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Saturday, March 30, 2002
BenMaller.com's NCAA Final Four Picks At Atlanta, GA (2) Oklahoma -7 vs. (5)Indiana   Ben's Pick: The Hoosiers will hang with my Sooners. Look for Indiana to cover but Oklahoma and Hollis Price will win. (1) Kansas -1 1/2 vs. (1) Maryland   Ben's Pick: The Terps are the best team left in this tourney they must stop the Jayhawks from running. Juan Dixon and Lonny Baxter and Chris Wilcox will not be stopped. I look for Maryland to win a classic. permalink Friday, March 29, 2002
BenMaller.com in LA Daily News  By Ben Maller I was suprised to learn that Tom Hoffarth, the fine radio/TV columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News mentioned my name in his Friday column. Hoffarth wrote a story about the firings of Dave Smith and Steve Carbone this week from a local sportstalk station in Koreatown. I want to thank him for plugging my site. I was dissapointed that Tom did not try to contact me, since he had statements in his story from everyone who he wrote about except me. I'm dissapointed that he did not call or e-mail me (my address is on this site) to ask if I had anything to do with this. If I had been contacted, I would have pointed out that this is a fun website and that the information was found in a column titled "Rumors and Notes." I update the site in my spare time with stories that I find interesting. I am not and have never been a subscriber to Dave Smith's website. And more important, it is against my principles to go to management and rat anyone out. permalink
NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Final Four Notes  Indiana (24-11) vs. Oklahoma (31-4) * Indiana owns a 3-1 all-time record against Oklahoma, including a 2-0 mark in NCAA Tournament. The teams last met in the 1998 NCAA Tournament first round and the Hoosiers came away with a 94-87 overtime victory in Washington, D.C. Indiana also posted a 63-49 decision in the second round of the tournament in 1983 in Evansville, Ind. * The Hoosiers are making their first Final Four appearance since 1992. This is also the 15th anniversary of their last national title (1987), when Keith Smart hit the winning shot against Syracuse. Indiana has gone to eight Final Fours and won five national championships. This is their first non-Bob Knight-coached appearance since 1953. * Oklahoma is in its first Final Four since 1988 (it also went in 1947) when it lost to Kansas in the championship game and fourth overall. It is looking for its first NCAA title. * Oklahoma has made 21 consecutive postseason appearances (17 NCAA and four NIT), the second-longest streak among Division I programs. Only Indiana owns a longer postseason streak. The last season IU did not compete in a NCAA or NIT was 1977-78. The last time OU did not compete in the postseason was in 1980-81. * At No. 5, Indiana is the lowest remaining seed in the tournament. * The Sooners have won nation-best 12 straight, 16 of 17 and nine straight over Big 12 opponents. * The Sooners have already beaten Kansas and Maryland this season. * Indiana was 7-5 earlier in the season. * IU junior guard Tom Coverdale, who was selected the South Regional's most valuable player, rolled his left ankle against Kent State. The X-rays were negative and Coverdale said on Monday that the ankle is improving. * IU has shot 50 percent or better in the first half in four of the last six games. * Oklahoma will be the third 30-win team the Hoosiers will have met in three games (Duke, Kent State). * This is the first time that two minorities have led their teams to the Final Four. Mike Davis is African-American, while Kelvin Sampson is Lumbee Indian. * With their 31 triumphs, the Sooners have posted their most wins since 1987-88 (the last time they advanced to the Final Four) when they went 35-4, and are assured of registering their best winning percentage under eighth-year mentor Sampson. * IU has shot .559 from the field and .509 from three-point range in the tournament. * OU's Aaron McGhee, Ebi Ere and Daryan Selvy are all averaging 7.0 rebounds a game in the tournament. Kansas (33-3) vs. Maryland (30-4) * Kansas leads the all-time series with Maryland, 3-1. Their last meeting saw the Terps beat the second-ranked Jayhawks, 86-83, on Dec. 7, 1997, in the semifinals of the Franklin Bank Classic in Washington, D.C. The teams have never met in the NCAA Tournament. * The game will mark the fourth consecutive time that Kansas has faced a member of the ACC in Final Four play. * Saturday's meeting will be the fifth all-time between Kansas and Maryland, with the Jayhawks holding a 3-1 series lead. * Maryland and Kansas are the lone No. 1 seeds remaining in the tournament. * Kansas has reached its third Final Four under Roy Williams (first since 1993 and 11th overall), but their first as a top seed in five tries during his coaching tenure. * The Jayhawk have the nation's highest-scoring offense with a 