Basketball from a fans perspective

Get a life Doug
Doug Gottlieb of CBS Sports is one of those media types I’ve rarely covered in the past. This time it’s for a story he wrote for CBS Sports.com that begs the question is he reporting facts or writing from a point of residual anger.  Prior to the UCLA-Kentucky game he said he no longer believed UCLA should be included in the discussion of elite programs such as Kentucky, Kansas, and Duke.  In fairness Gottlieb had no way to determine UCLA would beat Kentucky especially at Rupp Arena.  Prior to the game I concluded it was likely the Bruins had little opportunity to win away from Pauley Pavilion.  

This is the interesting portion of the story a fan responded to Gottlieb’s UCLA story claiming the basketball player turned broadcaster continues to hold a grudge against UCLA. He claimed Gottlieb was a highly regarded high school player in Southern California and wanted to attend UCLA, the problem the school failed to offer him a scholarship. Gottlieb began college play at Notre Dame and concluded at Oklahoma State.  I began researching Gottlieb’s bio since I was only familiar with him from his days at Oklahoma State.  I located a rebuttal story in Bruinsnation dated March 15, 2015 which corroborates information the email writer listed.  

In this account the writer claims Gottlieb went on a similar rant last year stating UCLA shouldn’t have received an NCAA invite.  Doug Gottlieb is 40 years old now “enough water has gone under the bridge” for him to cease with the hate.  I would be highly suspect of any commentary Gottlieb offers in the future on anything connected with UCLA basketball. UCLA is 10-0 as this is written it’s likely they won’t go through the season undefeated however UCLA basketball is top tier at least for this season.  The school is second in the AP Top 25 and USA Today Coaches Poll. Doesn’t matter whether Gottlieb agrees or not the school is near the top of the college basketball map.    

I’m none compliant
Ignore idiotic comments by media members; concentrate on working on the blog that‘s what I said I’m violating my promise this morning.  After listening to a statement made by Mike Golic on Mike & Mike I must respond.  It’s clear to me Golic is a Kobe hater despite the fact the Laker is now retired.  If Kobe was such a terrible teammate I guess Golic is unfamiliar with a guy named Michael Jordan.  Everything I’ve read and heard indicate MJ was a demanding teammate. Golic stick to NFL football something you should know about and forget the basketball. 

A win is a win is a win
William Jewell traveled 25 miles on I-435 South for a butt-whipping.  Jewell is an NAIA Division II school located in Liberty (MO).  Final score UMKC 93 William Jewell 71 as UMKC won its 7th game of the young season.  A win against an NAIA school certainly won’t garner an NCAA invite, a win over Drake plus a close loss to Creighton (89-82) aids the relevancy of your program.  

Leading scorer Martez Harrison suspension finally becomes permanent as the school announced he’d been dismissed from the team.  After conducting an investigation UMKC concluded Harrison violated a portion of NCAA Title IX.  I had to check and Title IX is the education amendment, privacy issues prevent UMKC from indicating which portion Harrison violated.  Title IX is quite extensive so we are left to our own devices to guess what might have occurred.  According to the Kansas City Star Harrison remains a student at the school.      

The fix
We hear it all the time from fans and the media, too many inaccurate calls and too many whistles in the college and NBA game.  Okay we’ll address the issue instead of 3-person crews we’ll use 4 and 5-person officiating teams.  Seriously folks the NBA-D League is to begin experimenting with this model December 26.  

It’s not intended to be a permanent fix however is it really a fix?  We went from two person crews to three because the complaint was calls were missed.  I believe we can agree officials miss calls however adding a 4th or 5th person is suppose to be a solve-all?  I could foresee even more whistle blowing; after all “If I’m on the floor I’ve got to make some calls.”