Author: Jack

Last week, I offered my opinion on which side had the most leverage in the Jets/Packers negotiations regarding Aaron Rodgers.  Shortly after posting the rant, a friend asked me to opine on the Lamar Jackson situation as it relates to leverage.  I think the “Jackson situation” is more complicated than the “Rodgers situation” because it has more moving parts.  As things stand now, all that has to happen is for the Packers and Jets to agree on compensation and Rodgers will be the QB for the Jets in 2023.  As things stand now, there are multiple upon multiple possible actors for the “Jackson situation”, so the contingencies begin to pile up quickly.  Nevertheless, I will give it a go.

Looking only at the Jackson versus Ravens stand-off, the Ravens have all the leverage now.  They have made a contractual offer that allows Jackson to seek a deal anywhere in the league AND THEN that offer allows the Ravens to sit back and analyze if they want to match that deal or not.  If “not” then the Ravens get two first round draft picks automatically without any dealmaking necessary from the club that signs Lamar Jackson.  Oh, and if Jackson does not get a deal to his liking from another club, that gives Jackson a choice:

• Play for the Ravens in 2023 and earn $32M for his efforts knowing that the team is likely to put the same flavor of franchise tag on him in the next off season – – OR – –
• Take the “LeVeon Bell Route” and sit out the 2023 season.

If Jackson sat out 2023 and made it known he would do the same again, he would create lots of leverage for himself.  However, I think that is the only way he is going to achieve that status.  His “problem” now is that when he talks to one of the QB-needy teams in the league about a contract, the price that the QB-needy team has to pay is amplified:

• The QB-needy team has to give Jackson something that Jackson finds sufficiently rewarding – – PLUS – –
• The QB-needy team has to give the Ravens two first round draft picks.

Things get trickier if indeed one or more QB-needy teams begin to entertain the possibilities of signing Jackson.  For example, I would not call any of the other three AFC North teams “QB-needy” but if one of them got involved in talks with Jackson, the Ravens might feel a lot more pressure than if Jackson’s negotiations were with a team in the NFC South.

Jackson can gain a small bit of leverage by slow-playing his negotiations with other teams until after the NFL Draft which will take place from April 27 through April 29.  In doing that, he deprives the Ravens from knowing if they need to draft a QB in this year’s Draft and he diminishes the current value of those two compensatory first round picks the Ravens can get because the second one would be pushed out until 2025.  That is not a huge advantage for Jackson, but it is something.

There was an interesting wrinkle in this matter that was reported in the last week or so.  Supposedly, someone who is not Jackson’s agent – – remember, he is representing himself in negotiations with the Ravens and being advised by his mother – – contacted other  teams.  Jackson said specifically that this man was not negotiating for him and that the stories were the sports equivalent of fake news.  The NFL league office must have believed the reports – – or had sources of its own – – because it sent a letter to all 32 teams reminding them that this person was not a certified agent approved by the NFLPA and therefore teams could not deal with him in any way.  The interesting wrinkle to me has nothing at all to do with whether or not this guy was “negotiating on behalf of Jackson” or not.  What I find interesting is the concept of a “certified agent” in this labor-management negotiation.

I am not a historian nor an economist but my recollection from American history classes is that the Congress passed anti-trust laws that sought to break up what were described as “combinations in restraint of trade”.  The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was aimed at mainly at railroad monopolies but as I recall it also banned  conspiracies to restrain trade/commerce.  The outlawing of anti-competitive agreements was a big deal leading to the passage of this Act in 1890.  So, with that law still on the books, riddle me this:

• How can the NFL and the NFLPA have an agreement that limits the competition for player agents by imposing things that agents must do before they are allowed to act as agents for players who may or may not choose to have such representation?
• Why is that part of the existing CBA between the NFL and the NFLPA not a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act?  It smells to me like an “anti-competitive agreement” which creates a “combination in restraint of trade.”
• Why is Lamar Jackson limited in his range of choices for representation?
• Why is Lamar Jackson required to be a member of the NFLPA which is then a party to limiting his ability to choose his representation?

I know that five readers of these rants are practicing attorneys and one is a retired attorney.  If any – or all – of them explain this to me, I will be happy to share their insights in a future rant.

Moving on …  Last week, there was a report at frontofficesports.com about NCAA plans to make postseason college basketball for women more equitable vis á vis men’s college basketball.  At issue is the funding/sponsorship of the Women’s NIT and how that event has a second class status when compared to the Men’s NIT.  Here is the link to that report; I recommend that you read it in its entirety; it is thorough and well written.  It is clear that the NCAA has paid far more attention and devoted far more resources to the Men’s NIT than the Women’s NIT; and in the environment of 2023, that is a problem to be rectified.  However, one way to rectify it would be for the NCAA to cancel both NIT tournaments owning up to the fact that neither of them is of any relevance.

That will never happen because it is a “reality-based solution” …

Finally, since much of today dealt with negotiations and agents, let me close with these lines from Shakespeare’s play, Much Ado About Nothing:

“Friendship is constant in all other things.

Save in the office and affairs of love:

Therefore, all hearts in love use their own tongues.

