Basketball from a fans perspective
Bits n Pieces
Despite what Duke fans might believe ‘The Sky is not falling’. Expected to compete for an NCAA Championship early season injuries, then Grayson Allen and now Coach K. The coach will have back surgery which will cause him to miss the next four weeks. Duke currently is 12-2 which certainly ain’t bad, losing to Kansas and Virginia Tech two very good teams.
Speaking of the ACC they have seven (7) teams in the USA Today Coaches poll. Polls are just that opinions however it would be a great accomplishment if the Kansas City sports media would pay attention to teams outside the Big 12. I realize we are less than 50 miles from Lawrence (KS) but it would be nice, just sayin.‘
At least to this point of the season the Bulls have not played at the level many expected. Problems with the point guard plus injuries but don’t tell that to small forward Jimmy Butler. Butler scored 52 points in leading to a Bulls win over the Hornets on Monday. He added 12 rebounds and 6 assists as he shot .625 from the floor.
The Hawks are shopping Paul Milsap due to pending free-agency at the end of the season. I thought maybe he could help the Lakers until I reflected on Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith’s observation. ‘Unless you make a trade for a player that commands a double-team the trade is useless.’ Milsap would provide a veteran presence who can score but fails to provide the key element ‘The Jet’ says is
It's my fault, I tuned into the East Carolina-UCF game hoping to gain additional insight into 7-6 Tacko Fall's game. All I can say is I'll have to wait for another game this one was a throw-away. Neither team decided to show up, well really they did it was just an ugly, ugly game. As for Tacko he was 0-6 from the field 0 blocked shots and 7 rebounds. Despite his play UCF managed to win the game 48-45 shooting 26% from the floor, yes I said 26%. East Carolina wasn't much better shooting 27.1%
Three times since the 1952-1953 NBA season (the first year) the league has selected co-Rookies of the Year. Most recently the 1999-2000 season Steve Francis of the Rockets and the Bulls Elton Brand were selected. As for the 2016-17 season as we move into January Sixer Joel Embiid is clearly the leader (although drafted in 2014). Ben Simmons remains sidelined and Brandon Ingram is struggling at times with his offense. Dragan Bender, Jaylen Brown and others are playing limited minutes.
Your choice
If you are a certain age you remember Saturdays where you had a choice of two games. In this area it was a CBS Network and Big 8 college game that was it, rarely was there a late afternoon game and none scheduled on Saturday evening. Today the landscape has changed much of it due to cable; as an example the games below were broadcast at near the same time or would overlap. This television picture represents games at 11:00 a.m. Central Time and does not include afternoon and the evening schedule.
Louisville-Indiana CBS Network
Duke-Virginia Tech ESPN2
Tennessee State-Murray St CBS Sports Network
Indiana State-Missouri State Fox Sports Midwest
Houston-South Florida ESPNU
Xavier-Georgetown Fox Sports1
It’s pronounced…..
I believe it was The Starters a featured program on NBA TV. The host had fun with videos of Shaq and President Obama attempting to pronounce his name. I’m referring to the Bucks do everything forward Giannis Antetkounmpo. It’s pronounced; YAHN-iss ah-deh-toh-KOON-boh there is no more mispronouncing his name.
