Basketball from a fans perspective
Future Jayhawk?
If you've followed Kansas basketball over the years the name Lester Earl might be familiar. Earl was a 6-8 forward who began play at LSU but finished his college career at Kansas. An Earl son has taken up the game of his father, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl is a 6-8 220 pound forward and is a highly recruited prospect in the Class of 2019. He attends Bishop Miege in metro Kansas City in his sophomore year. Naturally Kansas is in the mix for his services but so too is Mizzou and several other schools. How good is the youngster, he made the All-State First team for the State of Kansas.
Proof positive
Maybe you will believe now since Yale commissioned a study. I don’t remember the date exactly; I wrote a piece on Rick Barry and his highly accurate free-throw shooting. Over the course of his career Barry shot nearly 90% from the line. In my account I indicated Barry attempted to convince a number of poor shooters to utilize his underhand or “granny style” shot. Most interesting Barry’s career overlapped that of Wilt Chamberlain a notorious poor shooter (51.1% career) at the line. Chamberlain attempted to change to the granny style although he didn’t maintain the practice.
The style was suggested at one point to Shaquille O’Neal (52.7%) his response; “I make my free throws when they count. “ Shaq retired in 2011 but we still hear the term “Hack a Shaq”, NBA teams utilizing the rules foul poor free-throw shooters up to the last two minutes without any outcome if not over the foul limit. It’s usually employed by the team behind hoping the shooter misses one or both free-throws. As for my account I offered no proof except the outstanding career shooting of Barry. Along comes a study from of all places prestigious Yale University, the research indicates the most effective free-throw shot is granny style.
“Gone fishing!”
I’m going to do it since it appears TNT won’t, on the other hand I could have missed it. I’m referring to the “Gone Fishing” photos used by Kenny “The Jet” Smith on the post-game program? I can’t duplicate the photo but I can provide a few names:
Russell Westbrook
Steven Adams
Damian Lillard
Evan Turner
Paul George
Myles Turner
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Mike Conley
Basketball reigns supreme
The State of Texas is well known for football, high school, college and the NFL. That’s changing as more and more basketball talent is groomed in the Lone Star State. As for Kentucky and Indiana its basketball, basketball and more basketball. That’s not to say there is no football, baseball or hockey interest it’s just a fact round ball fever runs from north to south-east to west in both states. Everyone thinks of the Kentucky Wildcats or Louisville and they might be the preeminent Division I programs however there are others. Northern Kentucky, Western Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky, Morehead State, Murray State.
As for Division II there are two schools along with five Division III schools in the state, there are also 12 NAIA programs. Depending on the school these programs might be at different won-loss levels but they provide proof basketball is king in Kentucky. As for Indiana Larry Bird toiled at Indiana State while Isiah Thomas played for Bobby Knight at Indiana. Butler, Evansville, Purdue, Notre Dame and Ball State are just a few of the Division I programs. There are four Division II programs, 10 Division III and 18 NAIA programs. Indiana has one advantage over Kentucky they have the NBA Pacers. This is not intended to be complete just providing you a brief glimpse into Kentucky and Indiana basketball and its importance to residents.
