[The Poet]

Bear, I apologize if I jumped on you for misguided reasons, but as I said your link took me nowhere, so fault me for jumping to conclusions based on a false assumption. I'd agree in principle about the Googs and Corchiani issue, for in principle their verbosity would justify the referees throwing about 9000 people out of Cameron Indoor Stadium each and every game. But specifically, I was led to understand that they leaned far over the scorer's table between the men trying to do their job in order to voice their objections, which to me is unacceptable. As for holding onto grudges and expressing protests well after the fact, I've never been much of a fan of such attitudes, even if I understand their motivation, since it seems poor sportsmanship. That holds for my own team as well. Gerald Henderson was roundly booed in his return to Chapel Hill the year after he broke Tyler Hansbrough's nose, which was fine, but the signs in the stands that put a target on him went too far. Hell, it's just a game, brothers and sisters. Calm down.

Now, I do agree that a ref should not react in such a vulgar manner to a protest by a coach. My only question, which maybe you can answer, would be how hard had Gottfried been riding the refs all game. It was a rough contest, at least by ACC standards, with a lot of fouls called on both teams. If the ref blew up so badly with this merely being an understandable objection by Gottfried at a critical point of the game, that's one thing. However, if the coach had been riding him all afternoon, screaming and yelling at each and every call that did not go his way, or maybe wasn't made at all, it may not forgive the ref's vulgarity but it could somewhat explain it.

Can we get to some new news now, and leave the other stuff alone for now at least? The biggest news today is, sadly for Syracuse fans, not the fact that action starts this evening in Dayton with the so-called "play-in" first round action. It has been announced that starting center for the Orange, Fab Melo, has been declared ineligable for play throughout the entire NCAA tournament. This suspension has come from the university, not the NCAA, and the reason has yet to be released. However, the young man was suspended for (I believe) 3 games earlier this year for academic reasons. We cannot assume this is the case here, but it does indicate it may be a possibility.

Now if you know me, and have read my posts here throughout the year, you won't be surprised to hear I did not give Syracuse much of a chance to make the Final Four even before this announcement. Partly this is due to the fact that, despite the fact they have a number of very good athletes, they do not seem to have one true stud they can count on to get them a basket when they really really need one. But mainly it is because I do not trust that zone of theirs to fair especially well against quality opposition in "one-and-done" games night after night throughout tournament play. Historically, it hasn't, and I see no good reason to think it would this year, expecially without a Carmelo on the team. Now that they won't have another Melo available . . . well, I hope you haven't filled out your bracket yet.

This makes the third hit the Orange has taken this season. It began with the child molestation charges against ass't. coach Bernie Fine, then took another hit a week or so back with the story about former players failing drug tests without receiving the suspensions the university rules demanded. Now, coming into the tourney, only UK has played better as a team than the Orange (OK, Joe, maybe your Racers, but we're sort of talking apples and, uh, oranges here). Will this third strike against them destroy the team chemistry they have built all year, or will they refocus and fight even harder to overcome all the distractions and adjustments? I'd vote for the former, but it will be interesting to see what transpires. Specifically, I can't give UNC-Asheville much more than a puncher's shot at knocking them out, thus becoming the first 16-seed to take out a 1-seed, but their next game against either K-State or Southern Miss might be pretty interesting. Down the road, there's potential opponents like Vandy, Wisconsin, Florida State, and Ohio State. That ain't easy, even at full strength.

Maybe I'll get a chance to get back here and talk tonight's games, but for now I have some work to do . . . dammit.