Hopefully the young Raiders will get another shot in the tourney. Grant Benzinger will be the only loss in their rotation, and the offseason should add some muscle to some slight frames. The future is bright, and critics of athletics on the WSU campus should lighten up and enjoy some basketball next season.
The Raiders continued a run of awful tournament shooting by our local teams. WSU shot 32 percent from the field against Tennessee. That's bad. It's also the same percentage UD shot against Syracuse in 2016 (70-51 loss). The Flyers were even worse last year, clanking it to the tune of 31 percent in a 64-58 loss to Wichita State.
Good trivia question for your next cocktail party: Three schools have won three NCAA Tournament titles this century. Name them. Two are obvious – Duke and North Carolina. The third? UConn. The Huskies (men) have fallen on hard times. Perhaps the demise of the old Big East was too much for UConn. The same could be said for Syracuse and Pittsburgh. The new Big East is doing just fine without them.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr says players who want to test the NBA waters but go undrafted should be welcomed back to their college teams. One problem: The NCAA loves to throw the term "student-athlete" at anyone who will listen. If a player is in the draft, he is likely to skip town after his team is eliminated from postseason play to train for draft workouts. How would he remain eligible?
The only thing that's gone wrong recently for the Browns is the retirement of future Hall of Fame tackle Joe Thomas. Cleveland is building something good, although the Carlos Hyde signing means the Browns likely will pass on Saquon Barkley with the top pick in the draft (big mistake). I'd take Barkley at No. 1 and can't-miss strong safety Minkah Fitzpatrick at No. 4 and challenge for a playoff berth next season.
The Bengals and Ravens are sputtering, and as soon as Big Ben retires the Steelers might be ripe for the picking. The Browns are the only franchise in the AFC North trending up. Your day is coming, Browns fans.
Trending up: Sister Jean, AJ McCarron, Kirk Cousins. Sister Jean Delores Schmidt, the 98-year-old chaplain for the Loyola-Chicago men's basketball team, stole the show after the Ramblers upset Miami (Fla.) on a buzzer-beater in the first round of the NCAA tourney. Sister Jean gave a great postgame interview, talking about her pregame prayer and reminiscing about Loyola's 1963 national champions. What a treasure.
Trending down: Pac-12, Anthony DeSclafani, Odell Beckham Jr. We've always suspected that people on the West Coast are more concerned about surfboards than real sports. The soft Pac-12 teams that were chosen to play in the NCAA tourney – Arizona, UCLA and Arizona State – were bounced early. UCLA and ASU met their matches in the First Four. Scandal-ridden Arizona was bounced by MAC champ Buffalo in the first round.
Knucklehead of the Week
Fergus Connolly probably would still have his job at the University of Michigan had he followed instructions after getting hauled in for suspicion of drunk driving. Connolly, who had a sweet gig as Michigan football’s director of performance science (college teams have way too many support staffers), was busted earlier this month in Ann Arbor. Cops found him bloodied and shoeless, and reported that he “smelled of intoxicants.” That’s when things got crazy. Connolly allegedly swung at a police officer and grabbed a hospital security guard by the throat. He also allegedly tried to bite a lab tech. He’ll probably use the “bad prescription drugs” defense. Connolly no longer is employed at U of M, leaving behind a $255,000 salary.
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