Lee Lowenfish

For someone dubbed the Prince of Paranoia, things are looking up in my life as a fan who roots ardently for Columbia women's and Wisconsin men's basketball. Over Valentine's Day weekend, Columbia moved into a first-place Ivy League tie with Princeton using a solid second half to thump the Tigers, 70-56.  The next night, oddly by almost an identical score, 69-56, Columbia beat a stubborn Penn team that trailed 30-15 at the half but made life a bit anxious after intermission behind sharp-shooting forward Katie Collins. The lead was secured when the Lions kept their composure against the Quakers press.  Resurgent junior Riley Weiss had a consistent 44 point weekend and co-captain Perri Page, with her father former Pitt star Julius Page and family cheering her on, had a double double against Princeton, including a career-high 25 points. After a foul-plagued first half against Penn, she bounced back with a double-digit scoring second half and all-around play to keep the Quakers from dreaming of another upset like last month's in Philadelphia. Kudos also to the ferocious play of junior guard Fliss Henderson who was in the middle of everything all weekend and a rebounding force. 

 

I love defense and pitching in baseball and defense that creates offense in basketball.  The Lions' recent outstanding play has also been keyed by sophomore guards Mia Broom and Nasi Simmons who I'm beginning to call the Steal Sisters - earlier this season Nasi set a record with 10 steals against Yale.  Sad to say, only one home game is left for the Lions, Sa Mar 7 2P against Harvard always a tough opponent and tied for third with improving Brown who we meet in Providence on Feb 28 also at 2P.  Ahead on Mar 13-14 is the 4-team Ivy League tournament this year at Cornell.  With Penn 3 games behind Harvard and Brown and only 4 games left in regular season, it looks like the 4 tourney teams are set, but seeding is still to be determined.

 

Down in Greenwich Village, the NYU Violets women cagers' Division III winning streak is now up to 84.  They, too, only have a few games left in the regular season: This Fri Feb 20 at 730P against Washington U of St Louis, the school that owned the prior D-3 winning streak early this century. Then Su Feb 22 at noon against U of Chicago followed on Sa Feb 28 at 3P against Brandeis, preceded by a 1045A alumni game.  The Violets are assured of hosting FSa at the Paulson Center on Bleecker Street just north of Mercer the first weekend in March. If they advance, hosting the next round will depend on how far the solid NYU men's team goes in its playoffs. 

 

Here's a shoutout to another local D-3 winning streak, the Montclair State men's team is 24-0 with one regular season game left -  Wed Feb 18 at 7P at College of New Jersey in Ewing, NJ.

Montclair State should host first rounds of playoffs at their gym on the Montclair campus, Feb 25-26. 

 

On the bigtime D-1 side of men's hoops in the NYC area, St. John's is 20-5 and ranked #17 in the latest national poll.  There is no doubt that Rick Pitino knows how to coach but I find his arrogant manner off-putting. After a game this past Sat on the road at Providence that was punctuated by a late first half brawl, Pitino commented to the press, "Curfew 5 AM." Pitino's arch-rival Arkansas coach John Calipari also likes to be flippant in his comments. Complaining about the transfer portal and other legal changes enabling player mobility, Calipari wailed the other day, "I have a player who has two kids and is using his NIL money to pay alimony." 

 

My Wisconsin Badgers are a team that has used the transfer portal effectively to achieve national attention after a mediocre start to the season. Last week they knocked off nationally ranked Big Ten rivals Illinois on the road and Michigan State at home. In addition to home grown junior guard John Blackwell and seven-foot junior Nolan Winter, Wisconsin has plucked the transfer portal for two key veteran components, flashy southpaw guard Nick Boyd from northern New Jersey and key reserve the former Minnesota Golden Gopher (and Tulsa Hurricane) Braelen Carrington, a useful sharpshooter.  Boyd can be stopped if you force him to the right and make him take off-balance shots, but when he is on, his speed and daring are electrifying. 

I didn't have great hopes for this year's edition of the Badgers but if nothing else, their competitiveness should mute the critics of coach Greg Gard who is nearing his 20th year with the Badgers, including more than ten as top assistant to retired Hall of Fame coach Bo Ryan. 

 

I've quoted these coaches many times but it never hurts to repeat some of their adages: 

"WE JUDGE OUR PLAYERS BY WHAT IT TAKES TO DISCOURAGE THEM" - Bo Ryan after Badgers knocked off then-#1 ranked Ohio State in Columbus, 2011.

