5 at 10: Friday Mailbag

From the "Talk too much studios," let's go.

From CelticVol

Hey 5@10,

It’s officially college basketball time and Kentucky and Syracuse are at the top of rankings. The Cats and the Orangemen are 2 great defensive teams who get it done 2 totally different ways. After watching Kentucky on Tuesday night I don’t know if anybody in the country can beat them except for Syracuse. Up to this point, who is your favorite to cut down the nets and do you believe more in a man to man or a zone defense? 

C-Vol

We have UK going the distance. And right now, we're not sure if anyone can really scare them in a tournament that's setting up to be a Big Blue March.

First weekend in Louisville, regional in the A-T-L and the Final Four in the Big Easy, and each crowd will be decidedly pro-Wildcats (and that's not even counting the support that Ashley Judd will generate when she hops on the bandwagon come March).

Syracuse is talented and deep and its match-up zone can give folks fits. But UK can play just about any style, and with a relentless frontcourt, zone defenses allow for a litany of offensive rebounding lanes. As of this morning, here is our Final Four with each of these team's biggest potential Achilles' Heel in parenthesis.

Kentucky (Missouri — the only way we can see UK getting derailed before the Final Four is being sent to the St. Louis regional as a No. 1 with Missouri as the No. 2, washing away the Big Blue home-court feel. The Tigers can flat-out score and the quickest way to take away UK's interior edge is by making shots, something Missouri can do as well as anyone. Plus, Missouri is flush experience and dependable point guard play — the only two areas that could be classified as a concern for UK.)

Syracuse (Duke — The Blue Devils can hit enough 3s that they could be a thorn in anyone's side, but an extra pass or three against the match-up zone of the Orange will lead to open looks. And Duke with open looks can be trouble... ask UNC.)

Kansas (Louisville — The Cardinals are as defensively aggressive as any team in the country, and if there's a flaw in Kansas it's that the Jayhawks can get sloppy with the basketball.)

Ohio State (Baylor — The Bears can run, and Perry Jones is a presence inside that could throw a wrench into the Ohio State half-court offense.)

—————

From OTWatcher (with an add-in from Chas9)

I watch a lot of College Basketball, and the announcers are bad. And they seem to be getting worse. And don't get me started on Dick Vitale. He is awful BABY.

Are there any announcers out there that are worth listening to?

(From Chas9 — Got tired of General Robert's commentary. He knows the game, but he's too low key. Boring. Somewhere between Dicky V and Bobby K there's a happy medium. And did you hear The Chair Chucker say Georgetown's freshmen are as good as anybody's? What the _ is he thinking? Three words: Kentucky and Duke.)

OTWatcher (and Chas9)

Excellent question. And one that needs to be covered now that we're in February and college basketball is about the only game in town.

9er makes an excellent point that some where between the dry approach of the General and the antics of Dickie V is a great college basketball announcers. It's not unlike that somewhere between Steven Wright and Gallagher there's the world-class comedian.

And that middle ground for us is Bill Raferty. Raferty has some signature calls — "The kiss" and "Man-to-man" and "Onions" — that give him some spice and there's no doubting his knowledge of the game. Plus, when he's partnered with Sean McDonough, there's no better team in college hoops. (And they're on the short list for best announcing teams across all sports, and that's saying something.)

Raferty blends the two without seeming like he's quoting from Knight's copy of "Naismith's rules of the game" or even Vitale's "Street Ball slang for dummies" handbook. (That said, there's no debating that Dickie V is arguably the single nicest guy in sports broadcasting and there's questioning his true and unending passion for college basketball.)

Jay Bilas is by-far the best college hoops analyst working. And it's not really that close. But Bilas is not as effective doing live game calls, especially when he's in a three-man booth because he has too much to say.

(And no one's freshmen are as good as UK's. No one's.)

——————

From McPell

My question is who are the 4 future QB's of the next 10-15 years?

McPell,

This was a piece of the conversation earlier in the week after we asked who was on the Mount Rushmore of current NFL quarterbacks.

For a 10-15 run of very goodness-to-greatness, it needs to be someone who is under the age of 25. The first two are pretty easy — Cam Newton and Andrew Luck.

No. 3 for us is Matt Stafford, who came into his own this year and is poised to be a stronger-armed version of a Drew Brees-type of stat machine.

After that, there are some options.

Matt Ryan is a possibility. So is Andy Dalton. Sam Bradford showed flashes, and RG III has potential.

We'll go off the board and take Matt Barkley, who is currently the QB at Southern Cal and, barring injury, will be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 draft. We love the draft, but you know this.

Funny how the four guys on our list — Newton, Luck, Stafford, Barkley — were either No. 1 overall picks or almost assuredly going to be No. 1 overall picks. No doubting it's a QB-driven league.

———

From LSU Guy

I've read your blog for the last six months. Pretty good stuff, especially the college football. Did you see where Jordan Jefferson blamed the question the gameplan for the BCS thumping against Alabama? What do you think?

LSU Guy,

Welcome to the show and feel free to swing by any time.

We did see Mr. Jefferson's lament about Alabama being better prepared and LSU making the wrong halftime adjustments and even tossing out the lovable "we're not the one calling plays."

In truth, Jefferson blaming the play-calling for Alabama's 21-0 drubbing of an LSU team that didn't cross midfield until midway through the fourth quarter is silly. It's like the cast of "Caddyshack 2" blaming the script writers for the debacle that was "Caddyshack 2." Sure, the script writers deserve part of the blame, but Jonathan Silverman and Jackie Mason were certainly not blameless in that disaster.

If Jefferson wants to question strategy, start asking why he wasn't pulled for back-up Jarrett Lee when it was obvious that the Jefferson-led Tigers offense was not going any where against the Tide.

———

From Follower

Love the column. You haven’t used “Eldrick” lately, does that mean you think Tiger is back?

Follower,

We’re pretty sure the B.S. (before scandal) Tiger will never be back, and that’s because he has lost the untouchable edge — in his eyes and the eyes of his competitors.

We’ve started calling him Tiger for two reasons:

1) He did win a golf tournament at the end of last year and his game has improved to the point that Tiger contending is not a shocker any more;

2) To borrow a line from our friends at the Midas Touch Barber Shop from “Coming to America” (arguably the most underrated comedy of our lifetime), “His momma call him Tiger, we’ll call him Tiger.”

Our expectations for Tiger this year are pretty low all things considered.

— We’re not expecting him to win a major, although he’ll be the talk of Augusta on Friday and/or Saturday after a 66 gets him in the hunt.

— We’re expecting him to play a bunch more events this year. Dude has to get back in the feel of the chase against the best and get back out there in an effort to recoup some of those sponsors.

— We’re expecting a couple of tournament wins, whether it’s the Blah Blah Bank Open or the Ca-Ca-Ca Car Classic.

— We’re expecting at least two, “Is Tiger Back” major stories from any mix of the national media power shakers SI, USA Today, ESPN, 5-at-10, Golf Channel, etc.

— We’re not expecting to hear as much from Stevie Williams after he gets fired later this year. If we could pick one sports figure that would fit into the following phrase “I’ll take _ to block,” as a part of the “Hollywood Squares: The next generation” we’d probably pick Terrell Owens, but Stevie Williams is a close second.

— We’re expecting to have a great weekend, starting with the George Strait concert tonight. Have a great weekend