Keyboard Quarterbacks

By Mark La Monica

Here's a suggestion for all the exceptional, well-above-average and above-average college basketball underclassmen who are considering making the jump to the NBA this season: Don't do it.

Please don't misunderstand here. This has nothing to do with harmonizing on the sanctity of the phrase "scholar-athlete" and how not playing all four years in college is a detriment to the school and how some other poor sap with wicked chemistry fundamentals but no mid-range jumper would be better served with that scholarship money.

Far from it. This is about looking at life from a slightly different point of view.

Stay in school. Enjoy the beauty of college a little while longer. At least for one more year. There are no housing issues to worry about. Very few bills to pay. You're safe on campus.

Once you leave college, life changes. Doesn't matter if you're an athlete or not. It's about managing other people's expectations. In college, a panty raid on a sorority house is called "a prank." In the real world, it's called "breaking and entering" and "fined by the league."

The NBA money isn't going anywhere and it's not like UNC sophomore Tyler Hansbrough, Texas freshman Kevin Durant, Ohio State freshman Greg Oden, Florida junior Al Horford and all the others will have to repay any student loans. So, you've got a few more classes to consider attending. I know, I know, thumbing through the course handbook to register for an extra two semesters of classes can be a chore, but think of all the extra pep rallies, booster club dinners and television interviews you'll get to do. Plus, free meal plan!

Be the big man on campus for another season. You'll be praised by everyone in town. Students. Teachers. Advisors. Local business owners. Citizens in the community.

The media spends the entire season discussing the non-conference schedule, followed by the in-conference performance, followed by the conference tournament and who did enough to earn the No. 1 seed and who's on the bubble. That's seven more months of mostly positive exposure.

NCAA basketball is more of a national sport than the NBA. Everyone and their mother, literally, knows about "the brackets." Very few mothers ask if the Bucks beat the Hornets last Tuesday. Even in Milwaukee!

That's the often unappreciated aspect of being a big-time college star. The best college towns live and breathe with their teams. It's completely acceptable for a business to close and post a sign on its door reading "Will open up after the game" in a college town. Try that in a pro town. It doesn't fly.

A recent poll conducted by SI.com on Campus showed that 36 percent of students said their college's athletic reputation was a "significant factor" in deciding to go to the school. Another 34 percent said it was a "small factor" and 30 percent said it was "no factor."

Basically, fellas, seven out of every 10 students in your classes are there because you are. What more could you possibly ask for?

Fans of pro teams don't care that you caught your girlfriend cheating on you with some drunk fraternity dude. Fans of college teams do care. They'll ask if you want them to beat up the drunk fraternity dude. They may even accidentally fail the drunk fraternity dude on a test. Fans of pro teams are the drunk fraternity dude.

College fans travel. Pro fans rarely do. When you're on the road and you can look into the crowd and see a whole section of fans wearing your school colors, that's pretty cool. That doesn't happen in the NBA.

And consider this: being the coveted prize in the NBA Draft is not as cool and hip as it sounds. Sure, it's nice to say and it looks good on your player bio on the team's Web site, but that team was one of the 14 worst in the league last season. And likely the season before that, too. And the one after it. Since the NBA Draft Lottery was implemented in 1985, 60.2 percent of the teams in the lottery one year qualified for the lottery the following year (147 out of 244).*

Once you hit the lottery and get drafted by a marginal team, you'll toil in anonymity in such Orbitz Getaway Vacation Package destinations as Portland, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, and of course, the effervescent Las Vegas-esque city of Salt Lake.

If you all wait another year, your draft class could be more competitive. Better to wait until a draft class looks deeper than Bill Gates' pockets and get drafted by a better team.

Soak up the pageantry of college basketball. Bask in its stately Xanadu. It captures the heart, mind and spirit of fans. Let it do the same to you.

* Total number reflects teams who earned a lottery pick prior to previous trade obligations.

By Karen Bailis

“Are you serious?! Are you serious!!”

It wasn’t a question, really. More of a demand. It was directed at the opposing women’s basketball player who had foolishly tried to take one of the best college players on the planet to the hole. But it also was a challenge to her own teammates, as if to say, “If y’all aren’t here to win a championship, go home.”

“Are you serious?! Are you serious!!”

Yes, Tennessee’s Candace Parker turned John McEnroe’s catchphrase on its head. “You cannot be serious!” doesn’t do it anymore.

Midway through the first half of Tuesday night’s Dayton Regional final, Mississippi’s 5-4 guard Shantell Black lost her mind during a fastbreak with 6-4 Parker by her side. Black drove to the basket and shot, and Parker, whose wingspan is longer than Black is tall, swatted the ball to Cleveland, the site of the Final Four.

Parker stood on the endline and glowered, shouting, “Are you serious?!” toward Black, meaning, “Don’t bring that &%@$# in here!” Then, as Parker’s teammates surrounded her, she said it again, more emphatically, “Are you serious!!” Six-time NCAA champion Tennessee hasn’t won it all since 1998, she implied, let’s do it!

Indeed, they were serious. They swatted Mississippi from their path to the Final Four as if the Rebels were gnats. The final score, 98-62, the largest margin ever in a regional final. Tennessee will meet co-No. 1 seed North Carolina on Sunday, after the Tar Heels took out Purdue, 84-72, in the most competitive regional final of the tournament.

Tennessee divorced No. 7 Mississippi from any hopes of an upset practically from the tip. Point guard Shannon Bobbitt hit a couple of three-pointers in the opening minute, freeing up the inside for Parker, who went to work from there. She had 14 points, nine rebounds, four blocked shots and three assists in the first half. The leading contender for player-of-the-year honors was a human highlight reel. Though she played only 25 minutes, she amassed 24 points, 14 rebounds, five blocks and three steals.

Parker, despite being listed as a guard, forward and center, did not have to do it all. Forward Sidney Spencer contributed 22 points, Bobbitt finished with 14, shooting 3-3 from three, and Alberta Auguste had 12 points off the bench.

In contrast, guard Armintie Price of Mississippi scored 30 points. The rest of the team scored 32, and Ashley Awkward had 14 of them. Mississippi never had a chance to get into its trapping defense that had averaged 25 forced turnovers, including 14 steals per game through the season. Price leads the nation in steals, with 131.

It’s too bad the nation didn’t get more chances to see her put her full set of skills on display. The senior’s record-breaking career has been overshadowed by other stellar players in the SEC, including Parker and LSU’ Seimone Augustus, now in the WNBA, and Sylvia Fowles. But Price, at 5-9 originally recruited for track and field, has reached heights only one other player has. During Sunday’s win over Oklahoma, she joined the great Cheryl Miller as the only players in the NCAA to record 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, 400 assists and 400 steals.

Parker has been compared to greats like Miller, a two-time champion at USC, and Tennessee stars Chamique Holdsclaw, a three-time champ, and Tamika Catchings, also a tournament champ. But Parker wants to hear none of those superlative comparisons until she wins a championship. She says she’s not in their league – yet.

“Are you serious?!” “Are you serious!!”

So Parker has some unfinished business. Hey, she’s still just a sophomore in eligibility. She has time. But she wants it now.

