Shanoff’s Wake-Up Call: Spitzer on the Bubble

By Dan Shanoff
Today’s Calls: Eliot Spitzer vs. the Selection Committee, George Mason vs. San Diego, South Alabama vs. Syracuse, Rockets vs. NBA History, Manu Ginobili vs. Allen Iverson, Roger Federer vs. Pete Sampras, LeBron James vs. Dwyane Wade, Joe Paterno vs. Lute Olson, Billy Crystal vs. Joba Chamberlain and More!
The Opening Pitch: Eliot Spitzer is like a Bubble team.
His stellar career as NY Attorney General was like a solid non-conference schedule, including a couple of high-profile wins.
His career as governor was tougher, like a conference season: Longtime rivals exposed flaws in his playing style (RPI/poll numbers dip).
This prostitution scandal is like living on the Bubble -- well, maybe a bit worse: His “Big Dance invite” would be avoiding prosecution.
Actually, the better hoops analogy for the humiliating presumptive end of his high-flying career is more like a 1 seed losing to a 16 seed.
Madness you may have missed last night:
George Mason is back! Even if GMU owes the Tourney gods a first-round flameout as karmic payback for their 2006 Cindy run.
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San Diego shocks Gonzaga! That is the West Coast Conference looking at THREE NCAA bids (Syracuse fans are NOT happy.)
Davidson ends the Elon Miracle: I loved the Elon story, but more Stephen Curry can’t possibly be a bad thing.
Siena beats Rider: Presumably distracting fans in Albany from the Spitzer scandal... um, or not.
C-Week Auto-Bid Finales tonight: Horizon! (Butler vs. Cleveland State) Summit! (Oral Roberts vs. IUPUI) Sun Belt! (Western Kentucky vs. Middle Tennessee State)
Your rooting interests: Cleveland State. On 1/17, the Vikes beat the Dogs for their first-ever regular-season W over a Top 25 team... IUPUI (Still bitter at ORU for not pulling the 16-over-1 that I predicted from them in 2006)... Middle Tennessee State (17-14!)
MTSU absolutely crushed South Alabama fans: USA had a fantastic season, but it remains to be seen if the Jags snag an at-large invite.
But for me, it is simple: It is better for everyone (except fans on the wrong side of the Bubble) for a smaller league to get a 2nd bid than a “power” league to get a 6th.
NBA Last Night: The Rockets won their 19th straight, the 3rd-longest W streak in NBA history (At this point, how can you NOT be rooting for them to keep it going?)...
After losing to the Nuggets in Denver last Friday, the Spurs snapped things back to the natural order of things with a win over the Nuggets in San Antonio (NBA Stud of the Night: Manu Ginobili, who had a career-high 14 assists)...
LeBron Triple-Double Watch: 24 pts, 11 assists, 10 rebounds.
Dwyane Wade cuts off his season with that balky knee issue: He might as well. His team is atrocious, and his coach has basically quit on them.
(Given Wade’s questionable knee, will Riley use the Heat’s Top 5 draft pick on a guard -- a “Dw-hedge?” -- or the frontcourt help they need?)
MLB Spring Training: Big Unit knocked around. Yesterday, I said Randy Johnson’s outing was worth tracking. Not so much: 3 runs, 4 hits, 1 3-run HR in a little more than 1 IP. Yikes... it’s a start?
Remember that lawsuit by that ex-Rams player and those fans against the Patriots for cheating? They dropped it -- who didn’t see that coming?
Seahawks sign Julius Jones: Who else has been suckered into taking Jones in their fantasy draft, only to see him let you down?
Trent Green signs with Rams: Ironically, the QB is best known for the 1999 season he DIDN’T play with the Rams.
(Well, that, and the fact that the Rams are utterly negligent in giving a deal to a guy whose recent history of concussions is scary.)
Roger Federer beats Pete Sampras: But you know what? Pete made it respectable, taking the second set, and leading the third set 5-2 before losing it 7-6. Nice to see Sampras seeming to have fun with it.
Penn State AD says there’s no timetable on Joe Paterno’s future. Well, except that JoePa is in the final year of his contract. And he’s, y’know, 81. (Bigger unknown: Who would you recruit to replace him?)
Speaking of old coaches, Lute Olson is returning to Arizona next season -- and the three seasons after that. (Hmm: Must be nice to live in a world where you can mysteriously bail on your team for an entire season -- undoubtedly costing them success that season -- still honor the remaining 4 years on your contract.)
The Last Word: Billy Crystal will play in a Yankees exhibition game on Thursday. I’m torn: I’m sure it’s the thrill of Crystal’s life, but if you’re the last player on the spring roster for the Yankees, are you starry-eyed... or maybe a little miffed your career hopes and dreams are secondary to celebrity?
Dan Shanoff writes The Wake-Up Call every weekday morning for SportingNews.com and blogs daily at DanShanoff.com. Got any comments, questions or feedback? Email Dan at shanofftsn-[at]-gmail-[dot]-com.↵