Whenever I’m asked if I have been watching the NCAA Tournament, I say, “No. I haven’t.” That raises some eyebrows in my home state of Connecticut, where both genders of Huskies basketball have been winning national championships for nearly a generation and are followed religiously by the Nutmeg State’s hoops fans. But among the many reasons I don’t go mad in March is because over that same generation, the college game has become less and less of a barometer for NBA success.
The “hazing” – if that’s what you want to call it – of rookies and young players by veterans happens in almost all college and professional sports. Carrying bags or equipment, paying for meals and ridiculous haircuts are just a few examples of such hazing. Anything along the lines of giving them a small sense of embarrassment and humiliation usually works. One common approach by veterans is to somewhat emasculate the rookie. Whether it’s football, baseball or basketball, male athletes are
The best prospects stayed away from the NBA Draft combine in Chicago. The next tier of prospects are jockeying for leverage and position while their agents push them to anyone willing to listen, and there are some seniors who go against the grain of one-and-done prospects who deserve a closer look. This has been a strange year in the sense that so many big names pulled out of Chicago’s NBA Draft Combine earlier this week, including Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid and
Think back to the days of Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, and even Kevin McHale and what a power forward meant to teams. For the most part this position was filled by players with low-post games who were very good rebounders. Flash forward to the new generation of superstar power forwards, and you see an aging group led by champions Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, and Kevin Garnett. The major difference between these newer stars and those Hall of Famers is the versatility
Few players in the nation have baffled me more than Patric Young. Here’s a guy who plays his best against the best, then can completely disappear while having the ball completely ignore him on both ends. Coming out of the first half against a Kentucky team that could challenge some NBA teams, Young perfectly sealed UK’s wonderbig Anthony Davis then perfectly fed a cutting teammate for a layup. Beautiful drop step followed by an even better delivery to get an easy