First, the Vols must get past North Carolina, no easy task. The Tar Heels knocked the Vols out of the tournament last year in the Elite Eight, and they beat Tennessee in December, 70-57. Parker scored 27 and had 10 rebounds, but no one else hit double figures. North Carolina had a more balanced attack, led by versatile forward Erlana Larkins, with 17 points and 12 rebounds. The matchup between Parker and Larkins will be intriguing, but it will take defensive stoppers LaToya Pringle and Rashanda McCants to try to contain her. And while they’re double- and triple-teaming her, Spencer, Alexis Hornbuckle and Bobbitt will go to work. If they work like they have in the tournament so far, they’ll have North Carolina on their heels.

“Are you serious?!” “Are you serious!!”

In the other half of the Final Four, LSU takes on Rutgers in what will unquestionably be a defensive battle. Of those two, LSU has the best chance of taking down Tennessee. They’ve not only proven to be incredibly focused through a storm of controversy, but they know Tennessee well. Tennessee beat them during the regular season, but LSU shut down Tennessee in the SEC Tournament. Fowles and company held Parker to four points. Four points.

“Are you serious?!” “Are you serious!!”

By Karen Bailis

Two No. 1s down, two to go.

No. 1 seed Connecticut’s women’s basketball team got taken apart in the Fresno regional final, 70-53, by a resilient LSU team, which played like it had something to prove. And it did. LSU, a No. 3 seed, is going to its fourth straight Final Four. Earlier, No. 4 seed Rutgers didn’t let the Sun Devils of Arizona State see the light of day, knocking them off with relative ease, 64-45, to advance to the Final Four in Cleveland after having shocked overall No. 1 Duke on Saturday in the Sweet 16.

Rutgers becomes the lowest seed to reach the Final Four since 2004. Still, if No. 7 seed Mississippi topples mighty No. 1 Tennessee tonight, the Rebels could supplant Rutgers for that distinction. Also still in the mix is No. 1 North Carolina, which faces No. 2 Purdue.

Connecticut and LSU are a study in contrasts. Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma has won five national championships. LSU’s acting head coach, Bob Starkey, has coached four games – all in the tournament, all wins. This is the third straight season that Connecticut has not advanced to a Final Four. LSU joins UConn, Tennessee and Louisiana Tech as the only teams to reach four straight. Still, they haven’t won a semifinal yet. Auriemma has been head coach at UConn for 22 years. LSU has gone to the four Finals Fours under three different head coaches.

In a pre-game news conference, Starkey, who took over after Pokey Chatman resigned March 7, was asked to compare himself to Auriemma. He sang the praises of the Hall of Fame coach, conceding Auriemma is the better coach, dresses better, is better looking, has a better sense of humor. Auriemma, always cocky and outspoken, agreed. But he pointed out one area where Starkey gets the upper hand.

“He’s got Sylvia Fowles,” he said.

Nuff said.

For most of the 2003 and 2004 seasons, Auriemma, when asked to assess his team’s chances against any and all opponents, would crow, “We’ve got Diana Taurasi, and they don’t.”

It was all he had to say. Most teams couldn’t contain the super-human guard. Whenever a big shot needed to be made, she’d make it – from anywhere on the court. She was virtually unmatched, especially in the big games. But the Huskies haven’t gone to a Final Four since she graduated.

So, now it’s, “LSU has Sylvia Fowles, and they don’t.”

Fowles was the difference. She finished with 23 points, 15 rebounds, 6 blocks and 3 steals. She was practically a one-woman team, dominating on both sides of the ball. At 6-6, she’s wiry and athletic, with tremendous body control and quickness.

Fowles locked down UConn’s Big East Freshman of the Year, Tina Charles, holding her to 1 point and 3 rebounds in 21 minutes of play. After a thundering block by Fowles on Charles midway through the first half, the Christ the King product wasn’t the same. Charles had scored 17 points and 9 rebounds in UConn’s 72-71 win over LSU in February in Baton Rouge.

It wasn’t just Charles who was ineffective; UConn couldn’t get anything going in the paint – LSU outscored UConn, 28-10 in the paint -- or much of anywhere else. LSU has the No. 1 scoring defense in country, and the Tigers played a sagging defense that held UConn to 33 percent shooting, with only two Huskies reaching double figures. Guard Renee Montgomery battled to keep her team in it, and finished with 17. Mel Thomas was 3-for-5 on three-point shooting and finished with 13 points.

The Tigers, on the other hand, were fierce. Aside from Fowles, three other players hit double figures, with Allison Hightower coming off the bench to 3-for-4 from three and total 12 points. Forward Ashley Thomas also had 12 and point guard Erica White, barely 5-foot-3, scored 11.

White and Fowles have been the picture of toughness and leadership since Chatman left the team abruptly amid allegations of improper relationships with former players. The juniors on this junior-laden squad – there are no seniors – have weathered the illness and subsequent death in 2005 of their beloved coach, Sue Gunter. Many team members and the coach staff had been personally affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. And then Chatman resigned on the eve of the tournament. Starkey and assistants Carla Berry and Christie Sides have kept the team focused, and the team believes in Starkey, a longtime assistant for the women’s and men’s teams. Fowles has put the team on her broad shoulders, and together they’re ready to take on anyone.

“We won’t let anyone break us,” White said.

Rutgers will certainly test them. C. Vivian Stringer – the only coach to take three different teams to the Final Four and now going for the fourth time – finally has her young Scarlet Knights team on the same page and it’s in the defensive playbook. Stringer-coached teams like to win ugly, in low-scoring, grinding, gutty, defensive battles. Duke had averaged 80 points on the season – had even beaten Rutgers, 84-45, back in December -- but the much-improved Scarlet Knights eliminated the Blue Devils, 53-52. They held ASU to 45, allowing only one player, guard Briann January, to reach double figures, with 12.

Rutgers shocked UConn in the Big East final, dictating the plodding defensive pace just s they did against Duke. Not to say Rutgers doesn’t have offensive weapons. Regional MVP Matee Ajavon is averaging 17 points in the tournament, and the junior point guard takes over when offense is needed. Sophomore center Kia Vaughn, a big 6-foot-4, is the Scarlet Knights’ best chance to try to neutralize Fowles, but she’ll need help. As UConn found out, putting one player on her isn’t going to do it.

When Rutgers (26-8) and LSU (30-7) meet Sunday in Cleveland, it’d be a shock if either team cracks 50, but it won’t be a shock that Fowles will dominate and, with Fowles, LSU will win.

By Karen Bailis

Ding, dong, the witch is dead.

Well, not dead. Penn State women’s basketball coach and avowed homophobe Rene Portland has resigned. Good riddance.

Yes, in her 27 years as coach of the Nittany Lions, she brought the program to national prominence, earning more than 600 wins and taking her team to the Final Four in 2000, but she also cloaked the program in a veil of shame. She was a pioneer as a player – she played for tiny Immaculata College in the 1970s when it was a three-time national champion – and as a coach and touched the lives of many in a positive way, but she’ll be remembered for her intimidation tactics, discriminatory behavior and refusal to admit wrongdoing – or change.

Dating back to the 1980s, she was quoted more than once unashamedly proclaiming that she wouldn’t tolerate lesbians on her team. And yet she kept her job.

