D's Notebook

Tag: football (Page 10 of 28)

Here We Go Again

March 9, 2021 /

Me, just over two years ago:

Kansas football always finds a way to disappoint. I’d love to be surprised this time.

And,

My basic philosophy for KU football these days is that it can’t get any worse.

Never stop being you, KU football!

Since Les Miles arrived in Lawrence there have been rumors. Rumors about his health, his emotional investment to the program, his cognitive abilities. There was the curiously frequent turnover of offensive coordinators. Somehow Les was going into spring practice with the fourth OC of his two-plus years at KU, which seemed to point to consistent static between that position and the head coach.

So it seemed just a matter of time until his tenure as head coach of the Fighting Football Jayhawks came to an early end. I must admit, though, that allegations of sexual harassment that were buried by LSU was not on my BINGO card of reasons why Les would leave.

If you get past all the losing, Kansas football is kind of incredible!

Miles’ behavior at LSU, or alleged behavior, was plenty of evidence to relieve him of his coaching duties.

But the real bad guy in all of this, at least from KU’s perspective, is athletic director Jeff Long.

Long has kind of been a disaster. He was hired with one overriding purpose: hire his buddy Miles to stabilize the football program. Until this week, that was largely successful. The football team has not gotten better on the field, but Les stuck to his stated goal of only recruiting and signing high school players. He appeared to, finally, have solved the scholarship issues that had been present since Charlie Weis ran off nearly half the team and replaced them with Juco players.

With the most recent recruiting class – KU’s best in nearly a decade – Miles seemed to complete that task. His departure may rip that apart, starting another cycle of scrambling desperately just to get enough kids to field a full program again.

Despite that success, Long has fucked up about everything else he’s put his hands on at KU.

He decided to fight previous football coach David Beaty over his buyout, reporting a series of minor infractions to the NCAA to undermine Beaty. The resulting legal proceedings ended up costing KU nearly as much in legal fees as if Long had just paid Beaty the money he was due to go away. In the process Long made a former coach look bad, which is a great way to create an environment that other coaches want to be a part of. Oh, and there was the little issue of KU already being involved in the biggest ever recruiting scandal, and Jeff Long DECIDED TO GIVE THE NCAA MORE AMMUNITION.

This was a truly mind-blowing decision. Seriously, KU has had a lot of dumb administrators over the past 20 years – pretty much every AD has been incompetent or a criminal since the creation of the Big 12 – but this could be the single dumbest decision anyone associated with KU athletics has ever made.

Also along the way, without consulting Bill Self, Jeff Long told the NCAA that Adidas could be viewed as a booster of KU when the school was fighting to get Silvio De Sousa cleared to play. Again, there was already an NCAA investigation underway into the relationship between KU and Adidas. Yet Long somehow thought anything he said to get Silvio eligible would not be used as the central element of the NCAA’s broader case against KU.

Next came his bizarre press conference after the NCAA gave De Sousa a two-year suspension, when he claimed the NCAA told him that they were asking the question as “a hypothetical” only. Checkers and chess, and Long was the one playing checkers.

(I wouldn’t call it a huge disaster, but Long was also largely responsible – rumors say without involving either Self or Miles – for getting Missouri back on the basketball and football schedules. This was inevitable, but most people around KU seemed both surprised and disappointed by the timing of the announcement. Long acted like he had brought the Palestinians and Israelis together. My thought was, “Hey, maybe wait on football until we think we can win a couple Big 12 games.”)

There’s also his overall personality. He has always come across as a needy, camera-hungry, attention whore who thinks he’s being clever and funny but who actually makes people either laugh uncomfortably or stand there in awkward silence.

So, to sum up, he didn’t fully look into the reasons why his good buddy got fired by his previous employer, he shit all over a former coach who wasn’t very good but worked his ass off and deserved better, he pissed off the basketball coach, he got totally worked over by the NCAA (which is extremely tough to do), and has made the worst possible decisions at nearly every step of an NCAA investigation.

Les clearly had to go. But the lawyers inside KU’s administration – who have not made the best decisions in recent years, either – better be working on a way to get Jeff Long out of Lawrence before he can do any more damage to the athletic department. I don’t care if KU has to wait months to hire a new football coach: someone other than Jeff Long needs to be in charge of determining Les’ replacement. Although after all the buy-outs the money people behind KU have written over the last decade, I’m not sure the school can shake enough change loose to make Long go away quietly.

I said it couldn’t get worse. I should have known better.

At the Lawrence Journal-World Matt Tait has an interesting idea: follow the path that Wichita State took last fall when they fired Gregg Marshall and elevate Emmett Jones as interim coach. Jones is best situated to keep the current recruiting class together, and he deserves a shot as much as anyone else on the staff to run the program. Spring is an awful time to hire a new coach. I’d say let Jones be the iCoach for the next eight months rather than force in a subpar candidate. Best case, Jones keeps the program steady and earns the job. It also prevents Long from making another “inspired” hire. Worst case, Jones is in over his head but this gives a new AD plenty of time to search for a new coach who can start recruiting his own players to KU next November. The Jayhawks were only going to win 1–2 games at most next fall, regardless of who was coaching. If Jones is completely inept it’s not like it will cost the team a bowl appearance.

Actually, I take that back. There is the perfect candidate out there. He’s won in a tough location. His success has translated to different environments. Hell, he’s even from Kansas.

That’s right, Ted Lasso is the man to finally turn KU football around!

Believe!

Weekend Sports Notes

February 22, 2021 /

It was a very busy weekend for sports, so let’s get into it.

KU Hoops


Five wins in a row! My big concern about this winning streak was that three of the wins came against K-State and Iowa State, the two worst teams in the Big 12. Was KU’s better play just a function of their opponents? Or was the second half of the Oklahoma State game that began the streak a sign that it would play against better teams, too?

Saturday cleared that up. Texas Tech can struggle on offense. And they did Saturday. But to my eyes a lot of that was because of KU’s defense. KU also out-toughed one of the toughest teams in the league.

A month ago KU looked lost, with several players having moments where they didn’t look engaged. Over the past three weeks the team has built up some confidence and rediscovered how to play together. They are still missing way too many wide open shots. But they are playing some tough-ass defense, getting rebounds, and making it difficult for their opponents. If they can just find a way to shoot closer to the 40% from three I think they’re capable of, they can be a Sweet 16 threat once the tournament begins.

Kid Hoops

I didn’t share L’s result from a week ago. For the third-straight week they played a 25–12 game. I wonder what the odds were on that happening? Perhaps I could have gotten some action on that on your favorite betting app? Fortunately they won this one, to go 2–1 in that stretch. She did not have a great game – she only scored four – but played pretty solid D and had a few assists.

This week they played the team that beat them by 12 in their first game of the season.

On the opening possession the other team got the tip, went down and scored easily, then we had seven offensive rebounds plus a steal and another shot attempt and couldn’t score on our first possession. Seemed like it was going to be a repeat.

But we had our best player this time, and now know how to play together. We were up five at halftime and maintained that lead through the first 10 minutes of the second half.

Then our girls got sloppy and gave up a big run. We were down 22–18 with under 2:00 to play. We cut it to two points and got a steal, layup, and foul with under a minute left. We hit the free throw to go up one. Then L got a steal at mid-court, drove down, and finally hit a freaking layup! Plus she got fouled! She had a free throw to go up four. She left it short.

That was big.

