Basketball from a fans perspective

No government intervention
I’m watching the Louisville-Kentucky game on television and my mind drifted to Wichita State and Kansas.  The two universities are about 144 miles apart but never play one another.  Well that’s not quite true, the NCAA Tournament forced them to play with Wichita State the winner.  If you remember the history the two Kentucky schools wouldn’t play either, it was more Kentucky refusing to play Louisville rather than the other way around.  Louisville had lobbied for years to play its cross state rival with Kentucky turning a deaf ear to the request.

In any event the Kentucky State Legislature had to “force” the two schools to play one another, threats of withholding state funds allowed for the change.  I would hate for the same situation to repeat itself in the State of Kansas government involvement in a sporting event.  It’s Kansas which appears in the driver’s seat for its refusal to play Wichita State.  If they played this year the 2015-16 season would appear to be a clear advantage for Kansas to play Wichita State.  The Jayhawks are number two in the nation and appear a strong contender again while this years Shocker team is not as tough as in the past.  

Bits n Pieces
This is no prediction of future NBA success lets just state I’m impressed with the game of Denzel Valentine of Michigan State.  Valentine has an NBA ready body at 6-6 and 220 pounds.  He’s not a point guard but is an able distributor of the ball in addition to rebounding, to use the terminology of the day he’s a combo guard.  Don’t be shocked if you hear the commissioner announce his name in the 2016 NBA Draft.

Is it important for Kobe Bryant to play in the All Star game in his final season?  I have no idea as far as the player is concerned, on a personal note I don’t believe it’s necessary for fans to vote Kobe a starter. Although Kobe’s play has improved over the last several games I’m unsure if he is worthy of an All Star selection.  Maybe fans are recognizing the greatness that was in the player.

I cannot, I cannot watch all 5 NBA Christmas Day games.  I must continue to repeat that refrain to myself; I must convince myself no good purpose serves from sitting in front of the television all morning all afternoon and evening.  One or two games are okay but games beginning at 11:00 a.m. Central and concluding at or near midnight is far too much basketball.  Who’s got that much time for the NBA?

The NCAA
Major power schools never commit misdeeds or they failed to be caught.  Once again the hammer that is the NCAA smacked the heck out of school.  The University of Hawaii the Rainbow Warriors are prohibited from post-season play for one year and loss of two scholarships over the next two seasons.  Former Coach Gib Arnold is the guilty party he should be forced to walk the plank, okay I’ve seen too many pirate movies.  “The NCAA said an investigation found Arnold failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance and also provided false or misleading information.”  The quote sounds familiar yes it does almost word for word the NCAA announcement we heard for Larry Brown and SMU also on probation.

The letters immediately begin flying in; “How come Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky are never penalized?”  One fan even returned to a quote from former UNLV Coach Jerry Tarkanian.  The late coach had his battles with the NCAA over the course of his career.  In any event "Tark the Shark" was reported to have said; “The NCAA will get so mad at Kentucky they will place Cleveland State on four more years of probation.”  This is certainly no attempt on my part to call out any school but it does appear only “smaller” schools appear to have their hands smacked by the NCAA.