UNC.......UNIVERSITY OF NATIONAL CHAMPIONS

After Carolina loss to Duke in the ACC Tournament, I felt Duke was peaking and UNC was declining. Evidently the arrows were pointed the opposite directions for both basketball teams.

I knew going into the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament that the officiating was going to be bad, but each year it keeps getting worse and this year was no different. By the time Carolina had their blowouts, challenging games and buzzer beater - everyone knew that if the Tarheels made it past Oregon to the Championship game, it was going to be either a doozy of a game or a dud. 

Gonzaga met Carolina for the 2017 NCAA National Championship in Arizona - and it was ugly. But every team has to win those kind of games too. Both teams seem to cancel each other out talent wise, so it would be the X Factor that came into play. 

Early on, and for most of the game, it was Carolina shooting themselves in the foot and out of the game with Pinson making stupid decisions with the basketball. Isaiah Hicks was not even present in the first half. Thankfully, UNC's defense kept the Zags offense cold.

The second half - more of the same with missed Free Throws to make it more dramatic. The X Factors (plural).....Carolina had been there before, was being fueled by Redemption, has a Hall of Fame coach, and is excellent under game-winning pressure. All that combined to grant the University of North Carolina Tarheels the 2017 NCAA National Championship!
I had my doubts, but they pulled it off - Congrats Heels! You are truly the University of National Champions.

TAKE ON...THE 81st MASTERS

I was happy for Sergio Garcia winning The Masters golf tournament this year. He was due, maybe even overdue. However, he is not in my grouping of favorite golfers I follow. I was hoping that Jordan Spieth or Rickie Fowler would show up and keep the youth drive going there at Augusta. But Rickie imploded and Jordan was inconsistent.

When looking at Garcia's scorecard over the tournament compared to Spieth's, two things jump out at me. First, Sergio had a Bogey Free round the first day of the tournament. If memory serves me right, he was the only one to do that in the field this year. Second, when bogies were made, Sergio made less of them. Jordan executed another quadruple bogie score, but it was on Hole #15 this year, although he still had trouble with #12. Jordan also logged one double bogey and five regular bogies in the final round. All this mixed in with his pars and few-and-far-between birdies gave Spieth no chance to catch the leaders.

Your scorecard cannot look like a musical score that has notes all over the place. Ideally you want those notes to keep going lower and lower and lower - my kind of notes (Bass) - on the staff, but they didn't for Jordan. Maybe next year.

BIGFOOT AND THE LIKE

Bigfoot (America), Yeti (Himalayan) or Almasty (Russian) - take your pick of tall, totally hairy, bipedal, mysterious creatures, but the lure is real. I have been fascinated for quite some time with the culture of Bigfoot, known also as Sasquatch - from Halkomelem (Salishan), a native language of the Pacific Northwest, sæsq'ec.

Because of the lack of evidence like a body, hair (for dna testing) or undeniable video proof - scientists will deny Bigfoot's existence and attribute a sighting to folklore, misidentification or a ruse. There have been many documentaries, reality programs and books produced that present the real possibility of Bigfoot's existence but end either on the negative or unclear side of the mystery.

Are we dealing with a Mass Psychological Manipulation? Some people have taken advantage of the Bigfoot Lore and developed footprints and even suits to persuade the population. But what if we have both a real entity and hoaxers manipulating the people. This scenario makes it more difficult to sift through all the minutia to get to the truth. One big remedy from here forward is to only submit reliable evidence for consideration and substantiation of the existence of Bigfoot.

Because the native people of Northwest America already had a Sasquatch or Bigfoot culture before others inhabited that region, I think there is something to this mystery. Also, there are other adaptations of the same creature in other parts of the world. Cave paintings, oral traditions, and now-a-days credible sources attesting to the existence of this creature make me pause and at least consider the historic, realistic, and scientific evidence for Bigfoot And The Like.  

TIMEOUTS

In sports, in particular, football and basketball, two versions of timeouts need to be eliminated: TV timeouts and "Icing" timeouts.

For a long time now I have been of the opinion that "Icing" a free throw player from the foul line in basketball or a field goal kicker in football by calling a timeout from the sideline should be deemed an Unsportsmanlike Foul. True, coaches call-in plays to have their own players do what they want on the field, but to have their influence on the other team via a technical aspect instead of a strategic aspect is just uncalled for in my book.