"IF CONSISTENCY WERE AN ISLAND, IT WOULD BE LIGHTLY POPULATED" - Greg Gard quoting a sports psychologist that addressed his team, earlier this decade

 

The Badgers' schedule until the Big Ten tournament (which is really the Big 18 nowadays) is with all times EST:

Tu Feb 17 830P at Ohio State FS1; Su Feb 22 Iowa 4P FS1; Sa 2/28 at U of Washington FS1 4P; W Mar 4 Maryland 8P FSI; Sa Mar 7 at Purdue 4P CBS

 

     AND NOW TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME!

Turning to the hope that the return of spring training always brings, the Prince of Paranoia applauds the Orioles for signing former Met RHP Chris Bassitt to bolster a starting pitching staff that doesn't have a real ace but can always use innings-eaters and gritty gamers like Bassitt. He turns 37 on Feb 22 but knock on wood, he has been durable as a reliable starter most recently for the Blue Jays through their World Series run.  The addition of Bassitt certainly tempered the bad news that the usually durable Jackson Holliday will miss all of spring training and some of the

regular season with a hamate bone fracture located in the palm of his hand.  Two other notable players, the Mets' Francisco Lindor and the Diamondbecks Corbin Carroll, recently suffered the same injury.  Each probably was incurred from overdoing batting practice in preparation for the long season.  

 

I will try and I urge most lovers of the game to appreciate good games and remarkable player achievements during the upcoming season because the specter of an owners' lockout of players looms large after the current collective bargaining agreement expires in early December.   I refuse to believe any forthcoming disaster is inevitable including what is happening to our society during the second term of the 47th president. So I prefer to cite some good news concerning Tomas Lopez, a junior RHP for my Columbia Lions baseball team who will pitch for Brazil in the upcoming World Baseball Classic starting on March 4.  Tomas' mother is Brazilian and she is over the moon in delight for her son's opportunity.  Lopez told mlb.com - and why not capitalize this quote too! 

"BASEBALL JUST BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER ALL THE TIME. . . . I'M JUST EXCITED [TO FIND OUT] . . .  HOW EVERYONE GOT INTO THE SAME EXACT SITUATION THAT I'LL BE IN." 

 

Regardless of the doom and gloom folks bemoaning the MLB labor situation, I insist that there will always be baseball on lower levels and I always try to honor some of the less-recognized lights.  So here's a shoutout to the latest class of inductees into National College Baseball Hall of Fame that were honored last week - Feb 12 - at the new home of the NCBHF in Overland Park, Kansas, near Kansas City.  Among the honorees were former Mets RHP Kris Benson (who starred at  Clemson) and Hubie Brooks (who starred at Mesa AZ JC and Arizona State U). Also inducted was Jack Coffey, the longtime Fordham baseball coach and administrator.    

 

ERRATA from recent posts:

**The real first name of manager extraordinaire Francona is Terry but everyone calls him "Tito" in honor to his father who had a better MLB career.

**James Cagney's closing line as he gets blown up at the end of "White Heat" is "Made it, Ma. Top of the World!"

 

Speaking of old films, here are some TCM tips:

Th Feb 19 1045P Robert Aldrich's "The Longest Yard" (1974).  Aldrich was a member of the Rockefeller family which included former NY governor and Presidential aspirant Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller but he made it up the chain in Hollywood without using any connections. He directs Burt Reynolds, a former gridiron star now in prison, in a football game between prisoners and guards.  Interestingly, Aldrich's first film as director was "Big Leaguer" (1953), filmed in the New York Giants minor spring training base in Florida.  

 

Earlier on Thursday at 145P is "Jammin' the Blues" - a 9 minute documentary by Djon Mili that explains jazz in the simplest most rhythmic way.  Mili was a photographer from the Netherlands who  a few years earlier for LIFE magazine filmed Bob Feller's fastball comparing it to a roaring locomotive. Feller held his own in the comparison.

Also on Thursday at 1:10P most likely on the main NBC network station  - the gold medal game between the amazing US team against their arch-rival from Canada.

 

Sa Feb 22 8P. "Patton" (1970) directed by Franklin Schaffner with George C. Scott in title role. Also Karl Malden. I mention it because many baseball personages like Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and former Phillies pitcher and manager Dallas Green said they were inspired by the volatile WW II general who reportedly counsled his troops, "Be glad you're in my outfit and not shoveling shit in Louisiana."  

