Monday
March 18, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3496


i've been telling you...


As far as golf tournament finishes go, that one in Florida yesterday was hard to beat.

Huge gallery on hand at the final green.

One man, left standing, with a 15-foot putt to win the whole thing.

And he rolls it in, much to the delight of the partisan crowd on hand.

"That's what champions do," said former President Donald Trump after he made the putt that earned him another club championship.

My guess is somewhere along the way over the final 18 holes yesterday, the former President broke a rule or two. But a win is a win, right?

OK, enough of the shenanigans. Let's talk about real golf and real triumph now.

The final 2 hours of yesterday's Players Championship was about as riveting as professional golf can get.

I love golf, obviously, and I'm the first guy to admit that most of the PGA Tour schedule runs together like a bad Beatles album. They aren't "awful" tournaments or anything like that. But a lot of the regular events are played on golf courses that just don't yield a lot of drama and high tension.

Make it 8 wins in 25 months for Scottie Scheffler after yesterday's stirring back nine rally and one-shot win at The Players Championship.

There's no arguing about yesterday's piece of property, though, or the excitement The Players seems to provide on an annual basis. It's the Masters without the green jacket, the PGA without the big trophy, the U.S. Open without the legacy and the British Open without the Claret Jug.

The Players Championship is golf's "5th major", even if the history books don't cement it as such. 20-under par was the winning score yesterday and no one seemed to care. If they tightened up the fairways by 20%, 10-under would be the winning score. TPC Sawgrass is a gem of a golf course, that's for sure.

And the player who won is certainly, now, starting to create a position for himself in the sport of golf that hasn't been seen since Tiger Woods circa 2000.

Scottie Scheffler is the best golfer on planet Earth.

I've won a tournament or three in my life. I've been the best player in my neighorhood and that felt great. I have no idea what it feels like, though, to be the golfer on the entire planet. That must be some kind of emotional high.

At one point on the back nine during Saturday's third round, Scheffler sat at 9-under par and trailed leader Wyndham Clark by 8 shots. Winning the tournament was starting to look like a mountain he couldn't climb.

Scheffler ran off three birdies to end his round and finish at 12-under, trailing eventual 54-hole leader Xander Schauffele by 5 shots.

And then, yesterday, he capped off one of the best finishes in tournament history with a blistering final round of 64, including a birdie at #16, a remarkable two-putt par at #17 and a fairway/green/two-putt at the final hole that firmly applied pressure to Schauffele and Clark.

Both of those guys stuck with it and had a chance for a playoff at the final hole, but it didn't materialize. Schauffele hit a whiffy drive on the 18th and couldn't get the ball close enough to have a legitimate birdie putt and Clark's attempt to create a playoff with Scheffler lipped out in shocking fashion.

"Cruelty on the 18th" was the Sirius/XM description as Clark's tying putt dove into the hole and spun out to give Scheffler his 8th career win.

Gritty Brian Harman also had a chance to make the playoff but his 18-foot putt at the last hole wouldn't drop. Much to the delight of "some of us" here at #DMD, Harman finished T2 at 19-under par and continues to show that last July's British Open triumph wasn't an outlier.

When the dust settled, it was Scheffler at 20-under with a second straight Players title, something that's never been done before.

I wrote this here last week and it rings even more true this morning: Scheffler's play over the last two years is the closest thing we've seen to Tiger in the last two decades.

What he did yesterday was akin to what Tiger would have done -- and did do -- time and time again during his career. Had Schauffele and/or Clark produced a round of 66 on Sunday, there wouldn't have been much Scheffler could have done. But they gave him hope. And a sliver of a chance. And, like Tiger circa 2000, Scheffler pounced.

The great ones are never out of it.

Scheffler, who won last week, too, you might remember, is a great one.

Clark is also a great one, but he has a long way to go to be mentioned in the same breath as Tiger Woods.

He'll win some more this season, you can count on that. There's a little tournament down in Georgia in a few weeks that might be to his liking, if you know what I mean. Clark is not a fluke or a one season wonder. He's found his stride.

Schauffele? The jury might still be out on him, as he found yet another way to fritter away a tournament he otherwise had in his grasp yesterday with two late bogeys and a missed 10-footer at the 17th hole that would have given him a share of the lead with Scheffler.

He's a great player, is "X", but he's not a great finisher. He's now 2-5 when he owns an outright 54 hole lead. Tiger had to giggle in his Grey Goose and O.J. yesterday when he saw The Golf Channel flash that statistic during the post-round press conference.

I'm sure Tiger wasn't snickering at Scottie Scheffler, though.

Because Woods knows, unless something really wacky happens at Augusta National, that he can't beat the big guy from Texas.

Scottie Scheffler is the best player in the world right now and it's not even close.


The March Madness brackets were released last night and, to no one's surprise, the enthusiasm level for the tournament drops down several notches here in the Free State when the Terps aren't invited to the dance.

Sure, I'm interested.

Of course you're going to fill out a bracket or three.

We will probably even have a contest of some kind on Tuesday or Wednesday here, like we always do.

But when Maryland isn't playing in the NCAA tournament, it's just not the same.

N.C. State helped wreck things with their surprising win over North Carolina. Teams like St. John's, Oklahoma and Pitt were left out after other conference tournament wins led to automatic invites.

It's the same old story. A few schools feel like they were treated unfairly, which, of course, means they should have won a few more games along the way and they wouldn't have been sweating their invite in the first place.

I'll have my (very) unofficial predictions for the tournament later this week. I don't know how many brackets you're filling out or how much money you'll spend/wager on the tournament, but I can tell you it's probably 100% more than I'll participate.

It's just not something that interests me all that much when Maryland isn't in the field. I know that sounds silly. But it's true.


Ramey asks -- "Hi Drew, question for your Mail Bag feature. What are the cons to the Orioles bringing up Jackson Holliday at the start of the season? I don't see many. Do you?"

DF says -- "The only one that really matters is he comes up too early, gets overmatched, loses his confidence, and stumbles through a bad rookie season.

I don't see that happening, by the way.

But that's the only major risk.

Sure, bringing him up now costs you a year of his service time, but if he wins the Rookie of the Year award you get either the 31st or 32nd pick in the 2025 draft. So that sort of evens out the service time issue in my opinion.

The reality is, unless you somehow sign them to an extension before their rookie deal expires, that almost all of the young, super-talented players, are eventually going to test free agency. Your best bet to making them happy is to treat them great right from jump street. And hope they remember that down the road.

"Service time" used to matter. Just like pitching wins and batting averaged used to matter. Service time doesn't really matter all that much any longer.

Bring the kid up and let's see what he can do. If he completely bottoms out after 4 weeks, ship him back to Norfolk for "seasoning". If not, let him be a big leaguer and learn all about the ups and downs right away."


Alex asks -- "I'm in a Masters contest where we have to pick 5 players on or before March 24 and then 3 more on the Monday of the tournament. Of the 5 you pick on March 24, only one is allowed to have a major championship. I need help, DF!"

DF says -- "OK, let's see what I can do for you. Just go ahead and put Scheffler in there on March 24 and get it over with. I realize everyone else in the pool you're in is probably going to have him, but you can't not have him on your roster of 8.

Now, four more who don't own a major: I know his form isn't very good right now and he's working on a swing tweak, but I have a funny feeling Viktor Hovland is going to play well there. I also love the golf game of Corey Conners and I think Augusta National is a really nice fit for his ball striking skills.

I'm going with my old standby, of course: Sungjae Im. I know his putter is very streaky, but if he keeps hitting it to 20 feet every hole, he's going to make a bunch one week and win something big.

Last but not least, let's go with a bit of a flyer and throw Sam Burns in there. I'm on him a lot and some weeks I get burned a lot. But he's just too good and too talented to not win a major at some point soon.

There's your five. Scheffler, Hovland, Conners, Im and Burns."


Will asks -- "Do you think the Steelers have upgraded their offense with the additions of Wilson and Fields at quarterback?"

DF says -- "Well, the easy answer is: Yes. Because anything was an upgrade. That's like asking: "Do you think The Little River Band was an upgrade over The Beatles". I mean.....sure.

I don't know what happened to Russell Wilson in Denver. It might just be that the sun has set on his career. I never thought he was a "great" quarterback in Seattle, frankly. I thought was very good at times, but nothing more than that. I assume he still has something left in the tank, but it might not be much.

Fields had some good days in Chicago, but he, too, might be more style than substance.

One thing for sure, though. Wilson and Fields are an upgrade over Pickett and Trubisky. Big time.

Now, is Pittsburgh a threat to the Ravens? I doubt it. But it is a quarterback's league, of course. And if Wilson and/or Fields has a nice year in 2024, who knows what that might do for the Steelers?"

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#dmd comments








Billy     March 18
Fake Larry coming in to stir the pot. Classy.

larry     March 18
Lots of middle schoolers in the comments section today, are schools closed?

MFC     March 18
@POBOY, MSJ does not give out athletic scholarships it is "based on need", just like every other private school. Jaeylin Smith was a FULLPAY student.



Interesting stat in golf.

Scoring leaders: #1 Scheffler 69.286

#2 Ghim 69.991



Money leaders: #1 Scheffler $10,939,000

Doug Ghim $1,107,000



Amazing the difference when you win vs just playing well to very good.

RC     March 18
Come to think of it, I'm starting to wonder if @JeffWell isn't a plant or an imposter. No adult gets that frazzled over a passing remark about a band.



Maybe I'm wrong but I have to wonder.

Unitastoberry     March 18
You know what I would like? I'd like to see Kenny Pickett blossum into a star now that he's been traded. Stranger things have happened in this league over the last 70 years. Never was big into The Beatles I liked Lennon solo Instant Karma was a great album.

Arlen     March 18
The website guy takes a pot shot at the former President and no one cares but god forbid he criticizes a band of musicians that hasn't been around for 50 years!

Kevin     March 18
Hal's a clown. If the site owner's opinion is the Beatles suck (which they do), he's allowed to post that. It's an opinion, you jag.

hal     March 18
So it's ok to defend the site owner on everything, but defending a commenter is "carrying water"? Got it. And to help this Bill P guy out, JW was criticizing content, not the writer personally....oh wait, "overgrown child" might have been personal, perhaps JW let his emotions get the best of him there. Other than that, he was simply lamenting the deviations from "sports insights and opinion". But hey I am just a water carrier, what do I know.

Poboy     March 18
@BJ, Gary Neal out at the Hall because they won't full scholarship hoops players like MSJ, McD and SFA do.

BJ     March 18
I'm late to the party. Gary Neal is out as CHC basketball coach? When?

Bill P.     March 18
At the risk of being accused of being a "water carrier", I find it amusing that people like HAL write this: Certainly, anyone can disagree with his take if they want, I just don't get the personal attacks and vitriol. If anyone is not charging rent, it would be JEFFWELL lol



But HAL fails to mention that's exactly what JEFFWELL did to the site owner. Personal attack and vitriol. Why the double standard from HAL?

Vic     March 18
Question for you Drew. It's now obvious Scheffler is world #1. But who are the next four to make up 2-5 in the rankings? I'm curious to get your take on that one.

Kevin     March 18
Look at @Hal, carrying @Jeff's water for him. What a swell guy! Does Jeffy-poo get a back rub at some point as well? LOL

hal     March 18
@JEFFWELL called it lol. Guy simply makes a comment on today's content and he gets blasted. His feeling do not seem hurt, his panties aren't in a bunch, guy just made an observation on dead horses that get beat around here.

Certainly, anyone can disagree with his take if they want, I just don't get the personal attacks and vitriol. If anyone is not charging rent, it would be JEFFWELL lol.

Tupelo     March 18
That Jeff person realizes they don't have to read the website don't they? Getting mad about a website that you don't pay for is like getting mad because Starbux makes their coffee too strong. Don't buy it.

Davey     March 18
UNC is going to win it all. That Shannon kid is pretty dang good at Illinois, I wouldn't be surprised to see them make a deep run.

RC     March 18
Yea, I'd say @JeffWell is the one looking kind of #clownshoes on this one. Just my opinion.



I don't always like or agree with what @DF writes but I don't get my feelings hurt about it.



Kind of a weird look for @Jeff today IMHO.

KC     March 18
With Pickett/Trubisky, Steelers were a 9-8 team.

With Wilson/Fields, the Steelers are a 9-8 team.

Don't worry, they're not any better now than they were before.

BO     March 18
You said it, DF, Scheffler's the best golfer on the planet right now. And since I'm old enough to remember Tiger in his prime, I know what it's like to see one player dominate the rest of the best players like "Scheff" is doing right now.



You didn't spell it out, but it looks like "X" has the choker's collar doesn't it? Both Saturday and Sunday his driver completely left him on the back 9.



Here's a question for your Q/A. I know it's not a major so why don't they play the PGA or the US Open at the TPC Sawgrass course one year? What are your thoughts on that? Would the course hold up?



Sad to see Gary Neal go but the results are what they are. I assume you know more than you're letting on. When will Calvert Hall be able to get a long term coach in there?

Tom     March 18
LMFAO at "Jeff Well". Talk about a little boy.

Larry     March 18
I agree with MFC, conference champs should never have to play in. Save the play in games for teams like Michigan State that basically backed into the tournament.

Watched most of the golf yesterday and something the site owner wrote about a while back was on display yesterday. Maybe it was just one of those things but a lot of the putts the announcers said were breaking left to right were missed. I recall the owner once saying right handed putters don't like those putts from L to R. Just something I picked up on yesterday as I watched and listened to the announcers.

Is anyone else concerned about the Ravens secondary with the losses of Darby and Stone?

And I just saw O's opening day tickets in the upper deck for $160. Times have changed. I bought an upper deck opening day ticket 3 or 4 years ago for $25 the day before the game.


Chris P.     March 18
Harman, Aberg, Theegala, all 3 of those guys hit Top 10 for Drew this week. I'm more of a college football and hoops gambler myself but I might have to plunk down a few bucks on his picks the next time there's a tournament he analyzes.



I went ahead and put down a nice chunk on the O's plus 90.5 wins last week. I feel like that is easy money but you never know. The other teams I think are a good "over" bet are the Phillies (89.5) and Blue Jays (86.5)

MFC     March 18
If you're the conference champ you should be rewarded the NCAA bid, your record over the course of the year should matter more than 4 days in March.



Play-in games are ridiculous.



The ACC, outside of UNC, got little to no respect. Duke at 4, NC State at 11, Virginia in the play-in game and Clemson somewhere with Pitt and Wake left out. This once great league needs a reboot.



I was excited when I saw Utah State in the dance and thought good for Ryan Odum. But he's now at VCU and just lost the championship game to Duquesne. He had a 22-13 record this year, good for him, sorry UMBC couldn't keep him.



None of us should ever bitch about a lip out again. What happened to Clark was as harsh as they come.



Best line in Scheffler press conference, "someone yelled you're #1 for a year only 11 more to go", referencing Tigers incredible run. He looked sheepish and then paid great homage to Tiger. You gotta like Scheffler he seems like a genuinely nice person and well grounded.



Congrats to the girls state champions, Poly, Pikesville and Hammond girls bringing back the rings.



Lets go with the "cheater coaches" final four. Houston, Kentucky, Auburn and Kansas.

Pat     March 18
Poor Jeff. It must be tough to grow up without a sense of humor.

TJ     March 18
Talk about someone living rent free in another man's head, eh? DF not only lives in Jeff Well's, he probably sublets some of the space to make money off of it! Lighten up, Francis. It's a sports blog. Why are your panties in such a bunch over a sports blog??

Jeffwell     March 18
I try. I really do. But this man is such an overgrown child that I often leave this site for a month or two. As soon as I stop by again to read about his opinion of an excellent PGA event, he 's right back to third grade.

Since I didn't get past the first paragraph of the "real" post, I'll just assume that there was more riveting commentary about Flyers fans as well. Not just shoes. This guy deserves the entire clown outfit.

Cue the synchophants in 3..2..1..

TJS     March 18
Actually, the Terps DID make the tournament. I'll be watching them play Iowa State in the first round of the women's tournament this week.

Boris     March 18
I too made some bank with Drew's picks thank you very much. In particular I liked and went with Aberg and Theegala - 2 young players who I predict are ready to win on tour or even a major.

J.J.     March 18
DF called Sheffler winning last Wednesday in his predictions. That's what I meant.

mj     March 17
Did this JJ guy get his own edition of DMD today? Mine said:

"I see Clark shooting 67 today on a difficult layout with tricky back-nine pin locations and winning by two shots over Schauffele, who produces his own round of 70. Scheffler finishes T3 with McNealy at 16-under."

JJ and Matt seem to think DMD "called it to a tee". Guess I misunderstood the above.

Mark     March 17
Final tale of the tape. Bet $300 ($10 on each golfer to win, T10 and T20) and won $740. Keep making those picks @DF!!!

Matt P.     March 17
I mean, it almost looks like Drew saw the script for the final round.



(A round of 64 is well within his reach and some kind of score like that would make the leaders press the gas pedal down the stretch.)

J.J.     March 17
DF called Scheffler's win and his final round score (64) to a tee and also picked 3 top 10 finishers in his predictions for the week. Why not just quit DMD and go into golf gambling full time and make a boat load of $$$ ???



Great job. Keep it up.

Chris K     March 17
It’s weird how adult men (I’m assuming) on here are so intense with high school sports. Of course it’s nice if your team has a good season or wins its league, but it’s high school. It’s about the kids in the school learning and preparing for their next phase in life. I’m sure the kids on team next year will be fine with the new coach. Winning should be secondary.



Btw this isn’t a shot at Drew. He’s clearly mentioned many times, that while winning is a nice feeling, he coaches his guys to be better in life and handle things the right way win or lose.

Howarc     March 17
Fields will be invaluable in helping the Steelers prepare for the Ravens. He will be able to mimic Lamar pretty well when he runs the scout team in practice

Unitastoberry     March 17
Stillers get Justin Fields. Malik Harrison might have been better. He never got a chance to show his pro ability. Personally I think the Stillers front office is just buying time to scout up the next Bradshaw or Ben. This is there new Brister-Maddox era and the odds of finding another HOF qb for them are slim.And frankly Tomlin isn't Cowher imo.

Josh     March 17
Sahith Theegala is my assigned golfer. I’m pulling for him big time! I want my round with DMD



BTW- it’s nice to watch a real golf tournament with actual storylines and some history

David Rosenfeld     March 17
If the committee was under pressure it was Friday and Saturday...all the "bid stealing" happened then. At this point (Sunday AM), the field and the seeding is probably set. Just awaiting those auto bids from the Ivy, AAC and A-10.

I'm sure this will be column fodder this week, but the Steelers have now replaced Pickett, Rudolph and Trubisky with Wilson and Fields. It sounds great for them...but only if you really believe that Fields is going to live up to his potential...which is still very much up in the air. If not, you got one year of mediocre Wilson followed by more uncertainty.

MFC     March 16
I was caught off guard by Neal’s leaving, had no clue. I’m sure DF has more inside knowledge and obviously isn’t speculating.. CH is a great school, great traditions and good coaches in all sports. I have no idea why one would leave that , plus playing in one of the premiere leagues in the country. The toll on families is unbelievable, who knows maybe he wasn’t seeing his son enough, dont know. Maybe he wasn’t getting enough help getting kids in, again don’t know but I do know he had the POY.

It’s a shame, CH has had a bunch of coaches over the last 10 years or so. It doesn’t seem to happen so much with the other sports. I hope the get a good coach and the Hall rises again, it’s good for the league



So many tournament upsets the committee is going to be under intense pressure and there will be at least 5 deserving teams that don’t get in. Right now I’m thinking UCONN will be overall #1 with UNC 2 f(if they win tonight)

Fat Frankie     March 16
"Win" is "Win" in Welsh🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

mike     March 16
I wanted someone for a "boosted" win bet this week and considered Clark. What scared me were the double bogeys last week, although they were surrounded by stellar play otherwise. Anyway, I foolishly went with Zalatoris on a flyer instead. Don't think I will be convincing anyone to wait with baited breath for my weekly golf picks lol.

The Ravens will be fine, they are not careening off a cliff here. If JLC is concerned, that makes me feel damn good about their upcoming season.

Bryan     March 16
Just giving Drew a heads up, I was in the check out at a Shoppers this morning and noticed People magazine has a special issue commemorating the Beatles 60 years later, it's a must buy Drew!

Dale     March 15
I'm gonna coin this Terp off-season as purge and surge. First to go, Noah Batchelor. Great stroke, but nowhere near a Big Ten athlete. I wish him well.

larry     March 15
I thought this MFC guy said Calvert Hall bball was on the rise and how that was good for the BCL. Now the coach quits and is quoted as saying: “Not saying anything bad about Calvert Hall at all, I just didn’t feel that things would be moving in the right direction.” MFC is usually spot on with his local bball insights. Weird.

Article I read also said Coach Neal would be focusing on his son's AAU team.

Delray RICK     March 15
Have not followed basketball for decades but lately have videos of the great white hope, LARRY BIRD. The players against him held him in AWE. And the comments made NBA GREATS is funny as he'll. Didn't know he won 3 straight MVP'S. Later in his career he had to lay on the floor because of a bad back. But the comments of opponents are really funny.

such     March 15
The B1G Ten was not very good this year, hence the road records are more a reflection of the lack of quality teams than "it's tough to win on the road in that conference."

The best conferences this season are the Big 12 and the SEC. It wouldn't be a surprise to see teams like Baylor and Kentucky make runs to the Final Four as 3 or 4 seeds. Neither team won its conference regular season title, but they're scary good. Personally, I'm pulling for Tennessee, since my money and my son go there, and Dalton Knecht is the most electric scorer in the country. But Rick Barnes, man, I dunno...

Could there have been a more fitting end to this miserable season of Maryland basketball than what happened yesterday? I've been an avid fan since 1973, and I can't remember any other team being so uninspired and unlikeable. I suppose there's nowhere to go but up from here. I hope.

Chris in Bel Air     March 15
@TimD... you beat me to it. Merciful ending is the best way to describe what happened yesterday to Terps. To answer your question, it is very tough to win on the road but I think the overall talent/performance is down this year in the B10. After all, MD somehow won 7 games in conference. I guess we shall how the conference does in the big dance.

Ravens have a "down year" after going 13-4 and going to AFC Championship? I think that is realistic. Plenty of changes have already occurred but also more about how tough it is go 13-4 and go to the Championship. They will still be a/the front runner for the division and a playoff team.

Unitastoberry     March 15
Clowney was a rental until Bowser healed up . Now Bowser is gone. I'm trying not to be a Debbie Downer but yes this could be a short rebuild. Humphrey isn't the player he once was and often injured . McDonald was the best DC since Rex and Marvin. They really need a home run type draft.

MFC     March 15
Maryland need to come up with the $$$$ and a lot of it. Did you see what Calipari is doing, goodness gracious. It’s not about what’s the best fit it’s about who can fill my wallet . Until Williard finds a few “angels” with huge bank accounts they will be mediocre. It’se awful age we live in.

TimD in Timonium     March 15
Happy that (Mens) Terps basketball has mercifully come to an end. Bring on March Madness for all the good teams.



But either Big 10 basketball is mediocre in general, or it's one of the toughest conferences in the country to win on the road. Only two teams (Purdue and Illinois) had winning in-conference road records, here's the grim toll for everyone else. Yuck.



Indiana 4-6

Iowa 4-6

Maryland 3-7

Northwestern 3-7

Michigan State 3-7

Wisconsin 3-7

Nebraska 2-8

Minnesota 2-8

Penn State 2-8

Rutgers 2-8

Ohio State 2-8

Michigan 1-9


Sunday
March 17, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3495


"x" is now the hunted


Xander Schauffele is, almost without question, one of the two or three best players in the world who has never won a major golf championship.

Whatever happens today at TPC Sawgrass, he still won't have one. The Players Championship is not a major. But it's everything a major is and should be, with a course that can reward or penalize, a remarkably talented field, and a huge, life-changing pay day for the guy who is left standing at the end.

Schauffele, who sits at 17-under par, has a gold medal from the 2020 Olympics. He has played Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams. He has won in the U.S. and abroad.

But today would be different if he manages to hang on and win.

A victory at TPC Sawgrass would be, up to now, his career Mona Lisa.

Xander Schauffele has an Olympic gold medal in his career, but still lacks a significant PGA Tour win. He owns a 1-shot lead heading into today's final round at The Players Championship.

History is working against him, though.

Eight other players in the history of The Players have owned a 1-shot lead after 54 holes. None of those eight went on to win.

So Schauffele (pronounced: Shoff-a-lay, in case you're new to golf and aren't quite sure) will have to beat the course, several huge names lurking closely behind and the odds this afternoon if he wants to be a trend-breaker at the outstanding Pete Dye layout on the outskirts of Jacksonville, Florida.

It's not going to be easy, in other words.

The guy who owned a 4-shot lead after 36 holes is still right there. Wyndham Clark didn't have his best stuff on Saturday but still managed to piece together a representative round of 2-under par 70. His tee ball found the water at the iconic 17th hole, but he made a terrific bogey after his penalty drop and a nice par at the 18th to keep himself in today's final group with Schauffele.

Brian Harman, the lefty British Open champion from a year ago, is right there as well, trailing by just two shots at 15-under. Those of you might have heeded #DMD's pre-tournament advice and put a quid or two on Harman will have more than just a rooting interest today as the final round unfolds.

The flag on the 16th hole, the final par 5 on the course, will likely be placed in its usual Sunday location in the middle right portion of the green, with water all down the right side of the hole as players hit their approach shots into the green with $4.5 million on the line.

Why is that important?

Because as a southpaw, Harman can play away from the water with his second and still draw the ball comfortably into the green, like he did yesterday from 249 yards out. Right handed players will have to move the ball into the green from left to right which, while occasionally favorable, also leads to shots that start left but end up too far right...and water claims any ball that's hit 5 or 10 yards too far to the right.

If Harman can get near the lead going into the final three hole stretch, he might have a distinct advantage on the incoming stage.

Maverick McNealy and Matthew Fitzpatrick are next on the leaderboard at 13-under. The golf tournament is well within their respective grasps, particularly if they can carve into that deficit on the front nine. McNealy is not only looking for his first-ever big win, he's looking for just a win on TOUR, period. Fitzpatrick is used to winning, both here in the U.S. and in Europe. You couldn't have two opposite players at 13-under par.

And then there's Scottie Scheffler at 12-under par, 5 shots off the pace set by Schauffele. He claimed in his post-round press conference on Saturday to be "on the outside looking in", which could have been truthfully how he feels or a morsel of overconfidence he wanted to feed Schauffele, Clark, and those ahead of him.

Sure, it would require a blast of a final round from Scheffler and ho-hum golf from the leaders, but the 2022 Masters champion is far from out of it. A round of 64 is well within his reach and some kind of score like that would make the leaders press the gas pedal down the stretch.

Sahith Theegala, another #DMD play this week, joins Scheffler at 12-under par. He doesn't quite have Scottie's firepower tee-to-green, but he's extraordinarily talented. This might not be his week, but his big win is coming sometime soon.

So what happens today?

I think it's Wyndham Clark's tournament to lose, despite trailing by a shot going into the final round.

Schauffele has held 54 hole leads six times in his career. He went on to win two of those tournaments. He has not yet earned a distinction as a "closer" and, so, until he does that, I'll shy away from him. And while I don't put a whole lot of stock in the stat about 54-hole, 1-shot leaders being 0-8 at TPC Sawgrass, I think it moves to 0-9 after today.

It's difficult for any player to put together four stellar, mistake free rounds. It's golf. It's hard. Things happen. Clark had a "so-so" round yesterday and still shot 70, which is why building that four-shot advantage after 36 holes was so critically important for him. It gave him a chance to have an "off day" -- if 70 is an off-day -- and still be in the hunt.

I see Clark shooting 67 today on a difficult layout with tricky back-nine pin locations and winning by two shots over Schauffele, who produces his own round of 70. Scheffler finishes T3 with McNealy at 16-under.

If you're a golf novice and wonder about the uproar of this particular golf tournament, grab a refreshment and settle in front of the TV around 3:30 pm to catch the back nine of the leaders.

You're going to see great golf, heroic shots, failure, sadness and triumph over a 2-hour period. Guys will hit shots into #17 that will ultimately boost their back account by hundreds of thousands of dollars and a player or two will dump a shot into the water that surrounds that hole and potentially cost themselves a million bucks or more.

Most golf courses on the PGA Tour are just layouts with green grass and 18 flags out there. These players, the best in the world at their craft, just decimate those pieces of property over 72 holes.

But the golf course at TPC Sawgrass doesn't get decimated. Sure, a handful of guys handle it well over four days, but, in the end, the course will bear its teeth at just right the time.

Settle in for something special today in Ponte Vedra Beach.

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Saturday
March 16, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3494


how about we call him "win-dham"?


Before I get into a few topics people are definitely interested in, I'll touch on the subject some of you might be interested in here this morning.

Unfortunately, I don't have much to share about the departure of Calvert Hall basketball coach Gary Neal.

I know some of you expect some commentary from me about his tenure coming to an end but I don't have much of anything to say, really.

I like Gary and thought Gary did a good job at Calvert Hall.

The MIAA and the Baltimore Catholic League are very competitive. Even "good" programs can get relegated to the middle of the pack or below in those two leagues. There's excellent basketball being played in Baltimore. I thought Gary upgraded the program from the point where he took it over in the '21-22 season.

Sure, maybe I'm not willing to share other things I know or believe about his departure, but that's simply because I can't. And wouldn't, either.

Gary will move on and find something he enjoys, I'm sure, and the school will bring in another outstanding basketball coach who will hopefully follow Gary's lead and continue to make progress with the program.

Go Hall!


If I'm wrong on Sunday evening, I'll be here Monday morning to say so, but I don't think Wyndham Clark is going to run away and hide at The Players Championship.

I suspect things are going to tighten up at TPC Sawgrass over the final 36 holes because the course and tournament simply don't yield themselves to blow out, runaway winners.

Wyndham Clark is looking for his 2nd big win this weekend at The Players Championship. The 2023 U.S. Open champion has a 4-shot lead through 36 holes at TPC Sawgrass.

But Clark is certainly looking like a player starting to hit his full career stride. He has won 3 times in the last 10 months, including a victory at last June's U.S. Open, and is the owner of a 4-shot lead at The Players after opening rounds of 65-65.

If he goes on to win this weekend, there could be an argument that Clark is, currently, the 2nd best American player on the PGA Tour, trailing only Scottie Scheffler, of course.

Someone wrote in a question to the mailbag back in late January, you might recall, and asked me for a player or two on the TOUR who might have massive, breakout years in 2024. One of those I gave was, indeed, Wyndham Clark. (The other was Sahith Theegala).

Clark does everything well.

Don't get me wrong, all players have a flaw of some kind, albeit perhaps incredibly small or "picky". Some of the best players in the world, for example, are yippy on putts within 3-feet that break left to right. They work hard to control that blemish in their game and most of us watching probably don't even realize it's something of a concern to them.

But Clark's flaws are very hard to detect.

He's a great driver of the ball. He's hardly ever in trouble off the tee, which is one of the biggest reasons why he conquered L.A. Country Club last June. He currently ranks 9th on TOUR in the critically important statistic, Shots Gained: Total.

When you're on the PGA Tour and you're hitting your approach shots (on greens in regulation) within 20 feet of the hole -- on average -- you're going to make a lot of birdies, particularly if you're good on the greens.

Clark hits it close and makes a lot of putts. Hence, the 3 wins in 10 months and the 4-shot lead at The Players.

Whether he holds on to this lead over the weekend remains to be seen, but he is certainly the favorite at this point, even with an ailing Scottie Scheffler still lurking behind at 8 under par. There are plenty of big names within striking distance with 36 holes to play. Anyone at 6-under or better still realistically has a chance to win.

Prominent chasers include 2022 U.S. Open champion Matthew Fitzpatrick at 9-under par and two guys looking for not only a huge payday, but a massive win to add to their already impressive pedigree: Xander Schauffele and Nick Taylor, both at 10-under par.

Maverick McNealy is perhaps the most interesting of the players "in the hunt". He is the former world #1 amateur who played college golf at Stanford and has carved out a nice professional career for himself thus far, but has yet to hit the mark that many thought he would when he turned professional six years ago.

A win at Sawgrass, while perhaps unlikely, would be just what he needs to prove he belongs in a different class of players on the TOUR.

It seems like just about every year someone we would probably not anticipate hangs around the lead throughout the weekend and arrives at the back nine with a chance for a life changing moment. Most times, those guys falter under the pressure. Whether McNealy stands up to it or caves in will be worth watching, but I have a funny feeling he's going to be within a couple shots of the lead on Sunday when the tournament reaches the 10th tee.

McNealy is not a fluke. He's just a player looking for his break through. I'd keep an eye on him, particularly if you're interested in wagering on the final two rounds.

Two of our pre-tournament #DMD picks are also in the hunt and worth following over the final 36 holes; Tom Hoge and Brian Harman. All one of those guys needs today is a 64, 65, 66 and they are probably making up some ground on Clark. Sure, Clark might go back out there again today and post another mid 60's round, but the data says that's unlikely, even for a great player like Wydham Clark.

My guess is Clark shoots 69 today and sits at 17-under through 3 rounds.

Anyone who can get it to the 14 under par range after today definitely has a chance going into Sunday.

But if Clark holds on to win this tournament, he should probably give strong consideration to a short term name change.

From Wyndham -- to -- Windham.


We're having a very good week thus far at The Players, with 9 of our 10 selections making the cut and a half dozen of them having a very legit shot at a Top 10 or Top 20 finish, which would ring the registers nicely.

Tom Hoge is 8-under and Brian Harman is 7-under, as is Sahith Theegala.

Those three

Cameron Young sits at 5-under.

Ludvig Aberg played the first 36 holes at 4-under and Shane Lowry is at 3-under par.

Sungjae Im (-2), Min Woo Lee (-1) and Sam Burns (-1) are back of the pack at this point, but a couple of good rounds is all they need to get in the money.

Only Erik van Rooyen missed the cut out of our 10 guys. Of course, they could all slip over the weekend and we'd wind up with nothing, but if a handful of boys can produce good golf over the weekend, we might be ordering a case of Silver Oak instead of the traditional two bottle box.


Randy Morgan returns next week with an excellent A.L. East preview, as we're now less than two weeks away from Orioles opening day.

I guess this is really the first time I've thought about it: Opening Day is almost here. Baseball's back. Spring's upon us.

Pretty soon, we'll all be packing up for a week at Ocean City.

The older I get, the more I simply don't like cold weather. Maybe you're the same.

There was a time, three decades ago, when I cherished the change of seasons. I enjoyed a few months of cold temperatures. Those days are definitely gone.

I love the Fall in Maryland. September, October...those might be my favorite two months. But I've definitely grown to dislike winter, even here in the Mid-Atlantic, where it's hardly even "winter" any longer.

And, so, with the Orioles about to take flight once again and warmer days on the horizon, let's get ready for what many of us believe is going to be an incredibly special Summer of '24.


Scott sent me an e-mail on Friday chastisting me for being a "Debbie Downer" about the Ravens and the changes they've made -- or been forced to make -- over the last two months.

"Don't be like the afteroon guys on The Fan," he wrote. "Stay positive."

I don't think it's unfair or "negative", in the least, to think that perhaps losing Mike Macdonald, Geno Stone, Patrick Queen, Gus Edwards and, potentially, Odell Beckham Jr. and Jadeveon Clowney, is going to hurt the Ravens.

It is what it is.

They won 13 games and a playoff game with those guys on the team playing prominent roles a season ago.

Those guys are now gone.

The guy that replaced Macdonald has to do a similar job in 2024 or that's a net/net loss.

The guy replacing Patrick Queen has to do a similar (or better) job in 2024 or that's a net/loss loss.

I could do that with all the departed players. Someone has to step in and perform at a similar level in 2024.

And, sure, I realize it doesn't work exactly like that, but if you know anything about sports, you know what I'm talking about.

The Ravens replaced Gus Edwards, in principle, with Derrick Henry. I think that's a very good swap, if you will. A season of Henry is probably going to be better than a season of Edwards, in my opinion.

Now, we just need guys to replace Beckham and Clowney and Queen and Stone and we're in good shape.

It's not "negative" in the least to look at the departed players and defensive coordinator and say, "Yikes..."

It is what it is.

I hope they all get replaced with superior talent and the Ravens go 13-4 again and, this time, don't flatline in the AFC Championship Game.

That's what I hope.

But I also know that's easier said than done.

The other teams are trying, too.

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#dmd comments








Billy     March 18
Fake Larry coming in to stir the pot. Classy.

larry     March 18
Lots of middle schoolers in the comments section today, are schools closed?

MFC     March 18
@POBOY, MSJ does not give out athletic scholarships it is "based on need", just like every other private school. Jaeylin Smith was a FULLPAY student.



Interesting stat in golf.

Scoring leaders: #1 Scheffler 69.286

#2 Ghim 69.991



Money leaders: #1 Scheffler $10,939,000

Doug Ghim $1,107,000



Amazing the difference when you win vs just playing well to very good.

RC     March 18
Come to think of it, I'm starting to wonder if @JeffWell isn't a plant or an imposter. No adult gets that frazzled over a passing remark about a band.



Maybe I'm wrong but I have to wonder.

Unitastoberry     March 18
You know what I would like? I'd like to see Kenny Pickett blossum into a star now that he's been traded. Stranger things have happened in this league over the last 70 years. Never was big into The Beatles I liked Lennon solo Instant Karma was a great album.

Arlen     March 18
The website guy takes a pot shot at the former President and no one cares but god forbid he criticizes a band of musicians that hasn't been around for 50 years!

Kevin     March 18
Hal's a clown. If the site owner's opinion is the Beatles suck (which they do), he's allowed to post that. It's an opinion, you jag.

hal     March 18
So it's ok to defend the site owner on everything, but defending a commenter is "carrying water"? Got it. And to help this Bill P guy out, JW was criticizing content, not the writer personally....oh wait, "overgrown child" might have been personal, perhaps JW let his emotions get the best of him there. Other than that, he was simply lamenting the deviations from "sports insights and opinion". But hey I am just a water carrier, what do I know.

Poboy     March 18
@BJ, Gary Neal out at the Hall because they won't full scholarship hoops players like MSJ, McD and SFA do.

BJ     March 18
I'm late to the party. Gary Neal is out as CHC basketball coach? When?

Bill P.     March 18
At the risk of being accused of being a "water carrier", I find it amusing that people like HAL write this: Certainly, anyone can disagree with his take if they want, I just don't get the personal attacks and vitriol. If anyone is not charging rent, it would be JEFFWELL lol



But HAL fails to mention that's exactly what JEFFWELL did to the site owner. Personal attack and vitriol. Why the double standard from HAL?

Vic     March 18
Question for you Drew. It's now obvious Scheffler is world #1. But who are the next four to make up 2-5 in the rankings? I'm curious to get your take on that one.

Kevin     March 18
Look at @Hal, carrying @Jeff's water for him. What a swell guy! Does Jeffy-poo get a back rub at some point as well? LOL

hal     March 18
@JEFFWELL called it lol. Guy simply makes a comment on today's content and he gets blasted. His feeling do not seem hurt, his panties aren't in a bunch, guy just made an observation on dead horses that get beat around here.

Certainly, anyone can disagree with his take if they want, I just don't get the personal attacks and vitriol. If anyone is not charging rent, it would be JEFFWELL lol.

Tupelo     March 18
That Jeff person realizes they don't have to read the website don't they? Getting mad about a website that you don't pay for is like getting mad because Starbux makes their coffee too strong. Don't buy it.

Davey     March 18
UNC is going to win it all. That Shannon kid is pretty dang good at Illinois, I wouldn't be surprised to see them make a deep run.

RC     March 18
Yea, I'd say @JeffWell is the one looking kind of #clownshoes on this one. Just my opinion.



I don't always like or agree with what @DF writes but I don't get my feelings hurt about it.



Kind of a weird look for @Jeff today IMHO.

KC     March 18
With Pickett/Trubisky, Steelers were a 9-8 team.

With Wilson/Fields, the Steelers are a 9-8 team.

Don't worry, they're not any better now than they were before.

BO     March 18
You said it, DF, Scheffler's the best golfer on the planet right now. And since I'm old enough to remember Tiger in his prime, I know what it's like to see one player dominate the rest of the best players like "Scheff" is doing right now.



You didn't spell it out, but it looks like "X" has the choker's collar doesn't it? Both Saturday and Sunday his driver completely left him on the back 9.



Here's a question for your Q/A. I know it's not a major so why don't they play the PGA or the US Open at the TPC Sawgrass course one year? What are your thoughts on that? Would the course hold up?



Sad to see Gary Neal go but the results are what they are. I assume you know more than you're letting on. When will Calvert Hall be able to get a long term coach in there?

Tom     March 18
LMFAO at "Jeff Well". Talk about a little boy.

Larry     March 18
I agree with MFC, conference champs should never have to play in. Save the play in games for teams like Michigan State that basically backed into the tournament.

Watched most of the golf yesterday and something the site owner wrote about a while back was on display yesterday. Maybe it was just one of those things but a lot of the putts the announcers said were breaking left to right were missed. I recall the owner once saying right handed putters don't like those putts from L to R. Just something I picked up on yesterday as I watched and listened to the announcers.

Is anyone else concerned about the Ravens secondary with the losses of Darby and Stone?

And I just saw O's opening day tickets in the upper deck for $160. Times have changed. I bought an upper deck opening day ticket 3 or 4 years ago for $25 the day before the game.


Chris P.     March 18
Harman, Aberg, Theegala, all 3 of those guys hit Top 10 for Drew this week. I'm more of a college football and hoops gambler myself but I might have to plunk down a few bucks on his picks the next time there's a tournament he analyzes.



I went ahead and put down a nice chunk on the O's plus 90.5 wins last week. I feel like that is easy money but you never know. The other teams I think are a good "over" bet are the Phillies (89.5) and Blue Jays (86.5)

MFC     March 18
If you're the conference champ you should be rewarded the NCAA bid, your record over the course of the year should matter more than 4 days in March.



Play-in games are ridiculous.



The ACC, outside of UNC, got little to no respect. Duke at 4, NC State at 11, Virginia in the play-in game and Clemson somewhere with Pitt and Wake left out. This once great league needs a reboot.



I was excited when I saw Utah State in the dance and thought good for Ryan Odum. But he's now at VCU and just lost the championship game to Duquesne. He had a 22-13 record this year, good for him, sorry UMBC couldn't keep him.



None of us should ever bitch about a lip out again. What happened to Clark was as harsh as they come.



Best line in Scheffler press conference, "someone yelled you're #1 for a year only 11 more to go", referencing Tigers incredible run. He looked sheepish and then paid great homage to Tiger. You gotta like Scheffler he seems like a genuinely nice person and well grounded.



Congrats to the girls state champions, Poly, Pikesville and Hammond girls bringing back the rings.



Lets go with the "cheater coaches" final four. Houston, Kentucky, Auburn and Kansas.

Pat     March 18
Poor Jeff. It must be tough to grow up without a sense of humor.

TJ     March 18
Talk about someone living rent free in another man's head, eh? DF not only lives in Jeff Well's, he probably sublets some of the space to make money off of it! Lighten up, Francis. It's a sports blog. Why are your panties in such a bunch over a sports blog??

Jeffwell     March 18
I try. I really do. But this man is such an overgrown child that I often leave this site for a month or two. As soon as I stop by again to read about his opinion of an excellent PGA event, he 's right back to third grade.

Since I didn't get past the first paragraph of the "real" post, I'll just assume that there was more riveting commentary about Flyers fans as well. Not just shoes. This guy deserves the entire clown outfit.

Cue the synchophants in 3..2..1..

TJS     March 18
Actually, the Terps DID make the tournament. I'll be watching them play Iowa State in the first round of the women's tournament this week.

Boris     March 18
I too made some bank with Drew's picks thank you very much. In particular I liked and went with Aberg and Theegala - 2 young players who I predict are ready to win on tour or even a major.

J.J.     March 18
DF called Sheffler winning last Wednesday in his predictions. That's what I meant.

mj     March 17
Did this JJ guy get his own edition of DMD today? Mine said:

"I see Clark shooting 67 today on a difficult layout with tricky back-nine pin locations and winning by two shots over Schauffele, who produces his own round of 70. Scheffler finishes T3 with McNealy at 16-under."

JJ and Matt seem to think DMD "called it to a tee". Guess I misunderstood the above.

Mark     March 17
Final tale of the tape. Bet $300 ($10 on each golfer to win, T10 and T20) and won $740. Keep making those picks @DF!!!

Matt P.     March 17
I mean, it almost looks like Drew saw the script for the final round.



(A round of 64 is well within his reach and some kind of score like that would make the leaders press the gas pedal down the stretch.)

J.J.     March 17
DF called Scheffler's win and his final round score (64) to a tee and also picked 3 top 10 finishers in his predictions for the week. Why not just quit DMD and go into golf gambling full time and make a boat load of $$$ ???



Great job. Keep it up.

Chris K     March 17
It’s weird how adult men (I’m assuming) on here are so intense with high school sports. Of course it’s nice if your team has a good season or wins its league, but it’s high school. It’s about the kids in the school learning and preparing for their next phase in life. I’m sure the kids on team next year will be fine with the new coach. Winning should be secondary.



Btw this isn’t a shot at Drew. He’s clearly mentioned many times, that while winning is a nice feeling, he coaches his guys to be better in life and handle things the right way win or lose.

Howarc     March 17
Fields will be invaluable in helping the Steelers prepare for the Ravens. He will be able to mimic Lamar pretty well when he runs the scout team in practice

Unitastoberry     March 17
Stillers get Justin Fields. Malik Harrison might have been better. He never got a chance to show his pro ability. Personally I think the Stillers front office is just buying time to scout up the next Bradshaw or Ben. This is there new Brister-Maddox era and the odds of finding another HOF qb for them are slim.And frankly Tomlin isn't Cowher imo.

Josh     March 17
Sahith Theegala is my assigned golfer. I’m pulling for him big time! I want my round with DMD



BTW- it’s nice to watch a real golf tournament with actual storylines and some history

David Rosenfeld     March 17
If the committee was under pressure it was Friday and Saturday...all the "bid stealing" happened then. At this point (Sunday AM), the field and the seeding is probably set. Just awaiting those auto bids from the Ivy, AAC and A-10.

I'm sure this will be column fodder this week, but the Steelers have now replaced Pickett, Rudolph and Trubisky with Wilson and Fields. It sounds great for them...but only if you really believe that Fields is going to live up to his potential...which is still very much up in the air. If not, you got one year of mediocre Wilson followed by more uncertainty.

MFC     March 16
I was caught off guard by Neal’s leaving, had no clue. I’m sure DF has more inside knowledge and obviously isn’t speculating.. CH is a great school, great traditions and good coaches in all sports. I have no idea why one would leave that , plus playing in one of the premiere leagues in the country. The toll on families is unbelievable, who knows maybe he wasn’t seeing his son enough, dont know. Maybe he wasn’t getting enough help getting kids in, again don’t know but I do know he had the POY.

It’s a shame, CH has had a bunch of coaches over the last 10 years or so. It doesn’t seem to happen so much with the other sports. I hope the get a good coach and the Hall rises again, it’s good for the league



So many tournament upsets the committee is going to be under intense pressure and there will be at least 5 deserving teams that don’t get in. Right now I’m thinking UCONN will be overall #1 with UNC 2 f(if they win tonight)

Fat Frankie     March 16
"Win" is "Win" in Welsh🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

mike     March 16
I wanted someone for a "boosted" win bet this week and considered Clark. What scared me were the double bogeys last week, although they were surrounded by stellar play otherwise. Anyway, I foolishly went with Zalatoris on a flyer instead. Don't think I will be convincing anyone to wait with baited breath for my weekly golf picks lol.

The Ravens will be fine, they are not careening off a cliff here. If JLC is concerned, that makes me feel damn good about their upcoming season.

Bryan     March 16
Just giving Drew a heads up, I was in the check out at a Shoppers this morning and noticed People magazine has a special issue commemorating the Beatles 60 years later, it's a must buy Drew!

Dale     March 15
I'm gonna coin this Terp off-season as purge and surge. First to go, Noah Batchelor. Great stroke, but nowhere near a Big Ten athlete. I wish him well.

larry     March 15
I thought this MFC guy said Calvert Hall bball was on the rise and how that was good for the BCL. Now the coach quits and is quoted as saying: “Not saying anything bad about Calvert Hall at all, I just didn’t feel that things would be moving in the right direction.” MFC is usually spot on with his local bball insights. Weird.

Article I read also said Coach Neal would be focusing on his son's AAU team.

Delray RICK     March 15
Have not followed basketball for decades but lately have videos of the great white hope, LARRY BIRD. The players against him held him in AWE. And the comments made NBA GREATS is funny as he'll. Didn't know he won 3 straight MVP'S. Later in his career he had to lay on the floor because of a bad back. But the comments of opponents are really funny.

such     March 15
The B1G Ten was not very good this year, hence the road records are more a reflection of the lack of quality teams than "it's tough to win on the road in that conference."

The best conferences this season are the Big 12 and the SEC. It wouldn't be a surprise to see teams like Baylor and Kentucky make runs to the Final Four as 3 or 4 seeds. Neither team won its conference regular season title, but they're scary good. Personally, I'm pulling for Tennessee, since my money and my son go there, and Dalton Knecht is the most electric scorer in the country. But Rick Barnes, man, I dunno...

Could there have been a more fitting end to this miserable season of Maryland basketball than what happened yesterday? I've been an avid fan since 1973, and I can't remember any other team being so uninspired and unlikeable. I suppose there's nowhere to go but up from here. I hope.

Chris in Bel Air     March 15
@TimD... you beat me to it. Merciful ending is the best way to describe what happened yesterday to Terps. To answer your question, it is very tough to win on the road but I think the overall talent/performance is down this year in the B10. After all, MD somehow won 7 games in conference. I guess we shall how the conference does in the big dance.

Ravens have a "down year" after going 13-4 and going to AFC Championship? I think that is realistic. Plenty of changes have already occurred but also more about how tough it is go 13-4 and go to the Championship. They will still be a/the front runner for the division and a playoff team.

Unitastoberry     March 15
Clowney was a rental until Bowser healed up . Now Bowser is gone. I'm trying not to be a Debbie Downer but yes this could be a short rebuild. Humphrey isn't the player he once was and often injured . McDonald was the best DC since Rex and Marvin. They really need a home run type draft.

MFC     March 15
Maryland need to come up with the $$$$ and a lot of it. Did you see what Calipari is doing, goodness gracious. It’s not about what’s the best fit it’s about who can fill my wallet . Until Williard finds a few “angels” with huge bank accounts they will be mediocre. It’se awful age we live in.

TimD in Timonium     March 15
Happy that (Mens) Terps basketball has mercifully come to an end. Bring on March Madness for all the good teams.



But either Big 10 basketball is mediocre in general, or it's one of the toughest conferences in the country to win on the road. Only two teams (Purdue and Illinois) had winning in-conference road records, here's the grim toll for everyone else. Yuck.



Indiana 4-6

Iowa 4-6

Maryland 3-7

Northwestern 3-7

Michigan State 3-7

Wisconsin 3-7

Nebraska 2-8

Minnesota 2-8

Penn State 2-8

Rutgers 2-8

Ohio State 2-8

Michigan 1-9


Friday
March 15, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3493


friday ramblings


Our main hoops guru, Dale Williams, will handle the disastrous Maryland performance in the Big Ten tournament yesterday. The Terps lost by, I don't know, 77 or something like that.

A loss is a loss is a loss.

If you lose to Wisconsin, 71-70, on a last second bucket, it's a loss.

Getting blown out, 87-56, is the same thing. Your season's over and you're going home.

But it speaks volumes about this group of guys that Kevin Willard assembled that they flatlined like they did on Thursday afternoon.

Because we've changed so much as a society over the last two decades, you can't just come right out and say "Those kids had no heart yesterday."

So, I won't say that.

Kevin Willard's Terps suffered the 3rd worst loss in Big Ten conference tournament history yesterday.

But the proof is in the pudding when you look at the season as a whole.

Maryland lacked good basketball players. We know that.

Dale has said on numerous occasions this season that the Terps lacked "poise", too.

And if we're going to be completely honest, they lacked -- I'll dance around it in case you're squeamish -- the necessary intestinal fortitude to play in the Big Ten.

But why? That's the question.

Why the give-up?

Just the wrong kids, plain and simple?

Or did Willard, somehow, wear them out to the point they just said "eff it"?

I do not know the answer, obviously. I'm not there in practice and have zero interconnection with the players or the program.

But when you're losing the way Maryland lost this year, it's more than just "we weren't very good".

Dale will take you through the painful 40 minutes in his column below.

I'm just here to state the obvious: Kevin Willard is officially "on the clock".

He doesn't have to make the Elite Eight next year or anything like that. He's not getting canned three years into his 7-year deal, either.

But he's the guy in charge of getting the program back on track and that effort begins now.

He needs better basketball players. That much is for certain.

Willard also needs players who won't accept losing 87-56 in the conference tournament. Or losing to Rutgers at home. Or getting run out of the gym by Penn State.

Losing to Penn State in football? Understandable.

Losing to Penn State in basketball? Not cool.

Willard was brought to College Park to get the program's chakras back in line. Right now, they're disturbingly out of line, I'd say.

You're on the clock, coach. Get this program's heart beating again, please.


Rory McIlroy had the most talked about 7-under par round in the history of The Players Championship yesterday. He made 10 birdies in 18 holes...on a golf course that just isn't that easy.

But it was his controversial play on the 7th hole and the 18th hole yesterday that garnered more headlines than his 65 that earned him a first round tie with Xander Schauffele and Wyndham Clark atop the tournament leaderboard.

McIlroy, to his credit, faced the media after the round and answered every question they threw at him concerning the drops he took after finding the water off the tee on #7 and #18.

"I felt comfortable with it (where he dropped)," McIlroy said, "so I think that's all that really matters. Jordan (Spieth) just wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing, that's all. He's protecting the field, which I totally appreciate and respect."

Rory McIlroy shares the first round lead at The Players, but it's a controversial share of the lead after two questionable drops in Thursday's opening round.

Viktor Hovland, who was also in the group, seemed far more suspicious than was Spieth. "I don't know," Hovland said as McIlroy surveyed his drop options. "From where I saw it, I don't think it crossed here."

McIlroy even moved back some 30-40 yards "to be safe", he told a tournament rules official who came in to assist with the procedural part of the process.

But the post-round chatter wouldn't die down.

Did McIlroy take what golf calls "a bad drop"?

If so, intentional or not, that's the way professional golfers start earning the "cheater" label.

You know, the one Patrick Reed took with him to LIV after several brushes with the rules and a couple of -- *ahem* -- arithmetic problems when he played at the University of Georgia a decade and a half ago.

That said, I don't think Rory McIlroy is a golfing cheat. Reed? He is, yes. Rory? I don't think he is at all.

Had their been evidence showing where his ball crossed into the penalty area -- or a rules official or someone else on record saying "here's where it went in" -- I'm quite certain McIlroy would have just said, "Oh, they footage/evidence of it? I was off by 10 or 15 yards? OK, let's get the drop straightened out in the right spot and play golf again."

McIlroy is always under the spotlight because he's one of the top players in the world. And he's scrutinized even more when it comes to the rules and playing the game the right way.

TV footage of both situations on Thursday didn't settle anything. Failing video evidence, the players were totally on their own to make the right call.

McIlroy definitely thinks he was within the rules to drop where he dropped on the 7th hole.

Hovland seemed fairly adamant Rory's drop at #7 was "off".

Spieth repeatedly said, "I didn't see it very well, but others are saying you're dropping in the wrong place."

They went back and forth for 8 minutes.

Without a conclusive agreement between the three, they hashed out the best solution possible and moved on from there.

One thing for certain: If Rory goes on to win this weekend at TPC Sawgrass, the discussion about Thursday's first round will carry well into next week and beyond.

People don't forget.

Ask Patrick Reed.


Dennis asks -- "Is there a chance in your mind that the Ravens are going to go through a one year recovery season where they miss the players (and coaches) who are leaving and they stumble to a 9-8 or 10-7 record next season? I have that feeling. That things aren't going to be the same. You?"

DF says -- "Sure, I think there's a chance of that. The guys they've lost, some of them at least, were pretty important to last season's team. People poo-poo guys like Queen and Gus and Clowney but they were important pieces last season. How many wins were they worth? I have no way of knowing.

The same goes for Mike Macdonald. I think he was a good defensive coordinator. The Baltimore defense was excellent on his watch. Will Zach Orr be equal to or better? I have no way of knowing.

But, sure, there's a chance they don't replicate their 2023 campaign in 2024. Anyone who just assumes they'll be 13-4 again isn't thinking it through all the way."


Bill P. asks -- "In today's (Thursday's) first round of the Players, the announcers said that the players were telling them the greens weren't quite as fast this year as they were a year ago in the first round. How do the players know that or remember that?

DF says -- "Some of them just do it by memory and "feel", I guess. They'll remember a putt from last year on a certain green where they had 15 feet and barely touched it and it raced 3 or 4 feet past the hole and this year, maybe it just got to the cup and came to a stop.

They also keep incredible notes from year-to-year, especially the elite guys who know in advance they're going to be playing in the tournament for several consecutive years.

And their caddies are also paying attention to that kind of stuff and making their own notes.

TOUR players have an incredible sense of detail. And they can remember putts from last year or the year before that they hit that broke a certain way or were quicker or slower than they might have otherwise thought."


John Broome asks -- "Is there ever a chance we see minor league hockey back in Baltimore?"

DF says -- "I don't know anything about the infrastructure of the AHL, so I don't know if teams move or if they have expansion or any opportunity for "new teams". I think the Baltimore Arena is certainly a worthy venue for minor league hockey. It is, after all, the only place we have that could field a team.

Would the city support it? That's the question.

And by "city", I mean "the area in general". Would minor league hockey work in Baltimore? I just don't know.

Thomas Wolfe said, "You can't go home again."

I tend to believe that's true, to some extent, with niche sports like minor league hockey, indoor soccer, etc. They both had their day in the sun in Baltimore. But it would appear the sun has set at this point.

I'm a hockey guy, of course, so I'd be delighted to see the AHL set up shop in Baltimore. I'd go to games, for sure. But I just don't see it happening, sadly."


Brendan asks -- "First time with an e-mail to you, I hope you have the ability to answer it honestly since I know you work for the station. Why don't radio stations pay attention to the listeners when most of them all don't care for one certain on air personality? You have thousands of people on Twitter just crushing Jason LaCanfora at The Fan and I know the station must read the tweet messages. Why do stations keep a guy around like that?" Thanks and good luck to your Capitals, they are going to need it."

DF says -- "I can answer the question very honestly by saying, "I have no idea of knowing what the station thinks."

But my guess is they feel about on-air hosts the same way the football team feels about its players. They're not going to let the listeners of the station decide who works on the air and who doesn't work on the air.

It might just that simple.

Now, you can elect not to listen, in the same way you can elect to not attend the game(s) if you don't like certain players or coaches. That's part of the give and take.

I also think the station probably realizes that people hammering away at one or more of their on-air personalities make up a very small fragment of the listener base. And radio, like football, is about "the numbers".

If the team goes 13-4, the coach isn't getting fired, no matter how many of you people think he's lousy and doesn't know how to coach.

If the radio numbers are good and meeting the goals of the station and its management, that shows the station that the on-air personalities are doing the job they've been asked to do, which is -- and this is important -- get people to listen to the show.

If people are listening, that's pretty much all that matters to the station, since they're using those numbers to sell advertising."

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shellacked in minneapolis


In 55 years of being a Terrapin basketball fan, I can honestly say that I’ve never been as embarrassed for the UMD basketball program as I was yesterday while witnessing the heartless effort this team gave while being humiliated by the Wisconsin Badgers.

Tired legs because of the quick turnaround from Wednesday night’s game, a red-hot shooting Badger team, combined with no effort from the two Terp bigs, combined to produce a lopsided 87-56 blowout loss.

The Badger lead at one point reached 42 points. It was that bad.

After bombing Maryland with 10 made threes in the first half and gaining a 47-26 lead, Wisconsin stepped on the Terps' throats by running off 18 straight points to start the second half. The league should have invoked the mercy rule.

How bad was it? With 10 minutes left in the game, Wisconsin had more points from the three-point line (39) than Maryland had in total (35). With 8:08 left in the game, the Terps were down by 42 points.

Donta Scott's Maryland career ended yesterday with a thud, as he failed to score a point in the first 14 minutes of the game in Maryland's eventual 31 point loss to Wisconsin.

To sum up how this happened in just a sentence or two, let’s go with Maryland failing to guard the three-point line and having little interest in rebounding. Also, Wisconsin buried everything they looked at. There you go.

The Badgers made 16 threes in 25 attempts. Their threes and foul shots, alone, accounted for enough points to beat Maryland 57-56.

The Terps were slow and Wisconsin took advantage of it with quick dribbles, lots of off the ball movement, and crisp passes.

Wide open three-point shots led to 3 Wisconsin triples and a 13-7 lead at the first break with 15:41 left in the first half. The Badgers had made all three of their long-range attempts and 6 of their first 10 tries overall.

It was an early hole for Maryland that had reached 11 points, 18-7, when the Badgers buried their 4th three-pointer of the half. A fifth three, after a Donta Scott butterfingers give-away, forced a Terrapin timeout while trailing 21-9. All 5 of the successful Badger three-pointers were wide open, uncontested tries.

With 11:23 left in the half, Wisconsin still led by 10 points, 23-13. The Badgers were 9-14 from the floor, and had yet to miss a three. The Terps were looking like the quick turnaround from last night’s game was dragging them down.

Maintaining their hot hand, Wisconsin ripped two more threes, and a very early blowout was in the making. The Badgers had more than doubled up the Terps, 33-15. You’d think at some point Maryland would realize that giving open threes was not a good idea.

The first half mercifully ended for Maryland with the Badgers having smoked them by 21 points, 47-26. It was the three ball that jackhammered the Terps during the first 20 minutes. Wisconsin had hit 10 of 13 three pointers.

Maryland’s front court looked slow, lethargic, and disinterested. Reese was too tired to defend anyone, anywhere, and Scott just didn’t care. He had zero points, 1 rebound, and 2 turnovers in 14 first half minutes.

After giving up 47 points in the first half, Maryland had 20 minutes of garbage time left before their season ended. Wisconsin ensured the second half was meaningless when they scored 18 points before the Terps scored at all. It was all laughs for Wisconsin. I kept waiting for a Terrapin trainer to throw in a towel.

When the game clock finally ran to zero and the white flag was waved, Maryland had suffered the 3rd worst tournament beat-down in the long history of this event. What a way to end the season.

I’m not so sure the NIT will take Maryland, but if they did offer, I would hope UMD would decline.

The NIT used to be a place where a young team could develop some tournament continuity. With Maryland’s roster expecting massive changes, there’s no benefit to playing extra games.

Maryland would be doing a disservice to the integrity of the event if they participated just to let the younger players get some court time, and I’m certain that a few more games are not in the best interest of the departing seniors.

Now it’s wait and see time for names to hit the transfer portal. Some will come shortly, with many more entering after the completion of March Madness.

In this current era of NCAA hoops, it’s time for schools to pull out their NIL wallets and buy themself a contender.

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faith in sports


I Am Second is an incredibly well produced video series highlighting the spiritual journey and work of celebrities, athletes, actors and so on.

It's probably my favorite faith-based "series" that I watch on a weekly basis.

Bailey Maupin's story is awesome. She's a basketball player at Texas Tech. The video below captures her life perfectly and outlines the journey she took to grow more steadfast in her Christianity.

It's a wonderful 7 minute video. If you have a teen age son or daughter, sit down with them and share this video. Maupin talks openly about the perils of being pursued by colleges in high school and how she started wandering down the wrong path.

She also details how her life changed once she got to Texas Tech. Maupin's "journey" is far from complete, of course, but when you watch the video below you know she's on the right path.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and our "Faith in Sports" segment here every Friday.



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#dmd comments








Billy     March 18
Fake Larry coming in to stir the pot. Classy.

larry     March 18
Lots of middle schoolers in the comments section today, are schools closed?

MFC     March 18
@POBOY, MSJ does not give out athletic scholarships it is "based on need", just like every other private school. Jaeylin Smith was a FULLPAY student.



Interesting stat in golf.

Scoring leaders: #1 Scheffler 69.286

#2 Ghim 69.991



Money leaders: #1 Scheffler $10,939,000

Doug Ghim $1,107,000



Amazing the difference when you win vs just playing well to very good.

RC     March 18
Come to think of it, I'm starting to wonder if @JeffWell isn't a plant or an imposter. No adult gets that frazzled over a passing remark about a band.



Maybe I'm wrong but I have to wonder.

Unitastoberry     March 18
You know what I would like? I'd like to see Kenny Pickett blossum into a star now that he's been traded. Stranger things have happened in this league over the last 70 years. Never was big into The Beatles I liked Lennon solo Instant Karma was a great album.

Arlen     March 18
The website guy takes a pot shot at the former President and no one cares but god forbid he criticizes a band of musicians that hasn't been around for 50 years!

Kevin     March 18
Hal's a clown. If the site owner's opinion is the Beatles suck (which they do), he's allowed to post that. It's an opinion, you jag.

hal     March 18
So it's ok to defend the site owner on everything, but defending a commenter is "carrying water"? Got it. And to help this Bill P guy out, JW was criticizing content, not the writer personally....oh wait, "overgrown child" might have been personal, perhaps JW let his emotions get the best of him there. Other than that, he was simply lamenting the deviations from "sports insights and opinion". But hey I am just a water carrier, what do I know.

Poboy     March 18
@BJ, Gary Neal out at the Hall because they won't full scholarship hoops players like MSJ, McD and SFA do.

BJ     March 18
I'm late to the party. Gary Neal is out as CHC basketball coach? When?

Bill P.     March 18
At the risk of being accused of being a "water carrier", I find it amusing that people like HAL write this: Certainly, anyone can disagree with his take if they want, I just don't get the personal attacks and vitriol. If anyone is not charging rent, it would be JEFFWELL lol



But HAL fails to mention that's exactly what JEFFWELL did to the site owner. Personal attack and vitriol. Why the double standard from HAL?

Vic     March 18
Question for you Drew. It's now obvious Scheffler is world #1. But who are the next four to make up 2-5 in the rankings? I'm curious to get your take on that one.

Kevin     March 18
Look at @Hal, carrying @Jeff's water for him. What a swell guy! Does Jeffy-poo get a back rub at some point as well? LOL

hal     March 18
@JEFFWELL called it lol. Guy simply makes a comment on today's content and he gets blasted. His feeling do not seem hurt, his panties aren't in a bunch, guy just made an observation on dead horses that get beat around here.

Certainly, anyone can disagree with his take if they want, I just don't get the personal attacks and vitriol. If anyone is not charging rent, it would be JEFFWELL lol.

Tupelo     March 18
That Jeff person realizes they don't have to read the website don't they? Getting mad about a website that you don't pay for is like getting mad because Starbux makes their coffee too strong. Don't buy it.

Davey     March 18
UNC is going to win it all. That Shannon kid is pretty dang good at Illinois, I wouldn't be surprised to see them make a deep run.

RC     March 18
Yea, I'd say @JeffWell is the one looking kind of #clownshoes on this one. Just my opinion.



I don't always like or agree with what @DF writes but I don't get my feelings hurt about it.



Kind of a weird look for @Jeff today IMHO.

KC     March 18
With Pickett/Trubisky, Steelers were a 9-8 team.

With Wilson/Fields, the Steelers are a 9-8 team.

Don't worry, they're not any better now than they were before.

BO     March 18
You said it, DF, Scheffler's the best golfer on the planet right now. And since I'm old enough to remember Tiger in his prime, I know what it's like to see one player dominate the rest of the best players like "Scheff" is doing right now.



You didn't spell it out, but it looks like "X" has the choker's collar doesn't it? Both Saturday and Sunday his driver completely left him on the back 9.



Here's a question for your Q/A. I know it's not a major so why don't they play the PGA or the US Open at the TPC Sawgrass course one year? What are your thoughts on that? Would the course hold up?



Sad to see Gary Neal go but the results are what they are. I assume you know more than you're letting on. When will Calvert Hall be able to get a long term coach in there?

Tom     March 18
LMFAO at "Jeff Well". Talk about a little boy.

Larry     March 18
I agree with MFC, conference champs should never have to play in. Save the play in games for teams like Michigan State that basically backed into the tournament.

Watched most of the golf yesterday and something the site owner wrote about a while back was on display yesterday. Maybe it was just one of those things but a lot of the putts the announcers said were breaking left to right were missed. I recall the owner once saying right handed putters don't like those putts from L to R. Just something I picked up on yesterday as I watched and listened to the announcers.

Is anyone else concerned about the Ravens secondary with the losses of Darby and Stone?

And I just saw O's opening day tickets in the upper deck for $160. Times have changed. I bought an upper deck opening day ticket 3 or 4 years ago for $25 the day before the game.


Chris P.     March 18
Harman, Aberg, Theegala, all 3 of those guys hit Top 10 for Drew this week. I'm more of a college football and hoops gambler myself but I might have to plunk down a few bucks on his picks the next time there's a tournament he analyzes.



I went ahead and put down a nice chunk on the O's plus 90.5 wins last week. I feel like that is easy money but you never know. The other teams I think are a good "over" bet are the Phillies (89.5) and Blue Jays (86.5)

MFC     March 18
If you're the conference champ you should be rewarded the NCAA bid, your record over the course of the year should matter more than 4 days in March.



Play-in games are ridiculous.



The ACC, outside of UNC, got little to no respect. Duke at 4, NC State at 11, Virginia in the play-in game and Clemson somewhere with Pitt and Wake left out. This once great league needs a reboot.



I was excited when I saw Utah State in the dance and thought good for Ryan Odum. But he's now at VCU and just lost the championship game to Duquesne. He had a 22-13 record this year, good for him, sorry UMBC couldn't keep him.



None of us should ever bitch about a lip out again. What happened to Clark was as harsh as they come.



Best line in Scheffler press conference, "someone yelled you're #1 for a year only 11 more to go", referencing Tigers incredible run. He looked sheepish and then paid great homage to Tiger. You gotta like Scheffler he seems like a genuinely nice person and well grounded.



Congrats to the girls state champions, Poly, Pikesville and Hammond girls bringing back the rings.



Lets go with the "cheater coaches" final four. Houston, Kentucky, Auburn and Kansas.

Pat     March 18
Poor Jeff. It must be tough to grow up without a sense of humor.

TJ     March 18
Talk about someone living rent free in another man's head, eh? DF not only lives in Jeff Well's, he probably sublets some of the space to make money off of it! Lighten up, Francis. It's a sports blog. Why are your panties in such a bunch over a sports blog??

Jeffwell     March 18
I try. I really do. But this man is such an overgrown child that I often leave this site for a month or two. As soon as I stop by again to read about his opinion of an excellent PGA event, he 's right back to third grade.

Since I didn't get past the first paragraph of the "real" post, I'll just assume that there was more riveting commentary about Flyers fans as well. Not just shoes. This guy deserves the entire clown outfit.

Cue the synchophants in 3..2..1..

TJS     March 18
Actually, the Terps DID make the tournament. I'll be watching them play Iowa State in the first round of the women's tournament this week.

Boris     March 18
I too made some bank with Drew's picks thank you very much. In particular I liked and went with Aberg and Theegala - 2 young players who I predict are ready to win on tour or even a major.

J.J.     March 18
DF called Sheffler winning last Wednesday in his predictions. That's what I meant.

mj     March 17
Did this JJ guy get his own edition of DMD today? Mine said:

"I see Clark shooting 67 today on a difficult layout with tricky back-nine pin locations and winning by two shots over Schauffele, who produces his own round of 70. Scheffler finishes T3 with McNealy at 16-under."

JJ and Matt seem to think DMD "called it to a tee". Guess I misunderstood the above.

Mark     March 17
Final tale of the tape. Bet $300 ($10 on each golfer to win, T10 and T20) and won $740. Keep making those picks @DF!!!

Matt P.     March 17
I mean, it almost looks like Drew saw the script for the final round.



(A round of 64 is well within his reach and some kind of score like that would make the leaders press the gas pedal down the stretch.)

J.J.     March 17
DF called Scheffler's win and his final round score (64) to a tee and also picked 3 top 10 finishers in his predictions for the week. Why not just quit DMD and go into golf gambling full time and make a boat load of $$$ ???



Great job. Keep it up.

Chris K     March 17
It’s weird how adult men (I’m assuming) on here are so intense with high school sports. Of course it’s nice if your team has a good season or wins its league, but it’s high school. It’s about the kids in the school learning and preparing for their next phase in life. I’m sure the kids on team next year will be fine with the new coach. Winning should be secondary.



Btw this isn’t a shot at Drew. He’s clearly mentioned many times, that while winning is a nice feeling, he coaches his guys to be better in life and handle things the right way win or lose.

Howarc     March 17
Fields will be invaluable in helping the Steelers prepare for the Ravens. He will be able to mimic Lamar pretty well when he runs the scout team in practice

Unitastoberry     March 17
Stillers get Justin Fields. Malik Harrison might have been better. He never got a chance to show his pro ability. Personally I think the Stillers front office is just buying time to scout up the next Bradshaw or Ben. This is there new Brister-Maddox era and the odds of finding another HOF qb for them are slim.And frankly Tomlin isn't Cowher imo.

Josh     March 17
Sahith Theegala is my assigned golfer. I’m pulling for him big time! I want my round with DMD



BTW- it’s nice to watch a real golf tournament with actual storylines and some history

David Rosenfeld     March 17
If the committee was under pressure it was Friday and Saturday...all the "bid stealing" happened then. At this point (Sunday AM), the field and the seeding is probably set. Just awaiting those auto bids from the Ivy, AAC and A-10.

I'm sure this will be column fodder this week, but the Steelers have now replaced Pickett, Rudolph and Trubisky with Wilson and Fields. It sounds great for them...but only if you really believe that Fields is going to live up to his potential...which is still very much up in the air. If not, you got one year of mediocre Wilson followed by more uncertainty.

MFC     March 16
I was caught off guard by Neal’s leaving, had no clue. I’m sure DF has more inside knowledge and obviously isn’t speculating.. CH is a great school, great traditions and good coaches in all sports. I have no idea why one would leave that , plus playing in one of the premiere leagues in the country. The toll on families is unbelievable, who knows maybe he wasn’t seeing his son enough, dont know. Maybe he wasn’t getting enough help getting kids in, again don’t know but I do know he had the POY.

It’s a shame, CH has had a bunch of coaches over the last 10 years or so. It doesn’t seem to happen so much with the other sports. I hope the get a good coach and the Hall rises again, it’s good for the league



So many tournament upsets the committee is going to be under intense pressure and there will be at least 5 deserving teams that don’t get in. Right now I’m thinking UCONN will be overall #1 with UNC 2 f(if they win tonight)

Fat Frankie     March 16
"Win" is "Win" in Welsh🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

mike     March 16
I wanted someone for a "boosted" win bet this week and considered Clark. What scared me were the double bogeys last week, although they were surrounded by stellar play otherwise. Anyway, I foolishly went with Zalatoris on a flyer instead. Don't think I will be convincing anyone to wait with baited breath for my weekly golf picks lol.

The Ravens will be fine, they are not careening off a cliff here. If JLC is concerned, that makes me feel damn good about their upcoming season.

Bryan     March 16
Just giving Drew a heads up, I was in the check out at a Shoppers this morning and noticed People magazine has a special issue commemorating the Beatles 60 years later, it's a must buy Drew!

Dale     March 15
I'm gonna coin this Terp off-season as purge and surge. First to go, Noah Batchelor. Great stroke, but nowhere near a Big Ten athlete. I wish him well.

larry     March 15
I thought this MFC guy said Calvert Hall bball was on the rise and how that was good for the BCL. Now the coach quits and is quoted as saying: “Not saying anything bad about Calvert Hall at all, I just didn’t feel that things would be moving in the right direction.” MFC is usually spot on with his local bball insights. Weird.

Article I read also said Coach Neal would be focusing on his son's AAU team.

Delray RICK     March 15
Have not followed basketball for decades but lately have videos of the great white hope, LARRY BIRD. The players against him held him in AWE. And the comments made NBA GREATS is funny as he'll. Didn't know he won 3 straight MVP'S. Later in his career he had to lay on the floor because of a bad back. But the comments of opponents are really funny.

such     March 15
The B1G Ten was not very good this year, hence the road records are more a reflection of the lack of quality teams than "it's tough to win on the road in that conference."

