Coach-QB comps
Great back and forth this week, gang.
In fact, I was planning on saving this for Friday, but I’ve been thinking too much about an exchange around these parts Wednesday.
I said Rick Barnes was properly rated, even drawing a comp to Steve DeBerg, who compiled some pretty impressive stats over a good but not great career.
Is that/was that too harsh on Barnes, who is among the top 30 all-time among men’s college basketball wins?
So I thought of some others:
Is Philip Rivers better? Too kind for Barnes, who has 806 career wins in 37 years, which is 26th all-time.
Rivers is sixth in career passing yards, and like Barnes, is considered a great all-round person.
Barnes’ numbers shoot to 11th all-time among coaches with D-I college wins.
Or is Rivers a touch too high?
(Side note: Cliff Ellis finished with more than 900 wins, 100 more than Barnes currently has. Nuts, right?)
And those QB1 comps made me think about others, and some are pretty spot on.
Coach K and TB12 — both with a handful of titles and the all-time stat trump cards.
Jim Boeheim and Drew Brees — right there in long careers in terms of stats, and each with exactly one title.
Ellis, whose D-I total ranks fifth, has a lot of the Philip Rivers vibe, too.
Would that make Barnes more of a Matt Ryan comp then?
Dean Smith has a very Peyton Manning feel. Both great, all-time careers but also feels like they should have had more titles for whatever reason, right?
Thoughts, and be careful, this is a rabbit hole that consumed a lot of my time Wednesday night.
Court time
Not exactly a shocker, but there has been a lawsuit filed against President Trump’s sensible executive order to keep transgenders out of female sports.
Two New Hampshire teens have added the president to their lawsuit, and that request was OK’ed by the courts Wednesday.
That said, the addition of a sitting president to a lawsuit is a modern-era precedent, as it is believed to be the first time an executive order has been challenged constitutionally.
“The systematic targeting of transgender people across American institutions is chilling, but targeting young people in schools, denying them support and essential opportunities during their most vulnerable years, is especially cruel,” Chris Erchull, a GLAD attorney with the group helping litigate the lawsuit, told reporters.
OK, big-shot lawyer person, what about the opportunities of the millions of female athletes in high school and college sports being put at a disadvantage?
Here’s the next thing: Of all the things folks can really pick nits about, this is one that the anti-Trumpers will not win in the court of public appeal.
It will also galvanize the pro-Trumpers even more and push middle-of-the-road folks who are passionate about the fairness of this issue that way as well.
In fact, I’m more in the middle than most of the folks I know politically. And I am supremely sympathetic for young people who are uncertain of who they are.
But the rights of the very few outweighing the rights of the millions of female athletes is math I simply can’t compute.
Rite of spring
Pitchers and catchers are starting to trickle into camp. Yay.
And there were a flurry of baseball line items Wednesday, including the news that Shohei Ohtani is planning on returning to the Dodgers rotation sometime in May.
Three of the team’s rotation is projected to be former Japan League stars. It also is wicked smart for the Dodgers, who I believe have to be discussing a TV deal with some Tokyo super-station.
Plus, if you are a baseball lover in Japan, are you not spending whatever it takes to come see Shohei and his fellow countrymen play in Dodger Stadium?
Elsewhere, Alex Bergman signed with the Red Sox for three years at $120 million.
Wow, and that’s not even the biggest head scratcher from a busy night in MLB.
San Diego signed Nick Pivetta to a four-year, $55 million deal. Starting pitching is always in demand, and you can never have too much. But almost $16 million per for a guy who went 6-12 with an ERA north of 4 last year?
And while all of that is happening, the Braves, well, the Braves did Braves stuff.
Which is akin to next to nothing. So there’s that.
This and that
› Huge win for the Mocs last night as they toppled Samford. UTC has won six straight and now lead the SoCon at 10-3. Kudos to the Mocs and Dan Earl. UTC hosts ETSU on Saturday night at 7.
› Plays took a pair of terrible setbacks last night, including Wake Forest blowing a 20-point lead in a two-point loss at home to FSU.
› Chase Briscoe is sitting on the pole for Sunday’s Great American Race. It’s Toyota’s first pole at Daytona. Yes, we are going to have a little NASCAR chatter come Friday, after all, Vader needs our help, and when Vader needs help, well, you answer the call. Side note: There’s a real chance that the end of “Rogue One” is the most Vader scene of all the Vader scenes. That is all.
› So this story from The Hollywood Reporter says 2025 is the swan song for linear TV, as signified by even now The Oscars — one of the annually top-rated shows on TV that is not sports — will be streamed as well as broadcasted.
› NBA All-Star weekend is this weekend. Spy, let us know how that turns out and juxtapose the new version to the exhibitions with Mikkan and those boys back in the day
Today’s questions
It’s the ole AGT — anything goes Thursday — and we’ll start with this big picture question :
What would we be doing if a 16-year-old kid identified as a 12-year-old and wanted to play in the Little League World Series?
Also, as pitchers and catchers start to report, how would you grade the Braves offseason?
As for today, Feb. 13, it’s review, and guys, please remember what tomorrow is, because there are very few ways to “win” Valentine’s Day but a lot of ways to lose it.
Jessie James had his first bank robbery on this day in 1866.
Chuck Yeager would have been 102 today.
Jerry Springer would have been 81.
Peter Gabriel is 75 today.
Rushmore of musical Peters. Go, and remember the mailbag.