Thoughts of the Day: June 9, 2025

Walter Clayton Jr. drives on UConn in the NCAA second round (Photo by Chris Spears)

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning:

The NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, is thinking of tinkering with the one thing it does very well. At 64 teams, the NCAA Basketball Tournament is three consecutive weekends of heart attack drama that grips the country, yet Charlie Baker, the latest figurehead at the top of the NCAA food chain in Indianapolis, says tournament expansion could happen as early as next year. Instead of 64 teams we could be seeing another eight teams added to the field. 

The tournament doesn’t need expanding. It’s great the way it is and it won’t get better because the NCAA feels sorry for teams that got left out because they weren’t good enough to win their conference tournament or didn’t win enough games against quality opponents to impress the selection committee enough to be included in the field of 64. Can you name a team from a low- or mid-major conference that was left out of the tournament that could have made a run to the Final Four?

The way the tournament is set up every conference champion is guaranteed a seat at the table. When the regular season ends, every team in the country has a shot at winning the national championship. All it has to do is win its conference championship tournament and it is assured of a chance to wear the glass slippers in the big dance. Adding more games to include teams that couldn’t win their conference championship isn’t going to improve the NCAA Tournament.

Expanding the basketball tournament is not about NCAA benevolence although the NCAA will try to sell this as more teams, more games, more opportunity for a Cinderella story that will grip the nation. This is a money grab pure and simple. The NCAA has a $2.8 billion settlement with the United States House of Representatives so it is looking for ways to make up that lost revenue. More tournament games, more television money.  The NCAA hopes no one notices that the overall quality of the tournament will be diluted.

Instead of expanding the NCAA needs to do whatever it can to make sure it gives us the best chance of another three weeks like the one we just had that culminated with three games at the Final Four in San Antonio that left us all gasping for air and clutching our chests. The Final Four was a crescendo of excitement that began building the first weekend of the tournament.

Was there a better second round game than Florida’s win over two-time NCAA champ UConn in Raleigh? That’s where Walter Clayton Jr. began his flirtation with basketball immortality. A week later in San Francisco, Clayton had an encore performance against Texas Tech and that simply set the stage for the basketball equivalent of Woodstock in San Antonio.

Has there ever been a better Final Four than the one we just witnessed in San Antonio? With Clayton going beast mode, Florida came from nine down to beat Auburn in one semifinal. In the other, Houston came from 14 down to beat Duke as Cooper Flagg blew his chance to live up to the Dickie V hype by leaving what would have been the game-winning shot on the front of the rim. You can decide for yourself whether Houston staged one of the greatest comebacks ever or else Duke choked like no team in NCAA history.

Two nights later, Houston held Walter Clayton Jr. in check most of the game only to find out the Gators were far from a one-man team. Florida took the lead in the final 30 seconds then gave us a text book demonstration of perfect defensive rotations that forced a Houston turnover with eight seconds to go. When the clock flatlined at 00:00, Clayton was holding the basketball and the Florida Gators were national champs.

As Florida cut down the nets, you could almost hear the late, great Jim McKay’s signature line from Wide World of Sports, “The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat.” This is what the NCAA Tournament is all about. Expanding the tournament won’t give us more games like we saw in Raleigh, San Francisco or San Antonio. That’s what we need, not an expanded field.

WALT IN THE NBA DRAFT

Dean Smith once said he would never recruit a player who scored 33 points a game for a team that barely broke even. Dean tried to stock his roster with players who best impact winning.

The NBA is going to draft in a couple of weeks. When I look at these mock drafts, I see players like Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper of Rutgers. They have lots of athletic ability and potential but with a pair of top five draft picks, Rutgers went 15-17. That would stick out to me if I was the general manager of an NBA team. Give me someone who knows how to win.

Walter Clayton Jr. will be selected in the first round. Adam Finkelstein of CBS has Walt going No. 13 to the Atlanta Hawks. Most other mock drafts have Walt going to the Orlando Magic at No. 25.