It wasn’t until 2005, when a suit was brought against Portland and the university by a player dismissed from the team, that the school finally took some punitive action. The player, Jennifer Harris, alleged that Portland discriminated against her based on race and her perceived sexual orientation, and that the coach asked her to look more feminine. The case was settled out of court in February, and the terms were not disclosed. After an internal investigation, Penn State fined Portland $10,000, finding she had created a “hostile, intimidating and offensive environment” for Harris based on what Portland perceived to be her sexual orientation. And still she kept her job.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating for my continued incredulity that a state university with a non-discrimination clause – rewritten by the faculty senate to include sexual orientation AFTER Portland’s anti-lesbian comments were published for a second time – would not fire an employee, a high-profile one at that, a molder of young women, for what appears to be blatant discrimination. Substitute any other group for “lesbian,” blacks, Jews, Muslims, Asians, Italians, and Portland would have been canned a long time ago.

John Amaechi, the recently out retired NBA center who played at and graduated from Penn State, addressed the Portland issue in an interview with me before the resignation. “If you’re serious about winning, then you won’t discriminate,” Amaechi said. “I went to Penn State. Penn State is always about excellence. If you’re not about excellence, then you shouldn’t be at Penn State.”

I asked him if he was saying Portland should be fired, and he replied, “I’m just saying what I said. If you’re the kind of person who would say no to the next Sheryl Swoopes, then you’re not serious about winning and that seems incongruent to the idea of Penn State.”

PSU Athletic director Tim Curley says Portland was not pressured to resign. That’s disappointing. When I first saw the news, I thought the university finally had seen the light and given her a not-so-gentle prod out the door. After all, there are a number of high-profile coaching vacancies – Texas, Florida, Louisville, LSU (which I’ll address later) – it figured that Penn State would want to get on line now before some of the prime candidates were scooped up. I thought, even if it wasn’t for the trouble but for the past two disappointing seasons the team has had – perhaps because of the controversy – I’d be OK with that. But no, Portland, who has not spoken publicly about the resignation, apparently made her own decision. She shocked many of her supporters and detractors by electing to leave.

Is it finally an admission that she’d done wrong? A step toward admitting she has a problem? A valiant gesture to step aside, realizing she’d outlived her worth to the team and the school? I hope so.

Coaching pioneer and legend Jody Conradt elected to step down this month after her Texas team missed the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year. Though she’d been a revolutionary and finished her career with 900 wins, second to Pat Summitt on the all-time wins list – men’s or women’s -- she had been unable to get it done the past few seasons. She did the honorable thing.

The previous week, Pokey Chatman, the popular, effervescent coach of LSU, resigned. She’d taken over for another pioneer, Sue Gunter, when she became ill with the emphysema that soon killed her. Chatman had been a star point guard at LSU, became an assistant coach there right out of school and helped lead the team to the past three Final Fours. Almost immediately after she resigned, rumors flew and it was soon confirmed that she’d had inappropriate contact with former players. Some might want to find parallels in the LSU and PSU situations. They might use the LSU episode as an argument that Portland is right, that lesbians have no place on a team or as coach. That’s illogical. First of all, we don’t know what actually transpired between Chatman and her former player(s), nor of her or their sexual orientation. Second, male coaches are just as likely – if not more so – to have inappropriate contact with their female players. Still, resigning was the only thing Chatman could do.

I hope Portland’s reasons, like Conradt’s, were honorable too. Her staying would have been bad for women’s basketball. The college game is about more than winning and losing, it is about teaching young people to value themselves and others, it is about teamwork. Regardless of how one feels about homosexuality, discrimination is incongruent to the concept of team.

While Conradt is 65 and has had a full career -- the first undefeated season for a women's NCAA basketball team and a national championship -- some might argue that at 54, Portland still has several good coaching years in her. Any team or school that gives her a job would be foolish to do so. At the very least, they open themselves up to liability, at worst, they send the message that Portland's kind of discrimination and failure to accept blame are OK, even encouraged. That message, too, is contrary to the concept of team.

By Adam Abramson

Wait, wait, wait, let me get this straight.

The Houston Texans pass over Reggie Bush last year. They also decide that drafting the hometown quarterback and national champion isn't the best move for the franchise because David Carr is the future of the franchise.

One goes on to be a key piece in a run to the NFC Championship game and the other is the NFL offensive rookie of the year. We'll just call that "oops one" and "oops two."

While both moves are pretty mind bottling ("you know where things are so crazy it gets all your thoughts like all trapped in a bottle"), we let them slide. We said "Okay, Texans, we'll let you be Jr. NFL Franchise for a few more years."

However, when I read the team traded two second-round picks and swapped first-round positions with the Falcons for Matt Schaub, I laughed out loud. Now, I don't know how good Schaub can be. I know he has the physical tools. He was a great passer at Virginia and looked very capable in his limited time quarterbacking the Falcons. There's a ton of upside and everything points to the fact he can be a solid NFL starter.

But for the Texans to sign him for six years at $48M based on their very recent track record…come on now. This is turning into the equivalent of a GM drafting Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan, trading away John Elway and drafting either Todd Blackledge, Tony Eason or Ken O'Brien over Dan Marino all in the same year (yes, I know there's more than one sport in that analogy).

Obviously, two red flags go up:

1. What the hell were you thinking last year?
2. What the hell is David Carr thinking at this point?

If Schaub doesn't pan out, does this mean the Texans are forever destined for failure?

By Mark La Monica

Thanks to my extensive contacts in the fashion industry, i.e. someone in the fashion industry has my e-mail address, I scored an invite to last night's NBA Court-Ture '07, a fashion show at the NBA Store featuring the spring line of Jared M.

He makes clothes for tall people. Ballers are tall people. Seems like a good fit.

Walt "Clyde" Frazier, Channing Frye, Jared Jeffries and David Lee of the Knicks were scheduled to attend. Kenyon Martin of the Nuggets and Antoine Wright on the Nets were also on the list of dudes to walk down the mini-runway They did.

It was a fairly weird scene inside the NBA Store as the worlds of fashion and pro hoops collided. Think the party at Shark's house in "Any Given Sunday" combined with the pool room scene in "Hitch" and that just about sums it up.

NBA folks are considered fashionable, despite David Stern's attempts to change that fashion. Fashion people aren't necessarily considered sports folk. This was wonderfully illustrated when, on several occasions, fashion media asked former NBA star Jimmy Jackson what team he plays for now. Oopsies. Jackson isn't in the league anymore.

"I tell them, 'I'm in between jobs,'" Jackson said.

After a line like that, I had to keep asking him questions. He didn't disappoint.

What did he say to the guys when he saw them before the show?

“I told them 'Don’t trip.' As basketball players, we think we can do everything," Jackson said. " But this a whole different environment when you walk down a runway. I’ve done it before. I did it with Karl Kani, a long time ago when Karl Kani was real hot.”

What if they trip? Bump their heads? Stumble? Anything

“I’m gonna watch, and I’m gonna laugh, and I’m gonna tell ‘em about it,” Jackson said.

There were no trips, falls or stumbles. Watch my little video below and you'll see.

Note: This was shot from an elevated spot above the runway using a handheld camera while stretching over the heads of four girls in front of me. The footage is raw and strung together with a special little soundtrack for you old-school fans out there.

By Karen Bailis

March is not for the weak. In the world of women’s basketball, March comes in like a lion and out like a tiger. No lambs here. Lambs don’t play defense, clawing, gnawing defense. These are fierce hunters circling their prey on the hardwood, stalking a championship.

