The Caps are the most underachieving, unlucky team in the history of North American sports. Name a team that has failed to live up to its seeding in the playoffs more often than the Caps. You can’t.

The Caps are like Sisyphus, who in Greek mythology, according to Wikipedia, was a “king punished by being compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this action forever.”

Caps fans are like Charlie Brown, about to kick the football, when Lucy pulls it away — time and time again. (Will Charlie Brown ever get the little red haired girl)?

If you arrived in town yesterday, you can say that the Caps aren’t the Chicago Cubs (no titles in more than 100 years) or the New York Rangers (no championships for the half century before 1994), but that misses the point. First, the Rangers did win a Stanley Cup before their drought. Second, no sports franchise has failed more often in relation to how long the team has been around. No team has more often lost as the higher seed (at least 10 times), lost more two-game series leads (seven), lost more three or four overtime playoff games (four) or lost more Game 7s (seven) than the Caps.

Now Washington is finding new ways to lose. With 6.6 seconds left in Monday’s Game 5 against the New York Rangers in the second round of the NHL playoffs, the Caps allowed the Rangers to tie the game and send it into overtime. Then just a minute-and-a-half into the extra period, Marc Staal got one past the Caps’ Braden Holtby.

The steady Joel Ward for some reason decided to hit a home run with Carl Hagelin’s head with 21.3 seconds left, earning a high-sticking penalty. Then the normally reliable Holtby did an “I’m rubber, you’re glue, everything bounces off of me, and then you score” routine.

Two games earlier, Washington fell in triple overtime to the Rangers, the fourth time in their history that the Caps have lost a three or four-overtime game.

Looking back at their history, the Caps have won a lot of regular season games, but only twice in 37 seasons have they clearly overachieved during the playoffs, in 1990 when they made it to the conference finals, and in 1998, advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals.

To read the rest of my article on Examiner.com, click here.

For a well-rounded approach to learning through play dates that may incorporate hidden strengths of students, click here to read an article on Examiner.com.

The University of Maryland basketball program has produced some of the greatest players not only in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference, but in all of college basketball. Below is my subjective list of the Top 25 Terps since 1970 (which includes the eras of Lefty Driesell and Gary Williams) first published March 24, 2010. See the updated list on Bleacher Report.

1. Len Bias
2. Juan Dixon
3. John Lucas
4. Walt Williams
5. Tom McMillen
6. Buck Williams
7. Joe Smith
8. Albert King
9. Len Elmore
10. Greivis Vasquez
11. Keith Booth
12. Steve Blake
13. Ernest Graham
14. Brad Davis
15. Adrian Branch
16. Lonny Baxter
17. Steve Francis
18. Greg Manning
19. Johnny Rhodes
20. Keith Gatlin
21. Mo Howard
22. Steve Sheppard
23. Derrick Lewis
24. Chris Wilcox
25. Larry Gibson

Honorable Mention:  Jeff Adkins (‘81-‘85), Lawrence Boston (’75-78), Owen Brown (‘72-‘75), Evers Burns (’89-93), Nik Caner-Medley (‘02-‘06), Ben Coleman (‘82-‘84), Obinna Ekezie (’95-‘99), Rodney Elliott (‘94-‘98), John Gilchrist (‘02-‘05), James Gist (‘04-‘08), Eric Hayes (‘06-‘10), Will Hetzel (1967-70), Exree Hipp (‘92-‘96), Tahj Holden (’99-03), Ekene Ibekwe (‘03-‘07), Sarunas Jasikevicius (‘94-‘98), Cedric Lewis (’87-91), Tony Massenburg (‘85-‘90), Kevin McLinton (’89-’93), Chris McCray (‘02-‘06), Landon Milbourne (’06-’10), Dutch Morley (‘78-‘82), Terence Morris (‘97-‘01), Sean Mosley (‘08-’12), Byron Mouton (‘00-‘02), Jerrod Mustaf (‘88-‘90), Drew Nicholas (‘99-‘03), Jim O’Brien (‘70-‘73), Laron Profit (‘95-’99), Duane Simpkins (‘94-‘98), Terrell Stoglin (‘10-’12), Terrell Stokes (‘95-‘99), Terell Stoglin (’10-’12),  D.J. Strawberry (‘03-‘07), Herman Veal (’80-84), Jordan Williams (’09-’11).

