Inside Yolk

Wow, we finally made it to Sunday. Yesterday was one of my best college football gambling days in a while, and I went .500, so that should tell you all you need to know about my year so far. Let’s start at the beginning, when everything was rosy and nice; when the Michigan vs. Maryland game went exactly as I planned it to go.

Michigan returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and pounded out a 38-7 road win in smash-mouth fashion. The Wolverines weren’t even that great on offense, but their defense so thoroughly dominated Maryland that the spread barely came into question. Michigan added its second touchdown on a Zach Charbonnet rush before the 10-minute mark of the first quarter and cruised the rest of the way.

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It’s Gameday. Penn State is off this week as James Franklin locks in his plans to ruin Minnesota’s perfect season — the Lions are simply more battle tested than the Gophers, lay the points — but there is still plenty of fun football action to watch today. The Big Ten may be mostly on bye and the SEC slate is just one big game, but that just means the Pac-12 and AAC get to shine. Don’t screw it up, guys. With the ACC stumbling around on a bender this year, one of you might be considered a major conference with a good showing today.

The biggest game of the day is the Cocktail Party in Jacksonville. Georgia (-6.5) and Florida go head-to-head in a battle to play spoiler in the SEC Championship game. The line feels like a trap because of Georgia’s struggles in the passing game lately. Jake Fromm threw for just 35 yards against Kentucky two weeks ago, but that game was played in a tropical storm. The week before at South Carolina, he completed just 55 percent of his throws and threw three picks. Fromm should be better against Florida, but I don’t think it will be enough to pull away from the Gators, who are coming off a game against the Gamecocks in which they gave up 7.0 yards per rush to Tavien Feaster and still won by 11. Gotta take the points in the rivalry game.

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The NBA Draft is more than a little ridiculous. As sports fans, we hate when great players get stuck on bad teams, but every year we stand by and watch dysfunctional franchises get rewarded with the cream of the amateur basketball crop. Sometimes it works out with teams like Oklahoma City and Philadelphia building strong teams with multiple top-five picks. Other times, you get a complete bust like Anthony Bennett or a case like Anthony Davis in which the team that drafted him can’t build a decent squad and ends up having to field trade offers, resetting the cycle of suck.

The Knicks figure to be big players in the free agent market if they are lucky enough to draft Zion Williamson in June. That comes down to their 14-percent shot at the top pick coming up golden in tonight’s NBA Draft Lottery. Williamson looks like the kind of can’t-miss prospect that we only see come around every few years. He’s one guy who it isn’t crazy to talk about as the next LeBron James. He’s got the size, strength, and athleticism. Plus, he’s skilled around the rim and appears to be getting better at shooting the ball. Finally, the Knicks have been the right amount of bad at the right time.

Still, thanks to the new lottery rules, there is an 86-percent chance that New York will be drafting someone else next month. That is a little sobering, but Murray State’s Ja Morant looks like a point guard that you can build a franchise around. There’s also Williamson’s teammate RJ Barrett, a small forward who is doesn’t not have Zion’s intimidating size, but might be a little more skilled. The Knicks are almost certain to end up with an incredibly exciting prospect, but it will seem like a lost chance if that man isn’t Williamson. The hype train has built the big man up to where he’s on another level than all the other draftees.

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While working at SiriusXM on Barstool Radio, I sometimes put together 30-second spots that are played on other stations to promote the channel. It’s sometimes challenging to squeeze down a very funny segment or rant into the time frame provided, but the result can be satisfying. I love being able to share the weird stuff that the Barstool talent says on a daily basis. Here are some of my favorite examples.

KFC compares the 76ers and Markelle Fultz to a failing marriage

KFC’s thoughts on the strange people who eat the Filet-O-Fish at McDonald’s

Ria from Chicks in the Office struggles with the concept of a leap year

Also from CITO, Fran and her date got Diet Cokes, but Ria thought they were going hard

I’m annoyed with the Mets. They got off to a decent enough start this season. Beat the Nationals a couple of time, beat up on the Marlins, split with the Braves on the road. Nothing mind-blowing, but it was a solid start to a campaign that we needed a good start for. With so much competition in the National League East and the Central threatening to hog both Wild Card spots, the Mets needed to start hot in order to compete with a roster that’s not top-to-bottom as talented as Washington’s or Philadelphia’s.

The weird part is how the Mets won 10 of their first 16 games. They did it by allowing a bunch of runs but also scoring a bunch. It’s a template that the opposite of how the team was built to win. With Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Zack Wheeler, and Steven Matz headlining the rotation, this is a team that’s supposed to win with strong starting pitching. Instead, Syndergaard and Wheeler have struggled while deGrom and Matz fell down to Earth after dominating in their first two outings. The bullpen has been worse, with none of the middle relief options emerging as a reliable entity.

My instinct is that the pitching will stay the same — it’s impossible for deGrom to be as good as he was last year anyway, and Syndergaard has always been more about style than substance — while the hitting comes crashing down. Maybe that won’t happen, though. This team hasn’t even needed Robinson Cano to play well in order to score almost six runs per game. Instead, Jeff McNeil has just kept on raking and Pete Alonso is hitting moon bombs all over the yard. Wilson Ramos has given the Mets a legitimate offensive threat at catcher and Michael Conforto could be beginning the consistently great season we’ve been waiting so long for.

