Basketball from a fan’s perspective

Bits and Pieces

The Women’s NCAA Championship beat the men in television viewer numbers significantly. On Tuesday, the news was revealed Iowa-South Carolina drew an 18.9 million audience, the Purdue-UConn game was much smaller at 14.8 million. Now a realist will ask the question will those numbers translate to the WNBA? Based on this event the WNBA could receive a ratings and attendance boost if the networks (ESPN & ABC) make a supreme effort to increase viewership, just my thoughts. What do you think?

After reading the comments of several NBA players past and present I’m going to retreat from a position I took earlier. You might remember I expressed my belief Bronny James required another season of college basketball before play in the NBA. Evidently a number of NBA players don’t agree with my assertion. “He’s ready to play at the next level” according to the position taken by several. Similar to you I will await the June NBA draft to see what develops, will he be a first or second round pick?

Cream Abdul Jabbar, Larry Nerd, Larry Blurred a.k.a. Robbie Avila has entered the transfer portal. The 6 foot 10 Avila was almost single handily the leader for Indiana State to return from obscurity to a place in the national spotlight. His Indiana State team should have been in the NCAA tournament rather than NIT however that’s my view. As this is written there is no indication of Avila’s potential destination. I’ve read nothing indicating a desire to play professionally at any level however eventually that certainly could change depending on his next stop.

DPOY 

In the history of the NBA only 4 players have registered 1,000 points, 250 assists and 250 blocked shots in a season. They are Kareem Abdul Jabbar, David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon and Victor Wembanyama. I realize some of you have grown tired of reading accounts of the Spurs wunderkinder but he is the real deal. All of us (including me) were off base with the belief Wemby would be required to gain weight in order to be successful in the NBA, I believe to date he’s proved all of us wrong. One other note, Wilt Chamberlain may have accomplished the feat however in his day blocked shots for some strange reason were not tracked as they are now.

The basis for my view, when Bill Russell arrived ahead of Chamberlain defensive shot blocking came to fruition in the association. As for the headline, Wemby is now only 2 percentage points behind the defensive leader Rudy Gobert. Could Wemby win Defensive Player of the Year it certainly might be possible now? I say it might be more probably now versus late January or early February. I am sure naysayers will claim “Wemby hasn’t made the Spurs that much better.” My argument will be are you sure about that, as this is written they are only two games behind last season’s won-loss record. Although the NBA season is winding down the Spurs should exceed last season’s total, thanks in large part to the rookie season of Wemby.

Blue Blood program

A discussion was held on Tuesday morning regarding UConn basketball on local sports talk radio, the host posed the question is UConn truly a Blue Blood program? Generally we associate Blue Blood programs with names such as Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas and in the past UCLA. What makes these schools different, for one they are located in what is considered Power 5 Conferences. I believe UConn has entered the “room,” they are now seated at the table.

The Big East is not a power conference however UConn is certainly a Blue Blood program based on the wins. Monday evening the back-to-back championships now give them a total of 6. Consider this fact, UConn now has more NCAA championship tournament wins than Kansas (4), Indiana (5) and Duke also with 5. UConn is currently tied with North Carolina, leading the way are the 8 wins by Kentucky and the all-time winner is UCLA with 11. I’m unsure if you agree with me however it’s my belief UConn now belongs in any conversation of Blue Blood basketball programs.

I had to be reminded

The game was acknowledged here but the significance of it I almost missed. Center Nate Thurmond who spent most of his NBA career with the Warriors and Bulls registered the first quadruple-double one evening. October 18, 1974, Thurmond scored 22 points along with 14 rebounds, including 13 assists and 12 blocked shots. February 18,1986 Spurs guard Alvin Robertson joined Thurmond with his 20-point 11 rebound, 10 assist and 10 steal game.

Next to join the club is center Hakeen Olajuwon, in a March 29, 1990, game had 18 points, 16 rebounds, 11 blocks, 10 assists. February 17, 1994, David Robinson Spurs center accomplished the same feat with 34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 blocks. Stephen A. Smith pointed out Victor Wembanyama came close to making this a 5-team club. His game on April 2 consisted of 23 points 15 rebounds plus 8 assists and 9 blocked shots. We could speculate all day if Wemby might join this exclusive club, allow me to say he’s Wemby registered double digit assists and had a 10-block shot game.