Basketball from a fan’s perspective

Published Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Saturday

If you are reading this-part deux  
To clarify Monday’s NCAA account, it’s not my intent the organization lay down the hammer on any school.  We can only believe what we read and hear, the NCAA announced there would be major punishment forthcoming.  Once again this provides us the opportunity to call into question the actions of this body.  Interesting to us none of the schools mentioned last spring have suffered any punishment.  Was it an overzealous media or was there really judgement forthcoming? I’m not anxious for any school to be punished however we must consider this reminder again.  The NCAA told us “major punishment was forthcoming.”

A departure
NFL quarterback Andrew Luck announced his retirement over the weekend.  The news was met with a chorus of boos from hometown fans as he left the field.  Luck has suffered a series of injuries over the course of his career and decided in favor of retiring.  Fox Sports guy Doug Gottlieb added his two cents worth offering critical remarks on the Luck decision. 

It’s easy for a person like Gottlieb to forget HIS own history.  When you offer critical remarks on someone your past exploits are brought into focus.  While playing basketball at Notre Dame Gottlieb stole credit cards of fellow students.  As they say, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks.”  Luck at 29 is concerned about Luck at 50 or 60 years of age.  I certainly understand the disappointment of fans however the decision belongs to Luck alone, not me nor you.  

We are excited for him
Lonzo Ball indicates he’s excited about a fresh start in New Orleans.  I’m sure most of Laker Nation probably feels the same way. Generally, the nation probably doesn’t hold any ill will toward him, most like me just full of questions.  We cannot figure out why he never played at the level Magic Johnson and others predicted.  Was it the pressure of playing in Los Angeles?  Were our expectations sat too high or was it something else? 

All could have been contributing factors to Lonzo never reaching the level expected by many.  He never played an injury free season which is paramount.  There is a positive here, provided Lonzo is healthy and his helicopter father LaVar Ball less visible perhaps he can improve his level of play.   New city, new team, new teammates (kinda).  Despite not working out for the Lakers we wish nothing but the best for apparently a genuine good guy. 

This is interesting
I don’t think anyone can blame Fred Hoiberg for his decision, the former Iowa State player and coach of his alma mater left for the NBA Bulls in 2015.  Last December after three years as head coach the Bulls fired Hoiberg, the man nicknamed “The Mayor” was hired in March as head coach of Nebraska.  We wrote of the hire at the time however this Hoiberg news is somewhat different.  CBSSports.com media conducted a poll to determine the best coaching hire for 2019-20. 

The poll was coaching voting only and the winner was Hoiberg.  Success is not tasted immediately; we have no idea of the talent remaining at Nebraska.  Given time his fellow coaches believe he can turn Nebraska basketball around.  As for the nickname a number are unaware of the story.  Hoiberg was such a popular player at Iowa State it was reported he’d received write-in votes for mayor of Ames Iowa once, Ames is home to the University of Iowa. 

Europe plus Africa
We’ve discussed the amount of NBA players arriving from Europe principally the Balkan States.  The African continent might soon be on an equal level if the future as we see holds true.  There are 14 high profile high school athletes who hail from the African continent listed on Rivals and 247 Sports talent sites.  Several of the names are not well known but certainly have demonstrated talent for the game.  One of the names of note, Precious Achiuwa a 6-9 forward from Mali, he’ll be a freshman at Memphis in the fall and will play for Penny Hardaway. 

Enrolled at Gonzaga is Oumar Ballo, the 6-10 240-pound Big Man also hails from Mali.  Entering his second year at Western Kentucky is Charles Bassey a 6-11 center from Nigeria.  7-foot Udoka Azubuike also from Nigeria is an incoming senior at Kansas University.  If we look at the others all are big men apart from 5-star prospect Aminu Mohammed a 6-4 shooting guard a junior at Greenwood Laboratory High School in Springfield (MO).  In addition to the nations mentioned there are talented prospects from Cameroon, Guinea, South Sudan, Senegal.