Spurs' Stanford Connection; NFL's Sunday Erosion; SEC Cupcakes; Quote of the Week

The NBA Western Conference Finals between the Spurs and Thunder was one of the most memorable and enjoyable series in recent league history.

One of the interesting aspects was the presence of former Stanford point guard Mitch Johnson as the head coach of the Spurs.

At age 39, Johnson has seemingly won the lottery. He succeeded one of the greatest coaches ever to work the NBA sidelines, Gregg Popovich, after serving as Pop's assistant for six years and previously winning the G League title as coach of the Austin Spurs.

He's got his team in the Finals, where the Spurs are expected to dispatch the Knicks and win the league title.

The future is bright for the Spurs, with a young team led by the incredible Victor Wembanyama (22) and other upcoming stars like Stephon Castle (21), Devon Vassell (25), Julian Champagnie (24), Dylan Harper (20) and the old man of the group, De'Aaron Fox (28).

Back in the day, 2005-2009, I used to watch Johnson play for Stanford under coach Trent Johnson at Maples Pavilion.

Johnson was easy to remember because of his distinctive look and his style of play. He was an excellent ball handler, seldom turning the ball over. He delivered precision passes to Stanford's star players, the Lopez twins, Brook and Robin. He was also an aggressive defender. 

But he wasn't much of a scorer. He took an average of only 4.7 shots per game during his career and averaged 5.3 points per game.

Johnson's best season was his junior year, 2007-08, when he helped lead Stanford to a 28-8 record and the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament. In the Cardinal's second round win over Marquette, 82-81 in overtime, he had 16 assists, setting a Stanford single game record that still stands. He ranks second all-time in career assists at the school behind Brevin Knight.

Sunday Slippage: In recent years, the NFL has been steadily pulling games from its traditional Sunday windows on CBS and Fox by handing inventory to streamers like Prime Video, Peacock, Netflix and whoever else is willing to pay ridiculous rights fees to broadcast games that otherwise would have been aired on free television to every household in the country.

Most of us grew up knowing that there would be at least two NFL games every Sunday on CBS and Fox, starting at 10am for those of us on the West Coast. That Sunday ritual was later extended into the evening when Sunday Night Football on NBC was added to the mix.

As tens of millions of Americans dutifully tuned in each week,  the NFL became the No. 1 sport in the country.  Sunday football was appointment television, something we inherited from our fathers. The games were always in the same place, on the same channels, at the same times, for as long as anyone could remember.

But as greed became the primary motivating factor in NFL ownership and administration, and the almighty TV dollar became the No. 1 driving force, the league has moved toward a fragmented platform. 

Nowadays, if you want to follow the full slate of games on any given Sunday, you have to know which games are on CBS, which are on Fox, which moved to Prime, which are on Peacock, which are in London at 9:30 in the morning, and which require a separate subscription.

Each deviation from the old Sunday norm -- a Wednesday here, a Thursday there, multiple international games, not to mention Thanksgiving Eve or Christmas — adds up, until we've arrived at a new normal that feels disjointed, untraditional, and fan-unfriendly.

SEC Cupcakes: The SEC is finally ending "cupcake weekend."

If you follow the SEC, or if you hate the SEC and love to refute the argument that its teams play the toughest schedule in the country, you know all about cupcake weekend.

The week before Thanksgiving, half of the schools in the SEC typically schedule a game against Little Sisters of the Poor, or another lower division team sure to guarantee an easy victory.

Many of the opponents come from the Southern Conference...powerhouses like Wofford, Samford, Chattanooga, Furman, Mercer, the Citadel, VMI and Tennessee Tech.

It got so bad people in the SEC started referring to the week before Thanksgiving as "SoCon Saturday."

Coaches and athletic directors saw it as a way to guarantee a win and give their starters a late-season rest before the critical Thanksgiving weekend rivalry games.

Well, SEC athletic directors voted last week to have everyone play a conference game that week, starting in 2027. This was accompanied by expanding to a nine-game conference schedule in '27.

This year, there are four cupcake games scheduled for Nov. 20-21: Chattanooga at Alabama, Samford at Auburn, Wofford at Ole Miss and Tennessee Tech at Mississippi State. 

At the same time these blowouts are being played, the Big Ten features key conference games, including matchups like Oregon-Michigan State, Michigan-UCLA, Iowa-Illinois, Indiana-Washington and Ohio State-Nebraska.

Why We Love College Sports: UCLA, the No. 1 baseball team in the country after compiling a remarkable 51-6 record, was eliminated from the NCAA post-season tournament by St. Mary's. The Gaels upset the Bruins 3-2 in the regional's opening game and then, after UCLA came from behind to beat Va. Tech, beat the Bruins again, 6-5 in 10 innings, to send them back to Westwood.

Ironically, after dispatching the country's best team, the Gaels were upset themselves and sent home by Cal Poly. 

Gotta love it.

Quote of the Week: Kudos to Texas A&M football coach Mike Elko, when asked about the 24-team playoff idea: "There’s the good of college football. Then there’s self-preservation. And so if you really ask me on record, what does Mike Elko want? I want 40 [teams in the playoff] because then I’ll make it and then I won’t get fired. None of us are answering for the good of the sport. We're answering for the good of ourselves.

“The cool thing about our sport is it has always been a challenge to get into the playoffs. Last year there were some really good teams that didn’t get in. That’s O.K. We don’t have to find a number that lets everybody get in, because you just saw it with basketball, right? All of a sudden now 68 isn’t enough because there’s still some teams getting left out so we’ve got to go to 76. It’s O.K. to make it hard to get into the playoffs."

Amen.