D's Notebook

Tag: Indiana Pacers (Page 3 of 6)

Weekend Notes

January 9, 2023 /

It’s back to semi-normal today. L returned to school after her Christmas break. M and C still have one more week of J-term, so they go in a little later and get out a little earlier. But all three have to get up in the mornings again.

Last week I had to get up to make sure C was up, so my alarm was 7:15 instead of my normal, school-day 6:55. Still, it was a little weird coming down this morning and finding the house dark instead of two Christmas trees already turned on filling the living room and front office with their soft light.

We took all the holiday decorations down Saturday. Since they went up earlier than normal and stayed up a little longer than normal, this was our most decorated Christmas ever.

We all have dentist appointments this afternoon, which wraps up a busy run of visits to health professionals over the past few weeks. I’ve been to the orthodontist three times, optometrist, sports medicine, MRI center, physical therapy, and had my annual physical.

I’m good, all that middle stuff was for C. She’s been having back pain for a few months, and even resting it plus a few visits to a chiropractor last fall didn’t help. Walking around in Italy was awful for her, and she was generally miserable at the end of each day, and progressively worse as the week went on. We finally got her in to a sports medicine doc three weeks ago. X-rays were clean but her MRI showed two interesting things. First, she has a bulging disk, the likely cause of her pain. Second, she is missing a vertebra and one set of ribs. That diagnosis got S into super medical research mode and she found about 4–5% of the general population has this issue. Weird!

The sports med doc said while there’s no research that would definitely tell us the bulging disk is directly tied to the lack of that vertebra, she also said it sure didn’t help. She also said it likely cost C an inch or two of height, which makes her topping out at 5’2” while her sisters both made it to 5’4”-ish make sense.[1] She took some teasing for that.

She started physical therapy last week and will do that for a month or so, with the hopes that helps her avoid anything more invasive to correct the issue.

Big 12 Hoops

Another crazy-ass weekend in the best conference in the country. Three teams are tied for first place at 3–0, all three getting there on the strength of two road wins. KU is not a huge surprise to be in that group. Kansas State and Iowa State, though? HUGE surprises. These were picked 8th and 9th in the preseason polls!

I think it’s too early to draw broad conclusions about any team. Especially in a conference like the Big 12. The Wildcats and Cyclones might be mid-tier teams a month from now. But they are off to great starts, and those road wins are huge bonuses in a conference that will likely be tightly bunched much of the season. 14–4 is always my default answer for what it takes to win the Big 12. Could this be the year that something like 12–6 guarantees you no worse than a tie?

More Jayhawks-centric talk later this week.

Pacers

The Indiana Pacers were expected to win right around 20 games this year. They just played their 41st game of the season, the exact midpoint of their schedule. After grabbing two more close wins this weekend, they stand at 23–18, good for sixth place in the Eastern Conference.

It’s been a remarkable first half. They are hella fun to watch, as my friends in Cali might say. Tyrese Haliburton is a legit All Star, and plays with a joy that is infectious. Buddy Hield leads the league in 3-pointers made, connecting on nearly 20 more than the second-most prolific shooter. Rookie Bennedict Mathurin is going to be a star. Second-round pick Andrew Nembhard could be one of the steals of the draft, an ideal backup to Haliburton who can also play next to him. Aaron Nesmith is beginning to show why he was a lottery pick two years ago.

But the biggest surprise is Myles Turner, a player most expected to have been traded by now. Turner is playing the best, most complete, most inspired ball of his career. I’ve always thought he was a little immature and disinterested in doing the hard work it took to be a star. At least for now he seems fully invested. To the point where the Pacers have made him a contract extension offer, attempting to capitalize on the big chunk of salary cap space they still have open. Turner has, for now, said he’s not interested.

That will set up an interesting game of chicken. Can the Pacers really trade their second-best player when they are in the running for a playoff spot and far too good to have a realistic shot at the #1 pick if they suddenly decide to tank? Can Turner turn down more money than any other team will be able to give him next summer no matter how badly he wants to end up in LA?

A year ago I would say the sides will come together and find an agreeable extension before the trade deadline, and Turner will quickly get injured. He’s always getting injured, and it would be just the Pacers’ luck for that to happen after they lock him up.

I think the Pacers’ luck has changed, though. So I think they either re-sign him and he stays healthy, or they can’t agree to terms, he plays out the year, signs with another team over the summer and that inevitable injury pops up in training camp. Meanwhile the Pacers use all their cap space to plug some other holes and immediately turn back into the solid 40–50 win team they usually are.

cLots/NFL

What a finish to the regular season! The cLots began the season with that humiliating tie in Houston, one that required a furious comeback just to get to overtime. They ended it with an even bigger embarrassment, losing to the Texans at home in the final minute of the game. Houston had a 10-point lead three times, but the cLots rallied to take a seven-point lead late in the fourth quarter. The Texans, who should have been satisfied with the loss and the #1 pick in April’s draft, for some reason decided to play full-out, converting on fourth and 20+ two different times on their final drive, including the touchdown that cut the lead to one. Then they went for two and the win and got it.

Amazing!

In the process they allowed the Bears to jump them for the #1 pick. The Texans’ owner was on the sideline after the game and he seemed to be the only person not celebrating. A few hours later he fired coach Lovie Smith. I like to think Lovie and his players knew what was coming and the final drive was a big Eff You to ownership.

The L could be good for the cLots. The Bears don’t need a quarterback, so perhaps they will entertain flipping that pick for Indy’s #5. Or at least that’s what speculation is around here. The Bears can certainly use the top pick to select someone other than a QB, and the cLots will have to hope either they can get a decent candidate in their fifth slot, or focus on one of the teams between them and Houston to swap picks with.

