You’re just not getting into this Monday. But the random juke box might have what you’re looking for in some classic Southern Rock.
***
If you missed the note, Baylor’s men’s basketball team is reportedly playing the return game to Texas A&M in College Station on Dec. 19. I do expect this non-conference schedule to take a step forward in terms of strength. The addition of Oregon will already do that. There’s also going to be the Big 12-SEC Challenge that likely won’t be a return game from Vanderbilt. We’ll also see if the Bears will secure or want to secure a spot in ESPN’s opening tip marathon in mid-November as well as a tournament around Thanksgiving.
***
When passionate college football fans watch the NFL draft, perspective kind of gets left at the door. As Friday’s second and third round came and left, social media had its share of outrage when Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty remained on the board.
Feelings were hurt. Egos were bruised. Common sense came in short supply.
It’s understandable. The conventional wisdom indicated that Petty would land somewhere in the second or third round. Rumors before the draft stated that Petty could have put himself late in the first round. In fact, ESPN draft expert Todd McShay said Petty had the third-best skill set of the quarterback prospects behind Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota.
Apparently, NFL executives could have cared less that Petty won consecutive Big 12 championships. It looks great on the press release. But once you get past the accolades, the question of whether you can perform at the elite level comes to the forefront. There are millions of dollars on the line.
Petty eventually got his chance early Saturday morning when the New York Jets selected him in the fourth round. He will receive modest signing bonus (maybe six figures) and not much guaranteed after that. Petty will have get to up to New York City and start busting it and prove that he can be a part of that franchise’s future.
The Jets have never been known for producing great signal callers. Maybe the last one was Richard Todd. The departed Mark Sanchez did lead the Jets to consecutive AFC championship games a few years ago. But the current job is not stabilized by Geno Smith and backup Ryan Fitzpatrick. The Jets may not be the best destination. However, they were the ones who believed in Petty and drafted him.
As much as it would be good for Petty to sit this season out, that may not be possible. If he plays, he has some really good receivers to work with in Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker.
ESPN.com Jets reporter Rich Cimini found a stat from Pro Football Focus. The web site broke down the top 20 QBs in the draft and used a category of throwing “under pressure”. It revealed that Petty converted at a rate of 60.3 percent. That rated 15th.
Look all of us close followers have seen the good and the bad from Petty. He definitely has the Pro physique. He’s got the am strength. He wants to do so well he can taste it. But that quality can also be his worst enemy. All that stated, the door has been opened. Petty has the opportunity. That’s all he can ask.
***
Having said that, this was my reaction to University of Texas Director of Player Personnel Mike Giglio's brain dead tweet about Petty not going until the fourth round.
That tweet has been removed. Twitter can be such a great tool for news and information. It can also be neutralized by a lot of stupidity. This was really stupid. I get that Texas hasn't enjoyed losing four of its last five and is in some serious recruiting battles with the Bears.
But you're not going to convince someone to pick your school over Baylor with messages like that. Negative recruiting exists. You say that behind closed doors. Giglio just made Texas' job harder and made Baylor look that much more attractive.
***
By the way, I heard a stat that only seven quarterbacks were taken in this year’s draft. That’s the fewest number of quarterbacks selected in any draft since 1955. That kind of tells you what NFL franchises overall thought of the quarterback class.
***
None of the rest of the draft regarding Baylor’s class was too surprising. I thought Antwan Goodley’s athleticism could be a risk for a late round pick. Obviously, that didn’t happen. What that tells you is that NFL teams didn’t know what to do with him. Now, he gets a free agent chance with Dallas and the chance to work on shedding his reputation of having poor hands. Plus, his senior year was not as good as his junior size. Given his size (5-11, 225), you have to wonder if the Cowboys have something else in mind other than receiver.
Bryce Hager to St. Louis in the seventh round is a safe choice for the Rams. But he’s going to have to work his tail off to make the team. I could see him being moved to either the Rams or somebody else’s practice squad.
Spencer Roth can punt his way into a job at Buffalo. If Levi Norwood signed with Chicago simply to return punts, there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s a specialty that teams covet.
***
If you remember in January when you were watching the crawl of your favorite all-sports channel, you saw name after name of underclassmen declaring for the draft. Outside of Winston and Mariota and a couple of others, you probably didn’t lock into a player and think this guy is going to be a can’t-miss.
