The Wright way
So Jay Wright is leaving college hoops.
And unlike some self-absorbed, narcissistic, over-important coach with an ego as impossible to decipher as his name, Wright made a couple of phone calls and was gone. Allegedly.
No year-long victory tour that through grace and karma were punctuated with arch-rival UNC's two biggest wins since some dude named Jordan hit a 17-footer in the Superdome. Allegedly.
So Wright is out. And his respectfully executed exit aside, Wright's exit stage right leaves me with a few questions.
Who is the best coach in college basketball as we speak, because Coach K's self-indulgent year-long retirement - which has naturally been accompanied by whispers of Coach K returning for one more year to help the transition - and Wright's ballet-like steps into the next chapter took two of the top five on everyone's list.
The rest of the names, though, are mixed and most have clear strikes against them and/or their resumés.
There are some quick names off the tongue of some year-in power programs.
Mark Few at Gonzaga is great, but you can't be more than a fringe top-five guy without a title can you?
John Caliprai has a title - and a checkered NCAA history - but if you had to pick a word to describe the Kentucky Wildcats over the past decade it would be underachieving. And that's certainly not can't be the first adjective mentioned for someone in the discussion for best in his field.
Sure, Kansas Bill Self now has two titles and more regular-season success than anyone actually knows, but does the litany of NCAA troubles work against him in this discussion?
So if you could hire any current college basketball coach to be the guy at your program, who are you calling first?
Far from Joker-ing
So Novak Djokovic is anything but the clown prince of tennis these days.
First he was exiled from the Aussie Open because of his vaccination stagnation. (Side question: Anyone else miss the cleverness in cartoons from back in the day, like who in a million years could believe they could make legislative process or 'Conjunction, junction, what's your function' into high-quality Saturday morning entertainment?)
I believe The Joker made it easy on the Aussie folks because he lied throughout the ordeal, and simply put the rules are the rules.
Well, now Djokovic - along with former female all-timer Martina Navratilova - are swatting backhands left and right at Wimbledon's decision to ban Russian tennis players.
And while I thought The Joker acted like a petulant child - hey, he's a tennis star, comes with the territory a lot of the times, and yes McEnroe, "I CAN BE SERIOUS" - during the vaccine discussion, Djokovic's stance against Wimbledon's stance against Russia's invasion of the Ukraine makes a lot of sense.
And while we all can denounce the decisions made by Russian leadership and the atrocities and crimes of war, Djokovic's statement is pretty spot on:
"I will always be the first one to condemn the war. As a child of war, I know what kind of emotional trauma a war leaves us.
"Us in Serbia, we know what was happening here in 1999, ordinary people always suffer, we've had a lot of wars in the Balkans.
"That being said, I cannot support the Wimbledon decision. It's not the athletes' fault. When politics interfere with sports, it usually doesn't turn out well."
Because there have been decades of human rights travesties and crimes being committed by governments around the globe that have gone by rather hush-hushed or had a blind-eye turned to them. But now, this one - the one that seems universally popular to stand against and one that will not damage the bottom line for big companies like standing against China - is where we find a conscience?
Cool. Hope that works for you.
And Navratilova added another important word in her statements against the Wimbledon decision.
Optics.
And that's so true because we have so many people, groups, organizations, leaves, you name it, not looking actually to fight against something or for someone, they are dying to give off the appearance that they are fighting something or for someone.
Who's really the coward of the county?
OK, so this is way off the reservation, but I did not realize it was bugging me as bad as it does.
So, I was taking my 14-year-old to school this morning, and Kenny Rogers' "Coward of the County" comes on the radio.
I enjoy country music. I am not a fan of the Luke Bryans of the world that have hatched this pseudo-country style that has attracted names like Bro-country or even 'Hick-hop,' which is wicked clever.
It must have been in some ways like that for Kenny Rogers, who in a large part was the bridge-crossing artist that helped country go mainstream in the 1980s, for good or bad. It was the first step at least toward the door that Garth Brooks kicked in the late 1980s.
And that is what it is. Heck, you could make an argument that the biggest recording artist on the planet currently followed a similar path from country roots to pop superstardom, unless you think there is someone out there bigger than Taylor Swift.
