Tournament time
It’s that time of
year once again, March Madness, conference tournaments will lead to NCAA
invitations. Did you realize although
the Division I tournament dominates television coverage and our brackets it’s
not the oldest? In 1939 Oregon beat
Ohio State 46-33, the tournament that year consisted of 8 teams compared to the
68 teams who are invited presently. The second
oldest post-season tournament is the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) first
held in 1938.
The tournament
championship game is held at Madison Square Garden.. Temple defeated Colorado 60-36, it too was
smaller with 6 teams participating. The
champion is the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics first held in
1937. That year Central Missouri State
(now University of Central Missouri) faced Morningside College (IA). The game would see Central Missouri crowned
champion with a 35-24 win. With the
exception of several years the NAIA Championship is held in Kansas City (MO).
Change is in the air
Pac-12 Commissioner
Larry Scott is calling for change, he wants the NBA to do away with it’s one
and done rule. Scott wants to compel
athletes to commit to three years in college, it’s my belief this proposed
change would be like that in effect for major league baseball. High school players have a choice they can
sign after graduation or head off to college for the previously stated
period. I certainly don’t claim to be
an expert regarding the NHL but it’s my understanding play begins at that level
for several players. As for the NFL
that’s totally different.
I’m sure there are a
few players who could have made the leap, overall most high school football players
are not ready to deal with the physical requirements of play in the NFL. As for the NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is
working on a plan too, it will await release of the college committee, so it
could be several months before we see a change.
There are several issues here, the ugly under belly of basketball has
been exposed and we don’t like what we see.
Consider this bit of information, did we ever hear of money at the time
high school athletes were allowed in the NBA draft. There were several high school draft choice
misses but there were a greater number of successes.
Kobe, Kobe
He’s allowed the
haters to return once again, Kobe indicated he would not be a recruiter
for potential Laker free-agents. The
public statement certainly doesn’t prevent him from working behind the scenes
effort however that’s caused a concern in some circles. That’s number one on the Kobe hater list,
number two on the list Kobe won an Academy Award for “Dear Basketball” an
animated short he served as executive producer.
Kobe shared the award with Disney animator Glen Keane.
Correction
Technically my
statement regarding Mizzou’s finish was incorrect, allow a further explanation. Mizzou’s conference record was 10 wins and 8
losses but so was Kentucky and Arkansas.
Technically Mizzou finished in a tie for 4th although they
lost the tie-breaker to Arkansas and Kentucky.
That entails a 5th place finish.
In recruiting news, a local sports radio host attended the Saturday
game, he indicated Courtney Ramey was at the game. The 6-foot 3-inch Rivals 4-star point guard
was believed to have dropped Mizzou from his list of schools. Ramey from Webster Groves (MO) a city in St. Louis County might have been completing his list of authorized NCAA college visits.
