5-at-10: Friday mailbag on Holly Warlick, best and worst starts to 2018, Tournament rides, Most famous kid athletes, Rushmores and hate mail

Tennessee head coach Holly Warlick watches the second half of a second-round game against Oregon State in the NCAA college basketball tournament Sunday, March 18, 2018, in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)
Tennessee head coach Holly Warlick watches the second half of a second-round game against Oregon State in the NCAA college basketball tournament Sunday, March 18, 2018, in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)

From Charles

Holly's performance at another school rated as a Average, Bust or Good?

Charles -

There's some fairness to that, but doing what would be considered awesome in Oxford or Auburn does not count as good at Storres or Knoxville, right?

And to be fair, Holly Warlick has had six sound years. She's 100 or so games over .500 and has three Elite Eight trips.

But standards have to count too, and if UT lets the Lady Vols expectations and standards continue to slide, they are almost impossible to get them back.

Take a look at the last three decades for the most part that have been UCLA basketball and wonder about how quickly and drastically things can go from dominant to dormant.

From Scott

Who in your big brain do you think has had the best first quarter of the sports year and who do think has had the worst?

Scott,

Excellent question.

Best, Philly fans. Eagles win it all with a team with an open window for foreseeable contention. The 76ers are improving. Heck, the Phillies spent money in free agency. The biggest collection of curmudgeons ever really have nothing to complain about right now. Think about that.

To round out a potential Rushmore of who is having the best three months of this sports year, we think Tiger is there. For sure. We'll then add Saquon Barkley, who now is somehow a mix of Herschel Walker and Paul Bunyan, and Alabama followers who have enjoyed a natty and a return trip to the NCAA tournament.

As for on the bad side, well, that may be a little tougher. But the front-runner has to be Mark Cuban, right?

Then we'd go Belichick, who lost a chance at another Super Bowl in part because of his coaching decision to sit Malcolm Butler. So there's that.

From Mark T.

Noticed this week you were talking about Ferris and Kevin from Home Alone.

We all know the kid actors who became big stars. Who were the universally praised kid athletes that were big stars even before they were big stars:

Mark -

Excellent question Mark, and there are some that became bigger stars and some that were at their apex in middle school.

We'll go with this Rushmore of kid athlete superstars:

Tiger Woods, who was hitting 2-irons as a preschooler on the Mike Douglas Show.

The Williams Sisters, who was supposed to do for the women's golf game what Tiger did for the men.

Damon Bailey, who was a nationally known dude in middle school.

Wayne Gretzky was known across hockey-crazed Canada before he was 12.

From Justin

Do you think any of this minor league football teams can work?

Justin

Not sure they can make it work, but the investors in the AAF give it the best shot. It also helps that they already have a jump start on a TV partner.

The only way any of these leagues have any chance for long-term success, however, is to embrace at least three of the following four steps:

-Find a way to place yourself as the developmental league of the NFL

-Embrace the developmental part of this and see if you can pay 5-star recruits $100,000 to play and get them to the NFL in less time

-Figure out how to get Draft Kings/Fan Duel etc., involved from the start so you have fantasy standings and leagues available

-Make sure Vegas is plugged in because no betting and no loyalty and you can believe that.

And that's the starting point.

Let's make a list

OK, we discussed this around these parts on Monday and on Press Row yesterday.

ESPN the Magazine has released its list of the Top 20 Most Dominant athletes of the last 20 years, which coincides with the magazine's existence.

OK, if we are going to mirror the folks at ESPN the Mag, and recognize that we are approaching year eight of the 5-at-10 - yes, we started in October 2010 - let's make our own list.

List of sports movie athletes in feature films released since 2010. Giddy-up.

From Steve

A year ago I would've thought some form of NASCAR would be around forever, and I think there will still be NASCAR in 15 years, but I would bet it looks much much different than the NASCAR of today, which, frankly, looks much different than the NASCAR of yesterday. TV viewership is down, ticket sales at the tracks are down, and 10 years ago there were 50 teams qualifying for 40 spots, and the best they can do now is field 36 cars for a race...it certainly doesn't look good does it J?

Steve -

It doesn't look good, and for the first time we think NASCAR is going to be forced to overhaul its sport completely.

No tweaks. No, "Hey look we brought the Camaro back." No scoring twists or standings alterations.

