Zanor column: NCAA Selection Show is must watch TV, and other thoughts
Just thought I’d empty out my reporter’s notebook while wondering who the heck is going to be the Red Sox opening day pitcher in Seattle on March 28. Luis Tiant, Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez aren't walking through the door anytime soon ...
Bracket Watch
My list of all-time favorite TV shows is a short one:
5. The Three Stooges
4. Cheers
3. Friday Night Lights
2. The Rockford Files
1. NCAA Basketball Selection Show
Yup, it’s time to grab a pen, notepad and popcorn for this year’s television extravaganza. Oh, the suspense and intrigue is palpable.
The NCAA Selection Show is Sunday at 6 p.m. on CBS. One hour of can’t miss TV as the 68-team field for the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament is announced.
Please, no shenanigans. Remember when Charles Barkley took forever to fill in the brackets. Remember when the entire field was revealed on Twitter before the show even began.
Show me the teams assembled in their auditorium or gymnasium celebrating after their school name appears on the screen. Give me Clark Kellogg, Jay Wright, Seth Davis and Adam Zucker with their sleeper picks and region-by-region analysis.
Where are your favorite teams going? What teams got snubbed? What surprise teams got picked? Can Danny Hurley and UConn win back-to-back titles?
March Madness. The Brackets. Does it get any better?
Meeting the coach
It was great to meet and share some small talk with new Boston College football coach Bill O’Brien at last week’s Tufts/Brandeis college baseball game in Medford (Mass.). O’Brien’s son, Michael, is a good-looking 6-3 left handed freshman pitcher for the Jumbos. (Let the record show that my son, Judges first baseman Eddie Zanor, laced a two-run single off O’Brien during Tufts’ rain-soaked 26-5 victory.)
O’Brien, a Boston native who had winning seasons as the head coach at Penn State and the NFL’s Houston Texans, is the perfect choice to lead the Eagles.
Trivia time
In 1980, the NBA celebrated its 35th anniversary by selecting the best 11 players and one coach from the league’s first 35 seasons. What three Celtics players and one coach were among the honorees?
Merit awards
This year’s CIAC Boys and Girls Basketball Tournaments were dedicated to Gregg Simon. The CIAC’s associate executive director, Simon serves as the CIAC staff liaison to the Boys and Girls Basketball committees. He spent 11 successful seasons as Newtown High School’s girls basketball coach, and 17 years leading the school as athletic director.
Kudos also to those individuals who were honored with merit awards. This year’s recipients were VJ Sarullo, Kelly Maher, Duane Witter, Shaun Russell, Tim Kohs, Joe Zone, Rick Wilson, Andy Savo and David Duguay.
While working at the Middletown Press, I spent numerous nights in the gymnasiums at Cromwell, Mercy and East Hampton watching Maher, Kohs, and Russell coach their girls basketball teams to one victory after another. All three have also done a remarkable job as their school’s athletic directors.
Maher led Cromwell to five state finals appearances and three state championships. She had an amazing won-lost mark of 315-65. Kohs has collected 569 victories and three state championships at Mercy, while Russell, who played at Wesleyan, guided the Bellringers to eight Shoreline Conference championships and the Class M state title in 2023.
I miss those days writing on a tight deadline in Maher's or Kohs' office following a big Panthers or Tigers win.
Ice hockey champs
It’s March so everyone is talking about the UConn men’s and women’s basketball teams but the best story in Storrs belongs to the Huskies women’s ice hockey team.
UConn reached the NCAA tournament for the first time in the program’s 24-year history with two incredible sudden death overtime victories over Boston College and Northeastern.
Huskies senior Kathryn Stockdale scored the game-winner, off an assist from Megan Woodworth, to lift UConn to a thrilling 2-1 overtime win over BC in the Hockey East Tournament semifinals.
Woodworth then scored on a deflection with 35 seconds left in overtime to give the Huskies a 1-0 victory over Northeastern in the Hockey East championship game. The nail biting, up-and-down affair saw Huskies junior goaltender Tian Chan win most valuable player honors with 38, while Northeastern goaltender Gwyneth Philips finished with 51 saves.
UConn’s third straight overtime game came in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. Chan was sensational again with 48 saves but the Huskies fell to Minnesota-Duluth, 1-0, in double-overtime at Columbus, Ohio. Mannon McMahon scored the game-winner for the Bulldogs with 2:34 left in the second overtime.
What a wild ride for the UConn women’s ice hockey team, whose head coach Chris MacKenzie was named Hockey East Coach of the Year.
Trivia answer
Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, Bill Russell and coach Red Auerbach. Joining Russell, who was named the greatest player of all-time, Havlicek and Cousy as the best players in the league’s first 35 seasons were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, George Mikan, Bob Petit, Oscar Robertson and Jerry West.
Stuck in the '70s
On March 16, 1972, the Boston Bruins defeated the Los Angeles Kings, 8-3, at The Forum in Los Angeles. The B’s had eight different goal scorers: Bobby Orr, Ed Westfall, Wayne Cashman, Johnny Bucyk, Ken Hodge, Carol Vadnais, Johnny McKenzie and Mike Walton.
The Bruins juggernaut, which was on its way to a second Stanley Cup championship in three seasons, improved to 50-10-10.
Jimmy Zanor is a sportswriter for the Norwich Bulletin and can be reached at jzanor@norwichbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter@jzanorNB.
This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: NCAA selection show on CBS is must watch TV
