RANKINGS: 2019 Rivals150 | 2020 Rivals150 | 2019 Team Rankings

Here is your weekend primer, a five-pack of nuggets from Dan McDonald. He wants a rule change, makes a McDonald's Game MVP pick and gives a recruiting update on a five-star.

If you follow me on Twitter, and you absolutely should, you know my stance on this. The help-side charge call in basketball is without question the worst rule in all of sports.

I’ll lay out a few reasons for you that I feel this way. Let’s start with it being impossible for referees to get the call right more than 50 percent of the time. That leads me to my next reason, which is that it is an awful way to get the most talented and exciting players into foul trouble and onto the bench. And lastly, I just don’t think it’s a safe play for defenders to be flopping under a guy going through the air to draw contact for a foul.

I would hate to see some team’s eighth man come in and take a charge on Zion Williamson when he’s going up for a dunk, they make contact before he gets to the rim, and he puts his wrist down to catch himself and breaks his wrist, which takes him out of the NCAA Tournament. Basketball is the sport for the best athletes in the world to play. My eyes enjoy watching those top athletes stay on the court and I would like for them to be encouraged to attack the basket without fear of being called for a charge by some lesser athlete sliding under him.

Here is my solution for the problem. When we eliminate the help-side charge, we encourage coaches to teach their players to contest lay-ups or dunks at the rim but to go in with arms straight up, keeping verticality to the best of their ability. Encourage referees to let more contact go at the rim and only call the foul if the contact is excessive or the defender comes in swatting hard and creates contact. This keeps big men going for blocks out of foul trouble, keeps offensive players from getting into foul trouble from charges, and leads to more conflict at the rim, which is a win for fans in my opinion.

Feel free to @ me, @DMcDonaldRivals.

The 2019 McDonald’s All-American Game rosters came out on Thursday. To nobody’s surprise, five-star guard Anthony Edwards was picked to play on the East team. I’m going to take it a step further with my prediction. Given that I think he’s the best player in the country and the game is being played in his hometown of Atlanta at the State Farm Arena, I’m predicting he puts on an incredible show and wins the MVP.

Four-star guard Cassius Stanley is sticking with his plans to announce a commitment on April 17. That puts us at just under three months out from a decision. He has had his list sitting at three with Kansas, Oregon and UCLA remaining.

UCLA is obviously the wildcard in this one, given the Bruins recently fired Steve Alford and do not have a permanent replacement in place yet. If UCLA can get a coach hired and give him a few weeks to recruit Stanley, it would be wise not to count them out as many believe he has always preferred to stay home for college. If not UCLA, my personal prediction would be Oregon. The Ducks have become a recruiting juggernaut over the past few years and have hung in there with Stanley for a while now. This one is far from over though.

One of my favorite stories in college basketball that has developed over the past few years is how Rick Barnes has built up Tennessee since being fired at Texas. He took some lumps early as the Volunteers were not in great shape when he arrived. He and his staff stuck to their plan though and recruited players that, regardless of where they were ranked by recruiting services, fit into the culture they wanted to build in Knoxville.

The plan has worked to perfection and he now has Tennessee sitting at No. 1 overall in the rankings for only the second time in school history. If you have watched Tennessee at all this year, the best trait they have is just how consistent they are. They also can beat you playing in the 90’s or if you want to slow it down and play in the 50’s or 60’s.

Going along with this, Grant Williams is my player of the week. Williams was terrific for Tennessee in holding off Vanderbilt on Wednesday as he went for 43 points and eight rebounds. He made all 23 of his free throw attempts! The former three-star prospect who didn’t appear in the Rivals150 deserves strong consideration for player of the year. Tennessee was the only high-major program to make him a priority out of high school and he’s rewarded their belief in him by working his tail off to become the face of the program.

I have so much respect for the way Barnes has rebuilt his program, and it gives hope to other programs in similar positions to believe you can hire the right coach and win without signing the most highly ranked players.

Last week was a little better for the picks as we went 2-3 on the college hoops picks and 2-2 on the NFL picks if you decided to take the overs, but it’s still not good enough. We’re going to win big this week, although I understand if you feel like fading my picks is the right play.

I know we missed on Buffalo last week, but coming off a loss at Northern Illinois earlier this week, I think we get a locked in Buffalo team at Kent State. Take the Bulls (-8.5) here. Indiana has lost five straight and I think Michigan is the best team in the country. Let’s go with the Wolverines (-4.5) to get a 10-point win at Assembly Hall. LaVall Jordan has Butler playing some pretty good basketball lately, so let’s take the Bulldogs (+2.5) tonight on the road at Creighton. In a rematch between Brown and Yale, take Brown (+7) to bounce back from last week’s three-point loss at home.

And lastly, we are going to give out an early Super Bowl prop bet to get in on. Todd Gurley at +1100 to be Super Bowl MVP feels like good value. The line has already moved from opening as high as +1600. If you think the Rams are going to win, you have to jump on this one. Something wasn’t right with him last weekend, whether he was injured or sick, but the two-week break before the game gives him plenty of time to heal up and play like the best running back in football.