Debate
It appeared to me the two Kansas City sports
talk radio stations were trying to determine if Villanova was a “Blue Blood”
program. For practical purposes most
agree the Blue Blood programs are Kentucky, Kansas, Duke and North
Carolina. Louisville under Denny Crum
and Rick Pitino along with UConn in the Jim Calhoun era are also sometimes identified
with the others as Blue Blood programs. I
will provide numbers and you can draw your own conclusions. The school’s all-time regular season win
totals are Kentucky (2,257), Kansas (2,217) and Duke (2,115), Villanova is 24th
with 1,713.
Villanova’s win total eclipses that of UConn, Michigan State and Ohio State which have certainly had successful programs throughout the years. If we use the year 2009 as our starting point Villanova has 4 Final Four appearances compared to the 5 Kansas has registered. NCAA Championships, UCLA is in first place with 11 followed by Kentucky with 8 North Carolina 6. Duke and Indiana are tied with 5 followed by UConn, Kansas, Louisville and Villanova with 3. Those are the keys I see, what do you think? Does Villanova belong with the other programs seen as Blue Bloods? How about the NCAA winning coaches in the same period, note the championship coaches in the 10-year period.
Roy Williams-North Carolina 2
Coach K.-Duke 2
Jay Wright-Villanova 2
Jim Calhoun-UConn 1
John Calipari-Kentucky 1
Rick Pitino-Louisville 1 (vacated)
Kevin Ollie, UConn 1
Why?
I turned on my television this morning and
clicked the remote to ESPN and their new program “Get Up.” The panel was in
the middle of a discussion regarding Jay Wright and the NBA and why the league
might come calling. My first thought,
“Why does Wright need to validate his coaching ability by moving to the
NBA?” Second to that, coaching in the
NBA is nothing like that of Villanova, just ask Billy Donovan? Donovan inherited a relatively good NBA team
in the Thunder, other college coaches moving into the NBA haven’t been so
fortunate.
John Calipari didn’t do such a bang-up job, we could make the same statement about Rick Pitino and Lon Kruger. Truth be told the NBA has been “Death Valley” for several good college coaches, the belief must be “He’s good there he should be good here.” Donovan aside the jury is still sequestered on Quin Snyder, consider this account he didn’t immediately move to the first chair. Snyder served as an assistant coach at a couple of stops then became a head coach in the D-League before taking over the Jazz.
Dome basketball
Last years NCAA
Men’s Championship was played in the University of Phoenix Stadium home of the NFL
Arizona Cardinals The 2018 NCAA Men’s championship played on Saturday and
Monday was just the latest held in a “football stadium.” The NCAA is all about the $$$$$ and placing
butts in the seat, 50,000-60,000 in the seat provides much more revenue than
20,000-25,000 fans in a basketball arena.
The 2019 NCAA Men’s game will be played at…. wait for it, wait for it the U.S. Bank Stadium home of the NFL Vikings. 2020 will be held in Atlanta in the Mercedes Benz Stadium home of the NFL Falcons. 2021 Lucas Oil Stadium-NFL Colts and 2022-New Orleans and Mercedes Benz Superdome and the NFL Saints. Although Kansas City (MO) has not hosted since 1988 and contains no dome football stadium the city still holds the record for most Final Fours with 10.
Three Amigos
This is not a
reference to the 1986 Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Martin Short movie. It’s a reference to Russell Westbrook and his
two departed amigos. I was reminded the
only time to date the Thunder made it to the championship was five years ago in
2012, they faced the Heatles of LeBron, Dwayne and Chris Bosh. The Thunder roster contained Westbrook plus
James Harden and Kevin Durant. I don’t
remember much about that series except the Thunder was a loser 4 games to 1. As most of us are aware Harden then Durant
left in free-agency. At this juncture
both players (and their teams) are blocking the attempt by the Thunder to
compete for a championship.
The conclusion, the Thunder did not agree with the salary demands of Harden a 6th man at the time, as for Durant there may have been a separate set of circumstances. My family was returning from Dallas, my wife was driving, and we were northbound on I-35 toward Kansas City. We were half-way through Oklahoma City when a friend sent me a text message indicating Durant had signed with the Warriors. I maintain (and perhaps we’ll never know) there were issues between Durant and Westbrook. In any event since 2012 the Thunder have been in a holding pattern circling the airport, they continue to ask for permission to land and it’s not forthcoming despite the addition of Carmelo Anthony and Paul George.
