Bits n Pieces

The best player in the class of 2014 is 6-7 200 pound Andrew Wiggins says ESPN Recruiting. Wiggins is a high school sophomore from Toronto Canada. The recruiting process has already begun, offers from Kentucky, North Carolina, Florida State and West Virginia are on the table. Those are probably his pared down list of schools. Hmmmmmm, wonder which school he might chose, I have a guess however yours could be far different from mine.

Rumor out of Chicago involving Pau Gasol. The Bulls are supposed to have offered Carlos Boozer and C. J. Watson. If the Lakers make the trade I hope the Bulls might include a draft choice. Boozer we know his strengths and weakness, Watson is question mark for me. I haven't seen enough of him to convince me he's a starter at the point. UPDATE: Derrick Rose is denying a report that states he'd suggested this trade!

Wichita State (KS) has quietly slipped into the Top 25, as this is written the team is 24-4 and 14-2 in the Missouri Valley Conference. They are led by senior Garrett Stutz in most offensive areas. This 7-0 255 pound center is leading the team in scoring at 14.1 and rebounding at 7.9 per game. He is shooting 58.1% from the floor. I haven't seen Stutz's name on any mock draft sites but that's hardly proof he can't play at the next level. The Wolves Brad Miller is in his 13th season and Piston Ben Wallace will retire in April after a 15 year career, neither player was drafted. Did I fail to mention Stutz is from Kansas City Missouri?

The "worlds most famous arena " Madison Square Garden is in the middle of a massive renovation. The lower bowl portion has already been completed, anyone remember Willis Reed coming out of the tunnel to battle the Lakers in 1970? Reed had suffered a severe injury and many thought Reed would be able to play in the 7th game of that series.  That tunnel leading to the locker area no longer exists, check it out on YouTube it's there. The lower bowl portion of the building is complete and the upper portion will be completed next year. This version of the Garden was built in 1968 which makes it a dinosaur compared to other NBA arenas. This latest work is the second renovation, the first occurred in 1991. (portions NY1)

Boy am I disappointed, disgusted and generally upset over the results of the Mizzou-KU game. I thought Mizzou had a fighting chance and they really did, they just were unable to sustain a lead. The season is not yet over, it's quite possible they could play KU in the Big XII post-season tournament.

Are you surprised, I'm not

Last Friday I was a little surprised viewing various NBA websites after the Knicks-Heat game. A couple of examples, Yahoo.com, Reality Bites, ESPN.com headline read Linsanity Defense. Media acts if they as if they were shocked or surprised at the baptism of "fire" the Knicks and especially Jeremy Lin endured. I guess maybe they sometimes fail to read what they wrote. It was pointed out earlier by many of these websites the Heat were a little upset with Lin-sanity and they said as much. The Knicks will recover and so will Lin, I certainly wasn't expecting a 30 point, 10 assist and 6 rebound game from him. Last week I listened to Walt "Clyde" Frazier former Knick and currently a member of the Knicks broadcast crew. Interviewed last week on the Dan Patrick Show Frazier said "I wasn't impressed by Lin until yesterday (Feb 19th) the Mavs are a strong defensive team."

Seattle Sonics

Christopher Hansen's proposal for a new arena in Seattle appears to be solid. Briefly he is proposing $290 million in private investment toward a S450 to $500 million arena. Hansen and his partners would be responsible for purchase of an NBA franchise. The portion of his proposal with the greatest impact is no tax on the citizens. Fans are tired of paying for arenas and stadiums and then held hostage by owners. It appears this hedge-fund manager has studied arena and stadiums in other parts of the nation. I will be monitoring this closely to see if the proposal "has legs." I'd mentioned before the clock is slowly ticking in Sacramento, there is no former proposal at this writing. A series of events must occur before the NBA is settled again in the Emerald City. For discussion purposes we'll assume the arena is a done deal in Seattle. The Maloof brothers have indicated they are losing money in Sacramento, would they be willing to sell the franchise to Hansen's group knowing it would be headed out of town? The citizens have one owner in their corner, Mark Cuban. Cuban was one of the owners voting against the move to Oklahoma City. In fact he said, "as long as it's an existing team, no expansion team." Of course that type of statement makes folks in Sacramento, New Orleans and Memphis extremely anxious.

Coach of the year

Kim English tweeted this last week and I kinda thought okay, now that I've read this story I see what he's talking about. Keep in mind my fan connection to the Mizzou Tigers and Frank Haith. Nick Fasulo MSNBC Sports wrote a piece on coach of the year. Here's what he wrote on Haith, "remember, Haith didn’t recruit Ricardo Ratliffe, or the team’s prolific backcourt. He isn’t responsible for his team’s cohesion, either. He really may have only implemented a system that suits the personnel better than what his predecessor had in place. That in itself is laudable, yes, but just how responsible is he for the 2011-2012 Missouri Tigers? Is it enough to warrant hardware?" You can draw your own conclusions, if I had a vote I know who I'd be voting for.