Ole Miss wrapped up spring drills Saturday with the Grove Bowl "game" at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Shortly thereafter, the Rebels' baseball team broke out the brooms with a doubleheader sweep of Auburn, giving Mike Bianco and Co. all three games of a weekend set. Kentucky's Aaron Harrison once again displayed his big "guts" with a game-winning 3-pointer in Arlington, setting up Monday's championship game between the Wildcats and Connecticut. I have thoughts on those topics, the NBA, Major League Baseball and other things below.
Warning: I'm hopping around from topic to topic a bit more today. It's a bit of an organic, stream-of-consciousness approach.
1. I could take a micro approach to Saturday's Grove Bowl and break down statistics and plays and such. It might interest some. However, through 15 practices, we've allowed coaches to give their thoughts and analysis via RGTV pieces or notebooks. I thought Matt Luke said it best, though, when he said _ and I'm paraphrasing _ that spring is about players and not plays.
I agree with him. Therefore, I'll take a macro approach. What I found most fascinating throughout the past four weeks was the spirit of optimism that seemed to prevail throughout the program. With the exception of a blip or two, Hugh Freeze was never anything but supremely pleased with his team's effort and attitude throughout the four weeks of work. Freeze and his staff demanded a physicality this spring that he hadn't had the luxury of employing during his first two springs on the job, and his team responded.
On Saturday, Freeze was asked about expectations within his program. He talked about winning each day and looking no further ahead than that. However, I thought it was worth noting that unlike last spring, when Freeze tried --- to no avail, mind you --- to downplay as somewhat unrealistic the lofty external expectations that were surrounding the Rebels, this year he almost seemed to embrace them.
I wrote this Saturday, so I won't repeat it here. Freeze knows he's not there yet, and he knows the rest of the league isn't sitting still. He knows his roster still has weaknesses that can be exploited by opponents or bad luck, but he knows he's getting there. There is NFL talent all over the roster. There are playmakers and game-changers. The buy-in is high.
Freeze likes to talk about his program's "journey." He gets picked on a bit for it, but I get the analogy. There's a destination, after all, and a distance that must be traversed to get there. The waters that must be crossed in Freeze's journey remain intimidating. There are swells and storms and all sorts of dangers lurking everywhere. However, the proverbial ship Freeze is sailing is more seaworthy now than it's ever been and the crew is slowly rounding into form.
The 2015 season promises to be fascinating. Personally, I'm not ready to call Ole Miss a contender just yet. That offensive line is too big of an issue for me to ignore. However, for the first time since Freeze took over, I wouldn't be shocked if Ole Miss were playing some truly meaningful games next season. And when I say meaningful, I'm referring to games with SEC championship ramifications.
2. I didn't see a single pitch, so I'll leave the analysis to Chase Parham, but you have to give credit to Ole Miss' baseball team following its sweep of Auburn over the weekend. Following a sweep in the other direction at Alabama, the Rebels ran the risk of falling into deep water --- apparently, I can't get the ship/journey analogies out of my head just yet --- against the Tigers. Instead, Ole Miss came from behind to win Friday night and then dominated Saturday's doubleheader. It was all but necessary, given the fact that Ole Miss must now travel to Starkville to face Mississippi State on Super Bulldog Weekend (Is that capitalized? Or should I use a hashtag? I can't keep up). Ole Miss just needs to get one win at Dudy Noble to be OK. Anything more than that is gravy.
I do wonder if Ross Bjork would ever put the Egg Bowl trophy in the passenger seat of his vehicle and tweet the photo. Somehow, I doubt it.
3. Aaron Harrison didn't make a single game-tying or go-ahead 3-pointer in the final minute of any Kentucky game this season. The freshman guard has now made a shot matching that description in each of the Wildcats' last three NCAA tournament games, helping move Kentucky into Monday night's national title game against Connecticut, just like 0.000016 percent of the 11 million people who filled out brackets on ESPN.com predicted.
The Wildcats, an 8-seed, are a favorite in Las Vegas over the No. 7-seeded Huskies. In case you were wondering, Monday's game will represent the highest combined seeds in NCAA championship game history.
If Connecticut wins, its 33-point loss at Louisville earlier this season will represent the most lopsided loss by an eventual national champion since North Carolina's 26-point defeat at Wake Forest in 1993.
