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March Through Madness

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Mark Starr

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Though it's March Madness, We Know April is the Coolest Month

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March gets all the ink, and the fancy "Madness" nickname, but as a top-to-bottom sports fan, I'm finding myself much more partial to April. We get the Final Four and the national title game, then the Masters just a few days later. And wrapped all around...

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Teams to Root for--and Against

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Posted Thursday, March 27, 2008 11:11 AM

Teams to Root for--and Against

Mark Starr
I figure that by now I am pretty typical of most tournament fans. I never really believed I was going to win the pool, so my rooting interest becomes idiosyncratically personal--either for or against a team, coach, player, state, guy I once knew, girl who dumped me. In other words, I go very scientific. And if I lack any good reason to root for or against, I tend to go with the underdog.

Here are teams I'm for:

  • Stanford: I went to grad school there and, while I never went to a single basketball game, Stanford gave me my first taste of big-time college sports, namely football. The young among you are probably laughing, but once upon a time that was not an absurd statement. My stint coincided with the Jim Plunkett era (Plunkett would go to the Patriots as the #1 pick in the 1970 draft and later win a Super Bowl with the Raiders). Stanford won back-to-back Rose Bowls, one with Plunkett and another with Don Bunce at quarterback, over #1-ranked, undefeated and, as usual, overrated Big Ten teams, Ohio State and Michigan respectively.
  • Michigan State: They were my Final Four sleeper and, if you can't win your pool, nothing impresses like picking the outsider in the Final Four.
  • Villanova: More than 20 years later, my hat is still off to Villanova for the great upset over Patrick Ewing and Georgetown for the 1985 basketball championship. My favorite player on that team was Ed Pinckney, a great college player and a serviceable pro who lasted a dozen seasons in the NBA and averaged more than 12 points a game for his career. His sister, Cheryl, used to work in the photography department at Newsweek and was a lovely lady.
  • Davidson: It isn't just that I am charmed by Stephen Curry, though you got to love a guy who can drill it from downtown and still stops to kiss his mom on his way onto the court after halftime. But I actually remember the great Lefty Driesell teams of the '60s there and, for reasons that I can't remotely recall, became a big fan of the school's biggest star, Fred Hetzel. That won't trigger a lot of memories, but he was a two-time All-American and the first pick overall in the '65 NBA draft. He only lasted seven seasons in the NBA, but he averaged 18.9 points and 9.9 rebounds a game with the pros, numbers that would earn him an eight-figure salary today.
  • Wisconsin: So many of my friends went to Wisconsin in the '60s (and my brother-in-law went there later) that I have always had great affection for Madison and the Badgers. Besides, almost 30 years ago I had a memorable dinner at a restaurant called Ovens of Brittany. My dining companion ordered a German white that he didn't really like. I asked him if he wanted to send it back. He said, 'No, let's just drink it fast and try a different one." RIP Sean Toolan, killed covering Beirut in 1981.
  • Memphis: I know John Calipari is a little too slick (OK, a lot too slick), but his UMass teams were some of my favorites ever. I owe him something for the great entertainment.
  • Washington State: I was doing a story on decathlete Dan O'Brien who lived in Moscow, Idaho, but did his training for field events across the border on the Cougars campus. On a dank, drizzly, chilled afternoon, O'Brien tossed discuses while I gathered them and skittered them back (throwing them more than 20 feet was beyond my capability). Had I not been there, O'Brien, later an Olympic gold medallist, would have been fetching his own. I learned a lot that afternoon about just what it takes to attain greatness.
  • Louisville: Two of my favorite all-time players--Darrell Griffith and Wes Unseld. And I've got a soft spot for the Big East.
  • Tennessee: Once there were immortals like Red Auerbach and Red Holtzman, but the Jewish basketball coach is now a dying breed. I give you Bruce Pearl.

You will note that some of these "fors" are in direct conflict. And sometimes I don't know which team I'm rooting for until the game begins and my gut tells me. But here are teams I'm against:

  • UCLA: They made my college years boring by winnning every single time. No wonder I didn't go to a basketball game at Stanford. The Bruins have enough hardware to last until the next millennium.
  • Kansas: Our buddy Coatney just wants this one too bad. Lacking a passion for a team, nothing can get the juices flowing like the misery of a friend. Kansas is my schadenfreude special.
  • West Virginia: I actually like this team, but the whole state acted appallingly when football coach Rich Rodriguez left for Michigan. (They weren't all that upset when Bob Huggins skipped out on Kansas State after just one season to coach basketball at his alma mater, West Virginia.) There has to be some punishment meted out for fans' bad behavior so I'm rooting for the Mountaineers to provide some mild disappointment.
  • North Carolina: In truth, I have nothing against Dean Smith, Michael Jordan, Tyler Hansbrough or Carolina blue. But they are royalty and I am strictly a proletarian. Now that Devin is miserable about Duke, I can join him in hoping that nobody at Carolina gets to be happy either.
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