This is my thoughts on another week of basketball and retirement…
Mike Westfall- The crew in Birmingham at the American Conference Tourney should hire Galesburg’s HOF Custodian, Mike Westfall to either be on staff or train the staff on how to change a net. It took their crew three different tries to get the net on the basket correctly. The first try stopped the start for 5-6 minutes. The second stopped the game in the middle of the first half for 17 minutes. And the last was a try at half-time that took ten minutes. Send your resume Mike.
Sub in OT?- The Tulsa vs North Texas game went 3-OT’s. I think each team made only one substitution over the last five minutes of regulations and thru the 3-OT’s. So for 20 minutes, 8 of 10 players played. It is easy to say that the coaches should have gotten fresh players into the game.
As a coach, my teams never played 3-OT’s but had some 2-OT games. As a coach, I just felt I wanted to go with my best players. I didn’t want to lose in OT with my best on the bench, even if tired.
Band for Rent- Some of the biggest fans of Tulsa at the American Conference Tourney were actually Alabama-Birmingham students. The Tulsa band did not make the trip so Tulsa got some members of the UAB Marching Band to be the Tulsa band for the tourney. They learned the Tulsa school song, were given Tulsa t-shirts to wear, and they were definitely into the games. Some of the Golden Hurricane’s most vocal fans.
128 Straight- I have heard of players having long strings of games in a row scoring in double figures, but try this on for size. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander now has 128 straight games of scoring 20 or more points in a game. It broke Wilt Chamberlain’s record of 126 straight.
Picking Your Bracket (Part 1)- In last 30 years, every men’s basketball NCAA champion has ranked in the top 40 offensively and top 25 defensively in KenPom analytics. This year 11 teams meet this criteria- Duke, Michigan, Arizona, Florida, Houston, Iowa State, UConn, Michigan State, Gonzaga, Virginia, Tennessee.
Picking Your Bracket (Part 2)- No team in the modern era (which they classify as since 1980) has won the tourney and not made it to the semi-finals of their conference tourney. (If their conference had a tourney.)
Picking Your Bracket (Part 3)- Since UCLA won the NCAA championship in 1995, all but four teams who have won the tourney had blue as one of their team colors. The four who did not have blue as one of their team colors were- 2000 Michigan State, 2004 Maryland, 2013 Louisville, 2021 Baylor. Because of NCAA violations, Louisville had to vacate the 2013 title. So only 3 schools in last 30 years were non-blue teams.
Upset Specials- Watch out for South Florida to pull a couple upsets. And I predict the winner of Wisconsin vs Arkansas will
Massey Connection- Allen worked as manager when Iowa State’s J.R.Blount was at Drake, and he was Director of Scouting for Virginia’s Griff Aldrich when Griff was HC at Longwood.
8 Seniors- Only 8 seniors on the Big Ten men’s basketball teams have been at their current school their entire careers.
Good for Women’s Game- I think it is good for women’s basketball when their are some new faces break thru and there are some upsets of the traditional powers. Nothing against them, but I would love to see someone besides UConn, LSU, or South Carolina break through.
Gut Wrenching- I felt it from coaching perspective, the suddenness of the tourney loss. When Tulsa lost to WSU in the tourney, it is so sad to see your son and his coaching friends, and their players deal with loss.
My nephew was at the game, and he asked if it was harder to watch Allen’s game than it was to coach your own team in terms of nerves. I told him the day of a game it was horrible as a coach waiting for the game. As a parent I am excited the day of the game. During the game as a coach, I was too busy to be nervous. As a parent, I am a nervous wreck.
And the refs drive me nuts.
Joy!!!!!! We are still in Birmingham. We were planning to come back to Galesburg on Monday morning, but instead we are headed to Tulsa. Tulsa is in the NIT, they are #1 seed in their Regional group. As #1 seed, as long as they win, they play in Tulsa until the Final Four in Indianapolis. The pain of yesterday turns into joy and excitement today.
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