Bits n Pieces
Texas Coach Rick Barnes was on the “hotseat,” reports circulated the school was close to replacing him after two average seasons. Last years upturn has prompted optimistic from the athletic department Barnes has been given an extension through 2019.

Restricted free agent Greg Monroe certainly has talent. It’s not his talent that’s keeping him from being sign it’s his status, the Piston center has received few inquires. This is probably how this plays out. A. The Pistons trade him B. The team is able to re-sign him. C. Monroe becomes an unrestricted free agent next season.

The countdown began at 12:01 a.m. Sunday morning the Cavs and Wolves exchanged players. Andrew Wiggins will assume his role as leader of the re-vamped Wolves and Mr. Double-Double Kevin Love becomes a key to a “new” Cavs team. There are others involved however the the keys are Wiggins-Love.

Canadian ball
Metropolitan Toronto has become a hotbed for producing basketball talent. I hope this doesn’t sound like a slap at British Columbia, Quebec or any of the provinces it just seems the Ontario Province produces the greater amount of talent. As most are aware Andrew Wiggins (2014) and Anthony Bennett (2013) were both number one picks in the NBA Draft. The latest talent is far from the NBA in fact he’s only 14. In addition there is no guarantee he will even make it to the highest level. Simi Shittu is from Burlington Ontario about 45 miles from downtown Toronto.  You can check out video of Shittu on You Tube, he's 6-8 and 200 pounds. 

“Close the borders”
Let no potential Missouri talent escape the state has been the theme of Mizzou football coach Gary Pinkel. This observation has never filtered down to the basketball team for the most part. That might be change now; Mizzou was in the hunt for the services of Jimmy Whitt. Last week Columbia Hickman (MO) guard Whitt made his decision choosing Arkansas rather than Mizzou, the school lost this prospect however gained another. On Friday of the week Mizzou received a verbal commitment from Kevin Puryear.

We have no idea if Puryear can translate his high school skill to the collegiate level. This we know the 6-7 225 pound commit is a 3-star prospect in the Class of 2015. He hails from Blue Springs South High School (MO) a Kansas City suburb. Puryear claims the key to him choosing Mizzou was Coach Kim Anderson. As stated previously Anderson hit the ground running once he was hired as Mizzou‘s head coach. The jury is still out whether this long-time D-II coach can raise his skill to the D-I level. As for the recruiting to date that’s been a slam dunk for Anderson and staff.

Logo fight
I was confused when I first read the account; I came across a story indicating the Toronto Blue Jays were in a legal fight with the Creighton University Blue Jays. At first I thought it was a name issue but that couldn’t be the case. The school’s mascot has been Blue Jays for close to 100 years much longer than the baseball team. Creighton’s move from the Missouri Valley to the Big East was responsible for the logo change.

The baseball team claims the school logo “closely” resembles the baseball team. To add to the confusion a photo was not provided of the new Creighton logo, in addition most baseball logos I discovered contained the bird and a maple leaf. For those who might not be familiar the National Flag of Canada is also referred to an s the Maple Leaf. I seriously doubt an American university would include a red maple leaf in any logo design.

How bout listening to Rose
I know Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith of First Take shouldn’t be taken seriously
by me yet I fall victim time after time. I’m listening to them debate Derrick Rose sitting out Team USA’s game against the Dominican Republic. How serious, according to Smith on a scale of 1 to 10 he considers it a 10. Isn’t it more important to listen to the player rather than two guys sitting in a studio expressing concern? In addition Bulls Coach Thibodeau is a member of Coach K’s staff; I will take stock in their observation plus the medical staff rather than two studio guys.