You’ve got to be kidding
The game was played in 1970 and you are just now revealing facts the game was rigged. That’s a theme expressed in a book written by a former Jacksonville assistant coach. This coach provides details such as the discrepancies in the number of free throws UCLA shot versus Jacksonville. The free-throws plus Jacksonville dunk the basketball during the warm up period before the game. A point of clarification colleges had banned the dunk shot which was later repealed. He uses this explanation and several others to provide “proof” officials favored UCLA in the 1970 NCAA Championship finale.  Jacksonville was taller than UCLA; they had 7-2 Artis Gilmore at center and 7-0 Pembrooke Burrows.  UCLA's tallest player was Steve Patterson at 6-10, Sidney Wicks at 6-8 spent most of the evening guarding Gilmore.  Giving up 5-6 inches he managed to force limit the number of effective shots taken by Gilmore.  Question, why a 44 year wait to release this information?  Could it be the coach is more interested in creating controversy thus increasing sales for his book?

Two enormous basketball programs
I’ve traveled through Kentucky on several occasions however I’ve spent little time in the State. I was always on my way from one point to another driving through Kentucky. Every time my travels take me there two standards come to mind, the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky basketball. I could easily include Louisville basketball too. There are probably other areas of the nation that contain two high profile basketball programs but I don’t believe any exist on the level of Kentucky. The University of Kentucky and Louisville University have endured few down years in their basketball programs over the generations. No major league sports teams exist in the state and football is an after thought for the most part. Kentucky is the all-time NCAA leader in wins with 2,111 victories over 110 seasons.

Louisville has competed for a lesser time period (99); they sit in sixth place with 1,697 victories. I tried to consider other successful basketball programs in the nation. We could look next door at the University of Kansas; their program has been successful over a number of years as for Kansas State we cannot make the same statement. The K-State program has been up and down, the same for Georgia and Georgia Tech. We could consider UCLA-USC although UCLA has certainly been the more dominate program. This is done without research so bare with me if I missed your choice or omitted others. We read and hear how football is a fan favorite across the country. I’m sure that might be true in 48 States, the exceptions are Kentucky and Indiana.

I’m a little skeptical 
On a number of occasions a sports story is reported as part of a regular news report. On occasion I hear a story that makes me go ----hmmmmmm! This was a story reported by the local broadcast station. The reporter detailed the story and then video was provided, the report “claimed” youth basketball contributed to a large number of injuries. I have no medical expertise but I found the story to be a little suspicious. A portion might be true, elementary and middle school athletes probably don’t warm up properly, we could see the possibility of pulled muscles and other types of injuries.

Sorry local channel I have a difficult time believing the entire report. Have you ever seen 8-10 year olds playing soccer or football? I’d much rather see a report on all emergency room visits divided by the sport. I decided to do some research on my own, I uncovered some interesting facts. One website only compiled figures through 2012; the others didn’t provide a year figure. Guess what, none of the information I located confirmed the news story. In one instance football was the injury leader followed by basketball; in others the totals were mixed. I found nothing to confirm the facts this news report provided.

He could be correct
I pay half attention to coaches at times when discussing their players. I read the Doc Rivers headline (didn’t read the story) but thought, another case of a coach coming to the aid of his player. In this instance if we just checked the numbers Rivers might be somewhat correct. The coach said he thought his man DeAndre Jordan should have been received more consideration for Defensive Player of the Year. Noah won with 555 votes, Pacer Roy Hibbert finished second with 166 votes and Jordan a distant third with 121 votes.

Jordan suffers the same fate as a number of Big Men, shooting free throws. It’s become an adventure shooting a sizzling 43% from the line. As for other aspects of his game he matches up well against both of his competitors. During the regular season Jordan scored 10.4 ppg versus 12.6 for Noah and 10.8 for Hibbert. How about rebounds, Jordan leads with 13.6 rebounds 11.3 for Noah and 6.6 for Hibbert. As for blocked shots Jordan leads the way with 2.5 blocked shots versus 1.5 for Noah and 2.2 for Hibbert. Calm down Bulls fans I happen to love Noah’s game I do believe Rivers observation may be valid.