There’s very little that’s sweet about these 16 to emerge from the opening rounds of this championship series. Sure, there are a few sweet storylines – Cinderella Marist and NC State rallying around its cancer-stricken coach – but the wins behind the stories contain no saccharine; it’s all grit and grind.

The really impressive wins, the ones that have produced the many upsets of this tournament, have been built on defense. The biggest to fall in the second round was defending champion Maryland, whom many expected to return to the Final Four despite a few disappointing losses this season and its No. 2 seeding. No. 7 Mississippi set a turtle trap for the Terps and didn’t let go. The Rebels had 15 steals and scored 42 points off 29 turnovers – 20 in the first half -- in their 89-78 win on Tuesday in Hartford.

Maryland had embarrassed Ole Miss in an early season tournament, 110-79, but that was before the Rebels had found their running, gunning, trapping comfort zone, coach Carol Ross said. The traps were too much in the rematch.

“It was all about our defense, all about trapping, all about stealing and about making plays,” said guard Ashley Awkward – yep, that’s her name – who finished with 22 points. “That lead gave us a cushion in the final stretch.”

The Ole Miss offense was potent, too, with Armintie Price putting up a game-high 29 points. After recording three steals in the game, Price is four away from 400 in her career. If she reaches that, she’d be the second player in women’s NCAA history with with 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, 400 assists and 400 steals. The first is former USC star Cheryl Miller.

Mississippi will play No. 3 Oklahoma in the Dayton regional semifinals. The Sooners beat Marquette, 78-47, on Monday.

Another 7-2 matchup produced an upset, thanks to defense, and put a MAC team in the Sweet 16 for the first time. Bowling Green took down Vanderbilt, 59-56, forcing 20 turnovers, including nine steals and holding one of the best point guards in the country, Dee Davis, to no points and six assists. Only two Vandy players scored in double figures: Carla Thomas had 12 and Liz Sherwood 18. Bowling Green had five players in double figures.

“Don’t pinch me,” Bowling Green coach Curt Miller said. “Amazing. Our defensive game plan, and the execution of the game plan on one-day prep was phenomenal. We didn’t want to give up any easy 3-point shots to the best 3-point shooting team in the country.”

Bowling Green will face No. 3 Arizona State on Saturday.

No. 4 Rutgers, known for its defense since C. Vivian Stringer took the coaching reins in 1995, locked down No. 5 Michigan State, especially down low, in its 70-57 win. The Bronx’s Kia Vaughn manhandled 6-9 Allyssa DeHaan, pushing her out of position, getting her in foul trouble and holding her to 6 points. Vaughn, 6-4, scored 16, grabbed four rebounds, blocked four shots and had two steals.

Rutgers meets overall No. 1 Duke on Saturday in Greensboro, N.C. Duke thumped the Scarlet Knights, 85-45, in December at the RAC, but don’t count out Rutgers. They’ve been playing so well on the road lately – beating Connecticut in Hartford for their first Big East championship – that Stringer sees the location as an advantage.

In the other 4-5 game, the Bears and the Wolfpack heard the call of the wild and fought into overtime before North Carolina emerged victorious, 78-72, over 2005 champs Baylor. As if NC State needed more adversity, with coach Kay Yow battling stage four cancer yet returning to the sidelines only to have to deal with her father’s death on Selection Monday, but star player Khadijah Whittington, who has embodied Yow’s determination on the court, was sick Tuesday and needed an IV at halftime. Still, Whittington scored a career-high 23, corralled 11 rebounds with three steals and two blocks in 38 minutes.

Another hero in a game full of them was Baylor’s Bernice Mosby, who finished with a game-high 26 points. In a news conference the day before the game, she spoke of how Yow touched her and inspired her and promised – regardless of the game’s outcome – to hug the beloved coach and tell her how much she’s meant to the game. Afterward, when players could no longer speak to the media, Baylor coach Kim Mulkey divulged that Mosby had earlier learned that her family’s Florida home had burned down and they’d lost everything.

Who would be more inspired? Ultimately, the Wolfpack, who lost an 11-point lead but managed to gather themselves as Shayla Fields did. The freshman knocked down a 3-pointer in the final minute of overtime after missing key free throws with 19 seconds left in regulation.

NC State will take on No. 1 Connecticut, a 94-70 winner over No. 9 Wisconsin-Green Bay.

The other No. 1 seeds didn’t have too much trouble dispatching their foes – Tennessee, 68-54 over No. 8 Pitt; Duke, 62-52 over No. 8 Temple; and North Carolina, 60-51 over No. 9 Notre Dame – although it took UNC and Duke until the final minutes to pull away. Again, it was the defense of scrappy, overachieving teams that made higher seeds struggle.

By Mark La Monica

Maybe this bottle of Life Water hasn't yet replaced all the lost electrolytes from last night's 90-minute cardio bonanza at the gym.

Perhaps my brain dried out a bit during the 20-minute post-workout schvitz.

Or maybe it's just the "hope springs eternal" theory.

Call me crazy, infirmed or anything else you choose, but I think Carl Pavano will have a productive season for the Yankees.

Huh?

Call me crazy, infirmed or anything else you choose, but I think Carl Pavano will have a productive season for the Yankees.

I know, I know. Pavano's been a favorite target for chiding, bashing, mockery and more not-so-nice stuff. In this space and in every other inch of New York sports media space.

But he's just about of injuries to keep him out, except for the blister he'll get in late April and the dead arm that will land him on the 15-day DL just before the All-Star break. Sooner or later, he'll have to pitch. As Hokies fan Lloyd says, "2007, why not?"

Mike Mussina's calling out of Pavano at the start of spring training was perhaps the best performance from Mussina since his three shutout innings in relief of Roger Clemens against the Red Sox in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS. He basically said what every Yankee player, official and fan has been thinking since June 27, 2005, Pavano's last start in pinstripes.

Nothing like a good chest-emptying to restart the motor.

So, with all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, what makes me think Pavano will be productive this season? Call it a hunch. Besides, can he really be any less effective than he has been the last 18 months? He makes one start, he's already ahead of last year. Two starts? He could make the all-star team. Ten starts? Hello, Monument Park!

Kidding, of course, but not joking when I say I think Pavano will be productive this year. Here's my prediction for Pavano during the 2007 regular season:

Starts: 27
Record: 12-8
ERA: 4.30
IP: 150
K: 98
Quality starts: 14
Complete games: 1

Not bad at all for the No. 4 starter. Of course, I could be wrong with that prediction.

How do you think Pavano will perform this season?

By Karen Bailis

I’m busted.

Half-way through the round of 32, and my bracket has as many holes as the Cross Bronx Expressway.

And that’s a good thing. Not for me and my broken-down bracket but for women’s basketball. It used to be a safe bet to simply pick the higher seeds to move on, now it’s a lot more unpredictable. It means women’s basketball is more competitive. It means mid-majors such as Middle Tennessee and Marist are becoming forces. Or, it means the seedings were all fouled up. I’m pretty sure it’s the former.

I had Stanford reaching the Final Four. After all, they have the post tandem of Brooke Smith and Jayne Appel who’d been unstoppable by the end of the season, and Candice Wiggins could score from anywhere. Though the Cardinal had a couple of key injuries at the point, some veteran ball-handlers were picking up the slack. I figured they’d run the table through the Fresno regional and smack down a surging but youthful UConn with its more experienced players. No. 2 Stanford dismantled Idaho State in the opening round but never got into the groove Monday against No. 10 Florida State and lost, 68-61. Stanford had knocked out FSU in the second round last year.

