Thanks to the NCAA tournament, spring break, and general laziness, I\u2019m behind on a couple sports stories. When a huge one broke Wednesday night, that jogged my memory that I should probably get to them.<\/p>\n
Hey, did you know the Kansas Jayhawks won the national championship two weeks ago? It was pretty cool!<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve 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, \u201cAll the good schools were taken,\u201d so she volunteered her and her date to wear KU stuff. She cropped the shirt I bought her so it\u2019s \u201ccute,\u201d I guess. Whatever. It says national champions on it. It\u2019s dope.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve 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\u2019d begin hearing about changes for next year. I\u2019m assuming everyone is waiting to see what Christian Braun and Jalen Wilson do before they make any moves.<\/p>\n
All winter I said I expected KU to lose three players. That includes early departures and transfers. I\u2019m not sure how much winning a title changes the math for players.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The deadline for entering the transfer portal is about ten days away. I would expect we\u2019ll hear about CB and Jalen early next week and things will begin shaking out after that.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Holy shit!!! I did not see this coming and never heard any rumors that it was an option.<\/p>\n
My first thought is that I hope all is right with Jay Wright\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Since his announcement, there have been plenty of rumors that he doesn\u2019t want to coach with NLI hitting. I think that\u2019s going to be the convenient excuse for every coach who hangs it up. That\u2019s what most people think drove Roy Williams and Coach K from the game.<\/p>\n
Crazy to lose those three coaches, who won 10 combined titles, in 13 months.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t ever hate him. I didn\u2019t 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\u2019s still young enough to go enjoy life and spend some of that money he\u2019s made.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 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\u2019 front office, no one shed a tear when he was traded away. Good riddance.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m qualified thumbs up on Matt Ryan. I think he\u2019ll be a solid, dependable solution at QB for a couple years, provided his body holds up. As far as I know he\u2019s neither a prick like Phillip Rivers or a locker room cancer and disaster on the field like Wentz. So that\u2019s a bonus.<\/p>\n
The Colts\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t plan for any part of your team that relies on multiple players to be elite for more than a couple years anymore.<\/p>\n
That makes Tom Brady\u2019s and Aaron Rodgers\u2019 careers even more impressive. And obviously, potentially, Patrick Mahomes\u2019.<\/p>\n
The Pacers narrowly missed out on having two lottery picks this year when Cleveland lost their play-in game. That said, I don\u2019t feel like lottery picks are as valuable as they used to be. Aside from the occasional, can\u2019t-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\u2019re content if they turn into players who demand minutes and produce results. Looking at this year\u2019s draft lists, I\u2019m not sure I see a single player that makes me think, \u201cOh yeah, you build a franchise around that dude.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The experts<\/em> keep saying that Myles Turner could bring back a lot. He has great value on defense when he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n I believe Malcolm Brodgon is a bad fit to the current Pacers roster and could probably return some value.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thanks to the NCAA tournament, spring break, and general laziness, I\u2019m 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\u2019ve 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, \u201cAll the good schools were taken,\u201d so she volunteered her and her date to wear KU stuff. She cropped the shirt I bought her so it\u2019s \u201ccute,\u201d I guess. Whatever. It says national champions on it. It\u2019s dope. I\u2019ve 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\u2019d begin hearing about changes for next year. I\u2019m 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\u2019m 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\u2019ll 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\u2019s 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\u2019t want to coach with NLI hitting. I think that\u2019s going to be the convenient excuse for every coach who hangs it up. That\u2019s 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\u2019t ever hate him. I didn\u2019t 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\u2019s still young enough to go enjoy life and spend some of that money he\u2019s 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\u2019m 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\u2019 front office, no one shed a tear when he was traded away. Good riddance. I\u2019m qualified thumbs up on Matt Ryan. I think he\u2019ll be a solid, dependable solution at QB for a couple years, provided his body holds up. As far as I know he\u2019s neither a prick like Phillip Rivers or a locker room cancer and disaster on the field like Wentz. So that\u2019s a bonus. The Colts\u2019 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\u2019t 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\u2019s and Aaron Rodgers\u2019 careers even more impressive. And obviously, potentially, Patrick Mahomes\u2019. Pacers The Pacers narrowly missed out on having two lottery picks this year when Cleveland lost their play-in game. That said, I don\u2019t feel like lottery picks are as valuable as they used to be. Aside from the occasional, can\u2019t-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\u2019re content if they turn into players who demand minutes and produce results. Looking at this year\u2019s draft lists, I\u2019m not sure I see a single player that makes me think, \u201cOh yeah, you build a franchise around that dude.\u201d 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,52,67,41,70,58],"class_list":["post-11138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-basketball","tag-college-sports","tag-football","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-kansas-jayhawks"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11138"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11140,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11138\/revisions\/11140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}