Published Monday through Friday

Basketball from a fans perspective 

Bulletin

The Nets suspended Kyrie Irving for 5 games without pay. Additional details will be provided in a special Saturday edition with this being the only topic of discussion. 

Matt Ryan

No, this is not the Colts quarterback it’s the other Ryan the one who plays for the Lakers. The Wednesday game was not available to a national audience, I noticed on the crawl there were seconds left in regulation. I turned to NBA TV and saw Zion Williamson at the free throw line. He would sink both his free throws, Pelicans with a one-point lead and Lakers ball, LeBron takes a contested shot which missed Pelicans rebound and tossed ahead get a basket giving them a three-point lead. I’m unsure of the time but I thought, “no way do the Lakers win now” and turned the television off at nearly 12:00 a.m. Several minutes later my phone chimed, I thought “that’s the final score, I’ll check it out in the morning.” Imagine my shock when I awoke Thursday morning and discovered the Lakers won the game in OT 120-117.

The Lakers Matt Ryan hit a difficult off balance three-point shot forcing extra time. There is an extra to this story…the play of reserve Russell Westbrook. In this game he almost had a triple-double shooting 60% from the floor (13 points) 7 rebounds and 9 assists. This followed up 50% shooting with 18 points 8 assists and 8 rebounds he managed against the Nuggets. This is no Sports Illustrated Jinx on my part, Kaleb wanted me to be a little more cautious. He said, “Wait until he (Westbook’s) done it in 5 games.” I informed him I’m gonna write about it now. Has Westbrook embraced his role as a reserve player? That story is unknown for now, this I shared with Kaleb. “I don’t remember the coach’s name, but he said, it’s not important who starts the game it’s who is on the floor at the end.” That might be the case here, embrace the role you’ve been given Westbrook. The role of valued reserve fails to lessen your value to the team. 

Ralph Sampson

There’s been much Victor Wembanyama talk over the last few weeks. Wembanyama being reported to be 7 foot 3 or 4 naturally there are comparisons with a familiar player. That would be Ralph Sampson who played his college basketball at the University of Virginia. If you are unfamiliar with him this short profile should provide vital information. Sampson was a three time All American at Virginia before his selection by the Houston Rockets with the 1^st pick in the 1983 NBA draft. Standing 7 foot 4 he played the center position his first season being named Rookie of the Year, in 1984 that would change. The Rockets again with the number one pick chose Akeem (spelling later corrected) Olajuwon standing 7 feet tall became the Rockets center.

This move meant the 7 foot 4 Sampson moved to the power forward position thus becoming the tallest player ever at that position. Although he played outstanding basketball for the Rockets, he was injured midway through the 1987-88 season. Sampson was traded but knee and back troubles set in, from that point on lasting to 1992 Sampson never played a full season. He ended his pro career with the Rockford (IL) Lighting of the Continental Basketball in the 1995-96 season. Based on his play at Virginia and time spent with the Rockets Sampson was enshrined in the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011 and the Naismith Hall in 2012. See Wembanyama in action his skill set for his height certainly provides us memories of the 7 foot 4 Sampson. Coming up shortly is an account detailing how the Rockets were able to acquire Hakeem Olajuwon and form a Twin Tower combo.

Dennis Gates

I guess Mizzou’s coach is not newsworthy enough, ESPN’s college page introduced several new coaches but omitted Dennis Gates. I decided to provide some background on Mizzou’s first year coach. Gates   arrives from Division I Cleveland State, he was head coach at the school for three years. The Cleveland State went from an 11-win 21 loss record in his first year to 19-8 and last season it was 20-11. Gates left Cleveland State with 50 wins versus 40 losses and that ain’t all.

Gates played college basketball at Cal and was a two-time Academic All American, he graduated in three years and spent his senior year as a master’s degree candidate. This former guard became an assistant coach after his playing days, there were several stops before he spent time at Florida State that may have set him up for the Mizzou coaching job. Gates was the lead assistant for Leonard Hamilton and is credited for much of the successful recruiting in the 9 years he spent at FSU. Gates has this member of Mizzou Nation solidly in his corner until he proves he can’t coach.

You explain to me please

With the dawn of the college basketball season we read of KenPom returning. What exactly is KenPom, it’s a college basketball analytics site, beyond that I cannot add much for one reason alone? I’m not an analytics guy, I understand it but not to the degree I could offer an explanation to a person unfamiliar with it. The key, it appears to be important to many who use it to assess the potential of a team. Mizzou Nation claims the site “reverse engineers what Las Vegas has been doing for years.”

I’m not that guy, the guy who closely follows betting odds. I guess a lower KenPom number is good while a higher number is less so. As this is written the site has Kentucky at number one, the defending champion Kansas Jayhawks come in at 8. Now for the truly “wow” factor, most pre-season polls place North Carolina rated number one while KenPom places them at 9. I intend to study in detail KenPom and hope by the end of the college season to fully understand it. In closing they place my Mizzou Tigers at 41 which is a little surprising with a new coach (Gates), new system and with few holdovers from last season.