Thursday, December 10, 2009

Thursday 12/10 Quickie: John Wall, Ndamukong Suh, Randy Edsall

Brandon Jennings is so last month. Now, it's all about John Wall, who has needed all of 9 games to turn himself into college basketball's biggest star.

As big as the Wall-led Kentucky win over UNC last Saturday was, last night may have been his true OK-this-guy-is-the-biggest-thing-since-Iverson moment: On ESPN in primetime at Madison Square Garden, leading Kentucky past UConn with a career-high 25 points and 7 steals -- including one that was absolutely ridiculous, plucking a safe pass that has no business being stolen out of the air, racing down the court and dunking, and one.

At this point, Wall is bigger than Melo was after 9 games -- way bigger. He's bigger than Durant. He's bigger than Beasley. He's leaps and bounds bigger than Derrick Rose. He's a one-man mania.

So Wall leads today's SN column, but there's a ton more:

*Didn't I tell you not to be surprised when Notre Dame edged away from Brian Kelly to another candidate? There's no way Randy Edsall is more qualified than Kelly -- and yet ND seems to be very interested in Edsall. Hmm...

*Ndamukong Suh is this year's Tim Tebow, at least as far as the Heisman voting is concerned: He'll get the most 1st-place votes, but finish in 3rd place. With Tebow last year, that was because Big 12 voters intentionally left him off their ballots, to game the system for their guys; with Suh, I honestly think it's because many voters don't even know about him. Which is WAY worse.

*I cannot be more clear about this: Not only is Mack Brown worth $5 million a year, that -- along with the salaries of the other elite coaches, like Meyer, Saban and Carroll -- is the biggest bargain in sports. Given how important an elite coach is to making a program elite, I have no idea why schools don't spend commensurate dollars -- again, with my "Notre Dame should have offered Urban Meyer $100 million over 10 years" idea, which people scoff at, but the ROI is obvious.

*Big CFB awards show tonight. I'm curious if early voting for the Maxwell or O'Brien will give Tebow either of those awards ahead of the equally deserving Mark Ingram and Colt McCoy.

Lots more in today's column. More later.

-- D.S.

1 comment:

Steve Sprague said...

I'm not sure coaches are such a bargain. There was a recent study which showed that only two dozen colleges and universities come out ahead on their athletic budgets. Also, because of Title IX every dollar spent on a coach causes the spending on women's sports to increase.

Further, a BCS bowl pays a school $17.5 million, which means to come out a little ahead on the coaches salary they will need to reach 6 BCS bowls in the 10 year period. Under Urban Meyer Florida has made 3 BCS bowls, the title game in 06 and 08, and the Sugar bowl this year. This puts him on pace for 6 in 10 years, and he is probably the best coach in college football. Most coaches will not duplicate this success.

Granted every bowl has a payout, but they are far less. Further if you consider the average bowl payout, then the benefit of making a BCS bowl is less than the 17.5 million payout, closer to 12 million.

Still think $10 mil a year is a good deal?