Published Daily  

Basketball from a fans perspective

No number one

I’m not providing news; you were aware of this fact prior to reading this assessment. For the first time since 1979 when seeding first begun there is no number one remaining in the Elite Eight. Two number one’s Houston and Alabama both lost on the same evening. I’ve asked the opinion of several friends and their views vary but they are saying the same thing, this paraphrases their comments. It was said “Some Division I teams believe they are better than a mid-major team they might face.”

Power 5 teams such as Kentucky, Duke, UCLA and Kansas along with others no longer strike fear in the heart of opponents at tournament time. Maybe a portion of the leveling of competition is a result of increased participation in AAU basketball. It matters not if you played at Murray State or Tennessee, you’ve played against a player or maybe two or three on the same team. This statement has been made recently and it will be repeated again, the seeding part will always exist. After a 15 seed wins a game do, we truly consider it an upset?  

Speaking of the NCAA Tournament

I informed you no bracket this year for me but I had interesting pushback. A co-worker asked me who I thought would be the NCAA Champ, I didn’t hesitate in my response, I said UConn and he looked as though he was saying what is wrong with this guy. I followed that up by saying “It could be Alabama, Texas or Houston.” As this is written the only teams that remain standing are Texas and UConn. Reminds me of the Jamie Foxx commercial, “Always go with your gut” when placing a bet. In this instance no money will exchange hands, I could be wrong because Saturday morning Texas remains in play too.

Next

If you’ve followed the NBA or Thunder any length of time you are aware of this information. The Thunder managed to assemble a group of talented players, it was accomplished through the draft and trades. Who were they, different city but same GM, it was Seattle and the Sonics drafted Kevin Durant. Durant spent his rookie year in the Emerald City and in his second year was in OKC. I’m unsure of the order, however Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Steven Adams along with Serge Ibaka and other draft picks were later added.    

There was a period when the Thunder added numbers of veteran talent in the name of Paul George, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul. The team moving from a pseudo expansion franchise began a steady climb in the standings. The 2012 team played for the NBA Championship losing to the Heat, from that point through the 2019-20 season they were plus .500 and playoff contenders. The last two seasons have witnessed the Thunder finishing below .500 but change is in the air. Thanks to skillful and talented draft choices (Josh Giddey) along with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander obtained in a trade they are moving. The Thunder might earn a playoff berth this season, if not it certainly will occur next season.

Junior College basketball

I’ve covered this subject previously; junior college basketball fails to attract the attention of Division I ball. You do realize a significant number of NBA players began their basketball careers at a junior college. Three that come to mind are Heat guard Jimmy Butler who played at Marquette but first played at Tyler Junior College in Tyler Texas. We also have Jae Crowder of the Bucks, Crowder played at South Georgia Tech in Americus and later at Howard College in Big Spring (TX). From Howard he arrived at Marquette and eventually the NBA. Prior to Oregon State it was Salt Lake Community College for the Warriors Gary Payton II.

Those names are just a few of the present-day NBA players who came from the junior college ranks. How about the present day, on Saturday NW Florida State Niceville (FL) number 7 in the nation was matched against John A. Logan College from Carterville (IL) number 1 for the National Junior College Men’s Basketball Championship. In a hard-fought contest John A. Logan managed to beat NW Florida State 73-70. Mizzou has a committed player in the game, guard Curt Lewis is headed for Mizzou in the fall. This 6-foot 5-inch shooting guard scored 18 points but after scoring 27 points in the victory over Tallahassee on Friday he shot poorly in the championship game. It’s possible after a Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday game Lewis just plain ran out of gas. In any event keep in mind a number of players begin their basketball careers at a nearby junior college.