Ahhh, Jimmy

You may have noticed that Loyola College has won a few more basketball games than normal at this time of the year. And if you noticed, you may have inquired as to why. Chances are somebody told you about Jimmy Patsos, the longtime psychotic assistant for Gary Williams, who took over the program last year. And maybe they told you about Andre Collins and the center Fafana who followed him to Evergreen land.

But did they tell you that somebody needs to sit Patsos down and get him under control. During two of the Greyhound's wins this year, Patsos has drawn the ire of the opposing coach for yelling at people he shouldn't be yelling at. First, Patsos accused the Mount Saint Mary's scorekeeper of cheating and when Mount head coach Milan Brown intervened they nearly came to blows. (Patsos was later proven wrong about whether or not the officials had ruled the play in question a 2 or a 3). And then the other night at Canisius, Patsos screamed at a Canisius player after the player had committed a hard foul on Collins late in the contest. Canisius's head coach MacDonald didn't like it and let Patsos know it.

My editors won't like it, but Patsos is turning the program around in Baltimore. But you have to question the way he's doing it. He has garned enthusiasm for a program that so often lacked any sort of following and you have to applaud that. But consistently going against the etiquette of basketball and making enemies within the coaching fraternity isn't going to help him in the long run. A suspension is in order in this case. And if the folks at Loyola won't do it, the MAAC ought to step in. These incidents have been semi-minor and nothing major has developed out of them. But the frequency is showing a pattern. Somebody needs to stop that pattern before we have a major situation to deal with.

One quick word of caution. Be very wary of what seems like free money in regards to the underdogs this weekend in the NFL. More often then not, good teams with home field advantage and a week to prepare outperform their opponents and the odds on this weekend in the NFL playoffs.

The Cuse at UC tonight. Would have been worth the trip to the Shoe just for the dance team.