Wednesday, March 27, 2019

My Current Basketball Fandom Explained





On this day 41 years ago UK Legend and Lexington native led the UK Wildcats to the NCAA Championship.  Jack was a key plyaer for UK's 1975 Championship run (when the Cats defeated undefeated IU in the regional final), where they lost to UCLA.  

Jack led UK to the NIT Championship in 1976 when it was still a big deal (only 32 teams made the big dance back then and the cats played short handed that year with Robey out with an injury) and a regional final in 1977 when a legendary coach called Rick Robey a "Cheap Son of a Bitch."  You can read that here.   


I have the 1978 game on DVD and I will likely watch it over the next couple of days, hell might even do that tonight.  

Fast forward to today.  It is interesting that people assume that my declined interest in College Basketball and the University of Kentucky Basketball program that I am now somehow against the UK program, want them to lose, etc. 


Fist and foremost I am a Cal fan.  I think there was no other coach that Kentucky could have hired, Barnhart should have hired him instead of Clyde, and I go back to several of the things that Cal said at his opening press conference related to history of the Kentucky program which demonstrated he was the right guy.  I also think he will be hard to replace.  Something that some people disagree with me on is he is not a great in game coach and if he were, he would have two to three more championships.  

I have taking some snippets from a recent article from Saturday Down South to provide some insight: 


John Calipari is finishing his 10th season at Kentucky. He revived a sleeping giant, winning an NCAA title in the process.  Only one team in the country has won more games since he arrived. He did it his way, too, one freshman-to-lottery pick at a time. Innovator. Motivator … Top Cat.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — In the beginning, there was … not much in Lexington.


Yes, Kentucky basketball has long marketed itself as, to steal a phrase from Jim Nantz, a tradition unlike any other. But the Wildcats of Ralph Beard, Dan Issel, Rex Chapman, and Jamal Mashburn were ghosts. But before John Calipari came to town, the Kentucky Wildcats had become the team of Lukasz Obrzut, Mark Coury and Ramon Harris.


There were four SEC Final Four teams in the 2000s — the Florida Gators three times and LSU once. In the last four full basketball seasons of the decade, Kentucky went 84-52, with an SEC record of 38-26. The Wildcat won 2 NCAA Tournament games in those four seasons.


BC – I totally agree with this statement!  The fact that in one-year Cal could take that program from such low point, not as low as when The Coach After Eddie was hired, to immediately be one of the top teams in the country is a truly amazing accomplishment. 


But more than wins and losses, Kentucky basketball had lost any kind of cultural relevance. Tubby Smith had become “Ten Loss Tubby.” A recruit named Tyrone Nash chose to spend a year in prep school rather than commit to Kentucky. In basketball.


BC – “Ten Loss Tubby” is accurate.  It is also accurate that Tubby was no longer the guy for the job (people will start calling me a racist here for that statement which is false).  Tubby won a National Championship and had multiple shots to win others (a bad match up in the 2nd round one on year, but no excuse to lose, cost him one and a high ankle sprain to Keith Bogans likely cost him another). 


Imagine where Kentucky Basketball would be had Tubby won that second title or even a third which he was capable of doing?  Tubby was a great coach, a great person but he was not the right fit for the job in the end, not because of coaching ability but because he did not want to be the face of the program.  He just wanted to be a basketball coach and there is nothing wrong with that except you cannot do that at UK.  Also, to note Tubby was the right guy when he was hired, in my opinion the only guy! 


Billy Gillispie was brought in to quench the fire of UK fans to again be relevant. A basketball-workaholic who allegedly lived on peanut butter crackers and Dr. Pepper, Gillispie alienated his own players, his fan base, the national media, and ultimately just about everyone except the 8th-graders he recruited. Yes, Gillespie took a commitment from an 8th-grade shooting guard during his two years at UK.


BC – How Mitch Barnhart kept his job after the Clyde fiasco is beyond me. 


That began a brief era during which Kentucky’s Big Blue Nation actually watched a live stream of a door, apparently at the Memphis basketball offices, from which their next head coach was expected (hoped for? prayed over?) to emerge.


The door stayed closed, but nevertheless, after a fevered search from UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart, entered Calipari, a man who, in the words of one of his first recruits to Lexington, Alabama guard Eric Bledsoe, came to “get s—t right.”


Calipari came to Kentucky as a coach who had a reputation of 1) signing great recruits and 2) getting programs on NCAA violations. His defenders pointed out that he was not implicated in the NCAA troubles at UMass or Memphis. His detractors wondered if he could stay on the right side of the NCAA law long enough to turn around Kentucky’s program.