The best conferences this season are the Big 12 and the SEC. It wouldn't be a surprise to see teams like Baylor and Kentucky make runs to the Final Four as 3 or 4 seeds. Neither team won its conference regular season title, but they're scary good. Personally, I'm pulling for Tennessee, since my money and my son go there, and Dalton Knecht is the most electric scorer in the country. But Rick Barnes, man, I dunno...

Could there have been a more fitting end to this miserable season of Maryland basketball than what happened yesterday? I've been an avid fan since 1973, and I can't remember any other team being so uninspired and unlikeable. I suppose there's nowhere to go but up from here. I hope.

Chris in Bel Air     March 15
@TimD... you beat me to it. Merciful ending is the best way to describe what happened yesterday to Terps. To answer your question, it is very tough to win on the road but I think the overall talent/performance is down this year in the B10. After all, MD somehow won 7 games in conference. I guess we shall how the conference does in the big dance.

Ravens have a "down year" after going 13-4 and going to AFC Championship? I think that is realistic. Plenty of changes have already occurred but also more about how tough it is go 13-4 and go to the Championship. They will still be a/the front runner for the division and a playoff team.

Unitastoberry     March 15
Clowney was a rental until Bowser healed up . Now Bowser is gone. I'm trying not to be a Debbie Downer but yes this could be a short rebuild. Humphrey isn't the player he once was and often injured . McDonald was the best DC since Rex and Marvin. They really need a home run type draft.

MFC     March 15
Maryland need to come up with the $$$$ and a lot of it. Did you see what Calipari is doing, goodness gracious. It’s not about what’s the best fit it’s about who can fill my wallet . Until Williard finds a few “angels” with huge bank accounts they will be mediocre. It’se awful age we live in.

TimD in Timonium     March 15
Happy that (Mens) Terps basketball has mercifully come to an end. Bring on March Madness for all the good teams.



But either Big 10 basketball is mediocre in general, or it's one of the toughest conferences in the country to win on the road. Only two teams (Purdue and Illinois) had winning in-conference road records, here's the grim toll for everyone else. Yuck.



Indiana 4-6

Iowa 4-6

Maryland 3-7

Northwestern 3-7

Michigan State 3-7

Wisconsin 3-7

Nebraska 2-8

Minnesota 2-8

Penn State 2-8

Rutgers 2-8

Ohio State 2-8

Michigan 1-9


Thursday
March 14, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3492


say it ain't so, joe


Look, I have no idea what the 2024 season will bring for the Ravens.

Conventional wisdom says things can't be quite as good as they were a year ago because it all just went too well in 2023.

But they still have one of the best quarterbacks in the league and the nucleus of a good defense.

They should be a strong contender for the AFC North once again.

When I start thinking of things, though, that could spoil 2024, a signing from Wednesday in the NFL immediately rises to the top.

It was bad enough seeing Joe Flacco in a Browns uniform. But now...in a Colts uniform?

Anthony Richardson gets hurt in Indianapolis in week 12 when the Colts are 7-5. Joe Flacco, who inked a one-year deal with the Colts yesterday, then comes in and eases them into the post-season with several late season victories.

And as fate would have it...

Indy's opening round post-season opponent just happens to be the Baltimore Ravens. And the game is in Charm City.

Of all the things I couldn't handle, that one tops the list.

Flacco returns to Baltimore.

With the Colts, of all teams.

And beats the Ravens.

I can't even fully explain to you how much that makes me shudder.

If Flacco came back with the Browns. Or Steelers, even. I wouldn't care all that much.

But the Colts?

Come on Joe.

I get it, though. Like I wrote here yesterday about Patrick Queen signing in Pittsburgh, players go where the money is and they don't care at all about franchise rivalries or that kind of stuff. Fans worry about that. Players, they do not.

But "getting mad about where a guy signs" and "hoping he doesn't beat us" are two different things.

I don't really care that Flacco signed in Indianapolis.

But it would rattle me to my core if he came waltzing back into Baltimore wearing our helmets and uniforms and ended our season next January.

I'm still one of those guys, yes.

That horseshoe on the helmet and those blue and white colors will always be, to me, symbolic of the Baltimore Colts.

The Baltimore Colts have played in Indianapolis for the last 40 years because the league didn't have the balls back then to say to them, "Yeah, you can move to Indy, that's fine, but you can't call yourselves the Colts and you can't use that horseshoe and those colors."

If Anthony Richardson comes to town and beats the Ravens next January it will sting, for sure.

But if Joe Flacco does it, that's the ultimate stick in the eye.

I'm asking the football gods, right here and now. Please don't do that to us.

The Chargers with Greg Roman? I could handle that one. Wouldn't like it. But I could handle it.

The Steelers with Patrick Queen? Wouldn't love that one, obviously, but I could handle it.

Even the Browns or Bengals beating the Ravens I could handle.

But Flacco -- with the Colts -- coming to Baltimore and ending our season? Please, please no.


It will be interesting to someday find out what the Orioles were willing to give up to the White Sox in a trade involving starting pitcher Dylan Cease.

We may never find out.

But it doesn't matter now, because Cease went to the Padres yesterday in exchange for several of San Diego's minor league prospects.

How deep in discussion did Mike Elias get with the White Sox before Chicago finally traded pitcher Dylan Cease to the Padres on Wednesday?

Someday, though, it would be nice to discover what Mike Elias was facing during his talks with the White Sox. And that's assuming, of course, that Elias and the White Sox actually had legitimate discussions about the right handed pitcher.

The good news? At least Cease didn't wind up with the Yankees, which was his rumored destination earlier this week after New York learned that their star pitcher, Gerrit Cole, is likely facing significant time on the injured list with an elbow issue.

The bad news? The Padres didn't give away the farm to get Cease.

So what did the White Sox tell the O's it would take?

Was it a package that included Jordan Westburg, Colton Cowser and another one of the club's top young players from Bowie or Norfolk?

I have no idea who was involved.

And in the end, I trust that Elias gave a proposed trade his full consideration before backing away from the table and saying, "That's too rich for our blood."

But Cease would have been a nice long term fixture in Baltimore in a way that Corbin Burnes most certainly won't be.

Burnes is gone after the 2024 season. I think we all know that.

Cease, though, is still under club control for two more seasons. He'll "only" make $8 million in '24. When he eventually hits free agency, he'll probably be a $40 million pitcher.

For two years, though, the Padres have themselves quite the bargain making 33 starts per-season.

Can you imagine a rotation in Baltimore that featured Burnes and Cease, plus Grayson Rodriguez?

I'm sure Elias imagined it.

But for whatever reason, it didn't materialize.

Did the White Sox say, "If Jackson Holliday isn't involved, it's a "no"?

If so, Elias was right. No deal.

Or did the White Sox say, "We want four prospects and two of them have to be Westburg and Cowser"?

If so, I think I might have pulled that trigger on that one.

And I'm just using those two names, of course. It might have been Westburg and the much-heralded catcher, Samuel Basilio, for all I know. That package I also might have approved.

The Padres made the deal yesterday without giving up any of their top ranked prospects. They gave up several in their top 10, though.

Was that just too rich for Mike Elias to digest?

I think, someday, we'd all like to know, just for the sake of knowing.

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DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps blow out rutgers


In a game that was never really in doubt, Maryland raced out to an 11-0 lead, making a trio of triples, and cruised to a 65-51 win. Only a 15-3 run by Rutgers over the game’s last 6 minutes hid the blowout.

Maryland was better than Rutgers in every phase of the game, but it was the Scarlet Knights’ inability to make shots that bounced them from the first round of this year’s Big Ten Tournament.

Shooting 31% from the floor, inclusive of 23.8% for the three-point stripe, Rutgers was never going to score enough points to contend.

Maryland had 4 players in double figures. Donta Scott had 16 and Juju Reese put up 12. Both Jahmir Young and Jamie Kaiser tallied 11 points.

Maryland’s crisp and unselfish passing, especially on the interior, led to a hefty 17 assists. Young had 7 of those, leading the Terps.

Maryland picked up a win on Wednesday over Rutgers, with Donta Scott's 16 point evening leading the way.

Rutgers, who were without the services of Mawot Mag, were paced by Gavin Griffiths’ 16 points.

The normally cold-starting Terps raced out to early leads of 11-0 and 17-7 thanks to their three-point shooting. Kaiser hit a pair and Harris-Smith and Scott each made one in the first 8 minutes of play. Willard’s decision to start Kaiser had paid off immediate dividends.

Rutgers was helping Maryland all they could by committing 5 turnovers in the game’s first 10 minutes.

After the 10-minute mark, both teams cooled of dramatically, combining for just 2 made field goals in their last combined 16 shots.

The under 8-minute TV timeout came at 7:54 with the Terps leading 20-9. Rutgers was shooting 22% from the floor (4-18) while Maryland had hit 7 of 17. The separator was the 4 to 1 advantage that Maryland had in three-point shots made.

The foul line accounted for the next 6 Terrapin points, allowing them to ride out their field goal drought. The gap between made Maryland shots ended with a Jordan Geronimo dunk followed by a Scott put-back. The Terp lead had stretched to 16 points, 30-14. Maryland was enjoying an 8-0 advantage from the foul line.

After running their lead up to 18, the Terps decided to match Rutgers' give-away game, committing a series of turnovers, and the Scarlet Knights closed the gap a bit by scoring 8 points in a row. A short Reese jumper ended that brief Scarlet Knight run.

The half ended with Young making a short jumper, leaving the Terps up 36-22.

After connecting on 4 threes in the first 3:30 of the game, Maryland failed to hit another in the first half. Rutgers had drained 2 triples in 11 tries, giving Maryland a 6-point advantage in points from behind the arc.

The balance of the difference between the two teams in the opening 20 minutes came at the foul line where Maryland held on to that 8-0 edge.

Rutgers, holding true to form, was miserable from the field in the first half.

Their 31% shooting from the floor, 18% from the three-point line, and 0 for 3 performance from the foul line were the main factors behind their 14-point deficit.

Maryland countered with 44%, 44%, and 50%. Foul trouble was no issue for either team.

Another quick Terp start defined the opening minutes of the second half. A 9-2 burst extended Maryland’s lead to 19, 43-24.

A timeout was Coach Pikiell’s only solution to stopping the Terrapin second half surge.

The bulge was now 23 points until Anthony Hyatt hit a triple after play resumed. The big question at this point became: were the Scarlet Knights capable of scoring the 21 points needed, assuming the Terps went scoreless for the remainder of the game, to gain a lead?

After Maryland’s Jahari Long and The Scarlet Knight’s Gavi Griffiths exchanged threes, the Terps lead by 21 again, 51-30. Rutgers called another timeout.

With nearly 11 minutes left in the game, the handwriting was on the wall…in bold letters. Rutgers just does not possess the fire power to significantly shrink a 21-point deficit in 11 minutes.

Another small Terp run grew their lead to 26 points, 62-36.

If there was even a glimmer of Rutgers hope, it had faded to black. There was 7:54 of meaningless basketball remaining. Maryland’s focus now was to rest key guys for Thursday’s tilt with Wisconsin.

Unfortunately for Maryland, Jahari Long was still in the game with the Terps up big and the game almost over. He twisted a knee and was helped off of the court. His status is listed as “Questionable”.

It’s back to BTN for the next two days. CBS will handle all of the weekend action. Maryland will face Wisconsin today in a game that will start about 25 minutes after the 12 noon Michigan State/Minnesota game is completed.

Wisconsin beat the Terps, 74-70, on February 20, in Madison. Even though the final differential was 4 points, this was a 6 or 7-point game for much of the second half.

I still worry about the Tyler Wahl matchup with Donta Scott. If Maryland can keep him from greatly impacting the game offensively, and protect the three-point line against a Badger team that is only average from long distance, then Maryland can hang in this game.

Wisconsin hasn’t won a game away from the cozy confines of the Kohn Center since January 23. With some projections placing the Badgers as high as a 6 seed in the NCAA tournament, this isn’t a life and death situation for them.

This game could be Maryland’s Super Bowl. Back-to-back games become even harder when your second opponent is well rested like Wisconsin will be. The line is fairly set at Wisconsin -3.5.

I expect this game to be a classic conference tournament battle, complete with end-of-game drama. This one goes down to a final play. Deshawn Harris-Smith locks down Max Klesmit and the Terps pull off the upset, 70-68.

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Wednesday
March 13, 2024
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#3491


king arrives, queen leaves


Oh, those Ravens-Steelers games might wind up being fun again after all.

I guess that depends on how much smack talk we get from Patrick Queen next season. If he yaps, it could get interesting. If he stays quiet, we probably won't notice him all that much.

Queen did what people in Baltimore consider unthinkable on Tuesday and signed with Pittsburgh. He gets a big bag of money and gets to face the Ravens twice a year to try to prove they made the wrong decision by letting him wander off into free agency.

Meanwhile, a couple of others hit the road late Monday/early Tuesday (after we published), with Gus Edwards (Chargers) and Devin Duvernay (Jacksonville) both remaining in the AFC.

The Ravens bolstered their offense on Tuesday with the addition of free agent running back Derrick Henry.

Duvernay's a nothing burger.

Edwards, though, might be missed. Sure, running backs are like bad Beatles songs, they're everywhere. But Edwards had carved out a nice niche for himself in Charm City and, to borrow a familiar phrase, "played like a Raven".

But if Edwards isn't missed in 2024, it will likely be because the Ravens have "The King" in their offensive backfield. Eric DeCosta turned out to be the answer to one of the NFL's most oft-asked questions this off-season: "Who is going to pony up some cash for Derrick Henry?"

It turns out DeCosta and the Ravens are that team, signing "King Henry" to a 2-year deal on Tuesday.

Career calendar wise? He's probably in the early November, I'd say. There's still tread on the tires, but they're clearly showing their miles.

I saw someone on Tuesday compare his arrival to that of Steve McNair back in 2006. I think that's a reasonably fair assessment.

McNair was no longer in his prime, but he could still get the job done when everything was in place for him. Henry is probably cut from the same cloth. He's not going be a beast and gain 1,500 yards or anything like that, but he can still get somewhere near the 1,167 yards he gained for the Titans in 2023.

And if ever there was a running back built for the rigors of the AFC North, it's Henry, even as his career calendar heads in the direction of Thanksgiving.

But make no mistake about it, the Ravens are an organization in transition as they prepare for the 2024 campaign.

Free agency "hits" happen all the time, but this off-season has been quite a wild ride thus far for John Harbaugh's team. And there's still the potential down the road for a veteran or two to be released, don't forget.

The good news? They kept the likes of Michael Pierce and Justin Madubuike around, both of whom could have signed elsewhere.

They avoided any moral dilemma and legal issue(s) with wide receiver Zay Flowers when police dropped their domestic violence investigation last month.

But the departures are significant, that's for sure.

It remains to be seen what Queen's move to Pittsburgh will do to Baltimore's defense. His game certainly perked up after Roquan Smith arrived in mid-season 2022. And while replacing him won't be easy, that's what the draft is for, right?

As for the whole "signing in Pittsburgh thing", that's just water cooler bellyaching.

If you're a regional manager for McDonald's making $200,000 and Burger King rolls in with an offer for $300,000, I assume you're taking the $300,000 and, you know, "having things your way". You probably wouldn't think twice about going to a chief competitor. It's "bidness", as they say in the movies.

I have no idea what other offers Queen had, if any, but I assume he didn't give a second thought to the fact that the Steelers and Ravens are longtime arch-rivals.

If the Jets offered $31 million and the Steelers offered $41 million, Queen is signing with the Steelers. Done deal.

Maybe I'm in the minority. And if so, that's fine. But I couldn't care less where people sign when they're NFL free agents.

I mean, it's not like Queen is signing on to receive a paycheck from a government that beheaded a Washington Post journalist, right? It's just football.

So what's next for the Ravens? Offensive line appears to be the team's #1 off-season target now, whether that's through free agency or next month's draft.


The Players Championship starts tomorrow at TPC Sawgrass as the official countdown to the Masters begins in what many folks believe is golf's 5th major.

The course plays very difficult even when the conditions are benign, which they're expected to be throughout this week and over the weekend. It's a place where ball striking matters a great deal, plus a few other nuances we'll highlight below as we try to provide you with another week of cash-makers at the wagering window.

Let me say this from the start: If his form continues to hold up -- and he's been playing "like this" for almost 2 years now -- there's no reason not to think Scottie Scheffler will have a chance to win on Sunday. He's not quite Secretariat at this point, but unless he gets food poisoining or gets bit by a spider, there's simply no indication that he's due for a stinker this week.

That's my way of saying: "He's probably going to win, but I'm not going to bet him."

I'm looking at six others who fit a certain model, one that includes past history, course data and that general gut feeling that sometimes it's just "someone's turn to finally win a significant event."

Cameron Young is a player that fits the profile in a small way. His track record at Sawgrass is next-to-nothing. He missed the cut in 2022 and finished T51 in 2023. There's not much on his performance sheet that tells you he's closing in on a win at The Playhers. But I feel like he's a guy who is close to winning something big. And he's +4500 this week, which is a really nice price for a player of his ability. A win might be ambitious, but a top 10 or top 20 is well within his grasp. And if his putter gets hot, he could be right there coming down the stretch on Sunday.

This could be the week we finally see Tom Hoge break through with a big, big win. He actually leads the entire PGA Tour in shots gained so far in 2024, which is really impressive when you realize that means he's been better, tee-to-green, than Scheffler. If Hoge keeps hitting the ball the way he has thus far in '24, he's going to win a big golf tournament this year.

Min Woo Lee's efficiency on par 5 holes could be a huge factor in his effort to win at TPC Sawgrass.

Hoge's record at TPC Sawgrass is decent. He's made 5 of 5 cuts and finished T3 a year ago. The course clearly suits him to some degree. If he hits it in the right spots on the greens and makes some putts, he could be your winner. Oh, and his +6600 price tag is almost comically out of whack. Grab him at +6600 right now.

It's almost impossible to leave Min Woo Lee off of the betting card so, guess what, I won't. One of the scoring features that sticks out at TPC Sawgrass is that the winners almost always rank among the TOUR leaders in par-5 birdies. Lee currently ranks 5th in that category in 2024, with 47 birdies in 72 par 5 holes. He had a chance to win last year before faltering down the stretch and finishing T6. The golf course suits him perfectly.

The oddsmakers don't fancy his chances this week, but I do, especially at +6000.

Brian Harman won his first "big" tournament last summer at Royal Liverpool, but a win at TPC Sawgrass would be his biggest professional victory in the U.S. And everything points to Harman being a great fit this week.

He's playing solid golf in 2024, for starters, and his history at both The Players and at Pete Dye designed golf courses is very hard to ignore.

Harman is a lefty who shapes the ball both ways, so there won't be many tee shots or approach shots that don't fit his eye in some way.

He's another one of those guys in the +6600 range who will pay off handsomely if you get him on your Top 20, Top 10 and Win sheets.

Sam Burns is ready to win. And win big. Whether it's this week, who knows, but if there's a current "horses for courses" guy that's just too inviting to pass up, it's Burns. He's on the board this morning at +4000, which is certainly a great number for a player of his ability.

He hasn't missed a cut since last July, so you know, unless something goes haywire, he's going to play all four days this week. Two of his five career wins are in Florida and, for good measure, he's made his last two cuts at Sawgrass.

There's no way Burns doesn't win something big in 2024. He's just too good and too much on the upswing to not capture the Players or a major or a FedEx Cup event.

We love his chances this week.

And last but not least is the guy that we think is the most inviting player in the entire field from a wagering standpoint. Erik van Rooyen will start tomorrow's first round somewhere in the neighborhood of +13000, which is hilarious for a player of his stature.

There's nothing specific about TPC Sawgrass that fits his narrative, which is precisely why we fancy his chances this week.

He's on the cusp of a huge breakthrough, we think. Unless his form really drops off in the next couple of weeks, you're going to see him among our favorites at the Masters, too.

If you pressed us to give you a winner of anyone outside the top 10 "favorites" for the week, van Rooyen is our guy.

Because it's a massive field and you can create a variety of different wagering angles, here are four other players we're going to play this week because they fit our profile above; Shane Lowry is playing great golf the last two weeks but he's yet to wind up in the winner's circle. The golf course is a nice fit for him.

It feels like Sahith Theegala is "this close" to something big happening in his career. I'm not sure he drives it straight enough to figure out the nuances of TPC Sawgrass, but if he has a good week off the tee, he could be there.

Ludvig Aberg is going to see a lot of new golf courses in 2024 and Sawgrass is one of them. His ability to birdie par 5 holes should make him a favorite in any tournament where the course has four of them. I could see Aberg leading going into the fourth round before faltering under the pressure of a final round test. But don't be surprised if he's hanging around.

And we're going to go with our old standby, again, because he almost always delivers somehow. And that's Sungjae Im. He's made three straight cuts at Sawgrass and had a huge T6 finish a year ago. He is definitely in the argument for "best player without a major".

It might not be recognized as the actual 5th major, but this is a great, great golf tournament, especially when the weather cooperates and they can get the course playing firm and fast.

A few flukes have won along the way, sure, but for the most part, only the best of the best figure out a way to win at Sawgrass. With no disrespect to guys like Austin Eckroat, Jake Knapp and Nick Dunlap, those kind of players generally don't win The Players. There's just too much on the line. The players with the best pedigree usually work their way to the top of the leaderboard by late Sunday afternoon.


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enter our players championship contest today!


Our friends at Baltimore County Golf and 105.7 The Fan are teaming up for a really cool Players Championship contest this week and the winner gets to hang out with me for four hours at Greystone Golf Course.

I guess you could call that a "prize", huh?

This week's so-called "5th Major" of professional golf takes the TOUR to TPC Sawgrass for The Players. If you want to jump into the contest, it's very easy.

Head to Twitter ("X") and follow me: @itsahooded4iron

You'll see messages there explaining the contest. Reply to the message with the words "I Want A Golfer!" and you'll receive a player, randomly chosen, from this week's field at The Players.

If "your" player wins the tournament, you and a friend will join me and a friend of mine for a fun day of golf at Greystone sometime this spring/summer.

I know what you're thinking: So what's the prize?

You're funny.

One entry per person.

And it all must be done on Twitter, so if you don't have a Twitter account, you need to create one.

Golfers will be selected, at random, and distributed over the next two days. The tournament begins on Thursday.

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dale williams aims the
terps spotlight

DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps face rutgers in tourney opener


If it’s strictly collective talent levels that determine the outcome of Maryland’s Big Ten Tournament opener against Rutgers, then the Terps should move on to play Wisconsin on Thursday.

Rutgers and Maryland share 7-13 conference records, but the Terps have 2 decent road wins (Iowa and Illinois) while the Scarlet Knights only defeated the two bottom feeders in the league (Michigan and Maryland) outside of their own gym.

I won’t rehash the same “keys” that I outlined in the two pieces that preceded this season’s Terp loss at the XFINITY Center, or their win in East Rutherford. But I will address some consistencies that jump out at me.

The first thing I notice is the job that Steve Pikiell’s defense did on Jahmir Young. Many might be surprised to hear that the Terps big time scorer made just 1 shot inside of three-point line against Rutgers over the 2 games. Seems impossible, right? But it’s true.

Young shot a combined 5 for 26 against a Rutgers defense that sold out to stop his dribble penetrations. Of those 5 made buckets, 4 of them were threes (4-9). The wholesale effort to jam the lane and stop Young’s entrance into the paint left the Scarlet Knights thin in other areas.

Jahmir Young and the Terps have a favorable first round match up in tonight's Big Ten tournament opener.

On several occasions, Juian Reese was able to receive passes very deep into the paint. This allowed him to quickly get off a good look without the difficulties of a double team. Reese was a combined 16 of 21 in the two games.

Maryland also got good looks from the perimeter. That’s not a bad strategy against the usually inept Terp shooters, but after making just 2 of 18 in the first game, Maryland improved to 6 of 19 in their win in game 2.

I think Young got frustrated by the pressure in that first game. The numbers suggest the same thing. He shot 3 of 17, and committed 5 turnovers against 3 assists in that loss at home.

We don’t know if he learned from the first game or was coached up, but in the second matchup, he shot less (2 or 9) but picked up 9 assists with only 3 turnovers.

Without looking up stats for each Maryland game, I would place a wager that the 17-point win against Rutgers was the only game this season that Young was fourth on the team in shots attempted and the only one where he was last in shots made of all the starters.

It might take a similar effort tonight, as I expect Rutgers to employ the same strategy to stop Young.

I will remind DMD readers that this Rutgers team is last in the Big Ten in points scored per game, and last in field goal percentage.

Only Maryland’s 28.4% three-point shooting kept Rutgers from sweeping the board for offensive futility. The Scarlet Knights avoided the basement in that category by making 28.9% of their threes.

Maryland’s recent poor second half defensive performances have moved them down to 12th in Kenpom’s adjusted defense. Rutgers is 4th. The real separation between these two teams is offensively. Maryland ranks 150th in points scored per 100 possessions, while Rutgers ranks 295th.

Up and down the lineup, the Terps have the better talent, but this game will be decided by effort and motivation.

Both teams have a puncher's chance against their second-round foe, Wisconsin. Rutgers beat the Badgers by 22 just a month ago, and the Terps lost a tight, 74-70 game in Madison.

That winner gets a Northwestern team that scratched out two close wins against Maryland and lost their only battle with the Scarlet Knights. Three wins in three days is asking a bunch from teams that can’t score and have little depth, but there is very little separation between the 4 teams that I mentioned.

The Big Ten awards were announced yesterday, with only a few surprises. Zach Edey was the coaches and media Player of the Year. There’s no arguing that selection.

The defensive POY went to Penn State’s Ace Baldwin. Again, hard to deny that one.

The First Team All-Big Ten went to Boo Buie, Braden Smith, Terrance Shannon Jr, and Zach Edey.

Jahmir Young was first team for the media, and Marcus Domask was the coach’s selection. In no world was Purdue’s Smith a more valuable piece than Young.

Young, on Purdue’s roster, makes them a much better team. He could easily duplicate the Boilermaker’s success if he were their point guard. Smith would do well in College Park, but doesn’t add anywhere near what Young adds.

There were 19 players selected to the Honorable Mention ranks. Scott and Reese were among those.

Now comes my griping session about an award given in all sports, Coach of the Year. I find this award somewhat meaningless. It always goes to one of two people. The coach of the winningest team, or the coach of the team that furthest exceeds the media’s expectations.

In all honesty, until these teams play games that I can view, I have no idea how impactful all the transfers and freshmen can be.

I don’t have the available minutes to look at film of every new player in the league, and I can tell you right now, that the large bulk of the media doesn’t see those game tapes either. They go from reputation and other people’s writings. Most of the pre-season “guesses” are based on returning players, and that’s a fair criterion to use, but it’s only one element.

My point is, these pre-season assessments are highly inaccurate.

CBS had Michigan State 2nd and Maryland 4th. Perhaps their biggest miss came with predicting Nebraska to finish 12th. They tied for third.

So, who wins the Coach of the Year? The co-winners were Purdue’s Matt Painter (regular season champs) and Fred Hoiberg from Nebraska.

I’m not saying that neither coach did a fine job this season. I am saying that it’s so hard to tell what coach did the best job with the talent they had, and giving the award to the coach of the best team or the one that most surprised the media makes the award meaningless. Perhaps the job that Pikiell did massaging 7 conference wins out of his Rutgers team was the best coaching job all season.

OK, rant over.

Tonight’s game should be won my Maryland. Reese should be back, but both he and Mawat Mag for Rutgers are listed as “Questionable”. I expect both to go.

It all comes down to “want to”. The team that plays the hardest will win. If both teams play equally aggressive, the Terps win 64-57. The line had UMD favored by 3.5.

Both Wednesday games (UMD/Rutgers and Michigan/Penn State) can be seen on Peacock. This year’s event is in Minneapolis and the Terps are the tournament’s opener with a 6:30 start.

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March 12, 2024
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#3490


now that was a manic monday


OK, so the Ravens have lost John Simpson, Geno Stone and Ronald Darby to free agency thus far.

That's not a big deal at all, if you ask me.

Simpson was a nice stop gap on the offensive line last season but nothing to write home about. Stone is a good player who might be more style than substance and Darby might have done the Ravens a favor by moving on. It saved Harbaugh, DeCosta and others that summertime "tough talk", if you know what I mean.

The Bengals landed Stone yesterday, Simpson heads to the Jets and Darby will be playing in Jacksonville in 2024.

But while those three deals were of the ho-hum variety, there were several eye opening announcements on Monday as the free agency wars officially got underway in the National Football League.

Will Patrick Queen be the next big name Raven to leave via free agency this week?

Atlanta took a step in the direction of solving their quarterback woes by luring Kirk Cousins to the NFC South on a 4-year deal. Cousins spent six mostly successful years in Minnesota but failed to get the Vikings to the Super Bowl in that span. The Falcons haven't had a real quarterback since the days of Matt Ryan. Cousins could be a super-nice fit in Atlanta or all he might do is help them continue to hover around the .500 mark.

The New York Giants made a huge move in acquiring defensive end Brian Burns from the Panthers. New York gave up a 2nd round pick in this year's draft and a 2025 5th rounder, plus they had to fork over $150M to sign the pass rusher to a new deal. Burns would have helped virtually any team in the league but he'll certainly make a huge impact with the Giants.

The Jets picked up former Ravens QB Tyrod Taylor to back-up Aaron Rodgers. Taylor has bounced around a lot in his lengthy NFL career but is more than a capable fill-in when a starter gets injured. And, with the Jets and Rodgers, you just never know, of course.

The Eagles landed the running back they feel their offense needs to put them over the top when they agreed to a deal with former Giants ball carrier Saquon Barkley. There was some speculation on free agent Monday that the Ravens might be Barkley's ultimate destination but his move down I-95 stopped about 75 miles north in Philly.

The Ravens could quench their thirst for a new running back by adding Joe Mixon, who was released yesterday by the Bengals. In a related move, Cincinnati then signed former Colts running back Zack Moss, who rose to prominence this past season when he filled in nicely on several occasions for Jonathan Taylor.

There's nothing quite like NFL free agency.

Unlike baseball, where big moves sometimes take weeks to materialize once the free agent period begins, the NFL is a full out sprint to the money bag.

The Ravens, of course, got a head start on their off-season roster build by signing Justin Madubuike to a new long term deal late last week.

But they probably won't be able to do the same thing with linebacker Patrick Queen.

With their salary cap tight and in need of some tweaking, it's highly unlikely they're going to be able to keep the former 1st round draft pick.

Rumors were swirling as early as January that Queen's ultimate destination will be Pittsburgh. New England and Seattle are also potential attractive landing spots for the former LSU star.

With the departure of Mike Macdonald to Seattle, the Seahawks rumors make obvious sense.

One Ravens team associate told #DMD on Monday, "Anywhere but Pittsburgh. We know we're going to lose him (Queen). I guess we're just hoping it's not in Pittsburgh or not in the AFC North."

The Ravens head into this off-season with more questions than they've had in several years.

Mike Macdonald is gone as defensive coordinator and in his place it's Zach Orr.

There will be spots to fill on the defensive side of the ball in almost every area, including pass rush, linebacker and the secondary.

Running back appears to be a huge area of need offensively, and while the offensive line might not be in "overhaul" territory just yet, they do need a lot of help up front.

It's fun to be a pursuer in free agency.

It's not always enjoyable to be the team that gets their roster taken apart, though.

The Ravens will lose a couple of others, at least, throughout the week. Their challenge will be obvious: fill their needs through free agency if possible, but focus on the draft and rebuilding with talent that doesn't cost you a bundle of cash.

This is where Eric DeCosta shines.

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enter our players championship contest today!


Our friends at Baltimore County Golf and 105.7 The Fan are teaming up for a really cool Players Championship contest this week and the winner gets to hang out with me for four hours at Greystone Golf Course.

I guess you could call that a "prize", huh?

This week's so-called "5th Major" of professional golf takes the TOUR to TPC Sawgrass for The Players. If you want to jump into the contest, it's very easy.

Head to Twitter ("X") and follow me: @itsahooded4iron

You'll see messages there explaining the contest. Reply to the message with the words "I Want A Golfer!" and you'll receive a player, randomly chosen, from this week's field at The Players.

If "your" player wins the tournament, you and a friend will join me and a friend of mine for a fun day of golf at Greystone sometime this spring/summer.

I know what you're thinking: So what's the prize?

You're funny.

One entry per person.

And it all must be done on Twitter, so if you don't have a Twitter account, you need to create one.

Golfers will be selected, at random, and distributed over the next two days. The tournament begins on Thursday.

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nice guys can finish first


Is there a chance, even a sliver of such, that we might be seeing something close to a Tiger Woods period of dominance on the horizon within the PGA Tour?

There's a long way to go in the 2024 PGA Tour season, but if Scottie Scheffler has, in fact, "fixed" his putting, the rest of the guys in professional golf are playing for second place.

Yes, that's a big statement.

But it's true.

And here's another statement. And even bigger one, perhaps.

Scheffler's golf over the last 25 months, from a tee-to-green standpoint, is as close to Tiger Woods as anyone has been over the last two decades.

That's not me saying that. The data and the statistics say it.

Scottie Scheffler will likely be the favorite at next month's Masters tournament after yesterday's big win in Orlando.

I just happen to be the one pointing it out.

Scheffler is a ball-striking virtuoso unlike the sport has seen since the days when Tiger beat everyone like a drum for the better part of a dozen years from 2000-2012.

The difference?

Woods never went through a dry spell with the putter like Scheffler has over the last year.

Yesterday, though, the 2022 Masters champion capped off a remarkable week at Bay Hill with a resounding putting display in posting a 5-shot win in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. And it all started with a putter change, to a new "mallet" style from Taylor Made that Scheffler says "felt 100 times better at impact" than his old flat stick.

If Scheffler's new putter and his 2nd career API victory wasn't a case of beginner's luck, we might be looking at a 5 or 6 win season on the horizon.

Yeah, the way Tiger used to do it in his heyday.

Here's the other thing about Scheffler that's compelling.

He might be the nicest player in golf.

Like, anywhere in golf.

It's not often that a player with that demeanor and that incredible level of kindness is also a giant killer in his her or her sport. But Scheffler is a guy totally unafraid to beat your brains in who will also give you a ride to the TOUR's weekly Bible study.

"I play for God's glory first," Scheffler said after yesterday's win, the 7th of his career. "If I win, Jesus Christ gets the praise."

His 2-win season in 2023 was marred by remarkably poor putting in the final rounds of various tournaments. His ball striking data was beyond belief. He led the TOUR in four different categories. But was nearly last in strokes gained putting.

"His putting was good enough to put him into position eight or nine times to win and then lousy enough to cost him eight or nine wins," Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said this past Saturday night. "If he can figure out what's going on with his putting on Sundays, you're looking at a monumental season."

If it wasn't a one day thing yesterday, everyone else is in big trouble.

Scheffler's work with his driver, irons and wedges was once again at the top of the statistical leaderboard, but the putter finally cooperated for four straight rounds.

"It felt great to stand over putts and think, 'This one's going in' instead of 'I hope I can make this one'," Scheffler told reporters. "I've been waiting to have that feeling again, like I did in '22."

Since Tiger's career stalled after injuries, surgeries and a horrific car accident, the TOUR has been searching long and hard for the next dominant player.

Several names have surfaced over the last decade; McIlroy, Spieth, Koepka, Thomas. At times, each of those guys looked like they might be "the next Tiger". But they all developed flaws that Woods never encountered.

McIlroy suddenly couldn't close on Sunday in majors.

Spieth's golf swing left him and so, too, did his ability to beat the best players.

Koepka could win majors, but "regular" events didn't interest him.

Thomas ran too hot and cold, playing great for a few weeks and then shifting into neutral.

Tiger never failed to close.

He changed swings, but more out of boredom than necessity.

Woods won every type of tournament he entered; "regular" events, tournaments with elite fields and, of course, major championships.

And Tiger never ran hot and cold. He always ran one temperature -- boiling.

Scheffler isn't exactly in Tiger territory just yet. But he's closer than anyone has been over the last decade when you take into account the data that supports his world #1 ranking.

Distinctly odd footwork aside, Scheffler's golf swing is a mix of power and athleticism. He lashes at the ball in an "Arnie-like" way while still generating remarkable clubhead speed and a square clubface at impact.

He's a great driver of the golf ball.

His irons are of the "towering" variety, ripped straight into the air with authority and precision.

And like Woods did at his zenith, Scheffler carves up the par-5 holes with short game wizardry.

The putting, though.

That's the one thing that's held him back over the last 25 months. 7 wins in that span are more than anyone else on the PGA Tour, of course, but 7 could have easily been more 17 with even a halfway-cooperative flat stick.

If Sunday's putting display was any indication, more wins are on the way.

A "Tiger season" might even be within reach in 2024.

Nice guys do finish first after all.


While Maryland was busy laying a massive egg in State College, PA yesterday, Pat Skerry and Towson University are now just two wins away from advancing to the NCAA tournament after their 66-56 win over UNC Wilmington on Sunday.

The Tigers haven't been a March Madness participant since 1991.

But to make it, #1 College of Charleston stands in their way tonight at 6 pm.

The other semifinal pits #3 Hofstra vs. upstart #7 Stony Brook, who shocked #2 seed Drexel yesterday, 91-88.

Every Baltimore area school but one has made the NCAA tournament this century; UMBC, Loyola, Coppin State and Morgan State have all "gone dancing". Towson, though, has not.

They'll need to get past College of Charleston tonight in order to have a chance at making March Madness for the first time in 33 years.

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DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


nittany lions roar past terps


As has been the case in recent Terrapin losses, their second half defense again failed them in last night’s regular season finale in State College, PA.

A four-point game at halftime became a comfortable 85-69 blowout win for the Penn State Nittany Lions.

The turning point on the court may have been the 2 missed Jordan Geronimo foul shots with the Terps trailing by 5 with 17:10 left in the game. You could sense the fight draining from Maryland when Geronimo bricked those freebies.

The turning point, off the court, came pre-game when Julian Reese was declared out of action because of a tweaked ankle.

Kevin Willard's Terps produced a listless second half in Sunday's regular season finale, falling by 17 points to Penn State.

Without Reese, the Terps got horsed in the paint and on the glass. Qudus Wahab looked like a cross between Shaq, Moses Malone, and Darryl Dawkins. Wahab had 19 points and 15 rebounds in 30 minutes of play. The total rebound differential favored Penn State, 46-27.

In the second half, Maryland allowed PSU to shoot 60% from the floor. Penn State scored 49 times in the game’s final 20 minutes. The Terps, again, struggled with their shooting. They shot 38 from the floor and 26% from the three-point line. Without Reese, Maryland had no chance of competing with Penn State.

Jahmir Young had a tough night, shooting 4 of 14 and missing all 5 of his three point tries.

Here’s a stat for you; the Terp bench outscored the starters in the second half, 23-14.

Donta Scott was so bad that Willard pulled him early in the second half (I heard no mention of an injury). He saw just 4 minutes of time in half 2, failing to score. After opening the game by scoring 6 points in the opening 1:50, he scored just 2 the rest of the game.

Penn State got off to a good start, leading 11-6 at the first break. Solving the Terp defense wasn’t an issue for the Nittany Lions, as they counted 3 layups in their first 4 made shots.

Maryland’s defensive focus was non-existent at this point in the game. Maryland was a step behind on drives and couldn’t catch up when chasing cutters.

Without Reese on the court, the Terps were being outrebounded 8-3 and had a hard time getting into their offensive sets.

The score was 18-15 when the next media timeout occurred with 11:31 left in the half. The Terps seemed to have a bit more energy with Caleb Swanton-Rodger at 5-spot instead of the starter, Madie Traore. Maryland had already committed 5 turnovers and made just 4 of their first 14 shots.

The Penn State lead was still 3 points when play was stopped again for the under 8-minute TV timeout. PSU continued to baffle Maryland with their off side cutting without the ball. Donta Scott had missed 4 shots in a row after starting the game scoring the Terps first 6 points.

The Terps found themselves ahead by three after Young’s “and one” was followed up with a Scott driving bank shot and a three by Jaimie Kaiser. The score was 27-24. The Terps defensive intensity had picked up too.

Penn State finished the half on a 10-3 run and took a 36-32 lead into the locker room. Young was forcing some shots and that caused the Terps to come up dry on three consecutive possessions.

A senseless foul by Geronimo, who was attempting to rebound a missed Swanton-Roger foul shot, added two more points to Penn State’s total when Wahab converted the one and one.

Young led the Terps with 11 first half points, but his +/- was minus ten. Meaning that while he was on the court, the Terps were outscored by ten points. Swanton-Roger gave Maryland some solid minutes while filling in for Reese.

PSU led by 3 with 15:52 left in the game, but the play for each team was getting sloppy. Swanton-Rodger and Harris-Smith had both been charged with 3 fouls. For Penn State, Zack Hicks and Nick Kern had 3 fouls a piece. Wahab, taking full advantage of the absence of Reese, had already posted 13 points and 13 rebounds.

The Terps needed a timeout with 14:33 left in the half, trying to stem a PSU run. The lead was now 7 -points, 49-42.

When Maryland forgot to guard Ace Baldwin, his successful 3 pointer pushed the Penn State advantage to 13. The game was getting out of hand and the Terp effort began to wane. At one point Penn State ran off 10 consecutive points during a 15-2 run. The last 13:36 was just play time. Maryland failed to get stops or rebounds and never threatened. Ballgame.

If you want positives from this game, I’ll give you four.

First, Swanton-Rodger gave Willard some decent minutes, especially in the first half. He’s never going to be a vital piece, but the sophomore has made improvement on both ends.

Second, perhaps Jamie Kaiser has found out that he can do more than shoot threes. He was 3 for 5 when putting the ball on the floor and got to the foul line on several occasions, making 4 of 5 from the line.

The third positive were the three triples that Noah Batchelor hit in the second half. It’s a shame that he lacks the physicality and athleticism to play defense in the league, because I believe he has the best stroke on this team.

And finally, that last positive is that I never again have to watch Scott miss shots and play half-hearted defense in a regular season Big Ten game. I’m guessing Willard had also seen enough.

Maryland will play the first game of this year’s Big Ten tournament. Their Wednesday tilt against Rutgers in Minneapolis starts at 6:30 and can be seen on Peacock.

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March 10, 2024
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"it's only interesting if..."


Late Friday afternoon a college basketball story started circulating regarding suspicious gambling activities involving two schools; Temple University and Baltimore's very own Loyola University.

The story picked up steam locally over the weekend when Loyola head coach Tavaras Hardy stepped down after six seasons following the Greyhounds' ouster from the Patriot League conference tournament.

A separate report on Saturday showed troubling details out of Philadelphia, where sources are now saying Temple had as many as four games this season that have been investigated by a sports gambling watchdog group.

A source connected with Loyola's program tells me Hardy's departure had nothing at all to do with the gambling story regarding the Greyhounds.

"Tavaras is pursuing another coaching opportunity, nothing more, nothing less," the source told me.

The Greyhounds say they discovered a member of the program was connected with gambling this season and immediately dismissed from the program.

Meanwhile, the Temple story apparently has some real legs. On Monday this past week, the University of Alabama-Birmingham was a 2-point favorite for Thursday's game in Philadelphia. After a surge of wagers came in on UAB to push the line to minus 8.5 points for the visitors, Temple then fell at home, 100-72.

Basketball is probably the easiest team sport to fix.

Everyone has a bad shooting night.

There are rebounds that "just fell out of reach".

Screens aren't fought through with the same intensity.

Three pointers aren't defended as they should be.

It "looks" like you're giving it your all, but you're not.

And the other team has no idea, either.

The refs aren't paying attention and they couldn't care less, either.

If you're an 8.5 point underdog and you want to lose by 9 points or more, that's the easiest thing in the world to do.

I don't know if Temple's players were fixing games or not, but the point spread movement in this week's loss at home to UAB was evidently the final straw for the watchdog outfit.

Now...it's interesting.

And we all know old adage about sports: "It's only interesting if you can bet on it."


I once saw a college basketball game at a local school, a long time ago, that I remain convinced to this day was gambling-impacted by the home team.

I can't imagine the people involved could be affected by the story now -- if I released the names involved, that is -- but I'm not bringing it up to incriminate anyone individually. Rather, I'm mentioning it here again (I've told the story before) just to remind everyone it's not all that hard to change the final score if that's really all you're trying to do.

On that particular night, the home team was facing a conference leader/power and the outcome of the game was pretty much never in doubt. As it happened, the hosts were 9.5 point underdogs and the second half saw the score fluctuate between 12 and 8 point deficits throughout most of the final 20 minutes.

The visitors won by 11 on an uncontested layup with a few seconds remaining. I can still remember the final play to this day. I looked at the person attending the game with me and said, "What the heck was that? I've never seen a basketball game end like that, where the other team is up by 9 points with the ball and scores with two or three seconds left instead of just standing there and holding the ball to end the game."

The telltale sign came during the post-game handshake when nothing odd took place.

No finger pointing.

No jawing between players about the unnecessary basket with a couple of seconds remaining.

No agitation at all.

Both coaches greeted one another with a smile and the players buzzed through the line like it was a summer scrimmage.

If you're going to fix the eventual point spread at the end of the game, at least look like you're mad about that final basket with a few seconds left.

That's what I thought to myself as I watched the handshake line.

It was pretty obvious, to me, that something weird was going on that night.

The game itself wasn't all that important or interesting. One team at the top of the conference standings and another down near the bottom.

But, as they say, it's always interesting if you can bet on it.


I've told this story several times about Mike Mussina and a certain umpire who told me, as a guest of a local restaurant owner, about his disdain for the O's pitcher.

"He thinks he's smarter than everyone in both dugouts," the umpire said. "I can't stand that kid."

The ump and the restaurant owner cackled and giggled about secret stories only they shared.

"Tonight," the umpire predicted, "that strike zone is going to look like the size of a thimble to him."

Mussina walked a slew of batters that night -- uncharacteristically, of course -- and the O's lost.

That was my first brush with "professional" gambling, I think. It was the eye opener for me, that maybe, just maybe, the games aren't always exactly on the level.

I have no idea if the umpire had money on the game or not. Maybe he just truly didn't like Mussina and wanted him to suffer a home loss and nothing more was involved.

But I saw how it worked, first hand. A couple of extra walks here and there, a single up the middle, and suddenly you're on the good end of a defeat that helped create.

It probably just looked like Mussina was "off" that night as he walked a bunch of batters.

I doubt anyone in the stands thought his outing was, you know, "interesting".

But it's always interesting if you can bet on it, as they say.


There are wagers to be made today as the PGA Tour event at Bay Hill wraps up with an intriguing leaderboard to consider.

Scottie Scheffler and Shane Lowry are tied for the top spot at 54 holes.

Lowry is on a heater, as they say, enjoying his second consecutive week in the final group to go out on Sunday. Last week he had a chance to win the Cognizant (nee "Honda") Classic before faltering on Sunday.

Armed with a new putter, Scottie Scheffler sits in a tie for the 54-hole lead heading into today's final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Scheffler has changed putters this week and the immediate return on investment is somewhat positive. While his putting numbers still aren't great, they're improving. And they've improved enough to give him a chance to win today.

Wyndham Clark (8 under) is one shot back after a wild ride on Saturday that saw him make two doubles and an eagle. I love this guy's golf game. I think he's in store for another big year.

Will Zalatoris (-7) was cruising with a 4-shot lead at one point on Saturday, but fell from 11 under to 7 under late in the day. His trademark "iffy" putting wasn't really the problem, other than a missed 5-footer at the last hole. He just hit some wildly offline shots on the back nine that put him in some crazy places on the golf course.

Anyone at 6 under or even 5 under still has a chance, particularly if Scheffler and Lowry both produce rounds of even par or thereabouts on a tough golf course this afternoon.

That means guys like Harris English (-6), Rory McIlroy (-5), Sam Burns (-5) and Max Homa (-5) are still sniffing around with an outside chance to win.

Three #DMD picks at the start of the week have a chance to cash Top 20 or Top 10 wagers. Corey Conners and Sungjae Im are both at 4-under par and Cameron Young sits at 2-under with one round to go.

Patrick Cantlay (even) has an outside chance of slipping into the top 20 but needs a round in the mid 60's today to do that.

My pick for today's final round?

It won't yield much of a return, but I think Scheffler is the guy who eventually winds up in the winner's circle at 11-under par.


Programming note: Due to a death in family, my weekly golf radio show on 105.7 The Fan will not be heard today. We'll return next Sunday to talk golf with you.

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DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps close out regular season tonight


According to bball.notnothing.net, there is no scenario that keeps the Maryland Terrapins out of the “play-in” round of the Big Ten tournament held on Wednesday.

Their game tonight, at Penn State, can only determine the time of their first-round game and the Terps opening round opponent. That’s not quite what anyone affiliated with this team expected for Maryland’s final regular season game.

The Nittany Lions could have a bit more at stake. A win tonight keeps them out of the first round on Wednesday.

They will also advance to Thursday with an Ohio State loss (OSU takes on Rutgers at the RAC). The Ohio State game will be played at 2 pm on Sunday, 5-plus hours before PSU takes on Maryland. Penn State will know what they need to do before they take the floor for pre-game warm-ups.

#DMD's Dale Williams expects a big game tonight from Donta Scott as the Terps look for a season sweep of Penn State.

With this being senior night for PSU, emotions will be higher for the home Nittany Lions. Over 60% of Penn State’s playing minutes come from their 6 seniors. Tonight’s pre-game ceremony honoring Penn State’s seniors will take a long time.

These two teams played in early December, with the Terps grinding out an 81-75 win at the XFINITY Center in overtime. Penn State’s biggest offensive weapon that night was Kanye Clary. The small guard went 8 for 17 from the field and made all 7 of his foul shots while collecting a team high 25 points.

The Nittany Lions will miss that scoring tonight, as Clary has been dismissed from the team. No information was available as to exactly what happened to cause Clary’s forced exodus.

Some people suspected a series of negative social media posts. The Nittany Lions haven’t folded without him, going 2 and 3 with a good home win against Illinois.

In the first game, Julian Reese was 7 for 11 from the field against PSU’s Qudus Wahab. Reese was just too physical for the slightly built Nittany Lion big man. Reese also had 15 total rebounds with 6 of those coming on the offensive end of the court. The only downside for Reese, offensively, was his 10-15 foul shooting.

Jahmir Young also had a big night against Penn State, leading all scorers with 28 points. But, much like some of his more recent performances, he struggled from the three-point line (2 for 7) and made just 7 of 19 shots from the floor. Of his 28 points, 12 came from the foul line on 12 attempts. He also had too many turnovers, with 6.

Without Clary, Penn State’s lineup gets much bigger. Ace Baldwin will still run the show at 6’1”, but after him the Nittany Lions will trot out Nick Kern Jr (6’6”), Puff Johnson (6’8”), Zach Nicks (6’8”), and 6’11” Wahab. That group has some size and when on the court together, will force Kevin Willard to match it.

Kern won’t shoot threes, so he can be defended with someone who plays more physically inside. Deshawn Harris-Smith is the obvious choice size wise, but I’d rather see him checking Zach Hicks.

Hicks is a more versatile scorer, leading his team in threes attempted and made. Harris-Smith will fare better chasing him around the court than would Maryland’s Jordan Geronimo. Geronimo should get Puff Johnson.

The no-brainer match-ups are Young/Baldwin and Reese/Wahab. Maryland has an advantage with either of these, but the difference isn’t overwhelming unless Young just goes nuts shooting the ball. The ball game will fall to the team that wins the other three battles.

Maryland can’t shoot the ball worth a lick, that’s been proven time after time. Their performance against Penn State last time was epically bad.

They were just 34% from the floor and 20% from the three-point line. I believe (and maybe I’m a fool) that won’t be repeated tonight.

For sure, Donta Scott isn’t going out with a 4 point, 2 for 11 shooting night. That’s what he posted in the first Penn State game. I look for something special from him this evening.

I can see him using his body to work inside for a handful of buckets in the paint. If he gets to 20, I won’t be surprised. He’s not getting blanked from 3-point land again either.

As you can probably tell, I have a slight lean towards Maryland tonight. I’ll admit to being a bit concerned about Kern and Johnson, but I’m optimistic about Young, Reese, and Scott.

I also like the 23 offensive rebounds that Maryland grabbed in game #1, but I don’t like the fact that the Terps scored 30 of their 81 points from the foul line. That won’t happen in State College PA.

In the end, I’m not so sure playing your way out of a Wednesday game in the Big Ten Tournament is enough incentive for a team to lay it all on the line. They do have the emotion of senior night, but that usually lasts just long enough to get a team to that first TV break.

The important three matchups I mentioned earlier will lean ever so slightly to the Terps because of the big effort by Scott. The center and point guard battles swing in the Terps favor too.

If the Terps pound the offensive glass, focus on Reese and Scott inside, and guard the three-point line, they’ll win their final regular season Big Ten game.

The line was a predictable 1.5 with Penn State favored (the Terps were 4.5 favs at home). Only a big night from long range prevents a senior night loss for Penn State. The Terps won’t allow that to happen, and enjoy a hard fought, physical, 70 – 65 win.

Gametime is 7:30 and will be carried by BTN.

I’d like to add this little tidbit. If you want to stop court storming, it’s so easy. Just do what North Carolina did on the road last night in Cameron Indoor Stadium against Duke. Win.

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lesson learned?


There's a saying: Never a failure if a lesson was learned.

Let's hope that's the case with the National Football League after Friday's sobering news that several Kansas City Chiefs fans have suffered amputations to extremities in the wake of January's playoff game that was played in sub-zero temperatures.

As a lot of you enjoy pointing out, we don't always get it right here.

We did get that one right.

It was idiotic to play that football game in Kansas City that night. We said it before, the day after, and, again, today.

The NFL has done a lot of dumb things over the years. They suspended Calvin Ridley for an entire season over a gambling issue when, oddly enough, at least 50% of the league's TV revenue is derived from ----- you guessed it, gambling.

Roger Goodell and the NFL are in hot water now that news has come out of Kansas City about the January playoff game played in frigid temperatures.

But Ridley only lost a season of paychecks.

The people in Kansas City lost legs, feet, toes, fingers, etc.

Now, you can point out that no one forced anyone in Kansas City to attend that game in January. And you would be right.

But some people, like game day employees, were either attending/working or they weren't getting paid that night. At least one of the hospitalized people who later suffered an amputation were reportedly stadium workers.

There will likely be no legal recourse in this instance, although I assume there's a lawyer in Kansas City sitting over his or her coffee this morning trying to figure out if it's at least worth running up the flag pole.

But how does the NFL get held accountable for its decision to play the game and jeopardize everyone in the stadium, including the players.

Someone actually was forced to work at the stadium that night: the players, coaches, game officials, etc.

The NFL should have never started that game between the Chiefs and Dolphins. Why was it started in the first place? Scheduling? Convenience? The league's TV deal with NBC and Peacock?

The league did postpone a game in Buffalo scheduled for the very next day, remember, but that was only after the Governor of New York issued a travel shutdown due to snowfall.

You can bet everything you have that the game would have gone on between the Bills and Steelers if, in fact, people would have been allowed out on the roads.

Yes, it's an outdoor sport. Yes, it should be played in cold weather.

20 degrees is "cold".

10 degrees is "frigid"

What, then, is minus-4 degrees?

And when people suffer amputation in the aftermath of the game you refused to postpone, where does your responsibility for those injuries begin and end?

There's an attorney asking that very question today in Kansas City, I'm sure.

The NFL will, I'm quite certain, just roll on as if nothing happened. Somewhere at places he doesn't talk about at parties, Roger Goodell is shrugging his shoulders today and saying, "What was I supposed to do? We had a TV show to broadcast on Peacock that night and the show must go on."

It will be interesting to see whether the NFL learns a lesson from its failure.


"Regular season" PGA Tour events are generally not all that interesting, unless Tiger Woods is involved and somehow cobbles together four consecutive rounds, which seems more and more unlikely these days.

But this weekend's golf at Bay Hill in Orlando might be different. The leaderboard is stacked and there are several players and storylines worth following.

For starters, the weather is expected to kick up in the Orlando area today and tomorrow, which will make an already difficult Bay Hill golf course play even harder. Already one of the tougher "regular season" TOUR layouts, it's going to play several shots harder over the final two rounds due to high winds and dry conditions.

A leading score of 7-under par at the halfway point of a PGA Tour event is almost unheard of these days, but that's what they have at Bay Hill, where six guys share the lead.

Whether one of these six winds up winning is a different story (see wagering advice below), but they're each an interesting story.

Scottie Scheffler has been battling putting issues for well over a year now. He would have, the stat nerds say, won 8 golf tournaments a year ago (instead of two) had he putted at 35% of the TOUR average. His ball striking numbers have been through the roof for 12 months...but he can't make a putt. Scheffler has switched to a mallet-head putter and is experiencing some immediate benefits. It will be interesting to see if he continues to putt well over the weekend.

Can Wyndham Clark win for the 4th time in less than a year this weekend in Orlando?

Wyndham Clark is slowly starting to evolve into a top American player, what with three wins in the last year, including a major, and another trip to the top of the leaderboard at the halfway point of this Signature event on TOUR. A lot of people learned more about Clark during this week's unveiling of the Netflix series, Full Swing. Clark has always had golfing talents, but as we saw in the second episide of the series, his mental game wasn't great until he sought the help of a professional in that field. Can he hold on and win at Bay Hill.

Hideki Matsuyama has already won once this year and appears to have his occasionally balker putter behaving very well thus far in 2024. When he's "on", he's one of the best in the business. But a bad back over the last two years has created some question marks in his durability, particularly on more difficult courses like Bay Hill where the rough is high. Matsuyama's game is rounding into form just in time for the Masters, where he's a former champion.

Brian Harman is probably the outlier of the group tied for the lead in that he's one of the shorter hitters on TOUR. That distance issue didn't hurt him at the British Open last summer, but Bay Hill requires length off the tee and precision with iron shots. A win this weekend would be a great feather in his career cap. But can he keep up with the big boys off the tee like Scheffle, Clark and Matsuyama?

Shane Lowry and Russell Henley are both extraordinarily high-level players, one (Lowry) with a major championship victory but no PGA Tour titles and the other (Henley) with one of the best putters in the game who needs another win to elevate his game to "elite" status.

The guy to watch, I think, is Will Zalatoris at 6-under par. He's in great form following a missed season (2023) due to back surgery and his golf swing should hold up much better now that he's healthy. His always suspect putting hasn't been on display yet this season, which could be very important to him as the TOUR plods along in the direction of Augusta National.

For those interested in a Masters future bet, get on him right now. He'll be on my short list, for certain.

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#dmd comments








Billy     March 18
Fake Larry coming in to stir the pot. Classy.

larry     March 18
Lots of middle schoolers in the comments section today, are schools closed?

MFC     March 18
@POBOY, MSJ does not give out athletic scholarships it is "based on need", just like every other private school. Jaeylin Smith was a FULLPAY student.



Interesting stat in golf.

Scoring leaders: #1 Scheffler 69.286

#2 Ghim 69.991



Money leaders: #1 Scheffler $10,939,000

Doug Ghim $1,107,000



Amazing the difference when you win vs just playing well to very good.

RC     March 18
Come to think of it, I'm starting to wonder if @JeffWell isn't a plant or an imposter. No adult gets that frazzled over a passing remark about a band.



Maybe I'm wrong but I have to wonder.

Unitastoberry     March 18
You know what I would like? I'd like to see Kenny Pickett blossum into a star now that he's been traded. Stranger things have happened in this league over the last 70 years. Never was big into The Beatles I liked Lennon solo Instant Karma was a great album.

Arlen     March 18
The website guy takes a pot shot at the former President and no one cares but god forbid he criticizes a band of musicians that hasn't been around for 50 years!

Kevin     March 18
Hal's a clown. If the site owner's opinion is the Beatles suck (which they do), he's allowed to post that. It's an opinion, you jag.

hal     March 18
So it's ok to defend the site owner on everything, but defending a commenter is "carrying water"? Got it. And to help this Bill P guy out, JW was criticizing content, not the writer personally....oh wait, "overgrown child" might have been personal, perhaps JW let his emotions get the best of him there. Other than that, he was simply lamenting the deviations from "sports insights and opinion". But hey I am just a water carrier, what do I know.

Poboy     March 18
@BJ, Gary Neal out at the Hall because they won't full scholarship hoops players like MSJ, McD and SFA do.

BJ     March 18
I'm late to the party. Gary Neal is out as CHC basketball coach? When?

Bill P.     March 18
At the risk of being accused of being a "water carrier", I find it amusing that people like HAL write this: Certainly, anyone can disagree with his take if they want, I just don't get the personal attacks and vitriol. If anyone is not charging rent, it would be JEFFWELL lol



But HAL fails to mention that's exactly what JEFFWELL did to the site owner. Personal attack and vitriol. Why the double standard from HAL?

Vic     March 18
Question for you Drew. It's now obvious Scheffler is world #1. But who are the next four to make up 2-5 in the rankings? I'm curious to get your take on that one.

Kevin     March 18
Look at @Hal, carrying @Jeff's water for him. What a swell guy! Does Jeffy-poo get a back rub at some point as well? LOL

hal     March 18
@JEFFWELL called it lol. Guy simply makes a comment on today's content and he gets blasted. His feeling do not seem hurt, his panties aren't in a bunch, guy just made an observation on dead horses that get beat around here.

Certainly, anyone can disagree with his take if they want, I just don't get the personal attacks and vitriol. If anyone is not charging rent, it would be JEFFWELL lol.

Tupelo     March 18
That Jeff person realizes they don't have to read the website don't they? Getting mad about a website that you don't pay for is like getting mad because Starbux makes their coffee too strong. Don't buy it.

Davey     March 18
UNC is going to win it all. That Shannon kid is pretty dang good at Illinois, I wouldn't be surprised to see them make a deep run.

RC     March 18
Yea, I'd say @JeffWell is the one looking kind of #clownshoes on this one. Just my opinion.



I don't always like or agree with what @DF writes but I don't get my feelings hurt about it.



Kind of a weird look for @Jeff today IMHO.

KC     March 18
With Pickett/Trubisky, Steelers were a 9-8 team.

With Wilson/Fields, the Steelers are a 9-8 team.

Don't worry, they're not any better now than they were before.

BO     March 18
You said it, DF, Scheffler's the best golfer on the planet right now. And since I'm old enough to remember Tiger in his prime, I know what it's like to see one player dominate the rest of the best players like "Scheff" is doing right now.



You didn't spell it out, but it looks like "X" has the choker's collar doesn't it? Both Saturday and Sunday his driver completely left him on the back 9.



Here's a question for your Q/A. I know it's not a major so why don't they play the PGA or the US Open at the TPC Sawgrass course one year? What are your thoughts on that? Would the course hold up?



Sad to see Gary Neal go but the results are what they are. I assume you know more than you're letting on. When will Calvert Hall be able to get a long term coach in there?

Tom     March 18
LMFAO at "Jeff Well". Talk about a little boy.

Larry     March 18
I agree with MFC, conference champs should never have to play in. Save the play in games for teams like Michigan State that basically backed into the tournament.

Watched most of the golf yesterday and something the site owner wrote about a while back was on display yesterday. Maybe it was just one of those things but a lot of the putts the announcers said were breaking left to right were missed. I recall the owner once saying right handed putters don't like those putts from L to R. Just something I picked up on yesterday as I watched and listened to the announcers.

Is anyone else concerned about the Ravens secondary with the losses of Darby and Stone?

And I just saw O's opening day tickets in the upper deck for $160. Times have changed. I bought an upper deck opening day ticket 3 or 4 years ago for $25 the day before the game.


Chris P.     March 18
Harman, Aberg, Theegala, all 3 of those guys hit Top 10 for Drew this week. I'm more of a college football and hoops gambler myself but I might have to plunk down a few bucks on his picks the next time there's a tournament he analyzes.



I went ahead and put down a nice chunk on the O's plus 90.5 wins last week. I feel like that is easy money but you never know. The other teams I think are a good "over" bet are the Phillies (89.5) and Blue Jays (86.5)

MFC     March 18
If you're the conference champ you should be rewarded the NCAA bid, your record over the course of the year should matter more than 4 days in March.



Play-in games are ridiculous.



The ACC, outside of UNC, got little to no respect. Duke at 4, NC State at 11, Virginia in the play-in game and Clemson somewhere with Pitt and Wake left out. This once great league needs a reboot.



I was excited when I saw Utah State in the dance and thought good for Ryan Odum. But he's now at VCU and just lost the championship game to Duquesne. He had a 22-13 record this year, good for him, sorry UMBC couldn't keep him.



None of us should ever bitch about a lip out again. What happened to Clark was as harsh as they come.



Best line in Scheffler press conference, "someone yelled you're #1 for a year only 11 more to go", referencing Tigers incredible run. He looked sheepish and then paid great homage to Tiger. You gotta like Scheffler he seems like a genuinely nice person and well grounded.



Congrats to the girls state champions, Poly, Pikesville and Hammond girls bringing back the rings.



Lets go with the "cheater coaches" final four. Houston, Kentucky, Auburn and Kansas.

Pat     March 18
Poor Jeff. It must be tough to grow up without a sense of humor.

TJ     March 18
Talk about someone living rent free in another man's head, eh? DF not only lives in Jeff Well's, he probably sublets some of the space to make money off of it! Lighten up, Francis. It's a sports blog. Why are your panties in such a bunch over a sports blog??

Jeffwell     March 18
I try. I really do. But this man is such an overgrown child that I often leave this site for a month or two. As soon as I stop by again to read about his opinion of an excellent PGA event, he 's right back to third grade.

Since I didn't get past the first paragraph of the "real" post, I'll just assume that there was more riveting commentary about Flyers fans as well. Not just shoes. This guy deserves the entire clown outfit.

Cue the synchophants in 3..2..1..

TJS     March 18
Actually, the Terps DID make the tournament. I'll be watching them play Iowa State in the first round of the women's tournament this week.

Boris     March 18
I too made some bank with Drew's picks thank you very much. In particular I liked and went with Aberg and Theegala - 2 young players who I predict are ready to win on tour or even a major.

J.J.     March 18
DF called Sheffler winning last Wednesday in his predictions. That's what I meant.

mj     March 17
Did this JJ guy get his own edition of DMD today? Mine said:

"I see Clark shooting 67 today on a difficult layout with tricky back-nine pin locations and winning by two shots over Schauffele, who produces his own round of 70. Scheffler finishes T3 with McNealy at 16-under."

JJ and Matt seem to think DMD "called it to a tee". Guess I misunderstood the above.

Mark     March 17
Final tale of the tape. Bet $300 ($10 on each golfer to win, T10 and T20) and won $740. Keep making those picks @DF!!!

Matt P.     March 17
I mean, it almost looks like Drew saw the script for the final round.



(A round of 64 is well within his reach and some kind of score like that would make the leaders press the gas pedal down the stretch.)

J.J.     March 17
DF called Scheffler's win and his final round score (64) to a tee and also picked 3 top 10 finishers in his predictions for the week. Why not just quit DMD and go into golf gambling full time and make a boat load of $$$ ???



Great job. Keep it up.

Chris K     March 17
It’s weird how adult men (I’m assuming) on here are so intense with high school sports. Of course it’s nice if your team has a good season or wins its league, but it’s high school. It’s about the kids in the school learning and preparing for their next phase in life. I’m sure the kids on team next year will be fine with the new coach. Winning should be secondary.



Btw this isn’t a shot at Drew. He’s clearly mentioned many times, that while winning is a nice feeling, he coaches his guys to be better in life and handle things the right way win or lose.

Howarc     March 17
Fields will be invaluable in helping the Steelers prepare for the Ravens. He will be able to mimic Lamar pretty well when he runs the scout team in practice

Unitastoberry     March 17
Stillers get Justin Fields. Malik Harrison might have been better. He never got a chance to show his pro ability. Personally I think the Stillers front office is just buying time to scout up the next Bradshaw or Ben. This is there new Brister-Maddox era and the odds of finding another HOF qb for them are slim.And frankly Tomlin isn't Cowher imo.

Josh     March 17
Sahith Theegala is my assigned golfer. I’m pulling for him big time! I want my round with DMD



BTW- it’s nice to watch a real golf tournament with actual storylines and some history

David Rosenfeld     March 17
If the committee was under pressure it was Friday and Saturday...all the "bid stealing" happened then. At this point (Sunday AM), the field and the seeding is probably set. Just awaiting those auto bids from the Ivy, AAC and A-10.

I'm sure this will be column fodder this week, but the Steelers have now replaced Pickett, Rudolph and Trubisky with Wilson and Fields. It sounds great for them...but only if you really believe that Fields is going to live up to his potential...which is still very much up in the air. If not, you got one year of mediocre Wilson followed by more uncertainty.

MFC     March 16
I was caught off guard by Neal’s leaving, had no clue. I’m sure DF has more inside knowledge and obviously isn’t speculating.. CH is a great school, great traditions and good coaches in all sports. I have no idea why one would leave that , plus playing in one of the premiere leagues in the country. The toll on families is unbelievable, who knows maybe he wasn’t seeing his son enough, dont know. Maybe he wasn’t getting enough help getting kids in, again don’t know but I do know he had the POY.

It’s a shame, CH has had a bunch of coaches over the last 10 years or so. It doesn’t seem to happen so much with the other sports. I hope the get a good coach and the Hall rises again, it’s good for the league



So many tournament upsets the committee is going to be under intense pressure and there will be at least 5 deserving teams that don’t get in. Right now I’m thinking UCONN will be overall #1 with UNC 2 f(if they win tonight)

Fat Frankie     March 16
"Win" is "Win" in Welsh🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

mike     March 16
I wanted someone for a "boosted" win bet this week and considered Clark. What scared me were the double bogeys last week, although they were surrounded by stellar play otherwise. Anyway, I foolishly went with Zalatoris on a flyer instead. Don't think I will be convincing anyone to wait with baited breath for my weekly golf picks lol.

The Ravens will be fine, they are not careening off a cliff here. If JLC is concerned, that makes me feel damn good about their upcoming season.

Bryan     March 16
Just giving Drew a heads up, I was in the check out at a Shoppers this morning and noticed People magazine has a special issue commemorating the Beatles 60 years later, it's a must buy Drew!

Dale     March 15
I'm gonna coin this Terp off-season as purge and surge. First to go, Noah Batchelor. Great stroke, but nowhere near a Big Ten athlete. I wish him well.

larry     March 15
I thought this MFC guy said Calvert Hall bball was on the rise and how that was good for the BCL. Now the coach quits and is quoted as saying: “Not saying anything bad about Calvert Hall at all, I just didn’t feel that things would be moving in the right direction.” MFC is usually spot on with his local bball insights. Weird.

Article I read also said Coach Neal would be focusing on his son's AAU team.

Delray RICK     March 15
Have not followed basketball for decades but lately have videos of the great white hope, LARRY BIRD. The players against him held him in AWE. And the comments made NBA GREATS is funny as he'll. Didn't know he won 3 straight MVP'S. Later in his career he had to lay on the floor because of a bad back. But the comments of opponents are really funny.

such     March 15
The B1G Ten was not very good this year, hence the road records are more a reflection of the lack of quality teams than "it's tough to win on the road in that conference."

The best conferences this season are the Big 12 and the SEC. It wouldn't be a surprise to see teams like Baylor and Kentucky make runs to the Final Four as 3 or 4 seeds. Neither team won its conference regular season title, but they're scary good. Personally, I'm pulling for Tennessee, since my money and my son go there, and Dalton Knecht is the most electric scorer in the country. But Rick Barnes, man, I dunno...

Could there have been a more fitting end to this miserable season of Maryland basketball than what happened yesterday? I've been an avid fan since 1973, and I can't remember any other team being so uninspired and unlikeable. I suppose there's nowhere to go but up from here. I hope.

Chris in Bel Air     March 15
@TimD... you beat me to it. Merciful ending is the best way to describe what happened yesterday to Terps. To answer your question, it is very tough to win on the road but I think the overall talent/performance is down this year in the B10. After all, MD somehow won 7 games in conference. I guess we shall how the conference does in the big dance.

Ravens have a "down year" after going 13-4 and going to AFC Championship? I think that is realistic. Plenty of changes have already occurred but also more about how tough it is go 13-4 and go to the Championship. They will still be a/the front runner for the division and a playoff team.

Unitastoberry     March 15
Clowney was a rental until Bowser healed up . Now Bowser is gone. I'm trying not to be a Debbie Downer but yes this could be a short rebuild. Humphrey isn't the player he once was and often injured . McDonald was the best DC since Rex and Marvin. They really need a home run type draft.

MFC     March 15
Maryland need to come up with the $$$$ and a lot of it. Did you see what Calipari is doing, goodness gracious. It’s not about what’s the best fit it’s about who can fill my wallet . Until Williard finds a few “angels” with huge bank accounts they will be mediocre. It’se awful age we live in.

TimD in Timonium     March 15
Happy that (Mens) Terps basketball has mercifully come to an end. Bring on March Madness for all the good teams.



But either Big 10 basketball is mediocre in general, or it's one of the toughest conferences in the country to win on the road. Only two teams (Purdue and Illinois) had winning in-conference road records, here's the grim toll for everyone else. Yuck.



Indiana 4-6

Iowa 4-6

Maryland 3-7

Northwestern 3-7

Michigan State 3-7

Wisconsin 3-7

Nebraska 2-8

Minnesota 2-8

Penn State 2-8

Rutgers 2-8

Ohio State 2-8

Michigan 1-9


Friday
March 8, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3486


friday q & a


Before we get to the mailbag and a bunch of your questions, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the Caps are likely going to continue chipping off bits and pieces of their team today in advance of this afternoon's trade deadline. And that's after whitewashing the Penguins in Pittsburgh last night, 6-0.

So far, Washington's moved two relatively important pieces; goal scorer Anthony Mantha and defenseman Joel Edmundson. I suspect there's another move or two coming today.

I always find it interesting when teams who are close to a playoff spot -- like the Capitals are right now -- instead go the other direction and become sellers at the deadline instead of buyers.

I don't know how you expect the players who remain to be energized for the rest of the season when you've basically said to them, "We're giving up on the rest of the reason as an organization."

That said, professional athletes are just that -- professional. And they get it. Sometimes the team has to make moves now that won't pay off until a year or two down the road. That's what the Capitals are doing this week, it appears.

So how does a lifelong Capitals fan like me deal with yet another spring where the Stanley Cup will (apparently) be hoisted by another team?

Very simple.

I check the NHL history page and I look back to the 1974-75 season.

It reads: Champions, Philadelphia Flyers.

And then I scan every year since then and guess what I don't see? The Philadelphia Flyers.

So, yeah, I'm OK with the Caps not winning this year. As long as the Flyers don't win, it's all good.


Tony asks -- "I'm always amazed at how many people don't seem to realize that John Harbaugh is the common denominator when it comes to the Ravens failing in the playoffs since the 2014 season. I know you're a Harbaugh guy. What do you see in him? And what would it take for you to admit it's time for the Ravens to go in another direction?"

DF says -- "These are the kind of questions I don't know how to answer because I'm never quite sure if you're actually paying full attention to what goes on or if you just surf Twitter a lot after games.

The only people who can make an accurate assessment of the head coach are the ones who are in the locker room and/or connected deep enough in the organization to have access to him and his/her relationship with the players.

I realize fans think they know about the head coach. But they don't know anything, really.

They know the team's record. That much is obvious.

They know when a challenge fails and they think that's always the fault of the head coach. (Hint: It's not.)

They know when the team doesn't run the ball enough and they assume the head coach should get the blame for that.

What should the coach be judged on? That's the question.

He or she should be judged on two things; 1. What kind of relationship do they have with the players? 2. What's the team's win/loss record?

And I'm here to say, again, that fans have no clue at all about #1 above.

#2 is easy to see.

#1 isn't easy to see unless you're involved.

That's a long winded way of saying, "The Ravens are a winning organization. That much can not be argued. And the head coach of the team should get credit for (some of) that in the same way he would rightfully get the blame for (some of) that if the team suddenly became a losing organization."

Harbaugh is the lowest of low-hanging-fruit for a lot of people in town. It's a top 5 all-time lazy take, if I'm being blunt. "The Ravens can't make it to the Super Bowl...fire the coach."

If the players stop playing for the coach, he has to go.

