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Basketball from a fans perspective

It’s now official

It's now official, Regents of the University of Texas and Oklahoma have approved the move to the SEC. Both will become members of the SEC on July 1, 2024. I believe Houston, Cincy, UCF and Brigham Young will move from their respective conferences to the Big XII on that same date. Because this is a basketball blog, I prefer to look at these moves on that basis. It’s my belief the SEC is quite competitive in the sport of roundball, both schools probably won’t raise the level of play much. As for the teams moving into the Big XII, I could see the basketball change improve conference play.

Houston has been quite competitive in the past and especially during the Kelvin Sampson years at the school. The University of Cincinnati has a rich history of competitive basketball even winning two NCAA Championships in the early 1960’s. UCF is the new kid on the block and has seen an improving record under Johnny Dawkins, former Duke player. Brigham Young is the last school to assess, they are last because I’m unsure what they will bring to the Big XII. The Cougars basketball history has been a mix of good and bad play over the years. The landscape of college basketball play continues to evolve as we are witness to these changes.

Exchanging blow outs

Game 2 saw the Warriors beat the Lakers badly on Thursday, the final score Warriors 127 Lakers 100. The action moved south to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Saturday, Lakers 127 Warriors 97, as you can see both games a blowout. AD on his every other game breakout led the way for the Lakers scoring 25 points along with 13 rebounds, he continued to clog the lane with 4 blocked shots. LeBron James and D’Lo both scored 21 points apiece as the Lakers shot 52.4% from the floor and much better from three with 48.4%.

Lonnie Walker IV, who’s seen little playing time was inserted into the game; Walker IV scored 12 points on a variety of shots. As for the Warriors Steph Curry led the way for the Warriors, scoring 23 points but shot only 9 for 21 from the floor. He was followed by Andrew Wiggins with 16 points and Klay Thompson’s 15. The Laker defense managed to hold the Warriors to 39.6% shooting from the floor and 29.5% from three. What occurs in Game 4 on Monday is anyone’s guess, naturally I hope for a Laker victory however nothing is guaranteed as we have seen to date.

He’s a Trojan

We had no idea where Bronny James was headed after high school graduation. There were several directions the talented combo guard could have chosen. Many believed it might be the G-League while others speculated, he could follow the path laid out by LaMelo Ball. Bronny could decide to head to Australia to lay out a path to the NBA. On the other hand it could be the college route and he would choose Ohio State. We believed dad LeBron might be a factor in that decision. Bronny made his choice known over the weekend, he’s headed to Southern Cal to become a Trojan. I have no illusions regarding his basketball future, this I do believe he’s better than some have given him credit.

Fired

This move caught the majority of us off guard, on Thursday the Bucks announced the firing of head coach Mike Budenholzer. Since taking over as the team’s coach in 2018 the team has registered five winning seasons in a row. The Bucks have won 60, 56, 46, 51 and 58 wins in that period. Despite 1^st place in the Central Division all 5 seasons and twice being named Coach of the Year Budenholzer now finds himself unemployed, what happened? The Bucks won the championship in 2021 but have been unable to repeat since then. Elimination by the Heat in the first-round of the playoffs was certainly unexpected.

The playoff loss might have been the final piece that sealed the fate of Budenholzer. Bucks management decided to move in a different direction despite the excellent regular season record of Budenholzer. There are a number of potential coaches to replace Budenholzer although at this point there are no names revealed in this account. This is one of those rare instances where a coach is fired despite having an exemplary coaching record. In closing it must be mentioned Budenholzer’s brother died during the playoffs. Did this event play a role in the demise of the Bucks playoff run; it certainly could have in my view?

The Kansas City Lakers?

Wikipedia is the source for my discovery, I realize a number of you are skeptical of my source but this information sounds likely. Keep in mind the Lakers are playing in Minnesota at this point in time. After the retirement of George Mikan the fortunes of the team dwindled substantially. The team was losing on the court and at the gate, at this point two potential owners stepped in attempting to buy the Lakers and move them to Kansas City. This move was circumvented by Bob Short along with investors who stepped in and purchased the team. A few years later Short would assume 80% ownership of the team but despite this fact they continued to suffer in both areas. The NBA informed Short the league intended to take over operations of the team if revenue failed to improve.

The NBA intended to relocate the Lakers for a second time and it was unclear if the NBA would attempt a move to Kansas City once again. In 1960 Short and the Lakers departed Minneapolis for Los Angeles, the new issue. This change was made without league approval and the owners voted 7-1 against the move. Short threatened to move his Lakers to a rival startup league and the vote this time was 8-0, the balance of this story is known. Let’s check out a couple of interesting facts, Short moved the Lakers without league approval, prior to this I believed former Clippers owner Donald Sterling was the only owner to accomplish this feat. As for Short’s threat to jump leagues it wasn’t made clear but our guess this would have been the American Basketball League. So there is the history uncovered I didn’t know and maybe you didn’t either.