5-at-10: Madness primer with four to study, As QB World Turns, Fergie's bounce back, Rushmore of best sports analysts who are former players

Alabama freshman guard Collin Sexton has averaged an impressive 18.5 points per game this season, but that pales to the average of 30.3 points per game for Oklahoma freshman guard Trae Young. The Crimson Tide will host the Sooners on Saturday afternoon.
Alabama freshman guard Collin Sexton has averaged an impressive 18.5 points per game this season, but that pales to the average of 30.3 points per game for Oklahoma freshman guard Trae Young. The Crimson Tide will host the Sooners on Saturday afternoon.

College hoops primer

OK, we are now less than a month from the NCAA tournament.

We have said since Christmas that this was going to be the most unpredictable tournament in years for several reasons. First, there are no truly elite teams. Second, the Blue Blood programs have shown more warts this season than at any time during the one-and-done trend. Third, there are several teams - MTSU is ranked for the first time in program history - that have second-weekend skills without a second-weekend-type of name.

As for that last one, if you saw a second-round game between MTSU and, say, Michigan, it would be normal for most of us to assume the Big Ten power program should win. Well, Michigan - which in a lot of ways is built like Auburn with an over-dependence on 3s - would have their hands full with Kermit Davis' bunch.

So with that as a background - and with the knowledge that our next contest will be the "Last In, First Out challenge" - here are four teams that caught our eye over the extended weekend of action. (They will be listed with record, Poll ranking, RPI ranking and projected Joe Lunardi seed in parenthesis.) (Side note: We will try to do this each Tuesday from now to the Tuesday before the tournament. Deal? Deal.)

Kansas (22-6, No. 8, 6th in RPI, No. 1 seed in the West). After a sketchy win over the weekend at home against West Virginia in which the Jayhawks attempted 33 more free throws than the Mountaineers (seriously), Kansas was impeccable Monday night in blasting Oklahoma. Impeccable. How good was Kansas against an Oklahoma team that is starting to swoon? Well, it put 104 on the board (the most ever allowed by the Sooners in a Big 12 game), made 60.9 percent of its shots, 90.9 percent of its free throws and 55.1 percent of its 3s. And yes, that is the outlier and extremely hard to duplicate. But it also shows us that Kansas' A-game is better than everyone else's A-game, because what the Jayhawks did last night beats everyone in the country this side of the Warriors, Cavs, Rockets and Thunder.

Auburn (23-4, No. 12, 7th in RPI, No. 2 in the South). The country's best story was broken when Anfernee McLemore's leg snapped Saturday in Columbia. Eight scholarships. One rotation player taller than 6-7. And these latest revelations come for a team that is already supremely dependent on 3s and FTs, and if we know anything about NCAA tournament basketball we have to remember that a) the bigger venues make for tougher shooting lines sight-lines and b) who knows how the jack-leg officiating will be in bigger moments. As Paschall and I discussed on Press Row on Monday, if Auburn does not win another game this season (which seems highly unlikely, but you get the idea), it will still have been a wonderfully magical season. And among all the great motivators and play-callers out there, there may not be anyone else Auburn fans would want to band together a collection of undersized castoffs or have on the sideline to diagram one late play for one must-have basket than Bruce Pearl. But the "what ifs" from this Auburn bunch could be Mississippi River-level deep.

Rhode Island (21-4, No. 18, 8th in RPI, No. 5 in the South). The Rams' loss last Friday ended a 16-game winning streak. But is this team for real? Before Friday's setback, Rhode Island had losses to arguably its three best opponents on the schedule - Nevada, Virginia and Alabama. Yes, there is a one-point win over Seton Hall on the resume back in November, but the Atlantic 10 is down compared to previous years and is projected to be a two-team league. (Rhode Island and St. Bonaventure, which beat RIU last Friday.)
Missouri (17-9, receiving votes, 24th in RPI, No. 7 in the East). The Fighting Cuonzos had won five straight - all of them by single-digits for what that's worth - before Saturday's tough-luck 64-63 loss at LSU. The Tigers appear to be some what comfortable in their invite at the moment, but with Kentucky, a trip to Vandy and Arkansas among their final four regular-season games, Missouri could be a steal in our challenge if they become a double-digit seed. And if Cuonzo and Co. get Michael Porter Jr. back - here's more but it sounded last week like he was on track to return - even if Missouri does not fall to a double-digit seed, as an 8 or a 9, the Tigers with Porter would be a nightmare draw for any No. 1 seed.