Let every eye negotiate for itself

And trust no agent.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

Let me start with two comments about the Sweet-16 games over the weekend.

• The foul call in the final seconds of the San Diego State/Creighton game was simultaneously the right call and the wrong call.  It was the right call because the Creighton player did indeed commit a foul; it was the wrong call because “fouls” of that degree of severity had been ignored for the previous 39 minutes and 55 seconds.  When the officials who “grade the refs’ performance” after the fact review this game, they should note that he made the right call and his call was in fact what decided the game outcome.  Good for him in getting the call correct; bad for him that his call was out of line with the way the officials had established that the game would be called.
• Isaiah Wong (Miami) was voted as the ACC Player of the Year.  He is a good player – – maybe even a very good player – – but somehow I do not have him on a level similar to previous winners of that award such as:
  • • • Billy Cunningham
      • Tim Duncan
      • Phil Ford
      • Michael Jordan
      • Christian Laettner
      • Ralph Samsom
      • David Thompson – – you get the idea.

After San Diego St. eliminated Alabama over the weekend, Alabama coach, Nate Oats said, “Our season wasn’t a disappointment.”  I agree; it was way more than disappointing; it was cringeworthy.  Let me review the bidding:

• An Alabama player stands accused of capital murder.
• Brandon Miller – knowingly or unknowingly – brought the alleged murder weapon to the scene of the crime and is a material witness in the case.
• A third player is also a witness in the case.
• And as the overall #1 seed in the tournament, Alabama lost in the round of 16.

Coach Oats is right, that is much more than merely “disappointing” …

Speaking of “disappointing” and “basketball”, let me move up a level to the NBA and observe the Dallas Mavericks.  About 6 weeks ago, the Mavs acquired Kyrie Irving in a “blockbuster trade” to put another superstar player alongside Luka Doncic.  More than a handful of commentators said at the time that this could make the Mavs serious NBA Championship contenders.  Let me just say those analyses have not played out well to date.  Assuming I have counted correctly:

• The Mavs are 7-13 since acquiring Kyrie Irving.
• The Mavs are only 3-8 in games where both Irving and Doncic played.

As of today, the Mavs are in 11^th place in the NBA Western Conference meaning that they would not even be part of the “play-in round” of the league’s expanded playoffs.  In the NBA about 70% of the teams make the playoffs; it is highly unusual for a conference finalist in Year One to miss the playoffs entirely in Year Two.

The Mavericks made the Western Conference finals last year; they lost Jalen Brunson to free agency over the summer and then acquired Irving at the beginning of February this year.  If Kyrie Irving played Jalen Brunson in a 1-on-1 game, Irving would win  90% of the time.  But the Mavs are not nearly as good a team after the trade as compared to last year’s squad.

I believe the Mavs were 29-26 when Irving arrived from the Brooklyn Nets; as of this morning, the Mavs are 36-39.  The Mavs have 7 games left in the regular season and 4 of their upcoming opponents are below .500 as of today.  If the Mavericks cannot “right the ship” and win at least those four games between now and April 9^th, the season in Dallas will not be “disappointing”; it will be “disastrous”.

While on the subject of the NBA, that league is edging up to a potentially disastrous PR situation.  Forget the skills of its players; that has never been a problem for the league; it has always had the best players on the planet.  Here are just some of the issues the NBA has to deal with and has shown little if any competency in dealing with them:

• Player empowerment which allows star players to dictate where they will ply their trade.
• Load management which allows star players to dictate when they will ply their trade even after they have decided where they will ply their trade
• Ja Morant being suspended for “mental health issues” and then being pronounced as “cured/good to go” in about 2 weeks.  Even Dr. Phil would not put his name on that kind of behavioral turnaround.  [Aside:  The juxtaposition of “player” and “guns” will get another focal point in June this year when Brandon Miller is drafted and goes onstage to hug it out with Commish Adam Silver.]

Finally, since much of today dealt with “disappointment”, let me close with this observation by the poet, Alexander Pope:

“’Blessed is the man who expects nothing for he shall never be disappointed’ was the ninth beatitude.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

There was a time when the NCAA refused to allow a state – – Nevada to be specific – – to host any sort of championship event because that state had the taint of sports gambling associated with it.  The NCAA could – – and did – – get away with that farcical stance because the US Congress in its infinite wisdom passed a law designed to “protect” professional and amateur sports from the evils of gambling.  And then the US Supreme Court said that law was null and void because it was unconstitutional.  Previous NCAA Presidents like Cedric Dempsey, Myles Brand and Mark Emmert smugly dismissed Nevada in general – – and Las Vegas very specifically – – as possible sites for any sort of important NCAA event.

Myles Brand has cast off his mortal coil; he has gone to the great amateur sports venue in the sky.  Dempsey and Emmert are still exchanging oxygen in our biosphere so they can deal with the ignominy they so richly deserve as we look at only men’s college basketball as one NCAA sport and how it has found ways to exist in Nevada in 2023.  I may have missed some activities here, but my list demonstrates that any and all of the self-righteous bleatings of the NCAA in the past were nothing more than self-righteous bleatings:

1. The PAC-12 held its Conference Championship Tournament in Las Vegas
2. The Mountain West Conference held its Conference Championship Tournament in Las Vegas.
3. The WAC held its Conference Championship Tournament in Las Vegas.
4. The WCC held its Conference Championship Tournament in Las Vegas.

