April 20, 2018
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As I write, there are rumors the Saints are to be in the mix to trade for Gronk. The way the Rams are going, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are the team to pull of the trade. Of course, sometimes I have the great skill of writing something on Tuesday and the opposite happening by the time these words are read on Thursday.
As for LSU baseball, it really is interesting to compare the 2017 and 2018 teams. It wasn’t until this point in the year that Eric Walker started to establish himself as the third starter. Ma’Khail Hilliard has progressed quicker in his freshman campaign.
Zack Hess was trying to establish himself as the mid week starter last year, a role that AJ Labas has solidified.
Of course, the big difference in the pitching staff is Hess and Gilbert compared to Lange and Poche. Hess has had his rough starts, but so did Lange last year. Neither Poche or Gilbert typically dominate, but Poche had a knack for getting out of jams. Still, Gilbert pitches well enough to have LSU in a position to win each week.
THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
I don’t want to get ahead of myself this week.
The Pelicans won game have won two games in Portland. Rondo and Holiday are two excellent defenders that match up well with Portland’s best two offensive players. Nobody for Portland matches up with Anthony Davis.
That doesn’t mean the series is over, though. New Orleans is going to need someone off the bench to play a big role at some point in the series. It may be Okafor because Mirotic and Davis are playing a lot of minutes, and game three is coming up with just one days rest after a long road trip.
Therefore, while I am excited about the Pels chances of actually winning a playoff series, but I am not going to get ahead of myself.
Under Mainieri, this is the time of year where LSU baseball steps on the gas and strings wins together. Usually it starts with a great comeback win, as the rally bees showed on Sunday.
Brandt Broussard is back and not too soon. I am glad the the offense showed life against Tennessee, but the Volunteers contributed greatly with awful defense and lack of bullpen.
Hess and Hilliard look like the 1-2 combination, but the third and fourth pitchers I have been touting for a month have completely disappeared. Gilbert went to the bullpen and then the injury list. Labas has yet to regain his velocity and as a result looks like a midweek starter instead of a Sunday starter. Storz is still injured.
Speaking of injuries, Smith and Jordan are still out, while Feduccia is banged up. For the sweep over Tennessee to turn into a hot streak, Cabrera and Slaughter will need to continue to hit.
LSU is not over the hump. We had hoped the gang would be back together by now, but the team is still not healthy. Furthermore, LSU has not been good on the road this year, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
On National Signing Day, the sky had fallen. LSU didn’t sign a quarterback, a five star running back, or the top cornerback in the nation (he went to Bama). As a matter of fact, LSU only signed 23 players. The Tigers roster has a lack of depth at corner and running back. The running back position especially has no experience.
For those who missed the news, LSU has signed a graduate transfer from Stanford to play corner. Terrence Alexander went to high school John Curtis, and saw significant playing time at Stanford.
As for running back, LSU is in the running for another graduate transfer, Tre Watson from Cal. Watson was injured last year, but had a very productive 2016 season.
I know it is more exciting to sign the top corner or someone with the reputation of Fournette at running back. But Kevin Toliver and Savion Smith were the top corners in the country and neither turned into Greedy Williams, Patrick Peterson, Matthieu or Morris Claiborne. Actually, Claiborne, Matthieu, and Williams were not very highly touted coming out of high school.
It is strange. LSU fans can get very jealous when Auburn or Alabama sign transfer quarterbacks or if a player on the current roster transfers away from LSU. But, when LSU signs transfers, Tiger fans are very reserved and doubtful of their impact.
We don’t know if LSU will be able to get a commitment from Watson, but it is conceivable that both Watson and Alexander will make a major impact on next year’s team.
But, like I said in the beginning. I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
HEY REF
As I once again searched my library of awesome “Hey Ref” columns this one just stood out and I’m going to publish it once again this week. This week finds me trying to get used to hospice coming to our house and helping me with taking care of my mom. I do have a new column waiting “in the wings” to be published and hope if things settle down a little I can put the finishing touches on it before next week’s deadline. So please enjoy these WORDS OF WISDOM… … … … … …
First things first; that’s something I’ve always heard whenever there’s a heated issue so this week’s opening subject has to be the “attempt” by some unhappy principals to form a new association for athletics and leave the LHSAA. There have been grumblings; we all know that, ever since the LHSAA went to a split format in football. The powers that be within the LHSAA and with the blessing of a majority of principals were successful recentlyto expand the baseball and basketball playoffs. This riff has seemed to upset many schools and has in fact widened the gap within the ranks of principals and some coaches as well.
