Mizzou

I received an email that caused me to laugh out loud. My buddy Ira and fellow Mizzou fan took me to task for not writing enough of a story regarding Mizzou's victory over Kansas. How do I feel about the win, extremely pleased how the Tigers snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. After KU pulled ahead the team could have just folded and said "this team (KU) is better than us." They didn't give up scoring 11 points to take the lead and the victory from the Jayhawks. Kim English led the way during a timeout exalting his teammates to prevail. What more can I state about senior guard Kim English who gave up 1/2 foot in height and 35 pounds in weight to Jeff Withey. He schooled Withey (in English) while he managed to score 18 points on him and other Jayhawks. Kansas City product Marcus Denmon 29 points, 9 rebounds 2 assist and 1 steal while shooting 63% from the floor. I could go on with the cast of characters, each player contributed greatly in this exorcism of Jayhawk mania. All we hear from Lawrence is about a blocking/charging call, surely that one call didn't cost the Jayhawks the game did it? Maybe the purpose of semi-circle in front on the basket should be explained to Jayhawk fans. Is this the best Mizzou team ever? I don't know, the history is still being written Mizzou is not assured first place yet. As for Coach Haith what can I say, I had mentioned this previously the knock on him as a coach "he wasn't a good X's and O's guy!" I think we can put that story to bed too.

How did we arrive here?

Depending on your age you might wonder why Los Angeles has two NBA franchises? The 2011 population of Greater Los Angeles is 17,877,006 which is certainly enough people for the two franchises to co-exist. The Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960, for some odd reason Bob Short who own the team decided to maintain the same name for the team. I'm unsure how many lakes there are in Los Angeles however if you head due west you will arrive at a large lake, the Pacific Ocean. Clippers are a different story the team was born as a result of league expansion. The franchise came into the NBA as the Buffalo (NY) Braves in 1970 where the team remained until 1978. That year the franchise moved from Buffalo to San Diego, once in San Diego the team was re-named the Clippers. San Diego remained home base for the Clippers until 1984 when they moved to Los Angeles. This represents a brief glimpse in the history of this 42-year old franchise. Clippers games were played in the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena which had been the home of the Lakers. Jack Kent Cooke who owned the Lakers at the time built The Forum 1967 and it became home to the Showtime Lakers until Staples Center was opened. In 1998 ground was broken in downtown Los Angeles for a new arena, the Lakers were the first tenant signed for The Staples Center. Many months prior to the arena opening the Clippers signed a tenant agreement as well, it was thought the Clippers would play their games At the Pond in Anaheim California. The Clippers had scheduled several games At the Pond in years past. The decision was made to sign an agreement to play at Staples. (dates, Wikipedia)

Business as (un)usual

Even with a settlement I was the one voice loudly proclaiming fans would abandon the NBA due to the Lockout. Early indications point to the fact I was wrong! Henry Abbott of ESPN.com has posted some pretty interesting numbers. You can read Abbott's entire column if you wish I cherry-picked on the portion I thought most enlightening to fans. This is from his True Hoop Column February 2nd. "The first 325 games of this NBA season averaged attendance of 17,094. That's better than 89 percent of capacity, and a hair better than the first 325 games of last season, which averaged 17,057. But almost every other indicator blows those in-arena numbers away. Viewership is going a bit nuts:

• ABC has had just three games, so it's hard to say anything conclusive, but the audience is up five percent compared to a year ago.
• ESPN viewership is up 23 percent.
• TNT viewership is up 50 percent.
• NBA TV viewership is up an insane 66 percent.
• NBA on regional cable sports networks are up 12 percent.
• Local over-the-airwaves broadcasts are up 36 percent.

I based my view on the backlash that resulted from the previous work stoppage in '98-'99. Fans were upset, attendance was down and so were the television numbers. Fans were upset and they let the NBA know about it, it took fans sometime to come back to the NBA. Economics are different this go round, the nation's economy and segments of the population unemployed I thought an emphatic No the NBA might occur. I misread the public (fans) this time.

The Knicks have a "new" point guard

This is really funny, I had written a story on how the Knicks were failing even with Tyson Chandler in the lineup. What does D' Antoni do, he inserts Jeremy Lin in the lineup at the point. After losing two games in a row Lin became a spark for a turnaround, he came off the bench against the Nets and produced 25 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds while shooting .526 from the floor. To prove the effort was no fluke D'Antoni inserted him in the starting lineup for the following game against the Jazz. Lin produced 28 points, 8 assists and 2 rebounds shooting .588 from the floor. He might have saved Mike D'Antoni's job with his sparkling play at the point. The natives were getting restless in MSG, a chorus of boos had begun to rain down on the Knicks. New Yorkers had Amare Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler and were still losing. New Yorkers are quite vocal in expressing their displeasure as it relates to basketball. Lin has battled all his life against racial stereotypes. An example despite the fact he'd led his high school team to a state championship few schools recruited this 6-3 guard. Lin enrolled at Harvard excelled in the classroom and basketball court. A sparkling record at Harvard and he was still overlooked in the 2011 NBA Draft. Lin exhibited his basketball skills during summer league play and the Warriors later signed him. I'm unsure why, the Warriors released him in December 2011 with little playing time. He was picked up as a free agent by the Knicks and the rest is history. Several questions remain chief among them what happens when Baron Davis is able to play? With Yao Ming's retirement Lin is now the lone Asian playing in the NBA.

Baylor

More than likely Baylor will lose a substantial portion of it's front line to the NBA. The Waco Texas school is following a similar pattern of Kentucky and North Carolina, just reloading with new talent. They have been hot on the recruiting trail, in the fall 7-foot 210 pound Isaiah Austin and 6-3 180 pound point guard L.J. Rose will arrive on campus. Austin is a 5-star ESPNU candidate while Rose is a 4-star recruit. Baylor recently signed Ricardo Gathers a 6-7 240 pound power forward, Gathers is also an ESPNU 4-star player. The big question next season will be Scott Drew, can he overcome his apparent limited coaching ability. Drew is not a bad guy by any means, it just appears he's not real keen with X's and O's. (for proof see the tape of Baylor's game with KU in Waco). If we remain in Texas, specifically Houston we have the Harrison brothers from the Class of 2013. Twin brothers Andrew and Aaron Harrison, Andrew is a 6-5 210 pound point guard and Aaron a 6-5 205 pound shooting guard. Both brothers are undeclared at this point but guess-----an offer is on the table from Baylor for both. Surprise, surprise! I think we all might have once viewed the State of Texas as rich in football talent, the football statement is still true however more and more quality basketball players are being groomed in the state.