Gooooood morning. Sakes alive, there was a lot going on yesterday that I feel like chiming in on, so we’ll go ahead and get to it.
First off – the Gregg Marshall to Memphis stuff is dead, and has been since right off the bat. It’s going to take too much for Memphis to get that guy to come down here. He wants more than the University can, or wants to, offer.
Buzz Williams is still an option, and I’d throw everything I had at that one to make sure it happens. The other option that I’m fixated on right now is Mike Anderson at Arkansas…
I don’t know what the options are regarding him, but I know he only has a $1M buy-out, and he’s only making $2.2M a year through 2020. If Memphis came in and offered him 5 years at $2.65, what Pastner was making, he may jump. He went 16-16 this past year, and he’s one of those coaches described by Gary Parrish as who may take the job because his current situation is feeling pressure. He’s the kind of coach you could get to leave a big job. He went 16-16 last year at Arkansas, so it may not seem like a big deal, but if he had been hired after going 27-9 the year before (before he lost 3 pros) then it would’ve been considered a home run. He’s never had a losing season, and is 302-162 in 14 seasons at UAB, Missouri, and Arkansas.
Is there really any doubt that Mike Anderson could win at Memphis? He knows the school, thanks to his years of competing against Memphis at UAB, and who better to hire for the fans than the guy (while at Missouri) that beat Calipari in the Sweet 16 in his last game as the Memphis head coach?
Now… aside from my sudden appreciation for Mike Anderson, Gary Parrish spent most of his show
yesterday talking about Buzz Williams. And nobody is more in tune with this than GP. He’s friends with Buzz. Like, actual friends. I don’t know if they can get it done, but I would definitely be excited about Buzz Williams being the head coach. The guy can flat out coach, and he fits everything that Keith Easterwood talked about on GP’s show yesterday. He gets it. He’d fit in really well, and it’s somebody that the fan base can get behind and be excited about.
In the meantime, We’re on Day 6, and there’s been very little as far as leaks about this. This athletic department is on top of things. I’m really impressed with the way they’re handling their business.
Now, on to other topics.
1. Jim Harbaugh absolutely gave Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze the business yesterday. Talk about crazy. Freeze’s comments were this: “I’m selfish with my time,” Freeze told The Clarion Ledger’s Daniel Pauling. “I’m away from my family enough, and I just did not want to go. I was ready to. We would’ve jumped in with the rest of them and gone to work. But I’m glad we can have a camp and I can sleep at home.”
Harbaugh laid into him, with the quote you see above: “You’ve got a guy sitting in a big house making $5 million a year, saying he does not want to sacrifice his time. That is not a kindred spirit to me. What most of these coaches are saying is they don’t want to work harder.”
I’m not sure if people remember the “Saban rule” regarding not being able to visit high schools during the spring, but it was basically put to an end because coaches did not want to have to be out trying to outwork Nick Saban and his staff during the spring period. But, Saban’s a little bit classier than Harbaugh. I don’t recall Harbaugh being this outspoken or “eccentric” in his last few jobs. But hey… it’s keeping his name in the headlines, which is good for Michigan, I guess.
2. Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez announced that College Gameday will be at Lambeau Field for Wisconsin / LSU on Sept 3rd. The fact that the AD announced this, rather than Gameday, may end up hurting Wisconsin in the long run. Gameday likes to make a spectacle out of things like this, so the fact that he one-upped them may piss ESPN off a little bit. I’m a little surprised that Gameday will be at this game, with the other games that are going on that day (Alabama-USC, Clemson-Auburn, Georgia-North Carolina, UCLA-Texas A&M), but in a way, it makes sense because the Gameday crew loves visiting new sites. And there’s not many places that are more majestic than Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers. Seeing a college game there would be awesome.
3. Rachel Bush called out LeBron James. Bron Bron, my brotha… what the hell are you doing? After all the social media mess with unfollowing your team’s twitter account, your cryptic tweets, etc, why did you think it would be a good idea to try and reach out to an 18 year old instagram model that happens to already be dating Jordan Poyer from the Cleveland Browns? I don’t understand you. But, she called you out. She’s since backtracked and downplayed the whole thing, saying:
“He has a wife and two-three kids. I know he respects them and I respect them. They have certain people running their pages sometimes. DMs by multiple people where their friends or their manager have tried to talk to me pretending to be them… they’re totally okay with that.”
I doubt that’s really what happened… but hey, it is what it is. And it gave us another reason to talk about Rachel Bush, which is always a good thing.
4. NBA is putting ads on jerseys next year? In a major NASCAR move, the NBA is expected to approve having advertisements on actual player jerseys as of next season. They’re expecting this to generate another $4-6 million per year. Hey. Capitalism. I get it. But man, it just feels cheap to me. Nothing more ridiculous to me than seeing a FedEx logo on a Grizzlies uniform, or a Facebook logo on the Warriors jerseys next season. But hey. Do whatchya gotta do. Get that green.
5. Texans text the wrong number looking for Dak Prescott. If
you’re texting a number of somebody you don’t really know personally – don’t you normally start off the conversation with “Hey (so and so), this is Dave from wherever…?” Rather than sending something that basically belongs in an e-mail? I mean, that’s a long-ass message for texting. Or, if you’ve got something like that, why not call the guy and get the actual information from the player rather than trying to message it? What’s baffled me the most on this is the Texans rep trying to get that kind of information through text before even figuring out if he has the correct number. That’s some sensitive information. So now, I suppose we know that the Texans want Dak. Guess we’ll knock them out as a potential landing spot for Christian Hackenberg.
6. Dude from “The Story So Far” drop kicks girl off the stage for taking a selfie. This isn’t sports related, but the video is incredible. Is this considered assault? Acts of violence towards anyone is pretty shitty, even if she shouldn’t have been on the stage… but man, this looks bad. Why not let the security guards do their job rather than putting yourself in that position? Check out the video below.
