The NCAA Division Basketball tournament in the US is alwaysfun to watch. Within a span of twoweeks, and veritable orgy of basketball is played, satiation the basketballaspiration of even the most ardent round ball fanboy. The tournament is replete with stories, ofthe titans who drop out early, and of the cinderellas who wear the glassslipper all the way to the finals of the big dance.
Such is the case with Loyola University Ramblers. In years long past they were yearlyparticipants in the tournament, but had not qualified since 1985. So long were they forgotten that they nowneed a qualifier as "Loyola Chicago," when they had been competitors before, there was Loyola, as the first, the best, theoriginal, them, and then very occasionally a Loyola-Marymount or a Loyola-NewOrleans. Until the Jesuits can think ofa greater variety of names for their schools, they will henceforth be LoyolaChicago. The Loyola Ramblers entered this tournament as an underdog,little known from their performance in the Missouri Valley Conference, which ishardly on the national radar screen. They have won in successive rounds, enough to convince even theirgreatest doubters that they are not a Cinderella team but instead a team ofreal quality. Today they bested perennial powerhouse Kansas State 78-62,certainly a convincing win. They hadpreviously won over Miami, Tennessee, and Nevada. The turning point in today's game may havebeen the rare four point play of Rambler Ben Richardson, while attempting athree point shot, he also drew a foul and made that shot. At this Easter time, another feature of the Ramblers comes tothe fore: the ramblers 98 year old nun chaplain, Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, aSister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary who is also currently wheel chairbound. She is a force on the court, whohas found her way into hearts of basketball fans nationwide. 98.years.old. Michigan will play in the final four, having just beatFlorida State. They will play next Saturday, against Loyola, in San Antonio. Today,the two others who will reach the final four will be determined, with Villanovameeting Texas Tech in Boston, and later, in Omaha, Duke playing against theUniversity of Kansas. Today marks the first round of the 2018 Formula One season,with the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park. The Qualifying races for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix ended with LewisHamilton on pole in his Mercedes-GP ahead of the Ferrari pair of Kimi Raikkonenand Sebastian Vettel. World championLewis Hamilton, well known to readers of this space, has begun his tilt for a fifth title inimpressive fashion as he took pole position for Sunday's opening race of thenew Formula One season, the Australian Grand Prix. Unfortunately, his Mercedes-GP teammateValtteri Bottas crashed out heavily and is likely to start from the rear of thefield. Hamilton was 0.664 seconds faster than Ferrari's KimiRaikkonen, of Finland, with the Finn's teammate Sebastian Vettel thirdquickest. Max Verstappen was fourth forRed Bull Racing, with teammate Daniel Ricciardo one place back, though he willstart eighth due to a three-place grid penalty for speeding under red flagconditions in practice. The Haas cars ofKevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean will start on the third row in fifth and sixth. Force India, had expected a tough start to2018, and indeed Sergio Perez was only 13th fastest, with teammate Esteban Ocontwo places further down the grid. Afghanistan have clinched the final spot at the 2019 CricketWorld Cup after holding their nerve to beat Ireland by five wickets in thefinal Super Six game at the World Cup Qualifier in Harare, Zimbabwe on Friday. Chasing 210 to win, a quickfire 54 off 50balls from opener Mohammad Shahzad had looked as if had set up a comfortablevictory. But Ireland hit back as SimiSingh took 3-30 to leave the Afghans teetering at 145-4 with 12 overs to go. However, Afghan captain Asghar Stanikzai ledby example for his side as he struck 39 not out off 29 balls, which includedthe winning boundary. He and NajibullahZadran (17 not out) saw them hope on to allow them to join hosts England,Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africaand the West Indies at next year's tournament. Both Afghanistan and Ireland had been given a lifeline onThursday as Zimbabwe had missed out on the chance to take the secondqualification spot behind the West Indies after losing to the UAE. Afghanistan best Ireland in their head to head. Both WestIndies and Afghanistan meet in the final of the Cricket World Cup Qualifiermatch in Africa on Sunday, safe in the knowledge that the most importantbusiness has already been taken care of as they have both already qualified forthe 2019 World Cup. Meanwhile, Australia's Tour of South Africa has become miredin scandal during their third test. Australia'sCameron Bancroft and captain Steve Smith, well known to readers of this space, admitted to ball-tampering during the thirdTest against South Africa on Saturday, sending shockwaves through the cricket world. Bancroft was caught on television cameras appearing to rub a yellowobject on the ball, which he later hid in his underwear. He later said: "I was in the wrong place at the wrongtime. I want to be here (in the press conference) because I want to beaccountable for my actions." Televisionfootage appeared to show Bancroft, 25, take on object out of his pocket whilefielding in the post-lunch session on the third day of the Test at Newlands. He was spoken to by umpires Nigel Llong and RichardIllingworth during the 43rd over of South Africa's second innings afterappearing to have the object in his hand after fielding the ball at cover. While the umpires were conferring, Bancroft thenappeared to place a small yellow object in his underpants. Ouch. When the umpireswent across to talk to him he reached into a pocket and showed them what seemedto be a different object - what looked like a soft pouch for sunglasses. Theumpires took no action and did not change the ball. Both Bancroft and Smith, who took over theAustralian captaincy in 2015, appeared before the media after the match andadmitted that they had attempted to change the condition of the ball. Ironically, Australia has been considered by most critics of the game to be the number one team in the world, at present. There are now calls for the dismissal Bancroft,meanwhile, Steve Smith has so far refused to step down as captain. -- Posted By Rex to SR at 3/25/2018 12:44:00 AM -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/omnisport. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
