Gang, great week and thanks for the well wishes.
Twentieth Century FoxEddie Murphy portrays the captain of a crew of tiny, human-looking aliens that arrives on Earth in the perfect disguise - a spaceship shaped like the spitting image of the captain.
We normally just answer questions here, but we need to pay homage to the funniest person of our generation, Mr. Eddie Murphy. He is 54 today.
From the "Talks too much" studios, what's your Rushmore of Eddie Murphy characters - movie and SNL - of all time?
From JC
Hey Jay,
First I must tell you how much I love the 5 @ 10 and Press Row! I won the tickets to see Dale Jr at the Best of Preps on Press Row awhile back, so here is a belated Thank You.
NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr., answers questions from the audience at the 2014 Best of Preps Banquet on Thursday at the Chattanooga Convention Center in Chattanooga, Tenn. Earnhardt was the guest speaker at the annual event which honors the area's best prep athletes.This has probably already been asked but are you going to do a Master contest this year?
If you need a new format you may want to take a look at this LiveGolfPools.com
We use this site at my favorite watering hole ronniesbarandgrill.com Of course we do it for "real" entertainment purposes and you are more than welcome to join us if you like.
Keep up the great work.
JC -
We are definitely will have the fifth annual Masterfully Mastering the Masters Contest. The rules are simple: Pick five golfers in the Augusta field and the top four count. Where they finish in the standings is the number of points each player earns and the lowest total wins. For example, if you have Jason Day (who we have as the favorite) and he wins that's worth one point.
Questions?
And we'll check out your contest for sure.
We're always up for some entertainment.
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From Stewwie
Jay, for the bag, should college basketball consider implementing the defensive 3-second rule like the one that the NBA has successfully used over the past decade? I was skeptical at first when the NBA first announced the change, but I believe it has helped improve overall play and flow of the game by allowing better spacing on the court.
- Stewwie
In truth college basketball should consider any and everything that could improve the "overall play and flow of the game" as you stated.
FILE - In this May 27, 2015, file photo, workers at Lucas Oil Stadium install the court in Indianapolis as they prepare to host the men's NCAA Final Four college basketball games on April 4 and 6, 2015. NCAA officials say they are troubled by the new law in Indiana that critics fear could permit discrimination against gays and lesbians, and they "will assess all our championships in the state of Indiana," including next year's women's Final Four. Other sports organizations from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, to the NBA's Pacers to the PGA have all scrambled to tell the public that they oppose discrimination. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File) Geno was right - joke was over the top - but the cut of his quotes is hard to dispute in today's college basketball. And since he's driving a monopoly, the women's game is not much better.
We're not sure how many of the rule changes will have a tangible impact on the game of college basketball. If you lower the shot clock, we will have mediocre at best point guards rushing even more and the game that is already out of control will play faster. It will mean more shots not better shots or better shooting percentages. How is that a better game?
The wider lane may help, but only marginally because how often does three seconds get called anyway, and the only real way to space the floor is to have better shooters.
We like where you are going with the three-second defensive rule, which in normal terms mean helping defensive players can not be in the lane clogging things up without guarding someone. Here's a more detailed definition of the rule http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/Basketball_101_Defensive_Thre-160312-822.html.
We're all for giving that a chance.
The biggest way to fix the product of college basketball is to blow up the draft process. Not sure that will ever be alter or changed, but the one-and-dones are invading and eroding every level of the game. We all know what it means on the floor with the lack of continuity and chemistry, but it also resets the recruiting structure each cycle too.
OK, we know what it's doing to the top level programs like Kentucky and Duke, who get the best players every year and reboot and are hoping to reload.
That means fewer and fewer programs are getting the upper-level high school players because the elite schools are getting three blue chips a recruiting cycle rather than getting one per cycle because they have more openings because the players are leaving quickly.
So the rest of the power conference teams are fighting for the scraps from Long Calipari's table.
Then the mid-majors become all-too often transfer heavy or build for a potential tournament run every three years with older players.
Think of the most aesthetically enjoyable teams this year - Notre Dame chief among them - and other than Duke, they have a number of experienced players on the floor.
Great question my man.
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From John T.
You have been pretty light on Braves talk this spring. Are you mad that your boy Danny Struggla's not with the team any more?
They start next week so what do you think about their chances?
Thanks and keep up the great stuff here and on Press Row.
John T -
We think the Braves are better than the recent poll that had them as the 29th best team out of the 30 in the major leagues.
