Advertisement
football Edit

McCready: 10 Weekend Thoughts presented by Harry Alexander

10 Weekend Thoughts is sponsored by Oxford-based RE/MAX Legacy Realty agent Harry Alexander. No one knows the Oxford condo and residential market better than Harry. Contact Harry at ha@harryalexander.com.
10 Weekend Thoughts is sponsored by Oxford-based RE/MAX Legacy Realty agent Harry Alexander. No one knows the Oxford condo and residential market better than Harry. Contact Harry at ha@harryalexander.com.
Former Drake center Dominik Olejniczak defends in a game against Nevada last season. Olejniczak announced his intention to transfer to Ole Miss Sunday.
Former Drake center Dominik Olejniczak defends in a game against Nevada last season. Olejniczak announced his intention to transfer to Ole Miss Sunday.
USA TODAY

1. Ole Miss’ basketball staff spent much of Sunday entertaining 2017 forward RaiQuan Gray on an unofficial visit. Gray, a Rivals150 prospect with quite the offer sheet, has the Rebels, Auburn, Kansas State and Virginia Tech in his top four. Insiders believe the 6-foot-8 Gray could end up in Oxford, adding his signature to an already impressive class.

While the Rebels wait for a decision from Gray, they got good news Sunday when former Drake center Dominik Olejniczak announced on Instagram that he will transfer to Ole Miss.

Olejniczak (pronounced O-la-knee-check), a 7-footer from Poland, chose Ole Miss over Florida, Florida State, California and Colorado. He said on Instagram he decided Ole Miss “will be the best fit for me as a player, student and person. I wanted to than all coaches who have recruited me over (the) last month.”

Olejniczak will have to sit out the 2016-17 season and then have three seasons of eligibility beginning with the 2017-18 season. Quietly, Andy Kennedy and Co. appear to be assembling a very talented roster to play in The Pavilion at Ole Miss. The Rebels are certainly in on a different caliber of prospect since the opening of their new arena.

Olejniczak made 72.2 percent of his shots from the floor as a freshman at Drake. He is in Poland right now preparing to play for his native country’s U20 team.

Advertisement

2. I know the topic is all the rage, but I’ll be honest: I’m tiring of some of the speculation and rumors surrounding the NCAA investigation into Ole Miss’ program. Every word anyone says is parsed. Worse yet, every word anyone doesn’t say is parsed. Hugh Freeze’s request to be dropped from Lindsey Miller’s civil suit against Laremy Tunsil was very likely standard operating procedure in legal matters such as that one. Is it the greatest look from a public relations standpoint? No, but Freeze’s desire to limit the scope of questioning or to keep his answers locked away from the NCAA isn’t an admission of guilt either.

I’ll be honest. I’m tired of talking about it. At some point, the NCAA’s Notice of Allegations is going to become a public document. So will Ole Miss’ response. It’s my personal opinion that schools don’t get the benefit of the doubt for cooperating with the NCAA, so they might as well lawyer up and fight like hell. However, I don’t have a legal degree, haven’t spent much time studying the minutia of recent NCAA cases and, most importantly, no one at Ole Miss has asked for my opinion.

If the sanctions are light, the strategy to stay quiet and cooperate fully will be proven to be a good one and all of the barbs from media and rivals won’t matter. If the sanctions are heavy, reporters like me will ask about that strategy and fans such as those of you reading this column will be more than a little interested in those answers.

For now, though, no one’s talking and there doesn’t appear to be any aggressive investigation into the draft night accessing of Tunsil’s social media account. The truth, whatever it is, will eventually come to the surface. Until then, the constant gnashing of teeth over this subject is getting a little old, at least in my opinion.

Ole Miss' Henri Lartigue arrives at home plate after hitting a game-winning home run Saturday against Kentucky. Lartigue and the Rebels close out the regular season this week at Texas A&M.
Ole Miss' Henri Lartigue arrives at home plate after hitting a game-winning home run Saturday against Kentucky. Lartigue and the Rebels close out the regular season this week at Texas A&M.
Josh McCoy/Ole Miss Athletics

3. It would be an upset, at least to my thinking, if there’s not postseason baseball at Swayze Field. Ole Miss made sure of that over the weekend, at least in my opinion, by sweeping Kentucky in Oxford over the weekend.

Suddenly, Ole Miss (39-13 overall, 17-10 in the Southeastern Conference) is in another discussion. Can the Rebels work their way into a national seed, meaning their road to Omaha and the College World Series would go through Oxford? I’ll leave that to more informed college baseball minds than mine, but if the Rebels were to win a game or two at Texas A&M this week, almost certainly securing a top-five RPI in the process, I’m not sure how the tournament selection committee could bypass them.