They came down and got an immediate score to make it a two point game. On the next possession L got trapped, made a bad pass, and the other team seemed to have a clean look to tie. Until their girl travelled. A reprieve! Until one of L’s teammates panicked and threw the ball right to them with under 20 seconds left. We managed to get our hands on a pass and force an inbounds play at mid-court with about four seconds left. There was a timeout so our coaches had a chance to tell our girls what to do on defense. The fouls weren’t on the scoreboard but I think we had at least two fouls to give – the refs were not calling much.

The ball came in and our defender who was supposed to guard the ball ran away from her player. That girl took one dribble, then three steps…and banked in a three at the buzzer to win. It was the same girl who had traveled a couple possessions earlier and she did the exact same thing. Not sure why it wasn’t called this time.

On our way out of the gym L and her friend who was supposed to guard the shooter said the coaches told them over and over not to foul. Seems like a poor strategy. In 6th–7th grade ball with fouls to give and four seconds to burn, I’m fouling immediately. If they somehow get a shot up and the ref gives them three free throws, I like my odds of them having to hit three free throws to win. Even if they get two shots I’m feeling pretty good about still getting the win, and would be fine with OT if she hits both.

Oh well. It was a bummer of a loss. Our girls played really well aside from a stretch in the second half and those two late possessions. It hurt us that our best player didn’t play the last five minutes because she felt bad. Maybe we’ll get a third shot at them in the tournament.

Colts get QB

So I guess I have to start believing in Carson Wentz.

He was inevitable after the Colts never made a serious offer for Matthew Stafford. They are too close to being an AFC contender to go after someone young and/or unproven, and reuniting Wentz with Frank Reich seems like the best approach.

I think there’s a decent chance it works out. In fact, I think Wentz will be fine in terms of performance. It’s the injury factor I worry about more. Was suffering serious injuries three-straight years bad luck or a sign that he’s brittle and destined to get hurt again? There were plenty of rumors that he was not a great teammate this past year, but those always seem to pop up when there’s a major QB shuffle. Plus the Eagles were kind of a mess this year so I don’t know how much credence I give those rumors.

I think a third round pick and a conditional second round pick are a fair price for him. Ideally he stays healthy, finds his mojo again, and the Colts are a top-three team in the AFC this year. Fill a few holes with smart drafting and they can be a top two team. If Wentz is a disaster, I guess they cut him a year from now and try again.

Golf

Max Homa!


I’m betting very few of you know who Max Homa is, even after his win at the Genesis Invitational yesterday. He has been active in the part of the golf social media world I fell into when I started following the game again. He is tight with the No Laying Up crew, and has appeared on their podcasts and videos. A year ago he started his own podcast with the Golf channel’s Shane Bacon, and it has been on my must-listen list ever since. Max is very funny, very smart, very honest, and comes across as a very genuine guy who shares a lot more than the average golfer.

Over the past year he’s been open about his goals – not just to win but to be the best golfer in the world – and his struggles to get there. Last week, going into the tournament at Riviera Country Club, he said this was his favorite course in the world, it fit his game perfectly, and he felt great going into the event.

And then he freaking won it! I can’t wait to listen to his show later today when it drops.

His win came with a lot of excitement. He was stellar all day Sunday – he started two strokes back of the lead – and when nearly everyone else was faltering he just kept hitting great shot after great shot. If a few birdie putts that missed by inches had crawled in, he would have led comfortably when he stepped to the 18th tee. As it was, he knew a par got him to a playoff with Tony Finau, a birdie would win. He striped a drive down the middle. Then he hit an outrageously good approach that landed under four feet from the pin, the closest anyone came on the 18th hole all day. He walked up the fairway all smiles, knowing he had a near kick-in for a signature win.

So wouldn’t you know it that he, in his own words, choked, and spun it out.

No doubt a little rattled, his tee shot on the opening playoff hole landed next to a tree and he looked absolutely dead. Until he hit a ridiculous chip that allowed him to escape with a par and match Finau. When Finau could only bogey the second playoff hole, Homa had his win.

Homa was very emotional in his comments afterward. For someone unfamiliar with his story, his emotions may have seemed strange. But if you knew his first real golfing memories came riding on his dad’s shoulders at the old LA Open at Riviera, if you knew how much his parents sacrificed for him to play competitive golf, if you knew how hard he worked to turn himself into an elite pro, the emotions were completely understandable and wonderful.

America’s Cup


I accidentally found the America’s Cup challenger series races a week ago. This Saturday I found them again and all three girls walked through the room and said, “What is this?” Soon I was explaining what little I know about yacht racing, which was all learned back in 1987 when the America’s Cup got attention for about 15 minutes.

I highly recommend finding the races when the final series begins in two weeks. These new boats are insane! They race along at over 40 MPH. Thanks to wings that extend from each side of the boat, the hull is almost always completely out of the water. They look like they are literally flying.

The races, at least the challenger series, are also pretty quick. I remember the 1987 races lasting hours. These are done inside of 30 minutes. To my eye they lack some of the strategy that was present with those old, 12-meter boats. But it is still crazy to watch them rip down the course.

Super Bowl Notes

February 8, 2021 /

Some thoughts on Sunday’s Big Game

The Game

I was certainly surprised by the result. Even though I had watched Tampa’s defense stifle Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers, I never expected them to do the same to Patrick Mahomes and all of his weapons. That was a ferocious, courageous performance by the Bucs’ D. They got consistent pressure to Mahomes, something every other team the Chiefs played this year struggled to do, while still bottling up Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. They kept the Chiefs from ever getting a consistent running attack going. In the fourth quarter, when you expect the team the Chiefs have been carving up through the first 45 minutes start to wilt, it was KC that looked gassed and Tampa that looked energized.

To me that was the key to the game. But obviously a lot of credit is due to Tom Brady. Once again he made many of us look dumb. If you told me that Tampa’s D would play that well, I could understand him having a workman-like, late Peyton Manning performance and guiding the Bucs to the win. But he was fantastic. It’s really mind-boggling how he can continue to do this, ESPECIALLY in his first year on a new team, in a new system, with new teammates. He sure picked the right demon to sell his soul to.

The biggest question to me this morning is how do we begin to separate Brady from Bill Belichick. It’s impossible to say that Belichick deserves no credit for coaching Brady to his first six Super Bowl wins. But last night’s result sure shifts the balance of power in that relationship.

Brady has been firmly established as the GOAT QB for a few years now. Last night he put the bar so far out into the stratosphere it’s difficult to imagine anyone catching him, at least in terms of Super Bowl wins.

The GOAT QB debate is such a tough one. Tom Brady is not the most gifted man to ever play his position. He’s not the most physically impressive. He’s not the most complete. He doesn’t possess the biggest arm. For much of his career Peyton Manning and Drew Brees were better than him. Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers are better than him today. But the fucker has seven Super Bowl titles and there is no amount of arguing that can dethrone him from the top of the quarterback mountain.

As it became more apparent that the Bucs would win, I started thinking about what this meant for Mahomes and the Chiefs. At first glance, this is a blip. In fact, I’m going on record to say, as long as he is healthy next year, Mahomes is going to go medieval on the NFL, break just about every single season QB record, and lead the Chiefs to a 16–0 regular season. The great ones harvest more anger from losing than happiness from winning, and I think he’s going to destroy everything in his path next year.

However, this is another missed opportunity in whatever window the Chiefs have to surround Mahomes with top tier talent. Anyone who has watched the Chiefs the last three years understands that the Chiefs will be Super Bowl contenders as long as Mahomes is healthy. The question is how long can the Chiefs keep top-tier talent around him?

I’m not familiar enough with the Chiefs roster to know who is set to become a free agent either this spring or next, but these windows of opportunity can close faster than expected. NFL careers tend to go from peak to mediocre quickly. Mahomes should be great for another decade-plus. Will the parts around him last as long?

