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1) It's week two of what the hell are we going to talk about? It seems like it's been six months. This already seems like the new normal. I hope it doesn't have to be. I promise we're not just going to talk about COVID-19 every Monday in this space, but it is kind of the main thing on everyone's mind right now. I go back and forth every day, usually multiple times a day, between "You know, this isn't that bad, I can handle it" and "Oh my God, I'm going to go insane and I'm depressed and **** everything." I think most people are the same. It's just the unknown of it all. As Neal McCready said when we taped the Greatest Pod in the South yesterday (I'll link it when it's posted), if you could just give us a date and say, "On this day you'll be able to go back to normal life" we could probably get through it. But we don't know if it's going to be two weeks or two months. And that's tough. My kid was supposed to fly to Florida yesterday. My wife and I had a trip planned starting Thursday. Now it's the worst spring break ever.
Just judging by my own mindset, I really think mental health is going to be an important thing to monitor during this. I've found myself borderline depressed a couple of times and I usually don't feel like I'm a person that struggles with that. If you have that in you, it's going to come out at some point in the next few weeks. You know what I've found helpful? I had a couple of friends last week text and just say "How are you holding up with all this?" It helps. I've tried to message someone every day since then asking that. Just knowing "Hey, everybody's dealing with this same bullshit" helps somehow. And getting a message that says "Just thinking about you, wanted to see how you and the family are doing" helps.
2) I think it's time we start wondering about football season. The spring stuff is done. Baseball and basketball and hockey probably aren't going to start till at least mid June or early July if we're lucky. But you want to see people lose their minds? Have this impact football season. I'm not to the point of saying I think that's going to happen yet. But I'm definitely at the point where it's on my radar. That's obviously the worst case scenario for me professionally, but even more, it's the worst case scenario for everybody. We're going to need football for so many reasons by August. I really, really hope it happens. If we're not in Atlanta for SEC media days the second week in July it's definitely going to be time to worry.
3) All right, so let's talk about some actual sports. Tray Jackson is transferring. If this is a surprise to you, then you simply haven't paid any attention to anything for the last two months. Jackson yo-yo'ed in and out of the lineup. There are two ways to look at this:
A) He has offensive potential and in a lost season why wouldn't you play a kid that looked like a good athlete and a guy that was capable of scoring?
B) He fouled a lot and was a defensive liability and if he's going to cut bait and leave after one year of not getting playing time who needs him anyway?
The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between those two. There are valid arguments on both sides. I thought he should have played more. It's the best way to get better. But I also understand the coach knows more than I do and has far more information on which to base who plays than I do. It doesn't have to be all one or the other. There's plenty of room between "Cuonzo has to be fired now" and "Tray Jackson is soft and representative of a generation of entitled youth."
4) The bigger problem is that this keeps happening. Chris Guess didn't play and left. CJ Roberts didn't play and left. Blake Harris didn't play enough and left. Mario McKinney didn't play enough and left. Tray Jackson didn't play enough and left. In three recruiting classes, Cuonzo Martin has signed 14 players that were not transfers. Six of them are still on the roster, two of them left early for the pros and six transferred out. In other words, 6/14 (42.9%) made it to their third year in the program (assuming Xavier Pinson, Torrence Watson, Javon Pickett and Kobe Brown do) Sure, there are reasons for all of them individually. Guess was a flyer, Roberts was signed by Kim Anderson, Harris was a rider with Porter who had parents who were too involved, McKinney was an attempt to get EJ Liddell, etc. But eventually, when it keeps happening, the individual explanations lose importance and the bigger story is that it just keeps happening. And Jackson is a top 75 player who showed some actual potential. This wasn't a kid who was a late project, it wasn't a kid who was an issue off the court according to anything we ever heard--he was even a kid who Cuonzo went out of his way to praise for not having a bunch of noise around him about playing time. And now he's gone. Look, I'm not saying you hand guys playing time. Not at all. But Tray Jackson is exactly the type of player Missouri basketball needs to be good to be successful. And now he's leaving after one year of averaging three points.
5) I think part of the problem is that each individual win is valued too much, especially by coaches. I understand in college sports that there is no reward in a draft for being really bad so you don't tank. And what I'm saying here isn't advocating tanking. But is there really any difference in a team that goes 14-18 and one that goes 17-15? No, there isn't. In college basketball there is only making the NCAA Tournament and not making it. Sure, there are degrees of bad. And I guess winning nine games a year for three years is worse than winning 15 games a year for three years. But does it truly matter in the end? Not to me. If you're not winning 20 and having a legitimate shot to make the tournament, it's just varying degrees of something that doesn't matter. My point is this: It was very obvious by about mid-January this season was going nowhere. Cuonzo Martin couldn't be fired after this year. So you're really playing for next year. Is Tray Jackson a part of the future? It would be my opinion that he is. Now, I understand, everyone else that plays his position is coming back as well. And I'm not saying Jackson should have been starting and playing 30 minutes a game. But he played a TOTAL of 22 minutes in the last five games. Here are the rest of the minutes in those five games of players that could have impacted Jackson's time:
Mitchell Smith: 118
Mark Smith: 66 (in four games)
Torrence Watson: 53
Javon Pickett: 130
Kobe Brown: 100
If we're talking about five games, that's 200 potential minutes. Tray Jackson played 22 of them. Does anybody really think Missouri's record is different if he played 44 of them? Or even 66, which is how many an injured and ineffective Mark Smith played despite missing a game (in those four games, Smith scored 22 points and nine of them came on threes in the final three minutes against Alabama in a game that had already been decided)?
Now, would Missouri be better next year if Jackson had gotten those minutes and stayed here? I don't know. There's no way to know. But I'll be surprised if they replace him at this point with someone who is more productive next year than he probably would have been.