Well 84 of these young men decided to come out. The results were disastrous. Only 60 were drafted and only 43 in the first three rounds. That’s a big hmmm. For me, these players chose to listen to what “their people” told them time after time and thought they were all that and probably believed the NFL Advisory Board didn’t know what it was talking about. Once you’re selected in fifth round and beyond, the odds of becoming a bona fide pro are long.
According to the draft, these players were not ready. And even if they used difficult family circumstances (presumably financial) as a reason for declaring, that doesn’t mean they’re going to get a sympathy selection. By declaring early, they now have thrown a fork into their own personal road.
***
That brings us to Baylor freshman wide receiver K.D. Cannon’s tweet on Saturday “two more years,’’ which was since removed. I cannot fault him for being swept into the euphoria of the weekend. The Mount Pleasant product came to Baylor because he believes the coaching staff can help him reach the dream of playing in the league.
He got his career off to a good start with a 1,000-yard freshman season as well as a big performance in the Cotton Bowl against Michigan State.
But this is the problem with social media. You have more enablers telling you what you want to hear rather than trying to help you stay grounded. He also didn’t help himself by doing what he did. Not a good move.
I do think the Baylor coaches have a pretty good rein on him to this point. That’s probably why that tweet disappeared – because either someone told him to zap that or Cannon suddenly realized he better do that or he’s going to catch it from the staff.
We have no idea what’s going to happen in two years. If Cannon has his health and takes his personal game to where he could be one of the best in the country, then everything points to him achieving his goal.
Let’s just take it one day at a time. The matter is over. It’s time to move on.
***
What an unbelievable Saturday for major sports events. After the draft ended:
>I flipped over to NBC just in time to see the running of the 141st Kentucky Derby and a great finish won by American Pharoah.
>I came home from an early dinner to finish watching an amazing Game 7 of the Clippers-Spurs. What did we have 12 lead changes in the fourth quarter? And on a bad wheel, CP3 hits an incredible shot high off the window over Tim Duncan to give LA a 111-109 victory to advance to the Western Conference semifinals. It’s a shame that it was the opening round. I’m happy for Paul and the Clippers as that franchise has been through so much chaos over the years. Now, we’ll see about the future of the Spurs and what the 2015-16 season holds.
>The Mayweather-Pacquiano hype did have my attention to where I stayed up a little longer on Saturday night to follow it and learn the outcome. I didn’t buy the PPV. I favored Mayweather to win. I can only go by what the neutral observers said, but when Pacquiano and his side expressed shock because they thought didn’t win, I thought, “Well, you must the only ones who thought that.’’ Did the outcome of the fight or the quality of the fight give boxing the lift it needed? We’ll see.
***
Recruiting evaluation continues this week. I don’t see a commitment coming because everybody is full bore into spring workouts. I do think the summer will be pretty active as far as commitments are concerned. Baylor has about 20 spots to fill. There’s work to do. As far as some of Baylor’s notable recruiting efforts, I’m making these predictions:
>Should Chicago area safety Kenny Lyke get to Baylor to visit, he will commit to the Bears. That recruiting effort is legit.
>I don’t think Tampa Catholic WR Nate Craig-Myers will ever step foot in Texas. I also believe Niceville, FL WR Elijah Stove will also never step foot in Texas.
>The efforts to secure Galena Park North Shore safety Eric Monroe will be long and hard. But there’s a reason the coaching staff already has commitments from two safeties in Chris Miller and Kenan Ivy. That’s an indication that Baylor can’t wait for Monroe. If this program secures Monroe, then more power to them.
>Spring DT Bravvion Roy will commit to Baylor earlier than he is suggesting (after the season).
Now on to the other sports…
> The 17th-ranked Baylor men's golf team shot 8-over-par 288 in Wednesday's final round of the Big 12 Championship at Southern Hills. BU finished in seventh place at 63-over-par 1,183 for the 72-hole tournament.
The Bears trailed Texas (+10), Texas Tech (+34), TCU (+47), Iowa State (+51), Oklahoma State (+52) and Oklahoma (+58). BU finished in front of Kansas (+71) and Kansas State (+89).
Baylor is expected to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, which will mark an 18th consecutive appearance for the Bears. The NCAA Men's Golf Selection Show will air live at 9.a.m CT Monday on the Golf Channel.
>A quartet of Baylor men's tennis players will represent the Bears in the individual portion of the NCAA Tennis Championships starting May 20 in Waco.
The NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Subcommittee made the announcement Wednesday that Julian Lenz, Tony Lupieri and Max Tchoutakian would be three of 49 at-large bids into the 64-man singles bracket, while Lenz and partner Diego Galeano are one of 11 automatic selections into the 32-team doubles draw.
The NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships will be held at the Hurd Tennis Center on May 20-25 in Waco, following the conclusion of team championship play.
>Junior middle distance runner Olicia Williams broke the 800-meter Baylor school record with a time of 2:02.26 Saturday at the Payton Jordan Invitational in Palo Alto, CA.
Williams was one of three Baylor track and field distance runners in action at the California meet. Running against an elite field of seven other runners in section one of the event, Williams bettered her own school-record of 2:03.32, which she set at the Michael Johnson Classic two weeks ago.
The BU junior's mark placed her fourth in the section and is the sixth-best time in the NCAA for 2015.
>Sophomore sprinter Trayvon Bromell won the 200-meter dash to lead Baylor's track and field team at the Longhorn Invitational on Saturday at Mike A. Myers Stadium.
In a time of 20.19, Bromell outraced the field by .11 seconds to clinch his fourth individual title of the outdoor season. The St. Petersburg, Fla., native now owns the second-fastest 100-meter (9.90) and 200-meter (20.19) times in the country for 2015.
The time was personal-best for Bromell, beating out the 20.23 that he set last season at the TCU Invitational.
>Heather Stearns tossed a two-hit shutout and Robin Landrith drove in a career-high four runs as No. 17 Baylor completed the Big 12 series sweep at Kansas with a 7-0 win Sunday at Arrocha Ballpark.
The Bears (37-13, 11-4) sweep of the Jayhawks (35-13, 5-10) was the second of the season in Big 12 play; Baylor also swept Texas Tech at home April 2-4.
The battle for second place in the Big 12 begins Wednesday night in Waco at 7 p.m. as the Bears play host to the Texas Longhorns. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN2.
>The Big 12 champion Baylor women's golf team was awarded the No. 6 seed in the NCAA San Antonio Regional during the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship selection show on Monday.
Baylor will be making its fourth NCAA Regional appearance in as many seasons under head coach Jay Goble, and the program will be making its 14th all-time NCAA Regional appearance - all in the last 16 seasons.
The three-day, 54-hole tournament will be hosted by UTSA and will be played at Briggs Ranch Golf Club in San Antonio, Texas. Baylor and 17 other teams will play one round per day from May 7-9.
Let’s make it a great week.
***
If you missed the note, Baylor’s men’s basketball team is reportedly playing the return game to Texas A&M in College Station on Dec. 19. I do expect this non-conference schedule to take a step forward in terms of strength. The addition of Oregon will already do that. There’s also going to be the Big 12-SEC Challenge that likely won’t be a return game from Vanderbilt. We’ll also see if the Bears will secure or want to secure a spot in ESPN’s opening tip marathon in mid-November as well as a tournament around Thanksgiving.
***
When passionate college football fans watch the NFL draft, perspective kind of gets left at the door. As Friday’s second and third round came and left, social media had its share of outrage when Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty remained on the board.
Feelings were hurt. Egos were bruised. Common sense came in short supply.
It’s understandable. The conventional wisdom indicated that Petty would land somewhere in the second or third round. Rumors before the draft stated that Petty could have put himself late in the first round. In fact, ESPN draft expert Todd McShay said Petty had the third-best skill set of the quarterback prospects behind Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota.
Apparently, NFL executives could have cared less that Petty won consecutive Big 12 championships. It looks great on the press release. But once you get past the accolades, the question of whether you can perform at the elite level comes to the forefront. There are millions of dollars on the line.
Petty eventually got his chance early Saturday morning when the New York Jets selected him in the fourth round. He will receive modest signing bonus (maybe six figures) and not much guaranteed after that. Petty will have get to up to New York City and start busting it and prove that he can be a part of that franchise’s future.
The Jets have never been known for producing great signal callers. Maybe the last one was Richard Todd. The departed Mark Sanchez did lead the Jets to consecutive AFC championship games a few years ago. But the current job is not stabilized by Geno Smith and backup Ryan Fitzpatrick. The Jets may not be the best destination. However, they were the ones who believed in Petty and drafted him.
As much as it would be good for Petty to sit this season out, that may not be possible. If he plays, he has some really good receivers to work with in Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker.
ESPN.com Jets reporter Rich Cimini found a stat from Pro Football Focus. The web site broke down the top 20 QBs in the draft and used a category of throwing “under pressure”. It revealed that Petty converted at a rate of 60.3 percent. That rated 15th.
