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Great time
Oh joyous sports time, because this may be the best month in all of sports.
The Final Fours are this weekend, and we have a plethora of story lines:
— UConn's dominance in men's and an attempt to return to the pinnacle in the women's.
— Purude's Zach Edey's last moment in the U.S. hoops sun. C'mon folks, he's going to be a back-up big in an NBA that does not need true post players and post defenders who can't guard perimeter-capable 7-footers. I'll offer even money that if Edey is still drawing checks playing hoops in a half dozen years, it will be overseas. Moreover, if he has any eligibility left, I bet he would make more at Purdue than as a fringe first-round NBA pick.
— Longtime UTC coach and current NC State women's coach Wes Moore aims to hand top-ranked South Carolina its first loss. Side question for the group: Is Dawn Staley the best basketball coach in the country, men's or women's? Because we know the best college basketball player is...
— Some mediocre record-holder named Caitlin Clark is back in action Friday night.
— And that's not even discussing Alabama in its first Final Four and NC State's DJ Burns, who is getting chatter about trying the NFL — he's 6-foot-9, 275 and agile — if pro hoops does not work out. Side question part II: You're pick 20th in the draft and Edey and Burns are on the board. If you needed a big, which one you picking?
Baseball is still new. Augusta starts a week from today.
Yes, football is king and September and October are pretty sweet with the complete big four overlap, but April is mighty fine, too.
Speaking of great deals
And speaking of the NFL, a little thing called the NFL draft is a scant three weeks away. I love the draft. You know this.
And we'll get to the draft in the coming days and weeks, but the biggest NFL news Wednesday was the Buffalo Bills taking pennies on the dollar for Stefon Diggs, who had become a bona fide WR1.
Buffalo ate $31 million in dead cap space to trade Diggs to Houston for a second-round pick. Read that again.
Diggs has 508 catches in the last five years (second-most over that time frame) with 43 TDs (fourth-most) with Josh Allen. But things broke bad, and Buffalo could now be in the market to move up for a big-time wideout in a big-time wideout class.
(Side note: If you are Buffalo and you could package picks 28, 59 and 60 to Atlanta for 8 if Malik Nabors is still on the board. Which side says no right there?)
Also worth asking, has any NFL team completed a complete overhaul as quickly as Houston, which went from having a river of top-five picks to becoming arguably the biggest challenge for the Chiefs dream of a three-peat.
Couple of things to note here, however. The Bills were clearly done with Diggs, which means getting even a second-rounder for him has some value. The Texans now have a top-seven QB in CJ Stroud and added a bona fide WR1 in Diggs, RB1 (when healthy) Joe Mixon, pro bowguard Shaq Mason, arguably the best passing rushing combo in the league with Will Anderson and newcomer Danielle Hunter and a huge upgrade at TE with Dalton Schultz. Wow.
One final caveat: If Diggs is an all-timer — with a compensatory cap hit in the modern league — if memory serves only two Super Bowl winners in this century have had a Hall of Fame WR, and that was the 2000 Rams and the 2007 Colts. (And those teams also had Hall of Fame QB1s.)
Say what
There is truth. And there is fact.
Often those overlap. Occasionally they don't, sadly. I blame the media.
Kidding. Mostly.
But here's an interesting intersection. Bryson DeChambeau held a news conference and covered a variety of topics. For the most part, DeChambeau is about as pleasant as jock itch.
His talking points Wednesday are here.
"The fans are what drive this sport. If we don't have fans, we don't have golf. We are not up here entertaining. That's the most important thing as of right now, the low-hanging fruit. There's got to be a way to come together," said Bryson DeChambeau ahead of this week's LIV Golf Miami event at Trump National Doral. "It's not sustainable for sure, and we all respect that and recognize that and want the best for the game of golf. We all love this game and we want to keep playing it and we want to keep competing."
