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nancygduarteus · 6 years ago

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The White Flight From Football

Shantavia Jackson signed her three sons up for football to keep them out of trouble. As a single mother who works the night shift at a Home Depot warehouse 50 minutes away from her house, Jackson relies on the sport to shield the boys from gang activity in her rural Georgia county. They began in a local league five years ago when they were still little, their helmets like bobbleheads on their shoulders. Now 11, 12, and 14, they play in games across the region. Jackson says she passed up a daytime shift at Home Depot so that she can drive them to games and cheer them on.

Over time, the boys’ coaches have become mentors, making sure their athletes get good grades and stay off the streets. They take the boys on field trips to the beach and to Busch Gardens. Jackson’s eldest son, Marqwayvian McCoy—or Qway, as she calls him—has particularly thrived. Jackson says Qway has been diagnosed with schizoaffective bipolar disorder, which sometimes manifests in bursts of anger and an inability to focus at school. Now his teammates help him when he gets stuck in his studies and look up to him for his prowess on the field. They’ve nicknamed him Live Wire because he can hit so hard.

Jackson dreams that Qway will soon make it out of their home in Colquitt County, a place marked by fields of crops and cotton bales the size of Mack trucks. Football could help him do that. As a middle schooler, he’s already been asked to practice with the high-school team, the Colquitt County Packers, a national powerhouse that in 2016 sent two dozen boys to college with full scholarships. Qway knows his mother doesn’t have the money to send him to college, so he studies websites that track top high-school-football athletes and watches all the football he can online, hoping to get better at the game.

Marqwayvian McCoy at home in his jersey (Dustin Chambers)

As Qway throws himself into football, the sport is facing a highly publicized reckoning more serious than any it has confronted since the Pop Warner youth-football program was established in 1929. Research suggests that tackle football can cause long-term brain injury, and as a result, many parents are telling their kids they can’t play. In the 2017–18 school year, 6.6 percent fewer high-school athletes participated in 11-player tackle football than in the 2008–09 school year, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Yet not all parents are holding back their kids from tackle football at equal rates, which is creating a troubling racial divide. Kids in mostly white upper-income communities in the Northeast, Midwest, and West are leaving football for other sports such as lacrosse or baseball. But black kids in lower-income communities without a lot of other sports available are still flocking to football. In keeping with America’s general racial demographics, white boys continue to make up the majority of youth-tackle-football players, according to data from the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. But proportionally, the scales appear to be shifting. A recent survey of 50,000 eighth-, tenth-, and 12th-grade students found that around 44 percent of black boys play tackle football, compared with 29 percent of white boys, as analyzed by the University of Michigan sociologist Philip Veliz. Football at the high-school level is growing in popularity in states with the highest shares of black people, while it’s declining in majority-white states. Other recent studies suggest that more black adults support youth tackle football than white adults.

This trend has become particularly visible as majority-white towns such as Ridgefield, New Jersey, and Healdsburg, California, have dropped their varsity-football programs due to a lack of interest. Meanwhile, in Lee County, Georgia, a majority-black area near where the Jacksons live, a coach recently started a new travel football team for kids to provide them with guidance and mentorship. These racial divides show up in the football that America watches: Today black athletes make up nearly half of all Division I college-football players, up from 39 percent in 2000. White athletes make up 37 percent, down from 51 percent.

This divergence paints a troubling picture of how economic opportunity—or a lack thereof—governs which boys are incentivized to put their body and brain at risk to play. Depending on where families live, and what other options are available to them, they see either a game that is too violent to consider or one that is necessary and important, if risky. Millions of Americans still watch football; NFL ratings were up this season. That a distinct portion of families won’t let their children play creates a disturbing future for the country’s most popular game.

Sam and Megan Taggard’s colonial-style home in West Simsbury, Connecticut, has no shortage of sporting equipment. The couple’s four children stack bikes in the garage and clutter the wooden living-room floor with footballs and tennis balls. On the day I visited them last October, the Taggards’ 13-year-old son had two hockey games and their 7-year-old daughter had a basketball game. The family’s two younger sons horsed around a hockey goal in the living room.

Tackle football, however, was not on the agenda. “My kiddos aren’t playing,” Sam Taggard told me. Taggard played football years ago at Babson College, and he says his 44-year-old body is still bearing the damage: He had back surgery two years ago and is slow to get out of bed in the morning. He also did a clinical doctorate in physical therapy and has seen how debilitating head and neck injuries can be. Football requires kids to endanger their brain every single game, he said: “In football, you’re literally trying to decimate the person in front of you. If you’re not, you’re not playing well.”

Sam Taggard played football in college and had to have back surgery later in life. (Monica Jorge)

The Taggards aren’t the only family in their neighborhood pulling their boys from tackle football. At one of the day’s hockey games, I chatted with five other parents—all of whom were white—in the frigid stands of an ice-hockey rink on a private-school campus as their sons skated past. Four told me they wouldn’t let their son play. The fifth, a mother named Sharon Walsh, said she had objected, but her husband and son overruled her. She hated signing the waiver saying that she understood her child might die. Thankfully, she said, her son recently decided to give up football on his own.

Ron Perry, another hockey parent, echoed the sentiment that he wouldn’t let his son play tackle football, because of concerns about concussions and head injuries. A friend of his coaches a rec-football team and is always looking for players, Perry told me. But he wouldn’t recommend his son. “There’s just constant hitting,” he said. (Hockey, it should be noted, can also lead to head injuries. USA Hockey, which oversees high-school and club hockey in America, has been relatively proactive about safety, deciding in 2011 to ban bodychecking in games until age 13.)

A huge amount of evidence shows that football poses a risk to developing brains. Athletes who begin playing tackle football before the age of 12 have twice as much of a risk of behavioral problems later in life and three times as much of a risk of clinical depression as athletes who begin playing after 12, according to a 2017 Boston University study. A separate study from Wake Forest University found that boys who played just one season of tackle football between the ages of 8 and 13 had diminished functions in part of their brain.

One of the biggest risks of repeated head injuries is that players could develop CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition that occurs when a protein called tau spreads through the brain, killing brain cells. CTE is linked with behavioral and personality changes, memory loss, and speech problems. Conversations about CTE tend to focus on the dangers of concussions, but brains can also be damaged by frequent hits to the head. A February 2018 study found that mice with repeated traumatic brain injuries, regardless of concussive symptoms, still had CTE. The condition has been found in the brains of many high-profile football players who committed suicide in recent years, including Junior Seau, Andre Waters, and Terry Long. One 2017 study of the brains of 111 former NFL players found that 110 of them had CTE.

Because of this research, a growing number of elite-level football players are trying to get kids to wait until high school to start playing tackle. By then, kids’ bodies are developed enough that head trauma may not be as detrimental, and the kids can better understand proper tackling procedures and control their body to follow them.

[Read: The future of detecting brain damage in football]

Even if kids wait until they’re in high school to play tackle football, though, they’ll need something else to do in the meantime. And that’s where Sam Taggard’s kids have an advantage over Shantavia Jackson’s. Throughout the country, affluent school districts offer more extracurricular activities than poorer districts, and upper-income parents can pay for more activities outside of school. On top of hockey, the Taggard’s oldest son, Jack, plays trombone in the band, volunteers to teach music to disabled kids, and participates in the chess and ski clubs. Jack expects to go to college whether or not he excels at sports. Both his parents did, and his father has a master’s in business administration. Shantavia Jackson is still working on getting her GED.

As brain-damage fears have grown, upper-income boys have started decamping to sports such as golf or lacrosse, which are less available in poorer communities. The kids are influenced by adults who have their own biases about the safety of football. Just 37 percent of white respondents told researchers that they would encourage kids to play the sport, while 57 percent of black respondents said they would, according to a working paper by the sociologists Andrew Lindner of Skidmore College and Daniel Hawkins of the University of Nebraska.

The Taggard family outside their home in Simsbury, Connecticut (Monica Jorge)

Now getting white kids just to play flag football can be a tough sell. Jim Schwantz, the mayor of Palatine, Illinois, and a former linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers, tried to start a flag-football league as an alternative for families in his area worried about concussions. Despite a strong start in 2012, interest fell each year in the mostly white suburbs where the league operated, because parents saw the sport as a gateway to tackle football. Schwantz decided to scrap the league in 2017.

