Netanyahu Sweeps to Victory in Israeli Elections; Obama's New Whopper of A Lie (This One is the Whopper of All of Obama's Whoppers); March Madness Starts, Maryland Holds Off Valparaiso, Prepares for West Virginia in Third Round; Terps Stop Minnesota, 5-1, Behind Shawaryn's Fifth Win

BALTIMORE, Maryland March 17, 2015 - BiBi Netanyahu swept to victory in the Israeli Elections Tuesday, assuring his continued presence on the international scene as Israeli Prime Minister.  The highly regarded Statesman - who drew the ire of President Obama, and a dose of Obama's low-brow political thuggery - actually used the influx of foreign money supporting his socialist opponents to his advantage.  Carolyn Glick, Deputy Managing Editor of the Jerusalem Post, told a large radio audience Tuesday on the Mark Levin Show that Israeli voters refused "to buckle" under foreign pressure.  She told Levin that Obama's moves in dispatching nearly 200 political operatives and hundreds of thousands of dollars to Israel in an effort to throw the election to Netanyahu's socialist leftist candidates backfired as Israelis who may have been thinking of voting for other candidates instead swarmed back to Netanyahu in droves.  In the end, Netanyahu won by a landslide.  In days to come, Netanyahu will explore two or three different ways to form a coalition government typical of those that rule in many democratic nations, Glick said, including Israel.  {A Bi-Partisan Panel in the United States Senate is invcstigating the sending of money and operatives to Israel by Obama.  It has been alleged that the money sent to Israel is actually United States' taxpayer money.  If so, Obama would have directly violated USA Law.}

Obama's Statement Qualifies as One of His Biggest Lies Yet: Narcissism on Display Leads to Ridiculous Statement (and Laughter)
President Obama told a television interviewer last week  that President Bush was to blame for the rise of the Islalmic Terror Group ISIS.  Really, he honestly said that.  You'll recall that ISIS started and grew rapidly during Obama's two terms.  And the only reason it was able to start and grow so rapidly was because Obama made the infantile mistake of removing every single American soldier and intelligence operative from Iraq early in his first term.  Many of his own advisers, including respected former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, urged Obama to keep several thousand troops in Iraq as well as a vigorous intelligence operation for the sole purpose of preventing groups such as ISIS from starting in what was - without the Americans - a power vacuum.  Obama would not.  When all of the Americans were gone, there were no competent defensive personnel on scene to quell the growth of the Islamic Fascist terror operation.  Thus grew ISIS.  

News that Obama had tried to blame President Bush for ISIS was met with incredulity and then  laughter.  Obama's statement was compared to Former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain blaming Winston Churchill for the rise of the Nazi Party.

NCAA Basketball Tournament Starts; Maryland Edges Valparaiso Behind Nickens, Wells, Trimble; Mississippi Rallies to Eliminate BYU in Breathtaking Scoring Festival, 94-90; Hampton Beats Back Manhattan Jaspars, 74-64; Georgia State Stuns Baylor
The 2015 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament began Wednesday night at its traditional venue, Dayton, Ohio, and a capacity crowd of over 13,000 fans saw two games in which contrasting styles of basketball were put on vivid display. Two more games were played at Dayton on Wednesday, then the tournament, then down to 64 teams, spread out across the nation.  By Saturday morning, only 32 teams, including Maryland, if only barely, were left standing. 