Uh, thanks, doctor. But you and your LIV defectors — hey for nine figures, no one is blaming you — are the ones that for the most part caused this, and to now bemoan the outcomes is hypocritical and flat out hollow.
Of course the game is divided.
Scottie Scheffler has been the best player on the planet in a game I love and I have watched five times more of Caitlin Clark than I have of the PGA Tour, and we are a week from Augusta.
To make all your decisions about money and personal preference and then complain about those decisions leaving your sport/industry (a sport those dudes will pledge their "love" for mind you) is arguably the most Bryson DeChambeau viewpoint ever.
What a clown, and again, I completely understand taking checks to hit a white ball in short pants that will pay for your grandkids' grandkids' country club dues.
But now to want empathy for the chasm your money lust created is, well, 100% jock itchish, no?
This and that
— Outside of the Olympics, I will watch more women's sports this weekend than any other weekend of the year since a) Caitlin Clark and the Women's Final Four starts Friday and b) the women's amateur event at Augusta National is this weekend, and in truth I always give that at least a little time because, well, it's Augusta Bleepin' National.
— So Hamilton County released something called the Picture of our Health. The website is here. First, they call it POOH, which is nonsensical. Second, according to their numbers, 10% of our county is food insecure, which a) seems kinda low to me and b) is heartbreaking for a county and country with this much to begin with and this much waste in general. Also of note, numbers show binge drinking is down 4%. Not sure who accounted for the other 2%, but I say your welcome for my role in that.
— My overarching opinion of Lil' Chuckie Fleischmann for the most part has been very low because he's been in office for well more than a decade, and I'm not entirely sure what (if anything) he's done (other get comfortable as a career politician) to help Chattanooga. But being one of six co-sponsors of a bill to rename Dulles International Airport after Donald J. Trump is pandering and grandstanding in the highest order. And it's a waste of time and just stupid. (This quote from Virginia Democrat Don Beyer was pretty spot on in my mind: "They know our airport will never be named after Trump," Beyer said of the bill's sponsors in a statement. "The point is to suck up to their Dear Leader." If Chuckie wants to name a federal pen Trump Correctional, fine. If Trump wants the airport named after him, then buy it. (Wait didn't one Trump International already go belly-up?) Man, anyone else the next four years are going to be a complete cluster regardless who wins in November?
— You know the rules. Here's Paschall on a fast-rising — literally — UT wide out making waves in spring practice.
— Braves did not play. Braves did not lose. Side question: Why in the name of Abner Doubleday does the schedule makers have the Atlanta Braves — Wednesday weather, 71 degrees and cloudy — playing in Chicago — one game cut short by cold rain, one game PPD by cold rain — in April? MLB needs a geography tech or something.
— Speaking of losing, and I will detail this more in Jay's Plays today. Hopefully. But the system changes resulted in the second whiffed Plays newsletter in the last week. I hate that those things happen but they do. That's the bad news, and we're aiming to fix it. The good news is not getting Jay's Plays Wednesday saved us a costly showing. Yep, my (imaginary) picks posted a nice 1-4.
— Yikes, some cat named Malachi Flynn dropped a 50-burger on the Hawks. Yes, that Malachi Flynn. It's the second most points from a non-starter in an NBA game ever.
— So Gary Player says the Masters is the worst Major, even behind the PGA Championship. JTC or JMac, can you guys make sure Gary gets his bitter pills and finds his way back to Alexian for afternoon activities later today. They're having butterscotch pudding on Thursday's now.
Today's questions
It's the ol' Anything Goes Thursday, and we have a few listed above for you cats.
We'll add a couple:
Butterscotch as a flavor, overrated, underrated, properly rated? (It's a hard pass for me. Feel the same about caramels, too.)
In honor of Malachi Flynn's heroics, Rushmore of the best Sixth Men (or would that be Sixth Mans in this rare instance) in NBA history?
As for today, April 4 (or 4/4), let's go here.
Rushmore of 44. Go, and remember the mailbag.