It’s Valentine’s Day and McLaughlin’s Boulevard in final ‘Pros vs. Joes’ tally

(On the left) Darnell Valentine and his wife Cindy. (On the right) Tom McLaughlin

View all of the final results of the Pros vs. Joe’s Bracket Challenge here.

Darnell Valentine doesn’t spend a lot of time thinking about college basketball, other than keeping tabs on Kansas, his alma mater.

Tom McLaughlin, on the other hand, follows college basketball closely. He watches games, follows teams and likes to think he knows a little more about the subject than the average “Joe.”

Going different routes, Valentine and McLaughlin got to the same spot, winning titles in the first “Pros vs. Joes” bracket challenge on kerryeggers.com. Both forecast Kansas to win the national championship, though neither picked North Carolina as their opponent in the finals.

Valentine’s name is familiar. The former point guard played the first 4 1/2 of his nine NBA seasons with the Trail Blazers (1980-85). Valentine, now 63, later served 11 years as a regional representative to the NBA Players Association and 2 1/2 years as the Blazers’ director of player programs. For the past 15 years, Valentine has been employed at Portland’s Precision Castparts, currently serving as the company’s corporate director of employee advancement.

McLaughlin’s face is familiar. For the past four years, the former cross country runner at the University of Oregon, now 67, has been an usher with guest services for events at Moda Center and Memorial Coliseum.

Booby prize winners for the event are “Dillon the Pickle” — mascot for the Portland Pickles baseball club — for the “Pros” and Eric Noon for the “Joes.” They picked the fewest winners in their category.

Valentine fills out an annual NCAA Tournament bracket at work.

“If you get a perfect box, you get a million dollars,” he says.

So far, that hasn’t happened for my old friend Darnell.

“Outside of work, I never fill out a bracket,” he says. “I don’t pay much attention. So winning your prestigious event? It’s beginner’s luck, essentially. And maybe a lot of intuition.”

Valentine’s bracket wasn’t perfect. He forecast Gonzaga, Tennessee and Baylor to join the Jayhawks in the Final Four. Darnell’s allegiance to Kansas is strong. He played his high school ball in Wichita and played for Ted Owens at Kansas. One of Owens’ assistants then was Lafayette Norwood, whom Valentine regards as a “surrogate father.”

Darnell Valentine and Kansas coach Ted Owens (Courtesy of Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries)

“He coached me in in high school (at Wichita Heights) and was such an important figure in my life,” Valentine says. “He was a huge advocate of the Kansas program. He died last year on January 1 at 86.”

Several times since Bill Self took over as the Kansas coach in 2003, Valentine has spoken to the players on a visit to Manhattan.

“I go back about once every other year,” says Valentine, who lives in Tigard. “My relationship to the Jayhawks and the Blazers have been much the same. The Blazer organization does a great job keeping former players involved and a part of things. Kansas does the same thing. I could go back (to Manhattan) tomorrow and it would be just like I left there yesterday.

“For Kansas to win this year is especially exciting to me. I wish Mr. Norwood could have experienced it, but I know he is smiling and joyful where he’s at. I think of him and how pleased he would be.”

McLaughlin calls himself “the last man standing,” and indeed he was in the “Pros vs. Joes” competition. He picked Gonzaga and Baylor to join Kansas and Villanova in the Final Four and got enough correct selections in the lower rounds to best the competition in the upset-laden event.

McLaughlin grew up in Eugene. His first basketball coach was Don Ainge, father of Danny Ainge.

“We won the city championship in fifth grade,” McLaughlin says. “Doug (Danny’s older brother) was on the team, and Danny was our ballboy.”

A standout distance runner, McLaughlin was fourth in the 2-mile in the 3A state track and field meet as a senior in 1973. The next fall, he was a freshman member of the cross country team featuring a senior named Steve Prefontaine.

“So I played basketball with Danny Ainge and trained with Steve Prefontaine,” McLaughlin says.

McLaughlin spent much of his professional career as a teacher and coach in Alaska. He moved to Portland in 2003 and served several years as a substitute teacher while coaching swimming at Portland Aquatic Club. McLaughlin fills out an NCAA Tournament bracket every year.

“I’ve followed basketball all my life,” he says. “I used to fill one out at Bridgetown Beerhouse, a place where I’d stop and have a brew every now and then. I saw the ‘Pros vs. Joes’ one and decided to enter.”

Tom’s grandson Monson, born on April 3

His secret?

“It’s just a gut thing with programs,” he says. “Coaches are important. And which teams play defense. That’s probably the most important.

“There are usually six to eight teams you have confidence that they’re going to be genuine contenders. I felt good about Kansas getting to the Final Four this year. The South (quadrant) was pretty weak. I felt it was Bill Self’s turn to win it all.”

Valentine and McLaughlin will each receive a championship trophy, and a $50 gift card to Sammie’s restaurants in the Salem area.

“Low” Noon and “The Pickle” will get $25 gift cards from Sammie’s and an invitation to try again next year.

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