1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Monday “SOUTH CAROLINA–CHAMPION”
========Hacksaw’s Monday Podcast…1pm on the Road
You Tube Channell-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
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“SOUTH CAROLINA–UNBEATEN”
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It was a fabulous 3-weeks of Women’s college basketball, but all things come to an end.
For Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Lady Hawkeyes, they got beat at their own game, and got beaten by a deep-gifted-athletic South Carolina team that featured size, stamina, defense and shooters..
It was a roller coaster of a day.
Iowa stormed to a (10-0) lead from tipoff, and led (20-9) early. But this was unbeaten South Carolina, and they tied it (27-27). USC survived Clark’s 18-point first quarter as she launched shots from everywhere.
But USC imposed its defensive will on Iowa in the comeback, and the Lady Gamecocks huge size changed the game. By halftime they led (49-46).
It got tougher and tougher for Iowa as the day wore on. They body banged thru picks, knocked Clark down 4-times. They put hands in her face. They doubled her and denied her good looks.
Kam Cardosa, the monster 6’7-center from Brazil, owned the glass and that eventually wore down Iowa’s bigs. Cardosa finished with 15-points..17-rebounds and 3-blocks.
USC finished the day with a (51-29) rebounding edge.
They scored 48 in the paint
That defense had 8-blocks and 8-steals, that’s 16-possessions Clark couldn’t hurt you.
As good as the Hawkeyes bigs had played leading into Sunday’s war, they could not offset the Gamecocks bigs.
Tessa Johnson rifled hom 19-most from outside, and USC hit 8-critical 3’s along the way, helping them get back in the game or stunt Iowa’s comebacks.
Iowa was down 14-came back to trail by 5, but Iowa went scoreless the final 9-possessions of the game, and it was over.
Clark heads to the NBA with a 30-point final outing. She was emotionless and just did everything she could during the season.
It will be fun to see how Clark, Cardosa, Angel Reese and so many others do in the WNBA.
They have brought enormous credibility and respect to the women’s game. They’ve helped grow it to the point the TV rating for Friday night’s semifinal was (14.2M) viewers. Sunday’s game might have topped 15M
The men take center stage on Monday in Phoenix in the battle of the bigs, UConn-Purdue, the centers, the coaches, the shooting guards.
Years ago, decades ago, Title IX came into being. Sunday’s women’s final was a tribute to what women’s sports could become.
Great players, talent, execution, coaches, teams.
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1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Friday. “FINAL 4-PICK EM PAL”
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Hacksaw’s Great Sports Weekend Podcast
“March Madness-Final 4..Padres..Larry Lucchino..NFL”
You Tube Channel-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
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“FINAL 4….Pick em Pal”
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Shooting 3-point shot…nothing but net..no airballs
NCAA-WOMEN
IOWA..U CONN….Lady Hawkeyes more than just Caitlin Clark, but she is something….U-Conn is Paige Beukers and her diverse talent. Lost in the wild array of long distance three point shots is the fact Clark is unselfish, the whole team is unselfish. Their bigs run the floor, hit shots, make back door passes and go to the hole. A very fundamentally sound team. Too many bigs who play all 40-minutes. UConn, to have 33-wins with all these injuries, five in all, is an accomplishment. But Hawkeyues on Friday
SOUTH CAROLINA-NORTH CAROLINA STATE…Dawn Staley doing at USC with the Gamecocks what she did at USC with Trojans. Great coach-great recruiter. Lady Wolfpack have size but not speed to keep up.
NCAA-MEN
UCONN..ALABAMA…One game to the next, it could be C-Donovan Cleghans or it could be guards Tristen Newton or fast developing Stephon Castle…The Huskies front line and its back-court is really explosive. The Crimson Tide play above the rim too and they have the most explosive guard in the tourney in Mark Sears. The Huskies have too much, though the Tide’s bigs do play above the rim alot..Huskies move on. Tide goes home.
