Cincy Sporting News » Hall of Famer

NCAA committee ready for tourney’s great debate

admin — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:47:05 +0000

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS —Texas-San Antonio athletic director Lynn Hickey is getting ready for her next big balancing act.

Yes, she wants to be the impartial judge and find a workable format for the NCAA’s new 68-team format for the men’s basketball tournament. She also must perform her role as an advocate for schools such as UTSA and smaller conferences such as the Southland.

All 10 men’s basketball committee members will face a similar dilemma next week as they sift through the responses to the format change. The five days of meetings in Indianapolis will not include much easy reading, and it’s not likely to be a simple vote, either.

“It’s the first time we’ll have a summary of what the different conferences are submitting,” Hickey said. “I think there’s been a variety of responses, but they’re all over the map.”

Those reactions could complicate what once looked like a simple process.

After meeting in May, the committee asked NCAA schools to give their opinions on the recommended expansion to four opening-round games, one in each region. Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith confirmed there were three options on the list—making the eight lowest seeds in the tourney play in the opening round, making the last eight at-large teams in the field play or a combination of the two.

The only clear answer heading into the meetings, which start Sunday, is this: Nobody wants to play in the opening-round games.

Teams competing in conferences such as the Southland, like Hickey’s Roadrunners, or the Southwestern Athletic, a league made up primarily of historically black colleges and universities, do not want to be pigeonholed into playing an extra tourney game each year. Power-conference schools, which usually take most of the 34 at-large bids, think they should avoid the opening-round games, too.

So Smith and Hickey must figure out how to play both advocate and arbiter.

“My responsibility is to the groups I represent, so I need to be very well informed about what they want,” Hickey said.

The expectation is that a vote will take place next week, though a formal announcement may not come right away.

Should the committee want more time to consider the schools’ suggestions, which Hickey described as going “above and beyond” previous proposals, it could push back the vote.

“I think what the committee will do is engage in a robust discussion about the various options. Short of that discussion, it’s impossible to anticipate where it comes out, how it comes out because it’s the committee’s decision,” NCAA vice president Greg Shaheen said. “I don’t think it (the time frame) has changed at all. I think it remains on the course that it has been.”

Committee chair Dan Guerrero has said that a decision would be made this summer and that the new format is still expected to be in place for the 2011 tournament.

Smith, who replaces Guerrero, UCLA’s athletic director, as selection committee chair later this year, wouldn’t even guess at what will happen this week.

Last month, Guerrero said putting the eight lowest-seeded teams in the opening-round games would help the selection committee stay “true to the seed process”—though he understands why some leagues are worried. Committee members also must determine when and where the opening-round games will be played. Previous games have been played in Dayton, Ohio.

And with so many schools and conferences trying to score points in this debate, nobody can be sure of what will happen next.

“It’s going to be very interesting when we get the full report,” Hickey said. “What we have to see is how our principles are written, how our entertainment principles are written and then look at what’s best for the tournament and, most important, what’s best for the student-athlete. So it should be an interesting discussion.”

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Warfield retires as Browns adviser

admin — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 03:17:41 +0000

Associated Press

BEREA, Ohio — Browns Hall of Fame wide receiver Paul Warfield has retired from his position in Cleveland’s front office.

Paul Warfield retires as Browns adviser

Warfield has served as a senior adviser to the club’s general manager for the past six seasons. He previously worked as a director of player relations with the Browns.

Warfield’s retirement comes one week after the team stripped Jim Brown of his title as executive adviser. Brown had served as a consultant for Browns owner Randy Lerner the past few years. He will remain involved with the team.

Warfield played for Cleveland from 1964-69. He was enshrined in Canton in 1983, following a 13-year career with the Browns and Miami Dolphins. He finished with 427 catches for 8,565 yards and 85 touchdowns.

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Wooden’s final days filled with love

admin — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 14:33:29 +0000

Associated Press

UCLA’s legendary former basketball coach John Wooden, who in 27 years led his teams to stunning triumphs and was just as well known for mentoring his players off the court and for his motivational “Pyramid of Success,” died at 6:45 p.m. of natural causes. He was 99. His 100th birthday would have been Oct. 14.

LOS ANGELES (AP)—Jamaal Wilkes answered his phone a week ago and heard Michael Warren’s voice urging him to get to the hospital to see John Wooden.

The former UCLA coach and Hall of Famer had been in and out of the hospital in recent years, but this time, it was different.

Warren told Wilkes that Wooden might be nearing the end of his inspiring life. A few days later, a grave Bill Walton called Wilkes, saying, “Jamaal, you need to get over here.”

So Wilkes headed to campus to see his 99-year-old former coach, one of many long-ago UCLA basketball greats who gathered at Wooden’s bedside in his final days to say farewell.

“There were lots of people coming through,” said Keith Erickson, who starred on the 1964 and ’65 national title teams. “Everybody wanted to give their last regards to him and let him know for sure that we had been there and how much we loved him.”

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, known as Lew Alcindor in his college days, rushed back from Europe, reaching Wooden’s side hours before he died Friday night. Gary Cunningham, a player, assistant under Wooden and later head coach of the Bruins, cut short a vacation in the Sierra Nevada. Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre, a longtime friend, came by, too.