The other timeout elimination involves TV Timeouts. Listen, players start with little league basketball, football and other sports and go through High School and some College without any TV coverage, therefore no TV Timeouts. So, why not do away with those timeouts all together and do what I have seen NASCAR and Formula 1 racing do - they provide a split screen with the live action running in one square so you don't miss any of the action and the commercial, with audio, running in the adjacent square so the advertisers can make their money. It would make games a lot quicker also.

So, no Icing, allow the game to play-out the way it was meant to play-out - without any technical influence from the bench. And let's keep the action moving on television with the Split Screen - half commercials when the time comes and half continued game action - and no TIMEOUTS.

REVISITING: THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS

In my humble opinion, the Presidential election does not have anybody worth voting for. I don't even think the phrase - The lesser of two evils - applies here because they both are so terrible.

It is a matter of picking your brand of deception and corruption. On the one hand there is Trump with no morals and his inexperience in dealing with government related programs. His mode of operation is to buy his way everywhere he goes and say the first thing on the tip of his tongue, which is dangerous and stupid, a bad combination.

Then there is H.Clinton. This woman has been exposed to governmental programs and people, but every time I see her or hear about her she is trying to put out a fire personally or nationally. Exposure does not always equal experience. To me it boils down to how you handle an exposed issue while exposed yourself and she strikes out every time. She and her family have a history of lying. Not a good trait to have going into a Presidential Election.

So, take your pick or in this consideration, Don't Pick - a stupid, rich kid that doesn't know anything about the position he is running for - OR - the first possible female president whose track record makes the Wicked Witch of the West look appealing.

SPORTS VENT

I believe a number of us basketball fans could have earned a few thousand dollars and maybe landed a contract on the Warrior's bench by coaching better than Kerr did last night for the final game. 

When it has come down to Game 7 out of 7, the game is tight (one point lead or so) - you don't keep allowing a dry-shooting-well like Harrison Barnes (bless his heart) to keep shooting! Say, "Barnes, sorry, but unless you have a clear layup - don't shoot!" Just too inconsistent.

Where in the world was Curry? His head was not in the game from go! Bad decisions with passes. Air-balls. Bricks. Careless ball-handling which led to turnovers. No defense, especially on the winning shot. Things you don't normally hear associated with an MVP.

Green was the only player really keeping them in the game, especially in the first half. Why do teams walk away from things that are working or that have worked in the past? Green was awesome from three-point land in the first half. So, why not keep plays developed for that same opportunity in the second half? Curry can hit the corner three any time he wants, set a pick, get him open and let him drain it. If you know where people can hit every time, find a way to get them to that spot cleanly or if not use it as a decoy for a wide open layup. Dang! I can coach!

_________________

Switching gears to the USGA (United States Golf Association). How they handled Dustin Johnson's situation was atrocious. What should have happened was for a ruling body to have some balls (pun intended) and make a ruling, tell DJ and the rest of the players so we know where everybody stood. Instead, we got this waiting drama of - we will have to see after the tournament. This is not fair to anybody. Buck-up, make a decision and let the players move on without a cloud of indecision hanging over their head for the rest of the tournament. Jeez! Who is running that ship anyways?

PEACE....PRICELESS

Is there a price for peace? I guess for those who sell your kind of peace, the answer is yes. Otherwise, the price for peace are the hardships we travail. Hopefully, many of us have a peaceful remedy to our bumpy life sometimes.

How you deal with the pressures of life says a lot about you, your up-bringing, and how well you cope with certain issues. In recalling Jordan Spieth's golf game come absolutely "unglued" at The Masters, the ideas of Pressures, Price and Peace came to mind. How he dealt with the issue when it was occurring and then the aftermath was respectable.

Jordan's golf tragedy reminded me of what some people's days might look like. Swing after swing, stroke after stroke Jordan could not have anything go right. Some people have days like that - one might "wake-up on the wrong side of the bed", have a vocal disagreement with the boss, miss an appointment, wife will be home late, one of the kids was in a car accident, dinner has to be arranged for the other child and the water-heater broke.

Some may say, "Is that all Chad? Cause I have had more happen in my life." To that I say, "I am sorry for you." However, I mention all the peace-stealers to place in your mind what you know that which gives you Peace. If what grants you peace is solving the issue + a massage, or a quiet get-away, or reading, or yard work, etc... - then go to your happy place or your peaceful place. Yes you have paid the price for the peace you are now getting restored to you, but to regain a semblance of peace is as the Mastercard commercials go - Peace....Priceless.