Well, here we are at one of the best times of the year. Good evening everyone, I'm in warm, balmy Houston and you're...wherever you are reading this blog. Tonight, we're going to talk about the madness of March, which includes, of course, the NCAA tournament and NFL free agency.
Tonight, though, I'm going to actually start with some professional basketball. I'm going to start with professional basketball because a lot of the fans of the "Association" are not happy with some of these teams resting their players, and, more than that, resting their key players for primetime games which are nationally televised. And it's not just the fans that are unhappy with this development, neither is the NBA's commissioner, Adam Silver.
In fact, Commissioner Silver is upset enough about this issue that he's sent a memo to team owners. He's also warned of "significant penalties" to teams who don't abide by the NBA's rule of letting the league office know when players will start or sit. You can read the information here in this ESPN article: ESPN NBA rest
Here's my response to this: I get where Adam Silver is coming from, these nationally televised Saturday night games make him money and they've been duds two weeks in a row because players have sat. But the first thing he could do is realize that the coaches who do this, the Steve Kerrs, the Greg Popovich's, the Tyronn Lue's, owe it to their team and their fans to do everything possible to win an NBA title first and foremost. If that means resting players at the end of a long stretch, so be it.
That brings me to my next point: if the NBA is going to put these teams on Saturday night on ABC, make your scheduling a little bit better so that coaches, you know, may play everyone that matters. On the 11th when the Warriors played San Antonio on ABC, that was their seventh road game in eight games and their third game in four nights. The Cavs when they did it last Saturday night were playing their fifth game in a week.
Bottom line, the scheduling in the NBA needs major work so that you might actually get to see the best players on a Saturday night.
Meanwhile, here in Houston, the word on the papers and on the social media websites is that star James Harden doesn't want to take games off...he can rest in the offseason. Warning: This next point is not going to be popular with some Rockets fans.
While I admire that philosophy, that philosophy may very well torpedo the Rockets chances to win a championship. They pretty much know their seeding for the playoffs so it couldn't hurt for Harden to take a night off or two.
You realize that there's a chance, a GOOD chance that the Rockets will have to go through Russell Westbrook and OKC, the Spurs, the Warriors and the defending champs if they win the title. If they are to do that, they need Harden healthy and playing at a high level every night.
Oh and newsflash: this isn't a newfangled development. Popovich in San Antonio has been doing this for years. He once sat all of his star players for a regular season game against the Heat when Lebron James was competing for and winning titles in Miami. San Antonio fans love when he does that by the way because they and Popovich couldn't give a rat's patootie about what the NBA office thinks.
Now, let's talk about March Madness. The Big Dance, college basketball's road to a national championship. I honestly can't say this past weekend was the best opening four days I've ever seen for a March Madness, but Saturday and Sunday was one of the craziest.
One of the things I noticed in the opening days of the tournament was just how terrible the refereeing is. And I'm not just talking one game, I'm talking all across the board.
On Saturday, for example, Northwestern got hosed when the referees missed a sure goaltend on Gonzaga in that Saturday matchup in Salt Lake City. The Wildcats were down by 20 or so, and should have cut Gonzaga's lead to three late with this Gonzaga missed goaltend
The Gonzaga player who should have been called puts his hand up through the basket to stop the ball from going in. The very definition of goaltend. Worse yet, they called a technical foul on Chris Collins the Northwestern coach. Gonzaga hit two technical free throws to make it a seven point game which is a four point swing.
It's sad because it ended a great year for Northwestern where they went to the Dance for the first time in school history in men's basketball.
And that was only one of the more egregious errors this past weekend. In the North Carolina/Arkansas game on Sunday, North Carolina had two key calls go in their favor when Arkansas had them on the ropes and UNC shot 17 more free throws than the Razorbacks.
Johnathan Motley of Baylor got called for a questionable fifth foul and had to leave their matchup with USC on Sunday with his team in a tight game. Baylor managed to win despite that. Still, the refereeing was atrocious in many games.
