Who wins tomorrow night?
The match between Kansas and New Mexico should be a slam-dunk win for Kansas---right? It will be played at the Sprint Center in Kansas City (MO); less than 50 miles from the Lawrence campus of Kansas. The short distance guarantees a capacity crowd in the arena from the school and metro area voicing support for Kansas. The Jayhawks losers in 3 out of their last 4 games should emerge from the locker room breathing fire. They probably have had an exhausting practice after two losses in a row. The freshman laden Kansas team has not played to expectations of the experts and certainly demanding fans of the team. They have point guard issues (24 turnovers against Florida) and poor 3-point shooting. Andrew Wiggins is good as advertised however the game remains a team effort.
Turning to New Mexico briefly they have begun the season with 7 wins and only 1 loss, Alex Kirk their 7-foot center will provide the Lobos a slight rebound advantage. Who wins the game, you make the call. If we looked at the schedule in October I believe most of us would have declared Kansas the winner. Bill Self and staff have a task in front of them, they must figure out a process to continue the noteworthy past winning trend. Big XII conference play is but a few weeks away and they have a large task in front of them. Check this out, January 13th they play #17 Iowa State, January 18th #7 Oklahoma State and January 20th they play #14 Baylor. That’s a schedule filled with potential land mines unless Kansas manages to correct aspects of its game.
A reminder
On more than one occasion I’ve reminded you the silliness of the “Heat Index.” This is a column ESPN.com has run beginning with LeBron’s arrival in South Beach. A reporter assigns letter grades regarding the performance of the Heat. This is the problem as I see it LeBron, Wade, Bosh and one other Heat player are awarded grades. Win or lose the opposition team rather than individual members are given a grade. Instead of awarding Paul George a letter grade for his outstanding game the Pacer team receives an A. No doubt the Pacer team played superior in order to secure a 90-84 victory.
I hope he stays
Several weeks back I wrote of Joel Embiid, the Jayhawk 7-footer. I pointed out this native of Cameroon West Africa had only been playing basketball for a short period of time. I believe Coach Bill Self did a masterful recruiting job in luring him to Kansas. Embiid is upward bound on several of the 2014 mock draft sites. In fact Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com claims Embiid might have leapt to the top of the 2014 draft. The potential clearly shows however he’s still raw. It would really be beneficial if the youngster remained through his sophomore year, just my observation. His situation is far different from Marcus Smart or Dante Exum, on the other hand Embiid is tall and we know the premium placed on tall athletic big men by the NBA.
Flaws in his game
Televised games don’t provide a true picture of an athlete’s ability. With that statement out of the way I’ve had several opportunities to view Duke’s Jabari Parker. This 6-8 235 pound forward “rode to the rescue” allowing Duke to win a tight game against Vermont 91-90. All Parker did was score 26 points and shoot nearly 69% from the floor. In addition he grabbed 9 rebounds, had 1 blocked shot and 2 steals. So far this young season the only area requiring improvement is Parker’s free throw shooting. Currently Parker is shooting 68% from the line a number that could stand improvement however it’s certainly not horrible.
A late bloomer
The 76ers certainly are not an elite team; they do have several players who may be on the cusp of stardom. One of those is center Spencer Hawes; this 7-1 245 pound center was the 10th pick in the first round by the Kings. A 2010 trade to the 76ers has aided his growth as a NBA quality player. He is experiencing a break-out season in 2013-14, averaging 16.8 points per game and snatching down 10.3 rebounds. Unless a big man is just blessed with superior talent there is an adjustment or learning curve. Perhaps this
