Column, Michael A. Lough: From the NCAA Tournament to some catching up and Loughdmouthings, your written podcast awaits
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Spring cleaning duties can include blasting through clutter on a computer.
And when the hamster in one’s brain is often on steroids zipping around that wheel, with thoughts and observations galore filed somewhere and piling up, the clutter grows.
So, again, it’s time to do a whole lot of catching up. A written podcast, so to speak.
But let’s open with some currentness, the NCAA Tournaments.
The greed and petty and crap that started a few years ago – hellooooo, SEC and Big Ten bosses, and presidents and ADs and coaches – may be catching up with the best event of the year.
May be. One year is one year. No need to panic just yet. Let’s not pull a GHSA/reclassification panic mode.
The first weekend is always unpredictable, and sometimes, we’ll hit a slump with few upsets. But there’s still a Cinderella or two to pull for in the Sweet 16, and then the Elite Eight.
We got nothing.
Sure, Arkansas is a 10 on the men’s side. And that’s it.
Interesting, the women’s side is much more power-heavy, with all four 1s, all four 2s, all four 3s, one 4, and three 5s.
The men do have a 10, two 6s, and a 5 left, with four 1s, three 2s, two 3s, and three 4s.
There are some fresh names left. Well, BYU’s men, and the women from Kansas State and TCU. Fresh equals not the usual power football or basketball suspects.
It’s kind of painful to not have the underdog, the Mercer, the Florida Atlantic, the Illinois-Chicago. We have nothing – almost – but bloated budgets and football arrogance and general greed to watch.
Sure, there’s Houston, and the likable coach who’s had a show-cause penalty with the NCAA on his resume. Texas Tech isn’t a traditional Final Four candidate.
The women’s side? Most everybody knows the mascots and city of the teams left, a sign of potential boredom. We can’t wonder what potpourri of fabrics thrown is blender to determine Kim Mulkey’s outfit for other games.
I’ve liked UConn and Geno forever, but new blood beating him will keep him around longer, which we need.
Sweet 16 fields with a quarter of the teams never reaching a Final Four is a good field. We sure don’t have that, and while there are some big cities represented, big cities don’t drive college sports interest.
That John Calipari is an underdog and a “good story” is not what we’re looking for.
We’re all but doomed to a minimum of three top seeds making both Final Fours, and that makes that weekend less attractive to think about before we even get to the Sweet 16, because it’s top heavy.
Here’s hoping it’s a fluke, and that we return to the normal of the abnormal in a year. Considering donating to the NIL collectives of any team no longer in either tournament.
And hold your nose while doing it.
Catching up: CFPlayoffs debut
It was fiiiiine.
Your team wasn’t Ohio State. Sorry. Happens every year. Somebody else wins.
Sure, there need to be some tweaks, but not to the whining level of “fans”/fans and some “media”.
It
Was
The
First
Year.
And remember that everybody bitches and moans with every change to the system, which can only reach a certain level of fine tuning. It can only go so far, so, ya know, folks, grow the hell up, expand your horizons, and get over it.
Sure, Ohio State was among the top three teams all year except for three hours on one Saturday. Best No. 8 seed in history.
Why anybody’s surprised they won is baffling, but not, because so many people, it’s amazing more people don’t fall down more.
Gotta play the games to determine things, and the games were played. There were some snoozers. Some stories pointed out that there have been snoozers every year of the “playoffs”, dating back a few decades. Gee, there was just a rout in the NFC Championship game.
How is stuff new to so many people every friggin’ week?
The playoffs allowed for – sorry – a broadening of horizons, with us getting to see some Indiana and Arizona State and Scattebo and Boise State, and we got to see some really good football, some good coaching, and good teams.
Yeah, when the better team has the better game, it won’t come down to the final minutes. We saw some really good football that leads to not great games.
Having no team agenda: The bowls need to stay involved. College towns can’t necessarily handle how these games are supposed to be. Don’t snort at the NFL and then want a process exactly like the NFL’s. Let’s give a team a “home” game with a bowl (those cities/facilities are prepared anyway).
My hope that Ryan Day would win a national title and the miserable collection of Ohio State fans that is miserable even more miserable came true.
That he didn’t flip ‘em off and resign and say “I hope you can find somebody to beat Michigan” did, however, not come true.
Clearly and obviously – though every day, “clearly and obviously” doesn’t mean much to more people – there will be tweaks. It was the first time. And amid the greed and power struggles – led by the SEC and Big Ten, the punks – not all will be supported, but most will likely improve an system that will forever – foreverrrrr – be imperfect.
Folks need to consider gripping that reality at some point.
Loughdmouthings
Kid has a streamed announcement ceremony.
Pathetically, “media” that “covers” a college he was down to raced to be there.
More pathetically, the “media” that “covers” the college he chose - for now, because they’re all “for now” moves – went absolute bat--- giddy, and what followed?
A sad, stalking minimum of two dozen Twitter/X posts just on this COMMITMENT, that means nothing. It doesn’t include the “media” I don’t follow because the obsessive stalking of teen-agers under the misguided “guise” of “coverage” has long been kind of disgusting to me.
So ridiculous. …
Any time of day is a good time of day for high school coaches to check MaxPreps and Gamechanger to see if they have accurate info and rosters posted. …
Catching up: Ohhh, Indiana, you dummies. You went from some wisdom to dingbat, but giving a first-year head football coach a contract extension before the end of the first year and before the team has played anybody overly good.
I love that Curt Cignetti isn’t like other coaches - he has a personality – but he still hasn’t done anything consistent. Throwing a touchdown pass doesn’t make you Peyton Manning.
The first-round playoff loss has nothing to do with this being a knee-jerk call. Impatience and paranoia does, though. …
Reminder for those who love yelling/typing stupid stuff toward coaches: Players gotta play. Nobody coaches false starts or encroachment or missed reads, or lazy routes, or double dribbles or sleeping defense or dropped flies or throwing errors.
Worth a thought. …
Dated but still relevant, from Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel: “Spoiled Alabama fans whining about their THREE-loss team not getting an invitation to the College Football Playoff is like listening to Warren Buffett complain about not getting a senior discount.”