This year marks the first time since 2006 that I haven’t traveled to Vegas for a weekend of March Madness. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t spent the entire weekend watching basketball. I thought my bracket was donesky after Thursday’s game, which put my point total in the bottom 3 percent of ESPN Tournament Challenge participants. But then Kansas lost and now I’m the darkhorse favorite to win it all—long as Kentucky goes the distance.
All this to say … we’re in desperate need of a basketball and religion story for The God Blog. And would you believe it, there are a few.
First there is Iranian-American Ali Farokhmanesh, whose clutch shot against Kansas (above) gave new life to my March. Honestly, who wouldn’t have taken that shot?
And while the NBA may only have Jordan Farmar and Omri Casspi as Jewish reps, the NCAA has plenty of MOTs. In a lamentation of Jon Scheyer snubbing the Fighting Illini, just like he snubbed the Maccabiah USA team last summer, The Great Rabbino offers this list of Jewish All-Americans:
1) Jon Scheyer – G – Duke Blue Devils – 18.6ppg, 5apg, 3.6rpg
2) Sylven Landesberg – G – Virginia Cavaliers – 16.6ppg, 2.8apg, 6rpg
3) Jake Cohen – F – Davidson Wildcats – 13.3ppg, 5.1rpg
4) Dane Diliegro – C – New Hampshire Wildcats – 8.9ppg, 8.1rpg
5) Derek Glasser – G – Arizona State – 10.1ppg, 4.8apg, 2.5rpg
Only Scheyer made the tourney. Read more of The Great Rabbino’s mourning Scheyer here. And go Wildcats.
