Brad Cesmat
Mirror, mirror on the wall…
Let’s start with the worst and work our way back. The Cardinals will not be good early in the season, but will find their footing under head coach Jonathan Gannon by late October. It’s easy for the Cardinals to be the punching bag in Valley sports right now. They’ve EARNED it. But, what I know to be true through the years in any sport is a change in the front office and on the bench usually brings a much-needed to jolt. I am in a small boat who likes what new GM Monti Ossenfort has done in the first six months on the job. He showed courage and vision with how he took the second overall pick and paralyed it into several pieces. Bad teams don’t get turned around with just the second overall pick. Go look at what Seattle accomplished with their 2022 draft. It’s impressive. IF the Cardinals hit on more than a few picks from April(don’t believe anything that is said right now, proof will be on the field) then it’s a big step towards being ready for the 2025 season. Yes, 2025. This is the bottoming out year. Who knows what happens with Kyler Murray next March. 2024 is respectablility with a push upwards. 2025 is the next time I expect to have the conversation of “Cardinals Postseason” on our shows or platform.
Over at Always Something University, the NCAA ruling from the nonsense under the previous football regime sits off to the side. It’s not forgotten. It’s not going to just magically disappear. Not saying that there’s something that will come down the pike by December 31st, but WHEN a ruling(penalities?)comes down, the program can finally say the slate is clean for Kenny Dillingham and staff.
The lack of recruiting high-end local talent is now a thing of the past. Atleast now if a top player decides to leave the state the coaching staff actually did try and recruit them. The Bijan Robinson fiasco (number 8 OVERALL Pick in the rececnt NFL Draft) is one of many that should’ve never happend. It did. Case closed.
On the field getting to six wins would be a major step foward given the mess that this staff inherited. Yes, there will be draft picks on this team, but wins by the program on the field is my first metric of success…
Arizona gets to six or seven wins and has a handful of NFL Draft picks…
With the Final Four coming up next March, college basketball season will be fun. Bobby Hurley, Bryce Drew and Tommy Lloyd all will need “Hello my name is” cards for the first few weeks of practice. That’s the reality of today’s college basketball. All three are playing good schedules to open the season. All three will have better than avearge shots at making the field of 68…
Publically, we will hear about the growth of girls flag football into a high schoool sport. Privatly there will be a few on the boys side concerned about losing their precious field time. It’s like swim programs having their water taken away for Water Polo(which is a sport that the AIA should have, but swim coaches don’t want)…
The all-around best high school football player in Arizona will be JJ Newcombe at Casteel(Committed to Oklahoma)…
The Diamondbacks will have a postseaosn game conflict with PINK in concert at the ballpark on October 9th. Of course, if they stand pat at the trade deadline they won’t have to worry about the concert becasue they will miss the postseason…
The Coyotes will say “all is well” and most of us will say, “yes, we’ve been watching this movie since 1996 and we know how the ending goes”. Love going to hockey games. More than burned out on the “where are they going to play next”. Tempe voters overwhelmnigly said, what many of us have known to be true here in Maricopa County. Not hating, just pointing out facts…
If the Suns lose a game, it will be blamed on Deandre Ayton. If they lose a bunch early in the year, Ayton will be at the center of everything that is going wrong. I feel bad for him. Kid can’t win, but the kid has to grow…
Chris Paul and Monty Williams will get standing ovations when they return next year because that’s what we do here in Phoenix unless it’s the Morris twins or Robert Horry…