Meanwhile, in Colquitt County, where the Jacksons live, football remains the biggest thing around. The county’s population is just 45,000, but it’s not unusual for the 10,000-seat high-school stadium to be full of local fans for Friday-night games. Timmy Barnes, a former player who later traveled with the football team as a police officer, has called Colquitt County “a community who only has football.” He wrote that after Rush Propst, the high-school coach, was nearly suspended after head-butting a player but saved when he apologized and the community rallied around him.

On a fall afternoon, I sat with Shantavia Jackson on the metal bleachers of a high-school stadium in Thomasville, Georgia, a town in a neighboring county near the Florida border, as successive teams of boys came to play in a tournament branded “The Battle of the Babies.” Jackson was there from the start. She wore a gray long-sleeved Colquitt County Cowboys T-shirt to support her youngest son, Chance, whose Pop Warner team played in an early game. She cheered for him while keeping her 12-year-old, Jyqwayvin, entertained in the stands. Qway’s undefeated team was playing a team from Atlanta in the last game of the day, so the family’s day was dominated by football.

The stands were mostly empty when the 6- and 7-year-olds played around noon under a scorching Georgia sun, but they began to fill up as games featured older boys, who could run, jump, and hit harder than the little kids. Amid the sounds of the tournament—the cowbells and hollering from the parents, a DJ blasting Drake from the end zone, the referee’s whistles and the grunts of adolescent boys counting jumping jacks behind the stands—no one seemed bothered by the thuds of the hits. These happened constantly: when the 6- and 7-year-olds ran smack into one another trying to get a fumbled football, when a 9-year-old caught a pass and got leveled by a boy twice his size, and when an 11-year-old got yanked around the neck and tackled by another 11-year-old.

[Read: How students’ brains are in danger on the field]

“Get him, come on!” a grandmother yelled at her grandson, a tiny 61-pound 9-year-old named Zain who was flattened by a boy 40 pounds heavier. Zain came off the field crying and his mother went to stroke his head. With the exception of Zain and his family, nearly every other player and family in the stands was black.

By the time Qway’s game rolled around, the stands were packed and the sun had set, turning the sky a purplish blue. The game was a rout; the team from Atlanta was faster, bigger, and more organized than Qway’s team, and so the boys started getting violent in frustration, tackling one another after the whistle, grabbing at necks to pull one another down. Parents yelled at the referees for what they perceived as missed penalties, and then turned on one another. “We’re in the sticks now!” one Atlanta parent yelled, taunting. Qway got hit in the groin, and Jackson stood at the bottom of the bleachers, her hand by her mouth, waiting to make sure he was okay.

Shantavia Jackson (Dustin Chambers)

Jackson knows football is dangerous. Her father broke his neck playing football when he was in high school; he was in the hospital for weeks and had to get screws in his spine. But she has a fatalistic attitude about injuries. Her boys could get injured in a car accident or a drive-by shooting. They could get injured if they joined gangs. “If it’s meant to happen, it’s going to happen. We can’t stop it,” she said. “You can get injured in any sport.” All she can do, she told me, is hug her boys and tell them she loves them before each game.

Other parents in the stands said similar things. One mother: “Boys will be boys. They need a little roughness.” Another: “You have to keep your child busy so they don’t have time to get in trouble.” One woman, Hope Moore, started her son in football when he was 6. At first he wasn’t interested in playing sports, Moore said, but she wanted to get him off the couch and away from video games. He fell in love with football from the moment he started playing. Moore used to worry about the hits, pulling him from games if she thought he was getting hurt. But the coaches told her that her son needed to learn to make mistakes, and how to get hit, she told me. Now he’s getting invited to live in other school districts so he can be on their teams. “It’s going to help him in college,” Moore said.

Even as the dangers associated with tackle football become more evident, the sport is growing more lucrative. Universities can make money from football on ticket revenue, broadcasting fees, licensing opportunities, and sponsorships through bowl games. Some of the biggest schools have doubled what they make from football over the past decade, according to Forbes. The football program at Texas A&M University, one of the nation’s top teams, brings in $148 million annually.

Seeing the revenue opportunities, many schools have expanded their football program and started offering more scholarships. Since 1988, the NCAA has added 62 Division I schools that are eligible to offer full-ride football scholarships, representing about 3,000 more scholarships available. By contrast, 31 fewer schools offer NCAA Division I scholarships for men’s swimming and diving than in 1988. “If [universities] started giving boys the same amount of scholarships in swimming, you’d see a whole bunch of poor kids jumping in the pool,” Robert W. Turner II, a professor at George Washington University who briefly played in the NFL, told me.

In communities like Colquitt County, many families see high-school seniors get full-ride football scholarships and aspire to something similar. Jackson’s boys, for instance, look up to Ty Lee, a former Colquitt County football player who was recruited to Middle Tennessee State University. They visit him when he’s home from school. Around 78 percent of black male athletes in the lowest income quintile expect to qualify for financial aid through an athletic scholarship, compared with 45 percent of white males in the same income bracket, according to a forthcoming paper by the Portland State University sociologists CJ Appleton and Dara Shifrer.

[Read: Football has always been a battleground in the culture war]

College recruiting can happen as early as middle school, which means kids can feel pressure to start playing sooner to hone their skills. If parents in Colquitt County were to prevent their kids from playing until they’re 14, their kids’ athleticism and knowledge of the game would be far behind that of boys who have been playing for years. Chad Mascoe Sr., who played football at the University of Central Florida and in the Arena Football League, and who now lives in Thomasville, Georgia, told me that his 14-year-old son, Chad Mascoe Jr., had three recruiting offers before he got into high school. Now, as a star freshman, Chad has 13 offers, according to his father. He was recently recruited to transfer to an elite boarding and sports-training school in Florida later this year.

The NFL starts marketing to children when they’re young, which has attracted criticism from groups who say the league’s material portrays football as safe and healthy, even as research shows that it is not. The league runs a website and app for kids that has 3 million registered users, and it has funded NFL-branded fitness and healthy-eating programs in more than 73,000 schools. A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that the short-term health of students improved more in participating schools than in those not enrolled. In Colquitt County, schools got a visit from an Atlanta Falcons player through one of those programs in 2014. (The NFL declined to comment for this story.)

Even without the NFL’s presence, though, Colquitt County prioritizes football. In 2016, Colquitt County voters approved a ballot question that allowed the school board to use some proceeds of a sales tax for education funding to build a $3.7 million, 73,000-square-foot indoor multipurpose space that allows the football team to practice even in the heat of a Georgia summer. Propst, the high-school coach, made $141,000 last year, according to Open Georgia, which provides salary information for state and local employees. Most teachers at Colquitt County High School make less than half of what Propst does.

Colquitt County High School (Dustin Chambers)

Without football, the options for boys in Colquitt County are limited. Only 80 percent of incoming freshmen at Colquitt County high schools end up graduating. Of those who do, just 29 percent go on to four-year colleges. For those who stay, job options are bleak: More than two-thirds of households in Colquitt County make less than $50,000 a year. That’s less than half the median household income in Connecticut’s Hartford County, where the Taggards live.

The people who do seem to be pulling their kids from football in Colquitt County are the ones who can afford other opportunities. I talked to Todd Taylor, who is white and lives in Moultrie, Georgia, a few miles from Shantavia Jackson’s hometown of Norman Park. He played football and baseball at Colquitt County High, and his family has season tickets to Colquitt County Packers football games. But his wife really doesn’t want their 8-year-old son, Jud, to play, because of concussion dangers. Instead, Jud plays baseball and dives at Moss Farms Diving, a powerhouse facility in Moultrie that has trained dozens of divers who get college scholarships. Moss Farms offers training tuition-free to those who need it, but diving remains an expensive sport in America, requiring pool time and lots of travel. Sixteen percent of the Moss Farms roster is made up of people of color.

The divide on the football field makes it hard not to see how inequality in America is worsening health disparities and raising the specter of another, darker era of American history. In the early part of the 20th century, black Americans were prevented from buying homes in well-off neighborhoods by racially restrictive covenants, excluded from trade unions and the jobs they guaranteed, and paid less than their white counterparts. The segregation that resulted has long had health implications. Today simply the fact of being black can be hazardous to one’s health. Low-income black boys are more likely than low-income white boys to live in neighborhoods with persistent poverty, violence, and trauma. These neighborhoods also have little access to healthy foods.