1) It's week two of what the hell are we going to talk about? It seems like it's been six months. This already seems like the new normal. I hope it doesn't have to be. I promise we're not just going to talk about COVID-19 every Monday in this space, but it is kind of the main thing on everyone's mind right now. I go back and forth every day, usually multiple times a day, between "You know, this isn't that bad, I can handle it" and "Oh my God, I'm going to go insane and I'm depressed and **** everything." I think most people are the same. It's just the unknown of it all. As Neal McCready said when we taped the Greatest Pod in the South yesterday (I'll link it when it's posted), if you could just give us a date and say, "On this day you'll be able to go back to normal life" we could probably get through it. But we don't know if it's going to be two weeks or two months. And that's tough. My kid was supposed to fly to Florida yesterday. My wife and I had a trip planned starting Thursday. Now it's the worst spring break ever.
Just judging by my own mindset, I really think mental health is going to be an important thing to monitor during this. I've found myself borderline depressed a couple of times and I usually don't feel like I'm a person that struggles with that. If you have that in you, it's going to come out at some point in the next few weeks. You know what I've found helpful? I had a couple of friends last week text and just say "How are you holding up with all this?" It helps. I've tried to message someone every day since then asking that. Just knowing "Hey, everybody's dealing with this same bullshit" helps somehow. And getting a message that says "Just thinking about you, wanted to see how you and the family are doing" helps.
2) I think it's time we start wondering about football season. The spring stuff is done. Baseball and basketball and hockey probably aren't going to start till at least mid June or early July if we're lucky. But you want to see people lose their minds? Have this impact football season. I'm not to the point of saying I think that's going to happen yet. But I'm definitely at the point where it's on my radar. That's obviously the worst case scenario for me professionally, but even more, it's the worst case scenario for everybody. We're going to need football for so many reasons by August. I really, really hope it happens. If we're not in Atlanta for SEC media days the second week in July it's definitely going to be time to worry.
3) All right, so let's talk about some actual sports. Tray Jackson is transferring. If this is a surprise to you, then you simply haven't paid any attention to anything for the last two months. Jackson yo-yo'ed in and out of the lineup. There are two ways to look at this:
A) He has offensive potential and in a lost season why wouldn't you play a kid that looked like a good athlete and a guy that was capable of scoring?
B) He fouled a lot and was a defensive liability and if he's going to cut bait and leave after one year of not getting playing time who needs him anyway?
The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between those two. There are valid arguments on both sides. I thought he should have played more. It's the best way to get better. But I also understand the coach knows more than I do and has far more information on which to base who plays than I do. It doesn't have to be all one or the other. There's plenty of room between "Cuonzo has to be fired now" and "Tray Jackson is soft and representative of a generation of entitled youth."
4) The bigger problem is that this keeps happening. Chris Guess didn't play and left. CJ Roberts didn't play and left. Blake Harris didn't play enough and left. Mario McKinney didn't play enough and left. Tray Jackson didn't play enough and left. In three recruiting classes, Cuonzo Martin has signed 14 players that were not transfers. Six of them are still on the roster, two of them left early for the pros and six transferred out. In other words, 6/14 (42.9%) made it to their third year in the program (assuming Xavier Pinson, Torrence Watson, Javon Pickett and Kobe Brown do) Sure, there are reasons for all of them individually. Guess was a flyer, Roberts was signed by Kim Anderson, Harris was a rider with Porter who had parents who were too involved, McKinney was an attempt to get EJ Liddell, etc. But eventually, when it keeps happening, the individual explanations lose importance and the bigger story is that it just keeps happening. And Jackson is a top 75 player who showed some actual potential. This wasn't a kid who was a late project, it wasn't a kid who was an issue off the court according to anything we ever heard--he was even a kid who Cuonzo went out of his way to praise for not having a bunch of noise around him about playing time. And now he's gone. Look, I'm not saying you hand guys playing time. Not at all. But Tray Jackson is exactly the type of player Missouri basketball needs to be good to be successful. And now he's leaving after one year of averaging three points.
5) I think part of the problem is that each individual win is valued too much, especially by coaches. I understand in college sports that there is no reward in a draft for being really bad so you don't tank. And what I'm saying here isn't advocating tanking. But is there really any difference in a team that goes 14-18 and one that goes 17-15? No, there isn't. In college basketball there is only making the NCAA Tournament and not making it. Sure, there are degrees of bad. And I guess winning nine games a year for three years is worse than winning 15 games a year for three years. But does it truly matter in the end? Not to me. If you're not winning 20 and having a legitimate shot to make the tournament, it's just varying degrees of something that doesn't matter. My point is this: It was very obvious by about mid-January this season was going nowhere. Cuonzo Martin couldn't be fired after this year. So you're really playing for next year. Is Tray Jackson a part of the future? It would be my opinion that he is. Now, I understand, everyone else that plays his position is coming back as well. And I'm not saying Jackson should have been starting and playing 30 minutes a game. But he played a TOTAL of 22 minutes in the last five games. Here are the rest of the minutes in those five games of players that could have impacted Jackson's time:
Mitchell Smith: 118
Mark Smith: 66 (in four games)
Torrence Watson: 53
Javon Pickett: 130
Kobe Brown: 100
If we're talking about five games, that's 200 potential minutes. Tray Jackson played 22 of them. Does anybody really think Missouri's record is different if he played 44 of them? Or even 66, which is how many an injured and ineffective Mark Smith played despite missing a game (in those four games, Smith scored 22 points and nine of them came on threes in the final three minutes against Alabama in a game that had already been decided)?
Now, would Missouri be better next year if Jackson had gotten those minutes and stayed here? I don't know. There's no way to know. But I'll be surprised if they replace him at this point with someone who is more productive next year than he probably would have been.
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