***UPDATE***
I heard at least four times yesterday that the cLots’ pick will be #5. Turns out they snuck into #4 thanks to Denver’s win.

I don’t know. It sure feels like the cLots will be stuck at five, reach for someone who is not ready to be an NFL QB, and remain mediocre, at very best, for the foreseeable future.

Not that I’m convinced either Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud are sure-things. Maybe it’s better not to pick them.

  1. And L is still growing.  ↩

Weekend Notes

October 31, 2022 /

Friday

L had the day off after our DC trip (more to come on that tomorrow), although I still had to get up and take C to school. Why did I have to take her? M was on her senior retreat Tuesday through Friday.

Friday evening was the welcome home ceremony for the seniors. That was interesting, as all the kids (40-some) had to stand up and say something about their experience. A few of the speeches were super emotional. Some were funny. But most were about how good the week was, how they connected with people they didn’t know well before, etc.

This stretched out long enough that I didn’t have any interest in going to Cathedral’s football sectional opener against Lawrence North, who had a really talented young quarterback but not much else. M did run home then head back to the game. It was a tense one. CHS was down 10 in the first half, jumped ahead by 10 in the third quarter, but only led by two with LN driving late before they forced a fumble and got a late score to win by nine. Survive and advance, I guess.

Kid Hoops

L had two CYO games this weekend.

Saturday they played St S, a team they torched in a preseason scrimmage back in August. L and her best friend both scored about 20 points in that game. We knew St S was missing a girl or two that day. This game was not a repeat of that scrimmage.

You could tell our girls hadn’t played or practiced in nearly two weeks. It took a long time to get comfortable on either end, we had two players get three fouls in the first half, and once the girls remembered the plays, they were ice cold from the field. We were down six at half, 12 at the end of three. Not looking good.

We started pressing and trapping in the fourth quarter and the girls ripped off a 13–0 run to steal the win. L played like crap on offense – she had six points on about 3–12 from the field, 0–3 from the line – but she had two steals, forced two more turnovers, and a couple of assists in that run. The win moved our record to 3–1.

Worth noting that this was the first week that her game(s) did not coincide with a KU football game. KU being on a bye week made that easy. But, naturally, this game was played at 9:00 AM, when it did not interfere with any college football games. Next week her games will again fall in the exact time KU is playing.

Sunday we faced a team that was 2–2, St O. Based on scores, I expected a close game. We got that.

St O just killed us on the boards and grabbing loose balls. While we were one-and-done on the offensive end, they were getting 3–4 chances on each possession. It felt like we were down 5–7 the entire game. But we got it to three late and L hit a 3 from the top of the key to tie it. Seconds later she stole the ball at mid-court and got fouled on her layup attempt. She hit one of two free throws to give us the lead.

They came down and hit a shot to re-take the lead. On the next possession L had a great look from behind the arc that rimmed out. St O knocked down a few free throws and we lost 32–28. L finished with a team-high 10. The coaches and I were lamenting our inability to grab any loose ball afterward.

Tuesday we play the undefeated, first place team. Hoping we can keep that one close.

Colts

The team that can’t get out of their own way. During the week they benched Matt Ryan and elevated Sam Ehlinger as the starting QB. Ehlinger only fumbled once and didn’t throw any interceptions Sunday, so that was an improvement over Ryan. He wasn’t all that special otherwise, though. His fumble came at a key moment, as did Jonathan Taylor’s later in the game. This team LOVES to give the ball away deep in the other team’s territory.

Indy native and Cathedral alum Terry McLaurin made a fantastic catch on an under-thrown ball that setup the winning touchdown for the Commanders. At least Carson Wentz wasn’t the winning QB.

It is starting to feel inevitable that the Colts coaching staff and front office will be cleaned out after this season. I think Frank Reich is a good coach, if perhaps too reluctant to move away from under-performing players. Chris Ballard has done a lot right as general manager. But this team should be better than its record, and some key moves the past three years have failed to deliver expected results. The pass that Reich and Ballard got for Andrew Luck’s sudden retirement can’t cover their failures anymore.

Pacers

Who knew the Pacers might be the best team in the city when the calendar flipped to November?

My interest in the NBA has been increasing lately, mostly because I found a few good podcasts that I’ve added to my gym playlist. I really figured this would be a lost year for the Pacers. They are trying to rebuild, they seem perpetually bit by the injury bug, pretty much everyone knows that Buddy Hield and Myles Turner will be traded at some point, and any minor injuries will be used as excuses to shut players down in March in order to squeeze out every loss possible to increase their lottery odds.

The Pacers swept a road back-to-back over the weekend, including an embarrassing (for the Nets) win in Brooklyn Saturday. Rookie Bennedict Mathurin seems like the real fucking deal, dropping 32 on the Nets and averaging 21 a game coming off the bench. After losing an important game to the Spurs – another team expected to be deep in the lottery next spring – the Pacers have won three of five. Through seven games the Pacers have the same record as the Warriors. They need to stop winning!

I’m sure this team success won’t last. But at least with Mathurin and Tyrese Haliburton and a few other young guys the team is fun to watch. I hope they won’t regret these early wins when lottery time rolls around. They need the maximum number of ping pong balls in the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes.

Weekend Sports Notes

July 18, 2022 /

Some sports happenings over the past few days.

Royals

As if being shitty wasn’t bad enough, ten Royals players “did their own research” and decided not to get vaccinated against Covid, preventing them from traveling to Canada for the series with the Blue Jays over the weekend.

Just an exhausting moment. As I am barely interested in the team or sport right now, this does not make me want to come back.

