All Aboard The Upset Express

Warren Buffett is one happy camper right now.

Not one single bracket remains perfect from this nearly-finished first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, and you can thank a bunch of 12-seeds for that.  North Dakota State, Stephen F Austin and Harvard  (yes, THAT Harvard of Jeremy Lin fame) decided a small sling shot and a well-heeled senior class was good enough to advance past the big boys in this latest edition of March Madness.  The Tennessee men, themselves owner of an 11-seed, hasn't played like one so far in crushing UMass.  But the Volunteers better beware of who is across from them in the bracket.

Mercer, the Atlantic Sun tourney champ, has become this year's giant killer by taking down - rather convincingly - Duke.  You know, the one with potential NBA prospect Jabari Parker on it.  The beat down was so telling that the Chicago native is now reconsidering his jump to the big leagues.  The Bears made a ton of friends the moment the final horn sounded with that major victory and could find themselves in a very enviable position.  As if a Round of 32 date with Tennessee wasn't cool enough.

You don't have to go far to find this year's Florida Gulf Coast... well, yeah you do.  Atlantic 10 at-large team Dayton, a full four states and nearly two-thousand miles away, holds that distinction this year, having taken down in-state compatriot Ohio State, then pulling the rug from under former top-ranked Syracuse a round later.  Who knew the host school of the fairly-new First Four would finally party like it's 1984?  That's the last time the Flyers made the Sweet 16.  Everyone on UD's roster weren't even remotely afterthoughts when that happened.  But I guarantee you the Buckeyes aren't putting the Flyers on the non-conference slate anytime soon.

All we need now is for Wichita State to knock off Kentucky.  Then you REALLY would have a busted bracket for sure.

SPECIAL - Selection Sunday Not So Lucky for Some

It is appropriate that this week's Connection is being released on St. Patrick's Day, because for some programs in NCAA Division I men's basketball, luck may have run out on them. 

We'll start with a program most of the pundits thought would surely make the Field of 68: SMU.  Yes, those Mustangs have finally dug themselves up from years of being under the 1984 'death penalty' slapped on them by the NCAA, only to be the last one on the outside even with a late Top 25 ranking.  Larry Brown's latest post-season entrant is now the overall #1 seed of the "other" big tourney, the NIT.  A shot at Madison Square Garden isn't a bad consolation prize, either.  If history serves like it normally does, programs who do well in the NIT could set themselves up for major NCAA success the following year.  Fear not SMU fans, your day is yet coming.

Perhaps the unluckiest in the Big Dance may be the one nobody has beaten yet.  Wichita State, owners of a school and pre-tournament best 34-0 record, has the second-best number-one seed.  The road to Dallas and the Final Four, however, will have three major speed bumps.  Kentucky and Louisville are potential opponents of the second-ranked Shockers and own the last two Division I championships.  Should WSU survive those matchups, Pac-12 tourney runner-up Arizona would be at the doorstep to try to block a potential back-to-back Final Four run in the Elite 8.  Coach Gregg Marshall may need to muster up more than courage juice to get past that gauntlet.

Of course, someone has to hang on to their four-leaf clover to get this far.  The recipient this year, Big West tourney champ Cal Poly, is firmly grasping theirs.  The 8-seed in their own conference tournament, the Mustangs (sorry SMU) enter the NCAA Tourney with just 13 wins, an overall record six games under .500 and an equally laughable conference ledger four victories under the Mendoza line.  But try telling coach Joe Callero his team doesn't belong.  Along the way, the 'Stangs outlasted league regular-season titlist UC-Irvine, which has the tallest freshman in recent memory in 7-6 Senegalese sensation Mamadou Ndjaiye, who is a lot more athletic than the late Manute Bol.  You get past a team like that, you can open a lot of eyes and ears on the selection committee.  Also, Nebraska has a piece of lucky green in their stash as well.  Yes, I said Nebraska, the football-crazy school that hasn't seen the Big Dance since Nolan Richardson and Arkansas gave the 'Huskers 40 minutes of hell in 1998.  Nebraska was picked t be dead last in the always-tough Big 10.  A late surge in conference play and stronger showing at the tournament in Indianapolis not only has the folks in Lincoln thinking about a trip to Dallas, but has raised the profile of coach Tim Miles, whose last major project was seeing North Dakota State move to Division I.

