A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
During the final 21 seconds of overtime in last night’s Sun Belt Conference showdown between Louisiana-Lafayette and Western Kentucky, the Ragin’ Cajuns played with 6 players on the court. The 6-man Cajuns scored the game winning bucket with 3.6 seconds, though the play they ran didn’t take advantage of the power play.
Post-baseball Michael Jordan.
Current-day Dirk Nowitzki.
Every day Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
These three vintages possessed, in my opinion, the three most unstoppable moves in basketball history: Jordan’s turnaround; Dirk’s fadeaway; and Kareem’s sky hook.
Obviously, each of these players are among the greatest players that the NBA and basketball has ever seen. Each player possessed certain qualities that made him special. Yet the three players couldn’t be more different.
But interestingly enough, each player’s “Go-to” move shared something in common – it was taken from the area on the floor that is most neglected by basketball players of every age, talent level, and style:
The glorious land of midrange.
Many NBA fans who were hopeful that the 2011-12 season would happen must have been disappointed to hear the news that the season will now likely not happen (or be severely truncated if it does).
While I was never a big fan of the NBA, I feel for the fans who may now go through a single year without their favorite team and players play. I also assume that many of those fans are looking for some kind of alternative.
Last night, Dirk Nowitzki turned in one of the most mind-bogglingly awesome individual basketball performances I have ever seen. As I tweeted near the end of the game: “Nowitzki is German for un-fucking-believable. Sometimes, only the f-word will do.”
Here are the raw numbers: 48 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks in 41 minutes. As impressive as those numbers are by themselves, they do not even begin to tell the story of just how close to perfect a basketball game Dirk played last night.
Here are the most impressive numbers: 12-15 from the field, 24-24 from the free throw line. Feel free to re-read those numbers a few times to ensure that they sink in.
As Bill Simmons tweeted: “48 points, 3 missed shots total (FG + FT). We need a stat like ‘points per miss’ to see if that’s a record for a 40+ point game.”
For the evening, Dirk’s “points per miss” (or PPM as we’ll refer to it henceforth) was 16. 16! 16 points for every missed shot. That is astounding, and it is a terrific way to appreciate what was one of the best single-night shooting performances on any level of basketball ever.
And as I went to bed last night, Simmons’ tweet had me thinking. Just how useful of a stat would PPM be? So I decided to get up this morning and investigate it a little further.
This video was posted in August of 2007, so it’s not exactly new, but I just saw it for the first time. It is entitled “11 Guys You’ll Always Find Playing Pickup Basketball” and I think you’ll find it to be absolutely spot-on.
There were are least five times when I laughed out loud. Seeing as how it’s 7:00 am, I’m still wiping the sleep out of my eyes, and it’s a five-minute video, I’d say that’s a pretty good ratio.
And yes, the “Hypothetical Dunker” is the dude from Man In a Box.
Back in January of 2010, Don “Moose” Lewis caused quite an uproar after he said he wanted to start an all-white basketball league called the All-American Basketball Alliance.
Moose was tired of the “street ball” that was played in today’s game and wanted to give fans an opportunity to watch fundamental basketball. Many people were angry with the idea and spoke out against it, including Charles Barkley, who is never shy with words and called it “blatantly racist.” Moose got a lot publicity over his idea and even had a hilarious segment on The Daily Show.
It has been almost a year now and it appears that there will be no All-American Basketball Alliance.
When you really love somebody, you tend to overlook that person’s flaws. You know what I’m talking about. Sometimes, you purposefully overlook a girl’s terrible personality just because she is so incredibly hot. Other times, you are so infatuated with them that you are just completely blind to their faults.
Please don’t think that’s what I’m doing here. This is not a blind defense of Reggie Miller.
Am I a die-hard Pacers fan? Yes. Is Reggie Miller my favorite player of all time? Absolutely. Do I think he was the greatest player of all time? Absolutely not.
However, I am firmly convinced of one thing: Reggie Miller is the greatest SHOOTER of all time.
Fact: Phil Jackson has won 11 NBA Titles, and only one other coach in history has even won half as many.
Fact: Phil Jackson coached two of the three greatest guards and one of the five greatest big men of all time…at their peak.