The Madness is close.

As the Quarterback turns

There is no better NFL offseason soap opera than "As the Quarterback Turns" and in truth, for NFL teams with a quarterback they do not trust or a complete hole atop the depth chart at the most important position in all of sports, it's understandable.

Here are the latest tidbits we saw.

There's news that Baker Mayfield will not attend the draft. https://www.yahoo.com/sports/mayfield-reportedly-wont-attend-nfl-081844157.html Smart move in our view for a multitude of reasons. One, dude is trying to shake the fair-or-unfair Johnny Football comparisons. Being low-key when you make life-changing money and doing it at home (maybe have the family dog in the TV shot) is a great start. Secondly, while we think Mayfield will be a top-10 pick, what happens if some dominos start falling and Mayfield's name starts dropping down the board?

Then there's the Bill "Get off my lawn and turn your music down" Polian rant that Lamar Jackson needs to be a wide receiver because he's not accurate enough. Say what? Not to pay the race card here, but everyone from Mel Kiper to the regulars at Mel's Diner have Josh Allen as a top-10 dude and his career completion percentage against worse competition is lower than Jackson. In fact, we think guys like Jackson, and that type of versatility in today's game adds extra value.

There also is new that the Jets are willing to pay what it takes to move up to get a quarterback, which begs the question, would you rather have four-plus years of Sam Darnold or four years of Nick Foles, who is 29? Because it's going to take multiple picks for the Jets to get to No. 1, when they could deal this year's 1 (No. 6 overall) and next year's to Philly for Foles now.

Now there is news that Denver is coveting Kirk Cousins as much as any team in the league, and considering the Broncos have a defense ready-made to win now as well as some nice offensive pieces on the perimeter that makes sense. Makes even more sense when you factor in Cousins is almost assuredly going to be a free agent, so the Broncos could then use the No. 5 overall pick on an o-lineman.

Ah, good times.

Big girls can cry

There were a lot of us who had some jokes for Fergie and her rendition of what we think was intended to be the National Anthem.

Side note: If you mess up in the public eye, it's best to stay off Twitter friends. Some of the social media posts after Fergie's rendition of the anthem were more stingers than zingers.

From Roseanne Barr: "Who saw Fergie's national anthem performance at the NBA All Star Game? I think mine was better low-key"

From Desus & Mero: "Even Trump voters were kneeling for Fergie's NBA All-Star Game rendition of the National Anthem"

From johnjay van es: "Fergie admits her national anthem at the NBA All-Star Game "didn't strike the intended tone." Actually, I think it struck the perfect tone. As long as the tone she was going for was "waterboarding victim."

From Charlie Tuna: "I listened to Fergie singing her version of the National Anthem, and I have to say that she's got quite a range of voice. She went from sounding like a garbage disposal with a bone stuck in it, to a puppy getting its tail stepped on, and back again."

OK, first things first. Roseanne's way worse. Way bleepin' worse if for no other reason than she grabbed her crotch and spat on the field as the boos were coming down on her head.

Secondly, as we all took shots and yucked up the moment, let it be know that while we will forever be puzzled by the simple fact that Fergie has eight Grammys (Mariah Carey has five for perspective), the way Fergie has handled this should be recorded and reused as play No. 1 from the textbook of dealing with modern-day miscues.

Fergie rolled the dice. It hit a dead-sounding snake eyes.

She owned it and apologized.

"I've always been honored and proud to perform the national anthem and last night I wanted to try something special for the NBA. I'm a risk taker artistically, but clearly this rendition didn't strike the intended tone. I love this country and honestly tried my best."

Now please note she did not offer the passive-aggressive "Sorry if this offended you" mumbo-jumbo that somehow flips a person's mistake on the audience.

Nope Fergie owned it, and made sure that there was no disrespect intended, which in previous generations would not be necessary but in today's times, when nothing - not even the anthem and honoring the military are sacred - that was another well-crafted sentence.

And truth be told, it's hard to find someone who has gone from national punchline to a place of national empathy more quickly.

When done right, the star-failing-truly-apologizing-and-then-being-embraced is a storyline as American as Whitney's rendition of the National Anthem.

