Basketball from a fans perspective   

Published Monday through Friday

NOOOOOOOO!!!!

The headline is yours truly screaming loudly, Power Mizzou a fan website mentions the name Sean Miller as a candidate as the next Mizzou coach. The writer even mentions Miller was fired last season, not for a failure to win but NCAA violations. Cuonzo Martin might not have been a winner, but he certainly had no stain on his record in that area, in addition the belief is he cared about the welfare of his players. This is not to say Miller didn’t care about his players I’m sure he did. With the prospect of the NCAA sitting up a local office in Columbia to monitor Miller my view is Mizzou should stay far, far away from this guy.

Everyone deserves a second chance, or maybe a third depending on the set of circumstances. Let’s check out a couple, Kelvin Sampson at Houston and Auburn’s Bruce Pearl have a checkered pass. Both have been fired at previous schools for failing into the abyss of NCAA violations. Both returned from these past issues and have winning programs at Houston and Auburn. A recent example close to home was former Mizzou coach Frank Haith, a due diligence search failed to uncover improprieties in his background at Miami which indirectly led him to leave Mizzou under a cloud.

Recently I came across a quote, the author is unknown. It depends on who is reported to have said it, “If you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying.” The statement is meant to imply almost anything is okay in order for you to win. That type of thought process is difficult for me to understand because I’ve always believed karma will be the ultimate winner. Does Miller deserve another opportunity to coach somewhere, of course he does? In all the years of following college basketball there’s only been one coach I believed should never be hired again, the circumstances are far too involved to detail in this limited space. There are names Mizzou could chose, the only one I’m familiar with is Kim English former Mizzou player. I have doubts he would be hired with only a single season as a head coach under his belt.

Accident  

I must admit sometimes I locate stuff more by accident than research…sorta. I’d read an account regarding Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe and the possibility of him breaking the SEC rebound record. Allow a brief explanation, while conducting a search for NCAA career leaders I discovered it. The year was 1973, the NCAA divided the rebound totals that year, we had pre-1973 and post-1973 records. This was the explanation as read, there is a split now between Division I, II and III schools.

Prior to 1973 there was no distinction, and it was believed some of the rebound totals might have been accumulated against lesser competition. With that said let’s check the record holders, the pre-1973 leader is Tom Gola who played at LaSalle from 1951-1955. During his time Gola grabbed 2,201 rebounds in 118 games. The post-1973 leader was Kenneth “The Manimal” Faried of Morehead State, Faried played at Morehead from 2007-2011. He accumulated 1673 rebounds in 136 games. “Although the 1972-73 season was before the divisional split, the NCAA officially considers that season to be “post-1973” because of the adoption of freshman eligibility for varsity play in all NCAA sports effective in August 1972.” *

*Wikipedia

I said it first

Ja Morant of the Grizzlies has really “blown up” this year, his speedy moves up and down the court. In addition, his shooting and dishing the rock made for comparisons to a guard of similar stature. I went on record stating Morant reminded me of Allen Iverson. I was immediately challenged for the statement I made comparing him to Iverson however I continue to stand by it. I only saw Iverson in action on television, how about someone who’s seen Iverson and Morant in person.

That person would be veteran NBA and current Memphis assistant coach Larry Brown. Brown was Iverson’s coach when the latter played for the Sixers, as for now Brown is an assistant coach for the Memphis Grizzlies able to see Morant in action as well. Below are the words of Larry Brown comparing the two players. One of which he coached and the other he’s witnessed play since the coach arrived in Memphis.

“I watched him (in college), but I couldn’t predict this, Brown told Marc Berman of the New York Post. He reminds me so much of Allen (Iverson) athletically the way he plays, fearless. That whole (Grizzlies) team they have a great camaraderie. They all seem to love each other. The things Ja does, I remember sitting on the bench in Philly, looking at staff and seeing Allen do something and we all laughed because we never seen anyone doing anything like that. I get the same feeling watching Ja play. And a lot of our kids go to their games.” *

*New York Post

“Guilty of something!”

A friend told me this story, once he was brought before a board of supervisors. An incident occurred and his supervisor accused him as being the culprit in an accident. The condensed version of the story the board indicated my friend did nothing wrong and therefore was innocent of the charge. His supervisor with the understanding my friend was cleared concluded, “He must be guilty of something.” That is the case with Kansas basketball and Bill Self, it’s been noted in the past the school and coach have been accused of five level one violations, level one being the most egregious. I’ve been informed by friends of the program “The accusations might not be as serious as charged.”

Well as in the story of my friend “they must be guilty of something” otherwise the charges would have been dropped or at least amended. Just like the cartoon Wiley Coyote there’s an anvil hanging over the head of the Kansas basketball program that’s existed since 2019. On the other hand, the “cash cow” that Kansas basketball represents in the tournament says the NCAA might actually be afraid to lay a heavy penalty on this bastion of college basketball. It’s been reported judgement has been turned over to an independent body to render a decision. It’s also been mentioned Self threatened to sue the NCAA at a point which proved unfounded. Is there bias in this account, of course there is. We’ve seen programs across the nation where the coach or the program’s been penalized. It’s clear judgment is overdue guilty or not, the basketball is clearly in the court of the NCAA what do they intend to do?