End Of The Dream

You can only go so far with a dream, and for the remarkable group of seniors who played their last basketball game for Cal in an NCAA second-round loss to Duke, it's really, really over.

Patrick Christopher, Theo Robertson, Jerome Randle, Jamal Boykin, and even lesser light Nikola Knezevic brought great honor and excitement to the Cal hoops program. Before anyone forgets it (and the CBS-TV announcers repeatedly did), this group won the first conference basketball title for the Bears in fifty years. The fact that they lost the Pac-10 Tournament title to Washington doesn't erase what everyone in the conference knows: Cal earned the title this year.

Any hopes the seniors had of a magical, improbable finish at the Final Four probably vanished when the selection committee set Cal up on a path to collide with Duke. The bigger, brawnier Dookies simply overwhelmed a Cal squad that wasn't very muscular to begin with, and got less so with the suspension of Omondi Amoke before the start of March Madness.

The Duke game must have been nightmarish for Cal coach Mike Montgomery, who watched an opponent play the way his old Stanford squads often played: hit 'em hard, hit 'em often, and assume most of it won't get called. Montgomery is honest in admitting that he prefers that style of basketball, but had to do something few coaches are really able to do: let the team dictate the style of play.

Montgomery allowed Randle and Company to play their way. It wasn't enough, in the end, to win it all. But these young men left their mark in Berkeley. They'll be missed, but they won't be forgotten.

L'Affaire Ovechkin

The National Hockey League has a dilemma: its most exciting player may also be its dirtiest.

"The Great 8", two-time MVP Alexander Ovechkin, is a reliable highlight-show participant. His spectacular goals are one reason for that. Sadly, his dangerous plays are another.

Ovechkin's latest transgression: a needless hit from behind on Chicago defenseman Brian Campbell. Ovechkin was tossed from the game, but Campbell's season is over. His collision with the end boards, courtesy of Ovechkin's hit, resulted in a broken collarbone and broken ribs.

Look, I love Ovechkin's passion and energy. He's one of those athletes you have to watch, because something amazing is often just moments away. But there's a line, and Ovechkin crosses it far too often. Just this season, he was suspended for two games after authoring a dangerous knee-to-knee hit on Carolina's Tim Gleason. And who can forget the knee-to-knee shot on Pittsburgh's Sergei Gonchar in last year's playoffs?

There's already talk that some arcane NHL rule will allow league disciplinarians to skate around what's obviously required here: an Ovechkin suspension. The guy is a repeat offender and deserves harsh punishment. Doesn't matter how many goals he scores: dirty is dirty and it has to be stopped.

My suggestion: an open-ended suspension. Ovechkin can play again as soon as Brian Campbell, his latest victim, can suit up. Maybe that'll make hockey's greatest/dirtiest player think twice next time.

Hope Springs Eternal

Just back from a quick Cactus League trip. Saw the Giants 3 times in 4 days (and would have gone 4-for-4 except for the rainout that cost us a trip to that lovely ballpark in Surprise).

I'll talk more about what I saw and heard on this week's KCBS Sports Fans podcast (which, by the way, is now the "Award-winning KCBS Sports Fans podcast", since the good folks at the Associated Press TV-Radio Association have named us "Best Podcast" in a region that includes a dozen western states plus the always-unpredictable broadcasters from Guam. We humbly thank the Academy for its vote).

But here's all you need to know about how cool spring training is: as I got on the bus from the rental car center back to the airport last night, a woman spotted my Giants cap and said, "This is the year, right?" And we both laughed and said, "Well, why not?"

Why not, indeed? Anything's possible in early March.

A Great Day For Hockey

You couldn't ask for more: that great Canadian anthem playing as the home team stood wearing shiny gold medals.

I suspect people will be talking about the 2010 Winter Olympic hockey competition for many years, and the gold-medal game was a classic. The gritty Team USA hung around long enough to force overtime by scoring with less than 30 seconds left in regulation. US goaltender Ryan Miller continued his superhuman play until the best player in the sport, Sidney Crosby, scored the overtime winner.