The Chiefs have an excellent front office, so they seem well situated to draft smartly to replace outgoing, expensive talent with younger, cheaper players. Mahomes elevates those around him, which is a huge bonus. But it is insanely tough to hit in the draft over-and-over.

Maybe I’m an idiot and the Chiefs are going to manage the roster around Mahomes just fine, keeping the o-line stout, keeping the offense stocked with explosive backs and receivers, and fielding a defense that can prevent games from turning into stressful 48–45 track meets every week.

I expect Mahomes to win at least one more Super Bowl in Kansas City. Which, when you look at the history of the franchise, is pretty freaking great.

Losing last night, along with two years ago in the AFC title game, could be the difference between Mahomes getting a chance to challenge Brady’s Super Bowl record, and topping out somewhere in the Manning(s), Elway, Montana range. Which is still rarified air, but would, unfairly, feel like a bit of a letdown.

I was neutral last night. I was actually rooting for both teams to lose. But, holy crap did the Chiefs get a bad whistle, especially in the first half. It’s not that every call against the Chiefs was awful; upon review almost all were legit. It’s that they always came in huge moments and there weren’t corresponding calls against the Bucs. Yet it still felt like the Chiefs were very much in the game until late in the fourth quarter.

Upset of the night: Andy Reid making dumb clock decisions. It was hilarious seeing my Twitter feed fill up with Eagles fan reliving stupid time management moments from his years in Philly. Seriously, he’s one of the best offensive coaches ever, but still hasn’t figured out how to make the most basic decisions about time.

One more legacy note. Maybe I’m having a moment of selective memory, but I don’t think people hated Joe Montana the way they do Brady. Montana had an Aaron Rodgers quality to him: he was everyone’s second favorite QB. Even if he beat your team there was something cool about him that made you admire him.

But maybe that’s just because 30 years have passed since Joe played and I’m forgetting how people were sick of him, too.

How sadly ironic it was for the same league that blackballed Colin Kaepernick to display “criminal justice reform” banners at their championship game.

Finally, what the fuck kind of sports jacket was Peyton Manning wearing? Some shit you can only get away with if you’re super rich and from the south. Or was this a hint that he’s going into the Hall of Fame as a Bronco? That will cause a ruckus around here if it happens.

Commercials!

Will Ferrell’s GM commercial was my favorite. The Michael B. Jordan Alexa commercial was outstanding, too. The Jason Alexander hoodie ad for Tide rounded out my top three.

Springsteen in Kansas was pretty fresh.

I generally do not like the light beer seltzer fad, and think people who drink them are horrible human beings. But the lemons to lemonade ad by Bud Light seltzer was appropriate for the moment.

Worst commercial of the night: the oat milk guy singing in his oat field.

And I did not get why Vince Lombardi, who has been dead longer than I’ve been alive, needs to be re-animated to talk about the state of the world.

Halftime show

I thought The Weeknd was an odd choice. Sure, you couldn’t go 90 seconds without hearing “Blinding Lights” over the past year, and it never got old, which is a sign of a genius song. But he’s not like a universally beloved artist with a huge swath of hits everyone knows. At least Bruno Mars had a handful of songs that you either knew or sounded like songs you knew. Plus, The Weeknd might be a little too artsy for the Super Bowl audience.

I thought his performance was fine. Not great, not terrible, and definitely not memorable. The audio being awful didn’t help.

I was explaining to the girls how who performs gets selected, and how sometimes artists are asked and decline. We all agreed that Ariana Grande is the most obvious youngish artist who should be on stage next. Bieber is probably on that list. I’m sure Pearl Jam has been asked and declined multiple times. There seems to be building momentum for Foo Fighters to get a turn. Maybe we can re-animate Prince and try him again.

Super Bowl Memories

February 7, 2021 /

There’s been a discussion in my Twitter feed today about whether Super Bowl Sunday is an overrated sports day. I’m 100% on board with this take.

The actual sports side of Super Bowl Sunday kind of sucks, as the game is always secondary to all the other things that surround it. The parties, the pregame show, the halftime show, the commercials. Unless your team is playing, the football is kind of a letdown. And even then the game’s cadence is so unlike any other NFL game, that it can make you crazy if you care who wins.

Within that discussion were some folks sharing their memories of Super Bowls past. My kids are all either working or babysitting, the wife is traveling back from a weekend away, and I refuse to watch any of the early, early pregame stuff. So, here are my Super Bowl memories.

Super Bowl XII, Jan 15, 1978. Cowboys beat the Broncos.
A transformative moment in my life. For years I faced the question, “Why are you a Cowboys fan?” This is the game that explains it. Six-year-old me watched my first Super Bowl and thought it was cool both teams were from cities that started with D’s. The Cowboys won, and I became a Cowboys fan until Jerry Jones pissed me off.

SB XIII, Jan 21, 1979. This was a doozy for kids of the 70s, the second meeting between the Steelers and Cowboys. Jackie Smith dropped a sure touchdown, the Cowboys lost by four, and I cried.

SB XVI, Jan 24, 1982. I was still bitter after the 49ers beat the Cowboys in the NFC title game. My aunt and uncle hosted a party and one of my good friends was with me, along with another kid our age we did not know. When the national anthem played, this other kid stood, put his hand over his heart, and sang along. My buddy and I about shit ourselves.

SB XXIV, Jan 28, 1990. I watched this in the lobby of my dorm. One of the most perfect games ever played, done by the Niners at their absolute peak.

SB XXVII, Jan 31, 1993. My Cowboys finally made it back. I had to work and missed the first half. My roommates all messed with me when I got home at halftime, claiming the Bills were shellacking Dallas. Boy the look on my face when the second half started and I saw the score! Also, Leon Lett.

SB XXX, Jan 28, 1996. The Cowboys finally beat the Steelers. My bigger memory of the day is that KU played at Colorado before the Super Bowl. This was Chauncey Billups’ single year in Boulder, so it was a solid Buffs team, but KU got the W.

SB XXXII, Jan 25, 1998. Jewel sang the national anthem. This was right when she was busting out as one of the brightest stars in music. With her rise came the story of how she lived in her car for a stretch in her starving artist days. I was at a party, and folks were correctly solemn during her performance. Responding to her attire, which accentuated her curves, I said, “Wow, hard to believe she was ever homeless,” a little too loud after she was done. There was a moment of silence before everyone lost it. I felt a little sheepish about my statement, but was thankful the room was with me and I was not asked to leave.

SB XXXV, Jan 28, 2001. I remember S and I getting into an argument on the way to the game and us not talking the entire game. Fortunately we were at a party and could avoid each other, but I did wonder if she was going to break up with me on the way home. We didn’t talk for a few days before she sent me an email saying she was sorry. Dating a pediatric resident who got short-tempered when she didn’t get much sleep was a delight.

SB XXXVI, Feb 3, 2002. Another doozy with the ghost of 9/11 looming large. A great game. The beginning of the Patriots dynasty, when we all thought Tom Brady was a plucky underdog and Belichick’s team over individual stuff wasn’t sociopathic. Adam Vinatieri’s first kick into legend. U2 at halftime. And going to a party where I ran into an old college friend and offended him by loudly greeting him with his college nickname, which he did not want his adult-life friends to know about. A couple other college buddies and I still laugh about that a few times a year.

SB XXXVII, Jan 26, 2003. I won like $220 in the square game. My biggest sports gambling win ever!

SB XXXIII, Feb 1, 2004. Wardrobe malfunction!