Serious change to the business model.

We liked what MT had to say either earlier this week or last but not sure the powers that be want to open it up more to longshots and contenders or hometown race teams. And for the first time we think NASCAR could go the way of the dinosaur and the 8-track. And if think that's impossible, well, at one time we thought "Man Blockbuster is the Bee's Knees" as well.

From Chas

I keep hearing that EVERYBODY'S brackets are busted. What does that mean? I don't think mine are.

No sane person expected to pick a perfect bracket. The big boys say out of ten gazillion entries, nobody got past the first round unscathed. So "busted" can't mean you missed one game. If you have NO teams left, you're busted, of course.

But what about the millions of us in between?

I picked nine of the sweet sixteen. (I entered the TFP contest, but not the Papa John's version. I think Jay said nine won that one, but you can't win if you're not in the game.) If things fall right today and Friday, I could have a prefect elite eight. I'd be like a virgin, again. So, of course I can still have a perfect final four. I submit that's the test. If you can still have a perfect final four, you're not busted.

And I have 'Nova over my Cats in the championship game. If your ultimate champ is out, you're for sure BUSTED.

Is SG-A the best point guard left in the dance? He's in the discussion. I remember too sadly how Shabazz Napier and Kemba Walker owned the tournament a while back. I doubt Chattaboogie's favorite son is that good, but he sure helps UK's chances.

And has our hometown embraced Shai as one of our own? If not, why? A huge thanks to Weeds for his story on the hardest working guy in the game. And we're greatly blessed to have the talented Clay Bennett. Congrats!

Of course the game I'll live and die on is UK-KState. But the best game may be Nevada vs. The Mean Sister Jeans.

Chas -

Lots of questions in there, and sorry about your Cats. More on that in a second, but we needed to list your post if for no other reason than the spot on call that Nevada vs. the LCU Sister Jeans prediction. And here's where we run off the rails, in 3, 2, 1

If you are Loyola-Chicago, why not change your mascot to the Jeans? Like right now. Because, unless Duke wins tonight, the biggest star left in the tournament is Sister Jean and it's not close. Of course, you'd have to go through 12 focus groups and three months of sensitivity training to make sure you were not offending any and everything from Sisters (be them and of the old TV show, members of 1970s R&B group Sister Sledge, fans of Whoopi Goldberg's character Sister Mary Clarence in "Sister Act" or whomever else, which may or may not include insensitivity to Billie Jean King fans as well as those of us who frequently wear blue jeans).

Side note: Wish we were kidding on this one, but after Holy Cross announced that they were keeping the nickname 'Crusaders" but changing its mascot from the Knights because the Christianity Crusades and other religious wars were so violent. (They also were like 500 years ago.) Here's Jesuit Father Philip L. Boroughs wrote to the college community: "For some, knight imagery alone could convey nobility, chivalry and bravery. However, the visual depiction of a knight, in conjunction with the moniker Crusader, inevitably ties us directly to the reality of the religious wars and the violence of the Crusades. This imagery stands in contrast to our stated values."

As for LCU, how does any team win three tournament games by a combined four points not become a darling?

We discussed some of the SG-A wave from Chattanooga to Lexington to potentially being a one-and-done. (Will his stock ever be higher than it is right now? Who knows?)

As for busted brackets, unless you have Michigan or went to K-State and/or FSU it's hard to see many more points coming Saturday or beyond from the South and the West. There are scoring possibilities tonight, but CBS better hope that Nova, Kansas and Duke handle their business tonight or the ratings of the Elite Eight and the Final Four could be NASCAR-ian. (And that's not a compliment.)

Week's Rushmores

Rushmore of A-list movie stars who started as TV regulars: Jennifer Lawrence (The Bill Engvall Show), Tom Hanks (Bosom Buddies), George Clooney (Facts of Life before ER friends) and Leo DiCaprio (Growing Pains).

Rushmore of best basketball coaches at their alma mater: Roy Williams, Jim Boeheim (even though he's a cheater, but hey aren't all of them), Phog Allen and Bob Huggins.