Despite the benefits football can provide, it may also be worsening these health disparities. The medical care accessible to low-income families in poor neighborhoods may be helping to obscure the dangers of brain injuries. Low-income black communities have less access to good medical services and information that would emphasize the downsides of playing football, says Harry Edwards, a civil-rights activist and emeritus professor of sociology at the University of California at Berkeley. “Nobody advises them as to the long-term medical risks,” he told me. “They are out of the loop.” Black people who said they had followed news about concussions were less likely to encourage children to play football than others who hadn’t been following the news, according to Lindner and Hawkin’s study.

[Read: The worst part about recovering from a concussion]

When black boys from low-income families look for examples of men who have come from similar backgrounds and succeeded, they don’t have as many positive role models outside of sports and music. Black NFL players who came from poverty are featured in commercials selling products, sitting behind desks at halftime in tailored suits, holding up trophies. They’re in newspaper stories and TV specials in which they talk about growing up poor in the South, raised by a single mother, and making it big in the NFL. “The media serves up encouraging stories for black kids to consume,” says John Hoberman, the author of Darwin’s Athletes: How Sport Has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race. Low-income black boys do not see the hundreds of athletes suffering in silence as their brain deteriorates, who ache when they get out of bed every morning, who damaged their body playing in high school or college but who didn’t even make it to the NFL.

While black boys are disproportionately getting channeled into a violent sport, white people are making the most money off of it. Seventy percent of NFL players are black, but only 9.9 percent of managers in the league office are. The NFL was just 52 percent black in 1985. Only two people of color are majority owners of NFL franchises: Shahid Khan, the Pakistani American owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Kim Pegula, a Korean American businesswoman who is a partial owner of the Buffalo Bills. “If you’re going to avoid 21st-century gladiator circumstances in terms of football, the teams have to look something like the demographic representation of this nation,” Edwards told me.

Last year, the NFL expanded its Rooney Rule, which was first implemented in 2003 and seeks to diversify teams’ coaching and front-office staff. Still, the gladiatorial overtones are hard to overlook. Players who want to get recruited by NFL teams must attend the NFL Scouting Combine, a week-long showcase in which they perform mental and physical tests. Athletes’ hand size, arm length, and wingspan are measured during this event, and players are asked to stand naked but for their workout shorts so that team recruiters can see how they are built, according to Edwards, who also works as a consultant with the San Francisco 49ers. NFL and team executives, mostly white men, are evaluating the bodies of black players, deciding whether to make an investment.

Even as broadcast networks lost viewers generally, NFL ratings were up in 2018. Americans still appear to have a growing fascination with the sport, even if a majority-white segment of the population doesn’t want their children to play it.

Without a reversal in economic fortunes for poor communities across the country, football could one day become a sport played almost exclusively by black athletes, while still enjoyed by everyone. Black athletes—who already make up the majority of players in the most dangerous on-field positions—would continue to suffer from long-term brain damage, their life cut short by dementia and the scourge of CTE. Black boys would continue to be drawn to a sport that could make their life painful and short. Everyone else would sit back and watch.

Efforts are under way to try to make football safer. Youth leagues are implementing concussion protocols, lessening the amount of hitting players do in practice, and even distributing helmets with special sensors that analyze whether an athlete has gotten a concussion. Dartmouth College eliminated live tackling in all practices in 2010; other Ivy League schools adopted similar rules in 2016. The NFL has made some changes, too, adding a concussion protocol in 2009 and altering kickoff and tackling rules to lower the risk of injury. The 2018 NFL season saw a 28 percent decrease in concussions, compared with the previous year.

Still, the league can’t do much about the fact that football, more than any other sport, requires players to run into one another over and over again and fall to the ground. “Football at the elite level is about as close as you can get to war and still stay civil,” Edwards said. Concussion protocols can’t erase the research that suggests that primarily brain trauma, not concussions, leads to CTE.

The Colquitt County Packers practice field (Dustin Chambers)

Some lawmakers want the government to get involved by prohibiting kids from tackling in football before high school, or by banning youth tackle football entirely. Bills introduced in five states to restrict tackle football have faced backlash. “To demonize just this sport is unfair. It’s illogical, and frankly, it’s downright un-American,” Mike Wagner, the executive commissioner of Pop Warner’s Southern California conference, said in reaction to the Safe Youth Football Act, a failed California bill introduced last year that would have set a minimum age for organized tackle-football leagues.

The disappearance of tackle football could be a real blow to some communities, unless something changes so that those places offer more opportunity and less peril for low-income black boys. If tackle football were banned, for instance, Shantavia Jackson’s boys would lose the coaches who look out for them. Without football, they wouldn’t have something to look forward to on weekends, or as big of a community of teammates. They might not have a dream they can pursue that’s quite as tangible and achievable as playing college football.

Before she had kids, Jackson wanted to leave Colquitt County, but she ended up staying in the same town where her father and grandmother still live. The stakes are higher for her sons, she says, especially for Qway, whose mental-health condition sometimes sets him apart. He needs to be somewhere bigger, with more people like him, she told me. “There’s really nothing much here for him,” she said.

White parents may be doing the best thing for their sons by pulling them from tackle football. But parents of black boys in the rural South are facing a different reality, Jackson says. She believes that she is being a good parent if she gets her sons excited about tackle football. Their opportunities grow if they learn how to hit and tackle and run—how to be as much of a live wire—as well as they possibly can.

from Health News And Updates https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/02/football-white-flight-racial-divide/581623/?utm_source=feed

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ionecoffman · 6 years ago

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The White Flight From Football

Marqwayvian McCoy at home in his jersey (Dustin Chambers)

Sam Taggard played football in college and had to have back surgery later in life. (Monica Jorge)

[Read: The future of detecting brain damage in football]

The Taggard family outside their home in Simsbury, Connecticut (Monica Jorge)

[Read: How students’ brains are in danger on the field]

Shantavia Jackson (Dustin Chambers)

[Read: Football has always been a battleground in the culture war]

Colquitt County High School (Dustin Chambers)

[Read: The worst part about recovering from a concussion]

The Colquitt County Packers practice field (Dustin Chambers)

Article source here:The Atlantic

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junker-town · 6 years ago

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Dez Bryant signing with the Browns would make more sense than you think

Bryant’s market is thin, but he could restore much of his value in ... Cleveland?

The market for three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Dez Bryant hasn’t been especially hot this summer. The former Cowboy turned down a potential multi-year deal with the Baltimore Ravens, then languished as his search for the right opportunity — as well as his preference for a one-year contract and declining returns on the field — limited his options for a new team in 2018.

But there’s one team that’s still publicly interested — even if it’s not a high-profile destination. The Cleveland Browns, 1-31 in their last two seasons, are interested in bringing the veteran wideout to bolster a roster that’s added two useful quarterbacks this offseason but just one high-profile target for them to throw to.

The Browns and Bryant have been flirting for a while

At the start of training camp, Cleveland general manager John Dorsey reporters that team executives have discussed potentially signing Bryant for 2018. From the Browns’ official website:

��I have had a chance to be around Dez, I have known Dez. I had a chance – when he was down in Lufkin, Texas – I was actually at his workout and had a chance to meet him. I know the kind of person that he is and what makes him. He is a very talented player,” Dorsey said. “Now, we will see what comes to fruition the next couple of days, but we talk about it. You have to talk about these things. I have talked about a lot of things. There have been a whole list of players that we have talked about as a staff.”

The talk only intensified from there:

Sources: The #Browns and FA WR Dez Bryant have mutual interest and the team is working on scheduling a visit with him. Monday would be a logistical day, if not sooner. This could be a match.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 27, 2018

According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, the Browns have contacted him about a one-year deal, though no visit was set up then.

A couple weeks passed, and all was quiet on the Bryant front. But then a couple things changed: The Browns traded Corey Coleman to Buffalo, rookie receiver Antonio Callaway was cited for marijuana possession, and the first week of the preseason arrived.

