Dola,

Nah, I think he is gonna be all right with that one. He may not spend a lot more time on Nick Wright's show but he can hang strong on some of the other shows on FS1.

Speaking of commentary that would definitely cost people their careers, I heard something today that I can not un-hear so I will burden you with it as well. Given his tweets and commentary followed all the educational meetings he was involved in over the last 12-18 months...

has anyone asked Kyrie Irving his thoughts on current world events?

75 in the first half. EIGHTY in the second half. That's nuts.

They look good 4 games in and the Bucks do not.

My daughter was in disbelief when she read this. She was like, in high school girls basketball, we would have worked on multiple defenses and offenses prior to the weekend before the season starts. WTF?

Also - Calipari noted afterwards that he forgot Friday was an off day, so they'll be working on zone defense/offense on Saturday, but then they have to get into game prep on Sunday so Saturday will be it.

John Calipari says on pregame radio that he asked Kentucky State to not play zone tonight.

Said he hasn't had time to focus on that aspect yet with this 2023-24 team.

Sounds like UK's Friday practice will have a big focus on zone offense and zone defense.

— Cameron Drummond (@cdrummond97) November 2, 2023

Totally agree that it's surprising they don't have a basic zone offense in. I can see not having the wrinkles added, but a simple 3 out 2 in or 4 out 1 in where they find the gaps in the defense should be in.

Maybe it's due to all of the new players, a lack of veteran leadership, and a severe skill deficiency that's causing them to work on drills a lot more than expected, but still, they should have a basic shell offense in.

Wait…Memphis had a 27 year old senior who they were trying to gain an additional year of eligibility for? Looks like he was a 23 old freshman when he played. Theres gotta be some crazy story here.

First, it's Cal so all the grains of salt with anything he says. That being said, my guess is this may be more of a controlled scrimmage than a game. Yes, there will be refs and everything will look like a normal preseason game. But the coaching staffs may have discussed certain sets they are trying to run or they want to see how their team defends a certain set of plays. It could also be something like Kentucky will be playing Kansas in next week and Cal would prefer not to show them anything zone related.

I honestly just think it is just Cal lowering expectations/getting his excuses in early.

I'd buy that except Cal's been lowering expectations in Lexington for a number of years in a row and it's getting stale. So either he's sticking with the same media playbook or he doesn't know how to read the room (or doesn't care, I guess).

Cliff Notes.

- As an 18 year old (Oct. birthday, reclassified), he transferred to a basketball version of Bishop Sycamore for his senior year in HS, played basketball but none of the classes he took counted towards graduation. Then had to skip a year of basketball to take the right classes to graduate from HS.

- Played at one of those post HS academies for one year.

- Went to Evansville at 22. Was a partial qualifier so was not allowed to play his first year in school. Then played one.

- Transferred to Memphis for his final two years of eligibility.

Now that everyone has caught on with one and done's, the transfer portal, NIL etc., everything comes down to Cal as an X and O coach and well that has never been Cal's strong suit. He is not like Rick Pitino who could go to a school like Iona and be successful.

Kentucky has the #1 recruiting class according to ESPN last year. The question is whether or not Cal can make the class specifically and the team in general better by the end of the season then they are right now.

He didn't graduate high-school till he was 22. Nothing explains why, but his first year of college in 2019 he would have been 23.


Edit: I'll take that back. He was 20, then played for a prep academy till he was 22.

Only 70 in the first half for the celtics. Slowing down ;)

They'd have 150 against USC's D.

WVU went 4-32 from the floor in the first half of their opener. I don't think I've ever seen so many easy shots missed.

First time I’ve gotten season tickets in 10 years. Feeling some regret…

2nd half was a little better

I like this group. Playing without Krisa, Battle, and Akok for a while will help in the long run. We're definitely getting Krisa back in a few games. Hopefully we get both Battle and Akok back at some point, but at least 1 of the 2 would be huge.

Heat 108, Lakers 107 with 3 minutes remaining. Final score? 108-107.

