The investigation of Arizona basketball
is far from over. What we do know late
Friday Shaq’s son, Shareef O’Neal de-committed from Arizona. The 6-foot 9 inch forward must have decided
Arizona might be facing serious penalties in the wake of the phone call. The phone call that was taped with head coach
Sean Miller discussing paying $100,000 to ensure phenom DeAndre Ayton enrolls
at Arizona. It’s not clear at this point
if Ayton received the money or a family member.
If Ayton was the recipient, he will be declared ineligible
immediately. As for Miller it's likely Arizon terminates his contract, this story has additional chapters remaining, this is only the beginning.
Headed to the NBA?
We cannot be sure until the June draft however
we believe one of the names called will be that of Landry Shamet. Shamet is a 6-foot 4-inch combo guard who
plays for Wichita State, his name is listed on several mock draft sites. He just might be one of those guys not highly
touted in high school but grew his game at the collegiate level. Embarrassing for me Shamet played for Park
Hill High School in Kansas City. I would
be less than honest if I told you I knew of Shamet prior to Wichita State, I
didn’t but no matter. I know who Landry
Shamet is now and I'm hoping he earns a roster spot on some NBA team just because he's a Kansas City kid.
You’ll do what?
Your team has an athlete like Steph Curry, great outside shooter and point guard. The opportunity exists for you as general manager to acquire a Joel Embiid or Karl-Anthony Towns what do you do? Do you change your offense from an outside-in game to an inside-out one? I don’t know about you, but the answer is simple for me, despite the emphasis today on small ball the game remains that of a big man. That’s my view, I ask several acquaintances for their opinion. One said: “I suppose the premise being that you throw down low and then it opens up Curry outside.
Embiid is a bit
of a wild card, as he doesn't exclusively play from the post and likes to shoot
the 3, so you may have to change his style a bit.” Another
said: “Never going to
have a Kareem or Wilt again. Remember how when Hakeem down in Houston started
developing a mid-range jump shot and how it made him one of the top 3 players
in the game.” Finally, the last friend said: “I watched Embiid one night this week
and thought he might fit as a big man for the Dubs. He moves well. Big’s can’t
just set up in the post in today’s game.”
There you have it the views of four fans of the game, what do you think?
The title above has
nothing to do with capital punishment, it represents an NCAA ruling on
infractions. It denotes the harshest
penalty that can be given a school.
There have only been five instances The Death Penalty has been imposed the
last was 1987. The Southern Methodist
University football team was the culprit, football was penalized to the point some
believe the program has never recovered.
This is a
condensed version of the full Louisville story; the university was forced to
vacate wins from 2011 through 2015 which included the 2013 NCAA
Championship. Earlier the university was
banned from postseason play in 2016 plus scholarship reductions and recruiting
limitations. This might be the tip of
the iceberg for the university although we cannot be for sure, the interim
president appears to challenge a portion of the ruling. In addition, former Coach Rick Pitino who was fired has filed suit against the university.