All of that is revisionist history more than a viewpoint, but listening to Kenny this morning left me with two questions:
First, what is Kenny's biggest hit, what song do you think of first when you hear Kenny Rogers' name? I vote for "The Gambler" but "Coward of the County" is almost assuredly in that team picture.
Second, the coward of said county is the singer's nephew - "I looked after Tommy, because he was my brother's son" - and faced some hardships, most notably when the Gatlin boys came calling - and there were three of them - and beat and assaulted Tommy's girl Becky.
So Tommy wanted payback, and when he found the Gatlin boys at the bar - remember, when Tommy turned around, one of them said, "Hey look ol' Yellow's leaving, but you could have heard a pin drop when Tommy stopped and locked the door" - he got that payback and then some.
So after Tommy cleared the barroom and left the Gatlin boys in a pile of broken bones and blood - and there were three of them - here's my question: Why did his uncle just stand there and watch? Didn't pick up a chair or throw a punch or nothing after his nephew's wife had been violated? Because the singer tells us he heard Tommy say - as the last Gatlin boy fell:
"I promised you, Dad, Not to do the things you've done. I walk away from trouble when I can. Now please don't think I'm weak. I didn't turn the other cheek. And, Papa, I sure hope you understand: Sometimes you gotta fight when you're a man."
Who's the coward there?
This and that
- Speaking of current college basketball coaches, wanna guess how many guys blowing whistles as the head dude at D-I schools have a natty as a head coach? Answer below.
- And buckets of NIL opportunities and the news that will have Chas smiling for the next six weeks, UK star Oscar Tshiebwe is returning to Kentucky. That's right the national player of the year will bring his double-double machine back to Lexington for another run. Man, if he can convince some of those younger UK studs to do the same, bowser, maybe even Coach Cal couldn't even mess that up.
- Braves played. Braves lost. Couple of random thoughts: Did you know the Braves have still not won a series? Yeah that seems odd. Second, Max Fried was the ace the Braves needed him to be in Tuesday's win over L.A. Charlie Morton was not the No. 2 starter the Braves needed him to be in Wednesday's Game 3 loss to the Dodgers. And yeah, does anyone else feel like Freddie Freeman - who homered twice in the three games against his former team - is about to go on a tear with the Dodgers?
- Holy schnikes, forget bean balls or the traditional unwritten rules. Here's a junior college pitcher who was truly offended at the nerve of this opposing hitter to actually leave the yard against him and run the bases. Wow. The pitcher comes sprinting off the mound and de-cleats the home run offender as he's rounding third. Maybe he made fun of his wife's scalp?
- So Rudy Giuliani caused quite the stir on "The Masked Singer" last night. Hey, I understand the outrage. That show should have been canceled years ago. What a farce.
- Bill Self has two and Caliprai has one. So those two you should have known. Baylor's Scott Drew and Virginia's Tony Bennett won it all in '21 and '19 respectively. Rick Pitino, who is now at Iona, won it all in 2013 and in 1996, Jim Boeheim won it all in 2003, Tom Izzo won it all in 2000 and Tubby Smith won the 1998 title at UK and is currently at his alma mater High Point. So there are eight.
Today's questions
So it's a free for all Thursday, and considering we are still mired in a comment-less conundrum, I will include some of the things you guys and gals have sent me this week in tomorrow's mailbag.
And if there's something you wanted to share with the group tomorrow, fire away. Heck, even if it's not a question, you guys can have the stage Friday if need be. Deal? Deal.
As for above, plenty of question options there. Best coach in college hoops, you with Team Joker or Team Wimbledon, or what's far left on Kenny Rogers' song catalog?
As for today, April 21, let's review.
It was 66 years ago today that Elvis hit No. 1 for the first time with "Heartbreak Hotel."
Happy birthday to Queen Elizabeth, who is 96 years young.
Prince died on this day six years ago. Best concert I ever saw was Prince in the A-T-L.
It's also national secretaries day.
Rushmore of TV secretaries. Go, and remember the mailbag.