First Two Weeks

The producer of the UConn-Florida game was enamored with Ashley Elsey, the mother of UConn freshman Liam McNeeley. She's got a lot of screen time this tourney. I'm not here to comment on her attractiveness. The internet picked up that ball and ran with it, describing her with a four letter acronym that I will not repeat (we keep it classy and PG13 around here). What I want to point out is that Liam's mom is one of several matriarchs who ruled the hardwood in their day. Ashley Elsey, who is 6 feet tall, played for Rice; she graduated in 1996.

I already mentioned that Cooper Flagg's mother, Kelly, played for Maine. Kelly Bowman was a 5'11" swing player for the University of Maine, graduating in 1999. She was team captain her senior year, when the Black Bears upset Stanford. One of her teammates was 6'4" Stacey Porrini, a prolific scorer and team captain in 1997. Porrini graduated with a degree in education and taught first grade for many years in her hometown of Bristol, Connecticut. There she met and married Bill Clingan. They had two kids, Donovan and Olivia. Donovan Clingan grew to 7'2" and led UConn to the last two national championships (he's currently with the Trailblazers). Stacey Porrini Clingan didn't see either one. She died of breast cancer in 2018. Donovan wore number 32, his mother's number, while at UConn.

Cooper Flagg is a terrific talent, clearly the top player in the world who isn't already in the NBA. But we need to slow down on characterizing every annual standout as a "generational talent". Is Flagg better than any draft picks both this year and last? Yes, by a good margin. How about 2023? Record scratch. There we have the most recent "generational" talent, Victor Wembanyama. Who you got, Flagg or Wemby? Yea, I'm going with the 7'3" kid with elite guard skills. A generation is 20-30 years. The lower end of that range includes Jokić. The upper end encompasses LeBron. And Steph. And Durant. And Duncan. And how many other guys who are better than Flagg will be? 50? More? This takes nothing away from Flagg. It's just a little reality check in this hyperbolic world we live in. The anti-Stephen A. Smith? I can play that role.

Other top NBA prospects include athletic combo guards that we have highlighted this tourney: VJ Edgecombe (Baylor), Jeremiah Fears (Oklahoma) and Tre Johnson (Texas). All pass the eye test, as far as I am concerned. If your NBA team ends up with one of them, be happy. [Editor's Note: Edgecombe's first name is Valdez. He was born and raised in Bimini, Bahamas. He moved to Florida to play high school ball for one of the basketball factories. The list of NBA players from the Bahamas is long, including DeAndre Ayton, Buddy Hield, Mychal Thompson and Rick Fox. Back to the Notes]

Maryland's Derik Queen probably helped his draft stock more than anyone with his tourney performance. 27 points and hitting three 3-pointers against Florida will do that. He needs to get serious about playing defense, but a solid prospect.

A couple of Flagg's teammates are also in the Top 10 of the mock drafts. Kon Knueppel is projected to go around tenth, which is the perfect spot for him. He has good size (6'6") and his shot is pure. A team could do worse than Corey Kispert 2.0. I am not, however, sold on Khaman Maluach. He's huge, with the wing span of a condor; there's no lob he can't corral. That said, has he shot a single jumper this tourney? This season, he took a total of sixteen 3-pointers; he hit four. That's not going to get it done in the Association.

Last weekend I suggested that Jase Richardson was a good building block for the Michigan State future. Probably not, as he is projected to go in the lottery. His comp is Reed Sheppard, which is awesome. Jase is the son of Jason Richardson, who played on the 2000 MSU national title team. An incredible athlete, the elder Richarson won the NBA slam dunk title twice.

The two Rutgers freshmen are both top five on every NBA draft board worth reading. Their absence in the tourney was noted. On Bill Simmons' podcast they speculated about having a wildcard pick for the tourney. All agreed that this year it would be Rutgers. Not because they earned it after finishing 11th in the Big Ten. Because casual fans want to see what the fuss is about. Mrs Notes and I live two miles from the Rutgers basketball arena. I have thoughts.

To cut to the chase, I've seen Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey up close and I don't get it.

Dylan Harper is the son of Ron Harper (who won five titles, three on Jordan's Bulls and two with Kobe and Shaq for the Lakers) and brother of Ron Harper, Jr (formerly of Rutgers, now with the Pistons G-league team). His mother, Maria Pizarro, is from Bataan, Philippines. She played college basketball for New Orleans before becoming a high school coach. Dylan is big for a point guard (6'6") and is an effective playmaker. I've seen comps to De’Aaron Fox, which is insane. Fox is the quickest player with the ball I've ever seen in person. Harper can't consistently get around even college defenders. And his shot is suspect (33% from deep this season). Dylan Harper runs a beautiful pick-and-roll with Bailey, no doubt. What do you call a pick-and-roll guard who can't shoot? G-league player of the week.

Ace Bailey also has strong basketball bloodlines. His parents played for West Virginia and Houston. Bailey's aunt, Venus Lacy, was a WNBA all-star and a member of Team USA's 1996 Olympic team. Ace Bailey also hits only about a third of his 3-pointers. But he's a legit 6'9" and his mechanics are solid. Definitely a wing, maybe 200 pounds soaking wet. Mixing it up inside is not his forte. I think he's the better prospect, but none of the guys who get paid to have opinions on teenage basketball stars agrees with me.

So, how did a Rutgers team with two top draft picks end up with a losing record? Let me count the ways. The usual suspect would be the guy on the bench. Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell knows what he's doing. Not a top tier basketball mind, but solid. About as well as Rutgers can do with what they have to spend. Pikiell is defense-first. We've highlighted defensive stars in this tourney Cliff Omoruyi (Alabama) and Mawot Mag (BYU), both of whom played for Rutgers last year. That Rutgers team ranked fifth nationally in defensive efficiency. Omoruyi and Mag would have paired perfectly with Harper and Bailey, who are completely disinterested in the game when their team doesn't have the ball. Poor defenders and they didn't improve at all this season. To sum up, Rutgers couldn't afford to pay four players. They went all-in with the freshmen duo, two offensive-minded players playing for an old school defensive coach. What could go wrong? Everything, it turns out. 

The McNeese State student manager, Amir Khan, had a moment. Known as Aura, he leads his team to the court rapping whatever is at the top of his playlist for the evening. Something about a short, pudgy dude confidently slamming Lud Foe's "In & Out" seems to have captured the zeitgeist. 

Some Will Forte fans out there! Several of you sent in your favorite sketches. The one about the spelling bee didn't work for me. But Isaac passed along one about college basketball, and it's hilarious! The host was Peyton Manning who holds up his end of the sketch. As a founding member of #TeamTom, I have to admit that Peyton has won the post-playing era. And it isn't close. The SNL sketch is worth a click.