It's a slow time of year around Ole Miss and Oxford. Spring football is over. Multiple programs, including Ole Miss, are waiting on Malik Newman's decision. Ole Miss' baseball team is fighting to make the postseason, but there's no real reason to believe it's going to be a special late May/early June for Mike Bianco's Rebels. The NBA playoffs are underway and Major League Baseball is finding a rhythm. So forgive me if this week's 10 Thoughts, brought to you by RE/MAX's Harry Alexander, have a certain scattershot feel.
1. Ole Miss' baseball team couldn't build on a little momentum over the weekend, losing two of three games at Auburn. The Rebels' bats were shut down on Friday and then in the second half of Saturday's doubleheader. At 20-20 overall and 8-10 in the Southeastern Conference with four weeks left to play, there's not much to say. Getting over .500 has to be this team's goal, and it has a strong enough resume to earn a No. 3 seed in a regional somewhere if it can accomplish that.
Perhaps it will catch lightning in a bottle on a weekend in early June and somehow pull a shocker and win a regional. I doubt it, but Ole Miss' combination of Christian Trent and Brady Bramlett on the mound will give them a puncher's chance in the right draw.
That said, there aren't enough arms. The Rebels strike out too much. There's not enough offense. There's not enough talent. After 40 games, that's evident. All the gnashing of teeth on message boards isn't going to change it.
2. Ole Miss announced late last week that athletics director Ross Bjork received a contract extension and a raise. That's good news for Bjork, obviously. Who doesn't like security and more money? The news was even better for Ole Miss, as the job Bjork has done in a short period of time in Oxford is nothing short of extraordinary.
I won't launch into a dissertation about his accomplishments on competitive fields of play or about money raised. That's been documented. Instead, I'll focus on the existential. Simply put, there's an air around the program that didn't exist before. There's a commitment to competing and winning that was absent before Bjork arrived.
In a brutally competitive SEC, that confidence, fight and commitment are imperative for mere survival, not to mention winning. I have no idea what Bjork's long-term plans are. Hell, I don't know mine; how could I have a clue about someone else's. What I do know is Bjork's extension and raise will make it more difficult for another school to pry him away from Ole Miss, and for Rebel fans, that's a really good thing.
3. Malik Newman's high school career is officially over, but he still hasn't signed with the college of his choice. Reports surfaced late last week that Newman won't sign a national letter-if-intent. Instead, he will sign scholarship papers and enroll at his college rental property (it seems disingenuous to call a place Newman will spend just nine months "home") this summer.
It depends who you listen to and who you believe when it comes to ascertaining Newman's intentions. He says nothing that indicates a favorite. There's more buzz around Mississippi State in the last few days, and on Friday, when I guest co-hosted Head To Head with Matt Wyatt, Mississippi State basketball coach Ben Howland sounded confident when he talked of some potential recruiting help on the horizon.
Rivals.com's Eric Bossi agrees. In an interview with USA Today, Bossi said Newman picking the Bulldogs wouldn't surprise him.
"The more I hear about that situation, him and his family have done a great job of answering any question asked of them without revealing a lot of information," Bossi told USA Today. "The more it drags on, it wouldn't surprise me if he stays at home at Mississippi State. He has been clear from the beginning that he is looking for the most favorable place for him to get to the NBA as fast as possible whether it's in terms of playing time or shots. Mississippi State might fit the bill the best in all that.
"I kind of appreciate his approach. Some might disagree but his dream is to get to the NBA and take care of his family. I like that he's upfront and honest. I'm sure he wants to win too, but he wants to make money doing what he loves and do it as quickly as he can. I really have respect for that."