91-point average. * The Terps are headed back to the Final Four for the second straight year, but for only the second time in school history. * Maryland has won 17 of 18 games, reached the 30-victory mark for the first time in school history. * The Jayhawks have set a school record by reaching the century mark 12 times this year, and they've tied a school record with nine wins over ranked opponents this season. * Kansas' FG percentage (.508) is its highest since the 1992-93 season, while its three-point percentage (.419) is the team's best since 1989-90 * Four different Jayhawks have been named NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, including two -- B.H. Born in 1953 and Wilt Chamberlain in 1957 -- who won the award even though KU lost in the finals. Clyde Lovellette (1952) and Danny Manning (1988) also won the honor. * Kansas leads the all-time series with Oklahoma, 128-62 (they split this season), but trails in series with Indiana, 7-6. * Maryland is the lone returning member of last year's Final Four. permalink Thursday, March 28, 2002
Angels get Disney Diss   By Ben Maller If it's not bad enough that the front office is running the Anaheim Angels like a small market team, the television sports network that is also owned by Disney gave the Halos the ultimate diss. This Sunday afternoon, the Major League Baseball 2002 season kicks off with the Angels playing the Cleveland Indians at Edison Field in a game that was supposed to be televised by ESPN. Well, it turns out that the Disney owned all-sports network doesn't think much about the Halos. Instead of the opening game of the baseball season being shown, the network will air the NCAA women's basketball championship game. Are you kidding me? Are they out of their minds? Has Title Nine struck ESPN? I'm so sick and tired of that network trying to shove the chicks NCAA tournament down our throats. It's unwatchable crap. The majority of American's don't want to watch it! The studio show for the women's tournament looks like a Saturday night live skit; it's a bunch of very masculine women acting like Dick Vitale and Digger Phelps. The women's championship game belongs on A & E or Lifetime not a guys channel. This is like the Howard Stern show being taken off of your radio for Dr. Laura! ESPN would have never considered pulling the opening game of the baseball season off the air had it involved the Yankees or Dodgers. Let's face it, the Anaheim Angels are the ugly RED-headed step-children of major league baseball. permalink Tuesday, March 26, 2002
Dan Evans is no Sheriff   By Ben Maller Remember that saying, "The grass is not always greener on the other side?" That would also apply to the Dodger's General Manager position where Dan Evans is destroying the Dodgers one bad trade at a time. Evans pulled off another steal of a deal this week: giving away Matt Herges to Major League Baseball's Montreal Expos for a 24 year old double A outfielder and a 28 year old pitcher who had an ERA of 8 after may 10th. Follow that up with giving Gary Sheffield, the cancer, away to the Atlanta Braves and you can see a pattern developing here. This past season at the trade deadline the Dodgers picked up Terry Mullholland and Mike Trombley to improve the bullpen only to see both pitchers blow up down the stretch. James Baldwin was brought in from the White Sox and he was not the stopper in the rotation the team needed.  I used to tell people that the only reason that Kevin Malone was fired as Dodger GM was that he did not get along with the Dodgers beat writers. Malone was able to trade Raul Mondesi to the Blue Jays for Shawn Green. He also signed Kevin Brown to be the team's ace for the next 6 years. Kevin's problem was he had the wrong manager in Davey Johnson (who was forced on him) when Malone wanted Kevin Kennedy to be the skipper. Kevin told me in spring training 2001 that the Braves had offered Brian Jordan and a pitching prospect for Gary Sheffield and he hung up the phone on them. Yet in 2002 that same trade is made by Dan Evans and the writers in LA and media guys seem to be heaping praise on Dan Evans. The early report on Evans first offseason as Dodger GM is a D. The Dodgers still don't have a leadoff hitter, closer or bench. I'm willing to give him a little more time but the more I think about it Evans might trade Shawn Green to the Devil Rays for Ben Grieve and Wilson Alvarez and try to tell the fans in LA the deal was even. I told a friend of mine I'm worried that Evans is a member of the Peter Principle Club. Lets hope Not! The Peter Principle: The theory that employees within an organization will advance to their highest level of competency and then be promoted to and remain at a level at which they are incompetent. permalink
