Morning folks.
From the "Talks too much" studios, time to make the dough, nuts.
UTC hoops
War Mocs.
We have seen our fair share of UTC hoops. Yes, there's some of you regulars around these parts who have seen way, Way, WAY more.
But from a recent perspective, last night would have been a classic UTC implosion.
Big game at home early in the conference schedule. Nice buzz building around the program. Casual interest starting to build.
UTC builds a big lead only to unravel.
Not this time. Not this team.
UTC built a 22-point lead and despite Mercer rallying back within a bucket, the Mocs stood strong. Here's TFP UTC ace Mean Gene Henley's account of the action.
As TFP ace sports columnist and college hoops guru Mark Wiedmer tells us here this bunch has a lot of players you can trust.
It was Justin Tuoyo and Greg Pryor last night. It has been an assortment of guys all year.
It's been awesome to watch, and last night it delivered a double-digit win over the next best team in the SoCon.
Here's our question: If UTC extends this winning streak to double-digits, could this bunch wiggle into the top 25, not unlike how the women Mocs did last year?
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Baseball Hall of Fame
The newest class of baseball Hall of Famers will be announced tonight. There is a four-hour special on the MLB Network - four hours to announce at most four names? - that starts at 3 p.m. The names are expected around 6.
OK, we know Ken Griffey Jr. will be announced. In fact, there's a chance he may get the largest percentage of votes ever, passing Tom Seaver's 98.82 percent in 1992. (Yes, that in the eyes of the crotchety baseball writers who vote for this thing that Seaver and now Griffey are the most universal Hall of Fame choices speaks volumes about the flaws in the system. More on this in a moment.)
As for who will join Griffey, well, the most likely name being tossed around is Mike Piazza. Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines also are gaining support according to the informal tracking polls.
Piazza, the most accomplished offensive catcher in the game's history, should have been elected on the first-ballot vote. But, because of the lingering marks of PEDs on this generation of players. All of the evidence against Piazza was a bad case of back acne and whispers.
Before we let this spin into that discussion again, we'll just say that we hope Piazza gets in. We think Bagwell is close and Raines is a better candidate than most realize, but the simple fact that two of the best of all-time - Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens - are still in limbo seems unreal.
Now, there will be a more forgiving voting block this time after the MLB changed its voting structure. Voters who have not covered baseball in the last 10 years no longer have a ballot. This ended the lifetime voter, who tended to have a hard-line, no-PED, smaller Hall view.
It also will be interesting to see who gets named on less than five percent of the ballots, meaning they will be cleared of consideration on future ballots.
Two of those guys - Gary Sheffield and Sammy Sosa - have sure-fire Hall of Fame numbers and may be wiped away before the current changes on the PED generation.
So it goes.
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Browns GM
OK, we're rarely stunned by things that happen in sports.
The Cleveland Browns stunned us Tuesday by hiring two executives. Remember this is the franchise that changes directions about as often as Jomo changes socks, so we entirely expected some retread reboot.
Well, the Browns have decided what they are doing simply is brutal. And sometimes accurate self-realization is a mighty difficult hurdle to clear.
The Browns are going so far outside the box, they will either be geniuses or an unmitigated disaster. And since the Browns are already an unmitigated disaster, well, they have very little to lose.
Cleveland hired Paul DePodesta as chief strategy officer.
They already had promoted Sashi Brown to executive vice president of football operations.
In additional to the different titles, the Browns are looking for different ideas.
DePodesta was a VP of scouting and player development in New York. Except he built the Mets into a championship contender. Yes, he's a renowned baseball guy - he was played by Jonah Hill as Billy Beane's sidekick in "Moneyball" - and an analytics monster.
This will be very interesting to see how the transition goes for an NFL franchise looking for an empirical edge both in scouting and organizational structure. That's DePodesta's strengths.
His lone professional football job was with the now-defunct Baltimore Stallions of the CFL. Yes, he played football at Harvard but this is a leap of faith, and a leap of organizational transformation.
And it's from top to bottom, considering Brown is also a numbers guy with a law degree and a background in analytics.
The next big question will be who will they hire to be the head coach of this mad science experiment? They certainly are not going to find an old-school Belichick or Saban or a guy like that who would roll the dice with his career under such a new structure and with such a huge leap of analytical faith.
