OK, gang, we had a slew of emails, and some of you will get rolled to next week, especially the NFL combine questions.
(No, Ted, I don't have a best guess on who will run the fastest 40 time you gambling degenerate.)
We will do the week's Rushmores around lunch after we tape our Southeastern14 podcast with Brian Edwards. Deal? Deal.
We will follow the rules, though, with Hargis on preps. Check it here.
Now to the bag, and as always, you guys and gals are excellent.
From Susan
I love women's basketball — college of course not the women's NBA thing — and appreciate your write-ups of Caitlin Clark when you do them.
She is wonderful.
Do you think she could succeed playing in men's college basketball?
Thanks and please keep doing what you are doing. It is the reason I still subscribe since we no longer get a daily paper where we live.
Thanks!
Susan,
Thanks for reading and the kind words.
I think Caitlin Clark is the most popular and dominant player in all of college basketball and could make that claim for the last 30 years since Christian Laettner was breaking the hearts all across the Commonwealth.
I think she understands her importance to women's basketball because she clearly will take a pay cut to be the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft rather than returning to Iowa next year.
That said, in my belief, if Caitlin Clark transferred tomorrow to the 423, she would not get meaningful minutes for UTC's men's team.
And I do not intend any slight to either the UTC men's program, which has 20 wins or to Ms. Clark, who has worked her ponytail off to be the best scorer her sport has ever seen.
Simply put, she could not compete athletically.
Short story long, after my failed attempt to walk-on for the Auburn basketball team, I was kind of an intramural and student-activity center basketball big-timer. That's the background.
The meaning is when I was at AU, Joe Ciampli had women's hoops rolling. Part of that reason was because Ruthie Bolton and Carolyn Jones were superstars in women's hoops and were Olympians.
When they played on the main court at the Student-Act, they had a hard time getting a shot off against very mediocre players like me.
The women's game and its players have improved tremendously since then, of course, but the athleticism is undeniable.
Clark is 6 feet tall, which makes her a women's college basketball version of Larry Bird.
She's taller than most and can shoot better than all.
That's a recipe for success.
But by comparison — and using the UTC roster since that's where we live — she is the same height as Honor Huff, the Mocs point guard, who would dominate Clark in almost every matchup.
Thanks again for reading.
From JoeDone
While Dalton (Knecht) is him, can the Vols elevate to a sure-fire No. 1 seed by going at least 3-1 in the final murderer's row closing out the regular season?
Vs. No. 11 Auburn — W
@ No. 14 Alabama — ?
@ No. 18 South Carolina — ?
Vs. No. 16 Kentucky — ?
4-0 is a no-doubt 1 seed. Going 2-2 or 1-3 keeps 'em a 2-seed.
This would seem reasonable regardless of the SEC Tournament outcome.
JoeDon,
Yeah 4-0 would clinch a 1, because there are going to some Ls for other 1 contenders and other than UConn, I think every other 1 contender could slide, especially Kansas.
It also puts a fair question on whether you would want a 1 seed.
Sure, it's great pub and UT will almost assuredly have a CBS camera in the team room, be it in Nashville of Knoxville come selection Sunday.
But I'd rather be a 2 in the South regional with Houston as the 1 if I was a UT fan than being a 1 in the midwest region with Kansas as the 2 and UK as the 4.
Not sure with the balance and the lack of a dominant team that a) seeding means less than placement in my mind and b) there could easily be a 12-seeded Samford or someone of that ilk playing on Sunday of the second weekend.
From Mack
I enjoy the 5@10 Jay. How did it get it's name?
Mack,
Wow. Can't tell you how much I needed this email this morning, though you will read more about why in a moment.
First, the 5-at-10 started in late October 2010 as a way for me to keep writing. I got into this business to write about sports. I took promotions — and pay increases — and found myself doing more meetings, budgets and office work than writing.
So I started an online column and called it the 5-at-10, which was five things I was thinking about at 10 a.m.
In truth, there are now versions of a morning online round-up column thing on almost every major sports website from The Athletic, to CBSsports, to Outkick to you name it.
And whether they know about us or not, or ever have seen this or not, the 5-at-10 was the first one that I ever knew about.
So yeah, we're The Godfather in this realm.
Take the gun, leave the cannoli.
From Chas
Kentucky legend Kenny Walker, a First Team All-American in 1986, believes Antonio Reeves is one of the most underrated and under-appreciated players in school history.
I have cast my vote for The Tennessee Stud for POY, but I agree Reeves is under-appreciated.
Do you agree? Which other SEC roundballers are under-appreciated?
Chas,
Of course I agree, especially after moving Heaven and Earth to land five tickets for my family and my son's best bud to get to the AU-UK game.
Yeah, UK smoked the Tigers, but it still was a great time.
Despite the math, Reeves was every bit as unstoppable against an AU defense that day — in Auburn mind you — than Lord Dalton was Wednesday night. He just had more trustworthy options. That is why I think UK has true Final Four dreams.
Big picture, this year, underrated, well, there are more than a few.
The nation does not know about Florida's dynamic backcourt, and those cats are playing their best ball as we flip the calendar to March. That's a good thing. World meet Walter Clayton, Walter meet the world.
Josh Hubbard, the Mississippi State freshman, would be a dunk in most years for freshman of the year, but Reed Sheppard is him.
But part of my love of this question is the big picture.
Like Allan Houston is underrated in his place in SEC history because he team's sucker. For Pete Maravich's sake, Allan was so good he got his dad a HC job in the SEC, which may have been right there with Danny Manning and Pistol Pete on the very first legal NIL deals if we are being honest.
There were a slew of underrated SEC players, especially back in the 80s and 90s when the world revolved around the ACC or the Big East.
Vernon Maxwell was him. Latrell Sprewell was a dude.
Maybe the most underrated was Chris Jackson at LSU because at the end of his career some dude named Shaq came to Red Stick.
I could name one for every school but I am running out of time.
Great question, Chas.
From Golfguru
Kurt Busch is retired, genius.
GG,
Yep, the elephant in the room, and your comment on yesterday's 5-at-10 paled in comparison to the emails I got calling me far worse than genius.
Thursday's Jay's Plays — my afternoon email that give my best gambling picks and projections — was my worst ever.
No, a 1-2 mark is not the worst ever. We whiffed badly on Nebraska and UCLA but hit the under on ECU-Memphis. Alas.
Heck, we had a bagel-for-2 just earlier this week.
No, the reference from GG is that I confused Kurt Busch, who has retired because of head injuries, with Kyle Busch.
(Side question: Why did Busch beer not back one of the Busch brothers?)
So it goes I guess. I've made mistakes before, and let's be clear, Kurt is not driving Sunday, so I am backing Kyle.
And I never professed to be a genius. Although I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once.
Have a great weekend, friends.