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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 3282024, member: 289"] PART 2 On the weather: Matt noted that Carrabba’s was mostly empty even though the roads were totally clear. JB: “People think a snowflake is a major storm. 30 years ago, by today’s standards, people would stay home 45 days in a row.” Around the ACC: Matt: Virginia eeked out a win at Clemson, (51-44). JB: “They just can’t score. Their defense saves them.” NC State beat Miami 83-72. “They’re good but Miami was missing their top two backcourt players….Georgia Tech has some big guys, some 4th year seniors and now they’ve got their point guard. Nobody dominated Virginia Tech until they did it, (76-57). Around the nation: All Big East ranked teams lost to unranked teams at home. Purdue scored 61 points in one game, (vs. Northwestern’s 58), and then scored that many in a half, (61-36 at halftime vs. our old pals, Iowa, on their way to a 104-68 win). JB: “In the Big 10 there’s a huge difference between being the home team and bring the road team.“ West Virginia “is very physical. They’ve got two 6-10 250 pound monsters. Their perimeter players are getting better. It’s one of Bob Huggins’ better teams.“ Around the NBA: Houston won a game with a small line-up: “Shooting threes, spacing and drives allowed them to win with little guys. They still need an inside guy to get rebounds. Philly helped themselves, (by obtaining Alex Burks and Glenn Robinson III), but they need to get a little more functional….Toronto is really good. The Bucks aren’t a slam dunk. It’s the Lakers and the Clipper sin the west. The NBA has good balance. They are in good shape.” Dion Waiters “is in the prime of his career. He needs to play to show what he could do. Miami has been a surprise team. Jimmy Butler is probably the league MVP. He’s a tremendous play Pat Riley is one of the best in the business at putting teams together. He’s gotten guys who were out of the league last year and they are playing well. Now they have Andre Iquodala.” And now they don’t have Dion Waiters, who is a Memphis Grizzly. Good NBA teams never seem to want SU players. When they seek to improve they get rid of them. The women’s team was playing at Boston College, (they won, 89-79 to get back to .500). “Hopefully Tiana Mangakahia will be back next year and they can have a great team.” On transfers: “There are 400-500 grad transfers a year and many of them don’t play because they are moving up to a higher level of completion hoping to help their career and some of them aren’t good enough for that level. Pittsburgh brought in 4-5 guys who didn’t play.” Regarding the proposal to allow all transfers to play immediately: “I think it will happen but the result will be chaos. You’ll get 1,000 transfers a year. Any player unhappy with the playing time or mad at the coach for yelling at him will transfer. Recruiting will be year around.” I have a feeling that that might be JB’s cue to retire. On the draft: “There’s no clear cut consensus player of the year. There’s no Zion. Carey is very good but up and down. Jordan Nwora is good but not great. With Baylor, Kansas and Gonzaga – it’s a group thing. No one stands out. There’s no ‘big difference’ player. The NBA is using ‘spacers’: inside/outside guys not guys like Carey. Guys will be drafted on potential.” Jim is always explaining how few opportunities there are in the NBA and how they are drafting on potential. I would think that if there are limited opportunities, they would want guys would could contribute immediately. A partial answer: “There are always surprises. Nobody thought that Step Curry, Klay Thompson, Jimmy Butler, Paul George, Giannis, (he never even attempts the last name- if there was ever an athlete who needed to be known by one name it’s Giannis Antetokounmpo), Kahwi Leonard, etc. were going to be this great.” On playing abroad: “We have 12 guys in Europe and 6-8 in the G league. Some of them left years ago. Those who play abroad can have a great experience. There are hundreds of American players out there. they can make anywhere from $30-40,000 to a million dollars. Rick Pitino is coaching Wes Johnson and Andy Rautins.” It’s the 30th anniversary of Loyola Marymount’s great run with Hank Gaithers and Bo Kimble. They averaged 122 points a game for the season and beat defending national champion Michigan in the NCAAs 149-115. “We beat them by 40 points here when they were at USC and then they transferred to Loayla Marymount and made history. They didn’t play any defense. They just shot three pointers and set up with two guys down court for the fast break. They let you score lay-ups. We played Paul Westhead when he was at LaSalle. They shot within 5 seconds and we won by 20. They played no ‘D’ but they ran up and down.” On lacrosse, which is starting up Friday, is one of Coach Boeheim’s favorite sports – with one exception: “It’s a shame they are so dependent on face-offs. Basketball got rid of center jump a long time ago. I hate it when one team gets 24 and the other team gets 9 and that determines the contest.” When I called in my second question I expressed pleasure that basketball had gotten rid of the center jump after each basket since Bourama is lousy at winning them and coach agreed. I suggest that if they aren’t going to get rid of face-offs, they could borrow another idea from basketball: instead of putting the ball on the ground, throw it into the air. Jim wasn’t ready for that. “I don’t think that would work, either.” On the Super Bowl: “It was a good game. Mahomes is very good. The game turned when he got that long pass. San Francisco was good but Kansas City made a few more plays.” On the Mookie Betts trade: “It’s a big shocker to give that guy up. The Yankees look good. I met Aaron Boone at Turning Stone. He’s a very nice guy, very grounded.” Gomez noted that the Red Sox went from 2-1 to win the 2020 World Series to 3-1 and the Dodgers went from 6-1 to 4-1. Elijah Hughes is a finalist of the Julius Erving award that goes to the nation’s best small forward. “I wish we had more wins to give him a better chance.” A caller said that he had a friend who is now a bartender on Erie Boulevard who guarded Julius Erving the night he scored 36 with 32 rebounds against SU. That’s if ‘guarded’ is the proper word. That’s either somebody in this box score: [URL="http://orangehoops.org/Box%20Scores/19710222.htm"]Syracuse vs UMass February 22 1971[/URL] …or a bartender who likes to start conversations by claiming that he was the guy who guarded Dr. J that night. There’s an article on Syracuse.com about their producer, Paulie Scibilias and his love of driving/fear of flying: [URL="https://www.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2020/02/paulie-scibilias-fear-of-flying-doesnt-ground-su-radio-team-member.html"]Fear of flying doesn’t ground SU radio team member Paulie Scibilia[/URL] “Paulie’s pretty crazy but we had a guy from Connecticut, (Jim ID’d him as Bobby Gilmore two weeks ago), who drove to every game for 35 years. We were out in Arizona and he was there. He went to games in Alabama, Texas and California. They talked about misadventures driving. Paulie once was driving a Cadillac Escalade when a cop pulled him over because he was considering getting one and just wanted to ask about it. Jim: “I never heard of that one.” [/QUOTE]

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