Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Reich made the right call – the only call – by kicking it deep

Frank Reich understands people and numbers. That’s why he’s the coach, and fans aren’t.

Colts coach Frank Reich had a choice.  Behind by seven with 1:10 left, should he try the onside kick or pound it deep?

With all three timeouts left, if the Colts kicked deep and the defense could keep the Raiders from earning a first down they would get the ball back with 45-seconds left.

Or Reich could roll the dice on an onside kick.

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Prior to the kick, the Raiders had 10 offensive possessions.  Four (40%) ended with a punt after not earning a first down.  Over the course of the four-game season, the Colts defense has created eight three-and-outs in 36 drives.  That’s a 22.2% success rate.

The success rate for onside kicks being recovered by the kicking team in 2018 – after the rules were changed to reduce collisions – was 7.5% (4-for-53).

Those numbers would lead a reasonable person to surmise there is a much better chance of forcing the Raiders to punt than recovering an onside kick.  In fact, that likelihood is three times greater.

Reich agreed, “The percentages on onside kicks are so stinking low.  With three timeouts, the fact that we needed a touchdown – we thought we could kick it. If you kick the perfect kick then you maybe pin them inside the 15, and then go three-and-out and have decent field position. That’s what went into it,”

In hindsight, the Colts were unable to stop the Raiders so the decision is being criticized.  In the moment, an onside kick would have been an irresponsible choice.

Reich is developing a reputation for putting the game in the hands of his players.  Execute, win.  His Colts are not about trickery and scheming to overcome his players.

His strategies are designed to showcase his roster, not prevail despite it.

As flawed as the the Colts defense was yesterday without Darius Leonard and Malik Hooker, an onside kick was not justifiable in the moment, and so it remains after the fact.

Cubs eliminated – Dispassionate analysis is unworthy of Cubs fans; get pissed, stay pissed!

The love between Theo and Joe is gone – as it should be.

The Chicago Cubs lost their eighth consecutive game last night, and were mathematically eliminated from the postseason for the first time since 2014.

That’s the what.  But fans want to know why it happened, and more importantly how this doesn’t happen again to their team.

Why did Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks, Jose Quintana, Cole Hamels, and Yu Darvish not deliver consistent seasons?  Why did a lineup that is mostly unchanged from the 2016 World Champions fail to deliver the runs needed to consistently compete with the teams who will compete in the postseason.

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Is the problem psychological or physical?  Is it leadership – or a lack thereof?  Did Joe Maddon’s message grow stale?  Did Theo Epstein fail in building a championship level roster?  Were fan expectations out of whack with reality?  Is this 2019 season an anomaly?  Or was 2016 the outlier?

The answers to all of those questions is yes.  When a team fails, all are guilty.  It’s Epstein’s responsibility to figure out what can be done moving forward to correct the issues that caused this lost season – a season in which the Cubs will finish behind the lesser rosters of the Cardinals and Brewers.

What fans know is that watching Cubs baseball was not nearly as fun this season as it was in 2015 and 2016.  The Cubs appear stale – as though baseball became less enjoyable for the players and coaches.  Maybe Maddon’s dress up days became monotonous.  Maybe analytics were ignored.  Maybe there was paralysis by analysis.  Maybe 2019 can be explained by understanding that baseball is a weird and unpredictable.

What was new, fresh and fun three and four years ago has become flat and uninspired.  That much we can see by watching from the bleachers or our living rooms.

It seems irrational that athletes earning millions of dollars to play a boy’s game could find a way to go through the motions of a 162-game season without the emotional investment necessary to compete at the highest level.  Maybe that’s human nature for a team where change has been only on the periphery.

That is all well-reasoned and dispassionate, and that does little to describe my feelings as I sit here writing.  I’m pissed at the Cubs lack of joy and the lost season it created.  I’m outraged at Maddon’s use of the bullpen, and his insulting explanation as to how fans cannot comprehend how decisions are made.  I’m pissed about errors, base running blunders, and bad fundamental baseball.

I want heads on a platter – beginning with Maddon, whose usefulness as a manager has eroded over the last two seasons.  There has to be a consequence for bad baseball played by a team whose payroll is among the highest in baseball, and that consequence will be felt as he packs a box next week.