The Ravens don't seem to be anywhere close to the level of "the players have stopped playing for the coach."

Sorry, Tony. Move on to the next tree of low hanging fruit."


Jerry asks -- "I have a golf question for your website. What has happened to Rory McIlroy in your opinion? Why can't he win majors any longer? Thanks, Drew."

DF says - "It's definitely one of the questions in golf over the last 10 years. The interesting thing is McIlroy hasn't disappeared. He's been right there. He's had a bunch of opportunities to win his 5th, 6th, 7th, etc. It just hasn't happened for him.

Rickie Fowler had that great run in majors back in 2014 and then he pretty much disappeared from the top ranks of golf. That one was easy to explain: He lost his golf swing.

Rory's never lost his golf swing, I don't think. He's one of the great drivers of the golf ball in modern history.

I'd say the one thing that stands out -- and we saw this in the British Open a couple of years ago when Cam Smith won and again last year in the U.S. Open when Wyndham Clark won -- is he doesn't seem to make many birdies on Sunday when the chips are down.

Is that nerves? Maybe, a little. I mean, it's hard to win. Everything has to go more right for you than it goes more right for the other guys in the hunt. But putting at the PGA Tour level is equal parts talent and nerves. He seems to make a lot of putts on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and then not as many on Sunday. Nerves have to play some role in that, I'd say.

I'm sure the longer Rory goes without winning a major, the harder it becomes. And the longer he goes without winning, the more he questions himself: "Am I ever going to win one of these things ever again?"

He's going to win another major. Of that I'm sure. And I think there's a far better chance he wins more than one than just one. He's just too talented to not win several more majors."


J.C. asks -- "Hi Drew, just for fun in your Q&A feature, pick an Oriole that is going to have a shockingly bad season in 2024."

DF says -- "I don't know what "shockingly bad" represents, but I'll give you a guy that had a really nice season a year ago who will experience market correction in 2024 -- Anthony Santander.

I like him as a player, so I hope it doesn't happen. But I could see him dipping from 28 HR's to 20 or something like that this season. I don't think he caught lightning in a bottle a year ago, but I suspect he'll be pitched to a bit differently this season and it wouldn't shock me at all to see his numbers dip quite a bit in 2024.

This is where I preface that reply by saying: I sure hope I'm wrong."


Bart asks -- "Have you had a chance to watch the new Netflix season of "Full Swing"? Are you surprised Joel Dahmen let them expose him as a guy with an alcohol problem?"

DF says -- "I'm actually only on the 3rd episode and the one featuring Joel Dahmen and Wyndham Clark was the one I just watched.

You have to remember it's a TV show, more than anything else. They need stories to focus on. Dahmen might not be a great player, but he's a great story.

Dahmen definitely has (had, last year) a drinking problem. That he allowed the show to expose that was definitely a bit odd.

I don't know what he gained out of allowing everyone to see him in that light. It definitely "felt" weird as a viewer. Uncomfortable, almost.

The thing is, Dahmen isn't even a player you'd normally be interested in. I mean, he's a PGA Tour player, so he can definitely play golf at a high level. But all things being equal, he's just another guy with four logos on his shirt.

But the Netflix series has given him a little bit of national notoriety which, it appears to me, he wasn't quite ready to handle.

I'd love to see him win a tournament this year and truly come full circle in the same way Fowler did when he won in Detroit last summer. I never like to see someone self-destruct."


Mark asks -- "Care to share how you're coming up with all of the golf winners you've had over the last month? I understand if it's a secret sauce, but if you have stumbled onto something please do tell."

DF says -- "I'm never shy about telling you why or how I've come to picking a player on any given week. It's not hard. I pay a lot of attention to past performance at the course they're playing in that week or their play on courses that are similar in nature. I also look at the ball striking data of the guys who have won on the course over the last 5 years or so to see what current players are similar.

Certain courses favor a player who is strong from 175-200 yards.

Certain courses favor a player who is strong from 150-175 yards.

Certain courses favor a player who plays par 5's well. Or under 425 yard holes well.

A lot of golf wagering depends on course length and layout.

I also pay attention to the player's performance over the last week or two. I've said this before. For most players on the TOUR, they play well for 3 or 4 weeks, play in "neutral" for 2 weeks and then have an "off" 2 weeks. And thereafter that same 8-week cycle begins again. That's my own non-scientific research right there.

I try to catch them during their "hot" 3-4 week period.

If you just pay attention to a player's past performance on the course they're playing that week, you have about 40% of the thing figured out.

There's also something to be said for just hanging on to a guy that you feel is going to win soon: Sahith Theegala, Cameron Young and Eric Cole are the three I'm latched onto right now. I just know those three are winning sometime very soon. I'm in the for long haul with those three."


Big T asks -- "I'll be stepping into the coaching ranks next Fall to help coach varsity football in Cecil County. I was hoping you could give me one coaching nugget for my first season with the team. Is there one thing you constantly go back to in your own coaching that might be able to help me?"

DF says -- "Welcome to the greatest experience you'll have in sports, Coach! Congratulations. I think most coaches are going to agree with me on this one. I hope it serves you well, too.

Above all, you have to build a relationship with the players where you're not only honest with them, but you teach them how important it is to be honest with themselves.

Kids are used to coaches yelling at them when something doesn't go right.

Sometimes they think they're getting yelled at "because the coach likes to scream at me".

Yelling and screaming at your athletes just isn't necessary.

You can teach them about their performance and be honest with them in a sane, reasonable way, providing that you make sure they know from the start it's all rooted in honesty and your goal to make them better.

They also have to be willing to be honest with themselves. Most kids are prone to thinking they're better than they actually are because that's what they've been told by their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends.

"I don't know why you're not playing...you're so much better than that other kid who is playing."

I tell my team this all the time. "If you can't have an honest discussion with yourself about your own golf game, you're never going to improve. You know what you do well and don't do well. In your heart, you know. Sometimes you don't like to talk about that with yourself. Or your parents. Or your friends. But you know what you do well and don't do well. Let's figure that out together and get you to improve."

I'm sure that theory equates to football somehow, too. Just getting your players to be honest with themselves is critically important. It means you wind up making them their own "co-coach" if you will, which makes them even more accountable. Good luck, Coach!"

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faith in sports


I shared this video of golfer Webb Simpson with a group of young junior golfers recently and one of them said to me afterwards, "Do you think God made him into a better golfer?"

What a great question!

The real answer is, "You'd have to ask that question to Webb Simpson."

But my answer to the junior golfer was, "Yes, but not in the way you think. God helped make Webb into a great golfer but not because He said one day, "I think I'll make Webb Simpson a great golfer and then, BAM!, Webb was a great golfer. Webb might have become a better golfer along the way because he found an inner peace he was searching for through God and his faith."

I think you'll enjoy this 9-minute video below. It's more about family than faith, but Webb and his wife speak openly about their faith and Webb's professional golf journey and how they both connect to one another.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and our "Faith in Sports" segment every Friday.



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Thursday
March 7, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3485


when it's dumb...you have to say that


Last night's fiasco in San Diego, where the U.S. and Canada attempted to play a meaningful women's soccer game on a grass field with 3 inches of rain soaking the playing surface, was a complete embarrassment to the people organizing the Gold Cup tournament.

I thought for about 5 minutes how to say that more nicely.

Eventually I gave up and said to myself, "Just call it what it was: an embarrassment."

Alas, that's completely what it was.

The game itself turned into something you would have played for fun when you were 16 years old and it had rained for five straight days and you were bored out of your mind.

The Americans prevailed in penalty kicks after a wild final 30 minutes saw three goals and a penalty kick shootout where the U.S. goalkeeper both saved three Canadian attempts and scored a goal herself.

The U.S. will now face Brazil in this Sunday's championship game.

Women's soccer has enough trouble being taken seriously in this country. I'm a soccer enthusiast, so I'll watch anything related to the U.S. men's or women's team(s).

But for a sport looking to captivate new people and squeeze some attention out of them, last night's decision to play the Gold Cup game was beyond outrageous.

And here I thought the NFL playing January's playoff game in Kansas City in 7 degrees temperatures was about the dumbest thing I've ever seen in sports.

Last night was way more dumb than that football game.

The on-air host on Paramount+ called the first half "chaotic", mostly because he couldn't use the word "idiotic" or else he might not have collected his paycheck.

The play was chaotic. That much was true. The goal scored by the U.S. was 100% attributed to the 3 inches of water on the field.

But the decision to even start the game was idiotic.

Both words fit, I guess.

When it's dumb, you have to say that.

And last night's game being played as scheduled was just that -- dumb.


Jon Rahm continued his off-course whining yesterday, this time campaigning for his LIV-roster-mate, Talor Gooch to receive an invitation to play in this year's various major golf championships, despite not having enough world ranking points to justify that invitation from the folks at the Masters, PGA Championship and British Open.

Jon Rahm continues to campaign for embattled LIV golfers who aren't eligible for major championships in 2024 because of their world ranking.

Gooch, in case you don't know (and based on the TV ratings, you don't), was last year's top LIV player and has taken full advantage of his "decent" talents to rake in massive paydays on the 2-year old golf circuit.

But because LIV isn't recognized as a real golf tour by the world golfing powers, their players don't receive world ranking points as a result of their performance(s) in LIV events.

Gooch, of course, knew all of this when he signed on two years ago.

Jon Rahm knew it, too, when he jumped ship in December.

Gooch has been crying the blues for months now about not getting into the majors.

Nothing has changed.

LIV plays 54 hole golf tournaments. They're not getting world ranking points with 54 hole events.

LIV doesn't have a mechanism in place to allow for roster turnover year after year. The set their own teams and their own fields and don't let anyone compete for a spot in their tournaments. They're not getting world ranking points while they run that kind of closed shop.

I'm not sure why Gooch continues to complain.

You knew the rules. They haven't changed.

I know why Rahm complains. He has a role in the world of golf, albeit a diminishing one, and feels like his voice might carry more weight than the normal LIV competitor.

He's wrong. But it's a noble thought nonetheless.

When those guys left the PGA Tour for the renegade Saudi-based tour, they lost all of their cachet.

Continuing to whine about not getting into majors is just dumb.

It's amateur hour stuff.

You exchanged your ability to play in majors for $25 million, $50 million, $100 million or whatever it was you signed for when LIV coaxed you into joining their fledgling outfit.

Stop crying and start making some birdies.

Collect your check(s) from LIV and just keep on keeping on.

Nobody likes a crybaby.


The Orioles are in a great position heading into 2024, obviously. They have the majority of the 2023 team that won the A.L. East returning and they added a quality starter in Corbin Burnes last month.

Unless you subscribe to the "sophomore jinx" theory and you consider last year's O's team a "rookie" outfit, there's no reason to think they aren't going to be in the mix in the A.L. East again this season.

Is Mike Elias still interested in adding a quality arm to the O's in 2024? If so, two are available.

But there are question marks about the team's pitching staff at this point.

Fortunately, there's a fairly easy solution.

An expensive one, perhaps, but an easy one nonetheless.

The O's should sign one of the two remaining veteran starters still looking for a team; Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery.

Now, understand this: When I write "the O's should sign", I totally understand the player in question has to also want to sign a deal in Baltimore. I get that.

But those guys are free agents. They want a contract. I don't know their respective preferences, but I have to assume if the Birds were willing to pay the freight, Snell and/or Montgomery would be on the next plane to Baltimore.

The Orioles 2024 payroll is set to be somewhere in the $100 million range.

The franchise made well over $125 million in profit over the last two years. Where that money went, I have no clue. But this team could likely be put over the top with the addition of one of those two veteran arms.

Why not sign one of them?

Burnes, we all know, is a one-year wonder. He's going to the highest bidder next winter, which likely means he'll be an L.A. Dodgers pitcher this time next year.

Why wouldn't the O's snag Snell or Montgomery now? It would help in a big way in 2024 and would help soften the blow of Burnes' departure next December.

I'm not going to call them cheap.

And I believe Mike Elias knows full well what he's doing.

But has Elias gone to the honchos and asked for money for Snell or Montgomery and been denied? I don't know the answer to that.

So I won't call the O's cheap.

But if they don't add one of those two, I'll call the O's "dumb".

You're close. Very close, in fact. One more quality starting arm could be the tonic for another 100-win season and a more fruitful run through the A.L. playoffs next October.

So close. One player away, maybe.

And you're not going to pull the trigger on a deal for Snell or Montgomery?

I call that dumb.

You have two proven starters lurking and looking for a contract. You have gobs and gobs of money you've stored away for Lord knows how long.

Sign a pitcher.

Don't be dumb just because it's going to cost you money that you clearly have. Be smart.

Make the team better.

You're really close.

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#dmd comments








Billy     March 18
Fake Larry coming in to stir the pot. Classy.

larry     March 18
Lots of middle schoolers in the comments section today, are schools closed?

MFC     March 18
@POBOY, MSJ does not give out athletic scholarships it is "based on need", just like every other private school. Jaeylin Smith was a FULLPAY student.



Interesting stat in golf.

Scoring leaders: #1 Scheffler 69.286

#2 Ghim 69.991



Money leaders: #1 Scheffler $10,939,000

Doug Ghim $1,107,000



Amazing the difference when you win vs just playing well to very good.

RC     March 18
Come to think of it, I'm starting to wonder if @JeffWell isn't a plant or an imposter. No adult gets that frazzled over a passing remark about a band.



Maybe I'm wrong but I have to wonder.

Unitastoberry     March 18
You know what I would like? I'd like to see Kenny Pickett blossum into a star now that he's been traded. Stranger things have happened in this league over the last 70 years. Never was big into The Beatles I liked Lennon solo Instant Karma was a great album.

Arlen     March 18
The website guy takes a pot shot at the former President and no one cares but god forbid he criticizes a band of musicians that hasn't been around for 50 years!

Kevin     March 18
Hal's a clown. If the site owner's opinion is the Beatles suck (which they do), he's allowed to post that. It's an opinion, you jag.

hal     March 18
So it's ok to defend the site owner on everything, but defending a commenter is "carrying water"? Got it. And to help this Bill P guy out, JW was criticizing content, not the writer personally....oh wait, "overgrown child" might have been personal, perhaps JW let his emotions get the best of him there. Other than that, he was simply lamenting the deviations from "sports insights and opinion". But hey I am just a water carrier, what do I know.

Poboy     March 18
@BJ, Gary Neal out at the Hall because they won't full scholarship hoops players like MSJ, McD and SFA do.

BJ     March 18
I'm late to the party. Gary Neal is out as CHC basketball coach? When?

Bill P.     March 18
At the risk of being accused of being a "water carrier", I find it amusing that people like HAL write this: Certainly, anyone can disagree with his take if they want, I just don't get the personal attacks and vitriol. If anyone is not charging rent, it would be JEFFWELL lol



But HAL fails to mention that's exactly what JEFFWELL did to the site owner. Personal attack and vitriol. Why the double standard from HAL?

Vic     March 18
Question for you Drew. It's now obvious Scheffler is world #1. But who are the next four to make up 2-5 in the rankings? I'm curious to get your take on that one.

Kevin     March 18
Look at @Hal, carrying @Jeff's water for him. What a swell guy! Does Jeffy-poo get a back rub at some point as well? LOL

hal     March 18
@JEFFWELL called it lol. Guy simply makes a comment on today's content and he gets blasted. His feeling do not seem hurt, his panties aren't in a bunch, guy just made an observation on dead horses that get beat around here.

Certainly, anyone can disagree with his take if they want, I just don't get the personal attacks and vitriol. If anyone is not charging rent, it would be JEFFWELL lol.

Tupelo     March 18
That Jeff person realizes they don't have to read the website don't they? Getting mad about a website that you don't pay for is like getting mad because Starbux makes their coffee too strong. Don't buy it.

Davey     March 18
UNC is going to win it all. That Shannon kid is pretty dang good at Illinois, I wouldn't be surprised to see them make a deep run.

RC     March 18
Yea, I'd say @JeffWell is the one looking kind of #clownshoes on this one. Just my opinion.



I don't always like or agree with what @DF writes but I don't get my feelings hurt about it.



Kind of a weird look for @Jeff today IMHO.

KC     March 18
With Pickett/Trubisky, Steelers were a 9-8 team.

With Wilson/Fields, the Steelers are a 9-8 team.

Don't worry, they're not any better now than they were before.

BO     March 18
You said it, DF, Scheffler's the best golfer on the planet right now. And since I'm old enough to remember Tiger in his prime, I know what it's like to see one player dominate the rest of the best players like "Scheff" is doing right now.



You didn't spell it out, but it looks like "X" has the choker's collar doesn't it? Both Saturday and Sunday his driver completely left him on the back 9.



Here's a question for your Q/A. I know it's not a major so why don't they play the PGA or the US Open at the TPC Sawgrass course one year? What are your thoughts on that? Would the course hold up?



Sad to see Gary Neal go but the results are what they are. I assume you know more than you're letting on. When will Calvert Hall be able to get a long term coach in there?

Tom     March 18
LMFAO at "Jeff Well". Talk about a little boy.

Larry     March 18
I agree with MFC, conference champs should never have to play in. Save the play in games for teams like Michigan State that basically backed into the tournament.

Watched most of the golf yesterday and something the site owner wrote about a while back was on display yesterday. Maybe it was just one of those things but a lot of the putts the announcers said were breaking left to right were missed. I recall the owner once saying right handed putters don't like those putts from L to R. Just something I picked up on yesterday as I watched and listened to the announcers.

Is anyone else concerned about the Ravens secondary with the losses of Darby and Stone?

And I just saw O's opening day tickets in the upper deck for $160. Times have changed. I bought an upper deck opening day ticket 3 or 4 years ago for $25 the day before the game.


Chris P.     March 18
Harman, Aberg, Theegala, all 3 of those guys hit Top 10 for Drew this week. I'm more of a college football and hoops gambler myself but I might have to plunk down a few bucks on his picks the next time there's a tournament he analyzes.



I went ahead and put down a nice chunk on the O's plus 90.5 wins last week. I feel like that is easy money but you never know. The other teams I think are a good "over" bet are the Phillies (89.5) and Blue Jays (86.5)

MFC     March 18
If you're the conference champ you should be rewarded the NCAA bid, your record over the course of the year should matter more than 4 days in March.



Play-in games are ridiculous.



The ACC, outside of UNC, got little to no respect. Duke at 4, NC State at 11, Virginia in the play-in game and Clemson somewhere with Pitt and Wake left out. This once great league needs a reboot.



I was excited when I saw Utah State in the dance and thought good for Ryan Odum. But he's now at VCU and just lost the championship game to Duquesne. He had a 22-13 record this year, good for him, sorry UMBC couldn't keep him.



None of us should ever bitch about a lip out again. What happened to Clark was as harsh as they come.



Best line in Scheffler press conference, "someone yelled you're #1 for a year only 11 more to go", referencing Tigers incredible run. He looked sheepish and then paid great homage to Tiger. You gotta like Scheffler he seems like a genuinely nice person and well grounded.



Congrats to the girls state champions, Poly, Pikesville and Hammond girls bringing back the rings.



Lets go with the "cheater coaches" final four. Houston, Kentucky, Auburn and Kansas.

Pat     March 18
Poor Jeff. It must be tough to grow up without a sense of humor.

TJ     March 18
Talk about someone living rent free in another man's head, eh? DF not only lives in Jeff Well's, he probably sublets some of the space to make money off of it! Lighten up, Francis. It's a sports blog. Why are your panties in such a bunch over a sports blog??

Jeffwell     March 18
I try. I really do. But this man is such an overgrown child that I often leave this site for a month or two. As soon as I stop by again to read about his opinion of an excellent PGA event, he 's right back to third grade.

Since I didn't get past the first paragraph of the "real" post, I'll just assume that there was more riveting commentary about Flyers fans as well. Not just shoes. This guy deserves the entire clown outfit.

Cue the synchophants in 3..2..1..

TJS     March 18
Actually, the Terps DID make the tournament. I'll be watching them play Iowa State in the first round of the women's tournament this week.

Boris     March 18
I too made some bank with Drew's picks thank you very much. In particular I liked and went with Aberg and Theegala - 2 young players who I predict are ready to win on tour or even a major.

J.J.     March 18
DF called Sheffler winning last Wednesday in his predictions. That's what I meant.

mj     March 17
Did this JJ guy get his own edition of DMD today? Mine said:

"I see Clark shooting 67 today on a difficult layout with tricky back-nine pin locations and winning by two shots over Schauffele, who produces his own round of 70. Scheffler finishes T3 with McNealy at 16-under."

JJ and Matt seem to think DMD "called it to a tee". Guess I misunderstood the above.

Mark     March 17
Final tale of the tape. Bet $300 ($10 on each golfer to win, T10 and T20) and won $740. Keep making those picks @DF!!!

Matt P.     March 17
I mean, it almost looks like Drew saw the script for the final round.



(A round of 64 is well within his reach and some kind of score like that would make the leaders press the gas pedal down the stretch.)

J.J.     March 17
DF called Scheffler's win and his final round score (64) to a tee and also picked 3 top 10 finishers in his predictions for the week. Why not just quit DMD and go into golf gambling full time and make a boat load of $$$ ???



Great job. Keep it up.

Chris K     March 17
It’s weird how adult men (I’m assuming) on here are so intense with high school sports. Of course it’s nice if your team has a good season or wins its league, but it’s high school. It’s about the kids in the school learning and preparing for their next phase in life. I’m sure the kids on team next year will be fine with the new coach. Winning should be secondary.



Btw this isn’t a shot at Drew. He’s clearly mentioned many times, that while winning is a nice feeling, he coaches his guys to be better in life and handle things the right way win or lose.

Howarc     March 17
Fields will be invaluable in helping the Steelers prepare for the Ravens. He will be able to mimic Lamar pretty well when he runs the scout team in practice

Unitastoberry     March 17
Stillers get Justin Fields. Malik Harrison might have been better. He never got a chance to show his pro ability. Personally I think the Stillers front office is just buying time to scout up the next Bradshaw or Ben. This is there new Brister-Maddox era and the odds of finding another HOF qb for them are slim.And frankly Tomlin isn't Cowher imo.

Josh     March 17
Sahith Theegala is my assigned golfer. I’m pulling for him big time! I want my round with DMD



BTW- it’s nice to watch a real golf tournament with actual storylines and some history

David Rosenfeld     March 17
If the committee was under pressure it was Friday and Saturday...all the "bid stealing" happened then. At this point (Sunday AM), the field and the seeding is probably set. Just awaiting those auto bids from the Ivy, AAC and A-10.

I'm sure this will be column fodder this week, but the Steelers have now replaced Pickett, Rudolph and Trubisky with Wilson and Fields. It sounds great for them...but only if you really believe that Fields is going to live up to his potential...which is still very much up in the air. If not, you got one year of mediocre Wilson followed by more uncertainty.

MFC     March 16
I was caught off guard by Neal’s leaving, had no clue. I’m sure DF has more inside knowledge and obviously isn’t speculating.. CH is a great school, great traditions and good coaches in all sports. I have no idea why one would leave that , plus playing in one of the premiere leagues in the country. The toll on families is unbelievable, who knows maybe he wasn’t seeing his son enough, dont know. Maybe he wasn’t getting enough help getting kids in, again don’t know but I do know he had the POY.

It’s a shame, CH has had a bunch of coaches over the last 10 years or so. It doesn’t seem to happen so much with the other sports. I hope the get a good coach and the Hall rises again, it’s good for the league



So many tournament upsets the committee is going to be under intense pressure and there will be at least 5 deserving teams that don’t get in. Right now I’m thinking UCONN will be overall #1 with UNC 2 f(if they win tonight)

Fat Frankie     March 16
"Win" is "Win" in Welsh🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

mike     March 16
I wanted someone for a "boosted" win bet this week and considered Clark. What scared me were the double bogeys last week, although they were surrounded by stellar play otherwise. Anyway, I foolishly went with Zalatoris on a flyer instead. Don't think I will be convincing anyone to wait with baited breath for my weekly golf picks lol.

The Ravens will be fine, they are not careening off a cliff here. If JLC is concerned, that makes me feel damn good about their upcoming season.

Bryan     March 16
Just giving Drew a heads up, I was in the check out at a Shoppers this morning and noticed People magazine has a special issue commemorating the Beatles 60 years later, it's a must buy Drew!

Dale     March 15
I'm gonna coin this Terp off-season as purge and surge. First to go, Noah Batchelor. Great stroke, but nowhere near a Big Ten athlete. I wish him well.

larry     March 15
I thought this MFC guy said Calvert Hall bball was on the rise and how that was good for the BCL. Now the coach quits and is quoted as saying: “Not saying anything bad about Calvert Hall at all, I just didn’t feel that things would be moving in the right direction.” MFC is usually spot on with his local bball insights. Weird.

Article I read also said Coach Neal would be focusing on his son's AAU team.

Delray RICK     March 15
Have not followed basketball for decades but lately have videos of the great white hope, LARRY BIRD. The players against him held him in AWE. And the comments made NBA GREATS is funny as he'll. Didn't know he won 3 straight MVP'S. Later in his career he had to lay on the floor because of a bad back. But the comments of opponents are really funny.

such     March 15
The B1G Ten was not very good this year, hence the road records are more a reflection of the lack of quality teams than "it's tough to win on the road in that conference."

The best conferences this season are the Big 12 and the SEC. It wouldn't be a surprise to see teams like Baylor and Kentucky make runs to the Final Four as 3 or 4 seeds. Neither team won its conference regular season title, but they're scary good. Personally, I'm pulling for Tennessee, since my money and my son go there, and Dalton Knecht is the most electric scorer in the country. But Rick Barnes, man, I dunno...

Could there have been a more fitting end to this miserable season of Maryland basketball than what happened yesterday? I've been an avid fan since 1973, and I can't remember any other team being so uninspired and unlikeable. I suppose there's nowhere to go but up from here. I hope.

Chris in Bel Air     March 15
@TimD... you beat me to it. Merciful ending is the best way to describe what happened yesterday to Terps. To answer your question, it is very tough to win on the road but I think the overall talent/performance is down this year in the B10. After all, MD somehow won 7 games in conference. I guess we shall how the conference does in the big dance.

Ravens have a "down year" after going 13-4 and going to AFC Championship? I think that is realistic. Plenty of changes have already occurred but also more about how tough it is go 13-4 and go to the Championship. They will still be a/the front runner for the division and a playoff team.

Unitastoberry     March 15
Clowney was a rental until Bowser healed up . Now Bowser is gone. I'm trying not to be a Debbie Downer but yes this could be a short rebuild. Humphrey isn't the player he once was and often injured . McDonald was the best DC since Rex and Marvin. They really need a home run type draft.

MFC     March 15
Maryland need to come up with the $$$$ and a lot of it. Did you see what Calipari is doing, goodness gracious. It’s not about what’s the best fit it’s about who can fill my wallet . Until Williard finds a few “angels” with huge bank accounts they will be mediocre. It’se awful age we live in.

TimD in Timonium     March 15
Happy that (Mens) Terps basketball has mercifully come to an end. Bring on March Madness for all the good teams.



But either Big 10 basketball is mediocre in general, or it's one of the toughest conferences in the country to win on the road. Only two teams (Purdue and Illinois) had winning in-conference road records, here's the grim toll for everyone else. Yuck.



Indiana 4-6

Iowa 4-6

Maryland 3-7

Northwestern 3-7

Michigan State 3-7

Wisconsin 3-7

Nebraska 2-8

Minnesota 2-8

Penn State 2-8

Rutgers 2-8

Ohio State 2-8

Michigan 1-9


Wednesday
March 6, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3484


holistic coaching


My longtime friend Vince Fiduccia sent me a text earlier this week and asked an interesting question.

He wanted to know if I thought what he termed a "holistic approach" to coaching would work at the college level given the recent changes in the way rosters are compiled and programs are built.

"Is it possible," Vince asked, as a major Division I coach in either football or basketball, to build relationships and have a holistic approach to coaching kids with the transfer portal and NIL benefits in place? These are 18-22 year old boys (referencing football and basketball) and the goal should be to make them better men, husbands, fathers, employees and employers. Is it possible to do that in today's college sports environment?"

For Flyers fans who aren't used to big words, here's the definition of holistic: Characterized by the belief that the parts of something are interconnected and can be explained only by reference to the whole.

I thought about Vince's text for two days. I saw him yesterday at a men's Bible study group we attend and mentioned to him I'd be writing about it here today at #DMD.

It's a great question, especially for coaches at any level, college or otherwise.

Seen here when he played for Michigan, Hunter Dickinson left the Wolverines last year and joined the Kansas basketball program.

There's no question I endeavor to build the Calvert Hall golf program in a holistic way, but it's a little easier to do that when you don't have the pressures of scholarships, money and a kid transferring to another school if he doesn't like the way the golf program is run.

If a basketball player at Kentucky doesn't like the way John Calipari does things, he can just pack up and see if he likes the way Bill Self does things at Kansas.

If a high schoool athlete doesn't like the way the coach does things, he or she is most likely still there for the long haul. Yes, there are exceptions to that rule on occasion. There was a Loyola soccer player who played against Calvert Hall this past season who had previously played for Calvert Hall in years prior. It's rare but it happens.

I'll also note that I have no idea why the young man transferred, so please don't think I'm saying he transferred because he didn't like the way the coach at Calvert Hall did things. I'm just pointing out high school athletes do occasionally transfer, but it's nowhere near as often as college players transfer.

Anyway, our holistic approach with Calvert Hall golf, for example, is talking to the young men about their golf, mostly, but then also about their faith, their school work, their diet and nutrition, their willingness to be a great teammate, the joy of competing with other young men who will become their lifelong friends, and so on.

I suspect many of those same things are prevalent in college sports. How much "faith" is discussed within a college basketball or football program is unknown. I assume, just using a local example, that there are a number of Towson University football players who have a faith-based lifestyle and they connect within the team to grow as both football players and young men.

I think Vince's question leans more in the direction of, "Is it possible to have the entire team buy into a holistic approach where they realize they are there for the greater good rather than being in it just for themselves and their potential to maximize whatever benefits they can receive as a student-athlete?"

Possible?

Very much so.

Would that team win?

I have no way of knowing that. It depends, of course, on the quality of the players.

The University of Oklahoma softball team enjoyed a much-publicized national championship last spring and their team was built largely on the girls' devotion to their faith.

Faith isn't the only component to a "holistic approach", of course. There's a lot more to it. In fact, faith isn't even a necessary addition if, for some reason, the coach or players aren't interested in exploring and growing their faith.

I personally think faith is critically important in the development of young men and women. And I believe it can be woven nicely into the program to create meaningful relationships and a better understanding of how sports can help us all grow.

But more than that, the question is: Can a holistic approach by a coach help his football or basketball players understand how the sum of the parts are always better than the individual pieces?

I think that's possible, yes.

I've never been in an Ivy League locker room or affiliated with an Ivy League program, but this very thought raced through my mind this past Saturday night when my Calvert Hall team visited The Palestra for our annual Father/Son event. We saw Penn take on Columbia in basketball.

It kept resonating me with as I watched the game that the young men on the court are almost all likely going to play four years of high level college basketball and then, mostly, move on to start their "real life" in whatever area of business they pursue.

They're playing college basketball for the real, true-to-the-core reason to play college basketball. Because they want to be part of a team and they want to create memories with other young men who might someday open a business with them, hire them, spend weeks at the beach with their respective families, join the same country club, share Eagles, Giants, Jets season tickets with and so on.

Sure, one or two of those kids on the court last Saturday night might someday collect a paycheck from a team in Turkey or Itay or China and that's great. But my bet is 90% of them are working for a living after graduation because that's why they went to UPenn or Columbia in the first place.

Kids go to UPenn to attend school and there happens to be a basketball program there.

In most cases it's the other way around. "I'm going to St. John's to play basketball for Coach Pitino."

When young junior golfers show interest in Calvert Hall through the admissions department and I meet them for the first time, I tell every parent, and prospective student, the same thing: "Make sure Calvert Hall is the right academic fit for you/your son way before you decide whether the golf program is the right fit for your/his golf."

I don't think there was one basketball player on the floor last Saturday night who didn't want to be attending either UPenn or Columbia. They were at that school, first, because of the academic rigors and, second, for the basketball opportunity.

Maybe I'm wrong on that one, but I don't think I am.

Those programs are probably the ones where it's easiest to build the holistic approach Vince referenced in his question to me.

They are at UPenn for school. And to learn. And, yes, to enjoy their four or five years there. But it's easier to build a team and a program when that "buy in" from the players is sincere and not based on going to a better basketball program or finding a school booster with an investment firm who is willing to give you $50,000 to make 3-pointers and play defense.

Can Bill Self or Dabo Swinney build their respective programs using a holistic approach that preaches team, team, team and the togetherness of family?

Maybe.

But I think, to answer Vince's question, it's probably asking too much at this point in the life cycle of the NCAA.

The toothpaste can't be put back in the tube, as the saying goes.

By some of their own flaws and faults, the NCAA has created this "monster", if you will. Most of the monster was created by schools and coaches who wanted to win first and educate second.

Those schools were pressured by their boosters, the ones helping pay the coach his $4 million salary to coach football.

"If we have to pay $4 million to get him, he damn well better get us to a big bowl game..."

And the cycle starts there. The coach is under the gun to win, because he likes his salary and his wife loves their new house, the big pool and the nanny that lives with them.

When the best high school quarterback has his choices narrowed down to three schools, those three coaches don't give a rat's rear end about holistic, family, bonding, togetherness or anything else. They need that kid to throw touchdowns for them.

I could go on and on about "the cycle" but you've all been around long enough to know how it works.

Kids see what other kids are getting and they want the same or more than that.

They get pressure from outside sources to make them aware of their surroundings and how the time has come for the student-athlete to "get what you deserve."

There's not much "holistic" about the idea that you should just focus on you and what you need and what you deserve, at least not in team sports.

I carry my five favorite coaching axioms in my wallet at all times.

One of them is perhaps the best thing you can ever tell a team, in any sport, at any age, made up of any gender.

I tell this to my Calvert Hall team all the time.

"We can achieve anything as long as we don't care who gets the credit."

That statement is very difficult for young men and women to follow because they've been conditioned to think about only themselves when it comes to their development, their role and the way they're showcased on the field, court, course, ice, etc.

You have to drill it into them. They have to see it work, at some point. They have to buy into that statement because it is true, for sure.

If you can play freely and without concern about who ultimately gets the credit, whether that's God, your Little League coach who taught you the curve ball, the quarterbacks coach who showed you what good footwork really is, or the teammate who set the pick for you to make the winning shot, then you have something indeed.

Can that happen at the college level?

I think it most certainly can.

Will that team win games and be successful?

Win games? Maybe.

Be successful? Most definitely.

Winning and being successful are, actually, two totally different things when it comes to sports.


This week's PGA Tour stop is at Bay Hill in Orlando, Florida for the annual Arnold Palmer Invitational. The field is an elite one, part of the TOUR's "Signature Series", as only 69 players are teeing it up.

The limited field should put an end to the run of "longshots" who have won on the TOUR this year, including guys like last week's winner Austin Eckroat.

The API and Bay Hill generally produce a big name winner, although last year's champion, Kurt Kitayama, didn't fit that profile.

We're coming off one of our best weeks in a long time, with three of our projected favorites finishing in the Top 10.

Here's who we like this week. As a reminder, we're generally suggesting a win wager, top 10 wager and top 20 wager with these picks.

Patrick Cantlay is going to win big this year, we think. Whether that's a major or something like the Players or the Scottish Open, we don't know. But the data all shows his golf game continuining to grow. And Bay Hill is "big enough" for Cantlay to feel supremely challenged.

He's +1800. We're playing Cantlay heavily this week.

Could this be the week Cameron Young finally breaks through on the PGA Tour?

Cameron Young fits the same profile as Cantlay, actually. He's still looking for his first win. But when it comes, we think Young has the potential to be another Wyndham Clark. He is coming off of a nice finish at PGA National last week and his game is certainly capable of producing a huge win this week. He's +3000 this week, which, honestly, is a steal for a guy with the stats of Young.

Matt Fitzpatrick has his big win, the 2022 U.S. Open, but some recent swing changes have made him an even more inviting pick to win something big again in 2024. He had a nice week at PGA National (T21) and is starting to show signs that a trip to the winner's circle is rapidly approaching. He's at +2800 this week. Snag him at that number.

Corey Conners is always one of our favorite plays as he delivers an abundance of high finishes, but this week could be particularly interesting for the Canadian given his ball striking prowess and the data over the years that shows ball striking as one of the top categories for the winning player. Conners is somehow +6600, which seems almost laughable. His putting is sometimes laughable, though, which is why his number is that high.

Occasionally in these sorts of wagering endeavors, you take a flyer on someone that everything tells you is a silly flyer to take. I'm doing that this week with Sungjae Im who has not played up to his usual standards at all in 2024. But his plus +6600 number is just too inviting to pass up. And Im's history at Bay Hill, while not great, is always just good enough to think this could be the year is steps and conquers the place.

And because it's trendy and guys out of nowhere are winning this year, let me give you one player from that profile who could be a surprise this week. C.T. Pan is coming off of a nice week at The Cognizant and he tends to play his really good golf in quick stretches. We're going to assume he's found something with his golf swing and maybe, just maybe, he hits full stride this week at the API. He's at a whopping +60000 for the week.

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Tuesday
March 5, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3483


tuesday answers


A lot of you have been interested in three things these last few days.

My take on Anthony Kim's return to golf, the grades the Ravens received on their recent report card with the NFLPA and the ticket price increase announced by the Ravens last Friday (which is pretty much when all ticket price increases get announced).

I've received numerous e-mails on all three topics.

I'm not sure why people are that enamored with Anthony Kim, quite honestly. He hasn't played golf in 12 years. It's one thing if Jordan Spieth steps away from the game for three years and comes back. Now that would be worth getting excited about.

Anthony Kim was just a hotshot kid who wore his hat backwards and swashbuckled his way around the golf course. It wasn't like he won 2 Masters and a U.S. Open in a 3-year span and was on the verge of being the "next Tiger".

Ken e-mailed me yesterday with this question: "How do you judge Kim's return? Was it a success?"

I don't know what to say about that, in total.

#DMD reader Ken asks if Anthony Kim's return to professional golf should be deemed a "success"?

It's hard to chronicle anything about Anthony Kim's return a "success" when you take into account he's helping to sportswash a government that continues to violate human rights.

How do you applaud Anthony Kim or any American for taking money from a government that conspired to coordinate and carry out the 9-11 attacks on the United States?

If this was entirely about "golf", Kim would have resurfaced on the PGA Tour. There, in that environment, I probably would have been keen on seeing him succeed.

He would have been forced to play his way back on the TOUR, of course, but that's the way it should be anyway. That's why golf is great. You're the only one playing for the name on the back of your jersey, so to speak.

LIV handed him millions of dollars, without regard for his 12-year absence or others who might be more deserving of that dirty money, and just let him wander back in without a care in the world.

So on that level, in the "fine print", if you will, I can't possibly call what Anthony Kim did a "success". He's a check casher, like the rest of them. And he has the right to cash those checks, of course. He's making his bed, as the saying goes.

But any American french-kissing the Saudi government is on the wrong side of the argument, end of story.

Now, as for his golf? Was that a success?

There are thousands of professional players on a variety of tours around the world who could have shot 76-76-74 at that golf course over three days.

So, to that end, 16 over par for 3 days was not a success.

But it was definitely a success when you take into account A.K. hadn't played tournament golf in 12 years.

I mean, I'd go as far as to say someone taking a full year off from tournament golf and returning with rounds of 76-76-74 would be a moderate success.

That guy took off 12 years. Now, yes, he's been practicing a lot over the last 12 months or so. We're finding that out now. But I don't care if you practice 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, practicing and playing money games with your buddies and teeing it up in a golf tournament are two totally different things.

So from that standpoint, what Kim did was definitely a success.

But his return to the game was, in my opinion, spoiled by the fact that he insisted on taking the sullied money of the Saudi government.

So, that's a wrap, here, on Anthony Kim. As someone who hasn't watched and won't watch one second of live LIV Golf, I can't imagine there's another time in 2024 when I'll be pressed into writing about him on my own accord.


Tim wanted to know if I thought the Ravens should be concerned about the plethora (for Flyers fans, that means "a lot") of average grades they received on the recent NFLPA report card.

For starters, I think we all know when something is turned in without attribution -- public or private -- it tends to tilt more towards the negative.

I'm not saying the opinions of the players who responded weren't legitimate or founded in truth. I just know when someone has the chance to go over the top, they generally do just that.

But Tim's question is: Should the Ravens be concerned?

Well, sure, they should be concerned. But only about the things they can change in a tangible way.

If they need more fruit in the cafeteria...that can be changed.

If they need better fitness equipment in the locker room...that can be changed.

If they need more adequate day care at the team facility, that can be changed.

But the coach. He can't be changed. Not by "player suggestion", is what I mean.

His assistant coaches. They can't be changed by player suggestion.

The owner. He can't be changed by player suggestion.

I see the reasoning behind surveys and such. Trying to get employees to zero in on workplace details and provide honest, thoughtful opinions is not the easiest thing to do.

Most people's opinions are created with their agenda at the forefront.

The report might be useful. I'm not saying it isn't.

But the players having carte blanche to go through the entire organization and throw out ideas on what's right and what's wrong is a recipe for chaos.

They're football players.

And that's not meant to demean them.

But they don't know what it costs to run the day to day operations of the organization. Everyone can offer advice on how to make things better right up until it's your money being used for the improvements.

Should the Ravens be concerned about some of their low grades?

Of course.

But they should be more concerned with beating the Chiefs.


Rich asks if the Ravens are doing the right thing by raising ticket prices by almost 13% for the 2024 season in the wake of their disappointing championship loss to Kansas City.

There's never a good time to raise prices.

That's the boiler plate line every franchise uses when they have to raise the price of tickets.

Steve Bisciotti's Ravens announced a ticket price increase for the 2024 season late last week.

I mean, if you go 6-11, how do you raise prices?

If you go 13-4 and make the AFC Championship Game and lose at home, is that the optimum time to raise prices?

The cost of the NFL goes up every year. In fact, the cost of just about everything goes up every year. Been to a restaurant lately? Or the grocery store?

Football players, coaches, front office people...they're all getting more money and more benefits thrown their way with each passing season. It's just the way it is. The league TV deal delivers more revenue to the teams and the players, smartly, want more of that cash.

The fans have to pay their part, too.

Should NFL owners be thrilled with making $200 million in profit and not need to make $240 million next year? Sure, you'd think that. But we all know it doesn't work that way.

If they need to raise another $5 million or $10 million, the owners are going to look to the fans and say, "It's your turn to kick in and help out."

I don't like it. And I'm not even a ticket holder with the Ravens.

I just don't like the fact that tickets have to go up because it's part of the semi-annual routine.

I've said this here before, on a number of occasions. The on-field NFL product, when seen live, just isn't all that exhilirating.

The Ravens do a great job of keeping you entertained and enthused with their game operations and entertainment, but the actual playing of the football game just isn't all that great in person.

Part of me thinks that, at some point down the road, the owners will simply make the price of the tickets too high for the average fan to purchase.

But then I remember the tickets used to be $60, then $75, then $90, then $110, then $125 and, next, $135.

They keep going up and people keep buying them. Maybe not the same people year after year. Some folks might give them up and others then step in and buy them up, but along the way, they're getting purchased.

Are the Ravens a reckless organization just raising prices willy-nilly because they can?

I don't believe they are.

The fans -- generally -- wanted the club to fork over $50 million a year for Lamar Jackson.

And when the Ravens did that, they then said to those same fans, "It's your turn to help us pay the freight."

It would have been awesome if the ticket price increase would have accompanied a Super Bowl win, alas, the Chiefs didn't allow that to happen.

But on the heels of one of the best seasons in franchise history, no one can be surprised that it's going to cost a little more money to watch the team play their home games in 2024.

You know the saying, don't you?

The rich...get richer.

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#dmd comments








Billy     March 18
Fake Larry coming in to stir the pot. Classy.

larry     March 18
Lots of middle schoolers in the comments section today, are schools closed?

MFC     March 18
@POBOY, MSJ does not give out athletic scholarships it is "based on need", just like every other private school. Jaeylin Smith was a FULLPAY student.



Interesting stat in golf.

Scoring leaders: #1 Scheffler 69.286

#2 Ghim 69.991



Money leaders: #1 Scheffler $10,939,000

Doug Ghim $1,107,000



Amazing the difference when you win vs just playing well to very good.

RC     March 18
Come to think of it, I'm starting to wonder if @JeffWell isn't a plant or an imposter. No adult gets that frazzled over a passing remark about a band.



Maybe I'm wrong but I have to wonder.

Unitastoberry     March 18
You know what I would like? I'd like to see Kenny Pickett blossum into a star now that he's been traded. Stranger things have happened in this league over the last 70 years. Never was big into The Beatles I liked Lennon solo Instant Karma was a great album.

Arlen     March 18
The website guy takes a pot shot at the former President and no one cares but god forbid he criticizes a band of musicians that hasn't been around for 50 years!

Kevin     March 18
Hal's a clown. If the site owner's opinion is the Beatles suck (which they do), he's allowed to post that. It's an opinion, you jag.

hal     March 18
So it's ok to defend the site owner on everything, but defending a commenter is "carrying water"? Got it. And to help this Bill P guy out, JW was criticizing content, not the writer personally....oh wait, "overgrown child" might have been personal, perhaps JW let his emotions get the best of him there. Other than that, he was simply lamenting the deviations from "sports insights and opinion". But hey I am just a water carrier, what do I know.

Poboy     March 18
@BJ, Gary Neal out at the Hall because they won't full scholarship hoops players like MSJ, McD and SFA do.

BJ     March 18
I'm late to the party. Gary Neal is out as CHC basketball coach? When?

Bill P.     March 18
At the risk of being accused of being a "water carrier", I find it amusing that people like HAL write this: Certainly, anyone can disagree with his take if they want, I just don't get the personal attacks and vitriol. If anyone is not charging rent, it would be JEFFWELL lol



But HAL fails to mention that's exactly what JEFFWELL did to the site owner. Personal attack and vitriol. Why the double standard from HAL?

Vic     March 18
Question for you Drew. It's now obvious Scheffler is world #1. But who are the next four to make up 2-5 in the rankings? I'm curious to get your take on that one.

Kevin     March 18
Look at @Hal, carrying @Jeff's water for him. What a swell guy! Does Jeffy-poo get a back rub at some point as well? LOL

hal     March 18
@JEFFWELL called it lol. Guy simply makes a comment on today's content and he gets blasted. His feeling do not seem hurt, his panties aren't in a bunch, guy just made an observation on dead horses that get beat around here.

Certainly, anyone can disagree with his take if they want, I just don't get the personal attacks and vitriol. If anyone is not charging rent, it would be JEFFWELL lol.

Tupelo     March 18
That Jeff person realizes they don't have to read the website don't they? Getting mad about a website that you don't pay for is like getting mad because Starbux makes their coffee too strong. Don't buy it.

Davey     March 18
UNC is going to win it all. That Shannon kid is pretty dang good at Illinois, I wouldn't be surprised to see them make a deep run.

RC     March 18
Yea, I'd say @JeffWell is the one looking kind of #clownshoes on this one. Just my opinion.



I don't always like or agree with what @DF writes but I don't get my feelings hurt about it.



Kind of a weird look for @Jeff today IMHO.

KC     March 18
With Pickett/Trubisky, Steelers were a 9-8 team.

With Wilson/Fields, the Steelers are a 9-8 team.

Don't worry, they're not any better now than they were before.

BO     March 18
You said it, DF, Scheffler's the best golfer on the planet right now. And since I'm old enough to remember Tiger in his prime, I know what it's like to see one player dominate the rest of the best players like "Scheff" is doing right now.



You didn't spell it out, but it looks like "X" has the choker's collar doesn't it? Both Saturday and Sunday his driver completely left him on the back 9.



Here's a question for your Q/A. I know it's not a major so why don't they play the PGA or the US Open at the TPC Sawgrass course one year? What are your thoughts on that? Would the course hold up?



Sad to see Gary Neal go but the results are what they are. I assume you know more than you're letting on. When will Calvert Hall be able to get a long term coach in there?

Tom     March 18
LMFAO at "Jeff Well". Talk about a little boy.

Larry     March 18
I agree with MFC, conference champs should never have to play in. Save the play in games for teams like Michigan State that basically backed into the tournament.

Watched most of the golf yesterday and something the site owner wrote about a while back was on display yesterday. Maybe it was just one of those things but a lot of the putts the announcers said were breaking left to right were missed. I recall the owner once saying right handed putters don't like those putts from L to R. Just something I picked up on yesterday as I watched and listened to the announcers.

Is anyone else concerned about the Ravens secondary with the losses of Darby and Stone?

And I just saw O's opening day tickets in the upper deck for $160. Times have changed. I bought an upper deck opening day ticket 3 or 4 years ago for $25 the day before the game.


Chris P.     March 18
Harman, Aberg, Theegala, all 3 of those guys hit Top 10 for Drew this week. I'm more of a college football and hoops gambler myself but I might have to plunk down a few bucks on his picks the next time there's a tournament he analyzes.



I went ahead and put down a nice chunk on the O's plus 90.5 wins last week. I feel like that is easy money but you never know. The other teams I think are a good "over" bet are the Phillies (89.5) and Blue Jays (86.5)

MFC     March 18
If you're the conference champ you should be rewarded the NCAA bid, your record over the course of the year should matter more than 4 days in March.



Play-in games are ridiculous.



The ACC, outside of UNC, got little to no respect. Duke at 4, NC State at 11, Virginia in the play-in game and Clemson somewhere with Pitt and Wake left out. This once great league needs a reboot.



I was excited when I saw Utah State in the dance and thought good for Ryan Odum. But he's now at VCU and just lost the championship game to Duquesne. He had a 22-13 record this year, good for him, sorry UMBC couldn't keep him.



None of us should ever bitch about a lip out again. What happened to Clark was as harsh as they come.



Best line in Scheffler press conference, "someone yelled you're #1 for a year only 11 more to go", referencing Tigers incredible run. He looked sheepish and then paid great homage to Tiger. You gotta like Scheffler he seems like a genuinely nice person and well grounded.



Congrats to the girls state champions, Poly, Pikesville and Hammond girls bringing back the rings.



Lets go with the "cheater coaches" final four. Houston, Kentucky, Auburn and Kansas.

Pat     March 18
Poor Jeff. It must be tough to grow up without a sense of humor.

TJ     March 18
Talk about someone living rent free in another man's head, eh? DF not only lives in Jeff Well's, he probably sublets some of the space to make money off of it! Lighten up, Francis. It's a sports blog. Why are your panties in such a bunch over a sports blog??

Jeffwell     March 18
I try. I really do. But this man is such an overgrown child that I often leave this site for a month or two. As soon as I stop by again to read about his opinion of an excellent PGA event, he 's right back to third grade.

Since I didn't get past the first paragraph of the "real" post, I'll just assume that there was more riveting commentary about Flyers fans as well. Not just shoes. This guy deserves the entire clown outfit.

Cue the synchophants in 3..2..1..

TJS     March 18
Actually, the Terps DID make the tournament. I'll be watching them play Iowa State in the first round of the women's tournament this week.

Boris     March 18
I too made some bank with Drew's picks thank you very much. In particular I liked and went with Aberg and Theegala - 2 young players who I predict are ready to win on tour or even a major.

J.J.     March 18
DF called Sheffler winning last Wednesday in his predictions. That's what I meant.

mj     March 17
Did this JJ guy get his own edition of DMD today? Mine said:

"I see Clark shooting 67 today on a difficult layout with tricky back-nine pin locations and winning by two shots over Schauffele, who produces his own round of 70. Scheffler finishes T3 with McNealy at 16-under."

JJ and Matt seem to think DMD "called it to a tee". Guess I misunderstood the above.

Mark     March 17
Final tale of the tape. Bet $300 ($10 on each golfer to win, T10 and T20) and won $740. Keep making those picks @DF!!!

Matt P.     March 17
I mean, it almost looks like Drew saw the script for the final round.



(A round of 64 is well within his reach and some kind of score like that would make the leaders press the gas pedal down the stretch.)

J.J.     March 17
DF called Scheffler's win and his final round score (64) to a tee and also picked 3 top 10 finishers in his predictions for the week. Why not just quit DMD and go into golf gambling full time and make a boat load of $$$ ???



Great job. Keep it up.

Chris K     March 17
It’s weird how adult men (I’m assuming) on here are so intense with high school sports. Of course it’s nice if your team has a good season or wins its league, but it’s high school. It’s about the kids in the school learning and preparing for their next phase in life. I’m sure the kids on team next year will be fine with the new coach. Winning should be secondary.



Btw this isn’t a shot at Drew. He’s clearly mentioned many times, that while winning is a nice feeling, he coaches his guys to be better in life and handle things the right way win or lose.

Howarc     March 17
Fields will be invaluable in helping the Steelers prepare for the Ravens. He will be able to mimic Lamar pretty well when he runs the scout team in practice

Unitastoberry     March 17
Stillers get Justin Fields. Malik Harrison might have been better. He never got a chance to show his pro ability. Personally I think the Stillers front office is just buying time to scout up the next Bradshaw or Ben. This is there new Brister-Maddox era and the odds of finding another HOF qb for them are slim.And frankly Tomlin isn't Cowher imo.

Josh     March 17
Sahith Theegala is my assigned golfer. I’m pulling for him big time! I want my round with DMD



BTW- it’s nice to watch a real golf tournament with actual storylines and some history

David Rosenfeld     March 17
If the committee was under pressure it was Friday and Saturday...all the "bid stealing" happened then. At this point (Sunday AM), the field and the seeding is probably set. Just awaiting those auto bids from the Ivy, AAC and A-10.

I'm sure this will be column fodder this week, but the Steelers have now replaced Pickett, Rudolph and Trubisky with Wilson and Fields. It sounds great for them...but only if you really believe that Fields is going to live up to his potential...which is still very much up in the air. If not, you got one year of mediocre Wilson followed by more uncertainty.

MFC     March 16
I was caught off guard by Neal’s leaving, had no clue. I’m sure DF has more inside knowledge and obviously isn’t speculating.. CH is a great school, great traditions and good coaches in all sports. I have no idea why one would leave that , plus playing in one of the premiere leagues in the country. The toll on families is unbelievable, who knows maybe he wasn’t seeing his son enough, dont know. Maybe he wasn’t getting enough help getting kids in, again don’t know but I do know he had the POY.

It’s a shame, CH has had a bunch of coaches over the last 10 years or so. It doesn’t seem to happen so much with the other sports. I hope the get a good coach and the Hall rises again, it’s good for the league



So many tournament upsets the committee is going to be under intense pressure and there will be at least 5 deserving teams that don’t get in. Right now I’m thinking UCONN will be overall #1 with UNC 2 f(if they win tonight)

Fat Frankie     March 16
"Win" is "Win" in Welsh🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

mike     March 16
I wanted someone for a "boosted" win bet this week and considered Clark. What scared me were the double bogeys last week, although they were surrounded by stellar play otherwise. Anyway, I foolishly went with Zalatoris on a flyer instead. Don't think I will be convincing anyone to wait with baited breath for my weekly golf picks lol.

The Ravens will be fine, they are not careening off a cliff here. If JLC is concerned, that makes me feel damn good about their upcoming season.

Bryan     March 16
Just giving Drew a heads up, I was in the check out at a Shoppers this morning and noticed People magazine has a special issue commemorating the Beatles 60 years later, it's a must buy Drew!

Dale     March 15
I'm gonna coin this Terp off-season as purge and surge. First to go, Noah Batchelor. Great stroke, but nowhere near a Big Ten athlete. I wish him well.

larry     March 15
I thought this MFC guy said Calvert Hall bball was on the rise and how that was good for the BCL. Now the coach quits and is quoted as saying: “Not saying anything bad about Calvert Hall at all, I just didn’t feel that things would be moving in the right direction.” MFC is usually spot on with his local bball insights. Weird.

Article I read also said Coach Neal would be focusing on his son's AAU team.

Delray RICK     March 15
Have not followed basketball for decades but lately have videos of the great white hope, LARRY BIRD. The players against him held him in AWE. And the comments made NBA GREATS is funny as he'll. Didn't know he won 3 straight MVP'S. Later in his career he had to lay on the floor because of a bad back. But the comments of opponents are really funny.

such     March 15
The B1G Ten was not very good this year, hence the road records are more a reflection of the lack of quality teams than "it's tough to win on the road in that conference."

The best conferences this season are the Big 12 and the SEC. It wouldn't be a surprise to see teams like Baylor and Kentucky make runs to the Final Four as 3 or 4 seeds. Neither team won its conference regular season title, but they're scary good. Personally, I'm pulling for Tennessee, since my money and my son go there, and Dalton Knecht is the most electric scorer in the country. But Rick Barnes, man, I dunno...

Could there have been a more fitting end to this miserable season of Maryland basketball than what happened yesterday? I've been an avid fan since 1973, and I can't remember any other team being so uninspired and unlikeable. I suppose there's nowhere to go but up from here. I hope.

Chris in Bel Air     March 15
@TimD... you beat me to it. Merciful ending is the best way to describe what happened yesterday to Terps. To answer your question, it is very tough to win on the road but I think the overall talent/performance is down this year in the B10. After all, MD somehow won 7 games in conference. I guess we shall how the conference does in the big dance.

Ravens have a "down year" after going 13-4 and going to AFC Championship? I think that is realistic. Plenty of changes have already occurred but also more about how tough it is go 13-4 and go to the Championship. They will still be a/the front runner for the division and a playoff team.

Unitastoberry     March 15
Clowney was a rental until Bowser healed up . Now Bowser is gone. I'm trying not to be a Debbie Downer but yes this could be a short rebuild. Humphrey isn't the player he once was and often injured . McDonald was the best DC since Rex and Marvin. They really need a home run type draft.

MFC     March 15
Maryland need to come up with the $$$$ and a lot of it. Did you see what Calipari is doing, goodness gracious. It’s not about what’s the best fit it’s about who can fill my wallet . Until Williard finds a few “angels” with huge bank accounts they will be mediocre. It’se awful age we live in.

TimD in Timonium     March 15
Happy that (Mens) Terps basketball has mercifully come to an end. Bring on March Madness for all the good teams.



But either Big 10 basketball is mediocre in general, or it's one of the toughest conferences in the country to win on the road. Only two teams (Purdue and Illinois) had winning in-conference road records, here's the grim toll for everyone else. Yuck.



Indiana 4-6

Iowa 4-6

Maryland 3-7

Northwestern 3-7

Michigan State 3-7

Wisconsin 3-7

Nebraska 2-8

Minnesota 2-8

Penn State 2-8

Rutgers 2-8

Ohio State 2-8

Michigan 1-9


Monday
March 4, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3482


when is a record not a record?


When you've lost as much as Maryland has lost this season, one more defeat along the way shouldn't really shake up anyone who has been paying attention.

What's one more loss?

But that one yesterday, in College Park, was shockingly bad.

Dale Williams will explain the how and why below. If you're interested in finding out just how it came to pass that Maryland blew a 16-point second half to a pretty (very?) lousy Indiana team, Dale takes you through it below.

I saw someone on Twitter throw out these two words in the aftermath of the loss: They had a gif of a turtle and then this - NO HEART.

Is the Kevin Willard honeymoon period over in College Park?

It's a slippery slope when you start chasing college athletes after a loss and question their heart. But these days, with boys and girls now actually getting paid real money to play, it's going to be seen and heard a lot more in the future.

And it's hard not to question the team's collective heart after watching yesterday's implosion.

Lots of folks have chutzpah when they're winning. It's what you see when a player is losing that matters most.

At least that's the way I see it.

There's probably nothing worse in sports than being tagged with that criticism: "He (she) has no heart."

In the old, old days of the MISL, the Cleveland Force had a goal scorer named Craig Allen who would routinely be amongst the league leaders in scoring year after year.

But everyone knew, in the playoffs, when push came to shove, Allen's play would also be far less productive than it was during the regular season.

And virtually everyone said the same thing about him: "He doesn't have any heart."

Every spring, the same routine would play out. Allen would have a remarkable regular season and was one of the more dangerous players in the entire MISL. The playoffs would roll around and he'd vanish.

The league figured him out. When the games mattered the most, Allen just didn't have it inside of himself to buckle down, take the kicks to the shins, the fewer number of referee whistles and the "every shift matters" pressure that went with the post-season.

In the regular season, Cleveland won a lot because of Craig Allen.

In the post-season, they lost a lot because of him.

Everyone has off days, whether it's on the mound, the court, the course, the ice or the field. Those can be accepted. The other guy tries, too, let's always remember.

But when the moment arrives that asks for an athlete to "dig in" and turn the tide and they appear not only incapable, but really not interested in doing so, that's when you have a real problem.

Down the stretch yesterday, Maryland looked like a team that just didn't have it in them to fight.

There's a thing called the Alford plea that's used in the legal system. "I'm not willing to admit I'm guilty, but I will admit the evidence would likely result in a guilty verdict."

I have no idea if Maryland's guilty of having no heart, as a Twitter enthusiast suggested on Sunday afternoon.

But I'd probably suggest the Terps take the Alford plea.

And I'd further suggest Kevin Willard take some time in the next few months to get it all straigthened best he can. The honeymoon period is pretty much over at this point.

Maryland basketball should be better than this.


Iowa's Caitlin Clark broke Pete Maravich's all-time NCAA scoring record yesterday, in case you haven't been on the internet over the last 16 hours.

It's a huge deal.

Well, sort of a huge deal.

Iowa's Caitlin Clark set the all time NCAA scoring record yesterday, passing LSU's Pete Maravich.

It's a huge deal if you believe a player who played for four years should be compared with a player who played three years.

It's also a huge deal if you believe a player who had the benefit of scoring from the 3-point line should be compared with a player who didn't have the benefit of 3-point plays.

And it's a huge deal if you believe a player who played against women should be compared with a player who played against men.

If you believe those three things to be true, compare away. And the raw data will show Caitlin Clark scored more points than Pete Maravich, that much is true.

That said, comparing the two is silly.

Don't get me wrong. 3,668 points is an extraordinary total. Clark might very well be the best women's college basketball player of all time.

But saying she's now the leading scorer in the history of college basketball is only sorta-kinda accurate.

If, let's say, in 2050, the NCAA puts into the rules a 5-point shot for any basket scored in the 4th quarter and also institutes a rule that says players can play six full college seasons, and Anna Schmedley collects 500 of those made shots in her 6-year career to help bypass Clark's mark, does that make Schmedley the "all time leading scorer"?

I assume, like any smart person, you'd think, "No, it does not."

And you'd be correct.

The reason you'd be correct is because Clark would have amassed her points without the benefit of the 5-pointer in the same way Maravich amassed his points without the benefit of the 3-pointer.

And Clark's scoring mark would have come in four years, not six.

As they say on the insurance commercial: "It's so easy a Beatles fan could figure it out."

The NBA is going this very thing right now with LeBron and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. It's always going to be the argument. How long did it take you to break someone's record? If it took you longer to do it, that's fine, but let's not compare things at that point.

In some ways, integrating Clark into this discussion takes away from what she's done this season.

Why immerse that young lady in the Clark vs. Maravich controversy? Can't we just let people achieve greatness without having to compare them to someone else? And, particularly, when that comparison isn't anywhere near "even" in the first place?

I saw a story yesterday that said a basketball enthusiast somewhere went back (I have no idea how, but I assume it's true) and calculated where all of Maravich's points were scored, on the floor, in one of his seasons at LSU. The result? In that season, he would have averaged 57 points per-game.

I had to read the story twice to make sure I wasn't missing something.

57 points per-game over a 10-game stretch?

57 points per-game in a month?

57 points per-game in the conference tournament?

No, no and no.

57 points per-game for the entire season.

Did anyone play defense back then or was Maravich just that good? That's what I thought yesterday when I saw the story.

Alas, Maravich was "just that good". And while Clark is a wonderfully accomplished basketball player and the sure fire #1 pick in the WNBA draft this year (the WNBA stands for Women's National Basketball Association), she's no Pete Maravich.


Something interesting happened on Saturday in the world of golf that went largely unnoticed except to the folks paying attention.

The USGA told us, once and for all, that the ball rollback they announced late last year is going to be put into play.

It was a little thing, granted. But it was big in the grand scheme of things.

The governing body of golf in the U.S. announced that the 2036 U.S. Open would be played at Shinnecock Hills on Long Island.

Prior to Saturday, that was still an "open date" on the calendar and many people thought the tournament might be given to either Bethpage, Chambers Bay or Erin Hills, three courses that have held U.S. Open tournaments in the last 15 years but are known more for being "big, open parks" where players can just bomb the ball all over the place.

By going back to Shinnecock, one of the best and most traditional layouts in the nation, the USGA is sending a clear message.

"We're going to keep our national championship at places like Oakmont (2025), Pinehurst (2024 and 2029), Pebble Beach (2028) plus stops at venerable courses like Winged Foot, Oakland Hills and Merion. We're finished with the 'sampling' of courses."

All of those courses offer great history in golf, but over the years their length has rendered them less difficult, something the powers-that-be know tends to yield larger winning scores. The Chambers Bay and Erin Hills experiments were pretty much disasters as the best players in the world bombed it all over the place and made birdie after birdie.

The USGA likes their U.S. Open to be a test, not a joyride.

And the way they've decided to make it a test in the future is to change the golf ball so it doesn't go as far.

I personally don't agree with it.

As I've written here numerous times, if you want someone to hit the ball 250 off the tee instead of 300, all you have to do is shorten the height of the tee and that will do the trick. It's undeniable. The higher the ball off the ground, the farther it travels.

Why the USGA insists on reconfiguring the golf ball is beyond me.

Just limit the tee height and the ball won't go as far and you can still play the old great places like Merion, Pinehurst, Pebble Beach and so on.

But Saturday's announcement that Shinnecock Hills is getting the 2036 U.S. Open cements what the USGA announced last year. There is going to be a ball rollback. It's happening, friends.

Chambers Bay was nice for a year. So was Erin Hills.

But they had a very quick life with the USGA.

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dale williams aims the
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DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


collapse in college park


Maryland’s defense failed them yesterday. Their transition defense was totally absent in the second half of their contest with Indiana and the resulting Hoosier run outs changed what was once a lopsided game, in Maryland’s favor.

The Terps, literally, got run out of their own gym.

A 10-point Terrapin halftime lead, and 16-point second half lead, was erased by 50 second half Hoosier points as Indiana sent the Terrapin seniors home with a senior day loss, 83-78.

Indiana outscored the Terps, 48-27 in the last 18 minutes of the game. The same beat down that Indiana administered to the Terps in the earlier part of their first meeting this past December, was handed to Maryland in the second half of yesterday’s game.

Maryland gave up a ton of easy second half baskets to an Indiana team that consistently beat them down court in the final 20 minutes.

When not getting layups with their increased tempo, the Hoosiers passed over, and around, the Maryland defense to cutters and post men for close range dinks and dunks. Eight first half points in the paint for Indiana became 22 in the second.

Maryland's Donta Scott was one of several Terps to suffer through a miserable second half yesterday as Maryland dropped a shocking home loss to Indiana.

Mackenzie Mgbako had a big day for the Hoosiers, pouring in 24 points, with 18 of those coming in the second half. He knocked down 4 triples in 8 attempts.

Malik Reneau added 14 points. Kel’el Ware had a game high 15 rebounds. As a team, Indiana shot 44% from the three-point line, and connected on 19 of 26 second half shots from the floor.

That’s not hard to do considering the close range looks that they were able to get from the Maryland defense.

No surprise that Maryland was led by Jahmir Young’s 22 points. But, again, he struggled from the three-point line, going 1 for 6. Donta Scott had 15 points, making just 5 of 15 shots and disappearing in the second half, going 1 for 7.

The Terps trailed by 3, 9-6, after 4 minutes and 11 seconds of play. Each team had made 3 field goals, but Indiana had a three-pointer and 2 made foul shots to account for the 3-point difference. Maryland was 0-3 shooting threes with Young missing a pair and Scott missing one.

When the Terp defense forced a couple of turnovers, which led to a pair of Young layups sandwiched between a Jordan Geronimo dunk, Maryland found themselves up by 3, 12-9. After a Terp stop on defense, Jahari Long nailed a three and Maryland was up 6, 15-9. They were still up by 6 when play resumed after the 2nd media timeout.

At 10:47, play stopped when Malik Reneau went down holding his hip. He exited the court under his own power, but was clearly in pain. Prior to him getting injured, his team had twice connected on threes, tying the game at 17. A conventional three-point play by Indiana’s Anthony Walker put the Hoosiers up by three.

The next stoppage came at 6:42 with Maryland ahead 24-20 and Reese going to the line after getting fouled while making a short jumper from the left side. Of Maryland’s 24 points, 14 had come in the paint. That was the place that Indiana owned in game 1, but at this point in the game the paint was dominated by Maryland. 14-2. Kel’el Ware was 0-4 and Trey Gallaway was 0-2.

Indiana called timeout at 5:19. They hadn’t scored in 5 minutes, allowing UMD to run off 12 straight points. Maryland led 29-20, benefiting from the Hoosiers 7 turnovers. The absence of Reneau was being felt.

After the timeout, Reneau was reinserted into the lineup and quickly delivered a three-point play for the Hoosiers. After that play, it was the three-point shot that ruled the court. Mgbako hit 2 of them for Indiana and Scott nailed one for Maryland.

The Terps were being very active on defense, getting into passing lanes and causing problems for the Indiana ball handlers. With 1:48 left in the half, the Hoosiers had already accumulated 8 turnovers compared to just 3 for Maryland.

That Indiana turnover number became 9, and the Terrapin lead became 10 after a Reese follow-up dunk. The half ended with Maryland holding that 10-point advantage, 43-33.

Maryland did a great job on Ware in half number one. He missed some good looks, but Maryland kept him away from the basket for the most part. The 9 turnovers were huge, as was Scott making 3 triples on just 5 tries.

Maryland already had their big three, Young, Reese, and Scott, in double figures. Young had 12, while Reese and Scott each contributed 11.

The second half start wasn’t quite what the Hoosiers wanted, but it went very well for Maryland. Long hit a runner and backed that up with a three. A minute later, the Terps stretched their lead to a game high 16 points. But Indiana would make a run.

Some Terrapin defense that lacked enthusiasm was met by a few tough Hoosier made shots. Those factors combined for a 10-2 run by the Hoosiers on 5 for 5 shooting. At the 14:22 timeout, the Terps lead was 7, 53-46.

After the teams traded baskets, the game got even tighter as Mgbako made a traditional three-point play. The score was now 55-51.

Turnovers continued to hurt Indiana. They committed 5 more in the first 9 minutes of half 2, but Mgbako was hurting the Terps.

With 11:09 left in the half, the Hoosier forward already had 14 second half points and had reached 20 for the game. A four-point play by him made the score 60-58. Indiana had hit their last 10 field goal tries after missing their first 2 of the half.

That successful shooting streak reached 11 when Ware caught another pass at point blank range. The lead was down to a single point.

The game became tied at 64 when Gallaway made a pair of foul shots and his tip in a few seconds later gave Indiana a lead, 66-64.

Indiana was having great success by pushing the ball and beating Maryland downcourt. With 8:15 left to play, Indiana had 9 fast break points in the half and had made 13 of 16 shots from the floor. They had missed only 3 shots in the half leaving Maryland with little chance to gather in more than the 2 rebounds they had.

Play stopped with 5:48 left in the game and Indy holding a 68-64 advantage. Maryland had turned the ball over 4 straight times, assisting Indiana in outscoring the Terps 35-21 thus far in the second half.

The Hoosiers continued to exploit Maryland’s tired looking defense with two more easy buckets. The Terps hadn’t scored in over 5 minutes and now fell perilously behind, 72-64.

Another Terp turnover (this time a mishandled ball by Reese) ended in a three-point play dunk by Ware. The Hoosier run was now 15-0 and the Terps trailed by 11, 75-64, with 3:53 left.

The Terps refused to quit, surrounding a Hoosier turnover with threes by Scott and Young. There was 1:36 left, Indiana had the ball leading by 5, 77-72.

Another defensive stop by Maryland gave the Terps hope and the ball, but a Young turnover was followed by a Reese goal tending call. Long then joined the turnover party and the game was over.

The final was 83-78. The Terps had been outscored 50-35 in the second half.

That Maryland gave up 50 points in a half to Indiana is almost incomprehensible. There was a total breakdown in accountability for the Indiana release man after a Terrapin missed shot.

Several times it was the 7-foot Ware leading the break, but let’s not fault Reese for that. He was fighting for an offensive board after a Young penetration or miss. Without seeing the replay, I’m looking at the 2 guard as the responsible party on those occasions.

I’ve talked about poise with the Maryland team all season long.

When Indiana made their big 15-0 run, the Terps were falling apart mentally. You could see it in their bad passes, questionable shot selection, and lack of focus on the defensive end.

I see this happen to many college teams, but the Terps lack that 3-point “funk breaker” that can get then out of it.

In that decisive Hoosier run, Maryland missed 7 shots in a row.

Scott missed 4 of those, Young 2, and Harris-Scott missed 1. Three of those shots were three-pointers.

Reese failed to take a shot during that time, but it wasn’t because the Terrapin offensive game plan abandoned him. His inability to get off a shot had more to do with the fact that all of his touches in that period resulted in turnovers.

The Terps turned it over 5 times in that stretch with Reese accounting for 3 of the mistakes. Knowing the game was slipping away from them after seemingly being in their control, the Terps played with panic. It’s been a common theme this season.

Maryland has one more regular season game at Penn State next Sunday before traveling to Minneapolis for the Big Ten Tournament. Check out the Penn State contest on BTN beginning at 7:30 p.m.

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Sunday
March 3, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3481


sunday stuff


A bunch of quick-hit things to get to today, including a local golfing legend who passed away earlier this week.

I'm not a huge enough NBA fan to get worked up about what LeBron did last night, but in an interesting twist of irony, I spent Saturday evening at The Palestra watching Penn and Columbia play a highly energized Ivy League contest.

As I watched the action, several players from both teams stood out. If you just flew in from Pluto and had never seen basketball played in front of you before, you would think the players you were watching were "the best of the best". Both teams had incredibly athletic rosters, awesome shooters and the style of play was very well coached by both teams.

And those two teams would both lose to UConn or Kansas by 40 points. Heck, as lame as Maryland is, the Terps would (probably) beat them both by 15 or 20.

The college basketball "mecca" is in Philadelphia. The Palestra is the home to UPenn basketball.

Now, it's fair to point out both Penn and Columbia are "down" this year in terms of Ivy League rankings. But the point I made to several of my Calvert Hall players was, "This just shows you how great the best college basketball players are..."

And, so, we then come to LeBron. He skipped the college level entirely.

I wasn't thinking about James last night as I walked through the arena prior to the game and took in the wonderfully maintained memorabilia situated throughout the facility.

Every great college player in the 60's, '70's, 80's, 90', etc. saw action on the Palestra floor. Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Patrick Ewing, Pervis Ellison. I could go on and on. As "Philadelphia boys", guys like Wilt, Kobe and Rasheed Wallace all played several high school games in The Palestra.

LeBron even played The Palestra as a high schooler.

My Calvert Hall Golf team does a father/son trip prior to our season every year. We've gone to The Palestra for cheesesteaks and Ivy League basketball for six straight years now. I take them to that venue for several reasons, but one of the biggest ones is to show them the importance of their legacy within an athletic program and how they're remembered long after they're gone.

The men and women who have graced the court representing UPenn are chronicled in The Palestra in a spectacular way. It's energizing just as an outsider to see all of the old pictures and stories of days gone by.

And, so, when I saw that LeBron became the first player in NBA history to reach 40,000 points last night, I remembered that he never even played college basketball. He was that good in high school that he didn't need to go to Penn, Columbia, UConn, Kansas or anywhere else.

Kobe Bryant was a star at Lower Merion High School in Philadelphia and he, too, never played a second of college hoops. Bryant was also that good.

If you're a basketball fan and you've never been to The Palestra, it's a must-do trip. Pick a Saturday for traffic reasons and it's 90 minutes from White Marsh to the arena door. There are several eateries in/around the campus. Parking is easy.

Tickets are inexpensive.

And the game and the history are worth every penny of it all.


The Anthony Kim experiment is over for the time being, with the former PGA Tour winner posting a 3rd (and final) round score of 74 earlier today to finish his return to golf at 16 over par and in last place, 11 shots behind Hudson Swafford.

