By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – What’s my beef, my gripe?

Here are five involving sports that I want to share with you.

Don’t get me wrong, the good still far outweighs the bad with sports, even in this crazy age of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness.

But these are five things/decisions that leave much to be desired from my standpoint.

1. Caitlin Clark being left off the Olympic team: The former Iowa star is now easily one of the top guards in the WNBA and by far its biggest draw.

She does commit a lot of turnovers, but some aren’t her fault because there are times when her teammates fail to catch her passes because they aren’t used to getting passes in those situations.

Clark’s vision, her anticipation and her willingness to pass separates her from perhaps every player in the WNBA right now.

The fact that she didn’t get picked for the Olympic team isn’t egregious or part of a conspiracy because the players who made the team are all deserving and very talented.

It just doesn’t make sense for reasons on and off the court.

One of the reasons given for why Clark was left off the Olympic team is because she never has represented the United States in international play, so she has no experience in that realm, which is important given they play by FIBA rules at the Olympics and not WNBA rules.

But how does that explain the WNBA players that are making their Olympic debuts this summer?

It doesn’t.

Another reason is that Clark was unable to participate in any Team USA practices or training camps since the last Olympic games. She almost certainly would have been invited and participated if she hadn’t been preoccupied with leading Iowa to consecutive Final Four appearances over the last two college basketball seasons.

A third reason is that the selection committee was reportedly worried about the circus that would have followed Clark around due to her immense popularity, saying it would be a distraction.

Of those three reasons, the only one that make any sense is the concern with Clark having missed training camp.

Who cares if she has no experience in the international realm.

Clark is a generational talent who has a gift for adjusting to whatever changes that occur on and off the court.

As for the circus, that’s another way of describing the massive following that Clark would bring to the Olympic team.

But isn’t that exactly what the Olympic team, and women’s basketball in general, needs right now?

Nobody in sports draws a crowd or creates interest like Caitlin Clark.

But there is more to my thinking than that.

After watching Clark and her WNBA All-Stars defeat the Olympic team on Saturday, it became clear that the Olympic team needs more help at point guard. It needs a floor general who can run the break and distribute in transition, and in half-court sets.

In other words, it needs Caitlin Clark.

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2. Timing of Major League Baseball Draft: The decision four years ago to move the draft from early June to mid-July was made so the draft could be part of Major League Baseball’s annual All-Star festivities.

The decision was made because marketing baseball apparently is a bigger priority than the game itself.

It was made because the baseball owners like the idea of making the draft part of the All-Star festivities because they feel it helps to build the brand and attract more fans.

But it also was made at the expense of the college game.

College head coaches now barely have a month to fill their rosters after the draft, and that just isn’t enough time to respond.

“Major League Baseball certainly hasn’t done us any favors by moving the draft back this late,” said Iowa head coach Rick Heller, who is now scrambling to fill his roster in the wake of the 2024 draft in which five of his players were picked in the 20-round draft.

All-Big Ten third baseman Raider Tello also signed as a free agent with the Philadelphia Phillies.

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3. In-game interviews: Is it just me, or are any of you tired of these ridiculous in-game television interviews that occur in multiple sports?

Why does the television viewer have to know what a player or coach is thinking during a stoppage of play, or at the end of a quarter?

Can’t we leave anything to our imagination?

And why can’t we just leave them alone during the heat of competition?

It’s bad enough watching a track athlete or a wrestler be interviewed just moments after winning a race or a match when he or she barely can breathe.

But at least the competition is over.

Veteran NBA coach Gregg Popovich has made it abundantly clear how he feels about in-game interviews, sometimes at the expense of the reporter assigned to interview him.

He explained his feelings to Berry Tramel from the Oklahoman in 2015:

“It’s an unnecessary activity that we’re doing, because it takes us away from our job,” Popovich said. “We talk to the media all the time. On (national) TV games, the TV’s in your huddles. We have microphones on us. I don’t see the sense in taking us away from our team, when we’re supposed to be doing something defensively or offensively at the end of a quarter. I think just for the purity of the game, it’s bad. I don’t think it’s necessary.”

As usual, Popovich is spot on.

When is enough access enough?

Perhaps a compromise could be reached in which interviews are conducted at halftime and, of course, in post-game.

I get that the WNBA is trying to grow its game, and striking while the iron is hot with Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese helping to build the league’s brand on a national scale, but so many of these in-game interviews have been painful to watch. They just seem forced and awkward.

Let them play and coach and then talk later.

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4. Two-minute warning: The NFL has used the two-minute warning since 1942 and did so at the beginning simply to let everyone in the stadium know the clock situation. Officials kept the official time back then, so it made sense to have a stoppage of play late in both halves to update the clock situation.

Times, obviously, have changed since then.

Television has turned college football games into three- and four-hour marathons filled with multiple television timeouts that seem to last forever.

And now here comes the two-minute warning in college football as it was announced in April that the NCAA approved adding an automatic timeout when two minutes remain in the second and fourth quarters..

But why stop there?

Let’s make halftime 30 minutes instead of 20 because just think of all the additional revenue it would produce.

Of course, I’m kidding.

The two-minute warning is being added to college football because it’s just another chance to make money.

It’s another television timeout, just under a different title.

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5. Playing college football games on Friday night: Some might say this is the thinking of an out-of-touch dinosaur who is unwilling to accept that times have changed.

Fine. Whatever.

Just because times have changed due to the influence of television and the growing thirst to make as much money as possible still doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Friday night used to belong to high school football.

But sadly, now it’s just another day in the week to make money, and that’s unfortunate.