Non-Crowd Favorite Patrick Reed Holds Off Rickie Fowler To Win The Masters
Former Masters champion Sergio Garcia, of Spain, helps Patrick Reed with his green jacket after winning the Masters golf tournament Sunday in Augusta, Ga.
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Golfer Patrick Reed was best known for the trophies he shared at the Presidents and Ryder Cup . It’s for his performance at the latter that he picked up the nickname “Captain America.”
But all that changed on Sunday when Reed, 27, won his first major championship at the Masters in Augusta, Ga. Reed is the fourth consecutive Masters champion to capture his first major at that tournament.
On the 18th hole, Reed finished with a 1-under 71 to hold off challenger Rickie Fowler. For Fowler, it was his eighth top-five finish in a major championship and third as runner-up. He’s still waiting to celebrate his first major title win.
From the beginning of play at Augusta National, it was clear that Reed, who’s originally from Texas, was not the crowd favorite. He picked up on that when he and four-time major winner Rory McIlroy, who’s from Northern Ireland, were announced on the tee box — McIlroy got a noticeably louder ovation.
ESPN reports it’s understandable why the fans didn’t want Reed to win:
“It was never going to be pretty with Patrick Reed, the golfer who collected more enemies than most on his stormy rise from boyhood prodigy to college bad boy to self-promoting PGA Tour winner to master of the Masters. Reed was kicked off his University of Georgia team, and nearly voted off his Augusta State team by his schoolmates, for offenses that ranged from alcohol-fueled misbehavior to an arrest for underage drinking and constantly talking down to lesser teammates, as well as alleged cheating infractions. His coach at Augusta State, Josh Gregory, suspended him and warned him that his entire career was about to go up in smoke.”
Reed’s parents live in Augusta but they weren’t at the tournament and it is reported that they weren’t at their son’s wedding in 2012. Despite the estrangement, Golf.com reports Reed’s mom Jeannette and dad Bill hosted a Masters party.
“The Reeds lived and died with every shot on the back nine, hooting and hollering at the TV. When the final putt dropped, they clung to each other like survivors in a life raft. Struggling to catch her breath, tears streaming down her cheeks, Jeannette said, “I can’t believe my son is the Masters champion. It’s surreal.” It was a dizzying mix of pride and pain.”
Reed won’t discuss his family situtation. When asked about it after his Masters victory, Reed told reporters, “I’m just out here to play golf and try to win golf tournaments.”
5 Thoughts On 'Moving Day' At The Masters
Tiger Woods hits on the fourth hole during the second round at the Masters golf tournament Friday.
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Saturday at the Masters golf tournament begins with American Patrick Reed holding a two-shot lead over Australia’s Marc Leishman. Reed expertly handled the tricky, shifty winds and slick greens to post the best round of the day Friday – 6 under par 66.
He’s the only golfer in the field to score both rounds in the 60’s. Now that field has been whittled from 87 to 53 following yesterday’s cut. Saturday, nicknamed “Moving Day,” is when the tournament begins in earnest.
Here are 5 things to know as Moving Day begins.
1. Tiger’s Down But Not Out
Pre-tournament publicity for four-time Masters champion Tiger Woods was off the charts – understandably so considering his improbable comeback from severe back problems that threatened to end his career prematurely.
Huge expectations led to Woods being tabbed one of the favorites at Augusta, even though he hadn’t won a tournament since 2013. But his recent second and fifth place finishes were all Tiger fans needed. Alas, the expectations, so far, have proved too huge – his difficult 3 over par 75 in Friday’s second round left him 13 shots behind leader Patrick Reed. “I hit my irons awful today,” Woods said afterwards. “I didn’t control my distance, my shape, my spins. I left myself in bad spots.”
But.
No one is proclaiming the Tiger Woods’ comeback over. Woods reminds eager reporters it was only six months ago he wondered if he’d ever play golf again.
You scan his face now for hints of a grimace after another violent swing, and it’s not there. You look for a limp or a painful bend at the hip with hands on knees – not there. As long as the back fusion surgery he had last year continues to hold him together, Woods insists he will reclaim the game that once left the sports world in awe.
Can he do it the next two days in Augusta? It’s a very tall order even he acknowledged after Friday’s round. He said he has to shoot two rounds in the mid-60’s, while a bunch of really good golfers fall apart. Probably won’t happen. But as he said following his fifth place finish at last month’s Arnold Palmer Invitational in Florida, “If I can play with no pain and I can feel I can make golf swings, I’ll figure it out. I’m starting to piece it together tournament by tournament and each tournament’s gotten a little bit crisper and a little bit better.”