Let’s move on…

Pacers Go Big…Almost

The Pacers have never been big players in the free agent market. Good players who are healthy generally don’t want to come to Indianapolis, and the Pacers have generally run a tight financial ship and refused to overpay to get talent to come to town.

That nearly changed last week. They signed restricted free agent Deandre Ayton to a massive offer sheet. Ayton had a strained relationship with the Phoenix Suns who seemed lukewarm on bringing him back on a max contract. There had been rumors for weeks the Suns and Pacers were talking about a deal that revolved around Ayton and the Pacers’ Myles Turner. If those talks were serious, though, they never resulted in a trade agreement.

So the Pacers sent out only the second offer sheet they’ve ever tendered, the biggest in league history, for Ayton. For about three hours Pacers fans were debating whether to be excited about the prospect of Ayton joining a young roster or to worry about Ayton getting hurt or just sucking and turning the deal into a disaster that sunk the franchise for the 2020s.

That debate only lasted a few hours because the Suns quickly matched the Pacers’ offer. Which could be a good thing. Offering $133 million for a big man in the current NBA seemed ultra aggressive, especially for one like Ayton, who is a good player but certainly not among the league’s elite.

It was cool the Pacers tried to make a splash, at least. Now I wonder where they go. They seem set up to remain on the outside of the eastern conference playoff picture next year, but also not bad enough to enter the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes. They have a ton of cap room and a lot of picks stacked up for the next few years. Plus they still have to figure out what to do with Turner, an elite shot blocker and serviceable 3-point shooter whose total game does not match his ego or financial desires. Do they package Turner and some of their picks for a difference maker? Hang onto Turner until the trade deadline to see if he meshes with their new lineup (and can stay healthy)? Or do they move Turner now, take on a bad, expiring contract, and hope they are crappy enough to get deep into next year’s lottery and then make rapid improvement?

Kid Hoops

L’s team decided to get together for one more tournament. Saturday they played two teams they played two weeks ago, including the team that knocked them out of that tournament. They pounded that team pretty good, although they were playing without their best player. We were three players short, including a starter, but not sure that was an even trade. In game two they got a 14-point win over a team we have now beaten three times. This was our best performance against them.

In Sunday’s semifinal we had a five-point lead early in the second half but lost by 10. Our girls just got waxed in the last 10 minutes or so. The other team was too fast on both ends, our girls neglected to play any help defense, and we missed a ton of easy shots early that could have had us up by double digits early in the game.

L had a mixed weekend. She shot the ball like crap going 3–20 overall. Saturday she hit the top of the backboard with 3 pointers from behind the NBA line.[1] Apparently she’s been working out too much. In the second game she missed two wide open layups and another two contested ones. But she did score six in that game. And she turned the game around with her defense. We were down seven when she checked in. Five minutes later, when she checked out, we were up six. In that span she had two points, two rebounds, two assists, and three steals. She just shut down their point guard, getting steals on three of four possessions. We never looked back after that.

We’ve been doing some good shooting over at the YMCA, so I don’t know if she was just sped up, if her contacts weren’t locked in, or if it was the classic case of the improvement she’s making in practice not translating to games yet. Whatever the explanation, her shooting was gross. Afterwards I reminded her, though, that back in January if she ever took a 3-pointer, it was usually two feet short. Now she’s shooting them 3–4 feet long from behind the NBA line. So she has the range, she just needs to lock in the accuracy.

The Open

Jeeeeez what a let down. Rory McIlroy seemed like was finally going to break his eight-year major-less streak, playing beautiful golf all weekend. He was a little less stellar Sunday, missing six putts by a combined six inches, but still played well enough to win.

Except Cameron Smith went nuclear and hit every freaking putt on the back nine. Shooting 30 on the last nine of a major – six birdies and three pars – is pretty dope. Rory couldn’t even finish second as Cameron Young snuck by him with a final round 65.

There was no meltdown round this time. Rory played great all four days. Perhaps he was a little too cautious Sunday. Or the nerves caused shots that gave him short birdie looks the first three days to leave him much longer looks in Sunday. Whatever the cause, it felt like a massive letdown when he couldn’t close it out. Sometimes you just get unlucky and end up on the wrong side of a legendary closing round by another golfer.

It was really a magnificent tournament. St. Andrews is barely hanging on against modern players and technology, but it produced a terrific weekend of golf. Saturday, when six or seven players all seemed to be in the mix, was amazing to watch. It came at a perfect moment for professional golf, which has seen the 2022 season dominated by the break between the PGA and the Saudi-backed LIV tour. But you also have to wonder when we will see a tournament like this again. The 2023 major season could be drastically different as more players defect to the LIV, which could affect their ability to play in future majors. Perhaps it was that, more than Rory coming up short, that made the end feel a little extra somber.

  1. The tournament was at Jeff Teague’s gym, and we played both Saturday games on the NBA court, which is longer than the other two high school courts at the facility, and only has the college and NBA three point lines parked. Not sure why they had kids as young as fifth grade playing on it without the high school arc marked.  ↩

Sports Notes

April 21, 2022 /

Thanks to the NCAA tournament, spring break, and general laziness, I’m behind on a couple sports stories. When a huge one broke Wednesday night, that jogged my memory that I should probably get to them.

Jayhawk Talk

Hey, did you know the Kansas Jayhawks won the national championship two weeks ago? It was pretty cool!

We’ve had a steady run of packages dropped off with national title gear over the pat week. I accidentally ordered C a youth small instead of an adult small of the shirt she picked, so one of the nephews is getting a Jayhawk tee. M has already desecrated her title gear; her prom group decided to dress in college stuff for their afterparty. In her poorly chosen words, “All the good schools were taken,” so she volunteered her and her date to wear KU stuff. She cropped the shirt I bought her so it’s “cute,” I guess. Whatever. It says national champions on it. It’s dope.

