letabrotherspeak

Texas d-line dominated Bengals o-line. Ballgame. Texans played two safeties high and you have to be able to run the ball. Bengals couldn't establish the run and partly they struggled because they got behind the chains on second down due to penalties and misses on throws. Eifert had three big drops. Green is still soft. Andy wasn't all that sharp, but he is not at fault. Bengals defense was good. Offensive play calling was too cute in the first half. Reverse call inside the 20 was dumb. Second half they could never get field position. Its the NFL...games like this happen except to the Patriots. I fully expect them to play way better in Arizona Sunday Night.

More and more people flipping from NCST to UK. This may be legit and if he does pull for UK, it will be one of Cal's biggest coups.

Bam Adebayo announcing tomorrow. There seems to be some late heat coming in for UK for this one. I wonder if this is more of a smokescreen and the pick is going to be NCState? His buddy is going there in Dennis Smith and NCState has long thought to be the leader. Some feel his handlers may want him to go to UK. We shall see...

Gosh darn...Rosie Jones is smoke. That being said the Bearcats are really good. I pulled up their non-con schedule and it looks like it should be easily traversed with only Butler and Xavier posing stiff competition.

Defense was fine today. Actually should have had a shutout. Stoops is in over his head. His staff is in over their heads. He will get another year or two, but new shiny objects at Commonwealth, catchy slogans and slick videos aren't going to keep putting fannies in the seats. Only winning will. He has to get some veterans in to help him out. Stoops is too emotional on the sideline and the disorganization on the sidelines is certainly noticeable. Clock management is a real issue as well. I don't know what they want to do on offense and now it has dwarfed into a quarterback competition in the waning days of the season. The heat is going to turn up and his first foray into it, he was not good in handling it. Matt Jones asked him about the perceived disorganization on the sidelines and he became very defensive over it. Today it was in full bloom. Vanderbilt is a bad team, and all they had to do was play a clean game and score 14 or 17 points and they leave Nashville with a win. They will be lucky to have 35k in the seats next Saturday night.

I have heard that Jackson's mom is wacko. In general the class is LOADED! Cats may just go full tilt on Monk and call it a day for they recruiting year.

The defense got shredded in the first half, but played rather well in the second half. Offensively, they just made too many mistakes in the Red Zone. They get it at 2nd and 4 and with momentum and get a substitution infraction and backs them up to 2nd and 9 and settle for a FG. In the first half, they had the missed PI and then Towels locks onto Baker and throws a pick in the end zone when he had Johnson wide open. Just a little gripe on Towles...he really locks onto receivers and doesn't seem to go through his progressions with ease. Could be he doesn't trust his line or just struggles with it. Stoops still has his hiccups as a coach. The 8 men on the field on the punt was ridiculous. Everyone ranting on the draw play. I can live with it. They were bringing a blitz and had two safeties deep. Boom just got tripped up. He gets through that tackle he runs for 10 plus. First down and stops the clock. But the next play you have to go for the first down. You really can't go deep, in my opinion, because you can't lose sight of getting chunks of yardage to get into FG range. We need to realize that UK is silly young of offense and still trying to develop SEC caliber DL. Give Aubie credit, they made plays when they needed to. The bye week did them some good and got their QB some reps and they finally developed a passing game. They were highly ranked and have some talent. Cats had their chances, but they are making strides.

Charlie Strong would have been a candidate in my opinion if things didn't get better at Texas. The Oklahoma win helped put some salve on the wound. South Carolina does not have a great history of success until OBC arrived.

Dr. Ramsey will go before Pitino is kicked to the curb. Plausible deniability is out the window anymore for head coaches. He will get a suspension and they may also get a post season ban but he won't be fired.