Then the Browns said they wanted to bring in receivers to work out — including Bryant. That hit a snag:

#Browns Dorsey says he’d have Dez Bryant in next week “if he returns a phone call. He won’t return any phone calls”..other receivers coming in next week

— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) August 9, 2018

Until later that night, when Bryant — who was live-tweeting the Browns’ game against the Giants — said he would visit Cleveland (and maybe other teams):

Starting my visits next week...I’m coming to the Land to see you Mr Dorsey

— Dez Bryant (@DezBryant) August 10, 2018

A visit was eventually set up for a week later and was chronicled on an episode of Hard Knocks.

Although no deal was done then, the courtship continues:

Earlier on @nflnetwork I reported that the @Browns still have interest in @DezBryant and that talks are ongoing. The Browns believe he has not fallen off as a player and want to add as many weapons as possible. The return of Josh Gordon has no impact on their interest in Dez.

— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) August 23, 2018

Bryant also claimed on Instagram that he had a contract offer from the Browns.

It’s a pairing that looks like an awkward fit on the surface; a receiver with fading star power going from one of the league’s most storied franchises to the one all other franchises look at when they want to feel better about themselves. Bryant may not have listed the Browns in his top five destinations once it became clear he was headed for free agency this summer, but Cleveland could give him the boost he’s looking for in a potential win/win for both sides.

To wit:

The Browns need receiving help

Cleveland’s spent mightily after bringing Jarvis Landry to Ohio, trading for and then handing him a five-year, $75.5 million contract in hopes he can resurrect the Browns’ offense from the slot. That gives the team a high-usage target who can thrive with the low-yardage, high-percentage throws Tyrod Taylor and a rookie Baker Mayfield will toss his way. That’s good!

The two wide receivers directly behind him, however, are major question marks. Josh Gordon is an All-Pro talent when he can stay on the field, but he hasn’t played more than five games in a season since 2013 thanks to a litany of drug suspensions. He recently returned to the team after taking time away to proactively deal with his substance abuse issues, a move that deserves praise and understanding, but has also drawn skepticism from a fan base that’s known nothing but pain since 1965.

The next big name on the Browns’ depth chart was Coleman. Coleman was the 15th pick of the 2016 NFL Draft, but injuries limited him to just 19 games and 56 receptions over two years. His most memorable play as a Brown may be the drop that helped seal his team’s 0-16 season last fall, and then Cleveland traded him away for a 2020 seventh-round pick.

Now the rest of the roster stands to look something like this come Week 1; Ricardo Louis (nope, he’s out for the year after neck surgery), Rashard Higgins, Jeff Janis, and rookies Antonio Callaway (fourth round) and Damion Ratley (sixth). There’s a lot of room there for an upgrade, but few veteran talents still unsigned to fill it. Bryant may be the best bet of a group that includes players like Jeremy Maclin and Harry Douglas.

The Browns need targets because this year’s crop of quarterbacks may be the least depressing the club has had since being rebooted in 1999. Taylor gives the team a turnover-averse veteran with playoff experience behind center. He’ll have the chance to mentor Mayfield, who brings a big-play resume to the pros and will need veteran targets to help unlock his potential. That’s a role Bryant played in 2016 when he teamed up with then-rookie Dak Prescott for 50 catches, 796 yards, and eight touchdowns in 13 games for the NFC’s top seed.

Taylor is on board with bringing Bryant to Ohio:

Here’s Tyrod Taylor potentially playing with Dez Bryant if the Browns bring him in. #Browns pic.twitter.com/sTlsk5mAxN

— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN) July 26, 2018

Dez is a great player. The wide receiver room has a ton of talent. He’d only add to that.

Cleveland may be the only place where Bryant can get the contract he wants

Bryant wants a one-year deal that will allow him the opportunity to showcase his skills, prove he hasn’t aged out of his game, and set him up for one last big money long-term contract in 2019. The Browns have the financial flexibility and rebuilding philosophy to make that work. Cleveland has approximately $59 million in cap space, more than enough to work a one-year, $8 million — or potentially more — deal for Bryant under the limit.

Even if the Browns’ current best-case scenario comes to fruition — and it won’t, because this remains the Browns — there’s still a big role for Bryant. If Gordon returns to the field for a full season at All-Pro form and Landry is as impressive on the field as he’s been on Hard Knocks, the Browns will still lack a big, physical talent who can make hay in the end zone.

That’s where Bryant’s future lies as the athleticism that made him an All-Pro wanes in the late stages of his career. At his best, the 6’2, 220-pound receiver is a bully who uses his body to shield the ball from defenders. He’d give Taylor a stronger red zone threat than any target he’d ever had in Buffalo except for Sammy Watkins. He’d give Mayfield an important safety blanket in the end zone and on third down. While there would be a dropoff from Prescott to QB BROWNS, it wouldn’t necessarily be a steep one.

We’ve seen a player thrive in Cleveland as a wide receiver despite questions about his career before. Terrelle Pryor went from dual-threat quarterback to 1,000-yard receiver in his first full season with the club. While he didn’t get the long-term contract he’d sought in 2017 or 2018 — he’s since signed a pair of one year deals with Washington and New York, respectively — he proved he could be an effective target while healthy.

Bryant would have the advantage of working with a healthier quarterback situation while building from the kind of establishing WR foundation Pryor never had. It may not lead to the big guaranteed-money, long-term contract he’ll be seeking at age 30 next fall — but it’s entirely possible nothing will. So why not make the best of a bad situation and work out a deal with the team that combines short-term need, plenty of cap space, and a suddenly not-awful quarterback situation?

You know, other than the fact that it’s with the Browns.

0 notes

yahoo-the-dagger-blog · 7 years ago

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Way-too-early top 25 for the 2018-19 college basketball season

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The confetti on the floor of the Alamodome hadn’t even been picked up yet Monday night when the speculation about next year’s college basketball season began.

Will Duke’s historic freshman class propel Mike Krzyzewski back to the Final Four? How good will Kansas’ transfers be? Can Villanova get back to the national title game for the third time in four years?

[Yahoo Store: Get your Wildcats championship gear right here!]

It’s too early to answer most of those questions since some top recruits haven’t chosen a school, transfer season is only beginning and we don’t know which NBA draft prospects are staying in school and which will leave. Nonetheless, based on Yahoo Sports’ best guesses for who’s staying and who’s going, here’s a look at a very early top 25 for the 2018-19 season.

Now that the 2017-18 college basketball season is over, it’s time to look ahead toward next year. (Getty)

1. KANSAS Key losses: G Devonte’ Graham, G Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, G Malik Newman (projected) Key returners: G Lagerald Vick, C Udoka Azubuike, G Marcus Garrett, C Silvio De Sousa, G Sam Cunliffe Notable newcomers: G Charlie Moore (transfer), F Dedric Lawson, F K.J. Lawson, C David McCormack, G Quentin Grimes, G Devon Dotson

Pencil Kansas in as the class of the Big 12 next season despite the departure of All-American Graham and potentially two other members of the Jayhawks’ starting backcourt. Bill Self will reload thanks largely to a strong crop of newcomers highlighted by a trio of incoming transfers. Lawson averaged 19.2 points and 9.9 rebounds at Memphis during the 2016-17 season and performed like a potential All-American on the Kansas scout team this year. The opportunity to pair him and either Azubuike or De Sousa together could force Self to abandon his four-guard look and go back to Kansas’ traditional high-low system. The loss of Newman’s outside shooting and perimeter scoring would be a blow if he decides to turn pro after a brilliant March run, but Kansas has the perimeter firepower to absorb that loss. Look for Grimes and Moore to play alongside one another in the backcourt and K.J. Lawson and Vick to both see time at wing.

2. VILLANOVA Key losses: F Mikal Bridges (projected), G Jalen Brunson (projected) Key returners: G Donte DiVincenzo, F Omari Spellman (projected), G Phil Booth, F Eric Paschall, G Collin Gillespie, F Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree Notable newcomers: G Jahvon Quinerly, F Brandon Slater, F Cole Swider

How well does Jay Wright have Villanova rolling right now? The Wildcats should be the class of the Big East next season even if Brunson and Bridges leave for the NBA as expected. DiVincenzo is an experienced, athletic guard who is capable of thriving with increased responsibility, as evidenced by his 31-point performance in the title game. Spellman stretches the floor and protects the rim as a big man. Paschall is an excellent athlete who presents matchup problems for opposing forwards and guards multiple positions. And Booth is a capable scorer and terrific perimeter defender. Depth will be a bit of a concern for Villanova, as will replacing the poise and playmaking savvy of Brunson at point guard. Look for Quinerly, a crafty guard and one of the top prospects in this year’s recruiting class, to inherit that responsibility.