The other thing that sticks out in my mind is that Villanova and Louisville got hosed bigtime. Especially the defending champion Villanova...whose idea on the selection committee was it to make Wisconsin an eight seed and put them against the defending champs? Wisconsin was more of a five seed than an eight. The same goes for Louisville...they had to deal with the hottest team in the NCAA in Michigan who got a seven when they should have been a five.
Also, I wonder how does Michigan coach John Beilein get so underrated every year? He's as good as your Coach Ks, your Roy Williams, your Bill Self, Mark Few, Sean Miller, etc. but he's not talked about as much as them.
I keep asking myself that question every time I watch his teams play whether they were at West Virginia or now Michigan. The guy is a big-game coach and I love watching his offenses play most years. Some of his former players at Michigan are now in the NBA.
Now, let's talk about NFL free agency, starting with the local team, the Houston Texans. Brock Osweiler was such a terrible quarterback (his quarterback rating at one point late last year was even worse than David Carr when he was here) that the Texans were desperate for, and got, a trade partner to give Osweiler away two weeks ago.
That trade partner was the Cleveland Browns, who have no quarterback to speak of and haven't had a quarterback to speak of since Tim Couch. And even the Browns don't want Brock Osweiler. They were trying to trade the guy the second they got him.
Meanwhile, the Texans wait with bated breath on the fate of quarterback Tony Romo, who as of this moment is still a Dallas Cowboy. They won't trade for him, but if he is released you can bet the Texans will be one of the first teams to jump on him.
Next, let's talk about the New England Patriots. The scary thing for the rest of the league is that the Hoodie, Belichick, is now starting to throw trades for and money out to some of the best players in the league. And what's even scarier, is that these are young players just entering their prime.
Brandin Cooks, former Saints wide receiver, who the Patriots got for a first and a third round pick, is only 23 years old. Kony Ealy, who they traded a second round pick in this year's draft to Carolina for, is only 25. And Stephon Gilmore, who they signed away from Buffalo, is only 26. That Gilmore signing is big by the way, because cornerback Logan Ryan left for Tennessee.
Bottom line is, even when Brady leaves (which seems to not be happening any time soon), the Patriots are going to be in this for a long time. It's not like they're signing 35 year old over the hill retreads. They've got some young building blocks now to keep them in contention for years to come.
Another team that's having a good offseason in my view is Carolina. They signed left tackle Matt Kalil, formerly a Minnesota Viking, which should provide good blindside protection for Cam Newton. They signed Julius Peppers also, who may have a little left in his tank being back in Carolina. And they signed cornerback Captain Munnerlyn, who was a solid Minnesota Viking.
Finally, let's talk about the two New York teams. First, the Giants. This is going to be the team of huge egos, especially at wide receiver since they added Brandon Marshall. Oh, the egos at that position. We have a guy in Marshall who is a locker room cancer, and we have Odell Beckham who punched a hole in the wall after his team lost in the playoffs.
Oh and the Giants better hope Eli gets better AND doesn't get hurt. They signed Geno Smith as a backup. Good thing they have that high-priced, talented defense otherwise they'd be in a lot of trouble.
And then there's the Jets. Another year, another mediocre to bad quarterback. They signed Josh McCown for one year and six million dollars. This is not a wise move for a team that needs to rebuild, not put a band-aid over the wound like this move is. They would be smart to lose as much as possible in 2017, see what quarterback Bryce Petty's got, and if he overperforms they can hold on to him. If not, they can maybe draft Sam Darnold, the quarterback from USC in 2018 and hope they hit a home run with that pick.
But McCown? This is the same old, same old from the Jets. It's the put the bandaid on the wound, rather that treat the wound long term to make it better. But then again, what do you expect from the team that's had Mark Sanchez (who by the way, won four games in the playoffs as a Jets QB which sounds ludicrous), Geno Smith, Ryan Fitzpatrick and just terrible quarterback play pretty much ever since Vinny Testaverde in the late 1990s.
That's all she wrote for this post. Until next time....
