I’m assuming that any of you reading this first post are friends or at the very least, acquaintances. So I won’t waste time introducing myself, I’ll have that information posted in its own section at a later date. I am not a professional writer or web developer. I have a hard time sitting still long for even short periods of time. To be honest, I’m not starting this blog because I really want to; I’ve brought it on myself but flooding Facebook with all kinds of thoughts about sports. The result of that is dozens of people asking me to start a sports blog. I think some of these genuinely appreciate my points of view on the world of sports; some probably are just tired of seeing constant status updates in their News Feed and hope this will keep those to a minimum! Regardless, this blog is my feeble attempt to give the people what they’ve asked for. I gladly welcome your (hopefully constructive) criticisms and will do my best to make this a place you come to stay current on the world of sports.
I want to give you a quick idea of what this blog IS and what it IS NOT. I am an unabashed fan of my local teams and want to be up front about my biases. There will be plenty of times that I try to write as objectively as possible, but I will never hide my affection for my teams. I will always root for the Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas City Chiefs and Royals, and Sporting KC. This doesn’t mean you won’t ever find criticism of these organizations here; on the contrary, I am my own teams’ harshest critic in many ways. That being said, my goal is not to have a regionally-focused blog and you will find many opinions about national stories here as well. I tend to think my sports opinions are spot on, but I have been known to be convinced otherwise on occasion. All this being said, if I can manage to find time to post regularly, I think this whole blog thing could turn out to be fun and I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes. Now let’s get to this weekend in sports.
Big 12 Hoops
Here in Big 12 country, the games went about like I thought they would. The Baylor Bears again showed that they lack mental toughness and have a coach on the sidelines who is clueless on getting the most out of his immensely talented team. At worst they have two lottery picks on their roster, and realistically have about four guys that should have careers in the NBA. They have size and athleticism that most teams would kill for and athletes up and down the roster. This is what people saw when they voted Baylor to at least tie for the Big 12 title this season. There is no question this is a good team; the question is why aren’t they GREAT?! If this was a one-year aberration, it would be fair to place the blame on the players. But this has happened before, which leads me to the conclusion that Scott Drew is just not a great coach. He will keep his job because he recruits elite players and wins a lot of regular season games, but his team is underachieving yet again and I have a hard time seeing them making a deep run in March. Missouri (have I mentioned that I hate everything about that community college?) played as I expected. Their guards lit up a porous zone and eventually pulled away. They have a top notch backcourt and get good enough production from Ricardo Ratliffe and Steve Moore to beat most teams on most nights. I could still see them struggling with a team that has good size and plays rugged defense in the tournament. I think a team like Georgetown would give them fits.
Iowa State dispatched of a clearly over matched Texas A&M team that just isn’t very good. The Aggies play hard but they just can’t score. Last I checked, this isn’t 1946 and scoring under 50 points on the road usually isn’t a good recipe for success. Ditto for Oklahoma. I’m not shocked that Texas Tech held serve on their home court, but I was surprised to see the final margin of 18 points. Let’s be real. Both of these teams are terrible but will win some games they shouldn’t because of solid coaching. I was happy when OU brought Lon Kruger back to the Big 12 and I think he’ll have decent success in Norman, especially if he can convince some fans to come out to the Lloyd Noble Center to watch their team. I didn’t get a chance to watch the Kansas State/Texas game, but the result wasn’t surprising. These two are similar in talent level although they play different styles. I know many Wildcat fans are upset at the foul disparity, and they may have a right to be. I didn’t watch, so I can’t say, but any time the visiting team has twice as many fouls as the home team, it reeks of bad officiating. That being said, Frank Martin always asks his guys to play pressure man to man defense that lends itself to seeing foul counts like the one Saturday.
I actually used one of my student tickets for once and went to the KU/Oklahoma State game this weekend, and I’m glad I did. It was great to see the 1952 championship team honored; I hope the 16,300 realize what a privilege that was. The actual game was a tale of two halves and familiar territory for KU fans this year. In the first half the Hawks played about as well as they can. The Cowboys played a mix of zone and man to man, and neither was effective. Thomas Robinson got the ball in the middle of the zone and made good decisions, often dishing to Jeff Withey for dunks or layups. Elijah Johnson had a big half, and no matter what he says I’m sure it was a relief to see a couple long shots find the bottom of the net. As is the case in most games this year, KU came out and followed up their brilliant first half with arguably their worst half of the season. This team just doesn’t know how to handle success; spurts of greatness that have us dreaming of a Final Four run are usually followed by the kind of basketball that gets you bounced early in the tournament. Thankfully the boys had built a 27 point lead, otherwise the ‘Pokes may have made the game even more interesting. I am very intrigued by the match up tonight in Manhattan. KU has an overwhelming edge in talent and a history of dominating the “rivalry”; however, if the guards don’t take care of the ball or the big fellas get in foul trouble, this is a game they could easily drop. I’ve got the boys in blue winning 74-62
NBA
Kendrick Perkins has to be thanking the good Lord that Linsanity has taken the NBA by storm. If it weren’t for that we’d all still be wondering how often Perk is gargling Scope as he tries to get ride of the taste Blake Griffin’s junk left in his mouth. I can’t say much that hasn’t been written before, but the story really is remarkable. I’m not usually one to get caught up in stuff like this and don’t hop on a whole lot of bandwagons, but I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t feel good for Jeremy Lin. The kid has burst on the scene in a way that no one in league history has done so, and that’s not hyperbole. His stats back that up. Not only has he rallied his team around him in spite of their best players being out, but he has most likely saved his coach’s job. D’Antoni was desparate for some semblance of a true point guard, and it looks as though he’s at least found someone capable. Listen, the kid’s numbers won’t stay where they’re at. Carmelo and Amar’e will be coming back and taking a chunk of shots away from him. I’ve been a fan of both those guys for their whole careers, but I really hope ‘Melo doesn’t come back and ruin what the Knicks have going. Not because I’m a fan of the franchise; I’m not. But I loved watching D’Antoni’s Suns run and gun, and that’s what these Knicks should be able to do with Lin at the helm. Yes, he turns the ball over too much, and he also is a little slow on his passes off the pick and roll. But he runs it effectively and has good court vision and the balls to make a play when his team needs one. Carmelo is an offensive force, but he needs to keep the ball moving and play within his coach’s system, not hold the ball and go mano y mano with his defender every time.
Well, I know I’ve only covered a few subjects here, but it’s impossible to cover a whole week’s worth of sports in one post. I hope to give more opinion and fewer recaps here in the future, but hey, it’s my first post; I don’t expect to be great at this starting out. Please, leave me some feedback…what you liked, what you didn’t, and some ideas of what you want my thoughts about. If you like what you read, tell a friend about my little blog here. The more people that read it, the more motivated I’ll be to post regularly. Thanks for stopping by. RCJH.