EL BARRIO, EL FALLS: You know that scene in “The history of the world, part 1” where the guy has nothing for sale? Well I am there now. I literally have nothing to talk about so I had to look seriously for MTM worthy news. The results of my search are the following: NCAA Suspensions and the Kristaps Porzingis trade.
NCAA Suspensions I want to be clear and say I pretty sure if you are D1 sports program there is some dodgy recruiting violations going on. I don’t care if you are some small school in the MEAC or Duke. I have zero trust in the integrity of the system it’s administrators. Looks like two teams were caught cheating and have been punished which is still whatever, in my book.
Missouri suspended: I can’t wait for Cam James to crash thcoachesst screaming of injustice. He might be right too. Somehow a Mizzou academic tutor was caught not just tutoring but doing the coursework for some of these players. Color me not shocked! What I am shocked by is that he got caught! I have no doubt the likes of Alabama and other SEC and ACC schools do similar. How they got caught is shocking to me. So now Missouri football is suspended from Bowl qualification for a season. Apparently the blowback affecting some of the other Mizzou sports teams. This is a temporary black eye for the program but it is nothing in the long run.
Kansas’s Silvio De Souza suspended: Must be more Midwest bias as Missouri’s neighbor Kansas has received a suspension of their own. This time it is star forward Silvio De Souza who is suspended for all of the 2018/2019 season and the 2019/2020 season. Apparently his AAU coach took money from an Adidas rep to help steer the kid to Kansas. I am not shocked as AAU is a horrible money grab situation that exploits the kids almost as bad as NCAA basketball. Kansas will appeal but we will see what happens.
Kristaps Porzingis Trade: So the Knicks are rebuilding again. They enter year 20 of their 3 year rebuilding plan. After drafting Tim Hardaway Jr. then trading him away, the sign him as a free agent only to trade him again. What are we doing here!? By also getting Dennis Smith Jr., I think the Knicks acknowledge that I “French” Frank Ntlikina was not developing at the pace they had hoped. So why trade Porzingis? Well that was because as he healed, he lost interest with the front office and the pace of change. There was no guarantee of a positive future with the Knicks and his contract is expiring. Now he can go to Dallas and play with the best foreign player ever and the foreign player about to be the best ever. The will need a good rebounder to round out that group.
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NOTE FROM MANAGEMENT: Get on the Major League Rugby bandwagon… 9 teams, including NYC and Toronto this year.