That didn’t take long
Shareef O’Neal
didn’t take very long to decide on his destination. After decommitting from Arizona last week
Shaq’s son has decided in favor of “remaining at home.” O’Neal is verbally committing to UCLA, he
will join a highly touted recruiting class in the fall.
A significant date
March 2nd
is significant, on that date in 1962 Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points against the Knicks. The Warriors were winners 169-147 thanks in
large part to Chamberlain’s scoring binge.
A notoriously poor shooter from the free-throw line throughout his
career, this game he sank 28 out of 32 free-throws. In addition to the scoring binge Chamberlain
pulled down 25 rebounds, teammate Guy Rogers had 20 assists in the game. Willie Naulls and Richie Guerin scored 31 and
39 points respectively for the Knicks.
The game was not
televised which was not unusual for the time-period, even more interesting
there are no photos from the game. The
only record other than the box score is a photo of Wilt Chamberlain holding a
sheet of paper with 100 hand-written on it.
The NBA would often “farm” out games, this one was played in Hershey
(think chocolate) Pennsylvania some 100 miles from Philadelphia. There were 4,124 fans in attendance at the
Hershey Sports Arena although someone once said, “at least 14,000 claimed to
have seen the game.”
It’s me
Coach Cuonzo Martin
on Thursday said: “If Michael Porter Jr. has a good practice he'll play on Saturday. He meant
Mizzou’s game versus Arkansas Saturday evening.
After Jr. was injured and surgery was required I believed like many
others I’d never see him play in a Mizzou jersey. Somewhere around mid to late January rumors
began circulating he planned on playing this season.
Then last week the
medical staff gave him the okay to practice, we believe play would begin soon
after. At first, I said it was okay that
he plays and then I said naw, why take a chance. To show you how unsure I was I consulted several
basketball but not Mizzou fans. My
survey was not scientific by any means, but I could find no one besides yours
truly who thought Jr. should remain on the bench. So, there you have it, it's likely he plays, and I guess I'm okay with it.
“Best on the floor”
That was the word
from the Lakers Luke Walton regarding Lonzo Ball. The Lakers won a road game 131-113 over the
Heat, Ball filled up the stat sheet in his 34 minutes on the court.
8 points
7 assists
6 rebounds
6 steals
Ball only scored 8 points,
without a check of the box you might believe he was chucking up a bunch of
shots and missing. He only took five
shots and sank 3 baskets. I’ve said this
previously Ball might never become a “great” player but as for whether he belongs in the NBA that's a different matter, he belongs.
I’m only as good as the
information received
First-hand knowledge
of a situation allows a unique perspective, you witness the events first hand
rather than repeating what someone else might have said or done. That’s my dilemma, I read the ESPN account
regarding misdeeds by Sean Miller and Arizona basketball. The coach after being silent for a time claims
he is innocent of any of the charges aimed at him while serving as Arizona’s
head coach. That was the point now for
the counter-point, the ESPN.com writer who “broke” the story is claiming his
sources have the information correct.
With that said Larry Laker is going to sit on the sidelines and wait for completion of the FBI/Justice Department final report.