This list was first published on March 24, 2010.

Former Washington Bullet Mitch Kupchak at a charity event in Gaithersburg, Maryland in 1980. Photo by Mike Frandsen.

I recently wrote an article on Examiner.com about how professional journalists continue to pronounce Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak’s name wrong. (It’s Kup-CHAK, not Kup-CHEK). That’s pretty pathetic.  Anyway, Kupchak has 10 NBA championship rings – seven with the Lakers as an executive, two as a player, and one as a player for the Washington Bullets in 1978. Kupchak was an All-America at North Carolina, ACC Player of the Year, started on the 1976 U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal, and played a key role as a member of the ’78 Bullets and ’85 Lakers championship teams. Jerry West put together most of the Lakers’ title teams, but Kupchak deserves credit for at least the two most recent ones.  Anyway, if Kupchak led the Knicks to a title rather than the Bullets, everyone would pronounce his name right.

It’s too bad how we always forget the past. Now I’m getting a little off topic, but Charles Barkley always mentions himself, Tim Duncan, Karl Malone, and Dennis Rodman as the best power forwards ever, and he never mentions Elvin Hayes, as if basketball wasn’t played before Barkley’s era.

Never forget the Washington Bullets, the 1978 NBA champions.

Click here to read my article on Mitch Kupchak on Examiner.com.

If Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow were black, it’s unlikely that he would ever get a chance to play quarterback in the NFL. With an awkward and inaccurate throwing motion but a strong running ability and excellent leadership skills, Tebow would most likely be converted to another position such as running back or tight end. History shows that unconventional quarterbacks who happened to be black were either moved to different positions, given a very short time to prove themselves as quarterbacks or weren’t even given chances to become backups.

I included an excerpt of my article about the movie in my wrap up of autism articles from 2011 on Examiner.com. Excerpts and the link to the article are below.

‘Wretches and Jabberers’ documentary opens April 1 for Autism Awareness Month

Wretches and Jabberers: And Stories from the Road is a powerful, moving documentary that follows two men with autism as they travel the world, visiting friends with autism and changing attitudes about disabilities along the way.

Many people with autism have extremely limited verbal skills or no speech whatsoever.  It has long been assumed by the general public, and even by many parents, educators, and caretakers that scant speech equals low intelligence.

In Wretches and Jabberers, the movie’s protagonists dispel this myth.  The two men and the four friends they visit show the world that they are in fact exceedingly intelligent, eloquent in their writings, and charmingly funny.  Like Helen Keller before them, the “wretches” in the movie are pioneers, blazing trails for others to follow.  The message of the movie is to show the world that there are others like them who are vastly underestimated and whose potential is untapped.  It is a message of hope.

The central figures in the film are all either non-verbal or possess limited speech, and they also struggle with many of the sensory and motor issues common to others with autism.  What is unique about the stars of this movie, however, is that all of them communicate by typing.  They type on keyboards that speak the words and show the text they type.  The microphone picks up the tapping of the typing, which can be a time consuming process.  But it’s well worth the wait to find out what they say.

In his Wretches and Jabberers blog, Tracy Thresher, one of the stars of the film, exhorts people with autism to keep their heads held high even when they struggle:

“I would like to let everyone know that things do not always meet your expectations. The important thing is to keep plugging along. The world is a tough place and change comes slowly when we are dealing with discrimination that is so entrenched. There are those times when you may struggle and feel down. I know that feeling very well. I have had to push very hard to make change in my life. There have been many heartaches along the way. I have often thought things would remain terrible. The best advice I can give is to keep your chin up and tell everyone your story.”

Links to the articles are below.

Toxic chemicals found in baby products; some may be linked to autism

Studies: environmental factors during pregnancy may increase risk of autism

Scientists say rise in autism may be linked to toxic chemicals in environment

To see the article on Examiner.com, click here.