Brownlow's Twitter Mailbag: Triangle coaches as surfers, is Duke done with one-and-dones and more

By Lauren Brownlow, WRALSportsFan columnist/reporter

It feels like the off-season has been going for a lot longer already, huh? I guess that's what happens when all the local teams get eliminated early in the NCAA Tournament. At least the Canes are around to keep things interesting. So this week, we'll get a little weird. We'll get into which Triangle coach is the best surfer, if Jon Scheyer is done with one-and-dones, what NIL's success for women's athletes means and what I think of this season of Survivor so far.

So let's get into it!

For the record, and for context, I'm in California for the wedding of a good friend. But I've never let a trip to California stop me from a Mailbag! Well, that's not true. I actually have. But not this time. I appreciate those of you who have reached out about how it's going traveling with long COVID. The short answer is I did a lot better than I thought that I would do, and I hope the same extends to the wedding itself.

Now to the question: Wow, this is a tough one. And weirdly it's tough because for football it's hard to find a coach I think would be particularly good at it and it's hard to figure out which basketball coach would be bad at it. If I had tino pick one of the football coaches, I guess I'd go with Dave Doeren by default. No offense to Mack Brown, but while age is nothing but a number, it's more than that in surfing. Doeren ... spends a lot of time on the water? Because he likes to fish? I don't know. Mike Elko does look like he could have sneakily good balance, but I think Doeren's weight distribution gives him a heads up.

So the real answer here has to be Kevin Keatts. All three current head coaches played college basketball, and all three are athletes who I'm sure have good balance. Jon Scheyer was a crafty finisher but was never exactly known for his ... body control. Hubert Davis I don't think would be bad at it necessarily. But Kevin Keatts strikes me as the type of dude who's never seen a surfboard before and yet hops right on like it's nothing catches the first wave he sees. He's just a smooth guy. So it's Keatts.

I actually don't think he's abandoning it at all! I mean, look at next year's recruiting class if you don't believe ME. Per 24/7 Sports, Duke has the No. 7, 12, 19, 26 and 28 players in this class. Generally speaking, the higher your ranking is, the better you're expected to do in the NBA. I think what Scheyer is trying to do is embrace the reality of this day and time, meaning that he'll always put the needs of his team first but if he can play a valued leader like a Jeremy Roach and keep him around, he will. If he can bring in a glue guy that can fill a depth role like a Ryan Young, he will. And what NIL has meant for EVERYONE is that guys are apt to stay a little longer since they can start earning money now and don't have to wait for the G League or the NBA or even overseas money.

Before, the choice was binary: make money now or stay and don't. Now, you can stay — and even better your situation by transferring to a team that best fits your needs — instead of going pro. Now, it's not the only option. So if Scheyer can have talented experience that fits his roster, he'll bring it in. But make no mistake — he's not going to stop recruiting the types of talents that are capable of going pro after a year, a la Kyle Filipowski. I mean, Dereck Lively and Dariq Whitehead declared, right? It's not like EVERYONE is staying. Having that balance and continuity and adding a few transfer pieces where possible, though? Yes.

Not to oversimplify an answer to your question, but I think it says that the WNBA is becoming a more and more popular product and perhaps it should pay its popular players more. But it also says that NIL can bridge the gap between the haves and have nots when the have nots have traditionally been women's basketball stars who can't capitalize on their fame. They've often been poised to take the leap via building up their own social media followings and showing business savvy. I think it's fantastic that they can finally cash in.

Some of you are aware that early on after I was diagnosed with long COVID, just about the only thing I could do was watch television. Early on in my illness, my friends that were big Survivor heads convinced me to watch. And so I did. And I watched the whole thing. That's right — I've watched every season of the show now. Some I'd sooner throw into the sun than watch again, but hey.

As for what I think about this season? This probably sums it up but I am not caught up with it. I have had a hard time connecting with the cast (at least in the first four episodes I've seen) and an even harder time connecting with the game play. It used to be that an immunity idol was a commodity and now they're in the game everywhere and I can't even keep track of which player has which advantage anymore.

Some of it might be that last season, it was easy to get attached to people like Karla and Durham native Jesse, both of whom I was rooting for really hard. I wasn't mad that Gabler won and I even understand the rationale. What I'm more frustrated with is that people want to reward that kind of game play where basically his strategy was ... seeming incompetent. But it's kind of just what it is at this point. Make flashy moves, get sent home. Make flashy moves that make no sense and make people think you're crazy, stay. Convince people to make flashy moves in a way that makes them think it's their idea, win the game. But you try doing that. It's not easy.

I'm also pretty darned tired of all the women getting voted out pre-merge. It's a trend at this point. Get rid of the three tribes and go back down to two, Jeff Probst, so that women and marginalized groups aren't all voted out in the first few votes for "tribe strength".