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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1624459, member: 289"] PART 2 Gomez said that he was “playing hurt”. He had an MRI for a rotator cuff issue. Jim did not suggest he hurt it by shoveling too much food into his mouth but did question how it would impact his career. “I can’t talk because my shoulder hurts.” Gomez suggested he might need steroid injections and he might wind up looking like Mark McGwire. JB: “You’d need a lot more injections than that!” Jim never got a lottery ticket. “It’s throwing money down the drain.” What are his lucky numbers? “4’s and 8’s. I don’t know why.” That was two of the numbers in the drawing. He’d have won $7.00. There was a discussion of teams around the country, including Iowa who was in the process of taking down Michigan State again, (that #1 ranking didn’t last long). “They had Iowa State beat, too. They have a senior center, a senior forward and two guards. They can win the Big 10. We played them last year. They got in the tourney the last two years. They got just about everybody back and are full seniors.” (That must be nice.) “Michigan State is not a gre4at offensive team by any stretch of the imagination. Illinois has had a bunch of guys hurt the last couple of years… Wisconsin and Minnesota are down. Rutgers and Penn State are struggling. There are 4-5 tams at the top. Indiana is really coming on. (Thomas Bryant is shooting 72% and scoring 12.2 points in 22 minutes a game. He’s averaging 5.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks.) “Wake Forest and Duke “had some tough road losses. Louisville is playing very well. They showed strong last year and are on a good run. Virginia Tech is much improved and very tough at home. Duke lost two first round picks and a senior guard but Grayson Allen can shoot and drive and is very physical. They have a lot of good freshmen. Plumley is one of the most physical and athletic guys in the country. Virginia lost two really good players. The conference is better overall.” Matt noted that there are 6 AXCC teams in the Top 21 teams in the rankings. “North Carolina is ranked 5th but both their losses were while Marcus Paige was hurt.” South Carolina lost so the only undefeated team in the country is SMU, whose coach, Larry Brown, also had to serve a nine game suspension. . “Their goal is to not lose, since they can’t play in the tournament. They only have 7 scholarship players but lots of good seniors. “ Kansas needed a police escort to get through the snow to play West Virginia, whom the papers are calling “Press Virginia” because of their defense. “They have a lot of depth and multiple guys who can score. Bob Huggins is as good a coach as there is in the country. Not a lot of teams have 9-10 guys. Oklahoma plays 6-7. Duke Plays 6-7. Most of college basketball is 6-7 guys.” Missouri is the next school on the NCAA chopping block. “They’ve been involved in another thing for a few years. But I’m done talking about the NCAA.” UNLV fired their coach, Dave Rice in January, an unusual move. “He did some good recruiting but they didn’t play as well as some people thought they should.” The SU women were beating Pitt to go 13-4 and 3-1 in the conference. “And they could have won two more games: Tennessee and North Carolina.” There was extensive discussion of the new rule pushing back the date that players can declare for the draft so they can attend NBA try-outs and be evaluated by NBA people. “They only invite about 50 players so if you aren’t one of the fifty, you’re not going to get a high draft pick. Kids will have more information upon which to make a decision. It’s a good rule.” Doesn’t it put a coach in a bind, not knowing if a player will be coming back until later? “You’re not going to recruit anyone good in April anyway. That was a dumb reason for the original rule. Hopefully guys will come back who should come back. If they don’t’ get drafted, their options are over. The overseas opportunities aren’t what they used to be. You’re only going to make $40-50,000. The coaches have no restrictions so they have you physically train 2 ½-3 hours a day and then basketball practice. It’s not fun and not that easy over there. You need to get as good as you can get here… It’s the best rule they have passed in a long time. Almost every players I’ve told has been drafted lower than I said. Tyler Ennis was told he’d be drafted 8th. I said 10th-15thj. He was drafted 18th. Jerami Grant was told 14th. (He went 39th). Chris McCullough was drafted only by the Nets (29th overall). It’s worked out for the three guys and I am happy for them.” (But he wishes they were on this team.) Is there a downside to the new rule? “No. Everyone is a winner. A 2-3 day workout is a pretty good evaluation. If only one of eight people tell a player he’ll be drafted he’ll go. You need a consensus. Kids have a right to be better informed. “ Do NBA coaches call college coaches about their players? “No but their assistants as the directors of player personnel do to get background on players. They talk to everybody when they are thinking of drafting someone. Somebody had picked the all-time NBA small forwards. JB: “LeBron, if you can put him there. Bird would be #2 but you could call him a power forward. Elgin Baylor (who was #5), was 6-5 or 6-6 but would get 30 today.” Scottie Pippin