I’ve been surprised how quiet the roster chatter has been. I assumed there would be a week to ten days of hangover and recovery, and then we’d begin hearing about changes for next year. I’m assuming everyone is waiting to see what Christian Braun and Jalen Wilson do before they make any moves.

All winter I said I expected KU to lose three players. That includes early departures and transfers. I’m not sure how much winning a title changes the math for players.

KU does seem to be in on several players who have entered the transfer portal, so that tells me Bill Self expects to lose a few players. Or have a signed recruit decide to chase G-League/Aussie money instead of spending a year in Lawrence.

The deadline for entering the transfer portal is about ten days away. I would expect we’ll hear about CB and Jalen early next week and things will begin shaking out after that.

NLI/Transfer Portal

I was going to include some thoughts about how the ability for players to get paid for their name, image, likeness use and the freedom to transfer. But as I thought more about those, I realized they are better suited for a longer, dedicated post. Look for that next week.

Jay Wright Retires

Holy shit!!! I did not see this coming and never heard any rumors that it was an option.

My first thought is that I hope all is right with Jay Wright’s health and those close to him. Sixty seems early to retire, especially when you are still at the top of your game, so the natural assumption is that something is wrong and forced his decision.

Since his announcement, there have been plenty of rumors that he doesn’t want to coach with NLI hitting. I think that’s going to be the convenient excuse for every coach who hangs it up. That’s what most people think drove Roy Williams and Coach K from the game.

Crazy to lose those three coaches, who won 10 combined titles, in 13 months.

Big props to Wright for his career. He broke my Jayhawk heart a few times, but he always seemed like such a good guy that I couldn’t ever hate him. I didn’t love watching his teams or their style, but I always admired how committed he was to getting them to play that way, and how effective it was. Bonus props for walking away while he’s still young enough to go enjoy life and spend some of that money he’s made.

Carson and Matt

The Colts got a new quarterback about a month ago. And somehow managed to get more for shipping Carson Wentz to Washington than they gave up for getting Matt Ryan from Atlanta.

I’m big thumbs up on getting rid of Wentz. I hated trading for him in the first place and was never confident he was the right answer. Given the not-so-subtle comments from his ex-teammates and the Colts’ front office, no one shed a tear when he was traded away. Good riddance.

I’m qualified thumbs up on Matt Ryan. I think he’ll be a solid, dependable solution at QB for a couple years, provided his body holds up. As far as I know he’s neither a prick like Phillip Rivers or a locker room cancer and disaster on the field like Wentz. So that’s a bonus.

The Colts’ emphasis this off-season has been strengthening the defense. I suppose the thought is you build a beast on that side of the ball then ride Jonathan Taylor and a boring-if-efficient passing game to win in an old-school manner. Ryan is the perfect guy for that strategy.

It is interesting how quickly things change in the NFL, though. Two years ago the Colts had the best offensive line in football. Between injuries, some regression, a retirement, and a bad free agent signing, it has fallen back into the pack. You just can’t plan for any part of your team that relies on multiple players to be elite for more than a couple years anymore.

That makes Tom Brady’s and Aaron Rodgers’ careers even more impressive. And obviously, potentially, Patrick Mahomes’.

Pacers

The Pacers narrowly missed out on having two lottery picks this year when Cleveland lost their play-in game. That said, I don’t feel like lottery picks are as valuable as they used to be. Aside from the occasional, can’t-miss prospect, drafting high in the NBA these days is often about finding the right pieces that develop into rotation players as quickly as possible instead of finding stars. Sure, you hope every pick turns into a star, but you’re content if they turn into players who demand minutes and produce results. Looking at this year’s draft lists, I’m not sure I see a single player that makes me think, “Oh yeah, you build a franchise around that dude.”

It should still be an eventful offseason for the Pacers. Kevin Pritchard has to decide whether to continue tearing down the roster or just find pieces that fit in with the roster that closed the season.

The experts keep saying that Myles Turner could bring back a lot. He has great value on defense when he’s able to stay on the court. But he is so up-and-down on offense and so often injured, I think it might be best to trade him now, perhaps a moment past his peak value but when it it still pretty high.

I believe Malcolm Brodgon is a bad fit to the current Pacers roster and could probably return some value.

I doubt either of those players bring back All Stars. So it seems like the Pacers, again, have a ceiling of being a nice team but never a great one. Although no one really thought Paul George was a franchise player when the Pacers drafted him, and he nearly got them past LeBron twice.

Hoops Notes

February 15, 2022 /

Jayhawk Talk

Two more wins, one entirely too stressful, the other had too much sloppiness but 15 of the better minutes of the year to balance.

Saturday against Oklahoma, KU looked slow and uninterested for much of the game. Like they saw the line was KU –10.5 and figured they would just walk onto the court and the game would be over.

They got their shit together in time to turn it into a comfortable win…until they started missing free throws and turning the ball over. It was a needlessly close, too stressful, two-point win.

After the game KU sat at 9–2 in the Big 12, a game ahead of Baylor, two ahead of Texas Tech. This was the second last-minute win over Oklahoma. There were late wins over Iowa State and Kansas State. It took two overtimes to beat Texas Tech. They blew the game in Austin in the final minute.

I sense a trend.

As a fan you can’t help but wonder what this means. Is this a team that can’t put people away, or a team that is tough as nails and unfazed by late-game stress? Are you concerned that they are playing so many close games that can turn on a single basket? Or is this team finding its identity and developing confidence that will help them weather tight games in March?