Truth of the matter? Swafford should be far more concerned about shooting +5 at that course than Kim should be shooting +16.

#DMD reader Neil e-mailed me yesterday and asked me what I thought Anthony Kim would shoot over three days at my home course.

I'm not even sure that question and the accompanying answer matters. Kim is still a highly competent golfer. I've labeled his return to golf a "publicity stunt" because, as we know, there are thousands of players around the world who could have played three rounds at the course in Saudi Arabia and shot +16 or better.

But Kim is still a very capable golfer, as his +16 score showed.

Now, let's also understand he didn't just pop out of the living room last week and decide to get back out there and give pro golf a try.

There were rumors and the occasional social media picture of Kim practicing and playing golf back in 2023. He has clearly been working on the game that he left for a decade or so.

But, to me, +16 is a reasonable 3-day accomplishment for him given where he's been and the fact he hasn't played any kind of competitive golf recently.

What would he shoot at Eagle's Nest? I have no idea, but he would most certainly be under par for 3 straight days, without question.

I think a far more fair question for Anthony Kim would be this one: Can he get through the various qualifying stages this May and play in this summer's U.S. Open at Pinehurst?

That would tell you a lot about him if he can successfully navigate through the qualifiers. He would have to be significantly under par over 54 holes to make the U.S. Open. And he's probably going to play courses that are more difficult than the one he just encountered in his LIV debut.

I still suspect there will come a time this year when he "hangs around" the LIV leaderboard at some point on the weekend. Kim certainly has some things in his game to clean up, but the scores alone (76-76-74) show that he can still play golf at a high level.


Local golf lost a legend this week when Charlie Harris passed away at age 87. Harris was a fixture at the Country Club of Maryland for the last four decades and his name is seen on every club championship fixture in the men's locker room.

If there was a title at CC of Maryland, Charlie won at some point along the way.

He also won the Maryland Amateur in his 50's when it was played at the Stevenson Lane course.

Longtime area golf legend Charlie Harris passed away this week after a long illness.

"I tried to convince them they should have the tournament here (CC of Maryland) every year to give us old guys a shot," Harris said to me a few weeks back when I sat down with him on the porch at the club and talked about the old days.

When I was there, I knew of his condition and, like most people, wanted to get in one more conversation with him before his time here on Earth was up.

Harris and his wife, Barbara, used to run the Mount Pleasant Golf Course restaurant. They both cooked many a breakfast for me back in the days when I called the Mount my home.

"You guys just hit the damn ball so far now," Harris said to me during that final conversation. "I don't know how you ever shoot over par."

I reminded Charlie I'm in my 60's now and I don't hit it far at all.

"You know what I mean," he said. "You're hitting it 250, 260, 270. That's still a long way. I can't hit it 200."

There was a pause.

"But if you let me play the up tees as far as I can and you give me 3 a side, I'll still play ya," Harris said with a smile.

Lots of amateur golfers were provided advice with Charlie along the way. He was never shy about telling you something he saw in your swing while he was out there riding around during the Maryland Amateur Stroke Play at the Mount every July.

I only received one piece of real, true, golfing advice from Charlie Harris. It came sometime around the year 2000. I was having a particularly frustrating day on the greens at Mount Pleasant, a fairly common thing for me back then.

Harris and longtime friend of his Jackie Rites were out in a cart watching the action. They caught up to my group and watched us play holes 7, 8 and 9, which happened to be our final three holes of the day.

After I signed my card and headed into the restaurant for lunch, Harris stopped me. "Do you try to make every putt?" he asked.

"Yeah, of course," I replied as I moved to the macaroni and cheese that his wife Barb had made and was a favorite of mine.

"Well, stop trying to make them all. You can't. You're wasting too much energy trying to make every single putt. You ain't gonna make them all. If it's outside of 20 feet, don't even think about making it. Just get it up there. Putt it to a foot, tap it in and move on to the next hole."

"OK, thanks," I said.

"Oh, and when you do make one from 20 or 25 feet, you'll look at it like a bonus," he added.

I've thought about that advice a lot over the last 25 years.

During my last sit down with Charlie, I reminded him of that impromptu putting lesson he had given me and then I told him the story about the putt I made at Argyle CC in the playoff to qualify for the U.S. Senior Open.

"That one was about 16 feet or so," I said to him. "It was within your 20 foot range, so I tried to make it," I said with a laugh.

"Well, you should have been trying to make every putt at that point," Charlie replied with his trademark smile. "I never knew back then you'd be trying to get into the Senior Open. That's a different story."

As we parted company that day, I thanked him for his support of us over the years.

"I loved every minute of it," he said. "I was a good player but nothing like most of you guys who could bomb it."

That, of course, was entirely untrue.

Charlie was as good as anyone in the state at one point and you'd never want to play him for a dollar at his home club.

"Keep those Calvert Hall boys straight," he said to me, hand extended. "Tell them it's about finding the fairway with your first shot. It gets easier if you're in the fairway."

One final lesson from a man who gave many.

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dale williams aims the
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DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps host indiana today


Maryland’s opponent in their last home game for this season will be the Indiana Hoosiers.

It’s been almost 3 months since these two teams kicked off the 2023-2024 Big Ten campaign. That game ended with the Hoosiers blowing out the Terps.

The final score, 65-53, was no indication of the butt kicking that the Terps received that night. They trailed by 21 points with 15 minutes left in the game. Indiana drifted home from there, scoring just 7 points in the game’s final 11:24.

In that game, Jahmir Young had 20 points but made just 1 of 7 threes. Donta Scott was 1-8 from the floor, and the team made just 2 of 16 three-point attempts. Maryland was also outrebounded 46-30. They were outhustled and outplayed.

The shooting numbers from that game foreshadowed the upcoming offensively frustrating season. After that game I wrote, “This team has issues…. It could be a really long season. Or should I say, a short one.” I think I was right.

Maryland's Jahmir Young has a chance to help the Terps split the season series with Indiana today in the Terps' final regular season home game of '23-24.

Indiana got their Big Ten season off to a really nice start, going 4-2. Since then, they’ve gone 3-8 and have posted just one victory in their last 5 games. The Hoosiers will face a Maryland team that has 2 wins in their last 8 games.

I’m pretty certain that neither school expected this game to have zero meaning in their attempts to get an at large bid to the NCAA tournament. The contest’s only relevancy is in the seeding for the Big Ten tournament.

One big exception to that may be for Indiana’s head coach, Mike Woodson. He’s clearly on the ‘hot seat” and a poor ending to the regular Big Ten season may cost him his job.

In game 1, the Terp front court was manhandled. The 7-foot Kel’El Ware was 8 for 12 in that game, adding in 14 rebounds.

Julian Reese countered with 14 and 8, but was pretty much neutralized. The other 2 Indiana starting front court players, Malik Reneau and Mackenzie Mgbako, combined with several Hoosier reserves to produce 33 points and 20 rebounds.

For Maryland, Scott had 2 points and no other Terrapin forward scored. It’s safe to say that Maryland got dominated in the paint that night.

It's my estimation that the Hoosiers could have racked up 75 points, or more, had they not called off the dogs early in the second half. They put up 40 in the first half, and as I said earlier, they coasted for the last 15 minutes of the game.

Points in the paint accounted for 40 of the 55 points that Indiana scored (not counting foul shots). Maryland will not allow that to happen again.

With the Hoosiers reluctance to shoot threes (they’ve attempted the least and made the least in the Big Ten), the Terps can afford to pack the defense inside.

Ware won’t be given the room to work that he had in the first game. If he gets 12 shot attempts again, it won’t be on post feeds. He’ll have to work the boards, or shoot threes to reach that number.

The other guy that won’t reach the offensive numbers that he reached in game 1 is Trey Galloway. The 6’5” guard was 6 for 10 last time out against the Terps, seemingly getting layup after layup as he outworked the entire Terp team. Look for Maryland’s DeShawn Harris-Smith to lock him up today.

Much like in the first game, Maryland still needs to be concerned with Reneau. He only had 11 points last game, but he’s a matchup nightmare for Maryland (too big for Scott), and if the Terps focus on Ware, Reneau could benefit.

Position by position, I have to give a small nod to Indiana. Ware is half a notch above Reese and I prefer Reneau to Scott. Mgbako is better on offense than Maryland’s Geronimo, but I prefer Geronimo’s defense.

Where the Terps have their biggest advantages are at both guard spots. Young and Harris-Smith are miles apart from the Hoosiers Galloway and Gabe Cupps.

I think this game gets personal for Harris-Smith because of Gallaway’s success against the Terp freshman earlier this season. His defense has come leaps and bounds since his initial Big Ten game. Harris-Smith comes to play today.

This could be Julian Reese’s last home game as a starting center. The addition of incoming 6’10” Derik Queen will move Reese to the 4 spot. This change will pit him against slightly smaller defenders, and he’ll no longer have to guard 7 footers with his 6’9” body.

By the way, from what I’ve seen, Queen is not a one and done guy. He’ll need a few years to develop an NBA body and NBA athleticism and lift. Juju will go really hard today too.

Senior day is not always an easy home team win for betters. In Maryland’s case though, they have won the last 3 out of the last 4 senior day contests. The books came out with a surprising line of Maryland -9. There’s a ton of turmoil surrounding the Hoosier program right now and I guess the books feel it takes 9 points to get a potential wager on them.

With the emotions of senior day, and a “Gold Out” at the XFINITY Center, the Terps might very well run over Indiana and cover that number. But I can tell you right now, there isn’t 9 points of difference between these two teams.

The Terps have had a disappointing season. One that no player, or coach, expected.

A win today salvages a tiny part of the season. Maryland will get that win in an exciting game, 70-68. Young and Scott go out with big games, offensively.

It’s a 2 pm start and can be seen on CBS.

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Saturday
March 2, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3480


march roars in


I don't know about you, but my first day of March, 2024 couldn't have started much better.

Around 10:00 pm last night, I was able to ship this text out to a few of my friends.

"Sorry, I got knee deep into watching The Green Mile and wasn't able to see how the professional hockey game in Washington D.C. ended tonight. Do you guys happen to know?"

I set the phone down with a snicker, starting surfing the web a bit to catch up on the day's news, and then waited for the replies to start flowing in.

Alex Ovechkin scored his 17th goal of the season last night as the Caps defeated the worst-franchise-in-the-history-of-sports, 5-2.

I'd post the commentary here but we do have children and impressionable young adults who occasionally find their way here.

Final score from Washington D.C. -- Washington Capitals 5 - Philadelphia Flyers 2

And that's after the Flyers were up 2-0 when the first period came to a merciful end.

I thought we were looking at one of those 4-1 or 6-2 Philadelphia wins where I have to put my phone on silent for most of the last few hours of the night.

Alas, our Capitals battled back to win, 5-2, and keep their still-flickering playoff dreams alive for another few games at the very least.

A loss last night might have led Caps management to be sellers this week in advance of the March 8 trade deadline. As it is now, they're probably still strongly considering a handful of moves designed to throw in the towel on '23-24 and begin preparing for '24-25 and beyond.

A win over the Flyers is good on any occasion. A win when you're trailing 2-0 early on? A win on a Friday night when a bunch of Flyers fans who have probably recently been fired from work were able to snag tickets and pour into the building? A win when you have a couple of friends who are ardent Flyers fans?

A win is a win. But last night's win was particularly tasty, particularly because the Flyers themselves need all the wins they can muster to make the Eastern Conference playoffs.

March and the Capitals roared in like lions last night.

And the thought of a thousand or so folks making their way up I-95 last night immersed in the doom and gloom of a blown 2-0 lead was the best way to say goodbye to February.


And speaking of last night, I was able to make my way over to Goucher College for the first round of the Baltimore Catholic League basketball tournament.

Calvert Hall played in the third game (a loss to Mount Saint Joseph) and that was the first game I saw because our CHC golf practice didn't end until 6:15 pm.

But it's worth reporting here that I've seen a lot of high school basketball tournaments in my day and the BCL event continues, year after year, to be one of the best run high school tournaments anywhere.

Goucher is an awesome venue, first of all. The stands were packed throughout last night's first round, which saw Mount Carmel run Loyola out of the gym, St. Frances get past John Carroll and Archbishop Spalding nip Goretti, 82-79, in a BCL "instant classic".

Spalding and St. Joe play tonight's semifinal opener at 6 pm, followed by the highly anticipated nightcap between Mount Carmel and St. Frances.

Parking is free. They have reasonable food and drink prices.

You can buy tickets on line at www.bclbasketball.com

Trust me, you're going to see first class high school basketball and see how a top shelf high school basketball tournament is run at the same time.


James asks -- "Hi Drew, any thoughts on two things concerning Anthony Kim. The attire he wore in the first round of the tournament and the fact the LIV Tour gave him a free spot in their tournaments for the rest of the year without making him qualify. What are your opinions?"

Anthony Kim's practice round at this week's LIV event included blue gym shorts with a drawstring and a white tee shirt.

DF says -- "Well, it's their tour, so they can invite anyone they want to play and as long as the players themselves don't have a reason to object, I don't see an issue with it. It's not like he's taking someone else's spot.

The fact that he doesn't really have a team to compete on just further proves the "publicity stunt" point, but I can't imagine there's anyone out there willing to argue whether Anthony Kim is or isn't a publicity stunt. Of course he is.

His golf was lousy by professional standards: 76-76, 25 shots out of the lead through 2 rounds. That's about what Tony Romo (an outstanding amateur player) would probably shoot, honestly.

But Kim hasn't played tournament golf in 12 years. 76-76 (+12) is about what I figured he'd shoot. Maybe even higher, frankly. I'd consider this a "reasonable" start for him, despite finishing in last place once the scores are finalized tomorrow.

The first point, about the attire, is also not something anyone would argue over. It's an embarrassment.

When I saw the clips on social media this week of Kim practicing for the LIV event and playing in the pro am wearing a white tee shirt and blue gym shorts, I thought that was embarrassing...but I also assumed it was just a practice round thing. Maybe his golf clothes were in luggage that got lost was, honestly, the first thing I thought of.

I figured he was wearing a tee shirt and gym shorts just to show how the "AK brand" hasn't changed at all. 12 years later, and I'm still doing my thing even if it doesn't fit the golf narrative. That kind of deal.

When I saw he actually played the first round of the golf tournament in an untucked golf shirt and gym shorts, I couldn't believe it.

Now, the good news is this: There were almost no fans on the property to see the golf being played live and LIV didn't air the golf live on Friday because they have no one willing to show the golf live. You had to go to their LIV app to tune in and see Kim parade around the course like he's going for a jog in the neighborhood.

I'm all for the more "relaxed" nature of golf attire these days. I get it, it's 2024. While we have a rule at Calvert Hall about *still* wearing your hat forward at all times and keeping your shirt tucked in at all times, I understand things are changing. Our players can wear hoodies, joggers, etc.

I actually own and wear several golf hoodies. They're great for fall, winter and spring golf.

But wearing a tee shirt and gym shorts on a golf course? At a professional event? You might as well just stick a clown's nose and clown shoes on the guy."


Dennis (and a lot of others) asks -- "What did you make of the Ravens report card that was issued by the NFLPA this week? It wasn't terrible by any means but there were a lot of B grades and C grades in there. Thoughts?"

DF says -- "Here's what the NFLPA report says as their opening statement: 'The Baltimore Ravens come in ranked 17th overall in our team guide. The main areas of concern, stemming from player respondents' opinions, are a desire to improve the quality of the food, weight room equipment, recovery resources and strength staff.'

I guess that's right. I'm not in their locker room. I trust the guys who gave out those grades.

I understand why the NFLPA does the survey. They're not only trying to hold teams accountable, but they're also showing potential free agents where a reasonable destination might be for them in the future.

Someone, for example, with no children wouldn't care that the Chargers organization is seemingly "awful" when it comes to providing daycare for player's children. But if you're a 30-year old veteran with two kids, daycare might really matter.

I guess I wonder why the report is made public?

Sure, it could always be leaked anyway, but you can find the report and the grades on-line in a public forum. Why is it done that way? I don't know that I get that one. Shouldn't that stuff be kept in house and shared only between the NFLPA and NFL teams? Or is this the ultimate "gotcha!" moment?

Either way, though, I don't care.

Just win playoff games.

I don't care if the pasta sauce is too thin or the breakfast cereal choices don't include Apple Jacks or Cap'n Crunch. I don't care if the babysitting needs are "meh" or there isn't adequate parking at the stadium for family members.

Just beat the Chiefs, Bengals or Bills next January in the AFC Championship Game. That's all that matters, really."


J.C. asks -- "Quick golf question for your mailbag forum that you do on the website. I'm a 10 handicap golfer hoping to get down to a 5 this summer. What stock do you put in the golf ball as a means of lowering your handicap? I use the Pro V1x right now. Is that the right ball for me? Thanks Drew!"

DF says -- "I have no way of knowing what ball is right for you, but I can assure you that going from a 10 to a 5 will have virtually no connection at all to what ball you use.

More practice and a few lessons with a good PGA golf professional will get you from a 10 to a 5. A golf ball change will not.

You're already using one of the best golf ball brands there is. But I don't know if that ball is a good match for your clubhead speed because I've never seen you strike the ball.

But even if your swing speed isn't high enough to take full advantage of what the Pro V1x offers you, it's not going to make any kind of massive difference in your scores at the level of golf (10 handicap) you play.

Now, if you're a 10 handicap player and you're playing with a Top Flite, MaxFli or hard cover ball from Titleist, Callaway, etc., then, yes, a switch to a premium ball like a Pro V1x or one of the great Bridgestone balls might help knock a shot or three off your round because of the benefits they give you around the greens.

But if you're already using a Pro V1x, there's nowhere else for you to go, I don't think.

Want to go from a 10 to a 5? Dig it out of the dirt.

By the way, Ben Hogan said that. I love that line but it's not an original."

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Friday
March 1, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3479


tv and crowds tell us what, exactly?


A lot is being made this week of TV ratings and attendance figures.

What do they mean, really?

The world of golf had something called "The Match" on Monday night, where four professionals played for free money under the lights at a pretty cool golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Two of those players you've heard of before: Rory McIlroy and Max Homa.

The other two, you probably wouldn't know if you walked in the same aisle with them at the local grocery store; Rose Zhang and Lexi Thompson.

Rory McIlroy couldn't even save "The Match" from disastrous TV numbers this past Monday night.

Nothing against those two ladies. As female golfers go, they're outstanding.

It's just that no one really knows who they are, at least not in comparison to Rory, Homa, and guys like Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and, well, about 15 other guys I don't need to list here.

A total of 511,000 people supposedly watched The Match on Monday night. That it aired on the Warner Brothers Discovery family of networks (TNT, TruTV, HLN) is potentially one reason why their viewership numbers were so lousy. But the reality is you could have aired the event on CBS on Monday night at 7 pm and not many more people are watching.

I'm a golf enthusiast, to the max, and I had zero interest in watching the event on Monday night. I was home. I could have watched it. I never even considered turning it on.

Rory, Jordan, Justin and Homa? Yeah, maybe. I can say I probably would have tuned in, if for no other reason than to see the novelty of "night golf".

But Rory, Homa and the aforementiond Zhang and Thompson? To borrow a line from the great Austin Powers: "That's not my bag, baby."

If I wanted to watch women's golf I'd watch -- women's golf.

Alas, the shockingly low number of 511,000 viewers has people up in arms.

Truthfully? I can't believe 511,000 watched it.

It just wasn't that interesting to golfers.

Oh, and here's a tip from the top for the folks at the PGA Tour who want more people to watch golf.

Get the networks on board with this concept: Stop showing so many friggin' commercials.

Yes, I understand how television works. Ads pay the bills.

Raise the rates, then. Figure out a better way of doing it. Showing 6 or 8 minutes of golf and then breaking away for 2 or 3 minutes of commercials is a lousy model.


LIV Golf continues to have TV ratings that are beyond humbling given the amount of money they've forked over on the talent alone.

Two weeks ago, 432,000 people apparently watched their final round on something called the CW Network.

Yes, you read that right. More people watched The Match this past Monday than the final round of the LIV event on February 24.

Neither number was good, of course. 511,000 or 432,000 --- what's the difference, really?

Bryson DeChambeau's two year run with LIV Golf hasn't resulted in blossoming TV numbers for the fledgling golf circuit.

But what's it say about their product when they can't get 500,000 to tune in?

I don't know that answer, by the way.

I mean, LIV has a bunch of great players on their roster. How many more great and/or popular players do they need in order to be considered "big time" by the golfing public? Would adding Rory, Spieth, Fowler and Morikawa to their stable of players add more viewers?

Jon Rahm didn't really add more.

Why aren't more people tuning in?

Part of the answer to that question is the same answer as the one provided for The Match question.

No one knows that LIV Golf is even on TV because no one knows anything about the CW Network.

Would a lot more people tune in if, say, LIV Golf's final round was on The Golf Channel? I think so. I don't know if that means 700,000 would watch or 1.5 million would watch. But they'd generate more than a paltry 432,000 viewers if LIV's final round was on The Golf Channel.

TV is the bell ringer for all sports. We know that. If it's not on TV, you're not making any money on it. But even when you're on TV, you have to be "on" TV. TNT and The CW Network aren't "real" TV, at least not when it comes to airing golf tournaments.

I don't think The Match has much of a lifespan remaining. At least not with their split gender format. If you want to put together a one night event that includes four of the top men's players, that could lead to something.

But Rose Zhang and Lexi Thompson aren't the answer. No offense. They're just not the answer.

LIV Golf has the players. They just don't have the network. Why, though, don't they have the network? Players with big name reputations (Rahm, Koepka, Reed, Garcia, DeChambeau, etc.) are there. Why aren't TV networks beating down LIV's door to air their events?


Maryland has $52 million rolling in every year via the Big Ten Network so drawing 7,500 people to conference games might not be at the top of their worry list.

But it should be.

Home attendance at sporting events is an indicator of how many people in your community care about your team/franchise.

You can wiggle out of that if you're looking to be a contrarian, which I don't think the Maryland athletic department is looking to be.

You can try to posture it differently.

But smart people know the truth.

If the Ravens suddenly started drawing 35,000 per home game, that would be a strong indicator that something is wrong. Heck, when the Ravens draw 60,000 in a 70,000 stadium that's an indication that something's wrong.

When the Orioles were knee deep in their Decade of Despair between 2000-2010 and they were drawing crowds of 4,000 or so to weeknight home games throughout the summer, we all knew something was wrong.

And that something is that fewer people, in those days, cared about the Orioles.

Sure, sometimes it has to do with winning. Team wins...people go. Team loses...people don't go.

College sports tend to tilt more in the direction of "I'm going no matter what" because of community/alumni pride.

Professional teams mostly get their most rabid level of support when the team is winning.

Maryland basketball, right now, has an attendance problem.

People aren't interested in going to the games.

This isn't a shocking revelation to anyone who has followed along for the last few years. It's been a slow developing story, but it's been developing nonetheless.

And this is not about Kevin Willard.

Yes, crowds in the Mark Turgeon era were better, that much is true. But even in the Turgeon tenure we saw some shockingly low crowds from time to time.

It's probably fair to point out that the proliferation of things like The Big Ten Network and other conference-related TV networks have nibbled at attendance figures all over the country.

But when it comes to Maryland specifically, which is all I really care about when I write things like this, the basketball program has a problem on its hands.

They announced 12,340 on Wednesday night for the loss to Northwestern.

Yeah, sure. We believe you.

And that's not a jab at Maryland's attempt to create an attendance number out of thin air. Sports teams have been lying about their attendance figures forever.

I'm just pointing out what we all know: There weren't 12,340 people in the building on Wednesday night. Not unless you were counting coffee cups, hot dog wrappers and popcorn boxes and adding them into the attendance figure.

So, yes, there's an attendance problem in College Park. We all know that.

But why?

Is it as simple as the team needs to be a Top 20 team and fighting for the Big Ten conference title before people will sink their teeth into Maryland basketball again?

Is it that simple?

If so, that's a good thing. At least you know the solution if you're the Terps.

But what if that's not the solution?

Why has the community lost so much interest in Maryland basketball?


As you'll see below, I'm back for my monthly visit with Eric Rittmeyer of LifeMed Institute, as we talk about all things men's and women's health.

For those of you with significant women in your life (mother, wife, sister, daughter, etc.), it might be a good idea to watch the 20-minute video below with them. Or at the very least, encourage them to watch it.

Eric is not only incredibly smart about men's health, he's an industry leader in women's health issues. He has a new book out dealing with precisely that -- women's health issues -- and he talks about it in the video below.

For the men out there, though, please listen to some of the things Eric and I cover in our discussion.

I started working with LifeMed last August.

I'm feeling great.

I've not only lost weight, I've done some more important things, like experiencing new levels of energy, sleeping better and, in general, just "feeling better" throughout the day.

It's not a sprint. It's a journey. That's the one thing you'll learn quickly at LifeMed. You make certain changes and then, over time, you're able to see them develop into something positive.

Oh, and it's not hard to do.

You need LifeMed's guidance and a little bit of dedication and you're on your way.

Enjoy the video below.




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faith in sports


Ernie Johnson is one of the best people in the world of sports today.

That's not a new revelation. At least not to me.

I've been a fan of his for a long, long time.

You should be a fan of his, too. He's a great man.

I don't use that term "great man" often. Ernie Johnson is a great man.

I don't want to spoil the video below so I won't say much about it. If you have a son or daughter, you're going to love it.

It's part family, part faith and part humanity...all rolled into 8 minutes.

Grab a couple of tissues, too.

I warned you.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD's "Faith in Sports" here every Friday.



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Thursday
February 29, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3478


we can leap to conclusions


As always, I'll let Dale Williams handle the unpacking of last night's wretched home loss to Northwestern. He was there, saw it all unfold, and will take you through how it happened in his piece below.

I saw about 15 minutes of the game, total. I think Maryland made two shots while I was tuned in. It almost reminded me of the old days of the Harlem Globetrotters and the Washington Generals. At one point, it looked like the Terps were missing shots on purpose. I know they weren't...but it definitely looked that way.

Throughout the game and then in the aftermath, the fan base -- as they do in every sport -- took to social media to voice their displeasure with anything and everything connected to Maryland basketball.

Last night was the first occasion all season that I thought things "got ugly". It was a little dicey after the home loss to Rutgers seven weeks ago and a little ugly after the loss at Ohio State earlier this month, but last night, the pitchforks came out.

People are not happy.

Kevin Willard and the Terps dropped a home decision to Northwestern last night that left the fan base overly agitated.

Dale can tell you how last night happened. As anyone knows who has been a regular here at #DMD for the last seven years, no one in town can break down a basketball game like he can.

But I can tell you how this season has happened. And, sadly, how next season will also happen if things don't change within the Maryland athletic department.

It's not brain surgery: Maryland needs better basketball players. Period.

Kevin Willard is a good coach. Is he John Wooden, Bobby Knight, Coach K, etc.? Probably not, no. But no one is expecting him to be.

The Terps need better basketball players. And therein lies the rub. Because the way, moving forward, that major schools are going to get them is to pay for them.

Right now, it's the "NIL" money players (and parents) are seeking from outside sources, connected to the schools, to help fund their college athletic experience.

But as we've seen recently with several court rulings, in a year or two "NIL" won't even be a factor. Schools will just be paying "student-athletes" a salary for their athletic prowess.

It's a brave new world.

If you don't have money for basketball players, you're not getting -- wait for it -- basketball players.

It's just like when D'Annunzio wanted a Coke in the caddy shack and Danny Noonan told him the price went up to 50 cents.

D'Annunzio -- "I ain't paying 50 cents for no Coke."

Noonan, as he slides his money back to him -- "Well, then you ain't gettin' no Coke."

If you want basketball players in 2024 and 2025 and 2026, you will have to pay for them.

If you don't pay for them, they'll play somewhere that will.

Gone are the days of "recruiting", where the coach sat down with the parents and carefully laid out of plan of success for their son or daughter and explained how (the University of Maryland) would take great care of them for the next four years, get them a top-flight education, and prepare them for the real world.

Those days are gone.

Now, you either pay up or you don't get the player.

I'm not here to pontificate on whether that's good or bad, right or wrong, because I've made my case for years about how this money-grab-thing is wrecking college sports.

College sports at the highest level is wrecked.

You can either choose to play along and join the wreckage or back out of it and be on the outside looking in.

"We had a player tell us a school in the A-10 offered him $65,000 a year to play for them," a local coach told me on Tuesday.

"I have two (assistant) coaches in my program who barely make $65,000."

Maryland has two choices. Pay players a lot of money and (maybe) get better or don't pay them and watch those players go to Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan State, Purdue, Michigan and so on.

Based on what we're seeing from the basketball program, I'd say this is now entering the critical stage.

Yes, they're getting Derik Queen next season. Supposedly.

"These days, anything can happen," the local coach told me this week. "These players are always on the hunt. If their old high school teammate is getting $10,000 more than they are, the player is knocking on your door telling you the price just went up."

But, yes, Maryland has apparently landed highly-prized prospect Derik Queen, who will no doubt help the Terps on the court. He came at a steep price, I'm sure, but college basketball is now just like the lottery -- you can't be in the competition unless you fork over money.

The quest to keep Queen around for more than a year and to be able to afford him will be interesting, indeed.

But what will be more interesting is to simply see if the Terps can keep up with the times, in all sports. Football and basketball are the school's bread and butter, of course, but there's also soccer, lacrosse, women's basketball and baseball that are revenue generating sports -- in varying degrees -- in College Park.

For now, though, basketball is in the spotlight as March Madness approaches.

And we now know that the Terps will miss the big dance unless they improbably run the table in the Big Ten tournament.

So while the rest of the country watches basketball for three weeks next month, Maryland hoops fans will be thinking about Derik Queen and the '24-25 campaign.

But what the University needs to ponder even more seriously is the question hundreds of schools are also pondering: How are we going to pay for all of this fun we're having?


One of the most interesting elements of the arrival of LIV Golf back in 2022 was the wild amounts of money players would now receive "just for showing up".

They fit, mostly, into one of three categories, as a player.

A. Aging veterans, in their 40's, who had made wonderful careers for themselves, but were now in a position where -- pun intended -- their games were "on the back nine" of their career calendar. They were still competitive, but only on certain courses that favored them. Getting $50 million of "free money" seemed awfully appealing to people like Ian Poulter and Graeme McDowell, in other words.

B. Solid professional golfers who were making a very nice living on the PGA Tour but, given their skill set, were pretty much just going to be "check makers" in their pro golf career. They might win a tournament on the TOUR once every three years or so, but for the most part, they knew they were likely to make $100,000 checks for T16 finishes far more often than $1.4 million for winning. Talor Gooch, Charles Howell III, Carlos Ortiz and Pat Perez, in other words. Those four went from worrying about finishing T16 to cashing checks of $5 million by jumping to LIV.

C. Elite players who commanded huge up front payments to sell their soul and jump to LIV. Those guys, of course, made business decisions. No matter how well Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau or Dustin Johnson played on the PGA Tour in 2023, 2024 and 2025, they were never going to make $100 million or $150 million playing golf in that three year period. On LIV, they got that kind of money in their hand just for jumping ship and now, by virtue of winning events, they've made an additional $25 million, $35 million, etc.

Jon Rahm is the latest big name defector to jump to LIV, of course. While he was far from the #1 needle mover on the PGA Tour, he was, the rankings say, the #1 player in the world throughout periods of 2022 and 2023 before making the move to LIV last December.

Jon Rahm's recent interview with ESPN shed some new light on his departure to the LIV tour.

Earlier this week, albeit uncomfortably, Rahm sat down with ESPN for his first "state side" long form interview about making the move to LIV.

Rahm basically confirmed what we all knew from jump street: He left for the money.

Back in December, the Spaniard tried to paint the same picture many others painted, knowing that their move was going to create scrutiny based on the heinous human rights violations of the Saudi government in recent years. Rahm tried to sell us all that he was leaving the TOUR and joining LIV to "grow the game".

Harold Varner III (see "B" above) tried to sell us on that concept for a minute when he jumped ship, then later told the truth: "I'm not going to continue to talk about growing the game because that's really not why I left. I left because the deal was too good to pass up."

Fair enough.

More than fair, actually.

It doesn't make it "right", particularly for an American, but honesty is the best policy.

Rahm's recent declaration that he made the move for money is, if nothing else, honest.

I look at foreign players differently than I look at U.S. born players when I make up my "Lost My Respect" list.

Sure, Rahm went to school in the U.S. and has basically made the U.S. his home for the last six years or so, but he's Spanish born and will always be considered a Spaniard.

Patrick Reed, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka should forever be offended by the role the Saudi government played in the attacks on our country in 2001.

Jon Rahm? I can see where it might not matter to him all that much, human rights violations aside.

So Rahm took the $500 million, or whatever the number really turned out to be once the ink dried on the deal.

We can all believe what we want about money and how much is enough, too much, etc. I'm not sure we'd ever settle on something that's agreeable to all of us.

To me, $5 million is a lot of money.

To Rahm, it's the equivalent of a week at Disney World in Orlando.

I watched the interview several times to get the full "take" on what motivated Rahm to move and why, at the beginning, he felt compelled to fib about his reasons for the move.

And here's the conclusion I was able to leap to: He fibbed because, like the others who fibbed, they know in their heart of hearts that taking money from those people is wrong. From a humanity standpoint, they know it's wrong.

So they created other exterior reasons for jumping ship. And "growing the game" was the easiest one, best one and, frankly, probably the one that would draw the least resistance.

Who, after all, can argue about "growing the game" so more 8 year old Spanish boys can start dreaming of being the next Jon Rahm?

But Rahm was already "growing the game" on the PGA Tour. That's actually how those 8 year old Spanish boys learned about him in the first place.

So as I watched him uncomfortably shift throughout the interview, it resonated even more and more with me that guys like Rahm couldn't tell the truth because they were embarrassed by the truth.

They left because of the money. The atrocities of the Saudi government didn't measure up to the money.

Greg Norman was once asked about the juxtaposition he was in and he said: "You know, people make mistakes."

That was Norman's way of justifying his salary with the government that had executed a Washington Post journalist.

"People make mistakes."

At least, finally, Jon Rahm admitted what we all knew from jump street.

He left for the money and nothing else. And the history of the Saudi government didn't impact him enough to say "no thanks".

I like that Jon Rahm finally told the truth. I'm not sure I'll be rooting for him in 2024, but I think his golf might improve now that he's finally confessed to all of us what we already knew.

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DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps get dumped by northwestern


The box score from last night’s 68-61 Terp loss to Northwestern tells a story of poor shooting by Maryland (2-22) from three-point line, and a parade of free throws by Northwestern (28 for the game vs 17 for Maryland).

Nick Martinelli’s 27-point night also jumps off the sheet. But what the stat sheet can’t show is something I brought up at the very onset of this season. It’s poise.

Maryland is so thin on talent that they can’t afford to lose a piece like Julian Reese. Reese lost his cool last night and, as a result, he picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench.

He only played 10 minutes in the first half because of his two early fouls. One of which was a stupid offensive foul when Reese banged his defender with his shoulder. It was an obvious call. He lacked poise and it hurt him and the team.

The Wildcats held the lead for most of the game, forcing the Terps to play catch-up most of the night. Maryland was able to trim their deficit to just 2 points with 9:44 left in the game, but a quick 7-0 Wildcat run gave them some breathing room.

Jahmir Young had 24 points last night to lead the Terps, but his poor 3-point shooting was a contributing factor in the 68-61 loss.

Reese means so much to this team, but it’s hard to tell if he realizes that. To pick up stupid fouls, thus limiting your court time, is a killer for Terrapin win chances. It shows a great lack of poise. This young man has a lot of growing up to do.

There was plenty of blame to go around last night, but Reese’s errors were mental and unacceptable. Many of the other Terps just aren’t capable right now.

Nick Martinelli sliced and diced his way to a 27-point game. He frequently burned Donta Scott, as Scott looked lost on many defensive possessions and seemed to take others off. He was as awful on defense as he was on offense. The Terrapin senior was 2 for 9 from the field and went 0 for 4 from the three-point line.

Jahmir Young had 24 for Maryland. The foul line provided 11 of those points, but the Terp point guard made just 1 of his 6 threes.

The game started slowly for both teams.

In the first 5 minutes of play, only 9 combined points had been scored and the Terps led 5-4. The teams were like boxers feeling each other out.

Northwestern was making a concerted effort to keep Reese from working inside. Maryland countered by launching threes, making only 1 of their first 6 attempts.

Of their first 9 shots from the floor, 6 were from three-point land. That usually doesn’t go well for the Terps.

The second TV timeout came at 11:42 and the Terps had gone almost 6 minutes without a field goal. The game was tied at 8 and Maryland was 2 for 10 shooting threes.

Back-to-back offensive fouls by Maryland ensured that their field goal-less streak reached over 8 minutes. Only a 5-0 advantage in foul shots made kept the game tied at 10.

The Terp field goal skid ended when Deshawn Harris-Smith worked his way free for a lay-up on the left side. Before that bucket happened, Reese picked up his second foul and retired to the bench.

At 7:51, the stat sheet would show the Terps were still far too reliant on the three-point shot. They had tried 14 field goal attempts, and 9 were threes. They made just 1 of those triples and found themselves trailing by 1, 13-12.

Early on, Maryland had 6 offensive rebounds, but converted them into just 4 second chance points.

With 5:22 left in the half, and the lifeless Terps needing a spark, Willard picked up a “T” after a charging foul was called on Scott. I thought the call was valid.

Northwestern was on a 7-0 scoring run, without making a shot from the floor. The Wildcats now had 10 foul shots made while the Terps were stuck at 5.

A Boo Buie three was the first field goal for his team in over 6 minutes. It gave Northwestern a 23-16 lead at the final media timeout of the first half.

Maryland was 4-19 shooting the ball at this point in the game.

Harris-Smith had 3 made shots and Young had the other. Scott was 0-6 at this point and Young was 1-4. Reese had played only 10 minutes and was 0-2. Things were so bad for Maryland that Nick Martinelli, alone, would have kept Northwestern in the game with his 12 points.

After the timeout, the Terrapins ran off 6 points in a row. Four of the points were from Young foul shots and the remaining 2 were from a Caleb Swanton-Rodgers put back dunk.

The half ended with Northwestern running off 4 unanswered points, each following a Terrapin missed three. The score heading into the locker room was 29-24, Northwestern.

The Wildcat defensive strategy was simple and effective. Keep Young from penetrating, double Reese, and take your chances with the Terp three-point shooters.

Good looks were abundant, but so were the misses. Out of 14 three-balls, Maryland made just 1. Scott, Kaiser, and Young were all 0 for 3.

Shooting woes were front and center, but of equal concern were the 2 fouls collected by Reese, Scott, and Geronimo.

Reese played just 10 minutes in the first half while Geronimo logged only 8. Scott had slightly more court time with 13 minutes, but that meant a whole lot a PT for the Terps bench.

Swanton-Rogers gave Maryland some energetic and effective first half minutes, but he also was whistled for 3 fouls. UMD was shooting 19% from the field, which looked good when compared to their 7% three-point shooting.

This team is a poor shooting group, but these first half numbers for Maryland were depressing even for them.

The second half started with Scott on Buie…something I wrote that should never happen.

Buie blew by him for an uncontested layup. The Terps, again, trailed by 7. Offensively, Maryland seemed to now be committed to attacking the basket.

Of their 5 field goal attempts prior to the first TV timeout in half 2, only 1 was a three-pointer. They had made 3 of those shots, but some shoddy defensive work only allowed them to trim their deficit to 4, 35-31.

The Terrapin defensive lapses continued, forcing Willard to call a timeout when the Wildcat lead grew to 8, 41-33. Martinelli now had 18 points and was wearing out Scott at every opportunity.

Coming out of the TO, Young busted a three to breathe some life into a team that seemed a bit listless. Maryland then forced Northwestern into a shot clock violation, but the Terp momentum was short lived courtesy of one of the dumbest plays I’ve seen on the Xfinity Center court in quite a while.

While trying to fight his way through a double team – and holding the ball – a frustrated Reese pushed his defender near his head. It was a very immature act by the junior, and it gave him both his fourth foul along with a seat on the bench.

At that point, if I’m Willard, I’d have had to consider letting Reese watch the rest of this game. That childish play really hurt his team.

Even with Reese on the bench, the Terps chipped away at the lead with 6 consecutive points, capped off by 2 Young foul shots as the Terps were already in the bonus. Two missed threes by The Terps allowed Northwestern to run off 7 straight points and gain their largest lead at 9, 51-42.

It was 51-44 when the under 8-minute timeout rolled around. Maryland’s ice-cold shooting from the outside was continuing. They were 1-6 in the second half, making them 2-20 for the game. 7:31 remained in the contest.

Reese was on the line for Maryland, but he could only convert the first half of his one and one. Then in rapid fire succession, Young threw the ball way, Scott got abused by Martinelli, and Nicholson dunked on half the team. Maryland was down by 10, 55-45.

With 4:44 left, Scott failed to close out on Buie after a switch, and Buie knocked down the dagger three. After another Terp miss, 2 foul shots by Smith iced the game. The score was 60-49 with 4:21 left to end this nightmare.

Maryland did put forth some late effort. Two Terp runouts, one resulting in a Young dish to Harris-Smith and the other getting Young his own layup, reduced the gap to 5, 60-55. After a Buie turnover, Maryland had the ball and was thinking “epic comeback”.

Reese’s layup on a nice spin move made the game a single possession contest.

The lead was back to 5 after Harris-Smith fouled Brooks Barnhizer and he made a pair. The comeback was not to be. Bad defense and bad foul shooting down the stretch assured Maryland of the loss. The final was 68-61.

Northwestern was missing two starters last tonight. Both Ty Berry and Ryan Langborg were nursing injuries and unable to go. With Northwestern missing their 2 long range sharp shooters, their 3-point percentage suffered. They made just 2 of 13, But were 17 of 28 (60%) from inside the arc. Martinelli was 9 of 12 around the basket. It wasn’t the Terps best defensive effort.

The loss dropped the Terps to 7-11 in the Big Ten, eliminating all fantasies of a run towards a tournament bid. Northwestern ran their record to 11-7, securing third place in the conference.

Maryland’s next game will be their final home contest of the season, this Sunday, vs. Indiana. It’s a 2 p.m. start to be viewed on BTN.

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February 28, 2024
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questions, answers and clarity


Before we turn things over to Dale Williams for his pre-game analysis of what to expect tonight in College Park between Maryland and Northwestern, let's revisit something about "court storming" from Tuesday's edition of #DMD.

The word "banning" seems to scare a lot of people these days.

We know why, of course. We've been knee deep in "cancel culture" for three or four years now. You know what that means. As soon as something draws the ire of a certain/specific group of society, their solution to finding a quick remedy (also known as "getting their way") is to simply "cancel" whatever it is that's bugging them.

Folks get nervous at the word "banning" because it's essentially saying the same thing as "cancel".

In Lubbock, Texas last night, angry fans threw bottles and objects on the floor during the Texas win over Texas Tech.

Throwing things on the court and in the direction of players and, potentially other spectators, isn't allowed. It's been "banned", in other words. Should we accept it, though, if the home crowd is throwing things on the court in an effort to celebrate a win instead of angrily reacting to a loss?

Or should throwing things at the players and coaches simply not be permitted, whether your team is winning or losing?

As it relates to court storming, "banning" is the right word. But it's also an impossible ask, too, because kids are kids and they don't always pay attention to the rules. In fact, adults are adults and they don't always pay attention to the rules, too.

Court storming (or field storming) shouldn't be allowed. Is that a change in protocol? Sure, maybe, in the same way that we once allowed slavery in this great country of ours and then figured out maybe slavery wasn't such a cool idea after all. So we changed the protocol. We -- wait for it -- "canceled" slavery.

You can call it banning it or canceling it or "ending it" or whatever you want. Or you can run away from those terms for whatever reason and come up with your own. Whatever the description, we should be above storming the court now, as a society.

Why? Because we can't do it in a civil, organized manner. We can't have good things, as the saying goes.

But we all know just because you "ban" court storming, that doesn't mean you're going to end it. PED's are "banned" in Major League Baseball and the National Football League, yet guys use them all the time. And when they get caught, they get penalized.

The answer regarding court storming is simple. Come up with an over-the-top, outrageous penalty for the home crowd when they insist on acting like morons and running onto the court like they're going out for 4th grade recess.

"Ban" it? Sure. But "ban" is just the word for "This is against the rules and, when you do it anyway, your school or team is going to be punished."

There will still be students who storm the court or field. We all know it's going to happen. And when it does, hand out the proper punishment so people learn their lesson.

Or, you can just wait until someone's star player gets seriously injured by a doofus running around the court or field like Forrest Gump and then you can "ban" it.

Pick your poison and carry on.


This week's PGA Tour stop heads to Florida and PGA National for what we all will always call "The Honda Classic", even though there's a new sponsor (Cognizant) headlining the event now.

We're coming off of a decent week at the Mexico Open where we had several guys finish in the top 20.

Who do we like this week? We're glad you asked.

I'm staying on the Keith Mitchell train for at least another week. Mitchell had a nice showing at the Mexico Open and is one of those players who tends to get hot and stay that way for a while. Mitchell is at +4000 to win.

#DMD sees Australian Min Woo Lee as a "must play" option for this week's Cognizant Classic in Palm Beach, Florida.

Min Woo Lee comes in at +3000, which immediately puts him on our "must wager" list. I'm anxious to see how he plays over the next month, as he could be one of my Masters favorites in early April.

Shane Lowry had a chance to win at PGA National a few years ago and generally seems to play well during the Florida swing. He's at an inviting +3300 for this event.

We've been waiting for a while to get an event that fits with Sepp Straka and this week is the one. A former winner at PGA National, we're thinking he finds his form this week. And at +4500, he's a great investment.

Denny McCarthy is going to get in the winner's circle in 2024. We made that wager back in late December at +3800. This could be the week, as the Silver Spring MD native is basically playing a "home game", as he lives just minutes from PGA National. And at +5500, he features a great return on all of our betting options (win, top 10, top 20).

And last but not least is a guy we're going to be playing fairly regularly this spring, Thomas Detry. He didn't play well at the Mexico Open, but we're keen on his play coming East and anxious to see how he fares over the next month or so. At +7500, he's our longest shot of the week.


R.C. asks -- "Are you of the mindset that the Ravens should sign a veteran running back (or two) or forget about the obvious candidates (Jacobs, Barkley, Henry) and draft a running back very early (within first 3 rounds)?"

DF says -- "I'm saying this without salary cap concerns. The Ravens might very well wind up not having enough money to splurge on a free agent like Jacobs or Barkley. But I'd probably take one of those two if the numbers work. Henry will be available for a minimal contract. If he comes along at the right price, he's not a bad option. But all things being equal, I'd much prefer to have Jacobs or Barkley in 2024.

Failing that, let's go get a good one in the draft. The Ravens will probably need two running backs, in fact. Both can be had in the draft.

I realize we're a run oriented offense (keep your Todd Monken jabs to yourself), so it's important to have some quality ball carriers in the fold, particularly given the unknown involving Keaton Mitchell and his return from injury.

My final answer: If you can't sign Barkley or Jacobs, go draft a running back in the first three rounds. Just make sure he's a good one."


Eddie asks -- "You'll love this question for your mailbag segment. You get the chance to spend a weekend playing Augusta National but in exchange, the Capitals, Orioles and Ravens all miss the playoffs this season. Are you doing the deal?"

DF says -- "Holy cow. I mean, they might all three miss the playoffs anyway. I doubt it happens, but it could. So I'm exchanging a sure thing at Augusta National for something might happen anyway? Very enticing.

But the answer is "no". I'd love to play Augusta, sure, but I've been there 11 times and I've seen every inch of the golf course several times over. Playing it would be awesome. But I don't have to play it to feel complete about my golf journey.

Now...if you said, "Spend a weekend at St. Andrews", I might have to really think about that one. I've never been to Scotland and I've never seen the golf course, obviously. I'd have to do some deep thinking about that deal if came across my desk.

But I think the answer would be "no", even if it was St. Andrews. I like all three of those teams too much to do that to them."


Mackie asks -- "Help settle a friendly golf bet among my regular foursome. Who are the best five pro golfers since 2000?"

One of the five best golfers of the last 24 years? #DMD says "yes" to Dustin Johnson.

DF says -- Well, the first two are very obvious. Over the last 24 years, Tiger is #1 and Phil is #2. That's undeniable.

The next three are tricky. I'm just rattling off names to get them out in front of me and then I'll pick 3. Vijay, Rory, Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Spieth, Furyk.

Singh probably gets the least consideration because of recency bias, but from 2000-2010, he was a total rock star.

It's hard to take Singh over Rory. McIlroy, despite his 10-year stretch without a major, still has one more major title (4 to 3) than Vijay.

I think Dustin Johnson has always been supremely underrated.

The same goes for Brooks Koepka.

With all due respect to Spieth and Furyk -- and with a nod to Vijay for how great he was at the zenith of his career -- I think my five best from 2000-2024 would be Tiger, Phil, Rory, Brooks and D.J."


Davey asks -- "What are your thoughts on what Talor Gooch said today (Tuesday) about putting an asterisk on the Grand Slam if Rory wins the Masters because all the best players aren't invited to play?"

DF says -- "My first thought is Talor Gooch has made $77 million playing LIV Golf in the last two years. That's about $67 million more than he would have made playing on the big league PGA Tour.

So, Gooch shouldn't be complaining about anything.

Why he chose Rory's cage to rattle, I have no idea. McIlroy is a Hall of Fame golfer. Gooch is a joureyman. Nice player and all, but he's basically Rich Beem born 20 years later.

And that might be a slap at Rich Beem, actually.

Gooch's complaints about the LIV players not receiving world ranking points and, thus, potentially not being eligible for certain major championships is the lamest argument in the history of lame arguments.

He knew the rules when he jumped ship to LIV. He was trading in those luxuries -- ranking points, major championships -- for the thing he wanted the most: money.

Seventy seven million dollars later, Gooch should be laughing, not whining.

He knew, as did the rest of the guys who jumped, there were certain benefits attached to playing on the PGA Tour that he would no longer receive. Now that he has $77 million, he wants those benefits returned to him.

And along the way, he's going to drag Rory's name and career into the discussion, which seems odd at the least, and, downright dumb at worst.

Then again, Gooch signed on to play for an entity that helped coordinate and perpetrate the 9-11 attacks on our country back in 2001.

In other words: "Smart" isn't his middle name."

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DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps need to win last three, starting tonight


The Maryland Terrapins have just three regular season games left in their 2023-2024 season.

The first of those three will occur tonight against Northwestern in the XFINITY Center. This is a rematch of a January 17th game where the Wildcats beat Maryland 72-69.

Can the Terps extract revenge tonight starting at 7 pm? That’s the question.

Maryland still must contend with Boo Buie, Brooks Barnhizer, and Ty Berry.

Berry and Buie, along with Ryan Langborg, shoot over 40% from the three-point line. Barnhizer, at 35.6%, is no slouch from long range himself. Therein lies one of the keys to this game: protect the three-point line.

Maryland's Julian Reese has a chance to redeem himself tonight against Northwestern in College Park.

I strongly feel that Northwestern can’t win this game without a stellar performance from behind the three-point line.

Boo Buie put up 20 points against the Terps in their previous meeting, and his 7 made field goals were matched by his 7 assists. He got into the lane far too often in game #1. That will be key #2: keep Buie out of the paint.

When Buie got into the paint, he usually drew Julian Reese to him. With Reese away from the rim, easy passes were made to the Wildcat bigs. That’s how a guy like Matt Nicholson made 5 field goals against the Terps.

Keeping Buie out of the paint is easier said than done, especially when a double team leaves 40% three-point shooters alone on the perimeter.

Here’s what I like about the Terps tonight. First, this is a vastly improved team, from a defensive side from the one that the Wildcats faced 5 weeks ago.

They’ve inched their way into the #5 spot, nationally, in the Kenpom defensive ratings. Their switches are cleaner and their rotations are quicker. This is not the same team that allowed Northwestern to post 73 points in game 1.

The Terps got caught looking at a dribbler too many times in that first meeting, only to find their own man free for a bucket. I trust they’ll get that resolved tonight.

The Wildcats double teamed Reese almost every time he touched the ball. On 6 occasions, Reese turned the ball over. He’s had a month to work on those double downs, and while he doesn’t excel in those situations, he’s much better than he was back then.

If the over/under on his turnovers is set at the 6 he committed in January, I’d bet my lungs on the under. Juju also will get more shots off tonight than the 10 he had in the first meeting.

The Wildcats, sitting at 10-6 in the conference, are in a strong position to get an at-large bid to the Big Dance. They probably need just 1 more Big Ten win to get in. They still have to play Iowa, Michigan State, and Minnesota. Each of those teams is playing for their post-season lives. Knowing that, Northwestern will play all-out tonight.

The Terps only hope of being one of the teams announced in two weeks is to run the table in the regular season and then win 2 or 3 in the Big Ten Tournament. I expect an all-out effort from Maryland tonight as well.

Northwestern won that first game, but it was 64-64 with 1:19 left to play. It was anybody’s game at that point, and it was in Northwestern’s gym. This game is in College Park.

Unlike the game played in the Welsh-Ryan Arena, don’t expect the Terps to get zero attempts from the foul line in the first half. That’s not happening in College Park.

I look for the Terps to be much better playing the pick and rolls, keeping more contact with Buie. Maryland will also assert themselves on the offensive glass against a Wildcat team that’s near the bottom of the conference in rebounding.

Here are two things I don’t want to see tonight. Both happened frequently in the earlier Terrapin loss.

Coach Willard, please scrap the zone defense against Northwestern. They torched it the last time out. Play that aggressive man defense that has been the hallmark of this team.

Next, I NEVER want to see Donta Scott guarding Buie. Buie was Scott’s assignment on the Wildcat’s winning bucket. It was not a switch, Scott started on him and Buie blew by him. That was an unforgivable mistake, and it wasn’t an isolated event either. Don’t do it again.

Unless Northwestern lights it up from outside, Maryland can win this game. The strengths and weaknesses of each team somewhat balance each other out. Northwestern shoots it better, but Maryland is tougher inside. That inside advantage includes the Terps offensive glass.

The Wildcats were 3.5-point favorites in game 1, and Maryland is a 2.5 favorite tonight. I would have expected the spread to be a bit wider. I don’t like the fact that the Terps were on the road just 3 days ago while Northwestern last played on Thursday, at home. That’s a bit unfair. (Willard will mention that should the Terps fall flat tonight)

The adrenaline will be high, both on the court and in the stands. Look for an effort similar to the Rutgers game last Sunday.

Only a barrage and Wildcat threes, or some unfortunate whistles, can prevent the Terps from claiming a victory. The home court is the difference. Let’s go 69-64 for Maryland.

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February 27, 2024
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#3476


even the coaches agree


It's not often you come across a topic where coaches -- in any sport -- agree with one another.

There's always a rule or a game condition that benefits someone but hurts others. The Orioles, as a loose example, moved their left field wall back a couple of years ago in an effort to attract better pitching to their organization.

The prevailing thought was that pitchers would give up fewer runs in Baltimore which, of course, could increase their value on the open market down the road.

But what they did, at the same time, was potentially make right handed power hitters say, "I'm not so sure I want to play in Baltimore."

There are almost always two sides to every story, as the saying goes.

But in the case of court storming, apparently almost every top NCAA basketball coach agrees: "It has to stop. Like, now."

Coaches across the country reacted favorably on Monday to banning court storming in the wake of two high profile incidents in the last three weeks; one involving Iowa women's star Caitlin Clark and the other involving Duke men's player, Kyle Filipowski, a projected NBA lottery pick in this summer's draft.

Bill Self of Kansas was one of several major college basketball coaches to call for penalties for court storming on Monday.

"Let's get rid of it, totally," Kansas head coach Bill Self told ESPN on Monday. "I don't see the positive impact from a visual standpoint. Our game has excitement and people are excited about college basketball so much. Storming the court isn't as big of a positive as a potential negative that exists with somebody getting hurt or lawsuits. Can you imagine a kid storms the court, runs into somebody, he gets sued and his life is changed forever? It works both ways. Or, somebody runs into one of our players, our player lifts their arms to protect themselves and catches somebody right in the Adam's apple or hits them in the temple and they get a concussion or something? That's a lawsuit against them."

Whether Self's examples were overblown or legitimate is neither here nor there, really.

Here's why court storming should be banned: Because nothing good comes from it. The only thing that evolves from court storming is something like we've seen with Clark and Filipowski recently. Someone gets hurt.

If there's a reason why court storming is good, let's hear it. If there's a positive from it, let's hear it. If there's something about court storming that enhances the entertainment value of the game, let's hear it.

The silence, of course, is deafening.

There's nothing good that comes from it, unless you think running around on the court for 45 seconds and "whoopin' it up" is one of those can't miss moments in your life.

I've never stormed the court at a game in my entire life.

I'm no Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos but things have turned out just fine for me without a court storming merit badge.

It's silly.

Sure, it used to be a thing. People stormed the court once upon a time and enjoyed themselves.

People also used to think All In The Family was a great show. Now? Not so much.

Things change. Times change.

It's no longer the right thing to do to storm the court and act like a complete lunatic while the two teams are still trying to navigate their way off the court.

Why is it no longer "the right thing to do"? Easy answer: Because people don't know when enough is enough.

People can't just make their way onto the court to celebrate with the victorious home team, being careful not to smash into anyone or otherwise injure someone with their negligence.

Instead, it's the exact opposite. People race onto the court without one ounce of concern for what they're doing or who they might be interfering with. I wouldn't call it an outrage. I'd just call it "stupid".

This isn't all that different than the popular term these days: peaceful protest.

It's within our rights to gather and protest in a civil manner. Some would go as far as saying it's one of the more important benefits our forefathers handed down to us.

But all that goes out the window when people gather and aren't "peaceful" with their protest. And, these days, you're finding far more people who don't actually know how to protest, just like you're seeing over and over and over that people don't know how to celebrate on the court or field with their team after a big win.

We just can't have good things, basically.

The coaches have it right.

You have to get rid of court storming, particulary now that these -- ahem -- "student-athletes" are going to start getting paid real money for playing amateur (insert giggle here) sports.

There's a reason why fans of football and baseball teams aren't allowed to "storm the field" after championship victories. The hired help is just valuable. Can you imagine, had the Ravens won on January 28, 20,000 storming the field and Lamar Jackson tearing his shoulder up when he was knocked to the ground and being unavailable for the Super Bowl?

So if field storming isn't allowed in professional sports, why is permissible in college sports?

It shouldn't be. Put an end to it, now, per the wishes of the coaches on Monday's national conference call.

Invoke some kind of serious penalty for court storming and see how quickly it gets resolved.

I've seen three options bandied about:

1. Play the next home game in front of no fans.

OK, that works, sorta-kinda, but the tickets are already paid for in most cases. So no one's in the stadium...big deal. The athletic department has the money for the game in their account already. They don't really care if no one's in the building to watch the game.

Sure, having no fans in the stands could impact the environment for the home team and that could send the appopriate message, but it's not the basketball players who are fault for court storming. It's the failure of the athletic department to control their patrons.

2. Fine the school the equivalent of an average home game gate receipt.

This one makes a lot of sense. If you sell 17,000 tickets an at average price of $40, you're forking over $680,000 in fine money. That's real money, even for some of the Power 5 schools who are making gazillions of dollars from their various sports programs.

3. Suspend the head coach for the next 3 games.

I probably like this one the least of the three, particularly because the coaches are generally the ones who want to stop court storming from happening. But that one will certainly get the coach's attention and, you assume, the attention of everyone within the athletic department as well.

In the end, the bottom line is court storming is dumb, there's nothing of real, tangible benefit being gained from it and, everything's funny-ha-ha until it's your star player's MCL that gets sprained because of some nitwit college kid who can't handle his Mad Dog 20/20.

Just end it now.


As the banterings continue about the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, it's becoming more and more apparent, just as I predicted here last June, that no sort of "formal" working agreement can be developed and carried out by the two parties.

It was silly to ever buy what was being sold by both entities.

LIV Golf never really wanted to "run" golf. They just wanted to own people. In this case, it's golfers. They wanted to own whatever golfers they decided were the best investment for them. And so that's what they did.

The PGA Tour never really wanted to be friends with them, either. But at some point, Jay Monahan figured "better the devil you know than the devil you don't", although in this case, specifically, the "devil" is far, far more evil than your run of the mill, every day devil.

LIV Golf went to the bargaining table when they spent a billion dollars on golfers and then discovered no one in the world was paying attention to LIV or their golfers.

Brooks Koepka and the rest of LIV still don't have a "working agreement" with the PGA Tour that was promised last June.

Why spend billions to "re-shape" the world of golf when you then discover no one cares if you're re-shaping it?

The PGA Tour went to the bargaining table once that first invoice showed up for legal fees and it was in the millions.

That was their "cleat of reality", if you will. The PGA Tour never once lost a court fight with LIV, that much was true. But in compiling that 4-0 record, they spent millions and millions of dollars that they really didn't want to part with.

So they made that "agreement" last June, you know, the one that said LIV would fall under the PGA Tour's umbrella and that Jay Monahan would now run both entities.

That was never going to happen.

LIV continues to roll on, playing their music and celebrating 54 hole golf tournaments like they're something that matters. They continue to steal players from the PGA Tour and, almost without question, they'll snag another big fish at some point fairly soon.

If the PGA Tour/LIV saga was a wrestling skit, Rory McIlroy would definitely be the next one to go. My best guess? Viktor Hovland signs on after the Masters.

Anyway, the PGA Tour recently got funded to the tune of billions -- with a "b" -- by a group of wealthy sports owners including Arthur Blank of the Atlanta Falcons.

The TOUR, quite clearly, is pretty much doing exactly what LIV did without the up front gazillion payments. They're paying exorbitant amounts of money for winning and huge sums for finishing T45. In other words, everyone winds up getting rich in the end if you just play decently good golf for about 12 weeks a year.

What the PGA Tour has going for it, though, is the obvious: They aren't funded by a group that has practiced significant acts of terrorism and murder.

LIV has that on their plate.

They have a lot of money, yes. But they also have a lot of blood on their fork, too.

The PGA Tour still has the most complete "golf tour" in the world. They have the best TV deal, the most sponsors and, overall, the best players.

But how long can the two entities stand apart from one another and still prosper?

I've suggested here and elsewhere that the obvious, easy solution is for the PGA Tour to play their schedule from the week after the Super Bowl until the week before the start of the NFL season. Call it February through August.

LIV can then play September through January in the various parts of the world they like to occupy.

The PGA Tour can play primarily in North America and LIV can play primarily in Europe, the Middle East and Australia.

It's just not that hard to figure out.

But it's far from happening.

These are two boys vying for the same high school prom date and neither of them wants to give in and lose all of that sweat equity they've invested.

Buckle up for more fighting between the two parties.

Greg Norman is no longer hiding it. He came out this week and publicly said, "Hideki Matsyuama is the guy we've targeted recently. We'd love to get him."

Matsuyama is interesting to Norman and his Saudi buddies because he helps them tap into the lucrative Asian market. If people in the U.S. aren't interested in Matsuyama -- which, for sure, they aren't -- there's no doub the folks in Japan certainly would be.

The PGA Tour also knows the dirty little secret that no one wants to talk about at parties: At some point in the future, LIV might have most of the world's top players, but if no one's paying attention to them or watching the golf on TV, who cares?

It would be akin to the L.A. Dodgers taking their entire team and moving into the Japanese baseball league. We wouldn't watch any additional Japanese baseball just because the Dodgers packed up and moved to Japan.

If Hideki Matsuyama, Viktor Hovland and Patrick Cantlay jump ship and start playing LIV Golf in places like Morrocco, Cape Town, Queensland and Tokyo, I just don't see "golf people" (and I'm one of them) getting up at all hours of the morning (or night) to watch them play on Oprah's TV network or wherever the LIV TV deal takes me.

I haven't watched one second of LIV Golf but that's more a personal choice and not at all about "golf". I have great respect for the former Anerican TOUR players (except Patrick Reed) who play on LIV -- as golfers -- but zero respect for them as citizens of the country that was harmed by events funded in part by the very government that now pages their wages.

Koepka, D.J., Bryson, Niemann, Hatton, Rahm -- all incredibly talented players. It's a shame they're playing their golf in silence.

The ring of the cash register, though, is loud. And that, ultimately, is the only reason any of those guys are playing for Greg Norman.

How long will that last?

That's the fun part.


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funny? not funny? but necessary?


It's clearly not a sports topic and we'll get to some sports in a jiffy, I promise. But Dane sent me an interesting e-mail on Sunday and asked what I thought of the Saturday Night Live monologue featuring once jettisoned Shane Gillis.

"I know you're a SNL guy," Dane wrote. "And like you, I thought the Bargatze feature a couple of months ago was comedy gold. But I'm wondering what you thought of what Shane Gillis did (Saturday) last night? Funny? Or way over the top?"

Full disclosure, unlike the show Nate Bargatze hosted, I did not see Shane Gillis live this past Saturday evening. In some ways, I do think that takes away a little bit from the impression a comedy skit leaves. Seeing it without any bias or information is important, I believe.

By the time Dane sent me that e-mail on Sunday, I already seen people opining about the episode on Twitter. I hadn't seen any of it, but I saw enough of the commentary to know it was, shall we say, "on the line".

But I did watch it late Sunday afternoon. Several times, in fact.

And, so, here's what I'll say in response to Dane's inquiry.

I've never found Shane Gillis particularly funny. That said, I find Bill Burr extremely funny. And Burr and Gillis, while perhaps not cut from exactly the same cloth, are certainly kindred spirits.

Comedy is similar to music. You like what you like. I always thought Steven Wright was really funny. My wife watches 10 minutes of old Steven Wright clips and looks at me like I'm from Saturn. "You think this guy's funny?" she says.

I thought the movie, "The Gods Must Be Crazy" was hilarious. My friends watched it with me once and wanted to have me tested for a mental imbalance.

I laughed non-stop. They didn't crack a smile.

So, I don't find Shane Gillis particularly funny. But a lot of people do.

Gillis, in case you don't know, was famously kicked off of SNL back in 2019 for some incredibly sensitive comedy skits he authored, mostly regarding Asians and homosexuals.

That he was brought back by SNL on Saturday night was big news in the comedy world.

I watched the entire 8 minute monologue from this Saturday's show. Predictably, three words he used in the opening segment -- "gay", "retarded" and "cracker" -- have created a firestorm. I didn't find much of what he said on Saturday night offensive or funny, honestly. Like I mentioned above, I just don't think he's all that funny.

He used the word "retarded" when describing a playground scene involving his niece, who has Down Syndrome. And he used the word "cracker" in reference to that playground scene and her three African American step brothers coming to her rescue.

He didn't use either word in a derogatory manner, yet there were folks on Twitter who were outraged nonetheless.

Glenn Clark and I have been doing a regular segment in his Wednesday show called "This is what's wrong with our country" and one of the things that's definitely wrong is we've lost our way when it comes to humor.

No one is allowed to be funny any longer. Or even attempt to be funny.

I make occasional funny remarks here about a certain old, washed up pop music group from England and people react as if I called their Aunt Betty "fat" at the family picnic in August.

That's a sliver of an example, obviously. But it's true. Somewhere along the way in this country, people stopped embracing humor and took everything personally.

I suppose what Dane was getting to in his e-mail was more about the content and less about the humor portion of it.

Nate Bargatze can do 90 minutes of stand-up and never utter one bad word. I saw him at the Lyric back in September and the worst thing he said all night was "sucks". And I think he said that once. Twice at the most.

Gillis pushes the envelope. "Gay", "retarded" and "cracker" are words we've pretty much removed from our daily vocabularly here in 2024. People still say them, I know. But we've tried hard over the last half decade or so to go easy on the use of those words.

That said, and this is the summary I wanted to provide, I'd like to see us get less worked up about things like that.

It was a comedy skit. In this case, all three of those words were reasonable fits for the points he was trying to make. I don't know that they were funny. But that's just me.

Interestingly enough, musical guest 21 Savage was performing on Saturday night with lyrics that detailed things like murder and cocaine use. I understand that music is considered "different" than comedy, but aren't interpretation and nuance part of the song writer's quest?

Shane Gillis can talk about being "gay" for his mother as a young boy (a joke I didn't get at all, honestly) and that's not cool but 21 Savage can sing about murder and that's....acceptable?

We spend a lot of time these days just dying to get offended about something someone says. It never ends. Every single word gets dissected. Everything is evaluated, over-evaluated and then super-evaluated.

Sometimes, it's just an attempt at humor. Or music.

Steven Wright once said: "Why is it called a penny for your thoughts...but you have to put your two cents in?"

And, "What cruel person put an "s" in the word, "lisp"?

I thought those things were funny.

Shane Gillis wasn't funny on Saturday night, but not because he was offensive. He just wasn't funny.

But I don't think those three words he said were awful. He was trying to be funny. It might not have worked for me, but it might have worked for you.

My answer to Dane: Let's stop getting offended so easily about stuff that doesn't really matter. A comedian using those three words didn't change anything in the world on Sunday morning. He tried to be funny. Some people in the audience laughed. Others were stoic.

And while I didn't find it funny, I certainly wasn't offended by the monologue.

Now...murder and cocaine. Maybe we should be worried about those things.


That was a remarkable scene at the Mexico Open yesterday, where PGA Tour rookie Jake Knapp, who started the day with a 4-shot lead, held on to win the golf tournament and changed his career at the same time.

Knapp couldn't find a fairway, a green, or a par early on. It looked like he was going to throw away the event in the first nine holes.

But then, something awesome happened.

TOUR rookie Jake Knapp relaxed after a shaky start to win the Mexico Open yesterday at 19-under par.

Knapp settled down.

And he started to hit the kind of shots he had hit in the first 54 holes. The putter wasn't great throughout the round, but his short game and wedge work around the greens was spectacular over the final six holes.

He finished the day with a routine par at the 18th hole to finish at 19-under and earn a trip to the Masters in April, plus invites to The Players and the remaining signature events in 2024, and a TOUR card through 2026.

It's a great story for anyone who thinks "I can't do it."

In my role as Calvert Hall's golf coach, I'm constantly searching for examples to share with my players. I'm looking for things they can watch or experience that will guide them long after they've finished playing for me.

Jake Knapp is one of those stories.

He was a very good college player who toiled on the mini-tours but couldn't sustain a living just from playing golf. He was a bartender and a bouncer while he was trying to play his way onto the various professional circuits.

"There's a difference between a dream and a wish," I tell my players. "A wish is usually just a hope. A dream actually takes shape. It's there, in front of you. It lives."

Jake Knapp getting into the winner's circle yesterday is a story that will be hard to top in 2024.

It reinforces what I always say: "You never know."

Of all the sports axioms I subscribe to, that's the best one of them all. If I would have said to you on January 1st, "Jake Knapp is going to win a PGA Tour event before March 1st," you would have said, "Who? How? Never heard of the dude."

You never know.


The talk is going to start to heat up this week about the Orioles and phenom Jackson Holliday. Start the season in the minors? Or come north right away with the big league club?

A few weeks ago on Glenn Clark Radio, I asked a national baseball analyst for his closest big league comparison to Holliday and he came up with Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor.

That, of course, was a career comparison and not a comparison of his current skill set, but it certainly moved me in a different direction with Holliday.

Wouldn't you like to have a young Francisco Lindor on the field this April?

At the center of the debate, of course, is "service time" and whether seven weeks of Holliday now is worth a full year of additional contractual obligation down the road.

The Orioles are in a great spot.

They are already jam packed with talent, for starters. If they leave Holliday in the minors to start the '24 campaign, it's not a huge issue.

That they won 101 games a season ago is also good in that the fan base isn't screaming from the rooftops about trying to get better after another one of those 65 win seasons.

It might be different if the O's were lousy for the last five years and weren't stocked with Major League talent. The pressure might be too much to take in terms of Holliday coming north with the team later this spring.

But now? The O's can take their time and make the right decision.

That said, the A.L. East is once again going to be a dogfight.

The Rays are always hanging around, no matter how many of their good players they cast away.

The Blue Jays have the offense. If they ever get quality pitching and bullpen work, they're a threat to win the division.

And the Yankees figure to rebound after a really disappointing 2023 campaign.

Five or six wins might be the difference in winning the division and/or making the playoffs. Who knows?

If Holliday helps the Birds win two or three extra games in April and May, those wins could be the difference in the division title or a wild card spot.

If Holliday isn't around for April and May (and a little bit of March) and those "extra wins" aren't there, the playoffs might also not be there in October.

There's one thing still up in the air, too. Where will Holliday play when he gets here? Mike Elias has dropped some hints about second base. OK then, what happens to Jordan Westburg?

And then, we have the issue that always plagues the Orioles: being cheap.

Keeping Holliday around now will simply quicken the pace when it comes to having to pay him real money.

If he's ready -- in baseball terms -- and you bring him to Baltimore to start the season, you're starting his "clock" in 2024.

It's different if he's not ready, baseball wise. Leave him down in the minors for a couple of months to fine tune everything and then bring him up sometime after Memorial Day. That's an easy one.

But if Holliday is truly ready to be a big league baseball player, what should the Orioles do?

Those of you who have been ardent #DMD readers over the years know what my position is on this topic. I say "bring him up right now and start winning baseball games."

Start his service clock and let's win some games.

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terps roll past rutgers, 63-46


The Terps were locked in a tight a highly contest battle with Rutgers yesterday. But over a span of 7:21 ending the first half, and 3:54 starting the second, they broke off a 22-4 run, eliminating any hopes Rutgers had for a home win.

After playing the last 6 minutes of the game only with the intention to run out the clock, Maryland cruised to a 63-46 win over Rutgers in the RAC.

The Terps held a 6-2 advantage in three pointers made, a 15 to 10 superiority in foul shots made, and dominated the offensive glass 15-7. Of those three areas, it was the three ball that did in the Scarlet Knights. I’d place that above even the Terrapins stingy defense.

At 5:11 of half one and the Terps ahead by 2, Jordan Geronimo hit a three from the right corner as the shot clock expired. Jahmir Young followed that with a trey off the dribble while heading to his left. Next, Donta Scott drained one from the right side.

The 2-point lead was now 11, quickly. Rutgers would never again bring that bulge down into single digits.

The Terp lead would grow to as many as 20, but never fall below 10.

Julian Reese flexed his muscle while on the way to a 20-point afternoon.

Geronimo had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Young was again tested by the Rutgers defense, going 2 for 9 from the floor. But the sell out to stop the Terp point guard left other options open. Young made the Scarlet Knight pay by handing out a career best 9 assists.

No Rutgers player made more than 3 field goals against the swarming Terrapins, but buoyed by his 6 foul shots, Aundre Hyatt led his team in scoring with 13 points.

It took four tries from long range, but the Terps finally got on the board with a Scott three. Reese followed that with a dunk assisted by Young, and Maryland had a 5-2 lead very early into the game. That became a 7-3 lead after Young bested Omoruyi at the foul line. The Terp point made a pair while Omoruyi hit 1 of 2.

The Terp advantage grew to 6 when Harris-Smith got to the rim twice. Rutgers countered with dunks by Hyatt and Omoruyi. The second one was a follow up dunk off a missed shot.

At the second TV timeout, the Terps were clinging to a 1-point lead, 13-12. They were 4-13 shooting and 1-6 from the three-point line. Rutgers was doing a great job of contesting every close-range shot, and had already blocked a pair of Maryland attempts.

By the next media break, The Scarlet Knights has amassed 5 turnovers, allowing the Terps to overcome a 4-minute span in between field goals. Maryland held a slight 17-14 lead and Reese was heading to the line to shoot a pair. He connected on 1 of those tries.

There was little happening on the perimeter, as each team was effectively guarding outside. All scoring was either at the rim or on the foul line. Both teams pressed when they could, but the only effect was to run time off of the shot clock.

Back-to-back threes, one by Jordan Geronimo and another by Young, propelled the Terps to their biggest lead, 26-18.

That was the score at the sub-4-minute TV timeout. The Geronimo triple was a buzzer beater from the right corner. Young’s was a tough one moving to his left. This all happened with Reese on the bench after being saddled with his second foul of the game.

Another pair of missed Rutgers free throws (they were now 5 for 11 from the line) was met by a swished three from Scott. The Terps were up by 11, 29-18.

