Duke basketball
Coach
K.’s served as men’s head basketball for 38 years. Players come and go but for several Mike
Krzyzewski is the name associated with Duke basketball. Vic Bubas died on Tuesday at the age of 91,
when he retired in 1969 three men would serve as head coach prior to Coach K’s.
1980 hire. We could state with
conviction Bubas was the architect of winning basketball in Durham prior to
Coach K. In the 10 years he was coach
the school won 213 while only losing 67, he alone was responsible for leading
Duke to national prominence. After his
retirement from coaching he remained as an administrator and then became the
first commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference.
Bubas was elected to the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007, R.I.P.
Vic Bubas.
Don’t worry I’d never heard
of him either
More and more the NBA has become a world league, larger
numbers of foreign players are making their way here to play in the NBA. Allow me to introduce you to Tryggvi Hlinason,
he’s a 7-foot 1 inch 260-pound center, he’s from Iceland and would become the second
ever player from Iceland to play in the NBA.
Hlinason has decided in favor of the NBA over remaining in the Euro
League. In the early ‘80’s Petur
Gudmundsson became the first Icelandic player in the association and he managed
a six years NBA career. As for Hlinason
as with several others I have no idea if NBA scouts have a book on him. It will be interesting to see if he manages
to be drafted or signs a free-agent contract.
Bits n Pieces
Who was that guy
that came off the Heat bench on Monday night? He kinda resembled Dwayne Wade,
28 points 7 rebounds and 3 assists shooting .688 from the floor. It was truly "Wade's
World” as he led the Heat to a 113-103 victory over Kevin Hart and my Sixers.
Sometimes we are
reminded of stuff we realize but sometimes store in the back of our minds, that
was the case for me. Listening to local
sports talk radio and the two hosts were discussing basketball recruiting. One of the hosts stated: “If you recruit one or two good players you
can turn around a basketball team in a short period, look what occurred with
Mizzou? You can’t do that with college
football even a top-notch quarterback won’t improve your program
immediately.”
Is there still a
necessity for a big man’s game in college basketball and the NBA today? Must be, North Carolina State’s Omer
Yuertseven a 7-footer with decent numbers (13.5 ppg and 6.7 rebounds) is
transferring to Georgetown. Why
Yuertseven wants Georgetown over several other schools? He indicated a need for a big man coach, I
believe Patrick Ewing might fit that image
A name we should hear
As
NBA coaching positions become available expect to hear the name David
Fizdale. For a variety of reasons his
firing at Memphis continues to remain a mystery. The 2016-17 his first as head coach he guided
the Grizzlies to a 43-39 record and the playoffs, they lost in the first
round. The 2017-18 they were prepared for
a break-out year, the team got off to a 7-12 record. Fizdale was fired in late November 2017 after
benching Marc Gasol in the fourth quarter of a game.
I’m
unsure now the talent level at the time Fizdale took over, firing a coach who
led your team into the playoffs after one season is mighty strange. Maybe Fizdale can’t coach, after serving as
an assistant at two Division I programs and three NBA stops as an assistant he
might know a little bit about basketball.
I know little about Fizdale except coaching but 100 games and being
dumped I think he deserves another opportunity as a NBA coach, what do you
think?