The one getting most heat right now is Marques Bolden. He was on campus this past weekend and Cal returned to see him at home yesterday I believe. I agree with Fox being the next verbal. Cal is also working Bam Adebayo. It will be hard to get him from NC State, but it is getting interesting. It is seems to trigger that Cal will look to sign 6 players. If he were to pull Fox, Monk, Adebayo and Bolden to go with SKJ and Gabriel...holy smokes you will have Cal's best class.

I don't think Pitino goes anywhere, but if they self-impose a one year post season ban you may see Jurich dance with Texas regarding their AD position. If Pitino were to leave I would imagine a Mick Cronin, Chris Mack type would be on the list. I agree with Sean Miller being at the top of the list if and when Cal goes.

Jerry Meyer still really likes UK for Bridges. He has held that stance even after others started drifting back towards MSU. Getting that elite wing has been Cal's weakest recruiting area. He has missed on the Stanley Johnson's of the world. He got MKG and that is really it off the top of my head in regards to getting elite wing type players. Honestly, that position has probably cost them a couple of titles. It's the missing piece in their talent collection.

Kids that come from challenged backgrounds need structure and crave structure. Is it wrong to expect kids to show up to practice everyday?

Silly talk regarding Coach Nevels. A few years ago they had a coach in Terry Liggin who totally neglected middle school through JV programs. The numbers from that group are working themselves out. Last year they only had a couple of seniors. This year they have a decent core of seniors who are very tough minded kids. They have been in every game this year and could have been undefeated going into tonight. They play clean and very hard and that is a reflection on Coach Nevels and staff. They may not have great numbers but they get after it. The numbers game can be attributed to the transient population of the student body. There are roughly 400 boys in the school and a good chunk over the course of 2-3 years aren't there anymore. When you have a limited group to choose from in numbers you need kids that play multiple sports. Unfortunately, there are not many who play more than one sport. They have zero feeder programs other than what they get from their middle school. There is no direct line from the peewee leagues. I have heard the staff has done clinics at the elementary level, trying to establish flag football leagues and such. Once they get a turf field, and develop from middle school up, I think you will see the numbers go up.

Have heard that Cal may now be favoring De'Aaron Fox and Dennis Smith Jr at the point guard spot for next year. Some have floated even possibly selling Malik Monk at the PG position.

In last week's Sports Illustrated they did a feature on players who had iconic baseball cards. Oscar Gamble was one of them. He was ordered by Steinbrenner to get his hair cut after the Boss saw that card or the picture that led to the card. He was to do a commercial for hair company and Steinbrenner said he didn't care he had to cut it. Steinbrenner paid for the commercial fee and haircut which was like $87.

I'm not sure about any of it and haven't tried anything. I was just wondering what all of the fuss about it was. It seems to be that if you eat health and exercise there wouldn't be a need to pay for this product.

I have gotten peppered with a few people trying to get me involved in Advocare. Has anyone tried it? Gotten results? Overall thoughts?

I think the Reds did very well with what they got in return. They weren't signing Cueto and they need to restock the system with promising talent, especially promising arms. I think they have done this. I really like Finnegan and hope they can stretch him out to being a starter. Lamb was making a push to hit the Royals rotation this season and I can see him sliding into the starting five before they finish the year. With Reed, you get a power lefty and those are hard to find. I have no qualms with this trade and applaud Walt and Company of finally pulling the trigger and hopefully setting course for an actual direction and not just drifting. I do hope they hold on to Bruce unless they get an offer that knocks their socks off, because he is under their control and is relatively cheap. Everyone else is fair game. We will miss Cueto because he was an integral part of the team finally hitting its stride and into the playoffs and for the Reds an actual homegrown prospect. Its tough to see him go but he will be back as a member of the Reds Hall of Fame.

It is Holmes's Complex now since they bought it from the city last year or the year before. I would imagine that Holy Cross will get to use the field, but probably not near to the extent of what they had in the past. That is just a guess. From what I have heard the field was created as a dual purpose facility and the outfield is segmented into 5 yards and this will allow the football team to use the field for practice, if need be, for this year at least because the school is evidently close to raising the funds needed to turf their football field. The frosh and middle school teams could also use the field as well. The marching band will also be able to use the facility as will their softball teams and it sets up well for the school to have intramurals. It also gives the city a place to hold events as well, since they pretty much have allowed most of their recreational facilities to wither on the vine. I believe these fields have fairly strict guidelines to allow for longer lasting turf.