I’m tired of Kyle Schwarber being caught in rundown after rundown.  I’m tired of Epstein indulging in his new role as Addison Russell’s counselor rather than devoting every waking moment to the improvement of the farm system and roster.  It’s beyond my ability to comprehend why Russell is allowed to remain a distraction on the roster.

Fans get angry.  I’m a fan.

I’m sick of watching baseball populated with brain farts and chasing sliders low and away.  I’m sick of losing to the Cardinals by a single freaking run.  I’m sick of watching the Brewers overcome the loss of Christian Yelich while the Cubs languish passionless.

I will watch the last four games of the season from first pitch to last as I try to become so sick of watching this team that I don’t miss Cubs baseball at all during the offseason – kind of like a dad catching a kid smoking and locking him in a closet with a pack of Marlboros until they are gone and he’s green.

Cubs baseball remains a painful love for fans – despite the magic of 2016.  The pain of 1969, 1970, 1977, 1984, 1989, 1997, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2015, 2017, and 2018 did nothing to prepare us for 2019 or the unpleasantness that lies ahead.

It’s a painful road we travel as Cubs fans.  2016 was a brief respite, but it did not immunize us from the anger and frustration that is our birthright.

Let the ax fall on those responsible!  Let the rebuild begin!  Calm heads need not apply as Cubs fans.

Indiana Basketball – Media Day questions will be answered in December

Indiana’s basketball team saved its energy at media day for on court work.

Jerome Hunter’s leg is getting healthier every day.

That is the only useful piece of insight shared by the 11 players who appeared in three groups or three and one group of two during yesterday’s IU basketball media availability.

Other than that, media was delivered an endless torrent of cliches and pablum before being served a nice dinner of steak and shrimp.  The dinner filled our stomachs even if our hunger for unique perspective was left wanting.

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We heard, “the Hoosiers are committed to each other,” “the chemistry is good – but not necessarily better than last year,” and “getting better is a day-to-day process.”  Those phrases were repeated countless times by players who appeared to be engaged in a private contest to see who could communicate the least.

The questions about chemistry were especially awkward.  What the media wants to know is whether Devonte Green punched Romeo Langford last season, or if any of the other rumors of in-fighting are true.  When junior Justin Smith was asked about chemistry, he glanced at sports information director J.D. Campbell, and then gave a vague response with a smile he shared with Al Durham.  What did the glance and smile mean?  Who the hell knows?

None of this chemistry talk or how the players appeared to dread interacting with the media has anything to do with how good IU will be as the Hoosiers begin play in just over a month.  Indiana fans want accurate shooting, not pithy quotes.  If this team wins 25 games, fans would be thrilled with players whispering to the media in pig latin.

This is a crucial year for Archie Miller as he tries to rebuild Indiana Basketball into a tough-minded and competitive program.  His first two seasons ended without an NCAA Tournament berth.  At some point the Hoosiers need to get back to the NCAAs and then make a deep run, or IU will go back to the drawing board as it seeks a worthy successor to Bob Knight.

Experts predict Indiana will miss the tournament for the fourth straight season, stretching back to Tom Crean’s final year.

I’m more optimistic.

Despite losing Juwan Morgan, Romeo Langford, Zach McRoberts and Evan Fitzner, Indiana should be deeper and better because of the improved health of Hunter, Rob Phinisee, De’Ron Davis and Race Thompson, and the addition of Trayce Jackson-Davis, Armaan Franklin, and grad-transfer Joey Brunk.

Miller will speak today, and media will quiz him about who improved the most during the offseason, how the chemistry has developed, and whether he feels this group is good enough to get back the the NCAAs.

The answers will reveal very little compared to what fans will see once the Hoosiers finally take the floor in Big 10 play.

September questions will not be answered in a meaningful way until December.

 

One month later, Indianapolis Colts fans are asking “Andrew who?”

One month after his retirement, neither Andrew Luck nor Indianapolis weeps.

One month ago today, ESPN’s Adam Schefter shocked the football world by tweeting Andrew Luck’s retirement from football.

It seems like it’s been so much longer than that.  Out of sight, out of mind, I guess.

