If I was Texas head coach for a day ...
I would hire someone on my staff to begin a non-football-playing talent search all over the country.
This new staff member would be allocated a minimum of two scholarships each recruiting class to find the best talent possible from outside of the high school football systems in this country.
Somewhere out there is a P.J. Tucker type athlete/tweener playing basketball that isn't going to receive a high-level basketball scholarship and the purpose of this newly created program would be to eliminate a potential special athlete falling into the cracks because he wasn't playing the sport best-suited for his skill-set/ceiling as an athlete.
I would heavily promote it on social media, have satellite camps created specifically to these types of athletes and within months, I want my new hire's door breaking down because so many non-football athletes are trying to get themselves into a position to nab these life-changing scholarships.
You want kids with 40-inch verticals, 6-5 frames and 4.3 speed and I'm not sure it should matter if they've played a ton of football. You just want the best raw talent possible. You'd have the best coaching staff at the college football level that money can buy. You can teach kids how to play. You can't teach elite-level athleticism.
It's not like Texas high schools are turning out a bunch of tight ends, linebackers or pass rushing monsters at every turn. Sometimes you have to create the turn.
That's just one thing I'd do if I was coach for the day.
Number Two
I think the next hire Tom Herman makes probably needs to address the recruiting concerns that exist in the Metroplex. He needs a hired gun to go into that area and change some momentum.
Number Three
I'm going to try and get the updated 2019 Lone Star Top 100 done by the weekend. Bear with me.
Number Four
This is kind of big.
I'm still a little shy about discussing Shaka Smart's program after being flogged for suggesting he was a "damn good coach" (despite being a failure in his first three seasons), so you'll forgive me if it appears I'm walking around on eggshells as it relates to this topic, buuuutttt ...
I kind of like this Texas team on paper next year. The backcourt will be one of the best in the Big 12 and has some real experience on which to lean. A lot will hinge on the development of second-year big Jericho Sims, but I was a charter member of his fan club when he committed, so I tend to fall into the category of people that believe he's going to be a beast at some point. It's just a matter of how long it takes to beast.
Prediction: Barring injuries, this team is going to be good enough for Shaka to do what he needs to do in year four to make his boss happy.
No crazy projections, just belief that Shaka's team will do enough.
Number Five
One of the things I'm reminded of while watching Texas play in the Big 12 Tournament is that it's been so long since Texas has won that it has to re-learn how to handle achieving success. That used to be taken for granted around here, but I'm not sure it can be anymore. Just something to keep in mind once the football team gets really good ...
Ah, successful program's problems ... won't it be nice to have those again?
Number Six
Want a hot-take on the Western Conference finals?
I'm wondering if the Warriors are a dead team walking. Klay Thompson is hurt. Andre Iguodala is hurt. The rest of the team looks absolutely drained, both physically and mentally.
As they blew a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter on Tuesday night, it was impossible to miss just how un-Warriors like the Warriors looked like. Terrible offensive possessions. Bone-headed turnovers. Zero ability to find an extra-gear.
Is this team out of gas?
After looking forward to this series all year, I kind of feel like we're being cheated as fans. The first four games of this series have hardly resembled elite-level basketball. Consider the first four games:
Game 1: Warriors were very good and Rockets were terrible.
Game 2: Rockets were awesome and the Warriors were terrible.
Game 3: Warriors were pretty good and the Rockets were the most terrible we've seen. (Note: Even though Golden State won this game by 41, I thought it was infinitely more about the Rockets than the Warriors, who were up double-digits when Steph Curry went bonkers, but were not totally deserving of that kind of lead.)
Finally, we had a game on Tuesday when both teams showed up and traded haymakers, but Golden State didn't have 48 minutes of throwing haymakers in it.
With home-court advantage back on their side and a wounded Golden State team hobbling to the finish line, this thing is no longer there for the taking for the Rockects ... I think they have to be favored.
Number Seven
And finally...
Liverpool plays Real Madrid in the Champions League Final on Saturday and I'm struggling to determine how to watch the game.
On one hand, my method for watching games that really matter, whether its work or pleasure, is to watch them alone.
When the Orangebloods staff covered practices each day as a staff more than a decade ago, I learned about the dangers of watching the game with others when I would see conversation between members of the staff turn into creative thought in reporting and it bothered me to no end. Basically, someone would have an opinion about something and that opinion would later emerge as a thought in someone else's report. I never believed it was intentional, rather it showcased how the way we view things in front of us can be impacted by the narrations taking place in real time, intended or not.
Therefore, I started making rules for myself that I try to enforce to this day about viewing practices or games around anyone that could impact my specific view of what was happening. As best as possible, I prefer to eliminate as much noise as possible in an effort to preserve my thoughts.
That's work, though. As it relates to watching teams that I root for as a fan, I just don't like to hear non-game chatter or what I might view to be uninformed-game chatter around me. I just want to watch my teams on my terms. Yes, I suppose I am a bit of a sport-viewing snob.
Therefore, solitary confinement works well for me.
That being said, Saturday might be a once in a lifetime experience. It's going on 23 years since the Cowboys played in a Super Bowl, the Phillies have won one title in my 35 years as a fan and the Sixers haven't won a title since I was seven.
I firmly believe that Liverpool is going to win on Saturday, all the way down to the bottom of my soul, and do I really want to be alone? Wouldn't being around madness be more memorable and a better story? What if I jinx the team by changing my methods? What if I jinx the team and am annoyed to no end in the midst of changing my methods?
What the hell do I do?
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