Odds and ends

Interesting tidbit from the Jeopardy! show -- Any child born these days has a better chance of living to be a 100, than being left-handed. No pun intended, but can that be right? If you thought quality southpaw major league pitchers were hard to come by now, in a couple decades it might get ridiculous.

Loved Charles Barkley's observation on Shaq's Buick commercial. It shows Shaq walking up to the car, then the scene changes and it shows Shaq seated in a small 4-door sedan. Sayeth the Chuckster, "I want to see how he got IN that little car. They didn't show that part. Ain't no way". Touche.

Wow. Not that long ago, we were rooting on the "blade runner", South African Oscar Pistorius, who was running Olympic track events on two prosthetic legs. Now he's been accused of murdering his girlfriend? Say it ain't so.

If there was any doubt before who the best pro basketball team in LA is, it's gone now. The Clips just blistered the Lakers by 24. Still think it's funny how when those two clubs play, "home" and "away" teams are designated. They share the same home arena (Staples Center). They each have their own home locker rooms. All they do is change the designs on the floor.

Actually, when you think about it, both teams have an advantage over all the rest of the other NBA teams. The Clips and Lakers play each other 4 times a year, 2 "home" and 2 "away" for each. But even the "away" games are 2 more home games that the other 28 teams don't get. They have to go on the road and stay/play in hostile surroundings. Somehow that doesn't seem fair.

Back to Barkley. Evidently, he's not sold on the Clips being serious contenders. According to Sir Charles, there's no way a team can be that good when their toughest guy is only 5' 10" (point guard Chris Paul). Food for thought.

The Paterno family is fighting back, still claiming the late Joe had nothing to do with the child-molesting horrors that went on at Penn State, including looking the other way or any sort of cover-up. The people that gathered the evidence accusing him of the same are standing by their story. Bottom line? In the end, we'll probably never know for sure exactly what he did or didn't do.

And the major league baseball teams are reporting to spring training camps. Just think -- only another 8 months until the World Series. Idle thought --- I can understand why northern clubs like Detroit, Boston, NY, etc., go south for spring training. The weather. But why do teams like the LA Dodgers go to Arizona? Isn't their home field just sitting idle anyway? Worse yet, why do the Arizona Diamondbacks go to a different place in their own state for the same? Regular games in Phoenix but spring training in Scottsdale? Weird.

Come to think of it, why do they call it spring training anyway? It's still winter, at least in the northern hemisphere, where major league baseball is played. Spring doesn't start for another month.

Lebron vs Michael. Who's better?

Lebron James has been on a tear of late, scoring 30 or more points in six straight games, while his shooting percentage has been over a whopping 60%. Lots of guys can score thirty points in a game, but nobody shoots 60%, at least not for very long. Very impressive stuff.

For what seems like forever, Michael Jordan has been considered by many to be the best NBA player of all time. Now Lebron has entered the conversation. Could it be that he's better than MJ was? There's some similarities and also some differences between the two to consider when trying to answer what's basically an imaginary question anyway. No matter what Jordan did, or whatever Lebron has done or may ever do, there will always be disagreements on who's better. For that matter, there are those that would say even another player, such as Oscar Robinson, Kareem, etc., belong on top.

Between LJ and MJ, Lebron is bigger and stronger. He's at least 2, and maybe 3 inches taller and outweighs Michael by 40-50 pounds, all of which is muscle. Let's call "faster" a draw.

Jordan scored about 32,000 regular season points. Lebron recently topped 20,000. Even if LJ stays healthy, never a given, nobody knows how long he might play. He might or might not pass MJ. However, if he sticks around long enough, he might even pass Kareem for the all-time scoring title. In that regard Lebron had a major advantage. While Kareem was putting in his college years at UCLA, and Michael at N. Carolina, Lebron jumped straight to the NBA out of high school and started lighting up the scoreboard, so perhaps that will always be a somewhat unfair comparison.

Jordan has 6 NBA championships and James but one. Yet the Miami Heat look poised to at least seriously compete for titles for the next several years. Who knows how many he/they might win? But depending on how one looks at it, that comparison could be skewed as well.