Fans love these debates, and the over-analysis that comes with them. Which is silly because the winning argument will be determined by how KU plays in March. The 1996–97 team had at least four huge comebacks to get wins over the course of the season. When they couldn’t complete their comeback against Arizona in the Sweet 16, we decided those games from November to February were all signs that something was wrong. Had they come all the way back and continued on to the Final Four and perhaps a title, that Arizona game would have been the ultimate sign of how tough that team was, how you couldn’t stop them on offense, how they were destined for greatness.

And that team had five NBA players on it. This year’s has, likely, just one. Doesn’t bode well for what’s coming.

After shaking off a very sluggish start Monday, KU played about 15 great minutes and had Oklahoma State down 26 before they decided to miss 16 of their last 17 shots. Not quite the 19-straight misses KU had in Stillwater last month, and a bunch of these were by the bench, but still an ugly end to a satisfying win.

The big takeaways were getting Ochai Agbaji back on track after two sub-par scoring games, a complete effort by the starting five, and more good minutes from Zach Clemence, who returned Saturday after missing a month with a foot injury.

Clemence is raw, fouls on every rebound, and apparently can’t hit a free throw if his life depended on it. But he battles and doesn’t appear to be afraid of the moment. He was the only KU big who had any idea what to do against Tanner Groves on Saturday, changing the game with his defense as much as his three that gave KU a lead they never relinquished. I’m not sure how much you can expect from/trust a kid who missed a month and wasn’t exactly getting big minutes before his injury. But having a 6’10” guy who is versatile and confident could be a nice bonus, especially on the nights when David McCormack is a mess and Mitch Lightfoot can’t do anything other than hack people.

Oh, the other takeaway from Monday’s game was the uniforms. Egad, man! I had not heard a good explanation for them before the game, just that KU was honoring the 1922 national championship squad. As they were white/gray, I assumed this was some dumb Adidas thing where they were overthinking how the only pictures of that ’22 team were black and white, so why not have black and white uniforms? ESPN’s Boog Sciambi finally gave a better explanation late in the game: the ’22 team did, in fact, wear gray and white, but with gray jerseys and white shorts. KU flipped that look so the jerseys would be home whites.

OK, that makes a little sense.

Still I hated them.

I hated it because if a random viewer turned on the TV, their first comment would probably be either “Who is Oklahoma State playing?” or “Why is Kansas wearing black?”

And why in the hell do you bust these out against Oklahoma State, a team that actually has black as a primary jersey color? Granted, they would have looked weird against anyone. And I think I would have hated them against anyone. But wearing them against OSU, Texas Tech, or any other school that features black in their own uniforms was super dumb.

I get what Adidas/KU was trying to do, and they get some points for intent. But the execution was terrible. KU might have worn gray 100 years ago, but there was no reason to wear it in 2022, especially against a team wearing all black. They could have made the lettering and shorts blue. Or wore the all whites the ’22 and ’23 teams wore.

Rumor has it Adidas has another alternate uniform lined up for sometime in the next month. Based on what some other Adidas teams have already unveiled I fear I may hate them, too.

Adidas has made some decent alternate uniforms for KU over the years, notably the Chalks and Phogs. But they keep messing up the regular uniforms then throwing out at least one bad alt set each year.

They really should let me design the uniforms. I would do a better job.

Pacers

Man, Kevin Pritchard came strong before the trade deadline! Three deals made some major changes to the Pacers’ roster going forward.

He shipped out Caris Levert, who in a nice player but dominates the ball too much and got an expiring contract and some draft picks in return. He sent his best player, Domantis Sabonis, and others, to Sacramento for Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield, and Tristan Thompson. Then he sent Torey Craig to Phoenix for Jalen Smith.

The trade with the Kings got the most attention, with a lot of the Internet freaking out over it. Haliburton is a darling of the NBA analytics movement, while a lot of people struggle with their thoughts about Sabonis. Sabonis is the better player right now. But he doesn’t play defense, isn’t a great shooter outside the paint, and I’m not sure he has much more upside. Haliburton is younger, under team control for a lot longer, already shows a lot of promise and seems to have a lot of upside. Plus he seems like a great dude.

Whether this series of trades would have been made if Myles Turner was healthy is an interesting question. Regardless, seems like the Pacers are going with him after trying to force him and Sabonis to work together for four years.

So the Pacers got some draft picks, a potentially great young player, cap space next summer, and some other pieces that can either be moved or fill the gaps until new players can be brought in. It seems like the new talent matches what Rick Carlisle wants to do better than the old. And there’s the familiar mantra of “When Turner, Malcolm Brogdon, and TJ Warren get healthy, this team is pretty solid.” I would not be surprised if the Pacers trade some of their draft capital and returning players to move up in this year’s draft, or find a better match for their younger guys. It’s not a full rebuild, but probably as close as owner Herb Simon is willing to come to one.

The Pacers have blown leads in their first two games with their new lineup. But at least they are interesting again. Those were the first games I had watched since the holidays.

Youth Ball

L’s CYO team has had a rough couple of games.

A week ago they got hammered by a really good sixth grade team. I think they lost by 24. It’s crazy watching these year-round teams run offense like high schoolers and have 12 year olds that can hit pull-up 3’s on the break. I keep telling L if she works hard, that’s the kind of game she can have by the end of this summer after three months on a travel team.

Saturday they played another seventh grade team. Strangely they hadn’t beaten a sixth grade team but were undefeated against seventh graders. We jumped out 4–0 then gave up 15 straight points until early in the second half. We cut it to 17–16 with about four minutes to play, but threw a bunch of bad passes and airballs and lost 24–20.