"We saw on ESPN, from point one they knew Stanford was coming out (of this bracket)," Tanae Davis-Cain said. "But as underdogs, we don't care about TV. We play hard for ourselves. Once we saw the brackets come out, we knew we'd get Stanford. This was payback."

I blame Maples Pavilion. After unlikely Marist, a 13-seed, downed 4-seed Ohio State in the opening round at Maples on Saturday, I thought for sure the hyper-speed fastbreaks and stifling traps of Middle Tennessee would cage the Red Foxes. Not so much. Marist’s own brand of defensive control completely derailed MTSU’s full-court press game plan. MTSU forces almost 27 turnovers a game, but Marist holds onto the ball better than any other team in the country and had 12 turnovers; the Blue Raiders had 14. Marist point guard Alisa Kresge ran plays to perfection, with 9 assists, and shut down scoring threat Chrissy Givens. Marist won, 73-59, snapping MTSU’s 27-game win streak.

The Stanford and Florida State teams were waiting in the wings and watched Marist become only the third No. 13 to advance to the Sweet 16, behind Texas A&M in 1994 and Liberty in 2005. Some members of the Stanford team could be seen shaking their heads after the buzzer sounded and Marist leaped and bounded happily off the court. The prospect of a higher seed winning on their court seemed to throw them, while it only served to empower Florida State, which already had toppled a storied program in No. 7 Old Dominion in the first round.

Florida State (24-9) hasn’t been known for women’s basketball – until now. Ten years ago, it went 0-16 in the ACC. Last night, the team beat a Top 25 team for the first time in six tries. Stanford (29-5) has been a powerhouse for most of the past two decades, last advancing to the Final Four in 1997. But it’s also suffered its share of upsets, being the only top seed to be ousted by a 16-seed when Harvard shocked the Cardinal in 1998, and falling four years ago to Minnesota in the second round. Both of those crushing defeats happened at Maples. Stanford might be better off without the home court “advantage.”

Florida State and Marist are similarly scrappy. Florida State was saddled with foul trouble in the first half but still waged a physical battle, getting in Stanford’s face and staying there. They hit shots when Stanford couldn’t. They stopped Stanford off the dribble. Shante Williams came off the bench to score 16 and lead the Seminoles. Wiggins had 19 for Stanford, but Smith could manage only 12 after scoring a season-high 29 against Idaho State.

Florida State will face No. 3 LSU in Fresno Saturday. The Tigers struggled mightily in a 49-43 win over West Virginia. My bracket had Stanford facing LSU, and I’d picked Stanford to advance because I figured LSU would have an easy time of it in the first rounds, then the reality of their missing coach would hit against Stanford and they’d collapse. It looked like they were missing the fire of Pokey Chatman, who resigned March 7 because of allegation of inappropriate contact with former players, in the West Virginia game. If they don’t get it together, they’re finished. FSU is playing like it has nothing to lose, and LSU looked tight. Might be another upset.

Back in the Dayton regional, Marist will take on the winner of tonight’s Tennessee-Pittsburgh game. So, Tennessee. I can’t wait to see that. This region is packed with powerhouses Tennessee, last year’s champ Maryland, Oklahoma and, previously, Ohio State. Marist is definitely the little fish in the big pond. Well, in this case, they’re little (Red) Foxes, sly and scrappy. Let’s see them run with the big dawgs.

By Karen Bailis

The women’s NCAA basketball tournament was just a half-hour old, and already my bracket was flashing before my eyes. Southeast Missouri State was ahead of Oklahoma 22-14. SeMo ahead of the Big O? The Ohio Valley champ was neutralizing one of the best players in the country, Courtney Paris.

Luckily there was 5-4 freshman point guard Jenna Plumley, playing in her first NCAA tournament game. She was hitting threes at will, finishing with 20 points and seven assists to help power the Big 12 champ and 3-seed past 14-seed SeMo, 74-60. The game was closer than the 14-point margin.

Oklahoma pulled it out and didn’t ruin my bracket, but the struggle foreshadowed what was to come. No. 6 Xavier fell to 11-seed West Virginia, 65-52, and 7-seed Old Dominion lost to 10-seed Florida State, 85-75.

Then, 12 hours after my Oklahoma scare, I was cursing the defense of Marist. Sure, the Red Foxes -- Red Foxes?!?!?!?! I thought he was a dead comedian – are the only New York representatives in the women’s tournament, but that’s not enough. I had stubbornly insisted to my Marist-grad boss that there was no way, NO WAY, his much smaller team, coming from a conference that had been 0-21 in the tournament, could possibly beat Big 10 regular season champ Ohio State behind 6-5 Jessica Davenport. A 13-seed beat a 4? NO WAY.

Crap. Marist won, 67-63.

Marist outplayed OSU. They smothered Davenport with double and triple teams and forced the rest of team – missing point guard and No. 2 scorer Brandie Hoskins, whose season ended with a ruptured Achilles – to beat them. Ashlee Trebilcock stepped up with a career-high 23 points, but there was no one else. Davenport was in foul trouble all night and finished with 13 points and 11 turnovers. She was frustrated by the defense, especially that of Meg Dahlman, even clobbering her with an elbow in the first half that the refs somehow didn’t see. They also didn’t see that Dahlman was hooking Davenport’s arms all night, and if I were Davenport – who is not known as a dirty player – I would have decked her. Guess that’s why Davenport will be a top-5 WNBA draft pick and I’m – a journalist.

Maybe it’s Maples Pavilion at Stanford, where the game was played. That was the site nine years ago of the biggest upset in women’s tournament history, the only time a 16-seed beat a 1-seed. That was when Harvard, behind then-national scoring leader Allison Feaster, downed Stanford. Perhaps the ghosts still linger.

No, I give all the credit to Marist – and not just because I want a raise from my boss. They were scrappy. They were playing like it’s March and made OSU play like it was November. Marist guard Julianne Viani made six three-pointers and had 24 points. Dahlman returned after her tussle with Davenport and another spill in which the back of head slammed hard to the floor, and bothered Davenport all night. Rachele Fitz had 16 points and point guard Alisa Kresge dished eight assists. With three guards on the floor, they took care of the ball, only committing 12 turnovers to OSU’s 23.

Marist’s reward for such stellar play is a Monday matchup with 5-seed Middle Tennessee State, whose 27-game winning streak is the longest in the nation. Run-and-gun MTSU, led by Chrissy Givens’ 24 points, blew out Gonzaga, 85-46.

Middle Tennesssee’s speed and trapping should be too much for Marist. And a Mid-Tenn. win will get my bracket somewhat back on track. Then again, Xavier and ODU also let me down. But no way am I going to say that there’s no way Marist can win. NO WAY.

****

Back to Paris: It was a struggle, but Courtney Paris’ 10th rebound with 45 seconds left against Southeast Missouri kept her double-double streak intact at 59 straight. The Oklahoma center finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds on one of her worst career days. She averages 24 points and 16 rebounds. But even on an off day, she shows just how dominant she is. Her baseline layup at the start of the second half made her the fastest player in NCAA history to reach 1,500 points and 1,000 rebounds. She did it in 67 games. Also, while the NCAA is still scanning moldy record books to count stats on double-doubles, they say it’s clear that Paris holds the record – for women and men. The previous record-holder was Brooklyn’s own Billy Cunningham, with 40 straight double-doubles when he was at North Carolina in the ’60s.

