Pressing the channel button on the mind’s remote control…

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Richmond’s 73-69 upset of Syracuse Thursday night in the opening round of the NCAA basketball tournament was oh so sweet to behold. Not only did the Spiders expose the Orangemen as an overconfident, ill-prepared tourney team, they ousted a program currently under NCAA investigation for serious rules infractions that would have tainted the entire proceedings had it advanced to the Final Four or beyond. Hey, anyone who doubted there’s some fire where all that investigative smoke is currently emanating from Jim Boeheim’s office need only have watched this game to be convinced. The SU team, including “All-American” forward Billy Owens, looked and played like if they all walked into an elevator at the same time they’d turn and face the wall rather than face each other. Here’s hoping Boeheim is coaching in the CBA next season….

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Nobody’s saying so, but you can bet your Remington shaver Patriots owner Victor Kiam wants the city of Boston and the state of Massachusetts to help finance a new football stadium somewhere in greater Boston. Reports this week that Kiam is giving Beantown first dibs on the Pats with the understanding Rhode Island is on deck are evidently supposed to inspire a public outcry to keep the Pats, presumably to be followed by the public’s reaching into its pocket to help pay for the team’s new digs. Whoa. Someone should slap a little aftershave on Victor, pronto. First, anyone from New England who has ever attempted to drive in Boston knows there does not exist a site big enough for a tennis court, never mind a football stadium and attendant parking lots, that would be accessible via the town’s wonderfully modern roadways, many of which, when viewed from the air, resemble the pretzels you find at the bottom of the bag. Second, the thought of all those drunken Pats fans driving home via those roadways is enough to make even Dick MacPherson believers want to tell Kiam how lovely Providence is in the fall….

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I like Joey Gamache. I like to watch Joey Gamache box. I believe him when he says he really wants to fight at the Bangor Auditorium this spring. What I don’t buy, however, is Joey and his management telling Bangor with a straight face there’s a possibility his first title fight might be in the Queen City if area fans support his tuneup payday. Joey hasn’t been hit so often that he’s forgotten he’s from Lewiston and that, by and large, it has been the fight fans of Lewiston who have paid his rent for the past couple of years. When and if Maine’s 22-0 lightweight contender gets his title shot, he’d be foolish to turn his back on his hometown. The two cities may only be 110 miles apart, but Lewiston would not be happy to see its native pugilistic son fight for all the marbles in Bangor. The Gamaches must realize this. C’mon guys. Let Joey’s ability stand on its own merit when it comes to attracting Bangor fans. Don’t dangle a title fight like a carrot in front of the city….

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If I was Celtics coach Chris Ford, Dee Brown would be my starting point guard and Brian Shaw would be coming off the bench. If you witnessed the end of Wednesday night’s Boston-Utah contest, you saw Shaw stripped twice in the final minute of overtime to lose it. It isn’t so much a matter of Brown’s numbers being better than Shaw’s (Brown’s committed only 6 turnovers in his last 148 minutes). I just feel better with Brown in there….

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Now that Dale Lick is officially headed to Florida State, I would sum up his presidency of the University of Maine this way: if not for two incidents, Lick would have gone down in the books as the greatest CEO Maine has ever had. The two incidents, unfortunatley, were both related to athletics. One was his paying off former women’s basketball coach Peter Gavett to prevent a public scandal over Gavett’s alleged sexual improprieties. The second was Lick’s ill-advised statements about black athletes being better suited to some sports. In the first instance, Lick was reacting to circumstances thrust upon him. I can’t fault him for wanting to protect the players and the university. There’s no defending the second instance. It was dumb. These two incidents are the reason Lick was saddled with the unfair label of “jock president.” He will be missed by those who liked seeing the U of M move forward.