BC – I recently was involved in a discussion while vacationing in Florida.  A guy wearing a Villanova shirt showed up at the bar where we were watching UK and UT play basketball, with several UK fans.  This guy immediately stated, “Cal is a crook, he is paying players like he did at the other schools, blah, blah, blah, blah.”  I immediately engaged him in a conversation:
  • Why was UMASS put on probation?  His answer was Cal is a cheater
  • I asked again why was UMASS put on probation?  He had no answer.  I then explained to the gentlemen what happened at UMASS with Camby, Cal’s role in the investigation (do the research if you do not know) and how Cal was not associated or charged with any violation
  • I asked why was Memphis put on probation?  He said because Cal is a cheater and they were paying players.
  • I then explained to him that was not true and the player in question was first cleared to play, then not cleared to play then cleared to play and then a month after the season was over was declared ineligible (Cal did nothing any other coach would not have done and played the player).  
  • Then he pulled my favorite, the “I know him” line and “He is a scumbag”.   Cal is not a scumbag!  You may not agree with things he does but all you have to do is look at his family to know he is not a scumbag.   
  • Then he said, “Well his players do not even finish the semester” which I explained to him that all but one of Cal’s players who left early, one is a very small percentage, has finished the Spring Semester and that several have continued to taking classes in the summers.
  • Then he said well “Their GPA sucks and they do not go to class” so I asked what is their GPA?  He had no idea. 
  • I then attempted to explain to him about APR and he literally had no idea what APR was and continued to rant and rave about Cal being a cheater.
  • I then punched him full fist straight in the chest….  I did not, but I did close my conversation with it must be embarrassing for a school like Villanova to have graduated such an ignorant person as him and he tucked his tail and then the boys from Pikeville let him have it. 

Cal by the numbers:
  • 302 wins at UK
  • 26 first-round picks
  • 4 Final Fours in 5-year span
  • 1 NCAA championship
BC – This is just nothing but solid.  I do think Cal let two Championship get away and I think in both instances coaching decisions during the games critical moments were costly. 


I do not give a rat’s ass about how many first round NBA picks he has had or will have.  I do also think that you can say with all this talent he has somewhat underachieved because he does not have multiple championships.  Underachieved purely from a Championships won perspective. 


Calipari unveiled his own blueprint, talking about servant leadership, compiling vast amounts of talent, and then insisting that his job was to help those players realize their dreams and goals — and if he happened to win a lot of basketball games on the way, that would be OK too. He hung out with Drake, he dropped the mic at press conferences. He was fun.


BC – This is the issue I have with Cal.  Why can’t it be his is at UK to win Championships and also help guys realize their dreams or NBA dreams?  After the loss the Wisconsin in the Final Four when he had a shot at an undefeated season he clearly stated that it is about more than championships.  I think that was him trying to downplay to himself how much that loss stung him. 


There are multiple guys who went early to the NBA and have not realized their dreams and should have stayed in school to either get better or more important obtain their degrees.  Nothing wrong with having a degree to give you a good foundation vs. being a one or two and done player, play two to three years in the NBA and then be reliant on playing in Europe, China, Greece or Israel, who all have formidable pro leagues but that is not the NBA. 


The list of guys who should have stayed at least another year:


Isiah Briscoe

Jarred Vanderbilt

Wynand Gabriel

Brandon Knight

Marques Teague

Dorian Lamb

Archie Goodwin

James Young (If Young stays four years I think he would have been a UK Legend, he had that much talent)

Trey Lyles

Dakari Johnson

Andrew Harrison

Aaron Harrison

Tyler Ulis

Skal Labissiere

Bam Abeydo


At the end of the day I am not a fan of what college basketball has evolved into (a tryout for the NBA).  I do not like the roster turnover (all schools effort to do this now) and I do not like that like the NBA, College Basketball has become just a perimeter game. 


I liked the college game that relied on stellar inside and outside play and there are several things that CBB can do to correct many of the issues (NBA has to fix the one and done).  In trying to watch the first and second round NCCA Tourney games my wife and I turned several of them off or quit watching because it was nothing but teams jacking up threes (move the line back to 23 feet and they will actually have to play basketball again). 


As for Cal he is one of a kind and he was the right guy for the UK job and still is today.  Cal said two things that really turned me off on UK Basketball (Matt Jones and his posse did not do them any favors either as it relates to my fandom).  
  • At the draft one year he said this is the biggest day in Kentucky Basketball history…  Sorry not even close.  
  • It is not about Championships, we have a bigger mission here at Kentucky… I do not even think he believes that.

For people who are still UK Basketball fanatics I salute you!  I hope Cal wins another Championship and I hope that UK continues to be a Basketball Blue Blood.  I also hope that they fix college basketball by getting rid of the one and done and move the three-point line back to 23 feet and then I might come back to the game.   

shag    


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Friday, February 22, 2019

My College Football Fandom Explained


These quotes help to sum up the significance of what I witnessed that day in 1971:

The cerebral types... will keep playing it into the ages and wondering whether it was the greatest collegiate football battle ever. Under the agonizing conditions that existed, it well may have been - Dan Jenkins

They can quit playing now, they have played the perfect game - Dave Kindred

Oh, man, woman and child, I never thought I would live this long to see this kind of a football game. - Lyell Bremser

It was Thanksgiving Day, 1971 and we were at my Great Grandmother’s, Alma Sellars, for Thanksgiving as was our tradition. 

