Anthony Perez led Ole Miss to a come-from-behind win over South Carolina Saturday in Columbia, S.C. Denver and Seattle secured berths in the Super Bowl in two weeks in East Rutherford, N.J. Masahiro Tanaka has me checking Twitter every three seconds. Those topics and more are covered here in this week's edition of 10 Weekend Thoughts.
1. Ole Miss played its worst half of basketball in as long as I can remember Saturday at South Carolina.
For the first 20 minutes, the Rebels were awful. They couldn't hit a shot, couldn't get a handle on the basketball, couldn't block out on the defensive boards, couldn't keep up with cutters and couldn't find shooters in space.
Marshall Henderson forced shots, fouls piled up and momentum swung to the Gamecocks. The outlook for the team in road Navy blue was bleak.
Then the Rebels did what they've started to do lately --- they survived. Henderson got hot. Jarvis Summers continued to lead in his quiet, efficient way. Demarco Cox, forced into action because of severe foul trouble for Aaron Jones and Sebastian Saiz, held his own on the boards and on the defensive end. Most importantly, embattled sophomore forward Anthony Perez had the breakout game so many close to the Ole Miss program have been waiting on. Perez scored 22 points, including a critical go-ahead 3-pointer in the final two minutes, to help Ole Miss to a 75-74 win.
The Rebels are now 12-5 overall and 3-1 in the Southeastern Conference heading into this week's slate of games --- at Vanderbilt Wednesday night and at home Saturday against Mississippi State. The Rebels travel to Tennessee on Jan. 29 and return home to meet the Gamecocks on Feb. 1. That date in Knoxville is daunting, but it's not impossible Ole Miss could go 3-1 or 4-0 in the next two weeks.
As of this moment, Ole Miss isn't an NCAA tournament team. Its resume is, in a word, blah. The Rebels have no bad losses. There are no jump-off-the-page wins either. Opportunities are coming, however. That date in Knoxville presents an opportunity to pick up a top-100 road win. Ole Miss plays at Kentucky Feb. 4, at home against Missouri on Feb. 8, and plays host on consecutive dates against Kentucky and Florida Feb. 18 and 22, respectively. The Rebels travel to Texas A&M on March 1 and to Arkansas on March 5.
Ole Miss, No. 65 in RPI as of Sunday morning, doesn't have to win all of those games to go dancing for the second straight season, but the Rebels will need to pick up a few of them. The good news for Ole Miss is the recipe for becoming a really strong team has been identified. Summers and Henderson have to play well. Jones has to be steady and either Saiz or Cox must contribute. Ole Miss desperately needs a third wing option every game. Both LaDarius White and Perez have stepped up in that capacity at times.
Ole Miss has danced with danger throughout the start of league play. If the Rebels could begin to get more consistency out of Perez, White and Saiz, they have a chance to make some noise in the eight weeks between now and Selection Sunday.
2. I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to GamecockCentral.com, our sister affiliate in the Rivals.com network covering South Carolina. Those guys were great to us on Saturday, proving the power of the Rivals.com network. Brian Shoemaker, Chris Clark and the guys at GamecockCentral.com sent us Kennedy quotes from Columbia and loaded Kennedy's postgame press conference into our Vimeo player.
Their site is a lot like ours. Like us, they bristle when they're called a "fan site" or a "recruiting site." I always get a kick out of being called a recruiting site when we travel to every football game, cover every football practice, most basketball games (by my count, we'll cover 21-23 regular season games this season) and more college baseball games than I can count. I view us as a one-stop shop for Ole Miss athletics, as yes, we cover recruiting extensively. This spring, we'll travel to as many as seven of the 16 Rivals Camp Series stops and we'll likely cover the Rivals Five-Star Challenge as well.
Frequently, Chase and I have provided video or quotes to other Rivals.com affiliates. On Saturday, we were dramatically helped by our friends in Columbia, who run one of the best "sports news sites" in the field. So, thanks again, GamecockCentral.com.
By the way, in case you missed Kennedy's quotes, which I added to an Associated Press game story, here they are:
Instructions to Marshall Henderson on the botched inbound pass at the end.
"Obviously we didn't want to throw it to them, but we didn't get open. We panicked a little bit, didn't get open, and threw the ball up over the top. Three guys were supposed to screen, we were supposed to get open. At this level, if you can't get open on an out-of-bounds play, you've got problems. And we've got some problems in a number of areas, but I'm really proud of the grit that our guys showed in the second half."
On Perez's play.
"Anthony Perez was probably our game MVP. Aaron Jones and Sebastian Saiz were coming off probably their best combined game in college in our last win against LSU...Tonight they both foul out in 15 minutes -- next man up. That's the essence of a team. Anthony got his opportunity, most of it at the four, against a pretty big team. I know Frank has had some injuries to his backcourt, but his frontcourt is big, and I thought Anthony really stepped up for us down the stretch."
On the final two minutes:
"We certainly didn't close the game as efficiently as I would have hoped, but I thought, save for the last 90 seconds in the second half, we played very good basketball. Shot the ball well, held our own on the glass, still turning it over too much which is very uncharacteristic for us. 20 turnovers is a season high, and usually when we turn it over more than 14-15 times, we never win because we play a possessions game and we obviously struggle on the glass. Tonight our guys' will was strong, and we found a way."