As if that were insufficient to rub the noses of those prigs in the reality of 2023 in the US and the existence of gambling on men’s college basketball that existed before and during the barren times overseen by these recent NCAA barons, add these events to the 2023 list of activities in the sinful environs of Nevada and Las Vegas:

1. The NIT Final Four will be in Las Vegas this year.
2. The NCAA’s own March Madness West Regional Final games will be in Las Vegas this year.

And I am willing to go out on a limb and predict that with all of that overbearing pressure on the games played by those so-called “student-athletes”, the most annoying song from the musical Annie has relevance here because:

• The sun will come up tomorrow – – and then – –
• The sun will come out tomorrow.

Do not anticipate any statements of sorrow for being wrong from Cedric Dempsey and/or Mark Emmert.  They will be watching the games and pretending that any gambling on those games is done by unrepentant degenerates in our society who have been given license to yield to the Devil’s temptations by the miscalculations of the US Supreme Court.  I prefer to think that it is the time for real people in the US to rub the noses of those two goofs in the waste products of every NCAA basketball athlete who participated in an event in Las Vegas this year and managed to come away from it without the stain of scandal attached to his name forever and ever.

Oh, and by the way, the current mavens who chart the course of March Madness which is the single largest revenue stream left for the NCAA to live on have decided to stage the Final Four – – the Holy Grail of each and every NCAA competition – – in Las Vegas, NV in 2028.

Cedric Dempsey will be 95 in 2028 so he may be sitting next to Myles Brand in the Celestial Café watching the March Madness games in 2028 in their purest form;  Mark Emmert should – actuarially speaking – – still be among us in 2028 at age 76 and someone ought to ask him then if he was even tempted to fill out a bracket and/or to take Blueblood U and lay 35.5 points against Who’s That College – – the team that got a mandatory bid to that tournament by winning the WTF Conference.  Trust me, no one is going to ask him that question then even if they can find where he is hiding out 5 years from now.

Many times in these rants, I have railed against the idealistic nincompoops who asserted that gambling on collegiate sports would ruin those events.  The premise of their arguments was so patently false that their argument(s) did not deserve even minimal consideration.  Let me be clear:

• Gambling – – on anything including college sports – – has a dark side.
• Consuming alcohol and smoking pot have a dark side.
• People are going to gamble notwithstanding the existence of that dark side.
• People are going to consume alcohol and marijuana notwithstanding the existence of that dark side.

Trying to ban alcohol consumption – – Prohibition – – was tried and it did not stop people from drinking.  Trying to ban marijuana smoking was tried and it did not stop people from smoking – – and inhaling even despite Bill Clinton’s lame attempt at deflecting that inquiry.

Walking along that same track, trying to prevent or ignore the existence of gambling on college sporting events does not stop the practice of betting on college sporting events.

• Wagering on college sports is at least 100 years old and will continue to be a common practice among college sports fans until and unless there are no more inter-collegiate sports events for them to wager on.

That is not some sort of Satanic-inspired prophesy; that is the reality of human existence.  Now if one’s religious beliefs leads one to conclude that the only way for such to be the reality of the human condition is for it to be Satan-inspired, have at it.  My intention is not to try to make a theological point that I am supremely incompetent to make; my intention here is to say specifically that people gamble on a variety of things from sports to the roll of a pair of dice to the turn of a playing card; and laws, regulations and high-falutin’ rhetoric is not going change that state of affairs.

Now, go watch today’s Sweet-16 games in this year’s NCAA Tournament and enjoy the spectacle – – with or without “a little something” riding on the games’ outcomes.

Finally, having spent today dealing with gambling on college sports, let me close with a famous observation by the American journalist, Damon Runyon:

“It may be that the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong – but that is the way to bet.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

About a week ago, I got an email from Gregg Drinnan – – former sports editor of the Kamloops Daily News and now the content creator for the blog Taking Note – – with a link to an article at something called “3DownNation” which is a clever name for an entity that focuses on Canadian football and the CFL.  Gregg Drinnan’s only comment in the email was:

“This is going to be interesting, but he’s French-Canadian and has a whole pile of money.”

According to the good folks at 3DownNation, the Montreal Alouettes have a new owner.  Recall that the CFL took over the franchise recently and was seeking new ownership that would provide the franchise with stability.  The new owner is Pierre Karl Péladeau who – in addition to having deep pockets – was formerly the leader of the political entity, Parti Quebecois, which advocated for the separation of the Province of Quebec from Canada.  I thought that is what Gregg Drinnan meant by “going to be interesting.”  But wait, there’s more…

Much of Péladeau’s fortune comes from a business entity that is described as a “media and telecommunications empire”.  And that entity does not own the TV rights to CFL games; those games are on a competing network.  Here is the link to the piece by 3DownNation folks if you want an overview of this “interesting situation.”

