Rose hoops picks don’t rise above the fray

SURPRISE! CBS’ special halftime guest during Oregon-Michigan was Charlie Rose, the CBS News journalist who stopped by to prove that he also is a willing network shill!

Rose, who identified himself as a big college basketball fan, said he would like to see North Carolina play Kentucky, thus he apparently has no prob- lem with how either school — Kentucky’s one-and-done NBA warehouse, UNC’s 15-plus recent years of rank, sustained academic fraud — annually achieved basketball success. Why we watch: Best game seen all week? Defying logic, it was Tuesday’s Rangers-Devils. After all, the Rangers are in; the Devils are out.

Yet, throughout it was played with fury — aggressive, fast and with both goalies, Antti Raanta and Cory Schneider, making tremendous saves to keep it 2-2, before Jersey won in overtime. It was time well spent, as riveting as any game played for greater stakes.

It brought to mind Chris Russo’s dismissive day-before wisdom on an Army–Navy game when both were unranked: “This game does nothing for me.”