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Super teams

I love dynasties.

Whether they are my team or the team I desperately want to lose, I contend that dynasties are good for all sports.

I think the dynasty vacuum as the Warriors and LeBron have aged hurts the interest of the NBA.

Yes, during the regular season, dynasties can become predictable at times.

But when the ring is the thing they are chasing, dynasties provide rooting interests even when your team or guy is not involved.

That becomes top of mind this morning as we are 48-or-so hours from the NBA Finals starting and a dynasty falling in the semifinals of the Women’s College World Series.

For the NBA, two of arguably the most improbable teams in the league are four wins for the franchise’s first Larry O’Brien trophy.

Now, in dynastic talks, the OKC Thunder is young. They have a bona fide A-list superstar in former Hamilton Heights dude Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. They are flush with draft picks.

This could be the first of multiple rings, and we all know multiple rings ring the championship bell.

The softball dynasty — Oklahoma, winners amazingly of the last four national titles — was toppled by Texas Tech and the sport’s singular star in NiJaree Canady.

Canady has turned heads throughout the postseason with her amazing gifts in the circle and at the plate. She has a 0.90 ERA and hit 11 homers.

She also has become the face of her sport, with reports surfacing that she got a $1 million NIL deal to transfer to Texas Tech from Stanford.

It also blends everyone’s conversation of college kids getting paid, and man, there are two things that grab your attention when the phrase “$1 million NIL deal” is linked to a college softball player.

First, don’t tell me there’s not enough money if a softball player is getting seven figures.

Second, this could be a future trend in that position in that sport. Because truly difference-making basketball players and softball pitchers may be the most program-changing NIL investments any school can make in team sports moving forward.

Thoughts?

Band-aid on a gun shot

So the Braves are spiraling. Losers of four straight series. Working hard to tread water but starting to flail. Someone call Hasselhoff, they need one of those floaty things.

There are real issues for one of the South’s favorite summer obsession.

(Side question: If we ranked old-school Southern summer obsessions, where would the Braves rank? I’d go cold watermelon, homemade peach ice cream, lawn/garden maintenance, Braves baseball and finding a way to Panama City. Thoughts?)

Anywell, the Braves have thrown out a parachute in the NL East as the Mets jet their way to the top of the game.

But good news, friends. The Braves have made a move.

That’s right, they have added former long-time Braves coach Fredi Gonzalez as its new third-base coach.

Awesome … wait, what?

Unless Fredi can pitch out of the bullpen or fix Matt Olson’s swing, this feels like the Little Dutch boy plugging his finger in the leaking dam.

But hey, how many of us have bemoaned the Braves letting a former Freddie walk, right?

Right … wait, what?

Never mind. Spy, pass the peach ice cream, please.

Don’t you wanna go home?

So we have a date on the “Happy Gilmore” sequel.

It hits Netflix on July 25.

That detail was in this story that also reminds us that a) Julie Bowen (Claire from “Modern Family”) is returning as Happy’s squeeze, and b) Adam Sandler is a good dude who stands up for his friends as much as any true Hollywood A-lister anywhere.

(Side note: Yes, Adam Sandler is a bona fide Hollywood A-lister. His genre may be silly and slapstick at times, and he has assuredly had some bombs, but if you define true A-listers as folks going to movies because of him, there are few above Sandler in that sense.)

Where were we?

Ah, yes, “Happy Gilmore 2.”

So, first, true or false, you’ll watch “Happy Gilmore 2.”

Next, if the spectrum of sports sequels range from the elite like “Creed 2,” which has a spot in the conversation of the best in the Rocky tree to “Caddyshack 2″ or Snapshot II,” where will “Happy Gilmore 2” rank?

Discuss.

This and that

› Detroit Lions center Frank Ragnow retired. He played seven seasons. I approve 100% of NFL players making life-changing money and walking away while they can still walk away.

› Much to Vader’s disbelief, this all-too-early mock draft has LSU QB1 Garrett Nussmeier going to the New Orleans Saints. True or false, the river of curse words coming from the Heavy Deathstar when Nussmeier goes from Fat Vader’s favorite team to his second favorite team will be hovering over Chattanooga for 18 months.

› More from the mock draft above — I love the draft, you know this — there were five QBs in the round and only two LSU wide receivers. Dude, if you are a starter in the WR room in Red Stick, you are going to play on Sundays.

› The college baseball regional was an unmitigated disaster for the SEC. It continued with Ole Miss losing at home Monday in an elimination game. There were 13 SEC teams in the regional round; only four remain.

Today’s questions

True or false, it’s Tuesday.

› True or false, dynasties are good for sports.

