Basketball
from a fan’s perspective
This is no joke
people
For those attempting to downplay the coronavirus
threat it’s real. On Tuesday came word Kevin
Durant and three other Nets players tested have come back positive. This band of Nets join two Jazz players and
at least one Piston diagnosed with the virus.
One NBA official’s been tested to date and his test was returned negative.
Please quit
We realize the college basketball season ended
sooner than we hoped. With that said I’m
not sure what’s going on with Bill Self.
He’s practically begging the NCAA to honor Kansas as the top team in the
nation for the 2019-20 season. Bill
please quit, or at least we should wait until a decision is reached. The decision is the cloud hanging over the
basketball program. To refresh your
memory September 2019 the NCAA produced a letter of indictment against the
Kansas program and coach Self.
The NCAA indicated Kansas was guilty of 5 Level
1 violations i.e. Level 1 being the most egregious. Naturally the university and Self defended
themselves from the charges leveled against them. No argument from me, the abrupt end of the season
witnessed Kansas being the number one team in the nation. The AP and Coaches polls, the strength of
schedule along with the KenPom Statistics said Kansas was the best. This will not be a satisfactory solution for
Self, Kansas or its fans. Let’s wait for
the final judgement by the NCAA prior to awarding the school anything.
The Biggest Loser
Who might you suppose is the biggest loser with
no NCAA Tournament play? With 68 teams we could conclude all but that’s not reality, who
really had an opportunity to win it all?
We could think of them. Florida
State, perhaps Gonzaga certainly the University of Kansas but there might be
others. My contention it was none of them
it was the Dayton University Flyers. A brief
history note, Dayton was known as St. Mary’s Institute until the 1920-21 season
when the name change occurred.
Dayton has a winning tradition over several
decades, the 1966-67 Flyers team was runner up to champion UCLA, the 2009-10
team was NIT champion. Other years
witnessed Flyers teams with winning records under several coaches. The 2019-20 team under alumni/coach Anthony
Grant finished the shorten season with a 29-2 record (18-0) in the Atlantic 10 Conference,
the Flyers finished 3rd in the AP and Coaches poll. Perhaps people like me don’t see what the
coach sees, Grant said: “Nothing can take away what the Dayton Flyers
accomplished.”
Triple-threat
athlete
Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes might be in our conversation
as one of the all-time great athletes. We
are aware of his presence on the football field as a quarterback with the
Kansas City Chiefs. Mahomes performance
in high school football are remarkable, those will be covered in another
account. In high school the son of a
former major league pitcher played the same position of his dad. While in high school he once tossed a no
hitter and recorded 16 strikeouts in another game.
In basketball this super athlete averaged 19
points and 8 rebounds, in playoff games he once scored 37 and 49 points. His high school coach said, “If he focused on it, there's no doubt he could
be a Division I basketball player.”* At
6 foot 3 and 215 pounds (in high school) he likely would have been a shooting
guard. The skill he possesses on the
football field is evident just imagine what he might have done as a do-everything
basketball player. Finally it should be noted MaxPreps named
Mahomes the 2013-14 Male Athlete of the Year.
*maxpreps.com June
17, 2014
