Basketball from a fans perspective

Stephen F. Who

The Lumberjacks of Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches Texas that’s who.  Question.......exactly where is Nacogdoches located, I'm glad you ask.  It's actually closer to Shreveport Louisiana than Dallas Texas, 100 road miles to Shreveport and 162 miles to Dallas.  As for the Lumberjacks they can play, they were not the least bit intimidated playing in Mizzou Arena.  

Final score Tigers 82 Lumberjacks 81 as Kassius Robertson with 23 and Jordan Barnett scoring 22 led the way to victory.  The Lumberjacks came into the game with a 10-1 and feature a pressing defense like that employed by West Virginia and Arkansas, their defense forced the Tigers into 21 turnovers.  The Tigers missed two free-throws with seconds remaining and the Lumberjacks with the ball, they turned it over with Mizzou recovering and calling a TO and that was the game.    

Mamba out

I witnessed the half-time ceremony and the Lakers retiring Kobe’s jersey numbers.  The formality caused the game to run longer than normal between the Warriors and Lakers.  To compound that it went into OT, for me in the Midwest time zone it was after midnight.  Work the next day prohibited me remaining up any longer, you might have a better idea than me of the highlights. 

Warriors 116 Lakers 114 in OT, reserve Kyle Kuzma led the Lakers in scoring with 25 points while Kevin Durant had 36 points but only shot .345 from the floor.  Lonzo Ball continued his slowly improving play scoring 16 points along with 6 assists and 6 rebounds shooting .500 from the floor.  Lonzo managed to block two shots in the process although he probably was not pleased since his team lost the game. 

Finally, I hope I’m not preaching to myself.  This morning on one of the local sports talk radio shows discussing the jersey ceremony we get into this who’s better conversation is Tim Duncan better than Kobe Bryant? I believe I make comparisons along the lines “He reminds me of _______ or his game is close to _____.”  I try to not compare a player is “better” than another there are far too many variables to make an accurate comparison. 

I’m not angry at him

The father of freshman point guard C.J. Roberts announced his son was leaving Mizzou at the semester, this was reported earlier in Words eye view.  The news while surprising is certainly not a lightning bolt.  Roberts was being red-shirted this season and as I indicated likely believed he should be playing can’t blame him for that view.  I cannot speak for Cuonzo Martins stops at Mo State, Tennessee and Cal however programs lose players and sometimes its not always due to injury. 

The simple response why I’m not mad recruiting.  Roberts was recruited by Kim Anderson he could have picked up his marbles at the time Mizzou changed coaches.  Just not uncommon for a player to be drawn to a coach rather than the school.  It’s been documented Coach Martin flew to Dallas the week after he took the job met with Roberts parents and we guess convinced him to remain at Mizzou.  So, there you have it the athlete and coaches side of the issue.    

He might be correct

Every blue moon Charles Barkley says something I agree with and this time I believe his observation might be correct.  Barkley claims the Sixers were accused of tanking but it’s not totally valid in his view.  He pointed out what could have occurred if first Embiid and then Simmons had not gotten injured along with Nerlens Noel now with the Mavs.  Check this out, Noel drafted in 2013 missed the season due to injury, Embiid drafted in 2014 played limited games last year however 2017 has been the break-out year. 

Simmons is the leading candidate for rookie of the year but should be in year two, he missed last season with an ……. INJURY.  The Sixers remain a young team and will continue to exhibit the tendency to make mistakes until they age.  Barkley may have been correct, we piled heaps of criticism on the Sixers for tanking (a term I first heard regarding the Sixers) when they could be a mature team by now minus the numerous injuries suffered over several seasons.