Daily RoundUp- Friday, March 27th

Some more NCAA action, as the Sweet 16 tipped off last night. Pitt and Xavier played a close one while number 2 Memphis messed up everyone’s office pool last night by losing to Missouri.
Mike Lupica was impressed by the game and by one Levance Fields, point guard from Brooklyn playing for Pitt.

After he was seemingly dedicating his life to ruining Alex Rodriguez (as if A-Rod needs any help), Lupica came back down to earth and wrote a good article about a Brooklyn point guard who is running the show on a number one seed that has been less than spectacular.
There’s a certain legend that goes with being a point guard from NY that carries weight in most circles and if you’re on a good program, it means so much more. It seems to suggest that kids who grew up playing in the tough playgrounds of NYC are more ready for whatever the pro game or the college game can throw at them. Even if I didn’t know anything about Levance Fields, I could’ve suggested that he came from New York, just from the way he plays. There’s a certain aggression that he plays with, the way he sticks his hand out whenever a player is driving down the lane. Its not something that is taught in New York, its just something you grow to get used to doing.
There are no AAU instructors, its just trying to make a name for yourself on those playgrounds where a man’s respect level lies in how well he can play. You can’t play, you get no respect. That’s where the NYC playground legend can make you that much bigger because if you can play on those playgrounds and gain some respect, you can play in any level, because you’re not going to play any more physical than what you see in those streets. Fact is, there are very few training grounds for pro-hoop players that seem more fitting than there, Chicago, or LA where you go against guys who have nothing to play for except pride, which, however you think of it is sometimes more important than all of that.
For some reason as I watch Levance Fields I think of Khalid El-Amin, the scrappy, short, pudgy point guard who just seems to know where to be when it counts. There are few things that can’t be taught and intuition and knowing where to be by merely reacting is one of them, the greats have it and Fields has it. He knows when to hoist the three, he knows when to stick his hand in there.
Like I’ve always said, key situations in crunch time, the guy who plays the best is the guy who remains even keel as people are fretting and staring at the clock or making the situation bigger than it is and completely defeating himself in his head by making the situation more and more impossible. The guys who win are the people who keep things in perspective. The people who remain at a certain level of concentration as other’s levels rise or fall depending on the player. Levance’s level remains even keel and that’s why this team will continue to play and hopefully make a lot of people happy by winning it all.


Speaking of key players in the NCAA tournament, Mike Vaccaro believes that perhaps Hasheem Thabeet is the most important player left.

I think Hasheem Thabeet could be the best player in college basketball. He should be better. In fact, he should have a game like he did at Purdue every time he’s on the court. Unfortunately I don’t like Thabeet to lead the UConn Huskies anywhere. Why?
Easy, I think the kid is soft. Softer than Bounty towels. Softer than a baby’s bottom. Don’t get me wrong, yesterday he was a bully. But he’s the kind of bully that if you just get scared by the mere sight of a 7 foot 3 man patrolling the middle, then yeah, he’s in his comfort zone and he’s going to throw his body around. But say a guy like DeJuan Blair comes and starts throwing his weight around he will back down. Fact is, he’s a paper champ.
He’s the bully that after you see get beaten you just don’t respect him anymore and that’s the way I feel about Thabeet now. He’s been beaten and beaten badly by DeJuan Blair the Co-Big East player of the year. Thabeet should be hoisting the trophy by himself but Blair is like a shadow creeping over everything Thabeet does. Blair is the bully. Blair’s the guy who’s coming at people regardless of how big they are. Blair doesn’t care about how tall Thabeet is.
If you’re a team that immediately gets frightened off by the sight of the center, yeah he’s good. But not if you have a player who’s willing to fight back. Centers like Thabeet and Blair are bullies and Blair has won that battle twice now this season so its kind of hard for me to forget that and say that Thabeet is the best player. The fact is, he could be and words like potential and could be the best really piss me off and it only tells me about what Thabeet is NOT doing as opposed to what he’s doing currently.


Okay enough college sports, time to get to some baseball and there was some news of importance yesterday. The Yankees skipper, Joe Girardi announced that he’s flip flopping Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon in the line up. He’s experimenting with Jeter as his lead off guy. Well, Kevin Kernan thinks this flip won’t be such a flop.

I don’t know how confident I feel either way. I think the Yankees having Brett Gardner with his speed and playing as well as he has been playing should think of giving him and his speed the lead off spot. His speed can do wonders at the top of the line up. That might sound like the dumbest idea but from what I’ve been seeing in spring training, Gardner has really focused on his hitting and its been paying off. Now I know spring training stats should be taken with a grain of salt (hence I’m not panicking about John Maine or Oliver Perez just yet), but this decision doesn’t seem like its going to turn things around dramatically as he would hope it is. I think Jeter’s days as the lead off hitter are kind of over. His ability to work counts and get on base is where his true value lies and where a number 2 hitter comes into importance mostly.


If you’re not familiar with the term buscones, just thank Jorge Ortiz for dropping that knowledge nugget on you.

The fact is, in these impoverished countries, exploitation can happen and will happen. Its tough to understand the network of people that is involved when dealing with these talented players. If it weren’t for these guys, a lot of the stars you see today on a major league level would not be playing. They are usually the only ones they trust to handle issues of dealing with American agents or American handlers and getting them to the country. A lot of times, these guys fake like they are friends just gain their trust. It’s a tough environment for them to continue living in but it’s an unfortunate reality of a situation that can’t be improved because the opportunity that lies in America are too great and their trust for those that come in suits and don’t speak Spanish is too great.
At some point MLB has to investigate these relationships but I think its impossible to understand them. At some point I also feel that they will have to work them in to the payroll instead of having them run roughshod over these young guys as they currently are right now. Like legalizing marijuana, the argument is to stop acting like people won’t smoke if you make it illegal, the point is to control it by making it available where you can control the sales and even make money on things like that. Having something like that taxed can be tremendously beneficial to the government. At some point, MLB has to face this head on. At some point, I have to stop saying at some point.


Here are some moments of sanity with my boy Peter Vecsey.