Greetings and attention readers; your leftovers, much like these takes, are still good! Hope everyone had a good holiday break, because we got some good holiday hoops so let’s get into it. 

Over the last few days we got a few matchups spicier than Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning (not an ad that stuff just a little hot). Texas and South Carolina lined it up for what felt like the 100th time in a calendar year, but the game did not disappoint. When we last left these two a season ago, Madison Booker was talking cash s— about how they can’t guard her and it sparked a get back game of sorts for the Gamecocks. This year Texas drew first blood with a 66-64 win and the two will meet back up in January in South Carolina. I’m ready to call it a rivalry. The spice is there, the history between the coaches is there and most importantly, the wins for both teams are there. While my Cocks’ wins have been bigger, it still matters that Texas has established themselves as a force in the SEC just 45 mins after joining by getting a few wins over USC since they’ve been here and that’s the key separator between them and LSWho, who can’t seem to muster a win no matter what we do, but I digress. UCLA got a 22-point win over UCLA the other day and gave us arguably the clip of the year. Janiah Barker briefly shook hands with former coach Cori Close and then kinda pushed her off before any further action happened, which led Cori to give us the now infamous shrug. No idea what happened between those two to get that type of interaction but both kept it cute in the pressers so we’ll monitor later if the March Madness script writers do their job.

So speaking of mess, Adia Barnes dropped an insane quote a few months ago after taking the SMU job that it is now time to revisit. 

“It’s just a fact, if you look across the country, if you look at all the recent hires, they’ve all hired mid-major, underqualified people, because they don’t really care,” Barnes said during her introductory press conference back in April. 

Now to be fair, the comment seemed to be directed at her former employer Arizona, but she fired so wildly that she actually ended up shooting herself in the foot. Let’s start with Arizona. Former Buffalo head coach and Adia’s replacement Becky Burke has them at 6-0 lmfaooooooooooo. Moving over to Arizona State, Grand Canyon’s former wonderkid Molly Miller has them at 8-0 LMFAOOOOOOOOOOO. Let’s get P4 wit it. Former HBCU coach Larry Vickers made the move from Norfolk State to Auburn and has them at 8-0 too HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. But Chauny, have those three teams played anybody? Ehh, not really, but neither has SMU who is currently 3-5 with losses to North Texas, GRAND CANYON and Saint Louis on the resume to go with Ls to Kansas State and Texas Tech. Oof, and I cannot stress this enough. Adia sister…good luck lmfaoooooooo. 

The WNBA needs a moratorium on streaming/podding/internetting in general. We need to let All-Star weekend be the one shining moment and move on, because I’m TIRED! Both Stud and Bud are entrenched in a beef with Gabby Williams out of nowhere after she hopped on Azzi’s podcast to tell Courtney Williams to leave her be. Then Chennedy Carter decided we simply were way too peaceful and shook stuff up when she responded to streamer N3ON’s claims that his clip of them playing 1v1 is what kept her out of the league. Mind you the issue is he’s racist, but ok. Anyway, Chennedy tweeted she’d get back on his stream and girl, I guess. All this comes after whatever tf Na’Lyssa and Dijonai had going on the other week in addition to Sophie Cunningham talking and chatting and I repeat, I’m tired. All of these things feel abnormal typing, and all of it I’ve seen against my will. No internet access in the new CBA. 

Speaking of the CBA, there’s been another extension, yay! Now, instead of saying no today, the players will say no in January to kick off 2026. Interesting developments in said negotiations have surfaced literally this morning as Annie Costabile reported the league has proposed cutting team housing and a much earlier mid-March season start date. To quote Jim Halpart, “yikes.” So to counter the step forward they took in bringing 1 million dollar salaries to the table as reported the other week, the league said we’re gonna have to screw you over a bit and make it so that top college talent would have to sit out or join a team 10 mins after winning a championship??? The logistics of a mid-March start date aren’t super clear but still sound really awful off rip. 

ONCE IN A GENERATION, EVERY YEAR

Since I mentioned top college talent, I’d like to go back to a clip that just came out involving Cheryl Reeve. The inevitable Hall of Fame coach and known straight shooter was addressing a crowd and what appeared to be a local TGIFridays but is absolutely not confirmed. In the clip she started by getting fans to name players in this year’s upcoming draft and it was a little embarrassing, but they did it. She then made note that there are no generational players in this year’s draft. Hot take…I agree. We’ve been spoiled by big names the last few years who, in my opinion, are generational, but the fact of the matter is if everyone’s generational every year, then the word has no meaning. TO ME, I, CHAUNY, my definition of generational is someone who is capable of changing the entire trajectory of a franchise by being That Girl en route to the Hall of Fame. This is a player you simply cannot pass on or it will haunt you for the rest of your life after getting you fired. This draft has many good players who will more than likely develop into great players, but no generational talents and that’s fine! 

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