SB XLI, Feb 4, 2007. The Colts win, but Prince’s greatest ever halftime show overshadowed the game. It was also so cold here in Indy that a man literally froze to death a couple miles from our house.

SB XLIV, Feb 7, 2010. The Colts lose a game they should have won, mostly because Peyton played terribly and Dwight Freeney had blown up his ankle late in the AFC title game. When Peyton threw a pick six, I, after having several drinks, said, “Well, fuck!” in a room filled with kids under the age of six. I was just saying what all the other parents were thinking.

SB XLVI, Feb 5, 2012. Indianapolis’ Super Bowl came off without any hitches, weather or otherwise. Seriously, it was a miracle it wasn’t 10 below all week. Our girls thought it was great that Peyton’s brother was the quarterback for the Giants and made Eli masks at school.

SB LI, Feb 5, 2017. Furiously texting with friends as the Falcons jumped out to a huge lead over the Patriots. Then furiously texting later wondering “They’re going to blow this, aren’t they?”

SB LIV, Feb 2, 2020. Two weeks of me explaining to people that (and why) I’m not a Chiefs fan.

Weekend Sports Notes

January 25, 2021 /

Some sports notes while waiting on an ice storm to arrive.

NFL

So the Super Bowl is Chiefs vs Buccaneers, just like we all thought.

Seriously, I’m questioning a lot of what I’ve thought about football the last 20 years this morning. I was not alone when I believed, back when the regular season began, that Tom Brady would struggle in Tampa while the Patriots would continue to win with Cam Newton at quarterback. Then the exact opposite happened…

Obviously the outcomes aren’t solely tied to how Brady and Newton performed. And quarterbacks always get too much credit and/or blame for their team’s success. But the seamlessness with which Brady took over in Tampa and the struggles that Newton had in a very mediocre season for the Pats shakes me deep down.

What if the Pats’ success the past 20 years was primarily because of Brady and not because of some Bill Belichick magic? What if Tom Brady is legitimately a witch or sold his soul to the devil or holds some other mystic power over the NFL and that traveled with him from Boston to Tampa last summer? What if Belichick is just an average coach who got lucky with the greatest quarterback of all time who glossed over some fortunate personnel choices?

Yeah, I know that’s not a realistic take. But it is in my head this morning.

It sure felt like this was finally Green Bay’s year again, and Brady just destroyed that. He didn’t even have to play super great – he threw three picks for crying out loud! Yet it was the Packers who made a couple terrible decisions, both by the players and coaches, that led them to coming up short.

If the Bucs pull off the upset in the Super Bowl, I might start re-evaluating some of Brady’s nutrition choices that I’ve made fun of in the past.

I’m not sure how you pick against the Chiefs. I don’t watch them enough to know how well they are playing, but they look pretty much unstoppable to my eyes. Tampa has a very good defense, one that can bring a lot of pressure. But with both of their safeties injured as of last night, can they pressure Patrick Mahomes and still cover the Chiefs receivers well enough to take away his escape valves? I’m guessing not, and I would say Chiefs –8 right now. In the midst of the pandemic I reserve the right to adjust that line before kickoff.

Aaron Rodgers dropped a little bit of a bomb last night when he suggested there was a chance he would not be the Packers quarterback next year. I think that was just the frustration of another NFL title game loss and his issues with some of the play calls talking. But, still, it’s out there, and in a year when the quarterback market could be as hot as it has ever been, it has the potential to be a neutron bomb of a development if it does not get resolved soon.

Reports also surfaced over the weekend that the Detroit Lions and Matthew Stafford have agreed to part ways. The Colts immediately because one of the most likely landing places for him. As I wrote last week, he is probably the best case scenario for the Colts. With him apparently available, I think the Colts have to go hard after him.

But, what if Aaron Rodgers actually does force an exit from Green Bay? The Colts, Saints, and any other team close to winning that needs a quarterback will have to do everything they can do to get him, right?

There is a part of me that wonders if that would, in fact, not be a great move. Rodgers has become notably more prickly has he has gotten deeper into his career. He often plays with a joyless scowl and glares at anyone who does not perform to his expectations. Would he be willing and able to go to a new team with a new system and new teammates and be patient enough to work through the inevitable growing pains that come with a transition? Tom Brady’s easy adjustment to Tampa makes me think this is probably a dumb area of concern and Rodgers is still option A1 if the unthinkable happens and he becomes available.

The realistic odds of Rodgers leaving Green Bay this offseason are very, very low. If you think Stafford is the answer, you go get him now rather than waiting to see what happens with Rodgers and risking losing Stafford to another suitor.

A quick note about coaching decisions. I know I’ve made this point many times in the nearly 18 years I’ve been writing here, but coaches, at any level and in every sport, are inherently conservative. It’s easier to answer questions about losing when you played the game by the book and made cautious choices than when you are super aggressive and go against conventional wisdom. It doesn’t matter that conventional wisdom might be crap; if you decide to go counter to it, the howling will always be louder than if you ran power sweep right or whatever 27 times and lost a dull, boring game. That’s why almost every fall college basketball coaches make comments like “I think we’re going to try to press more this year,” and after they give up three layups to a crap team in November they scrap it. They’d rather lose with bad half court defense that at least makes the opponent work than by giving up open layups when no one is back to stop them.

I still do not understand how coaches refuse to adjust their mindset based on time, score, and opponent. If you’re playing the Chiefs, in Kansas City, in the playoffs, you have to be super aggressive the entire 60 minutes. You can’t pick your spots here and there, balancing aggression with caution. Unless you’re playing in the midst of an ice storm, you are not going to beat Patrick Mahomes with field goals and an effective punt game. Likewise, you can not give Tom Brady the ball back with 2:00 left needing a touchdown to win.

Yes, sometimes being aggressive backfires, and can backfire big time. But does it really matter if you lose by 28 instead of 14?

Finally, the worst play of the weekend had to be the touchdown Tampa scored just before halftime. For someone who wanted to see Rodgers get back to the Super Bowl and keep Brady from doing the same, that was an absolute gut punch moment. I’m sure it was 1000 times worse for actual Packers fans. There was pretty much no doubt what the final outcome would be after that play. Green Bay played far from a clean game, but that moment…that moment was pretty awful.

KU Hoops

Narrative is always a weird thing in sports. A week ago KU had a game against Iowa State cancelled because of Covid issues within the ISU program. The Cyclones are not good this year, and KU would have likely been a big favorite. Let’s assume KU wins that game. Suddenly instead of a three-game losing streak, they have only lost three of four. That is not a huge difference. But a three-game losing streak sure sounds worse, especially since you can throw up stats like “this hasn’t happened in eight years.”

Saturday just highlighted the issues that have plagued KU all year. They actually played decent on the offensive end, getting tons of good looks both at the rim and beyond the arc. They just shot like shit. They missed at least five, totally open 3-point attempts, all by their best shooters. They missed so many shots near the rim, including a wide-open dunk. While things broke down in the closing minutes, when KU was frantically trying to score, overall their offense looked decent. Some tweaks can be made, for sure, but I don’t think they look at the film and get super disappointed about what created those shots.

On defense, though, yeesh. They just are not good on defense. They remind me of L’s team: lots of guys playing straight up instead of getting into a defensive stance, not moving their feet, lunging for steals and leaving open driving lanes. Everyone thought this would be a good defensive team, and the guys on TV who are paid to know these things keep repeating that line. But over halfway through the season I think we know who they are, and that is a team filled with guys with poor defensive instincts who struggle to play team defense, and which lacks a shot blocker to make up for mistakes on the perimeter. I’m not sure that’s something that you can fix within a season.

