I’m still pissed off over my favorite baseball team doing what they do best, we’ll get to that, but no synopsis needed. The SEC/Big12 challenge basketball was electric, the Rams are back and so is the bad boy of golf.
Basketball: The SEC won 5 of the 9 SEC/Big12 challenge games, but not even Paul Finebaum can convince me they are the better conference. Alabama lost on the road to a good Oklahoma team, acceptable, but Mizzou needed overtime to beat a TCU squad still searching for their first resume worthy win. Some highlights for the SEC included Tennessee beating the brakes off Kansas, Florida outlasting West Virginia and LSU competing with a very good Texas Tech team. The SEC is top heavy with a couple suspect teams among the 5-6 tournament worthy teams, whereas the Big12 has 7-8 tournament worthy teams and are all capable of beating anyone in the country. Mac McClung is getting absolutely hosed for not getting any Wooden award recognition. Luka Garza is undoubtedly winning it, but to not have him in the top 25 is an insult. He’s a walking highlight reel in the last two minutes of games and hit two huge threes down the stretch against LSU to bring Tech back from the dead. The dude has over 1,000 career points and has the clutch gene you need during tournament time.
SEC/BIG12 tourney-worthy teams:
SEC: Bama, FLA, LSU, TENN, Mizzou Bubble: Arkansas
Big12: Baylor, Texas, OU, WVU, KU, TTU, OK State Bubble: TCU
Football: Matt Stafford was the first domino to fall in this crazy quarterback offseason and I’m bummed he’s not a Bronco. The Rams had a defense capable of winning a championship this last year as long as the offense was coherent. As much as I love Jared Goff in his interviews on Pardon My Take, you could live bet on the Rams by looking at his demeanor at the beginning of a game. If he had a deer in the headlights look, you could count on him crapping his pants and hammer the other team. For everyone who was as dumbfounded as I was when we saw the Rams’ offer: remember, Jared Goff received a massive contract the Lions need to eat. Remember the absurd contract the Texans gave the Brocket-ship Osweiler? They had to send two additional picks to Cleveland in exchange for a 4th rounder because that contract was so huge. Similar situation, but, unlike Brock n Roll, Goff can actually throw the ball and won’t hurt the culture while the Lions look to rebuild. That being said, can you imagine what dumb GMs around the league will give up to get Watson? I’m all for selling out to get him, he’s a generational talent…but someone is going to use the Stafford trade to rationalize trading away all of their picks for the next 3 drafts.
Senior bowl: Football twitter would not shut up about Wisconsin-Whitewater center Quinn Meinerz whose Senior Bowl highlights were incredible. Although the Senior Bowl is usually overlooked, Al Davis used to love using the Senior Bowl as a way to find out how much a guy can learn in a week against top talent. Outside of actual game film, this is a realistic situation teams can put prospects through to find out if they fit their scheme while building relationships. It also separates who is taking their craft seriously from slappy players with good talent. Kellen Mond won the game’s MVP, but don’t put as much stock into that as the week leading up to the game where he impressed the American team’s head coach Matt Rhule. The guy felt like he played at A&M for 15 years and won 30+ games there, so he’s got a ton of experience. There will be a lot of hype around him, but the poor man’s Dak Prescott will be an absolute steal in the 3rd or 4th round as a project to build for the future. I won’t bore anyone too much with draft analysis, there will be more mock drafts in the near future.
Baseball: I’m done with the Rockies. Their ownership is more fixated with using the capital from top-10 ticket sales year in and year out on rooftop bars and scoreboards rather than the product on the field. The Arenado trade might go down as the worst trade in MLB history and the Monforts could care less about how us fans feel about it. But after Ubaldo Jimenez, Troy Tulowitzki (traded him 2 seasons after he had any value) and Matt Holiday (worked out because we got CarGo), we’re used to this type of backstabbing. This is completely different when you have a fan-favorite generational talent traded for a $50 million ham sandwich. Seriously, how do you give the Cardinals the best defensive third baseman of our generation AND $50 million for 3 prospects….none of which will immediately help our terrible pitching staff.
The Cardinals are the best run franchise in the MLB. They are consistently in the hunt, have a great farm system and don’t have to buy their way to a championship like the scumbag Yankees or Dodgers. As a free agent baseball fan, they look really appealing and I hope the Rockies trade Trevor Story and another 20 mil to them for a career minor leaguer.
Golf: Patrick Reed is the ultimate scumbag. The dude cheated and stole money from his teammates in college, compared himself to Tiger Woods and consistently belittled people throughout his career (golf.com), so are we really surprised he bent the rules again? It must be difficult being that talented at that much of a d-bag to always be recognized for the wrong reasons regardless of all the success he’s had.
The NBA is playing basketball and the NHL is playing hockey.
Wednesday we’ll preview marquee matchups for the next week of College Hoops and Friday we’ll preview the Big Game and all of the prop bets surrounding it. Wash your hands.
The Morning Flush 