Virginia celebrates after winning the College World Series last June.
Virginia celebrates after winning the College World Series last June.
USA TODAY

4. Along those lines, however, we are almost to the time of year that the committee does its thing, passing out 16 regional sites. I don’t have many pet peeves, but the NCAA’s desire to “grow” sports through the tournament bugs the hell out of me.

If seven or eight SEC teams deserve to host, let them host. If five or six SEC teams get to Omaha, cool. Omaha’s steakhouses will be packed, and their baseball stadium will be lively. The same holds for the Big 12, the ACC or the Pac-12. Baseball is big in those leagues, and if there is a heavy representation from one or two of those leagues among the 16 host sites, so be it. Make the bids merit based and let the chips fall where they may.

I was in Minneapolis once for an NCAA men’s basketball tournament. There was a hockey doubleheader in town that Friday night, if I recall correctly, and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ home arena was packed with college hockey fans. No one is clamoring for the NCAA to “grow” hockey to the South or the Southwest, nor should they be. If I want to watch college hockey, give me Minnesota-Duluth versus Boston College or Harvard versus Michigan all day.

Far too often, the NCAA tries to reinvent the proverbial wheel. Put the regionals in Oxford and Starkville and Baton Rouge and College Station and Columbia and Gainesville and Nashville and reward the players actually playing in the tournament with experiences they’ll always remember. If all those host teams advance, OK. If they don’t, it’ll be because some team(s) put together a weekend that will bond them for decades.

I’ll get off my soapbox now.

5. The Rivals Camp Series finished up Sunday in Kansas City. Soon, all of the satellite camps will get started, as will the Rivals Five-Star Challenge, The Opening and all of the summer camp circuits. In other words, media outlets such as these should get some face-to-face time with prospects over the next couple of months.

By then, conceivably, we are going to know much more about the specifics of Ole Miss’ case. I’m certainly hoping we do. That way, we will be able to ask recruits questions regarding the specificity of allegations to see how _ or if _ those allegations will impact their respective decisions.

If, for whatever reason, there is no news between now and those camps, we are going to have to ask ambiguous questions to recruits that could produce answers that are obsolete at any given time.

Toronto's Patrick Patterson shoots over Miami's Justice Winslow Sunday in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Patterson and the Raptors won, earning a matchup with Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals starting this week in Ohio.
Toronto's Patrick Patterson shoots over Miami's Justice Winslow Sunday in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Patterson and the Raptors won, earning a matchup with Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals starting this week in Ohio.
USA TODAY

6. For the first time in franchise history, the Toronto Raptors have advanced to the Eastern Conference finals. The Raptors earned that distinction Sunday by blowing out the Miami Heat, 116-89, in Game 7 of the conference semifinals in Toronto. The Raptors will face LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference finals beginning Tuesday in Cleveland.


Most will write off the Raptors' chances, but I'm telling you, as a guy who probably watched a ton of Toronto games (I have no life; I watch a lot of NBA), the Cavaliers are not a sure thing to dispatch of the Raptors with ease in this series.


Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan are top-15 NBA players, legitimate stars who have turned the Raptors into a perennial playoff club. DeMarre Carroll is an elite defender, one who can make James work. Patrick Patterson and Bismack Biyombo will get rebounds and block shots, and Toronto is an excellent team at home that won two of its three games with the Cavaliers in the regular season.


However, Cleveland makes 14 3-pointers per game, six more than the Raptors average. That's a problem. Toronto will likely start the series without injured center Jonas Valanciunas (ankle), and that's a bigger problem. Ultimately, the Raptors' biggest problem is the Cavaliers have James and they don't. Cleveland will win, but I hope you enjoy watching the Raptors as much as I have this season.


My pick: Cavaliers in 5

Golden State's Steph Curry takes a shot during the Warriors' Game 5 win over Portland in the Western Conference semifinals. Curry and the Warriors face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals beginning Monday in Oakland, Calif.
Golden State's Steph Curry takes a shot during the Warriors' Game 5 win over Portland in the Western Conference semifinals. Curry and the Warriors face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals beginning Monday in Oakland, Calif.
USA TODAY

7. The Western Conference semifinal series everyone (well, almost everyone) wanted and expected all season is not going to happen. Golden State did its part, knocking off Portland in five games, to advance to the conference finals. San Antonio, however, fell to Oklahoma City in six games, finally looking as old as we all have thought they’d look over the past few years.

I’m biased, admittedly, but I’ll submit a Thunder-Warriors series is sexier than the one all of the hoops purists clamored for. Oklahoma City can match the Warriors’ athleticism. The Thunder has a deep team, elite scorers and, having now played in four Western Conference finals in the past six years, won’t be intimidated by the stage.

