A week ago, I dubbed the Sunshine State "The basketball capital of America (for this week at least)", based on the fact that three Florida universities made up the "Sweet 16" of the NCAA men's hoops tourney, as well as the fact that the Miami Heat at that time had won 26 games in a row.
Since that time? Well, the University of Miami got knocked out Thursday night, the Florida Gulf Coast University players had their dreams end Friday night (to UF), and the Gators were demolished yesterday by Michigan. The Heat's winning streak ended at 27 games after losing to Chicago last Wednesday.
By far the best game on paper was saved for last. This past weekend, Duke played Louisville, and for a little more than a half it was a taut, intense game. Then Louisville, playing with extra emotion after the horrific incident involving guard Kevin Ware, kicked it up an extra level. It ended up being a long afternoon for the Dukies.
One of the fun things about that game was the match-up of the two heavyweight coaches, Mike Krzyzewski and Rick Patino. College basketball has always been more about the coaches than the pros, but never more so than in the last decade, when it's virtually impossible for a national fan to know much about the personnel of each team as anyone with any modicum of talent (hello Kentucky) seems to move on to try to make it in the NBA.
At the risk of sounding too negative, I still have a problem with college basketball. How many shots clank off the rim harmlessly in these games? Did you see Marquette vs. Michigan on Saturday afternoon, where Marquette struggled to score 40 points? You know when Duke and Louisville played in that historic Christian Laettner classic in 1992, the final score was 104-103? (Yes it went into overtime, but just five minutes.) Last night's final score? 85-63. Duke scored 42 points less than they did 21 years ago. It ain't all because of good defense, folks.
In the news this weekend, Marco Rubio wants everybody to know that he's not ready to pull the trigger on a comprehensive immigration bill — not that anybody was asking him to. The Florida freshman senator is the key player in these negotiations, and he knows it. His office sent out no fewer than two press releases in three days to let everybody know that despite the huge announcement that labor and business had come together on the touchy issue of guest workers, this bill wasn't ready for prime time.
It seems as if Rubio does anything deemed too "centrist" by some in the party, he makes sure to do something to appease Tea Party enthusiasts. How else to explain his announcement last week that he will filibuster gun legislation that hasn't even been written yet?
Speaking of immigration, a local group called the Tampa Dream Defenders met up on Friday night to announce that they are now focusing on undocumented immigrants being allowed to get drivers licenses.
This article appears in Mar 28 – Apr 3, 2013.