Tides’ top stars may have short stay here
The slow-pitch softball numbers being put up by
Norfolk Tides hitters are catching national attention. With six home runs in Charlotte on Tuesday, followed by eight homers and 29 hits in Wednesday’s
26-11 victory, the power surge by Heston Kjerstad (two homers, 10 RBIs Wednesday), Kyle Stowers, Jackson Holliday and the rest of Norfolk’s Murderers’ Row poses the question: How ya gonna keep ’em down on the farm?
Relentless: In a tournament celebrated for volatile games, Dan Hurley’s UConn men are outliers for the second year in a row. In their past 10 NCAA Tournament games, the defending national champions have rolled over their victims by an average of 24 points — 28 so far this season. Hurley has been outclassing his opposite sideline Svengalis. His juggernaut wins with a lot of style points, too.
What it took: North Carolina State’s DJ Burns is the tournament’s overnight success — after six years of college and five seasons of play. The big guy doesn’t lack perseverance.
Blunder: The basketball world is still waiting for Duke’s Jon Scheyer to double-team Burns in the low post.
Just sayin’: All seven players used by the Wolfpack in its win over Duke are transfers, as are UConn’s two leading scorers and 80% of Alabama’s starting lineup. I guess it’s time I got used to this.
Reality check: In a sober moment after the Final Four, somebody at N.C. State may take time to ponder how a team that showed such postseason resilience lost 14 regular-season games.
Turnabout: James Madison, which built its 32-4 season on transfers, has lost Sun Belt Player of the Year Terrence Edwards to Louisville, more evidence that the portal giveth and taketh away.
A different slant: The boys in the desert know their business, but establishing Iowa’s women as a slight favorite over UConn — after picking them to beat defending champion LSU — contradicts the public’s perception of Caitlin Clark and her team as lovable underdogs. A big part of Clark’s appeal is that she’s taken on and defeated traditional powers.
Quite a reach: The most amusing image from March so far has been Purdue’s 7-feet-4 Zach Edey cutting down the net after the Elite Eight victory … while he stood on the floor.
Indispensable: Edey is the
MVP of March. Without him, Purdue would have needed a ticket to get into the tournament.
Not so fast: Be careful parroting the parity party line. The men’s Final Four features the defending champs and teams from the ACC, SEC and Big Ten. Among this bunch, Cinderella wears a size 12 slipper.
Curmudgeonly take: March “bracketball” tends to obscure the inadequacy of the men’s game. If the most obvious defect of the product isn’t the cascade of missed 3s, it’s the botched 3-footers.
That kid: The trash-talking pipsqueak wearing a Virginia T-shirt in Geico’s “How do you fan?” ad running during the tournament may be the second-most annoying thing nagging Cavalier faithful this postseason.
Who that?: The NBA’s Didn’tSee-That-Coming Award goes to Pistons guard Malachi Flynn, who was averaging five points a game when he put up 50 off the bench Wednesday night.
Wondering: Mike Trout’s two-homer game in Miami this week should prompt another chorus of “what a shame he’s stuck with the Angels.” Is there any way to get Trout into the transfer portal?