So those principals that feel they’re getting “shafted” have started a movement to look into the feasibility of starting over with a whole new association. Some of these principals are saying the main reason for this action is to heal the bad feelings between the “select” (Mostly private and/or religious schools) and the “non-select” (Usually public schools). I’ve written on several occasions that I support the split 100% simply because there was a need to somehow “level the playing field”.
The reality of the wide split among the schools before the principals voted to expand the number of championships was becoming very evident when just a few Decembers ago four of the five state football titles went to the private/Catholic schools. We continue to see the disparity in talent between the select/non-select schools and the number one reason for that has to be there are two separate and vastly different ways in which schools get their respective athletes.
Private schools are allowed to recruit players while public/non-select schools can’t and are bound by certain attendance zones. For the most part the talent in these attendance zones change dramatically from year to year. And with the problems that Baton Rouge schools have had to deal with mostly desegregation don’t affect private schools. The principals felt they had to do something different to field wining programs and out of their despair came the split championships.
So now we must consider the reality that a new athletic association to govern the select schools may be in our future. As I tried to get some answers from a few coaches I found this action by their principals has indeed surprised many of them and they either don’t or won’t comment so I’ll have to do like everybody else and do the ‘ole “wait ‘n see” what happens.
One thing I feel that needs a look at is what’s going on at the University of Georgia by its football coach Kirby Smart. He’s refusing to release those athletes from their scholarships that want to transfer to a school that will give them a better chance to get on the field. His reasoning is he doesn’t want them to go to another SEC school simply because he’ll have to play against former players. You read that right, he wants to keep all his scholarship players no matter if they get on the field at all.
There is another reason he wants to keep them; he doesn’t want them to go to Miami where former Georgia head coach Mark Richt now coaches. ESPN’s Mike Greenberg half of the radio show “Mike & Mike” is sounding off and he’s not trying to be quiet about his feelings. And I have to agree with him that this situation even exists in today’s slave market we call NCAA sports.
These coaches are making millions of dollars in salaries and bonuses and the only thing that matters is fielding a winning team that’ll challenge for a National Title. Here’s a prime example of the circus that goes by the name of Coach Kirby Smart; a reserve running back, A. J. Turman told the newly incoming coach that he intended to transfer. But on Monday Smart told him he would only get out of his scholarship if he agreed NOT to transfer to Miami, Georgia Tech and every other SEC school.
Now this is the very same coach that just left Alabama (YES the very one that plays in the SEC) to go to another SEC school yet refuses a player to do the same thing he’s doing. More of the hypocrite “Don’t do as I do, do as I say”. Here are stats from Turman’s 2014 season; ZERO carries for ZERO yards. In 2015 he didn’t do any better as again he rushed ZERO times for ZERO yards.
Why should we allow coaches to drop athletes from their scholarships when a new coach comes to town but we refuse to allow an athlete to do what a coach does? I’ll give you an example; when John Calipari was hired to coach Kentucky’s basketball team the first thing he did was cut three players from the team and I believe two were starters. Not only were they cut from the team but the school yanked their scholarships and the players never graduated. These were kids from low income to poor families and their only hope of an education was the athletic scholarship they received from Kentucky.
The SEC and the NCAA allowed this most dishonorable thing to happen as it happens all the time. As I wrote then and I’ll write it again; if a player is not wanted at the school by the new coach then cut him from the team BUT allow him to get an education. It’s the least and I mean the very least a school can do because of no fault of the player he’s not wanted anymore.
The NCAA earns BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars on the back of these so called student-athletes and I find it to be an extreme wrong to just cut a poor kid loose just because the school has fired then hired another coach for that particular sport. And of course we then get into the situation as the why players should be paid because they are in all actuality EMPLOYEES of their said university. And it’s a situation again where I believe these kids should get a salary because without them no one would sit in a stadium and watch a coach coach?
End of story, it’s time we do right by the players and not the millionaire coaches who find former players as a threat against his new school!!!
Till next week…
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