We are surprised and intrigued by the moves. We now hope the Browns and owner Jimmy Haslam can have the patience to give this a legitimate chance to succeed.
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This and that
- Ben Simmons scored 14 points and had 10 rebounds for LSU, which hammered UK last night. Simmons battled foul trouble, and in truth was outperformed by teammates Tim Quarterman (21 points, 10 boards) and Craig Victor (15-12). In fact, the biggest story of the Tigers 85-67 home housing of UK was the Wildcats' overall indifference. Tyler Ulis and Jamal Murray were the only 'Cats that even looked interested. Need proof of UK's apathy? The Tigers trio of Simmons, Quarterman and Victor had as many rebounds as the entire UK roster. Plus, take away Ulis and Murray, and UK's 'supporting' cast was 8-of-25 from the field and 4-of-14 from the foul line. Ouch-standing.
- Oakland, San Diego and St. Louis made pitches to the NFL to move to a new stadium in L.A. For those who may not recall, two of those franchises - the Raiders and the Rams - have spent time calling L.A. home. At most the league will only accept the proposals of two of them. (The vote requires at least 24 of the 32 NFL owners and will be held next week.) St. Louis is really putting all of its eggs in the moving basket. According to this report, the Rams' pitch says St. Louis is really a two-sport town, meaning baseball and hockey. If St. Louis does not get to go to L.A., it may not be welcomed back to St. Louis. Hey, we'd love to have the Chattanooga Rams. Does Finley work for you guys? We're sure Paul Smith will pressure wash that place before you swing by.
- More NFL: According to this report, former USC head coach Steve "Otis from Mayberry" Sarkisian is hoping to get back into the NFL as a QB coach or offensive coordinator. OK, we have several questions here. (Some of these questions may be loaded Thank you.) Seriously, here's hoping Sark gets his life back together. As for the obvious, well, a Sarkisian-Johnny Football quarterback meeting would be a must-attend event. And it would have to be in Vegas, right?
- One more NFL item: OK, Monday night was an amazing regular-season college hoops game with No. 1 Kansas beating No. 2 Oklahoma in triple overtime. It drew a 1.9 rating on ESPN, making it the most-watched Big Monday Big 12 game ever and the second-most watched Monday night college basketball game in ESPN history. By comparison to the monster that is the NFL, well, the Fox presume show with Terry and Howie and Jimmy and Mikey and whomever elsey averaged a 3.5. For a pregame show. Wow.
- First two shots fired in the Al Jazeera HGH report as Ryan Zimmerman and Ryan Howard file defamation lawsuits. It was the same report that claimed HGH was sent to Peyton Manning's wife, so we have to expect the Mannings to file suit too, right?
- Another entertainment question: We meant to swing by the comments section yesterday and address this, but alas, things pop up in every direction. Stewwie asked why would Vegas offer the chance to buy the half for such a low price (an extra 10 percent to the house on unentertaining picks)? Fair question, and the reason is because of volume. A lot of the people we know buy the half on just about everything. We elected to buy the half on 29 of 120 picks, or a touch more than 24 percent. But if you are consistently buying the half - especially on NFL games where upsets - it adds up. Remember, in a perfect world for Monday's NCAA title game, Vegas wants $1 million on Clemson +6.5 and $1 million on Alabama -6.5. That's a guaranteed $100,000. If they can convince everyone to buy the half, they are willing to roll the dice for a guaranteed $200,000 that Alabama would not win by an even 7. Vegas baby.
- Congrats to Justin S. for officially winning the Bowling for Bowls of Bowl Game Success (Bowler optional) contest with 91 points. Please email and we will connect on your fabulous showcase of prizes that includes a Mellow Mushroom gift card, some Masters swag, a sleeve of Pro V1s, a TFP umbrella, two future UTC hoops tickets and some other items. As for War Eagle Terry and the 5-at-10's battle for second, well, if Alabama wins, we'll keep the Masters cozy. If Clemson wins, and good triumphs over evil, well, then we will gladly offer up the second-place tidbit.
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Today's questions
Feel free to chime in on any of the above.
First, have you sent a mailbag question?
Second, baseball Hall of Fame picks: Whatcha' got?
Finally, Jameis Winston turns 22 today. We're sure he'll celebrate with crab legs. Crab legs.
What's your top-five list of young QBs you would build a franchise around?