Basketball from a fans perspective

Published Monday through Friday

No lead apparently is ever safe

This version of the Lakers has been guilty of the same continuing pattern. They will race out to a huge lead at times, unable to sustain the lead they eventually wind up losing the game. It fails to take into account who they might be playing. That’s what occurred again Sunday evening, they held a 23-point lead in the second half of the game against the Pelicans. We realize there are two halves of every game but that much of a lead should be enough to sustain a victory for any NBA team we’d believe.

In any event the Pelicans roared back and won the game in regulation time 116-108. To make matters worse LeBron James went out with an injury, how long he will be out this time is unknown as this account is being completed. What’s different, Frank Vogel who is supposed to be a defensive coach cannot seem to get this team to play any. Perhaps other members of Laker Nation might have different memories, I cannot remember a Laker team being quite as inept as this one. This Laker team can no longer be defended by me, they are beyond endorsing this season. Despite the negative words have I turned in my Laker Nation card.

A rare accomplishment

Northwest Missouri State accomplished a rare feat over the weekend. On Saturday, the Maryville Missouri school won its third consecutive NCAA Division II Championship. What is more interesting this could have been the school’s 4^th win in a row, the pandemic year robbed them of a possible championship. The Bearcats managed to beat a feisty Augusta University team from Augusta Georgia 67-58.

State got off to a slow start but midway in the first half they began accelerating thanks mostly to guard Trevor Hudgins. Hudgins finished the game with 31 points 22 of them registered in the first half of the game. Who is Ben McCollum you might ask, one of the winningest coach in college basketball today? If we check his bio his first two teams won 12 and 10 games, since then his Bearcats have never won less than 21 games in each succeeding season. The awards for McCollum are far too numerous to list in total, he’s been two times national coach of the year. He’s been 7 times MIAA Conference Coach of the Year.

Revisionist history  

This account was written ahead of a discussion heard on local sports talk radio. The host was discussing the amount of basketball talent that failed to attend Mizzou. The state produces a considerable number of talented basketball athletes, the problem few of them chose to matriculate at Mizzou. Part of this is due to choosing other schools while for others they simply were not recruited. We could look at potential NBA pick Ochai Agbaji as an example, this Kansas City Missouri talent was overlooked by Mizzou. Newly hired coach Dennis Gates has taken a page from the Gary Pinkel playbook, the former Mizzou football coach declared his intention to “shut down the border.” Pinkel wanted the greater number of high school football talent to remain in-state. Below is a partial list of the outstanding prospects who failed to attend Mizzou for a variety of reasons: 

Jayson Tatum

Bradley Beal

Tyler and Ben Hansbrough

Tyronn Lue

Landry Shamet

Anthony Tolliver

Alec Burks

It’s impossible to accomplish shutting down the state completely, high profile athletes will continue to leave for Duke, North Carolina, UCLA and other institutions. The issue for Gates and his staff is to identify the talent and steer it toward Columbia Missouri. AD Desiree Reed-Francois indicated one of the reasons she hired Gates was her belief he could recruit talent. Grant has a great deal of work on his hands over the next few weeks and months. A key indicator for Grant, how much of the present Mizzou roster is he able to retain. There seems to be a prevailing thought Missouri kids don’t want to attend school in the state, I don’t believe that.

I know we are talking baseball but remember in the movie Field of Dreams? The Kevin Costner character kept hearing the whisper “Build it and they will come.” I happen to believe that applies to Mizzou, basketball programs must create a winning atmosphere on campus and throughout the nation. Kids can’t help but be drawn to Mizzou with a successful program in place. As for the present this Mizzou team had few bright spots however it sure would be nice if they could retain a number on this roster. So far only two players have entered the transfer portal, if Mizzou can retain at least 5 players off the present roster they have building blocks in place. The addition of the two Grant recruits and perhaps 3-4 more they should be okay in the warm body department. Whether this translates to wins remains a question for now. 

Apparently, there is an issue

We could refer to it as “airing your dirty laundry,” a former staffer at ESPN wrote what he sees wrong with the networks NBA coverage. At the time the league moved to the ESPN/ABC Network I thought great. Coverage will be so much better with a network associated with sports. That was then, this is now…NBA TV is excluded because they pick up local feeds. TNT coverage from its studio host to the broadcast is so much superior to that which we see on ESPN/ABC. I try to tune out Jeff Van Gundy as much as possible, I do this because he’s often discussing a subject far removed from the game in front of him.

I like Mark Jackson but even he can become bland at times in his role as an analyst at times during a telecast, best of the best in my view is Doris Burke and Hubie Brown. The broadcasters are okay, I had issues at one point with Mike Breen but he’s okay now. Mark Jackson has always been one of my favorites. Pre and half time telecast should be avoided at all costs. I almost never attach myself to pre-game/half-time programming however the guys at TNT are light years ahead of ESPN. The NBA background of adding a Mike Wilbon is a little questionable. The addition of Stephen A. Smith has made the telecast unwatchable in my view. Our guess he operates in his pontifical style when discussing the game and other NBA issues. What’s most interesting the guys who should know are comfortable with sailing the ship without much direction.