Basketball from a fans perspective

Which one

We’ve discussed polls and the fact students, faculty, alums and fans point to them with pride.  Good ole Fictional University is the number 10 team in the country they say to all within earshot.  Is one poll more valuable than the other, well consider this.  As for the Associated Press poll much as a writer might know about the sport its highly likely he ever coached the game, he could have played but that’s about it.  How about the USA Coaches poll, if a basketball coach is worth his weight he can’t do what I do?  I watch easily 10 or more college games a week.  It’s likely the head coach relinquishes his voting rights to an assistant coach.  So there you have the flaw in both polls but guess what we love them. 

Bits n Pieces

Speaking of the draft a brief discussion of the Ball brothers and their eligibility for the draft. The brothers have signed a 1-year contract but only one will be eligible for the 2018 NBA draft.  Middle son LiAngelo has no issue, he’s already qualified based on his high school graduation.  As for LaMelo that’s another story, below are the qualifications for the NBA draft I located on Wikipedia. 

“All drafted players must be at least 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft.”

“Any player who is not an “international player”, as defined in the CBA, must be at least one year removed from the graduation of his high school class.”    

Youngest son LaMelo cannot be considered for the 2018 draft as for 2019 that’s a different story.

Unless we gauge talent through the eyes of a coach or scout our view can sometimes be jaded.  An example might be Mizzou power forward Kevin Puryear.  Puryear played high school ball at Blue Springs South in the Kansas City metro. I was excited when he announced three years ago he’d be attending Mizzou.  The 6-7 220-pound Puryear arrived on campus to a new coach, new system but a bad team.  Despite the teams’ poor play, he demonstrated he’d made the leap from high school to Division I basketball.  His scoring and rebound numbers will not wow you and I’m certainly not declaring him an NBA prospect, this I do know despite what my wife’s cousin told me three years ago 

he can play. 

I saw a video of Shareef O’Neal son of Shaquille O’Neal giving away a pair of his shoes after a basketball game.  I decided to check on the shoes his father markets, unlike Nike, Adidas and some of the other manufactures the basketball shoes are moderately priced ($40.00).  In addition, Shoe Carnival and Wal Mart are just two of the retail outlets stores with his shoes on their shelves.  Get this footwearnews.com claims Shaq sold over 120 million shoes at Wal Mart alone in 2016.    

History of televised college basketball

College basketball has been broadcast on television since 1940 when the first experimental game was telecast from Madison Square Garden.  World War II impacted the growth of television especially in the sports world however basketball would gain a toe hold in this new medium of mass communication.  During the 1950’s we’d witness an increasing number of basketball games become available however they were regionally telecast.  Those reading this under age 40 might find it difficult to believe in this day of ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS Sports Network and the YES Network there were no nationally telecast games prior to the mid- ‘60’s.  No coast to coast telecast for basketball only regional.  

The landscape would change forever in January 1968, number one UCLA led by Lew Alcindor faced Elvin Hayes leader of the University of Houston.  The TVS Network was able to string together a gathering of network and independent stations to link up forming a national television audience.  The game was played in Houston’s Astrodome before 100,000 fans and would become the first ever nationally televised college basketball game.  Many trace that game for the groundwork that would become the sports networks of today.  Eddie Einhorn owner of TVS sold his interest in the network in 1980 although still operating today its on a much smaller scale than its heyday.  The history cannot be compiled in a few sentences however this is intended to provide a brief overview.