If you can’t get excited for football after seeing this, I don’t know what to tell you.
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Monday Mailbag Part II
March 5, 2013
— 12 Comments
Photo Attribution: Emily Nielsen
We got so many good questions I had to break it into two parts (even though it’s not Monday anymore), Part I here.
Tyler Ames: Assuming Smart enters the draft, what will the PG situation look like next year? Could we see more of Markel there?
Kyle Porter: I guess we could — I would be all for that too. Markel handling the ball is one of my favorite things about this team and I nearly broke down the walls of the Internet last year trying to get Travis Ford to give him the reins instead of KP12.
My guess though is that we get some combo of Stevie Clark and Kirby Gardner. Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t think Gardner has been terrible this year. He’s a serviceable breather for Smart when Ford needs him. I’m not saying he’s going to make any preseason All-Big 12 lists but could he put in 15-20 minutes next year on a Big 12 title contender? Sure.
Colin Johnston: With the game on the line who would you rather have, Dez or Blackmon?
Kyle Porter: This is such a personal choice — because both are absolute monsters — but game on the line and my life on the line, I’m rolling with Dez.
Jake Schooley: I feel like Markel might leave after this year. No guarantee that is stock will rise any higher playing another year. Thoughts?
Kyle Porter: Not going to happen. True, the difference in money isn’t a huge thing with somebody like Markel because the difference between the 40th pick and the 15th pick is barely over $1M but by getting into the first round you’re lining yourself up to stay on an NBA roster for quite a while — not true with a second rounder.
I think Markel’s ceiling is the 15th pick in the draft but I don’t think he’s hit that ceiling yet. For reference, James Anderson got picked at No. 20, Desmond Mason got picked at No. 17. I think Markel is more athletic than Anderson and a better shooter than Mason.
NBAdraft.net has him as the 33rd overall pick in the 2014 draft right now but look at some of those names — does anyone stick out to you besides Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker, Julius Randle, and Andrew Harrison?
If Smart leaves, Markel could become the centerpiece of a Big 12 favorite (or at least one of the Big 12 favorites). His numbers have been improving steadily every year so it’s not absurd to think he could have a Adrian Peterson-esque senior year. Combine that with the crazy crap he’ll do at the draft camps and some GM might just put Jay Bilas saying “length, length, length” on a loop on his iPod and take him in the top 15.
Kurt Templeton: Chances that OSU gets an Austin-Dallas trip to Atlanta?
Kyle Porter: Same as the chances we see a clean game refereed at the Big 12 tournament.
Monday Mailbag
March 4, 2013
— 16 Comments
We really don’t do this enough. Here are some questions from various readers about hoops, football, and everything in between.
Taylor York: We went from Fire Ford to maybe Final Four. Where do you stand with him as a coach right now? Recruiter?
Brent Wilson: Is this years success because of Smart, or that Ford finally has players in his system that will listen to his coaching? Combo?
Kyle Porter: Great question. It’s pretty tough to separate Ford from Smart and Smart from Ford at this point but ask Mack Brown how easy it is to coach talent. And the fact remains OSU was 2-3 in conference play after losing to Baylor in Waco and Marcus Smart was playing some incredible basketball. Did he just flip a switch after that game? I think not. Ford made adjustments and got this team on track.
I’ve never been totally out on Ford1 although I’m not totally sure why — he hadn’t been all that great up until this year — but he’s been proving my instinct right more often than not as of late.
Jamie Wilder: Why not JW? Or why the other two over him?
Kyle Porter: Somebody the other day2 mentioned the similarities between Marcus Smart and J.W. Walsh. While this is a little (OK, a lot) absurd given their abilities and future projections, the fact remains that they both just win.
I think I’ve turned a bit of a corner on J.W. Some of that has to do with watching John Foots3 win the Cotton Bowl for A&M last year. I watch him and I think “uh, why is he even good?” Then I look up and he’s dropping 300 and 200 on some of the best defenses in the country.
I’ve come to grips with my love for Wes Lunt’s arm and I’ll listen to any argument for any of the three guys. Even though I’m still #TeamChelf for the time being (we’ll discuss this a lot more in the near future).
Zach Taylor: Hey I was watching a movie the other day and I saw the actor Benicio Del Toro. I immediately thought “Holy Cow that looks just like our boy West Lunt”
Kyle Porter: You decide.
Landry Jones running
February 24, 2013
— 9 Comments
I can’t stop laughing.
And I like Landry!
He made a 5.03 look like a 7.03.
The best photo from the Kansas game
February 21, 2013
— 6 Comments
This is the Marcus Smart 70-footer that would have brought down the city.
I’ve been sitting here just staring at it for like 20 minutes.
From guy right below the rim to the right to Justin Blackmon (bottom left just above the cheerleaders) to Kansas bro scared out of his mind on the far right to heaving girl in the bright orange pants right behind Markel jersey dude to Clint Chelf and J.W. Walsh doing the Tiger “my drive is fading hard” lean just above the top left of the scoreboard…
…it really has it all.
Here’s the shot from behind.
Photo via @doafhat
Is Clint Chelf scared of the camera?
February 19, 2013
— 5 Comments
Hilarious moment for #10 in the video above at the 1:42 mark.
GIF here:
h/t to reader Scott Bishop on the find.