It seems to me that there are an unusual number of sports franchises that are “up for sale” at the moment.  In the EPL, Liverpool and Manchester United are on the market and a much smaller club, Bournemouth, may need a financial takeover.  The Washington Commanders in the NFL are taking bids for the team.  The Washington Nationals are on the market and until very recently, the Los Angeles Angels were also for sale.  There is a tentative agreement in place for the Minnesota Timberwolves to change ownership and that deal is supposed to close in about a month or so.

And on top of all that turmoil, the latest announcement is that Michael Jordan is considering selling all or part of his holding in the Charlotte Hornets.  That is news of a different sort.  Maybe the sale of Liverpool and Manchester United might have a ripple effect on the EPL; I said maybe.  But in the cases of the other major sports franchises that might change owners, none of those transactions appear capable of rocking the leagues themselves.  If Michael Jordan distances himself from the NBA, that could easily be the case for the NBA.

If you want to pick nits, Michael Jordan has not been a magical owner of the Charlotte franchise since acquiring a majority interest there in 2010.  His presence at the head of the organization did not magnetically attract great players to come and play for him – – although many would probably loved to have played with him in his prime.  Despite that “shortcoming”, Michael Jordan still represents an important part of the image the NBA seeks to present to its fans.  Lest you think that Michael Jordan is “yesterday’s news” or some sort of old codger who is out of tune with the modern NBA fan, consider that his shoe brand, Air Jordan, had sales last year reported to be just over $5B.  Even though I consider the shoes to be ridiculously over-priced, those sales figures say that about 25 million pairs of those shoes went out the doors of retail outlets around the world.

Michael Jordan comports himself differently from today’s sports “icons”.  He does not seek to be “trending” on social media; he rarely gives interviews and never makes appearances on television or podcast outlets.  I suspect that many readers here do not know that to celebrate his recent 60^th birthday, Michael Jordan made a special donation to one of his favorite charities – – Make A Wish Foundation – – worth $10M.  I am going to go out on a limb here and predict that no one is ever going to see Michael Jordan rapping and waving a gun around in strip club.

Were it not for Julius Irving, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan, the NBA might have remained the floundering entity that it was in the 1970s and early 1980s.  Those four men saved the NBA from irrelevance if not extinction.  When Michael Jordan recedes to the background after selling out his stake in the Hornets, only Magic Johnson will still be visible to NBA fans.  Forget all the stats and the highlight reels and the social media hype and ask yourself this question:

• Who might make up the quartet of current – and recently retired players – who have the heft to take the load from the four men cited above?

I can be convinced to put Tim Duncan on that list of folks who might need to carry the positive image of the league forward.  After that, I have a problem with just about anyone else you might propose – – but someone will need to pick up the slack here.

Finally, today has been about people with great wealth.  So, let me close with this view of wealth from the American humorist, James Thurber:

“Early to rise and early to bed makes a male healthy and wealthy and dead.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

Back in the 1980s, the Big East had three of its teams – – Georgetown, St. John’s and Villanova – – in the Final Four.  This year, the conference has three of its teams – – Creighton, UConn and Xavier – – in the Sweet 16 AND it is also in the news regarding a couple of major coaching changes.  For the moment, the Big East is once again the focal point of college basketball.

Rick Pitino will indeed be leaving Iona and taking over the program at St. John’s; that had been rumored for several weeks and the announcement came late yesterday; Pitino signed a 6-year deal.  Pitino will make St. John’s a story once again; he has always had good teams and he has always had plenty of other “stuff” surrounding his programs that folks find newsworthy.  Rick Pitino is not a favorite to win any humanitarian awards any time soon, but even his most ardent detractors must admit that he can recruit players and he can coach them up into a formidable unit.

As controversial as Pitino may be, the separation of St. John’s University and former coach, Mike Anderson, may become even more controversial/contentious.  Anderson is considering a lawsuit against the university over his “firing for cause”.  St. John’s claims that Anderson did not “facilitate an environment of academic compliance within the program” and that he failed to “appropriately supervise” the assistant coaches on the team.  By choosing to fired Anderson for cause, the university is not obligated to pay out the remainder of Anderson’s contract – – reportedly $11M – – and Anderson has said he will aggressively defend his contractual rights.

Anderson had been at St. Johns for 4 years after taking over from Chris Mullen.  His record was 68-56 with no tournament appearances in those 4 seasons.  St. John’s used to be a fixture in the NCAA tournament; however, since 2000 it has only been involved 4 times.  I suspect that St. John’s will be back in post season play sooner than later with Pitino on the bench.

The other big coaching move in the Big East is actually two moves.  Georgetown has poached Ed Cooley from conference rival, Providence, to replace Patrick Ewing as the Hoyas’ head coach.  There was no mystery as to why the folks at Georgetown decided to move on from Patrick Ewing; over the last two seasons the Hoyas’ record was 13-50.  Cooley had been the head coach at Providence for 12 seasons and had the Friars in the NCAA tournament 7 times.  The fact that Cooley is making an intra-conference coaching move makes for an interesting rivalry angle there and it opens up another coaching slot in the basketball-centric Big East Conference.