By Karen Bailis

Maybe the selection committee didn’t like Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt’s stint as a cheerleader for the men’s team. For whatever reason – “principals and procedures,” the committee chair said – Tennessee has ended up in the toughest bracket for the second year in a row.

Last year it was as a 2-seed; this year the Vols are a No. 1 along with Duke, North Carolina and Connecticut. But no other bracket is as stacked as the Dayton Regional. Tennessee is joined by 2-seed Maryland, last year’s champion; 3-seed Oklahoma, with dominant double-double queen Courtney Paris; and 4-seed Ohio State, powerful though without injured point guard Brandie Hoskins.

“I thought Oklahoma was a No. 2 seed, I think Maryland’s a No. 2 seed, I think Ohio State’s a No. 3 seed,” Summitt said. “That’s my opinion, and it really doesn’t matter. I can’t imagine the other teams being very thrilled about it, either. If I’m Ohio State, I’m like, ‘A 4-seed?’ Oklahoma, a 3-seed? Both of those surprise me.”

In most of life, I’m not a big fan of surprises, but I’m hoping for a few in the women’s tournament, which gets under way today. Surprises – and competitive games – are good for women’s basketball. There won’t be many surprises in the early rounds, but things will get hopping later. Here are my picks:

Best first-round game: My 8-seed Temple Owls vs. 9-seed Nebraska. Temple wins.

Best potential second-round matchup: I’m torn between 4 NC State vs. 5 Baylor and 4 Ohio State vs. 5 Middle Tennessee. NC State wins; Middle Tennessee wins.

Cinderella: NC State

Final Four: North Carolina, Tennessee, Stanford, Duke

Champion: Duke over North Carolina

By Mark La Monica

Take care, Dookies!

By Mark La Monica

I've always been amused when the college basketball experts start telling us who the No. 1 seeds will be in late January.

They continue right through February and then every other hour in March. As if this is going to make such a huge difference in our brackets or in the actual outcome of the tournament. Or will it?

At the end of one of ESPN's Bracketology shows this past Sunday night, Digger Phelps snuck in this little nugget right before they cut to a commercial: Only six of the past 20 No. 1 seeds have actually made it to the Final Four.

So much for picking the chalk, huh?

As I filled out three different brackets on Tuesday night, I noticed I had three No. 1 seeds reaching the Final Four on each bracket. Of course, I've never been right before, so I don't anticipate that changing anytime soon.

But I decided to explore Phelps' nugget of information further. Turns out his stat was correct. But there's more than one way to look at the numbers.

The NCAA switched to a 64-team format in 1985 (perhaps the greatest marketing strategy for a sport ever, by the way). In the 22 tournaments since (2007 not included), 60 of a possible 88 No. 1 seeds reached the Elite Eight.

Take the chalk!

Of those 60 teams, 36 advanced to the Final Four. As a group, No. 1 seeds are 36-24 in Elite Eight games, a .600 winning percentage.

Of those 36 Final Four appearances, No. 1 seeds reached the national championship game 19 times. Of those 19 appearances, 12 resulted in a national championship.

So, if you're wondering who will the tournament this year, there's a 54.5 percent chance it will be a No. 1 seed.

Here are a few more No. 1 seed stats to help/confuse you while filling out your brackets:

* 2006 is the first year a No. 1 seed did not reach the Final Four.
* Four No. 1 seeds have never all reached the Final Four.
* Three No. 1 seeds have reached the Final Four three times: 1993, 1997, 1999.
* No. 1 seed vs. No. 1 seed in the national championship game has happened three times: 1993, 1999, 2005.
(UNC won two of those titles, 1993 and 2005.)
* At least two No. 1 seeds have reached the Elite Eight every year except for 2000. (No. 1 Michigan State won it all that year.)
* All four No. 1 seeds have reached the Elite Eight in the same year four times: 1987, 1993, 2001, 2003.

Beat the Keyboard Quarterbacks and others in Newsday's Hoops Hysteria.

Read Adam Abramson's bracket breakdown in his Campus Confidential blog

By Karen Bailis

On the day the women’s NCAA brackets come out, all I can think of is the coach who won’t be there. Her team will likely be a 2 or 3 seed, but she will not be coaching them, and she may never coach again.

Pokey Chatman resigned last week as coach of No. 10 LSU after leading the team to three consecutive Final Fours. Her resignation, coming as it did right before the NCAA tournament, was sudden and shocking. But the reason for it was even more so and it has shaken women’s basketball and its fans to their very cores.

Chatman resigned because she had inappropriate contact with at least one former player, according to reports in the Times-Picayune and on espn.com. Chatman’s apparent transgression damages not only herself and her career, but it damages the LSU program, the school and women’s basketball itself.

Chatman, 37, was one of the best and brightest young coaches, charismatic, a stellar recruiter and one of the few African-American head coaches of a Division I program. She’d spent her entire collegiate basketball career – nearly 18 years -- with the Tigers, as a player and as a coach. She moved up from assistant coach to interim head coach when LSU’s legendary leader, Sue Gunter, got ill with emphysema and helped take them to the Final Four. She took over when Gunter died – and took them to the Final Four twice more. She’d been coach of the year and was 90-14 as a head coach.

But all that has been shot to hell with the allegations that she had an inappropriate relationship with a player. It should be irrelevant that, if true, it was a female coach having a relationship with a female player. But it’s not. It would be just as wrong had it been male coach having a relationship with a female player, but it would not have the same negative effects on the game.

That it was a woman coach and a woman player feeds into all the negative stereotypes used to belittle the game. It gives the practitioners of negative recruiting all the ammunition they need to strike fear into parents and players, not to mention all closeted lesbian coaches petrified of having the most innocuous of contact with their players for fear they will be perceived as a threat. Don’t use this one case to paint lesbian coaches as predatory. They are no more likely to cross the line than anyone else.

Homophobia in sports is a pervasive virus that attacks all the vital organs. It locks players and coaches into a dark closet of lies and stunts their growth so that they cannot be who they truly are and live happy, open and healthy lives. The hypocrisy and homophobia that thrives in women’s sports as much as in men’s allows coaches such as Rene Portland of Penn State – who has stated that she will not have lesbians on her team – to survive amid honors and celebration while most lesbian coaches and players cloak themselves in lies fueled by fear.

I don’t know what did or did not happen between Chatman and the player(s). If there was inappropriate contact, she was right to resign. If she had not, she should have been fired. I can’t say what drove Chatman to do what has been alleged, whether it was plain old hormones and bad judgment or if it was the pressure of taking over a program amid the strain of losing a beloved coach and mentor or the stress of the impact of Hurricane Katrina on some players and their families and her own family. It doesn’t matter.

What matters is what LSU and its community does to support its women’s basketball program going forward. What matters is what the NCAA will do to look inside and find ways to root out the homophobia that hurts the game. What matters is that Chatman gets the help and support she needs. And what matters is women’s basketball will put this episode behind it, learn from it and that this tournament season will rise above it.