Sounds like the perfect time to have a sports debate.
While taking my morning browse of the top Reddit headlines, I just stumbled upon the screenshot below, which appears to show a snippet of a Facebook chat. When I saw this, my immediate thought was: this guy is definitely from Indiana.
You’ll undoubtedly agree.
[Editor's note: This post was submitted before the Spartans and Zags took the floor last night. I just didn't have a chance to edit and publish it. But as you can see, our man J-Dools had the game pretty well pegged, so I'm posted this anyway.]
Excitement is building in East Lansing as the Spartans prepare to face their first real challenge of the season against Gonzaga, at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
The Spartans will showcase their talented line up that is gathering more and more comparisons to the 2000 championship team. Coach Tom Izzo is among those making such comparisons.
In an interview with ESPN.com Izzo was asked if he would ever coach someone like Mateen Cleaves again. Izzo answered saying that he may be doing that right now. The player Izzo is talking about is junior point guard Kalin Lucas.
After two straight loses to the Boston Celtics (in Cleveland’s long awaited and much anticipated home opener), then suffering a loss on the road to the Toronto Raptors, nervous Cavs fans can finally breathe a sigh of relief!
In what has been dubbed the Cleveland “Season of Expectations,” the Cavaliers finally got their first win of the season. In an almost “must win” game (in the eyes of many fans), the Cavs beat the Toronto Raptors 104-87, and five Cleveland players scored in double digits.
With the release of basketball’s two greatest and brand new video games, NBA Live 10 and NBA 2K10 (released on Oct. 6th), lines are being drawn, opinions are being formed, and arguments are commencing.
Which of these two great basketball games is the best?
The time has come to attack this question, otherwise known as The Great Debate, systematically and with facts, proof, and evidence.
I would like to present to you the war between EA Sports and 2K Sports: NBA Live 10 vs NBA 2K10.
[Read more...]
Basketball brawls in the United States just don’t compare to those that happen overseas (or maybe they do?). Case in point: what happened when Mexico and Uruguay met up in the 2009 FIBA Americas Tournament, as described by Rick Chandler at Sports by Brooks:
I don’t know why basketball fights tend to differ so dramatically from those in other sports; like baseball, where everyone just gets into a comfortable clinch; soccer, where the players simply run away, or football, where it seems no one really fights at all. Unless you play at Miami. In basketball, for some reason, they fight for real.
Don’t know what Rick is talking about? Behold, the beauty of international basketball brawling:
Yeah, there have been some pretty intense NBA fights, but I don’t really recall anything quite this intense where players were picking up chairs and throwing them at eachother. The game was called after the fight, with Mexico up 68-60 and about :40 seconds left in the third period. The two teams meet up again on Sunday. Well that should be fun.
As Rick reminds us in the open of his post, other sports never really seem to fight as intensely as basketball players…unless you play at Miami. I was living down in Miami when the ‘Canes had their epic brawl with FIU and then-Hurricanes announcer Lamar Thomas was fired for his unabashed excitement:
“Now, that’s what I’m talking about,” Thomas said as the brawl raged out of control. “You come into our house, you should get your behind kicked. You don’t come into the OB playing that stuff. You’re across the ocean over there. You’re across the city. You can’t come over to our place talking noise like that. You’ll get your butt beat. I was about to go down the elevator to get in that thing.”
Don’t remember that one? Â Here is a little trip down memory lane for you, with an ironically hilarious song providing the musical accompaniment:
What a great way to start the morning, huh? Just remember, you don’t come into the MSF playing that stuff. You come into our house, you should get your behind kicked!
Minnesota basketball is enjoying unseen success, since the addition of Tubby Smith. The team has exploded out of the gate to 11-0 and entered the nation’s top 20. They are sitting at 16-1, now, with their only loss coming to a seriously tough Michigan State team. They notched another gutsy win in Wisconsin last night, and I’m trying to find out what’s responsible for this team’s performance on the court, the inspiration seems to be on the bench, though.
Virtually identical, I couldn’t find any serious differences in numbers and percentages while I scoped the official Minnesota Wisconsin box score from last night. I read up on the game, watched the highlights and still couldn’t find a serious statistic or problem that would point to how Wisconsin fell to the Gophers at home, after taking an 11 point lead before the half. It had to exist in the intangibles, and it does.