Falling Like A "House of Cards"  By Ben Maller It was just another typical Monday update shift at the Fox Sports news desk when the strangest of things happened in the NBA. The league's hottest team since the all-star break, the Portland Trail Blazers blew a 25 point lead to the Memphis Grizzlies. That old cliche, "I don't believe what I just saw," would apply here. In the first half Bonzi Wells was unstoppable. He got off to a 6-6 start shooting from the floor and had 15 points in the first quarter as the Blazers opened a 20 point lead 37-17 after one. Portland was without Rasheed Wallace but that should hardly have mattered against the bad news bears of Memphis.  The Blazers had a 25 point lead in the 3rd quarter and a 19 point lead heading into the fourth when Rodney "Bleeping" Buford and Wil "King" Solomon played like Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady. These two stiffs scored at will. Buford had 14 of his 20 in the fourth and Solomon a rookie had 10 in the quarter as the Grizzlies outscored Portland 39-17 to pick up the most improbable win of the 2002 NBA Season. Let's put into perspective how bad the Grizz are: they had a 17-52 record coming in just a half game ahead of the Bulls for the worst record in the entire league. Add to that the fact they had lost six straight and 15 of 17 and you get the ugly picture.  As the NBA's best radio play-by-play man, Portland's Brian Wheeler, said at the end of the game, "If I hadn't been here to witness it, I don't think I would have believed it had happened." Just when you thought it was safe to say the Trail Blazers were back among the best in the West after winning 17-of-19, they play like the team that lost to the Lakers in the 2000 NBA Western Conference Finals blowing a 17 point lead in the fourth quarter. This is the kind of loss that figures to stick with a team for the rest of the season. Inexcusable! permalink Monday, March 25, 2002
Hoosiers Win "Duke Invitational"  By Ben Maller They are in the final four and will play Oklahoma on Saturday, but even if Indiana University should lose, they still have won the 2002 NCAA tournament's second biggest prize. All season long, the defending champs where supposed to repeat--this was called the "Duke Invitational." Led by Jason Williams, Carlos Boozer and Mike Dunleavey, the Blue Devils were a lock to at the very least make it to Atlanta and most likely win it. Indiana is a team of players nobody had heard of all year except for Jared Jeffries the 6'11 star who turned down coach K to play in Bloomington. The Hoosiers got off to a 7-5 start this season before turning things around. They had no business staying in the game with the blue chippers from Durham. The key thing for the team from the basketball state was their hustle and never-give-up attitude for coach Mike Davis against the Dukies, that's what won them college basketball's second biggest prize.  While Maryland, Oklahoma or Kansas will most likely win the National Championship next Monday, Indiana's upset of Duke will be "the game" everyone remembers. The Hoosiers are the team that beat college basketball's best, the three NBA Lottery picks of the Blue Devils, by out-working them. That's the second biggest prize in this tournament. permalink Sunday, March 24, 2002
Feminists Attack Oscars!  By Ben Maller I drive down Highland Blvd. past the Melrose Blvd. intersection seven days a week on my way to work or to get something to eat in Hollywood. A few weeks ago I saw this interesting billboard "The Anatomically Correct Oscar" but after further review it made me sick. Yet another attack by a rambo feminist group! The Oscars are going on tonight at the brand new Kodak theater at the corner of Highland and Hollywood and these chicks are trying to spoil the party. These crazy women don't think enough women win awards. They think by spending thousands of dollars on a cheesy billboard the Academy should get on there knees and give out extra awards to women that don't deserve them. How about best Feminist billboard in Los Angeles to the Guerrilla Girls! These chicks want Hollywood to give women more jobs. Why don't they earn the jobs and then they'll get them! These women throw out stats like these: Female directors: 4% Female actors get only 25% of starring roles. I'm one of the few that could care less about these numbers. I believe that if you deserve an award you'll get it. Just like if you're the best person for the job you should get it. I don't think that because you're a woman you should be given anything. These pains in the ass can bitch all they want. They don't want equal rights, they want everything handed to them! What a bunch of golddiggers! permalink
BenMaller.com's NCAA Basketball Tournament picks
(Elite Eight) EAST At Syracuse, N.Y. (1) Maryland -8 1/2 vs. (2) Connecticut  Ben's Pick: The Terps are the best team left in this tourney they should roll over UConn. MIDWEST At Madison, Wis. (1) Kansas -6 1/2 vs. (2) Oregon  Ben's Pick: Ducks will fly in a stunner. Roy Williams is a choke artist and this will come out again today. permalink |
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