Morning friends. We are going to trot out a new mid-week feature.
Say hello to Which Way Wednesday.
Enjoy.
As always, we're coming to you live from the "Talks too much" studios, so let's get to it.
Can they be stopped?
LeBron is playing at an all-time level.
CP3 and James Harden helped the 3-point-loving Rockets to the best record in the NBA.
And for all the posturing and various circumstances, the simple and lasting and only NBA question that matters is the one we started with before the season.
Can anyone beat the Warriors?
Maybe once. Maybe even twice.
But, even as we get the Western Conference Finals everyone expected, and as the Cleveland LeBrons continue to write the next chapter in what has become the most predictable narrative in team sports, neither of those team has the pieces and the depth to match Golden State.
Whether it's the bull's eye on Harden and Paul or the huge edge in experience or the simple match-up advantages that KD and Draymond present.
Agree or disagree?
(And someone please explain how the computer models that operate ESPN's Basketball Power Index give the Rockets a 55-percent chance to win the NBA title and the Warriors a 29-percent chance to go all the way.)
FILE - In this April 22, 2017, file photo, Florida Atlantic University coach Lane Kiffin stands on the field for the NCAA college football team's spring game in Boca Raton, Fla. Kiffin's first training camp as the head coach at Florida Atlantic starts Thursday, July 27, 2017. The well-traveled lightning rod of a coach, who left Alabama before last season's national championship game, thinks he's more ready to lead a program than ever before .(Jim Rassol/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, File) Well that took a turn
There are a slew of college football details circling.
THE Ohio State quarterback Joe Burrow is looking for a new place to play, meaning he will be ex-THE Ohio State quarterback Joe Burrow.
Much-traveled quarterback Blake Barnett is headed to USF. There are more, because this is actually the free agent period for college football players looking for new places to play. (And the graduates among them - like Burrow - become immediately eligible.)
But the headline that caught my eye the most on the college football news feed was this one: Kiffin was close to being coach at Arkansas.
Say what?
Here's the story and the money quote comes from Lane Kiffin himself on Bo Mattingly's Arkansas radio show.
Reading the headline and the relatively vague quote the immediate thought was that Kiffin may have been an early candidate last November after Bret Bielema was given the Luca Brasi treatment.
But according to the story and the timeline, KIffin almost got the job back almost 10 years ago when the Razorbacks hired Bobby Petrino.
Think about the ripples and the changed destiny of Arkansas, Tennessee, potentially USC, the Falcons and the entire Petrino family if Kiffin and the Hogs had become a professional couple.
And think of the greatness of Kiffin-Saban meeting each and every year.
Ah, memories.
On a Which Way Wednesday, we'll offer this: Will Lane Kiffin ever be an SEC head coach again? Thoughts?
In this April 10, 2005, file photo, Tiger Woods, right, gets the Green Jacket from Phil Mickelson, left, after winning the 2005 Masters at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga. Tiger Woods is back for only the second time in the last five years, and what makes the sight of him at Augusta National even more tantalizing is that Woods is starting to look like the player who dominated golf for the better part of 15 years. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)Plan from The Players
The Players Championship is a sneaky big golf tournament. In truth, you can take sneaky out of that sentence.
It is a big deal, but the "fifth major" is as hollow as being the "fifth Beatle" or the fourth Mandrel sister, twice removed.
Truth is the field is the best in golf for a variety of reasons. And next to Augusta, it is the most recognized annual stop on the calendar.
We all know a lot of about TPC Sawgrass and is there a more famous golf hole than the 17th and the island green there?
That said, the quotes from Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods on Tuesday got us thinking. (Yes, Spy, that's always a dangerous thing.)
Mickelson offered an idea of those two playing a big-money, winner-take-all game.
Who wouldn't be for that.
Heck, we'd even be fine if those cats teamed up and played Rickie and Jordan or Dustin and Jason.
Old vs. Young. Let the players dictate the stakes with buy-ins and then offer big chunks from the big-time TV dollars that would be available for this.
Take the three cool majors (Masters is Paul, British is the mercurial John, U.S. Open is the steady and always underrated George; the PGA is Ringo) and The Players off the board, and is there a golf event you would rather watch than Mickelson and Woods playing for $5 million, winner take all?
Or a team match for similar stakes?
(Nope, me neither.)
This and that
- The Yankees have won 16 of their last 17 after topping Boston last night. That's pretty good.
- Speaking of pretty good, hey, maybe this Ronald Acuna Jr. kid really does have a future. Man, the Triple-A pitchers who held him to a sub-.230 average before he was called up last month must be wondering what these big-league guys are missing.
- Speaking of streaks, holy buckets of secret sauce. This Wisconsin man has consumed 30,000 Big Macs and has the receipts to prove it. Yes, that's an ravager of almost two Big Macs a day for the last 46 years.
- One of the biggest fights I have ever been in was during a summer league baseball game at Hunter Park in Douglasville, Ga. This is relevant because this story of a brawl at a charity cornhole event, and the fact that I am not surprised in the least.
- For those of you like me who enjoy the LeBatard Show, here's a very well-done thank you from Miami Zoo celeb Ron Magill to two of the zoo's biggest donors over the years.
- Congrats to UTC women's basketball coach Jim Foster, as the Hall of Famer announced his retirement on Tuesday. Here's Weeds' view on Foster's exit.
- Mariners pitcher James Paxton throw a no-hitter Tuesday. That's cool and all. More amazing to me is that he hit 100 mph on pitch No. 98.
Today's questions
Several questions throughout, so help yourself.
Which way are you leaning about Which Way Wednesday: Friend or foe?
As for today, May 9, let's review.
The birth control pill was legalized on this day in 1960. In 1962, the Beattles signed their first contract.
In 1914, Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Mother's Day.
Let's stay there and do the Rushmore of TV moms. Go.