“If I’m lucky, I’ll be associated with The Dude for the rest of my life…” said Jeff Bridges as he thanked the Coen Brothers during his Cecil B. deMille Award acceptance speech at the Golden Globes.
Willie passed his first test this weekend as a babysitter.
As you can see, he had the situation totally under control, and even made my nephew, James, smile. Hopefully, I’ll be able to put him in charge of my own kids in the future. Would save a lot of money because all he’d require are Greenies, belly rubs, and cheese. He is obsessed with cheese.
Donny's out of his element, but these nine midweek thoughts are not. Let’s get to the writing you care about…
1) This offseason is really weird and it’s not even June…
When the Texas Baseball season ends as early as a Texas Baseball season can, a few days pass before I ask myself:
What the heck am I going to do now in June?
Around these parts, we’re used to – or at least we were – Texas Baseball helping shorten the gap between the barren offseason and football season. As much as I’d like to binge watch television, drink beer, spend hours trying to make fantasy baseball trades and work on my FIFA skills, the Orangebloods community deserves a grinder, and I’d prefer to keep @Ketchum from blowing me up on Slack like he angrily did when Tottenham didn’t beat Man City to propel his beloved Liverpool to the top of the EPL table. True me. He was hot.
Well, since the Texas Baseball season ended, I long for the days of scratching my head, drinking too much coffee, and trying to squeeze every ounce of creativity from brain as possible to come up with content. Look what we’ve covered since:
--- Why did the Texas Baseball team end up 27-27?
Heck, Texas fans were so frustrated a thread about a freshman entering the transfer portal nearly reached seven pages. Have you seen Happy Gilmore and the scene when Happy has his dream and finds his happy place? That was Texas fans after the LSU sweep. By the end of the season, they were, like Happy with visions of Shooter McGavin stealing his woman and grandma, living the alternate version – a nightmare.
--- Bru McCoy considering a transfer back to USC.
I say “considering a transfer” because there has been no official confirmation (more on that in a little) McCoy will indeed make the move. But it’s not hard to find a report saying it’s expected to happen. No big deal. It’s only the most bizarre recruiting story of my lifetime, and it, of course, involves Texas. Oh, and he’s arguably the nation’s top athlete in the 2019 class and would have, if eligible, been an immediate contributor at Texas.
Do you get extra points for using the NCAA Transfer portal for a round trip ticket? Asking for a friend.
--- Arguably the nation’s top prospect and North Shore product releases a top five… and Texas isn’t on it
There was a brief moment when the Inside the 40 Acres forum reached a meltdown level comparable to King Kong throwing a gasoline tanker into the middle of an erupting volcano. In all seriousness, the OB community handled the news better than expected. Perhaps that’s because it already had some meltdown fatigue dealing with the McCoy situation. There’s more Evans discussion coming in this column…
This bizarre offseason can’t get any weirder and worse for Texas, right? This is unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and certainly unlike any other stretch of the offseason in the 13 years I’ve been here.
Oh, and as I typed this, @Anwar Richardson reported Tom Herman, Sam Ehlinger, and more are flying to California Wednesday to meet with McCoy and his family. The strangest recruiting story of my lifetime just reached another level. So yes, this offseason just managed to get weirder.
On the bright side, Ehlinger still has two years of eligibility remaining; Shaka Smart is expected to make a really, really good hire to fill out his staff; Herman’s program, despite recent recruiting developments, is undoubtedly heading in the right direction; the Texas Baseball team can’t get any worse next season, and will likely only lose Brett Baty to next week’s MLB Draft.
But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t long for the days of staring at my notepad and trying to figure out something to write about because there was nothing to cover.
2) About Texas flying out the A-team to meet with McCoy…
Desperate? Sure. Too much? Maybe. Understandable? Definitely.
Think of Texas flying out Herman, Ehlinger, Drew Mehringer, and Kevin Washington like this: the Longhorns are pot committed.
Imagine how many hours Texas spent recruiting McCoy, getting him to campus, working with him in practice, and getting him acclimated to life on the 40 Acres. So many people have invested so much time into this very talented young man, and he’s still part of the program. At this point, what’s another few hours and a plane ride out to California? Texas would be silly to just shrug its shoulders, and watch someone else steal their massive pot without calling on the river when they knew at one point they had the winning hand.
3) Zach Evans…
Reading between the lines and using past history of following recruiting for over 10 years, the Longhorns are seemingly being hit with a barrage of negative recruiting warfare. When recruiting a truly elite talent, like Zach Evans, against the likes of Georgia and Alabama, the game isn’t always played straight up. It’s war for a player like Evans when the stakes are so high, and the programs involved make a living off of getting their hands dirty and winning these types of battles at all costs.