On South Carolina's size, and how it bothered Jarvis Summers in the first half:
"They've got a big point guard. Duane Notice is a big, strong, physical kid. He weights about 220 pounds and I thought they were very physical on the perimeter, but we settled in too much with taking bad shots, forced shots. We had three or four jump shots blocked, which is not good fundamental basketball. I know Frank pretty well. I knew they were going to be aggressive. This is a group that's 0-3. What a great crowd, what a great tribute to your fanbase. 7-9, 0-3 in the league, I knew they had a back-to-the-wall mentality, and they played that way. Great crowd, and an honoring of coach McGuire, which is certainly very noble, but I thought the energy of the building was outstanding. I thought South Carolina fed off of that early. Our guys withstood it. It's the reason you feel good coming into an opponent's arena when you have veteran guards. I've got fifth-year senior Marshall Henderson and I've got a three-year starter in Jarvis Summers, who's logged a lot of minutes. I thought that poise really helped us get back into the game in the second half.
On rallying back at the start of the second half:
"It's not unusual for me to be disgusted at the half, especially when we play as poorly as we did in the first half. The thing that was the most encouraging to me was that the players were equally as mad. They know that they did not play well. I thought that South Carolina out-toughed us, which is an element you're going to get with a Frank Martin-coached team. I thought we gave into the way the game was being played as opposed to trying to force our will. Second half, it didn't take us 10 minutes to climb back. It took us about 3 minutes to climb back, and then we looked and said, 'hey, this is a basketball game.' It was a one, two possession game, lead changed 12 times, score tied nine times as I look at this sheet. Again, if we make a free throw and don't do a couple of bone-headed things down the stretch, maybe we can feel better about the finish. I'm just happy we got out on the road and got a win."
3. If the NCAA tournament were seeded today, there would likely be a lot of disappointed people around the SEC. I'm a big believer that RPI is the single most important factor the NCAA tournament selection committee looks at. Sure, a team must have quality wins, preferably including some on the road. It's important, I think, for a team to finish strong. However, when it comes to breaking ties and seeding, I think RPI is the most critical factor.
As of Sunday morning, only Florida (RPI: 8) and Kentucky (13) have RPIs that make them locks for the NCAA tournament. Missouri (53) would be a nervous bubble team if the selection committee were locked in an Indianapolis boardroom today. Tennessee (59), LSU (62), Arkansas (63) and Ole Miss (65) would be in the discussion, but none of that quartet would be feeling good about things.
The rest of the league is an RPI train wreck. Alabama is No. 86 in RPI as of today. Everyone else is in the 100s, and that's not good news. Why? For example, Vanderbilt (107) is a tough team to beat, especially in Nashville. Texas A&M (111) is capable of pulling an upset, as is Georgia (138). Mississippi State (144) has already won two league games in Starkville, and Ole Miss knows first-hand how difficult it can be to win at South Carolina (147). Auburn (189) gave Florida a scare on Saturday.
For teams such as Missouri, Tennessee, LSU, Arkansas and Ole Miss, a couple of losses to sub-100 RPI teams could be disastrous, and opportunities for those disasters abound.
4. Derek Mason wasn't Vanderbilt's top choice to replace James Franklin, who left Nashville last weekend for $4.6 million a season at Penn State. Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton was. However, the Commodores made a safe choice in hiring Mason, who was Stanford's defensive coordinator until this past weekend.
It makes sense for the Commodores to look to tap into Stanford's formula for success. The Cardinal, first under Jim Harbaugh and now David Shaw, have once again become a national power, embracing Stanford's prestigious academic reputation as a recruiting tool rather than using its more stringent admission standards as an excuse. Pat Fitzgerald has done the same thing at Northwestern and made the Wildcats relevant in the Big Ten.
The Commodores will miss Franklin; there's no doubting that. Mason will have his hands full in the next 16 days reassembling a recruiting class that fell apart in the past week. His hiring, however, was smart, and showed that Vanderbilt officials see the Stanford and Northwestern models as paths to their success.
Hamilton, it should be noted, was at Stanford for three seasons before moving to Indianapolis, where he was reunited with Colts quarterback Andrew Luck. In other words, following the Stanford plan appeared to be Vanderbilt's model from the beginning.
5. Houston Nutt is 56 years old. He actually had the audacity and the gall to tell CBSSports.com's Jeremy Fowler that his age is preventing him from landing another head coaching gig.
"There seems to be a youth movement," Nutt said.
Wow. Seriously, Houston? Do you honestly believe you can't land a gig in the two-plus years since you were fired at Ole Miss because of your age?
Nutt can't get a job in coaching right now for two very obvious, very compelling reasons, and neither has anything to do with his date of birth.
First, Nutt's the guy who ran Gus Malzahn out of Fayetteville one year after hiring him away from Springdale (Ark.) High School. In the last three years, Malzahn has emerged as perhaps the nation's most creative play-caller. He helped Auburn to a national title as an offensive coordinator and then earlier this month led the Tigers to the national title game against Florida State before losing in the final minute.
Secondly, while Hugh Freeze has taken the high road and not detailed the extent of the disaster Nutt left him in Oxford, everyone inside the business knows how bad it had gotten in 2011 at Ole Miss. Nutt left the Rebels' program worse than he inherited it, thanks to a lack of discipline, poor recruiting, attrition and unending conflicts with the previous athletics administration.
The only thing more shocking than Nutt's claim that his age is stalling his career is he found a reporter desperate enough to actually print that drivel.