When Michael first started in 1984, the LA Lakers and Boston Celtics were busy trading titles back and forth for several years. Then came the Bad Boys of the Detroit Pistons for a couple years. Because such other good teams were in the way, it took Jordan and the Bulls about 7 years to finally get over the hump. Then again, for the first 7 years of Lebron's NBA career, he was stuck in nowhereland with the Cleveland Cavaliers. It doesn't matter HOW good a player is, there's no way he can win a championship single-handedly. Jordan couldn't have done it without Scottie Pippen and Co., and Lebron wasn't going to get it done in Cleveland. Now he's got D-Wade and Co. in Miami, and in just their 2nd year together won a title. Sure, there's a few other teams out there like Okla City, San Antonio, the Clips, Pacers, Knicks, and even Jordan's old Bulls if Derrick Rose comes back as his old self. It's tough to bet against the "field", but would anyone seriously doubt Lebron and the Heat are the "team to beat"? If they rattle off 2,3,4 more titles, what would that do to the MJ/LJ comparison scenario?

Besides teammates and championships, perhaps another factor should be considered. Coaching. Michael had the benefit of Phil Jackson while he was winning his 6 championships. After Chicago, the Zen Master turned around and won 5 more in LA with the Lakers. Granted, Jackson had fantastic talent on both teams, and it's a "players'" game, but 11 titles are 11 titles. He must have been doing SOMETHING right. How much that figures into the overall MJ/LJ picture, if at all, is another unknown.

Offensively, Jordan and James were/are top notch. Both great shooters from the outside, including 3s, both adept at drawing fouls, and being deadly from the free throw line, both could drive to the basket, and both could certainly come up with spectacular dunks. Defensively, Jordan was tenacious, as is Lebron now.

So far it's a tough call, but there's a couple other factors I think tip the scales a bit. It's not totally size, because despite that disadvantage, Jordan could jump out of gym. Yet because of that very height/weight factor, Lebron is a better rebounder. Jordan fans might cry foul and say, wait a minute -- Michael was a guard. He didn't play under the basket as much as Lebron -- so rebounding isn't a valid stat.

But that's the thing. Lebron can do everything Michael could do -- and more. Lebron can play any of the five positions on the court at a very high level, including point guard, if need be. Perhaps not since Magic Johnson has someone his height been able to handle the ball so well.

Jordan can't lay claim to that. Despite his amazing talent, for the most part he was either a guard or a small forward. Few would think of him as being able to go up against power forwards on a regular basis, much less grinding it out with big-bodied centers near the basket.

Lebron can, and just recently has developed his "low-post" game where he's as much at ease playing center as he is point guard, with all the moves in his repertoire.

Michael set the bar awfully high as an individual player, but yours truly is of the opinion Lebron has at least equalled him, if not slightly surpassed him. And barring catastrophe, he's far from done.

Too bad we'll never get to see them both in their primes playing a game of "horse".

How much fun would that have been to watch?




 

Mich/MSU hoops. The word is...

Well, I don't know what the word is. The way MSU manhandled UM, describing it as just a loss or a defeat wouldn't do it justice. Nor would romp, rout, blowout, beatdown, or trip to the woodshed. Slaughter is getting a little closer. What comes after slaughter? 

Though the final score was 75-52, it looked like if MSU had really wanted to put the hammer down they could have won by at least 30. Maybe 40. Minus the blood and gore, it was like the Christians being fed to the hungry lions back in ancient Roman times.

That "little brother/little sister" thing the two schools have traded barbs over in the past was at least temporarily emphatically decided.

Many, including yours truly, thought UM had a slight edge in talent, but also had to give the nod to MSU as far as better team chemistry, coaching -- and toughness. Few would have thought it would turn into the lop-sided contest it did.

After such a high profile game against a (former) Top 5 opponent, it's likely MSU will jump a few places from their #8 spot when the new polls come out. Conversely, it's hard telling how far UM (#4) will plummet. Not long ago, UM had flirted with even being #1 in the country a couple times. No more. They'll probably drop quite a bit, and it would come as no great surprise if they fell out of the Top 10 entirely.