Woods fans are waiting for “crisper” and “better” in Augusta. If it doesn’t happen, at least there’s this – for the first time since April 2015, he made the cut at a major championship and got to play on the weekend.
2. The Leader
Twenty-seven-year-old Patrick Reed has never won a Major Tournament…but there would be some definite symmetry if his first were the Masters, in Augusta, Georgia. Reed went to Augusta State University, where he helped the men’s golf team win the NCAA Division 1 title in back-to-back years: 2010 and 2011.
As Reed’s professional career has evolved, he’s become known as a fiery Ryder Cup competitor. His duel with Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy was a highlight of the 2016 team event
Reed is paired Saturday with Australian Marc Leishman, also trying to win his first major championship. Leishman’s best Masters finish is a tie for 4th in 2013.
3. Champions Are Lurking
For the most part, the Masters always brings out the best in the best. Not surprisingly, there’s tremendous talent right behind Reed and Leishman. Henrik Stenson, McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas all have won at least one major title and all are considered among the best in the men’s game.
A big part of the Masters’ allure is its tradition (“unlike any other”) and so what would an Augusta National leaderboard be without champions from the past? On this Saturday they are well represented with Vijay Singh (2000), Fred Couples (1992) and Bernhard Langer (1985, 1993) making the cut as well.
4. The Weather Will Be Frightful
Already the weather has had an impact on this Masters – while the Augusta National Golf course has appeared as picturesque as ever to TV viewers, the winds on Friday turned tricky and inconsistent. Players talked about being thrown off by the shifting breezes and how they sometimes had to wait to hit their ball until the winds resumed blowing in the directions that were expected.
But the Saturday forecast predicts even worse, plus rain. According to golf.com, tournament officials say showers are “likely in the morning, but by the afternoon the weather will turn worse with occasional heavy downpours and the potential for thunderstorms.”
Bad news for Patrick Reed and all those others near the top of the leaderboard – their reward for working so hard and doing so well Friday, is a later start on Saturday. Later and, now it appears, soggier.
During Friday’s broadcast of the Masters on ESPN, commentator and former player Curtis Strange, said, with maybe just a shade too much hyperbole, “with the weather forecast for the weekend, anybody who makes the cut has a chance to win. No telling what will happen.”
One potential advantage to the rain – the water should soften up the greens and make them less treacherous. Perhaps meaning fewer putts gently tapped rolling across and off the greens; or maybe players will have an easier time spinning shots and having them stick on the green rather than scoot off. Too bad defending champion Sergio Garcia won’t be around to take advantage of that. Garcia missed the cut after his golf balls did anything but stick on his disastrous 15th hole during the first round.
5. Who wins? 6 is the magic number
As in six shots behind. According to this chart, players need to be within 6 shots of the lead after Friday to win the Masters. And this 2013 assertion plays out over the following years. In 2014, eventual winner Bubba Watson led after two rounds. In 2015, winner Jordan Spieth led after two rounds. In 2016, winner Danny Willett trailed the leader by 4 shots after two rounds. And last year, winner Sergio Garcia was tied for the lead after two rounds.
So? There are six golfers within six shots of Patrick Reed’s halfway lead of 9 under par. They are Leishman, Stenson, McIlroy, Spieth, Johnson, Thomas. One of these seven men will win the 2018 Masters.
Unless of course Curtis Strange’s prediction comes true, and the rain and wind turn the tournament completely upside down.
Augusta National To Host Its First-Ever Women's Tournament
NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly speaks with sports writer Christine Brennan about the decision by Augusta National, one of golf’s most exclusive clubs, to establish a women’s tournament.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters, is known for lots of things – green jackets, blooming azaleas, names like Arnie, Jack, Tiger. What Augusta is not known for is its openness towards women. Augusta didn’t admit female members until 2012, so our ears perked up yesterday when Augusta National announced that next year, it will hold its first ever women’s tournament.
Sports columnist Christine Brennan joins us from Augusta. Welcome back to the program.
CHRISTINE BRENNAN: Well, thanks, Mary Louise – great to be with you.
KELLY: All right, so this is going to be an amateur tournament, first women’s tournament ever at Augusta. How big a deal is that?