Maryland couldn’t capitalize on consecutive offensive rebounds by Jamie Kaiser, misfiring three times in a row. But Rutgers was more than willing to lend a hand to a Terp run that reached 11 points and spanned almost 6 minutes. The Scarlet Knights missed the front end of a one-and-one.

The half ended with Maryland up by 12, 30-18. Key first half stats were the 3 extra turnovers that Rutgers committed, the 5-12 foul shooting by the Scarlet Knights and the 9-point advantage that Maryland held in points from behind the 3-point line.

Scott opened the second half scoring with his 3rd three pointer, inflating the terp lead to 15, 33-18. That ballooned to 17 when Harris-Smith made a layup. However, his taunting technical foul gave those points right back to Rutgers who finally hit a few foul shots. Geronimo got one of those back with a free throw of his own.

Play stopped with 16:37 left to allow the refs to check for a flagrant Rutgers foul. They awarded a free throw to the Terps. The Young connection gave Maryland a 38-20 lead. A tough Resse put back had the Terps doubling up Rutgers, 40-20.

Omoruyi ended an almost 12-minute drought in Scarlet Knight field goals when he made a 2-foot jumper in the paint.

With 13:12 left to play, the Terps were up by 18, and only their 4 turnovers had kept the game from being a blowout.

After Reese left the game courtesy of his 3rd personal foul, Rutgers went on a bit of a run. They outscored UMD 13-5 in a matter of 3 minutes. The lead shrunk to 12, 47-35.

The Scarlet Knights had hit 6 of 7 field goals. Let’s make that 7 of 8 after a quick Rutgers steal and layup.

Rutgers had a ton of momentum and the crowd was engaged. Most of that juice was washed away by that technical foul mentioned above. It started a 7-0 run for the Terps.

The Scarlet Knights had busted their collective tails, only to see Maryland’s 12-point halftime lead extended by 5 points with just under 8 minute to play. The score was 54-37.

From there, ball control offense ran down the shot clock and sealed the game.

I was impressed with the Rutgers game plan designed to stop Young. His shooting numbers against Rutgers this year read 5 for 26. His poor 2 for 9 performances from the floor yesterday carried itself to the free throw line. Young missed 4 times in 10 tries. Very unYoung-like for the normally reliable guard.

Rutgers tried to come back, making 4 layups in a row at one point. However, a technical foul by Autin Williams broke their momentum. Despite Young missing the foul shot, the Terps would go on to score those 7 points in a row that I mentioned, effectively putting the game out of reach with 7:14 left to play.

Maryland will next play Northwestern at home on Wednesday. It’s a 7 pm game televised by BTN.

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February 25, 2024
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easy pickins


Not because we want to, but just because it's so daggone easy.

We'll go after the low hanging fruit here today at #DMD.

Court storming - idiotic

Leaving announcers in Baltimore - embarrassing

Anthony Kim - publicity stunt

If you have any other low hanging fruit, you think we should address, throw it in the comments and we'll tear into it this week here at #DMD.

I suppose there are still a handful of goofs who think storming the court (or the field, for that matter, since it's also done in football) is a solid idea, even in the wake of yesterday's incident in Winston Salem, NC where the stands emptied onto the court after Wake Forest's surprising win over Duke.

In the midst of that surge, a Duke player was injured.

I know, particularly in these parts, we tend to overlook any story involving Duke. So it's probably wise to not even consider the teams that were involved yesterday and just consider the act and the injury without any bias at all.

These idiotic court storming episodes have to stop. Like, now.

And they will, of course. Yesterday was the final straw. That's why this entry is essentially going after the low hanging fruit, as it were.

The episode on Saturday will be the final piece of evidence needed for the NCAA to put an end to it all.

This wild scene yesterday at Wake Forest led to an injured Duke player and talk of ending "court storming" once and for all.

Mind you, there are already rules about court storming. It's not supposed to happen in the first place. Schools and athletic departments are supposed to "ensure the safety of all student-athletes at all times, upon their entry into the building and until they exit after the athletic contest."

And 90% of the time, everything's fine.

It's that other pesky 10% that creates problems. Like we saw yesterday in Winston Salem. The security around the perimeter failed and thousands of people made their way onto the court.

It has to come an end, pronto.

Whether the NCAA has time to end it now is unknown. What's the penalty for court storming? That's probably the first question they'll have to answer once they've decided to punish schools who allow it to take place.

And will the people even listen?

I mean, if 10,000 people want to run onto the football field at Alabama next fall, they're running onto the field.

We saw first-hand in our country upon a time on a wintry January afternoon that when people decide en masse they're doing something, they pretty much just go ahead and do it.

So how will the NCAA and the schools and the facilities make it so that no one jumps onto the court or the field after a game?

Should court storming be allowed only after the visiting team has left the playing surface and is safely in their locker room?

That was one idea bandied about yesterday in the aftermath of the Duke playing getting injured.

Is that the solution?

I don't know about you, but I just don't see that being an effective method of curbing court storming.

"OK, now, we know you're dying to run out onto the court and celebrate with the team. Just hang tight for a minute while they do the post-game handshake and then when we flash the overhead lights three times, you can storm the court. But not until then."

That's how it's going to work?

Yeah, good luck with that.

The way to make it work is to put an end to it. How? That's above my pay grade. But it needs to stop. Today.


They're playing "real" spring training games now down in Florida and the O's got off to a wonderful start yesterday with a stirring 4-3 walk-off win over Boston.

OK, so maybe it wasn't "wonderful" or "stirring".

But it was cool to see Colton Cowser hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 9th to give the Birds the win, no matter if it was February or July.

I stopped counting how many times Jim Palmer made either direct or indirect reference to the broadcast team being in Baltimore instead of Sarasota. I heard it at least five times. It was funny on each occasion, because you just know Palmer was looking to throw in a barb whenever possible about the club's decision to "go cheap" in spring training with the broadcasting team.

Jim Palmer and the rest of the O's broadcast professionals are calling spring training games in Baltimore instead of Florida.

They interviewed Brian Roberts early in the game, who is serving as a "special advisor" with the club during spring training.

"How's the weather down there?" Palmer quipped.

Roberts might not have been in on the joke, so he answered honestly and directly.

"Oh, it's perfect," he said. "Just beautiful."

"That's great," Palmer deadpanned.

Later on Palmer said, "It's hard to tell from where we are, a thousand miles away."

Given last summer's turn of events when TV man Kevin Brown was suspended for two weeks for a completely benign moment of commentary about the Tampa Bay Rays, it will be interesting to see if Palmer is silenced by the powers-that-be the next time he does a spring training broadcast from Baltimore.

The guess here is Palmer just says whatever he wants. It's always been that way. And rightfully so, of course. If the owner or GM or Director of P.R. is going to tell the color analyst what to say or not to say, they might as well just do the broadcast themselves.

But let's get to the root of the issue. It's not Palmer making snide remarks about the broadcast team being in Baltimore.

The issue is the Orioles being cheap.

Like, really, really, really cheap.

They already short-change the fan base by not broadcasting all of the spring training games. Or, at the very least, all of the home spring training games from Ed Smith Stadium.

This year, a grand total of seven games will be aired on MASN.

It's beyond bizarre that here you have an entity whose sole purpose is to broadcast baseball games and when the games start, you don't broadcast them.

And then, it's even wildly more bizarre that when you do manage to regrettably have to air 7 of them, you leave the broadcast team in Baltimore to do their job.

It's embarrassing that you're that cheap.

This is really quick math, so please know that it's far from 100% accurate. But it's a good overview.

And let's just pretend it's the same two people doing all the games, even though the O's -- for some weird reason -- have about 10 people in and out of the broadcast booth doing radio, TV, pre-game and so on.

Kevin Brown and Jim Palmer -- $1,000 each per-game (even though both of these guys are on a salary that's "more" than $1,000 per-game, we'll just reduce it to $1,000 for this example)

Hotel room for each of them (this is listed as "cash" even though the club probably trades for the rooms) -- $300 each per-night

Daily per-diem -- $100 each (the in-season player figure is $108, I think.)

Rental car -- $100 each per day (I have no idea if they get a car or not)

If you do seven games, assuming the announcers are there the day before and leave the day after, you're talking $2,000 for their on-air work, $1,200 for the two rooms, $600 for per-diem and $600 for the rental car.

It's $4,400 to do one game, basically. And I think that might be high, but we'll go with $4,400.

Seven games of that is basically $30,000.

You can't sell four $7,500 spring training only advertising packages to cover that $30,000?

I mean, here's what I'd do: I'd sell the packages for MASN and offer to split everything 50/50 above $30,000 and I'd make a killing, especially after the team just went 101-61.

I understand selling spring training TV wasn't a walk in the park circa 2010 when the team was the laughingstock of baseball.

Now? You're selling one of the hottest properties in all of sports.

You're telling me they can't sell $30,000 of advertising to have the announcers on site?

And what if they did 14 games instead of 7, which seems like a more appropriate number for you, know, the MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM IN TOWN.

Now, it's $60,000 for spring training coverage.

In an organization that made a profit of $64 million just two years ago, you're telling me $60,000 is an expense not worth incurring?

And let's not forget, you still have to pay Jim Palmer to do the game in Baltimore. He doesn't live here so you still have to put him up in a hotel room for a few nights. He still has to eat while he's in town.

Why wouldn't you send the broadcast team to Sarasota?

The answer: You're too cheap.

And that, given where the franchise is on the field, is completely laughable.


You probably don't even know who Anthony Kim is, unless you're a complete golf enthusiast, but he's back.

Well, sort of.

It's been 12 years since Kim stopped playing on the PGA Tour. For reasons only he knows (mental health, gambling problems, bad achilles are the most discussed reasons), Kim stepped away from the game and cashed a huge insurance settlement check a dozen years ago.

He was a 3-time PGA Tour winner before he quit the game.

Anthony Kim hasn't played competitive golf in 12 years but he'll tee it up next week on the LIV golf circuit.

Now, he's returning to the world of professional golf, apparently agreeing to play in next week's LIV event in Saudi Araba as a "wildcard", which means he'll have no official designation as a team member or any "formal" alliance with the renegade circuit.

It's kind of like Michael Jordan playing in a PGA Tour event, if you will.

Yes, otherwise known as a publicity stunt.

There's no telling what Anthony Kim's golf game will look like next week. The prevailing thought in the golf world is there'd be no reason at all for him to step into the spotlight unless he was primed and ready to compete.

Why come back now, a dozen years later, unless you were capable of competing?

Sure, there's money involved, somewhere along the way. As we've seen over the last 24 months, the PIF and Saudi government will pay just about anyone who, A) wants to play professional golf under their umbrella and, B) will help LIV stick it to the PGA Tour in the process.

Kim was once a star in the making on the PGA Tour. He played good golf, wore his hat backwards, played with his shirt untucked and listened to loud music while he was playing. I know what you're thinking: It looks a lot like LIV...12 years early.

But Anthony Kim was a good player. He wasn't a young Tiger or young Phil. Heck, he wasn't even a young Rory or a young Brooks.

He was a guy with a nice golf swing who was particularly captivating to the youngsters.

And now he's back.

But it's all pretty much just a publicity stunt.

No one is paying attention to LIV on a tournament-by-tournament basis.

Quick: Who won the event in Las Vegas a few weeks ago? Right, no one knows.

Editor's note: I actually follow golf and I had to Google it.

Adding Anthony Kim to the field next week is an effort to get people to pay attention. Nothing more. Nothing less.

If he plays well, they have themselves a 7'9" softball player who comes to town every July as part of the community carnival.

If he doesn't play well, he gets tucked away like the rest of the guys who have played and then disappeared.

And, no, I don't mean "disappeared" like that Washington Post journalist. I just mean, "played and then no longer played."

Either way, LIV gets what they need. People to pay attention to them.

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terps spotlight

DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps visit rutgers today


Forget their records.

Rutgers, Maryland’s opponent today at noon, is always tough at Jersey Mike’s arena.

Better known as the “RAC”, this place offers as big a home court advantage as there is in the Big Ten. It’s a tiny venue, with seating for about 8,000 people, and it gets loud. Personally, I’m excited to make my first trip to the RAC, and as a representative of DMD.

This game is the second matchup of the season between these two teams. When analyzing this game, I see hope for the Terps tonight, despite the fact that they fell at home to Rutgers, 56-53.

That initial game was a mess. I recognize that Rutgers is the number 3 defensive team in the NCAA, according to kenpom.com (Maryland follows closely behind at number 6) but these two teams were woeful while trying to score the basketball.

Rutgers was 3-13 shooting threes, while the Terps said, “Hold my beer”, and put up an even more futile 2-18.

For the game, Maryland shot 32.5% (17-54). Rutgers was 8-27 in the first half before the Terps got lazy on “D” in the game’s final 20 minutes, allowing Rutgers to shoot 50%. With each side committing 15 turnovers, it wasn’t good basketball.

#DMD's Dale Williams says Jahmir Young is the man to watch in the waning moments of today's Maryland visit at Rutgers.

The Scarlet Knights had an effective strategy to neutralize Maryland’s primary offensive weapon. They tried to hem in Jahmir Young, to keep him from penetrating. When he did get inside, Young was swarmed. He made just a single shot inside the three-point line while mIssing 12 times.

When the Terps fed the post, Reese was having his way against one of the nation’s premier shot blockers, the Scarlet Knight’s Cliff Omoruyi. Reese was 8 for 10 from the field. He also gathered in 12 rebounds, but Reese’s 5 turnovers and 3 for 9 foul shooting really hurt the Terps.

Young matched Reese’s 12 rebounds, but his 3-17 shooting combined with 5 turnovers of his own were too much for his team to overcome in that January loss.

The numbers posted above are what makes me lean towards the Terps today.

Yes, the Rutgers defense is really good. Kenpom uses points per 100 possessions and not point per game.

Therefore, both UMD and Rutgers have defensive efficiencies that aren’t swayed by the slower pace both teams employ. That being said, I don’t think Rutgers can duplicate that kind of success in stopping the Terp point guard.

We all know that Maryland can’t make threes, but 11% simply won’t happen again. Young was 2 for 4, the rest of the team got blanked, 0-14. Donta Scott was nil for 5, Jamie Kaiser Jr missed 4, Jahari Long 3, and Jordan Geronimo whiffed on a pair. Surely one of those guys has to be successful on a three today.

Reese has had a tough time at the free throw line this year, but 3 for 9? He’ll be better. In a bit of an oddity, both teams only had 1 player miss foul shots. Reese missed 6, the rest of his team was a perfect 14 for 14. For Rutgers, Aundre Hyatt had 2 not go in, the rest of his team was 9 for 9.

With the Terps at home in game 1, they enjoyed a 23 to 11 advantage in foul shots attempted. That’s a big number and I expect that to be somewhat reversed today. It’s rare for a home team to shoot fewer foul shots when the sides are evenly matched.

Rutgers has lost their last two games after reeling off 4 consecutive victories. One of those wins was a beat down of Wisconsin, 78-56. The Badgers were awful in that game and The Scarlet Knights had two guys come off the bench and nail 8 threes in 10 tries. That scoring burst seems to be an outlier.

These are two teams that are far on the outside of the tournament bubble and barely peeking in at an at large bid. It’s just not going to happen for either one. Rutgers will play hard at home and they always bring the defense. Likewise with the Terp “D”.

I just think too many things went Rutgers way in the first game and I don’t think those things are repeatable. This is a close game all the way to the end.

Willard has had plenty of time to rewatch the previous matchup, with a keen eye on how to get Young free for some good looks.

Omoruyi is a block party, but Reese can score on him like he did in game 1. The Terps need a decent game from Scott and perhaps 10 points from the bench to avoid getting swept by Rutgers. They’ll get all of that.

The line was posted as Rutgers (-2.5). That’s a full 11-point swing from the first contest. Only on rare occasions do you see that wide of a gap on a second meeting.

I have to believe Maryland is the better team, even on the road. They lead the Big Ten in close game losses, but it won’t happen to them today.

Jahmir Young breaks his recent trend of missing crucial last-minute shots and lifts the Terps late to a 61-59 win. He gets help from both Reese and also Scott who finally hits a few threes.

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Saturday
February 24, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3473


contracts are coming to college sports


Yesterday's ruling by a federal judge in Tennessee virtually smooths the path for college athletes hoping to get paid, outright, in exchange for playing for a particular school.

It's on the verge of happening.

I know some of you are giggling and rightfully so.

College athletes have been getting "paid" to play at the Division I level for a long, long time. Back around 2010 there was a certain local player from a Harford County high school who apparently received $60,000 to play his basketball at a college powerhouse.

How did we know it was $60,000? Because one of his "representatives" told anyone who would listen their best offer was $50,000 until his eventual landing spot threw $60,000 at him.

What would Maryland's Jahmir Young be worth "on the open market" within the NCAA?

That's one story out of hundreds, obviously. Schools and coaches have been doing "whatever it takes" to get kids to play for them for half a century, at least.

Jim Valvano is posthumously celebrated every year through his Jimmy V Foundation and was, and still is, one of college basketball's more beloved coaching characters.

But in his zenith, at N.C. State, it was widely known that Valvano wasn't, let's say, "the cleanest guy" when it came to following NCAA rules on recruiting and player eligibility.

Read through the list of college coaches who have been slapped on the wrist for NCAA violations and you'll see virtually every single top coach in any sport. They're all there.

So, no, it's not necessarily earth shattering news to hear that college athletes are thisclose to getting paid. But it is big news to know it's now all going to be legal and part of the recruiting process.

It's similar to the great scene in "A Bronx Tale" where Chazz Palminteri welcomes a group of bikers into his bar and warns them that if there's any trouble, they'll be asked to leave.

"No trouble here," the bike gang's leader says. "We just want a couple of brews and we'll be on our way."

Minutes later, they start squirting beer everywhere and causing havoc in prelude to tearing up the bar.

Palminteri calmly walks to the bar's front door and deadbolts it shut.

"Now yous can't leave," he says.

Well, colleges have long been skirting the rules by paying athletes under the table, sending money to their uncle in Costa Rica or "accidentally" leaving an envelope on the couch during a recruiting visit.

Now...they're going to have to pay them. Above board and all.

The ruling in Tennessee on Friday tells the NCAA that they can no longer punish a player or a booster for engaging in a deal designed to induce the player to sign at a particular school.

While it's only a preliminary injunction, most experts feel the decision in Tennessee will dramatically impact the case as it moves along in court.

Coming soon to a school near you: Athletes will negotiate and sign multi-year contracts just like they do in professional sports.

There's a lot of good with that, actually.

The playing field becomes somewhat more level, if you will, because everyone's now allowed to do the same thing.

We all know it's not exactly level. Towson University wouldn't have enough money to afford Derik Queen, for example. Maryland has that kind of money because of their Big Ten network deal and other funds made available to them by donors, boosters, etc.

But at least within the Power 5 schools and the top independent programs, everyone can chase after the same players and wave real, "legal" money at them in an effort to get them to play.

I don't like it, by the way.

I've always been against paying kids to play college sports and I'm still against it, in general.

But I'm resigned to the fact that the times have changed, winning is more important than anything else, and college athletes are going to get paid to play.

I don't like it. But it is what it is.

The other piece of good news, at least for the schools and coaches, is the contracts will likely bind the "student-athlete" (do we really need to keep using that term?) to a program for at least two full years, if not three.

Experts say the likely result of the contract stipulation will be a player has to stay at the school for at least three years unless he/she withdraws to either turn professional, transfers to a Division II or Division III school, or simply "retires from playing".

A player who signs a contract will not have the option of playing one year at Kansas, taking more money the next year at Kentucky, and then making another jump to UConn after a year at Kentucky.

So there's some good news. Players who sign deals will have to see them through, at least for three seasons.

That's probably next on the legal table. Can those contracts be binding if they restrict a player from movement?

They're binding in other sports, of course. Gunnar Henderson can't just up-and-leave the Orioles for another team next winter. He has a contract that keeps him in Baltimore.

But it remains to be seen what the college contract is going to look like and how binding and restricting it will be.

The bad news? Players will now have to file taxes. In a lot of cases, they're going to find themselves with money that will change their lives, completely. They're going to be "adults" at a young age, if you will.

As we've seen in the four major sports time and time again, some players handle their new wealth well and some don't handle it well at all.

You're going to give a kid at 18 years of age $250,000, $500,000 or $1,000,000 and expect him or her to handle that the right way? Good luck with that.

And the whole taxation issue is another thing entirely. $250,000 isn't "really" $250,000. It's more like $175,000. Kids will now have to enter the world of big business, investing and finance.

The ones with the big contracts will have to hire financial advisors and such. It's a luxury to make $500,000 or more, yes. But it does also come with some baggage, too.

It might take another two or three years for this all to come about, the contracts and such. We know, now, that players are receiving large sums of NIL money in exchange for doing commercials, promotions and other related activities.

The NIL money is, obviously, a direct payment in exchange for playing for whatever school they're playing for at the time.

We know what's going on. Players are being induced by NIL money to come and play. It's just been kept hush-hush. It's already part of the landscape of the NIL agreement.

What hasn't been part of the deal, until yesterday's ruling came down, is being able to legally induce a boy or girl to play at a certain school because of the NIL money they're being offered.

Now, if yesterday's ruling holds up over time, Maryland can say to someone like Derik Queen, "If you sign here, we have a national pizza chain ready to give you $500,000 a year for the next four years to play basketball in College Park."

It's pretty good work if you can get it.

I know what you're thinking: But they still have to go to school.

Maybe.

It won't be long before a judge somewhere rules that college athletes don't have to attend class in order to remain eligible.

Give that one five years or so.

It's coming to a courtroom near you.

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#dmd comments








Billy     March 18
Fake Larry coming in to stir the pot. Classy.

larry     March 18
Lots of middle schoolers in the comments section today, are schools closed?

MFC     March 18
@POBOY, MSJ does not give out athletic scholarships it is "based on need", just like every other private school. Jaeylin Smith was a FULLPAY student.



Interesting stat in golf.

Scoring leaders: #1 Scheffler 69.286

#2 Ghim 69.991



Money leaders: #1 Scheffler $10,939,000

Doug Ghim $1,107,000



Amazing the difference when you win vs just playing well to very good.

RC     March 18
Come to think of it, I'm starting to wonder if @JeffWell isn't a plant or an imposter. No adult gets that frazzled over a passing remark about a band.



Maybe I'm wrong but I have to wonder.

Unitastoberry     March 18
You know what I would like? I'd like to see Kenny Pickett blossum into a star now that he's been traded. Stranger things have happened in this league over the last 70 years. Never was big into The Beatles I liked Lennon solo Instant Karma was a great album.

Arlen     March 18
The website guy takes a pot shot at the former President and no one cares but god forbid he criticizes a band of musicians that hasn't been around for 50 years!

Kevin     March 18
Hal's a clown. If the site owner's opinion is the Beatles suck (which they do), he's allowed to post that. It's an opinion, you jag.

hal     March 18
So it's ok to defend the site owner on everything, but defending a commenter is "carrying water"? Got it. And to help this Bill P guy out, JW was criticizing content, not the writer personally....oh wait, "overgrown child" might have been personal, perhaps JW let his emotions get the best of him there. Other than that, he was simply lamenting the deviations from "sports insights and opinion". But hey I am just a water carrier, what do I know.

Poboy     March 18
@BJ, Gary Neal out at the Hall because they won't full scholarship hoops players like MSJ, McD and SFA do.

BJ     March 18
I'm late to the party. Gary Neal is out as CHC basketball coach? When?

Bill P.     March 18
At the risk of being accused of being a "water carrier", I find it amusing that people like HAL write this: Certainly, anyone can disagree with his take if they want, I just don't get the personal attacks and vitriol. If anyone is not charging rent, it would be JEFFWELL lol



But HAL fails to mention that's exactly what JEFFWELL did to the site owner. Personal attack and vitriol. Why the double standard from HAL?

Vic     March 18
Question for you Drew. It's now obvious Scheffler is world #1. But who are the next four to make up 2-5 in the rankings? I'm curious to get your take on that one.

Kevin     March 18
Look at @Hal, carrying @Jeff's water for him. What a swell guy! Does Jeffy-poo get a back rub at some point as well? LOL

hal     March 18
@JEFFWELL called it lol. Guy simply makes a comment on today's content and he gets blasted. His feeling do not seem hurt, his panties aren't in a bunch, guy just made an observation on dead horses that get beat around here.

Certainly, anyone can disagree with his take if they want, I just don't get the personal attacks and vitriol. If anyone is not charging rent, it would be JEFFWELL lol.

Tupelo     March 18
That Jeff person realizes they don't have to read the website don't they? Getting mad about a website that you don't pay for is like getting mad because Starbux makes their coffee too strong. Don't buy it.

Davey     March 18
UNC is going to win it all. That Shannon kid is pretty dang good at Illinois, I wouldn't be surprised to see them make a deep run.

RC     March 18
Yea, I'd say @JeffWell is the one looking kind of #clownshoes on this one. Just my opinion.



I don't always like or agree with what @DF writes but I don't get my feelings hurt about it.



Kind of a weird look for @Jeff today IMHO.

KC     March 18
With Pickett/Trubisky, Steelers were a 9-8 team.

With Wilson/Fields, the Steelers are a 9-8 team.

Don't worry, they're not any better now than they were before.

BO     March 18
You said it, DF, Scheffler's the best golfer on the planet right now. And since I'm old enough to remember Tiger in his prime, I know what it's like to see one player dominate the rest of the best players like "Scheff" is doing right now.



You didn't spell it out, but it looks like "X" has the choker's collar doesn't it? Both Saturday and Sunday his driver completely left him on the back 9.



Here's a question for your Q/A. I know it's not a major so why don't they play the PGA or the US Open at the TPC Sawgrass course one year? What are your thoughts on that? Would the course hold up?



Sad to see Gary Neal go but the results are what they are. I assume you know more than you're letting on. When will Calvert Hall be able to get a long term coach in there?

Tom     March 18
LMFAO at "Jeff Well". Talk about a little boy.

Larry     March 18
I agree with MFC, conference champs should never have to play in. Save the play in games for teams like Michigan State that basically backed into the tournament.

Watched most of the golf yesterday and something the site owner wrote about a while back was on display yesterday. Maybe it was just one of those things but a lot of the putts the announcers said were breaking left to right were missed. I recall the owner once saying right handed putters don't like those putts from L to R. Just something I picked up on yesterday as I watched and listened to the announcers.

Is anyone else concerned about the Ravens secondary with the losses of Darby and Stone?

And I just saw O's opening day tickets in the upper deck for $160. Times have changed. I bought an upper deck opening day ticket 3 or 4 years ago for $25 the day before the game.


Chris P.     March 18
Harman, Aberg, Theegala, all 3 of those guys hit Top 10 for Drew this week. I'm more of a college football and hoops gambler myself but I might have to plunk down a few bucks on his picks the next time there's a tournament he analyzes.



I went ahead and put down a nice chunk on the O's plus 90.5 wins last week. I feel like that is easy money but you never know. The other teams I think are a good "over" bet are the Phillies (89.5) and Blue Jays (86.5)

MFC     March 18
If you're the conference champ you should be rewarded the NCAA bid, your record over the course of the year should matter more than 4 days in March.



Play-in games are ridiculous.



The ACC, outside of UNC, got little to no respect. Duke at 4, NC State at 11, Virginia in the play-in game and Clemson somewhere with Pitt and Wake left out. This once great league needs a reboot.



I was excited when I saw Utah State in the dance and thought good for Ryan Odum. But he's now at VCU and just lost the championship game to Duquesne. He had a 22-13 record this year, good for him, sorry UMBC couldn't keep him.



None of us should ever bitch about a lip out again. What happened to Clark was as harsh as they come.



Best line in Scheffler press conference, "someone yelled you're #1 for a year only 11 more to go", referencing Tigers incredible run. He looked sheepish and then paid great homage to Tiger. You gotta like Scheffler he seems like a genuinely nice person and well grounded.



Congrats to the girls state champions, Poly, Pikesville and Hammond girls bringing back the rings.



Lets go with the "cheater coaches" final four. Houston, Kentucky, Auburn and Kansas.

Pat     March 18
Poor Jeff. It must be tough to grow up without a sense of humor.

TJ     March 18
Talk about someone living rent free in another man's head, eh? DF not only lives in Jeff Well's, he probably sublets some of the space to make money off of it! Lighten up, Francis. It's a sports blog. Why are your panties in such a bunch over a sports blog??

Jeffwell     March 18
I try. I really do. But this man is such an overgrown child that I often leave this site for a month or two. As soon as I stop by again to read about his opinion of an excellent PGA event, he 's right back to third grade.

Since I didn't get past the first paragraph of the "real" post, I'll just assume that there was more riveting commentary about Flyers fans as well. Not just shoes. This guy deserves the entire clown outfit.

Cue the synchophants in 3..2..1..

TJS     March 18
Actually, the Terps DID make the tournament. I'll be watching them play Iowa State in the first round of the women's tournament this week.

Boris     March 18
I too made some bank with Drew's picks thank you very much. In particular I liked and went with Aberg and Theegala - 2 young players who I predict are ready to win on tour or even a major.

J.J.     March 18
DF called Sheffler winning last Wednesday in his predictions. That's what I meant.

mj     March 17
Did this JJ guy get his own edition of DMD today? Mine said:

"I see Clark shooting 67 today on a difficult layout with tricky back-nine pin locations and winning by two shots over Schauffele, who produces his own round of 70. Scheffler finishes T3 with McNealy at 16-under."

JJ and Matt seem to think DMD "called it to a tee". Guess I misunderstood the above.

Mark     March 17
Final tale of the tape. Bet $300 ($10 on each golfer to win, T10 and T20) and won $740. Keep making those picks @DF!!!

Matt P.     March 17
I mean, it almost looks like Drew saw the script for the final round.



(A round of 64 is well within his reach and some kind of score like that would make the leaders press the gas pedal down the stretch.)

J.J.     March 17
DF called Scheffler's win and his final round score (64) to a tee and also picked 3 top 10 finishers in his predictions for the week. Why not just quit DMD and go into golf gambling full time and make a boat load of $$$ ???



Great job. Keep it up.

Chris K     March 17
It’s weird how adult men (I’m assuming) on here are so intense with high school sports. Of course it’s nice if your team has a good season or wins its league, but it’s high school. It’s about the kids in the school learning and preparing for their next phase in life. I’m sure the kids on team next year will be fine with the new coach. Winning should be secondary.



Btw this isn’t a shot at Drew. He’s clearly mentioned many times, that while winning is a nice feeling, he coaches his guys to be better in life and handle things the right way win or lose.

Howarc     March 17
Fields will be invaluable in helping the Steelers prepare for the Ravens. He will be able to mimic Lamar pretty well when he runs the scout team in practice

Unitastoberry     March 17
Stillers get Justin Fields. Malik Harrison might have been better. He never got a chance to show his pro ability. Personally I think the Stillers front office is just buying time to scout up the next Bradshaw or Ben. This is there new Brister-Maddox era and the odds of finding another HOF qb for them are slim.And frankly Tomlin isn't Cowher imo.

Josh     March 17
Sahith Theegala is my assigned golfer. I’m pulling for him big time! I want my round with DMD



BTW- it’s nice to watch a real golf tournament with actual storylines and some history

David Rosenfeld     March 17
If the committee was under pressure it was Friday and Saturday...all the "bid stealing" happened then. At this point (Sunday AM), the field and the seeding is probably set. Just awaiting those auto bids from the Ivy, AAC and A-10.

I'm sure this will be column fodder this week, but the Steelers have now replaced Pickett, Rudolph and Trubisky with Wilson and Fields. It sounds great for them...but only if you really believe that Fields is going to live up to his potential...which is still very much up in the air. If not, you got one year of mediocre Wilson followed by more uncertainty.

MFC     March 16
I was caught off guard by Neal’s leaving, had no clue. I’m sure DF has more inside knowledge and obviously isn’t speculating.. CH is a great school, great traditions and good coaches in all sports. I have no idea why one would leave that , plus playing in one of the premiere leagues in the country. The toll on families is unbelievable, who knows maybe he wasn’t seeing his son enough, dont know. Maybe he wasn’t getting enough help getting kids in, again don’t know but I do know he had the POY.

It’s a shame, CH has had a bunch of coaches over the last 10 years or so. It doesn’t seem to happen so much with the other sports. I hope the get a good coach and the Hall rises again, it’s good for the league



So many tournament upsets the committee is going to be under intense pressure and there will be at least 5 deserving teams that don’t get in. Right now I’m thinking UCONN will be overall #1 with UNC 2 f(if they win tonight)

Fat Frankie     March 16
"Win" is "Win" in Welsh🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

mike     March 16
I wanted someone for a "boosted" win bet this week and considered Clark. What scared me were the double bogeys last week, although they were surrounded by stellar play otherwise. Anyway, I foolishly went with Zalatoris on a flyer instead. Don't think I will be convincing anyone to wait with baited breath for my weekly golf picks lol.

The Ravens will be fine, they are not careening off a cliff here. If JLC is concerned, that makes me feel damn good about their upcoming season.

Bryan     March 16
Just giving Drew a heads up, I was in the check out at a Shoppers this morning and noticed People magazine has a special issue commemorating the Beatles 60 years later, it's a must buy Drew!

Dale     March 15
I'm gonna coin this Terp off-season as purge and surge. First to go, Noah Batchelor. Great stroke, but nowhere near a Big Ten athlete. I wish him well.

larry     March 15
I thought this MFC guy said Calvert Hall bball was on the rise and how that was good for the BCL. Now the coach quits and is quoted as saying: “Not saying anything bad about Calvert Hall at all, I just didn’t feel that things would be moving in the right direction.” MFC is usually spot on with his local bball insights. Weird.

Article I read also said Coach Neal would be focusing on his son's AAU team.

Delray RICK     March 15
Have not followed basketball for decades but lately have videos of the great white hope, LARRY BIRD. The players against him held him in AWE. And the comments made NBA GREATS is funny as he'll. Didn't know he won 3 straight MVP'S. Later in his career he had to lay on the floor because of a bad back. But the comments of opponents are really funny.

such     March 15
The B1G Ten was not very good this year, hence the road records are more a reflection of the lack of quality teams than "it's tough to win on the road in that conference."

The best conferences this season are the Big 12 and the SEC. It wouldn't be a surprise to see teams like Baylor and Kentucky make runs to the Final Four as 3 or 4 seeds. Neither team won its conference regular season title, but they're scary good. Personally, I'm pulling for Tennessee, since my money and my son go there, and Dalton Knecht is the most electric scorer in the country. But Rick Barnes, man, I dunno...

Could there have been a more fitting end to this miserable season of Maryland basketball than what happened yesterday? I've been an avid fan since 1973, and I can't remember any other team being so uninspired and unlikeable. I suppose there's nowhere to go but up from here. I hope.

Chris in Bel Air     March 15
@TimD... you beat me to it. Merciful ending is the best way to describe what happened yesterday to Terps. To answer your question, it is very tough to win on the road but I think the overall talent/performance is down this year in the B10. After all, MD somehow won 7 games in conference. I guess we shall how the conference does in the big dance.

Ravens have a "down year" after going 13-4 and going to AFC Championship? I think that is realistic. Plenty of changes have already occurred but also more about how tough it is go 13-4 and go to the Championship. They will still be a/the front runner for the division and a playoff team.

Unitastoberry     March 15
Clowney was a rental until Bowser healed up . Now Bowser is gone. I'm trying not to be a Debbie Downer but yes this could be a short rebuild. Humphrey isn't the player he once was and often injured . McDonald was the best DC since Rex and Marvin. They really need a home run type draft.

MFC     March 15
Maryland need to come up with the $$$$ and a lot of it. Did you see what Calipari is doing, goodness gracious. It’s not about what’s the best fit it’s about who can fill my wallet . Until Williard finds a few “angels” with huge bank accounts they will be mediocre. It’se awful age we live in.

TimD in Timonium     March 15
Happy that (Mens) Terps basketball has mercifully come to an end. Bring on March Madness for all the good teams.



But either Big 10 basketball is mediocre in general, or it's one of the toughest conferences in the country to win on the road. Only two teams (Purdue and Illinois) had winning in-conference road records, here's the grim toll for everyone else. Yuck.



Indiana 4-6

Iowa 4-6

Maryland 3-7

Northwestern 3-7

Michigan State 3-7

Wisconsin 3-7

Nebraska 2-8

Minnesota 2-8

Penn State 2-8

Rutgers 2-8

Ohio State 2-8

Michigan 1-9


Friday
February 23, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3472


other than that 12...how was it?


Thursday was quite a day at Lost Lake Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Charlie Woods, the son of golfing icon Tiger Woods, pulled into the parking lot at 6:25 am and was greeted by a PGA Tour photographer, two local TV camera operators/photographers, a writer from the Palm Beach newspaper, and 10 interested onlookers.

The kid is 15 years old.

They were there because his last name is Woods. That's easy to figure out.

Once he teed off, things got worse, if you can imagine that.

Spectators ignored tournament directions and moved off the cart path into the fairway, surrounding Woods as he attempted to play.

Charlie Woods had to deal with unruly spectators and a miserable score of "12" on his 7th hole yesterday in his attempt to qualify for next week's PGA Tour event in South Florida.

"Who are you, the fire marshal?" one woman asked a tournament official who was attempting to move spectactors back to the cart path.

A few holes later, a woman shoved a book written by Tiger in front of Charlie as he stood on the tee box. When he politely moved away from her to the other side of the box, she lashed out at him for failing to autograph the book for her.

"I live here!" she said to someone who admonished her for getting in Charlie's way as he tried to play the hole.

Oh, and Charlie also made a "12" on a par 4 hole that, obviously, ended any dreams he had of advancing out of the pre-qualifier and into the Monday qualifier for next week's PGA Tour stop at PGA National in West Palm Beach.

Such is the life of a 15-year old golfing prodigy.

Charlie rebounded from that disastrous 12 to par the next six holes. That in and of itself is quite an accomplishment for any player of any age or skill level. You make a 12 and then go par-par-par-par-par-par? That's impressive.

I'm sure Tiger -- who wasn't at the course with his son yesterday -- had a discussion with Charlie last night about how that 12 wound up on his scorecard.

Other than that, the round was pretty solid, particularly for a 15-year old. There were some bogeys and two double bogeys along the way, which is pretty standard for a 15-year old kid playing a 7,000 yard "big boy course". The 12 on the 7th hole was definitely an outlier, though.

You probably could have played the entire hole with a 7-iron and putted with a 7-iron and made a 6 or, at the worst, a 7.

So there's some learning to do for the young Woods, but that's why he was there in the first place. There are growing pains in every spot, including golf. You play "up" a level or two and see how your game stacks up so you can figure out how to improve.

Retief Goosen gave me "growing pains" in a practice round at the 2021 U.S. Senior Open when he routinely outdrove me by 50 or 60 yards on every hole. I quickly realized when I hit 7-iron into a 410 yard hole and he hits wedge, one of us has a clear advantage.

And it wasn't me with the advantage. The message I took from Omaha CC was "I do a lot of things well. Goosen, Andrade and Weir do everything well and much better than I do it."

So I saw firsthand what happens when you play "up" a level or two in golf. You find out quickly where you need to improve.

That's also what Charlie Woods discovered yesterday.

If you have any junior athletes in your household, yesterday's story is a good one to pass along to them. Remind your son or daughter that it's the person who actually enters the arena who matters most. The outcome is secondary to the effort you put in.

My friends created a text chain yesterday after word of Charlie's 12 made the rounds.

"What's your highest tournament score ever?" one of them asked.

In came the replies: 11, 9, 11, 10, 11.

"I made a 13 once at Four Streams in a Maryland Open qualifier," one of them wrote. "But I think I dropped out after 9 holes. Does that still count as a 13?"

Editor's note: We said, "Yes", it does count, even though the round became unofficial once he WD'd. "If you would have made a hole in one on #3 and then dropped out after nine, would you have counted the hole in one?" someone asked. When he said, "Yes, I would!", we all told him his 13 counted as well, then.

My contribution to the discussion was the "9" I made on the easy 12th hole at Mount Pleasant in the 3rd and final round of the Maryland Amateur Stroke Play circa 2000.

I almost never played well in that event, for some reason, with only a handful of top 10 finishes ever, despite playing the course basically every day for roughly 5 years or so in the late 1990's.

But on this occasion, I had strung together nice rounds of 71-70 and was hanging around the leaderboard after 36 holes. After making two birdies and a bogey on the front nine on the third and final day to trail the leader by a few shots, I then birdied #10 and #11. I was likely either one shot out or tied for the lead at that point, I figured.

What happened next was a total disaster.

I hit a solid tee shot on the 385 yard hole but it had too much right to left spin on it. In those days, over the July 4th weekend, Mount Pleasant was usually completely baked out on holes like #4, #7, #9 and, sadly, #12. When my tee shot on the 12th hit just in the left rough, there was no stopping it.

It careened left off the hardpan into the woods that border the left side of the 12th hole.

I made my way into the woods -- marked with red stakes as a then-called lateral hazard -- and found my ball about 10 yards in.

My first option was to take a penalty drop and hit my third shot from the left rough, some 140 yards from the green.

That was the easy thing to do. And the smart thing, too.

But I had a window in the trees and a fairly decent lie. All I had to do was punch the ball out and, if successful, I would have had 50 or 75 yards to the hole and would still have a reasonable chance to make par.

I surveyed the shot.

I thought very seriously about taking a drop.

But I decided to punch the ball out into the fairway.

I topped the ball about 2 feet. It stayed in the woods and, to my horror, landed right next to a plant or small bush of some kind.

My only option was to play the ball left handed.

I swung at the ball and missed it.

Now my head was spinning as if Jennifer Aniston had just asked me out on a date.

I should have walked out of the woods, collected myself, thought about my options, which weren't many, and gone back to the shot with a clear mind.

Instead, I just swatted at the ball left-handed again and this time it moved about 2 feet again.

I was now hitting my fifth shot and I was still in the woods getting Lyme disease.

Because this is what happens when you're not thinking clearly and the golf gods want to punish you for not taking a drop in the first place, my next shot essentially went about 10 yards, almost to the rough line, about where I would have been had I just taken the penalty in the first place.

My 6th shot, with overhanging trees to negotiate, came out scorching hot off the hardpan and bounded through the green and in the rough about 5 yards over the putting surface.

My 7th shot was a chip to about six feet.

I putted for eight and missed it.

And, so, when my friends saw me afterwards and said, "Dude, how'd you make a "9" on number 12?", I was able to calmly say to them, "Missed about a six footer for eight."

I tapped in and walked to the 13th tee.

When something like that happens, no one really wants to ask, "What did you make there?"

It's incumbent upon the guy who made the big number to bring it up. But only when he's ready.

I didn't say a word on #13 tee. I hit my tee shot and started walking.

It wasn't until the 14th tee that I was of sound mind enough to address what happened on #12.

"I made 9 on #12," I said to the guy keeping my score.

He pulled my card out of his pocket. "OK, I wasn't sure. I had you down for 6."

That's even worse. When you announce you made 9 and the guy in your group who wasn't really over there to see what was going on thought you made a standard double-bogey 6.

"Nah, I made 9," I said again.

And while I hung in there and made a few nice swings down the stretch, that blow-up ruined my chances of winning or, at the very least, it cost me a nice top 5 finish.

So, when I saw Charlie Woods' scorecard yesterday and saw the "12", all I could do was shake my head and say, "Been there, done that."

You hate to see it happen to anyone in tournament play.

But it's golf. Weird things take place. And they usually occur when they're least expected.

I have no doubt Charlie Woods will go on to be a terrific amateur golfer and, perhaps, a successful professional golfer someday down the road.

I also have no doubt he won't soon forget what happened yesterday.

He'll learn from it and be better for it.

As I tell my Calvert Hall players: "It's never a failure if a lesson was learned."


There's bubbling talk in the football world about Derrick Henry joining the Ravens for the 2024 campaign. John Harbaugh's team is thin at the running back spot with the probable free agent departures of both J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards. Keaton Mitchell is recovering from a torn ACL as well.

Henry will be 30 in 2024. That hardly qualifies him for "washed up", but in running back terms, he's almost definitely in the November of his career.

Derrick Henry is likely going to be available this off-season. Should the Ravens add the former All-Pro running back?

The good news for the Ravens? He'd likely come to them on inexpensive terms.

The bad news? Running backs tend to lose their quality very quickly, almost overnight it often seems.

Henry was, at the zenith of his NFL career, one of the league's top between-the-tackles ball carriers. If the Ravens could get one more useful season out of him, why not take a chance?

That's probably my summary of his potential arrival in Baltimore: Why not?

Eric DeCosta is almost assuredly going to draft a running back sometime in the first three rounds this April. And that makes clear sense. Despite what we saw in the AFC Championship Game in January, the Ravens are, still, an offense that values running the football team.

And while Justice Hill isn't among the league's best running backs, he's competent enough to marry him with Henry and a college draft pick and get something out of the team's running game in '24. If Mitchell recovers from his knee injury and can return to the form he showed in 2023, Todd Monken will have plenty of ball carrying options at his disposal.

I'm not a salary cap. But the Ravens have plenty of cap experts in house to make sure Henry's deal -- if it happens -- doesn't whack their salary cap out of shape.

I say go ahead and give Derrick Henry a deal and bring him to town.

Draft a running back, or two, even, and let's get on with it.

Let's just make sure we actually run the ball next January when the Ravens are back in the AFC title game again.

Deal?

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faith in sports


I continue to marvel at Steph Curry's greatness, even now, in the October of his Hall of Fame NBA career.

And on any occasion I hear him speak publicly, it always warms my hear to hear him intergrate his Christian beliefs into the discussion.

Athletes who serve God and aren't afraid to talk about it out in the open are few and far between. So when you find one, particularly a player like Curry who is constantly in the spotlight, it's important to showcase them.

Steph Curry's story is worth knowing. That's why he's in the spotlight here today at #DMD. You know him as a great shooter and a NBA icon.

But his rise from "good" high school player to dominant force in the NBA was fueled in part by his trust in God. And, as you'll see in the 10 minute video below, Curry had several life-altering moments that he still talks about even today.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and "Faith in Sports" here Friday.



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Thursday
February 22, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3471


15 year old charlie on the pga tour?


The golf world erupted on Wednesday with news that 15-year old Charlie Woods will participate in today's "pre-qualifier" for the qualifying event for next week's PGA Tour event near his home in Palm Beach, Florida.

Yes, there's a qualifier just to get into the qualifier. That's how much "Monday qualifying" has grown on the PGA Tour.

There was a time when 100 or so players would gather on a Monday and the low 4 scores would get to play in that week's PGA Tour event, wherever that might be.

One of these two hopes to play in the PGA Tour stop in Palm Beach, Florida next week -- and it's not the one you think it is.

These days, those Monday qualifiers still exist. But there are now so many players interested in playing in the "Monday" -- as it's called -- that there are now qualifiers (usually 2 or 3) just to get into the Monday event.

That pre-qualifier is what Charlie Woods is going to play in today at Lost Lake Golf Club in Hobe Sound. He'll need to finish somewhere in the top 25 or so -- give or take a spot or three -- to earn a spot into next Monday's qualifier for what used to be called the Honda Classic, which is now known as the Cognizant Classic.

It's very possible Woods will play well enough today to get through the pre-qualifier.

It's very unlikely he'll play well enough next Monday -- should he get through today's round -- to qualify for the Cognizant Classic.

"Why is he taking up a spot someone else could use?" caller John said on Sirius/XM radio?

John misses the point entirely of the PGA Tour qualifying process.

It's open to anyone with a handicap index of 2.7 or less.

And you have to fork over $195 just to play in the pre-qualifier and then another $295 for the Monday qualifier.

So it's not like you can just stroll right in and say, "Hey, Billy-Bob here. I feel like playing some golf today in this qualifier. What's my tee time?"

Charlie Woods is a very competent golfer, albeit only 15 years old.

Do I think he'll make the PGA Tour event next week? I do not.

But I give his father credit. Because, for certain, all Tiger had to do was make one call to the powers-that-be at the Cognizant back in December and say to them, "How'd you like to have a ticket bonanza on your hands? Give Charlie a sponsor's exemption into your event in February. And, who knows, his old man might even decide to play the tournament, too."

Tiger could have made that call and, yes, Charlie would have received one of the tournament's valuable sponsor's exemptions.

But the elder Woods didn't do that. Credit to him.

And credit to Charlie, too, who is willing to put his game on public display later today knowing well in advance he's a longshot to make it through two qualifiers.

I say this to junior golfers all the time: One of the only ways to get better at tournament golf is to put yourself into uncomfortable situations.

Stress is always the great equalizer in golf.

Go to the driving range on any weekend and you'll see guys pounding drivers out there past the 250 yard marker with ease. They look like they have total command of their golf ball.

Then you watch them play golf, on the course, and they look like a totally different human being.

I remember, maybe in 2016 or 2017, warming up next to a guy at the U.S. Senior Open qualifier at the Homestead in Southern Virginia. He was striping every iron shot on the range. His club, at contact, made "that sound" that most golfers pursue but few can find.

I glanced over at the name on his bag, wondering if he we might be playing together. It turned out he was one group in front of me.

I think I saw him in the fairway two or three times, total, all afternoon. He was always chipping or pitching from around the greens. When the round ended, I snuck a quick peek at the scoreboard: 42-42 - 84.

Now, any tournament golfer is capable of shooting "84", don't get me wrong. It can unravel in a hurry. And once it starts going south, it usually keeps going south.

But if you would have watched this guy on the range and I would have said, "Over/under is 79.5. You take your pick for $500", I'm 95% sure you would have said, "I'll take the under 79.5 and let's make it a thousand instead of five hundred."

Once he got uncomfortable, when the stakes were high, he couldn't replicate that gorgeous swing I saw on the practice range.

So I applaud Charlie Woods for getting out there today and moving himself into what I'm sure will be an "uncomfortable" situation. That said, being the son of the greatest player the sport has seen, I'm assuming Charlie's used to the spotlight and being uncomfortable. Maybe 18 holes of golf won't be all that different to him after all.

I'd love to see him squeeze through the qualifier today, which will probably require a round of 74, maybe? I don't know the golf course all that well, but I'm guessing a couple over par will get you through today's event and into the Monday qualifier.

The "Monday", though, will probably require you to shoot 6-under or better to make into the Cognizant Classic. With all due respect, Charlie Woods isn't going to shoot 6-under or better next Monday, should he make it through today.

But kudos to him for teeing it up today and giving it a go.

No one who failed to enter the qualifier ever qualified, remember.


There was an interesting moment late in the Spalding/Calvert Hall playoff basketball game on Tuesday night and it didn't go as you might have thought it did.

It was 67-47 in favor of Spalding with 1:40 left in the game. A large crowd was on hand. My 16-year old son was with me. He had homework left on his plate. Faced with a 40-minute drive back home, I nudged him and said, "Let's head to the exit and get out to the parking lot and beat the traffic."

As walked to the doors in the back of the gym, the Spalding coach called timeout.

Two Spalding fans had the same idea we had. They were up and moving to the doors to get out before the crowd started to leave.

"Now why would he call timeout there?" the mid 40's male wearing a Spalding hoodie said.

"All that's doing is pissing off the other coach," his male companion said.

Seeing me walk alongside them in own Calvert Hall hoodie, and probably feeling bad about the clobbering the Cardinals were taking, they held the door open for me.

"Best way to not have a timeout called on you when you're down 20 with a minute left is not get down by 20 in the first place," I said to them.

They both laughed.

"Just didn't seem necessary, boss man," the older of the two said to me.

And that was that. They made a right at the next hallway and we made a left, having parked in the back of the school near the football fields.

What's interesting about that benign exchange is this: We have no idea at all why the coach called a timeout there. Maybe he wanted to play a certain style in the last 1:40 in the event he's up by 2 or down by 2 against their next opponent (Mt. Carmel) tonight.

Maybe he wanted to insert a player or two into the game who hardly ever sees playing time.

I have no idea. I'm not at his practices. I'm not on their bench. I have no clue why he called that timeout.

But the last thing I'm going to do is complain about it.

Would it irk me if I'm the coach and we're trailing by 20 and you call a timeout with a minute left in the game?

Maybe.

But I'd hopefully remember, very quickly, that I put myself in that predicament by trailing by 20 points in the first place. And I'd hopefully also remember that I have no idea at all what's going on within the framework of the opposing team.

I have a hard enough time coaching my own team, let alone have to worry about how you coach your team.

It was particularly interesting given that the two men who created the conversation were fans of the home team.

Even they were irked.

But they shouldn't have been.

If you don't like getting a time out called on you when you're losing by 20, there's one way to fix that.


College football is so enamored with their new 12-team playoff format that they're already talking about a 14-team playoff starting in 2026.

Weird, I know.

They haven't even seen if the 12-team playoff is a good fit and they're already into discussions about increasing the number of teams to 14.

A college football junkie I'm not. I'll readily admit that. And while I don't care all that much about "January football" in the college game, I understand the merit of a 12-team playoff.

At some point very soon, college athletes are going to sign contracts to play their respective sports, just as professional athletes do.

It's coming soon. And, so, the schools and the NCAA are getting a jump on the whole process by piling up even more money than they already have in order to pay the student-athletes (do we still call them "student-athletes" when they're making $1.1 million to play?).

College football teams generally play a 12-team regular season schedule. What's two or three more games, right? These are kids, after all. They have tons of energy. Let 'em play.

And working in the NCAA's favor is that most schools are off in January for the holiday break. So, for once, college sports actually doesn't interfere with an athlete's academic endeavors.

So, go ahead and make it 14 teams, I say. Heck, make it 16 for that matter. We know that's ultimately what the NCAA wants to do, anyway.

You just know they're itching to make the men's basketball tournament into an 84-team field or something outrageous like that. If they can make an extra $100 million by expanding March Madness by 20-some teams, that's what they're going to do.

College football was awesome back in the old days when they played the Sugar Bowl on New Year's night and the winner of that game won the national championship.

Yep, 1978 sure was great in this country.

But I realize I'm definitely in the minority with that kind of thinking and, for sure, howling at the moon about how college athletes shouldn't be paid is just that...a futile exercise.

Make the football playoff whatever you want. 12 teams, 14 teams, 24 teams. Whatever you want to make it is actually fine by me because I'm not the viewing football enthusiast you're chasing after anyway.

Keep the athletes safe and happy. If the NCAA accomplishes that, they're winning.

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Wednesday
February 21, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3470


questions get answered


With yet another Maryland hoops loss to digest, I figured we'd get to the good stuff first and then Dale Williams can dive into last night's defeat in Madison, Wisconsin.

"The good stuff" constitutes a handful of questions sent in by #DMD readers.

I try to give them some sort of order of importance, which mostly hinges on their overall interest potential with you and the rest of the audience.

Bill Cress sent me a question about Terrell Suggs and Marshal Yanda being eligible for the NFL Hall of Fame in 2025.

Do you think either Suggs or Yanda are going to get in on the first ballot and do you think they deserve to get in on the first ballot?"

Will Terrell Suggs make the Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot?

DF says -- "Some of their potential as first-year guys is connected to who didn't get in from the class of 2024. And some of their potential as first-year guys relates to the other first-year guys on the ballot in 2025. Luke Kuechly is on the ballot in '25, for example, and I have to assume he's getting in for sure.

I think Suggs is 100% going to be a Hall of Fame recipient.

I think Yanda is 75%.

I think they both deserve to be in. But offensive linemen are treated differently than nearly every other position.

If you made me bet it, I'd bet Suggs gets in on his second go-round (2026) and Yanda gets in later on down the road (2029)."


Kyle Plevyak asks -- "I have a question for your Q&A Mailbag feature. In your opinion, how much better would PGA Tour players be if they played tournaments while riding in golf carts instead of walking?"

DF says -- "That's hard to say. I've never seen a direct connection between riding and scoring better, personally. I get that you don't use as much energy when you ride, but I don't know that riding translates to making better swings and more putts.

If there was a benefit, it would be negligible. Maybe one shot per round on average? I just don't think you automatically play better golf when you ride."


J.R. asks -- "Is there any chance this Orioles season goes south? I just don't see how they aren't a 95-win team at least."

DF says -- "Of course there's a chance. It's baseball. Weird things happen, mostly revolving around injuries. Gunnar takes a fastball off the wrist in May and misses 3 months and, suddenly, things change. Corbin Burnes is 5-1 with a 2.77 ERA to start the season and then he "feels something pop" on May 28 and things change.

All things being equal, the O's are, I agree, a 90-some win team. Injuries could be the one thing to derail them. I don't see any way their full team, as we know it to be right now, doesn't win at least 90 games.

I do think not having Felix Bautista as their closer could hurt them a bit, but they're not going from 101 wins to 84 wins because of that. More like 101 wins to 94 wins, maybe."


Carter asks -- "What's your take on the Zay Flowers news from today (Tuesday)? Is that all done now or could Roger Goodell still hand down a punishment of some sort?"

DF says -- "I think it's dangerous to comment on the whole situation after reading what the police released to the Baltimore Banner. The young woman involved in the incident said it was just a "bad ten minutes" but didn't want to report the name of the person involved. "He has too much to lose" she reportedly told the police.

That said, while it looks "bad" based on the details the police released, commenting on the situation seems odd given that the police have suspended their investigation. But not commenting on the situation could be seen as a lack of support for the young woman, who was clearly in distress.

Sure, Roger Goodell could still hand down some sort of punishment, but I doubt that happens. The police have moved on so I think everyone else should at this point."


Mark Williams asks -- "Is there anything more dumb than NASCAR ending its biggest race of the year under a caution flag?"

DF says -- "I'll admit that's very dumb. No two ways about it. But the NFL does the same thing with "kneel downs" at the end of the game, basically.

And the NFL also totally ignores that a quarterback throwing the ball into the dirt in front of him to stop the clock is, in essence, "intentional grounding". The normal intentional grounding penalty is given when the quarterback throws the ball away in an attempt to avoid getting sacked.

"Dirting the ball" in front of you is an attempt to stop the clock without having to actually run a play. It's essentially the same thing as throwing the ball away to avoid a sack, in my opinion.

That's all a way of saying, "NFL games are almost always somehow only 59 minutes of "real" football or thereabouts. The final minute usually consists of the quarterback taking a knee or two and the teams shaking hands with 24 seconds left on the clock.

It's weird. And so, too, is ending a stock car race with the cars actually not racing."



This is a really slow week on the PGA Tour, as the players head to Mexico for the Mexico Open at the Vidanta GC. Only one top 25 player in the world (Tony Finau) is in the field.

We're coming off a pretty huge week here at #DMD, where we gave you the eventual winner (Hideki Matsuyama) and top 20 finisher Adam Scott as part of our six-player betting sheet last Wednesday. I hope you're enjoying the Silver Oak you bought with my advice.

Let's see if we can help you out again this week.

Finau is the whopping favorite at +650. I'm not even remotely interested in wagering on him. Could he win? Sure. But the trend on TOUR this year is for "back of the pack" guys to come out on top, which is where we're going with our picks.

We're following our usual format here this week; wagers to win, top 10 and top 20.

Taylor Pendrith (+2200) is someone we're keen on. Vidanta GC is a place where players with good ball striking metrics, tee-to-green, tend to prosper. Pendrith is a solid player who can occasionally get hot with the putter as we saw a couple of years ago during his run at the Presidents Cup.

Mackenzie Hughes, another Canadian, is also definitely worth an investment this week at the attractive number of +4500. Hughes comes into the event on the heels of a really nice four days at Riveria CC, another course where ball striking metrics are critically important.

We're going even further back for a couple of others in K.H. Lee at +8000 and Ryan Palmer at +11000. Palmer hasn't played well of late, but tends to surface somewhere during the season at an event where the weaker fields gather.

But our two favorites this week are Keith Mitchell and Patrick Rodgers, both at +3000. Mitchell is in great form, data wise, and Rodgers has quietly been working his way toward a win for a while now. If you press us for an outright winner, we'll go with Mitchell.

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Open Again

dale williams aims the
terps spotlight

DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps fall by four at wisconsin


Despite a late rally where Maryland made a trio of three-pointers, they couldn’t overcome Wisconsin’s clutch late foul shooting, and lost a tough game to the Badgers on Tuesday night in Madison, 74-70.

With the Terps trailing late, they started putting Wisconsin on the line with under a minute left on the clock. The Badgers took care of business by making 11 of their last 12 foul shots. For the game, they made 28 of 31.

Maryland may have been robbed of a chance to win the game by a very questionable call.

Up by 2, with only 2 seconds left in the game, the Badgers were attempting to in-bound the ball under their own basket. While cutting to the ball, Max Klesmit ran over Jahari Long. Long was called for the block. The replay showed that Long had clearly established his position. The ref made the wrong call. Game over.

Jahmir Young led the Terps with 20 points last night in their 74-70 loss at Wisconsin.

Wisconsin took an early lead and led for nearly the entire game, including all of the second half. The Terrapins could never fully climb out of the hole, as their deficit vacillated between 4 and 7 points for most of the final 20 minutes.

It was Tyler Wahl leading the way for Wisconsin with 18 points. Klesmit had 16, including a backbreaking three with 56 seconds left. Jahmir Young had 20 for Maryland, although he struggled in the second half until it was desperation time.

The score at the first break was 9-4, with Wisconsin leading. Both teams started the game with a focus on the interior. Wisconsin had 3 layups and a three-pointer. The Terps had 2 layups, having taken 4 shots with only 1 being a three that missed. The touches by the big men down low were numerous.

Kaiser buried Maryland’s first 3 and that was followed by a Young “and one”. Meanwhile, the Badgers had turned the ball over on three consecutive possessions. Quickly, the Terps had grabbed a lead, 10-9.

Wisconsin kept giving the ball away, and Maryland converted those miscues into 8 points off of turnovers. The Badgers committed 5 early giveaways. The second break came at 11:53 with Maryland leading 14-11 and having possession of the ball. At this point, the Terps had made 6 of 10 shots. Attribute that 60% efficiency to taking shots that were close to the bucket.

A 10-0 Wisconsin run included a monster dunk by AJ Storr and a couple of nifty moves by Wahl. It took a Young step back, a nice take by Julian Reese, and a dunk by Jamie Kaiser off a steal, to break the Badger momentum and pull the Terps to within 1, 21-20.

It was 23-20 at the 6:24 TV timeout. A back-and-forth game had evolved, with the Badgers having reclaimed the points in the paint lead, 16-14. The Terps had now committed 5 turnovers and Wisconsin had 6.

Layups by each team told the story of the next few minutes. Wisconsin led 30-27 when Reese picked up his second foul of the game. A pair of Wisconsin foul shots and a Chucky Hepburn three later, and the Terps were down 8, 35-27.

The half ended in a rather bizarre fashion with Kevin Willard getting “T-ed up” after his team had just played great defense, stopping the Badgers and grabbing the defensive rebound. Wisconsin made both technical foul shots, ending the first half scoring at 37-29.

Despite the 8-point halftime deficit for Maryland, the first 20 minutes were played fairly even. Each team had made 12 shots from the field, but the Badgers had dropped 1 more 3-pointer than the Terps and Wisconsin also enjoyed an 11-4 advantage in foul shots made.

Wisconsin had balanced scoring with 4 players scoring at least 6 points, led by Wahl’s 10. The Terps only had 2 guys doing much damage offensively. Young had 11 and Reese had 9.

For some reason, both teams opened half number 2 by forgetting about the inside game and preferred to heave threes. Each squad was 1-4 from the three-point line in the opening 4:20 of the 2nd half. The teams each scored only 5 points during that time, with Wisconsin retaining their 8-point lead. The Terps were now mainly employing a zone defense.

The second TV timeout came at 11:46 with the Badgers hanging onto a 44-38 lead. They hadn’t made a shot in over 3 minutes and had connected on just 1 of their last 8 attempts. The Terps were 3 for 8 with 2 of those baskets coming on fast breaks.

With 9:28 left in the game, Wisconsin led by 7, 51-44. Maryland’s offense was relegated to one-on-one backdowns by whoever had the ball. That style was fairly effective though, as Maryland had gone a respectable 5-11 from the field.

Wisconsin started having success in their half court sets, with several possessions ending with easy chip shots. Their 3-ball was disastrous, going in just once in 8 tries. Their offensive play was helped by rebounding 5 of their second half missed shots.

With 4:51 remaining, the Terps managed to chip away at the lead. Reese hit 2 foul shots and the lead now stood at 56-51.

AJ Storr got a bucket with a power drive down the lane, and Young answered with a couple of foul shots. Maryland hadn’t made a shot from the floor in several minutes, but their 9-4 advantage in foul shots made at that time was keeping them in the game.

A very questionable charging call on Harris-Smith wrapped up play before the final media timeout. That call may have been a makeup call for when Harris-Smith was sent to the line after ramming his shoulder into a Badger defender.

It was 58-53 with a little over three minutes to play. Young was 0-6 at this point in the second half, and his Terps found themselves down by 7 after the Badgers hit 2 foul shots courtesy of the Harris-Smith foul.

Reese was hacked and made 1 of 2 from the line. Wisconsin followed that by running clock before missing a desperation 3. It was a strong drive by Young that gave him his first bucket of the half, cutting the lead 4, 60-56.

In what turned out to be the shot of the game, Klesbit drained a three off the dribble. It was a massive made bucket and provided Wisconsin a 7-point lead with under 50 seconds left.

Maryland was now forced to play the intentional foul game. Wahl was the first to go to the line and he banged home a pair making the score 65-58.

The game got much tighter when Scott followed the Wahl foul shots with a deep three. The Terps now trailed 65-61.

This time it was Klesbit who was fouled, and like Wahl before him, he drained both shots to extend the gap to 6, 67-61. Harris-Smith was fouled and made 1 of 2.

The Terrapins put freshman John Blackwell on the line this time, and he also made 1 of 2.

Maryland wouldn’t go away though. They shrunk the lead to just 3 points on a Young triple. Again, they put Klesbit on the line, and he made another pair.

It was 70-65 with Jahari Long going to the line for Maryland. He calmly sank both.

The score now stood at 70-67 with 11.2 seconds left in the game. Each team had made 13 second half foul shots. Donta Scott had fouled out for Maryland and Blackwell was out for Wisconsin.

With Maryland forced to foul, they sent Hepburn to the line. He did his job, nailing a pair. But again, the Terps clawed back with a Kaiser three. Maryland trailed by just 2 now, 72-70. Only 2 seconds remained.

Wisconsin, while trying to inbound the ball got bailed out. Klesbit ran over Long, but Long was whistled for the foul. It could have been Maryland’s ball with a chance to tie or win. Instead, after 2 more points from the line, Wisconsin had secured the win, 74-70.

Certainly, Wisconsin’s proficiency from the foul line was a key factor in their victory, but they also bested Maryland on the boards, 33-24. Wisconsin also made the Terps work very hard for their field goals, while the Badger buckets seemed to come a little easier.

Kudos to Williard for extending the game at a fairly early stage, something he failed to do against Iowa on Saturday.

I also thought his zone defense, which morphed into man to man, was very effective. I do think he waited far too long to put an all-out full court blitz on the Badgers. That should have been employed much earlier and much more frequently.

Wisconsin improved to 10-6 in the Big Ten, temporarily holding solo third in the conference. The Terps are three spots from the bottom of the league at 6-10.

On Sunday, the Terps will have to contend with Rutgers in the RAC. It’s a noon start with television handled by BTN.

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February 20, 2024
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baseball contenders and pretenders


Shohei Ohtani homered yesterday for the Dodgers in live batting practice.

I guess that means spring is really here and baseball is right around the corner.

I'm all for it.

Randy Morgan takes you through an extensive Orioles spring training preview below. As you'll see, I buzz through the rest of Major League Baseball today with a look at who we should watch and who we can dismiss in 2024.

I remain bullish on the Orioles despite the recent injury concerns of both Kyle Bradish and John Means. With no disrespect to Means, the O's can survive and thrive without him, as they did in 2023. But losing Bradish would leave a mark. They'd need te replace him, somehow, either with an arm of their own or a new arrival acquired by trade.

There's also the loss of Felix Bautista to deal with as the season goes on. I think it's safe to say the O's bullpen won't be as good as it was a year ago with Bautista scheduled to miss the entire 2024 campaign. But I don't think the bullpen will be a disaster.

This is still a 90-something win team even with Bradish, Means and Bautista not available for all or part of the '24 season.

But where do the O's fit in with the rest of the league? I'm here to tell you.

Contenders --

It goes without saying the Dodgers are the pre-season favorites, again. How good will they be? Who knows? They might scuffle along and "only" win 95 games or they might lose a game or two every week and finish at 115-47.

Can the Texas Rangers use their high powered offense to once again rise to the top of the American League in 2024?

The Braves are probably the second best team in either league heading into the regular season. They should roll to another N.L. East title.

Even with the questions we referenced above, the Orioles are most certainly an A.L. contender. Can Jackson Holliday do in '24 what Gunnar was able to do in '23? The wager here says "yes".

You can't count out the Astros even though they're getting a year old with each passing campaign. They just know how to win.

The Phillies made it to another NLCS a season ago before falling to the surprising Diamondbacks, but there's still plenty of gas left in their tank for a run in 2024.

And even though a repeat is highly unlikely, you have to at least give the Rangers their due. That lineup is just too good to ignore. If they get any kind of decent starting pitching, they're a 90-win team at the worst.


Don't Dismiss Them --

This is exactly where you list the Tampa Bay Rays every year in February. You assume this will be the year they nose dive into a 75-win season, only to watch them win 93 games instead and roll into the playoffs despite only having one or two players you've ever heard of.

The Reds are going to threaten to win the NL Central. Yes, you read that right. That might say more about the quality of the NL Central than it does about the Reds, but don't be surprised if they're playing football and baseball in Cincinnati next October.

It feels like the Mariners could be the '24 version of the '23 Rangers. In other words, a team that can put runs on the board and pitch decently enough to make some noise.

I know we're keen on laughing at the Yankees around here and with good reason. They're a shell of the team that ruled the roost in the A.L. East throughout the last decade and a half. But something feels different about them in '24. Maybe it's just that they've had their wings clipped and they're going to take things more seriously. Perhaps it's Juan Soto's arrival. Whatever the case, it feels like they're lurking.

It's hard to not at least give the Diamondbacks a nod here after what they did a season ago. That run to the World Series might have been a bit of a fluke, but they do have one of the best young players in either league (Carroll) and other than the Dodgers, their division isn't all that difficult.

Speaking of being able to hit the ball, the Blue Jays have to put it all together one of these seasons, don't they? If they get any kind of pitching (and that's a BIG "if") they could be a 95 win team. But they're probably going to lose a lot of 7-5 games. The playoffs seem within their grasp, but anything past a wild card series win would be a surprise.


The Pretenders --

Someone has to win the AL Central. We assume it will be the Guardians or the Twins. The Tigers are probably a year away from being taken seriously, but expect them to win somewhere around 72 games. I don't see much hope for the White Sox or Royals.

The Red Sox will be among the worst teams in the American League, I'm pleased to report. Whether they lose more games than the other two awful teams -- the A's and Angels -- remains to be seen. Oakland/Sacramento/Las Vegas will be hard pressed to win 60 games. The Angels weren't very good with Ohtani. Imagine what they're going to be without him.

The Mets have a few pieces for sure, but not nearly enough to go toe-to-toe with Atlanta and Philadelphia. 81 wins would be good for them.

Same goes for the Marlins, who always seem to be better than we think they're going to be. I actually think the Marlins could sneak into the post-season party again with something around 86 or 87 wins. But they need a lot of things to go right in order for that to happen.

The Nationals will rival the A's for the worst record in baseball. Useless called and said, "You guys are terrible."

The Cubs will be the biggest challenger to the Reds in the NL Central. It wouldn't be a shock at all to see Chicago win the division with 86 wins.

The Brewers aren't in full rebuild mode or anything like that, but they're certainly starting to piece together a new nucleus, as evidenced by the deal to Baltimore for Joey Ortiz and D.L. Hall. They will be very lucky to win 80 games.

The same goes for the Cardinals, except they're holding on to some of their older guys (Goldschmidt, Arenado) for one final run at glory, it would seem. 82 wins would be a nice campaign for them.

There's no telling what the Pirates might do. Because they're the Pirates, they're probably going to start off 19-6 and then be 24-26 on Memorial Day. A .500 record seems ambitious, but they'll probably be somewhere around that mark into September.

In the NL West, the Padres still have some pieces, but it feels like their window has officially closed. A playoff berth would be a mini-miracle.

The Giants and the Rockies are just hanging around for the sake of hanging around. Nothing to see with either of those teams.


We'll wait another month or so to throw out our official 2024 predictions. There are still several free agents hanging around that could help teams. But we already have a good idea of where we'll be going with our predicted AL and NL winners.

I'm sure you can figure it out.

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DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps visit wisconsin tonight


Badger fans must be scratching their heads and wondering what the heck is going on with the men’s B-Ball team in Madison.

Less than 3 weeks ago, Wisconsin was climbing up the national rankings while sitting atop of the Big Ten. Now, their former 8-1 record has been reduced to 9-6 and their 1st place standing in the conference has fallen to a 3-way tie for 3rd.

The Badgers come into tonight’s game with Maryland off an overtime loss at Iowa on Saturday, 88-86..

Wisconsin had lost 4 games in a row before beating Ohio State at home a week ago. The Iowa loss came next. They’ve suffered no devastating injuries, and the starting lineup hasn’t been altered.

Jahmir Young and the Terps visit Wisconsin tonight looking to shake off the home loss to Illinois last Saturday.

Pinpointing what has changed is difficult. The biggest difference that I see is the lack of consistent offense from anyone other than their leading scorer, AJ Storr.

Last season, Storr was seeing 21 minutes of playing time and scoring 8.8 points a game as a freshman at St. John’s. This season, he’s the focal point of the Badger offense, getting 16.5 points and taking far more shots than any other Wisconsin player.

Storr is muscular, bouncy, and aggressive. What he is not, is a great shooter.

At just 43% from the floor, and 31% from 3, Storr is far more dangerous on the break or when attacking the offensive glass than he is off the dribble or spotting up. I would think that Deshawn Harris-Smith will initially get this assignment. Jordan Geronimo is similar in stature, but he’s still questionable with a knee injury. Storr is 6’7”.

Wisconsin starts a big front court. Steven Crowl is a 7-footer and Tyler Wahl goes 6’9”. Crowl is efficient on the offensive side, and it’s my opinion that he’s under-utilized as a scoring weapon. He’s 55% from the floor and 46% from the three-point line. He doesn’t take a ton of threes, less than 2 a game, but a defender always has to respect that shot.

Crowl’s moves down low are more plodding than quick, but he uses his big body to create some space, and he hits most of his inside shots. He averages 11.3 points and a team leading 7.7 rebounds each game.

Also scoring 11.3 points per contest is Wahl.

Wahl’s outside game is so bad (22%) he could be a Terp. However, when operating closer to the bucket, Wahl connects 56.5% of the time.

Playing the “4” spot, he’s going to be trouble tonight for Maryland. He offers constant movement and a knack for knowing when, and where, to cut. Once inside, Wahl is crafty enough to score in a variety of ways or make a smart pass. He’s the guy I see as most likely to exceed his average points scored.

Triggering the Badger offense is Chucky Hepburn. I can’t understand how Hepburn shot 40% from the three-point line last year, and this year he’s under 30%. His mix of 3’s and 2’s hasn’t changed much, and the attempts per game are about the same. Whatever the reason, Hepburn’s shot isn’t falling. He can penetrate, but is much more likely to dish in the paint, than shoot.

Hepburn is a shorter (listed at 6’2”, but that’s optimistic) guard who is a solid defender. He’ll try to check Maryland’s Jahmir Young.

The last starter for Wisconsin is the 6’4” Max Klesmit. He’s the Badger’s leader in three-pointers made, but he only gets 9.4 points per game. At 38%, I’d be inclined to get him more than 4 long range looks each night. About 60% of Klesmit’s shots are from behind the arc, but he’s a respectable 51% around the rim. He’ll be pushed defensively tonight by Kevin Willard’s team.

In most cases, slowing down the game and limiting possessions is a good strategy for the Terps. But tonight, they are playing a team that also prefers the slower pace. Wisconsin’s half court offense is better than Maryland’s, but the difference is not monumental.

That being said, tonight is the night for Maryland to pick up the pace at every opportunity. The Badgers can’t run with them.

Wisconsin doesn’t like ball pressure and they really don’t have a guy who can break down a defense. They, collectively, lack quickness and pressure defense really exposes that flaw. Slowing down the game plays right into the Badger’s hands.

When possible, the Terps should push the pace and the pressure should continue for all 40 minutes.