6. I vividly remembering covering a Georgia-Auburn game at Jordan-Hare Stadium in 1998. Georgia had a cornerback/wide receiver named Champ Bailey who dominated the game. It was one of the most impressive athletic displays I've ever seen in person. Not surprisingly, Bailey embarked on a strong NFL career in 1999. In two weeks, Bailey will play in his first Super Bowl. A lot of attention will be paid, and deservingly so, to Bailey's teammate, Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, but as a guy without a favorite NFL team (I'm in the process of adopting the Indianapolis Colts, by the way), I always catch myself cheering for guys who finally made it to the big game. Congratulations to Champ Bailey, who can finally add the Super Bowl to his NFL resume after 16 years in the league. Other thoughts from the championship weekend that was in the NFL:
A. Manning once again rose to the occasion, methodically picking apart the New England defense. We will hear a lot about what the Super Bowl will mean to Manning's legacy. I get the story line, but it's silly. Win or lose in two weeks, Manning long ago secured his reputation as one of the greatest quarterbacks who ever lived. A second Super Bowl title with another franchise (Manning already has one with the Colts) would certainly enhance his resume, but a loss won't do much to damage it. What shouldn't be forgotten is the fact that it wasn't long ago that Manning was on an operating table, his career very much at risk. The man has had an amazing career. People always want me to tie this in to Ole Miss, so here goes: If I were an Ole Miss fan, I'd forever be livid at anyone and everyone who played any role whatsoever in the Rebel program being in the shape it was when Manning graduated from Newman High School in New Orleans. Manning grew up an Ole Miss fan listening to audio tapes of his dad's games in a Rebel uniform. He's dominated the NFL for a decade and a half. He's the ultimate example of what could have been had previous Ole Miss administrations actually given a damn about keeping up in the SEC. Instead, those good ole boys cared only about maintaining their spot at the proverbial table. Manning's legacy is a permanent indictment on their failures and on those who attempted to cover them up.
B. I'm OK with it, mind you, because the guy has won Super Bowl titles and has dominated his position for years, but can you imagine if Manning had played the game Tom Brady played Sunday? Manning would have been eviscerated in the media had he played as sloppily and as inconsistent as Brady did on Sunday in Denver. Brady remains a champion, a future Hall of Famer, a multi-millionaire and the husband of a supermodel, so he'll be OK. However, he gets a free pass in the media, and I'm not sure I completely understand it.
C. Richard Sherman is unbalanced. He's classless, too, but he's unbalanced. Get some meds, Richard. EDITED Monday A.M. to add: The social media uproar over Sherman's interview with Erin Andrews immediately after the game Sunday night is fascinating. People calling Sherman a thug are just wrong. He's a Stanford graduate with no criminal record. He has a degree in communications and likely knew what he was doing. I was wrong to say he was unbalanced. I'll stick with classless, though, as I HATE trash-talk. I despise it. I hate when fans of one team trash-talk other fans after the team they cheer for won. I'm sort of torn about trash-talk from players. As a media member, I like it; it gives me material that's different from the run-of-the-mill coachspeak that dominates most interactions with the subjects we cover. As a man, though, I find it to be overcompensatory in some way. As for Sherman, I suspect he'd heard Michael Crabtree talk trash all afternoon. Sherman has always played with a huge chip on his shoulder, one that makes him an easy target every week. Sherman had just made the biggest play of his career, sending his team to the Super Bowl. Adrenaline was still coursing through his every vein. In hindsight, I think I was more wrong than right on this one. I'll own it, but it makes for a fascinating discussion on many levels.
D. I'm not sure the 12th man is as big of a deal in Seattle as the TV networks make it out to be. Sure, it's loud, but the crowd wasn't the reason the 49ers made mistakes down the stretch. Sherman made a big-time play on a pass into the end zone.
E. It was a tough night for guys like Patrick Willis and Vernon Davis. It just goes to show you how hard it is to win a Super Bowl. Lots of great players have ended their careers without a ring.
F. Early pick: Denver 24, Seattle 21
7. I've rarely been more mad at myself than I was around midnight Friday. For context, I watch virtually every Oklahoma City Thunder game via NBA League Pass, NBA.com or on network television. I rarely miss one. On Tuesday night, I took my oldest daughter, Campbell, and my son, Carson, to Memphis to see the Thunder lose a close, dramatic game against the Grizzlies. They slept on the ride home from Memphis, and I didn't get to bed until after midnight. On Wednesday night, I was up until at least 1 a.m. after covering Ole Miss' overtime win over LSU. On Thursday night, I fought off sleep to see the Thunder come from behind to win in Houston. By Friday, I was exhausted.
The Thunder and Golden State Warriors tipped off a little after 8:40 p.m. Friday. By 10, the house was quiet and I was alone in my cozy study with a glass of Cabernet. By the middle of the third quarter, despite the best efforts of Kevin Durant and Steph Curry to keep me entertained, sleep was hunting me down.
I fought the good fight. However, with a little less than three minutes left in the third quarter, I went from the sitting position to laying down on the sofa during a TV timeout. Mistake. When I awoke, the postgame show was on and I had missed the greatest quarter of Durant's storied career. I was sick.
Durant scored 54 points in the Thunder's win over Golden State Friday night, taking over the lead in the race for the league's MVP award and silencing --- at least for now --- the cacophony of voices writing off Oklahoma City's ability to stay in the upper half of the Western Conference race without all-star guard Russell Westbrook. The back-to-back wins at Houston against the Warriors showed that perhaps coach Scott Brooks saw what I saw Tuesday night in Memphis and corrected it. The Thunder's offense needs structure and ball movement without Westbrook around to bail it out at the end of the shot clock. It must use Serge Ibaka in the pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop game and Reggie Jackson must be assertive earlier in the shot clock.
Oklahoma City isn't winning a title without Westbrook, but Durant is showing a propensity to take over and dominate lately that has always been somewhat missing from his game. If Durant can keep this edge even after Westbrook returns, there's no team more dangerous than the Thunder.