BRENNAN: Oh, absolutely it’s a big deal. I mean, 15 years ago, I think a lot of people will remember the Hootie-Martha Masters, which was 2003, as contentious as it gets, really one of the low points, Mary Louise, in terms of women’s rights not just in our – in sports but in our culture. Augusta at that point did not have any women members. I wrote a lot about it.
Martha Burk read one of my columns. She came down and protested. And it was ugly, and it was messy, and it was nasty. And the Augusta National green jackets, all men, almost all of them white, dug in their heels and said no women ever. That was 15 years ago. The arc of these last 15 years is truly remarkable. And there are now four women members at Augusta – better than zero, not exactly a lot.
KELLY: Four out of what, a few hundred?
BRENNAN: About – yeah, about 300 or so – so a little bit more than 1 percent. But it’s still – for 2018, it’s stunning that Augusta National, a private club, very public face of golf with many members who are corporate executives who could never for one moment have these policies in their companies, and yet they were allowing it here for so long…
KELLY: So how did this come to pass? What changed?
BRENNAN: What changed is a new chairman, Fred Ridley – 65-year-old father of three daughters who care very much about this issue and that they’d be very pleased to hear the news about this tournament, which will be just one day on Augusta National next year – nonetheless, what a platform – the greatest platform for women’s golf ever. And I think that’s basically it. Ridley is from a little bit of a different era, has much more of an open-minded sense about the game and about growing the game. And I think the other huge factor here is that golf has been hemorrhaging participants. It costs too much money, takes too much time. Americans’ attention spans are shorter.
KELLY: So this is about potentially doubling the number of players and doubling the audience if you let women in.
BRENNAN: Yeah, right. Consider that – 51 percent of your population. And what’s the growth industry? What’s the untapped market for golf? Well, it’s women. And for generations, the golf industry has put out the stop sign and has basically told our daughters and granddaughters and nieces and the girls next door, don’t play this sport. And what a silly way to try to run a sport and sell products and sell golf clubs and rounds of golf. But they did this, and it really – sexism trumped capitalism for many decades, especially among the greatest capitalists in our country who are members of the club.
KELLY: I hear you celebrating this change. What has been the reaction from Augusta members?
BRENNAN: Oh, I think everyone is pretty much understanding (laughter) that it is the 21st century. Maybe it’s time to enter the 20th before too much more of the 21st goes by. I think they’re fine with it. I – a lot of these members now, Mary Louise, are younger men. When I say younger – 40s, 50s, 60s. And I think they understand that they have to get with the times.
KELLY: All right, thanks so much, Christine.
BRENNAN: Thank you, Mary Louise.
KELLY: That’s Christine Brennan, columnist for USA Today speaking to us from Augusta, Ga.
Copyright © 2018 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
Former USA Taekwondo Coach Banned From The Sport For Sexual Misconduct
U.S. coach Jean Lopez and his brother Steven celebrate after Steven defeated Rashad Ahmadov of Azerbaijan, winning him a bronze medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
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Editor’s note: This story contains a graphic description of sexual behavior.
Jean Lopez, who coached the U.S. Olympic taekwondo team from 2004-2016, has been banned from USA Taekwondo. NPR obtained a copy of a report, issued by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which has not been made public. According to the report, Lopez had “a decades long pattern of sexual misconduct” and used his status as a respected athlete and coach to “groom, manipulate, and, ultimately, sexually abuse younger female athletes” — including minors.
The Lopez case was one of the first big tests for SafeSport, an entity created in March 2017 to investigate sexual abuse allegations in the 48 athletic governing bodies that operate under the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Lopez and his family have been hugely influential in taekwondo over the past two decades; the Los Angeles Times even dubbed them the sport’s “first family.” Lopez’sbrother Steven is the most decorated athlete in the sport, with two Olympic gold medals, a bronze medal and five world championships. Their other siblings, Diana and Mark, were also Olympians in taekwondo.
That success has come even as multiple athletes have accused both Jean and Steven of assault over the past dozen years, with little response from the sport’s governing body, USA Taekwondo.
Taekwondo athletes Steven (from left), Jean, Diana and Mark Lopez of the United States pose in the NBC Today show studio at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The Los Angeles Times named them the “first family of taekwondo.”
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The family’s competitive reputation attracted top athletes to the training center Jean Lopez operated in Houston. One of them was Heidi Gilbert. Under Lopez’s tutelage, Gilbert, then 19, won a gold medal in her weight class in the Pan American Games in Quito, Ecuador, in 2002.
