Basketball from a fans perspective   

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Emoni Bates

We have read of the exploits of Emoni Bates since his sophomore year of high school. It’s been mentioned on more than one occasion at least one scout pronounced the 6 foot 9 Bates “NBA ready” by the time he graduated high school. Bates reclassified and headed for Memphis; he was expected to make a splash at the college level. After an early rush his basketball slowed considerably, poor shooting plus turnovers led Bates to the bench, a later injury didn’t help. After sitting for a period on Sunday Bates was inserted back in the lineup and showed considerable improvement.

Against Cincinnati Bates had a career high 7 rebounds and 6 assists plus he registered but a single turnover. He only scored 12 points but there was no volume shooting as he took a small number of shots. If this sounds like an excuse that’s not the intent, Bates shares the same story with the G-Leagues Scoot Henderson, both should technically be in high school. Although as written previously Henderson’s adapted his play fairly quickly as for Bates it’s been slower. With that said I will wait for a while to decide if Bates is a genuine talent or if he truly is a bust.

It takes $$$ to recruit talent

You might say, “Tell me something I DON’T KNOW.” Recently a writer for one of the Mizzou fan sights wrote of dollars spent versus fielding competitive teams. I’m not going to bore you with the details but simply point out he’s correct. This writer indicates a portion of Mizzou’s effort on the basketball court could be traced to recruiting. In order to recruit (effectively) you must spend money, this was something Mizzou failed over the last years in the Big XII and into the SEC. A coach is going to recruit players he believes will fit his system but what about the other method?

The one that says you recruit the high-profile kid despite the fact he doesn’t check all the boxes. You groom that player to fit your system, you don’t re-invent the wheel. This should not be considered a formal accusation against Cuonzo Martin perhaps he’s done this to a degree in his Mizzou recruiting. This we know, the Mizzou program has lost several players who transferred, we never know the full story on this movement, but rest assured the coach does. Bottom line, there’s an old adage that says you must spend money to make money. The same adage to a degree must apply in recruiting, the administration must be willing to spend to lure talent to Mizzou.

What about records

Recently a website reported the Top 10 scorers in Kings history, the only problem 5 played for the franchise but never wore a Sacramento jersey. Two of the 5 played for the Cincinnati Royals and the other three the Kansas City Kings. Jeff Van Gundy ESPN analyst said this during a Laker broadcast, “They (Lakers) should only count the championships won in Los Angeles, the one’s from Minneapolis shouldn’t count.” What about records, do they belong no matter how and when they may have been set or tied? In the NFL a long-standing sack record was tied this past Sunday, a friend made the following statement.

“JJ Watt tied the sack record in 16 games Michael Strahan set the record before the NFL season expanded.” Remaining in the NFL for a minute how about this one, the Rams franchise. The team originated in Cleveland then moved to Los Angeles, from California to St. Louis and finally back to Los Angeles. In baseball the baseball commissioner at the time attached an asterisk to then home run record of Roger Maris. The Yankee hit 61 homers in a season in a 162-game schedule, Babe Ruth’s 60 home runs were accomplished in 154 games. As for the NBA how about this ruling, one of the conditions allowing the Sonics franchise to move all records remain in Seattle? The Thunder were a “new” franchise, every record set in the 2008-09 season was just that…a record. We say records are made to be broken, sometimes they are made to be debated.

How about this

It’s been a while since we’ve discussed the “new” Big XII Conference, you know the one which includes BYU, Cincinnati, UCF and Houston added to its membership. As a reminder this comes due to Texas and Oklahoma State deciding they wanted the SEC more than the Big XII, so they decided to leave. First point we are sure this is about money; we are unsure regarding the football. As for the basketball that’s another matter this should be a good basketball move for the Big XII. Each of the pending schools has a strong basketball program with the Cincinnati Bearcats perhaps having the longest basketball tradition.

The most famous athlete to emerge from Cincinnati is Hall of Fame college and NBA player Oscar Robertson. Besides Robertson the school has sent more than 20 athletes into the NBA after first playing at Cincinnati. The Houston Cougars during the Phi Slama Jama days sent Hall of Fame players Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler into the NBA along with a host of others. BYU has produced its share of good teams and NBA talent during its history, Danny Ainge is probably the most familiar name along with Shawn Bradley. The chronicle of UCF has not been as extensive as the others as it began life as Division II program, in the 1969-70 season the school moved up to Division I. Johnny Dawkins former Duke player is now in season 6 as head coach at UCF. Adding these four schools should be a plus for the Big XII Conference.