PURDUE..N CAROLINA STATE…Sometimes it takes Zach Erdey time to get in the flow of the game. But when he gets rolling, look out. He tends to foul out all your bigs. Key here is not just the 7’3-center but what kind of firepower support he gets from his three guards. They need 3’s..they need some gritty defense. Lance Jones-Braden Smith need big nights. The Wolfpack are on a mission, that’s 9-wins in a row since the ACC tourney. Yes 6’9-275 pound center DJ Burns takes up space but how can they defend the big Boilermaker? They do have 15-fouls to use from their own big men, but then what? Purdue to the finals to meet UConn and a true battle of aircraft carriers.
Enjoy it. Some weekend ahead.
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1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Thursday. “11pm HEADLINES”
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Hacksaw’s Thursday Podcast
1pm-You Tube Channel-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
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“11pm HEADLINES”
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PADRES…Back to back strong starts from Yu Darvish-Joe Musgrove. Stabilizes everything. Now they need to control the wildness of Dylan Cease and work with Michael King, who walks alot and has given up home runs.
DODGERS..Guess they are human…Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow. Showtime has gone 18-games, dating back to last year, without hitting a home run. A bit surprise. Glasnow looked dominant early against the Giants, then gave up hits and runs and threw wild pitches. Strange.
ANGELS..Wow, a four game winning streak after giving up 24-runs in back to back losses in Baltimore. Big issue, Anthony Rendon, zero for the season, as in (0-15). Surely not the player he used to be in Washington.
YANKEES..Juan Soto off to a (.529) start. Aaron Judge-Giancarlo Stanton-Anthony Rizzo all hitting below (.200)
METS..Do you really think a rotation led by Jose Quintana-Sean Manaea-Julio Teheran can make the Mets a pennant contender?
A’s..What a disaster, roster, stadium situation, attendance, budget. Shame on Commissioner Rob Manfred to allow John Fisher’s mode of operation in Oakland. Feel sorry for Mark Kotsay.
PIRATES..Surprise-surprise. Bucs off to (5-0) start before losing Wedneday. Best start since 1983.
MARLINS..What a mess. Made the playoffs last year, fired GM-Kim Ng, lost players to free agency, now off to (0-7) start. That owner Bruce Sherman deserves as much head as the guy in Oakland.
COLORADO..Owner Dick Monfort says he believes the Rockies are headed in the right direction? Check out their pitching situation, their won loss record, and the lopsided scores the first week of the season. Rockies been in playoffs just 5-times since (2005). Nice job destroying a great regional franchise, that once upon a time drew 4M in a season.
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1-Man’s Opinnion on Sports-Wednesday. ‘FAREWELL TO GREATNESS-LUCCHINO
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‘FAREWELL TO GREATNESS-LUCCHINO’
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The text I got from a baseball friend took the wind out of my sales in the early morning hours on Tuesday.
Larry Lucchino had passed away, from cancer, after having beaten it 3-times in a 20-year span.
Time ran out on one of the great minds of baseball, taken from us at age (78).
What a resume for a sports-lawyer turned executive, turned baseball visionary.
Pick any landing spot he planted his flag, his accomplishments were many.
The President of the Baltimore Orioles, helping rebuild the Birds, and the architect of Camden Yards, the first of the great ‘throwback personality stadiums’ of our time.
The President of the Padres, the man who created the concept of Petco Park, the East Village, the rebirth of the Gaslamp Quarter where old empty warehouses existed.
The President of the Red Sox, who ended the Curse of the Bambino guiding the Bosox to 3-World Series titles, and the decision maker who saved Fenway Park and renovated it, including the luxury seats above the Green Monster in left field. He built a state of the art Jet Blue Park spring training complex too.
And he bought a minor league team in Pawtucket, built a state of the art minor league park in Worcester, a jewel in the International League.
The consultant who guided Pittsburgh to build the gem that is PNC Park, looking out on a city skyline with all its bridges across all those rivers.
And it was his Pittsburgh roots, growing up around old Forbes Field that led him to believe, red brick, green grass and blue skies should be part of every ballpark he would want to build.
He loved history and therefore the Western Metals Building and the B&O Railroad warehouse became cornerstone anchors of the stadiums in San Diego and Baltimore.