› True or false, a great softball pitcher on a mediocre team will win more than a great QB on a mediocre team.

› True or false, homemade peach ice cream is the best ice cream on the planet.

› True or false, Adam Sandler is right there with Bill Murray as the biggest movie star to cut their teeth on SNL.

You know the drill. Answer some T or Fs, ask some T or Fs.

As for today, June 3, let’s review:

“Big” premiered on this day in 1988.

Tony Curtis would have been 100.

The first baseball uniforms were won by the New York Knickerbockers on this day in 1851. They featured straw hats, white shirts and blue slacks.

Rushmore of worst baseball uniforms of all-time.

Go.

Raquel Rodriguez/Mountaineer Football

Football
June 03, 2025 09:00 AM

John Antonik

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – More than 100 former West Virginia University football players returned to campus last Saturday for coach Rich Rodriguez‘s first-ever Alumni Picnic at Milan Puskar Stadium.

Invitations were sent out this spring and players were asked to provide some basic information that was used to announce each one during a red-carpet introduction into the Milan Puskar Center Hall of Traditions.

Coaches and staff members were lined up on each side to give the former players high-fives as they were introduced by Mountaineer football senior associate athletics director and chief of staff Dusty Rutledge.

Saturday’s activities were part of Rodriguez’s desire to get former players from all eras reconnected with their alma mater in a relaxed and carefree atmosphere.

Players frequently return to campus for home football games, but Rodriguez and his staff really don’t have the time to visit with them because they are focused on their pregame preparations.

Following a meal and some brief remarks by Rodriguez, the players were free to explore the Puskar Center and go out onto the field to take pictures and reminisce.

WVU Varsity Club director Kevin Johnston, who worked with Mountaineer football’s director of player relations Rasheed Marshall on this year’s event, estimated that roughly a third of the players in attendance last Saturday were on campus for the first time in years.

“The coolest thing I saw from the entire weekend was seeing Chris Edmonds out on the field, and he sort of went through his pregame routine,” Johnston said. “He was at midfield looking around the stadium soaking in all those memories. I don’t think he knew I was watching, but I took some pictures and sent them to him.”

Players from every decade going back to the 1960s were at last Saturday’s picnic. Legendary Mountaineer coach Don Nehlen also stopped by to see many of his former athletes.

“There were a lot of players who really made an effort to get here for this,” Johnston concluded.

 

When NiJaree Canady enters the circle, it is often goodnight for the opposing lineup. Texas Tech’s star pitcher gave up just five hits during Monday’s 3-2 win over four-time defending national champion Oklahoma as the Red Raiders punched their ticket to the championship series of the Women’s College World Series with Texas.

The Stanford transfer who twice anchored Cardinal trips to Oklahoma City is the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year for a reason, and continues to deliver for Texas Tech this season. Canady’s on a record-breaking NIL deal with Texas Tech’s NIL collective, The Matador Club, which she signed last summer for just over $1 million, according to ESPN.

She is college softball’s first member of the million club after the Red Raiders made her a priority in the transfer portal ahead of coach Gerry Glasco’s first season. Oklahoma and Texas, among others, immediately pursued Canady, but Texas Tech pushed out front with the financial help of boosters Tracy and John Sellers, a pair of former Red Raiders athletes.

“We look at it as they deserve it just as much (as male athletes),” Glasco said during an interview with ESPN after Canady’s official visit. “She worked so hard to be the No. 1 pitcher in the country. … I left that meeting and thought, this is who I would love to put a lot of effort into because of who she is.”

Canady and her family met with Stanford’s collective during her standout freshman season to seek a better NIL contract moving forward in her career, but the Cardinal balked at the request, according to The Athletic. And that is what kickstarted the process of looking elsewhere and eventually making herself available in the transfer portal after her sophomore campaign.

According to The Athletic, her NIL deal with the Red Raiders is 10 times more that what many considered the starting price in the negotiation process. 

Canady went 41-10 over her first two seasons at Stanford. This season, she has hit a stratospheric level of dominance. After Monday’s victory over the Sooners, Canady boosted her record to 30-5 with a 0.89 ERA. That includes a perfect record in the postseason for a team on a quest to win its first national championship. 

Texas Tech is the first program in WCWS history to reach the championship series in its debut trip to Oklahoma City since, coincidentally, the Sooners did so in 2000. And ironically, the Red Raiders snapped a 37-game losing streak to Oklahoma to get to this point.

“I feel like people thought I heard the number and just came to Texas Tech, which wasn’t the case at all,” Canady said. “If I didn’t feel like Coach Glasco was an amazing coach and could lead this program to be where we thought it could be, I wouldn’t have come.”