Basketball from a fans perspective
‘Were number one, were number one’
College fans football and basketball have been yelling “Were number one’ for eons, as for this weeks Top 25 consider these tidbits of information. Kansas is 15-1 with an RPI of 4 and strength of schedule 21. Gonzaga at 16-0 has a 13 RPI and 77 strength of schedule. Number one Baylor was a loser at West Virginia (16-1) but has a RPI of one (1), who becomes the top team?
It’s not confusing
Despite what many of us believe the affiliation difference between colleges most often has nothing to do with student enrollment. The athletic department with administration approval determines the level of play. The University of Missouri Kansas City once it decided to revive its basketball program the school competed at the NAIA level and then moved up to Division I.
Kentucky State once an NAIA school now competes as a Division II program. As an example Notre Dame University has always been a Division I program, undergraduate enrollment is 8,462. Its cross town neighbor Indiana University at South Bend is an NAIA school but has almost the same number of students (8,073) as Notre Dame. The University of Central Missouri competes at the Division II level and has a student enrollment of 14,000. These are just a few examples to point out student enrollment rarely has anything to do with the competition level of a school.
Is he NBA ready?
One of the starting guards for George Washington University is from Kagawa Japan located about 700 miles south-southwest of Tokyo. Yuta Watanabe is a junior year at GWU and is the teams’ second leading scorer at 12.4 ppg. Standing 6-9 and a slim 196 pounds he is taller than the average shooting guard.
Watanabe’s demonstrated athletic skill on the court, whether this earns a spot in the NBA is yet to be determined. Keep an eye out for him in the 2018 NBA Draft. It should be of note if he makes an NBA roster he won’t be the first Japanese player he would actually be number three. The first Wataru Misaka who broke into the NBA way back in 1947 and many years later Yuta Tabuse played for the Suns during the 2004-05 season.
Bits n Pieces
You might remember awhile back I listed several movies with basketball as the theme. I don’t believe I listed the 1977 film ‘One on One’ which starred Robby Benson and Annette O‘Toole. It’s not been on cable for quite awhile now, just in case you decide to purchase it I won’t give the storyline away. It was a low-budget film but the basketball scenes were good and the acting as well. I also failed to mention the 2005 movie ‘Coach Carter’ which had Samuel L. Jackson as Carter. Even better this was a true story based on a series of events in 1999 at Richmond High School (CA). Basketball action was good however the story it told is even better.
A number of folks complain about the college game. They moan about the one and done athlete and no more super teams. The world has turned over several times since 1960 as example. We can face-time on our cell phones once the realm of science fiction. Speaking of our phones it’s been stated we have more computer power in our hands than was available to the Apollo astronauts of the 1960‘s. There will be no more 30-0 college teams or any undefeated teams’ period. Fundamentally today’s college players are more talented than their grandfathers
Tacko Fall of UCF finished the game against Houston scoring a mere 11 points. In 29 minutes of action Fall only touched the ball four times leading to the point total he registered. I’d mentioned this previously the 7-6 290 pound Fall’s skill is limited but if he fails to handle the basketball how can his game be expected to improve? I’ll repeat my earlier assessment Coach Dawkins must figure out a method to get the ball to Fall otherwise the growth of his game will be severely impacted.
