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Basketball from a fans perspective

Win some, unfortunately you lose some

The road trip to Fayetteville Arkansas provided some drama for Mizzou Nation, the Tigers were losers to the Razorbacks 74-68. I have no method to prove my belief, last year’s Mizzou squad would have been blown out of this game. Despite the loss they managed to play competitive basketball for the most part. Can I say I’m disappointed yet not downtrodden, this team has made me into a believer. If this next portion appears to be an excuse so, be it, Mizzou’s now lost two games to Top 25 teams. At the same time Mizzou’s also managed to beat two Top 25 teams and convincingly.

I certainly am not satisfied with the loss but who could have projected Mizzou would have a 12-2 record by January 4. There are only three concerns for the future, team rebounds guard Isiaih Mosley and maintaining continuity. With Mizzou playing a zone and not being particularly tall across the front-line Mizzou often finds itself outrebounded by the opposition. My best guess, Mizzou might be 6 foot 6 or 7 across the front-line which is not extremely tall. We must take into consideration they have two centers on the roster one standing 6 foot 10 and the other 7 foot 2, either one in the lineup would certainly aid the cause.

Mohammed Diarra (6-10) arrived at Mizzou from Garden City Community College, Mabor Majak (7-2) transferred from Cleveland State where he played for coach Gates. Both athletes must be projects otherwise I believe they would be in the lineup where they certainly could aid the deficit on the boards. As for the talented Mosley he failed to make the trip to Arkansas, the status of this sharpshooter on the team remains unclear. He remained in Columbia for what was termed a personal issue. Finally the last issue, Mizzou was unable to sustain its effort, perhaps some of this was due to playing on the road but it is a worry.   

No surprise

Early Thursday afternoon came the word, Texas terminated the contract of Chris Beard. For those who might not be aware the coach was suspended in December based on a domestic violence arrest. Days after his arrest his fiancé retracted her statement, she claimed “He hadn’t tried to choke her.” As most of you are aware domestic violence carries a far different penalty than it might have just a few years ago. This is the warning in advance from me, you will see letter after letter from folks with no legal background.

They will be worded differently but all will claim “The school can’t fire Beard.” I’ve got news for them, as I’ve often stated I have no legal background. Contracts of this type generally have morality clauses in them, any violation of a clause is grounds for termination. This outcome is sad in several aspects, sad in that violence was perpetrated on his fiancé. Sad in the fact Beard is an outstanding basketball coach but clearly has anger issues. This portion of the Chris Beard story closes for now, rest assured in time he will re-surface somewhere else as an assistant coach, he might even land a head coaching job.

This is out of the ordinary

If you are associated with Duke basketball in any regard this is not news. For the balance of us the story is certainly unusual, I speak of Kyle Filipowski Duke freshman. He’s a 7-foot 230-pound power forward, Filipowski’s begun his collegiate career on a high note. But wait there’s more to the story… this youngster has an interesting basketball background. Not only did dad play college basketball his mom also. Wait it doesn’t stop there, Filipowski has an uncle and aunt who also competed in the game at the college level.

Kyle’s has a twin brother on Harvard’s basketball team. There is no mention in his bio if there are other family basketball members, chances are the case might be good. Filipowski hails from Middletown New York in the upstate portion of the state. His scoring is a nominal (14.4 ppg), we intend to follow his progress. One mock draft site lists Filipowski as a second-round draft choice. We are unsure if he remains at Duke after this season, this is a continued developing story.

The name is the same  

There have been a number of NBA players over the years with the same name, listed below are the names although this should not be considered complete. With that statement we begin the account. Did you know John “Hot Plate” Williams played in the NBA in the same period as John “Hot Rod” Williams?  Allan Ray was on the Celtics roster prior to Ray Allen arriving, Allan was drafted in 2006 while Ray came in a 2007 trade. At one time we had Earvin Johnson and Ervin Johnson in the NBA at the same time, the guy who spelled his name with an A was nicknamed Magic and played at Michigan State. The other Ervin played at the University of New Orleans and didn’t have close to the NBA career of the other Earvin.

We also had two Cliff Robinson’s, one played at USC and reached the NBA in the 1979 draft. The other Cliff played at UConn and was drafted in 1989. We also have Tony Parker and Anthony Parker, now technically that’s not the same name although the nickname for Anthony is Tony. Can I use father and son Patrick Ewing Sr. and Patrick Ewing Jr. yes, I think I will? Smith is a common name in America, how about Charles drafted in 1988 and Charles who wasn’t drafted but played for the Celtics beginning in 1989.

George Johnson’s in the NBA, we have George E. drafted in 1970 and add the name George L. drafted in 1978. I can’t believe I almost missed the two guards; we had NBA Hall of Fame player Isiah Thomas and Isaiah Thomas. The father a lifelong Lakers fan made a bet his team would beat the Pistons in 1989 or he’d name his son for Pistons guard Isiah. The Lakers lost and dad following through was set to name his son Isiah until his wife said her son’s name should be Biblically spelled which is Isaiah. In closing neither one of these Johnson’s had a long NBA career although both spent a brief period in the association. Chris Johnson is playing currently in Israel and the other Chris Johnson is competing in Taipei Taiwan.