Hello, sports friends of the Cleaver Smith Swenson & McKnight band entourage! The excitement is building as two members of our stellar crew of musicians, singer-songwriters and folksy raconteurs look ahead to a Sweet Sixteen meeting between their respective alma maters.

 

   Yes, folks, singer-songwriter and harmonica ace Robert Smith is scrutinizing the national sports media reprots carefully this week as his Davidson Wildcats prepare to take on Bill Erchul's Wisconsin Badgers Friday in an NCAA Sweet Sixteen game in Detroit. Meanwhile, Dr. Erchul is remaining non-plussed as he goes about his weekly academic activities as professor of psychology at N.C. State, but at the same time, he lets you know with a twinkle of sorts that he will be checking in to see how his team from Madison is doing since that's where he once played music in the Broken Bow band in the '80s.

 

   How about these quotes in this gentlemanly repartie among fellow musicians: 

 

   "May the better team prevail," 1979 University of Wisconsin alumnus Erchul says  magnanimously.

 

   "Davidson may be smaller, but we are also scholars of the court and stay cool and steady during the heated battle," opines 1972 Davidson College alumnus Smith.

 

   Smith and Erchul joined forces on half a dozen songs on CSSM's "Changin' My Mind" CD, with Erchul contributing tasteful Dobro and pedal steel guitar tracks to such Smith originals as "Summer Song" and "Karen," while both provided musical support, whether instrumentally or vocally, to other selections on the "CMM" project, such as David McKnight's "Ridin' On Kansas," "Block and a Half" and "I'm Back in Texas Again." Then Erchul contributed a sweet-as-Memphis steel track to the trademark trio harmony vocals of (Bill) Cleaver, Smith and (Joe) Swenson on their rendition of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow? 

 

   So we know that these two musician-basketball fans Bill Erchul and Robert Smith know how to team up in one of Joe Swenson's recording studio sessions. But when it comes to "March Madness," they can dead-pan and jawbone with the best sports analysts on ESPN.

 

   As for example, Erchul's wry observation: "All Davidson's students could probably fit into a single UW lecture hall."

 

   Or in a bit of stylish boosterism, Robert Smith's bold prediction, drawing upon the stark lessons of nature itself: "Badgers are nasty fighters, but a wiley Wildcat will always win the day."

 

   Sports fans, does it get any more fast and furious than this on the coaching sidelines of the hoops world? Yes, folks, join us in following this interesting hoops matchup between Davidson and Wisconsin on Friday.

 

   And of course, don't forget that Bill Cleaver's North Carolina Tar Heels are very much in the thick of the NCAA tournament action as well. Yes, Carolina is well represented in the CSSM family: Not only is Cleaver a UNC alum, but Chapel Hill was where Joe Swenson earned his Ph.D in physics, and Carolina is also the alma mater of versatile singer-instrumentalist David Spencer, who contributed vocal, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, clarinet, accordion and bass tracks to "Changin' My Mind." Spencer can send in as many plays as UNC Coach Roy Williams himself.

 

   So stayed tuned friends, figuratively and literally, as your favorite basketball teams try to make it all the way to the Final Four in San Antonio, where finally they will be able to proclaim for the entire hoops world to hear: "I'm Back in Texas Again."