Sunday Morning Coffee — March 8, 2026 — Sunday Morning Scramble

By Roy Berger in St. Louis, MO.

Good morning and welcome back to daylight savings time. Just a little hint in case you forgot, don’t live in Arizona or Hawaii, and got an hour’s more sleep today than you were due.

Today’s SMC comes from St. Louis, MO. In my 45 years of extensive business travel, sprinkled with a fair share of leisure, I’ve been everywhere man, except the city of St. Louis. Back in the old TWA days I changed planes in STL more often than TWA filed for bankruptcy, but never left the airport. Until this weekend. The Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) basketball tournament, tabbed as Arch Madness, brought me to downtown STL for the first time. Okay, I hear the collective ‘Why’? Fair question. Sixteen years ago, while living in Birmingham, AL, Rob Ehsan became an assistant basketball coach at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). I was a corporate as well as personal booster of the program. Rob and I became friends and despite a pretty good age gap, the friendship has enhanced through the years over business, family, life and of course, basketball.. In 2016, Ehsan then 34, was elevated to head coach at UAB. He left Birmingham in 2020 after four successful years and a won-loss record of 76-57. Then to Stanford as an assistant for three seasons under his good friend and mentor Jerod Haase before taking a head coaching job of his own again at UIC-University of Illinois Chicago last season. UIC plays in the Missouri Valley Conference. Ehsan and UIC Athletic Director Andrea Williams, a newly found friend, encouraged me to meet them in St. Louie for the tournament. I did. And once in STL I had to take the ten-minute walk from the hotel to the Gateway Arch because everyone told me I should. I learned more about the Arch than I ever gave any thought about. It was built as a tribute to Thomas Jefferson signifying the nation’s westward expansion. At 630 feet high it’s the tallest monument in the United States. Monument being the key word. It’s the second highest in the world only taking a backseat to the Eiffel Tower. The Arch is also 630 feet wide, producing a perfect geometric curve. And if you think there’s red tape and construction delays these days consider the Arch was approved by Congress in 1935; construction of the stainless-steel exterior didn’t actually begin until 1963 and finally opened to the public a relatively short 60 years ago in 1967. I also spent the $19 for the tram ride to the top. If you are visiting St. Louis and run out of time to take the tram, put that in your personal win column. Oh yeah, back to the basketball. Well, so far so good for UIC, winning their first two tournament games by a combined 34 points. The victories advanced them to this morning’s championship game against Northern Iowa on CBS. It’s the first conference tournament final ever for UIC. Win it and they get a spot in the Big Dance. Let this improbable run continue. Go Flames.

And speaking of college basketball conference tournaments, next weekend is the big one for most conferences on the eve of Selection Sunday a week from today. This season there’s only one Division I team that’s undefeated and still may have to sweat being included in the Madness. Miami University of Oxford, Ohio, not to be confused with The U of Coral Gables, finished the season with a perfect record —31-0. The War Hawks play in the MAC, the Mid-American Conference. That tournament begins later this week in Cleveland. If Miami wins the MAC tourney, they are in. But the rub is if they lose a game, especially in the first round, they become the ultimate ‘bubble’ team. Even though they answered every challenge, Miami may not be all that good after all. Undefeated, but they are only ranked 19th in the polls. However, even worse, those who make a living rating college basketball teams based on a myriad of competitive factors have Miami the 78th best team in the country, while theoretically the best 68 advance to the dance. Even more precarious, Miami’s strength of schedule is 292nd and in non-conference play, against a bunch of cupcakes, they rank 364 out of 365 DI schools. Their resume is precarious at best. For Miami it’s pretty simple: win and you’re in. Lose a game in the MAC tournament and get ready for a sweaty-palms Sunday, two weeks before Palm Sunday.

Kudos to NBC for their great Olympic coverage despite challenging time zone differences. And a great round of applause to all our athletes, medal winners or not, who with class represented the USA. And of course, a standing O for both the men’s and women’s hockey teams for their gold, both teams with 2-1 wins over Canada in overtime. I’m not ready to lay claim that we are the hockey capital of the world, Canada still is, but we represented ourselves so well and should be so proud.

A couple of Olympic wrap-up thoughts: the gold medal game in hockey, if tied after regulation, should revert to the standard five-on-five overtime format as in the NHL playoffs. Three-on-three, while fastidious, shouldn’t cut it with the gold on the line. I was proud to see the men’s hockey team take a bow at the State of the Union. The women should have been honored as well. I couldn’t disagree more with the president singling out Connor Hellebuyck, the outstanding US men’s goalie, for the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Hockey is a team game. Yes, he was the MVP and without him we don’t win, but the reward was a gold medal for the team because we won as a team. It should remain that way. With Russia banned from competition in Olympic team sports it was disappointing not to see the greatest goal scorer in NHL history, Alex Ovechkin, take one final bow in the tournament. How great was 20-year-old Alysa Liu and her championship figure skating performance? Finally, for anyone who says a cricket match takes forever to end, have you ever watched Olympic curling? Is it still going?

