The Hot/Cold List - MLP Quarterfinals Edition
Who was rising with solar powered heat to new heights? Who was falling into the freezing abyss. And who came through when needed most. Here's this week's Hot/Cold List:
The Cold (from Blizzard to Breezy Day)
Lea Jansen – listen, I don’t want to beat anyone up. But this is a professional sport broadcast on tv, opening up the players to big attention, great income, great praise, and great criticism. And I make no judgments here about anything relating to Lea or any of the players on this list on a personal level. I talk about what I see on the court, and nearly every time I watch Lea she is dumping ball after ball into the net. Her play is so low quality that I can’t believe she is a top ten pick! Or that she was a starter for a playoff team this year! I’m genuinely asking: are there not enough quality women in the world that Lea still has a roster spot and is still a starter? While her play is staggeringly inconsistent, her poor sportsmanship and complaining have been remarkably consistent. The Iceberg!
Tyra Black – I find her to be extremely likeable. She is pure hustle, diving for the ball, extending the play. But when the Columbus Sliders go “win-now” mode and trade away two promising prospects for you, you are expected to deliver. She seemed rusty and as if the moment was too big for her. She also was unable to impact the game and when it mattered most, came up with l’s. I’m hoping she has a great 2027 campaign but for now she is in an igloo.
Anna Leigh Waters & Noe Khlif – uh, what did I just watch? The #1 seed 5’s #1 mixed team (say that 5 times fast) were getting beat so bad, they stacked Anna Leigh on the left. The Palm Beach Royals, after freaking out initially in reaction to the 5’s reverse stack (including the Royals, trying their own reverse stack which lasted for about 1 point), they calmed down and began to slow the pace, dinking to Noe (who was now on his weaker side) until they got a pop-up and pulled it down the line on the helpless Anna Leigh multiple times. I’m just a guy who watches this sport recreationally, but if the opposing gm’s and coaches are worth their pay, they should have the same game plan. It doesn’t look like the 5’s have an answer either. Will we see an ALW/Staksrud combo in the next round? Either way, ALW & Khlif were ice cold all weekend.
1. Ben Johns & the Mad Drops – with great power (& praise) comes great responsibility. Ben Johns is fantastic and I believe he was the second best individual player in the entire playoff (someone else took top billing). And perhaps the rest of the Mad Drops are incredibly weak, and if we take Johns off and replace him with any other player they are perhaps not even in the playoffs. But – Johns stumbled hard on Sunday in the elimination match. So many errors, so many pop-ups by Johns himself. It’s hard to look at his individual play yesterday and say, Oh yeah, that’s a champion. Here’s an open secret that Johns seems to forget sometimes: like it or not, MLP is a team sport. If I were Johns’s best friend, I would have him watch everything he could on Tom Brady, who also played a team sport, and who viewed influencing his teammates as a vital skill that could be improved. Since the Mad Drops took a premature ice slide out of the playoffs, Johns will have some time to think and hopefully grow.
Hot List (from terrestrial fire to interplanetary blaze)
Anna Bright, Hayden Patriquin, Gabe Tardio: The Shock came into town, left the charred corpse of their opponent and then hit the exit. To most people, the Shock underachieved last year. Looking to make up for lost time, they are locked in and dangerous. The only reason they aren’t higher up on the Hot List is that their playoff match was one way traffic. Not a lot of excitement, just demolition, a raging inferno eating matchsticks.
The Flick Wizard, JW Johnson – maybe the weirdest dude in all of pickleball. But I love him for it. He has less emotion than the stoplight at the corner. He dominated Ben Johns in the match 2 dreambreaker and straight ran over him on Sunday. His lateral movement was on fire, pressure, pressure, pressure. How do other teams gameplan against him? He’s like a granite wall with hands of lightning. He’s an MLP champion but an underdog this year. Well, he just made goat soup out of Ben Johns and something tells me he is not done yet.
Rachel Rohrabacher – A bye would have been ideal for Rachel. Having far less than two good legs, she could have used a rest. Alas Brooklyn had to battle through the first round and then fight a weathered and dangerous Columbus Sliders team. Due to injury, Rachel was in and out of the lineup – but when it mattered most she was there playing and winning. She does a little of everything: coaching, cheerleading, defense, offense. She was clutch and seems like the glue holding this patchwork rocket together. I believe they have the potential to win it all.
Christian Alshon – Speaking of rockets, no one had a greater impact over the weekend. When the men were down early to the Sliders yesterday, Alshon told Riley to move over and launched them into overdrive. He drives so hard, counters so well, and makes adjustments. At times, he seemed like a more athletic Ben Johns. He then absolutely brutalized Daescu in the dreambreaker. Alshon is so mercurial, I could see him ending up on next week’s ice cold list or I could see him hoisting the champion’s cup. Breaking the other team’s back with a winner, and then pumping his hands to the crowd, Christian was straight fire.