What Luck has been doing is anyone’s guess.  I’m not sure anyone has asked.  Is he in Indy, or visiting Amsterdam?  Maybe he’s gone to Nepal to receive counsel from the Dalai Lama.  He might have enrolled in course at his beloved Stanford.  Who knows?  It doesn’t really matter, does it?

It’s not that fans suddenly decided they don’t care about Luck as a person.  It’s that they never cared about what Luck was doing if it didn’t affect his ability to help the Colts win.

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Stevie Nicks says it well in Dreams, “Thunder only happens when it’s raining,
Players only love you when they’re playing.”  Andrew Luck loved fans when he was thundering down the field.  Off the field, he coveted privacy and quiet.  Fans felt likewise.

The rain that came with the announcement of his retirement cleared very quickly.

That’s the cruel truth of the NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS, and NHL.  Fans love the players when they are playing (and winning).  When players are done, they are shuffled out of our minds just as teams shuffle them off the roster.

Jacoby Brissett is the quarterback for the Colts, and fans have been pleased with his play during his first three games.  He hasn’t authored any signature comebacks, but he also hasn’t put the Colts in a position where he needed to.

The Colts have quickly evolved into a ground and pound team that runs first and throws as a change of pace.  It’s worked very nicely.  Brissett’s passer rating is 112 and his QBR is 63.4.  We are still very early in the season, but Luck’s best passer rating in six seasons was last season’s 98.7.  His average QBR in six seasons was 62.8.

Some are asking whether the Colts are better off with Brissett than they would have been with Luck.  That’s a media question that has no answer.  What is known is this: the Colts are 2-1, and Brissett has thrown only one interception.

We’ll never know what this Colts team might have been with Luck instead of Brissett, and no one in Indianapolis cares much about that as they cheer for a team that appears still to be as good as anyone in the AFC South.

The quarterback is dead.  Long live the quarterback.

Luck moved on.  And just a month later, so has Indianapolis.

Bill Self needs to be the example the NCAA uses to scare coaches into compliance #RockChalk

Bill Self better tighten his toupee. It’s going to be a bumpy year.

Rock, Chalk, the NCAA needs to walk the walk!!

If the NCAA doesn’t bring down a hammer on University of Kansas Basketball and coach Bill Self, the rule book should be shredded and burned.

A Notice of Allegations from the NCAA was delivered to Kansas yesterday.  Among the Level 1 charges – a lack of institutional control and head coach responsibility violations.

Text messages between former Adidas consultant T.J. Gassnola and Self were entered into evidence during Gassnola’s federal trial.  The texts from Self can be interpreted as obvious requests for Adidas to provide recruits to Kansas one way or another.

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Self never straight out says, “Get $90,000 to Billy Preston’s mother and another $20,000 to Silvio DeSousa’s guardian,” but the inference can be easily made that he was at least aware of the efforts being made by Adidas to compel recruits to commit and sign with the Jayhawks.

Kansas and Self are denying everything – not a surprise.  The only big name programs to suffer major consequences for NCAA violations have been those who self-reported their violations and reduced their own programs to rubble.  Those who deny and fight have been successful in dodging bullets – or at least forcing the NCAA to alter its aim from a head shot to a flesh wound.

The NCAA has made a lot of noise over the last three years about cleaning up college basketball.  President Mark Emmert convened a committee whose sole purpose was to cleanse college hoops of rule breakers.  Well, here’s an opportunity to get serious, and set things straight.

Any tool can bring do-gooders to Indianapolis for meetings, but the man or woman who begins the real process of demanding compliance in college basketball will have to successfully take on a big time coach at a big time program to send a clear message.

That coach is Bill Self and the program is Kansas.

The real question is not whether Emmert wants to clean up college hoops.  It’s whether university presidents who represent NCAA member institutions are willing to temporarily diminish the popularity of the game by making an honest effort to enforce rules that few outside of Indianapolis believe in.

Is bringing meaningful consequences for those who ignore NCAA rules worth destroying programs that violate them?  That’s the question.

The answer to that question will determine what happens to Kansas and Self, as well as Arizona and its coach Sean Miller and others named during testimony during the trials that saw multiple shoe guys convicted.

If NCAA membership has the stomach to demand member programs follow the rules, Self will get the head shot – a one-year suspension or a show cause order.  If not, he skates with a flesh wound – a nine-game suspension and the loss of a couple of scholarships for a year or two.