3. DUKE Key losses: F Marvin Bagley III, F Wendell Carter Jr. (projected), G Grayson Allen, G Gary Trent Jr. (projected), G Trevon Duval (projected) Key returners: G Alex O’Connell, F Javin DeLaurier, C Marques Bolden Notable newcomers: F R.J. Barrett, G Cameron Reddish, G Tre Jones, F Zion Williamson

The Blue Devils are in line to lose a ton but perhaps gain even more with the top three — and four of the top eight — members of the Class of 2018 heading to Durham next year. It’s the first time one program has ever landed the top three prospects in one class. Barrett, originally in the Class of 2019, reclassified over the summer and is this year’s top recruit. He led Canada to a FIBA U19 gold medal and recorded 38 points, 13 rebounds and five assists in a semifinal win over the United States. Reddish and Jones — younger brother of former Blue Devils star and current Minnesota Timberwolve Tyus — will provide solid guard play, and Williamson shockingly spurned home-state favorites Clemson and South Carolina for Duke in January. He has unreal athleticism (watch this dunk contest) and will be able to defend all five positions. Mike Krzyzewski just continues to reload; this class is his best ever.

4. VIRGINIA Key losses: G Devon Hall, F Isaiah Wilkins, G Nigel Johnson Key returners: G Kyle Guy, G Ty Jerome, F De’Andre Hunter, F Mamadi Diakite, C Jack Salt Notable newcomers: G Kihei Clark

It’s easy to forget how dominant Virginia was this year given the attention its historic NCAA tournament flameout received. The Cavaliers lost their best NBA prospect to a broken wrist days before the NCAA tournament and then became the first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 seed ever, spoiling a 31-win season in which they won the ACC tournament by four games and also captured the league tournament title. Tony Bennett’s squad will be strong again next season as five of Virginia’s top seven players are expected back. Guy and Jerome, both juniors-to-be, will provide perimeter scoring. Diakite and Salt will bolster the interior defense. And following wrist surgery, Hunter should go from ACC sixth man of the year to all-conference. Virginia’s lack of guards who are adept at creating off the dribble in late-clock situations is a concern and Wilkins’ absence will be felt defensively, but this is still an ACC title contender.

5. NORTH CAROLINA Key losses: G Joel Berry II, F Theo Pinson Key returners: F Luke Maye, G Kenny Williams, F Cameron Johnson (projected), F Garrison Brooks, F Sterling Manley, G Seventh Woods Notable newcomers: F Nassir Little, G Coby White, F Rechon Black

The remarkable careers of Berry and Pinson ended with a thud as Texas A&M blew out North Carolina in the second round of this year’s NCAA tournament. Now the Tar Heels will have to move on without their two longtime perimeter stalwarts. Roy Williams always has outstanding big men coming through the system, and 2018-2019 will be no different. Maye is one of the most versatile, skilled players in the ACC and Brooks and Manley showed flashes of becoming the next generation of terrific Tar Heel post players. Johnson could also be back if he doesn’t enter the draft, which would provide Williams the option of going big or small again next year. Regardless, the heralded Little should make an immediate impact at small forward. The big question in Chapel Hill will be who starts at point guard alongside the sharp-shooting Williams. Expect Woods’ playing time to increase and White, a McDonald’s All-American, to step into a big role immediately.

6. GONZAGA Key losses: F Johnathan Williams, G Silas Melson Key returners: F Rui Hachimura (projected), F Killian Tillie (projected), G Josh Perkins, G Zach Norvell Jr., G Corey Kispert, C Jacob Larsen Notable newcomers: F Brandon Clarke (transfer), G Joel Ayayi, F Filip Petrusev, G Greg Foster

It appears Gonzaga will stay in the WCC for now, but the Zags would be the favorite in any league out West next season. They should have a top 10-caliber team returning next season if Hachimura and Tillie come back to school for their junior seasons. Gonzaga’s starters in the backcourt will almost certainly be the veteran Perkins and the rapidly improving Norvell, hero of the Zags’ Sweet 16 run this past season. The Zags could go smaller with Kispert at small forward and Hachimura at power forward or they could go big with Hachimura on the wing and Clarke and Tillie alongside him. Clarke, a former first-team All-Mountain West selection at San Jose State, should make an instant splash and help replace the interior production of Williams. The 6-foot-8 forward averaged 17.3 points in his final season with the Spartans and also blocks shots, defends and rebounds.

Gonzaga forward Rui Hachimura dunks against Ohio State during the second half of a second-round game in the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament Saturday, March 17, 2018, in Boise, Idaho. (AP Photo/Otto Kitsinger)

7. KENTUCKY Key losses: G Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (projected), F Kevin Knox (projected), G Hamidou Diallo (projected) Key returners: F Jarred Vanderbilt (projected), F PJ Washington (projected), G Quade Green, F Wenyen Gabriel, F Nick Richards, C Sacha Killeya-Jones Notable newcomers: G Keldon Johnson, G Immanuel Quickley, G Tyler Herro

Projecting Kentucky’s 2018-19 season is a fruitless task at this juncture because we don’t know how many of this year’s freshmen will be back. Gilgeous-Alexander and Knox are the Wildcats’ lone projected first-round picks, and even Knox has said he’s still considering a return. If Kentucky loses only Gilgeous-Alexander, Knox and Diallo to early entries, the Wildcats could have an unusual amount of experience back next season. Quickley and Green could platoon at point guard and play alongside one another, the other freshmen could compete for immediate playing time alongside them and the Wildcats would again boast a wealth of frontcourt talent and depth, with Vanderbilt, Washington and Gabriel serving as the headliners.

8. TENNESSEE Key losses: G James Daniel III Key returners: F Grant Williams, F Admiral Schofield, G Lamonte Turner, G Jordan Bone, G Jordan Bowden, F Kyle Alexander, G Chris Darrington Notable newcomers: none

Tennessee has been projected either last or next-to-last in the SEC in each of Rick Barnes’ first three seasons in Knoxville. Expect that to change next season. All but one of Tennessee’s rotation players are expected back from a team that shared the SEC title with Auburn and earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament. The lone player departing is Daniel, a graduate transfer from Howard who averaged just over five points per game. What that means is that barring unexpected departures, Tennessee should contend for the SEC title again next season. Tennessee’s strength this past season was a defense ranked sixth in the nation. Williams and Schofield are the two pillars of the offense, but the Vols could certainly benefit from adding a guard late either via the high school ranks or from the transfer market.

9. MICHIGAN STATE Key losses: F Miles Bridges, Jaren Jackson Jr., F Ben Carter, F Gavin Schilling, G Lourawls “Tum Tum” Nairn Key returners: F Nick Ward (projected), G Matt McQuaid, G Joshua Langford, G Cassius Winston, F Xavier Tillman, F Kenny Goins Notable newcomers: F Aaron Henry, F Marcus Bingham, F Gabe Brown, G Foster Loyer, F Thomas Kithier

The frontcourt that carried Michigan State to the Big Ten regular season title this past season will look markedly different next year. Bridges, Schilling, Carter and Jackson, a projected lottery pick, are gone. Ward has also entered the draft without an agent, though he would be unlikely to be selected if he does not withdraw. Michigan State won’t be nearly as long or intimidating inside next season, but the Spartans should have plenty of experience in the backcourt. Winston will have to score more himself, and sharpshooters Langford and McQuaid must evolve into more complete players. Tillman progressed at a rapid rate at the end of the season and could start alongside Ward or push him for playing time. Or the Spartans could start Bingham as a freshman and use Ward and Tillman as a center platoon.

10. AUBURN Key losses: C Austin Wiley (projected), G Davion Mitchell Key returners: G Mustapha Heron (projected), G Bryce Brown, G Jared Harper, F Anfernee McLemore, F Danjel Purifoy, F Desean Murray, F Chuma Okeke, G Malik Dunbar, F Horace Spencer Notable newcomers: G Samir Doughty

Bruce Pearl elevated Auburn from the depths of the SEC to a co-regular season championship last season. Now he has a chance to keep the Tigers near the top of the SEC. Auburn could return the core of this past season’s team and add suspended forwards Wiley and Purifoy and the VCU transfer, Doughty, to the mix. Wiley, however is considering turning pro, as is Heron after leading the Tigers in scoring last season. If Harper, Brown and Heron all come back, Auburn would once again boast one of the SEC’s most formidable backcourts. Wiley would provide the size and interior scoring the Tigers lacked this past season, but even if he goes, a healthy McLemore will alleviate a lot of the rim protection and rebounding issues Auburn faced at the end of this past season.