 

That's all for now.  I continue to urge you to Stay Positive Test Negativew and Take It Easy But Take It.  Next time I will tell you something about a new book that I wrote the afterword for:

"KNOW YOUR STRIKE ZONE: THE ULTIMATE BLUEPRINT FOR FINDING YOUR SWEET SPOT IN LIFE AND LEADERSHIP" by Paul D. Miller and Milton O. Thompson. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this tumultuous time of history that fate has consigned us to, following sports seems more than ever a refuge from the torments of the world. I am not a huge football fan - the grisly regularity of that hospital bed on wheels, taking injured warriors from the field to the locker room always jars me. I've always loved the defense of football as "good clean violence", but it's the excess that now seems uncontrollable.

 

Yet I have started the new year watching a lot of college and some pro football playoff action.  Ole Miss captured my attention by their unexpected run to the post-season after their peripatetic coach Lane Kiffin bolted the team to accept more money and ostensibly more talented players at LSU.  He took a lot of his assistants with him, but several stayed including interim head coach Pete Golding who remained as defensive coordinator. 

 

In a quarter-final against perennial contender Georgia, Mississippi won one of the most thrilling games I ever watched, coming from behind in a topsy-turvy fourth quarter to oust the Bulldogs. The Ole Miss Rebels were led by Division II transfer quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and Western Kentucky transfer field goal kicker Lucas Carniero. But in the semis against the U of Miami Hurricanes, Ole Miss fell in another exciting game. Miami will now face unbeaten Indiana in the title game on Mon Jan 19 after 730P.

 

It has been a dream season for the Hoosiers under third-year coach Pittsburgh native Curt Cignetti who went to school at U of West Virginia and one of his prior coaching stops was at Indiana U- Pennsylvania (home town of actor Jimmy Stewart where I hope the museum in his honor is still open). At 64, Cignetti has turned around what has traditionally been a basketball school into a footbal powerhouse through judicious use of the transfer portal and well-organized player development.

 

As you know, dear readers, I bleed the Wisconsin red and white (as well as Columbia light blue and white), and there is a Wisconsin presence on both sides for the upcoming battle.

Riley Nowakowski played at Wisconsin as a rarely used running back before starring as a tight end at Indiana.  Miami first-year defensive back Xavier Lucas was supposed to play at Wisconsin but he transferred to Miami despite signing with the Badgers.  He dropped out of school in Madison and enrolled in Miami. Wisconsin is still pursuing litigation against him, but in the meantime Lucas has become a key defender for his hometown team. 

 

The transfer portal can indeed be chaotic, but I for one am glad that players can get a chance to play at other programs without sitting out a season which the NCAA had mandated under the old system. The NCAA stubbornly refused to make any adjustments to their controls over "student-athletes," a concept that the Supreme Court even in this polarized country rejected by a 9-0 vote. 

The days of NCAA standing for Never Compromise Anything Anytime are over, and I hope that some kind of sensible system allowing for players rights as well as team privileges can be negotiated.   

Although Wisconsin football has been unsuccessful the last three seasons with both transfer portal, especially at quarterback, and with player development, the news is better for Badger basketball. After a couple of blowout losses to Brigham Young and Nebraska that put Wisconsin out of the picture for any bid to March Madness, Wisconsin has won three in a row, the last two particularly memorable. On the road at Michigan on Sat Jan 10, they toppled the Wolverines from the undefeated ranks.  Down by 14 in the first half, they cut the lead to one by halftime and then went on a 3-point scoring binge to take control early in second half. 

 

In sports, there are very few verities, but in basketball nothing quite beats this one:

THE LAST FEW MINUTES OF THE FIRST HALF AND THE FIRST FEW MINUTES OF THE SECOND HALF ARE MOST IMPORTANT - the first tests your fitness near the end of a physically demanding 20 minute half and the second tests how you can recreate intensity after cooling off during a 15 minute intermission.

 

The Badgers' second win was at Minnesota a few days later on Tu Jan 13. Junior star captain John Blackwell hit a three pointer at the buzzer to win a hard-fought battle after poor foul shooting allowed the Gophers to tie the game on Cade Tyson's three-pointer with less than 5 seconds left.  After Blackwell hit the game-winner, he started leading a race with his teammates around the court with his teammates following him. They went at least two laps!  Better the players show their exuberance with a buzzer beater than fans running on the court.  A moot point is whether the Badger fans would have stormed the courts if it had been a home game.