Oh, and just to demonstrate the wheels within wheels nature of college basketball, Rick Pitino was the head coach at Providence back in the 1980s…

Moving on …  Two years ago, Trevor Bauer signed a 3-year contract with the LA Dodgers worth a reported $102M.  I am sure you know that Bauer was suspended for two years by Commissioner Rob Manfred – – that suspension was reduced to a year subsequently – – and the Dodgers released Bauer.  The lurid nature of the allegations against Bauer made him sufficiently toxic that he could not get a contract offer from an MLB team as a free agent this year despite the fact that Bauer was never even indicted for any criminal activity based on the original accusations let alone convicted of anything.

Trevor Bauer won the NL Cy Young Award in 2020 which was the impetus for the Dodgers’ decision to give him that $102M deal.  So, one should expect that if given a chance to take the mound again, Bauer would likely be successful.  He will get that opportunity in Japan this year; last week reports said that he signed a contract with the Yokohama BayStars in Japan’s Central League.  Those reports say that contract is worth $4M with incentives.

The issue here is not the drastic reduction in the value of Bauer’s services as a pitcher; I could rant on that issue from several perspectives and at the end of the ranting nothing would change even a little bit.  I bring this up today because Trevor Bauer may have plumbed new depths of disingenuity related to his contract signing.  Here is his statement:

“Playing in the NPB has always been a dream of mine and I can’t think of a better organization to do it with.”

“NPB” is the acronym for Nippon Professional Baseball i.e., the Japanese League.  Let me review the bidding here:

• Trevor Bauer was born in North Hollywood, CA
• He went to high school in a suburb of LA.
• He went to UCLA.
• He was in MLB and signed with the LA Dodgers
• And playing in the Japanese League has always been a dream of his…

Finally, given Trevor Bauer’s multiple links to Los Angeles, CA, let me close with two different views on the city:

“I mean, who would want to live in a place where the only cultural advantage is that you can turn right on a red light.”  [Woody Allen]

And …

“A big hard-boiled city with no more personality than a paper clip.”  [Raymond Chandler]

            But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

There were 32 March Madness games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  I got to watch part of every one of them; it was an orgy of college basketball here in Curmudgeon Central.  Not to worry though, I am not going to go through notes on all 32 games – – just a sampling of my impressions while watching these games.

Starting on Friday:

• Michigan St. 72 USC  62:  The Spartans’ defense in the second half was suffocating.
• Xavier 72  Kennesaw St. 67:  An excellent game in the 1^st half had Kennesaw St. up by 7 at the half.  The lead stretched to double digits in the second half until Xavier put on a totally dominating 15-0 run to eke out a win.
• Baylor 74  UC-Santa Barbara 56:  Baylor is the better team by a lot – – but this Baylor team does not play defense the way previous Baylor teams did.
• St Mary’s 63  VCU 51:  VCU does not have a reliable shooter/scorer.
• Pitt 59  Iowa St. 41:  Iowa St. made its first field goal of the game at the 9:54 mark in the first half.  No contest …
• UConn 87  Iona 63:  Two well-coached teams played an exciting first half but UConn was much deeper and much stronger turning the game into a rout for the last 8 minutes or so.
• Fairleigh Dickinson 63  Purdue 58:  Purdue could not defend FDU’s fast guards and FDU could not defend Purdue’s size.  In the end, David beat Goliath.
• Gonzaga 82 Grand Canyon 72:  The Zags only led by 4 at the half and did not look good at all in the first half.  They played better in the second half but still looked “off-center”.
• TCU 72  Arizona St. 70:  TCU looked awful in the first half; I thought this was going to be a laugher for the Sun Devils in the second half.  That did not happen; TCU came out of its fog in the second half and won at the end.

In the games on Saturday:

• Tennessee 65 Duke 52:  Duke was simply out-muscled in this game; Charles Barkley described the Tennessee line-up as “grown men”.  A production note for the folks doing the engineering here:  Up the amps on Stan van Gundy’s microphone; he has good stuff to add to the telecast but sometimes he gets drowned out by crowd noise.
• Arkansas 72  Kansas 71:  Arkansas won despite only shooting 3 for 15 on 3-point attempts.  Arkansas was down by 12 points in the second half but won on hustle and rebounding.
• Princeton 78  Missouri 63:  In this Tiger versus Tiger matchup, Princeton was the alpha male from start to finish.
• Houston 81  Auburn 64:  Auburn’s foul shooting was horrendous in the game; they were 19 for 36 from the foul line!  I officiated kids’ rec league games with better foul shooting than that.
• UCLA 68  Northwestern 63:  Here is exactly what I wrote on my scratch pad during the game:

“UCLA is the least entertaining team still alive in the tournament and Northwestern is second.  Meh!”

As for the games on Sunday:

• Xavier 84  Pitt 73:  Xavier’s performance in the first half was the best half of basketball so far in the tournament.  Xavier led 48-34 at the intermission.
• Kansas St. 75 Kentucky 69:  This was the best/most entertaining game in the tournament so far.  There was good offense on display and good defense.  There were spectacular plays and it went down to the final minute to be decided.  Marquis Nowell (K-State) is plenty entertaining all by himself.  This was everything a college basketball fan could ask for.
• Michigan St. 69 Marquette 60:  Marquette’s Tyler Kolek was the Big East Player of the Year and he was a no-show in this game with 7 points shooting 2 for 8 from the floor.
• Creighton 85  Baylor 76:  Again, this Baylor team does not defend like Scott Drew’s Baylor teams of recent vintage have defended.