Other thoughts from the week that was in the NBA:
A. I love what Memphis has done to improve its team. First, the Grizzlies patiently waited while Marc Gasol rehabilitated his injured knee. He returned Tuesday and gave his team a huge lift. Secondly, Courtney Lee really fits what Memphis, winners of five straight games, is trying to do. He scored 24 Tuesday against Oklahoma City, and he'll get plenty of shots in Memphis' inside-out offense. Note: I still think Tayshaun Prince is done, and his presence on the floor provides a veritable green light to small forwards in the West (Durant, Nicolas Batum, Chandler Parsons, Andre Iguadola) the Grizzlies might encounter if they work their way back into the playoff picture.
B. Speaking of Batum, he made a compelling case to NBA.com reporter Jeff Caplan that he belongs in the NBA All-Star Game next month in New Orleans. Among NBA small forwards, Batum is first in the NBA in offensive rating, fourth in net rating, fourth in true shooting percentage, fourth in effective field goal percentage, third is assist percentage and fifth in rebound percentage. Two of his teammates, Lamarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard, are locks for the West squad, but Batum has a strong case. Will he make it? If he does, he'll have to knock an elite power forward out of the mix. That group includes Aldridge, Kevin Love, David Lee, Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan and New Orleans' Anthony Davis. The Western Conference, you might have noticed, is loaded.
C. Adidas unveiled the NBA All-Star game jerseys last week. They include sleeves. We're seeing more and more sleeved jerseys, an indication that Adidas' gamble is paying off. In other words, Adidas believed people would be more inclined to purchase basketball jerseys for themselves if they had sleeves. I'm not a huge fan, personally, but I get it.
D. ESPN's Tom Haberstroh issued his annual Least Valuable Player leader board last week. Taking into consideration every player's traditional numbers and advance metrics including on-court/off-court data, Haberstroh concluded the league's LVP so far is Oklahoma City center Kendrick Perkins. The rest of the worst of the worst included Cleveland forward Anthony Bennett, Sacramento guard Ben McLemore, Memphis forward Tayshaun Prince (see? I'm not alone.), New York guard J.R. Smith, Milwaukee guard O.J. Mayo, Chicago guard Kirk Hinrich, Charlotte forward Cody Zeller, Los Angeles Clippers guard Willie Green and Oklahoma City guard Derek Fisher (don't get me started.)
E. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was fined $100,000 last week for confronting referees and using inappropriate language toward them after a 129-127 loss to the Clippers Wednesday. Cuban has now been fined more than $1.5 million during his tenure as an NBA owner.
8. A subscriber submitted a question for Fire-Away Friday asking if I could take the top eight players from the 80s versus the top eight players from today and play an NBA Finals Game 7, who would I take and who would win. We didn't have time on the podcast to give the question a proper answer, but I've caught myself thinking about it all weekend. I'd got with Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson at guard, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar at center and Julius Erving and Karl Malone at forward. My backups in this scenario would be Hakeem Olajuwon, Larry Bird and John Stockton.
For the current team, give me Chris Paul and Dwayne Wade at the guards, Durant and Lebron James at forward and Demarcus Cousins at center. Yeah, you read that right. I'm not a Dwight Howard guy. For my backups, give me Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love and Anthony Davis.
I hate it, but I'd give the edge to the guys from the 1980s.
9. The Los Angeles Dodgers signed Clayton Kershaw to a seven-year, $215 million contract extension Friday, one that should have a ripple affect through baseball.
Kershaw's deal likely set the parameters for David Price's deal next offseason. Price has one season left in Tampa Bay. He'll make $14 million this season, and he'll be a top commodity either at the trade deadline or after the season. Japanese import Masahiro Tanaka has until Friday to sign a deal with his team of choice. According to multiple reports, Tanaka has offers on the table from Arizona, the New York Yankees, the Dodgers, the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox. The Cubs have reportedly offered more than $160 million but remain a longshot. Most expect Tanaka to sign with the Yankees for a number very close to the Cubs' offer.
With steroids and other PEDs under attack, look for more investments into young hitters and pitchers such as the 25-year-old Tanaka.
As for the Cubs, their pursuit of Tanaka is nothing but an attempt to lure me back in shortly after I'd hit the point where I no longer cared. It's all a scam to break my heart again. I'm trying to resist it.
10. Random thoughts:
A. As a kid, I hated science projects. As a dad, I hate them even more. What's the point? No one learns anything. Money is wasted. Hours are killed. By the way, let me save you the trouble --- Clorox works better than Dollar General brand generic bleach in removing stains, especially mustard.
B. My daughter, Campbell, is starting sex education classes next month at Oxford Middle School. Shoot me. I'm not ready for this.
C. My son, Carson, scored a basket Friday night for the Mavericks in their loss to the Pelicans. He drove left and hit a jumper. He then looked to me and gave me a thumbs up. That was fun. I'm ready for that.
D. My middle child, Caroline, is a dancer. She'll begin work on her first solo dance Thursday, a major accomplishment for a 10-year-old. It's going to be a hip-hop dance, proof that all those hours I've spent listening to Eminem and Jay-Z are paying off.
E. The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome was deflated for the final time over the weekend. All I'll ever remember about the Metrodome was covering the NCAA tournament in 2001. The media work area was in right field. My buddy Jay Tate and I took some paper, wadded it into a ball, wrapped it with some tape and took turns crashing into the baggy that served as the right field wall. NCAA officials eventually shut us down, but not until we had gotten sweaty and thoroughly perturbed the rest of the media corps in Minneapolis trying to cover the teams in that regional. Rest in peace, Metrodome. Thanks for the memories.
