The national championship is tonight at 9:20 PM EDT on CBS, so that’s our viewing guide for the evening, in lieu of one below. Notes:
That Was Really Something
As was the case on Friday, I don’t have much worthwhile to add to the UNC/Duke discourse, which is pretty well-saturated at this point. I will say, 21 rebounds is so many rebounds. Holy shit, is that a lot of rebounds. That is so many freaking rebounds in the college game. Armando Bacot was sensational even if he had just eleven points, and him jogging to the tunnel (to receive what I would assume was a cortisone injection, or something similar) then jogging right back out and checking in was one of those moments where sports feel so much grander than a game—the moments that hit at something evolutionary and primitive, deep within us.
We’ve talked about major contributions from Bacot before this tournament—specifically, how he managed to not foul out against Baylor two weekends ago after picking up his fourth foul with a lot of time left. He plays a ton of minutes for a big man, and despite the length of both Leaky Black and Brady Manek, he sometimes feels like the only big they’ve got out there, which makes him fairly indispensable but in a more challenging way than indispensable guards. When I remember this game, he’s what I’ll remember, even more than Caleb Love, who came through so dramatically himself.
Kansas Keeps Rolling
On the other side…Kansas has not really been challenged yet this tournament. Providence put a bit of a scare into them down the stretch, and Miami gave them hell for a half, but that was basically it. In every game, they’ve been the overwhelming favorite and have won rather comfortably. Does that continue tonight? I think so. I don’t think it’ll be a blowout, but it does seem likely to be comfortable. Kansas might not be the best team in the country, but they’re healthy, fresh (as far as fresh goes this time of year), well-rounded, deep…there just aren’t a lot of evident weaknesses, especially with UNC not too keen on forcing turnovers or tearing up the offensive glass.
We’ll see, of course, but it’s kind of like when Clemson’s faced the second-best ACC team in football the last few years. Yeah, something could happen. But it probably won’t.
Thad Matta to Butler
Butler moved quickly from LaVall Jordan, and in a surprising announcement, is bringing Thad Matta home. Matta played at Butler, was an assistant coach there for a few years, and was the program’s head coach when they were a 10-seed in 2001 and beat Wake Forest. He left Ohio State in part due to health issues—he had trouble walking stemming from a back surgery—but he’s only 54 years old, and he has quite the track record from his years at Butler, Xavier, and Ohio State earlier this century. Seems better than Butler fans could have hoped for, even if expectations should not be for Matta to have the program up to an Ohio State level. I suspect getting Butler back to tournament contention would be, in the short term, just fine by Butler.
This does leave our guy Jonas Hayes still at Xavier for the moment—I don’t know if he was ever in consideration for Butler’s gig, but he was in speculation, and we were some of the ones speculating. Georgia State’s job is still open, and he’s one of the few names that’s been mentioned loudly for that, but there isn’t a lot of noise around it overall.
Jeremiah Williams: Meet the Newest Cyclone
Over the weekend, reports emerged that Aljaž Kunc will be returning next year, and then today, Iowa State signed Jeremiah Williams out of the transfer portal. Williams, a rising junior (three years of eligibility left thanks to Covid) leaving Temple, is a defense-first point guard with impressive assist numbers. He tore his labrum late this year, and I’m not sure how long he’ll be out, but he fits the Otzelberger mold, and if he’s backing up Tyrese Hunter next year or playing point and giving Hunter more looks off the ball as he tries to improve his NBA stock, Iowa State could do worse. He isn’t likely to help the offense on his own, which is too bad, but there’s plenty of portal left to go, and a big man and/or a wing is likely needed, so perhaps some offense can come from one of them. Still waiting on word from Gabe Kalscheur and Tristan Enaruna about next year. It still appears Hunter and Caleb Grill will stay.
In other transfer news, Tre Jackson has committed to Western Carolina. Wishing him the best there.
Sean Manaea to the Padres
The Padres added pitching this morning, grabbing Sean Manaea from the A’s for a prospect. It was a surprising move, since the Padres have pitching already (they were rumored to be using Chris Paddack as a chip to help them dump Eric Hosmer over the weekend), but they must have liked the price, and given the injuries their rotation’s suffered at times in the last few years and that they’re in the same division as the Dodgers and Giants, perhaps they just felt it was something they couldn’t pass up. It does make me wonder how constant trade talks are. Is this the kind of thing where the Padres were just doing due diligence, loved what they heard, and bought it? Was this a clearance rack purchase?
More MLB content over the days to come, as Opening Day approaches on Thursday.
Toyota’s on the Board
Toyota got its first NASCAR Cup Series win of the year over the weekend, with Denny Hamlin driving to victory lane in Richmond. It’s a track Toyota’s traditionally done well at—especially Joe Gibbs Racing, Hamlin’s team—but with the new car, there were questions over whether they’d hold onto that strength. They did it, Hamlin got a win, and we hit on one of our NASCAR bets, pulling us a little bit further out of the ditch. It was a good weekend for the published bets overall, with our Kansas hedge hitting, our Saturday night parlay hitting on Kansas/Villanova, and the over hitting on the UNC/Duke game. We’ll enter baseball season in quite the hole, but we’re planning on publishing ten futures a week, at least to start, as we aim to erase the deficit by the World Series’ end. We shall see.
