Mark_Concannon's Blog

*****LOVE THY SELF-I'll be rooting for Kansas in tonight's championship game. I've been a huge fan of KU coach Bill Self since the end of the 2003 season. Self's Illini team lost a close game to the Badgers at the Kohl Center on a controversial call that could have gone either way. The victory gave the Big Ten title to UW. At the post game news conference, the first question to Self was about the call. His answer? He talked about the great atmosphere in Madison and what a great thing this was for college basketball. Pure class. Go Jayhawks.

*****ROCK CHALK, HUH?-Curious about the Kansas cheer, I looked up its origins and found "Rock Chalk" to be "a transposition of chalk rock, a mineral that exists in western Kansas." A KU english professor suggested those two words replace "Rah Rah." Thus, we have "Rock Chalk Jayhawk!"

*****YOU DID WHAT?-UCLA coach Ben Howland was not happy when he learned forward Alfred Aboya couldn't work out recently because he had a knot in his back after assembling furniture he had bought and was hunched in the same position for three hours while wielding a screwdriver.

*****HE'S A RENTER-Ira Newble signed with the Lakers for the rest of this season. He's played on five NBA teams since 2002.

*****ALL BETS ARE OFF-Many of the Vegas sports books are so certain Boston will win the NBA championship, they are no longer accepting future bets on the Celtics. They will take bets on whom you think will be runner-up to the Celts in the championship series.

*****BET AGAINST HIM, IF YOU DARE-The Vegas sports books are also certain Tiger Woods will win this week's Masters. You can bet on Tiger or take the rest of the field with both sides paying off even money. But the odds on the other golfers really tell the story. Madison's Jerry Kelly, who finished 5th at Augusta last year, is listed at 200-1

*****WE NEED MORE THAN A COOL STADIUM-Baltimore's revered Camden Yards, was once one of the toughest sports tickets to procure. But after years of Oriole ineptitude, the Yards have lost their luster. Only 10-thousand fans showed up for the O's game last Tuesday night.

*****HANGING IN THERE-Pitcher Will Cunnane, who started the 2001 season with the Milwaukee Brewers, just signed a contract, at the age of 34, with the independent Newark Bears.

*****THE NAME GAME-The two worst names for MLB pitchers? Twins starter Kevin Slowey. Brewers reliever David Riske.

 No risks here. We'll be back with more musings next Monday, April 14th