Three Point Play

SHOOTS

Anyone else as excited about the NCAA tournament as I am? Not the basketball version, which is undoubtedly the hot topic for the next few weeks, but the co-ed sewing competition. Every year around this time, some of the best young sewers our nation has to offer converge on one lucky city and compete in various sewing challenges, the fastest and most creative advancing to the next round, culminating in a final, weekend-long sew fest that requires the final four participants to sew together a life-sized version of each of their respective three competitors.

This year promises to be the most exciting NCAA Coed Sew Fest in some time. The favorites are the four seniors from Hofstra. Recruited from the same area in the sewing-rich town of Asheville, North Carolina, the Super Sewers, as they are known to the sewing world, have won an unprecedented 420 competitions in a row, including four conference titles and three national titles. They will face the 32nd seed in the Northsouth bracket, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, led by true freshwomen Sue Shue, first team all-American from Cincinnati, Ohio.

I cannot wait to arrive in Lincoln, Nebraska for the festivities. It’s sure to be a sew storm.

While there is no sew fest I am aware of, any tournament, and therefore, bracket, brings out the best in me (I brushed my teeth for an extra minute this morning), as it should bring out the best in all of us. This is especially true when the winner of the tournament is recognized as the champion of the sport.

Now if we could only get NCAA basketball’s cousin, NCAA football, to concur, then the world would be a better place.


SCORES

Have the NBA playoffs already started? I must ask, as I see Heat-Spurs, followed by Magic-Lakers on tap for tonight. How exhilarating would it be if the playoffs did start, and these match-ups were actual playoff-or post-season-games?

After sweeping the season-series against Los Angeles and routing a strong Memphis team last week, Miami has a chance to jump another hurdle by defeating the league-leading San Antonio Spurs.

The Spurs have been rolling all year, although it is tough to imagine 63-year-old Tim Duncan leading his team to another post-season trophy-hoisting triumph. The big three of Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili were the core of three of Gregg Popovich’s four championships. The international trio epitomized team basketball as they proved will can overcome skill, time after playoff victory time. Sure, Parker is one of the quickest players in the league and Ginobili will still dunk on your head if you fall for one of his misdirection dribbles, but in order for this year’s San Antonio squad to relive past glory, the big man in the middle must play like it’s 1999.

The Heat are still searching for half the chemistry the Spurs possess, and a victory at home ten days after being humiliated on national television in Texas can go a long, long way toward producing some of that championship glue which is necessary for any successful team.

No matter the result, Miami should take a chapter from San Antonio’s book and apply it as their own. If they do, the rest will be history.



AND 1.

Tiger Woods shot a six-under par sixty-six in the final round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship at the Doral Resort and Spa in Miami. His performance did not put him in contention for a victory, but it was a beneficial outing as he tunes up for this year’s Masters in April.

That is correct: -6, 66.

While Tiger should not be compared to the angel of destruction, his goatee seems more natural now, as does his all-black golf attire he has worn more readily for the past year or so.

Sports needs villains. How perfectly ironic would it be for former poster boys Woods and LeBron James to transform from corporate puppets to methodical maniacal madmen while dominating their respective sports for the rest of the decade?

Grand Slam? Three-peat(s)?

In the current soap-opera world of big time sports, where we know more about our characters than ever before, Tiger and LeBron can write an epic script that enables us to root for the ‘villain’ without the normal feelings of guilt piercing through our soul.

What have they done to deserve this backlash, anyway?

One cheated on his wife, and the other took his talents to….taking less money while forming what could be the greatest dynasty in all of sports.

Oh did they? That’s despicable. I say lock them up and throw away the gate-opener.