Lee Lowenfish

Wisconsin basketball has surprised the pundits and even many loyal fans like yours truly by making the Sweet 16 of the NCAA basketball tournament for the fourth year in a row. To make matters even sweeter, their chance to make a third Final Four in the last four seasons will take place at Madison Square Garden starting Friday March 24.

Funny how things work out in unpredictable sports. With four seniors in the starting lineup plus the gifted redshirt sophomore Ethan Happ (a guard in a forward's body), the Badgers were supposed to contend for both a Big Ten title and a deep run through March Madness.

Then calamity hit late in the regular season as Wisconsin lost five out of their six Big Ten games ceding the league title to Purdue and their player-of-year candidate Caleb Swanigan. The return to health of senior guard Bronson Koenig helped get Wisconsin out of their funk and they won their first two games in the Big Ten tournament.

They did lose the title game to Michigan that joins them in the Sweet 16 along with Purdue. Watch out for Michigan that survived a near-plane crash on the way to the Big Ten tournament to become a force to be reckoned with.

Bravos in order for a supposedly mediocre Big 10 while the ballyhooed Atlantic Coast Conference started the tourney with 9 teams and they are down to one, North Carolina who were lucky to beat Arkansas in the second round.

According to the website uwbadgers.com, there will be an open practice at MSG for the Badgers on Thursday at 1p. I intend to go and will report back after the games.
I say "games" because if Wisconsin beats Florida starting at 10p Fri on TBS, they play in the final against either Baylor or South Carolina on Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile the World Baseball Classic winds up at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Wednesday night March 22. Puerto Rico nipped the Kingdom of Netherlands on Monday night taking advantage of the bizarre rule that starts the 11th inning with runners automatically on first and second base and no out.

Puerto Rico will face either USA or defending champion Japan. They are squaring off on Tuesday night March 21. Regardless of the result, Team USA has already experienced a great moment when Adam Jones robbed Manny Machado of a home run that kept the lead for USA and ultimately eliminated the DR team.

It was a special moment for at least two reasons. Jones and Machado are teammates on my Orioles but Manny decided to honor his mother's country of birth by playing for the DR team. Manny tipped his cap to Jones for his great catch as the USA avenged the DR's dramatic victory in Miami a week earlier.

From all I've heard and read, the atmosphere at Marlins Stadium was unlike anything ever experienced. A largely Dominican sold-out crowd were celebrating their heroes and the game of baseball from hours before the first pitch to hours afterward.

The DR team roared back from a 5-0 deficit to win 7-5, thanks in big part to a 3-run home run by Seattle Mariner Nelson Cruz over his former Oriole teammate Andrew Miller (now with Cleveland).

There are a lot of problems with the timing and the mechanisms of the WBC. But the great moments have made it worthwhile, especially when you consider the boredom and increasingly superficiality of most spring training games.

Well, that's all for now. Always remember: Take it easy but take it!
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I have my rooting passions as readers of this blog well know. It's the Orioles big time in baseball and we'll see if they will confound the nouveau stat-crazed pundits (hereafter cited as NSCP) who always confine them to the nether regions of the AL East yet again in 2017.

Too early to tell with the season opening nearly a month away. Just hope the O's World Baseball Classic participants stay healthy as they depart to their national teams: Jonathan Schoop to Netherlands-Curacao team; Wellington Castillo and Manny Machado to Dominican Republic team; Adam Jones and Mychal Givens to Team USA.

My rooting chops have stayed fresh pulling for the Wisconsin Badgers and Columbia Lions in basketball. Wisconsin like the Orioles has always been a "less is more" kind of team - no superstars or "one and done" recruits heading to the pros, but a team of good players who are less than 5-star recruits who know the importance of defense and ball movement.

So it was maddening to see Wisconsin lose five out of six at a time when they should be getting fine-tuned for post-season play. So it was nice on Sunday March 5's Senior
Night sendoff that the Badgers played a solid second half to rout Minnesota, 66-49.

The Golden Gophers had been winners of eight in a row and led by two at intermission. But after being limited with foul trouble to five minutes in the first half, sharpshooting senior guard Bronson Koenig played a big role in the Badgers' second half surge. As did his three senior teammates Vitto Brown, Nigel Hayes, and Zak Showalter.

Coach Greg Gard gave credit to freshman backup D'Mitrik Trice for keeping the game close while Koenig was saddled with two early fouls . Gard praised Trice, a heralded high school quarterback, for having rare leadership skills in someone so young.

"I've always told him that if you can lead 10 men in a huddle, you can lead four men on a basketball court," Gard quipped.

But Gard still has no solution for the horrid foul shooting that has permeated the whole team, especially Hayes and key sophomore forward-center Ethan Happ. He has suggested that the woes might only be settled by incense burning and the incantations that were used in the baseball satire "Major League."

Sadly, on Saturday night March 4, Columbia lost its chance to squeeze into the fourth and last spot in the Ivy League's first-ever post-season tournament. They played Yale hard in New Haven, but the Bulldogs rallied from a 13-point first half deficit to win by four points.

Penn won the final spot by coming from behind to beat Harvard, 75-72, on their storied home court of the Palestra in Philadelphia. The Quakers will meet top seed Princeton, undefeated in league play, on Saturday and Harvard and Yale will play the other game with the winners meeting on Sunday. All games will be at the Palestra as will the women's tourney featuring favored Penn plus Princeton, Harvard, and Cornell.

I have problems with a 6-8 team like Penn making the men's playoff. It would be purer competition if Princeton were awarded with a bye for their sterling record. And let Yale and Harvard meet for the right to battle the Tigers with no fourth seed for a small eight-team league.

League officials will meet in May to see how the first tourney worked out.
My guess is that they'll keep it this way for both men's and women's tournament for another year or two. It would be nice though if people thought of rewarding the regular season winner with something special.

Well, that's all for now. Always remember: Take it easy but take it!
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