was #6. Dominque Wilkins was #10. The others were Rick Barry, Dr. J and Kevin Durant. “A good group.” Gomez said the coach was pretty good at picking them. “Russell was the best center. Oscar Robertson would be one of the best 2-3 point guards. He was 6-5 220 and could back down guards, who were about 6 feet at the time, and shoot over them.” “I was glad they told Dolph Schayes before he died that they were going to retire his number. I went to his camp when I was 13 and worked there for years and got to know him well. He had a great sense of humor. He went to college at age 13 or 14 and came out with an engineering degree. No better guy ever- ever!” Katie wanted to know what Jim’s favorite TV shows to “binge watch on NetFlix” were. Jim said he “hasn’t figured out Netflix yet”. He likes The Blacklist and The Good Wife. He tapes them but is behind on watching them. “I can’t sleep during the season so I watch them at midnight.” John in Liverpool noted that Jim’s son was named athletes of the week. JB: “He’s got more of his mother than me. He’s got her good looks. I’m glad he got nothing from me. He’s tall but that’s probably his mother, too. John said that his son played golf in high school and that he never got to see him play. “It’s probably better that way.” This provoked a discussion of Jordan Spieth who started this year where he left of last year by winning the first tournament by 8 strokes. “He’s a great young player with a great attitude and everybody likes him. He just focuses on golf. He got $53 million in a deal from Under Armor.” (Give me $53 million and I’ll have a great attitude, too and everyone will like me.) On the NFL coaching carousel: “I don’t know if Tom Coughlin has any interest. If he doesn’t catch on this year it will probably be too late. By next year there’s be a bunch of new hot coordinators in the running Once out, it’s hard to get back in….The boss fired the head coach and kept the coordinator for continuity. You don’t know what’s going on… Kelly will be a good fit in San Francisco. They pushed the other coach out at Oregon so he could get the job…..I hope Chandler Jones is back and ready to play.” The Spurs were playing the Cavaliers. “Two of the top three NBA teams. The playoffs and semi-finals will be great. The Warriors are 36-3, the Spurs 34-6 and the Cavs 27-9.” Matt noted that the Warriors were a 17 point favorite over the Lakers. How things have changed from the old days. “Tim Duncan just keeps rolling along… The Cavs when healthy can be as good a team as Golden State. ..Danny ferry did a great job in Atlanta and he’ll do a good job with the Nets. He’s a good guy who made a mistake.” (Per Wikipedia he “read aloud verbatim an 'offensive' comment written in a scouting report". Gonzaga is doing a reality show called “The March to madness”. Would SU consider doing such a show? “We haven’t been contacted.” Would there be a downside? I don’t think so as long as the players knew what was going on.” (I’m sure the last thing JB needs right now is a reality show about SU basketball.) Gonzaga’s big man is injured and “they aren’t the same team that we saw in the islands.” A caller wanted to know if Jim “treats all players equally”. John Wooden once told his players not to expect him to treat them all the same because they aren’t the same and that would be the most unfair thing he could do. “I have certain rules. You have to show up on time. I work some guys harder in practice because they didn’t play in the games. Jerry Jones once said that if Emmett Smith is late for a meeting he probably wouldn’t complain because he’s the best player in the game and has won two Super Bowls. A rookie might be on his way home for the same thing. As far as rules everybody is held accountable.” (Hear that, NCAA?) “If you aren’t ready to play, you shouldn’t be in college. It’s a great opportunity and environment to get an education. If you’re not motivated, you’re not going to make it. I’ll motivate you in practice. Getting pushed becomes a habit. That’s important, too.” Are there “gamers” who aren’t great practice players. “Not so much. If you are missing free throws in practice, you’ll miss them in games. Some guys get more up for games. The really good ones get ready well and then play well, too. “ Alabama-Clemson was “a great football game. Alabama had all the big plays. The Clemson quarterback was phenomenal. The onside kick was a good gamble the way Clemson was moving the ball. It was amazing how open that5 tight end got. Clemson is a good defensive football team. Watkins kept Clemson in the game….Nick Saban will stay. He’s making $8-10 million a year, as much as he could make in the NFL. He’s a control guy. There’s too many things you can’t control in the NFL. He will finish his career at Alabama.” Gomez closed by saying that next time he wanted to ask JB about a 131 year old guy they’d found in Brazil. “I don’t’ have a lot of thoughts on that. If you’re 50 you’ve got 81 years to go.” Gomez noted that JB would only have about 40 years to go, (actually 60). “No thanks.” [IMG]http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7173119.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Joao-Coelho-de-Souza.jpg[/IMG] [URL]http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/worlds-oldest-man-aged-131-7173272[/URL] [/QUOTE]

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