The good news is that the back half of the Big 12 schedule is a little easier. Even if KU can take advantage of that, they’re likely looking at 11–7 as a best case record. Which is only “bad” if you are a spoiled KU fan who can’t accept results that don’t match those of the past 20 years.

Youth Hoops

A tough damn game this week for L’s team.

While we were waiting for it to start we watched a game on the next court and laughed that it was 9–9 late in the second half. A huge cheer went up when a girl hit a free throw to give her team a 10–9 win.

We should have kept our mouths shut.

Our game was a sloppy, defense-dominated contest. When I say defense-dominated I mean there were a lot of horrible passes, dribbling the ball out of bounds, kicking the ball around, etc. There was plenty of frenetic pressure forcing these errors, but it’s not like either team was playing good, fundamental D.

We got lucky and had a little 4–0 run early in the second half to go up 8–2. L hit a nice jumper deep in the second half to put us up 10–6. But then we had to hang on for our lives to pull out a 12–10 win. The girls all looked like they were in third grade again, with no idea how to play. At the end of the game parents from both teams were looking at each other laughing at how ugly the game was.

L’s other highlight came on an inbounds play under our own basket. She broke away and started making strange noises like she was possessed. The defenders all looked at her and froze, our big broke to the bucket, got a pass, and laid it in. Our girls laughed all the way up the court on D. She kept doing it on every inbound play but it never worked again. I guess it’s a once a game thing.

Indy Sports Notes

January 21, 2021 /

When banging out my most recent Sports Notes post, I overlooked one very important local story. Which may have been a good thing because there was another very important local story that broke yesterday. Looks like I better bust out an Indy edition Sports Notes post!

Pacers Make a Big Trade

Anyone who follows the NBA knew a James Harden trade was close last week, it was just a question of where he would end up: Brooklyn or Philadelphia. I was pulling for Brooklyn mostly to see Harden and Kyrie Irving try to coexist, but also to keep Harden the hell away from Joel Embiid.

I think I was as surprised as the rest of the world when the trade finally went down and the Indiana Pacers were involved.

After nearly two years of stress that never quite became full public drama or acrimony, the Pacers sent Victor Oladipo to Houston and in return received Caris LeVert and a second round pick from Brooklyn. Other than the Malice in the Palace, this might be the next biggest Pacers bomb to drop in my years here. After an offseason when there were reports that Oladipo desperately wanted out of Indy, it looked like he and the team had achieved an uneasy peace and they would be together until at least the All Star break.

Guess not. I will be fascinated to learn more about the mechanics of the trade, whether it was Kevin Pritchard inserting the Pacers into the deal or the Rockets looking for a replacement for Harden and reaching out to Indy knowing that Vic was unhappy.

At first glance it was a pretty brilliant move. LeVert has never played at Oladipo’s peak. But it also seemed doubtful that Vic would ever play at that level consistently again following his ruptured quad injury of two years ago. He was off to a decent start this year, but still lacked the explosion he had before the injury. It didn’t seem like Oladipo and Malcolm Brogdon were great fits, either. LeVert is young, under team control for three years, seems to lack the ego issues of Oladipo, and looks poised to blossom into a really very good player. Likely not an All-NBA player, but a really solid cog on a team that has many other good parts.

News of the trade broke last Wednesday, but the NBA league kept putting off confirming the deal. Finally, Saturday, word came that the four-team deal was official (Cleveland was part of it as well). Moments later the Pacers announced that the deal had been delayed because a routine physical that is a part of every trade revealed that LeVert has a “mass” on one of his kidneys, and that he would be unavailable indefinitely.

That seems less than ideal.

There hasn’t been much clarification since Saturday. LeVert is with the team and has met the press, but did not share if the mass has been better identified or what the next steps are.

Obviously in a situation like this your first thoughts are with the player. You have to hope that this isn’t something life-threatening and it won’t affect his quality of life. If he plays again, that’s just a bonus. In his first press release LeVert noted that getting traded could have saved his life, which is a crazy footnote to one of the most consequential trades in recent NBA history.

So I guess the jury will remain out on the trade for awhile. Indy is one of the most difficult markets to build a team in. Kevin Pritchard was far from my favorite KU player. But seems like he’s been bold and creative in trying to keep the Pacers successful since he took over from Larry Bird.

It’s a shame that Victor was not happy here. As an Indiana alum and someone who blossomed from draft bust to All Star and All-NBA here in 2018, he seemed like the perfect guy to build around after Paul George whined his way out of town. But he had other ideas.

Rivers Retires

My phone kept dinging Wednesday morning with breaking news since it was Inauguration Day and there were a lot of things happening. But when the news that Philip Rivers was retiring came across while I was at the grocery store, I honestly think I let out a gasp.

Not that I wanted him to stay. My dislike for Rivers is well documented. I was like most people, though, who completely expected Rivers to return for the 2021 season.

Colts GM Chris Ballard told Rivers to take a month to make his decision. It took about a week. I wonder if that means the foot injury he fought all season was going to take more serious surgery and rehab than initially thought. Or maybe he was just ready.

I won’t give him much props for anything, but I do admire the athletes who can quit a year too soon rather than a year too late. Maybe he saw Drew Brees break 157 ribs this year and thought, “No thanks, that’s not for me.”

That leaves the Colts in a very interesting position. They have a young, talented, cheap roster. They can be aggressive in making a move.

There just aren’t that many blockbuster deals in the NFL for quarterbacks who don’t have deep flaws, though. Lots of names have been thrown about in the last 24 hours, and none of them wow me. Yet the Colts can also probably trot out any random, replacement level QB next fall and win enough games where they can’t slip into a top draft pick in the 2022 draft like they did when Peyton Manning got hurt and they were able to draft Andrew Luck.

And in the NFL, you can’t really press pause for a year. Windows open and close quickly. Let’s say someone like Trevor Lawrence was out there for the 2022 draft. And let’s say everything goes poorly enough next year that the Colts were in position to draft that player. You have to figure that guy needs at least a year to be ready to win in the NFL, more likely two. So you’re looking at a roster that is ready to win today being three years older, having faced three more years of injury chances, and being three years more expensive. That shit won’t work.

Seems like Ballard either has to do something huge to win now, or sacrifice some success in the short term to get a long term QB. Nothing about either option seems very appealing.

The dream scenario would be to somehow get Deshaun Watson. But Houston isn’t trading him within the AFC South, and multi-team trades don’t work in the NFL.

I see almost zero chance that Dak Prescott does not re-sign with the Cowboys.

That likely leaves convincing Detroit to part with Matthew Stafford as the best path if Ballard chases an established QB.

Ballard seems like kind of a high-strung guy. I imagine he’s not going to sleep very well for however long it takes to get the Colts a new quarterback. Hell, he may continue to sleep like shit after the position is filled, knowing the guy he gets isn’t the guy he needs.

Sports Notes

January 19, 2021 /

Some notes from the sporting world.

KU Hoops

First back-to-back losses in Big 12 play in eight years, first Big Monday loss in 18 games.

Neither of those are a surprise. Against both Oklahoma State and Baylor KU looked utterly overmatched early. Overmatched for sure in the athletic sense, KU looking slow and bound to the floor where their opponents raced up and down the court and flew for dunks and blocks.

What was a bigger concern was how they looked overmatched in being prepared to play. Defense was supposed to be a strength for this squad, with so many similarly-sized pieces that made switching easy. For whatever reason this team seems to start every game extremely slowly on the defensive end, struggling to communicate and cover the right spots on the court. Against OSU it took switching to gimmick defenses for the Jayhawks to find a way to guard the Cowboys. They switched briefly against Baylor Monday, but I think Baylor’s lull was as much about the Bears losing interest as KU doing anything to slow them down.

