Basketball from a fans perspective

Your reply Mr. Mushnick 

Southern Cal announced the hiring of Eric Mobley as an assistant coach.  According to the report Mobley has 11 years of head coaching experience at the AAU level.  Mobley also has two high profile sons in high school one a junior and the other a sophomore.  Where is Phil Mushnick when you need him?  He wrote a scathing piece in the New York Post December 2, 2017 hinting “something was ethically wrong with Mizzou hiring Michael Porter Sr. as a coach.” 

Later sons Michael Jr. and Jontay committed to Mizzou.  To be fair Mushnick also mentioned Kansas which hired Ed Manning as an assistant back in 1983, later son Danny would commit to play at Kansas.  Those mentioned are not the only instance of a relationship hire at the collegiate level, there are others but there is no need of a further explanation.     

If we are discussing eithics I wonder if Mr. Mushnick has ever been involved in hiring a family member or friend for the New York Post.  I didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday, I realize improprieties abound in big time recruiting, all we need to do is look at the on-going FBI investigation of college basketball.  The hiring of Mobley, Michael Porter Sr. or Ed Manning in 1983 don’t violate any NCAA rules.  

Remember when

I’m unsure of the timeframe, shortly before or near the beginning of the season LaVar Ball became upset with the Chino Hills basketball coach?  For those who might have forgotten I will refresh your memory.  The coach replaced two roster members Ball trained and wanted on the team despite the fact LaVar was not the head coach.  In a juvenile move LaVar pulls son LaMelo Ball off the Chino Hills team and says he’s going to home school him. 

Later daddy would secure a contract for LaMelo and LiAngelo to play at the professional level in Lithuania.   Poor Chino Hills, what would they do without LaMelo and two of LaVar Ball’s trained athletes on the team?  How about winning the California D-I State Championship?  “I think the team showed they are more than one individual player,” coach Dennis Latimore was reported to state.  I wonder who that statement might be aimed at?     

Geography update

It's been pointed out on the NCAA telecast on more than one occasion Clayton Custer and Ben Richardson of Loyola Chicago are lifetime teammates.  They began play on a third grade elementary team, this paring continued through high school.  This you might not know if you are not from the area, Overland Park Kansas is part of the Kansas City metro.        

He’s forgotten now

George Ireland died in 2001 at the age of 88, he played basketball at Notre Dame, but it was coaching where he made his mark.  He was head coach at Loyola of Chicago from 1951-1975 and is noted for winning the 1963 NCAA championship.  Ireland wanted to win, he started 4 black players at a time there was an unwritten rule on how many black athletes you could play at a time.  He probably received a great deal of criticism, but Ireland likely didn’t care he just wanted to win.  His players claim he was a stern task master as a coach, one of his players tells the story.

“He sat us all down in the stands and said, “I’m not looking for friends here.  I have enough friends.  I have four friends and they are all related to me.”  On Saturday night the television camera located one of the Loyola players from that 1963 championship team in the stands.  Former guard Jerry Harkness was there to see his school defeat Kansas State.  That Loyola team with four black players in the starting lineup might have been indirectly responsible for Texas Western (Texas-El Paso) winning the NCAA championship three years later with five black starters.