Lakers cut IIRC a 12 pt deficit to 1 with 3 minutes to go in the game. Last three minutes they never attempted a shot inside the 3 pt line. Closest was one time LeBron was called for a charge on a drive. They got the ball with 8 seconds left and the opportunity for the last shot, also a drive and kick out 3. WTF?

FWIW Miami didn't score in those last 3 minutes either. Again WTF?

Well you know that was gonna make ME curious lol

LBJ completes an and-one with a FT at 2:39, cuts it to one.
Herro turnovers, LBJ misses a 3
Butler misses a driving layup at 2:01
LBJ called for a charge
Butler misses a 3, offensive rebound, Lowry jumper blocked by LBJ at 1:27
Reaves misses a 3
Herro misses a 3 at 0:51
Reaves misses a 3 at 0:30
Adebayo travels at 0:08
Reddish misses from 21 feet at 0:04
Butler defensive rebound at 0:02 and that's the end

So after the free throw cuts it to one point
Miami has 2 turnovers, 4 misses( 1 blocked)
LAL has 3 missed threes, an offensive foul turnover, and a missed two

Brandon Rechsteiner got some quality PT for Virginia Tech last night, looked great.

Normally he'd have a 33 1/3 percent chance of being good ...

Celtics fans, guess what happened?

Sources - Blazers' Robert Williams III to have season-ending surgery - ESPN

I don't mean that Celtics fans are happy that Timelord got hurt. It is more about the Celtics fans I know being fully aware that it was a matter of when not if his knees would end his season if not his career.

I admit that I only saw a highlight clip but I find it hilarious that the league office brought in rules against load management especially when it comes to the player's team's only regular season game in that city only for the refs to toss the most recent Finals MVP and former regular season MVP out of his team's only game in Detroit.

Finally! Cliff Ellis retires as head basketball coach at Coastal Carolina. I liked the hire when it was announced, but man he just didn't have it in him anymore. So grats on a mostly good career and enjoy your retirement:


Coastal Carolina men's basketball coach Cliff Ellis retires | Myrtle Beach Sports | postandcourier.com

Man, the Pistons are absolutely terrible. Adam Silver needs to step in and force Tom Gores to sell this team. It’s beyond atrocious.

Still have 11 games to lose before they break the record. Or 9 more if we are only going for single season record.

In case you missed it, Rutgers bagged the #2 recruit in the country somehow. They now have the #2 and #3 recruits in the country, and Harper chose RU over Duke and Kansas.

Rutgers lands PG Dylan Harper, No. 2 recruit in Class of 2024 - ESPN

My kids are so pumped for this NBA cup. I’m so happy for the pacers so far giving them something to root for.

Twitter blowing up with rumors of Juwan Howard's impending dismissal.

Same rumors suggest that he got in a physical altercation of some sort with a staff member.

It's Twitter, so take that all fwiw I guess

The Celtics will be tired of the Cavaliers, with two games in three nights. I know, I'm already tired of them.

And little known fact: The Celtics and Cavaliers game from January 16th, 1987 is the subject of one of the best books about basketball of all time. Forty Eight Minutes (By Bob Ryan).. even though the title isn't strictly true.. ;)

(believe it or not, you can look up the stats for that game on Google. Today's stars sprained several body parts looking at the minutes played by DJ, McHale, and Larry Legend during a semi-meaningless January game.)

January 16, 1987 NBA - Google Search

Jokic has been ejected from his only game in Chicago with 1:08 remaining in the 2nd quarter. 16 minutes played is all you get Chicago.

Meanwhile we have Draymond straight up committing assault on the court.

Seems like it's only a matter of time until Juwan Howard blows up in a way that can't be forgiven.

Iowa Men and Women play a double header in Des Moines today. Men play at 3:30, Women at 6. I love how the Womens program has eclipsed the Mens.

Wins since Halloween:

2 — Texas Rangers
0 — Detroit Pistons

Rangers won the World Series 45 days ago. pic.twitter.com/ZzAzHtSl54

— StatMuse (@statmuse) December 17, 2023

The Pistons need three to tie the record, four to break it. Next five games on the schedule are at the Hawks, Jazz at home, road/home back to back against the Nets and at the Celtics.