Wisconsin will push, check, and play physical basketball, but outside of Storr, they aren’t an imposing presence on the court. Maryland just needs to be ready to push back.

Offensively, the Terp options are limited. You’ll always see a mass of isolations for Young, but I want more Julian Reese tonight. I’m going right at Crowl until he proves he can handle business in the paint.

The talent difference between these two teams is negligible. The best player on the court is Young, but the problem is that THIS court, tonight, belongs to Wisconsin.

Playing in your own building is a major advantage in the Big Ten. With Wisconsin being home, and desperately needing a win against one of the lesser teams in the conference, I expect an all-out effort from them.

The Terps can keep this game much closer than the 7.5 points that the books are giving them.

Only a full out Maryland disaster when shooting the ball will allow Wisconsin to salt away this game early. Conversely, if Maryland shoots above their norm, they could leave Madison with a “W”.

I don’t trust the Terps to shoot well, and I don’t trust Kevin Willard to speed up the game or pound the ball to Reese.

This is a must win situation for Wisconsin and they have just enough talent to pull it off, beating Maryland by something close to 68-62. If you have access to Peacock, tune in at 9:00 pm.

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RANDY MORGAN
on American soccer


Americans are playing more and more of a vital role in international soccer these days, and Randy Morgan has his eyes on all of them for #DMD. Each week here, he looks at recent performances of American players and highlights upcoming games of importance.


3 big spring training questions


It’s almost that time of year. Pitchers and catchers have reported to Sarasota and we are under a week from the first Spring Training game for the Orioles.

It has been an eventful few weeks leading up to the first games of Spring.

After the Ravens devastating playoff exit, the Orioles were the ones lifting spirits, with the announcement of a potential sale to hometown billionaire David Rubenstein and the acquisition of Milwaukee Brewers ace Corbin Burnes.

Will Gunnar Henderson stay entrenched at shortstop or could he move to third base in 2024 to make room for heralded prospect Jackson Holliday?

The latter represents the proven number one starter the Orioles have been looking for since the last trade deadline. Burnes is not only one of the top five or ten starting pitchers in the league, but also has a great health track record, starting 28 games or more and pitching over 160 innings in each of the last three seasons.

The trade for a legitimate top of the rotation arm signals the Orioles aren’t messing around anymore, they are ready to push for a ring this season.

Of course that news was quickly followed by some alarming injury news at the first press conference from Sarasota. The announcement that last season’s top starter, Kyle Bradish, is dealing with a UCL sprain is more than a little worrying.

While it remains possible that Bradish can recover with just the PRP injection he already received and some duration of rest, this is also an injury that often results in the dreaded Tommy John surgery. At this point all we can do is wait and hope that Bradish only misses the early part of the season.

So, as the O’s get set to start playing some fake games, let’s take a look at the three biggest questions heading into the season.


1. Will Jackson Holliday make the opening day roster?

Aside from the arrival of Corbin Burnes, the early buzz in camp has revolved around the unanimous top prospect in baseball. After a meteoric rise through the minor leagues as a 19 year old last season, the 2022 number one overall pick has a great chance to start the season in Camden Yards.

Widely regarded as having the best “hit tool” in the minor leagues, Holliday could represent an upgrade on an already productive infield. While he probably still needs a few years for his body to fill out to reach his power potential, Holliday demonstrated in all levels of the minors last year that he can hit the ball.

In order to break camp with the big league team, he will need to prove his defense is up to par. It looks like Holliday is going to be competing for the starting job at second base, with Gunnar Henderson firmly ensconced at shortstop after a near MVP-level season.

Holliday played mostly at shortstop in the minors, so the Orioles will be looking to see how he adjusts to second.

Jordan Westburg, Ramon Urias, and Jorge Mateo are all in the mix for the Orioles infield, but Holliday is mostly competing against Westburg and Urias. Westburg could start at third or second and Urias could man third base if Westburg is at second.

If Holliday isn’t going to be a regular starter the team will probably send him back down to Norfolk to get some more seasoning. Though with the new rules granting an extra first round pick for the Rookie of the Year winner, there is incentive to have Holliday up early on if he looks ready.

There is also the possibility Holliday could platoon with Westburg and Urias, as Holliday offers a lefty bat to contrast their right-handed hitting. No matter the outcome, all eyes will be on the budding star in Sarasota.


2. Are there more moves to be made?

This question gained extra relevance with the news about Bradish and to a lesser extent John Means. With two presumed starters out for at least the start of the season it will force Tyler Wells and Cole Irvin into the rotation, leaving a hole in the bullpen.

With the potential sale of the team still waiting on approval from the league, it seems unlikely the leadership will shell out big bucks for another top line starter such as Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery.

It may be more realistic that the team makes a move to sure up the bullpen. There aren’t many great free agent relief options left, but it’s not too hard to envision a trade for a middle or back-end reliever from either the depth of Orioles prospects or a veteran like Ramon Urias.

It would certainly seem prudent for the front office to add something more to the staff with the potential that Bradish could miss the entire season. There are three promising arms in the minors in Chayce McDermott, Cade Povich, and Seth Johnson, but none of them appear to be quite major-league ready to start the season.

Another possibility would be to sign a cheaper back end of the rotation starter that could allow Wells or Irvin to stay in the bullpen. This might be the easiest available option, with some names previously linked to the Orioles, like Michael Lorenzen, remaining available on the market.


3. Who fills out the backend of the roster?

As camp opens up there are around nine locks among the position players and ten on the pitching staff, leaving about three or four spots up for grabs for each. Rutschman, McCann, Mountcastle, O’Hearn, Henderson, Westburg, Santander, Mullins, Hays, and Urias seem set to make it to Baltimore in the field, while Burnes, Rodriguez, Kremer, Wells, Irvin, Kimbrel, Cano, Coulombe, Perez, and Webb figure to be locked into the staff.

Among position players, either Urias or Holliday will fill out the starting infield and Jorge Mateo seems a safe bet to stick on the roster with his speed and defense and his potential to occasionally play outfield.

That leaves the main competition for the fourth outfielder between prospects Heston Kjerstad and Colton Cowser and veterans Ryan McKenna and Sam Hilliard.

Kjerstad would appear to have the inside track after impressing in his short stint to finish the season in the majors last year. Cowser was seen as a prospect with higher upside but struggled in his stint in the big leagues.

Meanwhile, McKenna is a known quantity with solid defense and limited bat. Hilliard is the wild card, a reclamation project similar to Ryan O’Hearn that the O’s picked up from the Braves in the offseason. He has been mostly mediocre outside of an impressive 27 game stint in his initial callup in 2019 for Colorado.

The only other remote possibility for that last position player spot is exciting prospect Coby Mayo. The 22 year old has one of the most powerful bats in the organization but will almost surely head back to Norfolk to continue to iron out his swing and find his best position defensively.

As for the bullpen, if there are no more acquisitions, it seems the group of Dillon Tate, Mike Baumann, Bryan Baker, Nick Vespi, Keegan Akin, Bruce Zimmerman and Matt Krook will battle it out for two or three spots.

The hope in Sarasota is that Dillon Tate can return to the level he reached in 2022 before he was injured. That would go a long way to strengthening the back end of the bullpen. However, after missing the entirety of 2023 with injuries, that is far from a given.

The rest of the options besides Krook are relatively known quantities in Baltimore, all filling in for parts of last season with varying degrees of success. Baumann and Baker have both had very effective stretches but never really put together a full season.

Krook was recently acquired from the Yankees but pitched just four ineffective innings in the majors last season.

One non-roster invitee to watch is Wandisson Charles. Another big, hard-throwing righty with control issues, similar to Cano and Bautista, who could make a similar leap. Charles was fairly dominant in AA last season but struggled mightily with command after the move up to Norfolk.

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February 19, 2024
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steph vs. the wnba player matters that much?


I realize we've reached the turtle race season for professional sports.

Everything is in slllooooowww motion unti mid-March when the college hoops tournament kicks off.

Sure, there's hockey.

And golf.

And professional basketball, too.

But once the Super Bowl comes and goes, there's a bit of a down period we all endure.

So, perhaps that explains the tension from Saturday night when Steph Curry and the WNBA's Sabrina Ionescu engaged in the 3-point contest that was part of the NBA's All-Star weekend festivities.

Curry beat Ionescu, 29-26, in a highly competitive contest.

The WNBA star took Curry on while shooting from the men's 3-point line rather than the shorter distance the WNBA and women's basketball uses.

But she used the smaller sized WNBA basketball during her portion of the shooting contest.

Steph Curry and Sabrina Ionescu locked up in an entertaining three-point contest on Saturday night, but Kenny Smith of TNT created a stir with some of his opinions.

TNT basketball analyst Kenny Smith stirred the pot after the competition by claiming that Ionescu should have been permitted to shoot from the women's 3-point line.

Reggie Miller, who was offering commentary alongside of Smith, took umbrage with that opinion, talking about boundaries and how Ionescu should be allowed to shoot from whatever distance she wanted to shoot.

Smith then threw in another nugget; Ionescu used the WNBA basketball, which was smaller than the one used by Curry in the shootout.

"Women and men don't play golf from the same tees," Smith said in response to Miller's objections.

Alas, that's true. Women typically play a completely different set of (shorter) tees than men, although over the last few years there's been a push to stop calling them "Women's Tees" and simply refer to them as "Forward" tees.

My interest level for the NBA All-Star Game, on a 1-to-10 scale, is probably 1.5.

Actually, make it a "1". I couldn't care less.

But I do find public discourse interesting, particularly from smart people like Kenny Smith and Reggie Miller appear to be. I could listen to both of them talk about basketball for hours.

Smith got lit up on social media for his contention that Ionescu should have participated in the contest from the women's line.

Then he got clobbered for mentioning the smaller sized ball she used.

Well, which is it?

Should a woman play by woman's rules or should she play by men's rules?

It's just a silly shooting contest, of course. The real answer to the question above is: Who cares?

But a lot of people thought Smith was digging at Ionescu's inferior athletic/basketball prowess by contending she should have played from the "women's line" against Curry.

The whole thing took away from the fact that Ionescu went toe-to-toe with one of the greatest shooters of this generation and lost by one basket.

Me, personally?

I think you should let the young lady shoot from wherever she wants on the court. If she wants to shoot from the men's line, let her shoot from the men's line. Who cares?

That said, I wouldn't have had any problem at all if Ionescu would have participated in the contest and opted to shoot from the women's line.

That's the line they use in the WNBA. She plays in the WNBA. I'm not sure what was so wrong with what Kenny Smith said on Saturday.

And while it might have looked odd to have her elect to shoot from the men's line while using the WNBA sized basketball, that, too, should be her choice.

If she wants to use a basketball she's unfamiliar with, size wise, that's on her. I don't blame her one bit for using the smaller ball she's accustomed to shooting.

In the end, I guess I don't understand what the ultimate point to all of this is supposed to be. Sabrina Ionescu is an outstanding basketball player. She plays in the WNBA. That's a league for female basketball players.

Was Saturday designed to prove that she could either play or not play with/against men like Step Curry?

If that was the intent, it was always going to fail. For starters, just shooting 3 pointers and thinking you're in the NBA if you make a few is like hitting 300 yard drives at the driving range and assuming you'd break par at a PGA Tour event.

It was also going to fail because Ionescu isn't allowed to play in the NBA and, frankly, wouldn't be able to anyway. She's an outstanding basketball player but she wouldn't be able to make a NBA roster. I assume even Ionescu would agree with that statement.

Oh, and there's nothing wrong with that and it doesn't make Ionescu any less entertaining in her own league.

Reggie Miller got offended by something that isn't even really a topic. Kenny Smith is entitled to his opinion, even if it's wrong in some people's eyes.

I've dedicated more space this morning to the NBA All-Star Game and the WNBA combined...in....like....forever. I'm not sure I've ever even typed the words "NBA All-Star Game and WNBA" in the same sentence. Ever.

But we can't even have a harmless 3-point contest without people get all riled up over pretty much nothing at all.

I assume that the NBA and WNBA aren't angry about the coverage the event received Saturday night and again on Sunday. I mean, the NBA and Steph Curry had to know they were on the hook for some ridicule if the future NBA Hall of Fame player lost a shooting contest to -- gasp! -- a woman.

So, going in, the NBA knew something wacky could potentially happen.

I'm sure Ionescu doesn't care that she lost, no matter where she shot the ball from or what size the ball was. She had nothing to prove. She's already one of the best shooters in the WNBA, no matter what happened on Saturday night.

And while Kenny Smith ultimately had nothing to be ashamed of, he now knows to be much more careful in the future talking about women competing vs. men.


Speaking of weird stories that continued to percolate on Sunday, the Jordan Spieth disqualification at the Genesis Invitational was still being discussed two days after it occurred.

For those who didn't hear or don't care, Spieth was disqualified after Friday's second round for signing an incorrect scorecard. How it happened doesn't really matter. Spieth signed for a "3" when he actually made a "4", then apparently left the scoring tent rather abruptly because of stomach discomfort and a necessary trip to the men's room.

Jordan Spieth would have made the cut on Friday in the Genesis Invitational if not for a simple error that led to his disqualification.

Once he left the scoring area, his card was deemed "official". And when tournament officials learned a few minutes later about Spieth's incorrect scorecard, they had no option but to DQ him from the event.

Spieth said all the right things afterwards. And with good reason. It was all on him. It is, after all, his scorecard. And he knows, having played professional golf for a decade or so now, that a player is ultimately responsible for signing his card at the end of the round with the correct score for each hole noted on the card.

But the controversy rolled on over the weekend as some national golf analysts opined that the DQ rule was too harsh. Others suggested that the player signing his scorecard in a PGA Tour event is a thing of the past given the plethora of electronic equipment and data being compiled throughout each player's round.

There are several silly rules in golf. The "stroke and distance" penalty for out of bounds tee shots is one of them, I believe. I can hit a drive 300 yards but one inch out of bounds and be hitting "3" from the tee. You can swing and miss at the ball and you're only hitting "2" from the tee.

Anyway, there are some weird rules in golf.

But you having to sign your scorecard is not one of them.

When you make a scoring mistake, fail to sign the card or somehow goof up the math so much that you get DQ'd, that's on you. If you made a "5" on hole #7 and you signed for a "4", there's a penalty to pay for that. I don't disagree that DQ might be overly harsh, but you're the one who signed for a "4" when you really made "5".

Sure, there are two or three other people keeping your score along the way. It's posted on line for everyone to see. But at some point, the player has to have the right to verify what they shot. It is, after all, his or her score.

So, at the end of the round, technology be damned, a golfer should have to say, "Here's my card. When you add up the hole-by-hole totals, I shot 73."

When they do that, the score is official.

It's important to note that in golf scoring, a player is only responsible for putting his or her scores on the card on a hole-by-hole basis. They are not required to do the math after 9 or 18 holes.

Jordan Spieth did that on Saturday. "Here's my card. When you add up the hole by hole totals, I shot 73."

Except the hole by hole totals showed he shot 72.

Spieth didn't get DQ'd because he wrote 72 on the card or told someone he shot 72. It's important to note that Spieth wasn't caught cheating on Friday. Nothing of the sort happened.

He got DQ'd because the guy who kept his scorecard put him down for a "4" on the 4th hole instead of the "3" he made and Spieth didn't catch the error after the round.

That's what happens when you don't pay attention in the scorer's tent after your round.

And it's probably what you deserve if you can't keep track of your own score.


Daniel e-mailed me on Sunday with a scathing review of Kevin Willard and the coaching he's done at Maryland in the last two years.

"No players, no in game adjustments and no sense of a feel for the game in the final minutes when it's tight. He's an A-10 or CAA coach at best. Maryland will never win with him, they should move on now before they hit rock bottom."

That's what Daniel wrote to me.

Kevin Willard's second year at the helm in College Park is starting to generate controversy.

Two years in, huh?

Not even two years in, actually. The man hasn't even seen his second Big Ten conference tournament and you want him gone?

And before someone points out Daniel is just Daniel and certainly not the majority, we are starting to see "Willard is the problem" crop up little by little over the last six weeks.

For the record, I don't think Kevin Willard is the problem.

I think Maryland not having enough good basketball players is the problem.

I realize recruiting is a major part of college basketball. You're in sales, basically, and while you don't have to be quite as maniacal as Tommy Callahan was with Helen in the diner, you do need to be able to close the deal with quality players.

But Willard's in year two, not year eight.

If you were a high school kid in the summer of 2022 and Willard came knocking on your door, what would you have said?

"Coach, I don't care that your cupboard is bare, I'm coming to Maryland!"

Or...

"You know, Coach, I respect what you're trying to do. But I'm probably going to settle someplace where the coach and his staff have been there for a while and they have a solid returning group of players for me to team up with."

I think we know which way most kids went two summers ago.

Willard has been reduced to having to build his team via the transfer portal. That's certainly not an easy way to go about it. You're getting them for a short amount of time, for starters, and they likely come to you as a "finished product" rather than as a player you can help create to fill whatever role you have for them.

Maryland's basketball team isn't awful this year. But they're certainly not great, either. They're barely even "good", I guess we'd all say.

But it's simply not fair to start judging the coach after not quite two years at the helm.

This is a marathon, not a sprint, as the saying goes.

Willard is here for the long haul. If Maryland is still in neutral after the '25-26 season then, perhaps, it will be fair to start taking real, legitimate jabs at Willard's coaching acumen.

For now, patience is not only expected, it's more than fair.

Give the man a chance to succeed.


A reminder that I'll be on the 105.7 morning show today from 6-10 am, hanging out with my buddy Glenn Clark and his weekly co-host on The Fan, Reeta Hubbard.

Glenn will be running the show, which means it will be run just well enough to sound like we know what we're doing.

Reeta is awesome. Glenn and I will do our best to not bring her down.

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Sunday
February 18, 2024
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sunday stuff


I don't have a horse in the race, as they say, in today's final round of the PGA Tour event at Riveria CC.

My projected winner, Sungjae Im isn't winning. I do have two other players capable of cashing for me; I need a top 20 finish from Adam Scott (currently T15) and a top 20 finish from Kurt Kitayama (currently T20). Kitayama, interestingly enough, was a last minute insertion when I was granted a $25 bonus bet by the folks at SuperBook on Wednesday, thank you very much kind people.

So I really don't care who wins today. Patrick Cantlay (-14) owns a two-shot lead heading into the final round, but I didn't snag him in any of my wagers. Like I said, I'm not that concerned with who wins today in L.A.

But, I'm quickly becoming a Mackenzie Hughes fan.

Hughes is a 33-year old Canadian golfer who played collegiately at Kent State University. He has two career PGA Tour wins.

He's what you'd call, in friendly terms, a "journeyman" on the TOUR.

Hughes has also been quite outspoken recently about the ongoing strife within professional golf created by the folks at LIV, who have helped to create a massive divide in the sport.

Patrick Cantlay leads the Genesis Invitational in L.A. heading into today's final round, but it was commentary by another player during Saturday's third round that generated interest in the golf world yesterday.

He was in the middle of the fairway yesterday, mic'd up for live interaction with the on-air team at CBS, when he was asked to opine on the current state of golf.

"It's all kind of unfortunate right now," Hughes told Jim Nantz. "It just seems that it's all about the money. How much money can I make? We've kind of lost the spirit of the game in the process."

Bingo.

Mackenzie Hughes, of all people, gets it.

The Genesis is one of the PGA Tour's new "Signature" events, where a limited field of the TOUR's top players gather and attempt to earn bigger-than-usual paychecks and FedEx points.

This week in L.A., 70 players started the tournament. The cut was the low 50 scores plus anyone within ten shots of the lead after 36 holes of play.

"The cut" part, I'm good with. I'm not so sure I like the limited field element of the Signature events, but, as I've said here before, there should never be a professional golf tournament played that doesn't feature a 36-hole cut.

Money, though. As Mackenzie Hughes so aptly noted yesterday, it's taking its toll on the sport.

And what's weird is that Hughes is a middle-of-the-pack kind of player who benefits greatly from the increased purses the TOUR has offered in the wake of LIV coming along and ruining golf's business model.

But he understands it.

Professional golfers are supposed to struggle. It's in the DNA of the sport they've decided to play. Struggling to make it, living in your car, not knowing if you have enough money to finish out the season -- it's all part of what makes professional golf special.

I understand it's not that way in other sports. Players in football, baseball, basketball and hockey are whisking through seasons with guaranteed contracts and large sums of money at their disposal and their performance is sometimes an afterthought.

In professional golf, you either play well and make a living or you don't play well and you're not making a living.

It's how most of the players on TOUR get tough and get better.

Sure, there are guys like Tiger, Rory and Jordan who are rich in part because they were handed millions as young players. But those are three names out of thousands. And, obviously, it's probably fair to say the TOUR has greatly prospered in part of because of the international popularity of those three.

The rest of the guys, though, like Mackenzie Hughes, shouldn't get to play on Easy Street.

They should have to earn their way there. And then, once they find it, they should have to play better-and-best golf to stay there.

Glenn Clark and I had a discussion on his show last week about the way our state treats "snow days" during the school year.

What we've done over the last decade or two and what we continue to do every time we give kids off because of an inch or two of snow is teach them how not to toughen up.

"It's snowing out. No need for you to bundle up, help your mom and dad get the car cleaned off, shovel the walk and driveway, and get ready for school. We'll just cancel everything and you can stay inside."

I don't know how this has happened in our country, but it has. No one wants to teach anyone how to be tough. And, because of that, no one wants to be tough.

And that's precisely what they're doing in professional golf.

They don't want guys to show up needing to make the cut to pay his mortgage or keep his wife happy.

They don't want guys having to live three to a room at the Hampton Inn.

They don't want guys staring down a 6-footer needing to make that putt to have enough money to pay his caddie for the week.

Lee Trevino said it perfectly once: "Playing a tournament where a hundred grand goes to the winner? That's nothing. Try playing a $20 nassau when you only have $10 in your pocket at the start of the round.

I played many a round -- in the "old days" -- for $20 or $50 and only had a five and a ten in my wallet when I pulled into the parking lot. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, granted, but it also made me focus a lot more on the task at hand.

Mackenzie Hughes said it perfectly yesterday.

The spirit of golf has been lost.

I've watched far less golf so far in January and February, that's for sure. I'm not sure why. But, in general, the direction of the PGA Tour over the last year or two has left me disappointed. I'm not boycotting it or anything like that. But I definitely know my own viewing habits and I'm less engaged now than I was, say, in 2021 or 2022.

There's too much money being handed out in exchange for just showing up. And that goes against the grain of what golf has always been about.

You think you're better than me at golf? Get your clubs and we'll go find out. That's always been the prevailing thought when it comes to competition in golf.

Baseball hands out millions to guys who just show up.

So does football.

All the sports do it.

Golf should never do that. You get paid when your golf says you should get paid. That's why it was the best sport ever invented.

It should mirror real life: You get out of it exactly what you put into it.

He won't win this week, but I'm hoping a big victory for MacKenzie Hughes is in his immediate future.

And a top 20 finish from Adam Scott and Kurt Kitayama today would help my immediate future.


For reasons only they know, NASCAR kicks off their season today with the crown jewel of their season schedule, the Daytona 500.

It's the one and only stock car race I'll watch this year. You might be the same.

And I won't watch it from start to finish, mind you. I'll check in on occasion to see what's happening and I'll definitely settle in for the last 30-40 laps.

Like everything else in sports -- particularly when you don't actually know anything at all about it -- the Daytona 500 is now far more interesting because you can wager on it.

I'm interested enough today to place Top 10 and Win wagers on three drivers.

Austin Dillon (+4000 to win)

Christopher Bell (+1300 to win)

Tyler Reddick (+2200 to win)

I have a total of $120 invested in the race, which is probably about what it costs for a "get in" seat at the race itself.

Gentlemen...start your engines.


Dale Williams will unpack Maryland's loss in his column below, but last night's defeat to Illinois should just about end any hopes the Terps might have had of sneaking into the NCAA tournament.

They would now need a miracle run through the Big Ten tournament, which seems highly unlikely.

Prior to last night, Kevin Willard could have pieced together a scenario where the Terps beat Illinois at home, Wisconsin on the road and finish out the season on a high note in the conference before winning two games or more in the Big Ten tourney to catch the eye of the March Madness committee.

That dream fizzled with last night's 5-point loss.

The Terps are just too hot and cold.

And Willard has a lot of recruiting work to do -- either "naturally" or through the portal -- to get the program back on track in the Big Ten.

Maryland needs better basketball players in 2024-2025.

A lot of them, actually.


A programming note for those interested in my radio schedule. I will not be on the air today for "Fairways and Greens" from 12-1 pm.

However, I will join Glenn Clark and Reeta Hubbard for a spirited edition of the 105.7 Morning Show tomorrow, Monday, from 6 am to 10 am.

Please tune in. I have no idea what to expect, but it should be fun.

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DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps drop tough one to illinois


Maryland lost to Illinois last night, 85-80. They seemed to be fighting an uphill battle the entire game, trailing for all but two and half minutes in the first half and only tying the game, briefly, once in the second 20 minutes.

It was a one-point game, 74-73, when Jahmir Young snatched a loose ball out of the air and streaked towards the rim. There were 3 minutes left in the game at that time and most of the packed house rose to their feet in anticipation of a lead change. It wasn’t to be.

Instead of going hard to the rim, I think Young was looking for contact.

There was no foul and Young missed the shot with Justin Hardman rebounding. His outlet pass was to Terrence Shannon Jr, who threw the ball all the way down court to Coleman Hawkins. Hawkins flushed it with Donta Scott fouling. The Terps got caught napping, and it may have been the most significant play of the game.

Kevin Willard and the Terps fought hard but dropped an 85-80 decision at home to Illinois last night.

It was a drastic 5-point swing. Two more missed Young attempts, and a driving layup by Shannon Jr put the Terps into a 6-point hole from which they could never recover.

It was no surprise that the difference maker last night was Illinois star Shannon Jr. He, like Young, never found his groove from outside, making just 1 of 7, but he just seemed in control of the game. Illinois had 4 players in double figures, and Shannon Jr led them with 27 points. He made 14 of 16 from the foul line.

Young stuffed the stat sheet last night. He posted 28 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, and just 1 turnover. But his inability to hit shots late in games has hurt Maryland recently. Last night, he made just 8 of 23 shots and connected on 1 three-pointer in four tries.

Illinois started the game with a barrage of three-point shots.

The first TV timeout came with 5:05 having been played and the Illini had yet to attempt a shot inside of the three-point arc. Their 12-8 lead was courtesy of a 4-7 start from long range. Four different players had stroked a three for Illinois.

Maryland had countered with a Young triple, and a bunch of points in the paint. It was 2 Terp layups that tied the score quickly after the break.

The Fightin’ Illini got to the foul line a couple of times, and Maryland answered with a Jamie Kaiser 3. It was 18-17 with 11:04 left in the half.

The Terps were getting productive minutes from Caleb Swanton-Rodgers. The reserve big man grabbed 3 rebounds in his first 2 minutes of court time. Maryland had yet to produce a turnover.

At 8:41, Illinois had made just a single 2-point shot, and hadn’t made a three in almost 8 minutes. However, their 10-1 advantage at the foul line had lifted them to a 24-19 lead.

The 16-2 Terp advantage in points-in-the-paint was allowing Maryland to somewhat keep pace with Illinois. Maryland closed the gap to 24-23 by the next break at 7:42.

Young started going to work off the dribble, and his ability to get to the rim helped him produce 7 straight Maryland points. The Terps climbed to a 32-28 lead before Illinois tied it going into the last TV timeout. Young had 13 for the Terrapins while Marcus Domask had 11 for Illinois.

A small flurry of Terrapin turnovers stifled their scoring chances and Illinois was able to regain their lead, 39-36, after Justin Hartman drained a three.

The Illini went back to the foul line to wrap up the first half scoring. Terance Shannon Jr. knocked down a pair to give his team a 43-38 lead at halftime.

Looking up at the scoreboard and seeing 43 points for Illinois seemed hard to believe considering MAyland had appeared to play a tough 20 minutes of defense.

The Illini shot 50% from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, a number that was matched, exactly, by the Terrapins. The difference maker was the Illini 5-12 effort (41.75%) from the three-point line, while the Terps were just 22% off 2 for 9 long range shooting.

Early into the second half, Illinois had only increased their lead by a single bucket, but I guess Coach Willard saw something he didn’t like. He pulled his troops to the side for a timeout after just 2:10 of play.

The next 5 minutes saw a bunch of basket trading. Scott had 6 of Maryland’s points. Neither team connected on a three and Illinois lead by 5, 54-49.

The Illini led by 4, 57-53, when the next TV timeout came with 11:04 left in the game. Maryland held a 5-0 advantage in offensive rebounds and those extra chances were keeping the game tight despite Illinois shooting 60% (6-10) from the field.

A three-point play by Shannon Jr gave Illinois its biggest lead at 7, but on the Terps next possession an Illini foul put Maryland into the bonus. Within 50 seconds, Reese had made 4 foul shots and a layup. The score was now 62-59 with 8:45 left.

At the 7:51 media timeout, the two teams had played even in the second half with each scoring 21 points. Illinois led 64-59 and was going to the line to shoot one and one.

After Hardman hit the pair, the Terps gap was again 7 and the play was getting very physical. The Terps were caught in a 1-9 shooting spell, and Illinois was nearing 4 minutes without a field goal.

In what was beginning to look like a repeat of the recent Iowa game, Maryland was heading to the foul on almost every possession. Of their last 15 points, 11 came from the charity stripe. The game was tied at 68 before Illinois scored 4 straight. Scott answered for the Terps with a three, Maryland’s first of the half.

The last media timeout came at 4:01 with Maryland trailing 74-71. Deshawn Harris-Smith, Reese, Kaiser, and Jahmir Long all had 4 fouls. For Illinois, Ty Rodgers and Luke Goode were both one foul away from elimination. Maryland had possession.

After following his own miss and scrapping for an offensive rebound, Young produced two more Terrapin points at the foul line. It was now a single point game.

Maryland’s chance to go ahead was denied when, after a great steal by Young, he raced to the other end for a layup. Instead of going directly to the rim, he played for contact and missed.

Illinois converted that miss into a fast break “and one” when Scott fouled Coleman Hawkins while Hawkins was dunking. That made the score 77-73.

Young then missed a short jumper and Shannon Jr made a jumper in the paint. It was now 79-73, but Scott was on the line after being fouled. He hit both and the Terps held on the next Illini possession.

The gym would have erupted had Harris-Smith made his three-point attempt, but he badly missed it and the Terps were in trouble. They fouled Shannon Jr, who hit both to provide Illinois with a 6-point lead and only 19.6 seconds on the clock.

A Jahari Long three brought life into Maryland, who fouled Shannon Jr. Two more foul shots extended the gap to 5. 83-78. A Terp layup and a couple more Illinois foul shots ended the game at 85-80.

I thought the Terps, with a few exceptions, gave great defensive effort, it’s just that Illinois was better. The Illini shot 48% from the field and were successful on 32 of 36 foul shots.

Playing a huge role in the loss were the 19 fast break points given up by Maryland. I will attribute that more to Illinois execution than to lack of effort by Maryland. I thought they played hard, they just got beat by a superior team.

I would be immensely remiss if I didn’t mention the passing of Lefty Driesell. Lefty was coaching at UMD when I became interested in the team. My life as a fan was growing, but became solidified, when his Terps upset the #2 team in the country, South Carolina, on a cold Saturday, January 9th, 1971.

The left hander, with the absence of a shot clock, stalled the ball for almost the entire first half. The score after 20 minutes was 4-3.

Maryland won in dramatic fashion, 31-30, on a buzzer beater by Jim O’Brian. Cole Field House was sold out with over 13,000 people attending, many rushing the court. Years later, there probably are 50,000 that claim they were there. I watched it all unfold on TV. It was an amazing experience for an 11-year-old fan.

Lefty was a character, possessing massive charisma. He coached against many of the legends of the game, and in the process, became one himself.

His emotional foot stomping on the sidelines paralleled his passion for winning. Much of my love for this game I owe to Mr. Charles “Lefty” Driesell.

May the signature “Amen Chorus” echo through the rafters of whatever venue hosts Maryland basketball.

And may you rest in peace sir, and yes, you were right when you said, “I can coach”.

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February 17, 2024
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winter? no! snow? yes!


I don't know about you, but the older I get, the more I dislike the winter.

And, no, it's not just because 35 degrees isn't "golf weather". I've played golf throughout the winter of '23-24. In general, if it's 40 or above, I'll play.

It's just.....winter. I don't know why it bothers me more now than it did, say, 20 years ago. But I just don't like it.

That said. There's something about a snowfall I still appreciate.

I don't want a foot of it, mind you.

A few inches here and there is just fine. Like the snow we're getting in Bawlmer this morning. I'm good with that. I'm also driving to Richmond to play golf this morning, so I won't even be around to experience it today.

But you get my point. A snowfall here and there in the winter is still OK by me.

The greatest sport God ever invented. He freezes the pond and we play hockey on it.

It might be because some of the fondest memories of my life came in the 1970's when I used to play pond hockey at Lake Waterford in Pasadena throughout the winter.

I try to explain to my two children all the time how I would skate on Lake Waterford or Friendship Park's pond near BWI Airport in my teenage years. And they find it hard to imagine that it stayed around or below freezing for months at a time in the winter circa 1978.

I don't remember the year, so I'm sorry, but I distinctly recall piling in Fred Ravadge's car -- 4 of us from the neighborhood plus him -- and driving to Sandy Point State Park so we could all walk on the Chesapeake Bay. The entire bay froze over.

That's incredibly hard to believe, now, if you're a teenager and you experience a Maryland winter for yourself. We just don't see the same temperates today we saw 40 years ago.

I'm not political activist or anything even close to a climate expert, but "something" has definitely happened to the climate of our country (world?) over the last four decades. I'm not saying I don't like it, by the way. Give me 50 in February over 25 in February any day of the week.

Speaking of freezing temperatures and golf in the middle of the winter, golfing friends will often talk about the coldest weather they've ever played in and I proudly recall a story of mine from sometime around 1998 when I spent a Saturday at Mount Pleasant in January with my longtime friend, Greg Ruark.

Some of you in the Towson area might recall there was a Caldor on Perring Parkway between Taylor Ave. and Northern Parkway.

Situated in the parking lot was a vertical Caldor sign that featured a clock and temperature reading at the very top of it.

As I drove to Mount Pleasant on that Saturday morning, I gazed over at the clock. It read: 17 degrees.

"What on earth are we doing?" I said to myself.

But I got into the pro shop restaurant and Charlie Harris's wife, Barb, cooked breakfast for Greg and I and we fueled up on several large coffees and off we went.

"I'll have some chili for you boys when you come in later," Barb said as we headed to the first tee.

It. Was. Cold.

17 degrees is cold. A little wind added on for fun made it even worse. But off we went.

The greens were obviously frozen. But there was no one out there but us. And there's always something incredibly special about playing a course where you're the only player(s) playing on it.

Ruark and I buzzed through 18 holes in about 3 hours and 15 minutes.

On several occasions, one of the two of us would say, "You know, it's really not that bad out here," but the reality was it was friggin' freezing. But we had several layers on, each of us, and we were walking and moving around, so it honestly wasn't so cold you couldn't think straight.

Editor's note: Sometime back in the day when I was on the radio, I attended a Ravens/Patriots night game. I don't remember the temperature at kick-off but I want to say it was approaching 10 degrees. That is the coldest I've ever been. Far, far worse than that day at Mount Pleasant. And I was "that cold" mostly because I wasn't really moving around.

Greg and I walked in after the first 18 holes and head golf professional Jim Deck said, "Learn your lesson?"

"Learn our lesson?" Ruark said. "We're going back out for 9 more after lunch."

As promised, Barb Harris served us piping hot chili and a grilled cheese or two. A few of the locals had stopped in for lunch as well and they were both shocked and amused at the fact that two lunatics were choosing to play golf, outside, that day.

"Let's hit it!" I said to Ruark as we got a final coffee refill.

"You two are really going back out?" Jim Deck inquired.

"Sure!" Ruark said. "Why don't you come with us? I thought you liked golf?"

Deck waved us out of the pro shop and off we went for another tour of the former home of the Eastern Open.

Nine holes was enough the second time around. Darkness was setting in and, you'll laugh at this, it was really starting to get cold as we both putted on that 9th green.

We went back in the pro shop to warm up. Barb had closed the restaurant. Greg and I bid one another farewell and headed home.

As I drove past the Caldor, the big clock read: 11 degrees.

So my winter "claim to fame" isn't watching a football game in unthinkably cold weather.

It's playing 27 holes in 15 degree temperatures.

I wouldn't do that now.

And, yes, before you ask, I still love golf.

I just wouldn't go out there and do anything in 15 degree temperatures, except for perhaps attend the AFC Championship Game.

I'd never go to a regular season game or even a "regular playoff game" in 15 degree temperatures. I just wouldn't do it. I don't care enough to sit/stand in an open stadium for 3.5 hours in shockingly cold temperatures.

I would have gone to this year's AFC Championship Game if the temps would have been around 15 degrees, but that's the only game you'd get me out there for in that kind of weather.

There was a time, though, when 15 or 20 degrees didn't bother me.

Ice hockey.

Golf.

In my younger days, cold weather didn't bother me.

Now? You can have it. All of it. If it's 35 or above, I'm OK. Anything below that and I'm agitated.

But today's snowfall is an acceptable change of pace, although I'm certainly hoping it's all melted by Tuesday.

And it also helps that at noon today, I'm on the tee in Richmond.

Enjoy your snow day.

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dale williams aims the
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DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps look to sweep illinois tonight


The Maryland Terrapins have the rare opportunity tonight to sweep a second conference series by winning at home against a team they’ve already defeated this season on the road.

The Terps beat Illinois 76-67 on January, 14th and the Fighin’ Illini come to College Park today for a 5:30 pm contest. On Wednesday, the Terrapins defeated Iowa at the XFINITY Center after handing them a loss in their own building just three weeks prior.

What makes this game against the nation’s number 14 team much more difficult, is the return of the Illini’s top scorer in Terrance Shannon Jr.

Jahmir Young looks to repeat his 28 point performance against Illinois back in January when the Terps host Brad Underwood's team tonight.

Shannon is a bucket. In his last two games he dropped 31 on Michigan and 28 on Michigan State. The big guard (6’6” 225) has respectable numbers from the floor and the three-point line. We can expect him to play over 30 minutes and shoot around 50% from the field, including 36% from the three-point arc.

Shannon’s presence alone makes it impossible for me to believe we’ll see Illinois, again, go 27% from 3 and just 33% from the field altogether. In the second half of that earlier Terrapin win, the Illini hit just 9 of 40 shots and connected on only 1 of 14 threes. Maryland is a great defensive team, but those numbers will not repeat.

Maryland has three players on the injury list.

Jordan Geronimo had 9 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 blocks against Illinois in the first meeting between these two teams. If the knee injury he sustained against Iowa keeps him out tonight, the Terps will need to replace his productivity along with the 29 minutes that Geronimo logged in that Terrapin win.

Maddy Traore stayed on the bench in the first UMD/Illinois meeting. He obviously had no impact on that game, but he saw 20 minutes in the Ohio State loss, scoring 8 points. In the recent Iowa game, Traore had logged 10 minutes before he went down in the second half. His stock seemed to be rising, but it looks like his status is questionable, at best.

Noah Batchelor knocked down a single three in his 7 minutes of court time against Illinois. His availability is also in question tonight because of an ankle injury that forced him to hobble around in a boot last Wednesday.

Those injuries reduce the Terp rotation to just 7 players and could play a role in how Coach Willard plans for the game. Perhaps the lack of bodies forces Maryland into more zone defenses and hampers their ability to press. That’s Maryland’s identity which is possibly being altered. It’s a whole lot to overcome.

I could go down the whole roster of Illini players who had numbers against Maryland which were well below their season averages.

Quincy Guerrier was 2 for 10.

Coleman Hawkins was just 2 for 6 and missed all four of his three balls.

Ty Rodgers is a 52% shooter and he connected on just 2 of 8 shots.

Reserve Justin Harmon only scores 7 a game, but he pitched a shutout against the Terps, going 0-7.

In Maryland’s favor, Illinois has nobody to contend with Julian Reese, and Jahmir Young had a 28 point, 8 assist game against them. The Terps aren’t exactly toothless here, but their bite tonight may be more appropriate for a banana than a steak.

This Illinois team, with Shannon, is a different animal when compared to the squad that fell to the underdog Terps in the middle of January. They played well below their potential, and they face a Terp team that could be without some of their pieces.

If you need some stats to convince you of the difficulties the Terps tonight, how about Illinois being the top rebounding team in the Big Ten. Then there’s the fact that only Nebraska makes more threes than Illinois, and they also defend the three very well.

I don’t like the Terps chances here. They can slow down the game, but that by itself won’t prevent a loss. This is an 8-point Terp loss. I’ll go with 74-66 and hope it stays that close.

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Friday
February 16, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3465


friday stuff


Back to sports today, albeit with a bit of an ailing heart for those impacted by the tragedy in Kansas City on Wednesday.

I attended the Calvert Hall-Spalding MIAA A-Conference championship hockey game last night down in Odenton. There was a packed house at Piney Orchard ice rink for that one, won by the Cavaliers, 2-1.

No one got shot. Or hurt. Well, other than a Calvert Hall player who got knocked out cold by a penalized hit from a Spalding player in the waning seconds of the contest. But you know what I mean.

The stands were filled, a game was played, and there was no violence of any kind amongst the spectators.

It can be done, of course. People in our country can gather en masse for games, events, celebrations, etc. and those moments can come and go without us hurting one another.

On we go...


Caitlin Clark of Iowa broke the women's all-time scoring record last night with a 49-point performance vs. Michigan. She needed 8, and then tacked on 41 more in an emphatic declaration that she's the best offensive player in the history of women's basketball.

The reaction around the country ranged from "She's the G.O.A.T." to "who gives a rat's rear end?" to "I didn't even know they played women's basketball at Iowa."

It was, indeed, a wonderful moment of triumph for Clark, who heaved a 30-foot 3-pointer into the basket early in the game to snag the record. She seems like a terrific competitor and a nice young woman as well. A coach's dream, probably.

Iowa's Caitlin Clark became the leading scorer in the history of women's basketball last night.

Because it's women's basketball, the hoopla and fanfare that accompanies the scoring record will die away quickly. She'll be a big deal again in a month when the women's NCAA tournament rolls around, and you just know the TV folks and the NCAA are foaming at the mouth over a championship rematch between Iowa-Clark and LSU-Reese.

But the general reaction to Clark's record last night was "who?"

And that's more of an indictment on college basketball in general than it is an indictment of her.

No one knows who plays where any longer.

Heck, no one even knows what conference half the schools play in these days. And that's the truth. I tried to name all of the Big East teams yesterday and missed two of them.

I forgot Creighton was in the Big East. I thought Pitt was. Then I realized they've been in the ACC for 15 years, maybe.

I have no idea at all who is in the Big 12 any longer. Or the Pac 10, Pac 12, Pac 16 or whatever they're now called.

We've seen, firsthand around here, what conference shifts do to the interest level for college sports.

Maryland played a Wednesday night conference home game this week in front of a Hershey Bears minor league hockey crowd, basically. Which is to say, about 8,500 people bothered to come out to see the Terps play Iowa.

Someone brought up earlier this week the absence of "stars" in men's college basketball.

There are plenty of star players in the men's division. The NBA will scoop them up, that's how good they are.

No one knows who they are because the "student-athletes" don't stay in the same place long enough for any of us to discover them.

Or, even more accurately, they don't stick around long enough for us to discover them.

Either way, the NCAA has created this pothole themselves. They've let these players wander all over the country looking for their next big deal payday.

And in the meantime, none of us has a clue who plays at Purdue, Houston, Marquette or Arizona. I know that big kid who was at Michigan plays at Kansas, and I "think" it's Dickinson and not Dickerson, but I don't know if he's a junior, senior, etc.

As for Caitlin Clark, she, herself plays to sold out crowds, that much is true.

But that's not because the sports world is gung-ho for women's basketball. Or for her, even. The world of women's college basketball is enthralled with her, and rightfully so, but, in general, she's Chris Kirk on the PGA Tour. In other words, I've heard of her. Haven't I?

Maryland sold out the arena (well, all the tickets were distributed, let's put it that way) when she came to town, but that's the only occasion the Xfinity Center will be filled for women's basketball.

Clark is great. Women's college basketball is decent enough.

No one gets amped up about women's hoops for the same reason fewer people are getting amped up by men's hoops; they have a major identity crisis going on.

We can't keep up with what's going on.

Someone sent me a picture of the Maryland student section midway through the first half of Wednesday's game vs. Iowa.

There were more people at Bentley's on a Friday night than were in those seats behind the basket. And that's not hyperbole.

And I wondered: Does Maryland care that no one is going to the games?

The answer, I think, is: They're getting $53 million from the Big Ten Network whether 8,500 are there or 17,500 are there. That's the only thing that matters these days.

And on the occasion when the rock star of their sport shows up, the seats will be filled. Sadly, there's only one Caitlin Clark.

And unless she's like the Plumlee brothers at Duke and plays forever at Iowa, she won't be around for 9 years to help fill the coffers in the various Big Ten arenas she visits on an annual basis.

In fact, it's the TV money they're gifted that will take the place of filling the arenas.


Tiger Woods experienced the good, bad and ugly in his first official round of golf since last April in yesterday's Genesis Invitational.

Woods played the par 5's great, going birdie-birdie-birdie at Riveria CC. In fairness, the first hole is really a glorified handshake. It's a par 4 with a par 5 designation, in other words. But birdie is birdie.

Tiger wasn't all smiles on Thursday after an opening round 72 but he was able to laugh about an errant shot on the final hole at Riveria CC.

He played the par 3's decently too. He birdied both of those on the front nine to turn in one-under par after his opening nine holes.

But the back nine was a hoot. Tiger's iron play was "off", his short game was far from reliable and he even sh*nked an approach shot into the 18th green.

You and I hit a sh*nk (no, I won't say or write the word out) and we know it's a sh*nk. We don't like it, but we know what we did.

Professional golfers hit one and they refuse to acknowledge it.

"Caught that one on the heel a bit," a local PGA professional once said to me when we were playing a Maryland Open round.

To Woods' credit yesterday, he not only admitted he hit one, he even said the dreaded word in his press conference.

In the end, Tiger fired an opening round 72, which made those of us who took the "over 71.5" very happy indeed.

As I wrote on Twitter, it was about what I assumed we'd see from him.

Some really good shots. Some so-so shots. A few missed putts here and there.

He's still Tiger Woods, yes. But he's not "Tiger Woods". Sure, he used to chew up the par 5's in the old days and that's what he did yesterday. But old Tiger, at 18, would have piped that 8-iron to eight feet on the last hole and rolled in the putt to turn 71 into 70.

Instead, he hit one off the hosel like a 16-handicap and had to scrape together a bogey that could come back to haunt him when the cut line is introduced after today's second round.

The more positive news? Woods drove the ball great for the most part. He survived the hilly walk at the Genesis without much difficulty, other than a stiff back near the round's conclusion.

He shot 72 in his first competitive round of golf since last April.

I see that as a good sign, personally.

I assume, privately, Tiger does, too.

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faith in sports


As a lot of you know, I'm heavily involved in the golf program at Maryland Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Three years ago, there was no golf at all within Maryland FCA.

My friend Brian Hubbard and I wanted golf represented within FCA and launched the first ever division of FCA Maryland Golf in the spring of 2022.

Here we are in 2024 and things are really percolating for us, thanks to God's blessings.

In 2023, we held 7 free monthly clinics for junior golfers of all ages.

We hosted 7 different junior golf tournaments as well, with 64 different players and 257 total competitors.

We ran a 4-day golf specific junior camp at the national FCA summer camp in Kutztown, PA and taught 16 juniors more about golf and their faith over those four days last July.

God has graced us with a remarkable platform to share with both junior golfers and adults in the area.

I love coaching. And I love the message FCA provides to my children, personally, and to those we impact through FCA Maryland Golf.

Many of you have probably heard of FCA throughout your life, but might not know exactly what it is.

The very brief, introductory video below, will show you what FCA is all about. How it started, how it impacts our youth and how it's growing in 2024.

I'd love to introduce you to FCA Maryland Golf as well. If you're interested in learning more about how we share the FCA message with golfers throughout Maryland, please reach out to me: 18inarow@gmail.com

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical, who have been longtime supporters of our work here at #DMD and our FCA Maryland Golf project.



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JERRY'S TOYOTA banner
Thursday
February 15, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3464


we need to "live differently"


I intended to give full and ample coverage to the start of baseball season in today's edition.

And as you'll see below, I do eventually get around to some baseball discourse.

But it feels a little hollow this morning to make sports the main focus here when there was a sports "tragedy" yesterday in Kansas City.

Schools.

Churches.

Concerts.

Marathon races.

Malls.

Office buildings.

And, yesterday, a celebratory parade for the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.

It appears as if doesn't matter where or when.

Evil people are everywhere.

I walked into church last night for our Ash Wednesday service and a friend reached out his hand and said, "What are we going to do?"

Needless to say, I instantly knew what he was talking about.

"I don't know," I said.

"What I do know, is that we can't stop trying to figure out the answer," I told him.

If we stop trying to figure out how to put an end to these senseless murders of innocent people, then we really are in trouble.

We have to keep working on a solution.

There are a lot of people in our country who want to pin everything on "guns".

The two Boston marathon bombers didn't need guns.

The hijackers on 9-11-01 didn't need guns, either.

Timothy McVeigh didn't need a gun.

I'm not listing those three tragedies to somehow diminish the pain that guns have caused people in our country.

Instead, I'm trying to point out what should be very obvious to everyone: Evil lurks everywhere. There are simply people who are intent on injuring or killing people and they'll use whatever they can to quench their thirst for hate.

What's the answer?

I believe the answer lies in a simple effort: Can I live like Jesus lived?

Those three men yesterday? They weren't living a life that Jesus lived.

The marathon bombers weren't.

The man who shot up the school near Lancaster, PA wasn't living a life that Jesus lived.

The two kids at Columbine High School certainly weren't.

I could go on and on but you get the point by now.

We're living the wrong way.

I don't know why. If I did, I'd be a billionaire.

Perhaps the answer is as simple as saying: This is the way humanity goes. There are good people and bad people. And while the good people far outweigh the bad, the bad ones still have enough energy and opportunity to do harm to us.

But if we simply say, "This is the way humanity goes," we'll be surrendering ourselves to believing things can never get better.

People scoff when someone offering commentary on a tragedy says, "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families..."

I understand the skepticism.

I didn't once mention the word "prayer" until two sentences above, in case you didn't notice. Prayer is a remarkable way to have a personal conversation with God. It is important. But it's not solving this issue that we have in our country right now.

But "thoughts"?

Well, maybe that's part of the answer.

We don't do nearly enough thinking about how we have to go about this, as a society.

We'll offer a lot of knee-jerk reactions.

But we don't do enough real, honest to goodness thinking about how we can stop hurting one another.

I think it lies in trying to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.

He lived a life filled with love, empathy, compassion and kindness for everyone he encountered.

If there was ever someone to "be like", it is, indeed, Him.

We have to teach that way of life, obviously. From the outset, at a young age, when our ideals and moral compass are being formed, we have to be taught the life of Jesus and understand how living like He did will change the way we treat one another forever.

It's incredibly simple and, yet, hard to imagine we can actually get it done.

But the way we're doing it now isn't working. I think that's abundantly clear, no matter how hard it is to admit.

That's what I think about when these tragedies strike.

Those three gunmen yesterday...they couldn't have possibly known Jesus. And they weren't living their life modeled after him.

Timothy McVeigh.

The Boston marathon bombers.

The gunman in Las Vegas.

None of them were living the same kind of life Jesus lived.

We're failing, as a society, to get people closer to Jesus.

We're failing, but that doesn't mean we should stop trying. In fact, it's really the exact opposite. We need to dig in even deeper.

As I was leaving church last night, my friend I mentioned who greeted me upon my arrival reached out his hand for a parting comment.

"Keep the faith," I said to him. "Giving up isn't the answer. We have to figure out the solution. It's not getting figured out for us."

"You're right," he replied. "Let's figure it out before it's too late."

It's never too late.

It might feel too late, as we hear details of yet another tragedy in Kansas City yesterday.

But it's not too late.

Let's all live like Jesus lived and see what that gets us.

And I think it's important to point out that trying to live the way Jesus lived doesn't just stop people from killing innocent human beings. It also helps us treat family members, friends, co-workers and neighbors better.

There's a decline in that area, too. We're struggling with every day kindness, let alone trying to diminish horrific tragedies like the ones we've referenced here today.

I can guarantee this: If we all live like Jesus did, things will definitely get better.

So the question is: Are you willing to try?



I have a team-by-team early-bird baseball preview in the hopper that was supposed to be today's main topic. As I referenced above, it felt -- to me, anyway -- a little disrespectful to dive in like that this morning based on what happened yesterday in Kansas City.

It's too early to get into a full predictions segment just yet. There are still several quality free agents left to sign somewhere that could alter the landscape of both the American and National League.

But we'll have some fun today with a few baseball-related nuggets that I think you might like.

And someday soon I'll run the piece that was previously scheduled to be included in today's edition of #DMD.



6 World Series Candidates

The 2024 champion of Major League Baseball will be one of these six teams.

1. Los Angeles Dodgers

2. Atlanta Braves

3. Baltimore Orioles

4. Philadelphia Phillies

5. Houston Astros

6. Texas Rangers


Who could be this year's version of the '23 Texas Rangers?

Two teams you're not thinking of right now could be this year's version of last year's champions from Texas.

1. Seattle Mariners

2. Cincinnati Reds

If both of them get good (or better than expected) pitching, watch out.


Percentages of Orioles wins total in 2024.

Over 105 wins -- 22%

95 to 104 wins -- 39%

83 to 94 wins -- 28%

82 to 75 wins -- 7%

74 or fewer wins -- 4%

If the Orioles don't get any kind of wild rash of key injuries, they're a cinch bet to win at least 95 games.

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dale williams aims the
terps spotlight

DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps rally past iowa, 78-66


With Maryland trailing by 8 points, and only 10:04 left to play in the game, the Iowa Hawkeyes were whistled for 3 fouls in just 1 second of play.

The fouls put the Terps into the bonus and also put the Hawkeyes on their heels. Iowa, who until that moment was scoring at a 2 point per minute clip, only posted 8 points in the game’s final 10 minutes.

Maryland closed out on a 28 to 8 run. The foul line accounted for 16 of those 28 points, as they beat the Iowa Hawkeyes last night, 78-66, in front of just a few fans in the XFINITY Center.

Jahmir Young led the Terps with 21 points, 15 in the second half. He was helped by DeShawn Harris-Smith’s career high 17 points as well as 16 from Julian Reese. Payton Sandfort had 19 for Iowa.

Kevin Willard and the Terps rebounded from yet another halftime deficit and rallied to get past Iowa last night, 78-66.

The Hawkeyes held the lead for 30 of the game’s 40 minutes, and led by 10 at one point in each half. They were ahead by 8 at the seminal moment described above. The Terps went from a team that couldn’t get a defensive stop, to one the challenged almost every pass and every shot.

A slow shooting start (1-6) combined with 3 early turnovers, helped ensure that the Terrapins were behind at the first TV break. Two 3’s by Iowa’s Sandfort propelled the Hawkeyes to their 8-2 lead. The Terps had more of their shots blocked (3) than made.

When Sandfort made his third triple of the game, he alone was beating Maryland 9-4. Familiar numbers were stacking up on the Terrapin stat sheet. Maryland was 0-5 shooting threes, 3 for 12 from the field, and had piled up 5 turnovers by the 11:46 timeout. They trailed 13-6.

Maryland managed to trim a single point off of the Iowa lead as the teams went into the under 8-minute TV break. The score was 21-15 with 6:42 left in the half. The Terps had finally hit a three thanks to DeShawn Harris-Smith, but were 1-9 as a team.

When the Hawkeyes drained their 5th triple of the half, Willard had to call a timeout. His team now trailed by 11, 26-15, with Iowa on an 8-0 run. Maryland managed to cut the lead by a single bucket after Young fed Reese for a dunk. Young had anemic numbers at this point (1-6, 2 points).

A Scott three at the 3:00 minute mark got the Terps within 6, 28-22. They had yet to shoot a foul shot.

When Patrick McCaffrey wrapped up the first half scoring by weaving his through a lack-luster Terp “D” for an uncontested layup, the Terrapins trailed 37-31. Notable stats from the first 20 minutes were Maryland’s 2-13 three-point shooting and the 13 points off the hand of Sandfort.

Maryland’s turnover rate had slowed down, but they had still committed 8 in the first half which led to 14 Hawkeye points. The 37 Iowa first half points were just too many against a Terp team that must win with defense. Cutting off Sandfort was surely discussed during the halftime break.

At 17:36 of the second half, the Terps lost their 2nd player of the game. With Jordan Geronimo already out with a knee injury and Noah Batchelor out with a sprained ankle, Maddy Traore went down with what appeared to also be an ankle issue. He was helped off of the court, leaving an even thinner team with no bench.

But, the Terps rallied a bit. A Kaiser triple and Harris-Smith driving layup scoop got Maryland to within 6 points, 46-40, at 16:11. Terps had yet to get a stop in the opening 4 minutes of half #2.

It was 2 foul shots by Kaiser that brought Maryland to within 4 points, 46-42, with 14:21 left. All Terp second half points had been scored by Maryland’s bench. Kaiser had 5 and Harris-Smith had 6.

That tight gap between the two teams was short lived, as Iowa scored four straight to extend the lead back to 8 points. That difference became 10 points when Maryland allowed Freeman to gather a half court pass for a dunk with not a Terrapin defender around him. It was time for a timeout with Maryland down 54-44.

The Terps started to get the job done from the foul line, and finally got enough stops on defense to put together a nice 12-4 run. Now it was Fran McCaffrey’s turn to call a potential momentum stopping timeout. There were just over 9 minutes left in the game.

After 2 more free throws from Young, a nice spinning jumper from Reese tied the game at 60.

A Sandfort air ball from 20 feet gave the Terps possession with a chance to take the lead after Young was fouled. He would go to the line to shoot one-and one with Maryland in the bonus.

Draining both, he would put Maryland ahead by 2, 62-60, Those 2 free throws gave the Terps 11 second half points from the line after getting just 3 in the first half.

The stops that were impossible to come by earlier in the half were now abundant. The Terp lead grew to 5 before a Dix layup closed the gap to 3. That’s where the lead remained at the last TV break with 2:42 left to play and the score standing at 67-64. The Terps had possession under their own basket.

With the shot clock running out, Reese hit a 15-foot baseline jumper that took the wind out of Iowa. A couple more dry Hawkeye possessions, and a Terp parade to the foul line saw the Terp advantage grow to 8, 72-64, with 1:09 remaining.

All of Iowa’s hopes were finally dashed when Freeman missed a lob layup and Reese secured the rebound. The Hawkeyes were forced to foul Young, who converted both.

Maryland finished on an 11-2 run, with all the points but the Reese jumper coming from the foul line.

This game flipped in a way that few games do.

Iowa was pretty much in control, and then lost their poise. Credit needs to be handed to the Terrapin defensive effort, but Iowa contributed by shooting just 1 of 9 from the three-point line in half 2 and missing most of their attempts in the last 10 minutes. They made just 3 of their last 12 shots, with 6 of those being threes.

This could prove to be a costly win for Maryland. With Batchelor out already, and losing both Geronimo and Traore, this really thin team just got a ton lighter.

And there was some other disconcerting news from Wednesday’s win: the crowd.

Not many people witnessed the Maryland comeback live. The gym was nearly empty, with students almost non-existent.

The “Wall” behind the visitor’sr basket was a graveyard, and of the three student areas across from the benches, only the center portion had students. The other sections were practically empty.

The paying fans were represented a little better, but it was mostly a dry arena.

I’m certain that the XFINITY Center will have a much different atmosphere when the Terps return on Saturday to square off against #14 ranked Illinois. It’s a FOX game with a 5:30 pm tipoff.

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Wednesday
February 14, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3463


wednesday read


Tell the truth.

When you read the headline...

Did you read it as Wednesday "read" that sounds like "reed"?

Or Wednesday "read" that sounds like "red"?

I was going for the Wednesday Read that sounds like "red", in case you didn't realize it. A take off of Tiger's Sun Day Red.

Not very creative, huh?

Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day to all of you out there who celebrate with a loved one.

We're chock full of Q & A submissions today. We're going to cover a lot of bases here this morning. Enjoy your Wednesday read.

Editor's note: In that case, it's pronounced Wednesday Read as in "reed".

Bart asks -- "I haven't seen you mention it or write about it so I thought I would ask. What did you think of the Travis Kelce/Andy Reid situation in the Super Bowl? I'm sure you have an opinion as a coach."

DF says -- "It certainly wasn't a good look. No two ways about it. But everything is different at the professional level. It just is. Those guys go at each other like crazy and then, ten minutes later, it's pretty much forgotten about. On they go.

If you want my true assessment of the situation, it's this: I would assume that prior to Sunday's game, Reid probably thought Kelce was pretty much a Grade A jerk. But he's a great tight end. And he helps the Chiefs win. Say whatever you want about him, but when the lights are on, the dude plays.

So the situation that happened in the Super Bowl didn't alarm Reid, nor did it change his opinion of him. He thought Kelce was a loose cannon before the incident.

That's my guess on how it all went down.

It was a terrible look for young athletes to see, and certainly, at the high school or perhaps even college level, it wouldn't be accepted by the head coach with a "shrug and an 'oh well'" like Reid treated it. But pro sports is different. They're grown men. They move on from that stuff quickly."


How many more Super Bowl trophies can Patrick Mahomes win in his career?

Ed Jerns asks -- "Hey DF, you're an odds and percentages guy. What are the percentages that Mahomes wins 5 Super Bowls, 6 Super Bowls, 7 Super Bowls and more than 7 Super Bowls?"

DF says -- "80% that he wins 5. 50% that he wins 6. 30% that he wins 7. 15% that he wins more than 7.

He's a great quarterback. And he might be the best ever when his time is up.

He has 3 now. I think 2 more is VERY reasonable to expect. But to expect him to win 4 or 5 more is a lot of winning in a league that generally features what I call "cyclical parity". For a decade, the Colts and Patriots were the top two teams in the AFC and in the NFC it was the Packers, Giants and Saints who sort of ruled the roost for a long while. Now, those five teams are mostly out of the loop.

I think the Chiefs will probably always be good with Mahomes at the helm but you have the Ravens, Bengals, Bills, etc.

I think it's a fair bet that he can get to 6. I just don't know about 7 or 8."


B.J. asks -- "What would a solid showing be for Tiger at this week's tournament, the Genesis?"

DF says -- "Given that he's never played particularly well at Riveria, I think anything inside the top 20 would be almost a miracle.

He hasn't played a "real" competitive tournament since last April at Augusta National, remember. And the layout at Riveria isn't all that easy to walk.

I'm not saying everything's working against him, but you have a 48 year old guy with a bad leg who hasn't played a tournament in 10 months on a course he's never played very well. I don't see much favor in that scenario.

A made cut would be a nice showing. A top 20 would be a minor miracle. Anything better than a top 20 would be a whopper of a tournament for him."


Neil Brosius asks -- "I had this discussion with some of my golf friends last weekend and we heard your show on 105.7 and I was going to call in and ask but I'll ask you here. What would a 5 handicap player shoot at Augusta National from the tournament tees with pin placements like they have during the tournament? Your answer wins someone a bottle of wine!"

DF says -- "I have no idea what they would shoot but if I a 5-handicap broke 90 from the tournament tees that would be outstanding.

I guess my answer is: "Higher than 90."

He or she would probably make 4 pars. But they'd also have at least 4 double bogeys. If they finished with 12 bogeys, that's a 92. If they could make a birdie in there somewhere instead of a bogey, that's 90. But if they make a triple instead of a bogey, that's a 93.

They would be very hard pressed to break 90 in my opinion. 5 handicap golfers are outstanding players. But you're talking about a 7,000 yard golf course with some of the toughest green complexes anywhere. It would be incredibly impressive if they could post something between 85 and 90."


Paul asks -- "Now that the Ravens have come so close only to get denied by the Chiefs, would you do this trade off next season? The Orioles go 80-82 in '24 and '25 but the Ravens beat the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game next January and then beat the NFC team in the Super Bowl?"

DF says -- "Not doing it, sorry. I would never trade off two years of bad Orioles baseball at a time when they themselves might win the championship in exchange for a Ravens title.

The Ravens are big boys. They'll get their chance again.

But I would never swap two bad years of baseball for a football championship."


Tim asks -- I love a good version of DMD Under Rated and Over Rated. Can I give you five for the website and have you answer them for us? Stefon Diggs, Juan Soto, The Pretenders, Foreigner and Bill Maher. Thanks, Drew!"

DF says -- "That might be the most diverse group of candidates ever for Overrated and Underrated!

Diggs is underrated. I'd take him on my team any day. Does just about everything top notch.

I think Soto might be overrated. Let's see how he fares in New York. Maybe my opinion on him will change. I thought he was going to be a rock star when he went out to San Diego. For now: overrated.

The Pretenders are BIG TIME underrated. One of the most underrated groups of my lifetime, honestly.

Foreigner, on the flip side...overrated. They had some great songs, don't get me wrong. But they eventually became a little too soft and sappy or me.

Bill Maher is a really good one. I've never been a huge fan. But I think he's probably underrated. He's very smart. He's a very good interviewer. I'll go with underrated."


The PGA Tour shifts to Los Angeles this week for the Genesis Invitational, a now mini-major on TOUR with a great field and a Hall of Fame host in Tiger Woods.

The event is played on historic Riveria Country Club, which is one of the few courses Woods has failed to conquer in his almost 30-year professional career.

The thought here is he won't conquer it in 2024, either.

Sungjae Im features enticing odds at +6000 this week when the PGA Tour visits Riveria Country Club.

It's definitely a "horses for courses" venue and it sets up, statistically, to places like Augusta National and PGA National. If you play those venues well, you have a puncher's chance at Riveria, the data says.

Our only "hit" last week in Phoenix was on Scottie Scheffler, who easily would have won the golf tournament if not for his awful weekend with the putter. The rest of our picks at TPC Scottsdale were as bad as Scheffler's work with the flat stick.

Here's who we like this week in Los Angeles.

There has been a trend on TOUR so far this year for longshots to come out on top. While it won't yield much in terms of cashing in at the window come Sunday night, the thought here is that trend ends this weekend. A "big name" is likely going to be holding up the trophy, albeit at less than worthy odds.

With that in mind, we'll give you four "favorites" who should play very well at Riveria and could be winner's circle material. We wouldn't be surprised to see any of them win: Rory McIlroy (+1000), Justin Thomas (+1600), Collin Morikawa (+1600) and Sam Burns (+2000).

But let's take a chance on a few others. And here's where we'll be sprinkling our Top 20, Top 10 and Win money heading into the tournament.

Adam Scott, +2800 -- He has a great track record at Riveria, for starters. His profile never changes. The Aussie is outstanding from tee-to-green and then the fun begins when the putter is in his hands. He's a solid investment at +2800.

Sahith Theegala, +3500 -- Played his college golf down the road at Pepperdine and has played Riveria hundreds of times. Was in contention again last week in Phoenix before sputtering on Sunday. He's closing in on another win, we feel. It could be this week.

Sungjae Im, +6000 -- The oddsmakers are starting to lose faith in Im as evidenced by his +6000 line this week. And that's a good thing for people who like to wager and make money betting on golf. He's off to a slow start in 2024, but Riveria is perfect for a guy who stripes it off the tee and with his irons and just needs a solid week with the putter. Scoop him up at +6000.

Hideki Matsuyama, +7000 -- The same goes for Hideki. His on-again, off-again play to start 2024 has dropped him out of the spotlight, but it''s hard not to feature him on your cards at +7000. Those are monster numbers for a guy who can easily finish Top 10 and potentially win if it doesn't become a birdie-fest this week.

Sam Ryder, +25000 -- You wanted one super longshot...we're giving him to you. If the trend continues and someone comes out of the (far) back of the pack to win, you might see Sam Ryder holding up the trophy on Sunday night. And if you had $20 on him to win, Top 10 and Top 20, you'd be going somewhere a hair nicer than Ocean City for vacation this summer.


Oh, and speaking of underrated, Bruce Springsteen put out an album in the late 1980's called "Tunnel of Love". It was among the best lyrical work he ever produced.

The record dealt mostly with relationship issues following the end of his marriage to Julianne Phillips. Gone were tracks about factories and dirt roads and stolen cars. Instead, Bruce wrote about love and happiness and sadness and resolution. He's had some very strong writing albums over the years and some not-so-strong writing albums over the years.

Tunnel of Love was an incredibly strong album that spotlighted Bruce's ability to translate his current world to his music.

And, by far, one of the best efforts on the album and one of his most underrated songs, ever, is appropriately called: Valentine's Day.



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dale williams aims the
terps spotlight

DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps look to sweep iowa tonight


The Iowa Hawkeyes come into the XFINITY Center tonight looking for revenge.

Just 3 weeks ago, they tangled with Maryland in Iowa, and suffered a 69-67 loss. The Hawkeyes had nice leads in both halves, but fell victim to a late Jahmir Young blitz.

The Terp senior scored a slew of points in the last minutes of the game, including the game winning layup with 1.5 seconds left in the game.

We’ll detail some of the earlier game’s key items in a minute. But first I’m going to somewhat flip the script and tell you how I see the outcome.

Normally, early in the piece, I like to detail key players and matchups, along with playing styles. Then, I’ll pull that info together and provide my expectations on how the game will be played. Based on that, I take a stab at a likely score.

Today we are going to start with my feelings on the outcome, then I’ll tell you why I feel that way.

Jahmir Young and the Terps go for a second win against Iowa this season tonight in College Park.

The line is Maryland -4.5. That’s way too many points. A ten-point swing in a rematch, without significant injuries, is too many. Maryland was a 5.5 dog in Iowa. Now at home, the line has moved 10 full points, to Iowa +4.5. I can see an 8-point swing, but not 10.

In game 1, the Terps shot 46.7% from the three-point line. That just can’t happen again. Iowa made just 3 of 14 long range shots. This is not a great three-point shooting Iowa team, and they don’t bomb often, but if the over/under on Iowa three-point success is 21.4%, I’m taking the over.

I’m also taking the over on Iowa’s Ben Krikke making 3 field goals like he did in his earlier encounter with Maryland.

The Hawkeye forward was 3 for 11 while being guarded by Julian Reese. That left Jordan Geronimo on Owen Freeman, and Freeman dropped 14 points. Reese might start on Freeman, leaving Krikke with a smaller defender.

Another “over” play is Payton Sandfort to eclipse the 6 points he tallied in game 1. He averages 15 and will get much closer to that number than his 6 in the first contest.

Regarding this whole Iowa team, the rest of their schedule is daunting. After their Terrapin encounter, they have tough home games against 20th ranked Wisconsin, Michigan State, Northwestern, and 14th ranked Illinois.

Their 2 remaining home games are against Illinois and Penn State. This is a must win game for Iowa if they want to enter into any post season talks.

Currently holding KenPom’s #57 ranking, (Maryland is 58) and with a tough schedule ahead of them, this is a vital game for the Hawkeyes.

In the Terps favor is the physical dominance that Reese showed against the Iowa bigs in game 1. He was 6 for 9 and grabbed 9 rebounds in 38 minutes of play. Reese also blocked 5 shots. He was the strongest player in the paint.

It bodes well for the Terps that their 19-turnover game in January won’t likely be repeated.

Maryland has been a high turnover team, but their 19 giveaways will drop to around 12 or 13. Many of their 19 were dribbles off of a foot and careless passes. They’ll be a bit more careful with the rock tonight.

Another reason to lean towards Iowa is Tony Perkins. The strong Iowa guard hung 20 on the Terps in January and plays with the same strength as Ohio State’s Bruce Throton. Thorton gave the Terps a lot of trouble on Saturday.

Reese can get 20 tonight, and Donta Scott could match the 14 points he posted in the first game. Young is Young. He can score on any night. Maryland will need big games from all three of those players if they are to contend in this game. Will that be enough?

This is a game that, like the first matchup, comes down to the wire. Maryland has the home court in its favor, and that’s a huge advantage.

Can Maryland sweep the season series against the Hawkeyes? After hearing the discontented fans after the Rutgers game, I can only imagine how they’ll react if the Terps lose this game.

Iowa isn’t going anywhere this post-season. They have the fire power to keep this close, but the Terrapin inside game swings this outcome to their favor. In a very close finish, Maryland wins.

They won’t hold Iowa under 70 points again, but the Terps win, 74-70.

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sdr


When I first saw the information leaking out about Tiger Woods' new clothing line -- SDR -- I definitely thought it was a puzzling acronymn.

And I still do, I guess.

But it came into focus more yesterday when we finally learned about the origin of the weird logo and the meaning of SDR, which stands for "Sun Day Red".

The entire apparel concept is built off of Tiger's affection for wearing a red shirt on Sunday. 79 of his 82 career wins have featured a red shirt on the final (Sunday) round. He wore a white shirt when he won his first professional event in 1996 and later won twice in 1997 wearing a black shirt. Other than that...all red, all the time.

Tiger has worn red since he was 8 years old, he said yesterday.

"I'm a Capricorn and my mom always told me red was my color of strength," Woods said.

"So, I started wearing red in the final round of tournaments as a junior. Then I went to Stanford and our primary color was red, so it just kept on going from there. When I turned professional she told me I had to have red in my outfit scheme and it just took off. I've always felt like red was my color."

I assumed when we heard Tiger's clothing line was going to be called "Sunday Red" that it would appear as such. Everyone, except for perhaps Flyers fans, knows Sunday is spelled as one word.

Alas, it's not spelled like that with the new Tiger Woods clothing line. It's "Sun Day Red."

Hello, World, I guess?

All of this was presented yesterday in advance of Tiger making his season debut this week in Los Angeles at the Genesis Invitational, an event Woods runs to benefit his foundation in Southern California.

While Tiger will be sporting Sun Day Red this week, the masses won't be able to get their hands on it until May.

For those who don't know, Woods left Nike at the start of 2024 after a 3-decade relationship with the clothing and sports apparel giant.

He's back, equipment wise, to using and endorsing Taylor Made, who were once owned by adidas. Taylor Made will be a supporting partner with Tiger's Sun Day Red line, it was announced on Monday. Woods also plays and endorses the Bridgestone golf ball.

But clothing wise, he'll be wearing his own brand and, obviously, trying to peddle as much of it as he can to his international fan base.

This isn't the first time an iconic golfer has dipped into the apparel business. Greg Norman started his own line in the early 1990's, moving in and out of the golf and lifestyle clothing world for the better of four decades now.

Woods, of course, is exceedingly more powerful internationally than Norman ever was, a fact the 15-time major champion hopes will help him move merchandise once it hits the market on May 1st.

As for the logo and the use of Sun Day Red instead of Sunday red, Woods explained it like this on Monday at the launch event.

"It's the right time in my life," Woods said. "It's not just about golf. It's a lifestyle brand. It's transitional. I'm no longer a kid anymore. Life changes, I have kids now, and this is an important part of transitioning into this part of my life, to have a product and a brand that I'm proud of."

Woods explained that his affection for the Sunday shirt color originated from his Thailand-born mother, Kultida, who told him red was his power color. The logo is a stretched-out tiger with 15 stripes -- one for each major championship Woods has won in his career.

And the Sun Day instead of Sunday?

For starters, the brand wanted an acronym of some kind and "SR" didn't necessarily work. And, experts told Woods, Sun Day is more emblematic of golf and the outdoors. It's a play on the word "Sunday", obviously, but it fits what they're trying to accomplish, which is to create something that's unique and connected only to Woods.

And what of the 15 stripes in the logo that are indicative of his 15 career major wins?

"What will you do if you win a 16th major?" Woods was asked at yesterday's launch event.

"There's room in the logo for extra stripes," he said with a grin.

Editor's note: This website has been asked by a public relations firm to participate in a focus group of golfers who will share their opinion of the Sun Day Red apparel line in advance of public availability. As part of that participation, this website may receive complimentary golf and lifestyle apparel not to exceed $250.


The talk of taking or giving the ball at the start of overtime reached epic proportions on Monday as people sought to pin the blame on Kyle Shanahan for his decision to receive at the start of Sunday's Super Bowl overtime.