Which ever of these programs is going to get to their respective championship game will need the same chemistry that got them in the field... and a lot of luck.

No Shocker at All: Wichita State is the Real Deal

Anyone who thought the Wichita State Shockers men's basketball team would take a relative nose dive from their historic Final Four run last year is eating a ton of crow and duck with tarred feathers as we speak.  Not only did the Shockers run the regular-season table for the first time in school history, they have done so by making their mark in a number of areas.

First and foremost, as of press time, the big number to note is 34, as in a school best 34-0 record that gives the Shockers the distinction of having the most wins without a loss before the NCAA Tournament.  This also breaks last year's 30-win campaign that saw the Black and Gold come agonizingly close to knocking off eventual national champ Louisville, coming within four points of the Cardinals.  Secondly, WSU's trail of terror features now-marquee victories over Saint Louis and Davidson, one a budding Sweet 16 contender, the other a former Elite 8 club.

What's surprising to note is that for a mid-major program like Wichita State, the margins of victory this year are anything but mid-major.  If you throw out the overtime thriller January 11 at Missouri State (whom the Shockers have now beaten a third time with the rout of the Bears in the Missouri Valley tourney) and single digit verdicts against Northern Iowa, Tennessee, Saint Louis & Alabama, Wichita State has a very comfortable double-digit margin of victory.

Also of note, Wichita State is trying to become the latest mid-major with consecutive appearances at the Final Four.  The last to do it was former Horizon League member Butler, now in the revamped Big East. Another run to the national semis would make it four of the last five years that mid-majors would have reached the final stage.  The last time such a run happened was between 1978 and 1983, when then-mid-majors Notre Dame, Louisville, DePaul and Penn made the Final Four [Louisville won two of their three titles as members of the Metro Conference].

What does all of this mean?  It means Gregg Marshall, in his seventh season as the head coach, is about to be NBA jail bait very soon.   All he has done is lead the program to 63 wins in the last two years and three MVC regular-season championships.  Look for him to get a call from Brad Stevens of the Celtics (and formerly of Butler) in regards to handling those types of inquiries.  That is, if All-American candidate Cleanthony Early doesn't persuade him to stay a few more years.

What Did You Expect? Another Bruce Smith?

Apparently, many tongues are wagging over the rather pedestrian performance turned in by Michael Sam at the recent NFL Combine in Indianapolis this past week.  Sam, as is now well known, announced that he is gay and is trying to get into the NFL as the league's first openly homosexual player.  The stats from his day at the combine would suggest he's just like any other senior trying to get paid to play, not someone the caliber of Hall of Fame defensive lineman Bruce Smith of Buffalo.

A rather average 4.91 in the 40-yard dash.  Just 17 reps in the bench press.  Only 25 feet for a vertical jump.  If he were anyone else, there wouldn't be this much ink on him, if at all.  Which makes you wonder the real motive for the coming-out announcement made by the co-defensive MVP in the SEC and one of the leaders of a Mizzou team that earned its first major title of any kind since winning the Big 12 North in 2010.  You would think the way the mainstream media [ESPN included] covered the Texas native they would have made him the second coming of Jason Collins, who by the way is back in the NBA on a 10-day contract with the Brooklyn Nets.

As much as I applaud the young man for being courageous in making his social stand, I'm not sure if the NFL Combine was the place to do it.  The NFL draft is over a month away and all the activists worth their rainbow flags are sure to point their ire at Roger Goodell and the boys if their newest poster boy doesn't crack through the ranks at Radio City Music Hall in NYC.  What this does do is take the spotlight away from another deserving Missouri Tiger who has been one of the dark horses to make the league, fellow defensive end Kony Ealy.  I personally know about this young man, having covered him in high school in his native New Madrid, MO, and thought for sure a basketball career was ahead of him.  He thought otherwise now they have the all-SEC selection at no worst than the second round.

