Baseball Toaster The Griddle
Help
A place where a man can slow down to a walk and live his life full measure, but he has to keep his watch on Pacific Time.
Frozen Toast
Search
Google Search
Web
Toaster
The Griddle
Archives

2009
02  01 

2008
12  11  10  09  08  07 
06  05  04  03  02  01 

2007
12  11  10  09  08  07 
06  05  04  03  02  01 

2006
12  11  10  09  08  07 
06  05  04  03  02  01 

2005
12  10  07 
06  05  04  03 
Suggestions, comments, ring the catcher's interference alarm?

Email me at btimmermann@gmail.com

The stuff I keep track of
Random Game Callbacks

Select a date:

Personal favorites that I wrote
FAQs
[ Miscellanea for the Final Four and contest scenarios ]
2007-03-25 20:38
by Bob Timmermann

The Final Four this year consists of four schools who have all won a national championship before: Florida, Ohio State, and Georgetown have one title apiece and UCLA has 11. All the schools have also lost in the championship game. Florida has lost once, UCLA has lost twice, Ohio State has lost three times as has Georgetown The last Final Four that had four schools that had already won it all was back in 1998 when North Carolina, Utah, Kentucky, and Stanford made it to San Antonio.

The matchup between UCLA and Florida in the semifinals is a rematch of the championship game from last year. The only other time that happened was in 1990 and 1991 when UNLV and Duke did it. Cincinnati beat Ohio State in two straight finals in 1961 and 1962.

It's the first time the combination of seeds in the Final Four are 1, 1, 2, and 2.

Unrelated things I've come across while leafing through the NCAA Final Four Record Book.

  • When La Salle won the national championship in 1954, they wore uniforms with sleeves.
  • When USF won the national championship in 1955 and 1956, they used periods on the jersey.
  • In 1963, Loyola of Chicago won the national championship despite missing 61 field goal attempts. They were 23 for 84 in a 60-58 overtime win over Cincinnati. In 1985, Villanova missed all of six field goal attempts in its 66-64 win over Georgetown. The Wildcats made 22 of 28 field goals.

As for the Griddle's contest, there were 106 entries and now there are just seven entries eligible to win:

  1. "It goes up to 65" wins if Georgetown wins, regardless of its opponent.
  2. "maligNED and beLITTLEd" wins if UCLA beats Georgetown in the final.
  3. ToyCannon wins if Florida beats Georgetown.
  4. Suffering Bruin wins if Florida beats Ohio State.
  5. "Dodgergabe" wins if UCLA beats Ohio State.
  6. "sonic death monkey" wins if Ohio State beats UCLA.
  7. Trojan Ron wins if Ohio State beats Florida.

There's a holiday for me tomorrow, so I will try to get back in the business of posting baseball content.

Comments
2007-03-25 22:29:13
1.   Eric Enders
"Every team in the four already owns at least one NCAA championship banner, which hasn't happened since 1995."
-- Pat Forde on ESPN.com
2007-03-25 22:33:20
2.   Bob Timmermann
I see the crack research team was working hard on that question.
2007-03-25 23:58:14
3.   Eric Enders
They were probably skimming over the list, saw Utah and Stanford and said, "Next!"
2007-03-26 00:25:22
4.   Bob Timmermann
Utah was, I believe, the first NCAA basketball champ to use a nonwhite player. One of their guards was Japanese-American Wat Mikasa.

From the photos in the record book, the 1950 CCNY team was the first champ to have an African-American on the roster.

2007-03-26 08:45:17
5.   Eric Enders
That's interesting about Utah, since at the time they won (1944) a large Japanese-American population was being held in internment camps there. I wonder if Mr. Mikasa had been one of those. I can't imagine Utah had a huge Japanese-American population before that.
2007-03-26 10:35:21
6.   El Lay Dave
I was (finally) broken by UNC gagging down the stretch and getting smoked in OT after the Ducks mucked up too many threes. Ah well, fun while it lasted, but there is still UCLA to root for!

5 That is an interesting question indeed.

The matchup between UCLA and Florida in the semifinals is a rematch of the championship game from last year. The only other time that happened was in 1990 and 1991 when UNLV and Duke did it.
Recall that UNLV pasted Duke in the '90 finals and Duke paid them back in the '91 semifinals. May that historical scenario repeat itself this year.

When USF won the national championship in 1955 and 1956, they used periods on the jersey.
I'll bet CCNY 1950 did too. The NYT longs for those days like Joakim Noah craves another television camera moment.

2007-03-26 10:38:04
7.   Bob Timmermann
Sorry, I spelled his name wrong. It's Misaka.

He was born in Ogden, Utah. He went on to play 3 games in the NBA for the Knicks.

2007-03-26 11:08:36
8.   Bob Timmermann
CCNY did not use periods.
http://tinyurl.com/2ohweb

They just took bribes instead.

2007-03-26 12:12:03
9.   Linkmeister
8 Rimshot!
2007-03-26 14:38:16
10.   dianagramr
sigh .... UNC died in the stretch, and so did my chances for winning this fun little roto ..

ah well

BTW, did anyone happen to notice that one of the rims seemed much "tighter" than the other in the UNC/G'town game?

The rim on the "right" side of the court gave off a distinctive "clang" when a shot hit it, whereas the "left" basket didn't.

Do they have mic's behind the backboard?

2007-03-26 14:42:13
11.   Jon Weisman
3 - What do you mean? Are you forgetting '42?

Did UCLA ever win its 100th NCAA title, like I was hearing about earlier this season?

2007-03-26 15:11:59
12.   Bob Timmermann
11
UCLA has not won title 100. The men's soccer team was a prohibitive favorite in the final against UCSB and lost.

The likeliest candidate for title 100 is the women's water polo squad. They are ranked second behind Stanford, the only team to beat them. It's quite likely that the final will be another UCLA-Stanford game.

The UCLA men's volleyball team is good, but not great. But last year they were good, but not great and still won the NCAA championship.

The women's gymnastics team is good, but has had a lot of injuries and likely won't make it to the national championships.

2007-03-26 15:18:26
13.   Jon Weisman
Are any of those championships decided before Monday?
2007-03-26 15:26:58
14.   Bob Timmermann
No, not for a couple months.

Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.