But, Gilbert says, that win was overshadowed by what happened immediately afterward. She says she and Diana Lopez, who had also competed in the event, went back to Jean Lopez’s hotel room to celebrate. Gilbert remembers that the two women flexed their muscles in a full-length mirror.
“We were like, ‘Look at my traps; look at my six-pack,’ ” she says. “Jean is like, ‘You girls are so awesome. You guys are going to go to the Olympics.’ “
After Diana left the room, Gilbert says, Jean’s tone quickly changed. She recalls that he threw her onto the bed. At first, she thought they were wrestling. But then, she says, he put her in a fetal position, rubbed his groin against her, and ejaculated into his pants.
Gilbert was shocked. Her first instinct was to blame herself for drawing attention to her body.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I was flexing in front of his mirror. I’m an idiot,’ ” she says.
Gilbert says she didn’t speak to Jean Lopez for the remainder of the trip. But she decided to go back to Texas and continue training with him, in part because he had seemed to promise it would not happen again.
“He reassured me,” she says. “He said, ‘Once you move out here, everything is business, and you’re my athlete and I’m going to take care of you.’ “
Gilbert’s own ambition also guided her decision. She had dreamed of being in the Olympics since she was a little girl, and a spot on the the 2004 U.S. Olympic team seemed within her reach.
“You don’t want to believe you’re in a bad situation,” she says. “Because the training is so good, your Olympic dreams are so high, you are honestly willing to sacrifice everything to achieve that.”
She says nothing untoward happened during the following year in Texas. But in 2003, she traveled with Jean Lopez to compete in the World Championships in Germany. At an after-party, he offered her a drink that she believes was drugged. Gilbert says she felt “completely out of it.” Her body went limp, but she was still able to perceive what was happening to her. She remembers Jean Lopez sexually assaulting her in the hotel where they were staying.
After Gilbert returned to the United States, she left the Lopez training facility. Shortly after that, she stopped competing in taekwondo altogether. Today, she runs a taekwondo school with her husband in Southern California.
Jean Lopez did not return emails and phone calls seeking comment. In the past, he has denied any inappropriate behavior.
Gilbert considered going to the police after the second incident, but she assumed they wouldn’t be able to do much since the alleged assaults had happened abroad. She also decided against filing a report with USA Taekwondo, the sport’s national governing body.
In 2006, another athlete, Mandy Meloon, did make public allegations against both Jean and Steven Lopez. Meloon had been a top taekwondo fighter since the mid-1990s, winning bronze medals at two world championships. In her complaint, she alleged that Jean Lopez had inappropriately touched her when she was a minor during an overseas competition in 1997 and had resorted to abusive practices in his coaching.
Meloon had also been in a long-term relationship with Steven Lopezfrom 1999-2006, and she alleged that on several occasions he sexually and physically assaulted her.
Steven Lopez did not return emails and calls seeking comment. Neither Jean nor Steven Lopez has been charged with a crime.
USA Taekwondo dropped Meloon from the national team in April 2007, citing failure to attend practices. Meloon says she had been diligent about training but had suffered a broken cheekbone that forced her to forgo some sessions. She tried to be reinstated through arbitration, but lost her bid.
Neither Jean nor Steven Lopez was publicly reprimanded by USA Taekwondo after the investigation into Meloon’s 2006 allegations.
The entire experience, Meloon says, was deeply demoralizing.
“[The Lopezes] were rewarded and promoted [despite the assault allegations] because Steven won Olympic medals,” she says.
Meloon had a difficult adjustment after she was dropped from the team. She was homeless for a period and spent two years in prison for assaulting a police officer.
Jon Little, an attorney who has specialized in suing Olympic sports’ governing bodies on behalf of people who have suffered sexual assault, says USA Taekwondo has beeneven less proactive about protecting athlete safety than other governing bodies that have come under recent scrutiny for mishandling assault accusations.
“Gymnastics and swimming, when confronted with criminal indictments, generally would take action,” Little says. “Taekwondo did nothing, until very recently.”
In 2015, USA Taekwondo hired an outside attorney, Donald Alperstein, to look intoallegations that surfaced on the Internet against the Lopez brothers and other male athletes in the sport. Alperstein alerted local law enforcement and the FBI to his findings and, in early 2017, turned the case over to the newly created SafeSport organization.
