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Basketball from a fans perspective

Coulda woulda, shoulda

I intended to leave this subject alone, it’s been a source of sports conversation since Saturday evening. Kansas Coach Bill Self was not present for the Arkansas game. The medical procedure he underwent last week kept him sideline and we must believe the medical staff advised him to not return to coaching. That’s the problem the Jayhawks lost a close game 72-71, they could have won the game but came up short.

All I’ve heard since late Saturday is this. “If Bill Self had been on the bench, he’s worth one or two points” or this one, “Bill Self wouldn’t have taken the timeout as Norm Roberts did.” Let’s check out a couple of facts, Texas which is still alive in the tournament beat Kansas twice in the span of 8 days. Self was on the bench for both losses, evidently his presence didn’t help. Roberts is not Self, but the long-time assistant has seen plenty of action over the years. If Self had been on the bench the outcome coulda change or maybe it woulda or it shoulda. Shocking as this might sound, I feel sorry for Kansas players, they put forth their best effort. As for those who make excuses for the loss get over it.

Coaching news

St John’s is expected to hire Rick Pitino former longtime Louisville coach and currently at Iona. In the meantime the fired coach Mike Anderson indicates he intends to sue St. John’s over his firing. I’m going to leave that one to the courts to decide. Ed Cooley who’s been at Providence for the last 12 seasons is reported to replace Patrick Ewing at Georgetown. Texas remains in the hunt for the NCAA Championship so it will be a while before the school makes a decision. I’m reading there is a mix of thoughts regarding Rodney Terry, perhaps that might be the basis for the interim tag never being removed.

Maybe Texas moved too fast in firing Rick Barnes but that’s another story. Former NBA player Damon Stoudemire was hired as head coach at Georgia Tech, I mentioned this earlier long-time Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim is gone replaced by his top assistant Adrian Autry. A number of jobs remain open, and these teams are attempting to find that right coach to hire. We in the middle of the country know it’s possible, Kansas State and Mizzou struck gold with the hire of Jerome Tang and Dennis Gates. Tang was a long-time assistant at Baylor, the story was different for Gates. He arrived at Mizzou from mid-major Cleveland State so hopefully these other teams will look far and wide to fill out their head coaching positions.

Why   

Local sports television and talk radio is amazing, they chatter as if Mizzou losing to Princeton is the worst thing in the world. Surely, I’m disappointed, Mizzou Nation is saddened but look where this team came from in under a year. Mizzou was projected by the media to finish near the bottom of the SEC and look where they finished. In the loss to Princeton they failed to provide us any brand-new information. We knew ahead of time Mizzou didn’t rebound the ball well, we knew in advance Mizzou didn’t defend the three. Then I thought back to last March and at the time I wondered, what would this collection of players from all over the nation be able to accomplish.

In truth the hope on my part was a .500 season, anything beyond that would be extra but I certainly wasn’t looking for the additional. The non-conference schedule in my words didn’t appear imposing, only Kansas and Illinois appeared to be wrecking balls for Mizzou. Fast forward to the present, this coach and this team have exceeded my wildest expectations. An NCAA invite in Gates first year on the job, this bodes well for the future of the program. It’s wonderful to recruit McDonalds All Americans or lottery bound NBA talent but that’s not really necessary. Gates has proven to me and maybe you talent abounds other than with 5-star kids. Save us, quit talking about how Mizzou lost the game. I believe the culture has changed regarding Mizzou basketball; I am excited for the future of the program despite the negatives I’m hearing from the local sports crew.

MVP, MVP  

You’ve heard MVP chanted at NBA Arenas across the nation. This season I believe it will be Joel Embiid Sixer center, the 7-foot Big Man might be having the best season of his career. It seemed such a short time ago he was that fresh faced kid we saw play at the University of Kansas. Many NBA fans don’t realize Embiid only spent his freshman year at Kansas, many like me believed he should have remained in school another year. I realize we are in the age of “go get your money” which Embiid did in 2014 becoming the third pick by the Sixers.

Early in his NBA career injuries sidelined him for extended periods but when healthy he’s been a dominate force. There was a change in his life last year which had nothing to do with basketball, in September 2022 Embiid originally from the African nation of Cameroon became an American citizen. Question, because Embiid is an American citizen do we place him with the international team or American? Just kidding folks, the 7-foot 280-pound Embiid is a genuine player no matter what nation he might represent. We do have a detractor regarding MVP Embiid, that is former NBA coach George Karl. I’m not going to detail his reasoning but just say to you I believe its whack.