Mar
3
by Chris Maynard, chris@hoops4thesoul.com
Well, it’s only been how many long since my last post? Nearly four months.
That’s quite pathetic on my part. My last entry was on November 7th following the Chicago Bulls’ fourth straight loss to start the season, a fourth quarter collapse against the Los Angeles Clippers (in what would become a familiar scene for this sad sack all year long). It’s been a long winter for this basketball fan, who’s found it very hard to write about the game (which probably isn’t a great reflection of my motivation). But I’d rather not continue with the blog if I felt like it was forced or turning too crap, like some of my teams this season:
• The Bulls have transformed from one of the most selfless teams in the league to the one of the most selfish, more worried about contracts than playing a semblance of defense. A good coach has been fired, a free agent bust has been traded (thank God) and a team has lost its soul (kind of like this poorly-named blog).
• The Men’s Fighting Illini basketball team has been atrocious, losing to the likes of Miami (OH) and Tennessee Tech, and will miss the NCAAs for the first time since 1999. To make matters worse, Indiana has had a good season (at least cheater Kelvin Sampson is finally gone and IU is looking like its bound for an early exit in the NCAA Tournament). Brian Randle and Shaun Pruitt have been absolute dogs in the role of “senior leaders,” and Trent Meacham has been the team’s best player. Enough said (nothing against Trent, who’s had a very solid year and overachieved big time, but this kid is more suited to being the fifth or sixth guard on a team).
As for the rest of college basketball, I can not remember a year in which the “elite” teams in the country are so unimpressive. North Carolina. Memphis. Duke. Tennessee. None of these teams are too phenomenal. And none of their coaches are too likeable. Roy Williams beat Illinois in 2005 and merely restocks his cupboards every year. John Calipari thrives on the one-and-done NBA rule (what was the appeal for Chicago’s Derrick Rose going to Memphis, again?). Coach K is an elitist who recruits white boy hacks and rah-rahs like Taylor King. Bruce Pearl oozes slime.
I like Ben Howland and UCLA (which played in a thrilling game against Arizona yesterday, with freshman Kevin Love controlling the paint). However, it’s gong to be damn tough for the Bruins to make the Final Four three straight seasons.
With that said, this should be one of the most wide open NCAA Tournaments in a long time. Maybe the tournament (starting in t-minus 17 days) will get me excited about the game again. I’ve taped every game in the tournament since 1999, skipped many days of school and work over the years during the opening Thursday and Friday, and typically found myself feeling good at this time of the year.
As I’ve been trying to get this blog up-and-running for the last month, I figured I used the next couple of weeks to focus exclusively on the NCAA Tournament. I’m not talking about RPI or SOS or the selection process (I don’t know when I stopped understanding how teams get selected in the tournament, but it has gotten way too complicated and convoluted in the last couple of years). I’m thinking more in terms of examining my all-time favorite and all-time despised tournaments (with 2000 standing out in my mind), reviewing the most memorable games in Tournament history (courtesy of my extensive DVD collection) and doing some more stream-of-conscious things.
Where this goes, I have no clue. But I figure I can turn this into something creative and worthwhile (at least to me). That’s of course assuming that I can find the discipline to start updating this thing a couple of times each day.
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That’s quite pathetic on my part. My last entry was on November 7th following the Chicago Bulls’ fourth straight loss to start the season, a fourth quarter collapse against the Los Angeles Clippers (in what would become a familiar scene for this sad sack all year long). It’s been a long winter for this basketball fan, who’s found it very hard to write about the game (which probably isn’t a great reflection of my motivation). But I’d rather not continue with the blog if I felt like it was forced or turning too crap, like some of my teams this season:
