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Behind the Blog
Tom Shanahan is the media coordinator for the San Diego Hall of Champions. He has been covering sports in San Diego for 28 years and he now writes a weekly column while also contributing regularly to "Cheap Seats."
You can post your two cents, or your two-dollar rant, at the bottom of their posts or e-mail Howard at baseballsavvy@aol.com or Tom at toms@sdhoc.com. | This is the situation Padres catcher Luke Carlin was thrust into for his first two Major League Baseball games on Saturday and Sunday against the Colorado Rockies.
The Padres owned the worst record in baseball at 12-23 when he was called up Friday from Triple-A Portland, they weren't hitting and their bullpen was surrendering runs. Carlin was asked to provide slumping catcher Josh Bard some rest.
How was a 27-year-old rookie supposed to straighten out those woes? The task sounded daunting, but Carlin says it wasn't as difficult as it appeared. The Padres won Saturday night 3-2 with Greg Maddux on the mound and Sunday afternoon 6-1 with Chris Young pitching.
"Our coaching staff and players were really helpful with what kind of mindset I needed to have," Carlin said. "They are so prepared up here with everything I needed to know."
Carlin got his first big-league hit in the eighth inning, scored a run and also threw out a runner trying to steal second base.
But he said he will remember the weekend for catching Maddux's 350th career win and "Trevor Time" in the ninth inning as Trevor Hoffman recorded the save.
"Catching Maddox (Saturday), he kind of dragged me along for the ride," Carlin said. "He told me what he wanted me to do and said sit back there and have fun. I wasn't pressing because he was so confident and calm at going about the game. But I did get goose bumps when Hoffman came in and they were playing 'Hells Bells.' "
Young improved to 3-3 as Scott Hairston and Khalil Greene hit home runs.
It was the first series the Padres have won since April 11-13 at Los Angeles and first series win at Petco Park March 31-April 3 against Houston.
"This was more like how we expect to play baseball," Padres manager Bud Black said. "We had good pitching, solid defense, good bullpen work and we hit a couple of homers."
Added Carlin, "I didn't have to do much -- just sit back there and catch the ball."
-- TOM SHANAHANMonday, May 12 -- 12:53 pm
A year ago the Padres suddenly got rid of left-handed David Wells, giving him his walking papers.
This year, center fielder Jim Edmonds was the veteran with All-Star games on his resume that the Padres unceremoniously dumped. Injuries have taken a toll on Edmonds, a step slow chasing fly balls and unable to provide punch to an anemic offense. He was hitting just .178 and looked pathetic trying to chase down balls in the outfield.
The Padres let Edmonds, 37, go Friday at the same time they called up Jody Gerut from Triple-A Portland. Gerut, who can play left and center field, was hitting .308 with five home runs and 18 RBIs in 27 games in Portland. He can't be worse than Edmonds.
One thing I don't worry about is Padres general manager Kevin Towers waiting to pull the trigger. You'd think C. Arnholdt Smith was running the Padres with all the criticism Towers has heard the past couple weeks as the Padres tumbled into last place in the National League West.
They're down at the bottom, by the way, with the Colorado Rockies, the team that knocked the Padres out of last year's NL playoffs and then advanced to the World Series. Is their general manager suddenly incompetent, too?
Of all the things to criticize Towers for, failing to make moves in an attempt to improve the team isn't one of them.
He also claimed left-handed pitcher Sean Henn off waivers from the New York Yankees Friday in another move. He's got to be better than some of the Padres' relief pitching, which, as hard as it is to believe, has hurt the team's record more than the poor hitting.
Towers hasn't done a Gil Brandt or Bobby Beathard on us yet -- making risky moves to live up to his reputation for a keen eye for talent.
Sometimes teams just have bad seasons when several players slump at the same time. But to say Towers doesn't know how to build a baseball team or tinker with his roster is to ignore his track record.
Update: In yet another move later in the day, the Padres brought up catcher Luke Carlin from Triple-A Portland and sent catcher Colt Morton down to Double-A San Antonio. Carlin was hitting .387 with three home runs and 11 RBIs in 11 games.
-- TOM SHANAHANFriday, May 9 -- 4:29 pm
Ray Kroc is credited with saving baseball in San Diego when he bought the team that was packed up and ready to be moved to Washington, D.C., in 1974.
John Moores also saved the franchise when he purchased it in 1994 and provided new direction with National League West titles in 1996 and
1998 and National League pennant in 1998 that led to approving a downtown ballpark.
But it all started with the creditability Buzzie Bavasi provided an expansion franchise in 1969 when he left Los Angeles for San Diego.
Bavasi passed away of natural causes Thursday at the age of 93.
Bavasi was one of the most popular and respected general managers in the business with the Dodgers. Buzzie's oldest son, Peter, said his father turned down numerous opportunities to take over a franchise that included part-ownership.
Peter said it seemed every baseball off-season when he came home from college for a holiday or the weekend, his mother Evit would tell him about the latest opportunity his dad turned down to remain general manager of the Dodgers.
“He never made money out of baseball, but he could have,” Peter said.
“In the off-season there were always changes at the ownership level, and my dad would get a call offering part ownership. My mom would tell me about it. But he always turned it down. Baseball wasn’t about the money to Buzzie. He loved working for the Dodgers.”
But in 1967, Bavasi finally did make the decision to leave the Dodgers.
He joined original Padres owner C. Arnholdt Smith in an effort that landed the expansion franchise that began play in San Diego in 1969.
But if he had left the Dodgers earlier for part-ownership of a team in the Midwest or East, Bavasi likely wouldn’t have been available to guide the San Diego group that gained approval for the Padres to enter the National League.
“The only reason he came to San Diego is he thought it was a great opportunity to start baseball in San Diego and a chance to make it a family venture for his boys,” Peter said. “I was his first farm director. My brother Billy worked on the grounds crew. Bobby went to law school, but he worked in the farm department for Bob Fontaine.
Chris played at Northern Arizona and was the only who didn’t really work in baseball, but he did work the concession stands, hauling beer kegs around, at Dodger Stadium."
Peter and Bill both went on to become general managers. Chris remained in Flagstaff, Ariz., after his college years at Northern Arizona and eventually became the city’s mayor.
The Padres are still a civic treasure, and it all started with Buzzie Bavasi.
-- TOM SHANAHANFriday, May 2 -- 12:47 pm
San Diego State’s Kevin O’Connell was the fifth quarterback taken overall and the first on the second day of the NFL Draft when his name was called in the third round as the 94th player overall by the New England Patriots.
These are the guys who went after him: USC’s John David Booty (137,
fifth) and Oregon’s Dennis Dixon (156, fifth).
The University of San Diego’s Josh Johnson was the eighth quarterback taken when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers picked him as the 160th player overall in the fifth round.
These are the guys who went after him: Tennessee’s Erik Ainge (162, fifth), Hawaii’s Colt Brennan (186, sixth), Kentucky’s Andre Woodson (198, sixth) and LSU’s Matt Flynn (209, seventh).
It might seem like a surprise, but not really.
O’Connell and Johnson were two of the best bargains in football for San Diego fans to see, especially with the Chargers selling out all their games. If you didn’t see them, you weren’t paying attention while you were complaining about SDSU’s losing record or Johnson not playing at a major college football level.
O’Connell’s defining moment with NFL scouts might have been the Wyoming game.
With San Diego State facing third-and-13 in the final two minutes, O'Connell broke off on a scramble to the left before he saw Vincent Brown come open in the back left corner of the end zone. O'Connell set himself and hit Brown with a 27-yard touchdown pass with 1:06 left in the game for a 27-24 lead that stood up.
"Vincent was the third or fourth option on that play," O'Connell said at the time. "We were just trying to get a first down. I went through the first couple of reads and then things started to collapse. I definitely stayed in there too long, but the O-line held up."
O'Connell said he planned to run for a first down around the left end before he spotted Brown.
"I had to find the laces again, because I was fumbling the ball around in my hand," O'Connell said. "It was a heck of a play by him to be a freshman and make a big-time play like that.”
Johnson showed Northern Colorado’s coaches in September he was a better NFL prospect than Brennan, the Hawaii quarterback who gained Heisman Trophy votes.
Two weeks after Northern Colorado lost to Brennan at Hawaii, Northern Colorado lost to Johnson at USD. Johnson completed 23-of-31 passes for
281 yards and six touchdowns and rang up 427 total yards when he ran nine times for 147 yards.
“Johnson is more athletic and can run the ball,” said Northern Colorado defensive coordinator Cody Deti after the game in September. “He made some plays against us that made us look foolish (an 89-yard run). He’s a tough kid, too. He got blown up in the end zone when he got his headgear blown off.”
-- TOM SHANAHANMonday, April 28 -- 3:55 pm New Miami Dolphins boss Bill Parcells, the overrated NFL coach that only won big when Bill Belichick was his defensive coordinator, made the safe pick, signing Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long earlier this week before the Dolphins actually call his name Saturday to open the draft.
It reminded me of the 2004 draft when the popular opinion in the NFL was for the Chargers to make the safe pick and choose Iowa offensive tackle Robert Gallery as the first pick. NFL scouts and general managers considered him a can’t-miss pick -- the same thing they say now about Long.
As history has shown us, Gallery has turned out to be a major disappointment for the Oakland Raiders, who took him with the second pick. What a shame that he ended up with Al Davis and the Raiders, who represent everything evil in sports.
The Chargers passed on Gallery and opened the draft by taking quarterback Eli Manning and subsequently dealing him to the New York Giants for a package that resulted in quarterback Philip Rivers, kicker Nate Kaeding, Shawne Merriman and Roman Oben leading the Chargers to AFC West titles in 2004, 2006 and 2007.
Gallery has been such a bust at tackle, the Raiders have had to move him to guard. In last year’s regular season finale, Chargers undrafted free agent Jyles Tucker was blitzing past Gallery on a day he posted three sacks, recovered a fumble in the end zone and was named AFC Defensive Player of the Week.
How could so many wise NFL people be so wrong about Gallery? As Chargers general manager A.J. Smith likes to say when explaining how some draft picks are bombs and others big surprises, “It’s the mystery of our business.”
One of the most respected mock drafts is put together by Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News. Gosselin correctly named Long the first pick of the draft two weeks ago in his first mock draft, one that dealt with “the best player available philosophy.” His second draft last week is based on “team needs.”
The Chargers’ first-round pick is the 27th overall. For what it’s worth, Gosselin’s “best player available” draft had the Chargers taking Tennessee linebacker Jerod Mayo and his “need” draft East Carolina running back Chris Johnson.
Is that a good thing? As the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War” ends, “We’ll see.”
-- TOM SHANAHANFriday, April 25 -- 12:27 pm Joe Alston landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1955, a distinction that places him in the company of Ted Williams, Bill Walton, Marcus Allen and other San Diego sports legends.
He may not have hit a home run, scored a basket or run for a touchdown, but can Williams, Walton and Allen say they chased down Patty Hearst or searched for D.B. Cooper?
Alston, a two-time world champion and 12-time national champion in badminton singles, doubles and mixed doubles, did so in his 30-year career as an FBI agent. He specialized in kidnapping and extortion cases for the bureau.
“My dad led a really interesting life other than his badminton career,” said Nick, one of his two sons.
Alston passed away Wednesday at his home in Solana Beach. He was 81.
The San Diego High and San Diego State alumnus earned his Sports Illustrated cover for a badminton career that also earned him a place in the Breitbard Hall of Fame at the Hall of Champions (my day job).
He was ranked No. 1 in the U.S. 28 times: eight singles, 14 doubles, six mixed doubles. He played on eight U.S. Thomas Cup teams and coached the 1978-79 team.
But his sons said you could talk to him about his FBI career and hear as many fascinating stories as from his athletic career. His son Tony was inspired to join the FBI and is in his 17th year with the bureau.
Tony said he was reading a recent newspaper story to his father about a parachute found in Washington state that had generated speculation it might have belonged to D.B. Cooper, who was never found after he hi-jacked a plane and jumped out over rugged territory in the Pacific Northwest.
“I read him the story, and he said, ‘Naw, I don’t think so,’ ” Tony said.
Joe, apparently, never stopped working the case in his mind.
“One night in the hospital he fell asleep and he starting shouting, ‘D.B. Cooper! D.B. Cooper! D.B. Cooper!” Tony said.
Alston passed away from heart failure and medical complications. The family is planning a “Celebration of Life” in May at a date to be announced.
Alston is survived by his wife, Lois; son Tony, daughter-in-law Sharon, three grandchildren of Mission Viejo; and son Nick of San Diego.
-- TOM SHANAHANFriday, April 18 -- 4:01 pm Two months ago Christian High junior Vander Joaquim -- one of the top junior basketball recruits in the state -- gave the University of San Diego an oral commitment to play for the Toreros in the 2009-2010 season.
This was before USD won the West Coast Conference Tournament to advance to the NCAA Tournament, upset Connecticut in the first round and head coach Bill Grier was mentioned as possibly Oregon State’s next head coach.
The commitment also came just before schools such as UCLA began to apply recruiting pressure on the 6-foot-9, 210-pound forward, who played his first season here after arriving from Angola.
USD has to sweat out the wait until the official signing period in November now that the word is out on Joaquim. But Joaquim said even if Grier had left for Oregon State instead of announcing he’s staying with USD, it probably wouldn’t have changed his commitment.
"Coach Grier is a good coach, and I’m glad he’s staying," Joaquim said. "But I also like USD because it’s a great school in a beautiful city."
Christian’s coach Kelvin Starr fully expects Joaquim to attract offers from major programs. That would make him the biggest recruit in the history of USD’s program and a major coupe for Grier to keep him home when UCLA’s of the world want him.
"He’s a little naïve to the recruiting game since he’s new to this country, but he really loves San Diego," Starr said. "He’s a very talented player, and he’s only going to get better."
-- TOM SHANAHANFriday, April 11 -- 1:48 pm This is the way it works in the Padres' clubhouse after Padres closer Trevor Hoffman pitches.
If he blows a save, you'll find him standing forthright in front of his locker waiting to answer questions and invariably accept responsibility.
If he adds to his Major League Baseball record total of career saves, you might have to wait a little while n but not as long as some players force the media to hang around their locker n until he emerges from the trainer's room with ice taped around his shoulder.
In other words, it's more important for him to accept responsibility or deflect blame directed at teammates than it is for him to hear praise.
What more could a baseball fan want? In some factions of the Padres' nation, they unrealistically want perfection from Hoffman.
Usually, when we see the ugly side of San Diego sports, it can be blame on East Coasts transplants behaving the way fans do in Boston, New York and Philadelpha instead of adapting to the San Diego weather and sports climate.
I can't think of a San Diego sports icon that has heard more unwarranted criticism than Hoffman.
Chargers quarterback Dan Fouts twice threw five interceptions in playoff losses -- Dec. 29, 1979 in a 17-14 loss to the Houston Oilers and Jan.
16, 1983 in a 34-13 loss to the Miami Dolphins.
Do you think anybody was hesitant to send Fouts back out on the field?
Maybe it's because Hoffman isn't an overpowering pitcher that he draws so much inexplicable criticism. He beats people with placement and changeups.
When Hoffman saved Thursday afternoon's game against the Houston Astros with three outs on eight pitches, he didn't fire back at his critics.
"I'd like to see us get on a roll for 10 games so I don't have to talk to you guys," said Hoffman, who really meant the call-in critics given air time on sports talk radio.
That was a rare sardonic comment from Hoffman. It suggests the critics calling into sports talk radio are starting to gnaw at him.
But after all he's done for this franchise, he shouldn't have to hear any of it. Padres owner John Moores saved the franchise when he bought it in 1994, but he may not have been able to save it in the city, with a new downtown ballpark, without Hoffman.
Manager Buddy Black and general manager Kevin Towers aren't concerned. They say his velocity is still there.
In Hoffman's two loses this year, he's hurt himself with walks that turned into winning runs. He didn't lose games with balls being banged around the park. In Sunday's defeat, he lost on a walk, a tapper to the mound that advanced the runner and a single.
Remember how quickly the Padres dumped David Wells last year? He had pitched effectively early in the year before teams started banging the ball all over the park. The Padres let him go because they felt he lost his velocity and placement and batters were teeing off on him.
If Black and Towers aren't alarmed, there is no reason for Hoffman's critics' to be foolishly complaining about him on sports talk radio.
-- TOM SHANAHANMonday, April 7 -- 4:55 pm
There was no one and done when the University of San Diego men's basketball team in the NCAA Tournament, and as it turns out no one and done for first-year coach Bill Grier in his Toreros career.
Grier, who guided the Toreros to the NCAA Tournament and a first-round upset of Connecticut, announced Thursday afternoon he is staying at USD after flirting with the Oregon State job the past five days.
Grier wouldn't elaborate on whether he had turned down a job offer, but reports out of Oregon were that he was presented with a package deal that would have paid him $800,000 a year for five years.
"I have decided to stay at USD because I strongly feel in my heart that this is what is best for me and my family right now," Grier said. "USD is a great place and I look forward to working with our staff and players to continue building on what we have started here."
When Grier returned from Oregon on Tuesday, he said reports he had been offered the job were untrue. He characterized it as a "feeling out" process from both ends.
Grier also said he wasn't contacted by Cal, which also has a coaching vacancy, as was reported in several newspapers.
-- TOM SHANAHANThursday, April 3 -- 5:17 pm
Petco Park's fifth season opener arrives Monday night against the Houston Astros with bunting decorating the stands and a Cy Young Award-winning pitcher wearing the Padres colors' gracing the mound.
Times flies when you're winning games. Petco's previous four division races have all gone down to the wire, with National West banners flying from the 2005 and 2006 seasons.
General Manager Kevin Towers -- now the GM with the game's longest active tenure with the same team -- is still filling the roster, and his eye for talent is enough for me to wait and see how the season unfolds.
Complaints about recklessly spending money in pursuit of an outfield power bat will have to wait. Would you rather see the Padres depending on the emotionally unstable Milton Bradley?
Bradley's tirade last year was as frightening a scene as I've seen in a game when he was screaming over manager Bud Black to get at an umpire until Black threw him to the ground.
Good thing the guy can hit a baseball. Would you like to see that temper explode in general society? That the Padres were willing to bring Bradley back suggests they're still desperate in the outfield.
But if you look at the pitching staff and infield, I can accept waiting to see how Scott Hairston and Paul McAnulty develop in their first full-time opportunities, how Brian Giles' knee holds up and whether prospect Chase Headley turns out to be the outfield's No. 5 hitter before the season is out.
The Padres' pitching staff is widely considered one of the best in the game.
Jake Peavy won the Cy Young, Chris Young might have won it if he hadn't been injured and Greg Maddux is on his way to the Hall of Fame. Towers, with a pretty good eye for reclamation projects on the mound, envisions Randy Wolf at No. 4 and hopefully Mark Prior at No. 5 by June.
He also runs down an infield of first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, Tadahito Iguchi at second, Khalil Greene at shortstop and Kevin Kouzmanoff at third base.
"I'll put that infield up against any in baseball," said Towers, who was unusually bold in his optimism about this year's team's chances.
The Padres' outfield doesn't inspire the runaway optimism and expectations that the Chargers opened the 2007 with, but there is enough trust in Towers to wait and see.
-- TOM SHANAHANMonday, March 31 -- 5:20 pm
See, the NCAA does have a heart.
The governing body of college sports has granted San Diego State safety Corey Boudreaux a sixth-year of eligibility for the 2008 season.
Often times you’ll hear what appear to be ridiculous rules imposed by the NCAA that prevent student athletes from working during the season, having a meal at a coaches house or other roadblocks to common sense.
But with all the shady characters surrounding sports, such rules are needed to control schools with rich boosters who want to spend money on athletes.
The rules against jobs might seem unfair, but you no doubt heard about the Oklahoma football players who were paid by a car dealership without ever reporting to work. That sort of deception happened all the time until the NCAA imposed such rules surrounding athletes and jobs.
But the NCAA looked at Boudreaux’s case and saw it was a legitimate hardship and not a case of a guy trying to beat the five-year clock under false pretenses. He returned to the practice field on Friday after missing the opening day of spring drills.
“It’s a huge relief,” Boudreaux said. “It was a very stressful process, even though we were pretty confident. It’s a huge weight off my shoulders to know I can come back and play another year of making my dream come true to play college football.”
Boudreaux had only been on the roster for two of the five seasons on the NCAA clock for eligibility in the Football Bowl Subdivision. He redshirted in 2003 and then missed 2004 and 2005 after the death of his stepfather in November 2003.
The Santa Ana Mater Dei felt it was more important for him to commute home to Orange County to help his mother with three younger brothers than it was for him to pursue his football career. He would attend classes Monday through Thursday and drive home to his mother’s home in Orange for the weekend.
The 6-foot-1, 220-pounder returned to the Aztecs in 2006 and played special teams and then emerged as a starter at free safety for all 12 games in 2007.
“You should always help your family first,” Boudreaux said. “I felt I had to help my mom (Kathy Kissling) with three young brothers. You can’t give up on family, and I felt I had to help my family stay together.”
Oh, yeah. And there’s this: since he never left school, he is on track to graduate in the summer. He’ll either push that date back to the fall or enroll in a masters program.
The NCAA gets it right more times than the national media depicts it.
-- TOM SHANAHANFriday, March 28 -- 4:42 pm
The University of San Diego's men's and women's basketball teams marked a watershed season by both advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the same year.
It was also the year USD's men booked the first extended stay in the dance by a San Diego men's college basketball team -- only San Diego State's women had previously won an NCAA Tournament game -- with Friday's first-round upset of Connecticut.
So what's next for San Diego college basketball?
Well, don't be surprised if all four San Diego college teams earn NCAA trips next year.
USD's men return every player on the roster and USD coach Bill Grier has begun addressing the roster's lack of size by adding a 6-foot-7 junior college transfer, Luciano de Souza from South Plains Community College in Texas.
USD's women lose senior point guard Amanda Rego from the starting lineup, and she's a big loss as a two-time All-West Conference Conference pick and the team's unquestioned leader.
 | | USD administrator Stephanie Reighley watches on anxiously as the Toreros try, but fail, to make a comeback against Western Kentucky in the NCAA Mens' Basketball Tournament. |
But freshman Brianna Estell showed promise at point guard coach Cindy Fisher has a commitment from La Jolla Country Day guard Dominique Conners, the All-CIF Player of the Year for the San Diego Section's top-ranked team and a state Division IV runner-up. Conners can play point or off guard. San Diego State's men might have made the NCAA Tournament this year, but impressive freshman forward Tim Shelton was lost to an injury and coach Steve Fisher, admirably, stuck to his principles by suspending two starters. Jerome Habel was booted off the team before the season started and Kyle Spain suspended at midseason. Otherwise, similar to USD, the Aztecs return nearly intact. Only backup guard Matt Thomas graduates. SDSU's women almost punched a ticket to the NCAA with an automatic berth, but the Aztecs came up short of New Mexico in the Mountain West Conference tournament final before falling 62-59. The Aztecs lose one starter in guard Shannon Demus and one key reserve in Shannon Clay, but the future of this team returns with plenty of eligibility. Sophomore guards Jene Morris and Quenese Davis are back along with 6-4 true freshman Paris Johnson of San Diego High and 6-2 redshirt freshman Allison Duffy of El Capitan High. Coach Beth Burns' team also gains UCLA transfer Jerica Williams, a guard from Mount Miguel High that will be eligible next year after sitting out the season. Four teams with four coaches with experience taking to the NCAA tournament. It's all about putting the proper resources into programs. Ah, next year's City Championship games might only be the beginning of a special season. -- TOM SHANAHAN Monday, March 24 -- 10:41 am
Gonzaga beat Connecticut 85-82 in the regular season in Boston, and the Bulldogs don't have a player like De'Jon Jackson.
The University of San Diego does have Jackson in its lineup, so why couldn't Gonzaga South beat Connecticut? Gonzaga South is what UConn coach Jim Calhoun called USD because first-year Toreros coach Bill Grier was a Gonzaga assistant for 16 years.
 | | De'Jon Jackson, Photo: Ernie Anderson |
Turns out the 13th-seeded Toreros could beat No. 4-seed UConn of the Big East Conference, pulling off a 70-69 upset in overtime Friday in a first-round NCAA Tournament West Regional game played, oddly enough, in Tampa, Fla. With USD's two leading scorers on the bench with five fouls -- juniors Gyno Pomare and Branadon Johnson -- Jackson hit an 18-foot jumper with 1.2 seconds left to give the Toreros the school's first NCAA Tournament win in four tries. In fact, it's also the first tournament win for San Diego college basketball -- San Diego State is also winless in NCAA games. I've been telling you throughout the year on this site that the perception that San Diego can't be a basketball team is wrong and misinformed. The resources were never put into the sport at USD or SDSU until now. USD was led by 22 points from Pomare and 18 from Johnson, but they needed Jackson in the end as they have in other close games. The versatile sophomore guard is one of those guys that always turns up in the right place at the right time. Grier calls him "the glue that holds the team together." Before Jackson hit the game-winner, he stripped UConn of the ball when the Huskies were trying to answer with a basket in the final moments. Then he stole the inbound pass with 1.2 second to play to end UConn's desperation hopes. If the Toreros needed him to replace Johnson for 40 minutes, they would have lost. But put the ball in Jackson's hands in crucial situations, and it's in as good hands as if Johnson were pulling the trigger. "We're going to the second round," Johnson said after the game. "I'm proud of my teammates. They showed great poise. We've got young guys playing big. I think we're on a roll. We're playing good defense. We got a way from what we were doing for awhile, but we stayed focused and we did it." Jackson only scored four points, but four was all the Toreros needed from him on this night. If they needed five, he probably would have hit a 3-pointer instead of a 2-point field goal. -- TOM SHANAHAN Friday, March 21 -- 5:43 pm
The University of San Diego men’s basketball team learned its first-round opponent in the NCAA tournament.
The Toreros (21-13) were awarded a 13th seed and assigned a trip across the county to face No. 4 seed Connecticut (24-8), a traditional college basketball power.
Do you think there was any grumbling? Not when you’re USD, making your first trip since 2003 and only fourth in school history. Without winning the West Coast Conference tournament to earn the automatic bid, the Toreros would have been hoping for an NIT bid at best.
USD's players assembled at the University Center on campus to watch the CBS telecast of the bracket pairings. Junior point guard Brandon Johnson leaped from his feet and pumped his fists when "San Diego" flashed opposite Connecticut on the big screen.
"UConn is a historical program," Johnson said. "They’ll come out fired up, but we will, too. We have to play with poise, go at them and not read the name on their shirt. We have to stay focused and compete."
Although USD is in the West Regional, with games being playing this weekend in Anaheim, the USD-Uconn game is in Tampa, Fla. The NCAA uses a "pod system" that reduces travel.
Well, it does for Uconn and its fans, but certainly not the Toreros.
But first-year USD coach Bill Grier isn’t complaining.
"I was hoping for proximity for our fans," Grier said. "But I don't
care where they put us. We could play it in Europe. I’m just excited for this group of kids for the opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament."
-- TOM SHANAHANMonday, March 17 -- 9:08 am
When I think of the West Coast Conference's recent basketball success and retiring WCC commissioner Michael Gilleran, I picture the NBA and commissioner David Stern.
Stern was sitting in the right office at the right time when Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan arrived to turn around a negative image of the NBA. He made a lot of money off his fortunate timing.
Same thing with Gilleran and the WCC. He was in office when Gonzaga emerged as a national power in the past decade, but he otherwise had virtually nothing to do with raising the league's national profile.
Newly named commissioner Jamie Zaninovich has to be better for the league than Gilleran. If he took Marketing 101, which I assume he did as a Stanford graduate and assistant athletic director and both Stanford and Princeton (he negotiated the Ivy League's first ESPN contract), he's already a century ahead of Gilleran.
There are many examples to site of Gilleran sitting in his office and doing nothing. The WCC office is in the Bay Area, but Gilleran often wouldn't make an appearance at nationally televised games being played down the road at San Francisco, Santa Clara or St. Mary's.
And there's the long-standing complaint of Gonzaga coach Mark Few and others that the WCC tournament needed to be moved to a neutral site. The coaches finally got what they wanted when the WCC announced Sunday the 2009 tournament would be played at the Orleans Hotel and Casino arena in Las Vegas.
"I'm proud the league finally figured out what the coaches wanted for the last 18 or 19 years," Few said. "If you hit them hard over the head enough times, they finally figure it out."
The sarcasm was dripping from Few's words.
But here are a few examples I found on my own as the WCC tournament made plans to be played in San Diego this year.
At the Hall of Champions, my day job, we try to have Sports at Lunch events featuring San Diego athletes, events and sports figures. As a non-profit organization, we depend on the generosity of our guests to appear without compensation while knowing their team or sport benefits.
I thought a good idea for the Hall and the WCC would be Sports at Lunch before the WCC tournament, March 6 to 10 at the University of San Diego.
I wanted to gather USD coach Bill Grier, an assistant at Gonzaga for 16 years; Few, Grier's close friend from their Gonzaga association; and Jud Heathcote, the retired Michigan State coach. Heathcote, who coached the Magic Johnson-led Spartans to the 1979 NCAA title, is a Spokane resident who follows Gonzaga and WCC basketball. He frequently travels to Gonzaga WCC and NCAA tournament games when it doesn't conflict with Michigan State games.
The ideal time would have been Friday afternoon. The women's tournament started Thursday, took Friday off and the men's tournament started with play-in games on Friday night. USD wouldn't play until Saturday and Gonzaga until Sunday. We would have been happy to include women's coaches, too.
I checked with Grier and Heathcote, and they were both on board as headliners. Few, understandably, was problematic because he wasn't scheduled to get to town until Saturday for a Sunday night game.
But when I sought a WCC endorsement for the event, the WCC nixed it. Their reason was they didn't want to be viewed as playing favorites with USD and Gonzaga.
Give me a break.
Another idea was for the WCC to recognize basketball giant Pete Newell, a Rancho Santa Fe resident, before a San Francisco game. Newell coached USF's 1949 team to the NIT title, and that was back when the NIT title meant something.
The WCC's response was the same: They didn't want to seento be playing favorites.
Are you kidding me? We're talking about featuring Pete Newell, not Mark Few. That's like the Pac-10 saying they didn't want John Wooden recognized at their tournament.
Another idea I could have raised would have been recognizing San Diegan Shannon MacMillan, one of the greatest women's soccer players in WCC history.
MacMillan, a San Pasqual High alumnus and now a UCLA assistant coach, was the 1995 national college player of the year in 1995 at WCC member Portland and later a World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist for the U.S. national team.
But you know what the answer would have been to that idea.
-- TOM SHANAHANThursday, March 13 -- 3:44 pm
University of San Diego coach Bill Grier nodded with a wry smile.
The question was about expectations after his Toreros upset 2oth-ranked Gonzaga 69-62 Monday night to win the West Coast Conference tournament final before a full house of 5,100 fans at the Jenny Craig Pavilion.
The Toreros are going dancing to the NCAA tournament in Grier's first season as a head coach after 16 years as a Gonzaga assistant.
"Yes, maybe I've set the bar a little too high for us," Grier. "But I'd rather have it that way then the other way. I'd rather have expectations and all that. The pressure isn't external; it's what you put on yourself. What we imposed on them as a staff was to set the bar higher, and they stepped up to the challenge."
USD junior guard Brandon Johnson was named the tournament MVP and joined on the all-tournament team by junior forward/center Gyno Pomare and sophomore guard De'Jon Jackson.
Grier and his staff hardly missed a step during a year of convincing their young team to buy into what they we're preaching.
When USD won at Kentucky's Rupp Arena on Dec. 29, Grier and his staff wouldn't let their players settle for the moment that drew national attention as a high-water mark.
"When we beat Kentucky at Rupp Arena (on Dec. 29), we talked to our players about how this was not going to be our defining moment," Grier said. "I talked them before the game tonight and said this is your defining moment. You've been battled tested with a tough schedule. You're ready for this moment. They did a terrific job of sticking to the game plan and getting the thing done."
He wanted USD basketball to bigger than a December win at Kentucky. They woke up this morning big enough to begin planning for the NCAA tournament.
-- TOM SHANAHANTuesday, March 11 -- 8:14 am |
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