nearly enough snow over the years in D.C.

Obama, Georgetown Overwhelm Duke

My season-ticket partner-in-crime Peter and I knew the Duke game had a good chance to be the game of the year. And although the action of the court didn't live up to the excitement of the Hoyas' 72-69 win over UConn earlier this month, it was definitely a thriller.

A blowout from the point Georgetown led 9-3 (with the Blue Devils never taking a lead), the home team went on to win 89-77, which will put the Hoyas into the top 10 come Monday.

They are looking good, and so were the dignitaries sitting just about 15 rows away from us: President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, advisor David Axelrod, and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Others sprinkled around the arena included NBAer Tracy McGrady, former Hoya coach John Thompson, Pardon the Interruption star Michael Wilbon, and D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, not to mention CBS commentators Clark Kellogg and Vern Lundquist.

Body Slammin' on the UNC Chapel Hill Quad

Jackson, Rachel and I had a blast this past weekend in Chapel Hill visiting our friends Paula and Harlan. Check out these short videos of us having fun on the University of North Carolina's beautiful quad in the center of campus.

Franklin Street is the center of the action in Tarheel land, while Paula and Harlan live about a mile away (a nice walk) in Carrboro.

Which Tarheel Team is the Best?

So now that North Carolina has won its fifth NCAA Championship (trailing only UCLA and Kentucky in total), which of those Tarheel teams was the greatest? My vote goes to the 1982 champs, led by the greatest basketball player of all-time, Michael Jordan. But the 2009 winners have got to be close with Tyler Hansbrough, arguably the best player in NCAA history (and somehow projected to be picked 43rd in the NBA Draft this summer).

I rank them 1982, 2009, 2005, and the Eric Montross/Donald Williams championship team of 1993 as honorable mention.

A good summary of the players, coaches, and key wins of all these teams is here.

The Best North Carolina Tarheels Since the 1980s

Because my dad and brother attended the University of North Carolina, I've been a fan of their stellar basketball program since I was about 10 years old. 

In honor of UNC's punishing Sweet 16 victory over Gonzaga last night, here is my list of the top Tarheels (mixed with my own prejudice of who my favorite players have been) from this time period. Feel free to comment with your own list of Top Tarheels:

33. Derrick Phelps

32. Shammond Williams

31. Julius Peppers

30. Joe Wolf

29. Danny Green

28. Reyshawn Terry

27. Hubert Davis

26. Rick Fox

25. Ed Davis

24. Marvin Williams

23. Joseph Forte

22. Rashad McCants

21. Jeff McInnis

20. Brendan Haywood

19. Sean May

18. Ed Cota

17. George Lynch

16. Wayne Ellington

15. Ty Lawson

14. Raymond Felton

13. Sam Perkins

12. J.R. Reid

11. James Worthy

10. Jerry Stackhouse

09. Donald Williams

08. Eric Montross

07. Antawn Jamison

06. Vince Carter

05. Kenny Smith

04. Rasheed Wallace

03. Brad Daugherty

02. Tyler Hansbrough

01. Michael Jordan

Me and Obama's Brackets Are "Too Timid"

Barack Obama and I picked the same Final Four: North Carolina, Louisville, Pittsburgh, and Memphis. Many are now criticizing these picks as "too timid."

And of course Coach K doesn't like that Obama has Duke getting knocked out by Pitt in the Elite 8. But Coach K's a dweeb anyway. Although at least he really thinks "these kids played hard."

I digress. So shoot us. To me (and Barack), these are the best four teams in the tournament.

Big Surprise: North Carolina Wins My Brackets

Procrastinating until the end. I have finally filled out brackets for two pools (one with work and one with Georgetown grad friends).

Call me a homer since I'm a big Tarheel fan, but I still think if there's one potentially dominant team in college basketball this year, it's UNC. There has been so much jockeying in the top 10 all season long that it wouldn't be a huge surprise to see any one of a handful of teams win it all.

I pick the Heels to beat Louisville in both my pools, with the final score either turning out 80-75 or 90-75. North Carolina has missed the defense of Marcus Ginyard (out with an injury) all year, and if Ty Lawson can't return from his toe injury in time for the second round, I may append my prediction. Bobby Frasor just can't lead this team to a championship at the point. But I still think this year's team of stars, which finished 28-4 and underachieved to lose in the ACC quarterfinals to a really good Florida State team, has yet to peak.

Tarheel MVPs in order have been Tyler Hansborough, Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green, and frosh Ed Davis.

I've got Pittsburgh losing to UNC in one semifinal and my only #2 seed to make the Final Four, Memphis, losing to Louisville and Coach Pitino's southern-gentleman white suits.

Hoya Horrible

Greg Monroe (pictured, right) had a few cool dunks tonight against Rick Pitino's Louisville Cardinals, but otherwise, my partner-in-crime Peter said Coach John Thompson III's coaching has been a joke this year and the team has seriously underachieved. I tend to agree. 

Thankfully, I'll be in Minneapolis for Georgetown's last home game of the season against DePaul. Let's hope next year's season tickets are more worth it.

Louisville 76

Hoyas 58

Photo by Nick Wass, AP

Too Hot in the Furnace for Duke

Duke lost at home Wednesday night in what Raycom announcers called a "furnace" and "the feel of a summer-league game." North Carolina, after a couple of unexpected midseason losses (many expected them to go undefeated for the year; they're that good), appears to be the cream of the NCAA crop again. Duke is pretty good, but as the Tarheels pulled away late in the game, it really seemed liked no contest.

Nobody scores 100 points in Cameron Indoor. North Carolina got 101, in a dominant offensive performance, led by Ty Lawson's 25 points.

North Carolina 101, Duke 87

Ed Hightower Representin' Eville

Hard to believe Ed Hightower, one of the NCAA's most prominent refs, is the superintendent of my Edwardsville, Illinois school district, where I grew up.

I think he's a great ref, and he did his usual steady job in the one game I saw him work earlier this year at Georgetown. But the fans of Kansas apparently aren't so fond, as this Photoshop gallery suggests.

What's Wrong With Greg Monroe?

Georgetown appears done for the season at this point. What once looked like one of the nation's best teams has sunk to an NIT candidate.

The Hoyas' 2-point overtime loss to Cincinnati today was another sorry performance. Freshman phenom Greg Monroe (pictured, left) blew three free throws in overtime and the team shot 0-8 from the field in those final five minutes. Monroe's once-sure hands have turned pillow soft. He can't finish and he can't really do much else either.

Chris Wright is maddening in his underwhelming selfishness. JTIII's play-calling seems ever-more suspect. Jessie Sapp was benched for the entire second half for unknown reasons. My season tickets are going to be tough to play out.

Georgetown In a Rut

The crowd was decidedly sparse (kind of like the amount of postings at one of my favorite Hoya blogs, The Van Buren Boys) for Tuesday night's home game against Rutgers. Georgetown won 57-47 to snap a 5-game losing streak. Before the streak, Hoya games were exciting and lively. The team looked like world beaters.

But now, the team looks like a Big East last-place team (which they were as of tip-off) against a high-school-like Scarlet Knights club. Rumor has it that Jessie Sapp and Chris Wright threw punches at each other in the locker room, but who knows what's causing this team to collapse.

On the court, Sapp led the unexcitement with 11 points and Greg Monroe followed with 10. Georgetown is now 13-8 and 4-6 in the Big East.

At least Peter and I ate good sushi at Wok and Roll beforehand. And, as an interesting footnote, Wok and Roll is in the same rowhouse where John Wilkes Booth planned the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.