11. NEVADA Key losses: G Kendall Stephens, G Hallice Cooke, F Elijah Foster Key returners: F Cody Martin (projected), F Caleb Martin (projected), F Jordan Caroline (projected), G Josh Hall, G Lindsey Drew Notable newcomers: G Jazz Johnson, G Nisre Zouzoua, G Corey Henson, F Tre’Shawn Thurman, F Vincent Lee, C K.J. Hymes

Here’s something that should ease the sting of last month’s narrow Sweet 16 loss to Loyola for Nevada coach Eric Musselman: The Wolf Pack could be even better next season. There’s a chance that Nevada brings back five high-level players depending on whether the Martin twins and Jordan Caroline decide to return. Throw in the addition of four transfers and two freshmen to provide the depth this past season’s team lacked, and the Wolf Pack could realistically dream of going farther in the NCAA tournament than they did this past March. The Martin twins thus far are undecided about their draft plans. That’s the biggest concern for Nevada. Drew is also recovering from a torn Achilles, a serious enough injury that there’s no guarantee he’ll be the same player next season. Should that happen, look for a bigger role for Zouzoua, a combo guard who averaged 20.3 points per game at Bryant before transferring.

12. MICHIGAN Key losses: G Muhammad Ali-Abdur Rahkman, F Moritz Wagner (projected), F Duncan Robinson, G Jaaron Simmons Key returners: G Charles Matthews (projected), G Zavier Simpson, G Jordan Poole, F Isaiah Livers, C Jon Teske, G Eli Brooks Notable newcomers: F Ignas Brazdeikis, F Brandon Johns, G David DeJulius, C Colin Castleton, F Adrien Nunez

How high Michigan’s ceiling is next season could depend on the early-entry decisions of Wagner and Matthews. The Wolverines should still be very good if even one of them comes back to Ann Arbor, but a return to the Final Four becomes less likely if both turn pro. Defense is likely to once again be a strength for Michigan next season with Zavier Simpson returning at point guard and Jon Teske potentially assuming a bigger role. Simpson wrecked opposing point guards during the second half of his freshman season with his ball-hawking instincts and lateral quickness and Teske is excellent defending ball screens. Poole — the hero of Michigan’s second-round victory over Houston — should emerge as a bigger scoring threat as a sophomore and Livers could also take a leap. Of Michigan’s freshmen, the most ready is Brazdeikis, a sweet-shooting 6-foot-8 Canadian lefty with a handle.

Michigan’s Jordan Poole, from left, Isaiah Livers and Zavier Simpson watch from the bench during the second half against Loyola-Chicago in the semifinals of the Final Four NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 31, 2018, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

13. KANSAS STATE Key losses: G Barry Brown Key returners: F Dean Wade (projected), F Xavier Sneed, G Kamau Stokes, G Cartier Diarra, F Makol Mawien, G Mike McGuirl, G Amaad Wainright Notable newcomers: G Shaun Williams

Could Kansas State really be the second best team in the Big 12 next season? It’s possible with the Wildcats potentially returning every key piece from a 25-win team that finished fourth in the league this past season and advanced to the Elite Eight with little-to-no production from its injury-plagued leading scorer. Wade, a skilled 6-foot-10 forward who averaged 16.2 points per game this past season, should be preseason all-Big 12. So should Brown, who averaged 15.9 points this past season and emerged as the league’s top perimeter defender. Sneed blossomed in March, Mawien flashed potential as a frontcourt weapon and Diarra, Stokes and McGuirl should each battle for playing time at point guard. Kansas State’s biggest weakness this past season was its inability to rebound. That could be one area Bruce Weber might address on the transfer market if he can.

14. OREGON Key losses: G Troy Brown (projected), F MiKyle McIntosh, G Elijah Brown, F Roman Sorkin Key returners: G Payton Pritchard, F Kenny Wooten, F Paul White, G Victor Bailey, F Abu Kigab Notable newcomers: C Bol Bol, F Louis King, G Will Richardson, F Miles Norris

While Dana Altman has molded newcomer-laden teams into Pac-12 title contenders before, this past season’s Ducks never appeared to click. They didn’t improve as rapidly as previous Altman teams have and failed to make a serious NCAA tournament push. Expect Oregon’s fortunes to get considerably better next season with the arrival of the most decorated recruiting class that Altman has ever signed. Five-star recruits Bol, a 7-foot-3 center, and King, an athletic small forward, should slide into the starting five right away, while Richardson and Norris also have the potential to make an immediate impact. One question facing the Ducks is whether shooting guard Troy Brown will return for his sophomore season. The five-star freshman didn’t have the debut season he expected at Oregon, but he is projected as a late first-round pick. Another question for Oregon is how next season’s roster will jell. Can Bol and Wooten play alongside one-another effectively in the frontcourt? Is there enough shooting or ball handling on the roster? Is Pritchard ready to assume the role of go-to scorer in his third year as starting point guard, or can one of the freshmen emerge? Time will tell.

15. VIRGINIA TECH Key losses: G Justin Bibbs, G Devin Wilson Key returners: G Justin Robinson, G Ahmed Hill, F Chris Clarke, F Kerry Blackshear, G Nickeil Walker-Alexander, G Ty Outlaw, C Khadim Sy Notable newcomers: G Jonathan Kabongo, F Landers Nolley, G Jarren McAllister

Next season could be Buzz Williams’ best in Blacksburg. Four starters return from this year’s NCAA tournament team and a combination of returners from injury and talented newcomers should provide ample depth. Robinson’s development was one of the biggest reasons the Hokies went to their second straight Big Dance this year. The rising senior raised his points per game (10.4 to 14.0), field goal percentage (41.3 to 46.4) and 3-point percentage (35.8 to 39.8) from his sophomore year to junior year, earning second-team All-ACC honors. Alexander-Walker was inconsistent as a freshman, but has good size and shooting ability. Hill averaged double figures this past season and shot over 40 percent from 3-point range. Clarke and Blackshear will anchor an energetic frontcourt that struggled on the glass this past season. Throw in the outside shooting of Outlaw and the size of Sy and some contributions from the freshmen, and Virginia Tech is definitely trending upward.

16. SYRACUSE Key losses: none Key returners: G Tyus Battle (projected), F Oshae Brissett, G Franklin Howard, F Marek Dolezaj, C Paschal Chukwu, F Matthew Moyer Notable newcomers: G Buddy Boeheim, G Jalen Carey

Five-star recruit Darius Bazley’s decision to leap from high school to the G-League is a big blow to Syracuse, but the Orange still belong in the preseason Top 25 if Battle opts to return for his sophomore season. The second-team all-ACC selection is likely to at least test the waters after leading the Orange in scoring during the regular season and spearheading a surprise Sweet 16 run. The return of Battle, Brissett and Howard and the arrival of the sharpshooting Boeheim and the playmaking Carey should elevate a Syracuse offense that was often undermanned this past season. The Orange should remain elite defensively thanks to the size and length of their trademark 2-3 zone.

17. MISSISSIPPI STATE Key losses: none Key returners: G Quinndary Weatherspoon, G Nick Weatherspoon, F Aric Holman, G Lamar Peters, G Tyson Carter, F Abdul Ado, G Xavian Stapleton, G Eli Wright Notable newcomers: F Reggie Perry, F Robert Woodard, G DJ Stewart

An appearance in the NIT Final Four qualified as progress for Mississippi State this season, but expectations will be higher next year. The Bulldogs not only are projected to return the core of this year’s team intact, they also add a talented recruiting class headlined by Perry, a 6-foot-9 McDonald’s All-American power forward. If Perry can bolster Mississippi State’s rebounding and provide some interior scoring punch, that would aid the Bulldogs’ chances of a big leap in Ben Howland’s fourth season in Starkville. The biggest concern for Mississippi State remains whether it will be able to shoot the ball well enough to sufficiently space the floor. The Bulldogs were 329th in the country in 3-point shooting this past season, and while Woodard and Stewart may help address that problem, it’s likely to remain a concern.

