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Prognostication and public humiliation

If I can manage to get enough work done -- we're in the throes of magazine production this week, and I've got some words which won't behave just now -- I'll watch the Florida-Ohio State game late tonight tonight. I just found my brackets (I do them in pencil) amid a folder of SXSW refuse. And, yes, I picked Florida to win -- still do. Of course, I had UCLA, Texas, and Tennessee in the final four, so...

It's hard to guess who I'll root for. Ohio State is a couple hours north, but I've still not been to Columbus and I've always picked Michigan in their ancient rivalry, though at this point I couldn't say why. Since I'm my father's son, doubtless I'll root for the underdogs. The real drama, at least for those of us in Kentucky, follows.

That's when Florida coach Billy Donovan finally answers his cell phone and tells the University of Kentucky that, no, he doesn't wish to be their basketball coach. No reason he should, that I can think of, not even money.

Truth to tell, it's hard to picture who should be the next coach. Peter repeated press rumblings in Austin during SXSW which suggest that Rick Barnes might be on much the same hot seat Tubby Smith was in Lexington, and that's the best name I can come up with so far. I'd be happy to see Mark Few leave Gonzaga, except I think it's good for the sport to have schools like Gonzaga succeed. And there's one more name, a wild card. Every time there's a story about the job, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim is quoted. He's quite quotable, and had the best line about Tubby leaving ("I didn't know he was that smart"). But I wonder if he doth protest too much?

Here are my criteria: Whomever they hire has to have been to the Final Four at least as a senior assistant coach; he has to be able to recruit nationally; he has to have a healthy ego and a measured sense of self; and he better bring players, because the cupboard might well be empty when the dust settles. Is there a quality center or power forward even on the roster now?

One other prognostication came with me from Austin. I rarely have time to watch the Sunday chat shows, often because I'm in here typing. But before catching a plane home a couple weeks back, I happened to see some of our national political theater. And I think I saw the next Democratic Party vice-presidential nominee: Joe Sestak, a retired admiral who served during the early stages of this war, knows more than a little about terrorism, and came home a critic of the present enterprise. He is now a first-term representative from the 7th in Pennsylvania.

There was something...about watching Tom DeLay, the former exterminator from Texas, argue military strategy with Admiral Sestak, who is only the second Democrat elected to Congress from that district since the Civil War. He's also a Roman Catholic, and would give gravitas and balance to any of the leading candidates. I'm just sayin'...

Posted by grant on April 2, 2007 11:00 AM | Permalink