In total, four women have made public allegations against Jean Lopez to SafeSport or the U.S. Congress, which launched its own inquiry into sexual assault in sports earlier this year. At least two former athletes have told SafeSport they were raped by Steven Lopez.
Steve McNally, who has run USA Taekwondo since October of last year, says he wants to restore athletes’ faith in the governing body, and he thinks SafeSport will help. McNally believes USA Taekwondo was inherently ill-suited to conduct criminal investigations against its own members. “I think the SafeSport Center is going to be a great step forward in this area for everybody,” McNally says.
Gilbert spoke with SafeSport last May as part of the investigation. Her allegations, and those of two other athletes, are cited in the organization’s findings against Jean Lopez.
While Gilbert is gratified by SafeSport’s conclusions, she also feels the group could have acted more expeditiously. SafeSport issued the Jean Lopez ban after NPR and other news outlets asked about the status of the investigation last week. The organization has declined to comment on the Steven Lopez case, per its policy on all active investigations.
Meloon agrees that the decision was “a long time coming.” But she hopes it will mark a change in how these cases are handled. “I feel like we made it to the other side,” she says. “It’s like now the system is working.”
Bench Player Carries Villanova To Second Title In Three Years Over Michigan
What To Watch For In The NCAA Women's Basketball Championship
NPR’s Korva Coleman previews the NCAA women’s basketball championship game between Mississippi State and Notre Dame with ESPN’s Maria Taylor.
KORVA COLEMAN, HOST:
It’s Mississippi State versus Notre Dame in tonight’s NCAA Women’s College Basketball Championship. This comes after a dramatic upset Friday night when the undefeated UConn Huskies lost to Notre Dame in overtime. Mississippi State also needed overtime to beat Louisville to advance to the championship game. Maria Taylor is a college sports analyst and reporter for ESPN. She’s in Columbus, Ohio, for tonight’s game. Maria, welcome to the program.
MARIA TAYLOR: Thanks for having me. I’m glad to be here.
COLEMAN: What’s the mood like in Columbus ahead of tonight’s game?
TAYLOR: First of all, it’s been amazing. We’ve had great attendance. Our first game was a sell-out. And I think the mood is obviously interested to find out who this next national champion’s going to be. Mississippi State has never won a national championship. And obviously, Notre Dame – they are a staple in the Final Four. But it would be just their second national title.
COLEMAN: What can we expect tonight between Mississippi State and Notre Dame? What can we see?
TAYLOR: I think the biggest thing is – for Mississippi State – you’re going to see four seniors that when they showed up at Mississippi State, it wasn’t a common thing that they went to Final Fours. And now they’ve had back-to-back visits. And they’re high-scoring. They were averaging 80 plus points per game in the NCAA Tournament. And then they’ve got Teaira McCowan. That’s 6’7″. And she shoots at like, 60 percent in the paint and is just vicious. She set the rebounds record in an NCAA Tournament.
And then for Notre Dame, you’re going to see a team that has battled through so much adversity. They’ve had four players go down with ACL tears, but they’ve only had three losses on the season. And they’re powered by Arike Ogunbowale, who had 27 points in the Final Four, and big plays from Jackie Young, who’s only a sophomore. But she came in and had 32 points. So both of these teams are scrapping it out. Like, both have unfinished business. Mississippi State was here a season ago. And they said the goal was to get back. Now they’ve done it. And Notre Dame – no one believed they would be here. And they’re just here to prove everyone wrong again.
COLEMAN: There have been a lot of highlights in women’s collegiate basketball this year. Can you recap a few of them for us?
TAYLOR: Obviously, Connecticut – before this loss, they were 36-0. They had not lost since losing the game against Mississippi State a season ago in the national semifinals. And this is the first time that Connecticut has not made it to the national championship in back-to-back years since 2011 – the 2012 season. Another highlight is Notre Dame. They say the turnaround of their season was when they defeated Tennessee at home. They were down by as many as 23 points and basically completed one of the biggest swings we’ve ever seen in point differential to get the victory by double digits.
COLEMAN: How has women’s collegiate basketball grown or expanded its reach, Maria?
TAYLOR: Oh, I would say, like, even this season on ESPN, we decided to add a primetime Thursday night game that would be featured on ESPN, where in past seasons we only had Monday on ESPN2 where a women’s matchup would be featured. People are recognizing the name brands of these schools. If you come and see that Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, you’re going to see it full of Mississippi State fans, more pouring in from Starkville, Miss., and all over the place because they want to support these teams. And Mississippi State – they have set the record for college basketball attendance in men’s or women’s in the state.
