UT hoops
OK, unless the Vols win the SEC tournament, Tennessee's postseason will be three letters at best. NIT. CBI. CIT. CSI. FBI. (Well, considering the last couple of years and the scandals at Arizona, Kansas, LSU, Auburn and other places, an end-of-the-year FBI tournament would be nuts. Imagine the winning team getting the ol' Monopoly 'Get out of Jail Free' card.)
Wednesday's 17-point loss at Arkansas was not pretty. It was predictable though, considering the stakes, the travel and the holes this team has.
The details are pretty clear. Other than Santiago Vescovi's excellent shooting form, almost every other aspect of UT's point guard play has ranged from subpar to stinky.
Lamonte Turner retired after 11 games and, after his 7.1 assists, the next highest is Vescovi's 3.9. But the left-handed freshman from Uruguay also averages 3.9 turnovers, and defensively he's a liability.
That's primarily because he's young, and know this: His future is extremely bright, because he could be an elite 3-point shooter. In a perfect world, he was going to be a complement to Turner, either as a back-up or a spot-up shooter.
The rest of the troubles are pretty clear. UT is next to last in the league in scoring (66.9 points per game), and bottom five in 3-point percentage, field-goal percentage and turnovers per game. That's not a successful formula.
But watching a good chunk of last night's loss to the Hogs was the first time that the struggles of this bunch - expected or not, explainable or not - made me realize how special last year's team truly was.
And how underappreciated it was, too.
Because for all the struggles on offense, UT is 15-13 with at least five and as many as seven losses that would be placed in the other column if there was a leader with the stones of an Admiral Schofield or a Grant Williams. Forget their skill sets for a second, if you can, because if UT had a true bell cow, a real alpha offensive player, the Auburn game, loss at South Carolina, the loss to A&M, and the losses to Memphis and FSU easily could have gone the other way, and who knows about Kansas.
It's been a tough year, and a big part of that is because of the success and the enjoyment of the last couple of seasons. That makes the struggles sting, but raised expectations are a good thing - for the program and for the fans.
And there is talent on the way - Tennessee has the fifth-ranked 2020 signing class that is one of only four (UK, Duke and UNC being the others) that include multiple five-star signees - but that does not make the sting of the now go away.
Just my 2 cents.
Cheaters getting targeted
Giddy-up. Five games, including split squads as of this morning, as seven Houston Cheaters have been hit by pitches.
Good times. There's even a Twitter place called 2020 Astros Shame Tour (@AsterickTour) with highlights of some of the plunks.
Again, good times.
Braves radio voice Ben Ingram joined us on Press Row on Wednesday - check out the interview here - and was honest and direct about the anger around the camps.
Are they all on purpose? No. Jose Altuve was hit on the toe with a back-foot slider. A couple of the guys that were hit were not even on the 2017 team.
But this is not going anywhere any time soon.
In fact, when was the last time there was a bench-clearing brawl in spring training?
And as one of you big-brained regulars mentioned, this entire story will be restarted when the Red Sox are handed out their punishments for whatever they did behind the scenes.
Combine combinations
We love the draft. You know this.
Sure, the combine - aka the Underwear Olympics - is part of that process.
It's also part of the pre-draft calendar that makes the intrigue so compelling and any actual intel that much more valuable.
For example, let's look at the teams in the top five and what those franchises may be facing.
The perennially bad Cincinnati Bengals pick first. They are desperate for a quarterback, and Joe Burrow was historically good last year as LSU rolled to the national title. That seems easy, right?
Well, is there a price the Panthers, for instance - remember, Carolina is entering the final year of oft-injured Cam Newton's second contract and just hired Joe Brady, who was Burrow's passing game coach last year - can pay that would move the Bengals from 1? Hmmmmmmm.
The Redskins are at 2, and while everyone raves about Chase Young, are Washington and new coach Ron Rivera all-in with Dwayne Haskins, last year's first-round pick? If not Tua could go here. It also brings us to the swing spot in this draft in most people's eyes.
