This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win! Thanks so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate y’all giving us a bit of your time here.
Is your bracket busted like mine is? Because mine is definitely busted. I haven’t checked it, but I know it is because I had Kentucky riding pretty far in this one. And, well, uh, that’s over. That’s exactly what I get for trusting John Calipari in 2024.
Oakland’s 80-76 win over Kentucky has been most people’s shock of the tournament so far.
Actually, spectacular might be a better word than shocking here. The Golden Grizzlies knocked the SEC powerhouse out of the tournament behind a historic performance by Jack Gohlke, who hit 10 3-pointers while playing the game of his life. He was one 3-pointer shy of a single-game NCAA record. That’s how good he was. He shot the leather off the ball.
JACK GOHLKE CAN'T STOP SCORING FROM DOWNTOWN 🔥#MarchMadness @OaklandMBB pic.twitter.com/0PqXJvE1kK
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 22, 2024
READ MORE: Jack Gohlke declares Oakland isn’t a “cinderella” after beating Kentucky
As much as this game profiles as an upset, though, I’m just not quite sure I feel the same way here.
This has become par for the course for John Calipari’s teams in March. High seeds and early exists. His teams just aren’t really built for March anymore. Jay Wright perfectly explained it here — having teams full of freshmen just doesn’t quite work the way it did 10 years ago. Not when the transfer portal spreads experienced talent around. That’s how we got here. More on Cal in a second, though.
Let’s talk about Oakland. Because, man, this win was an impressive one.
Plus, Oakland isn’t necessarily your typical 14 seed. Greg Kampe has coached the Golden Grizzlies for 40 years. He’s seen it all. He knows what type of talent he has and what he needs to do to get the most out of it. No, the Golden Grizzlies hadn’t won in March since 2005 before Thursday. But the team already had 13 all-time wins against Power 5 teams coming into that game. Kampe’s experience there was invaluable.
Ultimately, that experience helped his team overcome a more talented side in Kentucky. All it takes is one game in March and Oakland seized it. Good on them.
Now, they get to keep dancing.
John Calipari’s seat has to be scorching
There shouldn’t be a seat in college basketball hotter than John Calipari’s.
As I said above, failure in March has been more of a calling card for coach Cal in recent years than anything else. Sure, he’ll send great players to the NBA, and his teams will rack up regular-season wins. But he’ll let you down when it counts the most.
Kentucky has just one NCAA tournament win in the last four seasons. The Wildcats haven’t made it beyond the round of 32 since 2019. That isn’t getting the job done at Kentucky, to put it simply.
So, will he lose his job? Probably not. There are about 35 million reasons why, our Cory Woodroof writes.
“However, thanks to the 10-year contract that Kentucky gave Calipari back in 2019, the school would reportedly owe Calipari $34,968,749 to buy out his contract through a firing without cause, per The Courier Journal.
That is a lot of money to fire a coach, which is probably why Kentucky will ultimately stomach yet another March Madness misfire and keep Calipari on for the 2024-25 season.
Losing to Oakland stings, but firing your coach and paying more than $34 million to do so stings even more.”
That would be a lot of money to pay to a guy for failing at his job. So it sounds like Cal will be back for at least another year. Good luck, Kentucky. You seem to need it these days.
RELATED: Kentucky’s five worse losses under John Calipari
The NFL isn’t listening to its players
The hip-drop tackle simply isn’t that big of a deal. The players don’t mind it and it doesn’t lead to injury as often as you might think. So, with that in mind, when the players say there’s no need to ban it, you’d think the league would listen.
But nope! It looks like they’re moving forward with a ban anyway. Here’s Robert Zeglinski on why that’s so shameful.
“Banning the hip drop isn’t about improving player safety at all. It’s about the league finding another avenue to streamline and protect its financial investment in offensive players. Even if that comes at the expense of the quality of the game or what the players themselves actually desire, the NFL wants to eliminate all contingencies to protect its broadcast (as well as fantasy and betting) money — the talented offensive players who light up NFL RedZone every Sunday. I can think of many, much more efficient ways to improve NFL player safety — as much as one feasibly can in a brutal sport like football — before I ever even entertain the subject of hip-drop tackles. That should tell you everything you need to know.
This is virtually the league’s skill-player version of the old rule that bans hits on quarterbacks below the knee. And, if passed, it will be applied in the same byzantine manner. The NFL doesn’t care that defenders will struggle to adjust. You either eat the flag and fine in a situation that often isn’t even in your control, or you simply can’t be part of the fun anymore. Because it’s not about the defense or sanctity of the sport, and it never was.”
The numbers on this are staggering. It’s really not a huge issue. It’s just the NFL being the NFL.
A MUST READ: The NFL is only pretending to listen to its players
Photo Friday: The other side of March
Upsets are fun for us, but always devastating for the loser. Here’s Trevin Knell and the rest of BYU’s team walking off the court after being upset by Duquesne.
Quick hits: Bold predictions for the women’s tourney … Bye bye, G League Ignite … and more
— The women’s NCAA tournament starts today! The stars are aligned. Here’s Mitch Northam with three bold predictions for the tournament.
— The NBA quietly announced the end of the G League Ignite program on Thursday while tournament games were going on. You probably missed this.
— The Tush Push is officially legal for the 2024-25 NFL season. Here’s Cory Woodroof with more.
— A little bit of trash talk goes a long way for Oregon’s Jermaine Couisnard. Here’s Bryan Kalbrosky with more.
— Here’s Ben Fawkes with the five wildest betting moments from Thursday’s action
— Charles Curtis has the scoop on how many perfect brackets are left out there.
That’s all, folks! Thanks so much for reading TMW this week. We appreciate you. Have a fantastic weekend and enjoy the basketball. We’ll talk more next week! Peace.
-Sykes ✌️
