Knockin' On Hoops Heaven Door & Theater of Absurd Comes to NYC

With the playing of this week’s conference championship tournaments, leading up to the NCAA basketball's “Selection Sunday”, the next few weeks is often termed one of the greatest segments in the yearly sports calendar. By Sunday night we will know which teams’ names will be plotted on the millions of NCAA Tournament brackets posted on kitchen refrigerators, office walls, cubicle bulletin boards and college dorm room walls.

The consistent message from college hoop insiders and analysts is that this year’s tournament field is not nearly as deep and strong as some in the past. To that point, when addressing the top of the ladder Dick Vitale, Jay Bilas, Bob Knight and others who study this for a living all seem to agree that Kansas, Syracuse and Kentucky will nail down three of the four #1 seeds. The fourth top spot is still to be determined this weekend. Barring an unfortunate stumble Duke appears to be the leader for that slot.

Several experts believe that once you get past the top two seeds in the four regions, there is great parity among the rest. This leads to the thinking that when Casual Fan fills out his/her brackets for their pool entries they can no longer just rely on picking the higher seeded team and feeling as though they have a real good chance of being right. The insiders believe that from seeds 3 through 14 there may not be anything that would truly fall into the major upset category because of the lack of overall strength and depth throughout the field. So, you are fore-warned. Maybe take a shot at some of those seeds with bigger numbers next to their name. After all, that’s what eventually determines different bracket point totals. Someone has to pick a surprise winner or two to shake things up.

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When you think of great theater in New York you think of Broadway, “The Great White Way.” But, from the theater of the absurd New York’s Yankee Stadium brings you its inaugural Pinstripe Bowl, a college football bowl game to be played this Dec. 30 and televised by ESPN.

The game will match the No. 3 team in the Big East and the No. 6 school in the Big 12, excluding Bowl Championship Series participants.

Why is this absurd? Let’s remember, people, that bowl games were born as a means of providing a post-season get-away for teams and their fans to go somewhere warm to play a game in the dead of winter. Weather stats tell us that the average temperature for late December in New York is just above freezing at 35 degrees. I bet those Big 12 Conference schools are fired up for this one. How about all of you Texas schools...interested? About the only schools that might see NYC as being warmer than their home climate would be Nebraska (who is not destined to finish low enough to qualify for this bowl) and Iowa State (whose fans would probably show up in short sleeves compared to their normal dress for the near zero wind chills of central Iowa).

There is no doubt that the week leading up to the bowl game would be enjoyable. Holiday time in NYC for those who haven’t experience it is magical. But, keep in mind, if you attend the game at Yankee Stadium you won’t be able to pop into any one of the thousands of coffee shops, restaurants, or department stores to warm-up like you can when strolling and shopping the avenues of the Big Apple. You’ll be in the Bronx, baby, and there’s nothing for you to do but sit bundled up in your baseball stadium seat clutching a lukewarm cup of previously hot chocolate.

The only bowl games played in such a northern climate are indoors in Detroit and Toronto. When I attended a baseball game in the "new" Yankee Stadium last year I don't remember seeing a roof, nor did I hear rumors of one being added. Hmmm.