Saying the Wolverines got exposed would be an understatement. Had it been much worse, they may as well have been stripped naked and paraded through the streets of East Lansing by the Spartans. Two of UM's leading scorers, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Glenn Robinson III, who were averaging about 16 and 11 points per game, respectively, got what? 2 apiece?

Sure, State head coach Tom Izzo said the right things after it was over. His team had played about as well as they could, and UM had had an off-game. Maybe, but it also looked like UM had ran into a physical, tenacious team that they had no answers for.

After a slow start to the season, it appears MSU is gaining momentum. How devastating such a loss to UM will be is unknown. Maybe they'll be able to shake it off and regroup. Maybe they won't. Hard to say. Worse yet for the Wolverines, they now find themselves 2 full games behind the Spartans in the Big 10 conference standings, including losing 3 of their last 4 games. That's a long way from being #1 in the country.

For the next couple weeks, the schedule works in UM's favor to heal up some. They've got home and away dates with lowly Penn State sandwiched around a home game with Illinois, whom they've already defeated on the road.

But then MSU comes to town for a rematch. No doubt, that game will be super-hyped as well. There's also no doubt Michigan and their fans will be geeked up to the max and want to exact a serious measure of revenge.

We'll see if they get it on March 2. Unless two very "different" teams show up from what happened in the first contest -- I wouldn't bet on it.

Rajon Rondo. An enigma

Something very strange is going on with the Boston Celtics. It's no big secret that their "old-guard", players like Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, are getting a little long in the tooth by NBA standards. The other long-standing member of the "3 Amigos", wily old veteran Ray Allen, bailed to the Miami Heat last year, and BTW, won a championship.

But Rajon Rondo was different. Rondo was only in his 6th year and few would doubt he's amongst the most skilled point guards in the entire league. He could handle the ball with the best of them. I refer to this in past tense because of the major knee injury Rondo suffered a few weeks back which ended his 2012-2013 season. There's little doubt Rondo could have jumped right into the starting lineup of a LOT of NBA teams over the last few years.

Before Rondo went down, the Celtics were struggling mightily to even get to .500. The way they were going, it was certainly no given they would even make the playoffs, let alone go deep into them.

But that's where things get a little strange. Since Rondo's injury, Boston has reeled off 7 wins in a row to climb right back into the thick of the playoff race. Could it possibly be that the Celtics are a better team without Rondo -- then with him? It would seem to defy logic. However, there is a theory being floated as to why this is happening. It's because Rondo was too unselfish. Sounds weird, right? Maybe not, if one looks at the whole picture.

Over the years, there's been no shortage of NBA players that like to shoot a lot. We don't hear the term "ball hog" much anymore, but they're still out there. They'd rather find a way to take a low percentage shot rather than passing the ball to a teammate that's "wide open".

Rondo seemed to be the opposite. Sure, point guards are supposed to distribute the ball, but it was almost like Rondo looked for a way NOT to shoot. Some knowledgeable basketball people have surmised he was more interested in padding his "assists" statistics. And it's not like Rondo wasn't a pretty good shooter himself. He was.

It seems bass-ackwards that a point guard looking to keep his fellow players on the floor involved could be detrimental to his team. But when it comes to the only stat that really matters in the NBA -- wins and losses, the Celtics' record with/without Rondo speaks for itself.

Perhaps that's because Rondo going out forced Doc Rivers and his troops to reconfigure their game. Instead of one guy doing most of the creating, the whole team has become more involved in moving the ball around.

Then again, maybe the Celtics have just been on a freakish little hot streak with the guys pumped up trying to compensate for the loss of Rondo. As the weeks roll on, it's entirely possible that hole in their roster could catch up to them and eventually drag them back down. Who knows?

But for now, it's pretty strange what's going on in Beantown.....

Wolverines, and a bonehead play

Yours truly is certainly no expert on wolverines. The only place I've seen the critters was in a zoo. Yet, I'm pretty sure I know a couple things about them. Pound for pound, they might very well be the most fearsome creatures on the planet. Tangling with a wolverine in the wild is a bad, repeat BAD, idea. Lore has it that people have turned loose a pack of hounds to chase one down and, by the end of the day, when that varmint occasionally turned to fight, those same people were left with a trail littered with dead dogs. Wolverines are only about 3 feet long, 18 inches high, and normally weigh in around 40-50 pounds. Besides smaller prey like squirrels, rabbits, and porcupines (anything that can chomp down on a porcupine has got my respect), wolverines have been known to take down deer, elk, and moose for food. They won't even back down from a hungry bear feeding on a carcass, even though the bear might weigh 10 times what they do. With their teeth, claws, and blazing speed, wolverines are ferocious animals indeed. One would certainly never expect such an animal to put his/her head in the sand when the going got tough.

