March 16, 2017
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
I don’t even know where to start after this past week.
The Saints made several early splashes in free agency. Following their pattern from years past, they have addressed almost all of their most pressing needs. Loomis and Payton feel veterans signed in free agency have the best chance to quickly improve positions of severe weakness. Then the draft is an opportunity to make strengths at other positions.
For example, the Saints signed a number of linebackers last spring. As a result, Loomis and Payton felt comfortable drafting Rankins, Thomas, and Bell early in the draft.
This year, the Saints have already addressed linebacker, pass rusher, kick returner, and offensive line. Currently, they are working on cornerback as well. I like the approach so far.
As for the Brandin Cooks trade, I don’t understand how some people can definitively say the Saints got the short end of the deal. I have read those who say that the Patriots always win in trades and therefore the Pats must have won this time as well.
The Saints sent the Patriots Akiem Hicks a couple of years ago for Hoomanawanui. I remember the conventional wisdom was the Patriots would find a way to turn Hicks into an pro bowler. Hicks isn’t even on their team anymore. Granted, Hooman has been hurt for the Saints, but that simply means neither team gained anything.
Others have said the Saints were swindled because the 32nd pick is basically a second round pick, and Brandin Cooks was the 20th pick. That is just not how trades work. Aaron Rodgers was drafted late in the first round. You think the Packers would trade him if they could get a top 5 pick? Of course not.
The fact is that everyone has screamed and yelled for years that the Saints have to get better on defense, and those people are correct. Many fans and writers have also acted as thought the Saints don’t get it and only want to score points on offense. The Saints have an abundance of wide receivers and decide to parlay that strength to improve the team, most likely on defense, and the same people “poo poo” the trade.
Brandin Cooks is a top flight #2 receiver that does not make people miss after the catch, is not a great threat in the red zone, but is very good and will get paid like a #1 receiver next spring. Willie Snead is a solid #2 receiver. Michael Thomas is an emerging #1 receiver. Ginn will return kicks and make plays downfield, while Coleman is a good #4 receiver. Forget all the talk about Cooks being unhappy. This trade just makes sense.
The Saints now have 5 picks in the first 3 rounds. If they can just avoid the temptation to waste a pick on a quarterback, I’ll be pretty happy.
I should move on to LSU basketball, but I am not. We all knew in January LSU was going to be looking for a new coach about now, so I will pass on the topic this week.
The Big Dance is here, and I have to admit that I don’t feel great about my bracket. There are so many really good traditional basketball teams (I am tired of hearing “blue bloods”). Villanova, Duke, North Carolina, Arizona, Kansas, Louisville, Oregon, UCLA, and Kentucky are just some of the teams I could easily see winning it all. I left out Gonzaga, but of course, they are really good too.
Naturally, nobody ever expects a team like George Mason to make the Final Four, but I really would be surprised if a low seed makes the Final Four this year. Like I said, I don’t have a strong feel for the bracket this year, but here are my Final Four teams.
I have Villanova beating Duke. I went back and forth on this one for a while. I think Duke is better, but there have been so many obstacles delaying their progress this year that I think Villanova executes better late in the game.
I believe Arizona is vulnerable, but they are also in the weakest region, and the Zags have to prove themselves before I pick them. Look out for Notre Dame.
Louisville is not as good as in year’s past in my mind. Instead, I would have gone with Oregon in this region because I think Dillon Brooks is the type of player that can carry a team. But, I can’t see them overcoming the injury to Chris Boucher. Kansas is rock solid at guard and should advance to the Final Four.
North Carolina, UCLA, and Kentucky in the same bracket is amazing. The Tar Heels are another team that I can’t identify the reason, but I see them falling short. Kentucky is the team I was going to pick to win the region, but their game against Wichita State is super scary. As a result, I thought it was safer to go with UCLA.
Villanova needed too much good fortune to win it all last year, so I cannot pick them to repeat. UCLA is not good enough defensively in my mind. That leaves Arizona and Kansas in the final. I really want to pick Arizona, but Kansas’ guards are a little too good in my mind.
Since I don’t like my bracket, I will end with a statement I do feel strongly about. I fully expect this tournament to have a ton of close, and very entertaining games this year. Enjoy the madness!
HEY REF
If you are wondering why this week’s column is being labelled as a “Best Of” there is but one true answer and that is for once or maybe the second time in its history the writer of this space is tooting his own horn. Last week I wrote of how for the fourth consecutive year the NFL’s salary cap was being raised. So to those that aren’t living under a rock the rising cap translates to the league making more money than it knows what to do with. And who among us remember that just a short few years ago, 2012 to be exact, the owners were painting a very bleak outlook for the league and demanded players take a steep cut in pay or the NFL’s 32 franchises would go bankrupt and the NFL would cease to exist?