The selection committee for the NCAA has a lot of explaining to do.  Start with a factual presentation on the reason for allowing UCLA, with their quite pedestrian record, into the tournament, while deserving teams are kept out.  Some schools have to wonder if the fix is in.  Is it?  UCLA's only "good" win was a home victory over Utah.  Then there are the teams that were kept out for unknown reasons while UCLA got in.  The two teams that jump out at you as having deserved a berth but did not get one are Temple and Murray State.  Temple lost in the A-10 Tournament to SMU after beating Memphis.  Temple beat Kansas.  They are 23-10 and in the NIT.  Murray State is 27-5.  You read that right.  They lost the championship game of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament after going undefeated in the conference regular season.  That one point loss to solid Belmont team broke a 25=game winning streak.  After getting beat by Valparaiso on November 28, the Raeers did not lose again until March 7.  But the committee couldn't find them an at-large bid.  How do you go on a 25 game win streak in a season but not get an at-large berth?  Some say that the Racers "didn't play anybody."  That only goes so far.  The Racers played a Division I Schedule, with lots of road games.  They didn't lose a conference game.  Not one.  Then they lost the conference title game by one point, and they don't get a bid while UCLA was losing so often that nobody on the team thought they had a chance of getting in.  The President of the NCAA needs to send a letter of apology to Murray State.  And somebody needs to explain how UCLA got in.

Just as bad as UCLA getting in is the treatment that a couple of the teams nominally in the tournament received from the committee.   Here I speak of BYU.  This is the team that should be a poster child for the national tournament.  They played a solid schedule against teams considered national powers.  They were one of only two teams to beat No. 7 - in both polls - Gonzaga.  And they were the only one to beat Gonzaga at the legendary "kennel" in Spokane where the Bulldogs play their games.  They finished second in the WCC to Gonzaga, and made it to the conference tournament title game before bowing to the Zags.  So on the selection show they are the very last team announced as having gotten in, and their seeding, as low as an at-large team can be - 11th - only got them a play-in game against an SEC team - Ole Miss - on Tuesday in Dayton.  Ole Miss rallied from a 17 point halftime deficit to beat BYU, 94-90.  It was about as thrilling and entertaining a game as one could hope to see.

The Maryland v. Valparaiso game was played at a snail's pace.  Crusader coach Bryce Drew told an interviewer at halftime that his team was having trouble dealing with Maryland's length.  Valparaiso was also stunned to have to deal with Jared Nickens and his 14 point outburst.  Nickens kept Maryland in the game in the first half with 9 points, and he added 5 more in the second half.  Nickens, Trimble and Dez Wells all had 14, while Trimble also contributed a game-high ten rebounds.  Wells three-point play - the old-fashioned kind - in which he rebounded a Terp miss and scored, while being fouled, actually clinched the game for the Terps, although the Crusaders had the ball down three in the final seconds.  Maryland Coach Mark Turgeon inserted reserve point guard Varuum Ram for the first time with just ten seconds left, and Ram blocked a Valpo three-point shot to clinch the game.  Maryland now advances to the round of 32 and a collision with West Virginia on Sunday night at 8:40 pm.  

Maryland Stops Minnesota, 5-1, in First of Two Games Saturday in College Park; Terps Run Win Streak to 8 in Winning Conference Opener; Shawaryn Throws 8 Strong Innings, Strikes Out 6 
Mike Shawaryn threw 8 innings of one-run, 6 hit baseball, and Maryland struck for 5 runs in the third inning, the final two scoring on Jose Cuas' long home run, as the Terps opened their first Big Ten Conference Baseball Schedule with a 5-1 victory over Minnesota.  The team teams will play a second game beginning at about 4:30 pm at Shipley Field in College Park.  

Maryland, now 15-4 overall and 1-0 in the Big Ten, have won 8 straight games, including 5 this calendar week.  On Sunday and Monday the Terps beat Princeton to complete a three-game sweep.  On Tuesday and Wednesday Maryland went to Elon, in Georgia, to take two games.  They then returned home only to see their Friday game against Minnesota rained or snowed out, making today's doubleheader a necessity.

Anthony Papie opened the Terp third with a double, and he took third on Kevin Blondic's sacrifice bunt.  With one out, Brandon Lowe singled Papio home to put the Terps ahead to stay.  Lowe went to third when Kevin Smith followed with another single.  Both Scored when Kevin Martir doubled.  Cuas then homered to round out the five-run inning.  Maryland's pitching did the rest.  Shawaryn, who improved to 5-0 in this still-young season, struck out six and walked only one.  Plus, the only Gopher run, which scored in the sixth, was unearned.