THAT, sports fans, is the bigger story.  Not another Black man set to be used by those who really wouldn't sit next to him anyway.

FedExing NBA Players

Anyone who tells you that the most exciting time of the NBA season is the playoffs must not have been a general manager.  The next to last week in February brings uncertainty among the player ranks as the trade deadline has come and gone with some interesting moves... and non-moves.

Among the eye-opening flips include the shipping of long-time Denver Nugget Andre Miller to Washington.  Insiders say that a New Year's Day spat between the former Utah Ute and coach Brian Shaw may have precipitated the deadline-day move.  Miller could provide much needed mentorship to budding Wizards superstar Otto Porter, who has had a subpar rookie season playing behind fellow native Missourian and recent All-Star Bradley Beal.  Another one wagging tongues was the late move by Indiana to send former All-Star swing man Danny Granger to Philly for up-and-comer Evan Turner.  Pacers GM Larry Bird better sure hope this doesn't backfire on him because he just traded away a career 17-point-a-game player that is versatile on the wing as he is on the post, not to mention one of the key components that helped the former Eastern Conference champs push current NBA titleholder Miami to seven games last year in the conference finals.

The one non-move that is truly reverberating the league is whether or not All-Star point guard Rajon Rondo will be moved from Boston.  One of the primary cogs of the Celtics' last run to the championship four years ago, the former Kentucky standout has been the focal point of trade talks since coming back from an ACL injury last year.  When the deadline approached, the heat turned up on Rondo's pending move, something that has rankled the last link to Doc Rivers' coaching tenure in Beantown.  As of late, some league experts have Rondo going to Oklahoma City, which would take a lot of pressure off of Russell Westbrook bringing the ball up and even more release for league scoring leader Kevin Durant, who could concentrate more on posting up.

One player who was traded who wouldn't mind returning to his former team is Steve Blake.  Starting the year as the focal point of a no-name lineup the Los Angeles Lakers haven't seen since Del Harris coached the club in the early '90s, Blake was dealt to Golden State in a rare in-division transaction (both teams are in the Pacific).   The 11th-year veteran from Maryland was a key reserve in helping the Lakers barely get in the playoffs in 2013, Blake's move is being seen as waving the white flag for a club stuck in the bottom four of the Western Conference with no sign of improvement on the horizon.  With the recent revelation of Kobe Bryant needing another three weeks for his still sore knee suffered before Christmas, GM Mitch Kupchak appears to be looking toward the draft later this summer and a rare entry into the lottery.  Meanwhile, Blake, in the last year of his contract, said as he left the Staples Center for Oakland that he would entertain a return to Los Angeles next year.  Blake's wish to come back to the City of Angels could be muted if Carmelo Anthony is courted to come westward from the Knicks in the offseason.

Sam-iami Vice

A confluence of perfect storms is crippling the most unlikeliest of places this week.   No, not the snow, ice and odd earthquakes that hit Georgia and South Carolina and other parts of the southern Atlantic region.  I'm speaking of the recent announcement of Mizzou All-American defensive end Michael Sam saying he's gay and the immediate impact on the upcoming NFL Draft.  In addition, that same NFL releasing its report on the investigation into the past season's locker-room spat between Miami Dolphins offensive linemen Jonathan Martin and All-Pro Richie Incognito.  This interesting intersection of controversies comes at a time when the league should be celebrating just its second-ever Black quarterback to win the Super Bowl.  It now has to deal with two bigger issues: how to not look like social neanderthals when the Galveston, TX native looks to be one of the over 330 young men called to the stage in New York for the start of their pro football career, and in the case of a possible drafting of Sam by Miami, how he would fit in with a locker room that would also see the return of Incognito, a not-so-tightly-wrapped nut himself.

