Speed, rebounding and shooting
Mizzou outscored, outrebounded, and totally outplayed the Oklahoma Sooners 87-49 in the conference opener. Did I mention the Tigers speed up and down the court? There might have been questions based on Mizzou's non-conference schedule. Mizzou's margin of victory has been 23+ but conference play would produce different results right? Mizzou shot 59.3% from the floor and 57.1% from the 3-point line. Oklahoma's height issue wasn't evident tonight as Mizzou outrebounded the Sooners 37-19. Did I mention the Tigers speed? Mizzou is now 14-0, they must now prepare for a tough Saturday game against the 11-1 Kansas State Wildcats at Manhattan.

Change I expected is yet to be fulfilled

This long-time Laker fan thought Mike Brown would replace 37-year old Derek Fisher. It's a known fact, Fisher lost a step and in addition speedy quick point guards provide him all kinds of problems. Despite my hope Brown still has Fisher starting backed up by Steve Blake. Phil Jackson was reluctant to give any rookie minutes but I thought Brown might take a different approach. He did, Fisher's minutes have been cut considerably but Blake rather than rookie Darius Morris is receiving the balance. Morris remains glued to the bench, perhaps as the season progresses Morris will receive minutes. The key for Brown with veterans Fisher and Blake in the lineup he knows what he's going to get 99% of the time, Morris is an unknown Brown is only able to judge him in practice which has been limited to date.

"There isn't a single professional sports season now that doesn't go on at least a month too long."

I thought the quote was appropriate and somewhat funny. I'm old enough to remember a time period sports seasons didn't overlap as much as they do currently. I mentioned this story awhile back but it's worth repeating, this story is almost impossible in today's sports world. During the spring and summer Gene Conley pitched for the Red Sox, in the winter he was a reserve forward for the Celtics. He played during the Bill Russell/Bob Cousey era which meant the Celtics were competing for an NBA Championship every year. Naturally this meant the Celtics extended basketball season lasted through baseball's spring training and opening day. The NBA Championship was generally concluded by late April or early May, with a shortened "spring training" the Sox would add Conley to their roster by the middle of June. Bo Jackson might be the most recent athlete to play two major league sports however injuries shortened the NFL portion of his career. Conley had a 7 year career in the NBA and an 11 year major league baseball career. (Wikipedia)

Interesting turn

UConn's talented Andre Drummond was a late arrival. To refresh your memory this 6-11 freshman intended to play another year of high school ball. He decided in late summer to attend UConn and by that timeframe no scholarships existed. The next move upset many across the nation, UConn asked sophomore center Michael Bradley to surrender his scholarship. You can relax now all has returned to normalcy, Drummond relinquished his scholarship to Bradley in November. "UConn's compliance department discovered that a recruited player can pay his own way as long as any financial aid he receives is non-institutional." (Rivals.com)

"The Incredible Shrinking Man"

Was the title of a 1957 Sci-Fi movie remade in 2012. Due to a cataclysmic event the lead character who was of normal height and size began shrinking, eventually he shrunk to a microscopic speck. NBA pre-draft camps might be close to an incredible shrinking man story, players don seem to quite measure up. Players are run through a series of drills to determine their speed, leaping ability and other skills. Their height is measured with shoes on and off. It's always interesting checking a players after height, they are sometimes 1 and 1/2 to 2 inches shorter than their collegiate rosters list them. If you ask the question why maybe this story might provide a partial answer. At the time former Knick Willis Reed was enrolled at Grambling State a coach seeing him for for the first time ask "how tall are you?" Reed responded "I'm 6-9," his coach responded, don't say that! "Willis in the NBA they pay 6-10 people more money then a player whose 6-9, from now on you are 6-10."  

What's in a name

Prior to my research on the issue I thought naming rights for arenas and stadiums had begun in the '90's. Not so it started much earlier in fact 1912 when Fenway Park opened in Boston. "The stadium's owner had owned a realty company called "Fenway Realty", so the promotional value of the naming has been considered. Despite this, it is more widely believed to have begun in 1926 when William Wrigley, the chewing gum entrepreneur and owner of the Chicago Cubs, named his team's stadium "Wrigley Field." British bank Barclays is reported to pay $400 million dollars to place their name on the Nets new home in Brooklyn. This agreement is for 20 years and is subject to renewal prior to the actual expiration date. American Airlines paid $195 million (years unspecified) for their corporate name to be place in front of the Mavs Dallas home. I could locate no dollar figures for Staples Center in Los Angeles or American Airlines Arena in Miami. There are others of course, AT&T Arena in San Antonio, Toyota Center in Houston and Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte to name just a few more. Think this corporate thing only extends to NBA or NHL cities guess again. Kansas City has no NBA team or NHL team yet Sprint was willing to fork over large sums of money to attach their moniker to the front of the arena. In this case the dollars are unknown however the length is is in the 20 year range. Question, what do these corporations receive in exchange for their names being prominently displayed on the front of these buildings? This from Wikipedia, "the distinctive characteristic for this type of naming rights is that the buyer gets a marketing property to promote products and services, promote customer retention and or increase market share." (Wikipedia)