Now for the big news
Since the eclipse has come and gone, it’s time to get back to reality and discuss what’s truly important in this hyper-partisan era of political nonsense: Basketball.
Unless you’re a Buddhist monk raking gravel in Tibet, you already know Eric Musselman is headed back to coach in California and his replacement will be—Coach Cal.
The moves are shocking and bold. And only time, skill, luck and the fickle decision-making of 18-year-old young men will determine whether they were actually smart and reasoned, or just hopeful for all parties involved.
Where to begin?
First, Muss likes California. He coached the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors as well as the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the G-League there. And, according to Ron Burgundy, he played at the University of San Dieeeego, where his mom lives.
Muss has many reasons to be in California, but certainly coaching USC can’t be one of them. It doesn’t require climbing out on a limb to say USC is a step down from Arkansas. USC’s legacy to college sports is in football, not basketball.
It appears USC wants to change that, and it’s not difficult to understand why they want Muss to be the man to do it. They’re the same reasons we wish he wasn’t leaving.
The Muss Bus went to three consecutive Sweet 16s and back-to-back Elite 8s for the first time since the early 1990s, and beat two No. 1 seeds along the way. It was all done in an arena that pulls in about 20,000 on most nights.
At USC, he’ll inherit an arena that holds around half that and on any given night only 3,800 fans show up to occupy the seats.
As far as program history and the prestige that comes with it is concerned, USC has been to the NCAA tournament 21 times in the past 84 years and have made it to two Final Fours. Two Final Fours sounds okay until you find out that the first semi-final they played in happened in 1940 before Pearl Harbor was bombed and the other (1954) was over a decade before the Grateful Dead was even a twinkle in Jerry Garcia’s eye.
The Hogs, on the other hand, have been to 35 NCAA tournaments, have a national championship, a runner-up, six Final Fours, eight Elite-8s and 14 Sweet 16s; most of it has happened in the past 40 years.
Clearly, USC wants Musselman to win, but the university is essentially asking him to put it on the map and butts in seats so hot dogs, Cokes and ballcaps can be sold.
It won’t be easy considering the Trojans compete for airtime against the Lakers, Clippers, Rams, Dodgers, Angels, Kings, Chargers, Sparks, Anaheim Ducks, the Galaxy, UCLA basketball and football, and ironically, USC football, not to mention Margot Robbie, Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt or anyone else related to Hollywood. Good luck.
Arkansas also made a bold move in pulling out the checkbook for a national champion type of guy, and it believes that guy is John Calipari.
I feel the same way about this as I do about the eclipse, which is to simply to say that for all the hype going into it, my reaction is: meh.
Unlike many on social media who have hailed Calipari’s hiring as the second coming, I’m less moved.
He’s arguably the highest profile college coach in America and brings immediate national star power to the program. However, I’m not jumping up and down for the same reason I didn’t jump up and down when we hired Dan Enos: Results.
I know that statement may surprise many, because Coach Cal did win a national championship—in 2012. It’s his recent performance that’s troubling.
Since 2019, Kentucky has won a single game in March Madness. It’s not hard to argue that this is the reason he was available to Arkansas at all. He wasn’t meeting the expectations of Wildcat fans. No one is hearing mournful sobbing ringing out of the hollers of the Bluegrass State.
There’s no question he’s a great recruiter, and that’s step one to building a team. In 16 years at Kentucky, Cal landed the best, or second best, recruiting class in the country. There’s no reason to believe he won’t continue that in Fayetteville.
However, in the 16 years he was pulling in highly ranked, immensely talented recruiting classes, the Cats weren’t ending seasons ranked No. 1 or No. 2.
If you get the No.1 recruiting class every year, shouldn’t you eventually start having teams that at least finish in the Elite 8? If that seems reasonable, it should also be reasonable to believe that it doesn’t mean this will suddenly change when he comes to the Hill.
I’m not saying that Cal is past his prime, but suggesting it’s possible. However, it may just be that Cal needs the fresh start he’ll get at Arkansas after things growing stale at Kentucky. Let’s hope so.
Either way, basketball eclipsed the eclipse regarding air time this week, which is proof that despite the inanity of today’s politics, the world is still in the right place.