Grooving On March Madness!

I will be the first to admit I am a bit of a fairweather college basketball fan. I only tend to start paying attention at conference tournament time, and even then, only when one of my teams has a shot at making the Big Dance, also known as the NCAA Tournament.

Fortunately for me, both of the teams I root for are perennial contenders. Maryland is the team I grew up watching. My first taste of college basketball came in the early 70's watching Lefty Driesell's great teams with Tom McMillan and Len Elmore and Howard White and Jim O'Brien. Back in the days before three-point lines and shot clocks, you had to be careful when North Carolina got a 3 point lead on you, because Dean Smith would put his players into a four-corner offense, and stall until the game was over!

My favorite memory of those early years is that when Lefty's Maryland teams would build up a big lead at the end of the game, the pep band would strike up a chorus of "A-men", and the entire crowd at Cole Field House would sing along non-stop until the game was over.

Later on, as Maryland was going through its dark days after the death of Len Bias, and was stuck with Bob Wade as coach, I was wrapped up in starting my career, and being, as noted, a fairweather fan. But I have continued to follow the Terps each year under Gary Williams. And even though he has had his critics, I have remained firmly in his corner. Williams is an exciting man to watch - and even though he catches no shortage of grief for failing to recruit big stars, I can't help but admire his ability to motivate second-rate talent and get more out of them than anyone has a right to expect.

He's certainly doing that this year. He has the shortest team in the ACC, but he's managed to win two conference tournament games, and it would not shock anyone if he could pull off two more. Hopefully, the Terps have done enough to go to the NCAA's, because now I've been sucked in, and I would hate to see them go to the NIT!

My other team is Syracuse, where I went to college. I became an SU fan at a curious time - at the dawn of the Big East conference. Syracuse's new rivalries were still being born - against St. John's and Villanova and Seton Hall and Connecticut... and most of all against Georgetown! The first game I went to at SU was the last game of my freshman year, which also happened to be the last game the Orangemen played at the old Manley Field House. They had a 56-game home winning streak, and they were playing the Hoyas. And they lost. I have hated Georgetown and John Thompson ever since.


I have not followed Syracuse so much on a year-to-year basis as the years have gone by, but I do follow them at tourney time. There are still several ties that bind. First of all - SU unbelievably has the same coach now as it did when I went to school there a quarter-century ago! Jim Boeheim grew up in Syracuse, played at Syracuse and has coached at Syracuse for the past 33 years. Secondly - for some bizarre reason, SU and Maryland seem (to me, anyway) to run in parallel universes. Jim Boeheim and Gary Williams are virtually best friends, and the two teams won consecutive National Championships - Maryland in 2002 and Syracuse in 2003. Finally, there is a special tie this year. One of the stars of the current Orange team, Andy Rautins, is the son of a guy who played at SU when I was there, Leo Rautins. So it's fun to watch him play, too.

Reading back through what I've just written, I realize that I really don't have deep enduring ties with either of these teams - or even the sport of college basketball... certainly nothing like my passion for the Redskins. But it doesn't take much at the dawn of each spring to get that interest going again... to watch players I don't know take to the court... and to find myself pumping my fist with each three-point basket they sink. All in the name of team colors, names and nostalgia. It still feels damn good.

As I write this, Maryland will play hated Duke this afternoon in the ACC semis, and Syracuse will play Louisville tonight in the Big East final. SU is going to the NCAAs... and Maryland should squeak in.

Hope they're not in the same bracket!

Father And Son Santas

I've been going through the old family album, and I found a couple of pictures I wanted to share with you this Christmas... Here is a picture of Mrs. Matthews - who I swear has not aged a day in 15 years - with our son, Brad, at the tender age of 3 months. Brad was a premie - he was 2 months early and weighed 4 1/2 pounds at birth, so he was still a pretty little guy - probably about 9 pounds when this shot was taken...




Brad was the hit of the WMAL holiday party that year... Since he was so little, and was attached to a breathing monitor to boot - we had to bring him to the party, where everyone promptly fawned over him!




Finally, I told you recently that I was a department store Santa in my student days at Syracuse. Well, my sister Jill has unearthed a newspaper clipping (that I had completely forgotten even existed) from the Syracuse New Times in December of 1981, in which yours truly was asked what I, as Santa, wanted for Christmas... And my answer in those recessionary times is oddly fitting in these recessionary times!




I may or may not be posting in the next week or so - it all depends on whether something strikes my fancy - but most likely, I'll see you all back here in this space after the New Year! Happy Holidays, everyone!

The Unemployed Need Vacation, Too! (Don't They?)

Hello from sunny Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, where Life On The Beach reports this week from an actual BEACH! Yes, the Beach Bum is three weeks removed from getting the ax, but here I am with my family, staying at a timeshare that I bought way back when I was a Disney cast member and all was right with the world. I must admit... being here when no job is beckoning upon my return does seem a little extravagant, and every vacation tchotchke that Mrs. Beach Bum looks at now seems like even more of a waste of money than it did when I was working... However, these reservations were made seven months ago, and thanks to cell phones and wifi for my laptop, I can just as easily be surfing for work here as I can at home. Plus - it's nice to spend this time with the wife and kids... When we get back, it's back to rushing them off to school and work while I stay home!

I saw that Georgetown lost in the second round of the NCAA's... I ALMOST wish I was home so I could listen to John Thompson cry like a baby that his kid's team was somehow screwed out of making the Sweet 16... Sorry - I hate the Hoyas. That's what going to Syracuse will do to ya!

If anyone has a job for me, I'm all ears... Even down here in Low Country!