My youngest son was talking to an ex University of Arizona basketball player and this pro player was mad. Rumor had it that Jamie Dixon would be gone after hard in the offseason to be the next U of A basketball coach. And the basic theory was that whatever Lute Olsen had worked for to make the Wildcats an exciting basketball team, a Ben Howland protege would ruin it with his slow down and hack methods. In his opinion, who wouldn't want to leave the Pittsburgh snow for Tucson, a really nice place that you can even sleep under a blanket in summer and water ski and snow ski in the same day in the spring.
With all the utmost respect for both coaches, I could see where he was coming from. I grew up on the west coast. I remember growing up, my Joe Caldwell led ASU Sundevils were the last team to ever beat UCLA in a Western Regional for about the next 12 years.
The following year UCLA won the NCAA with a very short team. Then they won 3 years in a row with Kareem Abdul Jabaar. A mystique was born. I got to watch them every chance I could. I watched them lose in the Astrodome to the Big E and then pound him mercilessly in the NCAA finals. It was exciting basketball. They played fast and precise and had enough freedom to improvise. And the only team that could beat them was USC with Paul Westphal and Mo Layton. It was almost like listening to a great run by Coltrane...you might have an idea where it was going and it was very exciting along the way.
Fast forward to todays UCLA. Yes their defense is good. Yes coach Howland is a good coach. But his teams are BORING. I know coach Wooden has got to be thinking, "let the reigns off the racehorses and let them play." Honestly, I have never seen a team so deliberate on offense with that much talent. It is like watching paint try. They have real talent and they really have put the brakes on them. It is easy to hold the points down when you are deep in the shot clock. Ask Jeff Van Gundy.
And this brings me to my main point. I used to be one of those guys who said the college game is the best. Not so anymore. Now the teams are overcoached. Typical pregame has the coach strut out in an Armani a few minutes before game time and stand up and orchestrate the whole game like a little rooster. Also, the refs slow the game down...way down.
Coach Wooden was seated most of the game. Coach K, a great coach, is seated more than most, except when talking to the ref. Believe it or not, so was coach Knight. Sit down boys, the game will be better. Let your players make some decisions...I know a frightful act. Now I have come to realize, the pros score more, have bigger, much bigger, better players, and are basically freaks of nature. If I need a quick fix of basketball, Kobe and Lebron will do it for me every time over dear old State U. College basketball matters for one month and then we will generally see many of the guys Dickie V raves about become undersized pros.
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Musings of a Goofball
Dickie V talks about Psycho T from North Carolina. That is to be expected, he is an ACC homer. However, Blake G from OU may well be the best big man in college and if I am an NBA GM, that would be the man that has the size to be a real dominant pro.
Speaking of the pros, here is a success story you probably won't find in this day and age. We had twin high schools in Phoenix, Alhambra and Maryvale, both holding about 5,000 students when I attended Alhambra. Both were built in the same year and were within 5 miles of each other. A good friend in high school who attended Maryvale was Pete Babcock. We would play ball at his house in the summer. Pete was a school teacher in Phoenix a few years later. Don Nelson had him do some free lance scouting reports for the Bucks when teams came into Phoenix...on a free per game temporary basis. Coach Nelson was so impressed with Petes work that Pete eventually got hired. Pete made it all the way to GM of the Atlanta Hawks as well as the Clippers when they were in San Diego. That is quite a leap from the humble beginnings of a school teacher....By the way, when UCLA was winning all those games, the only team that won in Pauly Pavilion for the longest time was USC, which had a team made up of future pros Paul Westphal and Mo Layton, among others. AND, they didn't get to go to the NCAA tournament, because in those days only the conference champion did.