 

Another great human interest Wisconsin story is the play of Nick Boyd, a graduate transfer guard from San Diego State who previously played college ball at Florida Atlantic and was a key member of the team that made the Final Four under coach Dusty May.   May now helms the Wolverines and so Boyd last week was able to beat his former coach. Another fascinating tidbit about Nick Boyd is that he is the nephew of legendary New Jersey baseball legend Fred Hill Sr who among his coaching stops have been both Rutgers and Montclair State.  Hill always encouraged Boyd to follow his dream that has led to his multiple stops that started in New Jersey at Don Bosco Prep and St. Mary's in Rutherford.  With Wisconsin's women basketball finally on the rise and both hockey teams high in national rankings, things are looking up for winter sports in Badger land.

 

I think Wisconsin is still on the bubble for March Madness, but its recent play on defense and offense has revived hope in the heart of this fan/alum/analyst. As for my other basketball passion,

the Columbia women's basketball team, they play two home games within three days:  Sa Jan 17 at 2P against Yale and M Jan 19 at 2P on Martin Luther King Day against improving Brown.

The amazing NYU Violets women's team extended its winning streak to 75 with a 75-54 win over U of Rochester on F Jan 16.

They take on Emory Su Jan 18 at Noon at the Paulson Center on Bleecker Street just a little west of Mercer Street in Greenwich Village.

More info on Columbia sports including the top-notch tennis team already playing home games in a bubble at gocolumbialions.com. 

More info on NYU at nyu.edu/athletics

 

And while I have no emotional involvement in the NFL's march to the Super Bowl, it would be nice for the Buffalo Bills and QB Josh Allen get to and win a Super Bowl.  I like the way Allen's parents

nurtured their son.  He played other sports in high school and didn't just focus on advanced training in football. He went to the University of Wyoming, not a football power to be sure, but he has risen to the highest echelons of his sport now.  Just hope he is healthy enough to make it all the way. Beating Denver in Denver will be a tall order.  In a wide-open race with no clearly dominant teams, I might like to see Bills play the Rams with their great helmet logo. 

 

And here are some TCM tips:

For the avid lover of all things New York:

W Jan 21 830P "The Taking of Pelham One-Two-Three" (1974) about a subway heist with Walter Matthau/Martin Balsam/Robert Shaw

Followed at 11p "Mean Streets" (1973) Martin Scorsese's classic about surviving in a rugged neighborhod with Robert DeNiro, Harvey Keitel

 

Th Jan 22 3A "The American Friend" (1977) Win Wenders' grim portrait of underworld characters with Bruno Ganz/Dennis Hopper/Nicholas Ray in an eyepatch in a cameo on decaying West Side Highway.  I don't usually list early AM films and don't think there is an iota of sports in this film.  But I list here because I saw this film during Game 1 of the 1977 World Series between Yankees and LA Dodgers.  I was so fed up with yet another Yankee-Dodger World Series that spoiled my youth as a New York Giant fan.  I vowed not to watch this damned remake again, but every time I saw

Bruno Ganz, he reminded me of Thurman Munson.  So I said, "What the hell? I'm obsessed with baseball," so I did watch most of the rest of the Series.                                 

 

F Jan 23 8P "A Letter to Three Wives" (1949). Inspired by a story by Stefan Zweig, Joe Mankiewicz directs a superb cast.  Probably the only film in which Kirk Douglas and Paul Douglas, unrelated, appeared together, Jeffrey Lynn is the third husband and the wives are Ann Sothern, Linda Darnell, Jeanne Crain. BTW, this is not the first film from the post World War 2-years in which a reference to baseball on the radio is made.  Just heard one the other night from bored Barbara Stanwyck early on in "Double Indemnity" and even from Joan Crawford in "Sudden Fear". 

 

And finally here's my Noir Alley closing section:

Su Jan 18 12M, repeated 10A, The classic French noir from 1954 "Diabolique" with Simone Signoret

Su Jan 25 1230A "Shield for Murder" (1954) with.the underrated Edmond O'Brien

Su Feb 1 12M "Talk About A Stranger" (1952) get this cast:  George Murphy, Nancy Reagan, Billy Gray (around this time also Robert Young's son Bud in TV's "Father Knows Best")

And last but not least!

Sa Jan 31 8p at 92nd St Y on Lexington Ave NYC - Eddie Muller and Rosie Perez LIVE discuss "Sweet Smell of Success" before the classic with Burt Lancaster/Tony Curtis is shown.

Tickets from $35 - info at 92NY.org

 

That's all for now.  Next time, I return to baseball talk with a plea - which likely won't do any good - to cease the gloom and doom about the Inevitable Baseball Lockout of 2027.

Talk about a "self-fulfilling prophecy".  Not here in these pages even if some kind of shutdown after this season is possible.  Season too long anyway.

 

Stay positive, test negative, and Take It Easy But Take It!