Basketball from a fans perspective
Capital of sports
Cleveland was rocking on Tuesday night however it might be a stretch referring to the city as the capital of sports. You might understand considering the events that took place. The Indians in the World Series for the first time since 1954, for the Cubs it was 1945 the last time they were in the fall classic. The Cavs were playing the Knicks at the same time. Home cooking provided invaluable as the Cavs and Indians both won. Prior to the game Cavs players received their 2016 NBA Championship rings.
The Cavs then proceeded to destroy the Knicks final score 117-88 with LeBron having a triple-double in the game. As for the World Series Cory Kluber Indians starting pitcher led the way in his team securing a 6-0 shutout. We can only imagine the gigantic traffic jam with Quicken Loans Arena sitting right next door to Progressive Field. There were 38,091 in attendance at Progressive Field for the World Series game and another 20,562 at Quicken Loans Arena for the Cavs 2016 NBA kick-off.
He remained in-state----just not where I hoped
Carte’Are Gordon the 6-8 257 power forward committed to Saint Louis University. I guess it might be expected he attends Webster Groves High School in suburban St. Louis. Kansas, Kansas State and several other schools were recruiting Gordon. Mizzou was on his list so he did remain in state just not the school I hoped.
Sonics?
You remember Chris Hansen don’t you? Hansen was the driving force behind a group effort that attempted to purchase the Kings franchise. The moving vans were prepared to move the franchise to Seattle until. David Stern listened to last minute pleas by Sacramento and allowed the team to remain in Sacramento. Hansen not to be curtailed proposed a brand new arena in Seattle to replace Key Arena.
City funds were to be used to build it and last May the city and county said an emphatic NO to the plan. This week Hansen’s group announced a new plan using private funds to build an arena. The proposal is more than the arena proposal. It’s believed if it’s built this should be a drawn for an NHL franchise and for the NBA to return to the Emerald City.
How long?
CBS Sports ran a story citing eight college coaches the writer believe were on the hot seat. Among the coaching names mentioned was Kim Anderson at Mizzou. Is there a time limit for a recently hire to turn a program around? I guess it might depend on how bad the program was to begin with. Perhaps the worst case scenario were Scott Drew took over the scandal ridden Baylor program in 2003. The school lost most of its top players and worked with a number of reduced scholarships, in addition the school was on NCAA probation until 2010.
Drew certainly was aware of the situation prior to taking the job so he was provided plenty of opportunity to turn the program around. Today Baylor basketball is competitive once again. A new hire inherits players recruited by the departed coach, these players either buy it to the new guy or leave. That is certainly the case at Mizzou a sizable number of Haith recruits remained in place. Either graduation or transfer reduced the ranks significantly; this is Anderson’s third year at the helm. To me this is the cut-off year baring major injuries to a teams roster, the third year is the time we witness improvement be it ever so slight.
