Basketball from a fans perspective
Waiting for the phone call
The Texas Longhorns under Shaka Smart will eventually compete with Kansas for conference domination. Other than some current member of the conference a school with a rich basketball tradition might also be in the mix. The 10-member Big 12 has indicated for the last few years a desire to expand to 12 teams or more, one of the schools “waiting” on a call is UConn.
UConn is currently a member of the American Athletic Conference after years in the Big East Conference. The Huskies play football however its 1-AA, Big 12 football is FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision formerly Division I-A). Most conference moves have been made with football in mind in this instance its basketball. Keep in mind at this point this is all speculative on my part. CORRECTION: my buddy indicates UConn plays Division I football
He’s a good coach
I can’t speak for football or baseball I don’t know either sport like I do basketball. What's the requirement to be judged a “good” coach? For years we’ve hear people say; “Phil Jackson’s not a great coach he’s never built a team.” Jackson might not be a great coach but how many championships has he won? On the other hand I’ve heard for years George Karl is a great coach. Karl’s won almost 2,000 games most of his teams have been playoff caliber during his coaching career however how many championships have Karl’s team won zero.
Karl’s 1995-96 Sonic team played for the championship but lost that year to Michael Jordan’s Bulls 4 games to 2. We could question Steve Kerr as well. Every starter and many of the key reserves were in place when Kerr took over. How about Tyronn Lue who just won a championship with the Cavs, how do we measure his success? He might have utilized his roster differently but all were there under David Blatt. They couldn’t win for Blatt yet won for Lue in his first year as a head coach, in conclusion how do we determine the value of a coach especially at the NBA level? Just winning games is no proof (see Karl).
He didn’t inform us
I hope we get it right this time around; I’m referring to the possibility of two Chinese players entering the NBA this fall and winter. Yao Ming was the first pick in the first round of the 2002 NBA Draft. He was not the first Chinese player but the best to date, injuries forced him to the sidelines and retirement in 2011.
Five years later we discover his name was pronounced incorrectly sorta. He explained in China surnames come first which is Ming in the Western world we referred to him as “Yao Ming”. Why no correction on Ming’s part you might ask? Ming at 7-6 and 310 pounds indicated he was too “shy” to correct anyone. NBA rookies Zhou Qi and Wang Zhelin are Qi and Zhelin respectively.
“This is it”
We could be referring to the 1979 Kenny Loggins hit but it could also be the refrain of Mike Krzyzewski. We can rest assured the coach is probably not singing the tune however as for the Rio Olympics “This is it. “ A little history first after Chuck Daly stepped down as coach of Team USA there were several missteps by succeeding teams. The finger is first pointed at the players and then the coaches.
One of those scrutinized was Larry Brown. Following the Gold medal losing teams of 2004 and 2006 Jerry Colangelo was asked to step in an manage Team USA, the first task was to contact Krzyzewski to take over as head coach. Since this change Team USA won Gold in the 2008 and 2012 games. With the Rio Games being less than a month away will Team USA win Gold again, we adopt a wait and see.