If Detroit is truly looking to move on from Matt Stafford, then they could call the Redskins and move up a spot like the Bears did a couple of years ago to get Mitch Trubisky. If the Lions stay put with an eye on the now rather than the post-Stafford era, there are several difference-makers on the board, but if the draft goes Burrow to Cincy then Young to D.C., the Lions will have a host of suitors calling for pick 3 for Tua.
The New York Giants at 4 certainly have to think Daniel Jones is the QB answer. So that could mean the best player on the board or, as long as Tua is still on the board, then there will be value.
Miami at 5 is as far as Tua falls. Period. But the truth is that if the Dolphins want to be sure that Tua is headed to South Beach, they may have to move north on the draft board to get him.
I love the draft. You know this.
This and that
- Count me impressed with the Koala Kai commercials for QuickBooks with Martin Kove reviving his role as Sensei John Creese from the original "Karate Kid."
- Hey, won one by half a point late last night as Stanford (minus-7.5) topped Utah 70-62. Add that to the Mocs breezing by VMI - UTC was favored by 3 and won 71-64 - and that constitutes a winning streak, right? We're 39-28 (58.2 percent) against the number.
- Thought about writing about this with some more weight, but it may be too much inside baseball. Clay Travis and Dan LeBatard are feuding. They are two of the most popular national sports radio personalities around, and each has a TV show as well with LeBatard using multiple platforms at ESPN and Travis at Fox. Here's more of the backstory with Travis continuing his stone-throwing at ESPN and leading the marching band of the "stick to sports" crew by "taking a victory lap," according to LeBatard, at the cancellation of "High Noon," an ESPN show hosted by Bomani Jones and Pablo Torre, each of whom are friends with LeBatard. I like Travis and respect the niche he has created for himself. This side of Bill Simmons, no one in modern sports media is more self made than Travis, and that is undeniably impressive in an age of shrinking resources. He has a cult following and is somewhere between Howard Stern, Simmons and Sean Hannity. I love the LeBatard Show; for my money it's the best thing on sports TV or national radio right now, and a big part of that is LeBatard's irreverence and his extreme talent. (Seriously, considering his writing ability - and before he went radio and TV full time - LeBatard was one of the best columnists with a keyboard.) This conflict - and the social media back and forth between each of their very loyal fan bases - is actually based on two smart dudes making statements that are hard to argue with, to be honest. Travis is right that ESPN has redirected in the last couple of years, parting ways with a lot of the personalities that had histories of, as Travis said, practicing in "woke sports." In this day and time, I hope I never celebrate anyone losing a job in the sports media BID-ness because it feels like folks are losing their gigs almost daily. And a lot of LeBatard's reply about Travis' style - and his undeniable intelligence - also makes sense. Wow, that got long.
- We talked sometime earlier this month about the high school sports laws being debated and lawsuits being filed because of gender-identity competition. (That said, it feels a lot like pandering for the Connecticut GOP to honor the girls suing the system over the policy, doesn't it?) It's a complicated issue for sure, considering the emotions for those wrestling with their personal unknowns and paths, but one that at its core feels like the competitive basics of boys vs. boys and girls vs. girls is hard to deny. And then there is this history-making story as a girl won the 106-pound North Carolina state wrestling championship to become the first female to win a boys' state wrestling title there.
- Here's today's A2 column, and since it was on Trump, well, know that we will have hate mail in Friday's mailbag.
Today's questions
Have you sent a mailbag question? If not, why not?
The modern record for being hit by a pitch for a single team in a season is 103, held by the Indians in 2008. True or false on a Thursday, the Astros blow by that number.
Question for the group, who is your favorite sports radio personality and why?
As for today, Feb. 27, it would have been Liz Taylor's 88th birthday.
The first Mardi Gras celebration started on this day in 1827.
In honor of Sensei Creese's triumphant return with Koala Kai, Rushmore of all-time villains from 80s movies.
Go, and enjoy the day.