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Devil of a Time Ryan Kelly is back. His 36-point explosion against the Miami Hurricanes certainly made a statement not only in the ACC, but around the country. With a healthy Kelly back in the line-up for Coach K, the Blue Devils are making some noise at the right time. Before his injury against Clemson in early January, you could make the case that Duke was the best team in the country. There would be some naysayers from the Big 10, but there's no doubt that Duke was on the short list of the nation's best basketball teams. Duke will be a tough out in the Big Dance, with Kelly now back and full throttle. What was lost in Duke's win was Miami. I thought the Canes held up much better than I anticipated going into the game. When you consider that Reggie Johnson was basically a no-show, the Canes really had nothing to feel sorry about. Selection Sunday is less than two weeks away and the tourney is shaping up to be a classic....not because the teams are so good....but from the fact that that there are so many decent teams that can compete. While we wait for all of this to unfold, Gonzaga is the new flavor of the week at the #1 spot. It's the first time a current member of the West Coast Conference has been #1 since the 70's. The Zags are really good, but they really haven't faced a brutal schedule...but if they remain at the top, they will capture one of the #1 seeds in the Big Dance. The SEC might be the one league to watch as we head into the final week of the regular season. Florida and Mizzou are looking secure, but the conference has a handful of teams that can still make it....but all of them rolled over and played dead on the weekend. Kentucky, Ole Miss, Bama and Tennessee lost over the weekend. None of them could afford to lose, but they all managed to find the loss department. Kentucky is the big name....the defending champ....and the one that has a road trip to Athens and a home game against the first place Gators this week. All eyes will be on Big Blue Nation to see how they cope with the pressure. There is always pressure when you play for Kentucky, but this week it gets taken up a notch. There was a lot of chatter last week about teams in the NFL asking questions to potential players about things that might not be directly related to football. Given the bizarre story involving Manti Te'o in the off season, there were flags everywhere you turned in the NFL. Is a player gay? Does he like girls? Would these shoes match your purse? Give me a break. I'll cut right to the chase....if I owned a business (and I do) and there is a chance that I am going to hire some person or people, then I want to know everything I can about them. Before making any hire, you want to make sure it is in the best interest of both parties if you joined forces. In this case, the company/team is going to pay upwards to 8-figures for the services of an individual....they should have the right to ask anything they want. If the individual is not comfortable with the question(s), they should have the right to refuse to answer, but also understand it might not be looked upon unfavorably. "Political Correctness" has reached the point of absurdity. After all the hype and nonsense surrounding Manti Te'o in the off-season, I don't think it is out of line for a team to question any player if they have doubts or suspect something is out of sorts that could pose a potential problem to their organization. Who could argue against that position? I'll be glad when the NFL gets back to playing on the field.....between the Combine and non-ending Draft rhetoric, it gets to be redundant. I saw a great line in the Atlanta Journal Constitution this past week. It was from the always quotable Steve Spurrier. He was asked about recruiting kids from the state of Georgia, and he alluded to the fact that the Dawgs get a bunch of players but the state produces all kinds of talent. I hope every recruiting nut that follows this stuff saw Spurrier's quote.....
I wished every recruiting geek could get that thought through their thick skull. When a Hall of Fame coach tells it like it is....Why do people get so bent out of shape with the recruiting rankings and whether or not a kid is a 3, 4 or 5-star recruit? You never know until they get on the field and compete. Thank goodness Steve Spurrier can lay it out there for all to see, hear and read. There was a bunch of chatter this past week about storming the court in college hoops. Of course, it was all due to Mike Krzyzewski's comments following Duke's loss at Virginia last Thursday night. People ripped Coach K on my Sirius XM show the following day, but I think K was right. He never stated that rushing the court should be outlawed nor did he want to stop any celebrations by teams/fans that wanted to celebrate a big win. All he stated was that there has to be some sort of gameplan to guarantee the safety of the players, coaches and managers of the club that was "being rushed". What's wrong with that thought or statement? Mike Krzyzewski was right. I'm not going to agree that you should take your team off the court like UNC's Roy Williams did last year at FSU, but there is a way to make this an easy solution. Added security...delay the rush...eliminate the rush...there are a bunch of scenarios to address the problem. Personally, I think the whole storming the court escapade is lame. Eventually, somebody is going to be seriously hurt in this stupid exercise and it will happen in either football or basketball in the near future. I did stupid stuff in college, too....but most of these kids and dumb adults are just looking for the TV camera....there has to be a better way. I thought Coach K got slammed for all the wrong reasons, last week. It was good to see Carl Edwards snap his 70 race winless streak in Phoenix. Edwards drives the Subway Ford and the win at the Subway 500 seems almost too good to be true. It kind of reminded me of Danica Patrick being the fastest qualifier at a restrictor plate race at Daytona....seems to me that would be a great way to increase sagging ratings. I'm not into conspiracy theories, but I'm just saying..... NASCAR heads into Las Vegas this week, and the suits should be happy with the first two races. I know the teams are still trying to find out about the new cars this year and it will take a few races to find out what makes it tick. I just hope the they can figure out a way to pass each other....it has been slim pickings the first two races of the season. As for Danica, she cut a tire and crashed into the wall.....she finished 39th. She's back. |
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