He‘s at Duke
Ottawa Kansas is 70 miles or so from Kansas City too far away to be included in the areas metro population. The Ottawa High basketball team competes against metro area Kansas teams during pre-season. We’ve had plenty of opportunities to see Semi Ojeleye play during his high school career. Ojeleye now holds the all-time scoring record for high school boys as he eclipsed the previous mark his senior year. At the time the 6-7 230 pound forward announced he was headed to Duke it was no surprise, he’s a very good scholar-athlete. He’s played limited numbers this freshman year but unlike a number of others he’ll become a sophomore in the fall.

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I’m so confused with NBA television blackout rules. Example last season I added Time Warner Cable Sports Channel to my cable package. Kansas City is outside the footprint so Laker games are blacked out here. As for Oklahoma City that’s a different matter. A select number of Thunder games (not all) are available in Kansas City through Fox Sports Midwest; we receive the Fox Sports Oklahoma feed. Location evidently doesn’t enter into the picture as you discover if you continue reading. Road mileage between Kansas City and Oklahoma City is 353 miles, to Los Angeles a bit further 1,680 miles. This is the portion of the story where it really becomes confusing the Yes Network is also part of my cable package.

I’m able to view Nets home and road games; Brooklyn is 1,198 road miles from Kansas City. We in the metro are almost equal distance from Los Angeles to the west and Brooklyn to the east. Several years ago the Denver Nuggets games were blacked out on NBA League Pass and I questioned why. The response I was given “Kansas City was in the Denver footprint.” I informed them this didn’t make sense, Bulls games were not blacked out and we are nearer Chicago than Denver. Its 536 road miles to Chicago versus the 680 to Denver. Needless to say after the question was raised Nuggets games became available once again, figure this blackout thing if you care I for one am totally confused.

He said what?
The Lakers gave up the lead and went on to loss the game, not that usual this season. They had the Thunder on the ropes but managed to lose their seventh in a row at home, far too much Kevin Durant. The loss aside Laker Kendall Marshall once again had an outstanding game. Marshall playing 44 minutes scored 14 points on 6 for 13 from the floor. He dished out 17 assists and grabbed 7 rebounds and only commited 3 turnovers. I believe Marshall could have easily had 3 or 4 additional assists, his teammates missed a number of shoots they were not difficult. The confusing part was Mike Fratellos statement regarding Marshall.

“He (Marshall) will find a job someplace in the NBA, it’s just a matter of landing with the right team.” The portion of Fratello’s statement I found a little strange was “a job someplace in the NBA.” As for my view Laker management would be foolish if they allowed this 22-year old youngster to get away. In accessing prospects NBA scouts have sometimes eroded (see Kwame Brown). Marshall was a Suns 2012 lottery pick. I’m not sure what occurred Marshall was eventually sent to the NBA Developmental League. The Lakers desperate after every point guard on the roster succumbed to injury plucked him from the the D-League.

Wichita State
The school’s basketball program is on the upswing once again. In fact they are better than the more famous team in Lawrence Kansas. The school has tasted success in the not to distant pass but has often been over shadowed by Kansas In the 1990’s the school experienced a win drought until Mark Turgeon was hired as coach. Turgeon was succeeded by present coach Gregg Marshall. The Wichita (KS) team has tasted success to the tune of 111 victories over the past four years. NIT Champs two years ago they were a final four team last season.

Kansas refuses to schedule Wichita State although the two schools are less than 200 miles driving distance and 45 minutes flight time. In the 1960’s and ‘70’s a number of future ABA and NBA athletes made their way to this school in the middle of Kansas. If the Marshall success continues perhaps others will journey to Wichita. How good is this team, veteran Sporting News reporter Mike DeCoursey claims they “could be undefeated entering the NCAA Tournament.” Although Wichita has suffered a couple of hiccups it looks as though DeCoursey could prove correct.