Since he left Kentucky, the SEC has suffered, but the Big Ten has added one of college basketball’s best minds to match Tom Izzo. There’s a reason that he will be in the Hall of Fame one day. Tubby Smith knows how to create a team that wins. He has done that in Minnesota and we can look towards the Wisconsin game for why.
Every good coach has to “sell his systemâ€, when the W’s come, the troops get on board. Tubby Smith has his entire team on board with his system. Not just his assistants, not just starters, not just the sixth man; I mean the whole team. That’s because everyone is involved.
Bo Ryan worked a rotation of primarily 7 players, maxing out starters with each one close to 40 minutes for the Badgers last night. While some of the best squads in the country are primarily looking at 7 player rotations – Duke, Wake Forest, Michigan State, UConn. The minutes lean heavily on 5 starters and two players coming off the bench, for the most part.
7 players came off the bench last night for Tubby Smith. That means 12 players got minutes in a hard fought, OT battle, in the heat of conference play. 9 players saw more than 15 minutes in the game. The whole team got a win. Not just 7 guys and there’s value in a having a long bench in college basketball and it extends beyond conventional sports thinking
Putting guys on the floor, and having a deep bench doesn’t just keep legs fresh and defense active, it creates
intangibles. It creates a new definition for team game. Tubby Smith has 9 players averaging 15 minutes, more than 5 points and 2 rebounds. No those numbers aren’t staggering but at the minimum everyone is contributing, positively. To have accountability and 9 players that you can trust on the floor isn’t something every coach in the country has or wants to risk.
That’s a decision by the coach, to get every member of his squad on board, to get every man minutes, to create a culture of belief around your program. Taking risks on young players in college, at the peak of their development breeds confidence and hunger in a team and a locker room. When virtually every player on Minnesota’s team has contributed something to their start, players are all in. It shows, too. They’ve won 16 games and they are 4 wins away from the magic 20 and gaining that invitation to dance in March.
We all know that college basketball is an emotional game. One that champions a team game played with commitment, toughness, and a never-die attitude. The Gophers showed that last night overcoming a huge second half deficit. They showed swagger and depth on the road. They showed that their record is not a fluke, and that they have the moxie to challenge Tom Izzo’s team for the Big Ten title. (By the way, Feb. 4 is the date when the two see each other again in East Lansing.) All this, thanks to a new face on the sidelines. Tubby Smith has created a team in the Barn that is enjoying unseen success, and challenging the hockey team for headlines due to selling his brand of team basketball.
Far-fetched? Maybe, if you’re a numbers guy, or one that just believes in talent. Though, for those who have been part of a scrappy locker room, jumped around in warm-ups as part of confident bench, or get a little choked up during “Rudyâ€, it makes sense. When your coach calls your number more often than not, you’re that much more willing to fight for that team, that fight will win games in college basketball.
I woke up this morning disappointed that there would be no more Chicago White Sox games to watch this season, although I am still proud of their season and optimistic for the White Sox future. However, my disappointment was quickly transformed into pure, unbridled joy when I was scrolling through the recently updated channels on my Verizon cable at home.
What was it that gave me such a huge pick-me-up?
Well, the title of this post probably gave it away: the Big Ten Network is here in Dallas! This, of course, means that I will be able to watch every Indiana Hoosiers basketball game this year (as I now live in Dallas). I 
grew up going to IU games in Assembly Hall, I went to Indiana University, and after a few years away I moved back to Indiana last year. Naturally, I rarely if ever missed a game when I lived in the Hoosier state. I have also lived in Miami, Fl and now Dallas, and for some reason these unenlightened sports fans are not as passionate about their IU basketball as I am. I suppose the rational part of my mind understands this, but it didn’t provide any solace during those winter nights when my Hoosiers were playing and I had to listen to it online sitting in front of my computer if the game wasn’t nationally televised.
It did give me a chance to enjoy the soothing sounds of Don Fischer, but still; I want to see the games! Now that the Big Ten Network is here in Dallas (and in HD!), I will get to enjoy pretty much every game of the 2008-09 IU basketball schedule.