Merrimack & Sacred Heart are leaving the Northeast Conference after this year for the Metro Atlantic. Chicago State, independent for the past two years (but it's felt like a decade) are finally getting back into a league, replacing them in the NEC next year. NEC was going to be short of the minimum of 6 non-reclassifying programs so they needed somebody to fill that spot, so a no-brainer to take the only independent left in college basketball.


Merrimack just moved to D1 and aren't even fully eligible yet, NEC bent over backwards even letting them play (and win) the conference tournament last year, so I'm sure they're displeased but these minor conference moves are always fascinating as it's not about TV money.

Iowa plays at 5 today on BTN. If you want to see the best college BB player, mens or womens, watch thhis. Clark has scored 35 plus the last 4 games.

Why exactly would the Bulls put Jerry Krause’s widow through that ceremony?

Yeah, what did they think was going to happen? I feel bad for her, and the people booing were pretty classless if they knew she was there, but he's not exactly a beloved figure in Chicago.

Danilo and Muscala going from the 2nd worst team in the NBA to possibly the worst team in NBA history is kinda funny.

It only took the Pistons until Mid-January to realize they need bigs that can shoot instead of a collection of under the basket bigs that can't play together.

Dang. Clark and crew made IU look bad. Good game, tarc. That team should go far.

So Josh Giddey is innocent? Hmm.

All right then.

OH MY, ANT 🤯

(via @NBATV)pic.twitter.com/cteerMFCNh

— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) January 19, 2024

I don't think that's necesarily a completely accurate statement.

So, youtube seems to think I need to see more clips of Caitlin Clark, and I guess youtube in its infinite wisdom is correct because holy moley that's a hell of a player. I know enough about sports to know that when someone makes it look that easy they are just that much better than anyone else.

She is a beast, from what I saw when Iowa played IU this year.

Here's a thought exercise for folks:

Each team is solely built out of the draft class for one season. (so, the Draft Class of say, 2020, becomes a team going forward, then a team made of the Draft Class of 2021, no trades, no free agents from other draft classes).

How soon before a team SOLELY made up of one draft class could become title contenders, and how late in their careers would you write them off as no longer title contenders?

Fun thought-

First thing I noticed was oof! Some major bad choices. Fultz over Tatum! and Fox.

I think the 2015 or 2018 would have the best shot.

2015 has- KAT, Russell, Porzingis, Myles turner, Trey Lyles, Booker, Payne, Oubre, Rozier (picked late first in a row), Portis, Looney, Nance Jr.- They have size and really good outside shooting with depth and solid role players.

2018- Ayton, Bagley, Luka, Jackson Jr, Trey, Carter Jr, Sexton, Bridges, Shae Gilgeous, Porter Jr, Huerter, Grayson Allen, Simons, Vanderbilt.- They would struggle with size but the guard play, oof. Good luck with Luka Trey, and SGA on the floor at the same time. Jackson Jr would be a nice defensive anchor.

I wonder who in the Bulls organization made a deal with the devil for the 90s run. Because it seems like since then the bill has come due.

Eddie Curry/Tyson Chandler, Jay Williams, LaMarcus Aldridge, Derek Rose, Lonzo Ball all were various instances of bad luck and just bad front office work. Now Zach LaVine is out for the year before he could be moved and likely tanks any chance of trading him for another year or more.

It is a moot point now but I just did not see a team signing up for three more years of LaVine.

On a related note, are shooting guards the most overpaid position in the league? I know, position-less basketball etc. but I think everyone knows what I am saying. Here are the top ten shooting guards in the league according to the cap hit.

1. Bradley Beal, $46,741,590
2. Paul George, $45,640,084
3. Klay Thompson, $43,219,440
4. Zach LaVine, $40,064,220
5. Devin Booker, $36,016,200
6. C.J. McCollum, $35,802,469
7. James Harden, $35,680,595
8. Donovan Mitchell, $33,162,030
9. Jordan Poole, $27,455,357
10. Tyler Herro, $27,000,000

Only George, Booker and Mitchell made an All Star team this year.