Rushmore of actors forever known for their first role: Caveat here. Gang, Broderick's first role was WarGames, so to stay true to the letter of the Rushmore, he's not eligible, which is sad because we crafted this for Ferris Bueller. Sam with Culkin's life-changing role as Kevin McAllister in the Home Alones. With that said, we'll go Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Paul Hogan as Crocodile Dundee, Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber (he has some TV parts but Die Hard was his first movie, and did he nail it or what?) and Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins. Man, this Rushmore did not turn out like I expected and it took way more research. I need a Co-Cola.

Rushmore of current TV sports personalities: Bob Costas, Al Michaels, Jim Nantz and Joe Buck. (Thoughts? That one feels a little weak. Does Dan Patrick need a spot over Buck? What about Tirico or SVP?)

Which leads us to a Rushmore specific question. This from Tom, who writes:

Jay, some of us here at (don't want to say where we work because we don't want them blocking your website too) read the 5@10 every day and talk about the Rushmore at lunch. Man how do you do it every single day?

I thought for sure you would have at least one 'spring' theme for the Rushmores this week. Keep up the awesome work and thanks for the contests. One of our the guys here (at Mystery Co. X) has Syracuse and UVA in the Madness pool. #FingersCrossed.

Tom -

Good luck to your buddy. Syracuse has to win for him to stay alive. As for doing it everyday, well, it's part of our work day now, if that makes sense, and now it's all part of the routine. That said, we did a little looking back - a scary thought considering this goes pretty much unedited from our home computer to the tfp.com site every morning - and man, we've spilled a lot of words.

Thanks for all of those who have come and gone through the years. If this site is correct, it has been 387 weeks since we started the 5-at-10 (which at first did not allow comments and was the more grammatically correct "Five at 10" in its infancy) on Monday, Oct. 25, 2010. That's 1,935 consecutive 5-at-10s, no matter what. That seems like a lot. And that means June 22 would be the 2,000 consecutive version, if everything continues to be fine and dandy in and around these parts.

And, Tom, fair Rushmore suggestion. In fact, let's give it a go with a a creative twist. Rushmore of 'spring' would go a little something like this. Hit it.

We'd start with Spring football, spring break, Sean Springs, and David Thompson, who had serious springs. And that leaves off "hope springs eternal" as well as spring training. (Spring football > spring training now because have you seen the prices of spring training games these days? Egad. Want to talk about highway robbery? In 1994, some college buddies, my cousin and I went with my dad and my uncle to 14 spring training games in eight days. we had the RV and the whole deal. It was awesome. Totally awesome. Most of the tickets were general admission and ranged from $3 to $5. The biggest price on any of the tickets was when we went to Sarasota - I think - to watch the White Sox, who had some rookie outfielder named Michael Jordan in right. Now, the $100 or so bucks we spent on 14 games back then would get us five games at the Braves complex at Disney. And that's five games sitting in the outfield grass without a seat. Seriously. Heck spring training tickets are so expensive, on this StubHub site, you can get tickets to the Braves exhibition game against the Yankees at Sun Trust for $6 and the cheapest price for the Braves-Yankees in Florida is $37. Seriously.)
Thanks Tom, for playing along and for the question.

This week's "less than fan" mail

You are such a (bleep, think the harshest description of poop)! What do you know about the budget?!?!?! The Omnibus bill is going to be great for America and if some minor league players are forced to play for less before they make millions in the big leagues, then BOO (bleep, again, sounds like trucking) HOO!! You and all the anti-Trump liberal media folks can go eat (BLEEP, this was the same as the first, but this time in all caps and certainly is not something I'd order at Ruth's Chris)!!!

(Side note: Normally we leave these unanswered because, well, more times than not they embarrass themselves enough with these. That said, and on a different tone, forget the MLB part of the omnibus bill, but man, Sen. Corker's question about how would conservatives everywhere react to a budget bill that would add $1-plus trillion to the debt if a Democrat president was part of it? Also of note, that one email had more exclamation points than I've used in 387 weeks of the 5-at-10. Anyhoo, enough of the logic. Let's get back to the cuss words.)

Mr. Greeson, you obviously are not a parent or have kids currently in school because if you did you would want them to be safe. Arming teachers is the best way to make sure they are safe and a bunch of us are tired of liberal sissies like you trying to tell us how to live and what to do with our guns. Your column is nothing more than more of the leftist crap that has become part of the MSM. Why do you not put your liberal views on the Times page?

You are an awful writer too.

Great talk gang. Enjoy the weekend.

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