Basketball from a fans perspective

Well, this is different

You remember Zach Edey don’t you, he’s the Big Man that blocks out the sun. The 7-foot 4 305-pound Purdue center declared for the NBA draft in 2023. I’m not exactly sure what occurred however he decided in favor of returning to school. Most mock draft sites indicated he’d be a late second round pick…others indicated he wouldn’t be drafted at all. That was then this is now, Jonathan Givony who covers the draft for the ESPN network made news on Tuesday. If you are thinking he chose Edey number one in 2024 that is not the case however it was newsworthy.

Givony moved the Purdue Big Man into his “Top 15 draft choices.” Keep in mind just like me Givony cannot guarantee Edey is drafted but this is a far cry from the events of last season. I haven’t seen Purdue play so far and with me being no ESPN Insider I’m unsure what caused the needle to move from a maybe to an almost guarantee first round pick. It’s been my belief for quite a time athletes are going to continue to grow in stature. There will be no more back to the basket play ala Kareem, Wilt or Shaq, despite this fact there should be other techniques to utilize Big Men in 21st Century NBA play.

Stop it, just stop

We have SportsCenter running 24/7, there is NBA TV plus the NBA Report on ESPN. We have the crew on TNT dispensing their observation of the game and the State of affairs of the league. There are additional programs on cable reporting on the NBA. We have podcasts by media members, former players and amateurs, we have blogs similar to Off the Dribble. Let’s face it there is plenty to discuss regarding the NBA in this age. In my mind that’s where the danger lies in some instances, we reached the top a number of years ago and have gone over the edge.

Some of us are so focused on reporting the tantalizing portion of the story we often leave the commonsense out. Look friends this is no attempt to mislead or point you in a particular direction but I have long believe NBA reporting is headed in a different direction. The greatest culprit in this account are some in the media that get away with projecting themselves into their reports. This is what we sometimes here regarding a story, “I contacted a member of _____ but he won’t go on record” has been read or heard often. I say if you offer me no proof other than the words coming out of your mouth that ain’t gonna cut it for me.

As my friend Keenan says, “If it’s not on video it didn’t occur. Here’s my main problem, it’s always been my belief to be informative first and then you offer an opinion on the subject. We don’t require anyone including me to project myself into a report unless I have firsthand knowledge of the event and it can be documented. Take what I offer as my view, that fails to make my outlook of a subject correct it’s only my opinion. There is no requirement for you to come to my side of the table unless you agree with my take.

Only for nerds

This is written by a nerd for other nerds, there is no basis for an answer just what I see.…here goes. I’ve found over the years network college television basketball coverage is much different than college football. College basketball coverage can be spread over several networks. Generally I find myself viewing games on ESPN however on weekends it can sometimes be the CBS broadcast or ABC broadcast. During the week in addition to the networks already mentioned there is the CBS Sports Network and FS1 along with the specialized networks.

Those designated as specialized are offshoots of ESPN, they include the SEC and B1G Networks and Pac12 (which is going away for sure). We also must add the CW Sports along with the YES and NESN networks. I would be remiss if I failed to detail specialized coverage was also available, I’ll give you an example. Last season while Emoni Bates was enrolled at Eastern Michigan I wanted to see all the school’s games, I paid a nominal fee for ESPN+ and games were made available to me. I know for sure I probably omitted several networks but the desire was to provide detail for the majority.

A new arena

The prevailing thought in college basketball appears to be “Let’s build a small compact arena rather than a Dean Dome (21,750), Rupp Arena (20,545) or KFC Yum Center (22,090).” The latest example might be the brand-new Foster Pavilion on the campus of Baylor University. The arena just recently opened has a seating capacity for 7,000 with standing room of 500. Also opened this season is F&M Bank Arena home of Austin Peay which seats 5,500 or Moody Center for the University of Texas (10,763). We could also include the University of Idaho and Idaho Central Credit Union Arena 4,200 capacity, each of these arenas mentioned opened in the 2010’s and hereafter.

NBA draft-Euro

The NBA draft now has as much interest in this country as it does in Europe. The increasing number of has become quite evident over the last 10-15 years. Years ago whenever a Euro players name was announced I’m sure the majority of the television audience had no idea who the person was nor their draft projections. We might not be as familiar with all aspects of a player but generally we are likely more familiar with the name. Looking ahead to the 2024 NBA draft the names you are about to read should be chosen someplace in the first round.

You might remember Alex Sarr mentioned here previously. Sarr is a 7-foot 1 inch center who plays for the Perth Wildcats in the NBL but is from Toulouse France. Also coming from France is Zaccharie Risacher a 6-foot 9 forward who plays for JL Bourg. The next prospect to mention is Matas Buzelis, although he was born in Chicago the 6 foot 10 forward played at Sunrise Christian Academy and is now in the G-League, Buzelis is Lithuania. The last name in this account is Izan Almanza, he’s a 6-foot 10 230-pound power forward. Almanza was born in Murcia Spain and he too is playing in the G-League. So there you have the top Euro players we should expect to see drafted in the first round in 2024.