Memo For Telecast Execs:

Lisa Byington needs a lot of coaching/developing to do play-by-play for such a fast-paced game.  She obviously knows the game but does not always “keep up”.  Work with her…

• Gonzaga 84  TCU 81:  TCU’s intensity in the first half was clearly greater than Gonzaga’s.  These are not the Zags of the last couple of years but they put together some offense and played much better defense in the second half to pull out a close one.

I saw two players who did not get a lot of attention from the broadcasters who I think will play in the NBA one of these days – – not necessarily as stars but as important role players:

1. Jarace Walker – Houston:  He is a freshman and listed as 6’8” and 240 lbs.  I believe both numbers. He has work to do on his offensive game but he already has rebounding and shot blocking skills in abundance.
2. Dariq Whitehead – Duke:  Another freshman with a large frame that can expand into “NBA size” who plays strong defense both inside and on the perimeter.

Finally, I said there was an orgy of college basketball over the weekend so let me close with this from Ogden Nash:

“Home is Heaven and orgies are vile.

But I like an orgy once in a while.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

Everyone who reads these rants knows where I was and what I was doing from about noon yesterday until a little past midnight.  And, I will be in the same place doing the same thing today between noon and midnight.  Naturally, I took notes about the sixteen games that were on my TV as I went bouncing around to see part of them all.  And those notes/comments will form the basis of today’s rant.

• Maryland 67  W. Virginia 65: Both teams played “sloppy” for the first half and the officials in this game seem to have decided not to call traveling violations as part of their Lenten fasting.
• Furman 68  Virginia 67:  I understand that Virginia emphasizes defense and ball control, but can’t they find and recruit just one player who can hit an open jump shot more than about 25% of the time and still play defense?
• Missouri 76  Utah St. 55:  The Aggies got here on the strength of their 3-point shooting and then proceeded to miss their first fourteen 3-point shots in the game.
• Kansas 96  Howard 68:  Howard plays a run-and-gun style; so does Kansas.  But Kansas is so much more talented.  Also, Kansas runs back on defense much better than Howard gets back on defense.
• Alabama 96  Texas A&M Corpus-Christi 75:  It was clear in the first five minutes or so who would win this game but it was marginally interesting to see the terrible shot selections by Corpus-Christi.
• San Diego St. 63  Charleston 57:  Like Virginia, San Diego St. lives by its defense; once again, can’t they find at least one solid offensive player – – specifically a ball-handler/distributor – – who can also play defense?  These teams combined to go 9 for 40 on 3-point attempts.
• Princeton 59  Arizona 55:  Arizona clearly has the better athletes; Princeton is clearly better skilled/coached in fundamental basketball and at controlling the pace of play in a game.

[Aside:  Earlier this week, I said that if Princeton and Missouri both advanced, we would have a Tigers vs Tigers match in Round 2.  That will happen on Saturday.]

• Arkansas 73  Illinois 63:  I just could not get excited/involved in this game; neither team was interesting.  My comment for the game was merely, “Meh!”
• Auburn 83  Iowa 75:  Another mediocre game with another middling SEC team  beating a middling Big-10 team.  Ho-hum…
• Duke 74  Oral Roberts 51:  Made this note with 11:20 to play in the 1^st half:
  • • “This is not your 12/5 upset game for this year.”
• This game points out the importance of strength of schedule – – in all sports not just college basketball.  Oral Roberts was undefeated in conference; it lost 5 games all year and 4 of the 5 losses were to teams in the NCAA tournament; they averaged 84 points per game.  And when faced with an ACC team they were outclassed.
• Northwestern 75  Boise St. 67:  Northwestern is another defensive-focused team but they also have a couple of players who can score a bit at the offensive end of the court.  Such players do exist…
• Texas 81  Colgate 61:  Colgate very obviously suffered from a serious deficit in athleticism.
• Tennessee 58  Louisiana-Lafayette 55:  The early parts of the game were uninteresting but fortunately, I noticed on the scoreboard at the top of the screen that Louisiana was closing a gap toward the end and I went back to see the end of a game that became interesting.
• Houston 63  N. Kentucky 52:  This game was a lot closer that one should expect from a #1-seed versus a #-16 seed.  Houston kept the game close by turning the ball over 17 times to a team that was not nearly as athletic as the Cougars.
• UCLA 86  UNC-Asheville 53:  This game was a complete mismatch from start to finish.
• Penn St. 76  Texas A&M 59:  Penn St. is not the most physically gifted team in the tournament but they play a style of basketball that can keep them in a game against almost anyone.  The Aggies never figured out the Penn St. offense and the fact that Andrew Funk shot 8 for 10 from 3-point range sealed the deal.

[Aside:  I know its cheesy but since this was an upset I did make a note that Penn St. guard, Jalen Pickett, “led the charge” for the Nittany Lions.]

[Another Aside:  Earlier this week, I said that if Utah St. and Texas A&M were to meet in the Final Game this year, that would be Aggies versus Aggies action.  Both versions of the Aggies lost yesterday.  Hi ho!]

