And with that, we begin again.
Another week in the books; another week closer to football season. Good and good.
From the "Talks too much" studios, each day presents an opportunity and each fish offers a chance. Carp a diem indeed.
From JordanRules
You never answered my question from last week.
If you could look at that, and also give me what you think about the draft last night. I love what my Bulls did -- McDermott gives them a true scorer.
LeBron JamesThanks and LeBron stinks.
JordanRules -
Thanks for the kind words (mostly) and being the most consistent of hoops believers.
As for last week, the Heat had a bad matchup, got pants in the coaching department, and looked around and realized that Dwyane Wade is half the player he was two years ago.
Plus, an underrated approach the Spurs took was that they LeBron get LeBron's - he averaged 28 points a game for the series - and shutdown everyone else and seldom double-teamed LBJ. That exposed Ray Allen's inability to get a shot, Chris Bosh's desire to be a 7-foot Ray Allen, Mario Chalmers as stinky and Wade as broken down.
So it goes.
We believe LBJ stays with the Heatles. Too much invested. Plus, the Heat moving several pieces to get Shabazz Napier as a tip of the Riley fedora to James was quite telling last night. We did like the Bulls adding Dougie McBuckets and still keeping cap room to go after an A-list free agent. (Side note: A nucleus of Derrick Rose, Dougie McBuckets, Noah and say Carmelo looks pretty nice on paper.)
As for draft winners, here are three:
The Celtics. It's a guard-oriented league and the Celtics rebuilt their backcourt with Marcus Smart and James Young. Well-done. Plus, this gives the Celtics the biggest trading chip in the game with Rajon Rondo.
The suits. This year there was so dudes taking real chances. Hi Julius, looking good. From the custom jackets - did you see Marcus Smart had a personalized logo inside his jacket - to the cavalcade of bow ties and patters, it was impressive. Best suit (according to the Mrs. 5-at-10) was Adriean Payne's ensemble of blue and lavender (with a lavender belt no less) that edged Andrew Wiggins' Liberace jacket.
Adam Silver. The whole Isaiah Austin deal was perfectly handled. That was a nice moment.
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From John
So are you ready to jump on the soccer movement? We are taking over. It's here and the U.S. is ready for it.
A U.S. fan holds a flag prior to the group G World Cup soccer match between the United States and Germany at the Arena Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil, on Thursday, June 26, 2014.Admit it, you are becoming a soccer fan, aren't you?
Ibelievewewillwin
By the way, I love Press Row -- you have been hilarious this week.
John -
Not even close to reserving a seat on the soccer bandwagon, and in truth, we still believe the country has been griped by patriotism more than soccer passion.
And Thursday's snoozefest, lose and advance, was hardly a breakthrough moment for anyone. That said, let's see how the U.S. plays in the knockout round - quick Rushmore of compound sports words: knockout, touchdown, quarterback and offside, maybe? - and if that can deliver a true moment of soccer history.
Right now, it's fun - and an underrated part of this is everyone can go to a sports bar and root for the same team, unlike a Saturday in the fall when there are warring factions at a Buffalo Wild Wings and who knows how it will end - and different.
It's also a broken model for American sports. Soccer does not offer commercial breaks, meaning that it is not available to be long-term marketable here in the states. That's not a good thing mind you, it's just another hurdle - along with Title IX, a huge international divide, and the coolness factor among high school athletes - that men's soccer faces in this country.
That said, here's the point where some soccer snob says "Well, you just don't understand it."
We understand it fine; we're just not that into it.
Hey soccer, it's not you it's us. And we're OK with that.
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From TT
Have not heard you talk about this on Press Row or read anything you have written lately on the NCAA trial in California.
Where's it at and what's going on? Do you think this will change the NCAA?
Thanks, and thanks for all you do.
TT -
We're going to expand on this in tomorrow's TFP, but here's a rough outline.
The Ed O'Bannon case against the NCAA is set to close today. The verdict is expected sometime in August.
The NCAA has repeatedly shot itself in the foot. The judge has seemed to be puzzled by the numbers and the confused by certain aspects. The plantiffs' attorneys have hammered the claims of amateurism and the silly statements from NCAA bigwigs that paying players would hurt the sports in terms of popularity. (Hey, we're not sure paying college players is the right way or not, but we are sure, it would not hurt attendance Saturday in Auburn or Knoxville or Athens if Johnny Vol Quarterback was getting an extra $2,000 a semester.)
As for changing the NCAA, this could be a whiff by the plantiffs (which seems doubtful considering how the NCAA has so NCAA-handled this mess) or it could set of minor changes or it could be a giant leap toward completely overhauling - and possibly destroying - the NCAA as we know it.
So we're dealing with a lot of stuff here. Candlesticks.
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From PR Fan
Man, I love Press Row. You guys are awesome.
I tried to call in the other day about the man movies and could not get through. How did you not have Shawshank there? Then I tried to get through for the trivia to win tickets to that thing
Here's a question for you if you had the following over/unders for wins for area college football teams, what are you taking: Auburn - 9, UT - 6, Alabama - 10, Georgia - 9, UTC - 9.
Thanks and get paschall to comment today on the show.
PR fan -
Thanks for the kind words and for listening and reading.
We kicked around some over/unders last week maybe. But we're happy to go again:
Auburn - over 9. We think the Tigers could be undefeated going into Georgia and may enter the Iron Bowl 11-0.
Alabama - over 10. We really think the Tide will be 11-0 entering the Iron Bowl. Wow, two 11-0 teams in the Iron Bowl. Man that would shut the state of Alabama down for a week.
Georgia Bulldogs UGA logoGeorgia - Great number. We'll say over because we believe getting Clemson early is a great advantage.
UT - That's the perfect number, and we believe buying the half either way would be. We'll say under - but we believe 6-6 is where they finish the regular season, but if we have to go over or under, 5-7 is more likely than 7-5. To get to 7-5, UT would have to get two wins from Alabama, at Ole Miss, at South Carolina, Florida, at Georgia, Missouri and at Oklahoma.
UTC - Over. We think Central Michigan is beatable in the opener in fact. Big things in store for the Mocs.
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From JMC
I have never heard of the Lindy's and Athlon's FCS ranking (nor do I think anyone else has). I know the folks at ESPN or various talk radio hosts across the country could really care less because it's not the Big 5 or something they sell on Walgreen's magazine rack but are those the top ranking systems in the nation regarding FCS schools?
JMC -
Sorry for the super delay.
The guys at The Sports Network do the best coverage of the FCS across all conferences.
As for those other magazines, we're not sure we can ever recall them ranking FCS schools before, either. They very well may have been doing it all along, but it's not something we remember. Plus, those magazines in a lot of ways are like summer reruns - they are fun to review, but not exactly groundbreaking.
The other place we'd look is at Phil Steele. Dude previews and ranks nearly everything. His magazine can be tough to read - the print is SUPER small and he writes in a code that is all his own - but there is no doubting that Phil does his research and is well informed.
So it goes, and needless to say, we're excited for the season, too.