Whatever is being said by other programs about Texas right now has played a role – perhaps a significant one – in it slipping in position for Evans and Kelee Ringo after being at or near the top for both months ago. The truth about the Longhorns right now is while programs like Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State can point back towards very recent winning and players being selected in the first round of the NFL, the Longhorns can’t… yet. Until they can, they’re going to battle other programs using that sort of ammo to negatively recruit against them. Can you blame them? Recruiting battles for these types of prospects are wars. Make no mistake, I'm not calling foul on negative recruiting. If it works, do it.
How does Texas get back into these types of recruitments more consistently or perhaps improve its standing for Evans? Win. And Texas has no better opportunity than week two against LSU. Beat LSU, get back to the Big 12 Championship Game, and make it two years in a row on the national stage. At that point, it wouldn’t matter what anyone else is saying because the evidence would be unmistakable.
4) Why the silence?
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this wild Bru McCoy story is the silence. Keep in mind McCoy had the Longhorn Network crew tag along and cover the Maxwell Awards in New Jersey, a feature that ended up on Longhorn Network. Now, there hasn’t been a peep from McCoy and his family.
The only explanation is a simple one: he returned home during the break, was named Mater Dei’s Athlete of the Year and had his jersey retired, and he started having second thoughts about leaving home. Perhaps he is, once again, torn. That’s the only explanation for all the silence because there remains an opportunity for someone to at least say something and take control of this story.
Now, we wait, I guess, for any development after the Texas convoy lands in California and makes its pitch. Again.
5) Chris Del Conte’s conflict of interest
If you missed it, and you probably did because Texas had no shot to make it, the committee unveiled its College World Series bracket. Immediately, one at-large berth stood out from the crowd as inexplicable: TCU.
The Horned Frogs finished 11-13 in the Big 12, 32-26 overall, just lost one of their best pitchers to injury, ranked No. 59 in RPI, and didn’t have a winning record against the RPI top 25, top 50, or top 100. As longtime college baseball writer and bracketologist Mark Etheridge tweeted, “This is a historic resume for an at-large selection.”
Basically, nothing about TCU’s resume suggested it should receive an at-large bid. But, as with a lot of things in life, who you know is often more important, and TCU head coach Jim Schlossnagle had a very good friend in a high place – his former boss and now Texas Athletics Director Chris Del Conte.
Here’s what D1Baseball.com’s Aaron Fitt wrote:
Columns from Etheridge and Eric Sorenson all pointed out the same thing. Imagine being David Pierce and reading that.
The problem for Del Conte is this isn’t a good look for a Texas AD. Helping one of UT’s biggest baseball competitors - let's not, as Fitt put it, ignore the elephant in the room - get into the NCAA Tournament while Texas is at home is odd. Yes, I understand we’re discussing baseball and not football, and Texas should have been better this season. No debate there.
But TCU didn’t come close to having a legitimate case for an at-large bid, and now one of the programs Texas recruits against the most can say it made the tournament while Texas didn’t thanks mostly to... having a burnt orange friend on the committee? Strange indeed. It would be different if a strong case could be made for a deserving team, but stretching to find such a case is difficult.
And spare me the Big 12 love thing. It would be different if TCU had a winning record in the Big 12 and somewhat respectable metrics. It doesn’t. Period. As Ehteridge wrote in his column, "No one has ever received an at large bid with metrics this bad. Not in the modern era anyway with adjusted RPI and so many programs trying like hell to see their names on the screen today."
And if Texas really struggles next season in year four under Pierce, remember this: there is a long game being played here by Del Conte.
6) Texas Hoops…
As we reported last night, Texas is expected to hire Michigan assistant coach Luke Yaklich to complete its coaching staff. Yaklich, per multiple sources, has agreed to come to Texas. All that’s left, barring an unexpected change, is for the process to make it official.
I’m working on connecting with some people who can provide some good detail about why Yaklich was so successful at Michigan, and why he’s regarded as one of the rising stars in the industry. In the meantime, here are a few things about Yaklich and his style:
--- Some programs discuss contesting every shot and running players off the three-point line. Yaklich and Michigan lived it the past two seasons. Contesting every shot and first-shot rebounding are two specific areas Yaklich builds his defense around. It showed too. The last two seasons, Michigan ranked No. 3 and No. 6 in fewest three-pointers attempted per field goal attempt.
Prior to Yaklich’s arrival, Michigan never finished with a defensive rebounding percentage better than 75%, a key number to Yaklich. In fact, it had finished in the top 50 of defensive rebounding percentage just once. Under Yaklich, Michigan finished with a defensive rebounding percentage better than 75% both seasons and in the top 40 nationally.
--- At Michigan, Yaklich was basically given the freedom to be the team’s defensive coordinator. If that meant imploring John Beilein to make a defensive switch to something Michigan hadn’t used in games, he’d do it. And Beilein would agree to implement it.