Other than her first CYO game of the calendar year, when she went scoreless, she had scored six or seven points in every game she had played in 2022, whether for her CYO or travel team. A week ago she broke that string by only scoring four. Saturday she scored just two. She missed a ton of shots Saturday. She was angry and didn’t talk all the way.

I know she’s frustrated by the CYO team. They don’t really do anything on offense, so they’re easy to guard. There are two girls who are always in the wrong spot on defense, so they give up easy shots. They don’t rebound. I told her to keep her head up and try to have fun. When travel ball starts next month, with more frequent practices and better coaching, things will get better.

We got her travel schedule last week. They will start practicing in early March then playing shortly after, continuing through the end of June. Most of it is local, although they will go to tournaments in Louisville and Knoxville.

D’s Notes

December 23, 2021 /

KU Hoops

Well, I was hoping to post another Jayhawk Talk entry this week. I was looking forward to seeing how KU played three days after struggling to put away a Stephen F. Austin team that exposed some of their deficiencies. Alas, Colorado had some players test positive, the game got wiped from the schedule, and the Christmas break begins early for the Jayhawks.

Which leaves the big KU hoops news of the week the announcement that KU will play Indiana the next two years. It took 19 years but it’s finally happening: the Jayhawks vs. the Hoosiers on campus!1 What timing, too. KU will come to Bloomington in December 2023, when I just might have a freshman on campus. Wacky, wild stuff!

The 1990s series between the schools was great. Well, for KU fans it was, since the Jayhawks went 5–1 against the Hoosiers, including two wins in the NCAA tournament. The game in Lawrence in December 1993 – the Jacque Vaughn game – was the best game I’ve ever attended.

Covid and Sports

All sports leagues are struggling at the moment, as both the protection offered by vaccines begins to waver for those who got their shots last spring and the Omicron variant takes hold. Once again we are seeing how well-meaning policies and guidance have often been short-sighted. Protocols that were put in place over the summer now seem hopelessly outdated and ineffective because, to go back to a favorite phrase from the spring of 2020, the situation is fluid. Leagues, rightly, are reluctant to move too quickly in making adjustments as they wait on advice from government and health officials and a better idea of exactly how dangerous Omicron is.

I’m not sure what the right answer is. Allowing fully vaccinated players who test positive but show no symptoms to continue to compete seems like the right move at first consideration. But aren’t those players still able to spread the virus even if they have avoided its worst effects? So do we start limiting crowds again? Or only letting in fully-vaccinated fans to prevent the spread if we let those players on the court?

Or should leagues hit the pause button, as the NHL has done? Would stopping games for 10–14 days allow this rapidly spreading wave to subside a bit, give officials a better idea of exactly what we’re facing, and perhaps prevent a longer delay after the holidays pass?

While their policies may be frustrating, at least professional sports are controlled by a central body that keeps everyone on the same set of rules. In college sports it’s totally different, with each conference having slightly different standards. College sports, subject to the political whims of all 50 states and the various priorities of dozens of different conferences, are a mess. The NCAA has provided all kinds of guidance, and is working closely with the CDC to adjust that guidance as needed. But the fact remains that an organization that is quick to jump in and control what schools/conferences do when there is money to be made (and take their large cut in the process) is largely toothless when it comes to protecting players, coaches, and fans.

BTW, S and I are boosted. M gets her third shot next week. We did have a scare in the house a couple weeks back, but the Covid test was negative and we think the kid in question had either the regular flu or just a terrible cold. Fortunately it never hit the rest of us.

Tiger

We had a fairly busy weekend so I wasn’t able to watch any of the PNC Father/Son golf tournament. Which bummed me out because my Twitter feed was electric about Tiger and Charlie Woods putting on a show all weekend. I don’t know what people were more amazed by: the fact that Tiger was upright and playing good golf, or how freaking good his kid is.

Who knows how healthy Tiger actually is and if his efforts are repeatable. He rode in a cart all week; doing so in a regular tour event will require approval from the PGA. I imagine they would jump at giving him one, ironic given how hard they fought to keep Casey Martin out of one 20-some years ago. Whether Tiger’s body can hold up to 72 holes of high-level golf is another matter. Regardless of his future, it is stunning that he had been able to recover to this level.

Pacers

The Pacers are kind of a mess. Which is unusual. Aside from the mid–2000s, post-Brawl era, the franchise is usually pretty boring and steady. They are always solid, occasionally great. They never get a high lottery draft pick. They don’t make much news that draws attention nationally.

This year has been different. There seems to be a lot of discontent in the locker room. There are players who don’t like their roles, some who are frustrated by not winning, and others who have issues with the front office.

It reached the point where owner Herb Simon had to meet with select media last week to ensure them he loved this team and that he thought they were fully capable of getting their shit together and winning some games. This came just as there were reports that he might finally relent from his long-held policy of refusing to tank for a high draft pick. He has said he would rather be mediocre and sell as many tickets as possible than tell the fans the team is going to suck for a few years and deal with a huge attendance loss.

The chatter is he may be wavering because the Pacers’ attendance this year has been near the bottom of the entire league. I think there’s also finally some acceptance that while they have a lot of nice players, they have the wrong mix of nice players. Too many guys who do the same thing and no true stars. There’s no Jermaine O’Neal, Danny Granger, or Paul George on this roster: a young, talented player who can blossom into a top 20 player if the team is patient enough.

The Colts are the far more important franchise around town these days, and have been since Peyton arrived. But I’ve talked to a few guys who have been big Pacers fans their entire lives who are pissed about where the team is. When you have such a small, loyal fan base and they begin to turn on the team, it seems like ownership has to do something drastic to keep their interest and to have any hopes of grabbing the attention of the rest of the city.