That the 49'ers apparently didn't know the overtime rules might be an issue.

It's assumed the coaching staff knew that playoff overtime is different than regular season overtime. The players in San Francisco apparently didn't know.

Fullback Kyle Juszczyk thought the 49'ers took the ball to start OT because a touchdown wins the game.

Several 49'ers players said overtime rules were not discussed at all in practices or team meetings.

The Chiefs said they met several times in January about playoff overtime and even had a plan for Sunday's Super Bowl. If the Chiefs got the ball second and needed a touchdown to tie (after their opponent scored a touchdown on the first possession), the Chiefs were going to go for two points in an effort to win the game right then and there.

But none of that has anything to do with the idea of either taking the ball or kicking the ball to start overtime if, in fact, you won the coin toss and had the option.

Taking the ball first seems logical when you consider that after each team has a possession, the game becomes sudden death at that point and you would have the first chance to win the game outright with your second possession.

Had the Chiefs matched the 49'ers opening drive field goal in overtime, San Francisco would have then been in position to win the game with a score of any kind on the next series. That's one way to keep the ball out of Mahomes' hands. Just win the game in sudden death.

Taking the ball first also puts incredible pressure on the opposing team if, in fact, you produce a score of some kind on the opening series of overtime, which is exactly what the 49'ers did with their field goal to make it 22-19.

Kansas City was in a "no mistake" situation when they got the ball for their first possession. In fact, they faced a 4th and 1 early in the series that Mahomes converted on a quarterback running play.

On the flip side, by taking the ball first, you also set up a situation where you could potentially be giving Mahomes four downs instead of three when he gets the ball, assuming you score on that first series, which the 49'ers did.

If the game is tied 19-19, Mahomes and Andy Reid would have almost certainly punted the ball away there on 4th and 1, knowing a turnover on downs would have created a sudden death format and the 49'ers would have almost been in field goal position right then and there.

Instead, because San Francisco was up 22-19, the Chiefs had to go for it on 4th and 1.

Mahomes is hard enough to stop when you're giving him three downs to pick up 10 yards. Give him four downs to do it and you're in trouble.

Taking the ball first -- if you win the toss -- means you're the only team that's guaranteed to touch the ball twice if the game is still tied after the first possession by both teams, a tidbit a lot of folks seemed to forget on Sunday and Monday.

The 49'ers didn't lose because Kyle Shanahan made the wrong call on the coin toss.

The 49'ers lost because their defense didn't make a stop when they were ahead 22-19 and the ONLY WAY THEY COULD LOSE WAS BY GIVING UP A TOUCHDOWN TO THE CHIEFS.

As we've noted here time and time again throughout the football season, we're a country in dire need of a scapegoat. The upcoming Presidential election is proof positive of that statement.

Someone has to get the blame.

In Baltimore on January 28, it was Todd Monken. And John Harbaugh. And Lamar Jackson. And Zay Flowers.

Those were the four culprits of the loss to the Chiefs.

Pick one and run with it.

In the aftermath of the 25-22 overtime win for Kansas City on Sunday, people want to blame Kyle Shanahan.

It's hilarious, really.

Someone has to get the blame.

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RANDY MORGAN
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Americans are playing more and more of a vital role in international soccer these days, and Randy Morgan has his eyes on all of them for #DMD. Each week here, he looks at recent performances of American players and highlights upcoming games of importance.


champions league round of 16 preview


The pinnacle of European club soccer returns this week with the kickoff of the sixteen team Champions League knockout rounds.

In the round of sixteen, teams will play a two-leg series with each team getting one home game. The winner is determined by the total score over the two legs with the second leg going to extra time and then a penalty shootout in case of a tie.

As the Champions League enters the knockout rounds, most of the usual suspects remain the favorites for the title. Manchester City, recently back to full strength with the return of Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne from injury, is the solid favorite to repeat as title winners at +200.

After City follows a trio of powerhouse clubs near the top of their leagues, with Bayern Munich the next favorite at +400, then Arsenal and Real Madrid at +500.

For my money, the best value is Inter Milan at +1800. After losing to Man City in the final last year, Inter has been arguably the best club in Europe this season, building a solid lead at the top of Italy’s Serie A while leading the league in both goals scored and goals conceded.

Their odds are longer due to a tough round of sixteen matchup with Atletico Madrid. However, every team is going to have to get by at least one tough opponent to win the cup and if Inter downs Atletico Madrid they could become one of the top favorites from the quarterfinals on.


Round of 16 Matchups –

On Tuesday, tournament favorites Manchester City will kick off the knockout round when they travel to face Copenhagen FC. City received a fortuitous draw in this round with the weakest possible opponent.

Copenhagen deserves a ton of credit for their Cinderella run to qualify from their group, including an impressive win over Manchester United and draw with Bayern Munich.

Back from injury, Erling Haaland and Mancheste City kick-off the Champions League Round of 16 today vs. Copenhagen FC.

Unfortunately for them, their run likely ends here, drawing the top favorite in the tournament. They will probably look to play defensively and see if they can escape with a draw at home to give them some hope in the second leg, but that will be a difficult task against a full-strength City side.

The other matchup on Tuesday features another top title favorite. Real Madrid is in for a tougher test than Man City, when they travel to take on RB Leipzig. Real Madrid are the heavy favorite to advance from the round at -350, but Leipzig has talent and has played them tough in the past, including a 3-2 win in last year’s group stage.

Leipzig got a significant boost over the weekend, when Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham went down with an injury in their 4-0 win over Girona. While Madrid has plenty of talent to go around, Bellingham has been the best player in Europe this season and his loss will leave a big hole in the Real Madrid midfield and attack.

Wednesday brings one of the best matchups of the round with Paris St. Germain hosting Spanish club Real Sociedad. PSG has the star power, led by one of the best attackers in the world in Kylian Mbappe. Despite that, the Parisians haven’t been totally convincing this season, barely escaping the group based on goal differential over AC Milan.

Meanwhile, Real Sociedad hasn’t had the best La Liga campaign but they boasted the best defensive record in the Champions League group stage and have been one of the best defensively in La Liga. Although they are -210 favorites to advance, PSG will have their work cut out score against Sociedad.

The other Wednesday pairing is more lopsided with perennial German champions Bayern Munich traveling to Rome to face Lazio. Bayern is a heavy favorite at -1800 to advance. The fact that Bayern currently sits second in the Bundesliga is mostly a testament to the outstanding season Bayer Leverkusen is having rather than a negative reflection on Bayern.

Led by marquee summer transfer Harry Kane, the Bavarians have the best attack in the German league to pair with the third best defense. They breezed through the Champions League group stage and should have little problem getting past Lazio in this round.

Lazio has had a down year all around, currently sixth place in Serie A with average numbers in defense and attack. They don’t appear to have the firepower to exploit the Bayern defense. The other four matchups begin next week, with the top showdown of the round starting next Tuesday with Inter Milan hosting Atletico Madrid. As mentioned above, Inter would easily sit among the favorites in this tournament had they not drawn such a difficult first knockout opponent.

This version of Atletico Madrid has moved away from their typical defensive style, producing more flowing attack and allowing more goals. However, in a knockout tournament, Diego Simeone still knows how to make life difficult against stronger opposition and it would be no surprise if he went back to a conservative approach to survive this round.

All that being said, Inter has been ruthlessly efficient this season and have lost just once since the start of October. They bring an exquisitely orchestrated attack, spearheaded by the top goalscorer in Serie A along with a well drilled defense capable of closing up shop once they get a lead. It would be quite surprising if they bow out this early.

PSV Eindhoven and Borussia Dortmund provide another intriguing contest on Wednesday. Dutch league leaders PSV have been nearly untouchable in the Eredivisie, remaining undefeated after 21 games with 19 wins and 2 draws.

American Sergino Dest is part of a PSV Eindhoven squad that will take on Borussia Dortmund in the Round of 16.

Their opponents represent a step up in class from the level of competition in the Netherlands however, as Dortmund has the more experienced and talented roster of the teams. The German team will see if they can continue their fine Champions League form after winning their group, despite their relative struggles in the German Bundesliga this season.

This game will feature several Americans, with the trio of Sergino Dest, Malik Tillman and Ricardo Pepi as potential contributors for PSV. Dest and Tillman are likely to start, while Pepi has been a useful attacking option off the bench. They will see if they can help PSV pull out an upset, as Dortmund are slight favorites to advance at -170.

The final two pairings kick off next Thursday with Napoli hosting Barcelona in the more interesting of the two games. Both teams have struggled massively after winning their respective leagues last season.

After a magical season as runaway Serie A champions, Napoli was forced to replace their coach when he left for the Italian National Team. His replacement did not fare well and he has already been fired and replaced.

The Napoli attack remains potent when both Khvicha Kvaratshkelia and Victor Osimhen are on the field, but their defense has seen a large dropoff after losing top centerback Min-Jae Kim to Bayern.

The story is similar in Barcelona, where head coach Xavi has already announced he will step down at the end of the season, demonstrating that not even a title and his status as a club legend are enough to overcome a poor campaign. With the team far behind Real Madrid in La Liga, the Champions League represents Barcelona’s only hope to salvage something from their season.

They too have seen their defense fall off a cliff after it carried them to the title last season. On the attacking side they actually lead La Liga in expected goals, though it hasn’t quite translated to balls in the back of the net.

Barcelona has also struggled with injuries to key players, and they have several that will be missing for these games. The betting odds have Barcelona a -195 favorite to advance, but this matchup feels much more like a coin flip given the struggles of the Catalan giants.

The last fixture pairs English title contenders Arsenal with the only remaining Portuguese club, Porto. Arsenal is a heavy favorite in this pairing at -650 to advance. They boast a much deeper and more talented roster and appear to be peaking at the right time, coming off a 6-0 blowout of West Ham and a comprehensive 3-1 win over Liverpool.

After a wobble just before the new year, Arsenal has looked like a true contender for both the Premier League and Champions League titles over the past few weeks. They have been particularly solid defensively this season, conceding the fewest goals in the Premier League and racking up the most shutouts.

Porto showed off a potent attack in the group stage, scoring the 5th most goals in the competition thus far. They have consistently given bigger clubs problems in the knockout rounds of this tournament, so expect them to at least make it difficult for Arsenal.

In the Portuguese league they have been one of the better defensive teams, with the second fewest goals conceded, and they will likely try to lean on that defense to give them a fighting chance in the second leg in London.

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it sure did turn out to be "super"


The Super Bowl was so boring to start with, the final 60 minutes of the PGA Tour event at TPC Scottsdale was actually far more entertaining.

Like, it wasn't even close.

For those who chose to stay at CBS and watch football, Nick Taylor -- get him now for the Masters and thank me later -- birdied 3 of the last 4 holes in regulation and then the first two holes of the playoff to steal the tournament from 47 year old Charley Hoffman, who didn't really "lose" the tournament. He just failed to win it.

Anyway, all of that, plus Scottie Scheffler missing more four foot putts than Patrick Mahomes had completions in the first half, added up to create high drama at the Phoenix Open.

There was no drama at all in the opening 20 minutes of the Super Bowl. It was borderline dreadful.

But when things got going in the second half, the big game was well worth watching.

The commercials were lousy for the most part. The football, though, was not.

And in the end, we saw a maestro at work. The entire game might not have been Mahomes' Mona Lisa, but the game-winning drive in overtime certainly was his finest piece of work ever, as K.C. connected on a touchdown to win, 25-22, and set up a chance to be the league's first 3-peat champion, ever, next season.

With 4th and 1 and the championship on the line, he scampered for a huge gain to keep K.C.'s title hopes alive. He wiggled K.C. out of a 2nd and 14 situation later on the drive. I could go on and on but you saw it.

When the game was in his hands, Mahomes delivered a virtuoso performance. It was, if we can say it, very Tom Brady-like.

And when he found Mecole Hardman in the end zone for the title-clinching touchdown on the final play of the first overtime, Mahomes wrapped up his 3rd Super Bowl MVP award. The 49'ers had it in their grasp for a long time on Sunday night, but they just couldn't make that one final stop when they had to have it.

Whether or not you like the Chiefs, they, along with Mahomes, are now creeping up on "New England Patriots status".

You don't have to like 'em. But you have to respect them. They are all winners.


For those familiar with Baltimore County and the Towson/Timonium area, I want you to picture this.

Tom Brady's legacy as the greatest quarterback of the "modern" era is not really up for debate.

Chasing Tom Brady now...officially? It looks that way after Patrick Mahomes won his 3rd Super Bowl last night.

He's situated at York and Shawan Road, you know, right there at the traffic light where if you make a right, there's a shopping center with that awesome Japanese and Thai restaurant in there -- Green Leaf.

That's where Brady stands as the greatest QB we've seen. The corner of York and Shawan.

Five years ago, Mahomes was at York and Seminary. 20 traffic lights away, maybe. He was in Lutherville. He still needed to pass through Timonium and Cockeysville just to have a glimpse of Hunt Valley.

Before this year, he was at York and Padonia Road, maybe. Still had some traveling to do, did Mahomes.

But this season he made a big move.

Mahomes isn't the G.O.A.T. just yet. He has some distance to travel, still.

But he can at least see the traffic light at York and Ashland now as he passes across Warren Road. Brady was great. No two ways about it. Mahomes is too, though. And it's starting to look like there might actually be a debate, someday, about which of the two of them were greater.

That Mahomes navigated his way past Miami, Buffalo, Baltimore and San Francisco with that offense in 2023 is really something special.

He beat Josh Allen in Buffalo.

He beat Lamar Jackson in Baltimore.

And yesterday, he engineered a game-winning drive for the ages. Where one mistake would make Brock Purdy a champion and hand Mahomes his 2nd career Super Bowl loss.

It was incredibly spectacular.

Purdy didn't harm his reputation last night. If anything, he boosted it, leading the 49'ers on their own impressive drive in overtime -- albeit aided by an ill-timed K.C. defensive penalty -- but failing to reach the end zone.

As it turns out, that field goal to give his team the lead would be Purdy's undoing.

Patrick Mahomes was speeding up York Road, darting through traffic lights en route to Hunt Valley, chasing Tom Brady.


It's amazing and funny, really, to see the way people react in the wake of their team losing a playoff game.

I thought we were completely maniacal in Baltimore. And we are.

But they're nuts in San Francisco, too.

Folks out there are now pinning the blame on Kyle Shanahan for taking the ball to start overtime as if they have any idea at all what might have happened if the 49'ers would have elected to kick instead of receive after the coin landed on tails at the outset of OT.

What happened was this: The 49'ers needed to make one defensive stop and couldn't do it. That's the story. Period.

They would have needed to make that stop whether they received or kicked off.

In fact, their ability to actually score on their opening overtime drive flipped all of the pressure onto the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes.

One mistake, one fumble, one tipped pass, one "anything" that resulted in a change of possession and the title belonged to the 49'ers.

Tears for Fears once said, "Everybody wants to rule the world."

In the NFL, it's "Everybody wants to blame someone."

There has to be one person to carve up.

San Francisco had a chance to sew the game down the stretch and couldn't do it. K.C. nearly scored at the end of regulation to win the title outright, instead settling for a game-tying field goal.

If the 49'ers stop K.C. on that final drive, there's no coin flip controversy or overtime situation to worry about.

People were outraged after the game at Shanahan's "brain fart" (many said) of taking the ball first.

You have ZERO idea what would have happened if Shanahan would have given Kansas City the ball to start overtime.

Someone has to get the blame. That's what we've lowered ourselves to these days.

But at least we're seeing that Baltimore sports fans aren't the only ones afflicted with that disease.


The game wasn't fixed. I wrote here a month ago, though, that if Kansas City went on to beat Buffalo, Baltimore and their NFC opponent in the Super Bowl, that a lot of people would believe that to be true.

Something about Taylor Swift and her many appearances over the last five months, as if a 34-year old female singer is somehow actually connected to a football game being played.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have been the NFL's "hot story" over the last five months.

There are a lot of things about the NFL that look suspicious, that much is true.

But that's a by-product of the one thing that keeps the NFL in the public eye more than any other sport: gambling.

And here's where I'll concede that, if nothing else, the NFL has done this to themselves.

The entire league is basically built around and thriving off of gambling.

That TV deal the owners are lapping up with annual per-team checks of $250 million-plus?

It would be half that if not for the various gambling enterprises who buy time on NBC, CBS, FOX and the NFL Network. Don't get me wrong, franchises would still be valuable and owners would still be making big money, but if not for FanDuel, DraftKings, PointsBet, MGM and the rest of the gambling icons, the teams wouldn't make anywhere near what they're making in 2024.

The league has surrounded itself with gambling.

The point spreads and prop bets are now part of the pre-game show. In the old days, no one on the air even thought about referencing gambling.

When Al Michaels would snicker in the final 30 seconds when the Jets would score a meaningless touchdown to make the final score 24-16 (getting 8.5 points) instead of 24-9, we all knew why he was snickering.

He knew. And we knew that he knew, which made it even more funny. He just wasn't allowed to come right out and say it.

Now? They flash the odds on the screen before the game and again at halftime.

These days, Al Michaels or Mike Tirico just tells us all what we know deep down at places we don't talk about at parties.

The league wants gambling to be on your mind as the game rolls on.

In 2010, those two would snicker when the Jets scored that late touchdown to cover by a half-point.

In 2024, they just come out and say it: "Well, that touchdown didn't change the outcome of the game, but it definitely changed the way some of you out there watching will enjoy the week ahead."

And the two guys in the booth will giggle because, as we know, for every bad beat, there's a joyous winner on the other side.

And you then want people to think the games are on the up and up when something weird happens?

I don't think the games are fixed or in any way contrived.

But the abundance of gambling attached to the league certainly gives you reason to wonder about the legitimacy of the games.

The league wants it that way.

If they didn't want it that way, they wouldn't take the money from the gambling folks.

You can't have it both ways.


And finally, we talk about the event itself for a minute. It's called the "Super" Bowl, which means it's supposed to be bigger and better than anything else the league puts together.

Van Halen's debut album was great. Van Halen II was good, but it wasn't better than Van Halen I.

Counting Crow's August and Everything After was spectacular. Recovering the Satellites was awesome, but it didn't beat "August".

Boston's first album was one of the best debut albums ever. Don't Look Back was a nice second effort, but, you're getting the picture now.

The NFL has that problem with the Super Bowl.

Every year they try to beat what they did the previous year.

And it's just not working.

The build-up before the game is designed to lead you along a magical journey of heartwarming stories, families connected to football and towns bonding because a former high school player in their community of only 4,000 people is playing in the biggest sporting event in the country.

It's all supposed to help make the game that much more riveting.

So, too, is all the pre-game hoopla. We now sing 3 or 4 different songs before the game. We have wagers on how long the National Anthem will be. You're supposed to be glued into every single second of it, including the commercials, of which there are far, far too many.

And in the end, one thing rings true: The game almost always falls short of the hype and the hoopla. Because it has to fall short.

There's just no way it can be as good as everyone wants it to be. And the odds are it's not going to be all that much better than the one we saw last year.

Usher? The halftime show? It was fine, I guess, if you like him or the music he's involved with.

I'm a huge Alicia Keys fan. I've seen her several times in concert. The NFL could have trotted her out there for 14 minutes at halftime and I would have been thrilled. But a lot of other people would have gone back to the kitchen for more snacks.

The halftime show doesn't matter any longer. We've all figured that out. It's water-cooler talk today, maybe, but no one is rushing out to buy Usher music today or download his greatest hits.

The NFL has gone to great lengths to make the Super Bowl far more than a 60 minute football game. The tickets are outrageous. The price of commercials within the game is insanely high.

Sure, it's a true sign of American capitalism when a ticket that costs $1,250 can be peddled for $10,000. And a commercial that normally sells for $40,000 now goes for $7 million. "You get what you can get for it" people will say.

But it's all just become too much. If we're being honest about it, the entire thing is too much. It can't possibly live up to the hype and the expense.

Are those Lindor people really going to sell $14 million of chocolate because they ran a (lame as all get out) 30-second commercial in the Super Bowl? I can't imagine that to be true.

The pre-game stuff, the halftime show, the commercials. They're all "good", don't get me wrong. It's not horrible. It's not useless. It's not "uninteresting".

It's just not all that different than a regular season NFL game on Sunday night, truth be told.

It's still just football.

The league no longer allows the actual 60-minute championship game to stand on its own two feet. And that's the real story.

The game itself has suffered because the NFL has made it bigger than it deserves to be.

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but will it be "super"?


Let's get the important stuff out of the way first.

San Francisco 26 - Kansas City 22.

There you go. I said earlier in the week my pick for tonight's Super Bowl would be San Francisco and there it is.

I realize there are certain risks that come with betting against Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift. But Tom Brady lost three times, too, don't forget. It can happen, even to a first-ballot HOF'er like Mahomes.

So, why San Francisco?

No reason in particular other than I think it's their time, that's all.

I do see where the Chiefs' defense has improved over the course of the season and the 49'ers' defense might have taken a step back along the way.

Will Patrick Mahomes win his 3rd Super Bowl tonight and surpass the likes of Peyton, Eli and Ben Roethlisberger for career Super Bowl titles?

This one could even be a 20-16 final where neither offense really gets anything going all night.

But I'll stick with 26-22 as the final. How does Kansas City get 22, you're wondering? I'm trying to figure that out as well.

Here's what happens: K.C. misses an extra point.

There's one for all you prop bettors out there. Harrison Butker misses an extra point to make it 14-13 instead of 14-14. K.C. then tacks on three more field goals and, VOILA!, there's your 22 point total.

I don't know about you, but I'm very "meh" on the game itself. And even less than "meh" for the halftime show (Usher).

I'm sorta kinda excited for the commercials, which might both delight and disappoint the NFL at the same time. I mean, in the end, I suppose they don't care one way or the other whether I "care" about the game, as long as I tune in and they get their ratings numbers.

But the game itself just isn't all that captivating to me.

It would have been well worth watching had the Lions not collapsed in the second half two weeks ago and were in Las Vegas tonight. Now that would have been something to behold.

Or, the Ravens, of course. The game has an entirely different meaning if John Harbaugh is standing on the sideline tonight instead of Andy Reid.

Alas, it is what it is. Rocky and Apollo Creed going at it -- again. It's pretty boring, if you ask me.

Maybe Usher will bring out Taylor Swift for a surprise appearance to liven things up. I hear she's dating a player on one of the teams.


A middle school, amateur-hour incident occurred last night in the waning moments of last night's NHL game between Toronto and Ottawa.

It's so laughably childish I can't believe it happened. Alas, it did.

For starters, Toronto and Ottawa don't particularly care for one another. So that animosity led to some of the tension between the teams.

With Ottawa up 4-3 late in the game, the Senators Ridly Greig sealed the contest with an empty net goal. But instead of lightly tapping the puck into the net or gently flicking it in from a few feet out, he wound up and whistled a slap shot into the cage for Ottawa's 5th and final goal.

On the ensuing face off, Toronto's Morgan Rielly cross-checked Greig in the head and a fracas broke out.

Cooler heads eventually prevailed but the whole scene was something you'd expect from 13 year olds who get their feelings hurt.

"We obviously didn't like the result on the empty netter," Toronto captain John Tavares said. "So, we're going to stick together and stand our ground when necessary."

I spit out my Royal Farms coffee when I saw that quote from Tavares, whom I've always liked as a player. The Maple Leafs didn't like the "result" on the empty netter?

Here's a few tips for you, then:

Don't trail, 4-3.

Don't give up an empty net goal to lose, 5-3.

Don't be a snowflake when the other team bangs the puck into the empty net instead of gently pushes it into the net so your feelings don't get hurt.

We go through this on almost a weekly basis during the baseball season.

Someone runs around the bases too slow after a home run and they have get hit with a pitch next time up.

Someone steals a base when they're ahead 9-2 in the 8th inning and someone has to get thrown at later in the inning to "send a message".

Baseball players are the absolute worst when it comes to getting their feelings hurt.

And they're making $5 million, $15 million, $25 million, don't forget.

This scene last night in Ottawa was a colossal embarrassment for those guys. Grown men, supposedly.

You lost, 5-3.

That's the only thing you should concern yourself with at the end of the night.

Everything else is eye wash.


Speaking of bad scenes, they had another one yesterday at the Phoenix Open, where tournament officials were forced to call off beer sales late in the day after 30 people were treated by medical officials for over-intoxication.

"At least 30 people blacked out or passed out during the day and were treated by our medical staff," a tournament official said. "So we made the decision to close the gates stop alcohol sales as a precautionary measure."

On Friday, a woman fell from the grandstand to the ground 30 feet below and was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

Also during Friday's round, a rowdy group of patrons were accused of badgering golfer Sahith Theegala, who is of Indian descent.

The scene at TPC Scottsdale has really gotten out of hand over the last five years or so.

There's a "party" and then there's the Phoenix Open. The two are light years apart from one another.

And the PGA Tour should probably step in at this point and do something about it before someone (or two) dies at their golf tournament.

The "arena concept" at the 16th hole is certainly a great idea. It has become the 2nd most well known hole on the TOUR besides #17 at TPC Sawgrass.

But the accompanying party environment at #16 and throughout the entire property is out of control at this point.

To their credit, tournament officials did something about it yesterday, closing the gates to new ticket sales at 2 pm and then shutting down alcohol sales shortly thereafter.

By the time they did all of that, though, the damage had been done.

Let's hope they get their game together for today's final day of play, where a number of players have to finish their 3rd round and play their 4th and final round in order to have the event conclude as scheduled later this afternoon.


I saw a number of people in the comments section bantering back and forth about Friday's basketball game at Calvert Hall between the Cardinals and Mount Saint Joseph.

I don't feel like I should offer any commentary at all on it.

I'm just a guy there watching high school basketball.

Mount Saint Joseph won the game, 59-40. That's all I'm interested in reporting on.

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terps spotlight

DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps give one away in columbus


When push comes to shove late in a tight ball game, you have to want it more than your opponent.

Yesterday, it was Ohio State that pushed, shoved, and wanted the win more than Maryland did. They were able to come from behind in regulation and overtime, to snatch a 79-75, double overtime, victory over a Terp team that self-destructed.

The inability to make key fouls shots played a monumental role in this loss.

First, Donta Scott misfired on both of his attempts from the line with the game tied and 45 seconds left to play in regulation.

Jahmir Young later missed one with 1:21 left in the first overtime and Maryland clinging to a 2-point lead.

After OSU tied the game, Julian Reese went to the foul stripe with 38 seconds left and a chance to give his team what may have been the winning points. Two bricks by Reese and a missed Ohio State three point shot later we were headed to OT2.

Kevin Willard made some early lineup changes yesterday but in the end, veterans Donta Scott, Jahmir Young and Julian Reese were co-conspirators in a bad road loss at Ohio State.

Reese’s misery at the foul line continued when he missed two more consecutive foul shots in the second overtime. For the game he was successful on just 5 of 11 tries form the stripe. How can he make 41 of 51 as a freshman, but be so poor as a junior?

Donta Scott late secured the win for the Buckeyes in the second OT with a really bad turnover when he tried to make a pass and the ball was pretty much taken off his hand

The Terps were down 2 at the time with just 47 seconds left to play. You might expect that play from a freshman in December, but not a 5-year senior in crunch time of a conference game.

Lastly, Maryland’s effort to tie the game ended with Scott going to the rim and having his layup blocked.

I might change my mind when I see the replay, but my take seeing it live was that Scott went to the bucket without conviction and had the shot rejected without elevating at all.

In other words, it was a weak attempt at a time when he needed to be as strong as possible. He didn’t want it more. Forget his stats, this was a rough night for the Terrapin senior.

OSU was paced by Bruce Thorton, who banged his way to 24 points. His driving layups through and around Terp defenders late in regulation and overtime were huge for the Buckeyes.

Young led all Terp scorers with 26 points, but he was just 8 of 22 from the field. That included only making 1 of 4 shots in overtime.

It was a new look Maryland lineup starting the game for Keven Willard and the Terps. Maddy Traore and Jamie Kaiser started in place of Jordan Geronimo and DeShawn Harris-Smith. The Terps opened by going inside, scoring their first 8 points in the paint.

Maryland surged to an early 8-point lead that lasted until OSU scored 7 in a row. Jahmir Young then got rolling for Maryland, scoring 8 points in the game’s initial 10 minutes.

When Scott hit a three, and Traore got his second tip-in of the game, the Terps found themselves up by 10, 28-18, with 7:31 remaining in the half and play having stopped for the under 8-minute TV timeout.

Maryland, at this point, was shooting 50% from the floor, having attempted 20 shots with only 4 being three-pointers. They held a 14-6 advantage in points in the paint.

The two teams then went on mini scoring droughts before OSU closed the gap to 6 points, 32-26 after a Thorton layup. Maryland had gone back to their ineffective three-point game, with 2 of their last 4 shots being triples and both missing. There was now 3:35 left in the half.

The Terp scoring frustrations had now reached over 4 minutes. Their shot selection was really suspect, with Young and Reese taking some ill-advised shots. The lead was shrinking fast.

With 51.6 seconds left, the gap was just a single point. A 13-2 Ohio State run ended the half. The Terps failed to score during the last 5:36 of the first half and trailed 33-32 going into the locker room.

It seemed the tenor of the half, and perhaps the game, shifted when Maryland started taking more threes than twos.

Young got the second half scoring started with a three pointer off a really nice pass from Kaiser. Traore and Thornton then traded baskets. Traore had scored 8 points, with the total distance of his 4 made shots being about 2 feet.

The game was tied at 37 when the first TV break of the second half came around. The Terps hadn’t scored in the last 3 minutes. During that span they had committed 2 turnovers and, again, took some really bad shots.

The Terps would soon lose the lead when Reese fouled Devon Royal and Royal hit 1 of 2 foul shots. The Terrapins still couldn’t score, having now played almost 5 minutes without a point.

Maryland finally got on the board again with two foul shots by Jahari Long. Young followed that with a short jumper and the Terps had regained a lead, 41-40.

The next TV break came at 11:49. The teams were struggling to score. Maryland was shooting 3-9 in the half and the Buckeyes were 3-10. Each squad had committed 3 second half turnovers.

Play resumed with Rodd Gayle Jr making 1 of 2 foul shots. That was his first miss in over 30 tries from the foul line However, a Terp lane violation gave him another try. He hit it.

Reese finally got in gear with an “and one”, returning the lead to Maryland, 44-42. Scott followed that with a three, his second of the game, pushing the Terp lead to 6, 51-47.

Another Terp three, this time by Young, put Maryland up by six, 55-49, with 7:33 left in the game.

Another media timeout occurred with 5:24 left in the game. OSU now trailed by two, 55-53. Maryland had gone 2:34 without a point.

Coming out of the break, Young drained his 3rd triple of the half, but the Buckeyes answered with a bucket by Battle. Another timeout stopped play at 4:12, Maryland led by four, 60-56, with possession of the ball. Unfortunately, Young would turn it over.

The score was 61-58 with 2 minutes left when Ohio State called another timeout. Scoring was a problem for both teams at this stage.

For the Terps it was Young taking some really bad shots. Everyone was missing for the Buckeyes. The Terps had gone 3:43 without a field goal and OSU hadn’t scored in 2:22.

The Buckeyes had the ball, still down 3, before Thornton was left all alone on the left wing by Scott and connected on a three. Tie game with 1:03 left.

With 48.1 seconds left in the game, Scott was fouled attempting a layup. He missed both shots. How that happens, I have no idea.

The game was tied, the outcome was on the line, and he missed both shots. That’s a spot where if you really want to win, you come through with at least one point.

OSU failed to cash in when Thorton missed a jumper. The Terps now had a chance to win the game with a buzzer beater, but Young settled for a step back two from 16 feet and the shot came up short.

It was a terrible possession for a Maryland team that is showing a tendency of failing to get good looks at the end of games. This possession was lazy. Young seriously settled for a bad shot.

Overtime started with OSU making 2 free throws before Jahari Long made a little scoop shot. A layup by Gayle preceded a triple by Deshawn Harris-Smith. The Terps were leading 66-65, but Battle made a 6-footer in the lane to return the lead to Ohio State, 67-66.

Foul shots by Young swapped the lead back to the Terps, 68-67. Young returned to the line after another Battle miss, and gave his Terps a 70-67 advantage.

When Thorton Scored his 20th point of the game, Maryland led 70-69 with 1:32 left.

Maryland again went to Young, who was fouled in the act of shooting. He made just one of 2, allowing OSU to tie the game on yet another Thorton layup, this time over Reese. It was 71-71 with 44 seconds left to determine the outcome with Maryland in possession of the ball.

Reese was fouled while attempting a chip shot layup. It was one of a handful of layups the Terp Center had blown. He, like Scott before him, missed both foul shots.

Maryland got bailed out when Battle misconnected on a three. The Terps had a chance to win it, but Young threw up a contested short jumper and Harris-Smith barely missed a put back. The game was going into double overtime. That last Terp possession fail again to yield a good look. Willard needs better end-of-game options.

The 2nd OT saw Reese finally make a short jumper before turning the ball over. His miscue led to a Battle layup over Scott. The game was again tied.

Reese was fouled and went back to the line, where he promptly missed both tries once more. The teams then traded baskets. There was 1:58 remaining, the score was 75-75, and Maryland had the ball.

Another terrible step-back shot by Young missed the mark. That was the third time where Young just didn’t work hard enough to get a good look. Thorton then went right through Harris-Smith for a layup on the left side. Now Maryland trailed, 77-75 with 1:04 left to decide the outcome.

The next 2 possessions would result in Scott gift wrapping a steal to OSU and Battle missing a step-back three.

The Terps had a chance to tie or win with 15 seconds left.

Scott found himself with the ball on the left elbow and a path to the rim. He drove across the lane and attempted a weak layup from the right side and it was easily blocked by Zed Key.

Had Scott gone strongly to the rim, and elevated, he may have tied the game. As it was, his flat-footed try sealed the Terps fate. Not enough “want to”.

This loss is frustrating for Terp fans because the team lacked effort when they needed it most. Maybe Young was fatigued, and that’s what caused him to not work hard for a good shot.

Missing foul shots in crucial situations is sometimes understandable, but not 4 in a row like Reese did, or the double failure from Scott. Also inexcusable were the lazy turnover and soft drive to the rim at the end of the game by Scott.

It’s notable that Willard made no substitutions during either overtime period. Maybe his troops were gassed in the closing minutes. Young was tired, for sure. Perhaps it affected the play of other Terps as well.

Iowa comes to College Park on Wednesday for an 8:30 pm game. They’ll be looking to avenge their 2-point loss to Maryland on January 24.

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"prime" time playoff games


After a whopping 2.8 million people signed up for Peacock during the weekend of the Chiefs/Dolphins playoff game last month, Amazon Prime got the message.

"The people...they will pay."

And, so, Amazon will reportedly fork over more than the $110 million that NBCUniversal paid for the January wild card game in Kansas City and, in return, they'll air a 2025 wild card game next January.

There are no reports out yet on how many of the 2.8 million people who subscribed to Peacock canceled their membership following the Chiefs/Dolphins game.

As we've written here several times over the last few months, streaming services will continue to play an extensive role in televised sports play-by-play. This year it was one game. Next year, one game. The year after that? Maybe two, who knows?

Roger Goodell and the NFL have sold yet another playoff game to an internet streaming service. Next year, a wild card playoff game shifts to Amazon Prime.

The league, as was announced on Wednesday, will play eight international games in 2024, including a stop in Brazil of all places. Those games will likely all be packaged and sold to a network or streaming service of some kind in the future. Someone has to help pay for Roger Goodell's $64 million salary. It might as well be you and I, the owners figure.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that within the next decade or so, sports franchises are likely going to build their own streaming service and charge for innovative content that can't be found anywhere else.

I've been saying this for the better part of 15 years now, harkening all the way back to my days on the radio: The wave of the future is to simply pay for everything a la carte.

I'd pay a lot every month to have the Golf Channel.

I'd pay nothing at all to have the NBA Network. Or the ACC Network. Or the SEC Network.

I'd pay something to have the NHL Network.

If the Capitals started charging people $10 a month to exclusively watch all of their games, I'd be in on that, too.

I spend almost $200 a month now on cable and internet. An embarrassing amount of that monthly total is wrapped up in fees that our cable provider and amazing state and national government pilfers from us. Some of that $200 is for content, of course. And some of that content I actually watch.

I'd just much prefer to pay for whatever it is I want to watch. I don't need to shell out $2.95 a month for Oprah's channel. I don't watch it.

Anyway, that's where we're headed, which is fine by me.

I didn't fork over the six bucks for Peacock back in January because I just wasn't all that interested in the game. Six bucks is six bucks. Who cares? But I just didn't feel like going through all of the bells and whistles to sign up for the service knowing I'd likely not use it again after that game.

And I knew Kansas City was winning before the game even started. So why watch?

But if there's a sport or franchise that I connect with and my option for watching them mandates a monthly payment, I'm in.

Interestingly enough, as a sidebar to this discussion, I had a small inquiry back in December from a local media publishing firm who wanted to talk with me about partnering with them. They currently don't have a sports department or "anything sports" for that matter and were hoping to branch out into that area given the respective successes of the Orioles and Ravens in 2023.

One of their big quests is to make their current product online only and charge a premium for that content on a monthly basis.

They asked if I'd be willing to transition this website into a pay-for-content model to align more closely with their 2024-2025 goals.

When I said I'd never charge the readers anything, one of their higher ups said, "Noble, but ultimately the wrong move. I don't see how you can get to the finish line like that."

I said, "I've already passed the finish line."

I've been publishing this website for 9-plus years. 80% of the 1,711 people who visited on the first day back on August 25, 2014 probably thought #DMD wouldn't last a year.

I passed the finish line a long time ago. I won the race. At least that's how I look at it, anyway.

I do realize "pay for content" is the model nearly everyone is chasing these days and I respect that. But that's just not the way I want this particular website presented to the readers.

And so, the partnership didn't materialize, which is probably best for both of us. "On We Go", as I tell my golfers all the time. Just keep moving.

I understand the NFL's model. There's greed. There's super greed. There's out-of-your-mind greed. And then there's the NFL.

I don't begrudge them for holding up their fanbase for ransom.

You could do what I (and I'm sure millions of others) did in the playoffs and not pay $6 to watch a playoff game.

Or you could give them your credit card.

They're banking on people handing over their credit cards a lot over the next two decades.

Greed has no boundaries.


An interesting story popped up out of nowhere yesterday when former New York Mets GM Billy Eppler was suspended for his role in fabricating injuries to help manipulate the team's playing roster in '22 and '23.

Eppler is suspended through the completion of the 2024 World Series.

The scheme involved fabricating injuries on dozens of players throughout the two-year period, all in an effort to transition players in and out of the Mets' lineup as needed.

I had to laugh when I read the story yesterday.

Ubaldo Jimenez was once part of an Orioles "roster caper" when he supposedly stepped in a parking lot pothole and was moved to the injured list as a result.

The Orioles are lucky Rob Manfred wasn't the Commissioner back in 2014.

You remember what happened that year, right?

Pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez was going through a horrible stretch and the O's were struggling for options to replace him.

Suddenly, and, well, "conveniently", Jimenez stepped into a pothole in the Camden Yards parking lot and, wouldn't you know it, he was going to have to go on the disabled list.

We've all referenced that story many a time over the last 10 years, of course. Anytime a pitcher or field player is struggling and the team needs an "instant option", we always snicker and say, "Did they ever fix that pothole in the stadium parking lot?"

Teams have been manipulating their roster in every sports for decades.

Heck, the NBA actually has an insane rule where players can just sit out because they're "tired", which has to be incredibly embarrassing for a grown man at the height of his physical being -- and making millions of dolllars, no less -- to utilize.

I've never understood the whole "playing roster" thing anyway.

Why aren't you allowed to use any player you want whenever you want?

I mean, baseball has a 40-man roster of all players under contract to the Major League team. Why can't they just use any of those 40 players whenever they want? Who cares if a guy gets called up today, sent back tomorrow, called up the next day, etc.?

The same thing goes for football.

The NFL has this incredibly stupid rule where the team has 55 players "on the roster", 53 players on the team's "active roster" and then, for some bizarre reason, only 48 of those guys can play on Sunday.

Huh?

Why can't anyone who gets paid by the team play in a game?

And speaking of "creating injuries" and "stashing players on the injury list", the NFL has turned that ploy into its own cottage industry.

Coach: "Hey, Schmedley, how's your wrist?"

Player: "My wrist? It's fine, sir. Why?"

Coach: "Really? Looks a little swollen to me."

Player: "No. You must be thinking of another rookie you guys drafted in the 5th round. I'm fine, sir. Good to go."

Coach: "That's a shame about your wrist. But we're not giving up on you. Go see the GM and fill out the paperwork for the disabled list and we'll see you in training camp next summer."

That scenario happens all the time in the NFL.

In some cases, teams are actually hoping a rookie gets a knock in practice late in August so they can stash him away for a year with an "injury".

I'm sure Rob Manfred would use words like "integrity", "professionalism", "legitimate" and "upstanding" when discussing his decision to punish Billy Eppler. But Manfred has to know Eppler is just one of many who fiddles with the injury list to gain an advantage.

I just don't understand why teams aren't allowed to play any player on their roster whenever they want to play them.

I'm sure, somewhere deep down in places he doesn't talk about at parties, the main factor around roster manipulation circles back to the thing that is driving all of these sports: gambling.

If the gambler's don't know who the team is going to utilize that day, how on earth are they going to be able to accurately place a wager?

Gambling on any sport isn't easy. I think we all know that. But one of the things that makes gambling on golf much easier than other sports is you know who is playing, there's a history of their performance at the golf course, and -- at least on the PGA Tour -- you either play well and stay in nice hotels or you play poorly and double up at the Hampton Inn with another guy who is struggling to make the cut.

The fact that John Harbaugh has to potentially sit out 5 healthy players every Sunday is beyond dumb.

And the fact that guys like Billy Eppler just can't use any player they're paying is also beyond dumb.

Eppler can't work until after the 2024 World Series. That's the bad news.

The good news?

He doesn't have to worry about the Mets showing him up and playing in the Fall Classic next October.


Mackie reached out to me with a question about Lamar Jackson's MVP award and I thought I should make it clear once and for all, even though I think I've addressed it here before.

"No mention at all of Lamar winning the MVP?" he wrote to me yesterday? "Did you forget about it or you just don't care?"

I just don't care.

Now, I do understand why some people in town care that he won. You can now bet on the MVP in pre-season and throughout the season, in fact.

So, yes, I can see where some folks have a vested interest in Lamar winning the award on Thursday night.

But other than that, I couldn't care less, personally, about the MVP award or any other award for that matter.

Kevin Stefanski apparently won "Coach of the Year". I don't know how people determined he was the "best" coach in the entire NFL during the regular season, but I'm sure he did an outstanding job.

I didn't mention him, either.

Post season awards just don't matter to me.

The only award that's worth mentioning is the Super Bowl trophy that gets held up on the big stage around 11 pm on Sunday night.

I love Lamar's play.

He certainly is one of the top 5 overall players in the entire NFL, there's no two ways about that. If you gave the 32 GM's in the league a mythical "first pick" right now of any active player in the league, I'm assuming there would be some who would select Lamar with that pick.

But none of that matters.

Super Bowl.

That's what matters.

So that's pretty much why I didn't make a big fuss over Lamar winning the MVP award. I just don't care.

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terps spotlight

DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps visiting struggling ohio state today


The Terps have another chance to pick up a road win when they face the lowly Ohio State Buckeyes today at 4:00 p.m. The Buckeyes, tied for last in the Big Ten with a 3-9 record, are losers of 5 straight and 8 of their last 9.

Don’t expect Ohio State to roll over. They’ve lost a handful of very close games and have a win over Alabama. The last 2 Buckeyes losses have been by 3 points to Indiana and by 2 against Iowa.

They have some talent. OSU led by 18 at one point in the Indiana game, in fact.

Perhaps you remember Buckeye forward, Jamison Battle. He’s the same guy who once put up 39 points in the XFINITY Center as a member of the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

#DMD's Dale Williams says Maryland's Donta Scott could have a huge game in Columbus today when the Terps visit Ohio State.

At 44%, Battle must be guarded on the three-point line. Almost 60% of his made shots have come from behind the three-point line. Although he’s 6’7” and the team’s second leading rebounder, Battle isn’t a major physical presence on a team known for “Bully Ball’.

One of those bulls is point guard, Bruce Thorton. Both the Buckeye leading scorer and leading assist man, Thorton is a bruising 6’2” and 215 pounds. He likes to back down a defender, absorb contact, and shoot a little jumper. He’s not a slick ball handler, but possesses a keen 4 to 1 assist to turnover ratio. He’s tough, and is a reason to believe the Buckeyes hang tough today.

The other Buckeye who averages over 14 points a game (Thorton gets 15.4 and Battle 14.4) is Roddy Gayle Jr.

Another tough guy and good rebounding guard, Gayle is much more effective taking the ball to the rim than he is launching threes. His long balls only connect 28% of the time but he’s about 50% when operating closer to the bucket.

I feel OSU is severely vulnerable when forced to defend the interior. Both Julian Reese and Donta Scott can have major success on the low blocks today. Terp fans need to hope that Coach Willard runs sets for Scott that get him the ball down low. I don’t see a Buckeye that can defend him down there.

Reese will see Felix Okpara and Zed Key attempting to check him. Okpara has great height (6’11”) and length, but has yet to figure out how to use it. He’ll block a few shots, especially when helping, but his straight man against an opposing big needs work.

Key offers a better brand of “D”, but he’s only seeing 16 minutes a game. Neither player is scary on the offensive end. I prefer the game of Key, but he’s 6’8” compared to Okpara’s 6’11”.

If the Terps run sets that get the ball inside to Reese and Scott, Maryland will win. If we’re watching three-pointers and Scott trying the back guys down, they’ll lose. Unless, somehow, the threes go in, Maryland’s key to victory is under the basket.

In their last 2 games, Maryland had made just 9 of 48 three attempts (19%).

It’s in Maryland’s best interest to not turn this game into a slow, half-court game. That doesn’t mean the Terps don’t need to rely on their strength, which is defense, but they need to generate offense by means other than the half-court game.

I’m not so sure that this OSU team likes to defend the quicker pace. Easy buckets are to be had if our bigs beat theirs down the court.

Defensively, Maryland can have success with full court pressure, especially if the ball gets out of Thorton’s hands. Taking the three away for Battle is always a good idea, and respect the dribble drives of Gayle.

The Terps are a 2.5-point underdog on the road. They have better talent, but they need to use it properly.

OSU does not present the defensive problems that Rutgers did, so I expect more than 53 points out of the Terps. Earlier this week, Maryland lost to a three-win team, but it shouldn’t happen again.

Just pound the ball inside, get continual good looks for your bigs, and leave the state of Ohio with a road win. I think I remember someone in Baltimore saying, “It’s a simple game”. 66-61, Terrapins.

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February 9, 2024
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#3458


friday stuff


Let's get it out in the open right away.

There will be no Zay Flowers discourse here this morning. Not from me, anyway.

"Allegations" are just that. I heard about the Flowers incident last weekend but had no interest at all in writing about it, posting social media messages about it or even pursuing more details about it.

The Baltimore Banner chose to publish the story yesterday and that, of course, generated wide spread social media discussion about the future of the talented Ravens wide receiver.

Zay Flowers is under investigation for domestic violence, the Baltimore Banner reported on Thursday.

"It's ugly. Ugly stuff," was what I was told by someone who knew details of the allegations. I've heard a few things about the incident that, if true, are ugly indeed. But until those details are corroborated, I'm out. Website traffic and social media promotion aren't worth it.

And, so, that's that. Until we know more or the details are somehow confirmed, we won't be chronicling the story here.

Richard Jewell and the Duke lacrosse scandal come to mind. Here in these parts, we all remember Ray Lewis behind bars in the summer of 2000 for a crime he didn't commit.

I was once personally involved in a story that was drummed up for publicity and then later dropped. But that didn't stop people from accusing me nonetheless.

If Zay Flowers is indeed arrested for and later found guilty of domestic assault/violence, we'll certainly share an opinion or two on it.

For now, there's nothing to say, really. For all we know, Flowers may never formally be charged. I'm sure the Ravens are hoping it concludes in that direction.


Cristobal Del Solar shot a 57 yesterday on the Korn Ferry Tour, which is the second-tier of professional golf in the United States.

His score was 13-under par on the course in Bogota, Colombia, which was only 6,200 yards (and played at 8600 feet above sea level) and featured lift, clean and place in the fairway after heavy rains softened the course earlier this week.

But I don't care what the yardage was and how soft the fairways were.

57 is 57.

And he missed a 6-footer for birdie at the 18th hole for 56.

I've never been 11 under through 12 holes like Del Solar was on Thursday in his opening round. It must be utterly jarring to the nervous system to be in that position.

I once started the Baltimore Fall Publinx at Mount Pleasant at 7 under through 10 holes and it felt like I was having an out of body experience. I can't imagine what it would be like to be standing on the 13th tee at 11 under par, no matter if you're on a 6,200 yard course or 7,200 yard course.

Sure, it's much easier to score and make birdies on a 6,200 yard course. But you still have to putt the ball into the hole.

The internet lit up on Thursday with people poo-poo'ing the guy's round because of the shortness of the golf course, but my guess is 95% of those folks can't break 80 or 70, both of which are extremely difficult to do for anyone who plays the game by the rules.

Golf's "holy grail", a round of 54 (on a par 72 course), is still out there waiting to be had. There have been lots and lots of 300 games in bowling and a bunch of 900 sets, too. There have been, of course, perfect games thrown in baseball.

No one's ever shot 54, though.

But when you see scorecards like Del Solar produced on Thursday, you can't help but think that someone, somewhere, someday, is going to pull it off.

You just need a hot putter.

Plus a bunch of other things to go right for you.

Well, pretty much everything.


#DMD reader Patrick reached out to me with an accusation about "treating the Ravens with kid gloves" following the 17-10 loss to the AFC Championship loss on January 28.

"You and the rest of the boys club in Baltimore don't want your access stripped or your credentials taken away so you shrug your shoulders and say, 'We'll get 'em next time,'" he wrote to me.

I don't have "access" or "credentials" for the Ravens to take. I haven't requested a credential from them for several years now, even though I've been on the preliminary list forwarded to them by 105.7 every summer.

It just doesn't interest me enough to go out there, particularly when I know the restrictions that are already in place and, for the most part, any information I could gather on my own is going to be distributed by the Ravens P.R. department anyway.

So, if I treated the Ravens with "kid gloves" after their loss, it most certainly wasn't because I was afraid of the reaction I might get from the powers-that-be at Owings Mills.

I don't want to speak for the others in the media and how they portrayed it, mainly because I don't watch, listen or read all that much. I honestly haven't opened a copy of The Sun in several years. I don't have anything against the publication itself. I just don't read local news all that much these days.

I know how I accounted for the loss to Kansas City.

The Ravens didn't play particularly well.

Kansas City played better.

I've listed here on a couple of occasions the various reasons why it went down the way it did. I thought I was somewhat harsh when it came to addressing the performance of Lamar, Flowers, Monken and others.

But, unlike some people, I don't see where anyone should lose their job over the loss. If that's "kid gloves treatment", I guess I'm guilty then.

The Ravens had a remarkable season. They were one of the last four teams standing. They played the defending champions and they lost.

You might shrug your shoulders and say, "S**t happens" and I'd probably nod in agreement and say, "Yep, wish it didn't happen that way, but it did."

It's sports. It doesn't always go the way you want it to go. Life, by the way, mirrors sports. My mom died when I was 24. I didn't have that on my "Life Bingo Card", but it happened.

We live in this weird world where everyone needs a scalp.

When something doesn't go the way you wanted it to go or expected it to go, someone has to be responsible for those turn of events. There has to be a scapegoat somewhere.

It's beyond weird, to me.

I don't know why we have to crush people when things don't well. The Ravens tried to win. I can't imagine there was one player on the team who wasn't trying to win on January 28.

It didn't work out. This time. But it might work out next time.

That's the glory of sports.


An ardent NBA follower I'm not, so perhaps I'm just not paying close enough attention to the league and the various "haves" and "have nots".

We are ten days away from the NBA All-Star break.

Nearly every team in the league has played at least 50 games.

And there are four clubs with 10 wins or fewer right now.

How on earth is that possible?

It's February 9 and four teams are still looking for win #11.

Charlotte and San Antonio both have 10 wins.

The Washington Wizards have 9.

And Detroit has 8 wins on the season after a rare road win in Portland last night.

There are plenty of other bad teams in the league, but they actually have 15 wins or 18 wins, even.

These four, though, are beyond horrendous.

How does that happen?

And who is buying tickets in Charlotte, San Antonio, Washington and Detroit to see those four teams play?

I don't get it.

How can a professional team be so bad they've won 7 games in 50 attempts (Detroit)?

I often wonder if the betting public has the courage to just bet $1,000 every night on "the other team" playing those four?

Think about it. If you had the money to do it, where would you be if you bet $1,000 every night on the money line (when one of those four played).

Charlotte is 10-40. You would have to factor in odds, of course. Some nights, the opposition might even by -250 or higher when they're playing Charlotte. But it's fair to say you'd be at least $10,000 to the good if you wagered $1,000 against Charlotte in all 50 of their games this season.

The same goes for the other three lousy teams. You'd probably be up somewhere around $10,000 or $15,000, per-team.

I think the Orioles are going to win 105 games next season. Why wouldn't I bet $1,000 on them every game next season? If they go 105-57, I'd stand to "win" a total of 48 times. Even with the odds I'd be laying, I still think I'd finish somewhere around plus $25,000 or so.

I'd love to know if anyone has just crushed the books by betting anyone and everyone who plays Charlotte, San Antonio, Washington and Detroit this NBA season.

Last night, Portland, a lousy team at 15-35, played host to Detroit. The Blazers were minus-195 on the money line. That's what you're going to see every night, of course. Lines of -195, -235, -285 are routine when the Pistons are involved.

But even so, you're winning 43 of the 51 bets thus far in '23-24 if you hedge against Detroit every time they play.

It seems like easy money, as long as you have the courage and conviction to bet it.


The Capitals lost again last night, 4-2, in Florida. The defeat was Washington's 6th in a row.

There's still time to flip the script, but it's starting to look more and more like the Caps are going to miss the post-season for a second straight year.

And while they might not be in a full "rebuild" mode just yet, they're definitely "re-tooling", if nothing else.

Their offense is lousy.

Their goaltending is spotty, and that's probably being kind.

Their defense is capable, but certainly not good enough to make any kind of legitimate post-season run even if they qualified.

And, so, with the All-Star weekend in the rear view mirror and the trade deadline approaching on March 8, it's fair to ask the question:

Should the Caps unload some guys at the deadline and pack it in for the final 5 weeks of the regular season?

And if so, who goes?

The answer, to me, is "yes". Cut some guys loose at the deadline, try to stock up on some younger talent, and keep shaving some years off the team's average age.

You can also help the team's salary cap by making some moves, too.

Who goes, then?

Anthony Mantha is probably the most available and attractive guy the Caps have at this point. He has 16 goals on the season and looks to be healthy enough to perhaps help someone in the last month of the regular season and into the playoffs.

Mantha has been a pretty big disappointment in D.C. over the last couple of years. A change of scenery might help him. And he won't really be missed in D.C., if we're being honest.

I doubt they can get much for Max Pacioretty at this point given his injury-riddled campaign, but he'd be worth considering, too. Pacioretty does have a No-Movement-Clause in his contract, though, so he'd have to approve a deal to any team.

Nic Dowd is one of my favorite players and I'd hate to see him go. But Dowd would be a really nice pick-up at the deadline for a number of teams who need a hard working center who can also score a goal once a week or so.

Either goaltender is worth moving on, in my opinion. I like Lindgren better than Kuemper, but both of them are far too hot and cold to be reliable fixtures in '24-25 and beyond. If someone wants one of them, take what you can get.

Joel Edmundson is likely gone before the deadline. He's actually been decent-to-good throughout the campaign and could actually net something of small value if a defensively-challenged team needs a shot in the arm in March and April.

Edmundson does have a limited No-Movement-Clause in his contract, where he can list 10 teams he won't be traded to, but if the Caps want to find a taker for him, they likely can.

There's not much there, honestly.

Mantha has some value, as does Edmundson.

Dowd is probably more valuable to the Caps than someone else, but he'd be a nice get.

The Caps aren't going to rebuild their organization with anything they receive for the players listed above. But something's better than nothing.

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faith in sports


This Sunday's Super Bowl has two teams with several players on each side who constantly share their faith in public via the media, interviews, etc.

One of those players, Kansas City's Drue Tranquill, was interviewed this week by Sports Spectrum and what he had to say was remarkable.

It's a 3 minute video below. We'd love for you to watch it and learn more about Tranquill's story and the role his faith has played in his development as a NFL player.

We share these videos here every Friday just to remind you that God is everywhere, even in sports, and the more athletes we find who are willing to share their testimony, the better.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and our "Faith in Sports" segment every Friday.




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February 8, 2024
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thank you, geno


Geno Auriemma did something last night that even the great Mike Krzyzewski couldn't do.

He recorded 1,200 coaching wins before completing his 40th season.

The remarkable UConn's women's basketball coach collected career victory #1200 last night when the Lady Huskies routed Seton Hall, 67-34.

It took Krzyzewski 47 years to reach 1,200. Stanford's women's coach Tara VanDerveer reached 1,200 victories in her 42nd season.

Auriemma reached career win #1200 in his 39th campaign.

Auriemma is also different from those two in that he won all 1,200 of his games with the same program. Coach K also won games at Army before moving to Duke and VanDerveer was at Idaho and Ohio State before her days at Stanford.

UConn's Geno Auriemma reached 1,200 coaching wins last night as the Lady Huskies beat Seton Hall.

In an era when coaches hop from job to job, Auriemma's career at UConn is an outlier in the most positive of ways.

People often ask me who my favorite coach is and the answer has been the same for going on a decade now: Geno Auriemma.

While some find that peculiar given my affection for men's sports, I can easily admit much of what I've read or heard from the UConn women's coach has shaped or reinforced many of my own coaching philosphies, albeit in the sport of golf.

One of the traits Auriemma believes in that resonates directly with golf is body language. I've long been a huge proponent of body language and emotional control in the sport of golf.

"If I can look over at you a fairway or two away and tell if you're winning or losing, playing well or not playing well, then you're doing it wrong," I tell all of my players at Calvert Hall.

It's a rare occasion indeed when a player loses his cool in golf and can then use that emotional outburst to play better. Golf is unlike just about any other sport in that you can't "try harder". It just doesn't work.

In basketball, I can pull you aside and say, "If you don't start running faster and playing better defense, I'm going to sit you on the bench," and a boy, girl, man or woman can do that on the very trip down the court. They can run faster. It's within their abilities.

The same goes for football. You can try harder. You might be the only one who knows you're doing it, but it's possible.

Golf's just not like that. So the ability to maintain emotional control is paramount for people who want to play golf at a high level.

A couple of seasons ago, we were facing an MIAA opponent with a similar record to ours and were playing at their home course. For reasons I wasn't sure, they had a larger-than-normal gallery on hand, upwards maybe of 100 people milling around watching the action on three different holes.

Many of the onlookers were students of the host school. Again, that was odd, because in general, 90% of the spectators at high school golf matches -- maybe even 95% -- are family members of the guys who are playing in the match.

"This is totally going to work in our favor," I told the captain of my team before we teed off. "Watch and see. These guys are going to want to play "up" for their friends and classmates and it's going to work against them."

They started losing their cool before we even reached the halfway (6th hole) mark. Loud outbursts after a bad shot, an angry few digs into the turf after missing the green with a shot, a disgusted swipe at their golf bag with their towel after losing the hole.

As we got up to the 7th tee to start "the back 6", I said to one of my players, "They're unraveling right in front of you. Just make a couple of more pars and you're winning all three points."

We secured an upset win that day that later in the season wound up helping us make the playoffs once head-to-head tiebreakers were used to determine post-season participants.

As we got on the bus to head back to CHC, I reminded the players about the body language and emotional control concepts I preach to them constantly throughout the season.

"You won today because you played better golf," I told them. "But you played better golf today because you didn't lose your cool. When you hit a good shot, you just moved on. When you hit a bad shot, you just moved on. When you won a hole, you reacted the same as if you lost a hole."

Part of emotional control is also staying "even" when things are going well. That's not the easiest thing for teenagers (or anyone, really) to do, since they want to celebrate the very second something goes favorably for them. But that then makes the "down moment" hurt even more. The constant high-and-low you experience has to be leveled off by the athlete.

Some of that I learned on my own over the years working in professional soccer.

A lot of that I figured out as a competitive golfer. It's never a failure if you learned a lesson. And in a lot of my failures, I didn't have the emotional control necessary to succeed. But I learned along the way that emotional control is 50% of golf, if not more.

I once stood on the 15th tee of the Maryland Open at 3-under par for the tournament and this was on day two of the three day event. If I could get into the clubhouse at 3-under or even 2-under, I'd have a realistic chance of winning the tournament the next day.

I hit a not-so-terrible shot on #15 that wound up in the front left bunker. My lie was half-buried in the trap, as occasionally happens. Instead of just accepting it -- since I hit it there, it was ultimately my fault -- and going about my business and trying to somehow scrape together a par or, at worst, a bogey, I huffed and puffed and complained about my bad break, then left the ensuing shot in the bunker. Now I was really in trouble.

I angrily splashed the next one out, raked the trap in disgust, missed the 20-footer for bogey, tapped in for double and openly cursed the golf gods. I was cooked at that point and the golf gods were up there lauging like hyenas.

I made bogey on #16 because my head was gone. Then miraculously made a par despite myself at #17 before settling for another bogey on an easy par-5 #18 to turn 70 or 71 into 76 and shooting myself pretty much out of the tournament due to one 45 minute stretch of losing my mind and my emotional control.

But I learned my lesson that day. I owe the golf gods a huge amount of credit for teaching me something I couldn't have figured out myself. I have since lost other golf tournaments, but never because I lost my head. The other guys might beat me occasionally, because golf works like that, but I won't beat myself.

And Geno Auriemma influenced me, too, with some of his comments over the years about body language and how it helps him and his staff determine if they're getting the most out of their players.





Coaching is unique in that different approaches are necessary depending on the sport.

Basketball is one of those sports where the action is fast and furious and it requires the coach to either "get their team going" by reacting emotionally or "slow their team down" by showing a more even-keeled approach.

Baseball is different, obviously. The game just sort of winds along, generally at the same pace. The in-game coaching that goes on is more strategical than it is emotional.

But occasionally even baseball managers have to react with emotion to send their team a message. The best managers know when to do that and when not to do that.

I was recently at a high school basketball game (not involving Calvert Hall, I'll say that for clarification) where a team ("A") was winning by 7 points with under 2 minutes to go. The trailing team ("B") made a basket with 1:40 remaining that was poorly defended by team A. The lead was now 5 points. The team A head coach then called time out and ripped into several players during the time-out with expletives and outbursts that could be heard throughout the gymnasium.

As I watched the moment, I thought to myself, "How do you expect the players on your team to have emotional control when you don't have any yourself?"

And, further, you're still ahead by 5 points. You have 30 seconds to tell your players something that will impact them...and you're getting the ball with a chance to salt the game away if you can score another basket on the next trip down the court. And you're spending 25 of those 30 seconds screaming at 2 or 3 kids who missed a defensive assignment?

Team A held on to win, thankfully, but it wasn't easy. They turned the ball over in the final minute, missed a foul shot, failed to block out under the basket and, in general, tried to unravel and lose but team B wasn't able to pull it off.

On each occasion when team A made a miscue in that final 100 seconds, team A coach threw his hands up in the air, angrily grabbed his Gatorade bottle and slammed it on the scorer's table and acted like a goof while his players tried to hang on for dear life on the court.

The game was going along fine until the final two minutes when the coach lost his emotional control at the worst possible time. His kids played scared for the remainder of the game, worried about the next outburst instead of worrying about playing sound basketball.

That's the way it looked to me, at least, as a casual observer with no real horse in the race other than being there to see a friend's son play for one of the two teams.

If the coach has poor emotional control and bad body language, how do you expect the players to be any better?

Geno Auriemma helped me understand the importance of those things. So last night's record-setting 1200th victory was cool for me to see, on a personal level.

He "gets it".

Sure, he's had some of college basketball's greatest female players play for him over the last two decades.

Ask any coach about the value of having quality players. It's much easier to win when you have great players and the other teams have good players.

I've been asked hundreds of times since last May: "Congrats on the championship. How'd you guys do it?"

My answer never changes: "We had the 15 best golfers in the MIAA on the same team and they played great golf all season." End of story.

Sure, it helps to have great players. But they generally become great on their own and then you just help them stay great. That's my opinion, anyway. It's your job to help them stay great or get better. If you do that, you've won as a coach.

Speaking of Auriemma, he's on my Mount Rushmore of great coaches in my lifetime.

As you click the "play" button on the video below to see who my four coaches are, please note you won't see Vince Lombardi there because he wasn't really in my lifetime.

For purposes of this exercise, I went with coaches from 1980 through 2024.

My four are showcased on the video below.

They probably won't surprise you. Your four might be the same. Or your four might be totally different.

Feel free to provide your four in the Comments section below.




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Wednesday
February 7, 2024
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#3456


terps, rahm, rosburg and more


Earlier this week, I authored a column right here in these parts about the prospects of Maryland perhaps sneaking their way onto the March Madness bubble if they could string together 6 wins in their last 9 Big Ten games, including two over ranked opponents like Illinois and Wisconsin.

And then last night they lost at home...to...Rutgers.

You might have heard of Rutgers before. They're lousy at sports.

Jahmir Young and the Terps suffered through another awful night shooting the ball in Tuesday's 56-53 loss at home to Rutgers.

But somehow they tripped up the Terps last night and delivered a resounding blow to Maryland's Big Dance hopes.

Maryland's not "DONE", yet, but with last night's loss they now have D-O-N.

Dale Williams will handle the full unpacking of the loss with his game review below.

I'm just here to spit out the obvious facts about the importance of last night's defeat. It's one thing to lose to teams like Purdue and Michigan State. Those two are perennial Big Ten powers. It's another thing, entirely, to lose to Rutgers.

Losing to Rutgers in your own building is like having Charlie Brown hit the game-winning 33 yard field goal against you.

It's not good.

And now, the Terps will have to really pull a rabbit out of their hat to get anywhere near that magical Joe Lunardi bubble that everyone in the country follows.

They'll have to beat both Illinois and Wisconsin and then almost run the table just to get a mention from Lunardi.

And let's be honest. Maryland just lost at home to Rutgers. That means they're probably going to lose to someone else they shouldn't lose to at some point in the next five weeks, like Penn State, Northwestern, Indiana or Iowa.

March Madness just isn't the same if the Terps aren't in there to at least lose on that first weekend of the tournament.

We're now resigned to doing what most Beatles fans did a month before a new album was released: praying for a miracle.

The Terps lost at home to Rutgers.

I keep repeating it hoping it's not true. But it is.


It didn't take Jon Rahm long to start crying about a potential return to the PGA Tour. About two months, in fact.

Rahm, who joined LIV Golf in early December, is already dropping very-public hints about wanting to play tournaments on the PGA Tour.

"I'm hoping that in the near future I can be back playing some of those events," Rahm said on Tuesday at Las Vegas Country Club, the site of this week's LIV Golf event. "I would certainly love to go back and play some of them. If there's ever a way back and a way where we can play, even if it's as an invite, I will take it. There's certain events that are special to me that I would still love to support."

Poor Jon. It must be tough to have buyer's remorse two months after you collected upwards of $400 million to sell your soul.

It's been especially tough for Rahm over the last few weeks as the PGA Tour has made stops at some of his favorite courses and tournaments.

"It was a lot harder to be at home not competing and know that those events were going on," Rahm said. "Palm Springs and Torrey, those weeks were hard. I've explained so many times how important Torrey is for me."

Well, it couldn't have been too important. After two years of bad-mouthing LIV, Rahm caved in and took their money, knowing he would be ineligible to play at Torrey Pines and this week's event in Phoenix, another popular stop on TOUR.

"Driving by Phoenix as often as I had to and knowing that I wasn't going to play there, it's definitely emotional," Rahm, who lives in Arizona, said. "That's one of the things that I'm going to miss."

Rahm said in December he took the $400 million offer from LIV in part because of the rumored deal getting hammered out between the PGA Tour and LIV.

But the much-discussed PGA Tour-LIV Golf alliance has still not been finalized. Rahm rolled the dice back in December that the two parties would eventually iron out an agreement and he figured he sneak in a cool $400 million payday and then eventually return to the TOUR to complete the ultimate pro golf double-dip.

Instead, he's been reduced to whining about not getting to play some of his favorite tournaments. It's not a great look for the reigning Masters champ.

But $400 million should ease the pain and the embarrassment of jumping ship.

It must really drive those LIV guys nuts that they left the PGA Tour and the tournaments they once loved still carry on and are played as if nothing ever happened.


So it appears the Ravens don't have a "Game Management Coach" after all, as Monday's news that Jerry Rosburg would return to the organization in that capacity were shot down on Tuesday.

Respected NFL reporter Tom Pelissero was the first one with the story on Monday.

And when the Ravens themselves didn't go out of their way to squelch it, everyone assumed it was legit and Rosburg would be joining the club as John Harbaugh's "Game Management Coach".

Very few things in the NFL are ever about money, unless it's somehow connected to a team's salary cap.

So it couldn't have been money that forced Rosburg to reconsider the position.

What was it, then?

My bird-in-a-tree in Owings Mills says Rosburg never officially told the Ravens he was taking the job.

Pelissero was right. Rosburg was discussing the position with the club on Monday. But that's as far as it went.

It might still come to pass that Rosburg eventually does take the job. "It's not dead, yet," a team source told me.

But Monday's development was simply a reporter jumping the gun. He put two and two together and came up with four, quite naturally. It appeared like it was a done deal until it wasn't.

One thing I learned on Tuesday was this: The idea of a Game Management Coach came from John Harbaugh himself. His first choice for the role was, in fact, Rosburg, who served in a similar capacity with the Broncos back in 2022.

The position is not new within the NFL. Several teams use a Game Management Coach, with a particular emphasis on 2-minute drills and other unique situations during practice each week and then an "assistant to the coach" role during the game itself.

It remains to be seen who might fill the role if Rosburg eventually declines the position entirely.


With both Maryland and the Capitals losing at home last night, it brought about something I hadn't seen yet this season.

I saw the question being thrown around on social media: Did those two entities hire the wrong coach?

Maryland's stunning home loss to Rutgers last night had some people starting to wonder if the Terps have the right coach in place.

And this wasn't posed by nut-case crazies on X who just want the coach fired every time the team loses. Those folks can be disregarded with the same level of enthusiasm as a Flyers fan who says, "This might be our year!"

Editor's note: It hasn't been the Flyers year since 1975. That's the last time they won the Stanley Cup. 1975. You think the Orioles World Series drought is lengthy? The Flyers haven't won the Stanley Cup in almost 50 years. It's a beautiful thing.

No, these were relatively sane people wondering if, perhaps, Kevin Willard (Terps) and Spencer Carbery (Caps) were the wrong choices by their two employers.

Willard is in his second year in College Park while Carbery is in his debut campaign in Chinatown running D.C.'s hockey team.

I know what both the Terps and Capitals need.

They need better players.

Now, sure, in Willard's case, a lot of that falls on him to go out and recruit those guys to come to Maryland and play for him. But two years in, you're still dealing with some leftover kids from the previous regime and you're trying to win at the same time in an effort to prove you're a worthy consideration.

The Terps are not an attractive option at this point. Which is only going to make Willard's job even more difficult.

Carbery's different in that he doesn't necessarily pick the players that play for him and, as a first-year guy, every player on the current roster was someone else's choice. It could take years and years before he's able to mold a roster -- in concert with the team's personnel department -- that fits his eye.

For the first time last night, the same people who soured on Mark Turgeon and Peter Laviolette were asking the question: "Did the (Terps, Capitals) hire the wrong guy?"

I don't know.

But I do know any coach needs time to put it all together and make it work.

As Ben Affleck said in the great movie, Good Will Hunting, "I don't know much...but I know that."


FOX, ESPN and Warner Brothers announced on Tuesday they will combine to offer a sports streaming service next fall that will include offerings from at least 15 networks and all four major professional sports leagues in the U.S.

In other words: Here we go.

Some people will look at this news and feel good about the fact that now they're going to have far fewer apps on their phone to pay for and watch one or two sports on.

There will be less clutter, for sure.

But it also means you're probably going to pay $20 or $30 a month for the offerings of FOX, ESPN and Warner Brothers. It's not a cup of coffee any longer. It's real money.

As we all know, this is precisely where sports on TV is headed. It won't happen in a year or three, but sometime down the road, you're going to be paying to watch virtually any and all regular season games of your favorite football, baseball, basketball and hockey teams.

The Regional Sports Network is dying a very quick death, as government-mandated cable affiliations are mostly gone. MASN, as an example, is down from an all-time high of 10 million subscribers (at $5.35 a month) to just over 3 million now. Once the RSN has to live on its own, it's days are numbered.

So we'll eventually all get the privilege of paying for the sports we want to watch, which, it seems, is probably the fairest way to do it anyway.

If you're not an Orioles fan, you've been paying $60-some dollars a year for the last 17 years for no reason at all.

It seemed backwards from jump street.

If you're an Orioles fan, paying $10 a month to watch all the games seems more than fair. It seems like a steal, frankly.

And that's where we're headed.

The news on Tuesday about FOX-ESPN-Warner Brothers teaming up isn't earth-shattering or anything like that. The NFL still has its deals with Amazon and their own NFL Network, of course. But there will likely be secondary NFL viewing options on the FOX-ESPN-Warner Brothers app that you don't or won't find anywhere else.

One national media analyst said on Tuesday the new app could feature intriguing in-game appeals like mic'd up players and coaches that the league(s) sell to those entities only and increases their app's value.

I might pay $10 a month for that. To hear the players and coaches talking during the game? Yeah, for $10, sign me up for that.

But if that's a $30 expense, I'll pass.

You might not pass on it, though, which is what they're banking on. Streaming is still a weird thing to the older generation. But for our 20-somethings and 30-somethings, it's very much a given that you're going to stream entertainment on your phone and electronic devices.

Times are changing.

It's slow, but swift at the same time.

One of these days, it's going to be all we know.


The PGA Tour will be in Phoenix this weekend for the wildly popular early-season tournament that features the largest attendance for any TOUR event and the craziest golf hole (#16) on the planet.

It's not a major, but it certainly has the feel of one, particularly now with the "Signature Event" status the tournament has claimed. The field will be impressive, despite early-week withdrawals from two top players, Viktor Hovland and Xander Schauffele.

Shane Lowry at 90-1 this week in the Phoenix Open? Yes, please, we'll take some of that.

If you notice something thus far in the 2024 season, lots of "mid range" guys are doing the winning. Last week it was Wyndham Clark, albeit in a weather-shortened competition, who at Pebble Beach at +4500.

We're going to mostly follow that theme with this week's picks for the Phoenix Open.

This does feel like a place where Scottie Scheffler (+500) should be part of your card, although he won't yield much of anything unless he wins outright. Scheffler is due for a win, he's won at TPC Scottsdale before, and he's the best player in the world right now. That's a tough trifecta to ignore, even if he's only paying 5-1.

But here's a list of six other players we love this week for win, Top 10 and Top 20 wagers.

Ben An (+3300) -- It feels like An is closing in on a "signature win", no pun intended. He's played great golf the last six months. And the setting at TPC Scottsdale won't rattle him at all.

J.T. Poston (+3500) -- A sublime ball striker who should fit in very well this week. If his putter gets hot, which it does several times a year, he could be a winner. Poston is also someone who desperately wants to make the '25 Ryder Cup team at Bethpage. He wants to start laying that foundation now.

Min Woo Lee (+4500) -- You're going to see this name a lot in 2024 when it comes to #DMD wagering. We love, love, love this player. Get him now for the Phoenix Open and then throw some early money on him at Augusta National. "Let Min Woo Lee cook", as he likes to say.

Adam Hadwin (+6000) -- We going back to Hadwin because we think a big win for him is right around the corner. This week could be just that occasion. And the 60-1 number is too just too inviting to pass up.