This post was edited on 1/20 7:22 AM by Neal McCready
This post was edited on 1/20 7:42 AM by Neal McCready
1. Ole Miss played its worst half of basketball in as long as I can remember Saturday at South Carolina.
For the first 20 minutes, the Rebels were awful. They couldn't hit a shot, couldn't get a handle on the basketball, couldn't block out on the defensive boards, couldn't keep up with cutters and couldn't find shooters in space.
Marshall Henderson forced shots, fouls piled up and momentum swung to the Gamecocks. The outlook for the team in road Navy blue was bleak.
Then the Rebels did what they've started to do lately --- they survived. Henderson got hot. Jarvis Summers continued to lead in his quiet, efficient way. Demarco Cox, forced into action because of severe foul trouble for Aaron Jones and Sebastian Saiz, held his own on the boards and on the defensive end. Most importantly, embattled sophomore forward Anthony Perez had the breakout game so many close to the Ole Miss program have been waiting on. Perez scored 22 points, including a critical go-ahead 3-pointer in the final two minutes, to help Ole Miss to a 75-74 win.
The Rebels are now 12-5 overall and 3-1 in the Southeastern Conference heading into this week's slate of games --- at Vanderbilt Wednesday night and at home Saturday against Mississippi State. The Rebels travel to Tennessee on Jan. 29 and return home to meet the Gamecocks on Feb. 1. That date in Knoxville is daunting, but it's not impossible Ole Miss could go 3-1 or 4-0 in the next two weeks.
As of this moment, Ole Miss isn't an NCAA tournament team. Its resume is, in a word, blah. The Rebels have no bad losses. There are no jump-off-the-page wins either. Opportunities are coming, however. That date in Knoxville presents an opportunity to pick up a top-100 road win. Ole Miss plays at Kentucky Feb. 4, at home against Missouri on Feb. 8, and plays host on consecutive dates against Kentucky and Florida Feb. 18 and 22, respectively. The Rebels travel to Texas A&M on March 1 and to Arkansas on March 5.
Ole Miss, No. 65 in RPI as of Sunday morning, doesn't have to win all of those games to go dancing for the second straight season, but the Rebels will need to pick up a few of them. The good news for Ole Miss is the recipe for becoming a really strong team has been identified. Summers and Henderson have to play well. Jones has to be steady and either Saiz or Cox must contribute. Ole Miss desperately needs a third wing option every game. Both LaDarius White and Perez have stepped up in that capacity at times.
Ole Miss has danced with danger throughout the start of league play. If the Rebels could begin to get more consistency out of Perez, White and Saiz, they have a chance to make some noise in the eight weeks between now and Selection Sunday.
2. I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to GamecockCentral.com, our sister affiliate in the Rivals.com network covering South Carolina. Those guys were great to us on Saturday, proving the power of the Rivals.com network. Brian Shoemaker, Chris Clark and the guys at GamecockCentral.com sent us Kennedy quotes from Columbia and loaded Kennedy's postgame press conference into our Vimeo player.
Their site is a lot like ours. Like us, they bristle when they're called a "fan site" or a "recruiting site." I always get a kick out of being called a recruiting site when we travel to every football game, cover every football practice, most basketball games (by my count, we'll cover 21-23 regular season games this season) and more college baseball games than I can count. I view us as a one-stop shop for Ole Miss athletics, as yes, we cover recruiting extensively. This spring, we'll travel to as many as seven of the 16 Rivals Camp Series stops and we'll likely cover the Rivals Five-Star Challenge as well.
Frequently, Chase and I have provided video or quotes to other Rivals.com affiliates. On Saturday, we were dramatically helped by our friends in Columbia, who run one of the best "sports news sites" in the field. So, thanks again, GamecockCentral.com.
By the way, in case you missed Kennedy's quotes, which I added to an Associated Press game story, here they are:
Instructions to Marshall Henderson on the botched inbound pass at the end.
"Obviously we didn't want to throw it to them, but we didn't get open. We panicked a little bit, didn't get open, and threw the ball up over the top. Three guys were supposed to screen, we were supposed to get open. At this level, if you can't get open on an out-of-bounds play, you've got problems. And we've got some problems in a number of areas, but I'm really proud of the grit that our guys showed in the second half."
On Perez's play.
"Anthony Perez was probably our game MVP. Aaron Jones and Sebastian Saiz were coming off probably their best combined game in college in our last win against LSU...Tonight they both foul out in 15 minutes -- next man up. That's the essence of a team. Anthony got his opportunity, most of it at the four, against a pretty big team. I know Frank has had some injuries to his backcourt, but his frontcourt is big, and I thought Anthony really stepped up for us down the stretch."
On the final two minutes:
"We certainly didn't close the game as efficiently as I would have hoped, but I thought, save for the last 90 seconds in the second half, we played very good basketball. Shot the ball well, held our own on the glass, still turning it over too much which is very uncharacteristic for us. 20 turnovers is a season high, and usually when we turn it over more than 14-15 times, we never win because we play a possessions game and we obviously struggle on the glass. Tonight our guys' will was strong, and we found a way."