I look for Billy Donovan to eschew the popular strategy of going small against the Warriors’ deadly pick-and-roll offense. Instead, I expect to see two of the Thunder’s three bigs _ Serge Ibaka, Enes Kanter and Steven Adams _ on the floor at all times, challenging the Warriors to keep Andrew Bogut or Festus Ezeli on the floor and thereby limiting Steve Kerr’s use of the Warriors’ deadly small-ball lineup.

The Thunder are playing their best basketball since 2013 (pre-Russell Westbrook’s injury), and I don’t think the Warriors are playing at pre-Curry injury levels at this moment. In other words, I expect a scintillating series.

My pick: Warriors in 7

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops looks on during the Sooners' spring game last month in Norman, Okla.
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops looks on during the Sooners' spring game last month in Norman, Okla.
USA TODAY

8. Speaking of Oklahoma, the state’s flagship university could soon have a major impact on the face of college athletics. As Chadd Scott of GridironNow.com wrote (and talked about on Friday’s Oxford Exxon podcast), developments in the Big 12 could draw the SEC back into conference expansion discussions.


Oklahoma’s administration has beaten its chest in recent months about the need for the Big 12 to expand to 12 teams (Hey, who isn’t fired up to watch Cincinnati and Kansas State play in Big 12 action?) or form a conference TV network (Texas likely isn’t willing to forego the Longhorn Network and suddenly share its fortune). In other words, many believe Oklahoma is greasing the skids to bolt on its Big 12 brethren.

When and if Oklahoma is on the market, the Sooners’ brand is too attractive for a league to simply pass on expansion to avoid the chaos that inevitably comes with it. The SEC would want Oklahoma. So would the Big Ten. It would be one hell of a recruiting war, one that could swing the balance of power in one direction or the other.

My prediction, by the way: Oklahoma and Kansas are bound for the Big Ten, with the academic reputations of those institutions beating out the athletic sexiness of the SEC.

Oxford's Carson McCready (white jersey, orange shoes) works against two defenders from Jackson in the President's Cup (U9 division) state tournament in Columbus Sunday. Jackson won, something to 1, though McCready scored the 1, his fourth goal of the tournament. For those of you wanting bias, there's some serious freaking bias.
Oxford's Carson McCready (white jersey, orange shoes) works against two defenders from Jackson in the President's Cup (U9 division) state tournament in Columbus Sunday. Jackson won, something to 1, though McCready scored the 1, his fourth goal of the tournament. For those of you wanting bias, there's some serious freaking bias.
Neal McCready
Scarlett Johansson plays the role of The Black Widow in Captain America: Civil War
Scarlett Johansson plays the role of The Black Widow in Captain America: Civil War

9. I spent most of the weekend in Columbus, Miss., watching Carson’s Oxford Soccer Club U9 team compete in the President’s Cup state tournament. His team went 1-2, beating Tupelo but losing to Starkville and some team from the Jackson area that was STACKED. Anyway, he scored four goals and added a pair of assists, played well and enjoyed his weekend.

Anyway, between games Saturday, we went to see Captain America: Civil War. I have so many questions. Do I need to go back and watch previous Captain America movies to understand the 2 ½ hours of movie I just watched? Are the Marvel superheroes divided forever? What was up with the frozen people? Who is Emily VanCamp and where has she been my whole life? Did anyone else think Scarlett Johansson was thinking of me when she stared into the camera in her role as the Black Widow? Anyway, help.

Oklahoma City's Steven Adams dunks over a pair of San Antonio defenders in the Thunder's Game 6, series-clinching win over the Spurs on Thursday in Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma City's Steven Adams dunks over a pair of San Antonio defenders in the Thunder's Game 6, series-clinching win over the Spurs on Thursday in Oklahoma City.
USA TODAY

10. Here are some links for your reading enjoyment, if you're interested. Have a lovely week.


Oklahoma City's Steven Adams and Golden State's Andrew Bogut will go at each other in the Western Conference finals, but Adams won't talk trash. Why not?


Speaking of Adams, here's a deep dive into his transformation from an oversized kid in New Zealand to one of the NBA's fast-rising defensive stars.


Arizona's Paul Goldschmidt is struggling so far this season and no one is exactly sure why. Plenty of people are offering theories though.


The Kansas City Royals are trying to break out of their World Series hangover.


Stephen Strasburg's contract extension with the Washington Nationals could dramatically impact the rest of the pitching market.


The untold story of Aldo Gucci's secret love child


How Reche Caldwell googled his way from the Patriots to prison.


Speaking of the Patriots, what does Rob Gronkowski think of the Madden cover curse?


Additional MLB suspensions point to possible explanation.



Advertisement