Finally the good folks at Coca Cola have paid the TV networks to have the play-by-play guys do a live-read in every game about Coke Zero Sugar asking if it the best Coke ever.  So, let me close today with this entry from The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm:

“Coca-Cola:  A soft drink whose makers are apparently morally obligated to dream up a new version of the same sugar, water and caffeine they have always sold every eight weeks until the end of time.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

FIFA held its big annual meeting this week in Kigali, Rwanda and voted there to expand the 2026 World Cup even more than had been planned.  The decision to expand from 32 teams to 48 teams was already in the cards but the preliminary plans had been to break the Group phase up into sixteen groups with 3 teams each.  That would have set up a World Cup Tournament in 2026 with 80 games to be played.  At this year’s meeting, FIFA voted to stay with 4 teams per group in the Group Phase meaning there will be 104 games in the entire tournament.

The 2026 World Cup will be hosted jointly by Canada, Mexico and the US.  In making the announcement, FIFA of course painted itself with righteousness saying that this decision was taken only after:

“ … a thorough review that considered sporting integrity, player welfare, team travel, commercial and sporting attractiveness, as well as team and fan experience.”

Let me translate that for you:

• FIFA knows that expansion to 48 teams means there will be lots of teams overmatched in the tournament leading to more non-competitive games than usual; it also recognizes that more games in the tournament will mean more wear and tear on players and more travel.  However, the commercial considerations of more games on TV plus more ticket sales for those extra 24 games totally outweigh any other complaints or concerns.  Follow the money…
• The host cities for the World Cup – – 11 in the US, 3 in Mexico and 2 in Canada – – will probably be happy to have more fans in more hotel rooms and restaurants with the added games.  This is a financial bonanza and needs to be seen as exactly that.

One of the downsides to the latest expansion is that the knockout round in 2026 will consist of 32 teams and not 16.  Remember that the entire field for the World Cup in 2022 consisted of 32 teams so even in the knockout round there are likely to be more mismatches than in the past.  This format sets the stage for an upset of gargantuan proportion about once every two decades – – and a lot more secondary interest matches.

Sticking with soccer comments today, I went to take a look at the latest English Premier League table – – that is “the standings” for US folks who have not learned to speak even the most basic international soccer lingo.  Most teams have completed almost 75% of the season; most teams have played 27 games out of the 38 game schedule.  Arsenal and Manchester City  are at the top of the table and there is a 10-point gap between second-place Manchester City and the third-place team, Manchester United.  It would take a monumental collapse by both teams at the top of the table should anyone else with the EPL this year.

As always, I like to look at the bottom of the table because the EPL uses relegation of its three worst teams and promotion of the three best teams from the Champions League to create next year’s EPL schedule.  By this point in most seasons, there is usually one team that has all but given up the ghost and four other teams that are battling to stay out of the three-team relegation zone.  Not this year; the bottom of the table has nine of the 20 EPL teams within five points of one another.

Points are awarded as such:

• Three points for a match win.
• One point for a match draw

So, if the team in last place – 20^th place – this morning (Southampton) went on a two-game win streak and if the team in twelfth place this morning (Crystal Palace) lost their next two matches, Southampton would vault over Crystal Palace in the table.  The race at the top is interesting; Arsenal and Manchester City play each other in late April.  But it is the “race -to-avoid-the-bottom that should be more interesting.

In the English Champions League, there are two teams that appear to be shoo-ins for promotion to the EPL next year.  Burnley has an 13-point lead over second-place Sheffield United with nine games left to play; they do not have the league title mathematically in hand, but they are on a glide path to promotion.  Sheffield United has a 6-point lead over third-place Middlesbrough and the race for fourth place is important too since the third Champions League team to earn promotion comes from a playoff game between the third place and the fourth place team.  As of this morning, the gap between third-place and sixth place in the English Champions League is a meager 4 points.

I want to say something about the scheduling for the EPL and other English Football Leagues:

• The teams play a perfectly balanced schedule.  There are 20 teams in the EPL, and each team plays 38 games – – two each against the other 19 teams in the league home and home.  Perfect…
• This is the model the NBA should adopt.  They have 30 teams; they should play a 58-game schedule – – two each against the other 29 teams in the league home and home.

Currently, the NBA and the NBPA are trying to figure out how to deal with load-management which is PR-speak for players playing hooky.  If an 82-game schedule is too burdensome and grueling for today’s  players, then cut the schedule back so that fans do not experience bait-and-switch when they buy tickets to see “the stars” play and then they don’t

NBA players liken themselves to entertainment super-stars.  To hear them explain it, they are the attraction that generates the revenues that gives them the opportunity to sign contracts worth more than $200M guaranteed.  Well, with great fame and attractiveness comes great responsibility and the biggest responsibility is “showing up”.

Bruce Springsteen has been a super-star for years; when he was on tour, people traveled from city to city to hear him perform in multiple venues on that tour.  And they never showed up to learn at the last minute that Springsteen was doing “load management” on his finger callouses and would be “sitting out” tonight’s concert while Joe Flabeetz filled in with his stylings on the ocarina.

