Basketball from a fans perspective

Published daily except Tuesdays & Thursdays

There remains time

Recently I looked at several Scary Teams, those teams who are poised for this season or simply stated teams the opposition hates to see on the schedule. The majority of these NBA teams are loaded with youthful talent, on the other hand we have those not playing up to par. These teams were to contend and we find them performing with less than stellar records. At the top of the list must be the Sixers, they were expected to contend in the East this season. A sizable portion of their poor play can be attributed to Joel Embiid and Paul George being in and out of the lineup.

I must also include the Bucks and Heat in this discussion, I’m unsure regarding the Bucks except for Doc Rivers. As for the Heat there is a Jimmy Butler problem as the balance of the roster attempts to figure out who they are. The Hawks always seem to hover around the .500 level, they never get any better or worse. That takes care of many of the Eastern Conference underperforming teams, what about the West? It’s just as real there as well, I’m going to begin with the mystery Nuggets. The dilemma, why with all that talent on hand they are also underperforming for the most part. If the season ended as this is written the Wolves barely make the playoffs in 8th place. Ant Man alone cannot keep this team playing at a high skill level, he does need his teammates to play slightly better.

The King of all teams in the West maybe in the league is the Suns, money alone fails to address their issue(s). Consider this fact the Suns have the highest payroll in the NBA. There is a safety valve for all the teams mentioned, the Lakers from two seasons ago. To refresh your memory they were thrashing around under .500 but eventually righted the ship and earned a playoff berth. There remains hope for all the underperforming teams mentioned in this account. If one of the teams is a favorite keep your outlook high for them to succeed.

Free pass days are over

This is a revisit of an earlier story, this past week radio guy was blabbing on and on about Kansas basketball. His guest represented one of the local publications and this is what occurred. After radio guy came to a stop and listened he heard this. “Kansas might be the third best team in the Big XII, right now its Houston then Iowa State and finally Kansas.” In my mind I could see radio guy anxious to counter his argument however there was nothing for him to offer after his guest finished.

Look friends I continue to believe Kansas basketball at least this season is overrated, maybe they will catch fire in mid to late February and prove me wrong I don’t think so. It’s my belief they are a superior team to the majority of the conference but not “Kansas elite.” Wanna know why…. barely beating UCF 91-87. This is not intended to disparage UCF however they went into the game with a 4-4 conference record and almost won. Props to them the game was played at home which favored them but it was more than that factor. Kansas basketball is affiliated with radio guy so maybe that’s part of the basis for his inability to see the issues other eyes see.

This popped up on my feed

The Spurs have made several moves over the course of their existence but never left the State of Texas. In 1967 the Dallas Chaparrals would become an original member of the American Basketball Association. Due to poor attendance a decision was made for the Texas Chaparrals to begin playing a regional schedule, games would be played in Fort Worth, Lubbock and Dallas. This proved to be a failure and in 1971-72 they returned to Dallas exclusively playing in two locations.

The team would be placed on the market and a group of San Antonio businessmen purchased the team and moved it there in 1973 under a conditional agreement. Once the move was made and it proved to be a success there was no thought of moving back to Dallas. There might be an assumption the Mavs may have been the driving force for the move to San Antonio however that was not the case. The merger or expansion between the ABA and NBA took place in 1976, the Mavs did not begin play until the 1980-81 season.

He is a character

Dan Hurley’s gone from two-time NCAA Championship winning coach to Mr. Obnoxious in the eyes of many. Maybe his on the court behavior is his personality all along and we just didn’t recognize it. In any event, in some eyes he earns more ire from fans than his players. Make no mistake this is no effort to denigrate Hurley I love the passion he displays on the court, we must face the fact UConn is not as good as pre-season projections. They are nowhere close to dominating the Big East Conference, truth is the Huskies are sitting in 4th place as this is written.

Hurley and UConn find themselves looking up toward first place Marquette then St. John’s and finally Creighton. The Huskies have won 15 games, which is not terrible however that’s way beneath the standard established by Hurley. I’m going to give the coach a pass on this one for a number of reasons chief among them attrition. Most believe it would be extremely difficult to duplicate last year’s numbers. Despite this fact the Huskies were expected to compete and several roster members have not played at the expected level. Finally the largest factor might be growth by other programs i.e., Marquette, St. John’s and others, these teams are much improved over last season. If you are a Hurley Hater don’t get comfortable thinking this is a permanent change for UConn, it ain’t.