Final Four & Other Stuff

 

March 31, 2022

There are four teams left standing in the NCAA tourney. All the teams are no strangers when it comes to competing for championships. The Cinderella team of the tourney, Saint Peter’s Peacocks, upset Purdue to become the first #15 seed to make it to the elite eight. North Carolina, who beat #1Baylor, blew out the Peacocks to advance to the final four. They will face arch-rival Duke with legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski who is in his last year as their coach. 

The other game features Villanova vs. Kansas. This is the only game so far with a #1 against a #2. Kansas, with excellent coach Bill Self, is favored. However, he has no national championship banners. His counterpart, Jay Wright, has won two at Villanova.

I see that former Bears GM Ryan Pace was hired by the Atlanta Falcons. I wonder what impressed them: his bad first round draft picks or his mismanagement of the salary cap? His job title is “Senior Personnel Executive,” meaning he won’t he won’t be making big decisions.

I also saw former Bears coach Matt Nagy got a job. My feeling here is that his former boss, Kansas City’s coach, felt bad that he was unemployed. Nagy is going from head coach to Senior Assistant/Quarterbacks Coach. Kansas City doesn’t really need a QB coach with Patrick Mahomes. Like Pace, Nagy will not be making any decisions. Both their careers are spiraling downward.

Chicago still has a hockey team. The Blackhawks are having a hard
time getting rid of the stain from covering up a sexual abuse case. On the ice they are one of the worst teams in the NHL. Former disgraced GM Stan Bowman kept trying to upgrade his defense, paying no attention to the offense. The Hawks have been shut-out 6 times and average less than three goals per game. Bowman’s assistant Kyle Davidson was named interim GM as the Hawks went searching for their next GM. Rather than get fresh eyes on the team they gave the job to Davidson. His first move in rebuilding the Hawks was trading the team’s third best offensive player, Brandon Hagel, for draft picks. What makes this even more stupid is that Hagel is only 23 years old. From the looks of it, the picks will not be high enough and it will take a couple of years before they are ready. This will be my last time talking about the Hawks until they are relevant again.