Can it continue? McNeil is a contact machine who legitimately looks like another Daniel Murphy, and Conforto is making more contact than he usually does as well. Those are both good signs, but Alonso I could see slumping because he’s already striking out in 30 percent of his plate appearances and it doesn’t seem like opposing pitchers have figured him out yet. In a key spot against Philadelphia on Wednesday, he struck out on a ball in the dirt, but he’s also shown enough willingness to take walks that him mashing all year like Aaron Judge’s rookie season isn’t out of the question.

The emergence of J.D. Davis is truly weird, but maybe not insane since he did mash Triple-A pitching in Houston’s system. Hopefully he’ll stay hot long enough to cause issues when Jed Lowrie is ready for action. Or, more realistically, Cano or someone else will be hurt when that happens.

Speaking of getting hurt, the latest news out of New York is that Jacob deGrom is getting an MRI for his “barking” elbow.

That’s not great! And New York’s pitching rotation is already so paper-thin that the brass is trying to convince fans that Jason Vargas is still fit to take the hill every fifth game. Seth Lugo is someone who could shift from the bullpen to the rotation quickly, but that would only weaken the relief corps. Beyond Lugo and Vargas, the call-up options are guys like Corey Oswalt and Chris Flexen who were never hot prospect to begin with and have already proven lousy at the major league level.

If deGrom’s injury is as serious as fans are already assuming, the Mets are in big trouble. The only good thing that could come out of it would be ownership getting desperate enough to sign Dallas Keuchel, the former Houston ace who has been worth at least two WAR in each of the last five seasons. With the way the rest of the staff has pitched, deGrom is perhaps the most important player on the Mets, and replacing him with Keuchel might be the only way to keep opponents from scoring five or six runs every game.

But that’s all hinging on the MRI result. Maybe it won’t be as bad as we’re all fearing? Nah, this is the Mets we’re talking about.

What’s going on tonight

It’s the first night of Passover! As soon as I can get away from the Seder, I’ll have to check on how the Mets are doing in their series opener in St. Louis. Jason Vargas is starting for New York, and if he struggles again, fans will probably riot. Classic Mets villain Adam Wainwright will be toeing the rubber for the Cardinals.

Brandon Nimmo will miss his second straight game due to a stiff neck. Having McNeil at the top of the order is even better, but it was fun seeing Nimms start to heat up. Juan Lagares in center field hasn’t been as fun lately.

The top of that St. Louis order is scary, especially considering how seriously Marcell Ozuna is raking lately. Paul Goldschmidt is still a superstar, and Paul DeJong is one of the most underrated players in the majors… just not to Mets fans.

Elsewhere, the Yankees host Kansas City and the Dodgers are in Milwaukee for an NLCS rematch. Los Angeles took the first game last night thanks to a dominant Julio Urias performance.

It almost freaking happened. Penn State almost blew a 20-point lead to Rutgers on Wednesday, but in the end, a dominant first half — after which the Lions led 37-19 — was enough to propel this team to victory. Penn State did a great job controlling the glass and forcing Rutgers turnovers during the first half. With the way the Knights were providing fast-break opportunities and missing bad shots, it seemed like the rest of the game would be a breeze. You know how it is with Penn State, though. The Lions were bullied by Rutgers in offensive rebounding in the second half, the turnovers dried up, and the Knights finally started hitting some shots.

If it wasn’t for a few clutch buckets by Lamar Stevens and Josh Reaves, along with a defensive stand in the final seconds in which Rutgers’ freshman center Myles Johnson appeared to pass up a game-winning layup opportunity, the result might have been different. But Penn State did just enough to win and even the season series with Rutgers. That sets up an opportunity for the Lions to snag a first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament with a win against Illinois at home and a Rutgers loss to Indiana.

I know, I didn’t think it was possible either, but the tiebreaker scenarios will favor Penn State if it finishes at 7-13 alongside Rutgers and Illinois. If that happens, Penn State’s sweep of the Illini and 1-1 record against the Knights will give it a 3-1 record among tied teams and a ticket to 10th place in the Big Ten. That’s good enough to get a day off when the league tournament tips off on Wednesday night. Not bad for a team that lost its first 10 Big Ten games this season.

Since dropping a home game to Penn State on February 23, Illinois has a win over Northwestern, but it’s also been blown out by Purdue and Indiana. Even better, the Illini have been dreadful on the road this season, going 2-7 in Big Ten play, and one of those wins was a Maryland “home” game at Madison Square Garden.

Defense has been an issue for Illinois lately, with both Purdue and Indiana each shooting 55 percent from the field. When Penn State last visited Champaign, Lamar Stevens had himself a day, scoring 25 points on just 12 shots, and the Lions won 83-76 despite turning the ball over 17 times. With the way Penn State has been playing lately, failing to sweep Illinois today would come as a pretty big disappointment.