In each game KU fought back. Hell, they probably should have won the OSU game but played stupid for the final minute to blow it. I guess that’s where KU hoops is right now: finding solace in nearly erasing huge deficits to get conference road wins.

In each game KU had one or two guys play well, but they could never get more than that rolling. KU’s good players aren’t good enough to go out and score 30 and carry the team alone. They need multiple guys being effective every night to have a chance against the top half of the conference.

That said, point guard is the big, glaring weakness that just can’t be corrected. Eventually Jalen Wilson is going to get hot again. There are going to be nights when all of KU’s shooters are hitting and they look good. Against the right matchups David McCormack can be effective. But point guard is a mess with no answer. Marcus Garrett either dribbles too much on the perimeter or goes barreling into traffic to throw up a horrible shot (that usually gets blocked), toss some blind pass out to space, or flat turns the ball over. DaJuan Harris has much better instincts, but looks utterly overmatched physically right now.

For the rest of the Big 12, it’s time to get used to your new overlords in Waco. Until Bill Self can convince a legit point guard to come to Lawrence – and he has yet to do that for next fall’s incoming class – the Jayhawks have no chance to win the Big 12.

NFL

After a highly entertaining Super Wildcard weekend, the Divisional weekend was a bit of a letdown. A couple of the games – Baltimore-Buffalo and Tampa-New Orleans – were close until late, but still not super exciting. The only nail-biter of the weekend was, surprisingly, in Kansas City. Maybe Chiefs fans were nervous and Browns fans excited, but my pulse never jumped a few notches at the prospect of an upset. The Browns were still the Browns until they took the lead, and they never got close to that.

Hopefully the conference championship games will be more fun to watch.

Kid Hoops

I don’t think I’ve written about L’s winter league basketball team yet. She’s playing on a team with girls from four different schools. They were supposed to play in one local travel league, but after that league postponed games until February they jumped to a different league that plays at private facilities in one county, rather than public gyms in multiple counties, thus had more predictable Covid rules.

They first played two weeks ago and got beaten pretty handily. L told us before the game that they weren’t ready to play – they had not had all 10 players together at any one practice – and it showed. They got down big early and had to play hard in the second half to only lose by 9. It was sobering to learn that the team they played was made up of girls that play club soccer together and play basketball to stay in shape in the winter.

Week two’s game was cancelled when their opponents went into quarantine.

The league they are in currently limits fans to one per player, but the gyms all have high-level cameras so families can stream games at home. These videos are also archived for later viewing. At last Friday’s practice, L’s coaches pulled up their next opponent’s most recent game and watched to get some ideas. L came home from practice all pumped up, “Dad, their guards are not good. I’m going to try to steal it every time.” I chuckled at her confidence. I get on her for playing too upright on defense and not being aggressive in going for the ball. “We’ll see,” I thought to myself.

Saturday she went out and had six steals in the first half. She added eight points and four or five assists before the break. She and her teammates played really well. They started the game on a 16–0 run and lead 28–4 at half.

But, I have to be honest: the team they played was awful. Just brutally bad. L’s team was missing four girls, including one of their best players, and still won by 31 points. L ended up with 12 points and eight steals. She said she tried not to steal in the second half, but the other guards were so bad sometimes they would just kind of hand her the ball and she had to take it.

I liked that she was aggressive on offense. She was looking for her shot early and often. She did not shoot well – I’m guessing she went something like 6–20+ from the field – but she was unlucky on several jumpers that spun out. She is still brutal trying to make a layup on a fast break. I think she’s something like 3–30 on those this academic year. She just can’t find the right angle/speed to keep the ball from hitting the backboard way too hard.

Weekend Sports

January 11, 2021 /

I think the first ever Super Wildcard Weekend was a success. Wall-to-wall football in the midst of a pandemic and winter weather felt right. We got mostly competitive games book-ended by the Colts blowing a winnable game and the Browns shaking off decades of failure and pulling off one of the wildest upsets in recent memory.

Some Indy-focused thoughts from the weekend.

Colts

When your team loses a close game, you spend the time afterward picking through dozens of little moments that could have changed the outcome. Saturday’s loss in Buffalo may have been the ultimate example of that.

While Josh Allen and the Bills played nearly perfect football, the Colts, in some ways, played even better. It was their numerous mistakes that cost the Colts the game.

There was the shitty play call on third and goal before halftime, a pitch to the outside, which pushed the Colts back from the one to the four yard line and made going for it on fourth down a tougher proposition. When that fourth down attempt failed, I chalked up three expected points lost.

On the ensuing drive, on another fourth and short, when the Bills were just trying to draw the Colts offside and seemed content to kick a field goal, a Colts lineman jumped. A couple plays later the Bills scored a touchdown, and I chalked up four unexpected points for them.

In the second half the Colts bounced a makable field goal off the upright, losing three potential more points.

Later when they scored their first touchdown of the half, they went for two and failed, losing another expected point.

That’s 11 points the Colts pissed away in a game they lost by 3.

There was plenty more to bitch about. It made no sense to challenge a catch early in the fourth quarter and blow a timeout. What made it stupid was that there was an injury timeout on the play. The Colts had plenty of time to review the play and see that it was not worth wasting a timeout to check on. But they stuck with their review and blew a valuable timeout.

They lost another timeout trying to avoid a delay of game penalty, something they came dangerously close to doing seemingly every play of the game.

And then the last drive. For some insane reason after getting a first down with about 90 seconds left, THEY HUDDLED UP and wasted nearly 30 seconds off the clock. In a game of questionable moments, this was the absolute dumbest and least defensible. It made everything that happened afterward tougher. Although, to be fair, they benefited greatly from a review of a clear fumble that should have ended the game but somehow went the Colts’ way.

Frank Reich is an aggressive coach. Saturday showed why most coaches are so vanilla. People love it when you go for it on fourth down, or are otherwise aggressive, and it pays off. But it makes them crazy when it fails, especially in a big game. I don’t have huge problems with Reich’s aggressiveness Saturday. He should have called a better play on that third down before halftime. I have zero doubt the Colts’ meltdown in Pittsburgh two weeks ago was in the back of his mind, and he wanted touchdowns rather than field goals. I’m with him at the macro level, it’s the micro level stuff that needs to be brushed up before (hopefully) the next time the Colts are in a tight game in the playoffs.

Roster Decisions

The Colts are in a decent place going into next year.

Jonathan Taylor was an absolute revelation in the second half of the season, and looks poised to give the Colts their best rushing attack since Edgerrin James. The front seven of the defense looks strong. The young receivers came on late.

They will need to replace T.Y. Hilton, who should take a bigger payout than the Colts will offer to finish his career elsewhere. They may need a new left tackle. They could use someone who can provide pressure from the edges. The defensive backfield, as always, needs help.

The biggest question, though, is what to do at quarterback. Phillip Rivers was seen as one-year trial, with the option for a second year. As much as I dislike him, I have to admit this season must be called a success. After a slow start, he became very steady. He’s a solid NFL QB right now; neither elite nor overmatched but one who can manage a game and make plays to win.

But he’s old, and seems older than the other old guys out there like Tom Brady and Drew Brees. He’s lost arm strength and he can’t move. I’m kind of shocked his completion percentage was so high, as so many of his balls were caught at or below the knees. I worry just a little regression means those balls drop, and the deep balls go 5–10 yards shorter. Was this just a charmed year when he (barely) managed to stay healthy through the entire season? Will he be able to rehab totally from his impending foot surgery or is it the beginning of a downward slide physically?

