NCAA Basketball Tournament
Women’s
Congratulations to the four teams who made the Final Four. It was an amazing two days of basketball. Here are my thoughts.
- I was elated to find out that Friday night’s game between Iowa and Connecticut was the largest television audience of a basketball game ever on ESPN. Greater than any men’s game and any NBA game. Over 14 million people watched the game.
- South Carolina becomes only the 10th team in NCAA history to finish undefeated. They were bigger, faster, stronger, and deeper than any other team in the tournament. When you have a nine-person rotation, and you get 43 points from the players coming off the bench, the outcome is never in doubt.
- Dawn Staley proved that she is one of the greatest coaches in NCAA history.
- The first quarter of Sunday’s championship game, especially the first five minutes, was breathtaking. The ladies from both teams put on a clinic on how to play fast break basketball.
- There is no doubt in my mind the official in the Iowa/Connecticut game made the right call when she called an illegal screen on Connecticut with 4 seconds to go in the game. When it happened live, I was sure it was an illegal screen. Every replay confirmed it for me.
- After the game, I was impressed with how the Connecticut women handled the call in their post-game press conference.
- Dawn Staley is a class act. She earns my Orchid of the Day for her post game comments about Caitlin Clark. Here is what she had to say per an article in the Athletic. It is my Quote of the Day.
- Dawn Staley made sure to credit Iowa star Caitlin Clark for helping popularize women’s basketball after a season that saw Clark raise the ceiling, and then shatter it. “I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport. She carried a heavy load for our sport. Caitlin Clark if you’re out there you’re one of the GOATS of our game. We appreciate you. It just is not going to stop WNBA Draft, she’s going to lift that league up as well.”
Men’s Finals
Basketball fans and CBS got their wish, as the two top teams going into the tournament have made it to the finals.
It will be a clash of two behemoths as two seven footers both weighing more than 275 lbs. go at it.
My heart is rooting for Purdue, but my brain says it will be Connecticut. If both teams play their “A” games, Connecticut will win.
Education in Michigan
Two articles caught my attention today. They do not speak favorably about the future of education in Michigan.
From Bridge Michigan, Michigan school districts may need to lay off or otherwise cut more than 5,000 teacher jobs in coming years to balance budgets as pandemic relief funding runs out, according to a new analysis of state public school trends.
The report from the nonpartisan Citizens Research Council of Michigan points to the looming “COVID cliff” expected to hit K-12 school budgets later this year and expose the full impact of continued enrollment declines.
“To navigate the impending fiscal storm, many school leaders will likely look to trim teachers and other personnel from their ranks because much of the budget growth has been used to swell district staffing,” the report predicts.
From Kaitlyn Buss of the Detroit News, Michigan students are no less intelligent or capable of learning than their peers in other states. But they have been failed by policymakers and a chaotic education framework.
Even the best schools in Michigan are worse than the best schools in other states, according to a new analysis from Launch Michigan, an education-focused nonprofit linked to Business Leaders for Michigan.
It is a different view of a decades-old problem. But maybe this perspective can finally move the needle on fixing Michigan’s education system.
Michigan continues to fall behind in national education rankings despite myriad attempts to improve results. There are not enough evidence-based strategies being applied in a cohesive manner across the state to focus on basic educational objectives such as reading, writing and math.
The disorganized governance structure is the enabler
Job Growth
Per NY Times, employers added 303.000 jobs in March on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department reported on Friday, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent, from 3.9 percent in February. Expectations of a recession among experts, once widespread, are now increasingly rare.
It was the 39th straight month of job growth. And employment levels are now more than three million greater than forecast by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office just before the pandemic shock.
The macro economy continues to surpass expectations of most analysts. The Biden administration needs to figure out how to take advantage of this positive news as we get closer to the November election.
Henry Aaron
Fifty years ago today, Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record with his 715th homerun. It was one of those days that I can remember what I was doing when he hit the homerun off Al Downing.
Aaron breaking the record was not something many people in this country wanted to see happen. The year leading up to the record was a big blackeye on this country, with what Aaron had to endure. Racism was alive and well.
Vin Scully’s call of the homerun was Scully at his best as he knew when to talk and when to be quiet. See my Video of the Day.
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Second Quote of the Day. “I’ve deleted social media. I feel like it just kind of overlooked the fact that I played my butt off the whole game trying to guard her, trying to get over screens the whole game and feel like that one play just consumed everything. That’s all anyone’s talking about. They’re not talking about the fact that it was a great game between two great teams.” Gabby Marshal of Iowa’s women’s basketball team after she drew an offensive foul against Connecticut that sealed the victory in Friday’s national semi-final game.
Second Orchid of the Day: The South Carolina women’s team for their undefeated national championship season. They were bigger, faster, stronger, and deeper than every team. A credit to coach Dawn Staley after losing so many players from last year’s team.
Onion of the Day: To anyone who blamed racism on the controversial illegal screen call that ended the Iowa/Connecticut game on Friday.As a former basketball official, implying that race impacted the call is a slap in the face of basketball officials everywhere who take great pride in their craft.
Question of the Day: Connecticut or Purdue tonight?
Video of the Day: Vin Scully calls Hank Aaron’s historic 715th home run (youtube.com)