The world according to Jim:
• Once the Selection Sunday brackets are unveiled, here’s an idea for those who want to participate but are unsure who to pick: Why not take a flyer on the former Pac-12 programs in the field, especially on the women’s side?
(And if your friends or co-workers don’t have a March Madness pool for the women, maybe they should.) …
• As we approach Sunday’s announcement of the 68-team fields, the West will be well represented in the women’s bracket, and do we need any more proof than last week’s Big Ten Tournament title game between UCLA and USC? Or the meeting between the two the week before that at Pauley Pavilion that decided the Big Ten regular-season championship?
Consider it a split. Each team got conference champion hats and T-shirts, although after USC’s victory at Pauley, JuJu Watkins puckishly pointed out: “I don’t really wear hats, because I got the bun.” …
• The Trojans and Bruins almost certainly will be No. 1 regional seeds and host their first- and second-round games. Oregon State already has qualified as champion of the West Coast Conference, a temporary landing spot while it and Washington State rebuild the Pac-12. ESPN’s Bracketology, as of Friday afternoon, had Oregon, Utah, Cal and Washington representing the old Pac-12 on the women’s side, with Colorado and Arizona on the bubble. …
• Notice who’s missing? Stanford, in its first season not only of Atlantic Coast Conference membership but of Life Without Tara VanDerveer, is sitting it out after appearing in 35 straight tournaments. A year ago Stanford was one of seven Pac-12 teams to make the women’s field, along with UCLA, USC, Oregon State, Colorado, Utah and Arizona. …
• On the men’s side, UCLA, Oregon and Arizona should have their assignments revealed Sunday, a bit of a dropoff. A year ago the Bruins didn’t make it, but Colorado, Washington State, Arizona and Oregon did. …
• We’ll find out now how one-and-done in the Big Ten Tournament translates for the Bruins as the real tournament approaches, beyond more (high volume) teachable moments for Mick Cronin. Friday’s 86-70 pasting by Wisconsin won’t help their seeding, and most likely will affect where they’re sent. Plus, Aday Mara rolling his ankle against Wisconsin likely brings back some painful memories from the Pac-12 tourney two years ago, specifically Adem Bona’s shoulder injury in a semifinal game.
But Cronin is right: They don’t hang banners at UCLA for conference titles. Might as well move on. …
• A memo to USC’s players: Yes, you were victimized by a couple of shady calls toward the end of Thursday night’s loss to Purdue. But no, it is not good form to say you got robbed. Remember: Play better in the regular season and you avoid being in a win-or-pack-the-uniforms situation in the conference tournament. …
• As the games get tighter in March, the review delays get longer. So we repeat our suggestion: A one-minute limit on reviews. If you can’t determine in 60 seconds that the call is wrong, more time won’t make any difference. …
• The controversy over the, shall we say, inventive New Era cap designs for several teams – specifically, caps of the Rangers, Astros and Angels where the cap logo is overlaid on top of the jersey wordmark and the results are unintentionally (we assume) NSFW – has me asking once again: Why are these alternate designs even created? And another question: Isn’t anyone supervising the people who design these things? …
• Or maybe it’s a new spring training tradition, the yearly apparel glitch. Last year it was the players’ uniforms, from Nike in cooperation with Fanatics, that either did not hold perspiration effectively or, in the case of white uniform pants, were almost see-through.
You wouldn’t accept such sloppiness from the players. Maybe some of the creative types should be designated for assignment. …
• R.I.P. John Feinstein, the prolific author and Washington Post columnist who passed away Thursday from natural causes at the age of 69. Feinstein wrote 50 sports books, but the one people remember most is his first, “Season On The Brink,” published in 1986 and an all-access account of the 1984-85 season with then-Indiana coach Bobby Knight that truly was warts and all. (And expletives. Many, many expletives.) …
• Maybe this passage from the book’s foreward, written by the late Al McGuire, sums it up: “When I had dinner last November with Bob and John Feinstein, I made two predictions. The first one was that with all the time they were going to spend together, they wouldn’t be speaking to each other by March. Apparently I was wrong on that one – but not by much. My second prediction was that if John survived the season, he would have a terrific book on his hands.”
So true. …
• Another sudden, shocking loss: Riverside City College journalism instructor Matt Schoenmann passed away Thursday, leaving not only a hole in the school’s faculty but in the hearts of those who knew him, those who interacted with him on social media, and especially his students. Eric Pacheco, the editor-in-chief of Viewpoints, the school paper, wrote a touching remembrance. …
• Here’s one more idea for a book, or at least a pamphlet: “NFL Salary Cap for Dummies.” (And no, I won’t be writing it.)
It might offer an explanation for those fans dumbfounded why the Rams would cut 32-year-old Cooper Kupp and then sign 33-year-old Davante Adams. The bare numbers, according to Spotrac: Kupp would have a $29.78 cap hit in 2025. Adams’ is $14 million, though he’ll be guaranteed $20 million this season, the first of a two-year deal, when salary and signing bonus are combined.
Stuff like this is why teams employ capologists.
jalexander@scng.com