It's a cliche', but nobody lost in this one. Team USA served notice that American-born hockey players have achieved parity with the world's best. The home team gave Canada a final bit of sweetness to wrap up the Olympic fortnight. And we all got to see some pretty good hockey.

At its best, hockey is a game of awe-inspiring speed, balance, and toughness. When it degenerates into the kind of thuggishness that all too often prevails in the NHL, we might want to dust off our memories of Vancouver 2010. Hats off to the winners, and to the team that pushed Team Canada to the limit.

Miracle? Not Really

I'm reading headlines like "Miracle on Ice II" in the wake of the US Olympic hockey team's 5-3 victory over Canada.

Please. Everyone needs to take a deep breath, and maybe look at the history books.

The 1980 "Miracle on Ice" was a matchup between a bunch of American amateur and collegiate players and the powerful and experienced (and professional) Soviet national team. The Soviet roster included legendary players like Tretiak, Mikhailov, Kharlamov, Fetisov, and Makarov. The Americans? Well, only true puckheads knew any of those guys before that memorable day in Lake Placid. It was a truly epic victory, and to compare what happened in Vancouver with the Lake Placid shocker is absurd.

This 2010 game was certainly much-anticipated. And that fact alone tells you why the American victory wasn't exactly an epic shocker. Would people be paying thousands of dollars for tickets to watch a wipeout? Of course not.

Is the Canadian team better on paper? Well, of course. Crosby, Iginla, Thornton, Nash, Pronger, Boyle, Marleau, Heatley...the list goes on. The cream of the NHL crop. But the US roster is, unlike that 1980 group, all-pro as well.

That's the indisputable difference between 1980 and 2010. Then: our amateurs (real amateurs) against their "amateurs" (actually, full-time hockey players). Now: our NHL players against their NHL players.

Call it an upset. Shout "U-S-A, U-S-A" if you must. But please, don't call it a miracle. Not even close.

You Wouldn't Want To Be Him

Forget the silky swing. Ignore the endless wealth.

You don't want to be Tiger Woods.

I don't care how old you are, or how much money you have in the bank. Nobody wants to find himself standing in front of his mother while apologizing for behaving like a complete jerk.

Sincere? Scripted? I don't care one way or the other. If you're human, it has to be humbling to have to look at Mom while you tell the world you're sorry for cheating on the mother of your children, again and again and again.

NBC = Now Broadcasting Cluelessly

Everyone likes to gripe about the tape-delayed Olympic coverage we seem to be force-fed every two years. Doesn't seem to matter whether the Games are Summer or Winter, on this continent or another, the Lords of Broadcasting persist in treating a spectacle of worldwide interest as if it's nothing more than another sitcom.

Maybe you could pull this off back when the world was less-wired than it is today. But now? When a friend at the finish line can shoot some video of the skier finishing the run and send it your way before the athlete finishes doing interviews? Absurd.

NBC's Vancouver coverage is particularly egregious because the company owns four networks (NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, and USA). How much harm to its ratings would there be in showing the events live during the day and then repeating them at night? Virtually everyone either already knows the results by the time the pre-packaged prime time show comes around, or has studiously avoided media contact all day anyway.

The pathetic coverage of an event that many of us feel is the signature event of the Winter Games--the men's downhill--is a case in point. The downhill was postponed for a day because of bad weather, no doubt fouling up NBC's plans to show it on Sunday afternoon. So instead, on Monday, while Didier Defago won the closest battle in Olympic history (bronze medalist Bode Miller was only .09 second behind and 15 skiers finished within a second of the winner), NBC showed cross-country skiing. Lots of it.

If you wanted to experience the thrill of the downhill--well, you had to be alert to catch a brief chunk during the evening show. None of the drama of the actual event; just a canned replay of a couple of runs.

Meanwhile, acres of open airtime yawned on MSNBC, CNBC and USA.

Much has been made of the fact that NBC will lose money on these Winter Olympics. I have to wonder how much of that is due to the fact that the company has seen fit to pay for the rights--and then fail to show what it paid for. That's a real head-scratcher.