1. We've almost made it guys! This is the last dead week on the sports calendar around here. Next week, Mitchell Forde will head to Peach Jam/Under Armour Finals and the week after that we'll be in Atlanta for SEC Media Days. After that, the countdown is officially on to the start of college football season. May and June and the first half of July are a college sports wasteland (except for the small group of people who are passionate about college baseball). It was even slower than usual around here this year because recruiting is not moving very quickly (only five schools--Louisiana-Lafayette, Southern Miss, Arkansas State, kansas and Utah--have fewer than Mizzou's four commits). But we've made it almost all the way through. Things are about to pick up again.
2. The LA Lakers are the talk of the sports world today. Obviously their signing of former Georgia star Kentavious Caldwell-Pope really moved the needle last night. They also signed LeBron James. I'm not an NBA guy. This seemed like the move that was predicted for months, which makes me not love it. I'd have liked to see him stay in Cleveland, but I understand why he didn't. He's the ultimate social media age superstar. If he jumps teams to try to win titles, he gets criticized. If he's in Cleveland with subpar talent and doesn't win titles, he gets criticized. He can't win no matter what he does, so might as well make a ton of money and live in LA. Think about this:
I'm not going to say whether Nick's ranking of these seven is accurate. That's debatable. But half of the top 14ish players in league history have played for the Lakers. That's something.
My favorite move they made is signing Lance Stephenson, because any time I can refer to this GIF, I will
3. This is sports fandom, completely encapsulated in a single tweet.
4. Terrence Hargrove Jr. committed to SLU on Sunday. You can talk more about that in this thread. It seems as if Hargrove had slid lower on Missouri's list of priorities in recent weeks. I can't say that for sure, just the way it appeared. I don't think missing on Hargrove is a crushing blow of any sort. The litmus test for Mizzou's recruiting efforts will be E.J. Liddell, Mario McKinney, Caleb Love and Cam'Ron Fletcher. These guys are (more or less) the reason Cuonzo Martin was hired. If the Tigers lose all of those guys (or even three of them) it might raise my eyebrows. Losing Hargrove doesn't...but that said, it's a good get for SLU and they're putting together a solid roster. Now we'll see if Travis Ford hangs around to coach them all.
5. Standing ovation for the people in charge of The Opening.
I'm going to assume most of you know who Brenda Tracy is. For those who don't, she was a victim of gang rape at Oregon State by football players. You can read much more about her here. She is now an activist and does speaking engagements to teams and athletes around the country. I've said for years I think one of the biggest issues with big-time athletes is that they too often think the rules don't apply to them because nobody has ever really done anything to make them believe they do. I think Tracy's message is important for big-time athletes to hear and the younger they are when they hear it, the better. Most of the kids at The Opening are about to be BMOC's in 12 months and they're going to find themselves in positions where they have choices to make. Hopefully by listening to Ms. Tracy's talk, they'll make the right choices. I have a feeling this particular part of the ten thoughts will make some here angry. That's too bad really.
6. The Seattle Mariners' uniforms of the future were, well, I don't know.
Many seemed to hate them. I kind of hated them. But I kind of also like that dudes were out there playing a major league baseball game in tank tops. I mean, Ken Griffey Jr. should have worn this uniform, right? Sleeveless jersey, hat on backwards. The Kid was ahead of his time.
7. Part of SEC Media Days will be our chance to make predictions on both divisions and the league title game. I'm going to give you two lists. The first will be the way I'd vote in each division as of today. The second will be the way I think it will go:
SEC West How I'd Vote
1. Alabama
2. Auburn
3. LSU
4. Texas A&M
5. Ole Miss
6. Arkansas
7. Mississippi State
SEC West How I think it will go
1. Alabama
2. Auburn
3. LSU
4. Texas A&M
5. Mississippi State
6. Arkansas
7. Ole Miss
SEC East How I'd Vote
1. Georgia
2. South Carolina
3. Mizzou
4. Florida
5. Kentucky
6. Vanderbilt
7. Tennessee
SEC East How I think it will go
1. Georgia
2. South Carolina
3. Florida
4. Mizzou
5. Tennessee
6. Kentucky
7. Vanderbilt
Until I'm given a reason to think differently, I'll take Bama over UGA in the title game and I'm sure that will be the pick.