Look all of us close followers have seen the good and the bad from Petty. He definitely has the Pro physique. He’s got the am strength. He wants to do so well he can taste it. But that quality can also be his worst enemy. All that stated, the door has been opened. Petty has the opportunity. That’s all he can ask.
***
Having said that, this was my reaction to University of Texas Director of Player Personnel Mike Giglio's brain dead tweet about Petty not going until the fourth round.
That tweet has been removed. Twitter can be such a great tool for news and information. It can also be neutralized by a lot of stupidity. This was really stupid. I get that Texas hasn't enjoyed losing four of its last five and is in some serious recruiting battles with the Bears.
But you're not going to convince someone to pick your school over Baylor with messages like that. Negative recruiting exists. You say that behind closed doors. Giglio just made Texas' job harder and made Baylor look that much more attractive.
***
By the way, I heard a stat that only seven quarterbacks were taken in this year’s draft. That’s the fewest number of quarterbacks selected in any draft since 1955. That kind of tells you what NFL franchises overall thought of the quarterback class.
***
None of the rest of the draft regarding Baylor’s class was too surprising. I thought Antwan Goodley’s athleticism could be a risk for a late round pick. Obviously, that didn’t happen. What that tells you is that NFL teams didn’t know what to do with him. Now, he gets a free agent chance with Dallas and the chance to work on shedding his reputation of having poor hands. Plus, his senior year was not as good as his junior size. Given his size (5-11, 225), you have to wonder if the Cowboys have something else in mind other than receiver.
Bryce Hager to St. Louis in the seventh round is a safe choice for the Rams. But he’s going to have to work his tail off to make the team. I could see him being moved to either the Rams or somebody else’s practice squad.
Spencer Roth can punt his way into a job at Buffalo. If Levi Norwood signed with Chicago simply to return punts, there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s a specialty that teams covet.
***
If you remember in January when you were watching the crawl of your favorite all-sports channel, you saw name after name of underclassmen declaring for the draft. Outside of Winston and Mariota and a couple of others, you probably didn’t lock into a player and think this guy is going to be a can’t-miss.
Well 84 of these young men decided to come out. The results were disastrous. Only 60 were drafted and only 43 in the first three rounds. That’s a big hmmm. For me, these players chose to listen to what “their people” told them time after time and thought they were all that and probably believed the NFL Advisory Board didn’t know what it was talking about. Once you’re selected in fifth round and beyond, the odds of becoming a bona fide pro are long.
According to the draft, these players were not ready. And even if they used difficult family circumstances (presumably financial) as a reason for declaring, that doesn’t mean they’re going to get a sympathy selection. By declaring early, they now have thrown a fork into their own personal road.
***
That brings us to Baylor freshman wide receiver K.D. Cannon’s tweet on Saturday “two more years,’’ which was since removed. I cannot fault him for being swept into the euphoria of the weekend. The Mount Pleasant product came to Baylor because he believes the coaching staff can help him reach the dream of playing in the league.
He got his career off to a good start with a 1,000-yard freshman season as well as a big performance in the Cotton Bowl against Michigan State.
But this is the problem with social media. You have more enablers telling you what you want to hear rather than trying to help you stay grounded. He also didn’t help himself by doing what he did. Not a good move.
I do think the Baylor coaches have a pretty good rein on him to this point. That’s probably why that tweet disappeared – because either someone told him to zap that or Cannon suddenly realized he better do that or he’s going to catch it from the staff.
We have no idea what’s going to happen in two years. If Cannon has his health and takes his personal game to where he could be one of the best in the country, then everything points to him achieving his goal.
Let’s just take it one day at a time. The matter is over. It’s time to move on.
***
What an unbelievable Saturday for major sports events. After the draft ended:
>I flipped over to NBC just in time to see the running of the 141st Kentucky Derby and a great finish won by American Pharoah.
>I came home from an early dinner to finish watching an amazing Game 7 of the Clippers-Spurs. What did we have 12 lead changes in the fourth quarter? And on a bad wheel, CP3 hits an incredible shot high off the window over Tim Duncan to give LA a 111-109 victory to advance to the Western Conference semifinals. It’s a shame that it was the opening round. I’m happy for Paul and the Clippers as that franchise has been through so much chaos over the years. Now, we’ll see about the future of the Spurs and what the 2015-16 season holds.
