2021 Macadoodle's Mailbag: 11th Edition

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GD: Popular topic this week. Let's start with the fact that I don't cover Kansas, I haven't followed the details of it incredibly closely and I recommend not trying to make a living guessing what the NCAA is going to do. All that aside, everyone is under the assumption they're going to get hammered. Like multi-year postseason ban hammered. We'll see. I understand the skepticism until it actually happens. If it doesn't happen (and LSU doesn't go right along with them), the NCAA has sent the message to every coach in America, "Go ahead and pay players. We don't care that much."

GD: Yes, basketball is profitable. It is the only team at Missouri that makes more money than it costs other than football. Last fiscal year, (July 2019 to June 2020), basketball made approximately $1.7 million. Revenue was around $10.8 million and cost was about $9.1 million. That's probably less than in some past years due to ticket sales that were a little lower than in years past.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what the program is worth, though, because the SEC doled out about $45 million to each school which is largely based on media rights. How much of that is due to basketball? I don't really know how to figure that out exactly. But the basketball program makes money.

As far as Sterk's ranking, I don't really follow other athletic departments well enough to assess that. He's overall done a solid job here. Most importantly, he's hired a football coach that has everyone excited. That's the No. 1 job of any AD (it saved Mike Alden through multiple missteps in basketball). As long as your football coach is doing well, you're on fine footing as an AD at most power conference schools.

On the pick em, I'm not sure what I'm picking. Who I like more? Uniforms? Football teams? Who will go further in the tournament?

GD: The Kentucky team that went 38-1 (and didn't win the national title) was incredible. But they didn't win it, so I guess they can't be the best. I think the best of my lifetime has to be UNLV from 1989 to 1991. In 89-90, the Rebels had Stacy Augmon, Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony, Anderson Hunt and David Butler, all of whom averaged double figures. They went 35-5 (somehow including losses to New Mexico State and UC-Santa Barbara) and won the national title. Somehow Ball State came within two points of them in the Sweet 16, but they ran Loyola Marymount by 30 in the Elite Eight, beat the Lethal Weapon 3 team from Georgia Tech by nine in the national semis and then humiliated Duke by 30 in the national title game. The next year, they were actually even better. They were a wire to wire No. 1. They won their first 34 games and Georgetown, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, was the only team to lose by fewer than 12 points. But Duke got revenge in the national semis and UNLV finished the season 34-1. But that was the best team I've ever seen in college basketball I think.