Want a laugh?
“______ Finally called for traveling after taking six steps,
two bus transfers, three somersaults, and an Uber to reach the hoop.” You can insert the name of the player you
best believe fits in the sentence.
“The
Eagles won, Villanova won, the 76ers are gonna win the championship.” Charles
Barkley
"He's not a priority to us, and by the looks of their team
he's not to them either." Chandler Parsons
"We're losing games, but our basketball has not been bad
basketball it's been 'not good enough to win' basketball." George Karl.
Can he play?
The
question might be can he play at the NBA level?
I found it interesting, Oklahoma’s Trae Young was going downhill at the
end of the season. He led Division I
schools in scoring and assists but “junk” defenses and length of the season
wore him down. A commentator said;
“He’ll be better at the next level; the NBA is a more wide-open game.” Was he stating it’s easier to play in the NBA
than college, hardly however he was attempting to point out differences. Ben Simmons is another case we might check
out. If we looked at Simmons one year at LSU we might reach the conclusion he
can’t play, he will be named 2018 NBA Rookie of the Year. He’s had the benefit of good teammates with
the Sixers something that didn’t exist at LSU.
On
the other hand, I will stick by my earlier statement Malik Newman and Lagerald
Vick of Kansas are not ready for the NBA.
The NBA Top 100 prospect list on NBADraft.net Newman is nowhere to be
found, as for Vick he’s number 75 there are only 2 rounds and 60 players in the
draft. Please note I didn’t say they
couldn’t play it’s my view they need additional seasoning, one more year at
Kansas certainly couldn’t hurt them. If
I saw my name as a projected lottery pick the decision is easy, nowhere have I
seen either name. There are several
boxes NBA scouts are required to check off to determine if an athlete is ready
for NBA play apparently neither receives check marks across the board.
One more piece
I
have no idea of discussions in other portions of the nation regarding Villanova
basketball. It appears the local sports
talk guys want to validate Bill Self versus Jay Wright and whether Villanova is
a “Blue Blue” program. I even heard a
host say; “As soon as Jay Wright leaves the school will come down to
earth. They are big now but there’s the
(NFL) Eagles and (NBA) Sixers.”
Kansas-147
wins
2
Round of 32, 2 Elite 8 and 1 Final Four finish
Villanova-165
wins
2
Round of 32, 2 NCAA Championships, 1 Second Round finish
After
checking the results over the last five seasons I have one question and one
statement, can a team ever acquire “Blue Blood” status? Read and weep Kansas fans, Jay Wright has
eclipsed Bill Self over the last five seasons in wins despite the domination of
the Big 12 Conference by Kansas. Take hope Kansas
fans, several sites have anointed Kansas the number one team for 2018-19. It’s okay to win on paper, its even more
important to win on the court.
Trivia
There
are more than two things we could depend on, one is the sun coming up in the
eastern morning sky and two, the Spurs winning their usual 50+ games. Well one of them ain’t happening, for the first time since 1999 the Spurs will not win their usual 50+ games.