COLEMAN: That’s Maria Taylor, college sports analyst and reporter for ESPN. She’s in Columbus, Ohio, covering tonight’s NCAA Women’s College Basketball Championship. Maria, thank you.
TAYLOR: Thank you so much for having me.
Copyright © 2018 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
Saturday Sports: March Madness, Baseball Begins
Howard Bryant of ESPN talks with NPR’s Scott Simon about the biggest sports stories of the week: March Madness and baseball’s opening day.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
And I can’t wait for sports.
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SIMON: Thrills, chills, OTs and a huge upset in the women’s Final Four. The men play, too, this weekend. Howard Bryant of ESPN joins us now. Morning, Howard.
HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, Scott. How are you?
SIMON: Fine, thanks. You don’t get too more exciting games than what we saw last night in the women’s tourney. Mississippi State beat Louisville in overtime, the game that changed – the lead changed 15 times.
BRYANT: Fifteen times, yes. It’s supposed to. It’s an unbelievable tournament. This is what we love about it all. And last year, Mississippi State – who did they beat in the last seconds last year? They beat UConn. And now they’re going back to the championship to try to win the title they didn’t win last year against South Carolina. This is fantastic. And I think that everyone’s talking. Can we once and for all finally leave the women alone? Can we do this? This is two great years in a row that UConn has been defeated – the great UConn. They won one of their games in this tournament by 82 points. And they lost last night on a last-second jumper.
And so all of this conversation has been about whether UConn is bad for women’s basketball because they win all the time – because they were 11-0 in championships. But look at Notre Dame. Notre Dame had four players on their roster on the bench because they had torn ACLs. They played with six players. And they went out and beat the greatest women’s team of all time. This is why we watch the game. Every great team, every great – every sport in its growth years has had a dominant team.
The New York Yankees between 1921 and 1964, Scott – how many times do they go to the World Series? Twenty-nine times. And nobody said that it was – that the sport was imbalanced. Of course, it was. And now UConn – look at them. For all the talk, two years in a row, they haven’t gotten to the championship. The other teams are getting better. And this is exactly what the sport needs.
SIMON: Arike Ogunbowale of Milwaukee. Nothing but net in that last-second clutch. It was a great shot, wasn’t it?
BRYANT: One, it’s a beautiful shot, as well. You can see the confidence. She wanted to clear out. She’s like, I’m taking this, and I’m making it. And Kobe Bryant called her to say congratulations because she said she had the mamba mentality when she took that shot.
SIMON: Men are playing, too, as we note. Speaking of Loyola Chicago, (laughter) and I know there are three other teams. Can Sister Jean bring them home?
BRYANT: I think so. Michigan plays great defense, and Michigan is phenomenal.
SIMON: Loyola plays Michigan. Kansas plays Villanova.
BRYANT: Kansas plays Villanova. And Michigan plays outstanding defense. And you watch them play, and they can stretch out. And they’re going to make life difficult. But this is not a fluke because in any sort a tournament, you can win. This is why they – you love the short tournament. Can you win seven games in a row? If you can, you can be the champion. You don’t have to be great for eight months in the NCAA tournament. And they’re doing this. Loyola is doing this by – they get so many layups. They pressure the defense. They do – they are shooting 40 percent from three, and they are attacking every defense they play. And I think a little late, they look – the opposition is going, wait a minute. We’re not supposed to be losing to these guys. We’re losing to these guys. And then panic sets in, too.
SIMON: Yeah.
BRYANT: As for Villanova, Scott, I think – even as a Temple University guy, I think Villanova is going to be the best team. I think they’re gonna win the championship, even though Kansas is really, really good. Wouldn’t surprise me if Kansas won. But for some reason, there’s just something about Villanova and Jalen Brunson that I like.
SIMON: We’ll see. Howard Bryant of ESPN, thanks so much.
Copyright © 2018 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
How Loyola Chicago's Last Final Four Appearance Changed College Basketball
In a true Cinderella story, Loyola Chicago is in the NCAA Men’s basketball Final Four. The last time they were here, 1963, it wasn’t nearly as shocking, but it did help change the face of college basketball.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
If you’re a college basketball fan and you are not rooting for Kansas, Villanova or Michigan this weekend, just admit it. You’re rooting for Loyola.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Loyola Chicago, an 11 seed, is everyone’s team now after its incredible run to this weekend’s Final Four in San Antonio.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #1: One timeout – they don’t take it.