Don't bet against the Wildcats, though. Kentucky has now won 11 straight NCAA tournament games since losing to UConn in the 2011 Final Four. Even though the Wildcats are the first team to win four straight NCAA tournament games by five points or fewer, they're clutch. As Harrison's brother, Kentucky point guard Andrew, said, Aaron Harrison's "guts" are growing.
"It's going to be hard for him to walk in a minute," Andrew Harrison said, obviously referring to something other than his brother's intestines. "I mean, we're all just happy he has those. He was smiling, like we were outside in the front yard. He's crazy. He's just carrying us right now."
The Wildcats insist they never lost hope.
"I knew this was going to happen," Andrew Harrison said.
At this point, it's hard to doubt them. My pick: Kentucky 71, Connecticut 70
4. Donald H. Yee is a lawyer and partner with Yee & Dubin Sports, a Los Angeles-based sports management firm that represents professional athletes and coaches, including New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. He wrote an editorial this week for the Washington Post, one in which he predicted a far different landscape for college football by 2020. I've linked it for your reading (dis)pleasure. His scenarios sound far-fetched, though he insists the recent NLRB decision granting Northwestern football players the right to unionize is a game-changer making radical developments more than imaginable.
For what it's worth, Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald sided with his university against the formation of a players union in his first public comments Saturday, repeating what he already told his team: "I believe it's in their best interests to vote no."
NCAA leaders, including Mark Emmert, addressed the issues facing college athletics Sunday in Arlington. As you'll see from the quotes forthcoming, Emmert and Co. are defiant. A large fight, it seems, is looming.
From Dan Woiken of USA Today:
Emmert said Sunday the unionization of college athletes would be a "grossly inappropriate" solution to the problems facing amateur athletics and could produce dire consequences.
"To convert to a unionized employee model is to throw away the entire collegiate model for athletics," Emmert said during his annual Final Four news conference. "It would blow up everything about the collegiate model of athletics."
Emmert, flanked by three college presidents and Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, spoke at length Sunday about the NCAA's current effort to restructure its legislative process into a structure that will allow larger conferences to address issues much more rapidly as the environment around big-time college sports changes.
But he acknowledged that the recent decision by the regional National Labor Relations Board that granted Northwestern football players the right to organize a labor union could have "profound implications" for college athletics.
"The NCAA is not a party to that conversation. We're not officially in that process," Emmert said. "I fully anticipate, depending on the kinds of outcomes produced (in the appeals process) it will likely proceed to the national NLRB and then go to the courts so it will be a long, drawn-out, multi-year debate that goes on. No one has sat down and figure out what a contingency plan would be."
With the NCAA under attack from several lawsuits challenging its fundamental mode of operation, Bowlsby stressed that college athletics leaders are focused on modernizing NCAA rules like the definition of a scholarship and recruiting rules.
"It's a different day, and we need to have a different covenant with our student-athletes and it starts with recruiting and continues with issues that pertain to graduation," Bowlsby said. "While they're there, that experience probably has to be more full than it ought to be. We really need to take a look at time commitments, how much time they're spending in so called countable activities.
"It's not as easy to do as it may seem, even if we're willing, and we certainly are willing.
Kansas State president Kirk Schulz said NCAA leaders need to be more transparent in their deliberations so that the public can get a full picture of the kinds of changes they're trying to make ? and the difficulties that accompany such change.
"I think there's a perception at times that we're asleep at the switch," Schulz said. "I think most of the membership recognizes we're at a fork in the road and some of these things must change and we need to do it rapidly."
5. Golf Digest's recent issue has angered several members of the women's professional golfing community, and while they probably have a point, they really need to get over themselves.
Paulina Gretzky, the daughter of Wayne Gretzky and the fiancee of PGA star Dustin Johnson, is on the cover of the magazine this month, donning a white sports bra and matching white yoga pants. According to the cover, Ms. Gretzky gives six moves to lower your golf score. The cover, which is tastefully done though not showing Ms. Gretzky doing anything all that golf-related with her golf club, got my attention --- and I haven't played golf in more than a decade.
So it worked. After all, Golf Digest's goal is to sell magazines. Still, Stacy Lewis told the New York Times the cover was "frustrating for female golfers. It's kind of the state of where we've always been. We don't get respect for being the golfers that we are."
