Basketball from a fans perspective

Published Monday through Friday

Are you laughing yet?

You might remember I stepped onto that tree limb being blown back and forth with the wind. Despite the precarious position I decided to make a bold prediction, Duke would win the national championship. Duke still might win a championship however it will not occur tonight. Coach K. the winningest active coach would retire a loser, his Blue Devils went down 81-77 to the North Carolina Tar Heels. Tonight the Tar Heels will face the Kansas Jayhawks for the championship, think I'm going to take a chance again and predict a winner...hardly. 

Wow and double wow

Anytime you want to cry in your beer if you conduct an examination, you can locate someone worst off than you. Several in Mizzou Nation are unexcited about the hire of Dennis Gates. They are likely upset about the few players who chose to use the transfer portal. All these events are probably not pleasing but there is a question for them. How’d you like to be a fan of the LSU basketball program. Just as Mizzou fired Cuonzo Martin LSU also terminated Will Wade’s contract.

Events continue to unfold to the point there are 0 scholarship players remaining at LSU. The majority of players used the transfer portal while some departed for the NBA. The four incoming freshman decided to decommit after the Wade firing. Without a bit of research, we are unsure if an event of this type has ever occurred throughout the 100+ years of college basketball. This situation will rectify itself once a coach is hired, we are unsure how competitive team LSU will field next season is certainly questionable for now.

Fans don’t easily forget

I was forced to check more than one source, the words I read Kevin Durant said shocked me. He is demanding Oklahoma City and Golden State retire his jersey. Let’s do a quick history dump here, in 2016 he left the Thunder for Golden State. The Warriors had just beaten his Thunder team in the NBA Championship series, and he turns around and joins them. For unclear motives Durant announced he was leaving the Warriors for the Nets in 2019. Allow me to clarify the issue, Durant was operating within his rights to leave the Thunder and Warriors.

I believe in both instances he was either a free-agent already or pending. Although the timing on the moves might be questionable that’s his decision. The portion I take issue with is the demand the two franchises retire his jersey. As an example, Chamberlain had his Warriors, Sixers and Lakers jersey retired. Another who comes to mind Shaquille O’Neal, his jersey has been retired by more than one NBA team as well. I might be mistaken however I don’t believe there was ever a demand made by Chamberlain or Shaq. The reason this proclamation by Durant was so shocking I’ve never read or heard of this type of demand by any athlete, have you?

The NCAA is on life support

We read the account by Dennis Dodd in cbsports.com’s Thursday morning edition. There are far too many moving parts to dissect this issue in its entirety. In addition, this is a basketball blog, and the NCAA covers more than a single sport. The story indicates unless the NCAA re-invents itself it will be a memory in 1-2 years. If you’ve read this blog any length of time you are aware I’ve had issues in the past with this organization. My chief problem is the manner it’s always operated regarding punishment. If there are rules in place they must be adhered to, sometimes oversights are made by schools. On the other hand, the complaint we’ve heard is unequal punishment and unequal justice.

We realize cases are separate however if punishment is dealt to one shouldn’t it be the same for all? In addition, why have cases been allowed to drag on for years without being resolved. In this instance the reference is Kansas basketball and the 5 Level 1 violations pending for two or more years. The transfer portal has made this obsolete now, but it did occur. Two players transferred to Mizzou at the same time, one was allowed to play immediately the other had to sit out a semester. Despite an appeal by Mizzou the ruling remained in effect. There was no official explanation for this decision by the NCAA, rest assured its likely to have occurred elsewhere too. The examples cited are but two however just examples of what I see as a disorganized body. Will I be sorry to see the NCAA possibly go out of business, not me? It’s been mentioned Congress would take over administration of college sports, that would be even more unfortunate.

I am unsure

No decision’s been made by me yet, on Thursday evening the Lakers “mailed in” another game. For those unsure of the term, it describes going through the motions, not putting forth effort. I didn’t see the game although it was on TNT, I avoided it on purpose and my conclusion could be off base. There was no LeBron and Anthony Davis missing now for nearly 20 games. As for the game the victor was the opposition in this instance the Utah Jazz, it was 122-109. The 2021-22 Lakers have been an embarrassment to Laker Nation and all those great Laker teams of the past.

Vogel coached teams of the past are supposed to be outstanding defensively, this one plays it as a matador might do. This Laker team is 27^th in the NBA defensively which will not allow you to win a considerable number of games. We have complained all season about Russell Westbrook, this time we should take note. Westbrook is not the only guilty party. He does not play all 5 positions on the floor, so this is where the issue lies, I believe. Frank Vogel who is reported to be a defensive coach appears to have lost this team, maybe he never had it in the first place.

The Lakers have been “sleep-walking” through the season since about the January 15^th mark. There is no requirement for me to lament them missing the playoffs, LeBron and Anthony Davis included this Laker team has lost its way. It’s been time since the middle of February to begin planning for the off-season. Wholesale change needs to occur beginning with the head coach and filtering down to the majority of this team. Despite what I stated earlier I can indicate my disappointment. Those poor teams of Luke Walton were young, despite the coach we saw promise. This present Laker team demonstrates no assurance for the future of the franchise.