After a large meal the “men”, as was the tradition at the time (sorry femes) to tune in some football.  Somewhere in that room laid my Dad, my grandfather, my Uncle Wally, my brother and Mr. Gibson who was my great grandmother’s boyfriend at the time. 

I would be seven years old at the time and we had moved to town, as us country boys called it, two years earlier.  The significance in that is although I remember some things when I was younger than five, it was like when we moved into a neighborhood with other families and other kids it seemed liked that is when my life truly woke up. 

Being in a neighborhood with other kids you naturally start doing things neighborhood kids did back then.  We rode bikes, played ball (football, basketball, baseball, whiffle ball, kick-ball), had some awesome hide and go seek games at night time, played kick the can and freeze tag.  The neighborhood was alive and vibrant, and I cherish those memories. 

So back to Thanksgiving Day 1971.  I am sure I had watched football games I just do not remember any games before that day (I do remember watching the 1971 World Series and a fleeting outfielder name Clemente) but on that day in 1971 Nebraska played Oklahoma, it was the 51st edition of the rivalry and one of several labeled as a "Game of the Century."  I have no idea how many actual games that were played have a Wikipedia Page but this one does:

This is excerpts from the Wiki page:

The teams combined for 17 of 22 first-team All-Big Eight players. Nebraska had the nation’s top-ranked defense. Oklahoma had the nation's most productive offense with their wishbone averaging over 472 rushing yards per game, a NCAA record.

The cover of Sports Illustrated (November 22) prior to the game included photographs of Nebraska linebacker Bob Terrio and Oklahoma running back Greg Pruitt, nose-to-nose, beneath the headline: "Irresistible Oklahoma Meets Immovable Nebraska."

The Husker "Blackshirts" defense included seven first-team All-Big Eight selections, four players who would earn consensus All-America recognition during their careers and two Outland Trophy winners.  That group were joined in the starting lineup by end Willie Harper a two-time All-American.  

The Sooners' record-setting wishbone attack was led by All-American QB Jack Mildren who rushed for over 1,000 yards but was also a very good passer.  His weapons were Heisman candidate HB Greg Pruitt, who averaged a stunning 9.5 yards per carry and speedy split end Jon Harrison. Future College Football Hall of Famer Tom Brahaney was the anchor at center.

The Husker offense was led by junior flanker Johnny Rodgers, a future Heisman Trophy winner, senior quarterback Jerry Tagge, and bullish senior tailback Jeff Kinney; the latter two were first round picks in the 1972 NFL Draft. The Sooner defense was anchored by all-Big 8 defensive tackle Derland Moore, a future All-American and NFL Pro Bowler.

ABC-TV broadcast the game nationally to an estimated 55 million viewers (at the time the largest television audience ever for a college football game).

Conference game
(10–0)
(9–0)
35
31
Head coach:
Bob Devaney
Head coach:
Chuck Fairbanks
1
1
2
2
1
2
3
4
Total
Nebraska
7
7
14
7
35
Oklahoma
3
14
7
7
31
Date
November 25, 1971
Location
Nebraska by 1 [1]
Attendance
61,826

As you can see the hype was unreal and if you read about the game, not just on the WIKI page but find the writing that was done by multiple sportswriters the game lived up to all the hype and to this day is one of the greatest college football games ever. 










So, for me do I remember every play?  I do not, but what I saw and remember was a guy, Flanker Johnny Rodgers, run back a punt 78 a yards for a TD early in the game (he finished with 4 rushes for 27 yards and caught 5 passes for 61 yards.  That play, Rodgers play the rest of the day and refences to position players as Flankers, Tailbacks and Split Ends along with seeing the Wishbone run to perfection by the Sooners had a major mark on me from that day forward.  I was officially a College Football Fan and my team was Nebraska.  I do remember at that point when I was pretending to play football when by myself or playing with my friends for about a year I was Johnny Rodgers. 






It came to pass (or run)
Which leads me to the next part of the story.  Now I am a fan and from that point forward I am enamored with College Football.  In 1971 Bear Bryant installed the Wishbone offense at Alabama.  This is detailed in the link below.  In the 2nd and 3rd link is information on the historic USC at Alabama and how it led to integrating college football in the South (something Bear knew would be the result of this 1970 game). 










