The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Woods back in Florida to mend
Tiger Woods is back at home in Florida to resume his recovery from career-threatening leg injuries he suffered when his SUV ran off a road and down a hill in the Los Angeles suburbs last month.
“Happy to report that I am back home and continuing my recovery,” Woods said in a tweet. “I am so grateful for the outpouring of support and encouragement that I have received over the past few weeks.”
Woods was injured Feb. 23, two days after the Genesis Invitational at Riviera. He was on his way to a television shoot for GolfTV a little after 7 a.m. when his SUV crashed into a median, rolled over and ended up on its side near a steep road known for wrecks, authorities aid. He had to be pulled out through the windshield.
He had a lengthy surgery that day at HarborUCLA Medical Center for shattered tibia and fibula bones of his lower right leg in multiple locations. Those were stabilized with a rod in his tibia. Additional injuries to the bones in his foot and ankle required screws and pins.
He was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for follow-up procedures. Woods thanked the medical staff at both hospitals for taking care of him.
High school sports
KANSAS ADVANCES PLAN
TO BAR TRANS ATHLETES FROM GIRLS’ TEAMS >> Conservative Republicans advanced a proposal that would ban transgender students from girl’s and women’s sports in Kansas schools and colleges, and supporters are increasingly confident of success.
The state Senate Education Committee approved the bill on a voice vote after a brief debate, sending it to the full Senate, where GOP leaders have identified the measure as a priority.
PHILADELPHIA >> The last time Drexel basketball made more than local headlines, TMZ was on the scene because Philadelphia 76ers’ All-Star Ben Simmons and model Kendall Jenner were in the bleachers for a game on the West Philadelphia campus.
Maybe real basketball junkies remember when Zach Spiker’s 2018 team rallied from a 34-point, firsthalf deficit to stun Delaware in the biggest comeback in Division I men’s basketball history.
The rest of Drexel’s tradition doesn’t have a whole of March Madness in it. Spiker, though, had to cut off a suggestion that he took over a program in 2016 devoid of much hoops history, noting the Dragons did represent the North Atlantic Conference in the NCAA Tournament three straight years.
“Timeout. Timeout,” Spiker said by phone. “We won three straight titles from ‘94 to ‘96. I mean, we beat Memphis in the tournament, you know?”
Long the outsider in Philadelphia’s rich basketball scene, the Dragons snapped that 25-year streak with a Colonial Athletic Association Tournament championship that earned them the No. 16 seed and a game against No. 1 Illinois on Friday.
Drexel is back in the bracket — and some longforgotten teams have tagged along.
Remember Appalachian State? The Mountaineers have only two previous NCAA appearances — under coaches Bobby Cremins (1979) and Buzz Peterson (2000) — and ended a 21year skid.
Oral Roberts is part of March Madness for the first time since 2008, Cleveland State returned for the first time since 2009 and Morehead State snapped a drought that dates to 2011. UC Santa Barbara made consecutive NCAA tournaments as a No. 15 seed in 2010 and 2011 and is back as a 12 seed. Georgia Tech is
back for the first time since 2010.
Those are drops in the 3-point basket compared to Rutgers making the field for the first time in 30 years.
One piece of advice seems universal: Enjoy the moment, and that applies as well to the two tourney newcomers (Grand Canyon and Hartford).
“At the high-major level, guys just want to get to the NBA. At our level, guys just want to play in the NCAA Tournament,” Appalachian State coach Dustin Kerns. “And there is an element now of, ‘Hey, how can I get the NBA?’ But we told them when we got here, ‘Hey listen, App State has been to the NCAA Tournament.
This program has been twice. So if we can go before, we can do it again.’”
For every mid-major dreaming of blossoming into the next Gonzaga — or pulling off a UMBC — the reality is, most of these one-bracket wonder programs fall back into obscurity and won’t pop up on Selection Sunday for years or decades to come.
That won’t stop the fun this weekend.
Look at Drexel. The Dragons aren’t part of Philadelphia’s famed Big 5 — Villanova, Penn, La Salle, Temple and Saint Joseph’s comprise the city’s 65-yearold rivalry series — and let former coach Bruiser Flint stick around for a 15-year run without an NCAA Tournament appearance.
So when the Dragons clinched a berth in the face of the pandemic, the school partied like it was 2019.
The Dragons returned to campus with a police escort and students lined sidewalks cheering them on. Drexel put up a big screen outdoors and threw a watch party with music, giveaways, and fire pits for the selection show.
“Even though it’s a pandemic, we want our guys to have an experience, and have a moment,” Spiker said. “By doing little things like that, we’re able to do that.”