For centuries, miners have been digging for nuggets—real valuable nuggets-like GOLD! Most come up empty. But, some (very few probably) really find the gold nuggets and harvest a fortune. The same is true in the Sports World. Each team is digging for that “special” nugget either from a draft, trade, free agent signing…whatever…Some look good…and really are GOOD. Others find “Fools Gold” that look good but really is non-lasting. It’s also true in the sports world!
….68 teams began digging for the NCAA Trophy a couple weeks ago. Always hoping to “dig out” a winner of a big upset which the fans love early in the tournament, the Kentucky loss was a huge nugget found in the 1st week. But as the kept digging, they kept going deeper & deeper w/o much success. Of the 16 teams to reach the tournament’s 2nd weekend, 14 come from Power 6 conferences. The other two? Gonzaga and San Diego State, who really are college basketball powers! They may be mid-majors but only in name. Each have been to a title game appearance in the last 3 years.
….Moving to another section of the property, a group began digging. After a hard 20 minutes of digging, one man yells….”hey, lookie here!” as he held up a sheet of paper. The other “diggers” walked over to take a look. Unfolding it, then holding it high, he read it aloud,” “The ACC isn’t dead ‘is the title!” He continued, “….some thought the ACC had been shoved aside…for the first time in a long time, some had snickered when others Talked of ACC as the best league. They DID have 4 teams finish below the .500 mark in the regular season AND 7 teams were ranked outside the top 80 teams by one poll. But…now in tourney time, 3 of the Elite 8 teams are from the ACC. Thus far as I write this on Saturday night, the ACC has the best record in the NCAA tourney. Their teams are 11-2 with 5 bids. 2nd best mark in wins for a conference is Big East is 7-2 with 3 bids. Big Ten is 8-4 in this year’s NCAA tourney—6 teams(bids). Pac 12 is 6-4 in the NCAA Tourney & SEC is 7-6. Smaller conferences like WCC is 2-2 in NCAA; A-10 is 2-2; surprisingly Big 12 is 7-8; Mountain West is 4-6; American Athletic is 0-2 as I write this using an article written on Friday. Those records got the “diggers” off their assignment as they all talked about what they’ve SEEN in the NCAA tournament. As the final weekend is on the horizon, some of the familiar names ,or names of teams who have been close to the top all year ,are still in the battle for the title—Uconn, Duke, Purdue, Tennessee. Most astute basketball fans of NCAA talked all year about Illinois’ talent. Well….it’s come out during this tournament.
…Suddenly, one of the guys, who had just started digging, yells out,”Heh….look here….it’s some notes about SLU basketball”! Several others came over to take a look. They seemed to be notes about hiring the next St Louis U Coach. The notes were apparently written in a hurry because they were scribbled down on a lone sheet of paper. But, one of the guys had real good eyesight and he began to decipher it. 1st of all, SLU didn’t go cheap on Travis Ford—he was the highest paid coach in the A-10. But…it just seemed like he didn’t have all the zeal, energy, “drive” that he once possessed. One whole sheet was about Josh Shertz of Indiana State. At the bottom of the sheet was the word, “HURRY to sign him”. Indiana State went 33-1 in 1979 with the super-star– Larry Bird. From then until Schertz was hired in 2021, Indiana State won 20 or more games just 4 times. Schertz has reached the 20 win plateau in two of his three seasons. And this year’s squad — which shoots often and scores often is fun to watch and is 27-6 and No. 29 in the NCAA NET Rankings. He’s a “hot” ticket at the moment, can SLU make the catch as other larger, higher paying schools are now in the fray for Schertz? These notes ended with a private note,” The Billikens HAVE to become a top-tier program in its conference —each & every year. Every 3 or 4 years, the team should reach the NCAA Tournament. SLU is a good gig for a coach. Fans don’t ride the coaches, School supports the Coach with a strong salary level, students support the team, plenty of D-1 players in the Lou. They should get plenty of press since there isn’t an pro NBA basketball team in the Lou. It’s the ol’ “mighta, coulda, shoulda” world of sports.
….Nearby, another guy was digging & found something in the shape of a star. Untangling it, he found the Mizzou recruiting class from this year. Coach Dennis Gates must have dropped it and then it got covered up on his rapid rebuild route. He has signed 5 terrific recruits with their “letter of Intent” and according to Rivals.com, the has the #2 ranked recruiting class in the USA!
…Digging deep before finally hitting something was still frustrating was a group of College Basketball “junkies”. After digging out all the dirt, a strange looking sheet of paper. After wiping off the dirt, he could read it. He was shocked! The paper indicated that Iowa’s Patrick McCaffery was entering the transfer portal to explore options for his final year. That doesn’t seem strange…until you reach the bottom. His Coach @ Iowa was his DAD, Francis John McCaffery! The HC since 2010, this transfer request was one of a kind. Soooo…the miners handled it carefully. This would probably NEVER happen again!
…. In a lonely setting—away from the group….Digging the longest & deepest is John Mozeliak. He began shortly after the 2023 ended. The embarrassing 71-91 performance, a last place finish & wearing the 90+ loss loop around his neck, drove MO to early activity. It was the first time in 30 years that the Cards lost that many games. They’re trying to dig out of that deep hole. It’s a brand new experience of the Cards! Without question, attendance plummeted despite all the Cards efforts to claim the 40,000+ SOLD tickets. I don’t doubt that they were SOLD tickets but many could see with their own eyes that the actual crowds in attendance were about half to a 1/4 that size as announced.
…. MO is still digging and will have to continue digging throughout spring training! Signing 3 older pitchers, Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson who are being set up as if they can go 5-6 innings each outing! These 3 cost the Birds plenty–$97m total. Gray- 3 years, each @ $25m; Lynn-$10m; Gibson-$12m. As Mo continue to Dig…he hits another GOLD NUGGET! It’s Albert Pujols. Could MO cash this nugget in as a manager? Then Yadi & Carp could be coaches instead of using up roster spots as players! Albert could actually buy out Ollie himself!!! I think the Cards resigning of Marmol in the preseason was to deflect attention away from him when the Cards struggled in 2024. I still expect to hear “boo”s when Ollie walks on the field.
…..Moving over to the colder part of the ground…actually covered with ice, we began digging. It was MUCH, much harder to dig through the ice but we persevered. Finally, we hit something…it looked Blue! After cleaning it off, we decided that had been, at 1 time, some stats on the 23-24 Blues. Oh yeah…it hit us…after missing the playoffs, the Blues probably threw away their notes for the season. Still curious, we gently pushed off the ice, opened up the folded sheets of paper and read. It pointed out to us that the Blues were 24th in Goals/game out of the 30 teams; 21st in Power Play Goals; the Blues were 2nd lowest in penalty minutes (that’s a plus); the Blues were 21st in Shots. It became clear to us why the Blues had missed the Playoffs this year. Not enough offense— you can’t be in the bottom 1/3 of the league in many offensive categories and expect to win. We closed up the hole…we’d learned all that we need to know here.
…..Then, most of the guys started complaining about their back hurting, being cold, digging all-day, yada-yada-yada…. so we called it a “day”. What do you think about these “digs” or your own “digs”. Let me know what YOU find! Thanks for your read! Happy Easter! Bob
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