Lewis has won two majors and was No. 1 in the world as recently as last year. World Golf Hall of Famer Juli Inkster echoed Lewis' comments, saying it's frustrating "because it's Golf Digest; it's not Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue. I think they maybe should recognize some of the great women golfers that we have. It's like, what do we have to do to get a little respect?"
Like I said, I get their frustration. I just hope they're smart enough to understand simple economics. Gretzky's form draws more eyeballs to the magazine (and the advertisements inside the cover, presumably) than a cover with Lewis or another LPGA star on it. Inkster, by the way, is one of only 11 women since 1969 to appear on the cover of Golf Digest. Something tells me some analytics are guiding the decisions there. After all, political correctness is good for a lot of things. Paying the bills is not one of those things.
6. At one point Sunday, the Atlanta Hawks led the Indiana Pacers by 30 points. Atlanta finished with a 107-88 win in Indianapolis, the Pacers' seventh loss in their last 10 games. Indiana is a disaster at the most inopportune time. Miami leads Indiana by one game in the Eastern Conference, but the Pacers' problems run much deeper. Paul George is slumping. Lance Stephenson is obsessed with his contract. Roy Hibbert and David West are grumbling. If the season ended today, the Pacers would face Charlotte in the first round. They'd likely win, but that second-round matchup against Toronto or Washington would be problematic if things don't get better quickly. Other thoughts from the week that was in the NBA:
A. The Chicago Bulls, without Derrick Rose and Luol Deng, are 8-2 in their last 10 games. There's no better coach in the league than Tom Thibodeaux.
B. San Antonio bounced back from a loss at Oklahoma City Thursday with a 20-point win over Memphis Sunday. The loss served as a reminder for the Grizzlies that the Spurs absolutely own them. They shouldn't feel too bad. The Spurs, winners of 20 of their last 21, own almost everyone.
C. Kyrie Irving insisted Sunday he's happy in Cleveland, saying he's been unfairly portrayed as unhappy by the media. Irving said the speculation regarding his future has "gotten too much," adding he's "sick to my stomach with all these rumors and accusations." I hate to add to the nausea, but I'm betting Irving is gone the first chance he gets, a la LeBron James.
D. Dallas won Sunday, putting the Mavericks in a nice spot heading into the final 10 days of the regular season. The Mavericks, Grizzlies and Phoenix all play each other down the stretch. The two winners get to face San Antonio and Oklahoma City (or possibly the Clippers) in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.
E. Golden State, likely the No. 6 seed out west, got Andrew Bogut back just as it had to sit David Lee. The Warriors need both players to have a chance to beat the Thunder or Clippers in the opening round.
F. Houston and Portland appear to be destined for a first-round matchup. Both teams are hot of late, though the Rockets don't know whether Patrick Beverley (meniscus) will be available, and they have to be worried about Dwight Howard's fragile health.
G. Oklahoma City got Kendrick Perkins back Thursday against San Antonio. Thabo Sefolosha should return soon, making the Thunder 100 percent for the first time in months. Kevin Durant and Co. won't be the top seed out west, but they're 4-0 this year against San Antonio. Bottom line: The West is wide open.
7. Tyler Black will be in Arlington Monday night. The 22-year-old machinist from Berea, Ky., got a tattoo the day before Kentucky's first SEC tournament game last month, shelling out $80 to have an artist put "2014 NATI9NAL CHAMPIONS" and a UK logo on his right calf. (The "9" in place of an "O" is to represent what would be the Cats' ninth NCAA title.)
Black wasn't drunk. He got it right before his shift making transmission gears for Honda, "so I was sober as a bird," he told the Louisville Courier-Journal.
"Everybody, even the most die-hard fans I knew, had just completely lost faith in Kentucky altogether. They were done with the team. Everybody pretty much gave up," Black said. "I know we had a rocky season. I'm not blind or delusional. I was aware how bad we were doing. I was just thinking: What could I do to make people laugh, just put some life back in Big Blue Nation?
"I've had hope that they'd turn it around all year long. Obviously they took as long as they could, but right before tournament play I just had this feeling that they were going to get it together and they were going to make this run and just shock the world. So I got the tattoo."
And Kentucky has lost just once --- in the SEC tournament title game, by one point to Florida --- since.
