Heath

Stan Heath has done a good job at USF. He won't get much credit for it, but that is a really tough job, both because of location and because of the conference they are in.

funny recruiting

Of course, I do not know who is leaving, but Shields' recruiting this year makes no sense to me.

up tempo

Sometimes when an up-tempo team plays a more disciplined tempo, the game is a pretty good one - interesting because of the contrast of styles. However, when two up-tempo teams play, like when Virginia Tech and Rhode Island faced off in the NIT, it almost always will be a helter-skelter playgroundball mess.

interesting

20 losses ought to be immediately fatal, but back-to-back 20 win seasons means absolutely nothing. Hmm.

What's wrong with college basketball

From Bill Reilly's article on John Wooden:

"Too many players trying to make SportsCenter, too few players trying to make assists, too many coaches trying to be homeys, too few coaches willing to be mentors, too many freshmen with out-of-wedlock kids, too few freshmen who will stay in school long enough to become men."

winning

A lot of folks complain that "Steve Shields hasn't ever won. All he does is run a clean program." 43 wins over two season would seem like the promised land to a lot of programs at our level.

Why baseball was better then

In 1952 there were more than 50 professional minor league and some 440 minor league teams with players waiting to get to one of the 16 major league teams.

Stan Musial

Carl Erskine: "I've had pretty good success with Stan by throwing him my best pitch and backing up third." (Musial hit 18 triples in 1948.)

Bob Costas: "He didn't hit a homer in his last at-bat (like Ted Williams); he hit a single. He didn't hit in 56 straight games. He married his high school sweetheart and stayed married to her, never married a Marilyn Monroe (like DiMaggio). He didn't play with the sheer joy and style that goes alongside Willie Mays' name. None of those things are there to associate with Stan Musial. All Musial represents is more than two decades of sustained excellence and complete decency as a human being."

Vin Scully: "He was good enough to take your breath away."

He played in 3026 major league games without ever being ejected.

When he retired he had more home runs than any player who never won a single-season home run title.

signal?

Going into this season, Shields certainly was not recruiting like a coach who thought his job was in any kind of jeopardy, signing three high school players as he did. However, he also probably did not expect to have such a poor season.

changes I would make

If I were the czar of College Basketball, here are some changes I would make:

Eliminate the 3-point shot. All it does is encourage the taking of low-percentage shots (i.e., bad shots).

Make the NCAA tournament include all D1 teams and do away with conference tournaments.

Make high school seniors either go directly to the NBA or stay in college for three years. (Don’t know how I could get that to happen, but I would like to see it.)

thunderous silence

The sound you don't hear is the loud outcry of chagrin from basketball fans all across the country because Butler plays that accursed slow-paced style. Odd.

improvement

This team needs help from the outside. However, collective improvement must come from individual improvement. Each player on this team, in the off-season, is going to have to dedicate himself to taking his own play to a higher level. It can't wait until the season begins.

optimism

I am optimistic about next season. I always am this time of year. Why not? It costs nothing, and the reality will be what it turns out to be, so why not enjoy it? Right now we are undefeated.

This time of year you always get to dream about how things might be if everything broke just right: if everyone stays healthy, if everyone works hard in the offseason, if everyone has a good attitude all season long, if the coaches push the right buttons, etc. The problem is that it will take quite a few thigs breaking right for this team even to be pretty good - but it could happen. Right now I don't know that it won't, so I am hoping it will.

My teams

In case anyone wonders, these are the teams I follow at least fairly closely.


UALR
ASU
PB
SLU
VANDY
NW
UMKC
NICH
TENN TECH

DENVER
FAU
FIU
UL
ULM
MTSU
UNO
NTU
USA
TROY
WKU

AIR FORCE
BOWL GREEN
BROWN
BUTLER
COASTAL
COLG
DART
DEL ST
DRAKE
DREX
DUQ
GA ST
IDAHO STATE
IOWA ST
JVILLE ST
MAINE
MARTIN
MISSOURI ST
MONT ST
NAVY
PITT
RICE
RICHMOND
ROBT MORRIS
SAMFORD
SAVANNAH
SIU EDWARDSVILLE
SOUTHEAST MO
SOUTHERN ILL
ST FRANCIS NY
STETSON
WASH ST
WILLIAM & MARY
WINTHROP
WISC
WRIGHT ST