NFL

My attention given to the Colts this year has been waaaaay less than last year. I’m not sure why. I’ve watched way less of the NFL in general this year. Again, I’m not sure why.

The Colts seem to be rolling, though. And my limited viewing tells me that this may be the widest open playoffs in recent memory. So perhaps the Colts can overcome that brutal opening stretch of the season and make some noise in the playoffs.

Ha! Very funny! You can’t trust Carson Wentz in the playoffs!

Forget Covid and who may/may not be available: is there a single team you really trust to win 3–4 games in January? I would assume the Chiefs are, once again, the favorite as they’ve righted the ship from their mid-season swoon. But each time a team seems poised to stake a claim as the clear best team in the league, they lay a big fat egg. So maybe that means the Chiefs play a Wild Card in both the AFC title game and Super Bowl? I don’t know; I haven’t watched enough to have any idea what to expect.

1. The only time the schools have played since I moved to Indy was in Hawaii in November 2016 with the Hoosiers winning in overtime.

More Sports Notes

February 9, 2021 /

With the Super Bowl out of the way, here are some more sports notes from the past few days.

Kid Hoops

L’s team had a big game Saturday. Her team played the squad they were tied with for second place in their league. Looking at comparative scores, it seemed like the teams were pretty evenly matched. We were going to have our best player. Things looked good.

Then we got stomped.

L threw a ridiculous pass from the left wing, through the entire defense, to a teammate under the hoop who laid it up and in just before the halftime buzzer for our second basket of the game. We were down 12–4. It did not feel that close, either.

It didn’t get better in the second half. The opponents had two girls three inches taller than our inside girl and they just shut her down. Their team defense was great at all five spots and barely gave us any looks. Worst, our best player went 0–12 from the free throw line in a 13-point loss. Yep, Oh-for-Twelve. Poor kid, the misses got worse and worse as they piled up. She almost threw one over the backboard. Yikes.

L was 0-fer from the floor, but she was also the only girl who was able to get shots. She was forcing them but at least she was getting them off. She blew an easy layup late in the game, making her approximately 0 for her last 129 on layups. She did have a few other absolute dimes. One she again whipped through the entire defense, placed it on our inside girl’s right hand above her shoulders, and she laid it in without ever putting her left hand on the ball. It was kind of dope and got some vocal reaction from the dads. But otherwise L struggled like everyone else.

The crazy thing about the team we played was that they were coached by a high school girl. She knew her shit, was cool and calm on the sideline, and obviously has these girls drilled well on the fundamentals. I’m glad I wasn’t coaching and getting my ass kicked by her.

KU Hoops

Fortunately L’s game saved me from most of the KU game Saturday. Games at West Virginia are always the worst, so I wasn’t too bummed either about missing it or the loss.

I was bummed but not surprised that KU fell out of the rankings on Monday. The program’s reputation clearly kept them ranked a few weeks longer than they should have been included. L was borderline pissed when I told her it was the first time since she was four months old that had happened. Not sure why she was so worked up about it, she’s watched maybe 15 minutes of KU basketball with me this year.

Luckily Monday night KU got their shit together, at least in the second half, against Oklahoma State. I was in multiple texts threads with KU friends and my OSU buddy. I don’t want to dig back into them and give myself a headache, but I believe all of my friends would be comfortable with be summing up those conversations by saying the first half was a display of garbage basketball by both teams.

There’s not much to say about KU that I haven’t already said, although I think their struggles are currently being compounded by a total lack of confidence. David McCormack, in a huge upset, might be the most confident player on the team right now. But their lack of talent and skill and hoops IQ looks even worse when they play tentatively. I liked how most of the team played hard in the second half last night. Hopefully they’ve learned if you do that, good things will happen, and eventually the shots that have been clanging off the rim for the last month will start to fall again.

College Hoops Landscape

I guess if KU has to have a really down year, this is the year to do it. How crazy is it that none of the 13 winningest programs in D1 are ranked right now? Or that Duke, Kentucky, and Michigan State are likely to miss the tournament, and North Carolina would only squeeze in if the brackets came out today? Hell, if KU slips up over the next week when they play Iowa State twice and then K-State, they will slide into bubble territory. Those schools are the five most dominant Power Five programs of the past decade. And they all, to some measure, suck right now.[1]

I kind of scoffed early in the year when John Calipari blamed Covid for Kentucky’s struggles. But with all these blue bloods having issues, most of whom are relying on young players, that has become a reasonable explanation. Incoming players who normally got a full summer of workouts with/against returning and former players had to work out on their own last year, and they look like what freshmen used to look like.

Sadly those other programs will probably bounce back and be just fine next year. KU, depending on how long the NCAA shit drags on and what the eventual penalties are, could be facing a decent stretch of relative mediocrity.

Although, if Bill Self can keep his roster together over the summer and find a good transfer point guard, I think KU will be fine next year. It’s the years after that which could become problematic. And that’s if the NCAA allows Self to continue coaching.

Pacers

The Pacers are on a 1–5 stretch. If KU hadn’t won last night I might be ready to give up on all basketball for awhile.

Golf

L’s game Saturday also caused me to miss a lot of the PGA event. Once I got home, caught the final minutes of the KU game, and caught up on Twitter, I saw the outburst over Jordan Spieth’s round. I thought he was done at –7 for the day, so I was thrilled when I switched to NBC and saw he still had four holes to play. And he continued to drop absolute bombs for birdies.