I don’t want to spoil any anticipation you may have. I know you’ll agree “Hey Ref” was dead-on when he penned these few words of wisdom. I won’t edit a word so that you can enjoy once again every word I put on paper. I really do make a lot of mistakes and I don’t hesitate in admitting my faults but this week I’d just like for all of us to reminisce what was written way back when and the bullseye I nailed, so without further ado… …
Before I get to what I need to get off my chest this week I’d like to ask “why are NFL owners being crybabies when we talk money for players”? The answer of course is so they can keep more for themselves. Something I’d like each person reading this short column to know and understand is that millionaires didn’t get that way (a millionaire) and staying that way (a millionaire) by giving away their money. So when one comes to you and says “they feel our pain” please show them that you actually do know that two and two equals four!
Case in point; this past spring owners claimed they weren’t making money and players have to take a huge pay cut in order for the league to remain profitable. Our lovely New Orleans Saint’s owner Tom-Boy spent in excess of $325million dollars for a professional basketball team that can’t win its way out of an elementary school gym! We’ll NEVER know the true cost he paid or for that matter the true cost to the taxpayers of this state.
Very common sense tells me the owners in the big leagues love New Orleans simply as a huge playground for the rich and famous. What are the benefits going to be for the working men and women in the “Big Easy”? Plenty of low paying service jobs. As the board of directors will say, behind tightly closed doors, “somebody’s got to make my bed and clean up after me”!
We’re selling our souls for jobs as maids, cooks, ushers, parking lot attendants, ticket takers, concession stand hot dog vendors, part time bar tenders, janitors and on and on. The list is seemingly endless to low paying service jobs. I know I can hear it now “at least we’ll have a job”. Don’t get me wrong there’s not a damn thing wrong with an honest day’s work but I’m sick and damn tired of my fellow Louisianans scraping the bottom of the bucket.
We’ve got the biggest oil, chemical and natural gas industries on this planet! Why do we continue to come in 49th place out of 50? Why is our standard of living always near the bottom of every list? Why is our educational system second to all never first not even if compared to Mississippi? The answers aren’t simple, no, I can agree but I get so pissed when I see the money being paid out to PRIVATE BUSINESSES AND THEIR OWNERS and the players and coaches at every level!
This year alone Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson who was the sixth player in NFL history to run for more than 2,000 yards was rewarded with a pay raise reported to go from $1.06 million earned in ’09 to a paltry $53.5 ($30 million guaranteed) till 2016. Do the math and he’ll be paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $10.2 million a year with incentives!! WHAT, INCENTIVES? More than $10 million and you need incentives?
Now, closer to home, LSU ASSISTANT Coach John Chavis will be getting a small raise to just a mere $900,000.00 this year with increases to $1.1 mil for ’13 and $1.3 mil for ’14! Before you claim it’s needed to KEEP the best available coaches in Baton Rouge let me ask why don’t we use that same reasoning when we talk teachers, policemen, EMS and fire fighters? They just keep our lives safe and every once in a while save some of our loved ones and a lot of them try to educate our young.
No wonder the rest of the world can’t understand the way Americans think and put what’s important first in their life. So, just remember when someone asks for your vote or promises they’ve got the answer to creating good paying jobs. If you believe them then you’ll bet your last dollar we’ve got honest politicians in our legislature.
Now, to what I want to get off my chest. Two weeks ago I wrote how sad it was to learn that Miami had suspended its baseball manager, Ozzie Guillen for speaking honestly and publicly praising Cuba’s Fidel Castro. It wasn’t what he said that upset me but the fact he was punished for speaking freely! These were his comments not the Major Leagues or his employer the Florida Marlins but rather his own personal thoughts. If he upset people so be it, in America people are upset every day of the week by what people say.
It just so happened that the Friday after my column came out I was having lunch with my parents at a Central restaurant, which is a weekly custom in my family. Behind my father sat a Navy Special Forces Veteran serving for nearly 20 years with tours in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iraq. He heard our discussion on what I’d written and just listened for about ten minutes. He interrupted not to disagree with me but to actually say he was glad somebody wrote exactly what I had.
His opening remark to me I’ll never forget “I’m getting out next year, I’ve had it, and I’ve put my life on the line so people back home in this country can have freedom. Free to speak your mind yet when somebody says what’s on their mind and the press wants to make an issue out of it they get crucified”! For the record neither of us are fans of Castro, we both are disgusted by him but every day more of our freedoms are being slowly eroded away.
I’ll end this week on that note so that everyone can stop and think about what’s really going on not only in the sporting world but also in day to day living.
Till next week… …
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