By Mark La Monica

After writing how I felt the atmosphere at the Garden for the Islanders-Rangers game on Monday night was flat except for the key moments in the game, blog reader "shuskky" was the first to suggest I attend the Islanders-Rangers game at the Coliseum on Thursday. A few others followed suit. (And a few others suggested I do other things, none of which sounded pleasant. Amusing, but not pleasant.)

So I did. (Attend the game, that is.)

The Coliseum felt a bit more energized throughout the game Thursday night, a 2-1 win for the Rangers.

To be clear, I'm not talking about the moments of the game that elicit screams of excitement or anguish, such as goals scored, great saves, skirmishes, extra skaters, pucks trickling along or across the goal line or terrible cheap shots such as the one Chris Simon inflicted on Ryan Hollweg. These moments are supposed to cause great emotional responses from fans.

Rather, I was attempting to gauge the energy in the Coliseum throughout the game, much as I did at the Garden.

From the pregame warmups right through the third period, there seemed to be more general buzz in the Coliseum for the game. My guess is that much of that has to do with Rangers fans as a whole being more vocal at the Coliseum than Islanders fans are at the Garden. While that may not always be true in this rivalry, this week it was. The Isles-Rangers atmosphere at the Coliseum this week, moreso than at the Garden, could make a hockey fan out of just about anyone.

The final minute of Thursday night's game, which lasted about 10 minutes, was as intense an atmosphere I've seen at a sporting event. That excitement was more than just a byproduct of what took place: an apparent goal waved off by the referees, then reviewed for close to eight minutes and not overturned. The crowd cheered. The crowd booed. It all depended on the color of the jersey you were wearing. Again, an intense moment regardless of the teams and place, but greatly magnified because of the teams and place.

About 50 or so Rangers fans had gathered along the glass during the pregame skate and began chanting "Let's go Rangers!"

There were plenty of "Let's go Eye-lan-ders" chants throughout the game. In the space of time typically reserved for clapping to match the rhythm of that chant, Rangers fans drowned out much of it with their "Let's go Rangers" chant.

Some of the additional energy had to do with it being the second rivalry game of the week, along with the fact that it was a Thursday and not a Monday. The day of the week makes a difference in people's minds, albeit a very slight difference. Thursday night, mentally, is the unofficial start to the weekend.

Blog reader Hendry posted a comment on my previous piece about the acoustics at the Garden not being as good as at the Coliseum. An interesting theory, but I don't buy it. While each arena has different acoustics, in a rivalry game such as Islanders-Rangers, that should never be a concern. It should be loud, regardless.

Again, remove yourself from focusing just on the crucial moments of the games and look at the entire picture. That's what I'm talking about.

In terms of atmosphere, the Coliseum won.

Of course, Islanders fans shouldn't get too excited about that since this blog offers no points in the NHL standings. The Rangers won both games and picked up three points on the Isles this week in a race for the final two playoff spots.

• Poll: How should Simon be punished?
• See photos from last night's game
• See photos from Isles-Rangers game dating back to 2001

By Karen Bailis

I had a choice: Tape the Big East Championship game pitting rivals Connecticut and Rutgers or a new episode of “The Gilmore Girls.”

I’m as much a “Girls” addict as I am a women’s basketball junkie. I can’t get enough of the rapid-fire repartee between Rory and Lorelai, just as I rarely tire of the rebounds, box-outs, fast breaks, floor burns and must-win emotion of college basketball in March.

I suppose I wouldn’t have had this dilemma if I were not the luddite that I am. No, I don’t have TiVo or DVR. So I had to choose: women’s basketball or “The Girls.” I set the VCR for “The Gilmore Girls” figuring No. 2 UConn would blow out No. 19 Rutgers. Again. And I didn’t want to see that. Again. I didn’t want to see Geno Auriemma’s cocky smirk. Again. I’d watched the Huskies embarrass the Scarlet Knights, 70-44, just on Feb. 26. I didn’t need to see that kind of whupping again. It’d be worse than a rerun of the “Knights of Prosperity.”

After all, Connecticut had been playing its best basketball of the season, perhaps even better than the other presumed No. 1 seeds, Duke, North Carolina and Tennessee, who’d all suffered upsets in the past several days. And while Rutgers, after a shaky, injury-plagued start to the season, had won 12 of its last 14, the two losses had come against Connecticut. I didn’t want to see another one.

No, I don’t like UConn. I like Tennessee. And you can’t like them both. It’s in the NCAA rulebook. I don’t have the kind of bile-filled hatred that a Yankee fan has for that American League team that plays in New England. I respect the program Auriemma has built, and I’m awed by the skills of the players he and his staff have recruited. I just don’t like the team. Never root for them. Well, I would if they were playing Penn State with its homophobic coach, Rene Portland.

I’ve grown tired of watching Connecticut crush overmatched opponents. If they come out on top after a close, hard-fought contest, fine. I love a good game. But I didn’t think the Big East Championship would be down-to-the-wire, fantastically stomach-churning matchup that the SEC and ACC championships, missing their tops seeds, had been.

I was wrong. Though I got some giggles from the Gilmores (the dialog just hasn’t been as gut-busting since creator/writer Amy Sherman-Palladino left), I missed Rutgers’ first Big East Championship win, 55-47.

Luckily, I was able to watch some of the game while pretending to contemplate headlines on my computer at work, albeit without sound, and saw Rutgers clamp down with Stringer’s trademark “55” defense and dictate the pace of the game.

It wasn’t pretty, but no game played the way Stringer wants it played is. It’s low-scoring, gritty, half-court execution, and it forced Connecticut to crumple under the pressure. They committed 16 turnovers to Rutgers’ six. Neither team shot well, both hovering around 34 percent. And the New York star-watch was a little disappointing. For UConn, Christ the King’s Tina Charles, a shoe-in for Freshman of the Year, was plagued with foul trouble and tallied only 8 points and 5 rebounds in 29 minutes of play. Rutgers’ Epiphanny Prince played the full 40, but the 100-plus-scoring Murry Bergtraum star managed only 9 points. Kia Vaughn of the Bronx scored 10 points and pulled down 8 boards.

Both teams are young – not a senior between them – and Connecticut played like it. Earlier in the season, it was Rutgers who was playing young. They’d so disappointed Stringer that she locked them out of their locker room, took away their jerseys and made them earn them back.

So the victory was sweet. It was the fourth time Rutgers met Connecticut in the championship. Twice before the Scarlet Knights had won the regular season title, only to fall to the Huskies in the championship. This time, Connecticut had gone undefeated in Big East play – until the final.

“This is so special,” Stringer said. “It was the first time that I cut down the nets. I’m so proud of this team.”

It probably won’t be enough to make Auriemma eat his Rutgers-baiting words – “born miserable and stay miserable,” “downright obnoxious” and “ignorant” – but it’s a start.

Unfortunately, the loss won’t be enough to knock UConn down from a No. 1 seeding in the NCAA tournament, and it might actually help them, having exposed their weaknesses and the things they need to work on. But they’re unlikely to be the overall No. 1, since they’ve lost to all the presumed No. 1s.

The win definitely helps Rutgers, making an argument for a No. 3 seed.

And the game helped me: I’m getting DVR.

Unrelated Gamenote: The 900-win club just doubled its membership. With Texas' win 70-57 over Missouri in the opening round of the Big 12 Tournament, coach Jody Conradt joined Tennessee's Pat Summitt as the only Division coaches -- male or female -- to reach that plateau. Conradt is 900-306 in 38 seasons, with stops at Sam Houston State and Texas-Arlington before her 31 seasons at Texas. Summitt is 940-179 in 33 seasons at Tennessee.

