NEW YORK — If it hasn’t done so already, College Basketball will soon take over the sports world as it does every March, with the NCAA Men’s and Women’s College Basketball tournament approaching, and a ton of Madness set to transpire across the nation.
I cringe when I hear anyone refer to that old warhorse cliche, “New York City is the Mecca of basketball,” because it has been patently untrue for at least forty years, if not longer. Very few current NBA players are from the five boroughs. The same can be said for the top twenty-five ranked college basketball teams.
Having said that, New York City is getting national attention because it is the site this week of three college basketball tournaments which will determine which schools get to be part of the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament.
Rick Pitino and the Red Storm during a timeout against the defending NCAA Men’s Basketball champs UConn Huskies on Saturday February 3rd at Madison Square Garden – Image Credit: St. John’s Men’s Basketball
The St. John’s University Red Storm have had an uneven season under Rick Pitino who is finishing his first year at the team’s head coach. The conventional wisdom going into this year’s tournament was that the Red Storm would have to get to the third round at Madison Square Garden scheduled for Friday night to get a March Madness bid. It has been a long time since that has happened.
The Atlantic-10 Conference will once again be competing with the Big East at the other NBA arena in town, downtown Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. While the A-10 has never produced an NCAA Tournament champion, some of their teams have made deep runs in the NCAA Tournament. The Atlantic-10’s local college team, the Fordham Rams, are a longshot to win the title this year.
Will Richardson of the Fordham Rams vs. Davidson in A-10 Conference regular season 2023 contest at Rose Hill Gym – Image Credit: Fordham Men’s Basketball
The Ivy League started to have a tournament featuring its four best teams only a few years ago. This will mark the first time it will be held at Columba University’s Levien Gym. Unfortunately, the Columbia Lions, who have not stood atop the Ivy League standings since 1968, will not qualify to play on their home court to compete for the Ivy League slot in the NCAA Tournament. How Lions head coach Jim Engles keeps his job after seven seasons of absolute futility is one of life’s great mysteries.
Yale, Princeton, Cornell, and Brown will vie for the Ivy League title. Had Dartmouth qualified there would have been a ton of national media on the campus of my alma mater. Last week, the Dartmouth men’s basketball team announced it was forming a union so that players would both get paid, and have health benefits provided by, the New Hampshire university. This marked the first NCAA team to formally voted to be unionized. It should be noted Ivy League players do not receive athletic scholarships, and tuition certainly is not cheap, so I can understand why the Dartmouth players took the stand they did.
Image Credit: Ivy League
The Ivy League Women’s Basketball Tournament will be taking place at Levien Gym as well. Columbia, thanks to Abbey Hsu, the Ivy’s answer to Caitlin Clark, will be one of the four teams competing for the championship.
Caitlin Clark declares for WNBA Draft
Caitlin Clark, the greatest female basketball scorer of all-time, has declared she will leave the University of Iowa to play in the WNBA. That had to have been music to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s ears. It was not a coincidence the WNBA sold tickets to the public for the first time for its draft which will take place April 15 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Engelbert is a CPA and clearly knows when a major revenue opportunity presents itself.
Offseason Drama between Mecole Hardman and New York Jets
One of the New York Jets’ many free agent busts was wide receiver Mecole Hardman who signed last summer to complement Garrett Wilson. Jets head coach Robert Saleh was not impressed with Hardman during training camp, and he found himself riding the bench when the 2023 season began. Midway through the season, with only one reception to his ledger, the Jets traded him back to his old team, the Kansas City Chiefs, for their sixth-round pick in the upcoming NFL Draft.
Mecole Hardman began the 2023 NFL season with the Jets then got traded to the Chiefs mid-year before the Trade Deadline – Image Credit: ESPN
Hardman was rejuvenated in Kansas City. He is best known for catching the game-winning touchdown in overtime from Patrick Mahomes in this year’s Super Bowl. Hardman should have been on top of the world and thank his lucky stars how things turned out for him. Instead, he went on Ryan Clark’s ESPN podcast and bashed the Jets. He expressed his unhappiness with the Jets coaching staff and culture. He also admitted he beseeched Patrick Mahomes, and Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach, “to come and get him” when he was a Jet.
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs win over the Jets in Week 4 of the 2023 NFL season at MetLife Stadium – Image Credit: Sports Illustrated
Knowledgeable SNY pro football reporter Connor Hughes tweeted last week that Jets general manager Joe Douglas is considering filing tampering charges with the NFL. While Hardman’s behavior may be unprofessional, he can easily say he was exercising his First Amendment rights. Even if he begged the Chiefs to take him back, he had no power to orchestrate a trade since he was under contract to the Jets. Tampering in professional sports has only been when another team reaches out in any manner to express interest to a player currently under contract to a rival club.
Warner Brothers Discovery changing it up?
Warner Brothers Discovery has changed primetime programming on its TruTV cable channel. It has dropped its comedy and unscripted shows lineup in favor of sports programming, including alternative broadcasts of NBA, NHL, and MLB games. Think of what ESPN has done with its “Monday Night Football” Manningcasts. TruTV will once again be used by Warner Brothers Discovery for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. That is a key reason the programming change is taking place now.
“Harlem Globetrotters: Secrets of the City”
Baby boomers will fondly remember how ABC used to televise an annual Harlem Globetrotters special with Howard Cosell hosting, as well as the Hanna-Barbera cartoon which ran on Saturday mornings on CBS in the early 1970s. That was during the Globetrotters’ golden age when Meadowlark Lemon and Curly Neal were more famous than most NBA players at the time. While they no longer have household names, the Harlem Globetrotters are still a popular draw in arenas around the world.
Image Credit: Harlem Globetrotters
Cable’s Aspire TV is commissioning a travel documentary series on the basketball entertainers titled “Harlem Globetrotters: Secrets of the City.”
Annual New York International Restaurant and Foodservice Show held at Javits Center
The annual New York International Restaurant and Foodservice Show took place last week at Javits Center. Queens businesses had a strong presence, as Whitestone’s Clean Air Group, which removes grease and other refuse from restaurants, and Long Island City’s Nepal Tea Collective, which sells organic teas from that Himalayan country.
NY1 Queens reporter and Rego Park native Roger Clark hosted a panel on mom-and-pop restaurants which featured Loycent Gordon and Dawn Kelly, the owners of Woodhaven’s Neir’s Tavern and Jamaica’s The Nourish Spot, respectively.
Image Credit: International Restaurant NY
I asked the panel about why diners in Queens are closing at an alarming rate. Both Gordon and Kelly cited rent as the key factor. Jake Dell, the fifth-generation owner of the legendary Lower East Side institution, Katz’s Deli quipped, “You need to sling a lot of eggs if you don’t own the property on which the diner sits to be profitable.” He then added, “Even if you do own the property, you are probably going to sell if your children are not interested in running it.”
More from Annual New York International Restaurant and Foodservice Show
The International Restaurant & Foodservice Show is where exhibitors introduce new products. GuS Soda (short for Grown-Up Soda) gave samples of its newest low-sugar flavor, Peach Orange. Red Jacket Orchards, famous for its organic juices which are produced at its Geneva, NY farm and plant, debuted bottles of its Lemonade Zinger.
Smoked fish has long been a favorite of New Yorkers. Hudson Valley Fisheries displayed its Steelhead trout which tastes like smoked salmon. Season Brands, is a regular at the Fancy Food Show, has been promoting its smoked sardines, and mackerel, which come in small tins. These fish varieties are not only tasty, but rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, protein, and iron which promote both cardiac and bone health.
You can read more of Lloyd Carroll’s columns posted weekly on The Queens Chronicle.
