COURT CRAZINESS: The N.C. State student body, including a fan in a wheelchair who had to be rescued by Wolfpack star C.J. Leslie, rush the court after an upset of Duke. (AP)
It’s growing impossible to figure out, to distinguish sense from pretense, right from wrong. Cautionary tales are confused with scenes from “Jackass” movies.
Two Saturday’s ago, N.C. State, at home, defeated undefeated Duke, which was depleted by injuries to starters.
It was a mild upset. And there was nothing sudden about it. The last 1:30 took forever to play because of clock stoppages after the winner was no longer in doubt.
So if the student body were to “storm the court,” it would not be spontaneous, but obligatory, and — as if we need more examples — dangerous.
The court was stormed. And from courtside, Dick Vitale, having moments before cautioned such student activities as “dangerous,” hollered that in the midst of the rush and crush there was someone “in a wheelchair!” Then he apparently lost sight of that person.
Saturday, during “College GameDay,” ESPN wisely presented a follow to that story. I leaned in. But it’s take on the matter, well, you tell me:
The wheel-chaired student was senior Will Privette, legless since childhood. He often sits near courtside.
With the game winding down he was approached by student body president Andy Walsh, who smilingly told ESPN that he asked Privette, “You want a push?” to which Privette answered, “Yeah.”
And so it happened. Privette and chair were shoved onto the court. He was almost immediately unseated and hit the floor. He then apparently covered himself up as best he could to protect against or best absorb a trampling.
Enter NC State’s 6-foot-9 junior forward C.J. Leslie. He spotted Privette.
“He was covering his face,” said Leslie. “I immediately reached down to him and picked him up.”
Thank goodness.
Privette, with a grin, admitted that he’d done something “stupid” in the great tradition of college kids doing something stupid (been there, done plenty of that). The piece ended with Privette, smiling, saying, “I’m ready to storm the court, again, if you wanna join me!”
Hmmm.
Back to the GameDay panel, which was on the court at Butler in Indy to which it had drawn its usual, obligatorily rowdy crowd of college students. Anchor Reece Davis then piped, “What a cool story!”
I suppose. Especially the part about Privette not being trampled. Maybe next time.
As Davis spoke, a wise-guy, dead center in the bleachers behind the set, flipped over his polite sign to display a cheap put-down of Manti Te’o. Seemed he was in the right place, at the right time — and on the right network.
Legend of ‘The Man’ made in a different era
SPENCER Ross, during his WINS sportscast yesterday morning noted that “Stan The Man” was a nickname first attached to Stan Musial by admiring Brooklyn Dodger fans. Heck, today, someone as special as Musial would be the target of obscene chants.
* Oprah Winfrey, despite doing a good job with Lance Armstrong, kept missing one point: By insisting that the world held Armstrong “to a higher standard,” she kept losing the fact that such a standard wouldn’t have existed without his drug use.
* Stat of the Week: Detroit Pistons, pro basketball team, shot 11-for-22 from the free-throw line against the Knicks. Who says the Knicks don’t play D?
* Channel 7 News, Saturday, presented this graphic about the Manti Te’o story: “Tragic Hoax.” What? That was the hoax — there was no tragedy!
* ESPN would figure a way to promote itself during a nuclear attack. Wednesday, it concluded a story about the Te’o saga with, “He is No. 8 on Mel Kiper’s latest draft board.”
* Here’s hoping the eventual guardians of infant Zooey Belcher, daughter of the woman slain by K.C. Chief Jovan Belcher, who next killed himself, keep a bundle of that $3 million NFL life insurance policy aside for the kid.
Once she’s old enough to Google what happened to her even after the murder-suicide — the highly public, cash-ugly custody battle among “loved ones” — she’s going to need extensive professional help.
Putter problem$ for Rory
THUS far, Rory McIlroy’s $250 million deal with Nike hasn’t been worth 50 cents. In his first Nike-equipped event — Abu Dhabi — he missed the cut by six strokes and returned to his old Titleist putter.
In the U.S., that putter swap would be in violation of Federal Trade Commission statutes that prohibit the endorsement of products one doesn’t use, avoids or rejects. (See: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Muslim who denounces alcohol, making paid appearances in Coors commercials)
But it generally takes time for golf stars who take the money to switch clubs. It’s not the end of the world. Imagine William Tell’s kid during his father’s first appearance after changing brand of bow and arrows.
* Can’t Make This Up TV: Creighton-Wichita St. was down to the final 15 seconds on ESPN2; WSU was up by two and WSU’s Malcolm Armstead — gotta love that name; can you see him summoning the butler to the drawing room? — was at the line, ready to take a second free throw, when . . .
. . . the screen split into threes! The view of the game was reduced to half while the top right one-quarter showed a crowd shot, the bottom right showed a coach. Those in the right-side shots were doing what I presume viewers would have liked to be doing — they were watching the game!
What were we supposed to do? Choose one of the three or watch all three at once?
* As Fox’s lead NFL analyst, Troy Aikman says a lot of stuff that, well, anyone could say.
Yesterday, at the top of Niners-Falcons, he said of Colin Kaepernick: “I don’t anticipate him being able to run the ball in this game the way he did last week.” Aside from the fact that last week he ran for a QB-record 181 yards, no kidding. Beyond that, why not?
Seems as if every movie ad seen during the NFL playoffs has been loaded with men and women blasting away with weapons. Yesterday, during Fox’s Niners-Falcons, the promo for the new “Hansel and Gretel” flick was as violent as the one for the movie, “Bullet To The Head.”
Apparently, Fox and Pam Oliver didn’t anticipate crowd noise seconds before the kickoff of Niners-Falcons, as her lengthy sideline report was barely audible. Yep, caught ’em completely off guard.