Praise for Jardy, Arace; and is March Madness format fair?
Unfortunately, we don’t have room in the print edition for all of the great reader feedback we’re getting. For more of the letters, go to Dispatch.com. Have more comments, questions? Reach out to me at bwhite1@dispatch.com.
On college basketball
To Brian: As the OSU basketball season ends, I want to recognize the great work of Adam Jardy in covering the Buckeyes. His work is timely, astute, interesting and tells the story. He is also very responsive when a question is posed. I really enjoy his writing.
As a Buckeye fan living in California, I count on both his Dispatch articles and text messages to stay informed about the status of the team, coaches, players, games and how the season is going. I was recently in Australia and New Zealand for several weeks during the season but was able to keep up with the Buckeyes through those two information sources.
Thanks again to Adam for such professional writing and a great job! Doug Hartman, Pebble Beach, Calif. To Doug: Thanks for the kind words for a great representative of The Dispatch. I encourage all to sign up for our Ohio State texts, as Adam and our football writers Bill Rabinowitz and Joey Kaufman regularly deliver breaking news and interesting observations. You can sign up on Dispatch.com.
To Brian: I think it's time to change the NCAA basketball system of tournament bracketing. The Final Four should be open to any team who wins X number of games, who has a winning conference record or some other agreed-upon criteria while tossing out some of the current barriers. (I know some conditions already exist). In the truest sense, a tournament would include only conference champions and the respective conference tournament winners. But that might be a little narrow and lessen the fun quotient we presently enjoy. One factor to be considered is strength of schedule. It has too much weight, disqualifying some, not all, “bubble teams” who are close in overall wins. Then there are the automatic qualifiers of the “first four” playin games. Should those schools get precedence over teams left out? And what about teams that peak late, perhaps due to starters returning from injury? The committee has dashed too many hopes over the years.
Secondly, there's so much parity that, in many cases, the home court holds less impact: A team with a losing record can knock off the predicted favorite, yet the same matchup another time can be markedly different. In addition to letting more teams participate in the Division I bracket, why not consider a separate Final Four only for smaller colleges, where they would have a better chance?
Larry Cheek, Dublin
To Larry: After this wild weekend of March Madness, you'd have a hard time convincing many that the tournament isn't fine as it is.
On Skip Young
To the editor: I want to thank Dispatch columnist Michael Arace for his outstanding and moving tribute to former Linden Mckinley basketball star Ahmad Aliyy, or Skip Young, as he was known in his playing days in Columbus. Not only did it detail the history of his athletic abilities and life successes, it reminded all of us of our country's history of race relations back in that day. It brought tears to my eyes when I think of what it was like to be on the receiving end of the ignorant hatred that Skip Young endured. And yet he became a pioneer in race integration, a striving individual, a model of a good human being. So many were blessed by his contributions, and thanks to him, inspiration for all of us to do better in these divisive times.
Susan B. West, Athens
To Susan: Agreed that Young/aliyy was a fascinating person. And that Michael did a wonderful job telling that story. However, I'm always a bit skeptical when I get praising emails about both Jardy and Arace right when annual performance reviews are due. I know they have a lot of friends and relatives in the area ...
On high school basketball
To Brian: Another example of our culture changing incrementally is a high school basketball championship game being played on a Sunday morning. That would have been unheard of not all that long ago. And to add to it, a Lutheran school will be competing in the game played in the arena of a Catholic university.
Dennis Singleton, Dayton
On Aaron Rodgers
To Mr. White: I truly hope, for his sake, that Aaron Rodgers re-signs with the Packers. Wisconsin is known as the dairy state. So he should have lots of cheese to complement all of his whine. Lauri Turevon, Dublin
Hi Brian: I see whereby Mr. Rodgers going to the Jets is apparently a done deal, as evidenced by the fact he is requesting certain players he wants on this team. We now know one more thing about him — he is not short on nerve. All of this from a player who is full of himself, refuses to get vaccinated, will turn 40 later this year, was 8-9 last year and has one Super Bowl to show for his efforts even though he has been in the league since 2005. Do you think he sees himself as the next coming of Joe Montana? Do you get the idea I cannot wait to pull against the Jets every single game next season?
Rick Higgins, Columbus