At the very minimum, fans and media will find out once and for all whether the NCAA’s membership is truly committed to respecting its own rules.  If they don’t hammer Self and Kansas, I’m done fretting about the punishment of wrongdoers.

Even if the NCAA doesn’t have the stones to either take its own rules seriously or change them to reflect reality, I’m going to wash my hands of them and simply watch kids play with the understanding that some programs buy players – and that greed governs college basketball.

 

Changes coming for Cubs as the end of the road for Joe Maddon nears

Barring a miracle, Joe Maddon will manage the Cubs for another six games.

The 2019 Chicago Cubs are playing da baseball because neither fun nor mental describe their efforts through 156 games.

Six games remain and the Cubs still have a slim chance of playing in the postseason, but aren’t optimistic after watching them lose their last five games by a single run.

Just three years ago the Cubs won their first World Series since 1908. The celebration lasted months and the hangover has continued since.

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In 2016 manager Joe Maddon was the toast of Binny’s Beverage Depot as the wily leader who broke the monotony of road trips by mandating players travel in costumes.  Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Jay Baez, and Addison Russell were assumed to be future hall of famers entering their prime.  John Lackey came to Chicago for something other than a haircut.  And fans believed they were embarking upon an era of annual celebrations that would make up for the endless decades of disappointment.

Not so fast.

The costumes got old, Russell terrorized his wife, Lackey retired and dynamic ballplayers plateaued without reaching greatness.  Hitting and pitching coaches have been hired and fired annually, and players going through the motions became a hard habit to break.

Maddon will be allowed to drift away as his contract expires at the end of the regular season.  His leadership has run its course with this roster, and it’s a lot easier to change the leader than the players.  Tension between Maddon and team president Theo Epstein has escalated.  That strain will be resolved in Epstein’s favor because Theo sure as hell isn’t going to fire himself.

Players will be moved as well.  Who?  That’s anyone’s guess.  Kris Bryant is always the subject of rumors because his agent is well known for seeking the highest bidder for his free agent clients.  There is no such thing as a hometown discount to Scott Boras.  He’ll negotiate a crazy deal with someone willing to overpay for his contributions.  Bryant is two seasons away from free agency, so his value will never be higher.

The Cubs have committed the second most errors in the National League and lead all of baseball in base running blunders.  Whoever the next manager is – he will be expected to clean that up.

Pitching at every level has been an issue as well.  The bullpen has blown 28 saves (tied for 4th most in baseball) and the starters have been uneven all year.  Jon Lester and Cole Hamels are in the twilight of their stellar careers.  Upgrades are needed everywhere.

Getting to the top of the mountain is hard.  Staying there is the real test of a champion.  With one of the most stable rosters in baseball over the past five seasons, these Cubs are in the end stage of failing that test for the final time.

Best part of youth basketball comes when a team is all grown up

Youth basketball is about friendship – not stats, cash and wins.

Youth basketball is not broken.  It’s alive, well and thriving.

Team USA finished seventh in the World Cup earlier this month, and coaches and fans point to youth basketball as one of the primary reasons for that failure.  Oh sure, the point of kids playing basketball is to win championships.

Tens of thousands of boys and young men play basketball, and the entirety of that fun is devalued by the result of 12 grown men playing in Japan

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Representatives from Nike, Adidas and Under Armour spend a lot of time at summer basketball tournaments establishing relationships with highly ranked players and families, and then funnel cash to the families.  Because of that, the NCAA established absurd restrictions for teams and college coaches who might recruit some of the kids.

Thousands play, dozens are paid and and youth basketball is treated like a toxic endeavor that requires a deep scrubbing.

The problem is not in youth basketball, but in the metrics used to evaluate it.

I was a guest as Kyle Miller married Ellie Lowe late Saturday afternoon.  Kyle is my son’s best friend, and that friendship began in youth basketball.  Kyle invited several other former high school and summer teammates and parents.  The former players are all fine young men whose character was partially shaped through youth basketball.

Some of the guys played in college.  Others didn’t.  At this point none of that matters.  Friendship mattered on Saturday, not missed shots, blown defensive assignments, or moving screens.  Nobody dribbled off his foot.  Friendship is measured in love and laughs, not in field goal percentage.