His life was entrenched in the communities too, leading the historic Jimmy Fund fighting cancer in Boston.
Lucchino was brilliant at sighting, scoping, hiring young front office execs. He delivered us the popular Padres GM-Kevin Towers, who built pennant winners.
He did the same giving the keys to young exec Theo Epstein with the Red Sox.
He was dynamic, working with John Moores and his money, to save the Padres and give us the crown jewel downtown-Petco Park, 20-years ago. He rescued the franchise from the terrible Tom Werner-Team of 15-ownership.
The lst time we set foot downtown, the only thing he had was a pile of dirt representing a pitchers mound with a ball on it….and lines of string from. a supposed home plate down the 1st and 3rd base lines. The empty lot looked out onto the downtown horizon. And we know what the stadium is now.
He did the same again, linking with John Henry to bring a modern day baseball operation to the proud, but underfinanced Red Sox, claiming the ‘State of New England’ as his sports territory.
He excelled working for an impossibly demanding owner in Edward Bennett Williams with the Redskins and then Orioles.
He coined the phrase ‘Evil Empire’ to describe the way George Steinbrenner operated the Yankees for decades, having no fear of the Yankees owner.
He created Cox Cable 4-for the Padres.
He sales-pitched planting the Padres flag in Mexico, to serve fans, take games there. He pioneered baseball’s return for games in Japan, something that had not happened since the Walter O’Malley-Brooklyn Dodgers trips in the mid 1950s.
He understood a baseball teams’ place in its community and loved the history of the game, the father-son relationship baseball has in families.
He was combative too, wanting things done his way. I saw some heated discussions with his own people. His tolerance level of other baseball owners and their decisions was likely ‘zero’.
The story is true of his confrontation with Chargers owner Alex Spanos, after years they hardly co-existed at San Diego’s Jack Murphy’s Stadium. Lucchino and Moores went to Spanos’ offices and told him the Padres were going downtown and would be willing to work together on a new stadium. Alex said he had no interest in cooperating with the Padres on a deal and effectively threw Lucchino out of his office.
No problem, Lucchino and Moores went downtown, bought up all the land in the East Village warehouse area, projected they could build 5-hotels there to help support the growth that would then lead to office buildings and condos. Look what is around that park, now.
Spanos sat in the crumbling Qualcomm Stadium, tried to get the city-county to pay for a stadium deal , failed, had a miserable (1-15) season, and plotted to screw San Diego to go to LA, where they are a tenant and mostly on the periphery of the LA sports scene.
The entrepreneur genes in Lucchino were also surrounded by a street fighter personality. He and Moores waded thru 23-lawsuits from people trying to block the Petco blueprint. Yeah empty warehouses and decayed buildings were better a night at the new ballyard, where they drew an astounding (3.2M) just last summer.
He could be a bear to deal with. The afternoon when I was doing my sportstalk show on XTRA 690 from the stadium parking lot, when he marched out of his office across the lot to confront-debate me about something I had said about the Padres signing Fernando Valenzuala, calling it a ‘stunt’. I fondly remember him saying in the middle of the parking lot, ‘I wanted to be the first to tell you you are wrong.’ I enjoyed exchanging ‘opinions-and-gun fire’ with him for years.
I was saddened when the Moores-Lucchino relationship broke up.
He went off the deep end when his young GM-Epsitien,failed to close a deal on a free agent who wound up with the hated Yankees.
And his decades long war against cancer was an example of his attempts to accomplish everything, survival included, doing it his way.
Every place he worked, he was a success and left an amazing legacy as he moved on.
If only time had not run out. I always thought his last job would be as Commissioner of Baseball.
Instead, the next assignment should be enshrinement in the Hall of Fame.
A sad day for me, but a rewarding day, what he contributed, whether wearing Padres blue and orange, the Orioles orange and black, the color Red for the Sox, or the Black-Gold Pirates colors.
Personally, professionally, one of the most passionate people I ever crossed paths with.
Greatness describes who Larry Lucchino was, and what he accomplished.
We are thankful we crossed paths with him.
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