Happy New Year everyone! Hopefully all the Christmas leftovers have firmly been removed from your fridge, if not, it’s your life and your insides at risk. But I come to you in place of Andrew with a bit of an abridged Five Out but concentrated with hate. I made a New Year’s resolution to be a more tactical hater so I’m gonna test it out her, so let’s get into it.

Conference play has given us some incredibly lit matchups already and that could just be the byproduct of college basketball, but I for one will never miss an opportunity to whack Kim Mulkey. This year’s non-conference schedule left us counting down the days until 2026 when meaningful basketball would be played. Now some of that was due to injury as we saw the Battle of the Real USC fall victim to, but a lot of it was due to a number of coaches taking a step back from gauntlet style scheduling. I’m saying some, not all!

But realistically they can’t punish everybody for soft scheduling so if there’s no real consequence or reward then it makes sense to just coast until you don’t have to. This was my guiding principle in high school. And in the same way I was still able to graduate with honors and a scholarship to a prestigious four-year university, Mulkey was able to ride a soft non-con all the way to a National Championship so now it really becomes, why would I do anything different? This year she knows she doesn’t have the squad as seen in her postgame comments following the Tigers’ loss to Vanderbilt.

“If we hadn’t played that schedule, we might be sitting here with a lot of losses.”

Bruh yikes, but hooray for self-awareness?

So with that aforementioned quote, I believe Mulkey should have her felt held to the fire more than MiLaysia Fulwiley or Flau’jae Johnson. Every reader just let out the fakest gasp imaginable, I know. But in all seriousness, after a conversation on our live (found on our YouTube channel!) about Hannah Hidalgo and the expectations placed on her, I raised the question “what about Niele Ivey?” Every Notre Dame shortcoming can’t be placed solely on a 5’6” guard that continuously flirts with a quintuple-double. At some point we have to look at the head hauncho and what system they have in place and if that’s truly allowing maximizing their team’s talents. If you feel a player’s regressed or stagnated, that’s fine but we can’t get to the root of the why without first going through the coach.

In the case of Mulkey and LSU, she played a cupcake schedule, and they’re still not prepared. We still don’t’ know what’s going on with them from a point guard standpoint, the three-headed monster approach at the guard position hasn’t panned out so far and that has to be on Mulkey. Why would you have play 15 straight games of lesser opponents if not to find your identity and work out the kinks? What was the point of all of that then? I was being hyperbolic and a supreme hater last night when I said fire Kim Mukley, but I’m being serious when I saw the shortcomings of her team must be viewed through her and what she is or isn’t doing as a coach. If nothing else, I’ll make sure of it.

Boy that job lookin like a nightmare, I’m not gone hold y’all. Soft non-con Armageddon means everybody’s got like 15 wins and 2 losses but then when the Phantoms pull up suddenly all of the Chrysler 300s start living in their truth. With that said, the voters still have to sort through all of that and I do not envy them one bit.

On the flip side, you really have to be locked in and WATCHING what’s going on to really assess who’s who and what’s what. We talked about it at the start of the season that there are some mid-major teams and players that are really making some waves and they deserve that respect come tournament time. They won’t get that if people don’t start tuning into them and acknowledge what they’re doing until conference tournaments. Voters get in on the ground floor with Howard University, and we’ll ride the MEAC to the moon, I promise you.

But seriously, there are some mid majors that were on their grind during the great non-con powerhouse recession and hopefully those wins work in their favor going forward.

Ok so the that last subpoint that the voters and powers that be actually have to watch this year to know what’s going on? The storylines are in there as well. Mikayla Blakes has been an absolute bucket with two (2) 50- point games on her resume as a, wait for it, SOPHOMORE. We saw Syla Swords push UConn to its limit earlier this season and what Liv McGill is doing down in Gainsville is downright silly. This is a year where mainstream media has to pay attention and I cannot stress this enough though I will continue to.

When Caitlin Clark was set to break the NCAA scoring record what feels like a lifetime ago, the big gripe was why no one was giving pioneers Pearl Moore and Lynette Woodard their flowers. My question then and still now is why wasn’t anyone doing that leading up to her breaking the record? Why did everyone expect us to stop celebrating what’s going on right now for a history lesson? The media absolutely dropped the ball and I feel like now is the time to atone. The game is growing by leaps and bounds and now is the time for introducing the general populace to as many names and stories as possible and there’s nothings stopping anyone from doing such. Go out my wayward journos and find the story.

Unrivaled was dealt a huge blow last week when news hit of Napheesa Collier needing surgery on all both of her ankles. So with no Angel Reese this season the next in line for the motion is Paige Bueckers. We all know how highly touted a recruit Paige was coming into college because the man that discovered her in the 6th grade won’t ever let us forget it (and I wouldn’t either, however, I’m hating right now so roll with me) and now we get to see if the media darling that took the college world by storm her freshman year can recreate some magic and carry the league as arguably the biggest star there. Well Stewie too, but she’s in her keep it lowkey, mysterious mother phase so I’m not counting her until they meet on queen of the court one-on-one then it’s time to give Muva Stew her things. With CBA talks still…not really talking, Unrivaled may have to fill in the void because I’m still not watching Plan B league. They can keep that on the Saudi News Network, I’m good. And this is nothing more than me stirring the pot in the ongoing white girl war. Greer had me wearing that hot behind UConn shooting shirt in got dern Tampa Florida so I will get my lick back no matter what. Good luck Paige and may the ratings ever be in your favor.