The Colts don’t have the assets to trade up to get one of the top quarterbacks in the draft. Nor should they mortgage their other strengths in an effort to go get Deshaun Watson or Dax Prescott. Reich worked with Carson Wentz in Philadelphia, but I don’t think he’s worth trading for. Sam Darnold is an interesting reclamation project, but not for a team that is poised to win now like the Colts.

In short, unless Andrew Luck decides to un-retire, it seems like the Colts’ best move is to bring Rivers back for another year. Which means another 10-ish win season and early playoff loss. For everything Rivers can do, in his current state he’s not a quarterback who can win you a Super Bowl. Certainly not when you have to get through Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield, Lamar Jackson, and Patrick Mahomes just to reach a Super Bowl.

KU Hoops

Based on the last four games, the Jayhawks seem to be on a clear hot-cold cycle. Shot really well and won comfortably in games one and three against West Virginia and TCU. Shot poorly and got run out of the building by Texas in game two. Shot poorly and were lucky to survive Oklahoma in game four Saturday.

So I guess Oklahoma State better watch out tomorrow!

Every KU game the announcers mention how different this team is from last year, notably when David McCormack struggles inside where Udoka Azubuike would be dominating. That’s true. But where this team really struggles is in missing a true point guard. Marcus Garrett is a terrific player, but he’s not a true point guard, especially when he tries to do too much. Which seems like most possessions this year. Dajuan Harris is going to be a good, four-year player. But he’s not ready to be the consistent PG–1. The four/five smalls lineup makes it easier to mask not having a true point, but there are so many moments when the offense breaks down and Garrett or Jalen Wilson or someone else forces the issue late in the shot clock and dribbles into disaster.

You know who would be a perfect match for this offense? Devon Dotson, who – checks notes – has played 10 total minutes in his first 11 NBA games. Alas…

Sports Takes

January 5, 2021 /

A lot of sports to get through, so let’s tackle the biggest issues of the day in no particular order.

CFP

Alabama crushing Notre Dame was no surprise. As an Indiana Catholic school parent I don’t hate Notre Dame nearly as much as I used to. I don’t mind them winning, but still take some pleasure in their losses. One day that fan base will wake and realize it isn’t 1977 anymore. Brian Kelly is the perfect Notre Dame coach: no doubt he’s an excellent coach, but ultra thin skinned and bristles at any suggestions the Irish might be overrated, not at talented as the elite, and benefit from decades of institutional bias toward their brand.

I think it’s funny that Ohio State waxing Clemson was seen as such a huge upset. It’s Ohio State we’re talking about here! They are the third leg in the current Kings of College Football triad. You expect them to be in the playoff every year and if they have a good QB, have a solid chance to win it all.

That it was a surprise that they beat Clemson is just a confirmation of how preseason narrative controls college football. This was supposed to be Trevor Lawrence and Clemson’s season of redemption. And so the whole season was just playing out the string until we could get to Clemson-Bama. Ohio State being sucked into all the drama of the Big 10 season kept them from making a claim to be one of the best teams in the country. But they thoroughly exposed Clemson, so much that I saw a couple “how can Clemson fix this” posts yesterday. Which are 100% idiotic. Play ten games and those teams probably split them evenly, or maybe one team goes 6–4. Clemson ran into a motivated opponent and lost a playoff game. I don’t think that’s a sign that they need to blow the program up. Although firing Dabo would be cool…

That said, Alabama is just a freaking machine, and this could be their best offensive team ever. If Justin Fields is 100% Ohio State certainly has a chance. But I see another Saban/Crimson Tide title coming.

KU Hoops

We Jayhawks fans were feeling pretty great after KU used a huge second half to run away from West Virginia in their final game before the holidays. It looked like they crushed the souls of the Mountaineers that night, as WVU seemed to completely give up in the final 10 minutes. Hell, Oscar Tshiebwe even left the program after playing particularly poorly.

We were all saying, “Damn, now they have to take 10 days off?”

The layoff sure showed on Saturday vs. Texas. All those shots that fell against WVU were bricks against the Longhorns. For once all that athleticism Texas always has proved to be too much for KU. A convincing win that makes Texas a threat not just to Baylor to win the Big 12, but to actually go deep into the tournament too.

BTW, I found it both ironic and fitting that Texas’ biggest basketball win in a decade or so came on the same day most UT fans were distracted by their football team firing their coach. News even broke of Tom Herman’s firing just before tipoff, meaning most Longhorns fans were busy scrolling and texting and reading about football for the two hours their basketball team was getting a signature win.

I believe I said this last month, but my feelings for college hoops are dialed way back this year. While the season has been without interruption for KU so far, I don’t expect that to hold. The games still feel very different without true crowds. I watch them all but don’t get nearly as up or down as I normally would. I wish that meant I said fewer bad things about David McCormack during games, but I can’t help myself there.

That’s not to diminish Texas’ win, or any other games KU will lose in the coming months. There won’t be an asterisk next to home loses for KU just because there aren’t 16,300 packing Allen Fieldhouse. It just means my emotional investment is not where it has been for the past 35 years or so.

NCAA Tournament in Indiana

This has been rumored for some time and has finally been locked in. The entire NCAA tournament will be played on a variety of courts here in Central Indiana. The plan is for it to still be a March/April deal. I don’t think anyone would be surprised if a champion is crowned later than that, though.

I don’t know that another area could pull this off like Indianapolis. Obviously it helps that the NCAA is headquartered here, and has a long history of working with local government agencies. My only quibble with the plan is that it makes no sense to keep the Final Four at Lucas Oil stadium. Whether there will be crowds or not is still to be determined, but I am confident if fans are allowed, there will not be 40,000+ allowed to watch the game. At a minimum the game should be moved to Banker’s Life Fieldhouse. Ideally it should be played at Hinkle Fieldhouse on the Butler campus. Some people have suggested playing the final at a historic high school gym. That’s a step too far for me. But there is no way it should be played in a huge, empty football stadium.

Colts/NFL

The Colts snuck into the playoffs on the back of Jonathan Taylor’s breakout performance against Jacksonville. For some reason Phillip Rivers struggles against the Jags, and for awhile Sunday it looked like the Colts would be on the outside looking in thanks to him playing poorly twice against the worst team in the league. Fortunately the defense and Taylor bailed Rivers out.

The Colts are an odd team. When they look good, they look really freaking good, like a team that could give the Chiefs a run for three quarters. But in every game they have lapses when things fall apart, when the offense suddenly can’t move the ball, when the defense can’t stop anyone, when penalties pop up at the worst possible moment. They feel like a team that should have been better, but probably got about as much out of their talent as possible. And now I guess we get Rivers back for another year. Yay?

I know the Bills are the hottest team in the game right now, but I think I’d rather the Colts play them than the Ravens. That’s probably dumb, since the Ravens beat the Colts earlier this year and that could be a motivating force. I don’t have much faith in the Bills, though, where I think the Ravens are the Wild Card with the best chance of winning two games.

Looking at the bracket, I admit I did a triple take when I saw that the Bears made the playoffs. I knew the NFC East was awful, but there are enough Bears fans in my Twitter feed that I assumed they were 5–11 or something. I mean, 8–8 ain’t great, but it’s much better than I thought the Bears’ record would be.

That said, I was shocked the Dolphins were a win away from making the playoffs. Weren’t they intentionally choking just a year ago? Things change quick in the NFL!

Right now, I see no reason not to call a Chiefs-Packers Super Bowl and install the Chiefs as early 7.5 point favorites.

Pacers

The Pacers are off to a solid start, sitting at 5–2 after last night’s overtime win at New Orleans. That was the first game I watched almost start-to-finish.

