5-at-10: Friday Mailbag

Gang, thanks for another great week. Good times indeed.

From the "Talks too much" studios, be the ball Danny.

From Stewwie (part I)

Jay, for the Friday bag, what are your round-by-round predictions for the playoffs? And who are your season-award winners? Didn't you pick Durant to win MVP? That is looking really good right now.

photo LeBron James

Stewwie -

Yes, we had KD from the start, and he will win the MVP. And he likely should win it, although LeBron is still the best player on the planet.

Here are our playoff picks:

East

Pacers over Hawks

Heat over Bobcats

Nets over Raptors

Bulls over Wizards

--

Pacers over Bulls

Heat over Nets

--

Heat over Pacers

West Division

Spurs over Mavericks

Thunder over Grizzlies

Clippers over Warriors

Rockets over Trail Blazers

--

Rockets over Spurs

Thunder over Clippers

--

Thunder over Rockets

And, Heat over Thunder. (You knew we were going there, right?)

As for the awards, well, Durant is the MVP.

We'll take Anthony Davis as most improved player. We'll go with Joakim Noah as defensive player of the year. We'll say Michael Carter Williams gets rookie of the year. And let's go with Gregg Poppovich as coach of the year.

----

From Stewwie (part II)

Jay, I have a second request for the Friday bag. There's talk already that college basketball will discuss more changes for the coming years. What are your thoughts on the following ideas that they have put on the table:

Reducing team timeouts, widening the lane, restricting coaches from calling live-ball timeouts, implementing a hard 10-second rule for crossing half-court (no reset due to a timeout), allowing the NBA continuation on fouls, no scoring on a charge call, reducing the shot clock to 30 or 24.

Stewwie -

Hey man, been a long time. How's the family?

Anything that can improve the flow of college hoops would be a welcomed change.

We think they definitely should reduce the number of time outs. (Any rule that increases the pace of play in any sport is a good one by us).

That said, there are some rules the college game is not ready for. The shot clock going to 24 would lead to sloppy basketball. We're OK if it went to 30 (it's at 35 now, correct?) but 24 seems too few. Maybe the game would adjust, but in the short term it would be messy. We're against the NBA continuation because it is too much individual judgement, but we love the no score on the charge idea.

photo UTC men's head basketball coach Will Wade

We know Will Wade would love the hard 10-second rule change.

----

From Josh

Just wanted to email you and tell you and Paschall that the radio show has been awesome. Seriously, you guys are excellent.

And I guess my question for you is what is the most difficult part of doing radio?

Thanks and keep up the good work.

Josh -

The schedule has become the biggest thing to adjust to.

Getting ready for the show, on most days, is a combination of doing some 5-at-10 stuff and our day job, so that's doable.

It's the getting everything done before going over there at 2:30 - and more times than not, finishing stuff there.

That said, it's been a load of fun and the interaction with the callers is the best part.

We have spoken to Paschall multiple times about it, but the instant feedback has been great. So thanks for that.

----

From Believer

Who won you Masters contest? You guys did great stuff from there over the weekend, thanks for that.

What is your favorite Masters of all time?

Thanks and thanks for the 5-at-10.

Believer -

Chris B. won the Masters contest. He had Bubba (a lot of people did) and Adam Scott (ditto) and nailed it with Jordan Spieth, who finished tied for second.

Thanks to everyone who played.

Our Rushmore of Masters is as follows:

photo Golfer Tiger Woods

2005 - Tiger's chip was amazing and remains the loudest moment we have experienced at Augusta National.

2004 - Mickelson's first major was excellent.

1986 - Watched on TV, but it's Jack for crying out loud.

1996 - Greg Norman's implosion and Faldo's charge- good stuff

This year's Masters was the least watched on the weekend since 1993. Crazy indeed.

----

From TT

I'm sick of all the bellyaching from national writers about how UT ran Cuonzo off. He left. Period. Let's move on.

And like you said the other day, this probably a win-win for both sides. Let's go forward -- who is UT going to hire?

Thanks and thanks for the 5-at-10.

TT

There are the familiar big names floating around. And we're still not sure Gregg Marshall is not in play here - and at the very least he will get a nice raise because of this opening.

Before we get to the candidates - we're running a step late today - we must bring up the fact that if Cuonzo Martin has not signed the Cal deal, he'd be a great fit at Mizzouri, which is now looking for a coach since Frank Haith left for the Tulsa job.

We agree with Jomo that you have to be careful with the hot-name of the tournament crowd. Too many one-timers and clunkers in that mix, and let's be clear, Dave Hart needs to ace this hire for a lot of reasons.

So there's that. But we do like the fact that Hart is handling this himself by all accounts. We never really understood why athletic directors were not more directly involved in the hiring process and used the CYA blanket of search firms when in the end, if a hire turns out badly it's on the AD any way.

We'll be back with our candidates.

Upcoming Events