"I feel a whole lot better about it," Black told the Louisville newspaper.
"Anybody watching Kentucky right now knows that they don't want any part of them. It was a really surreal moment when they started stepping it up. Even though you have a gut feeling … it's like a dream come true. It blew my mind and it's really made me happy. The best part is being able to look at people and say, 'I told you it was going to happen.'
"I went from the crazy idiot, the delusional stupid guy, to, 'Well, this team is actually playing good.'"
Black, who will be at Monday's title game as a guest of CBS, said he won't try to erase the tattoo if Connecticut spoils the Wildcats' party.
"I'm just going to leave it," Black said. "At this point, it's a part of my story. It's the ultimate conversation piece," he said. "I'm not worried about removing it or covering it up or anything like that if they lose. It's a part of me now. It's here to stay."
8. Yasiel Puig will get an MRI Monday on his thumb. The results could place the Los Angeles Dodgers' enigmatic outfielder on the disabled list. That might not be a bad thing. Puig opened the season by being late for batting practice, prompting manager Don Mattingly to pull him from the starting lineup in favor of Matt Kemp. For some 45 minutes that morning, the Dodgers didn't know where Puig was. ESPN.com's Ramona Shelbourne described the scene as "chaos," and the Dodgers have had it with Puig-inspired chaos. As Shelbourne wrote, "The prevailing thought in the Dodgers' clubhouse and front office is that Puig will eventually figure this stuff out. If not completely, then enough so there aren't days like this very often. He cares about winning and he cares about his teammates. If that was the litmus test, he passed it a long time ago.
"What everyone with the Dodgers is hoping, is that days like Friday make him realize that the chaos he creates actually does affect other people sometimes. That it isn't just something to charge him up or push him to another next level. The dust he kicks up gets in other people's faces sometimes and has real consequences. Once he sees that, once he experiences a day like Friday, there is a real moment to change. Not to save the season or his career or anything so dramatic. Just to make it easier on himself and everyone involved."
Other thoughts from the week that was in Major League Baseball:
A. Mike Trout picked up a huge extension from the Los Angeles Angels last week. The Angels wanted to give Trout more money and more years, but Trout settled for six years, meaning he'll be a free agent when he's 28. He's the next Mickey Mantle. Barring injury, he can name his price. He's potentially the best pure hitter of this generation.
B. Arizona's Mark Trumbo, squeezed out of the Angels' organization by Trout, has five home runs and 13 RBI through the season's first nine games.
C. Derek Jeter picked up two hits Sunday in Toronto, giving him 3,320 and moving him past Paul Molitor and to eighth all-time on the MLB hit list.
D. A year ago, Pittsburgh rejected repeated overtures regarding pitching prospect Jameson Taillon. On Sunday, the Pirates announced Taillon will undergo Tommy John surgery to repair/replace a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow. Taillon will likely return in a couple of seasons and be a dominant pitcher, but his injury serves as a reminder to teams who overvalue prospects when an opportunity to win big is at hand. The present is always a safer bet than the future.
9. Several years ago, when Ole Miss reached the NIT final four, I traveled to New York, fully expecting the Rebels would defeat Dayton and be in the Big Apple for most of that week. As you undoubtedly know, the Flyers beat the Rebels on a Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, leaving me with a day to kill in New York. There are worse places to kill a day.
On Wednesday morning, The Ole Miss Spirit's Ben Garrett and I went into Times Square. We were approached by a representative of the Late Night with David Letterman Show, offering tickets to that night's show. The experience was one I'll always remember. Letterman is brilliant. I knew that before seeing him live. The show simply confirmed it.
Last week, Letterman announced he will retire some time next year. No one is irreplaceable, but Letterman comes close.
Letterman's interview of Paris Hilton remains the stuff of legend.
"How did you like jail?" Letterman asked her. "I guess the food was just awful, wasn't it? Did you start with the breakfast?"
It was a fantastic interview, disarming yet hard-hitting. Even after Hilton said she'd moved on with her life and didn't want to talk about it anymore, Letterman said, "This is where you and I are different, for it's all I want to talk about. Did you make any friends in there?"
Then there was the time he got that idiot Justin Bieber to talk about the "Sixteenth Chapel" instead of the Sistine Chapel.
