Weekend winners
Everything around the 3-pointer. It was a glorious weekend for shooting from distance. The 3-point contest was truly fun – and yes, Chas’ pick of Karl Anthony Towns represented – and that led to Steph Curry turning the All-Star game into H-O-R-S-E game in his driveway. On Saturday, UK’s Kellan Grady went 7-of-9 from deep and the Appleby kid from Florida was as gutsy as a cat burglar.
The NBA all-time 75 ceremonies. It was so cool to see that much basketball royalty everywhere in Cleveland over the weekend. And Shaq’s lengthy and poignant speech about reaching the heights he did – and how he got there and was helped along the way – is worth your time this morning. And it should be required viewing for high school athletes with big dreams.
NASCAR. Yes, NASCAR gets a lot of crud, but truth be told after squandering some lightning-rod momentum in the early 2000s, NASCAR is among the most innovative sports around. There is no new idea or new simulation or next way to connect that NASCAR is not willing to try. I watched more of Sunday’s Daytona 500 than any race I have in a long time, and I had three quick (well, kinda quick) takeaways: First, the new cars look sharp and have an old-school “Win on Sunday, sell ’em on Tuesday” feel to them that helped generate the original ‘stock’ car nomenclature; second, Tony Stewart entertained me, but I really like Tony and have met him a time or 10 in my career and actually have a pretty funny Tony Stewart story; and third, NASCAR needs to do whatever it can to maximize this gambling opportunity. Winner of the 22nd lap. Winner of the fastest pit stop. Which car will wreck first. Which car will wreck last. Find a slew of gambling angles and give casual sports something to engage with even if they do not have a favorite driver or if their favorite driver is in 36th place. If they don’t, like how Julia Roberts tells that saleslady who would not help her in “Pretty Woman” – “Big mistake. Big. Huge.”
Twitter activity. Egad, one Tweet from me saying the officiating in the Arkansas-Tennessee game was terrible got more than 1,000 likes. That was fun. And it got a lot of blowback from Arkansas fans about how I’m a sore loser. Uh, I wasn’t rooting for anyone. In fact, Arkansas provided a nice Saturday bounceback of entertainment after what Auburn did to my picks against Florida. That’s what has devolved our entire culture’s ability to communicate. I state my opinion – the officiating was terrible and that trend in college hoops is the elephant in the room that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later – and the discussion is not about that statement, but about my bias or the conspiracy theory behind that statement or goodness knows what else.
Tennessee baseball. And college baseball in general. MLB, don’t sit on that pouting sideline long, because the sports world will find something else to do, and there was a lot of fun college baseball this weekend. Including the Vols, who as Paschall tells us here, worked Georgia Southern with some world-class power pitching.
Weekend losers (other than Juwan Howard)
The Olympics. From the skier who suffered a frozen penis – seriously, and gang, there’s no “Rub some dirt on it, and get back out there” with that injury – to the dreadful TV numbers to the overall experience, this was a historically bad two-week span for the Games and NBC. You really have to wonder about the conversations being had in the offices of the NBC bigwigs since they are on the hook for these for the foreseeable future and are paying close to 11 figures for the broadcast rights. (Side note: If you are FIFA and its broadcast partners, and you see some of the backlash from viewers about these Games being in China, your hopes for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar can’t be optimistic.)
Everyone associated with the Saudi Golf Tour idea, especially Phil Mickelson. Mickelson had been the voice of the league, and when his leaked quotes hit the streets Thursday night, it made Lefty look like a complete jackwagon. (Side note: When asked about Phil’s quotes, here’s what all-around good dude Rory McIlroy had to say: “I don’t want to kick someone while he’s down, obviously, but I thought they were naive, selfish, egotistical, ignorant. It was just very surprising and disappointing. Sad. I’m sure he’s sitting at home sort of rethinking his position and where he goes from here.” Ouch-standing.) After it became a big talking point last weekend, I’m not sure if Greg Norman and the Saudi league could get enough of the top 200 players to field a 48-player scramble.
The PGA event. Yes, the PGA Tour flexed and cut the legs from underneath the Saudi idea. But on our first non-football weekend since August, a glorious field on a glorious course delivered some very boring weekend golf.
The dunk contest. Either fix this thing or get rid of it. And I know you can’t make people get in the dunk contest, but buckets of tomahawks and 360s, it was not that long ago that the best players in the league were going dunk-to-dunk in this thing. Now – who the bleep is Juan Toscano-Anderson anyway – it feels like the last guy on the Hornets’ bench vs. the 10-day contract guy with the Raptors. (Side question: Juan Toscano-Anderson sounds way more like a middle infielder for White Sox than a small forward with the Warriors, no?) And if you can’t get the names we know to compete, here’s an idea: Have an open contest with regional sites around the country and reserve one or two spots for playground dunkers to qualify. And then add a digit to the payout.
Wow, what an embarrassment
So, back story for those who drowned their ‘Luke Kennard not winning the 3-point contest’ sorry Saturday with 27 CoColas and slept all the way until this morning.