“It was very sweet,” said Andy Hill, a reserve on UCLA’s national championship teams in 1970, ’71 and ’72. “I got to tell him he can leave, but he really can’t because he’s in all of us.”

Erickson spent a few minutes with Wooden on Wednesday night, tenderly holding the long, bony fingers of his mentor’s hand.

“When I spoke to him, he opened his eyes just a little bit and got a little bit of a smile,” he said. “He talked a little bit, but I couldn’t tell what he was saying.”

By Friday, though, Erickson said it was evident the end was near. Wooden didn’t respond to anyone in the room, resting with his pale blue eyes closed, hours away from his long awaited reunion with his late wife Nell.

“They had a very, very close relationship. I’m sure today John is a happy person,” said Gene Bartow, who had the unenviable task of succeeding Wooden in Westwood.

Erickson reminisced Saturday under the 11 national championship banners hanging in a quiet Pauley Pavilion, taking solace in knowing that Wooden was no longer in pain.

“The last couple years he was not happy. He didn’t want to go through this, but he was a fighter,” he said. “He went two years longer than anybody thought he could and he kept getting real sick and he came back.”

Walton didn’t join Saturday’s informal player gathering on Nell and John Wooden Court at Pauley Pavilion.

“The joy and happiness in Coach Wooden’s life came from the success and accomplishments of others. He never let us forget what he learned from his two favorite teachers, Abraham Lincoln and Mother Teresa, “that a life not lived for others is not a life,”’ Walton said in a statement released by the university.

“I thank John Wooden everyday for all his selfless gifts, his lessons, his time, his vision and especially his faith and patience. This is why our eternal love for him will never fade away. This is why we call him ‘Coach.”’

Wilkes, Cunningham, Erickson, Hill, and Marques Johnson traded handshakes and hugs not far from a wreath of red carnations, red roses and white roses sprayed Bruin blue that rested next to Wooden’s seat in the second row behind UCLA’s bench. Overhead hung the blue and gold banner signifying UCLA’s 1975 national championship, Wooden’s record 10th and last.

President Barack Obama said Saturday he was saddened to hear of “the passing of an incredible coach, and an even better man, John Wooden. … As an American, I salute the way he achieved all that success with modesty, and humility, and by wholeheartedly dedicating his life to the betterment of others.”

Like Wooden, who starred at Purdue, Larry Bird became an Indiana basketball legend. The Indiana Pacers president said in a statement, “John Wooden, basketball, Indiana. One doesn’t go without the others.”

Denny Crum played for Wooden from 1956-58, then served as his assistant on three NCAA title teams before leaving to coach Louisville in 1971.

“Coach never talked about winning, ever,” he said. “His theory was that you get the guys in shape, you teach ‘em the fundamentals and then you get ‘em to play together. And he did that better than anybody.

“If you asked him what he did, he’d tell you he was a teacher. That’s what he did. He was really good at that.”

Erickson recalled practices in the old men’s gym were no-nonsense under Wooden.

“He’d blow that whistle and everybody would turn,” he said. “He’d say, “Goodness gracious sakes alive,’ and everybody knew they were in trouble.”

That was Wooden’s version of an expletive. “Fourteen years together and I never heard him use a swear word once,” Cunningham said.

Nearby, Wilkes rested his lanky body in a chair, arms folded across his chest, his eyes focused upward at the banners in the rafters.

“His aura isn’t going to be hanging over the place, but he’s still coaching up in heaven,” he said. “He’s doing his thing, he’s got his notecards, he’s running drills and making them better angels up there.”

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Hall of Famer Jim Brown out as advisor

admin — Fri, 28 May 2010 13:06:09 +0000

Associated Press

CLEVELAND — One of the NFL’s greatest ball carriers, Jim Brown has been stripped of his title.

Jim Brown is no longer an official executive adviser for the Cleveland Browns.

The Hall of Fame running back is no longer an official executive adviser for the Cleveland Browns, the team he played for during his entire stellar career. Brown had served as a consultant for the Browns and team owner Randy Lerner for the past few years.

Brown’s title has been dropped, but the Brown of all Browns will still be involved with the team, spokesman Neal Gulkis said Thursday.

Gulkis said Brown recently met with new team president Mike Holmgren, and the pair agreed that Brown will not have an official role. The 74-year-old Brown will remain active in various programs, Gulkis said. He spoke to the team’s rookies during their recent minicamp.

Brown rushed for 12,312 yards during his famed career with the Browns from 1957-65. He retired as the league’s leading rusher, and Brown still holds several team records. His No. 32 was retired by Cleveland in 1971, when he was enshrined in Canton, Ohio.

Despite a back problem that forces him to use a cane, Brown has been a fixture at Cleveland’s summer training camp in recent years. In April, he took the stage at New York’s Radio City Music Hall and announced one of the Browns selections in the NFL draft.

Brown has maintained close ties to Cleveland since retiring. He has been a social activist since leaving the game and remains outspoken on almost any topic. Last week in a radio interview, Brown came to the defense of Cavaliers superstar LeBron James by saying the NBA’s two-time MVP was being treated unfairly by fans after the team was eliminated from the playoffs.

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