It is now 1972, I am eight years old and sports is really starting to register in my young mind.  I am an Oakland A’s fan the next three years, really loving baseball also (playing Pee Wee League), and a Red Sox fan the next three (see a pattern here for a young kid).
As for football, for the NFL I am a Dolphins fan starting w/ their Super Bowl loss to them Cowboys, get a Bob Grise Jersey and Dolphins uniform for Christmas and ride that train through the 1974 season and I discover a guy named Stabler.




I cannot say I was still a Nebraska fan at that point, I am now 10 years old, I just do not remember.  I do remember that two things happened around that time, Stabler led me to on a path to be an Alabama fan and I started realizing there were allot of players who played for the Crimson Tide in the NFL.  I have also at this point discovered the University of Kentucky football program and a running back named Sonny Collins from Madisonville, KY (41 miles south of my hometown) and of course was a fan of the Cats also (at this same time I am exposed to UK Basketball who also goes on a great run from 1974 to 1984 and learn that Bear Bryant once coached at UK).   

In the mid 70’s I remember the USC Teams with Pat Haden, JK McKay, Anthony Davis, Ricky Bell, 
Vince Evans and Charles White, at Texas Ham, Jam and Lam Jones as they were called and guys like Archie Griffin, Leroy Selmon and Roosevelt Leaks just to name a few (allot of those names I knew from the old Bob Hope Xmas show where he had the All American Team on the show).    




By 1975 I am following the Tide and I remember QB Richard Todd and remember Bama beating Penn State in the Sugar Bowl that year which was a clash of two of the titans of college football (Bama lost their opener and won all the rest of their games that season).
Move on to 1976, there is no ESPN and for college football we are getting whatever Big 10 game the local network is showing and for SEC games or national games, it seemed like Bama was on every week, and then Sunday Mornings were spent with Lyndsey Nelson and Notre Dame.  My influence now is Bear and Bama and when I am in the backyard pretending to play football, I am now Jeff Rutledge running the triple option and pitching the ball to Tony Nathan, handing it off to FB Johnny Davis or pulling out of the option and throwing to TE Ozzie Newsome.  Without a doubt the attraction to me was the Wishbone and those uniforms.  I remember watching allot of Bama, Oklahoma and Nebraska football games because they were two teams who stuck to the wishbone offense and I still love the option! 

Also in 1976 when UK Basketball or UK Football is playing, I am huddled around the radio with my Mom listening to the legendary Cawood Ledford call the games.  Listening to those games with my mom back then is still why today my preference is to listen to games on the radio vs. watch them on TV, which I still do often. 

In 1982 I join the Navy and I am gone from Kentucky until late in 1986.  During that time period I did not watch allot of college football, the focus became college basketball, and I got to see the ACC up close and personal when that conference had a collection of talent that has not been seen in College Basketball since.  I did pay attention to College Football it was just hard to be in front of a TV and see the games.  

The 1992 College Football Season was when my passion for College Football returned and it is no coincidence that Bama won the National Championship that season. In 1994 my wife and I relocated to Louisville and my fandom for College Football, Alabama and Navy Football continued to grow.  Then in 1996 Kentucky Football hired the gun-slinger aka Hal Mumme.  

Kentucky played a crazy brand of football during the Mumme days and Mumme’s imprint on college and pro football has grown over the years.  We attended a few games in 1996, 1997 and 1998 and decided in 1999 we would give football season tickets a shot (those were some fun times). 

To be clear I am in no way denying being a fan of Kentucky Football, I grew up in a UK household and I attended games there for 18 years, but for those who tailgated with me know that I always showed up at the tailgate in either my Navy Football Jersey or my Kenny Stabler #12 Bama football jersey. 

There are people who have said to me, “you just jumped on the Saban bandwagon,” which is not true, but with Saban and Bama doing what they have on the field since he arrived I can understand why people would think that about me (For my birthday in 1995 my wife bought me the NIKE sideline gear that the Bama Players wore prior to games and I still have both the hat and the jacket she ordered through the Bama Football Office) but my fandom for Bama football goes way back and has further evolved over the years.  Bama football had some rough years after Stallings left but I still followed that team (for the record I think Mike Shula should have gotten another year but if he does there is no Saban).   



So yes I am a Bama fan, have been a Bama fan for a long time and I do not see that changing.  My wife and I love SEC sports and part of retirement relocation is focused around being in the heart of SEC Country so we can travel to Tuscaloosa, Oxford, Starkville, Nashville, Baton Rouge, Athens, Fayetteville and Lexington when we want to go to a Baseball, Basketball or Football game of interest.  We will be fixtures every year at the SEC Baseball Tourney and if we move where we think we will then I will also be following Northern Alabama as well.      

There are three things in life that I have proudly become related to sports, a college football junkie, a golf junkie and St Louis Cardinals junkie.  Those things occupy allot of my free time and they are the type of things everyone needs to take that edge off in life!    

How come College Basketball is not on that list?  A story for another day……. 

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