Sparty leads the Big Ten

The numbers tell an interesting story.
A couple of years ago a friend and I got into a discussion about college basketball coaches. We asked each other the following: If you could start a program and had our choice of any coach, who would you choose?
Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski was the first obvious name to pop up. Roy Williams of North Carolina was another.
I made my case for Michigan State’s Tom Izzo. If I had known the details at the end of this column at the time they would have helped my argument.
In addition to a question about Big Ten men’s basketball, readers were also interested in NFL free agency and details about playing equipment. Let’s get to the answers.
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How many dimples are there on a golf ball?
—Clint Anderson, Berne
And how many stitches are on a baseball?
—Phil Ford, Dunkirk

The number of dimples on a golf ball varies widely depending on the manufacturer and style.
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Most of them have between 300 and 500 dimples.
The United States Golf Association provides a 45-page list of golf balls that have been approved for competition. The fewest number of dimples for an approved ball is 252, and the most is 482.
A baseball has 108 double stitches, with the first and last hidden underneath the rubber. But, Major League Baseball does not require a certain number of stitches.
MLB rule 1.09 requires that the ball be a sphere formed by winding yarn around a small core of cork or rubber and covered with two pieces of white horsehide or cowhide, tightly stitched. It must weigh between 5 and 5.25 ounces, and its circumference must be between 9 and 9.25 inches.
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After the early NFL free agency movement, who do you feel are the class teams in the NFL?
—Josh Gibson, Portland

The answer to this hasn’t changed much. Certainly some teams have gotten stronger and some teams have gotten weaker, but the best teams are still essentially the same.
Denver, New England, Baltimore and Houston are the top contenders in the AFC. The NFC is not as clear, but I’d put Seattle and San Francisco on top of the list with an argument to be made for a variety of others.
If I had to pick just one team right now, it would be the Seahawks. No team has done better in free agency, as they have added threats on both sides of the ball by bringing in wide receiver Percy Harvin from Minnesota and defensive end Cliff Avril from Detroit.
Harvin greatly improves Seattle’s passing attack. He had more receptions than any of the Seahawks’ receivers last season, despite playing in just nine games because of injuries.
Avril joins a defense that was already one of the best in the league. He has had at least five sacks in each of his pro seasons and has totaled 29 in the last three years.
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Which Big Ten men’s basketball team has the most Sweet 16 appearances all time, since the field of 64 was started?
—Nathan Miller, Wanamaker

Most of the teams in the Big Ten have gone through a competitive lull here and there since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. The exception is Michigan State.
The Spartans have been to the tournament 23 times during that span, never going more than three years without an NCAA berth. They have advanced to the Sweet 16 with at least two tournament wins 13 times, including five of the last six seasons.
Tom Izzo has been a driving force throughout the run, having served as an assistant coach to Judd Heathcote from 1983 through 1995 and as the head coach ever since.
Despite its downturn following the Kelvin Sampson era, Indiana ranks second on the list with nine Sweet 16 appearances since the tournament expanded. Ohio State is next with eight, including each of the last four seasons, followed by Purdue with seven and Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois with six apiece.
Nebraska, which joined the Big Ten in 2011, and Northwestern have never made the Sweet 16 in the 64-team format.
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If you’d like to have your sports questions answered next month (April 25), email them to [email protected].[[In-content Ad]]