Basketball from a fans perspective

Published daily except Tuesdays & Thursdays 

I will have none of that!

The yelling and screaming from Mizzou Nation about being number one. Truth is I’m unsure if Kansas is actually number one after losing to Creighton earlier, the weekly polls are yet to be published. Sunday afternoon was a rare occasion, Mizzou beating Kansas whatever their ranking was/is 76-67. This was certainly a team effort, however, leading the way for Mizzou was two players with Kansas drivers licenses because they are from Kansas City Kansas. Tamar Bates led the way with 29 points and Mark Mitchell chipped in with 17 but it was the defense by these two and others that led to the victory over the Jayhawks. After being down 20 plus points Kansas whittled it down to 14 points at the half.

Kansas did manage to come roaring back and erasing much of the deficit but fell short near the end. I have long held the belief teams attempting to overcome large deficits plain run out of gas. Running up hill will eventually wear you out and much sooner if the ground is level, that certainly had to be a contributing factor to the Kansas loss. Of course 39.7% shooting by Kansas plus 21 turnovers certainly didn’t aid the cause. What happens now going forward for Mizzou…the tough, tough SEC. Despite talk from the Big XII, ACC and maybe others the SEC is the toughest basketball conference in the country. As for Kansas I respect them, Bill Self has an outstanding team. Whether they are good enough to win the Big XII Conference race at this point remains a question mark.

Plumbers and carpenters

That was the term JJ Redick applied to many of the NBA’s players of the past prior to becoming head coach of the Lakers. It went something similar to this, “The NBA was made up of guys who could have been plumbers and carpenters” or similar words. As a party of one I am getting a little tired of talk similar to that from Redick and Gilbert Arenas. Progress has been amazing for the NBA today, we can check out the world of medicine first to see the change. Depending on the extent of an injury players can have surgery during the summer and early fall and return to the court within the same season.

Medical improvements have seen this occur, how about training. In the ’40’s, ‘50’s and ‘60’s there was little if any off season training. Supplementary nutritious food additives have aided the player of today versus his father and grandfather. Okay those are a few of the advantages I see for today’s player over many of those in the past. The athletes of the present day might have been superior however not by much. You don’t think Wilt Chamberlain or Jerry West couldn’t play today provided they had the same advantages as most of today’s players. Don’t fall into that trap by figuring those in the past were so much better than many today. Let’s just say most athletes today have so many additional aids to ensure player development over those of the past.

Have the Roos turned the corner

You just read the headline and your first question, “What the heck is a Roo and what corner is he talking about?” First answer, the University of Missouri-Kansas City team mascot is a kangaroo. The second part of the question requires a little more detail. From the first year (1954-1963) they were known as the Kansas City Kangaroos, the school was named the University of Kansas City. In 1963 the school became part of the University of Missouri system and a name change, UMKC Kangaroos from 1963-2019. In 2019 the decision was made to change the name, one more closely identified with the city…Kansas City Roos.

As far as the basketball it’s been mostly down despite the fact they have played a Division I schedule since the 1994-95 season. In spite of fresh players and successive coaching changes success was sorely lacking on the basketball court until the arrival of Marvin Menzies. The team was below .500 in his first year but finished with a 10-6 conference record good enough for second place last season. Projections are one thing, the doing is something else. The Roos have been predicted to finish in first place in the Summit Conference for 2024-25. In all the years of play the Roos have never ever been invited to the NCAA Tourney, is this the year they receive that invitation?

Bits n Pieces of information 

Alijah Arenas was the Rivals number four prospect in the Class of 2026 and a 5-star prospect, you notice I said was. More on that later, he’s a 6 foot 6 inch shooting guard and plays for Chatsworth Charter High School in Chatsworth California. Currently Arenas has offers from 18 schools among just a few are Alabama, Cal, Fresno State and his father’s school Arizona. If you didn’t make the connection with the last name his father is former NBA player Gilbert. Arenas made news recently when he made the decision with his father to reclassify and will move into the Class of 2025, he’s yet to be moved by Rivals but expect that to occur soon.

I confess, the game was watched by me because Bronny James was playing however I was pleased with the outcome. Pleased that I saw him play a good (notice I didn’t say great) game, I didn’t turn it on at the beginning however it appears Bronny was a starter at shooting guard. He scored 16 points had 4 rebounds 2 assists and a quality blocked shot. At a point one of the Clipper players had the ball on a breakaway layup or at least that’s what he thought. Bronny trailing the player elevated at nearly the same time and smacked the ball off the backboard. Naturally there were areas requiring improvement, Bronny was 0 for 4 from three and managed to only shoot 40% from the floor. As for the game in total this was far beyond what has been exhibited to date by him, hopefully Bronny can continue on this upward trajectory, he was a vital contributor to the 119-111 victory over the Clippers.

No argument from me, there are times and circumstances that require a coach be fired. There are also times guys are like the old saying, “An empty wagon makes the most noise.” In the middle of the week I caught a portion of the drive-time guy on local 810 sports radio. During a course of discussion he began speculating whether Mizzou’s Dennis Gates might be fired at the end of the season. The problem for me he never mentioned a single reason for the termination. If he’d bothered researching rather than just running off at the mouth he would be able to detail why Mizzou was 8-24 last season. In addition the SEC race is yet to start, allow the season to play out before you begin to talk about firing someone.