8. Ho-hum, there was another stupid senseless shooting last week. This one happened at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland. I'm sure you've heard about it by now. Some crazy asshole who had been the subject of a story that made him mad many years ago shot through the glass door then indiscriminately started shooting and killed five people. This isn't a gun control post. I'm not stupid enough to wade into that subject on here. People feel however they're going to feel on that. Obviously, I think every rational person immediately reacted when they saw this story and thought "Good God, that's awful." I started seeing a bunch of tweets from media members lamenting the fact that it was reporters that were killed and lauding how they kept working and all that. And, yes, I think the people at that paper do deserve recognition for still doing their jobs and putting out a paper the next day which included a story on the shooting. But I also thought, "This is media members making it about something it shouldn't be about." It doesn't suck because reporters were killed. It sucks because PEOPLE were killed. And that's always horrendous. I don't care if they're students or teachers or reporters or trash collectors. People randomly being killed by crazy assholes sucks. And what sucks even more is that it's not even all that surprising when it happens now.
All that said, read this editorial from the C-G staff which is moving and thought provoking
9. Things to watch and listen to this week:
Listen to S-Town if you haven't. It's an older podcast, think I listened to it last summer. But it's very interesting. And I'm in a rut right now as far as finding new podcasts and I've given you most of the ones I listen to regularly. So listen to that one. Or whatever else you want to listen to.
The next show I want to watch is Churchill's Secret Agents. It's a new reality show where contestants are put through the same training that British spies received prior to WW2. Sounds interesting.
10. Things you should read:
It was a good week for me finding stories I liked. Here are three recommendations
The Counterfeit Queen of Soul, a fascinating story about a woman who toured as Aretha Franklin against her will
Mission Accomplished, a story about one of the few things sent into space with The Challenger that survived (Side note: The Challenger explosion was the first event in my lifetime that I immediately knew I would always remember where I was when I heard about it).
A College QB's suicide and a Family's Search for Answers. In-depth story about the suicide of Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinski.
Have a good week y'all.
2. The LA Lakers are the talk of the sports world today. Obviously their signing of former Georgia star Kentavious Caldwell-Pope really moved the needle last night. They also signed LeBron James. I'm not an NBA guy. This seemed like the move that was predicted for months, which makes me not love it. I'd have liked to see him stay in Cleveland, but I understand why he didn't. He's the ultimate social media age superstar. If he jumps teams to try to win titles, he gets criticized. If he's in Cleveland with subpar talent and doesn't win titles, he gets criticized. He can't win no matter what he does, so might as well make a ton of money and live in LA. Think about this:
I'm not going to say whether Nick's ranking of these seven is accurate. That's debatable. But half of the top 14ish players in league history have played for the Lakers. That's something.
My favorite move they made is signing Lance Stephenson, because any time I can refer to this GIF, I will
3. This is sports fandom, completely encapsulated in a single tweet.
4. Terrence Hargrove Jr. committed to SLU on Sunday. You can talk more about that in this thread. It seems as if Hargrove had slid lower on Missouri's list of priorities in recent weeks. I can't say that for sure, just the way it appeared. I don't think missing on Hargrove is a crushing blow of any sort. The litmus test for Mizzou's recruiting efforts will be E.J. Liddell, Mario McKinney, Caleb Love and Cam'Ron Fletcher. These guys are (more or less) the reason Cuonzo Martin was hired. If the Tigers lose all of those guys (or even three of them) it might raise my eyebrows. Losing Hargrove doesn't...but that said, it's a good get for SLU and they're putting together a solid roster. Now we'll see if Travis Ford hangs around to coach them all.