"Canadian high schools," Letterman said, while the idiot looked on, clueless he was being made fun of.
As Esquire's Ben Collins wrote last week, "David Letterman was the last guy who could see a celebrity starting to beat up America in an alley somewhere --- he could see the country starting to feel real bad about itself --- and he'd step in when nobody else had the stomach to do it. He'd say, "You don't really want to do this, do you?"
"And he was right every time.
"It's not weirdness. Dave loves weird. He always has. He'll probably love the late night hosts we have left ? dancers and singers and goofballs and dinner party hosts, and two guys on cable trying to change the world.
"But we won't have the guy with the haymaker, and we may not be able to replace him."
I couldn't agree more. Letterman will be sorely missed.
10. The search for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 continues in the south Indian Ocean, prompting many to wonder why in God's name no one can find the wreckage with all the technology we have at our disposal. Esquire magazine asked that very question recently.
Countless floating fragments thought to be evidence turn out to be just so much trash. Apparently, there is a thing called the Pacific Trash Heap, the spot, quoting Esquire here, "where global currents are conspiring to create a bait ball of man-made refuse for sea creatures to asphyxiate themselves with."
Esquire asked Dr. Chelsea Rochman, who is a marine ecologist and ecotoxicologist at U.C. Davis' Aquatic Health Program, for his thoughts regarding why it's so difficult to differentiate trash from possible evidence in the vast Indian Ocean.
Rochman's quotes were fascinating, at least to me. I've included them here:
A. I've been through the North Pacific Gyre and the South Atlantic. It doesn't surprise me that they're looking for debris from an airplane and they're coming across marine debris. You see big pieces of debris float by randomly.
B. A lot of the big stuff is natural disaster debris ?you know, from tsunamis and stuff. When something big happens like that you get a lot of large pieces going into the oceans and floating around almost indefinitely, until it washes up on a beach somewhere.
C. The oceans are basically one giant toilet bowl for all of our waste that's not managed properly. And even some that is managed properly ? we still let it go out into watersheds and move into the ocean.
D. On a calm day you can look off the bow of your ship and see little tiny flecks of what looks like confetti plastic debris everywhere.
There's more, but you get the idea. Essentially, looking for airplane debris among the myriad of trash makes the job difficult, if not impossible. Throw in the malfeasance of the Malaysian government and the myriad of unanswered questions, and the quest becomes more like the search for a needle in a haystack, if not even more challenging. I wonder if the plane will ever be found.
11. Sometime in the last couple of weeks, I decided it was time to fulfill a personal goal I set several years ago. At some point in 2009, as I was in the process of losing 60-plus pounds, I told myself that I would one day run a marathon --- not just any marathon, but the Chicago marathon. I love the city. The course is flat. The weather in Chicago in mid-October is typically perfect. The Cubs might be in the playoffs (OK, that's a stretch, but you get the picture).
Anyway, I decided this was the year. I'm not getting any younger, I'm in pretty decent shape, etc., etc. I explored my options pertaining to running for charity and decided to apply to be a St. Jude's Hero (their term, not mine; I'm many things, but a hero isn't one). St. Jude's was kind enough to accept me. The deal was I had to raise $1,200. Anything less than that and I'd have to personally eat the difference. I honestly thought I could raise two-thirds of that by the race on Oct. 12.
Three days after soliciting donations via this website, email and Twitter, I've raised almost $3,500, much of that coming from you guys. I'm humbled and honored. Honestly, I'm stunned. The response from so many has been one of the most heartwarming experiences of my life. I'm touched beyond words.
The people at St. Jude's do wonderful work, miraculous work. As you probably know, I'm a father of three. I've been blessed. My children have never had anything worse than Rotovirus or the flu. Knock on wood, they've been the pictures of health.
Others haven't been so lucky. They've watched helplessly as their children have been stricken with leukemia or other forms of cancer. St. Jude's has taken those children in, no questions asked, no bills filed, and they've helped those kids beat cancer and go on to live happy, healthy lives. I'm honored to be a part of their team.
I'll respond individually in the coming days, but to those of you who have donated, please know your generosity has touched my heart. Somewhere around Mile 20 or so in Chicago, your kindness will motivate me to finish. Thank you.
This post was edited on 4/7 5:47 AM by Neal McCready
Future of college football?
