Wednesday, April 7, 2010

May I be afforded just one observation about Duke’s 61-59 win over Butler for the NCAA men’s basketball title? Don’t tell me how great the game was. It wasn’t great, but boy was it entertaining. Butler shot 34 percent from the field, following a 33 percent effort against Michigan State. That’s not "great." But it was off the charts for fun to watch. And the better team did win.

One more reason that Major League Baseball may be in trouble. The UConn-Baylor women’s semifinal basketball game of the Final Four Sunday night returned a higher television rating than did the Red Sox-Yankees season-opening baseball game.
No surprise that former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow has signed a contract with Nike to wear their shoes and apparel. The annual payoff to the former Gator starts at $300,000 and is loaded with incentives.
 

And speaking of the Gators, Florida coach Urban Meyer says he plans on using two quarterbacks this fall. John Brantley will be the starter, but he plans on inserting freshman quarterback Trey Burton on short yardage situations.
 

The ACC is down in basketball? Just a minute. Over the past 10 years, the national championship has gone to the ACC five times. The Big East and the SEC have two and the Big 12 one.
 

What more could you ask for? The Atlanta Braves rookie phenom Jason Hayward hit a three-run homer during his first major league at-bat Monday as the Braves overpowered the Chicago Cubs, then had a run-scoring single in the eighth.
 

Football writer Matt Hayes of SportingNews Today.com says the top five stars in college football next season should be Blaine Gabbert, quarterback, Missouri; Vontaze Burfict, linebacker, Arizona State; Jared Crick, defensive tackle, Nebraska; Allen Bradford, tailback, Southern Cal, and Michael Floyd, wide receiver, Notre Dame.
 

I was absolutely bamboozled by the news that Oliver Purnell quit Clemson to take the head basketball job at DePaul. Purnell had taken the Tigers to three straight NCAA tourneys and had them competitive in the ACC. Purnell is the latest in a line of pretty fair coaches who have left - for whatever reasons - Bill Foster, Cliff Ellis and Rick Barnes.
 

This is Norman Arey wondering who’ll be the first to try to hire Butler’s Brad Stevens.