AP Voting Link Week 11

By Mel Greenberg

Here is the AP voting link for week No. 11, which will show which way we all went in handing over a No. 1 to a new team after Duke's upset of Maryland.

It appears the next two weeks will be interesting.

We hear about the Minnesota controversy from some sources that a decision will be announced Wednesday. Although it is not likely that the game would be reversed in Minnesota's favor if it is ruled the officials erred at the end of the game Sunday, it happened once in baseball.

That was the famous pine tar incident involving the bat of former Kansas City star George Brett in 1983 when he hit a homer to seemingly win a game in the ninth inning against the New York Yankees.

The Yankees then protested excessive use of pine tar on the bat and the umpire disallowed the homer. But the league reversed the ruling and the game was continued from the point of the homer.

It's possible that other ways a ruling may go if a remedy for Minnesota is to put an asterisk on the game or count it as a no-game.

What Minnesota is looking at is a long-range effect on the Gophers' chances to get in the NCAA tournament if Sunday's game goes against them. But, one would think, that if the NCAA selection committee is trying to pick apart teams for spots and the loss with a last-second shot against Minnesota should not have been allowed, and that factor is the difference between invite and no invite, someone would be smart enough to let justice prevail.

But, the Guru later in his life many times in these situations refers to the old adage about putting games in the hands of officials, which, based on Minnesota coach Orton's postgame comments, sounds like that is just what the Gophers did.

Incidentally, we forgot to give a local-girl-makes-good shout out to Sarah Lowe, a former Florida star who graduated last season and also went to Lower Merion in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Lowe was recently named a winner of the Woody Hayes national scholar athlete award, a scholarship that goes to a man and woman in each of the three NCAA divisions.

Her brother Ben is a friend of ours who did an outstanding job reporting here at The Inquirer, but was a victim in the recent layoffs. He is now working at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

We'll be back with more later Tuesday.

-- Mel