EL BARRIO, EL FALLS – Happy Monday! Not sure how everyone’s weekend was but I was busy helping a tenant move in. Why the flack would I help a tenant move in? Well, because I needed them out of the current property for a remodel. Short Matt’s friends were right when they told him that after your 35th birthday, you hire movers. Having friends help you doesn’t cut it and is a great way to lose those friends. I got some sleep and I am far from well rested but ready to go. On tap will be, Mike Woodson, March Madness And USA Soccer!
Mike Woodson
Former Knicks 1st round draft pick (in 1980), Assistant Coach, Head Coach (2012-2014) and recently Assistant Coach again is going home. Woodson is Indianapolis, IN born and raised, and also a University of Indiana alumni. He seems like a great fit from a return of University legend aspect but there are some issues. Woodson’s whole coaching career has been in the pros, so he has never been on a recruiting trip or understood roster-building from a college prospective. The Hoosiers have added Thad Motta, a former Big 10 coach himself, to be the Assistant AD of Basketball to help him in that manner. It has been a while but maybe Indiana basketball will be relative once again.
March Madness
So far the biggest shock has to be UCLA, who have gone from the first 4 to being on the cusp of the final 4, as the knocked off No.2 seed Alabama to make the Elite 8. In a shock, their crosstown rivals, Southern Cal, are also in the Elite 8 after winning their big win, while Juwan Howard’s Michigan have surprised people after losing their #2 scorer and continued to roll on defeat all comers to make the Elite 8. The teams that people heavily favor to win it all are still in it in Gonzaga who is undefeated and Baylor. We can only see what happens.
USA Soccer
A real mixed weekend for USA soccer. In the bad news category, the USA Under 23 team had a shock loss to Honduras 2-1, to miss out on the 3rd straight Olympics. It was made worse by the style of defeat, as the goalie who had helped carry the team for stretches in qualifying, made an absolute howler, as he made a poor clearance that ricocheted of the foot of a pressing attacker into the goal. It was the stuff of nightmares, as the goal turned out to be the game winner. The U23 Olympics use to be big for the USA as it was a chance to showcase its developing talent but the USA’s youth talent is so good that most are with the full Men’s team and the ones that are with the U23 team are mainly MLS players whose team would let them leave since U23 games are not the kind of thing clubs in Europe or America are forced to release players for. This was essentially the USA’s U23 second side. The full Men’s National side filled with loads of stars under 23 had two dominant performances as the defeated Jamaica 4-1 and Northern Ireland 2-1. This maybe the deepest team the USA has had in forever but not sure how many are ready for primetime or if it is the quality of coaching benefitting the talent. We will see when world cup qualifying starts.
Thanks for reading, comment below and come back tomorrow for Ben Whitney. Okay, I won’t call him Pink this week.
