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Basketball from a fans perspective

Playoff contention?

Tuesday evening against the Grizzlies Anthony Davis went off. AD scored 30 points pulled down 22 rebounds dished out 3 assists and blocked 2 shots. He led the way to a 113-102 win over the Grizzlies. It was more than AD, guard Dennis Schroeder had 17 points and 9 assists. It should be of note, you might have read the same story as me. A few in Laker Nation questioned why Schroeder decided to return to the Lakers. I’m going to paraphrase his quote; my time didn’t end in the manner I hoped.

The Lakers offered Schroeder a contract and he said thanks but no thanks, I can earn more in free agency. Well it didn’t quite work out as he hoped, Schroeder didn’t command the money he believed was due him. Moving on from the Schroeder story there was outstanding play by all Lakers especially Rui Hachimura and Austin Reaves off the bench, these reserve players scored 17 points apiece. The headline has a question mark behind it for a single reason. The Lakers are now in 9^th place in the West and ascending upward, all this with LeBron James sidelined. Is this team in playoff contention…we just don’t know?

I dare you

The headline could have read differently, I thought about another. It would be “How arrogant of them” you remember the story, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett separately or together made an announcement. The two Naismith Hall of Fame inductees had gone on record, they stated “If you haven’t won an NBA Championship you don’t belong in the hall.” I guess both fail to take into account it’s not the NBA Hall of Fame, it’s the Naismith Hall of Fame, in any event below are 10 enshrined names. I dare either of them to contact any of the 10 and inform them “You don’t belong here.” Depending on your age you might be unfamiliar with a few of the names look them up, here goes:

Reggie Miller

Charles Barkley

John Stockton

Allen Iverson

Karl Malone

Patrick Ewing

Elgin Baylor

Tracy McGrady

Steve Nash

Alex English 

Biggest college upset

I don’t believe the regular season qualifies for biggest upset ever for one reason alone. A first-place team might still win its conference race despite losing to the last place team. The NCAA Tournament is a different matter, there is more at stake. There are 1001 key games however it’s my belief it’s the NCAA Finals that standout and there are three that standout in history. It’s also interesting all occurred close to the same timeframe, 1982, 1983, 1985 and 1988, in addition Georgetown playing outstanding basketball at the time is involved in two of the four championship games profiled.   

1982 North Carolina of Michael Jordan, James Worthy faced Georgetown comprised of Patrick Ewing and Eric “Sleepy” Floyd. The NCAA Finals that season was a shootout, Georgetown as a team shot .529 from the floor. As for North Carolina it was even higher they shot .532. If you are thinking this was a breakout game for Air Jordan, he would only score 16 points, but he did score a key basket, it was James Worthy leading the way with 28 points. With seconds remaining and Georgetown in the lead Sleepy Floyd thought he saw a teammate out of the corner of his eye, so he passed the ball. That “teammate” turned out to be Carolina’s Worthy, once he received the pass Worthy raced down to the other end of the court. He was fouled but the final score would read North Carolina 63 Georgetown 62 for that year’s championship.

1983 North Carolina State would face the Phi Slama Jama Houston Cougars. The NC State team that season exceeded expectations, they came into the championship game as a 6 seed. Houston had Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler two future Hall of Famers. North Carolina State had decent players but nowhere near the talent level of Houston or that’s what we believed. As for the game neither team shot particularly well, both were under .400 but it would be a dramatic historic ending. With Houston ahead and seconds remaining in the game NC State’s Derek Whittenburg took a long distance shot that fell short of the basket. The ball would land in the hands of teammate Thurl Bailey stationed beneath the basket; Bailey simply laid the ball in game over. The final score read NC State 54 Houston 52, thus improbable NC State would become the 1983 NCAA Champs.

1985 Villanova would face Georgetown for the championship. Georgetown had beaten Villanova twice during the regular season since both were Big East members at the time. The winner projected by most of the experts would be Georgetown however that would turn out to not be the case. In addition to their losses to Georgetown Villanova lost 8 other games for a total of 10 that year, but this game would be far different. The Hoyas of Georgetown would shoot an outstanding .547 from the floor but it was nothing compared to Villanova’s .786. Keep in mind there was no shot clock back then, the late Rollie Massimino coach of Villanova had his team hold the ball working it around the perimeter until they had a can’t miss shot. The final score saw Villanova the winner over the taller Patrick Ewing led Georgetown crew 66-64. Another unlikely NCAA Championship victor.

1988 Kansas faced Big 8 rival Oklahoma for the NCAA Championship. Larry Brown’s Jayhawks were 27-11 that season finishing in third place in the conference. Oklahoma had run roughshod over every team in the conference (including Kansas) on the road to a championship. Oklahoma had Stacey King, Harvey Grant and Mookie Blaylock all NBA bound however Kansas had Danny Manning and a supporting cast of capable teammates. How good was Oklahoma, the record indicates they averaged 102 points per game in the 39 they played that season. Danny Manning led the way scoring 31 points and pulling down 18 rebounds numbers Oklahoma with its NBA talent could not match. The final score read Kansas 83 Oklahoma 79.