1. If you read this blog, even occasionally, you know that I love watching college basketball games. Every year, with the end of each season, players graduate or decide to leave college early and turn professional. The next season comes around and I miss some of those players.
Well, the past few days, the NBA's G League put on what's called the Winter Showcase, featuring teams from its development league playing in front of scouts and executives (no fans). The games were televised. The Winter Showcase winning team won 1,000 bucks.
Several players I enjoyed watching during their college careers now play in the G League. I watched the Winter Showcase championship game today and especially enjoyed seeing Zavier Simpson (Michigan), Braxton Key (Virginia), and Rob Edwards (Arizona State) play. Braxton Key plays now for the Delaware Blue Coats and he was instrumental in leading his team to a 104-98 victory over Simpson and Edwards' Oklahoma City Blue squad.
These teams are not polished and the G League games can be ragged. Right now, teams in the NBA have quite a few players out because of positive Covid tests and so players from the G League are getting called up to replace them. The G League rosters are unstable.
But, I enjoyed watching the action. These players exert a lot of effort and energy, working hard to impress the NBA brass that they are ready to move up to the Big Show. I think I'll continue to keep an eye on G League action as the basketball season continues.
2. I'd read a good story this morning over at theathletic.com (I subscribe) about Tennessee's blue chip freshman point guard, Kennedy Chandler. After the G League game ended, I tuned in to the Vol's game in Knoxville against the undefeated Arizona Wildcats. I was not expecting to see such a lopsided score when I caught up to that game, but Tennessee hammered Arizona early in the game and rode a late surge in first half's final minute or two and led 34-21 at halftime.
Arizona clawed back in the second half. They tied the game a couple of times, but could never quite secure a lead. For whatever reason, Kennedy Chandler had an ordinary game, but the Vol's got a superb performance from 24 year old sixth year super senior John Fulkerson who scored 24 points and snared 10 rebounds.
After the game, Arizona Coach Tommy Lloyd remarked that Arizona's game plan was to make Fulkerson score lots of points -- and he did.
It reminded me of a winter 1970 game between the Kellogg Wildcats and the Wallace Miners.
Our defensive game plan was to leave Starr Kelso (RIP) open, make him score a lot of points. Our coaching staff didn't think Kelso could hurt us as a scorer.
Well, like John Fulkerson tonight, Starr Kelso had a monster game that night. I wish I had the box score in front of me, but as I remember it, he score over 30 points and make a mockery of our game plan. Wallace creamed us that evening, payback after we had beaten them in Kellogg earlier in the season.
By the way, if my memory of that Wildcat loss to the Miners is warped after sitting in my head for almost 52 years, and if you, as a reader, have a clearer memory of Starr Kelso's performance, please feel free to correct me.
3. Today was a low key day. I ended it in low key fashion with two small cups of Ghirardelli hot chocolate, no booze in it. I didn't need a lot of relaxing before hitting the hay, but the hot chocolate moved me from relaxed to nearly comatose, making it easy and comfortable to fall into a restorative sleep with my nighttime companions Luna and Copper right beside me, also contented.
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