Stephen in the NYT

Howard Beck from out in Oakland:

So in addition to trying to run the offense, please his eccentric coach and win games, Curry is charged with keeping hope alive in the Bay Area.

Seth, too: “I guess people didn’t learn the first time,” Davidson Coach Bob McKillop said.

Overlooked

Why coaches miss.

On the NCAA tourney expansion debate

In the NYT:

But a small segment of coaches have said that bigger may not be better.

“It takes away from the special nature of it,” said Steve Donahue, who has coached Cornell to the N.C.A.A. tournament for three straight years. “It’s supposed to be an incredible award for a great, great season. If you expand it, it’s not that. Everyone thinks more is better. It’s not.”

Davidson Coach Bob McKillop went a step further.

“Isn’t this whole thing a window into society?” he said. “We’ve diminished so many other things. We’ve diminished test scores. We’ve diminished admission policies. We diminish so much for reasons that are not accentuating excellence and performance. It’s almost too inclusive.”

Probably not a coincidence that these comments come from two smart men who coach smart kids in programs that are more than just preprofessional way stations masquerading as institutions of higher education.

The Rossiters in the NYT

Pete:

“We know how much they care about us,” his son Steve said in a phone interview from Davidson. “But they really like coming to Davidson and Siena. They enjoy it as much as we do.”

From going to Steve’s Davidson games, the Rossiters befriended a local couple, Bob and Barbara Hoffman, whose house they stayed at on their visits. They met them at the Brick House, a restaurant where the crab cakes are tasty and the elder Rossiter enjoys a few Brick Lights.

“Now that my career is sadly over, I can join him with some Brick Lights and watch my brother play,” Steve Rossiter said.

Reading the Sunday NYT

Pete on the Gators:

Meyer identified a fundamental tension of what he was facing when a reporter asked him why the pain from a loss outweighed the joy of a victory.

“That’s a great question,” he said. “That’s one I’ve got to figure out.”

Don’t we all. Expectations.

Getting ready for Penn and UMass

Bryant: nice trip home but it’s back to work now. Penn in the NYT.

Cornell’s Jon Jaques

On The Quad blog: “... a tough Davidson team ...” The Moment on The Quad.

TCU vs. Boise

Pete Thamel: This reminds me a little bit of the justified grumbling when two mid-major teams are matched up in the first round of the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament -- Creighton-Nevada, Butler-South Alabama, Davidson-Gonzaga ...

Three headlines

New York: No. 11 Butler Is Sluggish in Its Opener. Baltimore: Sloppy win gives Butler work to do. South Bend: Butler wakes up, gets by Davidson.

Good read from Karen Crouse

Stephen: “The N.B.A., there’s a lot of chaos sometimes. A lot of things going on throughout the year. I came in with an open mind and ready to work hard, and Coach Nelson just keeps encouraging me to be myself and be a professional and handle my business.” Tonight in Indianapolis. His last time at Conseco.

How people talk about Davidson basketball

Now it’s like this:

Heard of any of these teams? Kansas? Alabama? Syracuse? UMass? Davidson?

And like this:

Wozniak is being recruited by several schools, most notably ...

Used to be pretty much the opposite, of course -- the program was pretty darn good, and yet nobody knew, or only the avid, educated few. The power of March. The power of CBS. The power of a star in sports-info-tainment in a celebrity culture.

Friedman on Watson

Here:

This wonderful but cruel game never stops testing or teaching you. “The only comment I can make,” Watson told me after, “is one that the immortal Bobby Jones related: ‘One learns from defeat, not from victory.’ I may never have the chance again to beat the kids, but I took one thing from the last hole: hitting both the tee shot and the approach shots exactly the way I meant to wasn’t good enough. ... I had to finish.”

So Tom Watson got a brutal lesson in golf that he’ll never forget, but he gave us all an incredible lesson in possibilities -- one we’ll never forget.

Where to?

Howard Beck of the NYT says OKC.

In the sports lexicon

George Vecsey:

This shocking match in the Confederations Cup in Bloemfontein was the equivalent of those one-off thrillers, like Gonzaga or Davidson beating one of the giants of American college basketball.

In New York

Stephen: “There’s not that much of a difference between three and eight moneywise. That’s only for the first three years. You’ve got to go to a spot where you can really flourish as a player and a situation that Coach is going to get the best out of you and you won’t disappear in that system.”

The Davidson debate

Thamel on the NYT’s Quad blog:

Could Curry’s rainbow jumpers end up in the N.I.T.? Would you rather see Davidson or, say, Providence? Be prepared for a week of debates, starting now.