Kyle Miller met my son at an elementary school ice cream social prior to fourth grade.  He’d just moved into our neighborhood, and his dad, Mike, was the basketball coach at Lawrence Central High School.  Mike put together a youth team and invited my son to play.  For the next eight years, Kyle and Ryan were teammates.

When Ryan got married, Kyle was his best man.  Saturday, Ryan stood as Kyle’s best man.  That’s youth basketball at work.

Yeah, parents are way too wrapped up in their sons’ immediate results.  They think way too much about scholarships and potential pro careers.  They’re looking for shoe reps who might think enough of their sons to funnel giant sacks of cash to them in exchange for his playing on their brand’s summer team.

Their eyes are on the wrong prize just as the NCAA is focused on all the wrong details as they assert rules and regulations for all based upon the greed of the few.

The real dividend from youth basketball at every level comes 10 or more years later as friends gather to celebrate a wedding like Kyle’s, mourn a loss, start a business together or simply share an afternoon.

It’s about friendship – not winning and losing.

Youth basketball teaches cooperation among peers, respect for authority, demands hard work and builds lasting relationships.  Kids prepare, compete, evaluate, adjust, and compete again.  Sounds a lot like what adults do in their professions, doesn’t it?

Tell me what’s wrong with any of that.

It would be great to see parents relax their greedy impulses, for coaches to teach the game instead of focusing only upon the result, and for 12-year-olds to understand they are unlikely to play in the NBA.  But that would require a rewiring of the basic impulses of flawed people.  Attacking the system won’t fix them, but maybe showing the results of childhoods spent immersed in youth basketball could.

I wish every youth basketball player and parent could have attended Kyle and Ellie’s wedding.  That might have fixed the whole thing.

Justice is served as Rick Pitino settles his lawsuit against Louisville for $0

Former Louisville coach Rick Pitino will now get to pretend he resigned.

I love justice.  The moments when justice happens seem few and far between, but that only makes them more enjoyable.

When former basketball coach Rick Pitino sued the University of Louisville for more than $35-million in a wrongful termination lawsuit, I feared U of L might be forced to pay something to their ex-coach whose program obliterated the line that separates appropriate from the idiotic. Settling a suit can be the right road for risk-averse defendants.

Remember how he crossed the line?

Pitino’s staff made cash payments to the father of a recruit, and hired strippers and prostitutes for team parties.  Worse, those parties included high school recruits and their male family members.

This was a rogue operation that required a moral cleansing at a molecular level, so Pitino was fired and his athletic director had to go too.

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Louisville showed backbone as it countersued Pitino.  They weren’t going to backpedal and stroke a check to make Pitino go away.  I loved it.

Yesterday, I was thrilled when the announcement came there was a settlement between Pitino and the school because Pitino walked away with only a change in the cause of his removal.  Pitino’s record with the Cardinals now cites resignation instead of terminated as the reason for his leaving.

Fine.  He quit, according to the file.  Anyone not suffering from dementia knows exactly what happened.  Pitino lost control of his program, was outed by Katina Powell – the ringleader of the strippers – and an Adidas shoe rep.  He was told “pack a box.”

The only news that would make this resolution more fun would be if he had to go into his pocket six-figures deep to pay his attorneys.

Pitino is the embodiment of all that’s wrong with college basketball.  His program cheated like hell because he had no fear of the NCAA – the organization tasked with preserving the appearance of fair play.  Pitino was about money and wins.  That narrow and self-indulgent focus brought championships and amorality to the University of Louisville.

In the end, it was a tell-all book by Powell and a federal investigation of shoe company influence in college basketball recruiting that brought him down.  Pitino’s lack of fear of the NCAA was smart business, but he overlooked the fact that doing wrong can have a consequence, even when an oversight organization is toothless.

Pitino is an ends-justify-the-means culprit who has been driven from college basketball at the tail end of a very lucrative career.  I’m sure he feels picked upon as one of many who scoff at recruiting rules.  He has his boat, mansion, and wealth.  But his good name is gone forever, as it should be.

Almost two years after being fired, Pitino settled for the right to pretend he resigned.  Good for him.  Great for college basketball.