(CHEERING)
UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #1: And the Ramblers are moving on.
SHAPIRO: It also helps to have a team chaplain like 98-year-old Sister Jean, who makes adorable appearances on shows like “Good Morning America.”
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “GOOD MORNING AMERICA”)
JEAN DOLORES SCHMIDT: It’s just brought so many happy memories to me, and I’m really happy to be saying good morning to all of America today because…
(LAUGHTER)
SCHMIDT: …All of you are going to be our fans.
UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #2: She’s hired.
SHAPIRO: The Ramblers’ Final Four appearance is a big deal because it was such a surprise and hasn’t happened since 1963. And in that first appearance, it was a big deal for a different reason.
CHANG: There used to be an unwritten rule in college basketball. Coaches would not play more than one or two black players at a time. But Loyola coach George Ireland decided not to follow that.
SHAPIRO: For the tournament in 1963, he had four black starters. This was a problem for one of Loyola’s opponents. Mississippi State was an all-white team and wasn’t allowed to play integrated schools.
CHANG: Mississippi’s coach thought his Bulldogs had a shot at the title, though, so the school came up with a plan to sneak its players out of state to make the game against Loyola. Loyola won 61 to 51 in what became known as the Game of Change, opening the path for more integrated teams.
SHAPIRO: And the story doesn’t end there. Loyola made it to the title game to face two-time champion and heavy favorite Cincinnati. The game went to overtime. Here’s the frenzied finish and an ecstatic call by Loyola radio announcer Red Rush.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RED RUSH: Harkness has got it. Here he goes. He jumps. He passes off to Hunter. Hunter shoots, hitting off the rim. Rouse tips it, scores. It’s over. It’s over. We won. We won. We won. We won the ball game. We won the ball game.
CHANG: Vic Rouse’s putback at the buzzer won the title for Loyola 60 to 58. It was an extraordinary game also because between Loyola and Cincinnati, there were more black players on the court than not.
SHAPIRO: Michael Lenehan as the author of “Ramblers: Loyola Chicago 1963 – The Team That Changed The Color Of College Basketball.”
MICHAEL LENEHAN: People saw that there were seven black players on the floor at the same time, and the world did not come to an end.
SHAPIRO: So no matter what happens for Loyola this weekend, it already has an unbeatable Final Four legacy.
Copyright © 2018 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
Opening Day: Baseball Is Longer Than Ever, But MLB Is Trying To Change That
Groundskeepers prepare the infield before an opening-day baseball game between the Minnesota Twins and the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday in Baltimore.
Patrick Semansky/AP
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Patrick Semansky/AP
Winter is over, and it’s finally baseball season.
The fields are green and the lines are freshly drawn. Yep, it’s time to head over to your local ballfield.
All 30 teams were scheduled to start their regular season today – it would have been the first time they all started together in 50 years, according to ESPN. Two of the games were rained out – Nationals-Reds and Pirates-Tigers – but it’s safe to say that the vast majority of fans are getting the first glimpse of their teams’ new seasons today.
Let’s settle in and enjoy the first pitch of the 2018 @MLB seaso– pic.twitter.com/VdNov3BeTx
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) March 29, 2018
We didn’t have to wait long for the league’s first home run.
That came on the first pitch of the very first game of the regular season, with the Chicago Cubs facing the Miami Marlins. Cubs center fielder Ian Happ rocketed a drive into the right field stands off of Marlins pitcher José Ureña.
Chicago Cubs center fielder Ian Happ rounds third base after hitting a home run in the first inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins on opening day.
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Gaston De Cardenas/AP
The defending World Series champion Houston Astros are facing the Texas Rangers this afternoon, and they seem pretty excited about it.
Good morning!#OpeningDay | #NeverSettlepic.twitter.com/JLKpM3gtXP
— Houston Astros (@astros) March 29, 2018
The game is going to look slightly different than last year, though, as Major League Baseball tries to speed up the pace of play with a few rule changes for this coming season.
The average nine-inning game took 3 hours and 8 minutes last season, as NPR’s Doreen McCallister has reported, compared to 2 hours 46 minutes in 2005.
MLB Commissioner Manfred has been pushing significant changes, arguing that they could take out “dead time” from the game while doing little to change its competitive character.
In this new season, the league will impose more limits on visits to the mound – teams will get six per team per nine innings, with some exceptions and additional visits allowed for extra innings.