A change at the top. In case you missed it, for the past two decades Walmart has been the country’s largest corporation by revenue. Things changed in 2025 as Amazon.com, in a photo finish, tallied $717 billion in sales compared to Walmart’s paltry $713 billion to take over the top spot. Most of Amazon’s sales were delivered to our house.

Happy birthday to Dominic Chianese, Tony Soprano’s Uncle Junior, who just celebrated his 95th.

Paul Anka has been a mainstay virtually all of our lives as a performer, recording artist and incredible song writer. His HBO documentary, Paul Anka: His Way, premiered late last year on HBO Max and is well worth the 100-minute watch. Also, if you are a fan of Harlan Coben British police thrillers you’ll like his Run Away on Netflix. It gets better by the episode. And over on Showtime, Coldwater will keep you on the edge.

The late civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, who died on February 17 at 84, was a heck of an athlete back in his day. He was a three-sport star at Sterling High School in Greenville, SC, earning letters in basketball, baseball and football. Upon graduation in 1959 he turned down a contract to play minor-league baseball for the White Sox and instead opted for a football scholarship to the University of Illinois as a quarterback. Things didn’t work out the way he hoped so after his freshman year he transferred to North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro where he was the student body president and quarterback. In 1963 with Jackson under center, NCA&T won the Central Collegiate Athletic Association, comprised of historically Black colleges and universities, football championship.

Well, this was easy. Last Tuesday night I cashed my NBA season win bet when San Antonio won their 44th game to go over the pre-season total of 43 wins. They sent me to the cashier window with 21 games still remaining on the schedule. My son Jason is my NBA tout and for the second straight year he was right on. Looking to keep riding that winter sports wave, my sleeper hockey play is the Anaheim Ducks to record 83 or more points this season. The surprising Ducks have 73, which leaves me needing six wins with 20 games remaining. I like my position.

Here’s a rock ‘n roll question not asked very often, if ever? What happened to Helen Shapiro? In 1963 the 16-year-old Ms. Shapiro headlined a UK pop tour that had the Beatles on the same bill. Or the ‘Dynamic’ Beatles, as the concert posters promoted. Early in the tour, the then unknown lads from Liverpool were the opening act of the eight groups. In fact, trying to broaden their exposure, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote Misery for the popular Ms. Shapiro hoping she would record it and with her fame it would enhance the Beatles’ songwriting credentials. But she was on tour and didn’t have the time. So the Beatles did and it ended up on their first album, Please Please Me in late 1963. Beatlemania exploded while Helen Shapiro’s pop career imploded. Later in life she became active in Jewish and gospel-style recordings. Ms. Shapiro is 79 and living in London.

And if you knew that, then here’s one about British pop music I guarantee you didn’t. In 1967 a real anomaly happened on the music charts. The long-ago forgotten group of—get this—Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Titch (no kidding) released Zabadak, with an incredibly unusual mix of psychedelic rock with tribal-style chanting and heavy percussion and brass. The song hit number one on the Canadian charts; number three in the UK and no further than 52 on the US Billboard top 100. Put it in your browser and tell me what’s wrong with the Canadians taste in music?

Lou Holtz died this past Wednesday at 89. Holtz spent his career in college football first as an undersized linebacker at Kent State then into coaching and finally broadcasting. His coaching style was part philosopher and part motivator. It worked with an overall head coaching record of 249-132-7 in 33 seasons. In 1988 Lou won a natty at Notre Dame and was 100-30-2 in 11 seasons in South Bend. But there is one dark part of Coach Holtz’s resume that stays under the radar. In 1976 he strayed to the NFL and became the head coach of the Jets. Not sure what he was thinking. The Jets went 3-10 that season before Lou quit with one game remaining. He said afterwards, “God did not put Lou Holtz on this earth to coach pro football.” What he really meant to say was, ‘God didn’t put Lou Holtz, nor anyone else, on this earth to coach the New York Jets.’

And finally, it won’t take much of an argument to agree that the Raiders’ Geno Smith was the worst quarterback in the NFL last season. His league leading 17 interceptions, poor decision making and immobility help sink Las Vegas to the worst record in the league. The Raiders released Geno on Friday. Nobody was surprised. After he was cut, Smith posted on X/Twitter “THANK YOU LORD.” To which all Raiders fans say a hearty ‘Amen.’

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I’m proud that Medjet is sponsoring Sunday Morning Coffee. I spent 20 wonderful years with Medjet in Birmingham, Alabama, and can tell you unequivocally they are the standard-bearer for medical assistance membership programs. A talented staff, who cares about its members, is at the forefront of the company’s success. Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, domestic or international, a Medjet membership should be an important part of your travel portfolio before you leave home. Check out the Medjet website at medjet.com or just tap on the Medjet logo and you’ll be able to get a look at Medjet’s services, rules and regulations, pricing, and an overview of the organization. And remember, any opinions expressed in Sunday Morning Coffee content or comments belong to the author and not the sponsor. Safe travels with your Medjet membership! — Roy Berger