But that seems to be exactly what the University of Michigan men's basketball team just did against the Wisconsin Badgers. Now don't get me wrong. Badgers are pretty rough characters themselves in the wild, but in a cage match with a wolverine, I suspect a badger would be tapping out in a hurry. But despite the Wolverines supposedly being the superior animals, the Wisconsin basketball Badgers refused to do that. They kept hanging around and wouldn't let the game get away from them.

In the waning moments, it looked as if Michigan had finally prevailed. Sharp-shooting Tim Hardaway drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put the Wolverines ahead by 3 with only two and a half seconds remaining. The Badgers would need to in-bounds the ball, bring it up court, and hope for a miracle shot of their own to merely tie it. All Michigan had to do was foul the Badger player with the ball, without letting him get off a shot. Let the guy have his two free throws. Even if he makes them both, Michigan still wins by 1 point. Game over.

But unlike a real wolverine, Michigan put it's head in the sand. They let a Badger player dribble to about half-court and get off a shot as regulation time expired. Sure, the odds of that shot going in are maybe 10 to 1 against -- but it did. Overtime ensued and the Badgers eventually prevailed. It never should have came to that. It was a bonehead play by Michigan. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

After yet another shake-up at the top of the men's college basketball rankings, with the likes of Indiana, Florida, and Kansas going down, the Wolverines were primed to become #1 again. All they had to do was act like the animals they're named after. Be tenacious and fight to the end. Like Yogi said, it ain't over til it's over.

So now Michigan will fall back a few spots, and they're looking at visiting their arch-rival Michigan State in a few days.

No, I never saw a for-real Spartan in the wild, or even at a zoo. Not sure, but history seems to suggest they disappeared a couple thousand years ago. I dunno. That's all Greek to me.

Nevertheless, yours truly strongly suspects MSU head coach Tom Izzo will have his modern day version of the Spartans ready to fight tooth and nail to the end with those feisty members of the weasel family that will come-a-calling shortly. The Sparties are always a formidable opponent as well, and it ain't exactly the Peloponnesian Wars, but it wouldn't surprise me one bit to see them send the Wolverines back to Ann Arbor licking their wounds to regroup.

It should be quite a game.

Newsflash. And college hoops

This just in. Given the blizzard that's pounding the northeast US, a certain governor has declared anyone caught driving on the streets in his state can be thrown in prison for a year. What kind of tyranny is going on out there? Doesn't he realize people like me still need to be medicated, pregnant women can't exactly "hold it" when it comes to going into labor, and guys will run out of beer? This is getting out of control, but enough about that. On to the hoops.

What a weird merry-go-round it's been in college basketball so far this season. It seems like every time a team gets to be #1 -- POW -- they get knocked off.  And it's not just the top dogs. Highly ranked teams have been upset right and left by other teams they were favored to beat easily. Kansas was cruising right along until they got beat at home by Okla St., then followed it up by getting trashed at TCU. The Horned Frogs were 0-8 in conference play going into that game against the mighty Jayhawks. They beat Kansas? Really?  Guess it makes about as much sense as then #1 Duke getting throttled to the tune of 27 points by Miami (Fla), or #2 Florida getting thumped by Arkansas, or even Indiana earlier being upended by their pesky little in-state rival Butler. Indy managed to scrape their way back to the top, only to lose again at mediocre Illinois. Current #1 Michigan is the only team out there right now that hasn't crashed and burned in a game they were easily supposed to win. Yes, they were narrowly defeated at Ohio State and Indiana, but losing to two very high quality in-conference teams on the road is nothing to be ashamed of. Then again, their true test by fire will likely come in a few days when they visit their own in-state arch rival Michigan State. Should the Spartans knock off the Wolverines -- very possible -- the national ratings will shuffle yet again.

