SU is back in action with some thoughts about the Rio Olympics:

• Ryan Lochte: a lesson learned for any athlete caught in the act.  Today there are video cameras everywhere.  Best to come clean and avoid throwing your teammates under the bus.  The meter is still running on how many millions of dollars in endorsements he has lost.  However, Americans are always willing to forgive and you just don’t know where the final story is going to land here.  I mean even A-Rod is a sympathetic character these days – at least in NY.  What is especially disturbing is that at 32 years of age, he should have been the sage, wiser member of that group in terms of what to do.  Instead, it appears that he put his teammates in jeopardy by acting out.
• US Women’s Basketball Team: that was some roster.  SU only saw the finals game but they played so unselfishly.  SU loved that they had 5 UConn players on the team and 4 of the 5 started the championship game.  I have always said that the WNBA should take all of the UConn players and put them on one team.  Now that would be fun to watch.  Diana Taurasi summed it up well that all of the players had to sacrifice for the good of the team.
• US Men’s Basketball Team: you know, they were only missing a couple of star players in LeBron and Curry.  The roster was good enough to blow away any team if they played team ball.  But this group was not capable of that.  There was one sequence yesterday where the ball really whizzed around the court resulting in a Thompson 3-pointer from the corner.  But that didn’t happen enough – if at all.  SU thinks part of the problem was that Kyrie Irving was the point guard.  He is a shoot first point guard and that just plays into one-on-one ball.  Team USA would have been well-served by having a true point guard on the roster.  Carmelo announced his retirement from the Olympic team and was surprisingly ineffective in the gold medal game.  You wonder if his skills are starting to diminish.
• Michael Phelps: great champion, etc.  I must say that I didn’t like the self-promotion in the pool after each victory.  I mean we get it right?  SU has always been a proponent of “act like you’ve been there before.”  Now that would be cool.
• Juan Martin Del Potro: most of you didn’t see any of the tennis.  In fact, SU only saw the finals as I finally figured out that NBC was televising this on the Bravo Network (who knew?).  But that guy had some run beating Djokovic and Nadal before falling to Murray in the gold medal match in 4 tough sets.  He will be a wild card in the US Open and some top seed is going to have to play him in the early rounds.  Where he is placed in the draw is going to be huge.  Good guy coming back from multiple wrist injuries.   Great for the sport to have him back.
• Women’s Gymnastics: US team was the best ever.  An easy team to root for.
• Men’s Soccer: SU caught the end of the gold medal game between Germany and Brazil.  Of course, it came down to penalty kicks.  It’s so ridiculous.

SU watched more than I thought I would.  Good stuff.  The Americans won a ton of medals although the absence of Russia in track and field no doubt had a little to do with that.

The Mets won 2 huge games in SF this weekend and that might give them a little momentum now as they head into the home stretch.  Joe Girardi put out the Clay Bellinger line up yesterday by starting Texeiria and resting the youngsters and paid the price.  It’s time to give Texeiria the Posada treatment in his last year and bat him 8th with little playing time.  He still can’t get over .200.  SU says keep the youngsters out there every game and no rest days please.  They are 24 years old.

Finally, SU is starting pay attention to football – both college and pro.  We will make the transition by moving resources internally.