I enjoy the Olympics, not so much because I'm so interested in the Nordic Combined but to provide something to watch on television's vast wasteland at the end of the evening. I actually prefer the winter games because of the unusual sports I usually don't see. That made it curious to me that early TV ratings of the Vancouver games have been so poor in Sun Belt cities like San Diego. The difference is what makes it interesting.
True, the Summer Olympics are far more San Diego-oriented than their cold-weather counterparts. Ya gotta figure there will always be some locals in water polo and beach volleyball. So it was pretty humorous last week to read in the newspaper the local connections among the U.S. athletes in BC to compete for gold. We all know about Shaun White Inc., headquartered in Carlsbad. That figure skater Rachel Flatt to this day lists Del Mar as her hometown, despite not residing here for ages, gives her a strong connection that she created herself. Everything else is a reach. Alpine skier Bodie Miller is not of the local foothills community of Alpine, but he has a child in Escondido. Fellow Alpine skier Lindsay Vonn's sister attends USD. A couple other folks have toured the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista and a few more have vacationed here and tried a fish taco.
I'm taking perverse pleasure in the lack of snow and other weather-related problems at Cypress Mountain and Whistler. As much as I enjoy the competition and the dedicated athletes, I can't stand the self-absorbed Olympic officials. Something going wrong allows me to tweak them a little bit, and God knows they're deserving. I hope it snows like crazy soon, anyway, because I do want to see a legitimate downhill.
Have you ever done this, think of how San Diego could host a Summer Olympics, and which venues could hold which sports? It won't happen in an official manner until 2024 at the earliest. London is next in 2012 and Rio de Janiero in 2016. Rumor has it that Africa is next. With a new stadium for the Chargers, it could be done. The problem would be housing the athletes. The venues would be here, and while small, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the money is getting so big that we'll be seeing scaled-down games in the future. Those TV ratings might be an earlier indicator.
No way it'll happen, of course, but it's kind of fun to think about. City officials are putting their eggs in the basket of soccer's World Cup. That's still our planet's biggest international athletic competition.
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We learned two important things in Saturday's 10-point win by San Diego State's men's basketball team over UNLV.
1. SDSU can win the Mountain West Conference Tournament next month. Let's face it, we didn't know that before. They were close to BYU at home and New Mexico on the road but didn't get over the top on either one. Now the Aztecs look like an improving ballclub, especially with F Billy White appearing to be healthy again. Pitch in G DJ Gay finally finding comfort at the point and freshman F Kawhi Leonard aiming for the All-MWC first team and you really have something.
2. If they fall short in the conference tourney, which I think they need to win to get to the NCAA Tournament, they might have made their case for a second-straight top-seed in the NIT. Yeah, yeah, that little dance, not the big one. For something like the fourth year in a row. But don't discount the NIT this year because it could be a lot of fun. The bracket could include a pair of Pac-10 teams that never want to play SDSU at Viejas, USC and UCLA. They might be forced to come here and if they do, the Aztecs will beat them into a pulp. That would be a lot of fun to watch even if its only a consolation.
BTW, there's very little chance the Mountain West will get more than three teams in the NCAA Tournament. BYU and New Mexico are locks if they continue to win at their current rate. UNLV is more likely than SDSU because of quality non-conference victories. Many of the so-called experts who predict the NCAA brackets have only one Pac-10 team getting in. I say that based on last year's disappointing experience, there will be no way that the selection committee gives the MWC more entries than the Pac-10, which will get Cal and the two best finishers between Arizona, Arizona State and Washington. An also-ran winning their post-season tournament, like USC did last year, would roil the waters and guarantee three spots. It's all about money for the big conferences.
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