Congratulations
Kevin Ollie and the UConn men did a masterful job on Monday night. They overcame (in my opinion) a more talented Kentucky team 60-54. All evening long UConn appeared to be quicker and certainly was a better shooting free throw team. To repeat my earlier commentary nobody but nobody had this team (and Kentucky too) playing for a national championship. The game closed out the 2013-14 collegiate season, I’ll shed a tear no more college ball for awhile. .
Forget about it
The Lakers will change coaches at the end of the season, there will be a new coach in place when training camp opens in October. I have no idea of that persons name however I don't believe the name will be John Calipari. Will Calipari remain in the Bluegrass State until the day he retires---I doubt that too.
Addressing the Lakers in 10 moves
These moves I believe would address many issues this Laker team experienced. Personnel issues are tricky to project; the final roster is omitted less the players mentioned.
1. Fire Mike D’Antoni (despite reports he wants to remain)
2. Hire a defensive minded head coach-Lionel Hollins???
3. Return of a healthy Kobe Bryant (playing limited minutes)
4. Possible trade of Pau Gasol
5. Draft either point guards Dante Exum or Marcus Smart
6. Improve team defense
7. Release/retirement of Steve Nash
8. Sign free agent(s) Luol Deng or Zach Randolph*
9. Jeannie Buss sharing in team decisions with brother Jim
10. Untie General Manager Mitch Kupchak’s hands
*I don’t work for the NBA; I cannot be accused of tampering.
“Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke”
I have heard the above adage or off-shoots of it since I can remember. Change is enviable in most endeavors; I certainly am not opposed to change. Over the past several years more than one party has indicated the NCAA Tournament should be “re-seeded.” There are seeding mistakes in our estimation, teams seeded too low or too high. In some instances a team might be placed in the wrong regional. Those are our views; anytime human beings are involved in decision making the instance of disagreement will almost always occur. Get over it, there is no need for the NCAA to revise that portion of the tournament.
Did you see it?
This is old now, the Sports Illustrated cover with Doug McDermott and two cheerleaders. What I thought funny it duplicated a November 1977 cover of Larry Bird when he was at Indiana State. They say; “records are made to be broken” however several will never be eclipsed. No collegiate team will ever win seven consecutive NCAA Tournaments as John Wooden’s UCLA teams did. No player will ever average more than the 44.2 ppg of Pete Maravich. Doug McDermott ended his college career with 3,150 points scored. The names he passed are a who’s who of basketball, Oscar Robertson, Danny Manning and Larry Bird to name a few. To be fair one of the reasons we’ll never witness a Maravich or McDermott player leave school after their freshman or sophomore year. The aforementioned two were at LSU and Creighton for four years.