New coach Nate Bjorkgren has them playing faster, which is fun and suits the roster. But, man, they just get killed on the boards. When you give the other team three chances to score, it sucks the life out of you.

TJ Warren is now expected to miss significant time with a stress fracture in his foot. Jeremy Lamb is still a month or so away from returning from his ACL rehab. Since these are the Pacers, you have to expect at least a couple of the current starters will suffer significant injuries and miss large stretches of games as well.

Yep, the Pacers are still in that weird middle ground they seem to be perpetually stuck in: good enough to make the playoffs, but not good enough to make a deep run. Which means they are never drafting in the lottery. And since free agents do not want to come to Indianapolis, they must rely on savvy trading and take fliers on guys other teams pass over. And then hope they get hot in the playoffs. I guess it’s better than sucking.

Holiday Weekend Notes

November 30, 2020 /

Well, today begins a new phase in our home’s daily rhythms. C and L are now eLearning through at least mid-January, joining M who has been home for two weeks. Hopefully the expensive Internet access we pay for holds up; our signal likes to drop in the middle of the day which should make for interesting moments when three girls are all in virtual classes.

When I picked C and L up from their final day of classes last Tuesday, L said it felt like the beginning of Christmas vacation. In a way I guess it is. Seems like things have gone fairly well with M’s eLearning. We are hoping that St P’s has used the past five or six months to have a good plan in place and the next five-ish weeks of class can be fairly normal.

It was a long holiday weekend. Let’s get caught up.

Smart devices

I’ve long been intrigued by smart hubs, plugs, lights, etc. But I always held off because I both didn’t see their utility beyond the fun factor, and with a wife who isn’t super tech-savvy, I feared the moments when the devices didn’t work properly and I wasn’t around to troubleshoot.

I knew the new Amazon Echo devices would get a price cut last week, and the moment they dropped, I ordered both an Echo with premium sound and an Echo Dot.

The Dot came first, on Tuesday, and I got it working in the office. I also ordered some smart plugs and got my reading lamp working via Alexa voice controls. The Echo came on Wednesday and…was a royal pain in the ass to get working. While the Dot connected to our home network easily, the Echo struggled. I spent a few hours Wednesday resetting things, moving them around, trying to tweak our network, etc to get it to work. Finally I was successful but it seems like it doesn’t love its network connection.

So I now have the Echo in the office for better sound and to control the lamp. I have our Christmas tree on a smart plug that we use Alexa to turn on and off. And I have the Dot in storage for future use.

Thanksgiving

Our Turkey Day was normal, but different.

The past several years we’ve participated in a huge Drumstick Dash, walking as a family with about 10,000 other people.[1] We had no interest in doing that this year, so instead joined some of S’s high school friends and their families as the walked through their neighborhood. It was a nice way to socially distantly see some friends and burn a few calories.

After that we hosted most of our in-town family, 15 in total. We lucked out with the weather. It was dreary and occasionally a little misty, but it was also about 50 with little-to-no wind. We had our outdoor fireplace and a fire pit lit, with seating areas for all. As our guests arrived we opened all the windows in the main floor of the house to keep the air moving. Between the ovens and stove and the people, our house stayed very toasty. And it was just warm enough outside so we could all eat al fresco without our food getting cold.

Now I guess we wait and see if anyone gets sick over the next two weeks to see if this was a success or a disaster.

I’ll tell you what was a success, though: my bird. I cooked the hell out of it this year. I was on the verge of overcooking but got it out at the perfect moment when it smelled and tasted awesome. Between that and the fires outside, it smelled like I had cooked it on the grill. Really, all credit goes to Whole Foods, where I got this year’s bird. It was the first time I got a brined turkey and I think that will become my routine.

High School Football

We made it through a full season of high school football in Indiana. The state title games were on Friday and Saturday. Saturday were the more important ones to us. BCHS played for the 3A title game in the afternoon, with several St P’s kids playing important roles. M laughed when she saw several of her classmates on the sidelines and getting their championship medals after the game.

The last game of the year was the one we cared about most: Cathedral vs 7–5 ZHS, a school that got hot at the right time and ripped through the top half of the north bracket. CHS had been beating the snot out of people all year. They only had one loss, by four points, to the undefeated team that won the 6A title Friday. Their only close win was a three-point victory over the team that won the Ohio large class title game 44–3. We figured the championship game would be another blowout.

It was, then it wasn’t, then it was.

CHS got up 22–0 without looking very good, but then ZHS worked their way back into it. They cut it to seven and had the ball a couple times but could never get the tying score. In the third quarter the Irish got a 75 yard touchdown pass, a stop, then another quick score and put the game away, winning their 13th state title 46–28.

M chose not to go; none of her friends were going and fans were limited to sitting in small groups of reserved seats, so there wouldn’t have been a proper student section. Instead she sat on the couch and watched with us, telling us which players were nice and which ones were quiet and which ones were dating which girls. That was almost an entertaining as the game.

C did go with a friend. The highlight for her was seeing two freshman girls get in a fight over a boy. She and her friend got bored and left early. She walked in our door just as the game was ending, which was kind of funny.

M was excited that she gets to buy some state champions shirts now, so she understands the true meaning of being a sports fan. She was also bummed that it happened in a year when she was only able to to go two games. Most of the fall she sat in her room while I listened to the games and texted her scoring updates. Another thing Covid has ruined.

Still, good ending to a great year. Last fall I went to almost every game, driving M and her friends around the metro area. This fall my routine was to listen to the games on the radio as I hit golf balls in the yard or dicked around on the Internet. I guess I need to find a new Friday pastime now.

Decorating

As is our tradition, all the holiday decorations went up Thursday. The girls did most of the tree decorating, which was a nice change of pace.

S and I had put the lights on our outdoor trees three weeks ago, on a Sunday when it was nearly 80. With the little nephews around on Thanksgiving, we decided to turn those on Thursday. The four-year-olds did a countdown and I flipped the switch, much to their delight.

KU Hoops

The KU-Gonzaga game was right during our meal prep and eating time, so I recorded it to watch later. When I saw the final score and read a summary I decided not to just delete it. But I was encouraged by what I read later in the evening. Everyone said that while KU struggled on defense, their offense showed some signs of real potential. Lots of parts that would likely fit together better after several weeks of games. Oh, and Gonzaga is really freaking good. Their game with Baylor Saturday is going to be a must-watch.

I did watch the St. Joe’s game Friday. And I was super-frustrated through the first 30 minutes. As you would expect from a team that has so many newcomers and no true point guard, KU just could not get into a flow on offense. And defensively the looked totally lost.

Until Bill Self put in redshirt freshman Dajuan Harris for the first time midway through the second half. He’s skinny, not super tall, and hardly a burner bringing the ball up. But the moment he stepped on the court, the game changed. He made a couple great defensive plays. He made a couple terrific passes. He got Marcus Garrett off the ball. Everything was smoother with him in the game. It went from a frustrating, one-possession game to a blowout in about five minutes.

KU plays Kentucky here in Indy tomorrow night. Well, they are scheduled to play. Both Gonzaga and St. Joe’s have reported positive Covid tests since they played KU. So we’ll see. More KU hoops thoughts later in the week.

That’s about it for our holiday weekend. It is spitting snow this morning and the windchill is supposed to be in the 20s all day. The girls are all in front of their devices getting educated. It’s not the worst day to stay inside.

Hope all of you were able to celebrate the holiday in a safe and healthy manner.

  1. This year’s race was first broken up into smaller waves that left at hour-intervals and eventually cancelled.  ↩
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