Of course, most of this doesn't really matter anyway. Once the NCAA tournament starts in another month or so, all the good teams will be there, and everything gets reset. Win a game and move on. Lose and you're out.

At that, stop and consider how college basketball has changed, or maybe not, over the years. In days of yore, there were certain teams that were perennial contenders. UCLA and North Carolina were always lurking. They seem to have fallen by the wayside of late. Though they certainly have a storied history and are the defending champs, Kentucky's "one and done" with so many players appears to have finally caught up to them. Few would consider the Wildcats to be a serious threat this year. It's risky business to underestimate Coach K at Duke and his Blue Devils, given their track history. The man didn't get to be the ongoing winningest coach of all time by accident. His teams are always good, but how many currently think of Duke as potential champions? Not me.

In the past, there have been "small" schools that put together a team to be reckoned with. Marquette had it's day, as did DePaul, for a couple examples. Bradley made some noise not long ago.

These days, other teams like Butler and Gonzaga have assumed the roles of "Cinderellas". That is not to underestimate or disrespect them in any way, because they have indeed become college basketball powers. It doesn't matter who's seeded where. Come tournament time, even top-seeded schools don't want to play teams like them, because they are very capable of beating anyone anywhere on any given night, and the big dogs know that -- or at least their coaches do. Still, for such a team to reach the Final Four is quite an accomplishment. After that, it would certainly stun the world of college hoops if they were to go on to win a championship. It's possible, but highly unlikely.

At that, it appears the days of dynasties are over. Teams go up, and teams go down. Maybe that's a good thing. For that matter, harkon back to ladies' college hoops once upon a time. Schools like Old Dominion and Louisiana Tech ruled. When's the last time you heard of them even being competitive? Coach Pat at Tennessee had a dynasty until that pesky Geno at UConn came along with so many great players. Then Baylor happend upon a freak talent in 6' 8" Brittney Griner with her supporting cast. Oops. Notre Dame put together a formidable squad of ladies most people outside of South Bend never heard of, and Texas A&M eventually won a championship with much the same type of team. Quick, name a couple of those Lady Aggies players. How about their coach? Chances are -- you can't. It's just the way it goes.

So as the regular season merry-go round goes on in college hoops, constantly super-hyped by the media, with one team after another grabbing the brass ring, only to have it snatched away from them -- we should all enjoy the competitions that take place, while rooting for our favorite teams.

But let's not kid ourselves. When the tournaments start for the boys and girls -- whoever was ranked where last week, this week, and even the next few weeks, will have been long forgotten.

Sensitive issues and where I'm coming from

To those that have expressed concern, been offended, or perhaps even outraged by some of the sports related topics I have addressed in the past, I would like to make one thing perfectly clear.

In no way, shape, or form, was it ever my belief or intent to be "anti", much less hateful, towards any particular slice or segment of society. I fully grasp, appreciate, and agree with the concept of all men/women being created equal, despite whatever differences they may have in various ways. However, in this day and age of political correctness, many are fearful of broaching subjects that are deemed to be sensitive. I am not.

To pretend some such things don't exist by conveniently ignoring the subject does not make them any less real. They are indeed real, and while it's easy to write "puff pieces" that "go with the flow", occasionally I take it upon myself to step outside the box and take what I consider to be a totally objective, if politically incorrect view. When doing so, I play no favorites, and "sacred cows" are by necessity brushed aside.

Again, it is never my intention to be discriminatory in any way, but merely to step up and address "third rails" that so many others shy away from, as such issues occasionally intersect with the world of sports. Yes, I can be blunt at times, to the point of making some people uncomfortable, but it is not my nature to "sugar-coat" things. They are what they are, and I fail to see how discussing them frankly should be off-limits.

Each and every reader of whatever I write is certainly free to keep reading, have their own pro or con comments published at the end of any particular article, or stop reading altogether. My sports blog could be likened to TV and radio in the sense that if you like it -- stay tuned. If not, there's hundreds of other choices to choose from, so one need only change the channel, or type, point, and click to check out something else if they so desire. In the meantime, I shall stumble on trying to do the best I can.