4. The NBA playoffs are underway, and by the time you read this, every first-round series will be one game old. My picks, as I write this on Sunday afternoon, are as follows:
Golden State over New Orleans in 5
Houston over Dallas in 7
San Antonio over L.A. Clippers in 6
Memphis over Portland in 6
Toronto over Washington in 7
Chicago over Milwaukee in 5
Cleveland over Boston in 5
Atlanta over Brooklyn in 5
Here are my NBA postseason awards, for what they're worth (Absolutely nothing, I know):
MVP: James Harden, Houston
I thought about Golden State's Steph Curry and Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook, but what Harden did with a limited roster and with Dwight Howard missing half of the season was simply extraordinary.
Coach of the Year: Mike Budenholzer, Atlanta
Rookie of the Year: Nikola Mirotic, Chicago
All-NBA First Team:
G James Harden, Chicago
G Steph Curry, Golden State
C Marc Gasol, Memphis
F LeBron James, Chicago
F Anthony Davis, New Orleans
All-NBA Second Team:
G Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City
G Kyrie Irving, Cleveland
C Al Horford, Atlanta
F Lamarcus Aldridge, Portland
F Kawhi Leonard, San Antonio
5. Kris Bryant made his major league debut Friday in Chicago's 5-4 loss to San Diego. He struck out three times and went 0-for-4 at the plate. Bryant got his first hit in the Cubs' win on Saturday and then picked up his first extra-base hit in Sunday's loss. ESPN broke into programming Friday to show Bryant's press conference and seemingly every swing was broken down.
It was overkill, for sure. Bryant is going to be a very good major leaguer, though I think he's more Troy Glaus than he is Mike Schmidt. However, baseball needs a big name in a major market on a storied franchise, and Bryant fits the bill. He's a good-looking, articulate young guy with a good story. He's a big part of what should be a renaissance of sorts for the Cubs (though the next Cub farmhand to come up, Addison Russell, is going to be more of a star than Bryant, at least in my opinion), and he gives Major League Baseball a potentially marketable face.
Once all of the Cubs pieces are in place (Bryant, Russell, Albert Almora, Kyle Schwarber, Javier Baez/whatever the Cubs get for Baez and another free agent pitcher this winter), Chicago should be a perennial playoff threat. If the buzz Bryant's call-up created on Friday is any indication, he should be quite a star.
6. Baylee Almon would have turned 21 on Saturday. She died 20 years ago Sunday, one of the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, including 19 young children. The iconic photo of a firefighter, Chris Fields, carrying her lifeless body away from the blast site captured the hearts of all of us.
Oklahoma City recognized the 20th anniversary Sunday at the museum and memorial site where the Murrah Federal Building once stood. I've been to that museum and walked the grounds of that memorial. It is a powerful experience.
I was in Oklahoma City two weeks ago. My girls went to see Ariana Grande on Friday night and Carson and I saw the Rockets-Thunder game on that Sunday afternoon. At the Thunder game, the franchise honored the first responders from that horrible afternoon in Oklahoma City 20 years ago. There was a lot of dust in Chesapeake Energy Arena; let's put it that way.
The moral of the story: People rise to the occasion in an hour of need. We saw that in Oxford this past week as well (more on that in a bit), and in Oklahoma City, that is certainly the case.
7. A proposal for an early signing period in college football will be considered this June by an NCAA-related committee --- the Collegiate Commissioners Association (CCA) --- which consists of the 32 commissioners of Division I.
If adopted, the new early signing period would take affect later this year for 2016 recruits, an NCAA spokesman told the Atlanta Journal Constitution for a story published last week. There would be a 72-hour signing period beginning on Dec. 16, along with the football's regular signing period in February.
The AJC's Michael Carvell polled some college football coaches to get their thoughts on the proposal. The answers Carvell assembled were interesting.
Ole Miss' Hugh Freeze, predictably, was candid.
"I'm not for the December early signing period. I think that's a bad idea. I've been very vocal about that. The high school coaches are going to hate us. Kids are going to go on four or five visits during the season. They're going to come back on late Sunday night, and be awful for their high school team because all of us are going to try to lock them up in the early signing period now."