On South Carolina's size, and how it bothered Jarvis Summers in the first half:
"They've got a big point guard. Duane Notice is a big, strong, physical kid. He weights about 220 pounds and I thought they were very physical on the perimeter, but we settled in too much with taking bad shots, forced shots. We had three or four jump shots blocked, which is not good fundamental basketball. I know Frank pretty well. I knew they were going to be aggressive. This is a group that's 0-3. What a great crowd, what a great tribute to your fanbase. 7-9, 0-3 in the league, I knew they had a back-to-the-wall mentality, and they played that way. Great crowd, and an honoring of coach McGuire, which is certainly very noble, but I thought the energy of the building was outstanding. I thought South Carolina fed off of that early. Our guys withstood it. It's the reason you feel good coming into an opponent's arena when you have veteran guards. I've got fifth-year senior Marshall Henderson and I've got a three-year starter in Jarvis Summers, who's logged a lot of minutes. I thought that poise really helped us get back into the game in the second half.
On rallying back at the start of the second half:
"It's not unusual for me to be disgusted at the half, especially when we play as poorly as we did in the first half. The thing that was the most encouraging to me was that the players were equally as mad. They know that they did not play well. I thought that South Carolina out-toughed us, which is an element you're going to get with a Frank Martin-coached team. I thought we gave into the way the game was being played as opposed to trying to force our will. Second half, it didn't take us 10 minutes to climb back. It took us about 3 minutes to climb back, and then we looked and said, 'hey, this is a basketball game.' It was a one, two possession game, lead changed 12 times, score tied nine times as I look at this sheet. Again, if we make a free throw and don't do a couple of bone-headed things down the stretch, maybe we can feel better about the finish. I'm just happy we got out on the road and got a win."
3. If the NCAA tournament were seeded today, there would likely be a lot of disappointed people around the SEC. I'm a big believer that RPI is the single most important factor the NCAA tournament selection committee looks at. Sure, a team must have quality wins, preferably including some on the road. It's important, I think, for a team to finish strong. However, when it comes to breaking ties and seeding, I think RPI is the most critical factor.
As of Sunday morning, only Florida (RPI: 8) and Kentucky (13) have RPIs that make them locks for the NCAA tournament. Missouri (53) would be a nervous bubble team if the selection committee were locked in an Indianapolis boardroom today. Tennessee (59), LSU (62), Arkansas (63) and Ole Miss (65) would be in the discussion, but none of that quartet would be feeling good about things.
The rest of the league is an RPI train wreck. Alabama is No. 86 in RPI as of today. Everyone else is in the 100s, and that's not good news. Why? For example, Vanderbilt (107) is a tough team to beat, especially in Nashville. Texas A&M (111) is capable of pulling an upset, as is Georgia (138). Mississippi State (144) has already won two league games in Starkville, and Ole Miss knows first-hand how difficult it can be to win at South Carolina (147). Auburn (189) gave Florida a scare on Saturday.
For teams such as Missouri, Tennessee, LSU, Arkansas and Ole Miss, a couple of losses to sub-100 RPI teams could be disastrous, and opportunities for those disasters abound.
4. Derek Mason wasn't Vanderbilt's top choice to replace James Franklin, who left Nashville last weekend for $4.6 million a season at Penn State. Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton was. However, the Commodores made a safe choice in hiring Mason, who was Stanford's defensive coordinator until this past weekend.
It makes sense for the Commodores to look to tap into Stanford's formula for success. The Cardinal, first under Jim Harbaugh and now David Shaw, have once again become a national power, embracing Stanford's prestigious academic reputation as a recruiting tool rather than using its more stringent admission standards as an excuse. Pat Fitzgerald has done the same thing at Northwestern and made the Wildcats relevant in the Big Ten.
The Commodores will miss Franklin; there's no doubting that. Mason will have his hands full in the next 16 days reassembling a recruiting class that fell apart in the past week. His hiring, however, was smart, and showed that Vanderbilt officials see the Stanford and Northwestern models as paths to their success.
Hamilton, it should be noted, was at Stanford for three seasons before moving to Indianapolis, where he was reunited with Colts quarterback Andrew Luck. In other words, following the Stanford plan appeared to be Vanderbilt's model from the beginning.
5. Houston Nutt is 56 years old. He actually had the audacity and the gall to tell CBSSports.com's Jeremy Fowler that his age is preventing him from landing another head coaching gig.
"There seems to be a youth movement," Nutt said.
Wow. Seriously, Houston? Do you honestly believe you can't land a gig in the two-plus years since you were fired at Ole Miss because of your age?
Nutt can't get a job in coaching right now for two very obvious, very compelling reasons, and neither has anything to do with his date of birth.
First, Nutt's the guy who ran Gus Malzahn out of Fayetteville one year after hiring him away from Springdale (Ark.) High School. In the last three years, Malzahn has emerged as perhaps the nation's most creative play-caller. He helped Auburn to a national title as an offensive coordinator and then earlier this month led the Tigers to the national title game against Florida State before losing in the final minute.
Secondly, while Hugh Freeze has taken the high road and not detailed the extent of the disaster Nutt left him in Oxford, everyone inside the business knows how bad it had gotten in 2011 at Ole Miss. Nutt left the Rebels' program worse than he inherited it, thanks to a lack of discipline, poor recruiting, attrition and unending conflicts with the previous athletics administration.
The only thing more shocking than Nutt's claim that his age is stalling his career is he found a reporter desperate enough to actually print that drivel.
