The Sports Monitor

I've lost my appetite for hating the BCS system. For years now, we've been told it's great by the people who created it. We've been told how it matches the two best teams in the country for college football's national championship. Instead, we're usually left without the two best teams playing for the title. We complain, gripe and do everything we can to slam the system. Ideas are tossed around, but they never gain traction. Five of six weeks later, everyone turns on their television after the new year to watch college football again and the slime that run the BCS and the bowls smile while counting their dollars. Yeah, college football is grand. Sunday night was another reminder of how bad the system is. For this year's version of the national championship, we're left with a rematch of LSU and Alabama. The two team's played earlier in a battle of field goals -- yawn! -- with LSU beating 'Bama 9-6. We're left to believe that a syst...

Every spring you can count on a handful of things: the return of baseball, preparation of taxes, a wild party on St. Patrick's Day and, of course, the Pitt collapse in the NCAA basketball tournament. Saturday was the latest chapter in Pitt sports history where the eighth-seeded Butler Bulldogs crushed the hopes of Pitt fans with an unbelievable 71-70 win in the NCAA tournament. It was the second time in three seasons that the No. 1-seeded Panthers failed to make the Final Four. And this time, they failed to make the Sweet 16 under coach Jamie Dixon. The ending proved to be typical Pitt. It also proved my theory with the Panthers: They will break your heart. The Panthers failed to get a shot off with a lead, giving Butler the ball with less than 10 seconds left. Butler scored to take the lead, beating the so-called tough Pitt defense. With less than 2 seconds left, Pitt's Gilbert Brown was unbelievably fouled. It was a so-so call, but it was the gift Pitt needed. Bro...

I'll be up front from the start: I'm not a Duke fan. With Duke, it's either you love 'em or you don't. I don't love 'em. Then The Indianapolis Star ran this illustration last week. Pretty funny, I thought. Coach K didn't like it, though. Here's what the Associated Press reported from Coach K: "It was kind of juvenile. Not kind of, it was just juvenile. You know, my seven grandkids didn’t enjoy looking at it: ‘That’s not Papi.’" It reminds me of Krzyzewski complaining to an official after not getting a call. The Blue Devils could be up 25 points with five minutes left in the game and Coach K would complain about not getting a foul call. The Indy Star didn't like the finished product and pulled it after 30,000 copies ran. Noted newspaper designer Charles Apple recently commented on the illustration. Apple, like me, liked it. Apple thought it could have been better. I’d have asked the designer to tone it down just...