Atlanta Braves catcher Evan Gattis (24) follows through on a solo-home run in the second inning of a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies Sunday, May 25, 2014, in Atlanta.We do not think the Braves will be battling for prominent positions in the TFP sports section when football starts, however.
Here are five bold predictions for the Braves:
Craig Kimbrel goes 49-out-50 in save chances, which means he'll be in on more than 60 percent of the club's 75 wins. He's that good, and the Braves are going to be in a lot of close games.
The offense will hit better but will still struggle to score.
Nick Markakis will be the leader in the clubhouse. That's why he was brought in in his early 30s at more than $10 million per as the club rebuilds.
Eric Young Jr. will be the Braves best leadoff option since Rafael Furcal.
Whether we call him Melvin or B.J., when the last standing Upton returns from the DL later this spring, he is going to cause more Southern men heartburn than anything this side of Krystal's.
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From a lot of you on social media
Will you answer your Rushmores from the week?
Monday was Rushmore of sports doctors: Dr. J, Dr. James Andrews, Dr. Frank Jobe, Dr. Jack Ramsey
Tuesday was Rushmore of monuments: We'll go the Statue of Liberty, "Look kids Big Ben, Parliament," The Golden Gate Bridge, and of course, Mount Rushmore
Wednesday was Rushmore of fools: We did this one on Press Row on April Fools Day. We had tomfoolery, "Pity the Fool," Fool's gold, and Phyllis from Mulga (the crazy woman who calls the Finebaum Show).
Thursday was Rushmore of sports moments of the last 20 years (in answer to the ESPN.com poll): The Kick Six, Dale Earnhardt's death at Daytona, David Tyree's helmet catch that helped the Giants beat the Pats, Brandi Chastain's goal in the 1999 women's World Cup (although we wrestled with the last one between that and Phelps at the Olympics and Ali at the Olympics and Piazza's homer after 9/11).
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From Jammer
Jay! Still reading & loving the radio gig! Tho I don't get the chance to respond much...your article on "violent felons" is SPOT on...however, the validity of your words will fall on deaf ears. Saban et all in the SEC put 'winning 1st at apparently all costs/risks'..if a kid can flat out play the rest is history until the kid screws up (again). That's like Kentucky's 'student-athletes' BS from Coach Cal in BBall or Cardale Jones (Ohio State) asking 'why do we have to go to class?' line once...as for the Barnes hire at UT, the Athletic Dept has never spent top dollar on it's basketball hires...u get what u pay for..if you're not 'invested' to spend in today's marketplace (Hart tried to say he was the other day) then forget the top coaching prospects for $3M or even $2.75M per yr..they ARE the paying price...but not at a football school, regardless of what the 'spinner's say in pressers! Question for your Mailbag...how long does the UT Lady Vol BBall coach get a pass now? The last wave of Pat Summitt recruits are now gone...and watching the last 2 games in the tourney proved they are nowhere near the competition level of the past..fair or unfair? Can Holly recruit? Coach from the bench? Make any in-game adjustments or is the program ready for a downward spiral? Thanks & rock on!
Jammer -
Tennessee guard Andraya Carter (14) lands atop Boise State guard Yaiza Rodriguez Ortego (10) in the 1st half of the Lady Vols' NCAA tournament basketball game against the Boise State Broncos on Saturday, March 21, 2015, at the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn.Completely fair question, and in truth, the furor from the Lady Vols supporters - more on that in a moment - would be much louder and ore focused if not for the Donnie Tyndall implosion.
Reworking the men's program has consumed the headlines and since they advanced to the Regional Final, the Lady Vols were a shoulder shrug. Yes, there was a time not that long ago that Tennessee in the Regional Finals was the baseline expectation, but since they have not been to the Final Four since 2008, well, it was a step forward this year.
But Hart and the men's basketball debacle took the line of questioning off the stagnation of what once was the greatest program in all of women's college sports. It has since been passed by UConn in hoops, and there are some others in other sports that have entered the conversation.
Add to that the heat and intensity from the growing argument about potentially doing away with the Lady Vols name and making everyone under the Vols logo and there are some old-school UT women's basketball fans that are hot about the entire situation.
And, while the name debate is another floater in Hart's punch bowl, the unrest with the program and where it is nationally falls on Holly.
Yes, they had a big injury this year, but this is more about the decline in our view than the end last week.
The Lady Vols are not the nation's best program - heck, they are now just one of the best in the current SEC not the overwhelming heavyweight - and it's a completely fair to question whether Holly can lead them back to the level of truly elite.