Corey Conners (+6000) -- Speaking of too inviting to pass up, when you can get Corey Conners at 60-1 at a ball striker's place like TPC Scottsdale, you run to the betting window. Get that wager in before people realize he should be 40-1, not 60-1. All it takes is Conner's putting to heat up and he's at 18-under standing on the 18th tee on Sunday afternoon with a 2-shot lead.

Shane Lowry (+9000) -- Yes, it's "that Shane Lowry" at 90-1, not a different guy named Shane Lowry. Again, he's a ball striker extraordinaire who should mesh perfectly with the amped up theater at the Phoenix Open. And when you get an excellent player at 90-1, you pounce on him. Lowry is too inviting to pass up.

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DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps stunned at home by rutgers


It was a familiar formula that led the Terps to their 56-53 home loss to Rutgers last night.

Poor shooting (2-18 from the three-point line) and crushing turnovers from their key players stymied Maryland’s offense. Jahmir Young gave it away 5 times, as did Julian Reese.

The Rutgers game plan of selling out to stop Young was never countered by Maryland and head coach Kevin Willard.

Young forced his game, electing to penetrate and shoot shots that were ill-advised, double teamed, and highly contested. He stumbled through a 3-17 shooting night with his drives to the rim yielding just 1 bucket in 13 shots.

It’s hard to place blame on a defensive effort that limited Rutgers to just 56 points, but Maryland’s effort in the second half was sub-par and equally complicit in this loss. The Terp “D” gave up 34 points in the second half to the worst offense in the Big Ten.

Donta Scott's last second 3-point attempt fell short and Maryland lost at home to Rutgers last night, 56-53.

The team that’s last in field goal percentage shot 50% in the second half (14-28) with most of those field goals being layups. An offense that produces 53 points is an issue. A defense that for 20 minutes gets run over by Rutgers is an embarrassment.

Julian Reese led Maryland with 19 points. Mawot Mag and Jerimiah Williams paced Rutgers with 15 and 14 respectively.

Turnovers and missed shots defined Maryland’s opening 4 minutes. Reese scored the Terps only bucket, but he also threw the ball away twice. The Terps were 1 -5 shooting, with Donta Scott missing both of Maryland’s three-point tries. The score was 6-2 at the first TV break.

The next 4 minutes saw all but one Scarlet Knight possession end in a turnover. The game was tied at this point, 8-8. A 5-0 Rutgers advantage on the offensive boards gave them chances that their turnovers denied.

Maryland then decided not to score for a while and found themselves down 15-8 when play was stopped for the under 8-minute media break.

During the 5:40 drought the Terps missed all five of their shots and turned it over 4 times. Reese also missed all three of his foul shots. One of those shots was courtesy of a Rutgers lane violation.

Coming out of the break, Jamie Kaiser made two foul shots after he was hacked in the act on a rare (for him) move to the basket.

Maryland had gone 6:22 without a field goal when Reese got a putback after Jordan Geronimo missed a dunk. Reese then contributed a single foul shot to trim Maryland’s deficit to 2, 15-13.

The Terps finally broke the ice from long range when Young drilled a triple. The Terps had regained the lead, 16-15. The Scarlet Knights called timeout, and promptly threw the ball away when play resumed.

Play stopped again at 3:25. The offensive numbers at that point were depressing.

Both teams had attempted 23 shots, with the Terps hitting just 6 (26%) and Rutgers making 7 (30%). Each side had made 1 three-pointer with Rutgers having attempted 7 and Maryland throwing up 10.

Rutgers had already committed 12 turnovers and the Terps gave up the ball 7 times. Rutgers led 19-18. This wasn’t what Naismith had in mind when he invented the game of basketball.

Mercifully, the half ended. The Terps were up by 2, 24-22.

The two most influential occurrences during the first 20 minutes were the three fouls picked up by both Clifford Omoruyi and Jeramiah Williams. Each starter was limited to just 8 minutes of floor time. Maryland capitalized on Omoruyi’s absence by going to Reese. He had a team high 9 first-half points. Young was just 1 for 7 from the floor.

Prior to the start of half number two, the most impressive thing I had seen on the court so far was a dog jumping Double-Dutch during halftime. The game was that bad.

The Terps went right back to Reese to get the second half scoring started. However, any possibility of pulling away was thwarted by their 4 turnovers in the first 4 minutes of the half. Three of those were really careless passes that showed a lack of intensity by Maryland. The game was tied at 30 with 15:41 left in the game.

A Jamichae Davis triple for Rutgers gave reason for Coach Willard to call timeout. His team now trailed by 5 points and had allowed Rutgers to hit their last 3 shots. Maryland looked lethargic and uninterested. Five turnovers and just 4 made shots will do that.

After the stoppage, Young hit a three for Maryland, closing the gap to 2 points 37-35. Neither team scored again before the under 12-minute timeout.

Rutgers was employing an effective strategy of using as many players as it took to keep Young out of the paint. He was forcing some shots, as evidenced by his 3 for 14 shooting at this point in the game. There was 7:42 left to play and the Terps trailed 42-37.

It was turnovers, again, that kept the Terps in a hole. This time it was a seven-point hole that seemed like a deep well considering the Terps couldn’t score.

The hole took on the appearance of a grave when Rutgers scored on consecutive possessions. They held a 9-point lead with 2:54 remaining. The Terps' usually reliable defense had permitted the Scarlet Knights to shoot 52% (13-25) so far in the second half. Rutgers also had an 18-8 advantage in points in the paint.

A technical foul on Mag provided Young with 2 foul shots, which he made. Reese followed with a put back, and then the Terp press came up with a steal. Scott was at the line shooting 2 with a chance to reduce the lead to 3 points, He delivered. There was some life in the arena and in the team.

Rutgers’ Williams went to the rack and was rejected by Reese. The Terps had the ball with a chance to tie the game. From my angle I couldn’t tell if Kaiser threw the ball away on the Terps possession or if Young just failed to catch it. Either way, another careless Maryland turnover gave the ball back to Rutgers.

Maryland would get the ball back with 1:17 remaining, down 3, 52-49. Young drove to the hoop, but his shot was blocked. He retained possession and his prayer from under the basket was answered by a foul call, bailing him out.

He went to the line shooting 2. That “home cooking” call provided Maryland with 2 points as Young converted both foul shots. 52-51 with 1:05 and the Terps pressing.

After breaking the press, Rutgers held the ball while running down the shot clock. Maryland played great defense for 29 seconds. Too bad the shot is 30. Williams slipped by for a crucial, easy layup at the buzzer. A review confirmed he got the shot off in time. 54-51.

A Scott layup made the game, 54-53. Maryland again pressed and intentionally fouled twice, to get Rutgers into the bonus. The next foul put Mag on the line for one and one. The first shot rattled around the rim before going in. The second one also found the bottom of the net.

Maryland raced the ball up court before calling timeout. They trailed 56-53 with 13.9 seconds left. The big question was would they try a three of go for 2. They were 2 for 17 shooting threes at this point.

We never really found out. Young got trapped on the sideline after a double team. His outlet pass to Scott left only seconds for a fade-away three from very deep on the left wing. The shot was short all the way and the Terps had suffered a 56-53 loss. That possession, especially after a timeout, was a disaster.

I’m rarely the guy to jump onto the “outcoached” bandwagon.

I think it’s perhaps the most misused term when analyzing a team sporting event. It’s just the easiest place to park the blame, ask any OC in the NFL.

In this instance, I need someone to explain to me how Willard allowed Young to continually get himself caught in the lane putting up desperation shots. Meanwhile, you have a guy that’s 8 for 10 from the field, Reese, and he’s not getting his number called.

I’m fully aware that Coach Pikiell was trying to also double Reese as much as possible, but last night, that was by far the better option. We all know Reese doesn’t handle the ball well, but he was Maryland’s leading assist guy against Michigan State.

Plus, he was fighting all night, getting 5 offensive rebounds. Reese getting 10 shots while Young goes 3-17 and Scott goes 3-10; well, it makes little sense to me. He was playing hard, reward him.

Speaking of Scott, push away the thoughts that his 3-point stroke is back. After last night’s O-for, he’s made just 3 of his last 22 three-pointers. And, while I’m harping on the deficiencies of this group, lets give a failing grade to whoever is working with Reese on his foul shooting.

The Terp junior made 41 of 51 in his freshman year, That’s a very respectable 80%. Last season he fell to 53% and he’s at 58% for 2023-2024.

Last night he made just 3 of 9, and actually it was 3 of 10 because he was awarded an extra attempt after a scarlet Knight lane violation. He missed that one also.

In a single possession game like last night, those points are critical. I need someone to explain to me how a guy can go from 80% to the 50’s, unless he’s being paid to miss. I just don’t understand it all..

Reese’s stroke is jacked and needs to be scrapped, but what happened to the 80% move? While you’re at it, maybe touch on how Scott went from hitting 44% of his threes as a sophomore, down to 29% the next year. Head shaking.

The Terps, on most nights, have 3 scoring options. They are Young, Scott, and Reese. When 2 of those players shoot 6 for 27, and the team goes 2 for 18 from the three-point line, then it's up to your defense to get you the win.

Last night, all of that happened.

The offense was..well…offensive. But the defense and coaching faltered too, and the Terps suffered what can only be referred to as a really bad, ugly, loss at home to a team that was 3-7 in the league.

Next up, the Terps hit the road to play Ohio State (3-9) on Saturday at 4 pm. Watch it on FS1

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Tuesday
February 6, 2024
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#3455


some very serious questions


We're getting to the point again where the mailbox is overloaded.

I try my best to get to them. But then something happens like, you know, the Orioles trade for a Cy Young pitcher or the team gets sold to a group of mostly local business leaders.

There was also that little thing called "The Ravens in the AFC Championship Game" that also filled these pages for a week or two.

I do appreciate those of you who send in questions you'd like to see answered here. Occasionally, I'll reply privately just to get it off my plate. But for the most part, if I think the question is something people would find interesting, I save it for the Mailbag and publish it here.

We have a few hard hitting questions today, including a couple that were submitted just yesterday and are very timely.

As always, if you have any questions for me, send them in: 18inarow@gmail.com


Ramey asks -- "Now that you've had time to digest it all, who gets the biggest bulk of the blame for that loss to the Chiefs? As you always say, someone has to get the blame. Who gets it in your book?"

Lamar Jackson and the Ravens once again came up empty in the big game, falling to K.C., 17-10.

DF says -- "I say that but don't abide by that theory at all. But that is how people work. "We were supposed to win and we didn't, so one of our players has to be the reason why it didn't work out."

I generally use the pizza theory, giving "slices" to different players or things that happened along the way.

But I'll play along since you asked. If one member of the Ravens deserved the bulk of the blame for the 17-10 loss, it was the quarterback. Because it's almost always the quarterback at that point. I assume the winner of this Sunday's Super Bowl will see the same thing take shape; either Mahomes will outperform Purdy and K.C. wins or Purdy outperforms Mahomes and the 49'ers win.

Lamar makes $52 million annually. The Ravens gave him that money, in part, because they assumed when the lights were on and the chips were down, he'd play like a $52 million quarterback. Instead, he played like an improved version of Desmond Ridder. That doesn't take away what he did during the regular season, mind you. But you asked who gets the blame. That's my pick.

I realize a lot of folks in town want to pin it on Todd Monken, but deep down in places we don't talk about at parties, Lamar was supposed to be able to overcome all of that because he's the MVP and the $52 million man. And he didn't."


Jeff Printz asks -- "Hi Drew, a question for your reader Mailbag. What's the final grade for Peter G. Angelos as the owner of Orioles?"

DF says -- "I don't know. I realize this is what we're going to do now that it appears a change in ownership is actually happening. I just don't know that he should be graded like that given there was a lot going on behind the scenes with MLB moving the team to D.C., the MASN fiasco, etc.

We only know about 25% of what went on with Peter during his 31 years of owning the team. What we know, of course, wasn't all that great. He did some good things. And he did some not-so-good things. The franchise had a period (2000-2011) where they were the laughingstock of all of baseball, pretty much.

I'd like to think that we, as human beings, can balance things out a bit by looking at the positive contributions he made to his community, many of which went unpublicized and/or ignored. He donated millions and millions of dollars to various entities within the city and state.

I know some people like to poo-poo those kinds of things, but it's not their millions they're giving away. Peter donated a lot of money for some very positive things in town and never asked for anything in return, attention-wise.

I'd like to just leave it at that. His baseball ownership had highs and lows. But he balanced out a lot of the lows with some incredibly generous moments that made our community better. I think that's a fair way to grade him."


Paul Bortchen asks -- "What are your thoughts on Jerry Rosburg getting a position on Harbaugh's staff as the Game Management Coordinator? What exactly do you think that job will consist of? And do you think Steve Bisciotti forced Harbaugh to create that spot?"

DF says -- "I don't know what to say or what to think because I have no idea what that means. Is Rosburg now going to be in charge of sending down challenge information to Harbaugh once he sees the replays on TV? That would be great, if so. People can stop crying about John "messing up challenges" even though he hasn't actually called for a challenge on his own in a decade, probably. Now, it will be Rosburg's fault.

I have no idea what the position will entail. Does Jerry Rosburg radio down to Harbaugh with 1:54 remaining and say, "After this next play, take a time out."? I'm kind of joking. But I'm also serious. I mean, "game management" is just that, right? When to call time-outs, when to dirt the ball, when to throw the ball, run it, etc.

So, next January if Todd Monken is calling all pass plays in the playoff game, does Jerry Rosburg tap him on the shoulder and say, "Hey, I'm 2nd on the pecking order here -- you know, the Game Management Coordinator -- and you need to start running the friggin' ball before I say something to Harbs."?

This sounds like a bit of a goofy idea the more I think about it. But I'm saying that with no idea what the details of the position are. Maybe it would make more sense if I knew. As it stands now, it just seems like a weird way to pay some guy $200,000 a year to tell you to use your first time out with 2:43 left in the game.

And, no, I don't think Steve Bisciotti had anything to do with it. He pays John $16 million a year to coach the team. If Steve wanted to coach the team, he'd save the $16 million and do it himself.

Credit to Harbaugh for creating Rosburg's position, though. That should shut up the critics until at least next September's season opener."


Robbie asks -- "Hey Drew, I went out to the driving range on Saturday and Sunday and I've developed a nasty case of the shanks. Please help me! I didn't touch the clubs all winter so I'm just hoping this is something you go through after a 4-month layoff. Can you give me some tips to get rid of them? I'm right handed if that makes a difference. Thanks, coach!"

DF says -- "First rule of thumb. NEVER, EVER say (or write out) the word! I'll call them "the laterals" just so I don't have to say the word that starts with "s" and ends with "k".

Second thing. Don't fret. Everyone hits one of those on occasion. My old buddy Bill Bassler Sr. from Rolling Road said "A sh--k is the closest you'll come to hitting a perfect golf shot."

Now, how do you get rid of it? Here's what I think: You're either too close to the ball at address or you move to your toes on the downswing. Either of those will cause the hosel to move into the ball at impact, which is why it strikes the ball first and causes the ball to shoot off to the right (for right handed players).

Go back to the range and try to stand away from the ball more at address. And on the downswing, make a concerted effort to keep your weight either in the middle of or even closer to your heels at impact. You're trying to do anything you can to keep the hosel from moving out in the direction of the ball at impact.

As Romeo said in the great movie Tin Cup, "The sh--ks are like a virus...they just show up out of nowhere." And they'll eventually go away, too. Don't worry about that."


Ed asks -- "I'm genuinely curious about your disdain for the Beatles given that I find most of your musical tastes to connect with mine (I'm 7 years younger than you, I believe). Can you honestly name 10 bands better than the Beatles? And I mean that. Can you honestly find 10 better?"

DF says -- "No, Ed, I can't name ten."


Dustin Johnson and the rest of the LIV golfers continue to toil in relative obscurity while waiting for the PGA Tour and LIV to come up with some sort of working agreement.

Brian Teske asks -- "Any second thoughts or new opinions about LIV Golf now that the golf season is underway and Rahm has bolted? It seems like Rory is coming around to the fact that the two groups have to work together. What say you?"

DF says -- "I said from the day they birthed LIV that I didn't understand why the two groups didn't work together with certain non-negotiable rules in place to protect the history and sweat equity of the PGA Tour. I'm still saying the same thing today.

I don't know why the PGA Tour doesn't run its schedule from January through the end of August (like they do now) and then LIV can play from September through December at whatever international courses they can find.

And if a PGA Tour player wants to fly to Dubai or Tokyo in November and play LIV golf, let him do it. The PGA Tour can create whatever rules they need to make sure their top players play a minimum number of events in the U.S. every season.

The problem, of course, is LIV has been playing "good cop" for two years when, in reality, they're trying their hardest to disrupt and wreck the PGA Tour if they can.

Under my idea, the PGA Tour can remain in the U.S., Mexico and Canada (and the two weeks they're in the UK for the Scottish and British Open) and LIV can go to Dubai, Australia, Japan, Spain, South Africa or anywhere else they want...other than North America.

I'm not sure why that's so hard to figure out.

As it stands now, though, I'm as "anti-LIV" as I've ever been. I've never watched one second of it. I have no interest in who wins, who loses, who plays well, etc. I couldn't care less. I'm sure the 3,300 families who lost loved ones in the 9-11 attacks haven't watched any of it, either."


Miles asks -- "Hi Drew, for your next Q&A column, rank these golfers in order of their greatness. Thanks so much and Go Hall! Raymond Floyd, Payne Stewart, Ben Crenshaw, Davis Love 3rd, Paul Azinger."

DF says -- "Well, Payne Stewart is the outlier in the group because he died at such a young age, albeit with three major championships.

I think Ray Floyd was the best of that group. He won everything except the British Open and finished with 4 career majors. He was a fierce competitor with a remarkable short game. The Masters he gave away in 1990 probably still haunts him, but his career was outstanding.

Stewart would have won more than 3 majors, I assume. He was a great ball striker and a gamer under the gun. The bigger the moment, the better he was. He was Ian Poulter...but Payne could actually win, if that makes sense. I think he's the second best of that group.

It's kind of a toss-up after that. Tee-to-green, Davis Love III was potentially the best of all five of those guys, he just wasn't a great putter. Crenshaw, of course, was arguably a top 3 putter of all time but was wild off the tee. Azinger was just a fighter with a homemade swing. He was the least accomplished of that group.

1. Floyd, 2. Stewart, 3. Love III, 4. Crenshaw, 5. Azinger."


Scott P. asks -- "OK, now that the game is over, would you do this trade? Ravens win the AFC Championship Game over K.C. with no guarantee of how they would do in the Super Bowl and in exchange, the O's struggle to an 83-79 season in 2024 and miss the playoffs."

DF says -- "No way. Sorry. If the Ravens get to the Super Bowl and lose, it's pretty much the same thing (to me) as losing in the AFC Championship Game. Only one team wins their last game of the season every year. Everyone else is bummed out. I'm not trading anything for what we might see from the Orioles in 2024!

They won 101 games last season with "that" team. They might win 105 or more this season, if everyone stays healthy for six months. I fully expect the O's to be in the ALCS in 2024."


On second thought, Ed. I wrote earlier I couldn't name 10 bands better than the Beatles. And that's true. I can't name 10. I can name 20.

1. Electric Light Orchestra

2. The Cure

3. R.E.M.

4. Oasis

5. INXS

6. Led Zeppelin

7. Talking Heads

8. Pearl Jam

9. Soundgarden

10. Echo and the Bunnymen

11. The Smiths

12. Aerosmith

13. Sublime

14. Lynyrd Skynyrd

15. Little Feat

16. The Cars

17. The Guess Who

18. The Doors

19. Hall and Oates

20. AC/DC

I left out 5 very obvious bands just because I couldn't squeeze them in and leave out any of the other 20...

You asked, Ed. You asked...

And while you didn't ask for it, here's R.E.M.'s most underrated song ever.



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terps spotlight

DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps host rutgers tonight


If anyone knows a good welder, it may be wise to ask them to head on down to the XFINITY Center before tonight’s Terp game against Rutgers and reinforce the rims with some rebar.

While they’re at it, throw another layer of plexiglass on the backboards too. If current form holds, a ton of bricks will be launched tonight. Without reinforcement, the only defense the basket may have will be an air-ball.

We all know how off line the Terrapin 3-point shooters can be, but the Rutgers Scarlet Knight shooters make the Terps look like Trajan Langdon, the former Duke Blue Devil Alaskan Assassin.

Not only is Rutgers the worst 3-point shooting team in the Big Ten (just 28%), but they match that futility by being the worst 2-point and worst foul shooting team too.

The Knights have made just 3 of their last 30 attempts from behind the arc and the numbers only get a smidgen better when adding in other recent games. They have two starters making about 30% from long range, but their lineup is void of any player who you would label as a “threat”.

#DMD's Dale Williams says Maryland's Donta Scott is set up for a big night against Rutgers in College Park this evening.

This Rutgers team could have been much better if not for the transfer portal. The Huskies stole two key pieces from last season’s Scarlet Knight team.

Cam Spencer took his offensive game to the UConn Huskies while Paul Mulcahy is plying his trade with the Washington Huskies. Those two alone wouldn’t suddenly vault this Rutgers team into an at-large bid conversation, but this Scarlet Knight team would have been better than last year’s NIT team.

Rutgers has had a series of injuries, most notably to Mawot Mag. Mag has a great body for basketball, being a lithe 6’7” and carrying 215 pounds. He has missed 8 games this year and all of his numbers are down.

Although cleared to play after tearing his ACL last February, he clearly is not the same player he was before his injury. The phrase, “Working himself back into playing shape” has been used to describe him.

Last season, Rutgers was a potential NCAA Tournament team before they finished the season 2-6 with Mag sidelined with his injury.

Perhaps some scoring relief for Rutgers will come from Jeremiah Williams, who was just cleared to play after transferring from Temple. In his only game as a Scarlet Knight, he provided 10 points and 6 rebounds in 28 minutes.

It needs to be mentioned that those 10 points came on just 4 of 12 shooting, but it still was 10 points. He’ll definitely help this team on both ends of the court. He’s a nice defender, being a long 6’4 guard.

My favorite Knight is Cliff Omoruyi. The 6’11” center is almost a double-double every night with 10 points and 9 rebounds per game. He’s a chiseled 245 pounds, but lacks a signature move on the low blocks and has no perimeter game at all.

I like him because he’s an athletic big man who fights all game long and he’s also the fourth best shot-blocker in all of college basketball.

The Rutgers point guard, Derek Simpson, is a name you’ll hear a lot tomorrow. He’s their playmaker and the one guy who can get to the rim. He leads the Knights with 3.2 assists per game. It’s very difficult to accumulate assists when your teammates don’t make the shot.

As a team, Rutgers doesn’t do anything very special. They run the same plays that most teams run, play man defense most of the time, and press a little. They thrive on tenacious “D” (not the one with Jack Black), but just struggle to score.

When a team misses as many shots as I believe Rutgers will, a key to the game must be rebounding. The Scarlet Knights need volume to post enough points to win. If Maryland can limit the Rutgers second chance buckets, then they’ll win the game.

After rewatching last year’s 64-50 Terp loss on the road against Rutgers, (a game where Maryland scored just 8 points in the game’s first 17:30) I’m convinced that Julian Reese can score on Omoruyi. Reese was 4 for 5 against him last year and Maryland really didn’t run any sets designed to get Reese the ball inside.

I thoroughly realize that the Rutgers big man is a talented defender and shot blocker, but Maryland needs to establish an inside game tonight and Reese can pull this off. It’s the only way to open up whatever outside game the Terps might have.

I’ll also place an importance on playing physical basketball. That might go hand in hand with rebounding, but Rutgers will come to College Park knowing that their chances of winning rely on being the more physical team.

The Terps might be frustrating on offense, but they can play a tough physical game, especially on defense. If they can maintain that type of intensity, they can improve to 6-6 in the Big Ten.

With the line set at Terps -7.5, and the over/under at 122.5, the books are trying to tell us this will be a low scoring game with the Terps handling business at home. Those numbers suggest a score of about 65-57. I don’t see Rutgers getting to 57 unless they do so in mop-up time after Maryland has secured the win.

Reese gets back to being an inside presence, Young again dominates, and Scott should have one of his biggest nights of the year. It all adds up to a 69-54 win for the Terps.

Gametime is 6:30 p.m. Watch it on BTN.

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Monday
February 5, 2024
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#3454


i wonder


Things to ponder on this Super Bowl week.

It feels kind of weird, still, that the Ravens aren't playing this Sunday in Las Vegas. I'll watch the game, sure, but I'm just not that enthused about the match-up. Without the Ravens, I need someone else in the game to pull for...and neither of these two teams do it for me.

For the record, I think San Francisco's winning. But I don't care either way. Both quarterbacks are deeply rooted in their faith and will offer praise to Jesus on the stage after the game, so in that regard, it's a "win" no matter the outcome.

I wonder, though...

I wonder if it bothers Travis Kelce at all that he's always the 2nd most popular person in the room anytime he's out in public with Taylor Swift?

Kelce's "popular". Swift's an icon. And while Kelce's nearing the end of his career, Swift is basking in her prime, having just hauled in multiple awards at last night's Grammys.

Speaking of last night's event, Swift won the big awards but Miley Cyrus won "outfit of the night". I'd post it here but there are kids who visit #DMD occasionally. The entire gown was made up of 14,000 gold safety pins. No fabric, just safety pins. And Lord only knows what she paid for that piece of "apparel". Whatever it was, I'm jealous I didn't come up with the idea and sell it to Cyrus.


I wonder, after watching about 2 minutes and 30 seconds of the Pro Bowl yesterday, why they still play the game and go through the trouble of bringing everyone in for a weekend of shenanigans?

I realize the actual game itself was also dreadful back in the day when they played a "real" football game. But this thing -- a combination of a flag football game and skills competition -- is just awful. The players seem to warm up to it as the day goes, which is realistically the only way it gets saved from being a complete flop.


Wyndham Clark won for the 3rd time in less than a year yesterday when the final round of the AT&T at Pebble Beach was called off due to bad weather.

I wonder if we're starting to see the blossoming of Wyndham Clark as a legitimate PGA Tour star after his 3rd career win yesterday in the weather-shortened event at Pebble Beach?

Sure, Sunday's win has an asterisk, but he came within 2 inches of shooting 59 on Saturday, albeit while they were playing "lift, clean and place" because of the soggy turf. Clark is a legitimate star in the making, having won twice last year -- including the U.S. Open -- and looking like he's going to keep on winning this season.

When his putter is on, he's one of the top 10 players in the world. It was plugged in and red-hot on Saturday when he made almost everything he looked at until the 16th hole. He left putts right in the heart at 16, 17 and 18 or else he would have posted a 59 or, perhaps, even a 58. He's one of the best ball strikers alive. If the putter matches his tee-to-green game on any given, he's a threat to win.


I wonder what else Mike Elias is going to do between now and the start of spring training? It's going to be impossible to top last week's trade for Corbin Burnes, obviously. But does Elias have one more trick up his sleeve before pitchers and catchers report next week?

At least one more bullpen arm is necessary. And what about an additional bat of some kind? Jorge Soler or J.D. Martinez, perhaps?

There are still some quality pitchers available via free agency, but it's unlikely Elias would pull the trigger on the likes of Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery or Clayton Kershaw. The O's rotation is set, barring some sort of spring training injury that could necessitate landing one more proven starter.


I wonder how many goals Alex Ovechkin will finish with in the '23-24 regular season? He just completed a mind-numbing first half of the campaign with 9 goals in 44 games. That's not a typo. 9 (nine) goals.

Ovi now has 831 goals in his career, leaving him 64 shy of breaking Wayne Gretzky's all-time record of 894. He was expected to get somewhere up near 855 by the end of this season, giving him a puncher's chance of breaking the mark late in the '24-25 campaign. Now, unless he goes on a wild scoring tear over the last 30-some games of this season, he'll need all of next year and some portion of the '25-26 campaign to break the record.

There's also a Caps playoff chase for Ovechkin to concern himself with; the Capitals are likely going right down to the wire in an effort to make the Eastern Conference post-season. There's a lot of heat on Ovi over the next two and a half months.


I wonder if there's any way Maryland is going to make the NCAA tournament with roughly a month left in the regular season? I saw something last Friday that indicated the Terps would have been "on the bubble" had they gone to Michigan State and won on Saturday. Alas, they didn't.

The Terps still have 9 conference games left. They're currently 5-6 in the Big Ten and 13-9 overall. They only have two games remaining against ranked teams; vs. Illinois on February 17 and at Wisconsin on February 20.

I'm no Joe Lunardi, but -- barring a miracle run in the Big Ten tournament -- it would strike me that the Terps probably have to win both of those games and then go at least 4-3 in the other seven games to finish at 19-12 overall and 11-9 in conference play.

Left to play other than Illinois and Wisconsin are; Rutgers (H), Ohio State (A), Iowa (H), Rutgers (A), Northwestern (H), Indiana (H), Penn State (A). Maryland could lose any of those games. Or they could win them all. The two key games come against Illinois and Wisconsin. If the Terps somehow win those two, they have hope they might be able to sneak into the Big Dance, somehow.

It's still a longshot, yes. But they do have a chance.


I wonder if the Ravens team will be any different next season because their coaching staff has been decimated with departures over the last 5 days?

I get it: Players play and coaches coach. But coaching does matter. And the Ravens had themselves a whopper of a staff before Mike Macdonald started the domino effect last week.

John Harbaugh has to pretty much rebuild the entire defensive staff, at least in the key positions, and he's turning over his defense to a 31-year old Zach Orr. I can't help but think that's going to be a little bit odd to have Orr potentially telling a 32 year old player what to do and how to play the game.


I wonder if it drives music fans and historians nuts that Taylor Swift now has double the amount of Grammy awards (14 to 7) than the Beatles managed to win in their day?

Kanye West has 24 Grammys by the way. 17 more than the Fab Four but 8 fewer than the all-time Grammys leader. Kanye also had a song a few years back called "I Wonder". In case you didn't know that, now you do.

Do you know who has the most Grammys ever? I would have definitely lost this bet. Beyonce leads the way with 32.

In fairness, instead of worrying about Beyonce's 32, most folks are probably trying to figure out how on earth the Beatles ever won 7? Probably a slow year at the ballot box. That's my guess.

One more thing about the 2024 awards. Swift did something last night no one in music has ever done before. She won "Album of the Year" for a fourth time. Miley Cyrus won her first two Grammys last night as well. It's not my cup of tea, per se, but those ladies can definitely sing, that's for certain.

Cyrus won "Record of the Year" last night for "Flowers". Here's an awesome version of it.



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Sunday
February 4, 2024
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what did we learn?


That's probably the $64,000 question as it relates to last Sunday's season-ending loss to the Chiefs.

What did we learn?

They say it's never a failure if a lesson was learned.

I'll broad-brush the topic to include all of the 2023 season and playoffs.

What did we learn about the Ravens and/or their players and coaches?

Someone asked me that question on Wednesday of this week.

"We learned the better team doesn't always win. But the team that plays the best, does," was my initial reply.

I think if the Ravens and Chiefs played five times, the Ravens would win a minimum of three of those and perhaps even four.

They lost the one time they couldn't afford to lose, though.

What did we learn about Lamar on Sunday that we didn't know before that 17-10 loss to the Chiefs?

I still don't think the Chiefs had and/or are a better than the Ravens. But they certainly played the best last Sunday. There's no arguing that.

The Chiefs have a better quarterback. Their guy is an established, dominant force. Lamar Jackson is also an alpha, but not quite to the same level as Patrick Mahomes.

We learned that Lamar is still prone to having "one of those games" when we absolutely, 100% can ill afford to have it happen.

I know that I assumed Jackson wouldn't lay an egg like the one he laid last Sunday. I really did think he was past that stage of his career.

Alas, he isn't.

What we're hoping, of course, is that Lamar learned something last Sunday. The next time he's in the AFC Championship Game, we're hoping he takes whatever lessons he was taught vs. the Chiefs and applies them appropriately.

We learned the Ravens aren't totally inept at filling the wide receiver position. Now, you might adopt the stance of "one season doesn't change everything" and I can see where that's true for the skeptics. But, for one year at least, Eric DeCosta got it right with Zay, Bateman, OBJ and Agholor.

Most of us thought the Ravens would be receiver-starved forever. It looks like that might not be true after all.

We learned a couple of generational talents like Roquan Smith and Kyle Hamilton can almost single-handedly lead a team to victory.

Sure, Madubuike, Clowney, Queen and Humphrey helped from time to time this season. No two ways about it.

But Smith and Hamilton were the show-stoppers. When they had their "A game" intact, the Ravens were pretty much a lock to win.

If DeCosta can add one more player of that ilk -- or somehow keep Madubuike around -- the Baltimore defense should be Top 5 or better again next season. One really good defensive end on the edge...and watch out.

What else did we learn?

We learned probably the most valuable unspoken lesson of them all.

Sometimes the other guys out-scheme you.

We tend to think whatever the Ravens decide to do should work. And if it doesn't work, they should just promptly "fix it" and turn things around.

Sometimes those adjustments work, like in the Houston playoff game, for example.

Other times, the adjustments don't work.

The other team stays up late watching film, too. I realize our fan base thinks the Ravens are pre-ordained to win every game, but it just doesn't work like that.

We also learned the hardest lesson: Sometimes you stub your toe at the worst possible time.

There's generally no rhyme or reason for an "off game". The Ravens were almost fully healthy, except for Humphrey, while the Chiefs were dealing with lots of injuries.

Everything leaned in Baltimore's favor.

A rabid, home crowd.

A thorough beating of Houston the week before still fresh on everyone's minds.

Lamar was on a seemingly invincible trail of games, one that would presumably culminate in a dominating win over Kansas City, a Super Bowl triumph on February 11 and a 2nd career MVP award.

It was all expected to go smoothly until it didn't.

Poooooof! Like that, it was gone.

Sometimes you stub your toe at the worst possible moment.

It happens. The Ravens, despite what people might think, aren't the first favorite to lose a home playoff game. It even happened to the great Tom Brady and Bill Belichick on more than one occasion, believe it or not.

You can't win 'em all.

And sometimes you can't win the one you want to win the most.

We learned that coaches can lay eggs, too. Todd Monken was the fair-haired-boy for the first 18 games of the season, enjoying a very productive debut campaign after replacing the much-maligned Greg Roman as the team's offensive coordinator.

It was Roman who wound up getting the last laugh.

Monken's offensive game plan against the Chiefs was mystifying at best, although it's always fair to point out that the other team's coordinator is trying to match your chess moves with some of his own.

Just like his quarterback and offensive line, Monken had an off day last Sunday. It happens. You don't want it to happen, of course, but we learned it can happen, even to someone like Monken.

A friend mentioned to me recently the biggest reason why the loss hurt so much was just about everyone thought the Ravens were going to win.

"I spent a week making fun of Browns and Steelers fans on X (nee: Twitter) because I just knew we were going to win," he said. "I also bet more than I should have on the game itself. I bought into the whole game hook, line and sinker. I didn't think we could lose."

Maybe that's something else we learned. We should have known it before last Sunday, but perhaps we needed a refresher course.

You can always lose. Nothing is guaranteed.

And, yes, while the Ravens were certainly favored and expected to win, we were reminded that the games aren't played on TV or the internet or simulated by some dude's fancy computer that tells us the Ravens would win the game 54% of the time.

We learned, again, that you never know what's going to happen once the whistle blows and the game begins.

On the good side, I think we also learned that organizations make successful teams, not the other way around.

As we've seen over the last 4 days with the Ravens coaching staff getting torn apart with defections for new gigs elsewhere, the entire NFL knows the secret in Baltimore. It starts with the owner, trickles down to the front office, then to the coaches, and then, finally, to the players.

There's no way to determine who is the best organization, top to bottom, in the NFL. But we know this: The Ravens are in there amongst the discussion, that's for sure.

And that's why they draft well, win often and remain consistent. They don't win enough for some people's tastes, of course, but anyone with some sense knows only one teams win the whole thing anyway. For a long time, it was New England who controlled the league. They had a great coach and a great quarterback.

For the last five years, that baton has been passed on to the Chiefs. Great coach. Great quarterback. Same combination.

For all we know, the Ravens might be next. For a while there, it looked like the Bengals could potentially be in the mix for a small period of dominance. But they're the Bengals, still, until proven otherwise. And the jury is still out on their head coach/quarterback combination.

The same goes for the Bills. It appeared as if they were a team of destiny a few years back and all they've continually done is flush away golden opportunities in January.

The Bengals and Bills are a little bit like The Beatles. You thought they were going to be good. It turns out they wind up blending in with everyone else.

The Ravens really do have the potential to be one of the AFC's consistent contenders over the next 3-5 years of Lamar's prime. And we don't know what the future holds.

Perhaps next year they have to go to K.C. for the AFC title game and maybe then, the Ravens are the ones who upset the apple cart.

I don't know what the 2024 campaign will bring.

But I learned this past season that the Ravens generally do a lot of things right. They keep getting themselves into position to make some noise in the post-season.

They haven't kicked that door down with Lamar just yet, but I'd bet on Lamar far more times than I would bet against Lamar.

And don't forget, if you're unhappy with all of the winning you've seen as fan of the Ravens, there's always the Commanders. They're just 40 miles down the road. They need all the fans they can get.

If you do change teams, you'll appreciate winning even more down there, trust me.


Is anyone here proficient in photoshop? I'm not. And I need someone to help me with a few editions of "Mount Rushmore" coming up here at #DMD.

I need someone who can put the four faces of my choosing on a Mount Rushmore. If you can help me with that, please send along an e-mail: 18inarow@gmail.com


I'll be on the air talking golf today from 12-1 pm at 105.7. It's the debut edition of "Fairways and Greens", where we talk about the PGA Tour, local golf, rules, swing tips and so on.

Today's show will cover many of those things, in fact. If you're interested in tuning in, we'd love to have you on board.


Towson men's basketball plays at home this Thursday night (7 pm) vs. Delaware. If anyone is interested in an impromptu "#DMD Night" at the game, I'm thinking about going. Despite last night's loss at Hofstra, the Tigers (7-3 in CAA) are enjoying a nice season.

If you're interested in going, through a note my way via e-mail (18inarow@gmail.com) so I can see about getting us to all sit together at the arena on Thursday night.

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dale williams aims the
terps spotlight

DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps fizzle in east lansing, fall to sparty


With six minutes and twelve seconds left in last night’s game, and just 1 point separating Maryland from Michigan State, the Spartans ripped off 8 points in 59 seconds and coasted to a 63-54 win.

The game was very tight until that Spartan run despite Julian Reese seeing limited action because of severe foul trouble.

With Maryland’s big man on the bench, the Terps had only Jahmir Young and Donta Scott to pull the scoring load. Young answered with 31 points, but Scott made just 1 of 10 second half shots and the Terp offense could never generate enough points to hang with the Spartans.

Malik Hall and Tyson Walker led Michigan State in scoring, each posting 19 points. Michigan State also won the battle of the boards, reversing the beating on the glass they endured when these two teams met two weeks ago.

The story of the game, outside of that 8-point MSU explosion, was the foul trouble that benched Reese and stifled the Terp inside game. The Maryland big man picked up foul number 2 with just over 2 minutes gone in the first half. Foul three came at 7:04 of half number 1. He played just 9 of the opening 20 minutes.

A miserable night for JuJu Reese (2 points, 4 fouls) curtailed any chances of Maryland winning at Michigan State last night..

Reese’s 4th foul came just 8 seconds into the second half and he was immediately benched. He logged just 5 minutes of court time in the second half. For the game, he had 2 rebounds, 2 points (foul shots), and 2 turnovers.

With Reese on the bench, the Terps offensive choices were limited to one-on-one moves by Young and Scott, with a bunch of threes in between. Maryland shot 30 threes and just 25 two-point shots.

There was just 2 minutes and 13 seconds off of the clock when Julian Reese picked up his second foul and found a seat on the bench. Donta Scott was the only Terp to score before the opening TV timeout, and the Terps found themselves down by 4, 9-5.

Both teams were trying to establish an inside game, but Michigan State’s decision to double Reese as soon as he put the ball on the floor was paying dividends. Despite getting a few touches, MSU smothered Reese and he had yet to attempt a shot. Now he was sitting.

When three consecutive Terp possessions ended with a turnover and were converted into points by MSU, Maryland’s deficit grew to 9 at 14-5. Willard called timeout and reinserted Reese. The Terps hadn’t scored in 4 minutes. During that same span, they amassed 4 turnovers and had made just 2 of 13 shots.

Scott broke the dry spell with another triple. He was the only Terp to score for Maryland in the game’s first 8 minutes. At the under 8-minute break, the Spartans led 14-8. MSU’s Tyson Walker had matched Scott’s 8 points with 8 of his own, and like Scott, had made a pair of threes.

Maryland stormed back behind a bomb and layup by Jahmir Young, followed by a Jordan Geronimo dunk.

In a flash the score was 16-15, but trouble for Maryland was looming. The Spartans scored twice and the Terps once before Reese picked up foul #3 with 7:04 left in the half. He returned to his spot on the bench with Malik Hall going to the foul line to shoot twice. He made one, making the score 21-17 in favor of Michigan.

With Reese on the bench, the Terp offense was in the hands of Young. He immediately converted 2 foul shots, and would have scored again but his attempted layup was blocked.

Without Reese, the Terp offense was relegated to perimeter shots and isolations for Young. With their 3-point shooting checking in an abysmal 2-13, it was Young’s one-on-one game that was keeping Maryland within striking distance. With 3:33 left in the half, MSU led 25-21.

The Terp offense was only producing Young isolations and three pointers, but the long ball started to drop and Maryland trailed by just 2 points after Young and Scott connected from behind the arc.

MSU scored the last bucket of the half and led 31-27 after 20 minutes.

Of Maryland’s 32 first half shots, an alarming 17 were threes. Their inside game nullified when Reese went to the bench, Michigan State had 18 points in the paint compared to just 8 for the Terrapins.

Also notable were MSU’s 7 turnovers, 1 more than Maryland. Walker and Young had each put up 12 points. However, MSU had 8 different players score, while the Terps had only 3.

Julian Reese started the second half on the court, and it took him just 8 seconds to pick up foul number 4. It was an unfortunate foul, as the Terp center was merely rolling to the bucket and ran over an MSU defender.

It’s fair to say that the overall play in the first 4 minutes of half 2 was ugly, at best. There were more turnovers (3) than successful field goals (2).

The two teams combined for just 7 points and were a collective 2 for 11 shooting. All 4 Terp points came from Young and the Terps had trimmed the lead to 34-31. Even without Reese, the Terps were hanging in the game with solid defense.

The second TV timeout came with 11:08 left in the game. In 9 minutes of second half play, the Terps had outscored MSU by 6-5.

The numbers reflected just how bad the play was. A combined 4 for 23 from the field, 0-8 from the three-point line, and 6 turnovers. Why the Spartans were not going inside with Hall and Sissoko, I don’t know. They were playing a perimeter game, with Maryland cutting off the dribble penetration.

When play resumed after the TV timeout, Reese was back on the floor. That lasted one minute before he was pulled. Each team finally hit a three, with Maryland’s coming from Jahmir Young.. At this point, the Terp guard had 7 of Maryland’s 11 second half points. At the 8:53 mark, Scott was 0-7, but Maryland trailed by just 3, 41-38.

It was a Scott power move followed by a successful dribble drive by Young that gave the Terps a lead, 42-41. It was strictly one-on-one basketball for Maryland. Of their 5 made second half baskets so far, just one was assisted. MSU had attempted just a single foul shot and each team was 1 for 7 from the three-point line.

Two foul shots by each team kept the MSU lead at 1 point until Hall connected on a long three with just over 5 minutes to play.

The Spartans then went back to Hall, who beat Scott off the dribble for an “and one”. A steal and layup by Hoggard ballooned the lead to 9 points.

Maryland called timeout with 4:22 left in the game and the Terps lagging behind 53-44. Michigan State had exploded for 8 unanswered points in just a single minute.

Maryland continued their assault from long range, but they also continued to miss. Michigan State was now getting into the lane, and scoring points in the paint. Finally, a Young three connected and the Terps trailed by ten, 57-47.

Any comeback chance that Maryland may have had was washed away by their inability to get a stop. MSU took a double-digit lead with 4:23 left in the game and it stayed at 10 or more until Young wrapped up the scoring on a layup with 16 seconds left. The game ended with the score 63-54.

Jahmir Young has stated in interviews that this Terp team only has three offensive players. When one of those can’t see the floor because of foul trouble and the other one makes only 5 of 19 tries, you have no chance at all of winning. That’s what happened last night.

Maryland’s defense, and Young’s offense, kept things tight for a while. However, 54 points will not win you many games in college basketball.

The Terps made just 17 shots last night. Young provided 9 of those. Scott and Geronimo accounted for the others. That’s just three guys. The non-scorers only took 7 shots, and they were all missed. Shots were missed, but Reese was missed even more.

I’ll give Juju some credit, he didn’t pout or fuss about the foul calls.

The fourth one was a call that the ref had to make, but it was a very unfortunate circumstance. Reese had set a screen and rolled to the basket, but right into (and through) an MSU player. It wasn’t a “dumb” foul, it was kind of bad luck. I didn’t see any of his fouls, last night, that I’d call thoughtless.

Without Reese to attract attention, and defenders, there was little space to operate the Terrapin offense. Most of the Terps second half offense centered on Young with the ball, looking for a shot.

Scott backed his way into the paint for a few shots, but there were no effective sets run. That doesn’t mean that Maryland wasn’t running some sets, it just that those plays resulted in nothing offensively getting achieved.

Maryland had just 2 second half assists and hit 2 of 13 second period threes. With the Terps taking 13 threes against 10 shots inside the arc, if the three ball isn’t falling then you lose.

Kevin Willard’s team defended well enough to win, excluding those 59 seconds. They just don’t have enough options on offense.

The Terrapins will try again on Tuesday when the struggling (3-7 in the Big Ten) Rutgers Knights invade the XFINITY Center for a rare 6:30 pm tipoff. Watch it on BTN.

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Saturday
February 3, 2024
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#3452


you can't say anything (publicly)


Far be it for any of us to feel for a man who earns $16 million dollars a year doing anything, let alone coaching football.

But I felt a bit sad for John Harbaugh yesterday.

In review, maybe even "sad" isn't the right word. I felt like Harbs was in a corner and there was no real way to punch his way out of it, short of just saying, "Look, Todd Monken called a crap game. End of the story. I don't know another nice way to put it. He just zoned out on us and called a crap game against the Chiefs."

And, honestly, John's never going to say that publicly. He's not even going to come close to saying something like that.

At yesterday's end-of-season press conference in Owings Mills, Harbaugh, predictably, was asked about the offensive game plan in last Sunday's 17-10 loss to Kansas City. More specifically, he was asked if had any sort of in-game conversation with Todd Monken about the team's lack of running plays in the loss.


Harbaugh: "Yes we did all throughout the course of the game. That's not the number you want to have. That's not really going to win us an AFC Championship game, for sure.

It's more than just calling plays. A big part of our game plan was RPOs based on what the defense gives you. And the defense was lined up to take away the run. The next thing would be to bring it in tight and run the ball in heavy formations.

We could've done that, but we were down, so we wanted to keep the formations open and give ourselves the best chance to move the ball and score points. We ran the two-minute offense at the end of the half, and two-minute offense the whole fourth quarter, and that's gonna take away rushing attempts.

That's not an excuse. You want to run the ball more. Sometimes you have to be willing to get big and run the ball that way, and we just didn't want to do it that way in the game and it cost us the opportunity to run the ball more."


I have no idea why Harbaugh would go into that kind of detail, other than to be cordial and answer the question as honestly as he could.

It does occasionally look like it's "Us Against Them" when it comes to Harbaugh and the Ravens vs. the frustrated Baltimore football community.

That said, one look at the internet commentary gave a clear indication that a majority of the people didn't care what Harbaugh said. No matter the explanation, it wasn't good enough.

At the end of the day, nothing the head coach says can change anything about the outcome nor will it convince the fan base that he and the coaching staff did the best they could and the Ravens were simply outplayed by the Chiefs in a one-game, winner-take-all situation.

I don't really know what Harbaugh's answer should have been yesterday.

Even if his team runs the ball 24 times, there's no guarantee they win the game. I think we all know that at places we don't talk about at parties, but no one wants to admit it.

John could have simply said the same thing the Beatles privately said after the release of Abbey Road: "That was a colossal whiff. It just wasn't good enough."

But even that wouldn't satisfy people.

I don't know what the fans wanted Harbaugh to say yesterday.

"We stunk. I was awful. Monken was awful. Lamar was awful. Flowers was awful." I mean, he could have said that, but the final score is still 17-10.

No matter what he says, and no matter how much sense it makes or doesn't make, the score remains the same.

Editor's note: I know what you're thinking: Wasn't that the name of a Led Zeppelin song? No, it wasn't. That song was called "The Song Remains the Same". And, yes, there's some irony in that song title as it relates to the Ravens. But I digress...

Glenn Clark brought up something on his radio show last Wednesday that continues to prove true on any occasion the Ravens fail. Someone is always supposed to get fired as a result of it.

A dozen years ago it was Cam Cameron.

Then it was Marc Trestman.

And later it was Dean Pees.

Marty Mornhinweg.

Wink Martindale.

More recently, of course, it was Greg Roman.

No matter what the Ravens do, once that final loss of the season occurs, whenever that might be, someone needs to get the axe.

I actually saw a couple of people this week calling for Monken's ouster. I mean, the guy just got here. He had, for the most part, a wonderful first season as a NFL offensive coordinator. And he had one toe-stub in the post-season that was aided by mediocre quarterback play, three turnovers and a game-changing fumble at the one yard line.

And for that toe stub, he deserves to be canned?

Come on, man.

As for Harbaugh, the more the years go by, the more he should probably just adopt the Bill Belichick profile.

"Coach, can you describe what happened last Sunday with the team's inability to run the ball?"

"You saw it. We didn't run it very much."

"Yes, we know that. But why didn't you run it more?"

"I'm not sure. I'd have to look into it a lot more. Right now I'm just focused on the draft in April."

Belichick's famous "We're on to Cincinnati" line after a loss a couple of years ago has been laughed at time and time again, but it's actually the truest coaching axiom there is.

"Coach, what happened in the game earlier today?"

"We're on to Cincinnati. Today's game is over with."

Most of the people barking and pleading for answers don't really want the answers.

It really is like A Few Good Men.

"You can't handle the truth" is replaced with "No matter what I say, you're either not going to agree with it or not going to understand it."

Sure, Monken's game plan was wonky. But Lamar's play was spotty. The offensive line had an off day. Flowers fumbled the ball on the one yard line when a score there was about to make it 17-14 with almost an entire quarter left in the game.

We could put together the proverbial "game pizza" I talk about all the time and a bunch of folks would get a slice. It wasn't Harbaugh's fault. It wasn't Monken's fault. It wasn't Lamar's fault. It wasn't Flowers' fault. It wasn't Stanley's fault.

It was all of their fault(s).

As is almost always the case, a lot of people had a hand in that 17-10 loss. But everyone wants a scalp. Someone has to get the lion's share of the blame these days. We're really strange like that.

As far as Harbaugh is concerned, he'd be far better served not saying much of anything in these season-ending press conferences.

We all know what we saw. The Ravens lost the game. We, the fans, are searching endlessly for a proper explanation for it, but the reality is even a proper explanation wouldn't do much of anything.

Kansas City won 17-10, no matter what questions are asked and answers are given.

And while there's an argument to be made that that fans deserve an explanation on why things were done the way they were, we all know that 80% of the fans don't care what the head coach says after a loss.

They just want someone fired because of it.

These are interesting times we live in, to say the least.


I'll be back on the air talking golf starting this Sunday from 12-1 pm on 105.7 The Fan. The show will air every Sunday from now through the end of the summer (aka, "when football starts").

There's a chance the show is going to change time slots in a few weeks. I'll let you know if that happens.

In the meantime, if you're a golfer, of any age, ability level or handicap, please check out "Fairways and Greens" this Sunday from 12-1 pm on 105.7 The Fan.


A few questions from the mailbag on this beautiful Saturday in Bawlmer.

If you're interesting participating in this particular endeavor, e-mail me a question: 18inarow@gmail.com

Mitch Garner asks -- "In your days with the Blast soccer team, did you get to travel with the team and if so, what were your favorite cities and least favorite cities?"

DF says -- "I did travel, yes. In fact, from 1982 through 1998, I saw every single game played by the Baltimore indoor soccer teams (Blast/Spirit). I don't know how many games in a row that was, but it was well over 500 consecutive games.

Anyway, San Diego was, by far, the best city we traveled to in my 17 years with the team. We would do the west coast trip twice a year. Once in January when the ice show was in town and again in March when the circus was at the arena. In those days, we'd play some combination of San Diego, Los Angeles, Tacoma and there was usually a game against Dallas, St. Louis, Kansas City, etc. mixed in there either on the way out or on the way home.

San Diego is still the best city I've ever been to in America. It's just awesome.

I really enjoyed St. Louis. Great town, a lot like Baltimore, with really good hotels and restaurants.

Going to Cleveland was always fun because the rivalry between the Blast and Force was huge.

Didn't particularly care for Minneapolis or Detroit. Just too darn cold. The same for Buffalo. It was just too cold.

The Buffalo team offered me the GM position in 1999 and I even went up there for an interview and all, but I just couldn't see myself thriving in a place where it's pretty much 25 degrees all winter.

I liked Buffalo as a sports town. The arena was awesome. The Rich family, who owned the soccer team, seemed great. They made me an awesome offer, a lot more than I was making previously in Baltimore with the Spirit (nee Blast). I just didn't want to move to Buffalo."


Nick Vellagio asks -- "Watching this golf tournament at Pebble Beach has me itching to go out there and I know you went before and wrote about it at Drew's Morning Dish. What advice can you give? Was it worth it?"

DF says -- "Here's my answer whenever someone asks me about Pebble Beach. "Very few things in life live up to the hype, whatever it might be. Having children definitely lives up to the hype. So, too, does playing/staying at Pebble Beach. Not everything in golf lives up to the hype, but that place sure did.

My best piece of advice? Save up your money and then take 20% more with you. Here's the easiest way I can describe. Between golf and your half of the hotel room, you're pretty much locked in on spending at least $1,500 per-day on average. Breakfast is $30. Lunch is $40. Dinner is a minimum of $75 before you've had a cocktail.

Golf at Pebble is in the $700 range depending on when you play.

Spyglass Hill is $500.

Spanish Bay is $400.

The cheapest hotel at either Spanish Bay or Pebble Beach is $1100 a night for a double room with NO view of anything at all. And almost every package at Pebble Beach requires at least a two night stay.

It is not a trip you can take and figure out the "cheap way to do it" unless you're by yourself and you get on the Pebble Beach tee-sheet list as a single and someone inexplicably shows up with only three or fewer players. And then, you're paying a bigger rate ($800?) to play the course without staying there.

It's an amazing piece of property. The golf courses are outstanding. It's just a very expensive place to go. I went once. Would love to go again, if possible. But it's certainly a once-or-twice-in-a-lifetime kind of trip."

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terps spotlight

DALE WILLIAMS returns for his 9th season of covering all things Maryland men's basketball for #DMD. Terps Spotlight will preview and review all games in the 2023-2024 season.


terps visit izzo, sparty tonight


For the first time this season, the Maryland Terrapins will tangle with a team that they’ve already faced in the 2023-2024 season.

They have five of these “home and home” games this year, with the one tonight against Michigan State being the first that completes a series.

MSU defeated Maryland, 61-59, less than two weeks ago in the XFINITY Center. The Terps held the Spartans to just 17 second half points after allowing 44 in the first 20 minutes, but scoring just 27 second half points themselves left them a bucket short.

In that game, Maryland’s Jahari Long, Jahmir Young, and Donta Scott combined to hit 8 of 12 threes. The rest of the Terps went 0-10. Young’s 9 points from long range helped him score a game high 19, but he was just 6 of 15 from the field and committed 7 deadly turnovers.

Jahmir Young looks to continue his recent excellent play when the Terps visit Michigan State in East Lansing tonight.

As I like to do when there’s an earlier game from which to learn, I look at what happened in the last contest that won’t be repeated and what didn’t happen that’s likely this time.

The most glaring “won’t happen” is MSU absolutely will not score just 17 points in a half.

The Terp defense was suffocating for the final 20 minutes, but the Spartans missed a slew of open second half shots. They went 1 for 6 from the three-point line and went to the foul line just twice, hitting both.

MSU got nothing from their fast break offense in the second half and scored just 3 second chance points all game.

Another stat to file into the “Not This Time” category is the 37-22 rebounding advantage the Terps had in game #1.

Julian Reese is a match-up problem for MSU, and he grabbed 12 rebounds in the initial meeting, but keeping him off of the glass with be a focal point of Coach Izzo’s prep. Of Reese’s boards, 6 were offensive, leading to a 10-1 Terp advantage in second chance points.

The rebounding numbers will be much closer today.

I’m not so sure Tre Holliman gets 12 points off the bench today for MSU. His 3 for 4 trifecta shooting was instrumental in that MSU win. That type of sharp shooting was exceptional, even for a guy who hits 44%, like Tre does. He won’t get as many wide open looks today.

I mentioned Young’s 7 turnovers. That can’t happen again, right? He’s a high turnover guy (3.0 per game), but 7? That’s not going to happen again. If it does, the outcome will be similar.

Here’s something that won’t happen, and it affects both teams. Both Maryland and Michigan State had just three players score in the second half.

Young (10), Scott (8), and Reese (9), were the only Terps to put the ball through the basket in the second half. Tyson Walker (7), A.J. Hoggard (8), and Malik Hall (2) were the only MSU scorers in the second half. I’ve never seen that in the shot-clock era.

So, what do we see today? First, I look for MSU to go to Hall much more frequently. He had 10 points in the first half last time against the Terps, and Izzo will run more isolations for him. He’s good for 18.

MSU will push the ball way more in the second half than they did in their last meeting with Maryland. It’s a staple of their offense. Some of those opportunities to push the tempo are predicated upon rebounding the ball.

If the Terps can duplicate their success on the offensive glass, they can slow down the Spartans.

This is such a tough spot for the Terps. It’s a home game for the Spartans that MSU must have. The Terps have been on a roll, but can we expect Jamie Kaiser, Long, and Scott to continue their torrid long-range shooting? (We’ll exclude Scott’s 0-5 against Nebraska)

I’ve been dead wrong about Maryland the last two times out, and a lot of that was the result of their abnormal success with three-point shooting. Perhaps the team’s shooting has turned a corner, but it will take more than a couple of games to convince me.

Michigan State sweeps the series this year. They climb to 6-5 in the Big Ten, dropping the Terps to 5-6.

Hoggard, Walker, and Hall provide the fire power, with some unexpected offensive help from Mady Sissoko. We are looking at a 68-64 final score.

The Breslin Center in East Lansing hosts the 5:30 start that can be seen on the Fox network.

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Friday
February 2, 2024
r logo#DMDfacebook logoIssue
#3451


10 questions and a bonus


#DMD reader Brian Preller checked in with me yesterday with a content idea that I thought was worth accepting.

Here's his e-mail:

Drew, if you're up for it, I'd like to ask you 10 questions about the Ravens/Chiefs game and the season as a whole. If you want to use this for a future edition of the Morning Dish that would be great. Readers can follow along and answer the questions as well. Thanks for the great morning read every day!

Yes, Brian, I'd like to use the idea. Today, in fact. So here are Brian's 10 questions.

#1, What's your overall grade for the Ravens 2023 season, including the two playoff games?

DF: "This is a lay-up. They get an "A". 13-4 regular season, #1 seed in the post-season. Lost by one score in the AFC Championship to the most successful franchise in the league over the last 5 years. What other grade could you give them? They had an excellent season."


Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs didn't turn the ball over once last Sunday in the 17-10 win over the Ravens in the AFC title game.

#2, In 50 words or less, summarize the loss to Kansas City.

DF: "Ravens made 3 'big plays' in the game, K.C. made about 10. Ravens turned it over 3 times. Chiefs didn't turn it over once. Mahomes didn't panic. Lamar did. Ravens gave up on the run too early. Flowers fumble crushed the Ravens."


#3, Of these six players, you have to cut three of them. Who are you letting go? Andrews, Humphrey, Beckham, Bateman, Queen, Clowney.

DF: "Yikes. I'd rather keep them all, if possible, but I'll play along. Of those six, in a perfect world, I'd keep Queen, Andrews and Bateman. I actually really liked what Clowney brought to the table in 2023. I'd love to see him return. But given his age, if it came down to Clowney or Bateman, I'm keeping the young(er) wide receiver."


#4, How many more years do you think Justin Tucker has left in him?

DF: "He'll be 35 next season. Been in the league, kicking, since 2012. That's quite a career. He has at least two more seasons remaining, I'm guessing. I'll say he plays in '24 and '25 and that's it. I could see him try to hang around through 2026, perhaps, but I'm guessing he has two more years."


#5, Where do you rank Patrick Mahomes on the list of NFL quarterbacks over the last 30 years?

DF: "OK, since 1994, where does Mahomes rank? Hmmmmmm. Let me do this: Here are 10 best in no specific order; Peyton, Brady, Roethlisberger, Favre, Mahomes, Warner, Brees, Rodgers, Rivers and......Stafford, I guess? I'm thinking McNair, maybe? Eli? Russell Wilson? I'll go with Stafford.

Anyway, the list goes Brady, Peyton, Roethlisberger, Mahomes, Rodgers, Favre, Brees, Warner, Stafford and Rivers.

Mahomes is #4 at this point. In my opinion. I think he'll surpass Ben someday. But he'll never surpass Peyton or Brady in my mind."


The Ravens will host Josh Allen and the Bills in the 2024 regular season.

#6, What will the Ravens record be in 2024, 13-4 or better? 12-5 or worse?

DF: "Let's pretend they go 4-2 in the division, just for kicks and giggles. They have road games at Kansas City and Los Angeles (Chargers) and home games vs. the Raiders and Broncos. Let's say they go 3-1 there. They have the Commanders and Eagles at home, along with the Bills. How's 2-1 sound there? And they have the Cowboys, Giants, Texans and Buccaneers on the road. Let's say 2-2 there.

That comes out to 11-6. As long as Lamar stays healthy, I assume they'll figure out a way to win at least one more game along the way. They'll either finish 11-6 or 12-5. So, the answer to your question is: 12-5 or worse."


#7, A team in the NFL offers you to take any three of their players in exchange for Lamar Jackson. Who are you taking?

DF: "Man, if Stafford were a little younger, I'd be taking Stafford-Kupp-Nacua in a heartbeat. But I think we all know the answer to this question, as much as it pains us here in Bawlmer: I'd take Burrow-Chase-Higgins from the Bengals."


#8, Did the Ravens make a mistake by not hiring Bill Belichick as their defensive coordinator?

DF: "I assume we're presupposing Belichick wanted to be a defensive coordinator, was willing to move, etc., right? Either way, though, the answer is "No, they didn't make a mistake." I don't see Belichick as the kind of guy who could "work for someone" after spending the last two decades as a head coach in the league. I realize he's a defensive genius and all, but I just don't see as a guy who would sign up to be a #2 or #3 staffer in the organization."


#9, Pick an off the wall Super Bowl match up for next season.

DF: "Texans vs. Packers. You said "off the wall". Both of those teams have good, up-and-coming quarterbacks. They have good head coaches. And great uniforms/helmets, if that matters. Here's one other off the wall thought: Rams vs. Dolphins. I still think Miami would have been dangerous this past post-season if they wouldn't have been hammered with December injuries. If they can get/stay healthy next season, the Dolphins could be very dangerous. Same for the Rams. They have the makings of a top 3 offense, for sure."


#10, Steve Bisciotti says to you, "I'm changing the team colors and allowing you to do make the final decision." What would you, Drew, go with for the new team colors?

DF: "Thank you!!! Finally, Steve got wise and moved away from that dreadful purple color. OK, I'm not going with orange and black. Sorry, I'm just not. It's great for the baseball team, but we're not following suit with the football team. I honestly think I'd go with some combo of red, white and blue, as an ode to our Star Spangled Banner roots. You remember the National Anthem...written in Baltimore...a song our country used to cherish before crazy folks started losing their minds a decade or so ago.

Anyway, yep, I'm thinking red, white and blue. You have all kinds of combinations there. Look at what the Bills do, for example. At least we're getting rid of purple! Anything new is an upgrade over that."


BONUS QUESTION, The very best thing about the 2023 Ravens season was......

DF: "Lamar stayed healthy the entire season and gained valuable playoff experience. To me, there was nothing more important than that. He remained injury-free and he played on a big stage last Sunday. Despite losing that game, I think that experience will help him in the future."


Let's finish up with some other e-mails for the Q and A segment that are non-Ravens related.

Kent asks -- "Four straight days without slamming the Beatles. You turning over a new leaf? (This was received on Thursday, 2/1)."

DF says: "You folks are hilarious. "Slammed". You mean, "making it publicly known I'm not a fan of their music" constitutes "slamming". OK then.

I didn't even realize I went four days without slamming them. But now that you mentioned it, I'll be sure to make it part of next week's content for sure.

Or maybe I'll spend this weekend re-listening to all of their albums to see if I can pick out two or three more good songs. I love a good challenge."


Mark asks -- "Hey Drew, do you have more respect for Taylor Swift or less respect for her now that you've been smothered with her on social media and television for the last month?"

DF says -- "This is a lame answer, I know, but nothing has changed, really. I don't pay all that much attention to her. I think he's extraordinarily talented, musically, and that opinion hasn't been altered because we've seen a lot more of her over the last 3-4 months.

I realize the networks make a big deal about her because she's one of the most popular and successful music artists of the last 25 years. It's their job to over-promote her. I get it.

And I assume, like any good marketer, Ms. Swift has taken the bull by the horns during her relationship with Travis Kelce and made the most out of it she can. She knows the cameras are on her at all times. She's no dummy, that's for sure.

I'm certainly not a "Swiftie" as the kids say, but I think she's very talented and certainly easier to like than dislike. I mean, if you dislike Taylor Swift I have to assume you also disliked The Flintstones, Leave It To Beaver, Friends, Handy Manny and the smell of coffee in the morning. And if you don't like those things, you're what we call "A Bad American".


Jason Fairall asks -- "Longtime reader of the Dish, first time with a question for you. Is there anything left on your sports bucket list that you're still hoping to do? Thanks, Drew."

DF says -- "I would say #1 on my list is to play St. Andrews in Scotland. I've had a trip or two mapped out but it never came to fruition. I'm going to try and get that on my schedule for 2025. I'd say "play Augusta National" but I know that's not going to happen. But St. Andrews is open to the public and can be played by anyone with a reasonable handicap.

I honestly think that about covers it. I mean, there are some golf courses in the U.S. I haven't ever played that I want to play, but it's not like I "can't" play them. I just need to find the right contact and work through my list of golfing friends. I just haven't made it all that important to do so.

There is one band I've never seen live that's on my bucket list, though. And since I know they're wrapping things up, I need to figure out how to see them before they pack it all in and call it a career.

My favorite song of theirs is below."


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faith in sports


This seems like an appropriate entry in today's edition of "Faith in Sports", since both quarterbacks in next week's Super Bowl are devout believers in their faith.

Brock Purdy's story is much different than the story authored by Patrick Mahomes. As everyone knows, Purdy was the last player selected in the 2022 NFL Draft. And here he is, now, about to play in the Super Bowl.

The video is a little more than 3 minutes long, but it gives you an inside look at Purdy and his faith and why he believes he's been moved into the spotlight as a star in the NFL.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and "Faith in Sports" here every Friday.



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Thursday
February 1, 2024
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#3450


hot, off the wall, legit takes


You can guess which of the three "takes" applies to the topics below.

One thing for sure, and this certainly isn't a "hot" take, it's a fact: This has been one wild three day period in Baltimore.

The Ravens flatlined in the AFC Championship Game.

The Orioles were sold.

We discovered John Angelos might have, you know, mislead the state of Maryland during the lease negotiations.

And Mike Macdonald is now the erstwhile Ravens defensive coordinator after landing the head coach job with the Seattle Seahawks yesterday.

Where to start?

Let's go with the Macdonald departure first.

The Ravens lost defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald to the Seattle Seahawks on Wednesday.

I might be in the minority here, but I don't see it as a season-breaking kind of deal.

Was he a solid defensive coordinator? He most certainly was, yes.

But if he didn't have Roquan Smith, Justin Madubuike, Jadeveon Clowney, Patrick Queen, Kyle Hamilton and Marlon Humphrey, where would Macdonald be today? Hint: Not in Seattle.

Madubuike might not be back next season. Queen, too, might depart in the off-season. The defense will look different in 2024, that's for sure. And the new defensive coordinator will have to patch things together with whatever he's given once the dust settles and Eric DeCosta fills whatever vacancies there are.

I just don't see the Ravens taking a major step back in 2024 because Mike Macdonald has moved on.

The Baltimore defense might not be as game-wrecking next season as they were this past seasson, but that will be more about the players that leave and not the defensive coordinator who hit the road.


Speaking of Macdonald and filling a head coaching vacancy, here's another point to ponder. And, no, this isn't "pile on Mike Macdonald day". He just happens to be in the news, that's all.

And this point isn't so much about Macdonald, it's more about the way NFL teams fill coaching vacancies these days.

I talked about this yesterday on Glenn Clark Radio.

I don't understand why teams feel the need to fill their head coaching position with an offensive or defensive coordinator from another team. Granted, not every head coaching spot gets filled that way, but it feels like about 90% of them do. And why is that?

I'll use Mike Vrabel as an example.

No offense to Raheem Morris or Mike Macdonald or Dave Canales, but who do you feel more comfortable with coaching your team next season? A guy who has had a lot of success as a head coach -- Vrabel -- or an unproven entity like one of those three?

Now, yes, perhaps Vrabel or Bill Belichick don't want to hop right back on the coaching horse. That's entirely possible. But it sure seems like teams these days would rather go with the "hot coordinator" than a tried and true, proven (former) head coach.

I just don't get that.

Mike Macdonald was an excellent defensive coordinator in his brief two years with the Ravens.

That does not, in any way, guarantee he's going to an excellent head coach in the NFL.

It's just weird to me that coordinators are more valued than head coaches who have been there, done that and have the tee-shirt, that's all.


The sale of the Orioles was made official by the ballclub on Wednesday, eliminating any concerns at all that perhaps Tuesday's "leak" of the news was getting the cart before the horse.

John Angelos will stay on board as "Senior Advisor", it was announced on Wednesday as the Orioles formally announced the sale of the team to David Rubenstein and his ownership group.

The group, managed by David Rubenstein (for those who care about these things, his name is pronounced: Ruben-stine), will own 40% of the franchise until Peter Angelos passes away. It's assumed that at some point after that, the group will acquire the remaining 60%.

John Angelos, as we learned yesterday, will hang around for a few years as the team's "Senior Advisor" which, I think we all know, means he won't really do much of anything.

Angelos drew the ire of several Maryland political figures on Wednesday when they lashed out at him for not telling them the whole truth and nothing but the truth during last year's lease negotiations.

I know you're shocked by that. Or not.

As Glenn Clark and I discussed yesterday, things within the organization have modestly improved over the last few years, although last summer's embarrassing Kevin Brown fiasco will linger as one of John Angelos's all-time-not-go-greatest-hits.

When the dust settles on all of this, the new ownership group will likely quietly push John away over the next 12-18 months and he'll have millions of reasons to take his ouster with a smile.

Let's call it like it is: The sooner the Orioles are Angelos-free, the better. And that's mostly because it's hard to operate a business that someone else used to own while they're still hanging around at the water cooler and watching your every move.

Truth of the matter? I'd bet John doesn't really want to be there any longer. It was probably just a novelty of the moment, and perhaps even somewhat necessary while Rubenstein and the other new people learn the nuances of running a Major League Baseball franchise.

In the end, John just wants his money. If they give him a check tomorrow and tell him to go away for good, I'm sure he'd be just fine with that.


The mood around town improved on Tuesday and Wednesday, but one listen to sports radio told you that people are still steaming over the Ravens 17-10 loss to the Chiefs.

"Completely unacceptable," I heard someone say on the air yesterday. "If heads don't roll, I won't be renewing my seats."

The announcers on that particular shift didn't engage the caller at all.

I guess the times have changed in the radio business.

Circa 2010, I would have battered that caller for 2 or 3 minutes for being a nitwit. These days, you just hit the "end call" button and say, "Appreciate the call, Rick, we gotta run..."

"If heads don't roll," the caller said.

Whose head should roll?

Lamar Jackson?

John Harbaugh?

Todd Monken?

Mike Macdonald already left so they can't jettison him.

Eric DeCosta?

When you say something idiotic like "If heads don't roll", who, exactly, are you talking about?

The head coach who just helped engineer a 14-5 overall campaign?

The quarterback who is about to win his 2nd MVP award after beating everyone like a drum for five months?

The offensive coordinator who helped produce one of the franchise's most prolific offensive campaigns in his first season with the club?

People just say stuff to say it.

"Heads should roll..."

Because they lost a football game to a team that has been to four Super Bowls in the last five years?

If the Ravens went 6-11 and 7-10 and you said, "Heads should roll", I'd probably agree with that. Two straight losing seasons like that would give any owner reason to at least consider a coaching change.

The Ravens have perhaps the league's most dynamic player and they're coming off of a season where they were FAR AND AWAY the best team in the AFC from September through late January. "Heads should roll..."

Really?

Some of you people are nuts, man, I'm telling you.


The draft is three months away and the Ravens will have several significant needs to address, but I think it's very obvious what they're going to be looking for in late April.

Offensive line.

Edge rusher.

Defensive back.

I'm going to stick with what I've said and thought for the last two or three months. If Amarius Mims of Georgia is available at pick #30, the offensive tackle from Georgia will be Baltimore-bound.

Bralen Trice from Washington could also be an intriguing option for the Ravens in that spot.

If cornerback Terrion Arnold of Alabama slides down to that #30 spot, he could also be someone Eric DeCosta values late in the first round.

There's no doubt Ronnie Stanley is on the 15th hole of his (healthy) NFL career. Offensive line is the Ravens' most obvious area of need, either to replace Stanley or veteran Morgan Moses.

John Simpson was a good story and all, but he's also someone the club should look to replace at some point very soon.

The Ravens offense doesn't need much other help. Running back can always be tweaked, of course, but if Dobbins returns from his injury and Keaton Mitchell is healthy at the start of the season, there's probably no reason to worry about the ball carrier department.

The defensive defections could leave a bruise, though.

I was hoping we wouldn't be worried about the draft until after February 11, but here we are, sifting through names and scouting reports on February 1st.


They're playing at beautiful Pebble Beach this week on the PGA Tour, along with Spyglass Hill at the AT&T Pro-Am.

Is Justin Thomas ready to break through and get his 2024 campaign off to a great start at Pebble Beach this week?

For those interested, here's who we like:

Justin Thomas, +2400

Jordan Spieth, +1800

Matt Fitzpatrick, +3500

Hideki Matsuyama, +6500

Nick Taylor, +8500

Adam Hadwin, +11000

Erik van Rooyen, +17500

Win bets on all of those guys plus the usual Top 10 and Top 30 wagers are suggested.

I'm very bullish on Justin Thomas this year, as you'll see throughout the next few months. I think Thomas has his golf-swing-issues fixed and once he wins again, he's going to be one of the circuit's best players again.

Spieth has never missed the cut at Pebble Beach and has a win there a half-decade or so ago. He can putt those bad poa annua greens as well as anyone.

I know the weather is supposed to be iffy out there all weekend, with rain and high winds at times. That probably makes it more of a crapshoot than other weeks. But I'm sticking with my original lineup of six guys and I'm tossing in Matthew Fitzpatrick because he's familiar with adverse conditions as a vetern of the European Tour.

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breakfast bytes


UConn, Purdue, Houston and UNC are #1 seeds in NCAA men's tournament.

Big Ten hoops: Illinois beats Wisconsin, 93-87, to win conference tournament in Minneapolis.

Spring training: Birds improve to 18-5 with 8-2 win over Atlanta; Wells goes four innings, allows just one run.

Indoor soccer: Blast eliminated from MASL playoffs after Kansas City wins in St. Louis.




SCOREBOARD
Saturday, March 16
AT CANUCKS
1
CAPITALS
2

CAPS GOALS: Wilson (16), Ovechkin (19)

GOALTENDER: Lindgren

RECORD: 32-25-9

NEXT GAME: 3/18 at Calgary







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