Last month was the 50th anniversary of the arguably the greatest college basketball game ever and Sports Illustrated talked to some of the terrific players involved for their memories of the 1974 ACC Tournament final between N.C. State and Maryland.
Some may say the 1992 Duke-Kentucky game was better and the ending unquestionably was more memorable but the Wolfpack's 103-100 win still holds the top spot in my opinion.
Two Hundred and Three points were scored in the era that lacked either a shot clock or the three-point shot with three players selected in the first round of the 1974 draft ( State's Tom Burleson Maryland's Tom McMillen and Len Elmore), and the top overall picks in the 1975 draft (David Thompson) and 1976 (John Lucas) as well as three other with shorter pro careers (N.C. State's Monte Towe and Maryland's Mo Howard and Tom Roy) and another who would have a long career as a major league pitcher (N.C. State's Tim Stoddard).
The one scar on the game and it's speculatory, what happens if this game is outside of the 'neutral' floor for State, who shot twenty-six free throws to Maryland's eight during the game.
The Athletic writes about the history of the NIT and how to deal with the problems of players not wanting to play in the tournament (like in football's bowl games) to prepare for the NBA draft.
The NIT removed their mandate this season that a regular season conference champion that lost in its conference tournament and didn't receive an NCAA bid in an attempt to fend off a bid by Fox Sports to start their own postseason with a sixteen-team bracket with the Big Ten, Big Twelve, and Big East each receiving two automatic positions.
That decision bought the NIT one year as Fox announced this weekend that they would be creating such a tournament for next season, so hopefully the NIT will return the small conference regular season champions to their tournament as they deserve.
The Athletic also writes about how the Columbus Blue Jackets have become the most inept franchise in hockey.
I have to be honest, I didn't realize the Blue Jackets were that awful, and while I knew they were nothing to be excited about in their history, I didn't realize they were THAT bad!
And while the smoking gun was the draft selection in 2005 of Gilbert Brule over Anze Kopitat, the funniest is the story told about 2008 first-rounder Nikita Filatov, who scored a whopping six NHL goals, who offered this when his coaches tried to show him better ways to follow up at the net.
"Filly don't do rebounds".
I love this and think I might try this at my job when asked to do something I don't like- "Shawn don't do...." I'm sure it will go over extremely well!
Another story from The Athletic follows former Giants minor league pitcher John Gavin as he deals with life after baseball.
It's a very interesting article to see how athletes transition into the real world and it's easy to have some sympathy for what players go through after sports.
We wrap with Vanity Fair's cover article on one of my favorite actresses, Anne Hathaway,
It's an interesting piece on the actress, how she prepared for roles, how she entered the profession, dealing with social media, and several other topics to boot.
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