It’s easy to complain about Rob Manfred, and the man has provided plenty over the years to complain about. Which makes it odd to say…he’s doing a good job?
I can’t even finish it with a period. I have to leave the question mark. He’s doing a good job? I think he is, though I’m not positive. The pace-of-play changes coming to Major League Baseball received rave reviews when instituted in the minors. He’s acknowledging local media blackouts as a problem and even offering a solution to that plague as a possible silver lining of the Bally bankruptcy mess. A full season was played last year after the lockout, and when it happened, it riveted, with a titanic AL MVP race and dramatic competition for division titles and a postseason that was thrilling until the last couple games. It’s hard to say whether Rob Manfred likes baseball or whether he “gets it,” but MLB is doing a solid enough job right now at the job it’s supposed to do. We’re cautiously optimistic.
At the same time, though, there was a clickbait realignment proposal thrown around by The Athletic a few weeks ago that suggested getting rid of the American League and the National League, and it was unclear whether that’s actually on the table but please, Rob, please don’t try to do that. The AL/NL tradition is a special one in baseball. Please don’t try to make this the NBA.
Nate Oats Did Apologize
Nate Oats apologized last night for the comments we talked about yesterday, saying he didn’t have the information (a direct contrast to when he’d said he did have the information) and that he knew he made it sound like he was taking the murder lightly, but that he and his superiors are not. I don’t know why I want to give him a pass.
Alabama is not particularly likable as an institution, and yet the more time goes on, the more likable Nick Saban becomes. Alabama is not particularly likable as an institution, and yet if you’d asked me three months ago if I liked Nate Oats, I would have without hesitation said yes. Friends and family from Atlanta (non-SEC people, for the record) speak of Alabama as a joke of a school academically, the place you go if you can’t get into Georgia, but I also know a rocket scientist who went to Alabama, and academics don’t matter so much in calculating a school’s likability as earnestness does, which makes that partly the wrong question anyway.
One concern here is whether there’s a culture in Tuscaloosa of protecting players. That’s the old trope with college sports, but in the internet age, it’s harder to sweep things under rugs, and we’re seeing a lot of legal incidents involving football players at other Southern powers like Georgia and Clemson. Does Nick Saban have a firm grip on his program? Does Nick Saban recruit and develop, as much as one can, good kids? We previously mostly thought so, but this incident has us questioning that, because there’s definitely an angle where it looks like the Tuscaloosa police have tried to protect Brandon Miller and Jaden Bradley. I don’t know if they did or didn’t, but there’s an angle where that’s a possibility, and it’s gross.
The Brandon Miller Part
Brandon Miller is an 18-year-old kid. I don’t know that we all have said that enough. He was involved in something very stupid, and from what we know he made it possible for a murder to happen, even though we can be confident that wasn’t his intent.
Being an 18-year-old kid doesn’t excuse things. But it does add important context. More than anything, it keeps making this all the more sad. The woman who died was 23. All three Alabama players, plus the alleged killer, are even younger. They’re stupid, stupid kids. It’s awful, and sadness is part of that.
Miller had a great game last night, saving Alabama against South Carolina. It’s hard to cheer for him right now.
So Is John Calipari Fine?
Kentucky won at Florida, moving further from the bubble, and so long as they don’t lose their home game to Vanderbilt, they’re probably an NCAA Tournament lock now, even if they go 1–3 from here. If they do that, they’ll most likely get to play Auburn or Mizzou or Arkansas in their SEC Tournament opener. Those wouldn’t be disqualifying losses.
Of course, making the tournament isn’t the preferred standard at Kentucky, which speaks to the expectations reset that can happen when a team dips into bubble territory. Coach Cal looks a lot safer now than he did, but would he look this safe had Kentucky sat in this 7 or 10-seed range all year?
Many are pointing to the buyout—ESPN says it’s in the $40 million range, and Kentucky’s a public school so I fully trust that number—as a reason Calipari will stay. Normally, we’d call that hogwash, but $40 million is another level of buyout, especially for a basketball coach, even a basketball coach at Kentucky. Were there no buyout, given all the acrimony and how rough the team has played, we’d guess Calipari might need to make the second weekend to keep his job, but that’s probably not the case anymore.
What is a possibility is that John Calipari will leave. There’s a possibility here for a mutual parting of ways, with a reduction of buyout in exchange for Kentucky getting to go pursue Kelvin Sampson or Scott Drew. The problem then, I suppose, is what job Calipari would take—Texas might be the only one that wouldn’t be a massive pay cut, and I’m not sure Texas would want Calipari—which gets us back to…John Calipari’s probably staying. There’s a lot of season left, though, and the focus on the tournament can make little things matter a lot in both directions.
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What’s happening tonight:
College Basketball (the good ones)
- 6:30 PM EST: Penn State @ Ohio State (FS1)
- 8:30 PM EST: Michigan @ Rutgers (FS1)
- 9:00 PM EST: Northwestern @ Illinois (BTN)
- 11:00 PM EST: UCLA @ Utah (FS1)
College Basketball (national teams of interest)
- 10:00 PM EST: Pacific @ Saint Mary’s (NBCSBA)
- 11:00 PM EST: San Diego @ Gonzaga (ESPN2)
NBA (games of playoff consequence, which is all of them)
- 7:00 PM EST: Denver @ Cleveland (League Pass)
- 7:00 PM EST: Boston @ Indianapolis (League Pass)
- 7:00 PM EST: Detroit @ Orlando (League Pass)
- 7:30 PM EST: Memphis @ Philadelphia (TNT)
- 7:30 PM EST: New Orleans @ Toronto (League Pass)
- 8:30 PM EST: San Antonio @ Dallas (League Pass)
- 9:00 PM EST: Oklahoma City @ Utah (League Pass)
- 10:00 PM EST: Golden State @ LA Lakers (TNT)
- 10:00 PM EST: Portland @ Sacramento (League Pass)
NHL (games of playoff consequence, which is almost all of them)
- 7:00 PM EST: Minnesota @ Columbus (ESPN+)
- 7:00 PM EST: NY Rangers @ Detroit (ESPN+)
- 7:00 PM EST: Los Angeles @ New Jersey (ESPN+)
- 7:00 PM EST: Edmonton @ Pittsburgh (ESPN+)
- 7:00 PM EST: Buffalo @ Tampa Bay (ESPN+)
- 7:00 PM EST: Anaheim @ Washington (ESPN+)
- 9:00 PM EST: Calgary @ Vegas (ESPN)
- 10:00 PM EST: Boston @ Seattle (ESPN+)
- 10:30 PM EST: Nashville @ San Jose (ESPN+)