>The Mayweather-Pacquiano hype did have my attention to where I stayed up a little longer on Saturday night to follow it and learn the outcome. I didn’t buy the PPV. I favored Mayweather to win. I can only go by what the neutral observers said, but when Pacquiano and his side expressed shock because they thought didn’t win, I thought, “Well, you must the only ones who thought that.’’ Did the outcome of the fight or the quality of the fight give boxing the lift it needed? We’ll see.
***
Recruiting evaluation continues this week. I don’t see a commitment coming because everybody is full bore into spring workouts. I do think the summer will be pretty active as far as commitments are concerned. Baylor has about 20 spots to fill. There’s work to do. As far as some of Baylor’s notable recruiting efforts, I’m making these predictions:
>Should Chicago area safety Kenny Lyke get to Baylor to visit, he will commit to the Bears. That recruiting effort is legit.
>I don’t think Tampa Catholic WR Nate Craig-Myers will ever step foot in Texas. I also believe Niceville, FL WR Elijah Stove will also never step foot in Texas.
>The efforts to secure Galena Park North Shore safety Eric Monroe will be long and hard. But there’s a reason the coaching staff already has commitments from two safeties in Chris Miller and Kenan Ivy. That’s an indication that Baylor can’t wait for Monroe. If this program secures Monroe, then more power to them.
>Spring DT Bravvion Roy will commit to Baylor earlier than he is suggesting (after the season).
Now on to the other sports…
> The 17th-ranked Baylor men's golf team shot 8-over-par 288 in Wednesday's final round of the Big 12 Championship at Southern Hills. BU finished in seventh place at 63-over-par 1,183 for the 72-hole tournament.
The Bears trailed Texas (+10), Texas Tech (+34), TCU (+47), Iowa State (+51), Oklahoma State (+52) and Oklahoma (+58). BU finished in front of Kansas (+71) and Kansas State (+89).
Baylor is expected to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, which will mark an 18th consecutive appearance for the Bears. The NCAA Men's Golf Selection Show will air live at 9.a.m CT Monday on the Golf Channel.
>A quartet of Baylor men's tennis players will represent the Bears in the individual portion of the NCAA Tennis Championships starting May 20 in Waco.
The NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Subcommittee made the announcement Wednesday that Julian Lenz, Tony Lupieri and Max Tchoutakian would be three of 49 at-large bids into the 64-man singles bracket, while Lenz and partner Diego Galeano are one of 11 automatic selections into the 32-team doubles draw.
The NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships will be held at the Hurd Tennis Center on May 20-25 in Waco, following the conclusion of team championship play.
>Junior middle distance runner Olicia Williams broke the 800-meter Baylor school record with a time of 2:02.26 Saturday at the Payton Jordan Invitational in Palo Alto, CA.
Williams was one of three Baylor track and field distance runners in action at the California meet. Running against an elite field of seven other runners in section one of the event, Williams bettered her own school-record of 2:03.32, which she set at the Michael Johnson Classic two weeks ago.
The BU junior's mark placed her fourth in the section and is the sixth-best time in the NCAA for 2015.
>Sophomore sprinter Trayvon Bromell won the 200-meter dash to lead Baylor's track and field team at the Longhorn Invitational on Saturday at Mike A. Myers Stadium.
In a time of 20.19, Bromell outraced the field by .11 seconds to clinch his fourth individual title of the outdoor season. The St. Petersburg, Fla., native now owns the second-fastest 100-meter (9.90) and 200-meter (20.19) times in the country for 2015.
The time was personal-best for Bromell, beating out the 20.23 that he set last season at the TCU Invitational.
>Heather Stearns tossed a two-hit shutout and Robin Landrith drove in a career-high four runs as No. 17 Baylor completed the Big 12 series sweep at Kansas with a 7-0 win Sunday at Arrocha Ballpark.
The Bears (37-13, 11-4) sweep of the Jayhawks (35-13, 5-10) was the second of the season in Big 12 play; Baylor also swept Texas Tech at home April 2-4.
The battle for second place in the Big 12 begins Wednesday night in Waco at 7 p.m. as the Bears play host to the Texas Longhorns. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN2.
>The Big 12 champion Baylor women's golf team was awarded the No. 6 seed in the NCAA San Antonio Regional during the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship selection show on Monday.
Baylor will be making its fourth NCAA Regional appearance in as many seasons under head coach Jay Goble, and the program will be making its 14th all-time NCAA Regional appearance - all in the last 16 seasons.
The three-day, 54-hole tournament will be hosted by UTSA and will be played at Briggs Ranch Golf Club in San Antonio, Texas. Baylor and 17 other teams will play one round per day from May 7-9.
Let’s make it a great week.
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