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Basketball from a fans perspective

Is the NBA in his future

There's an old saying, "Big Men must prove they CAN'T play, little men must prove they CAN." An outstanding NCAA Tournament and it's possible K-State's Markquis Nowell could see himself in the NBA. Yes, he stands but 5 foot 8 and 160 pounds but he's got the heart of a player much larger than himself.  I'm seeing a few mock draft sites claiming he might receive a look from the NBA. If that's not the case surely, he might have a future in Europe or Australia. Nowell has become a hero to every little man in the nation, perhaps even the world.

Re-seed

I posted this on my social media page yesterday, did anybody mention re-seed the tournament? Next week the nation will crown the 2023 NCAA Champion. We have a choice between two number 5 seeds (San Diego State/Miami (FL), one a four seed (UConn) and the other a 9 seed (FAU). Don’t you think the committee did a bang-up job with their seeding process? I cannot remember a time when the field was this wide open as to who becomes the NCAA Champion. I have an early indication of the winner but I’m afraid to mention a school for fear you will laugh at me for picking the wrong school.

Undefeated you say

The Kentucky Wildcats might have come nearest to an undefeated season. In the 2014-15 season they went through the season without a single loss, many including me was hoping for them to finish the season without a blemish. That would not be, Kentucky lost in the Final Four to Wisconsin finishing with 38 wins and the one loss.  In 2020-21 it would be Gonzaga attempting to win the NCAA Championship undefeated. They would lose in the Finals to Baylor and finished 31-1.

That was the recent history of Division I basketball but what about Division II that would be a slightly different story. Nova Southeastern, located in Fort Lauderdale (FL) beat West Liberty 111-101, West Liberty is in West Liberty West Virginia Division II has seen undefeated champions more recently than Division I in fact there have been 5 undefeated champions the most recent Northwest Missouri State 38-0 in the 2018-19 season. Prior to that it was the 2008-09 season when Findlay finished 36-0 in winning the Division II Championship. 

What do you think

From an unknown period of time the ESPN NBA box score contains a +/- placed in front of a players point total. It reads: “+/= denotes team’s net points while the player is on the court.” To my knowledge this issue pre-dates analytics I believe there are questions on my part. The box for a recent Rockets game details three players scoring 20 or more points, all three are -20. In other words they were on the floor when the opposition succeeded in outscoring the team.

There is no requirement to inform you of this, basketball remains a team sport. More interesting to me not a single Rockets player is given a +, there are 10 players all receiving -scores. Was the margin of the score the deciding factor in the +/- analysis? The Rockets were losers against the Grizzlies 151-114. The final statement of fact, I could understand and appreciate this “measurement” if I located other sites using a similar tool. I first noticed this on the ESPN NBA page but have since discovered SI.com uses a similar tool. I don’t understand analytics either so the +/- is placed next to it. 

Magic Johnson in the…NFL

Some might be aware the NFL Washington Commanders are on the market. It’s being reported Magic Johnson has joined a group interested in purchasing the team. Magic is an owner with the baseball Dodgers, it’s stated he owns 2.3% of the team. The 2022 Forbes value of the Dodgers is an estimated $4.08 billion, you do the math if you care to determine how much Magic must have contributed to the purchase. The announcement provided us with no indication of the amount Magic had to guarantee to be part of the group attempting to purchase the Commanders. It is unlikely to occur but should the Buss family decide someday to sell the Lakers more than likely Magic Johnson would be at the front of the line hoping to purchase the team he once wore number 32.

Only important to me

I should have known some of this, I didn’t realize since Mizzou basketball began play in 1906-07 there have been a number of conference changes. In that first season Mizzou played as an Independent but back then there probably wasn’t a great number of conferences. The following season the school would become a member of the Missouri Valley Conference and remained in the Valley until the 1928-29 season. That year Mizzou would join the conference they would remain in until 2012-13. The conference didn’t always contained the same number of teams, as an example was the Big 6 Conference at the time.

In 1947-48 it became the Big 7 adding an additional team, this configuration would last until 1957-58 when another team was added becoming the Big 8. The conference would remain with 8 members until the Southwest Conference went out of business. In the 1996-97 season most of the defunct Southwest Conference teams were additions and it would become the Big XII. In 2012-13 Mizzou departed the Big XII for the SEC dissolving a conference affiliation dating back to the 1928 season some 84 years. At the time the move occurred I was opposed based on finding no common denominator with other SEC teams. Since that time I have become accustomed to playing Arkansas, Kentucky and the others. As with the rate of current movement it is possible Mizzou might move again although no such plan exist currently.