He’s known as a coach constantly searching for every little detail to prepare the team defense for games and practice, and he’s unafraid to make his voice heard in practices and games.
--- Another big emphasis point for Yaklich: playing defense without fouling. He believes the two most problematic areas for fouls are dribble-drives and post entries, and to combat this, there’s a great emphasis on defending away from the basketball. Michigan was very good at playing without fouling, and pressuring other teams into two-point jumpers because of the way it defended away from the ball.
Oh, and he loves filling the gaps and causing deflections. How often have we heard Shaka Smart speak about the correlation of deflections to winning? A lot.
Some more background on Yaklich from TheWolverine.com prior to Yaklich’s first season at Michigan.
7) Scanning the rest of the sports globe
--- I’m trying to get excited about the NBA Finals, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. Hopefully, we’ll get to see a healthy Kevin Durant go at Kawhi Leonard before the season ends. That sounds fun.
What Toronto is probably going to have to do is make sure Marc Gasol isn’t on the floor against Golden State’s smaller lineups. Serge Ibaka could help make that happen. A lineup of Kyle Lowry, Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard, Pascal Siakam, Ibaka is Toronto’s best bet to give it a legitimate chance at the upset. Then, there’s the Demarcus Cousins wildcard for Golden State too. And Toronto desperately needs Green to wake up and shoot the basketball. While Fred Van Fleet is providing a huge spark from beyond the arc, he can be taken advantage of on defense.
Toronto did have success against Golden State in the regular season. Steph Curry didn’t play in one of those games, and the playoff version of the Warriors is a more motivated, dangerous version. However, Toronto does have a path to extending this series to seven games – force Golden State into a slower, more half-court style of game, which is certainly possible. This is easier with Durant active because Golden State is fine with running offense through him and working clock.
My pick is Warriors in six, but Toronto does have a navigable path to make this an interesting series.
--- Saturday, it’s Me vs. @Ketchum in the Champions League Final as Tottenham battles Liverpool. Am I confident? Not particularly. While I’m doing my best to adopt the “anything can happen in one game” ideology, I don’t think it’s a good matchup for Tottenham, who likes to play out of the back and will be facing a menacing press.
But Tottenham has defied the odds the entire Champions League, even more so than Liverpool. Tottenham came back from the dead in group stage to get a result against Barcelona, stunned Man City in the quarterfinals, and then came through with maybe the biggest goal in club history in the final seconds at Ajax to make the final.
--- Prospects. Everywhere you look across Major League Baseball, chances are you’ll find a new prospect with the big league club. There are the obvious ones like Eloy Jimenez and Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. But the number of prospects recently called up is staggering: Nick Senzel, Cavan Biggio, Cole Tucker, Willie Calhoun, Austin Riley, Brendan Rodgers, Corbin Martin, Mitch Keller (sent back down after one start, but could be back very soon), Oscar Mercado, Michael Chavis, Keston Hiura, Griffin Canning, and more will surely join them. And many of these players immediately showed, at least in flashes, they can handle the jump.
It’s possible we’re seeing a noticeable shift in two things: the aggressiveness teams use to promote top prospects, and younger player arriving more ready than ever. The days of needing a year in AAA to prove your merit are becoming a thing of the past.
--- The Astros are being hammered by injuries lately. Normally, this type of injury luck would be enough to decimate a team for a month or so, but that’s why organizational depth and versatility on the big league club is so important during a 162-game grind. Houston has both.
8) Anything and everything
--- An exciting thing about buying a house is an excuse to buy a new television. It was time, and since it was time, my wife and I made sure we reached out to @HLawson and stopped at A&B TV, which is a part of our new neighborhood. Unsurprisingly, Harlan took care of us and made the process extremely easy. Can’t recommend him enough, and am looking forward to watching sports on an OLED television.
--- In another example of how awesome the Orangebloods community is, @joeywa was kind enough to deliver a nice bottle of whiskey from back home when we caught up during the Texas and Oklahoma baseball series. For a bourbon that packs some real punch in the strength department, I was surprised to find Bull Run was very smooth, light on the nose, and a great sipper.
---
I mean this as sincerely as possible: If that happened to me, I don’t know if I’d recover. I’d need therapy for years.
--- Until my wife purchased Abba’s Greatest Hits Vol. 2, I don’t think I accurately comprehended the group’s musical reach. So much of Abba’s sound, through movies, television, and other musicians using it for their own tracks, is everywhere. Make no mistake, I was an Abba fan prior to listening to the record, but I was surprised at how many sounds and songs I knew already.
9) This week’s read… is from GQ: The Curious Cons of the Man Who Wouldn’t Die
