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Big Orange evening
Tennessee is playing basketball as well as anyone not among the big five in college hoops.
The big five-ish — Duke, Arizona, Michigan, UConn and maybe Gonzaga — are crushing all comers.
But UT now has a four-game winning streak in the SEC, and the Vols, like a slew of the aforementioned juggernauts, are doing it with a superstar freshman who is coming into his own.
Nate Ament scored 26 of his game-high 28 in the second half as UT put 58 points on the board in the final 20 minutes of a landslide win over Ole Miss.
In UT’s four-game run, Ament is averaging 24.5 points and almost seven rebounds.
A slender, 6-foot-10 scorer, Ament draws favorable comps to former Rick Barnes superstar freshman Kevin Durant in his time at the other UT.
As his confidence grows, his ceiling only increases.
And while the league is filled with a slew of dudes who will get more chatter for postseason nods, and rightly so, know the following line items:
> Ament looks like a future NBA star. At his height with his perimeter skills and shooting touch, Ament’s best basketball is ahead of him.
> Ament gives the Vols a chance to be a nasty March-out because of his ability to score in the half-court in every situation.
Hall broken
So it’s official.
Robert Kraft will not be in this Hall of Fame class.
Man, what’s happening?
There’s a universally understood rule in newspapers, and it ranks high on the list.
If 1 and 2 are don’t-make-stuff-up and don’t-steal-others’-work, No. 3 with a bullet is never-become-part-of- the-story.
Well, the voters for the NFL have incredibly inserted themselves into this story, because without question, the leading line item of this NFL Hall of Fame class is who is not in it rather than who is.
How did this happen and can it be fixed?
Because it should be absolutely clear to everyone that Bill Belichick and Kraft have fashioned career resumés worthy of Hall inclusion.
But neither will be among the inductees Thursday when the results are announced.
That’s what we know, but fixing this should be the next frontier.
Transparency is a starting point, of course.
But manipulating the voting collective is not part of the solution.
Just have them justify their votes, and if they believe a lion’s part of Belichick’s and Kraft’s career greatness was equal parts of a lucky sixth-round pick and cheating scandals, then OK.
But say it and stand by it.
And that transparency will also serve as a check and balance for future votes, because now I can’t help but wonder if Tom Brady — the fortuitous sixth-round pick mentioned above — will be a first-ballot entry to Canton.
No longer a big deal
Today is national signing day. Or at least it used to be.
Man, this was a holiday for a lot of us back in the day.
It gave fax machines a 24-hour reprieve in the modern era.
But the truth is the majority of high school players commit and sign early. That’s a fact, and in most ways today is called the second signing day more than signing day.
Moreover, the portal is more critical than signing day in the here and now.
Yes, high school recruiting is how great programs maintain talented rosters. But the portal now means you have to recruit and then re-recruit your coming-of-age stars of the future.
This new realm is trying, to say the least.
I have always been for giving players more, be it paying labor for the billion-dollar product they carry or freedom in decisions about their individual paths and preferences.
And no matter how much folks like me loved the 11th-hour drama of signing day way back in the good old days of, say, a decade ago, the toothpaste is not only out of the tube, it has been put on the brush, scrubbed the choppers and spit down the sink.
And the biggest victim as a byproduct is the mid-level prospects and programs in the game.
Former three-star teenagers are now losing spots to 22-year-old backups from other Div. I programs.
Also, schools like UTC are landing players for a year or two, which makes Rusty Wright’s job even more challenging in this culture.
This and that
> Speaking of signing day, there are rules, and among them is when Stephen Hargis writes about high school football, we link it. Here’s Hargis detailing some of the class of 2027’s top prospects from the greater 423. And yes, chiefly among that group is Baylor School superstar RB1 David Gabriel Georges. DGG is a for-sure five-star and is on the short list of the best high school football players I’ve ever seen in almost three decades of Friday nights on small-town sidelines.
> Did anyone watch the NFL Pro Bowl flag football thingy? Nothing like a 66-52 football final in which Jerry Rice used multiple QB sets. What was the play call? “Hey, CeeDee, run to the Buick, turn around and I will hit you. On two, on two. Ready … break.”
> TFP UTC beat writer Gene Henley has a cool story behind the all-female coaching staff that has UTC women’s basketball humming right now.
> Busy day in NBA trades, including Cleveland landing James Harden in a puzzling move for both teams.
> The Detroit fan who got punched by Steelers WR DK Metcalf is suing the Pittsburgh star for $100 million. So there’s that. Also named in the nine-figure lawsuit is Chad OchoCinco, so there’s that.
> The schedule for the 2026 college football playoff is set. The quarterfinals will remain at bowl sites despite the power programs wanting that round moved to on-site games.
Today’s questions
Which way Wednesday starts this way:
Which Hall omission is more egregious, Belichick or Kraft?
Which Super Bowl team should the casual fan root for?
Which SEC college basketball freshman is the best prospect, Darius Acuff or Nate Ament?
Which pro sports all-star game is the worst?
Which professional sports city’s fan base has the most angst, because Cleveland certainly is up there?
You know the deal on WWW; answer some and ask some.
As for today, Feb. 4, let’s review.
Facebook was launched on this day in 2004. “The Social Network” is a well-done feature film.
“Patton” premiered on this day in 1970.
Lawrence Taylor is 67 today.
Does he make the Rushmore of sports superstars universally known for their initials?
Go.