Blindsided
It’s not official but late this afternoon came word Frank Haith was leaving Mizzou, he's headed to Tulsa replacing Danny Manning. Manning was recently hired at Wake Forest replacing Jeff Bzdelik who resigned after four seasons. As additional details are provided I’ll update you.
Duke will survive
Jabari Parker was the one freshman I believed might return for his sophomore year. He’s made his decision and is headed the other direction, he’s headed for a large payday instead. The 6-8 235 forward decided on the NBA rather than Duke. Duke has an outcoming incoming class headed to Durham in the Fall. It would have been good to blend power forward Jahlil Okafor and point guard Tyus Jones with Parker now its only “what might have been."
They didn’t mail it in
We might assume the Lakers would take it easy the last two games of the season. Playing for nothing they could decrease their lottery position by winning. What did they do they beat the Jazz and the Spurs on the road. Coach Pop was resting his starters for the playoffs so the Laker win might be somewhat tainted. In any event I’m looking at team stats and certainly two areas screaming for an upgrade. The Lakers finished 29th in rebounding and 29th in points allowed, if those two numbers were only slightly improved who knows what their record might have been. They finished 11th in points scored (decent) and 4th in assists (very good) in the NBA, the next move is yours Mr. Buss.
Open under new management
Bucks fans were probably a little nervous long-time owner Herb Kohl indicated he’s wanted to sell the team for quite awhile. The only condition (other than financial) made by Kohl was team must remain in Milwaukee. Two hedge-fund billionaires from New York Wesley Edens and Marc Lasry have purchased the team for $550 million dollars pending league approval. Kohl purchased the team in 1985 for $18 million dollars. A new arena may be in the future for the Bucks, Kohl and the new owners have pledged $200 million toward this effort. In the day of billion dollar arenas (Barclays) maybe the difficulty might be locating the balance of financing.
"I'm leaving but you've got to stay"
The above statement might apply to any number of college coaches. sometimes sports radio discussions encounter an issue worth further discussion, this is one of those. The topic was Cuonzo Martin who could have been recruiting for Tennessee all while headed someplace other than Tennessee. The host said; “why are players often forced to sit out a year yet a coach can leave a school and immediately begin coaching?”
I don’t believe the conversation was aimed as criticism of Martin rather it was a criticism of the system. This system allows a coach to move from school to school yet the players they coach are held to a different standard. Keep in mind the NCAA has no enforcement policy regarding coaches, it details for us a portion of the system is broken and will never be mended. One issue we have not considered. I’ve read the Martin hire was not popular with the Tennessee faithful. Although he was compensated adequately he may have been searching for another school a few years back
