This is a look at odds and ends from the past week. Thoughts and reactions to things on and off the basketball court.
Jay & Lori Hatch- There was a great story on Jay and Lori on WHBF TV stations. Individually they are so impressive, and together even more impressive. Each has won State Championship in basketball- Jay in Illinois and Lori in Iowa. This year as they coach together, their Riverdale team is headed into the Sectional. Good luck Hatch’s!!
Galesburg Women’s Basketball Hotbed- How good is women’s basketball in Galesburg?!?! Galesburg HS won the East Peoria Regional and are the #3 ranked team in Illinois. Carl Sandburg Junior College just won another Arrowhead Conference Championship. Knox College has their all-time leading scorer, Bria Medina. She is either 2nd or 3rd in the nation for D3 scoring. And the Prairie Fire finished in the top four of the MWC and are headed to the Conference Play-offs. Everywhere you turn, the women in Galesburg are winning basketball!!!
Family- It is interesting that most coaches talk about building a culture where the team is a “family.” Yet, lately, it seems like more and more college coaches go on post-game rants where they publicly call out players as a group or individually. I am all for coaches to be honest and says things like,”We got out-hustled.” But too many coaches seem to use the press conferences to embarrass the players.
I can’t quite put my finger on the way to express myself, but my point is that it seems some coaches don’t honor the “family” concept in how they publicly call out the “family members.”
High Numbers- I used to be a traditionalist. I liked the “old days” when home teams wore even numbers and away teams wore odd numbers. So a player might be 10 at home and then 11 on the road. While I liked this method, I am ok with a player just having one number.
I don’t know why but I really am liking players wearing untraditional high numbers- 26, 77, 99, etc. There is something unique about it, and I think it actually helps me identify players better.
Big Leads- What is it about big leads these days? It seems like there are more games when a team is up 10-15 points at half, and it then is a struggle in the second half.
I read an article about three point shooting. It described that most teams are shooting 30-50% of their shots from 3 point range. And statistically three point shooting is the most inconsistent offensive stat in basketball- not my opinion, a fact. So my theory is that the huge swings in scores are about the fluctuation of three point accuracy by both teams.
Who Does Portal Hurt? There is much conversation about the pros and cons of the Portal. Watching Kansas play, they get very talented players today thru portal and NIL, but they don’t quite seem like old Kansas teams. Bill Self’s offense with the high low was always very nuanced. Is it possible that no matter the talent a college can get, they don’t have the time needed to teach all the details of their system anymore.
WNBA- The back and forth between the players and owners does not seem to be going anywhere fast. The way negotiations work is one side gives a proposal, the other side rejects it, and then it is their turn to come back with a proposal. The last round, it took the players about 10 days to come back with a counter offer, while it took the owner 6 weeks to come back with a counter offer. I think the lack of urgency of the owners tells you something.
Evidently one of the only things they have moved on has been to agree to have in effect 2 practice players on each team who are there if a player gets injured.
Owners feel they have moved on salaries as much as they can by making huge salary offers, raising minimum to what was the max before, and the max salaries to over $1 million. On the other hand, the players have reduced the asking of 40% of revenue to now only 25%. Owners still will not show the numbers to allow better understanding. So while salaries will increase, there is no guarantee as the league grows that the salaries will grow.
It would appear the issue is that the owners want to maintain the corporate model of owners controlling all revenue, while the players want to follow the model of other pro sports where players receive a revenue share. The major issue is about revenue share- the players have budged, the owners have shown no movement. Until the owners show movement, there were be no settlement.
Times and Tourneys- Am I the only one that has noticed this trend in IHSA Tourneys for schools to set Championship games for 6pm? Maybe the coaches and players like the 6pm start, and I just don’t realize that. To me it seems somehow to diminish the “big game” feel of a Regional or Sectional Championship game to tip off at 6pm. And in some tourneys, the visiting teams can be an hour and half, or two hours away. What does that do for the person who can’t leave work until 5pm?
I know there are those who would say, we start other sports championships on Saturday mornings, or after school at 4pm. Like it or not, basketball has been one of the “big things” on the IHSA calendar. Too often changes have been made to the basketball tourney series that seem to always diminish the series just a little more.
Fridays and Tourneys- Under the present system, AD’s who schedule Regional or Sectional Championship games to be played on Fridays are hurting the champion of their tourney. It may not seem like a big deal but it gives the champions one less day to prepare for the Sectional. Maybe it is not as big of a deal with the Regional because the Sectional usually starts on Tuesday, but it is huge with the Sectional when the Super-Sectional starts on Monday.
My recommendation (nobody asked) is that the IHSA should make all Regionals Championships to be played on Friday nights. And the IHSA should have that Friday and that Saturday as dates that boys cannot schedule regular season games. So one Friday would clearly be with the girls getting the spotlight. The boys coaches would like ending the regular season on Thursday.
IHSA Assigned Regionals- Earlier I brought up that Dixon girls basketball switched from the loaded Galesburg Sectional complex to one in the North, and got to host. It was a process that raised eyebrows. In the Regional Championship at Dixon, Geneva beat Dixon.
It was brought to my attention that #1 Ranked 3A boys team- Kankakee is assigned next week to the Geneseo Regional. The other option for Kankakee would have been the much closer LaSalle-Peru seed, but LP was #2 seed, so Kankakee got the Geneseo assignment. According to Google, Kankakee is 145 miles and 2 hours-20 minutes.
According to my sources, when the Regional assignments first came out, Kankakee contacted the IHSA about LP getting a Regional. Kankakee had put in for a Regional and LP had hosted last year too. Kankakee supposedly was told that the IHSA had made a mistake but it was too late to switch.
The Regional assignment, not quite what the #1 ranked team in 3A would hope for!!
NBA Tanking- If you are a basketball fan, you have read about comments about the issue at the All-Star game by the commissioner. The NBA has a huge problem, as many as 1/3 of the teams will be not trying to win the last two months of the season. I don’t have the answer but some interesting ideas that I have read….
1- The league set a certain number of wins a team has to have after the All-Star game to qualify to be in the draft lottery for the top spots.
2- Base the draft order on cumulative places over the last ten years for teams.
3- Experts estimate that the #1 pick is worth $100 million to a team. So fining a team $500k is not a deterrent, increase fines.
4- Teams who have played in an NBA Conference Championship in the past 5 years are not eligible for the Lottery. All the other teams have a chance to be drawn for a top 5 pick, and after that it is draft order by record.
Do you have any ideas?
No To Robots- In visiting Tulsa, I had two encounters with robots. I was at a convenience store trying to pick out a beverage from a cooler when a voice came from behind me and said,”I am cleaning the floor.” It was one of those little boxes. As I moved away, it turned to me and its little eyes were on me and it said,”I am cleaning the floor, have a good day.”
The dogs and I were taking a walk on the TU campus and the dogs starting getting restless and pulling on the leash. I looked a little food delivery robot was coming from behind us going at a good speed. Both Minnie, Nellie and I were scared- it seemed like it was coming at us.
I vote no- lets humans do these jobs and train them not to scare people.
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| Sign for Women’s Restroom |
Restroom Signs- I have had with restroom signs that don’t say the basic words- Men’s, Women’s, Girl’s, Boy’s, Gentlemen, Ladies. You reach a certain age where you have to go to the restroom more often it seems, and a lot times I really don’t have the time to decipher signs. I am for eliminating the clever signs.
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| Sign for Men’s Restroom |
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