It was a scintillating performance, full of all the high-wire stuff Spieth is famous for. As one podcast afterward stated, other than Tiger Woods, no golfer creates as much excitement as Spieth when he’s on. There’s something about his game that is so fragile and relatable. Plus he is so open about his success and failures that he doesn’t seem like your average, boring tour pro. Even at his best he always seems so close to losing it and looking like your average weekend duffer. Then he hits an amazing approach from the desert and holes a 60-foot putt and you are screaming and texting your friends.

There was a buzz on golf Twitter as people lost their shit. I missed Spieth’s peak, as it came when I was giving golf no attention. Even though he fell apart on Sunday – predictably – it was fun to be a part of the Jordan Spieth experience for an hour or so. I hope he can continue to round out his game so this is a weekly recurrence rather than a singular event.

  1. Gonzaga and Villanova are obviously in the mix of best programs of the past decade, and are doing just fine this year.  ↩

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 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.

Sports Notes

October 22, 2019 /

I had a Reaching for the Stars post lined up for today, but one huge sports story has me skipping to throw down some sports thoughts on your heads.

Kansas – Missouri Basketball is Back

Well this was a total surprise. I have a few birdies out there who occasionally drop hints that big news is coming. None of them shared even a whiff of this coming out before last night’s announcement.

My initial reaction was that it was dumb that KU caved and agreed to this. I liked holding this petty grudge against Missouri for their role in breaking up one of the best conference rivalries in college sports. And since we Kansas fans like to think the rivalry means more to MU than to KU, that made it even more fun.

Alas, the teams were going to get together in the regular season eventually. There would be too much money offered at some point not to do it. I will assume that is the case here. I always hoped it would be because of the next round of realignment that found KU and MU in the same conference again.

I think the timing is very interesting. In the seven years since the teams played, KU has been much, much better than Mizzou in basketball. Now, with KU facing probation, a potential loss of scholarships, and a sure hit in recruiting for a year or two, it seems like an odd time to open the series up again. I’m not saying KU is going to turn into TCU in basketball. But there would seem to be a, hopefully momentary, dip in the talent level coming to Lawrence.

I wonder how much the NCAA situation had to do with KU agreeing to this. KU is going to be pouring a lot of money into the legal fight against the NCAA. And then there is the possibility that the NCAA may ban the Jayhawks from the tournament for a year or more. Is this an attempt to find some more revenue when expenses will be up and revenue potentially down in the near future?

It makes sense that football is not included. There’s no reason to play that game. KU can’t compete right now and Missouri gains nothing by giving KU the chance to pull an upset. Plus, both schools are scheduled out for several years. I figure football will get added down the road as spots open up in each school’s calendar.

I think the first year will be great. I wonder about after that. There are plenty of fantastic, non-conference rivalries out there. Missouri has had one with Illinois forever. But what made the KU-MU games of the past so great was because they meant something. The last basketball game, in 2012, featured two top four teams fighting for the conference title and a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Our generation grew up on KU and MU fighting for the Big 8/12 title. And even if one team was out of the title race, there was nothing better than beating your arch rival and knocking them out of the title race.

For us old folks the rivalry will still mean plenty. But for the younger folks, will it ever grow to what it used to be when it’s just another fun, non-conference game in December? Does losing to your rival mean the same thing when you still have two months of conference games coming after? When KU has had big conference wins over Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State, etc in previous Novembers/Decembers, those were a lot of fun. But the games against Iowa State, Texas Tech, and Baylor were always more important.

KU Football

I wasn’t going to write about it, but since I’ve opened up the notebook, some effort by the Jayhawks in Austin on Saturday! I have a KU buddy who lives in Austin who told us beforehand he was not going to the game. As KU hung around in the first half, I began texting him to get his butt over so he could watch history take place.

Jokingly, of course.

But, man, they gave it a good run. I had three non-KU friends text me when the Jayhawks converted the two-point conversion to take the lead late in the game to get my thoughts. Each got a variation on the same response: We left plenty of time to blow it.

1:11 was exactly enough time, as it turned out.

Still, a fine effort. With the state of KU football, you totally take moral victories.

And I have to share some love for Carter Stanley, who played his ass off and had the Longhorn Network announcers ripping their own players for getting “trucked” by him. The guys who have stuck with KU football over the past decade have been through some shit. It’s nice to see guys like Stanley have a moment where it works. It’s a shame the previous coaches put the program in a state where these moments are rare and a surprise. It’s also a shame he had to wait until his senior year to finally enjoy some success.

Colts

Another nice win for the Colts, another excellent coaching day for Frank Reich. I’m starting to get worried about the bet I made back in September that the Colts were, at best, an 8–8 team. I may have to pay my buddy the Miller Lite he put on the line for saying they would go 10–6.

Pacers

The Pacers tip off their season tomorrow against Detroit. Most experts have the Pacers making the playoffs since the Eastern Conference is so weak. Seems about right.

But we have no idea what to expect from this team. Victor Oladipo is engaging in light practice, but not anywhere close to returning from the quad injury that ended his 2019 season. And when he comes back, it will likely take him months to get back to where he was. This feels like a season where the Pacers are stuck between competing and dropping into the lottery. Really, it is one where they need to teach the new parts how to play together and then get ready to make a run next year.

The team did make news yesterday when they extended Domantas Sabonis. Word on the street was they were exploring trade options. But, as these things tend to do, a last-minute deal was worked out to keep the power forward on the squad. Now they have to figure out how to get him and Myles Turner to be able to play together. They have too much money wrapped up in them to not have them on the court as much as possible.

The Pacers have some really nice parts, when fully healthy. I wonder if the parts fit together, though. And whether a fully healthy Oladipo is enough to compete in the East.

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