Wow, so much to get to, and the questions over the last week were great. In fact, so many that we are going to try to keep our answers to a couple of paragraphs so we can in as many as possible.
Deal? Deal.
First, our business.
Rushmore of NBA Sixth Mans — Bobby Jones in Philly, Jamal Crawford in a slew of places, Robert "Big Shot Bob" Horry, and Manu Ginobili. (There were a lot of Six Man Award winners that spent most of their careers as starters.) Honorable mentions to Michael Cooper and Vinnie "The Microwave" Johnson.
Rushmore of 44 — Aaron, Reggie (if for no other reason than my on encounter with Mr. October, and because he has a boss sauce nickname), Jerry West, who was Pop's favorite all-time basketball player and Pistol. Honorable mention to the 44 Magnum, the Sonic Route 44 treat that Smilin' Chuck referenced on the comments and Jim Brown and the history of 44 at Syracuse.
Rushmore of all-time movie characters — This one was dang near impossible, and in truth, are we talking all time performances or the impact of the character? Like Vader has to be there right, even though he was voiced over. Is the shark in Jaws there? Maverick, since he saved pictures? Charlie Chaplin's Tramp there since he birthed movies? The Devil in too many to name? Here's one man's list and feel free to bit and kibble with my choices. Darth Vader, Hannibal Lector, Vito Corleone (remember it clearly makes De Niro AND Brando's Rushmore, which is pretty stout) and Batman, with the most sincere apologies to Indiana Jones, Crash Davis,, Ty Webb, Eric Stratton, Citizen Kane, Cousin Eddie and John McClane. Which idiot suggested this stupid Rushmore? Wait, don't answer that.
Rushmore of April — April Fool's, April showers bringing May flowers, Bobby April, "April in Paris" by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.
As for rules, well Paschall has the skinny on the Vols second spring scrimmage.
To the overflowing mailbag.
From Michelle
Jay, love your column and love how much you have talked about Caitlin Clark. She is awesome.
Will she win it all?
Michelle,
Thanks. Love watching her play, and after my daughter's middle school softball games tonight, I am sure our whole family will watch Clark and Iowa play against UConn and try to root the Hawkeyes to the title game.
Sadly, I think she falls short, but it has been an amazing ride in which the tickets for the women's title game are more expensive than the men's, and tonight will reset the TV viewership records for women's basketball.
At all levels.
Caitlin Clark is her.
From Mark
You mentioned it in the T&F Tuesday, but how many grace years did Jon Sheyer give up by not making the Final Four and how much worse was it that ACC foe NC State knocked Duke out? Similarly, does Kellie Harper get another year if the Lady Vols held on and beat USC?
Mark,
We have a few hard and fast sports rules for fandom.
— Almost never bet against your team when they favored, unless of course, you are sure they are going to cover. Not unlike what Russell Ziskey said in "Stripes" with "I've always been kind of a pacifist. When I was a kid, my father told me, 'Never hit anyone in anger, unless you're absolutely sure you can get away with it.'"
— If you are a man older than 14, do not wear a jersey with someone else's name on the back.
— Your enemy's enemy is your friend. I think that is what Sun Tzu said about sports. Or maybe Dodgeball legendary coach Patches O'Houlihan.
— Unless there are true legal/NCAA violations, your team's coach gets at least a three-year window after winning the whole shebang.
Even if Sheyer had lost in the Final Four, that last one would almost have assuredly applied.
Now, Duke is about to pull in a slew of dudes, and we talked some this week about Zach Edey's possible NBA limitations. Kyle Filipowski has them too, so it would not shock me if he returns to Durham next season.
Which makes Sheyer's Elite Eight elimination last weekend even more painful, because the only thing worse than underachieving (especially losing to a program that your fan base views as your little brother's buddy) is falling short with HUGE expectations.
And Sheyer and the Devils will have them next year as they likely will be preseason top 3.
From Al
Naming a federal penitentiary after Trump?
I always knew you were a (bleeping) liberal! You have to be to work in the lamestream media these days!
(Bleep)hole!
Al,
Thanks for reading.
This also led to.
From Chad
That Trump was so FUNNY! I laughed out loud at work.
Keep up the great work man.
Chad and everyone else,
The most critical part of the 2024 election process to me now that we are going to be forced to pick between the lesser evils of two truly awful candidates is who does Trump select as his VP, because that could be the last chance to have a path to a competent leader for the next four years since both Trump and Biden are older than Gandalf (the wizard, not the musician).
And do not even bring up Kamala Harris, who in this clip is convinced that women "were not allowed" to have NCAA tournament brackets until 2022.
Yikes.
From a slew of you
Jay, did you see that the Louisiana governor is banning bets on college players?
Gang,
I did see it, and as I have written before, as much as I hate government overreaches into private business, this in a lot of ways makes sense to me.
And he won't be the last, because player props — over Angel Reese 24 points, under Jaylen Daniels 400 total yards — are more controllable by a single individual than any other bet out there.
While a scandal would be disastrous, the next worst thing would be a state like Lousiana not allowing citizens to bet on in-state colleges in any regard, you know?
And speaking of the great governor of Louisiana ...
From Spy
Yeah, it's soap box time.
All the pearl-clutching, knickers-twisting, chest-thumping over anything and everything LSU women's hoops ... every one of em needs a big cup of shut up.
The Louisiana governor threatening to take their scholarships for not being on the floor for national anthem. ... You gonna do that to the football team too, since no college football team is out on the field for the national anthem? Would you rather have them come out and take a knee?
You and I know full well that when you step on a court, be it something organized or a pick up game, trash talk is gonna happen. It just does. And nobody thinks twice about it. So all the rigamarole over Angel Reese doing it to Clark last year just needs to stop. And the biggest trash talker of all time was a white guy. (no, not you). Larry Bird.
Some conservative outlets took Haley Van Lith to task for her calls of racism against LSU. You know what? She might be right. She's as lily white as it gets, and if it looks like racism to her, don't dismiss it. Now, we have had the girl who cried wolf (the whole women's team getting called racial names at BYU that nobody can substantiate). But to deny racism exists today is just foolhardy and the worst case of Pollyannaism (that a word? It is now).
And as for the L.A. Times moron and his column, yeah, it was bad, but stand behind it too. Your dishwater weakness in apology makes it hard to take anything you write in the future seriously.
Secondly, why in God's name would you write that and what editor let it go through? That's the guy that needs to be called on the carpet.
Spy (and everyone else),
Thanks for a great week full of a great back and forth.
Enjoy the weekend and enjoy a college basketball feast over the next few days.