Basketball from a fans perspective

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It’s done

Wunderkind Emoni Bates decision is now final, he announced on Wednesday he’s headed to Memphis; several folks are not surprised at this announcement although the route Bates took to arrive at a decision was interesting. It would now appear the university on the banks of the Mississippi River is now the unofficial number one team in the nation in recruiting. Memphis now moves ahead of defending NCAA Champion Baylor, runner up Gonzaga and all others. CBS.com moves Memphis into its pre-season Top 25 plus 1 poll placing them at number 7. 

How this all plays out for Memphis during the 2021-22 college season is a giant unknown at this point. As for the 6-foot 9-inch Bates he now joins his buddy Jalen Duran also a 5-star prospect and a host of other high-profile athletes. Memphis coming off it’s NIT Championship added veteran NBA and college coach Larry Brown plus former NBA player Rasheed Wallace to its coaching staff. It would appear in late August the Memphis Tigers are ready to battle for basketball superiority in the 2021-22 season. This is all a projection and games are never won on paper, it will be up to head coach Penny Hardaway plus his coaching staff to mold this group into a cohesive unit. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcrBfpyqjPo

1963

Jerry Harkness died on August 24 at the age of 81, never mind if the name is unfamiliar to you. Harkness was one of those basketball pioneers who managed along with his teammates to blot out the sun for a period. He led Loyola of Chicago to the 1963 NCAA Championship beating a highly touted University of Cincinnati team.  Cincinnati was attempting a third having won the championship in 1961 and 1962. Loyola started Harkness and three other black players unheard of at the time in college basketball.

In 1966 Don Haskins (Glory Road) would start five black players beating Kentucky with its white starting five for the NCAA Championship. As for Harkness and his team they received letters with racially charged threats however they would proceed onward despite the effort to intimidate. In an OT game for the NCAA Championship Loyola beat Cincinnati 60-58 finishing the season with a 29-2 record. Harkness had a brief but undistinguished ABA/NBA career, but he was a successful businessman and civil rights advocate. This is but a brief glimpse of the man who stood 6 foot 3 on the basketball court but cast an 8-foot shadow in his life pursuits, R.I.P. Jerry Harkness. 

We have continued change 

Overtime Elite continues to make waves, Tyler Smith the number 8 prospect in the Class of 2023 has signed with the new league. Smith becomes the 7^th 5-star player to sign with OTE, Smith indicates signing with OTE will increase his chances at a pro career. A pause here, I’m unsure about Euro players but in the U.S. I would hope athletes would remain in high school until graduation. OTE has no such requirement which is an issue for me, I have no intentions of inhibiting the progress of any youngster, but this is a concern.

In another area Marjon Beauchamp number 47 in ESPN’s Class of 2020 signed with G-League Team Elite recently. Beauchamp is a 6-foot 7-inch 204-pound shooting guard/small forward. Australia or rather the NBL is calling for another, you remember 6-foot 11-inch 235-pound Makur Maker? Maker is a power forward/center. He enrolled at HBCU Howard University hoping additional high-profile athletes would choose HBCU schools. Despite his best intentions Makur played only two games before succumbing to injury, then COVID-19 caused the school to cancel its season. Rather than remain in college Maker’s decided to head for Australia and a pro career with the Sydney Kings of the NBL. As you can see the landscape has shifted dramatically regarding high school and college basketball prospects. 

A new profession

We are unsure if J.R. Smith is officially retired, he last played in the NBA in 2020 with the championship Laker team. In any event he is now enrolled at HBCU North Carolina A&T, and he’s been cleared by the NCAA to play.  Play what you might ask…basketball, of course not he’s 35-years old now. Despite the fact former teammate LeBron James continues to play Smith’s taken up another sport. He will now be a member of the golf team at A&T. Hopefully the academics and golf turn out well for J.R.

Demise of the Big XII

Taps is being played for this mostly midwestern conference, it’s just a matter of time before the conference ceases to exist. The question might be why did we reach this point; the response is simple? Michael Douglas as corporate raider Gordon Gekko in the 1987 classic Wall Street said, “Greed for lack of a better word is good.” That’s what we’ve come to once again, Oklahoma and most certainly Texas saw $$$ for themselves in joining the SEC. No need to allow the other Big XII schools to adapt, these two picked up their marbles and left for more marbles in a different conference. Didn’t Texas do a money grab previously or am I just imagining this?

The Big XII wasn’t 12 schools anyway, now the conference is down to 9. How do we know the conference is on life support, the meeting this past Tuesday? The Pac-12, ACC and B10 came together to announce an alliance, this is so very new we have no idea if this come together is binding but its more to the picture. Questions were raised why the Big XII was not included in this coming together of conferences. The same response was echoed repeatedly about “lack of stability.” The college sports world will be witness to a conference demise again like the Southwest or Big East Conference. Just in case you wondered the Big East of today is not the original, the first existed from May 1979 to 2013. We continue to read and hear reports there are something like 15 schools which have contacted the Big XII. This remains unconfirmed at this stage, but it should be of interest for at least one. The University of Central Florida is one of the schools and it makes sense based on reports the school wants to join a power 5 conference.