18. FLORIDA STATE Key losses: F Phil Cofer, G Braian Angola, G CJ Walker Key returners: G Terance Mann, G PJ Savoy, G Trent Forrest, F Mfiondu Kabengele, C Christ Koumadje, G M.J. Walker, C Ike Obiagu, F Wyatt Wilkes, F RaiQuan Gray Notable newcomers: G Devin Vassell

Relying on fast-break offense, improved defense and impressive depth, Florida State made an unexpected run to the Elite Eight last month after finishing just 9-9 in ACC play. The Seminoles return enough talent from that roster that they should have a better regular season next year and return to the NCAA tournament. Florida State will once again have plenty of long, athletic wings with the slashing Mann and the sharp-shooting Savoy headlining the group. Kabengele is an emerging NBA prospect who flashed promise at both ends of the floor and former McDonald’s All-American M.J. Walker could also make a leap as a sophomore. Depth at point guard is a bit of a concern after CJ Walker announced he will transfer last week. Forrest is a capable defender who excels at getting to the rim and drawing fouls, but he needs to improve his perimeter shooting.

Florida State forward Mfiondu Kabengele grabs a rebound during the second half of the team’s NCAA men’s college basketball tournament regional semifinal against Gonzaga on Thursday, March 22, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae Hong)

19. LSU Key losses: F Duop Reath, F Aaron Epps, G Randy Onwuasor Key returners: G Tremont Waters, G Skylar Mays, G Brandon Sampson, G Daryl Edwards, F Wayde Sims, G Brandon Rachal Notable newcomers: F Kavell Bigby-Williams, F Naz Reid, G JaVonte Smart, F Emmitt Williams, F Darius Days

For a guy who didn’t inherit much from the previous LSU staff, Will Wade has worked quickly to replenish LSU’s roster. A pair of five-star prospects and two other top 75 recruits come aboard this summer, giving the Tigers an excellent chance to ascend in what should be a strong SEC next season. The returning star is Waters, a 5-11 dynamo of a point guard who averaged 15.9 points and 6.0 assists. Look for LSU to play lots of three-guard sets with Waters, Smart and either high-scoring Mays or defensive ace Edwards. Reid, Williams and the Oregon transfer Bigby-Williams each figure to make an immediate impact in the frontcourt. LSU flashed NCAA tournament potential at times this past season, but settled for an NIT bid because of its inconsistency. Next year’s team will have far higher expectations.

20. WEST VIRGINIA Key losses: G Jevon Carter, G Daxter Miles, G D’Angelo Hunter Key returners: C Sagaba Konate, F Teddy Allen, F Esa Ahmad, G James “Beetle” Bolden, F Wesley Harris, F Lamont West Notable newcomers: G Brandon Knapper, F Derek Culver, G Trey Doomes, F Andrew Gordon, G Jordan McCabe

For four years, Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles were the heart and soul of West Virginia basketball. Now Bob Huggins will have to move on without two guards who combined for more than 3,000 points, 800 assists and 500 steals. Among the options to absorb some of that available playing time include the returning Bolden, promising redshirt freshman Knapper and incoming freshmen McCabe and Doomes. McCabe is a flashy point guard and Doomes is a slashing wing. The frontcourt is more settled for West Virginia and shot-blocking standout Sagaba Konate is the headliner. He’ll anchor a group that also includes former top 50 recruit Ahmad and Allen, a potential breakout candidate at small forward. There are likely to be growing pains for West Virginia without the leadership of Carter and Miles, but there’s enough talent and experience here for the Mountaineers to contend for a top three finish in the Big 12.

21. UCLA Key losses: G Aaron Holiday, C Thomas Welsh, F Gyorgy Goloman Key returners: G Jaylen Hands (projected), F Kris Wilkes (projected), F Chris Smith, G Prince Ali, F Cody Riley, F Jalen Hill, F Alex Olesinski Notable newcomers: C Moses Brown, F Shareef O’Neal, G Tyger Campbell, G Jules Bernard, G David Singleton, C Kenneth Nwuba

The fate of an important season for UCLA coach Steve Alford will be determined by how quickly he can get a team of promising newcomers to mesh. The Bruins have eight players who have never played a college basketball game before and could return as few as three rotation players from last season depending on what Hands and Wilkes decide to do. The good news is the incoming freshmen are talented and redshirt freshmen Hill and Riley would have been part of the 2017-18 rotation were it not for the China shoplifting incident. Wilkes would appear to be the best bet for a go-to scorer if he opts to return to Westwood for his sophomore season. The frontcourt will be loaded with length and athleticism and Campbell could be the sort of pass-first point guard needed to keep this collection of talent happy. Expect UCLA to be an up-and-down team that overwhelms some opponents with talent and struggles with sloppy turnovers, stagnant offense and shoddy defense against others.

22. MARQUETTE Key losses: G Andrew Rowsey, F Harry Froling Key returners: G Markus Howard, G Sam Hauser, G Sacar Anim, F Jamal Cain, G Greg Elliott, C Matt Heldt, F Theo John Notable newcomers: F Joey Hauser, F Brendan Bailey, F Edward Morrow, C Ike Eke

In a Big East without an obvious challenger to favorite Villanova, Marquette has a reasonable chance to emerge as the second best team. The Golden Eagles lose leading scorer Rowsey to graduation, but they have plenty of offensive punch to replace him. Howard and Sam Hauser are both excellent shooters and perimeter scorers. Top recruit Joey Hauser and Morrow, a Nebraska transfer, should make Marquette more multifaceted and less 3-point reliant. The obvious concern is whether the Golden Eagles can place a greater emphasis on defense instead of merely trying to outscore teams. Marquette ranked 183rd in defensive efficiency this past season, easily the worst in the Big East. Finding a ball handler to replace Rowsey will also be key. Either Howard and Elliot will have to share this responsibility, or Marquette will have to find a grad transfer.

23. USC Key losses: F Chimezie Metu, G Jordan McLaughlin, G Elijah Stewart Key returners: F Bennie Boatwright (projected), G Jonah Mathews, G Charles O’Bannon Jr., G Shaqquan Aaron, G Derryck Thornton, F Nick Rakocevic Notable newcomers: G Kevin Porter, G Elijah Weaver, F J’Raan Brooks

USC won’t lack for motivation after being left out of the NCAA tournament last month despite finishing second in the Pac-12. The Trojans have a chance to return to the NCAA tournament next season despite the loss of three of their four leading scorers and the cloud of the FBI investigation still hovering over the program. If Boatwright’s February knee injury delays his ability to turn pro for another year, the stretch forward should be the focal point of USC’s offense. Rakocevic would likely start alongside him with Brooks also receiving considerable playing time. Replacing longtime stalwarts McLaughlin and Stewart in the backcourt won’t be easy, but USC has pieces. Thornton, the former Duke transfer, should share playing time at point guard with Weaver. Porter will add instant scoring punch at wing alongside returners Mathews, Aaron and O’Bannon.

24. XAVIER Key losses: G Trevon Bluiett, G J.P. Macura, F Kerem Kanter, C Sean O’Mara Key returners: G Quentin Goodin, F Naji Marshall, G Paul Scruggs, F Tyrique Jones, F Kaiser Gates Notable newcomers: F Dontarius James, G Keonte Kennedy, C Jake Walker

After winning its first Big East title and claiming its first No. 1 seed this past season, Xavier is poised to take a step backward next season. The Musketeers lost their head coach to Louisville and their three leading scorers to graduation. The key to Xavier remaining Top 25 caliber will be whether its promising perimeter corps is ready to handle more responsibility. Goodin showed command of the offense in his first year as starting point guard this past season and Scruggs and especially Marshall have breakout potential. Finding a go-to scorer should be a concern for new Xavier coach Travis Steele, as should be depth, but defense will not be. The Musketeers should be very quick and athletic on the perimeter and Jones and Gates form a solid interior tandem.

