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Basketball from a fans perspective

Soft schedule…okay if you believe that

Dennis Gates team got off to a fast start at the beginning of the season beating every team on their early schedule. Then came the naysayers, “They have played a soft schedule, who have they beaten?” Yesterday in the SEC/Big XII Challenge they were winners over Iowa State 78-61. Let’s check the schedule, after roaring out the gate to a 9-0 record Mizzou lost the Border War Challenge to then number 6 Kansas 95-67. In succession Mizzou beat Illinois (then number 16), Kentucky (then number 19). They would lose to Arkansas in Fayetteville but win the rematch in Columbia.

It should be of note the Razorbacks were number 25 at the time. Mizzou lost against number 4 Alabama but including the win yesterday over the 12 ranked Cyclones we are up to date. Gates deserves all the credit due him, he took a bunch of guys from a number of mid-major programs and utilized the talented Kobe Brown to create a winning atmosphere in Mizzou Arena again. My chief concern the man appears invisible to the rest of the nation. 247Sports listed a number of candidates for coach of the year, after perusing the site there was no mention of Dennis Gates. More on the game in the Monday morning edition of Off the Dribble.

Is he worth it

The headline is probably the question on the mind of much of Laker Nation, they are asking about the Pistons Bojan Bogdanovic. His name has been linked to the Lakers and several other teams in the last few weeks. This is the issue as I see it, Laker GM Rod Pelinka has said he’s got no problem giving up a first round draft pick if it ensures a championship. As the old saying goes you can’t get there from here, until you make the trade you have no idea if it leads to a championship parade.

The Pistons are insistent they require a first round protected draft pick in order to make the trade for Bogdanovic. Because the Pistons are not a television commodity these days, I have no idea of his skill level. It appears the Pistons are in a full-scale youth movement, Bogdanovic at age 30 is probably not in the rebuild plans for the team. His scoring average including from the three line appear quite good. The area invisible for me and most others is the defense, is Bogdanovic an adequate defender? 

It's only me…I know

The landscape has changed, there is now legalized sports gambling across the nation. We hear many in the media claim “_______ didn’t cover the spread” or something similar. Anytime sports gambling rears its head there is a concern on my part. Keep in mind I’m not accusing anyone of anything it only takes us back to two different time periods, it’s the 1950-51 season and it occurred again in 1960-61. City College of New York in 1950-51 was the main school involved in a point shaving gambling scandal although there were others. There were 7 schools involved in all, 4 in the New York City Metro, two in the Midwest and one in the South. In total there were 32 players at these 7 schools involved in shaving points.

For the complete story read the account at the end of this report. A short 10 years (1960-61) later another scandal would surface in college basketball again. This one was even larger; 22 colleges and a large number of players were involved. This one would witness players banned from playing in the NBA, one of those named Connie Hawkins years later would be cleared of charges. Hawkins would sue the NBA and eventually it was proven although he was acquainted with gambler Jack Molinas it was never proven Hawkins shaved points. For further detail on the 1960-61 scandal check out the second footnote. Since then there have been other instances but nothing close to the black eye college basketball and many individuals suffered at the time of both scandals.

 https://www.espn.com/classic/s/basketball_scandals_explosion.html

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_NCAA_University_Division_men%27s_basketball_gambling_scandal

The best seat

From your viewpoint what do you believe to be the best seat in the house to view a basketball game. I need to qualify my statement at an arena, some of you might believe I’m discussing your Man Cave. I’ll provide you some background, my observation applies to only the arenas. We have Kemper Arena and T-Mobile in Kansas City along with American Airlines Center in Dallas. A little background for you to consider, I’ve been seated in suites at Kemper and T-Mobile at a point. I had to use my imagination in the other two arenas, in both instances I was not in the building for a basketball game.

The Pit home of the University of New Mexico and Chaifetz Arena homebased for St. Louis University. I once had a seat two rows in back of the guys providing television play by play of the game. The absolute worst seats ever, my view of the court was blocked on both ends by spectator standing and seated and game officials. As for the suites I had a great view of the court from “5 miles away”. The monitors in the suite actually provided me a better view of game action than seeing the play in front of me. What’s your opinion, is one or more these areas better to you? 

Cycles

There is a belief cycles exist in a number of areas, what’s old goes out of style or general usage and much later returns. Former coach Stan Van Gundy is a believer, he thinks post-play will eventually return to the NBA. What I found interesting reading the comments of 7-foot 1, 282-pound center Brook Lopez. Drafted in 2008 he was a back to the basket post player with a variety of shots around the basket and then BAM a change. At some point early in his NBA career a coach informed him “You need to practice taking shots from the 3pt.” I refer to it as the Dirk-Steph factor, the emphasis on shooting from the 3pt. It is easy to understand, you pass the ball into a post player he sinks his shot. The opposition sinks a 3pt basket in response you see the dilemma. Part I of the Dirk-Steph factor, Dirk Nowitzki was drafted in 1998, Dirk stands 7 feet and 245 pounds. If he’d been drafted 5-10 years earlier, he would have been a center or post player.

What actually occurred, the Mavs played him at power forward, and he would experience a Hall of Fame career=success. Part II of the Dirk-Steph factor would be Warriors point guard Steph Curry. Nobody not even MJ was the lights out shooter Steph would become. Anyplace near half-court was makable and the key his quick release=success. You might not have heard this adage, but it says, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, I’ve always taken it to describe if someone completes a task successfully its worthwhile to follow. That’s what’s occurred, with the emphasis on 3pt shooting we’ve moved to position less basketball. Athletes 6 foot 11 and taller don’t arrive in the NBA as post players, they often are power forwards. I mentioned this in another account, Chris Paul of the Suns might be the last pure point guard in the NBA. The others (including Steph Curry) are listed as point guards but are more combo guards. If we believe Van Gundy post play might return one day however, I certainly wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it to occur.