Basketball from a fans perspective
Are you ready for this?
ESPN basketball analyst Dick Vitale has been
criticized in the past because he’s often viewed as a cheerleader for college
basketball. It’s said highly
controversial issues he avoids completely, no more Mr. Nice Guy from Dicky
V. Dick Vitale weighed in on the UCLA
trio with as strong as statement as I can remember. He indicated the three should be suspended
for the entire basketball season, others suggested they be out of school but
not Vitale. They should be required to
keep up their grades but no basketball for the immediate future.
A
little statistical note
I thought this worth repeating again, the Lakers are
but 21 games into the 2017-18 season. This is a comparison between Ricky Rubio and
Lonzo Ball in their first year. Rubio FG
.357 Ball FG .315, Rubio 8.2 assist Ball 7.0 assist. Points per game scoring Rubio 10.6, Ball 9.0. The numbers for Rubio are based on an entire season and Ball's are after 21 games. Bottom line I still consider Ball a Work
in Progress, there are fundamentals of the game at the NBA level that still
require development. Ball needs an
aggressive rather than passive game he’s exhibited at times
Are
you sure
I listened to Marcellus Wiley co-host of ESPN's SportsNation discuss the current state
of the Clippers after Blake Griffin's injury. As this is written the Clippers sit in 10th
place a couple of games below the playoff cut-off. If the season ended today they would miss the
playoffs, the question remains healthy are they likely to be a playoff
contender? I agree with Marcellus
however unlike Wiley I have reservations about the team advancing very deep in
the playoffs.
Ahead of the Clippers are the Rockets, Warriors or
Spurs, in a playoff scenario its highly unlikely they face all three, but they
could meet two. Directly behind the teams
are the Blazers, Wolves, Nuggets and Pelicans.
Remember they lost to the Rockets two years ago with Chris Paul in the
lineup. The Clippers have a huge mountain to
scale no Blake Griffin for two months, Patrick Beverly gone for the year and
Danilo Gallinari still out for another 5-10 games. Sorry for you Marcellus Austin Rivers ain’t
gonna cut it as a replacement for any of the players.
RPI
RPI could be an acronym for a
bunch of different things, it could stand for
Rensselaer Polyethnic Institution a research university located
in Troy New York. On the other hand, it
might be Retail Price Index or Replacement Parts Industries. In this instance none of the above apply, we
are discussing RPI as it relates to college basketball. 1. “The rating percentage index, commonly
known as the RPI, is a quantity used
to rank sports teams based upon a team’s wins and losses and its strength of
schedule. It is one of the sports rating
systems by which NCAA basketball,
baseball, softball, hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and volleyball teams are ranked.”
So, there you have it the
mechanics behind why school A with a 22-9 record fails to be invited to
the Big Dance and school B with a 17-12 season does. School A’s won-loss record looks outstanding
however the competition they faced during the season was not nearly as
competitive as those faced by School B’s opponents. A coaching staff has no control over the RPI
of its conference foes, on the other hand they do with the non-conference
portion of the schedule. Even that
becomes tenuous at times, they schedule a “competitive” school and when time
comes for play two or three years later that teams coach has been fired or
moved to another program or the incoming class of athletes did not pan out.
1. Wikipedia
Who Do You Trust
The late Johnny Carson first arrived
on the national scene as the host of a television quiz program not The Tonight
Show as many might believe. It was
program titled Who Do You Trust. 1. “In the quiz portion, Carson would tell the
male contestant the category of the upcoming question; the man would then have
to decide whether to answer the question himself or "trust" the woman
to do so.”
Who do we trust the
corporation, or the individual mentioned in the story? Adidas versus former Louisville Coach Rick
Pitino, Pitino claims he’s innocent, he’s taken this position since the
university fired him. Pitino has even
gone so far as to file a lawsuit against Adidas. We guess the corporation says enough is
enough. hold on a moment you knew what was going on all the time. As this was being completed word came Pitino was also suing Louisville.
1. Wikipedia