Before we delve further into this perfect storm, let me preface this for those who wish to liken the LGBTQ movement to the Civil Rights movement: NOT EVEN CLOSE.  You can smoothly hide homosexual tendencies among even the best trained eyes.  I should know: I used to sell club dance music to the LGBQT community in my younger days and there were some who could easily slip between the same-sex and heterosexual worlds without even a peep.  However, let me make this abundantly clear: YOU CANNOT HIDE YOUR SKIN COLOR.  When you among the same-sex movement can show me instances of being lynched for no reason other than what's immediately obvious, let me know.  I'll be over by Emmitt Till's grave with a handkerchief for you.

Which brings me to young Mr. Sam, whose 'coming out' totally runs against the grain of his native Texas tradition.  After all, Texas is where "men are men, and women are proud of it".  But what has become an all-too-familiar ring among today's Black male athlete rears its head here as well.  Sam's parents separated in his childhood, with him going to his mother.  He's had a brother killed and two others incarcerated.  It should come as no surprise that his dad's recent comments - misconstrued or not - would make the senior Sam of the "old school" way of thinking.  On the heels of helping the Mizzou Tigers to their first divisional crown since joining the SEC two years ago, to see the junior Sam reach the accolades he's garnered is nothing short of amazing.  The footage of him getting in his teammates' faces, exhorting them to step their game up, would lead you to believe that he is a very strong, masculine example of how student-athletes in a sport as rough and manly as football should conduct themselves.

To wonder where the turn to the "other side" for Sam happened is something only he can answer to, but what will be interesting drama come April in the Big Apple is not IF he's drafted, but rather WHERE he's drafted.  It is well known that the reigning SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year, who received his bachelor's degree in December, isn't a lock for the first two rounds, but if he happens to fall at least to the fifth round, lots of tongues will be wagging, not the least those being outgoing NFLPA Executive Director DeMarcus Smith, who is on record of saying that any notion of draft round demotion in Sam's case would be considered "gutless".  I'm quite sure current San Diego Chargers linebacker Manti Te'o, himself caught in a 'catfish' scam that led to rumors of alleged same-sex tendencies in 2012 while at Notre Dame, is breathing a sigh of relief as he rests up for next year.

Who isn't breathing easily is the Miami Dolphins.  Already rocked from a report into last year's brouhaha with Martin and Incognito, should they make the remote attempt to draft Sam, the question now becomes how soon should they bring him into the mix knowing what has spewed from Incognito's mouth over the last year and a half.  The report from the NFL says that Martin, a second year player in Miami before abruptly leaving midseason, wasn't the only target of Incognito's emotionally-charged epithets.  In a report this weekend on ESPN.com, another offensive lineman and an assistant trainer were also targets.  The investigation, done by league official Ted Wells, also makes note of the Michael Sam announcement and the exhortation for all franchises to conduct themselves more tolerantly.

Talk about an introduction to the NFL.  Michael Sam, I hope you've got much thicker skin that your soon-to-be teammates, because this is going to be one very rough-and-tumble rookie season... and we haven't even hit OTAs yet.

The Breakthrough

For just the second time in 26 years, the quarterback that has won the Super Bowl has been Black.  Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks is that person, although he didn't need to do much in the 43-8 beatdown of Denver in metro New York City.  Wilson's two touchdown passes were aided by a defense that created four turnovers and 28 points on its own, including a 69-yard interception returned for a score by game MVP Malcolm Smith, just the third linebacker to earn the Big Game's highest honor .

Granted, Wilson didn't get the truck, but he does sit in the winners' circle with Doug Williams of the Washington Redskins.  Wilson also is the shortest quarterback to ever win the Super Bowl, clocking in at a mere 5 feet-11 inches.  The championship does cap off a breakthrough season for the dimunitive signal caller from Cincinnati by way of Richmond, VA.  His ability to evade even the best pass rushers has endeared him to fans all across the Pacific Northwest.  He gets his toughness, however, from his father, the late Harrison Barnes III, who spent a short time in the NFL as a preseason player in San Diego, making the two one of the few father-son duos to ever make the league.

So now that both Black quarterbacks and Black coaches have each earned two rings on their own, surely it is about time to pair the two for a title run.  Considering it almost happened in 2000 with Tampa Bay's Tony Dungy and Shaun King, this should give the impetus to give the smartest brothers in the business the platform they so richly deserve.