There’s also going to be stricter limits on the time allowed for between-inning breaks and pitcher changes. The club video review rooms are all going to be equipped with “direct slow-motion camera angles” to make calls quicker to review.
It’s worth noting that there will not be a pitch clock – a change that Manfred has been pushing for that would limit the time between pitches. The player’s association strongly opposed the move. Manfred has conceded defeat on that idea for this season, as CBS Sports reported, but has said “I remain a believer of the pitch clock.”
He did seem to dismiss a particularly controversial idea, however. Minor League Baseball recently announced that extra innings would start with a runner already on second base, as NPR’s Colin Dwyer reported.
Speaking to ESPN, Manfred said: “I don’t see this as a rule that we’re gonna bring to Major League Baseball.” He later described it as an experiment “that probably is not Major League worthy,” causing purists to breathe a sigh of relief.
The 1963 'Game Of Change,' Or Lack Thereof
The 1963 men’s basketball game between Loyola University Chicago and Mississippi State was dubbed “The Game of Change.” But ESPN’s Kevin Blackistone tells David Greene that name might be misleading.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
This morning, we’re remembering two moments from the civil rights movement. One involved the basketball team at Loyola University Chicago. They are, of course, the Cinderella story in this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. They also had an amazing run 55 years ago and made headlines for a different reason. In 1963, Loyola Chicago played a tournament game against Mississippi State. Sports journalism professor Kevin Blackistone recently wrote about the game for the Washington Post, and he says it almost didn’t happen.
KEVIN BLACKISTONE: The state of Mississippi at that time basically had a rule that said white teams were not allowed to play against black teams. Mississippi State, which had missed out on a couple of NCAA tournament opportunities in previous years because of that rule, snuck out of the state in the dark of night to go all the way to Lansing, Mich., to play in the first round of the NCAA tournament that year against Loyola, which happened to have four black starters. So it was a violation of Mississippi Jim Crow laws. And it really made for a fascinating story. And Loyola would go on to win the national championship.
GREENE: Well, so was Mississippi State doing this to make a statement about civil rights or mostly just because they wanted to keep playing in the tournament, didn’t matter who they were playing, but they’re like, we’re not going to let a law get in the way of us?
BLACKISTONE: Well, you know, a half a century later, it has become lore that Mississippi State may have been trying to make a statement. But when you look back, they really weren’t. They were a little ticked off that they hadn’t been able to play in the NCAA tournament. They thought they had a good team. Their coach, Babe McCarthy, wanted to get them that opportunity. He thought he was a really good coach, and he wanted to win.
GREENE: And this is where some of the feel-good narrative starts to break down in your mind. I mean, this was called the Game of Change in the midst of the civil rights movement. What, if anything, did it change?
BLACKISTONE: It really didn’t change very much. Some of the most horrific incidents in racial violence in this country that happened in the state of Mississippi happened after that game – the horrible beating that Fannie Lou Hamer suffered, the murders of the three civil rights workers, the assassination of NAACP leader in Mississippi, Medgar Evers, happened after this game, James Meredith, his march in which he was shot. So there were a number of things that happened after this particular Game of Change, which evidenced the fact that not really that much changed in the state of Mississippi.
GREENE: You actually went a bit farther in writing about this and talking about some deeper lessons about the role of people who are white who make sacrifices. Can you tell me what you were really digging into there?
BLACKISTONE: Sure. Well, we’ve been involved in a lot of mythmaking in sports writing, particularly when it comes to the role of sports stories in the civil rights movement and in social justice. We kind of make white figures the central figure. So Babe McCarthy, the white coach of the all-white Mississippi State team, gets talked a lot about being a conduit for making this happen.
GREENE: What would you say is the larger lessons about how we deal with civil rights from this story?
BLACKISTONE: I think we have to look at it in context. I think we have to look at it in terms of history. It troubles me every year at the star the baseball season where we talk about Jackie Robinson and he gets lionized at these games. And it is as if the three generations of black men who were unable to play this game, it gets lost. And so we only think of 1947 going forward. We heroize the white men who helped him come into the game, who shook his hand on the field. And we have all but forgotten those who kept the Jackie Robinsons out of the game for so, so long.
GREENE: Hey, Kevin, thanks so much for chatting, as always.
BLACKISTONE: Hey, thank you, David.
GREENE: Sports commentator Kevin Blackistone.
Copyright © 2018 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