6. I vividly remembering covering a Georgia-Auburn game at Jordan-Hare Stadium in 1998. Georgia had a cornerback/wide receiver named Champ Bailey who dominated the game. It was one of the most impressive athletic displays I've ever seen in person. Not surprisingly, Bailey embarked on a strong NFL career in 1999. In two weeks, Bailey will play in his first Super Bowl. A lot of attention will be paid, and deservingly so, to Bailey's teammate, Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, but as a guy without a favorite NFL team (I'm in the process of adopting the Indianapolis Colts, by the way), I always catch myself cheering for guys who finally made it to the big game. Congratulations to Champ Bailey, who can finally add the Super Bowl to his NFL resume after 16 years in the league. Other thoughts from the championship weekend that was in the NFL:
A. Manning once again rose to the occasion, methodically picking apart the New England defense. We will hear a lot about what the Super Bowl will mean to Manning's legacy. I get the story line, but it's silly. Win or lose in two weeks, Manning long ago secured his reputation as one of the greatest quarterbacks who ever lived. A second Super Bowl title with another franchise (Manning already has one with the Colts) would certainly enhance his resume, but a loss won't do much to damage it. What shouldn't be forgotten is the fact that it wasn't long ago that Manning was on an operating table, his career very much at risk. The man has had an amazing career. People always want me to tie this in to Ole Miss, so here goes: If I were an Ole Miss fan, I'd forever be livid at anyone and everyone who played any role whatsoever in the Rebel program being in the shape it was when Manning graduated from Newman High School in New Orleans. Manning grew up an Ole Miss fan listening to audio tapes of his dad's games in a Rebel uniform. He's dominated the NFL for a decade and a half. He's the ultimate example of what could have been had previous Ole Miss administrations actually given a damn about keeping up in the SEC. Instead, those good ole boys cared only about maintaining their spot at the proverbial table. Manning's legacy is a permanent indictment on their failures and on those who attempted to cover them up.
B. I'm OK with it, mind you, because the guy has won Super Bowl titles and has dominated his position for years, but can you imagine if Manning had played the game Tom Brady played Sunday? Manning would have been eviscerated in the media had he played as sloppily and as inconsistent as Brady did on Sunday in Denver. Brady remains a champion, a future Hall of Famer, a multi-millionaire and the husband of a supermodel, so he'll be OK. However, he gets a free pass in the media, and I'm not sure I completely understand it.
C. Richard Sherman is unbalanced. He's classless, too, but he's unbalanced. Get some meds, Richard. EDITED Monday A.M. to add: The social media uproar over Sherman's interview with Erin Andrews immediately after the game Sunday night is fascinating. People calling Sherman a thug are just wrong. He's a Stanford graduate with no criminal record. He has a degree in communications and likely knew what he was doing. I was wrong to say he was unbalanced. I'll stick with classless, though, as I HATE trash-talk. I despise it. I hate when fans of one team trash-talk other fans after the team they cheer for won. I'm sort of torn about trash-talk from players. As a media member, I like it; it gives me material that's different from the run-of-the-mill coachspeak that dominates most interactions with the subjects we cover. As a man, though, I find it to be overcompensatory in some way. As for Sherman, I suspect he'd heard Michael Crabtree talk trash all afternoon. Sherman has always played with a huge chip on his shoulder, one that makes him an easy target every week. Sherman had just made the biggest play of his career, sending his team to the Super Bowl. Adrenaline was still coursing through his every vein. In hindsight, I think I was more wrong than right on this one. I'll own it, but it makes for a fascinating discussion on many levels.
D. I'm not sure the 12th man is as big of a deal in Seattle as the TV networks make it out to be. Sure, it's loud, but the crowd wasn't the reason the 49ers made mistakes down the stretch. Sherman made a big-time play on a pass into the end zone.
E. It was a tough night for guys like Patrick Willis and Vernon Davis. It just goes to show you how hard it is to win a Super Bowl. Lots of great players have ended their careers without a ring.
F. Early pick: Denver 24, Seattle 21
7. I've rarely been more mad at myself than I was around midnight Friday. For context, I watch virtually every Oklahoma City Thunder game via NBA League Pass, NBA.com or on network television. I rarely miss one. On Tuesday night, I took my oldest daughter, Campbell, and my son, Carson, to Memphis to see the Thunder lose a close, dramatic game against the Grizzlies. They slept on the ride home from Memphis, and I didn't get to bed until after midnight. On Wednesday night, I was up until at least 1 a.m. after covering Ole Miss' overtime win over LSU. On Thursday night, I fought off sleep to see the Thunder come from behind to win in Houston. By Friday, I was exhausted.
The Thunder and Golden State Warriors tipped off a little after 8:40 p.m. Friday. By 10, the house was quiet and I was alone in my cozy study with a glass of Cabernet. By the middle of the third quarter, despite the best efforts of Kevin Durant and Steph Curry to keep me entertained, sleep was hunting me down.
I fought the good fight. However, with a little less than three minutes left in the third quarter, I went from the sitting position to laying down on the sofa during a TV timeout. Mistake. When I awoke, the postgame show was on and I had missed the greatest quarter of Durant's storied career. I was sick.
Durant scored 54 points in the Thunder's win over Golden State Friday night, taking over the lead in the race for the league's MVP award and silencing --- at least for now --- the cacophony of voices writing off Oklahoma City's ability to stay in the upper half of the Western Conference race without all-star guard Russell Westbrook. The back-to-back wins at Houston against the Warriors showed that perhaps coach Scott Brooks saw what I saw Tuesday night in Memphis and corrected it. The Thunder's offense needs structure and ball movement without Westbrook around to bail it out at the end of the shot clock. It must use Serge Ibaka in the pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop game and Reggie Jackson must be assertive earlier in the shot clock.
Oklahoma City isn't winning a title without Westbrook, but Durant is showing a propensity to take over and dominate lately that has always been somewhat missing from his game. If Durant can keep this edge even after Westbrook returns, there's no team more dangerous than the Thunder.
