This is certainly no prediction of future success, but if I'm Mario Chalmers I might be looking over my shoulder. Fairly or unfairly a large amount of criticism was aimed at Chris Bosh last season. Despite the big three last year the point guard position was weak for the Heat and is still weak. Folks love to talk about the Lakers Derek Fisher being over the hill how about Mike Bibby? This team went through three point guards last season, from Chalmers to Arroyo and finally Bibby. Picking up Bibby in the middle of last season indicated the team had a problem at the point. This past Tuesday rookie Norris Cole came off the Heat bench and had a monster game. As mentioned the Heat have James, Wade and Bosh but they might have lost their game against the Celtics without Cole. He came off the bench scored 20 points had 3 steals and 4 assists. Point guard Cole matriculated at Cleveland State a member of the Horizon League. Butler and Valpo are probably more familiar conference members to most around the nation. "Cole was drafted by the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the 2011 NBA Draft as the 28th pick out of Cleveland State, but in a series of draft night deals, his rights were subsequently traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who then dealt them to the Miami Heat." (Wikipedia)
For a variety of reasons it seemed after Lon Kruger left K-State the school was in the basketball wilderness. The school had limited success under a number of coaches but none appeared able to sustain a winning program. K-State changed coaches like many of us change underwear, the head coaches office was a revolving door. The revolving door even caught Bob Huggins for a slightly different reason. Huggins left K-State when an opportunity to coach his alma mater West Virginia became available. Allow me to introduce you to the current head coach Frank Martin. The vast majority of us didn't know a great deal about Martin when he arrived on the scene. We knew he'd been Bob Huggins chief recruiter and served as his associate head coach but that's about all. Several of us were aware he had also been a successful high school coach. Many were unsure of coaching ability since he'd never coached at the collegiate level. Huggins surprised us went he left Kansas State after just one season, many (me included) thought the program might be in trouble again. Looking back the key might have been Michel Beasley remaining at K-State, many thought he'd follow Huggins to West Virginia. Even more interesting watching Huggins patrol the sidelines that first year I thought the guy's head would explode. His demonstrative bombastic over-the-top coaching style was a sharp contrast to many of his coaching brethren. I went back to look at his K-State record, 21-12, 22-12, 29-8, 23-11 and 10-1 to date this season. That's 105-44 overall and 40-24 in the Big XII. Frank Martin is a winner, that's now clear to all of us.
I've made the statement before numbers don't often paint a true picture in basketball, the same is true in other sports as well. This certainly fits Mizzou's "little" point guard Phil Pressey. 5-10 Phil (Flip) Pressey is shooting an anemic .379 from the floor, .250 from the 3-point line and 9.4 per game scoring. Only in the area of free throw shooting (.786) his numbers are near average. The key of course the Tigers don't need this lighting quick guard to score, they need him to run the offense which he does magnificently. Currently Pressey is averaging 5.9 assists and 2.3 steals a game and his assists to turnover is a sparkling 3-1. Many thought he and brother Matt might follow "Uncle" Mike to Arkansas, they have a family connection. Their father was a teammate of former Mizzou coach Mike Anderson while the two played at Tulsa, Anderson had recruited the brothers to Mizzou.
Isn't this interesting
"As of last week, the league’s full-season-ticket renewal rate was running in the 80-plus percent range, about the same pace as at the start of last season, league officials said. The league was still compiling new season-ticket sales data, but the labor turmoil is expected to affect new full-season-tickets sales, and teams will be challenged to match last year’s sales of partial-season-ticket plans and group plans during its compressed 66-game season.To date, though, the NBA has 10 of its 30 teams with 10,000 or more full-season ticket plans, the same number as last year. While league officials would not disclose that list of teams, among the clubs reaching the 10,000 benchmark are Miami, Boston, Chicago, New York, New Orleans, and both the Los Angeles Clippers and Lakers." I guess folks who follow the NBA aren't too upset, you think so? We are unable to determine attendance on television due to the camera shooting the lower bowl, the majority of games I've watched seem to be primarily full. Any Lockout hangover seems to have dissipated at least in cities with NBA teams. (SportsBusinessJournal)
I have avoided writing about the Syracuse University molestation cases. My reasoning is based on my belief the case will eventually be decided by a jury rather than a sports journalist. Despite my view columnist Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports has taken the opposite approach, he's already held a trial in his column. A couple of upfront points, I'm no fan of Gloria Allred, in the past she's appeared to me as an "ambulance" chasing attorney with her many high profile cases. She did indicate to Whitlock clients had sometimes sought her out to serve as their attorney. I've been a fan of Jim Boeheim but only to a point, when he's wrong he's wrong! Boeheim chose to proclaim the innocence of his assistant coach in a public forum (press conference). One of the alleged victims chose to sue Boehiem and the university for libel thus enters Ms Allread. Whitlock defended Boeheim's press conference regarding the sexual molestation claims, later Boeheim took back much of what he stated initially. Whitlock took the unusual stance of inviting the attorney for the alleged victims to a podcast interview. Whitlock conducted an almost 45 minute interview with Allred both individuals providing point counter point arguments. After Ms Allred concluded the telephone interview Whitlock begin discussing the podcast with his producer. He decided (along with the producer) the interview didn't allow for a listener to come to a conclusion. I happen to think Whitlock is no dummy however I think at times he allows his ego to be counter-productive. Jason I have a few questions for your response, Ms Allred is the attorney for the men how much could she really discuss detail over the airways prior to trial? Do you really think an attorney in her position would make any statement over the airways that might jeopardize the case in court? Prior to concluding the interview Whitlock asked Ms Allred if the two men would come on his program, my question might be why? Jason do you think you are skilled enough to trick either of these individuals into answering questions that validate your view? Come on Jason, do you really believe these two guys are going to appear on your program especially since you accused one of them of being a liar?
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