Rutgers Stuns Louisville 28-25

Where the heck did these two teams come from again? Rutgers has always been a bad program. After winning the first college football game ever 6-4 over Princeton, (November 6, 1869, actually, meaning that the anniversary was this past week), they seemingly lost every game since until a couple of years ago.

Now, they are national title contenders.

I love teams like Rutgers. They show the BCS to be the farce that it is. They are at a huge disadvantage in the polls, because voters are less likely to promote them. They came into this week ranked behind the one less West Virginia, which had just lost to Louisville.

It is going to be interesting to see where the BCS puts them.

Louisville is a great story in its own right. A second tier football program until the past few years, Louisville itself would have shaken up the BCS. Louisville doesn’t have the tradition that the other top programs have, and the fact that they were number 3 this late says a lot.

Rutgers has yet to play West Virginia, which could be a tough game. If they run the table, it will make for a VERY INTERESTING decision process for the BCS title game.

Louisville’s Michael Bush Breaks Leg in Opener

Michael Bush’s dreams of a Heisman and Louisville’s hopes of a Big East title were shattered along with his right leg in Sunday’s season opener.

Louisville Heisman Trophy and All-America candidate Michael Bush suffered a broken right leg Sunday night early in the third quarter in the Cardinals’ game against Kentucky, an injury that will end his season.

The injury, which occurred as Bush was being tackled by Wildcats linebacker Wesley Woodyard, is a potentially devastating blow to Louisville’s hopes for a Big East championship, BCS bid and any hopes it had for national title contention. The NCAA 2005 scoring champion, who had worked himself into the best shape of his life, had rolled up 128 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 17 carries in just over two quarters of work against Kentucky. His first carry of the season was a 48-yard touchdown.

It was apparent that the injury was severe almost immediately, as the 245-pound Bush writhed in pain on the Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium turf. Louisville medical staff applied an inflatable cast to Bush’s leg and he was carted off. Bush tried to rouse a stricken capacity crowd as he was taken off the field.

[...]

This marked the third major injury suffered by a Louisville star in the last three games played on the artificial turf at PJCS. Bush sprained his foot last Nov. 4 against Pittsburgh and missed Louisville’s next two games. And in the home finale of 2005, quarterback Brian Brohm tore his ACL and dislocated his kneecap against Syracuse, ending his season.

Bush wanted to enter the NFL draft after last year, his junior season at Louisville. He reluctantly returned for his senior year when he was told he did not project as a first-round pick.

Truly a shame. It’s quite amazing that any program with the ability to afford something better is still using AstroTurf. Natural grass or even FieldTurf or its variants are so much better.

Some good news at least:

University of Louisville running back Michael Bush underwent successful surgery Monday morning at Jewish Hospital to repair his broken right leg, the school said in a press release. Bush went into surgery at 7:30 a.m. Monday morning and had a rod inserted into his leg. Dr. Art Malkani performed the hour-long procedure.

(Oddly, the story is on the horse racing page. Go figure.)

One hopes he’ll recover sufficiently to have a chance at the NFL.

Joe Brodsky, Former Dallas Cowboys Coach, Dies

Former Dallas Cowboys running backs coach Joe Brodsky has died.

When Emmitt Smith thanked those who helped make him the NFL’s all-time leading rusher at his retirement announcement, his running backs coach for eight seasons, Joe Brodsky, was near the top of the list.

Brodsky died Thursday after a battle with prostate cancer at his Miami Lakes home. He was 71.

“Joe was a big contributor to the success we enjoyed in the 1990s,” owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. “As his primary responsibility was the nurturing and development of the NFL’s all-timer leading rusher, he was an obvious success in that endeavor. But he also touched and influenced the lives and careers of hundreds of success stories in the high school, college and pro football levels. We grieve for his family and their loss, and we appreciate his contributions to the history of the Dallas Cowboys.”

Brodsky left the University of Miami with Jimmy Johnson and helped the Cowboys win three Super Bowls. He helped Smith and fullback Daryl Johnston earn Pro Bowl honors.

Brodsky is survived by his wife of 49 years, Joyce, three sons and three grandchildren.

A shame. I had no idea that he was ill–or that he was quite so old.

OTB

Cinderella is Overrated

So says Bomani Jones.

In the old days, the gap between Cinderella and big-conference stepsisters was much larger. But since widespread early entry into the NBA draft makes a junior in the Big East seem as seasoned as Julio Franco — and those who stick around three years frequently weren’t spectacular to begin with — mid-majors aren’t the underdogs they once were. The stepsisters have spent the last decade watching their star players depart early, staying long enough to lend their talents but not long enough to contribute the guile and leadership that separates very good teams from great ones.

Take this as evidence of the effect of early entry on tournament fields: Only six top seeds in the history of the women’s tournament have not made the Sweet 16. This season, 14 of the 16 teams seeded 1-4 made the Sweet 16. The lowest seed remaining? Albuquerque region No. 8 seed Boston College, a school from a conference too large to get anybody warm and/or fuzzy.

Since the WNBA isn’t cutting checks large enough to make it worth the stress for anyone to leave school early, the best players in the women’s major conferences stay in school. Let the WNBA get a gigantic television deal — I mean, I guess that might happen some day in my grandchildren’s lifetime — and the kids might skip out in search of riches. Instead, Candace Parker will be dunking on overmatched young women until 2009.

The men’s game just doesn’t work like that.

Cinderellas end each season with a definite idea of who’s coming back for the next season. They are better able to build teams on experience. George Mason has six players who average 20 minutes per game, and three are seniors. So what’s so surprising about the Patriots beating a North Carolina team that started two former walk-ons, two freshmen and another player who averaged 4.5 minutes last season? If the Patriots and Tar Heels played two games out of three, there would be no great reason to bet against George Mason. That day — and maybe on another — the Patriots were the better team (and the same can be said about Bradley and Kansas).

These schools are no longer hopelessly overmatched. They don’t walk into the gym and stare at guys like Craig Smith with amazement, as if John Henry were in the layup line. They come to play ball, able to beat big-time schools without having to depend on a stepsister’s bad day to run concurrently with their best days or having a David Robinson-like star.

Come to think of it, Cinderella isn’t that charming. She’s not even a belle at a ball. She’s the semi-cute girl hanging around a minute or two before last call. When most of the dimes have gone home, the nickels start looking awfully shiny.

There’s nothing inspiring about that, but that’s how you wind up with a Wichita State-George Mason regional semifinal. At this point, schools like Wichita State and George Mason are only underdogs because most people have never heard of them. There’s nothing moving about that. Give the Missouri Valley Conference and Colonial Athletic Association better television deals, and you can bet they’ll get little to no love.

That’s about right. I’m a very, very casual fan of college hoops and tend to fill out my brackets based on some combination of my logic telling me that seeding means something and my intuition developed over twenty-odd years of awareness of the game. This year, that system totally failed me although, so did just about everyone else’s.