Juwan Howard’s Michigan team played at Wisconsin on Sunday. They were down double digits when Wisconsin coach Greg Gard cleared his bench. Howard was still pressing with 15 seconds left and Gard called a timeout after one of his players lost his shoe and to avoid a 10-second backcourt violation.
(Uh, Juwan said he had issue with the timeout. OK, but if you are going to press and try to win until the clock hits 0:00, why would you have issue with the opposing coach doing the same thing? But that’s a small wrinkle in what became a sportsmanship nightmare and in truth, a criminal reaction.)
That sent Howard into a tizzy, and he was going to have a word with Gard in the handshake line. That escalated into Gard trying to explain himself as they stop, which became Howard wagging his finger in Gard’s face and poking Gard in the chest.
That then became a scrum that escalated with Howard slapping a Wisconsin assistant with an open-hand/push thing to the face, which escalated into players throwing punches.
All in all it could have been worse in terms of physical injury, but it’s hard to imagine it being a worse look for a guy getting seven figures to lead young people and represent a university as prestigious as Michigan.
But then it got worse in the postgame news conference because Howard went on the offensive and rather than falling on the grenade of “Emotional game and lost my composure” and fill in the rest of the blanks. Howard said when Gard stopped him in the line – Gard said he was trying to explain the timeout when Howard said, “I won’t forget this” – that Howard thought, as he said in the postgame “I thought it was time to protect myself.” What? Have you seen Greg Gard? Juwan Howard is a 6-foot-10 former NBA starter at power forward. Greg Gard could be your tax guy.
But the kid gloves with which Howard is being treated is baffling to me.
Because as inexcusable as all of the above is, now remember that Juwan Howard had a really ugly incident last year with then-Maryland coach Mark Turgeon in which Howard threatened to kill him and was ejected from the game.
Then, on ESPN this morning Greenie and others were talking about whether we should do away with the handshake line after the game? What? Because Juwan Howard can’t control his emotions and loses his temper every 10 months or so, we should abandon all interaction or even an attempt at postgame civility? PUH-lease.
Should he be fired? It should be in the discussion, especially if he continues to try to explain this away because of Gard’s timeouts and Gard stopping him in the handshake line.
And what if a prominent player whacked an opposing player or assistant coach in the handshake line 11 months after being ejected for threatening to kill another player or coach?
This simply can’t happen. Ever.
And how the college basketball world reacts to this has been and will continue to be quite telling.
This and that
– This is a really cool story. Oregon State senior Andrea Aquino – the No. 7 overall recruit in 2017 and one of the highest recruits in OSU women’s basketball history – has never ben cleared to play for health reasons. She started Sunday and scored a lay-up on the first possession and left the game after Cal matched the lay-up. Aquino was never cleared to play in actual games but never missed a practice, shoot around or team flight in her four years at OSU. Cool. Opposite of Juwan Howard.
– Another losing aspect from the Olympics is something to watch for bigger picture. A musical group is suing the figure skaters and the Olympics and NBC for using their music without approval. This could have huge ripples, really. Would MLB players need permission for specific walk-up music for example?
– Side question: We all saw the quotes that LeBron is planning on playing his final NBA season with his son, wherever that may be and for whatever that team can pay. This has to be the greatest daddy ball flex of all-time right? Forget working the park to get your kid on the all-star team, LeBron just positioned Bronny – who is a 6-foot-3 high school junior who’s averaging like 15 a game and is barely a top-100 recruit in his class according to 247sports – to be a late first-round pick. Visor tip.
– You know the rules. Here’s TFP college hoops hero Mark Wiedmer dropping knowledge and sharing wisdom on the terrible state of the college basketball officiating of today. And the core of the problem is Weeds’ central point – the flopping that is the chicken liver to the referees’ catfish – is 100% spot on. This has been a glorious college hoops season – I’ve watched more college basketball this year than the last several combined – but the terrible officiating is bad for the game. And potentially way worse, in a world filled with betting options, well, I’ll stop talking now.
– Speaking of college hoops, tough Thursday-Saturday double home loss run for the Mocs. Starting to get a little too close for comfort in the chase for the regular-season SoCo title that comes with an automatic bid to the NIT, should the regular-season winner not win the conference tournament. Which also led the to more hoops heroics from Weeds as he caught up with some familiar names of the Mocs’ rich past.
Today’s question
Weekend winners and loser. Go.
Also, is the 3-pointer the greatest sports rule addition of the last 50 years?
Multiple choice Monday will go here: What should happen to Juwan Howard?
– Fired;
– Suspended the rest of the regular season (five games);
– Suspended the rest of the regular and whatever postseason;
– Cage match vs. Greg Gard or the Wisconsin assistant he smacked on pay-per-view.
As for today, Feb. 21, let’s review.
Happy President’s Day everyone. Maybe they should have a tribute to like, say the four best presidents and put their likenesses somewhere. We’ll see. What should we call it?
Anywell, today’s Rushmore is in honor of the amazing feats of Steph Curry from deep, what’s the Rushmore of the best rule changes of the last 50 years.
Go.