Finally, since much of today was about soccer, let me close with two observations about the game:

“Football is a matter of life and death – except more important.”  [Bill Shankly, former manager of Liverpool FC]

And …

“If God had wanted man to play soccer, He wouldn’t have given us arms.”  [Mike Ditka]

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

When the NFL free agent marketplace gets into gear, there is always a flurry of activity; and because of the fan interest – – and by derivation the wagering interest – – associated by any alteration of team rosters in the NFL, there is intense focus on some of the movements that are deemed to be significant.  I have been focused on other topics in recent days, so today I want to circle back and comment on a few of the exchanges/signings that have taken place in the last several days.

The trade that allowed the Panthers to acquire the overall #1 pick in the upcoming NFL Draft did indeed provide the Bears with plenty of high value picks over the next two seasons allowing the Bears – – if they scout and draft effectively – – to fill some of the many holes they had in last year’s roster.  However, I want to focus on the Panthers’ side of the deal.  On one hand, you have to think that the Panthers have a single QB in mind that they want to take out of this year’s crop of collegians; if they were ambivalent, why spend all that draft capital to get to the #1 slot?  And then you read reports from insiders who say that the Panthers have an internal debate about the pick because coach Frank Reich likes one guy and owner David Tepper likes a different guy.

I have no inside info here and have no chance of getting “the scoop” here.  However, I will say that teams treat the NFL Draft and their potential picks in that draft as if it were vital national defense information.  In addition to the cloak of secrecy about teams’ draft boards, there are always active deception operations launched by various teams.  I think the reports of a schism between the new coach and the owner is more likely to be a deception operation than reality.  We shall see…

Other reports about the Panthers say that Ohio St. QB, CJ Stroud is their likely pick with that first pick.  When I read that, I thought to myself that Ohio St. is not exactly the source of great NFL QBs.  In fact, the first thing that came to my mind about Ohio St. and recent QBs was that they had Joe Burrow on their roster and decided to go with JT Barrett instead and let Burrow transfer to LSU where all he did was lead the Tigers to a national championship.  So, I went looking for the starting QBs at Ohio St. over the last 20 years or so to see how many of them “made it” in the NFL.  Separating the wheat from the chaff:

• Chaff:  Todd Boeckman, Cardale Jones, Craig Krenzel and Braxton Miller
• Wheat:  Dwayne Haskins (?), Terrelle Pryor (?), Troy Smith (?), and now Justin Fields.

As I suspected, the Buckeyes have not been the cradle of great NFL QBs this millennium.  So, I need not go all the way back to Art Schlichter to dress up my sense that great NFL QBs do not come from Ohio St.

I was interested in the trade of Jalen Ramsey from the Rams to the Dolphins because of what the Rams got in exchange for Ramsey.  I understand that the Rams are in salary cap trouble and had to move someone to get some breathing room.  At the same time, Ramsey is an elite corner back which is an important defensive asset for any team.  In exchange for an elite CB who will turn 29 in the middle of next season, the Rams only got a third round pick and a tight end who projects to be a backup on the Rams’ roster next season.  That seems like an awfully light return in the exchange.

I understand – – although I am not sure I completely agree – – that the Raiders decided last year to move on from Derek Carr as their QB.  I can be convinced that signing Jimmy G as his replacement was the Raiders’ plan from as far back as last December since Garoppolo had spent several years in New England with Josh McDaniels and would arrive in Las Vegas with experience in hand.  If that was their plan, then kudos to the Raiders.

Now, can you explain to me why they traded Darren Waller to the Giants for a late third round pick?  The offense that McDaniels ran in New England featured some talented tight ends and last time I checked, Darren Waller is a talented tight end and the Raiders’ braintrust gave him a contract extension at the beginning of the last NFL regular season.  So the Raiders traded him away and got a third round pick in exchange?

The Niners signed Javon Hargrave as aa free agent defensive lineman.  When the Niners deploy Hargrave along with Joey Bosa, Arik Armstead and Javon Kinlaw, that may be the 2023 reincarnation of the “Fearsome Foursome”.

I know that Stephon Gilmore will be 33 at the start of this year’s NFL regular season but I also know that he was once named Defensive Player of the Year in the NFL.  So, I was surprised once again by the meager return that the Colts got by trading Gilmore to the Cowboys for what was a compensatory draft pick at the end of this year’s fifth round.

The Commanders re-signed DT, Daron Payne to a long-term extension making Payne the second highest paid defensive tackle in the league behind only Aaron Donald.  However, the much more important moves made by the Commanders involved the signings of two solid offensive linemen – – Nick Gates and Andrew Wylie – – to address a large insufficiency in the Commanders’ roster from last season.

And still, we wait for Aaron Rodgers’ decision regarding his retirement or his return to the NFL to collect about $60M in salary/incentives for next season.  I said about 6 weeks ago that he would bask in the spotlight of public attention and drag this out for a while before “making his announcement”.  Everything is going according to his attention-seeking plan; he still says he will have his mind made up “shortly”.

Finally, let me close today with this observation by author/philosopher, G.K. Chesterton:

“Journalism consists largely in saying ‘Lord Jones died’ to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………