How I See It by Mark Pinski

HOW I SEE IT…BY MARK PINSKI

THE BIG DANCE

In this case, we’re not talking about the NCAA College Basketball Tournament. Nope. This is all about ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, which begins, Monday, March 22.

ESPN reporter Erin Andrews is one of the contestants, which means a lot of people will peep at her and record it. Maybe that’s a bad choice of words, considering some dude already did that while she was taking a shower in a hotel room.

The favorite going in has to Nicole Scherzinger of The Pussycat Dolls. In terms of sports figures, Chad Ochocinco of the Bengals will dance, although I’d rather hear him talk. The dude is flat out funny.

Assuming skier Lindsey Vonn does not hurt her shin, she’ll compete along with figure skater Evan Lysacek, who should make sure he puts his skate guards on so he doesn’t hurt himself when he dances.

Pamela Anderson, Shannen Doherty, and Kate Gosselin, among others, will compete with Andrews. While a lot of guys are excited to see Andrews on the dance floor, I wish ABC had chosen someone else from ESPN to compete. Someone like, John Clayton, Lou Holtz, or Bob Knight would have been great. Who knows, maybe one day Dancing With The Stars will invite Chris Berman and Linda Cohen. They could dance the Horah! Hava, nagila hava, nagila…

WHOOOOOA!!!

I read wrestler Ric Flair was assaulted by his wife, Jacqueline Beems last week. Beems was arrested and Flair suffered minor injuries. He was reportedly bleeding from the forehead, where his wife allegedly punched him a few times. Flair refused to be transported to the hospital. Flair is a 16-time WWE champion in the men’s division, and I suppose he feels lucky he did not have to compete for the women’s belt.
Speaking of wrestling, do you remember UCONN’s Hasheem Thabeet being wrestled to the ground last season by Pitt’s DeJuan Blair? Well, Thabeet, drafted 2nd overall by Memphis, is playing in the D-League, while Blair, picked 37th overall by the Spurs, is averaging eight points, six rebounds, and is shooting 56% from the field, playing behind Tim Duncan.

TWO GAMES?

I assume you saw Baylor’s Brittney Griney, who is 6-8, throw a punch at Texas Tech’s Jordan Bamcastle. The big right hand broke Bamcastle’s nose. The NCAA gave Griney a two-game suspension.

As you know, Griney’s fist is not the most famous sucker punch ever thrown on a basketball court. That honor goes to Kermit Washington, who in 1977, shattered Rudy Tomjanovich’s face. Washington was given a 60-day suspension and missed 26 games. Rudy T. was awarded 3.2 million dollars.

In my opinion, Griney, one of the best freshman of all-time, should be suspended for the remainder of her collegiate eligibility, and ordered to face Ric Flair’s wife in the ring.

SPEAKING OF FIGHTING…

The Blackhawks’ Ben Eager got a five-minute major for fighting in Chicago’s win over Vancouver last week. The two teams played five-on-five while Eager and Tanner Glass both served their penalties.

Eager has played in 43 of Chicago’s 64 games, and he averages about eight minutes of ice time per game.

That leads me to wonder, what’s the penalty for fighting? Eager wasn’t going to be on the ice anyway. If the NHL is serious about getting rid of fighting and making the game more wide open like the Olympics, the opponent, in this case, Vancouver, should pick a Hawks’ player, perhaps Patrick Kane or Jonathon Toews, to serve the five-minute penalty with Eager, and the teams should play four-on-four. The Hawks could have chose Henrik Sedin to serve the five-minute major with Glass.

That said, I hope Gary Bettman does not read this column, although I was told he does, much like David Stern and Bud Selig, because I prefer a good hockey fight every now and again.

A CONTRAST IN STYLE

John Sciambi and LaPhonso Ellis did a great job working the Big South Championship game between Coastal Carolina and Winthrop on ESPN2 Saturday. They appeared on camera together at halftime, and one could not help but notice how strikingly different their hair looked from each other.

Sciambi goes with a bright red look, with gel, spiked up nicely, with blonde eyebrows. Ellis has a goatee, braids, and a pony tail.

I also caught Bob Valvano, who looks a lot like his late brother Jim, work the Texas/Baylor game this weekend. Valvano could have drawn a technical foul for talking too technically. On one sequence, he said, “Go to your strength, look, screen, pick the picker. Does a good job curling off the screen, gets just enough of a bump on Bradley and Dunn makes him pay. A simple little screen and screen the screener.”

Was it pick the picker or screen the screener?

ABOUT MARK: Mr. Pinski suffers from irritable bowel syndrome, vertigo, a herniated disc, and turf toe. He suffered four concussions back in the day and had a “stinger” playing Freshman “A” football as a middle linebacker for the Highland Park (IL) Giants. Mr. Pinski’s athletic background adds a special dynamic to his expertise as a sports media columnist. The highlight of his athletic career included a league scoring championship in fifth grade playing in the very competitive Highwood (IL) Small Fry Basketball program. Mr. Pinski was also voted by his peers, Most Likely to Succeed, Best All-Around, and Biggest Flirt in his 8th grade Northwood (IL) Junior High School Yearbook. To contact Mr. Pinski, please e-mail him at mp9999@comcast.net.