Whoever gets him will get a player who knows how to win basketball games, something I think the Magic need in the worst way. There are very few players whether in college or already in the NBA that can shoot like Walter Clayton Jr. He is an underrated defender, a very good passer and best of all, he knows how to win. If the Magic draft him they will get a winner, something they need desperately.

CAGLIANONE BREAKS OUT; POLAR BEAR GOES BEAST MODE

Prior to Sunday, Jac Caglianone was 2-21 since being called up to Kansas City from Omaha of the triple-A International League. Sunday was a different story, however, as Caglianone went 4-4 (three singles and a double) against the Chicago White Sox.

Tuesday night, Caglianone and the Royals will be home in Kansas City to host the New York Yankees for a three game set. If Caglianone hits the ball out of the yard, you can bet the farm the media will start comparing Cag to Yankees star Aaron Judge because of their size (Cag 6-5, 250; Judge 6-7, 282) and their ability to drive baseballs 400-feet at astonishing rates of speed.

Also Sunday, former Gator Pete Alonso hit two homers and drove in four against the Colorado Rockies. The Polar Bear is hitting .301 with 17 homers and a Major League Baseball leading 61 RBI. ESPN projects Pete to hit 42 homers and drive in 150 runs.

TWO SEC TEAMS MAKE IT TO OMAHA

Back in March there were complaints that the Southeastern Conference got 14 of its 16 teams in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Seven made it to the Sweet 16, four to the Elite Eight and two to the Final Four. When Florida beat Auburn and Houston in San Antonio to win the national championship it justified the SEC getting so many teams.

A few weeks ago, the NCAA invited 14 SEC softball teams to its tournament. Missouri was the only SEC team that didn’t get invited (Vanderbilt doesn’t play softball). Six SEC teams emerged from the regionals to host a super regional and five (Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Florida) advanced to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. In OKC, three advanced to the semifinals and Texas won the national championship.

The SEC started out with 13 teams in the NCAA Baseball Tournament, but only two – Arkansas and LSU – will make it to Omaha for the College World Series. Arkansas beat Tennessee in two games to win its super regional and LSU beat West Virginia in two games. Some talking heads were touting the ACC to make half the CWS field, but North Carolina was eliminated by Arizona in Chapel Hill and Florida State was eliminated by Oregon State. Duke is playing for its season in a super regional final against Murray State today. Murray State beat Duke 19-9 Sunday so it’s entirely possible Duke will go down, leaving only Louisville to make the trip to Omaha.

Some might think only two teams in Omaha is proof that the SEC was overrated, but 25 percent of the field is an extraordinary accomplishment for a league that has won six of the last seven College World Series.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT

A Federal judge has signed off on the United States House of Representatives v. NCAA case, opening the door for athletes to be paid. Schools can pay as much as $20.5 million but that’s supposed to cover all sports. Expectations are that football and men’s basketball will take the lion’s share of the money, leaving all the other sports to divvy up whatever is left. By some accounts, football alone will probably take 75 percent of the money.

Bet the farm that the lawyers are already lining up to challenge how the money is distributed. It’s rare that any sport other than football and men’s basketball makes money but that won’t stop lawyers from demanding equal pay for women’s sports.

There is also the issue about NIL money. Supposedly, the settlement allows for NIL money to be distributed through a clearinghouse, a glorified middleman. Wealthy boosters are going to take a look at that and decide it’s a good idea to skip the middleman altogether and pay players directly. That’s not supposed to happen, but you know it will. Think of it as a hundred dollar handshake multiplied several thousand times delivered through CashApp.

You don’t have to be a rocket surgeon or a brain scientist to figure out the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, elected to make a deal with the Congress, which is as brain dead as the NCAA. Chaos will ensue. Bet on it.

There are common sense answers to the problems of college sports. Unfortunately, the NCAA is involved and at the NCAA common sense is in short supply these days.