Sign up for the daily newsletter, Jay’s Plays of the Day, to get sports betting recommendations for the top games of the night and the week ahead.
ST. SIMONS, Ga. — So when the 5-at-10 clan heads to the coast, there are a few certainties.
› There will be like five quality pick-up teams wanting the Lil’ Miss 5-at-10 to come pitch;
› The 5-at-10 will order seafood at every meal;
› The Mrs. 5-at-10 will get some amazing photos, as evidenced with the above.
Let’s do this.
Different perspective
College hoops are around the corner. Yes, I am excited, and no Spy, it’s not just because Auburn football smells like two-week-old Indian food left in an ashtray in the mid-July sun.
College hoops was a ton of fun last year, especially in the SEC.
Which brings us to the SEC hoops media daze today in B-ham, where the conversation will be spun at some point to the ever-changing rosters and the ever-puzzling hoops recruiting realm of portals and NIL purchases.
It’s magnified in college hoops because one huge addition — looking at you, Boogie Fland heading to Florida — can instantly turn a rebuild into a reload.
Which leads me to John Calipari’s recent rant as the season countdown unwinds.
Read more here, and some of it makes a lot of sense to me.
Coach Cal in his blow-hard manner says his rule is if you enter the portal, you have transferred. I can appreciate that. He also laments the mercenaries who have played at four schools over four years and wonders how they even expect to get a degree.
That, too, makes sense.
But his portal and current prism is more of a one-way mirror.
What were Coach Cal’s expected grad rates when he was floating to dynastic returns in the salad days in Lexington on a river of one-and-doners?
He then also tried for a word-play sound bite that kinda rang hollow, and if not hollow, certainly more than a little myopic.
“The only way you do (help families) is to be transformational as a coach. If you’re not, you’re transactional. If I become transactional — ‘I’m going to pay you this to do this and that’ — then I won’t do this anymore. I don’t need to.”
OK, big picture yes, and there are a lot of coaches who have chosen to walk away rather than deal with the changing landscape of the amateur student-athletes embracing being professional players. Coach K, Saban, Jay Wright, Tony Bennett, and there are a slew of others.
(I don’t put Bruce Pearl here because I think he walked to make sure Stephen got the gig, and to do that, Bruce needed to walk six weeks before the season.)
But for Cal and Saban and Coach K — guys who had unbelievable runs — hasn’t it always been transactional?
Can’t you hear the living room pitch?
“Hey, five-star super dude, come play for me and become a starter and in one year or three, you will be become a millionaire at the next level.”
And more times than not, those cats could deliver that transactional return.
But now those kids want that payment on the front end.
If Cal wanted to be doing it for the transformational impact coaching can have on the lives of young people and their families, I’m sure there are some small schools in downtown Fayetteville that would give him a shot. Have your people call their people.
No, the transformation in my mind is the previous generation of coaches got to cash the sweat equity of the players for the wealth transfer at the end.
And, while that could be transformational to the benefit of the player and clearly beneficial for the program, Coach Cal, it’s always been transactional my man.
Feeling the draft
Wow, that got lengthy. Spy, put my soap box away.
So let’s breeze through that draft update. I love the draft. You know this.
ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. had two things for sure Tuesday. He had pumpkin pie, because he always does. And he updated his big board, because ESPN.com told us so.
Couple of things:
› Kiper loves the Big Ten talent this season — five of the top 10 are Big 10ers — and is not as high on the SEC. Keldric Faulk, the AU defensive end, is Kiper’s top SEC name on the board at 11.
› Miami has some dudes across the line of scrimmage, as Kiper has two DEs and an OT from the Hurricanes highly ranked.
Home woes
So the two LCS series have each played two games, and the home teams are 0-4. Say what?
The Dodgers completed the two-game Milwaukee two-step with another dominant outing from their starting pitcher.
Do the Brewers or the Blue Jays have a chance with each facing an 0-2 hole and now going on the road for games 3, 4 and 5?
Hard for me to see it, especially for the struggling-of-late Brew Crew, who not only face an 0-2 hole but likely will draw Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow from that nine-figure Dodgers rotation.
This and that
› Here’s a preview of ETSU head coach and Chattanooga football royalty Will Healy returning to the Scenic City to coach against the Mocs from UTC beat ace Gene Henley.
› Man, for those of you following along with Jay’s Plays, well, Jay’s getting played. Does FanDuel send folks over with crooked noses who may say, “Leave the gun, take the cannoli” these days?
› So Charlie Sheen is “completely smitten” dating a “regular guy.” Hey, if he’s happy, we’re all happy for him. Sheen’s catalog is stout with great range with everything from military drama (“Platoon”) to Westerns (Young Guns”) to dramatic co-leads (“Wall Street”) to undeniable comedy on the big screen (“Major League”) and TV (“Two and a Half Men.”) Side note: According to Wikipedia, Sheen got into acting in high school with his brother (Emilio Estévez) and a couple of high school buddies named Rob Lowe and Sean Penn. Man, talented collection of kids at Santa Monica High at that time, no?
› Rules, people. Here’s Paschall with a key match-up preview in Saturday night’s monster UT at Alabama showdown.
› Michigan and USC are questioning the Big Ten’s private ‘”capital” deal, and I think they should. If the Big Ten is negotiating that deal, it’s for the good of every team in the Big Ten. With the brands that Michigan and USC can bandy about, they could get a far bigger chunk doing individual talks. Trouble in paradise?
Today’s question
Which Way Wednesday starts this way:
› Which LCS team in an 0-2 hole has the better chance to get to the World Series?
› Which surprises you more, that there are five Big Ten players in Kiper’s top-10 or that there are zero SEC players among that group?
› Which movie role is Charlie Sheen’s best?
› Which game are you most excited about watching Saturday, Ole Miss at Georgia or Tennessee at Bama?
Answer some WWWs, ask some WWWs.
As for today, Oct. 15, let’s review:
› Alyssa Milano starts the “Me too” movement on social media on this day in 2017.
› Penny Marshall would have been 82 today.
› Roscoe Tanner is 74 today.
› “I Love Lucy” debuted on this day in 1951.
› Wow, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” debuted on this day 25 years ago.
Rushmore of HBO-made comedies series. Go.