Basketball from a fans perspective
Good for him
LaMelo Ball of Chino Hills verbally committed to UCLA when he was in the 8th grade. His older brother Lonzo is playing outstanding ball as a freshman at UCLA. Next season another brother LiAngelo is headed to UCLA, LeMelo the youngest is a high school sophomore. Whether all three brothers play for UCLA at the same time is questionable. I‘d mentioned this earlier LaMelo took a half court shot in an earlier game when it was not required. The game wasn‘t in doubt, it was no desperation shot to tie or win the game.
LeMelo just took it and sank it because he wanted to. Evidently the competition must read scouting reports or just saw video from the earlier game. Point guard LeMelo dribbling the ball up court decided to jack up another 3-point shot at the half-court line. The Etiwanda player guarding LeMelo went up just as he took the shot and BLOCKED it. Chino Hills won the game anyway but hopefully the “Hotdog” will stop shooting unnecessary half court shots. I doubt it though; it appears his high school coach has little control over his players.
Limited time
Do you realize the Sixers Joel Emibiid remains on a 30 minute restriction? The Sixer rookies’ length of time on the basketball court is limited to that figure; in addition he doesn’t play back to backs. Despite the mandated time limit on the court Embiid is still averaging nearly 20 points 8 rebounds and 2.3 block shots a game. Monday he led the Sixers to victory scoring 22 points along with 12 rebounds and 5 blocked shots in a 112-104 win over the Bucks. He did all this in 28 minutes of action, I continue to marvel at his stellar play and hope we see even more.
Confusing
The transfer of Bol Bol from Bishop Miege is certainly strange, these events took several weeks and months but I’m condensing them for purposes of this account. Bol a local talent with a national presence decided to leave Bishop Miege in suburban Kansas City, this occurred in early November not at the semester. His high school coach contacted by local media first indicated he had no idea Bol had transferred. Later the former coach would confirm the son of former NBA player Manute had indeed left school. We later discovered Bol enrolled at Mater Dei in Santa Ana (CA).
News report confirmed Bol’s presence but that’s when things got even stranger. His former coach claimed Bol left Miege “with all F’s.” In earlier January the coach made this statement; “I hereby retract my statement communicated to you by email on are about January 4, 2017 that Bol left Bishop Miege with all F’s.” At this point that’s all the news I can report. I don’t wish to read a great deal into this with the following exception. I believe the information regarding grades is not intended for the public domain. This coach could be sued for his actions.
Surprise
The AP placed Villanova at the top spot which was surprising I figured Kansas would move into the number one position. As for the USA Coaches poll they moved Kansas into the top spot. In any event both polls reflect the same conferences with one exception. There are 3 Big 12 schools, 2 ACC, and 1 each for the Mo Valley, SEC, Pac 12, Big East and West Coast Conference.
I didn’t look at placement except at the top and to locate teams omitted or added to each poll. The USA Today Coaches poll includes Oregon but leaves out Florida State. However the question remains am I mistaken, do the polls reflect the Big 12 is a stronger basketball conference than I’ve voiced in the past, after all they placed three teams in both polls?
