It’s Kansas basketball 24-7
It’s all the fault of Kansas basketball, what did they accomplish you might ask? They have been a successful regular season team and in the NCAA. As mentioned in the past Lawrence Kansas is less than 50 miles from Kansas City Missouri. Lawrence is nearer the Kansas City market than Columbia (MO). I don’t resent the success of the Kansas school; I do resent the coverage of many in the local media. They measure the success of Mizzou (or lack thereof) to Kansas, totally unfair in my opinion. Early Saturday afternoon Mizzou lost their match against number one Florida. I must emphasis Florida is not only number one in the SEC but number one in the nation.

On the other hand it was much different for Kansas fans and the local media. Many of them (including media) seem to be in a state of shock due to the 94-83 loss to Iowa State. I’m going to paraphrase the 10:00 p.m. sports report on one of the local stations. “The Kansas Jayhawks simply ran out of gas,” he went on to repeat the same statement later in a concluding game report. Instantly it came to mind; “didn’t Iowa State play yesterday as well? I guess Iowa State wasn’t tired I thought.” I concluded the Jayhawks were tired due to the extra five minutes the team played in the overtime win over Oklahoma State.

The hires
Yesterday an NBA team made a move as did a college. The Knicks made it official hiring Phil Jackson as president. Jackson has never held a front office position with either the Bulls or Lakers, we know he can coach. It’s my belief the head coach will be a portion of the judgment on Jackson’s success or lack there in. The Auburn athletic department moved swiftly and hired former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl. Pearl certainly was successful on the court; he was under NCAA managed probation which has now been lifted. Both men have a large body of work in front of them, the Knicks and Tigers badly require leadership.

I didn’t bother reading further
A story titled; “The best 35 athletes turned actor.” The author gave Ray Allen an honorable mention; I must have misunderstood the authors’ goal. I thought his intent was to profile actors who for a number of unrelated reasons would become actors. The Ray Allen honorable mention stopped me at the beginning, I didn’t finish reading. I thought hopefully he profiled Mark Harmon of NCIS; Harmon had one time played quarterback for UCLA before turning to acting. I thought he’d mention Charley Sheen of Two and half Men fame.

Sheen was once a promising high school pitcher before becoming an actor. Maybe he wrote of the late Chuck Connors, the 6-6 Connors played baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers and basketball for the Boston Celtics before his acting career. He became television’s Rifleman in the ‘60’s school pitcher. Sorry Ray, you did a commendable job as Jesus Shuttlesworth in He’s got Game but you are a basketball player not an actor. I wonder if the writer included Shaquille O’Neal, you remember the “Big Aristotle” in Blue Chips and the movie classic Shazaam?

Where are they?
An acquaintance (Kansas fan) asked me recently about Danny Manning. Manning who served as a long-time assistant coach for Kansas is now a head coach. He’s served as Tulsa’s coach since 2012, the further problem for both of us we couldn‘t figure which conference Tulsa competed. There’s been so much re-alignment and team movement over the past four years it’s difficult to track. I told him; “geography has gone out the window too.” He agreed stating; “West Virginia being in the Big XII.” I’m going to make sure the next time I see him; I will inform him Tulsa competes in Conference USA. It should be noted Manning’s lead his team into the Field of 68 this season, the team finished
21-12.

Overlooked talent
Jahlil Okafor and Tyus Jones are headed to Duke August; the two 5-star prospects should excite students and fans. This talented center (Okafor) and capable point guard (Jones) should allow Duke to continue its winning ways. How about adding a shooting guard to the freshman class? Actually they did, they signed the shooting guard prior to the Okafor/Jones signing. Remember the name Grayson Allen, the 6-4 Allen was rated a 5-star prospect on ESPN’s Recruiting Database. To place his 5-star into perspective consider he was number 24 on the sites Top 100 prospects for 2014. Want a comparison, how about this former Dukee J.J. Redick with hops.