This and that

- After last weekend's wardrobe malfunction for the ice skater who went Nipsy Russell in front of God and everyone (Do you think the announcer was thinking, "She held nothing back with that performance" as it was happening?) there has to be a shift in the entire sport right? You train for four years (at least), and you have at most three minutes to make the most of all that effort as a remix of "Imagine" or "Hallelujah" blares over the speakers. And it leave all the effort, time and money in the hands of a $3 sequined strap seems silly. Here's betting every female skater has some sort of protection so even if her entire top falls off, there's still not eye-to-nipple contact. (And yes, we thought we were headed for much bigger things in the journalism world than ever writing the phrase "eye-to-nipple contact." Alas.)

- Re-reading some of the figure skating details, apparently the French team that went all Justin and Janet the other night rallied get the silver medal in their event. That's showing a lot of heart. Get your mind out of the gutter, Spy.

- Because we all are so in tune with the ridiculous nature of the NCAA, here's betting you had the same reaction when you read this headline: Clemson signee BT Potter, a kicker from Rock Hill, S.C., won $1,000 scholarship and free Chick-Fil-A sammiches for a year by being named the Anderson Player of the Year. There's no way this is not an NCAA red flag for the Clemson folks, right? Sure, FBI agents are filling out a completely different kind of bracket to start eliminating college basketball programs. The questions at Michigan State are too disgusting for many of us to want to even think about. Rick Pitino is still Rick Pitino. The investigations at (fill in school X) were botched so bad or ignored so overtly that Maxwell Smartt was even embarrassed. But some high school kid who won some vote as his area's player of the year probably has a file in Indianapolis home office because he may or may not get extra pickles on one too many chicken sammiches.

- And while we touched on the overriding negativity of our society as a whole on A2 today, man here's the prime example of it. One of the two comments on the CBSsports.com story on BT Potter was actually bemoaning Chick-Fil-A and the amount of sodium in their food. Egad. Hey, we understand the lightning rod nature of a company standing up for its Christian point of view, and Chick-Fil-A has taken some backlash for that. But when we are to a point that we can't agree on the deliciousness of the Chick-Fil-A sammich, well, the terrorists have won.

- We talked some on Press Row about the NASCAR overnight ratings for Daytona - the 5.1 overnight rating was the worst in at least a decade - and we will break down the complete numbers when we see them. Yes, there was some Olympic competition, but by comparison, the NBA All-Star drew its best numbers in a Winter Olympic year since 2002, when NBC televised the game in between coverage of the Winter games. The final actual numbers have the NBA game up slightly in ratings (4.3 to a 4.2) but slightly down in viewers (7.65 million to 7.75 million) compared to last year.

- You know the drill. Weeds writes college hoops, we read Weeds' writing on college hoops. It's right there between "Do not run with scissors" and "waiting 30 minutes after eating before going swimming" on life's list of solid advice. Here's today's offering.

- And if you thought you had your fill of Red Sox-Yankees coverage on the major networks, well, considering the offseason offensive acquisitions those rivals added, get ready for 2005-levels of Boston-NYC overload. Boston reportedly added a much-needed power bat in J.D. Martinez, who led the majors in slugging percentage last year. How much was that pop needed? Well, Boston hit 168 homers as a team last year, so Martinez' 45 homers in 119 games with the Tigers an D'Backs will help. By comparison, last year, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and Didi Gregorius - the heart of the Yankees' projected 2018 lineup - combined to hit 169 home runs. Game on.

- Here are a couple of college football coaching tidbits. First Jim McElwain must like the sharks in and around Lake Michigan, as the former Florida head coach has joined the Wolverines staff as Jim Harbaugh's wide receivers coach. Also of note, Alabama reportedly has lured away Miami defensive line coach Craig Kuligowski for the same job in Tuscaloosa. Yes, Saban, who is bothered more by assistants leaving for lateral jobs than anything on this planet this side of someone insulting Miss Terry, just lured a coach away from a lateral gig. So there that.

- Ok, we thought we were done, but then we saw this story in which American curling and Kirstie Alley are going Tweet-to-Tweet in a social media dust-up. Aces.

Today's questions

It's a Tuesday.

True of false, Kansas makes the Final Four.

True or false, the Chick-Fil-A is far-left of the fast-food Rushmore of options.

True or false, you are still watching the Winter Olympics.

True or false, you'd rather have your pick of any rookie quarterback in this class than Nick Foles.

As for today, Rihanna is 30 today.

Kurt Cobain would have been 51. Man dude's been dead almost a quarter of a century.

Cindy Crawford is 52 today.

My man Chuck Barkley is 55 today. Happy Birthday Chuck.

In honor of Chuck, let's go best sports studio analysts who were former players. Go.

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