Basketball from a fans perspective

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Bits n Pieces 

Mark your calendar, the date is December 11^th for the match. Mizzou will play Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence. This rivalry goes back to March 11, 1907, when the two teams faced one another for the first time. A total of 267 games have been played between the two schools, the Kansas Jayhawks are the leader in wins with 173 versus 94 losses. This long-time rivalry came to a halt in 2012 when Mizzou left the Big XII for the SEC, the schools did face one another on the court of T-Mobile Center in Kansas City in October 2017. Receipts from this exhibition game was awarded to four charities for victims of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Maria. In 2019 Mizzou and Kansas agreed to play a total of six games, due to the COVID pandemic the first game of the series scheduled for December 2020 was cancelled.

I’m Frank Vogel, not really, I remain Larry Laker however I’m going to finish his job by finalizing the roster. The Lakers currently are short three roster members, the decision is easy for me. One spot should go to 6-foot 8-inch power forward 2^nd year man Devontae Cacok, he was on the roster last season although he divided his time between the G-League and regular roster. I believe newcomer guards Austin Reaves and Mac McClung should get the other two slots. The key factor is youth, Cacok is 24 years old, Reaves turned 23 in May and McClung is a baby face 21 years of age. Adding them to the roster would reduce the average age of the Lakers significantly downward and would look toward the LeBron less future of the Lakers.

Kel’el Ware, Rivals 4-star center verbally committed to Oregon, Ware is a 7-foot 215-pound center from North Little Rock (AR). He verbally committed on Monday, Ware’s decision may have been impacted by Dior Johnson pledging his word to Oregon in late June of this year, Johnson is a 6-3 175 pound 5-star point guard. Johnson attends Oak Hill Academy and is rated the number 7 prospect in the Class of 2022.

No love from two continents

Since the NBA playoffs ended for the Sixers, we might believe this fiction, the Sixers lost the series due to Ben Simmons. We have Simmons traded to every third team in the NBA yet to date there’s been no movement. So that’s the North American continent raining on Simmons but wait there’s more. Dave Simmons is an American however he married an Australian woman while playing basketball there. Ben was born from this union so technically he could have played for Australia in the Olympics if he desired. As most are aware Simmons didn’t play for Team USA or Team Australia, but it didn’t go over very well Down Under. Team Australia won Bronze, and several took offense of a Simmons photo included in the 2024 photo of the team.

“James Harden” rule

The 13 rules of basketball laid out by Dr. James Naismith have changed since 1892. We can debate a modern change or the validity of some rules that changed the game i.e., ban on the dunk. The NCAA implemented a ban on the dunk from 1967-1976 for what purpose? It was the “Lew Alcindor” rule although no one gave it the name. The inspiration was to slow the dominance of the game by the UCLA center at the time. We have another rule which has gone into effect for Summer League play and into the regular season going forward, we can refer to it as the “James Harden” rule. The intent in this instance is to curtail trips to the foul line by players. Although there is no name, like Lew Alcindor this is implemented to curtail one player, Nets guard James Harden. Below are provisions of the new rule, courtesy espn.com.

*When a shooter takes shots by either leaning into or jumping into a defender in an abnormal way

 *An offensive player either abruptly goes sideways into a defender, or simply stops in front of him, giving the defender nowhere to go but running into the offensive player

*Shooters kick their legs either out or to the side in an unnatural way to draw contact with a defender

*An offensive player uses his non-shooting arm to hook the defender