Basketball from a fan’s perspective

Did you hear the news?

Six high school powerhouse programs are forming a league, it will be titled The National Interscholastic Basketball Conference. The NIBC will begin play in the 2021-22 basketball season. Conference schools are: Oak Hill Academy (Virginia), Montverde (Florida), IMG Academy (Florida), La Lumiere School (Indiana), Sunrise Christian Academy (Kansas) and Wasatch Academy (Utah). Two additional schools will be added prior to the start of the season, the NIBC will have a commissioner leading the conference.     

The mouth that roared

Charles Barkley has struck once again; we are unsure if this statement made was prior to the Lakers-Suns series or after the Lakers lost Game one. This from Mr. Barkley, “Nobody is scared of the Lakers” we hope this is indeed the case. In the NBA you put on your big boy pants, no complaining allowed although we know it does exist.  

A curse

The Clippers sat Kawhi Leonard and Paul George down and lost the last two games of the regular season. They were accused by several in the media of attempting to avoid playing the Lakers in the first round which they vehemently denied. Remember me, I wrote on Tuesday morning there was no such thing as a Clipper curse, this was written AFTER the 113-103 loss to the Mavs this past Saturday. Then it occurred again, Tuesday night, despite the best effort of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George the Clippers fell once again. This time it was a 127-121 loss to those same Mavs, the Clippers now find themselves in an 0-2 hole. 

We read in this morning’s headlines from them, “There is no level of concern.” This from Paul George, Ty Lue and maybe others after the loss. They are not concerned, perhaps somebody should point out to the Clippers they are in the playoffs and in an 0-2 deficit. It would appear the playoffs have now become a speed bump for the Clippers, last season it was the Nuggets, this season it might be the Mavs. They have now lost 5 consecutive playoff games dating back to last season. One additional note, defensive specialist Patrick Beverly was torched for 39 points in 38 minutes by Luka Doncic. Don’t you imagine he might require a nickname for this game? Former player Reuben Patterson once announced to the world he was “The Kobe Stopper.” A funny thing occurred; he didn’t do much stopping against Kobe. 

Change is evident

Mizzou coach Cuonzo Martin’s made no statement to this effect, but change is upcoming. The roster contains 7-foot 3-inch Jordan Wilmore on the roster he’s the exception, the balance of the roster would appear interchangeable. The incoming crop of freshmen plus holdovers and the newbies, all are generally the same size. Imagine this to occur during a timeout all five players are replaced, not because the first team is playing badly.

The intent is for Mizzou to play a speedier game and fresh troops are required for this change. The first thought you this might be acquainted with the “40 minutes of hell” originated by former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson. His disciple Mike Anderson now at St. John’s embraced this type of pressing belly button to belly button defense. The early belief Mizzou’s effort might not be quite that extreme. The key to play an up-tempo defense is to score the ball something Mizzou had issues with at times. Keep in mind this is written in the middle of May and is all speculation on the writers part.

The best seat in the house

I’ve attended several college and NBA games in Municipal Auditorium, Kemper Arena and T-Mobile Center. For this analysis high school arenas are omitted from this account. What’s the best seat in house, before you give me your opinion allow me to provide a little background from me. Twice I’ve had the opportunity to sit in a sky box, plenty of food to eat not good for viewing a game unless you look at the monitor. I didn’t drive to the game to watch the game on “television.”

Once I had Jack Nicholson/Spike Lee seats, awful seats. For all practical purposes you are on the floor right in the middle of the action however the players at times blocked my field of vision. I once sat in an end zone bleacher seat; it was okay however I was accustomed to viewing the game side to side as on television. You are given an unconventional view from the end zone; they are okay but certainly not the best. The best seats in the house are those in the middle section of an arena halfway up. The seats allow you to see the court in its entirety, your view is not obstructed by players on the court.