5. Standing ovation for the people in charge of The Opening.
I'm going to assume most of you know who Brenda Tracy is. For those who don't, she was a victim of gang rape at Oregon State by football players. You can read much more about her here. She is now an activist and does speaking engagements to teams and athletes around the country. I've said for years I think one of the biggest issues with big-time athletes is that they too often think the rules don't apply to them because nobody has ever really done anything to make them believe they do. I think Tracy's message is important for big-time athletes to hear and the younger they are when they hear it, the better. Most of the kids at The Opening are about to be BMOC's in 12 months and they're going to find themselves in positions where they have choices to make. Hopefully by listening to Ms. Tracy's talk, they'll make the right choices. I have a feeling this particular part of the ten thoughts will make some here angry. That's too bad really.
6. The Seattle Mariners' uniforms of the future were, well, I don't know.
Many seemed to hate them. I kind of hated them. But I kind of also like that dudes were out there playing a major league baseball game in tank tops. I mean, Ken Griffey Jr. should have worn this uniform, right? Sleeveless jersey, hat on backwards. The Kid was ahead of his time.
7. Part of SEC Media Days will be our chance to make predictions on both divisions and the league title game. I'm going to give you two lists. The first will be the way I'd vote in each division as of today. The second will be the way I think it will go:
SEC West How I'd Vote
1. Alabama
2. Auburn
3. LSU
4. Texas A&M
5. Ole Miss
6. Arkansas
7. Mississippi State
SEC West How I think it will go
1. Alabama
2. Auburn
3. LSU
4. Texas A&M
5. Mississippi State
6. Arkansas
7. Ole Miss
SEC East How I'd Vote
1. Georgia
2. South Carolina
3. Mizzou
4. Florida
5. Kentucky
6. Vanderbilt
7. Tennessee
SEC East How I think it will go
1. Georgia
2. South Carolina
3. Florida
4. Mizzou
5. Tennessee
6. Kentucky
7. Vanderbilt
Until I'm given a reason to think differently, I'll take Bama over UGA in the title game and I'm sure that will be the pick.
8. Ho-hum, there was another stupid senseless shooting last week. This one happened at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland. I'm sure you've heard about it by now. Some crazy asshole who had been the subject of a story that made him mad many years ago shot through the glass door then indiscriminately started shooting and killed five people. This isn't a gun control post. I'm not stupid enough to wade into that subject on here. People feel however they're going to feel on that. Obviously, I think every rational person immediately reacted when they saw this story and thought "Good God, that's awful." I started seeing a bunch of tweets from media members lamenting the fact that it was reporters that were killed and lauding how they kept working and all that. And, yes, I think the people at that paper do deserve recognition for still doing their jobs and putting out a paper the next day which included a story on the shooting. But I also thought, "This is media members making it about something it shouldn't be about." It doesn't suck because reporters were killed. It sucks because PEOPLE were killed. And that's always horrendous. I don't care if they're students or teachers or reporters or trash collectors. People randomly being killed by crazy assholes sucks. And what sucks even more is that it's not even all that surprising when it happens now.
All that said, read this editorial from the C-G staff which is moving and thought provoking
9. Things to watch and listen to this week:
Listen to S-Town if you haven't. It's an older podcast, think I listened to it last summer. But it's very interesting. And I'm in a rut right now as far as finding new podcasts and I've given you most of the ones I listen to regularly. So listen to that one. Or whatever else you want to listen to.
The next show I want to watch is Churchill's Secret Agents. It's a new reality show where contestants are put through the same training that British spies received prior to WW2. Sounds interesting.
10. Things you should read:
It was a good week for me finding stories I liked. Here are three recommendations
The Counterfeit Queen of Soul, a fascinating story about a woman who toured as Aretha Franklin against her will
Mission Accomplished, a story about one of the few things sent into space with The Challenger that survived (Side note: The Challenger explosion was the first event in my lifetime that I immediately knew I would always remember where I was when I heard about it).
A College QB's suicide and a Family's Search for Answers. In-depth story about the suicide of Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinski.
Have a good week y'all.
