Round Up: Sean Miller was Fired for Some Reason
In which we talk about KT just being a bigger Jamal Hill, Scary Terry's departure, and why Andre Iguodala isn't ready for the big stage.
Happy Friday, let’s Round Up the last week in Duck.
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KT for Heisman
We all have high hopes for Kayvon Thibodeaux, but the ones he has for himself might be even higher.
He’s looking for hardware.
KT said on Tuesday that he has transitioned from a pure d-end, to, “more of an outside linebacker.” He went on to say that he’ll be looking to grab interceptions, and that fans should think of him as Jamal Hill, just bigger.
First year DC Tim DeRuyter has pulled almost all hands out of the dirt, according to the future Heisman winner, and that the d-line is pretty much always going to be standing up pre-snap.
Apparently KT thinks he can become even more dominant, and even more electric than he already has been in his first two seasons. That’s the kind of optimism we should all be bringing to 2021.
I expect a huge jump in output from guys like Brandon Dorlus, and Kristian Williams along the d-line, as well as from Adrian Jackson at linebacker. Find a place for Keith Brown and Justin Flowe in the rotation, and then you can put your two NFL frontrunners in Noah and KT anywhere they want, as far as I’m concerned.
Dream big, KT. Dream big.
So Long, Scary Terry
It’s Transfer Portal SZN in college basketball.
Jaz Shelley and Taylor Chavez announced that they’ll be looking to play elsewhere for their last two seasons. It wasn’t too long ago that both these sharpshooting guards looked like they could even become the heirs apparent to one Sabrina Ionescu, but they both struggled mightily this season.
They both lived and shot comfortably in off-ball roles as defenses were forced to focus on Sabrina, but without their defenders consistently sliding away from them, and towards the GOAT, those free opportunities came fewer and further between.
Couple those woes with the veteran Taylor Mikesell, who can both facilitate, shoot, and defend, along with the emergence of Te-Hina Paopao, and you can’t blame Jaz and Taylor for wanting to carve out their own roles in a different place.
I wish the best of luck to both of them, and I hope Kelly can go find himself some shooters in the portal.
I’d also like to ask for a moment of silence for one Scary Terry this morning.
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The great Jalen Terry announced his intent to transfer this week, along with Will Johnson and Chandler Lawson. Chandler’s brother, the four-star Jonathon Lawson also asked to be released from his Letter of Intent, and Oregon granted that request. To top it all off, our assistant coach and master recruiter, Tony Stubblefield accepted a long overdue head coaching gig at DePaul.
Now, all this will make sense when Scary, Will, and the Lawson Bros go off and win the Big East Tourney next season for Coach Stubblefield.
And I’d be concerned with an exodus like this happened at a lesser program—like one in Seattle, off the top of my head—but this is Dana Altman we’re talking about. He’s already sent Mike Mennenga to Canada, and has parked himself in the front of the line at the next Nike Hoop Summit.
These are all losses that Dana can certainly afford, for lack of a better word.
We may have lost some men, but we’ll never lose our bags.
Arizona should #HireIggy
Speaking of bag men, Arizona fired Sean Miller this week, and for the life of me I can’t understand why.
Sure, there’s the NCAA allegations, FBI wiretaps, lack of tourney success, et al., but if all that was enough to cut him loose, you’d have thought they would have done it forever ago. Or at least right when the season ended.
Now Arizona sits in the comical position of having lost out on many of the hottest coaches that were on the market in mid-March, having screwed over all of Miller’s players by giving them a late start on the largest transfer portal field ever, and also still having to grow $1.5 mil to Miller anyway.
Literally the only guy you can hire at this point is Cal alum and former Phoenix Sun, Jason Kidd. And I say go for it.
By the time you fire him, Andre Iguodala might have finally retired, and he can keep their Final Four-less streak going for years to come.
Sidenote: my personal Iggy petty war deserves an entire breakdown of its own, but I’ll just leave this here since it’s relevant.
Bonus: New Sabrina jersey’s just dropped.
Nike release a whole line of new jerseys for the upcoming 25th WNBA season, and they’re all A-1.
A new sick Nike jersey was the final piece Sabrina needed to lead the Liberty to a title. Well, that and a Satou, and a Ruthy. Good thing they get another high draft pick this year.
Go Ducks.