Sports Bard

…for the sports writer inside.

Chris Webber, move over. You’re exonerated. How can you expect any one in the heat of the battle to keep track of times out? Joe Pisarcik. Get over it. It’s not your fault that you botched a hand-off thirty years ago when you could have taken a knee to end the game. NFL referee Scott Green? So what if you missed a call that cost Steeler backers a win, sent shock waves throughout the gambling industry, and obliterated league credibility?

And as for Fred Merkle, the Giant second baseman whose legend lives 100 years after he ran off the field prior to touching second base after a game-winning hit and cost his Giants the 1908 pennant, …. the statute of limitations has run.

There’s a new leader in the clubhouse for stupidity. These Bastions of Bonehead have now been eclipsed by the Arizona Wildcats basketball team which not once, but twice, intentionally fouled a UAB opponent with the score tied in the waning seconds on Tuesday night. Arizona escaped damage when, tied at 71 with 30 seconds left, freshman Kyle Fogg fouled a Blazer who missed both shots. Arizona ran the clock down, Nic Wise missed a jumper, and UAB rebounded. But when sophomore Jamielle Horne hurled himself at Paul Delaney with one second left, the score tied, and the ball in UAB’s backcourt, that was something special. Delaney made the fouls, Arizona lost the game, and Arizona interim coach Russ Pennell might be in for even a shorter duration. Perhaps we should change his title to “For the time being” coach Russ Pennell..

Arizona’s troubles actually began in March, 2005 when they blew a fifteen point lead to Illinois with less than five minutes to go in the round of 8. Illinois went on to the finals and the Wildcats began a three-year descent, their win totals declining from 30 in 2005 to 20, 20, and 19 in 2006-07-08. They made the NCAA’s each year, but first round ousters in the last two seasons, and a chaotic coaching situation, have contributed to the gloom.

At the beginning of last season coach Lute Olson announced that he was taking the year off to deal with health issues and a messy divorce. Witnesses to his March, 2007 press conference, when Olson rambled incoherently, concluded it was the smart move. Kevin O’Neill, a veteran college and NBA coach, took over with the express understanding that he would succeed Olson when the venerable Hall of Famer retired, which was expected to be soon. Olson and O’Neill had a falling out. Olson fired O’Neill and announced that he was coming back in 2008-09 and for the indefinite future. In the meantime, Arizona’s top recruit Brandon Jennings signed to play with a European team, leaving them without a point guard.

Then, on October 23rd, Olson suddenly announced his resignation. Arizona’s first choice for the vacancy was first assistant Mike Dunlap who preferred to remain as an assistant. Then Pennell got the nod. If Tuesday’s game is any indication, Pennell may need a primer in end-of-game management skills. Right now, I’d rank him right alongside Herm Edwards, Jim Fassel, and Lefty Driesell.

There was further evidence of the Pac-10’s decline in the week’s results, with UCLA falling to Michigan and USC losing to Seton Hall. The Bruins have a big hole up front. We expect USC to improve. Washington State, Stanford and Oregon are nowhere near what they were a year ago. In this weakened atmosphere, and with future pros Chase Buddinger and Jordan Hill, Arizona has the raw talent to win a conference championship. But unless the coaching improves and their athleticism is matched with an improved mental outlook, the likelier happening is that their run of 24 straight NCAA appearances comes to an end.

Arizona was not the only team or individual to experience brainlock last week. Eagles QB Donovan McNabb revealed that he did not know that during the regular season, a tie game ends after the first overtime. In a press conference afterwards, he indignantly defended his position, at one point saying that he could not be expected to know the rule and did not regret his ignorance. Probably the only person who could understand that line of reasoning is New York Knick Stephon Marbury who on Friday night, refused coach Mike D’Antoni’s invitation to play against the Bucks.

The Knicks were depleted after trading three players away in a salary purge earlier that day. Marbury has been declared persona non grata by the Knicks and has not played this season. All year long, he’s been saying that he wants to contribute and has painted the Knicks as the bad guys. Then, given the opportunity, he refused to play when the team needed him.

But this was not a lapse in judgment by Marbury. Throughout his career, the poisonous point guard has soured teams and relationships with his selfishness and stupidity. When he refused to play, he was acting true to form.

During Isiah Thomas’ reign as Knicks GM, he saddled the Knicks with back-breaking contracts to Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Eddy Curry, and Zach Randolph. As a result of the trade, Knicks president Donnie Walsh has divested two of the albatrosses - Crawford and Randolph. The Knicks’ strategy, of course, is to clear salary cap space to sign Lebron James and either Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudamire, or Dwayne Wade, when this quartet of stars become free agents in 2010.

Considering James’ recent comments, where he talked about the need to make business decisions in his own interest, he might already be talking to realtors in New York. The trick for the Knicks is to remain competitive in the meantime. For them to be attractive to free agents, they must at least be a playoff team, which they have not been for the past four season. It is not at all clear that the players they received for Crawford and Randolph will pick up the slack, although versatile forward Al Harrington has been a favorite of Walsh since he drafted him out of high school for Indiana in 1998. Marbury and Curry remain on the roster, but it’s just a matter of time before these dead weights are cut loose.

Only a fan base which has suffered through the Marbury/Thomas years can rejoice in a trade which deprives the Knicks of their two top scorers and leading rebounder. On a day when the Knicks’ talent got demonstrably worse, their prospects got demonstrably better.

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