Asked how he would do it differently, Freeze said, "You know what I want? I wish that if a kid commits to us, and we're truly committed to him, I'd like to send him the papers right then. And you will find out who is really committed on both sides. I would say start this in August of his senior year. If a kid is committed to you, you can send them the papers to sign. You will find out really quickly which schools are committed to which kids, and which schools are committed to which kids. We'll stop all the shenanigans about the lack of commitment, and what commitment really means. If we can't have that, we need to have an August signing period because the high school coaches would support that. The kid has the scholarship, it's his hands, he knows where he is going, and he can play his heart out for his high school and not have to worry about (all the recruiting). With the December proposal for an early signing period, the high school coaches are going to hate us."
South Carolina's Steve Spurrier agreed with Freeze.
"I've got mixed emotions on it," Spurrier told the AJC. "I don't particularly like it because I think we're going to be recruiting during the season again. I think a lot of high school kids are going to have their name in the paper every week about what school they are going to pick instead of the newspapers writing about the players on our current team right now. And I've always felt like during the season, that time should belong to the players on your team. Then there is time for recruiting before and after the season. But I think they are going to go ahead and pass it (the early signing period). That's fine. We'll live with it."
Other coaches, such as Arkansas' Bret Bielema, see nothing but positives from an early signing period.
"I love the early signing period just for two reasons," Bielema said. "First, it allows the kid who wants to come and be somewhere to go ahead and sign. It can really be a cost-effective measure that you don't have to keep recruiting him in December and January. You know, (with the way we do it now) you're just kind of babysitting him, even though you know he's coming. You're just worried that somebody else is working him. I think it's going to save a tremendous amount of time and dollars for coaches. And then the second thing, and it makes the most sense, it clears up the recruiting process for the people who want to get it cleared up. I think there are too many times where there's so much time in there, some doubt can begin to creep into those minds of kids where they have been 100-percent committed for so long and it gets a kid in a bad situation, and just leads to confusion. I think that part is real."
8. Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was convicted of murder last week. He'll serve the rest of his natural life behind bars without the possibility of parole. Hernandez had trouble at the University of Florida, and there were warning signs during his years in New England as well. Hernandez's situation has prompted many to wonder if the NFL landscape will change in the wake of his conviction. The answer, per MMQB's Peter King, is not much.
King was a guest on Nashville's 102.5 FM The Game's "Sports Night" on Wednesday. One of the hosts of that show is former NFL general manager Floyd Reese, who served as a senior advisor to the Patriots from 2009 to 2012. Hernandez was drafted in 2010.
"We knew he had some issues prior," Reese said. "(Former Florida coach) Urban Meyer and (Patriots coach) Bill (Belichick) were very, very close, and I think Urban convinced Bill that, you know, that these things weren't going to be an issue. When we structured his first contract, his rookie contract, we probably had 75 percent of the money in the contract set up so that he would only make it if he stayed out of trouble, didn't miss meetings, was always there doing the right thing. And for the period of the original contract, he lived up to every bit of it. So it turned out well. Of course, after that, after he signed (his $40 million contract extension), things kind of went awry.
"When he was at Florida, he had some issues there too, there were some things that went on. We all knew about it. It was just from our standpoint, we were getting a first-round talent in the fourth round under a contract that was going to keep him in line or it wasn't going to cost us a penny. The real downside for us was the fourth-round pick. The upside was he ending up being an All-Pro, for a while, until he got his second contract."
Reese said the Patriots' error, as it pertained to handling Hernandez, was not realizing how much influence Hernandez's friends from his hometown of Bristol, Conn., still had over the star tight end.
"Aaron was not the kind of guy that was going to go out after practice, meet up with five or six guys and have dinner," Reese said. "There were a lot of times where he would leave Foxboro and drive back to Hartford so he could be with his guys.
"Lawrence Phillips was the same thing at Nebraska. I had a psychiatrist tell me he was imprinted. It meant there were only certain places he felt comfortable. Aaron was definitely into that kind of thing. Foxboro is very small city, based around the Patriots. And that was not a real comfort level for him.