Does he have custody of his daughter? From all accounts he is tremendously close to his daughter and not that any parent would not be close to their kids, but is that a tug to keep him close to the area? I know that this was a factor for Donnie Tyndall but as his daughters got older he could get a little further away.

From the bits and pieces that I have read about the 2016 class, is that it is LOADED. Some think that Duke is in a prime position for the top kids in the 2016 and 2017 classes but that both are so deep, that many teams will have great hauls. Interesting to see that Tatum is somewhat trending for the Billikens. I think that Simmons seems to be the best shot that UK has for an early verbal. What are their chances with Monk? Can they get him out of Arkansas?

Adidas is leaking oil and are trying too hard to be flashy and catchy. They bombed with the sleeve basketball uniforms and more or less opted out of the NBA contract. They are falling behind in outfitting prominent college programs. Under Armour will pass them soon, if they haven't already. Tennessee has moved on and I think the Michigan uniform supplier is up for bid. We know UC has gone to UA and wasn't Notre Dame with Adidas before moving to UA? As for these new UL uniforms, the actual uniform is not that bad but the helmet and shoes are an abomination. I think of the Miami OH Redhawks when I see the bird on the helmet and the shoes look like they have chickens on them. UL's unis were fantastic the last few years other than the Kingpin Bowling Bowl black helmets they had.

The Lannister's now have the heir to Dorne in their possession. Jon Snow will be making his way back in some form or fashion. I think we are seeing the whole R + L= J play out. A little King's Blood flowing heavily at the very end. His death allows him to escape or rid his tie to the Night's Watch? Dany is in familiar land with rivals or will she be accepted? Cersi will unleash her vengeance next season? A lot of cliffhangers and a long wait until next year.

This is one game where I think UK will miss Poythress. He would be the ideal matchup for Dekker on defense. Dekker is likely one guy they really have no answer for with his skill and size. WCS can do some but ideally a long 3 man would be nice and Lyles could draw that assignment as well. UK really struggled with ND on ball screens, in particular Towns who was awful but you had to stick with him because of the offense he was giving you. Against ND UK was so concerned about running ND off the three point line that they gave up too much dribble penetration. ND has better drivers than Wisky, but Wisky is bigger and has a couple of iso threats. UK's bugaboo was with penetrating guards once they spaced them out. Against ND and Wisky, WCS had/will play away from the basket. The Cats will have to communicate better and not get caught up on rear screens all night in the swing offense. Wisky is not going to hurt you putting it on the deck and driving it, but will get more open shots from spacing and movement. UK will have to man the defensive boards better than they have recently. ND was much more aggressive on the offensive glass than normal considering they were not a great offensive rebounding team. Wisky is not that good of an offensive rebounding team either. They are more inclined to fall back and not get beat in transition. Defense is one thing, but UK is going to have to be more in attack mode than they were against ND. Penetration will open up the offensive glass for UK. On offense, UK is going to have to force the issue and make Wisky defend. Both Oregon and UNC did a pretty good job of pressuring Wisky in the halfcourt with drives and such. You are more inclined to hurt Wisky on defense by spreading them out and attacking. KAT is going to have to stay out of foul trouble, but luckily UK can rotate bigs on Kaminsky. Frank the Tank struggled with UK's size last year. In my opinion, it is going to come down to who can win the guard battles. Harrison's, Ulis and Booker versus Koenig, Gasser and Jackson. Can UK get into Wisky's legs by the 5 minute mark of the second half? I think you saw some signs of fatigue with ND down the stretch. Can UK's depth wear them down? I like UK by 4.