25. WISCONSIN Key losses: none Key returners: F Ethan Happ (projected), G Brad Davison, G Kobe King, G D’Mitrik Trice, G Brevin Pritzl, F Aleem Ford, F Nate Reuvers, G Khalil Iverson Notable newcomers: C Joe Hedstrom, F Taylor Currie, G Trevor Anderson

At the end of a disappointing season in which its 19-year NCAA tournament streak ended with a thud, Wisconsin offered a glimmer of hope. The Badgers won four of their last six and played Michigan State to a near-standstill in their two losses against the Spartans. Wisconsin has a chance to build off that finish as long as Happ returns for his senior season instead of turning pro. The all-Big Ten center will be the Badgers’ interior focal point, but there are also some promising options around him. Davison emerged as a leader over the second half of his freshman season and will likely start at shooting guard. King and Trice can provide some much-needed playmaking that Wisconsin lacked after they got hurt. Pritzl and Iverson both improved defensively last season, while Reuvers showed flashes of promise but needs to add strength. Expect Anderson, the Green Bay transfer, to have a role too after he impressed on the scout team. Ultimately, there are still a lot of questions with Wisconsin, but the Badgers have the potential for a strong bounce-back season.

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Jeff Eisenberg is a college basketball writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!

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keidas0 · 8 years ago

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This is John he does the weather forecast at Wimpole

He’s being hanging around Wimpole for sometime now and knows all the ins and outs of the weather, today he said it was dry. I could have told him that!

Pollarding a willow by the lake

March was the month for tree surgery and a very good friend came to help (paid of course) plenty to do what with Storm Doris.

An old horse chestnut to do

Done

There were quite a few trees to do this year in the park and woodlands, one horse-chestnut tree required re pollarding, this one was blown to bits many years ago but now needed to have a hair cut, short back and sides as the regrowth usually plucks out as the limbs get larger.

Another reshaping

Another one was looking somewhat dead so we reduced it to save the bulk, just as well as while the work was going on a barn owl popped out of a hollow section in the tree. I have to say since the in hand estate went organic and more grassy margins put in the owl population has increased at least five fold. His home will last a lot longer now.

Below is a small gallery of some of the tree surgery work undertaken this year and removal of timber.

Ash tree reduced because of a fungal infection

Taking a break up the willow

Carting away the storm damage in the woods

Carting timber

Making safe along the woodland walk

Willow pollard job in progress

Carting away the timber

Carting timber

Nearly done with the willow pollard

Pollarding an old willow

Onwards and upwards

Reducing lateral limbs on a horsechestnut

Rotholes

Cornet cutting

One of the many things you have to think of when working on veteran trees is the micro habitats, ruthless, deadwood and cavities can be used by all sorts of wildlife , birds bats but also invertebrates so we retain these where we can. Is can be achieved by limb reduction but rather than leaving a flat cut we actually make the cut look natural which does indeed make the tree look like its storm damage but it can also help harbour tree-dwelling insects like solitary wood wasps and the like.

While extracting some timber from the old southern gate house adjacent the A603 near Orwell we found a coat of arms split in two which must have adorned the long-lost southern gate house to Victoria drive. With a little help the coat of arms is actually the Order of the Garter.

First section of a coats of arms

Second section of a coat of arms

The order’s emblem is a garter with the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense (Middle French: “shame on him who thinks evil of it”) in gold lettering and this is what is carved on the outside.

Philip Yorke (1757-1834), Third Earl of Hardwicke by Sir Thomas Lawrence

Wiki ‘The Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry and the third most prestigious honour (inferior only to the Victoria Cross and George Cross) in England and the United Kingdom. It is dedicated to the image and arms of Saint George, England’s patron saint. Appointments are awarded at the Sovereign’s pleasure as a personal gift on recipients from the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms. Membership of the Order is limited to the Sovereign, the Prince of Wales, and no more than 24 members, or Companions. The order also includes supernumerary knights and ladies (e.g. members of the British Royal Family and foreign monarchs). New appointments to the Order of the Garter are always announced on St George’s Day (23 April), as Saint George is the order’s patron saint.’

Shattered dreams

The 3rd Earl of Hardwicke became a knight of the Garter in 1803 until his death in 1834.

With the help of the timber crane we removed the stone work and ferried it to the gardeners shed where they then installed it along the explorers path and also added some ferns, both pieces together must have weighed about two tons so not an easy installation. Wonder what other treasures lie within the woods at Wimpole.

Last of the hedge laying for the year

The last hedge laying job was to finish off the hedge we had already laid sometime back but had not finished the binding, all the binders came out of an overgrown elm hedge, plus we cleared up the fire wood and Jacob found it easy to move his sheep as they could scuttle off through this hedge, definitely sheep proof.

Heges that keep sheep in

Plenty of firewood too

Sharpening the tools of the trade

We also had the hedge laying course which was well attended, but prior to the day all the tools had to have a sharpen, sharp axes and billhooks make for easy work. Notice the new method we use!!!!!! Actually because we use a sand flapper disc with a fine grit its easy to get perfect edges and especially useful when you have the course tools to sharpen.

Laying the pleachers

Binding

A bit of a dull day but the last section of hedge was laid next to Cobbs wood farm and we used elm binders again. A lovely day with the course participants who I hope learned a lot and enjoyed themselves.

Over twenty bodgers now attend the monthly meeting

The next day after the hedge laying course we had the Wympole green wood workers at Cobbs Wood farm, an unusually large amount of people turned up to enjoy the day including passerby. It was also pleasing to have a few youngsters having a go with one young man turning a well made dibber on the pole lathe. A new venture for the group was procure some good straight oak about a foot long and one and a half feet in diameter for the purpose of making oak shingles.

Shingles

To make oak shingles you have to cleave the oak in half then half again and again and again until you get thin wedges which are then cleaned up on the shave horse with a draw knife. A small gallery of the day is below.

Shingle making

bowl turning

Is that John cheating!!!

Ray Iles draw knife

Spitting the maple

a young mans first rounders bat

Is that allowed!!!

Shaving the wrong thing :-)

Spatular making

Shaving

Rat catcher

Still plenty of rats about and a job for the jagdterriers who rather excel at catching them.

Ploughing

Slacked soil

Meanwhile Albert was single handily ploughing and cultivating the spring cropping land, time was of the essence as both spring wheat and barley had to be sown before the end of April. However a dry spell stopped the plough land from slaking so the power harrow had to be employed to make an adequate seedbed.

Southern lodge from Cambridge Road farm and ploughland

Farming is always quite risky because of the weather, this prolonged dry spell will slow the germination down.

Jacobs sheep went to market

Fine carcass conformation

gimbals

Jacob who has a large flock of sheep that graze on the arable ley land in the winter(clover lets that build up fertility on the organic farm) invited me to go to an abattoir in north Cambridgeshire so I took the day off and went to pick up the hoggets he had taken up the week before. I was very impressed by the cleanliness of this quite small abattoir and doubly impressed with the quality of the Dorper sheep carcasses most weighing in at over 45kg dead weight. Interestingly I was able to purchase minced raw meat for the dogs, a much healthier way to feed them.

The night run and toasted marsh mallows

Toasted marsh mallows

During March Wimpole hosted the night run and most of the estate was open to the general public with some of them taking the chance to do a late night walk through the parkland with toasted marsh mallows up at the folly for a reward.

Water water everywhere

On the wildlife side things where beginning to happen, spring was on its way.

Toads galore

Sweet violets

Sweet violets were blooming all over the estate and down by the lakes there were literally thousands of primroses but the most surprising site was the hundreds of toads we found spawning in the top lake and the stream flowing out of the bottom lake, I have not seen such a sight at Wimpole for nearly thirty years and having seen thousands of toadlets and froglets in the flower rich folly field I strongly suspect that they thrive in grasslands which have plenty of insects and to get these you have to be organic and have very diverse grasslands.

Primroses

Spurge laural

Below are some landscape photographs of the month.

More chipping, yawn!

More steaks required.

After all the tree surgery we started on the chipping and clearing up, easy to make a mess but a lot harder to clear it up.

Loads of maintenance to do

There was also the brick wall that blew over in Storm Doris, to get access the little spinner had to be thinned and as usual we made use of as much of the arisings as possible, as it turned out we made 200 stakes for next year.

New starter motor for the ford

Oh boy, vehicle maintenance is an ongoing job, the Mitsubishi needed some TLC while the Ford ranger needed a new starter motor, not an easy job but actually easier than putting one into a landrover defender. I wonder what April will bring?

March a time for tree surgery, hedge laying and spring He's being hanging around Wimpole for sometime now and knows all the ins and outs of the weather, today he said it was dry.

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