"Aaron grew up in a tough environment, but he went to the University of Florida to get away from Hartford. To get away from that environment. He knew it would be better for him. The truth is, the vast majority of guys that have maybe had a tough upbringing, when you throw them into a great locker room, great organization, great place to play, they come out of it. They see the other side of it. 'Why would I ever want to go back to that other place?' The problem is you run into an Aaron Hernandez, who can't get there. He's comfortable back in Hartford, with all that trouble."
The old saying is there's no place like home. That's not always true. I always believed Tig Barksdale or Nick Brassell would've been better off getting far, far away from Batesville. Instead, they signed with Ole Miss and ended up at too-close community colleges. Perhaps the bonds were too tight to break, but both players would've been better off leaving this part of the country. Hernandez, we know now, was a hoodlum at Florida, so geography might not have mattered. However, you can't help but wonder if he'd have been better off in Seattle or Kansas City or Arizona than he was in New England.
9. A published report Thursday said Nike will be the next brand to outfit NBA teams after Adidas' deal expires at the end of the 2016-17 season.
Details remain to be worked out, but Nike has separated itself after a two-brand race with Under Armour, the Sports Business Daily reported.
Under the deal, NBA uniforms would have the apparel provider's logo on jerseys, something that has not been allowed during Adidas' reign, the Journal report said. Adidas' logo only appears on NBA warm-ups and replica team jerseys.
Nike would replace Adidas, which said in March it would not bid for a new NBA contract when its deal expired. Adidas made its announcement shortly after the league informed the company, which manages its basketball operations at its North American headquarters in Portland, that it was going to open bidding to other companies.
Adidas is believed to have paid about $400 million for its 11-year deal. The new contract is likely worth significantly more.
That wasn't the only good news for NBA players last week. New salary cap projections sent out to NBA teams last week. In 2015-16, there is a proposed 67.1 million cap with a tax kicking in at $81.6 million. In 2016-17, when so many NBA stars will be on the first year of their new deals, the proposed cap is $89 million with the tax line kicking in at $108 million. Free agents such as LeBron James and Kevin Durant are going to cash in, in all likelihood, at $30 million-plus per year under the new numbers.
9b. Speaking of Adidas, if you believe the folks at Adidas produced Mississippi State's batting practice jerseys, the ones that include the slogan, "F__k the School Up North" without direction from someone in Starkville, well, bless your heart. No F__king way. Obsession isn't remotely flattering. Having Adidas fall on the sword was cute, but that design originated in Starkville. Someone opened that box and saw those jerseys and thought nothing of it. That's sad.
10. Clark Parham got through his fifth day Sunday. He's now tipping the scales at 14 ounces. I saw some pictures of the little guy on Sunday night and I can't decide who impresses me more --- a baby born 16 weeks early fighting for his life or the medical team helping him do just that. It's awe-inspiring.
So is the response and support Clark and his parents, Chase and Kara Parham, received this week from you guys. My friend Jason Lowe set up a GoFundMe account Wednesday or Thursday (the days run together), and as of Sunday night, just shy of $38,000 have been raised. Incredible!
I shouldn't be surprised. Last year, I raised money for St. Jude as part of my Chicago Marathon experience. You helped me raise more than $21,000. It was one of the most amazing, humbling experiences I've ever had. I'm sure Chase and Kara feel the same way, only on a far more personal level.
We're often told how bad people are, and there are certainly some bad seeds out there. However, people are generally good, and in moments of crisis, we take care of our own. As of Sunday, Clark was doing better than could be expected. He's going to have some obstacles to overcome, certainly, and the road won't be completely smooth, but there's optimism that he'll make it and lead a normal life. He's a miracle and a testament to the power of medicine.
Note: There won't be a 10 Thoughts next Sunday as I'll be in California attempting to run the Big Sur International Marathon. Thoughts will return on May 3, the day after the Kentucky Derby and Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight and the weekend of the NFL draft. There should be plenty of material. Have a great week.