Other thoughts from the week that was in the NBA:
A. I love what Memphis has done to improve its team. First, the Grizzlies patiently waited while Marc Gasol rehabilitated his injured knee. He returned Tuesday and gave his team a huge lift. Secondly, Courtney Lee really fits what Memphis, winners of five straight games, is trying to do. He scored 24 Tuesday against Oklahoma City, and he'll get plenty of shots in Memphis' inside-out offense. Note: I still think Tayshaun Prince is done, and his presence on the floor provides a veritable green light to small forwards in the West (Durant, Nicolas Batum, Chandler Parsons, Andre Iguadola) the Grizzlies might encounter if they work their way back into the playoff picture.
B. Speaking of Batum, he made a compelling case to NBA.com reporter Jeff Caplan that he belongs in the NBA All-Star Game next month in New Orleans. Among NBA small forwards, Batum is first in the NBA in offensive rating, fourth in net rating, fourth in true shooting percentage, fourth in effective field goal percentage, third is assist percentage and fifth in rebound percentage. Two of his teammates, Lamarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard, are locks for the West squad, but Batum has a strong case. Will he make it? If he does, he'll have to knock an elite power forward out of the mix. That group includes Aldridge, Kevin Love, David Lee, Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan and New Orleans' Anthony Davis. The Western Conference, you might have noticed, is loaded.
C. Adidas unveiled the NBA All-Star game jerseys last week. They include sleeves. We're seeing more and more sleeved jerseys, an indication that Adidas' gamble is paying off. In other words, Adidas believed people would be more inclined to purchase basketball jerseys for themselves if they had sleeves. I'm not a huge fan, personally, but I get it.
D. ESPN's Tom Haberstroh issued his annual Least Valuable Player leader board last week. Taking into consideration every player's traditional numbers and advance metrics including on-court/off-court data, Haberstroh concluded the league's LVP so far is Oklahoma City center Kendrick Perkins. The rest of the worst of the worst included Cleveland forward Anthony Bennett, Sacramento guard Ben McLemore, Memphis forward Tayshaun Prince (see? I'm not alone.), New York guard J.R. Smith, Milwaukee guard O.J. Mayo, Chicago guard Kirk Hinrich, Charlotte forward Cody Zeller, Los Angeles Clippers guard Willie Green and Oklahoma City guard Derek Fisher (don't get me started.)
E. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was fined $100,000 last week for confronting referees and using inappropriate language toward them after a 129-127 loss to the Clippers Wednesday. Cuban has now been fined more than $1.5 million during his tenure as an NBA owner.
8. A subscriber submitted a question for Fire-Away Friday asking if I could take the top eight players from the 80s versus the top eight players from today and play an NBA Finals Game 7, who would I take and who would win. We didn't have time on the podcast to give the question a proper answer, but I've caught myself thinking about it all weekend. I'd got with Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson at guard, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar at center and Julius Erving and Karl Malone at forward. My backups in this scenario would be Hakeem Olajuwon, Larry Bird and John Stockton.
For the current team, give me Chris Paul and Dwayne Wade at the guards, Durant and Lebron James at forward and Demarcus Cousins at center. Yeah, you read that right. I'm not a Dwight Howard guy. For my backups, give me Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love and Anthony Davis.
I hate it, but I'd give the edge to the guys from the 1980s.
9. The Los Angeles Dodgers signed Clayton Kershaw to a seven-year, $215 million contract extension Friday, one that should have a ripple affect through baseball.
Kershaw's deal likely set the parameters for David Price's deal next offseason. Price has one season left in Tampa Bay. He'll make $14 million this season, and he'll be a top commodity either at the trade deadline or after the season. Japanese import Masahiro Tanaka has until Friday to sign a deal with his team of choice. According to multiple reports, Tanaka has offers on the table from Arizona, the New York Yankees, the Dodgers, the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox. The Cubs have reportedly offered more than $160 million but remain a longshot. Most expect Tanaka to sign with the Yankees for a number very close to the Cubs' offer.
With steroids and other PEDs under attack, look for more investments into young hitters and pitchers such as the 25-year-old Tanaka.
As for the Cubs, their pursuit of Tanaka is nothing but an attempt to lure me back in shortly after I'd hit the point where I no longer cared. It's all a scam to break my heart again. I'm trying to resist it.
10. Random thoughts:
A. As a kid, I hated science projects. As a dad, I hate them even more. What's the point? No one learns anything. Money is wasted. Hours are killed. By the way, let me save you the trouble --- Clorox works better than Dollar General brand generic bleach in removing stains, especially mustard.
B. My daughter, Campbell, is starting sex education classes next month at Oxford Middle School. Shoot me. I'm not ready for this.
C. My son, Carson, scored a basket Friday night for the Mavericks in their loss to the Pelicans. He drove left and hit a jumper. He then looked to me and gave me a thumbs up. That was fun. I'm ready for that.
D. My middle child, Caroline, is a dancer. She'll begin work on her first solo dance Thursday, a major accomplishment for a 10-year-old. It's going to be a hip-hop dance, proof that all those hours I've spent listening to Eminem and Jay-Z are paying off.
E. The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome was deflated for the final time over the weekend. All I'll ever remember about the Metrodome was covering the NCAA tournament in 2001. The media work area was in right field. My buddy Jay Tate and I took some paper, wadded it into a ball, wrapped it with some tape and took turns crashing into the baggy that served as the right field wall. NCAA officials eventually shut us down, but not until we had gotten sweaty and thoroughly perturbed the rest of the media corps in Minneapolis trying to cover the teams in that regional. Rest in peace, Metrodome. Thanks for the memories.
This post was edited on 1/20 7:22 AM by Neal McCready
This post was edited on 1/20 7:42 AM by Neal McCready
