As a college player, Caitlin Clark could get under an opponent’s skin.

Now, she seems able to do that with almost everybody, unintentionally, thanks in large part to a “media”/media increasingly inhabited by folks no smarter than many of the constituents, and severely lacking the cognitive anti-clickbait mentality of predecessors in the business.

By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com

From the almost fraudulent ass-kissing coverage of Colorado football to the decision of formerly-known-as-mainstream-media outlets to write about spats between teevee yell-show clowns to double standards on a few of those clowns to the stalking of teenagers (also known as “recruiting coverage”) to being severely memory- and context-challenged to all sorts of things, it’s devastating for some of us.

The media’s decreasing maturity, professionalism, consistency, and objectivity, as well as its increasing focus on clickbaitability – written and spoken – lead so many people to be dumber than they actually are – challenge met, challenge accepted, challenge vanquished – and proudly so.

One can be great, and be overrated, not because of anything one did. The media overdoes things, so a player/team becomes disliked because of hype and agendas.

Like Clark.

There were enough debates during her junior and senior years at Iowa – folks can’t just sit back and enjoy and respect, thanks to media/”media” who can’t just sit back and enjoy and respect a little bit – with her run to college basketball’s scoring title.

People couldn’t just move on.

There has been the bellyaching about her not being a dominant WNBA rookie and turning a weak franchise into a contender immediately, that she was overrated and all that.

Yeah, because we all lit it up in the first two months at our first job out of college. Riiiight.

Now, from somebody who has been a female sports booster for decades, interviewed Pat Summit when she was still just Pat Summit, can put one Eun Jung Lee of old Northeast Louisiana on the All-Time Underrated Team list, saw Teresa Weatherspoon dazzle at Louisiana Tech, and on an on, who wears no colors or logs and has only an agenda of logic, reality, context, fairness, and, yeah, reality:

The job of the Olympic team-pickers is to pick the players who are going to win gold, and eliminate as much suspense as possible.

And there’s not a WNBA rookie who would help with that. None. Not at this point in the season, not more than who’s on the team. Angel Reese is getting there.

For one, the rookies have played barely a third of the season on this level. In the “media”/media clickbait obsession, there are weekly rankings of the rookies, and who’s No. 1 will change constantly because they’re pretty much all having the same struggles and inconsistencies.

They’re rookies, and nobody is lighting things up, making any team wonder about their choice or pine for somebody else.

The only four WNBA rookies to make an Olympic team: Stewart, Taurasi, Candace Parker, and Sylvia Fowles.

It’s also not the job of the Olymmpic team to market, per se. The job is to talk about their team and winning, and then go out and dominate. That’s kind of supposed to be the branding. Not those bonehead promos on networks marketing on their network the game/sport you’re watching on that blessed network with goofy slogans and clips of more bad screaming announcers.

The results are the best branding, and that Olympic team has some pretty sporty salespeople.

For another, Clark isn’t among the top 25 or 30 women’s basketball players in America right now, nor among the top 25 or 30 eligible for Team USA. Nope. Period. So, let’s move on.

OK, we can’t. The pathetic collection of ESPN TV daytime hosts and nighttime radio hosts and panelists won’t let us. Some USA Today and national columnists – helloooo, agendas – won’t let us.

She’s not in the top 30. Let’s stick with that number.

First, subtract from 30 the 12 who were chosen, eight of whom were on the last Olympic team.

The group picked has 18 WNBA titles and four MVP trophies, plus 55 All-Star selections. Unfortunately, 50 percent of the equation for the All-Star team comes from fans - *sigh* - and the top 10 most popular players make it no matter what.

That leaves 18 players who were better choices.

Four (Ariel Atkins, Shakira Austin, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, Brionna Jones) played on an Olympic or World Cup teams. Two more participated in nearly every training came.

That’s 18 minus six, equals 12.

Skylar Diggins-Smith is having an all-star season. Aliyah Boston was last year’s rookie of the year and made the all-star team.

Atlanta’s a .500 team, but the Dream have two players more qualified for the Olympic team in 2024, and one is Washington County’s Allisha Gray.

That leaves eight, to equal 30. And there are probably a dozen candidates for that final eight, including the recently retired Candace Parker.

Qualifications are more relevant than what’s on thuh teevee or radidio, and what some blithering blatherer bellowed. Another reason why reading is better. No volume needed, and more accountability.

More misguidedness: Put her on the Olympic team as the No. 12 player, and alllllll we’d hear is how she should be playing more, and of her impact, and all that. A player on the bench would garner more hyperventilating hyperbole from the broadcast bozos, telling us what they say in every game Clark is a part of, like they’re paid to pucker. The pressure and second-guessing to play her would be huge, and that’s not fair to the staff or players, or better players sitting home, or her.

It would be an annoying distraction, overshadowing the accomplishments of the team itself. But, well, folks want their way more than what’s right and just, so … .

Clearly, barring injury, Clark will make three or four Olympic teams. Ditto Angel Reese and Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson and others. And they’ll win gold, too.

People would rather be early and wrong – like putting any of these rookies on The Team - than late and right – put them on when they’re ready. Give them time.

I visualize Clark driving into the country and walking into the woods a couple times a week, taking a deep breath, and screaming into the wilderness for simpletons to shut the bleep up and just let her play.

I’m with ya, CC, I am with ya.

Loughdmouthings (Current and catching up)

You have to turn the volume down while watching any golf tournament as the club hits the ball because golf fans at a tournament tend to be kinda imbecilic.

My dream is for a golfer to turn to the gallery after every “get in the hole” and scream profanities at the idiots in the gallery.

Lottery win will lead to that as a bonus. A hundred grand every time a player does that, and I’ll pay any fines. …

Catching up: Big thumbs up to Mercer’s football hire of Mike Jacobs.

Offensive lineman. In the Big Ten. Broad experience in Division II, Big Ten, Pac-12. Worst season as a head coach – excluding 2020 – is 8-3. Five postseasons in eight seasons as a head coach.

And having followed Drew Cronic at Lenoir-Rhyne, is likely to have a lot of similarities on offense, cutting down on transition issues with personnel.

It appears Mercer may have gotten it right with basketball as well.

One issue with the last men’s administration was engagement, in all phases, which was subpar.

So far, though, there hasn’t been a huge change in that area.

Keeping a roster intact takes time, no doubt, what with re-recruiting those already on the roster (*sigh*). And, of course, winning is engaging, though games are months away.

So folks need to get a little inspired, and current/future players need to be alerted/acknowledged. Unfortunately, players like social media, no matter how irrelevant. They like attention.

There is engagement galore on the women’s side, albeit some a little silly. But again, players like silly. …

Lottery winning task No. 8: Inquire with Atlanta Falcons management about absolutely banishing “brotherhood” and “rise up” from all marketing, advertising, and the absurdity that is “social media presence.”

And the FCC should fine any TVcomtwit who uses “Dirty Birds” in describing anything Falconsy. …

(A little dated but relevant forever): From Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: “Tennessee gets nabbed for allegedly committing NIL violations … and the state’s grandstanding attorney general immediately files a lawsuit against the NCAA. Is there anything more pathetic than pandering, jock-sniffing politicians? I think not.”