By Mark La Monica

I frolicked in Shea Stadium during Game 5 of the 2000 World Series when the Yankees beat the Mets.

I roared for the Miami Hurricanes while surrounded by 75,000 Florida State fans at Doak Campbell Stadium for a season opener.

I even brought a Jets fan into Oakland for Monday Night Football, sat next to him and lived to tell about it.

I've been to Army-Navy football, Yankees-Red Sox and Yankees-Mets games in the regular season and dozens of Yankees playoff games. So I know a little something about energetic, frenzied crowds at big-time rivalry games.

On the train heading toward Madison Square Garden on Monday for my first foray into the Islanders-Rangers rivalry, I figured it would be somewhat comparable, especially since both teams are chasing the playoffs.

What I experienced at the Garden was unlike anything I could have expected.

The atmosphere was flatter than a cake with no yeast. Flatter than an uncapped bottle of soda after a day. It was dead. Boring. Blech. A microcosm of the energy crisis facing our country.

Islanders-Rangers at the Garden is supposed to be crazy. Fans screaming and yelling the whole time. Not on this night.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the Rangers are in 12th place in the eight-team playoff race. Maybe it's a bigger-picture statement about the state of hockey in this country. Maybe people just stayed home to watch the latest episode of "The Hills" on MTV. I don't know the answer, but I do know the performance was worse than anything Keanu Reeves ever offered on film.

There was very little excitement leading up to the start of the game. Usually fans don't need any type of alcohol to get fired up for the start of a rivalry game. Just knowing that the opposing team and its fans are in the building should be enough to get things going. This easily could have been Rangers-Kings or Rangers-Canucks. I saw more enthusiasm at the Islanders-Canadiens game two Saturdays ago. And that was a 1 p.m. start.

As the game progressed, there were the customary "Ohhhs!" on near-goals and big hits. There were a small handful of "Potvin sucks!" chants, which I welcomed at least for the emotional display but laughed at since the guy hasn't played professional hockey in 19 years. Some traditions in sports are good. This one, not so much.

Overall, it seemed like a pretty weak display from Rangers fans. I understand the history behind the chant, but "Nineteen-Eighty-Three" is much more derisive. Didn't hear so much as a "Nineteen" from the crowd.

Islanders fans disappointed, too. Very few "Let's go I-lan-ders!" chants were audible.

When the Rangers scored to tie it at 1 just 26 seconds into the third period, the Garden crowd erupted, just as you would expect from the home team after a quick goal in the final period to tie the score.

There were one or two edge-of-your-seat moments late in third, which if a home crowd can't get fired up for that in a tied game with a few minutes left, then the league should just step in and disband the franchise on principle.

This game will be remembered fondly among Rangers fans on Tuesday morning because we as a people tend to fcous on what happened most recently.

The shootout brought the necessary excitement that is a natural byproduct of the format used to determine the winner of a game after overtime. Again, if a home crowd can't stand up for that, put your hockey sweater in a bag under the sink and pray for the pipes to burst.

By Karen Bailis

When Duke coach Gail Goestenkors won ACC Coach of the Year honors the other day, she deflected the praise and pointed to North Carolina State coach Kay Yow as more deserving for having returned from battling a cancer recurrence to vault her team into the Top 25.

Perhaps Goestenkors was right. Yow’s team continued its giant-killing ways Saturday, toppling previously undefeated No. 1 Duke in the ACC semifinals, 70-65, in the biggest upset of the season. The last time NC State defeated a No. 1 team was Jan. 12, 1978, when they beat Wayland Baptist, 98-86.

“This emotion lifts me up,” Yow said. “I feel stronger with this. ... We’ve got to keep going. This is no time to stop.”

Yow directed a spirited comeback after the Wolfpack went down 14-2 in the opening minutes. They were down only 34-31 by the half. The second half see-sawed until Duke went up by eight with six minutes remaining, but seniors Gillian Goring, a 6-7 center, and guard Ashley Key orchestrated an 11-2 run to go up 64-63. Two free throws by Duke’s own 6-7 senior center, Alison Bales, put Duke up 65-64. But Key was, well, Key. She hit the go-ahead jumper with 1:18 left, and then all Duke could do was foul. Key finished with a season-high 21 points.

Duke had been playing the best basketball in the women’s NCAA. They’d dispatched most of their opponents with ease with their stifling defense and stellar performances by ACC Player of the Year Lindsey Harding and Bales. But they couldn’t beat inspiration.

Yow’s team, filled with six seniors, is playing inspired basketball. What else can they do, when they watch their coach, her voice hoarse, her body bloated by the drugs coursing through it, having to take IV fluids daily just so she can do what she loves: coach. Those nagging injuries from a season of hardwood pounding suddenly pale when you see your coach carted from practice on a stretcher, then return the next day to lead her team over then-No. 2 North Carolina.

On that day, the NC State court was named for Yow, a coaching legend long before her most recent battle with cancer. She’s in the Naismith and Women’s Basketball halls of fame. A few games earlier, on Feb. 5 against Florida State, she’d gotten her 700th career win.

Earlier this season Yow had taken a two-month leave to get treatment for Stage 4 breast cancer. It is an aggressive disease that is ravaging her body but not her spirit and certainly not her team’s. They’re 10-of-11 since Yow’s return.

Why return to a demanding, energy-sapping job? Because it’s what she is, what she does, what she loves most.

“I know people say I’m doing too much,” she said to Christine Brennan of USA Today. “I know I have to take care of myself. But it’s not like I have a cold or pneumonia and if I rest it will get better. Rest is not going to cure cancer. If rest were just the answer, that’s what I would do.

“But if someone can be involved with something that is a passion for them, then I don’t think there’s anything wrong in trying to do that. Coaching lifts me up. Once the ball is tossed up, I forget pretty much about everything and just focus on the game. If I just do nothing, I feel like I’m giving in to the disease.”

Her refusal to give in has redoubled the love and respect she receives from her team, fans and even opponents. She received a hearty standing ovation when she entered the court Saturday in Greensboro, N.C. The crowd was decidedly pro-Wolfpack. Even Carolina-blue-clad fans cheered on NC State. Sure, they’re fans of anyone playing against Duke, but for Carolina fans to side with another Tobacco Road rival is a big deal. It’s also a big deal that ACC players have been wearing pink laces in their high tops this season in honor of Yow, and coaches – including the Duke staff Saturday -- have donned pink.

The Carolina goodwill will cease, though, because UNC, having defeated NCAA champ Maryland in the other semi-final, will face NC State today in the final.

Still, Duke’s Goestenkors might owe her team’s phenomenal success this season to Yow. Before Saturday, the last time Duke lost was in last year’s NCAA Championship game. The crown was Duke’s for the taking until Maryland freshman Kristi Toliver’s three in the final seconds capped a 13-point comeback and sent the game into overtime, and the Terps stole what’s proven to be an elusive championship for the Blue Devils. After the game, Yow grabbed Goestenkors and told her, “What is delayed is not denied.”

Coach G and her team have used Yow’s words and the sting of that finals loss as inspiration, and they helped carry Duke to a 29-0 regular season.

But they couldn’t carry Duke past a more inspired NC State.