Okorie's Honors; Cinderella's "Death"; Venezuela's Joy

Stanford's sensational freshman point guard, Ebuka Okorie, was named an All-America honorable mention last week.

I had hoped he might sneak onto the third team, but it's a really select group. AP only picks a five-man first team, a five-man second team, and a five-man third team, with honorable mentions limited to the next 10 vote-getters.

So by earning honorable mention All-America, Okorie is legitimately considered one of the 25 best players in America.

Not bad for a kid who was only recruited by Ivy League schools and was set to go to Harvard (his parents' alma mater) before Stanford came calling.

All Okorie did was lead the ACC in scoring at 22.8 points per game, lead Stanford to 20 wins and thrilling upsets over Louisville and North Carolina, and earn first team All-ACC honors.

Kudos to Stanford coach Kyle Smith for recognizing this diamond in the rough. And this is the second straight year for Stanford to have a player recognized as one of the best in the country. Last year center Maxime Renaud also received honorable mention All-America honors. 

Reynaud is now the starting center for the Sacramento Kings, averaging 11.9 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. He recently had a 32-point night against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs.

Next year: Smith has the nation's 12th best recruiting class coming in to join Okorie, so Stanford's basketball future is bright. 

Four four-star prospects, all rated in the top 110 in the country, have signed with the Cardinal: 6-7 Aziz Olajuwon (Sugar Land, TX, son of Hakeem), 6-4 Elias Obenyah (Richmond, CA), 6-2 Julius Price (Santa Maria), and 6-2 Isaiah Rogers (Corona).

College Crown: Okorie and his teammates have some unfinished business this season.

Although a first-round loss to Pitt in the ACC Tournament kept them out of the NCAAs, Stanford was invited to participate in the second annual College Basketball Crown, an eight-team tournament sponsored by Fox TV and held in Las Vegas April 1-5.

Stanford will face West Virginia in the quarterfinals Thursday (4/2) at 5 pm. A win would pit the Cardinal against the winner of Rutgers vs. Crieghton in the semi-finals. The four teams on the other side of the bracket are Oklahoma, Colorado, Baylor and Minnesota.

A unique feature of this tourney is that it pays $500,000 in prize money to the players on the winning teams, with the champions earning $300K.

Death of Cinderella? Lots of folks in the media have been decrying the "death of Cinderella" in the NCAA Basketball tournament. Other than High Point's thrilling upset of Wisconsin and VCU's win over North Carolina, no mid-major pulled off an upset in the first two rounds.

So, many writers and commentators were quick to proclaim the "end of Madness" as we've known it for so many years.

But reports on the demise of Cinderella may be premature.

While there's no question that unlimited transfers, unlimited NIL and conference realignment have made it easier for the power programs to build super teams, and more difficult for the "little guys" to keep their top players long enough to experience March Madness glory, it would be good to remember that No. 16 Siena had Duke on the ropes, that High Point almost scored another upset over Arkansas, Santa Clara was a desperation three-point, buzzer-beating heave away from upsetting Kentucky, and several other games were close until the final few minutes.

Then, yesterday, No. 9 Iowa upset No. 1 seed and defending national champion Florida on a last second three-pointer by Alvaro Folgueiras. Iowa might not officially count as a "Cinderella", since the Hawkeyes are in the Big Ten, but it was a stunning upset all the same.

So, Cinderella might be in decline, but not on life support. And there certainly has been no shortage of entertaining games.

For sheer drama and excitement, it would be hard to beat Folgueiras' game-winner to beat Florida, St. John guard Dylan Darling's layup at the buzzer to beat Kansas (his only points of the game); Vanderbilt's Tyler Tanner's in-and-out heave from past mid court that would've beaten Nebraska; Otega Oweh's buzzer-beating bank shot from half court to force overtime against Santa Clara; and Chase Johnston's layup to beat Wisconsin (the first two-point basket of the year).

Hopefully, some of the mid-majors can raise enough money to keep their top players from transferring and we'll continue to see Cinderella teams like Butler, VCU, Wichita State and Loyola reach the Final Four or Elite Eight.. 

Venezuela's Joy: I wasn't exactly rooting for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic Finals against America, but I felt that poetic justice had been served when the emotional Venezuelans upset Team USA to win. Their joyful tears and exhibilariion were sights to behold.

From the start, this was an ugly tournament for the Americans.

“We’re America, we’ve got to assert our dominance over everybody else,” pitcher Paul Skenes told reporters before the tournament started. “That’s what we do.”

Ouch!

Then there was manager Mark DeRosa's misunderstanding tournament rules and accusing the media of Fake News, slugger Cal Raleigh’s refusal to shake the hand of Mariners' teammate and Mexico outfielder Randy Arozarena (ostensibly because he chose to play for Mexico, the country he defected to from Cuba in 2015, rather than the U.S.) and the team’s decision to invite the man who claims to have shot Osama Bin Laden into the clubhouse for a pep talk.

While other countries were having fun and playing passionately for their native lands, Team USA was invoking military images at every turn, seemingly tone deaf to what has been going on in the world.

Venezuela's victory, coming just a few months after our president invaded their country and captured its leader, seemed especially fitting and proved that David can still bring down Goliath once in a while.