Back in the day one of the most memorable sports columnists of all time (along ith Ira Berkow and Dave Anderson of the NY Times, Red Smith of the Herald Tribune, and Dick Young of the Daily News), the late great Jimmy Cannon scribed for the NY Post. Every month or so he wrote a column entitled “Nobody Asked Me, But”, which gave him the opportunity to vent his opinion on everything from sports to world events… from politics to poker. We’ve stolen his concept using the title “If You Really Wanna Know”, and will attempt to enlighten you on the happenings of the day…mostly hoops. Now, our former Five-Star Camp partner, Will Klein, who’s usually right, urged us to call this “The World According to Garf”. Not bad. But Cannon didn’t call his column Jimmy’s World or Shot From a Cannon, so we cannot be presumptuous enough to use our own name. Therefore, if you really wanna know…
The “Princeton Offense”, so defined by every college hoop analyst who sees a backdoor cut or give-and-go, was invented by one of the coaching giants of the 20th century, Pete Caril. So please guys, call it by its rightful name, the “Pete Caril Offense”. Please!
From his freshman season through today, Duke’s Ryan Kelly is the most improved college basketball player in the USA. And teammate Quinn Cook’s not far behind. Mason Plumlee was always good.
Naismith Hall of Famer, Hubie Brown, now the NBA’s top (by far) analyst, was the greatest hoop clinician alive, dead or yet unborn. Brown, who helped put Five-Star Camp on the basketball map with his nearly 100 lectures in over 40 years, each one a teaching and motivational masterpiece, has retired from the camp-clinic stage. That’s a shame because today’s kids (and some coaches, too) need the Brown message more than ever. Hey, Sinatra and Garland retired every other month. We’d pay money to hear Brown lecture again. How about a book, Hubie?
Speaking of Frank and Judy, in the good ole days we had Sinatra, Garland, Astaire, Streisand, Louis Armstrong, Shirley Bassey, Tony Martin, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Ethel Merman, Tony Bennett, Eydie Gorme, Ray Charles, Vic Damone, Jerry Vale, Lisa Manelli, Lena Horne, Perry Como, Eddie Fisher, and don’t forget Bing and Ella. Today “they” have Bruce Springsteen, Lil Wayne, Michael Buble, Jay-Z and Justin Bieber. Sorry Irving Berlin, but today, Show-biz is No-biz!
The most patient people on Earth are New York City bus drivers.
Belmont Univ. shoots “threes” like we breathe.
You can teach a 7-0’er, but you can’t teach 7-0.
There are more laughs from one Myron Cohen joke (JLTV) than all the present day sitcoms and stand-ups combined. Except of course, anything from Mel Brooks/
We’re sick we didn’t use Duke and Florida on our first piece, “Two Thousand Twelve…The Year Without A Favorite”. Here’s Florida, Billy Donovan, a Rick Pitino disciple, is full-court pressing like his mentor demands, and owns the talented balance of a Final Four candidate…at least! SIZE? Patric Young is 6-9/250 lb specimen capable of dominating inside and under both boards. Erik Murphy, a 6-10 power-forward whose skill belies his bulk, shot 42% from the land of three (48.5% overall), 81.4% from the charity stripe and led the Gators with 57 blocked shots a year ago. He’s playing this season like a quintessential NBA “4-man”. BACKCOURT? Loaded. 6-2 sr. Kenny Boynton is a scoring machine and Rutgers transfer Mike Rosario is on track to become one. Boynton averaged 16 ppg a year ago and should elevate to 20 a game this trip. Rosario struggled in his initial SEC campaign but the 6-3 sr. has delivered in early ’12-13. Donovan is lethal at both ends when he opts for a three-guard set. His third man is 6-2 jr. Scottie Wilbekin who backed up Erving Walker’s floor generalship for two years. He’s now ready to take over that key role: get Boynton and Rosario the ball in their scoring areas and feed Young like a starving horse in the hole. COACHING? One of our idols growing up was the flamboyant and cunning Giant-Dodger manage, Leo Durocher. “The Lip” once said of struggling Giant manager and baseball superstar, Mel Ott, “Nice guys finish last”. Leo was wrong. He never met Billy Donovan. Here’s a nice guy who finished atop the basketball world in 2006 and 2007, back-to-back National Championships. In 18 campaigns he’s 421-178 which includes a dozen NCAA berths in his 16 Gator seasons and has advanced to at least the Sweet 16 on six occasions. Takes a back seat to no one in managing a quintet. Oops, we almost forgot 6-7 jr. cornerman Will Yeguete, the “Mr. Intangible” that every successful hoop squad needs. The import from Bordeaux, France, is an hellacious defender in Donovan’s suffocating press and corralled 6 rebounds a game before missing the last 9 with a left foot stress fracture. Florida is a bonafide threat to win it all again.
David “Flip” Wilson, the NY Giant rookie kickoff return specialist and part-time running back, appears to be the fastest human on the planet with a football in his hand or under his arm. His performance vs the Saints (12/9) was incredible. When he scratches his amazingly athletic, but showoff backflips after each touchdown from his act, he’ll become a total professional.
Bravos to MLB Network for keeping our national past-time alive 365 days a year. And additional thanks to Harold Reynolds, one of our favorite pitchers, Al Leiter, and Matt Vasgersion for leading the most insightful and less obtrusive parade of broadcasters in all of TV sports.
Before the season started we told Mike Woodson his Knicks couldn’t possibly lose with a quartet of Five-Star Basketball Camp’s greatest players of all time on his squad. Carmelo Anthony (candidate for MVP), Raymond Felton, J.R. Smith and Rasheed Wallace proceeded to help the Knicks win their first 6 games (best start in 12 years but we never said they’d win ‘em all) and hold a comfortable lead in the East.
The “Not-So Magnificent 7”, DePaul, Georgetown, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Providence, Marquette, and Villanova, have said goodbye to the “Big Least”… oops, pardon us, “Big East”, and will form their own conference with the addition of 3 or 5 schools (name of teams and league yet to be announced)> The leading candidates are Butler, Xavier, Dayton, Duquesne and George Mason. With that accomplished, “The Magnificent 7”. without Yul Brunner, will ride again.
We look forward to the NY Post’s 3-day a week and twice on Sunday column of Phil Mishnick almost as much as we did Jimmy Cannon’s, but we totally disagree with his knocks on Stephen A. Smith. Stephen A., the former top of the line Philly sportswriter and current star of ESPN’s “First Take”, is a highly intelligent, knowledgeable on all sports, ultra passionate, often times humorous and always impeccably dressed dude. He brings entertainment to the table. Remember entertainment? Is he loud? Yes. Talkative? Yes. Overly opinionated? Yes. At times arrogant? Yes. But that’s what he’s getting paid for! Anyway, basketball’s his first love so how bad can he be?
Every pundit, male or female, TV or radio, gave his, or her, opinion on why President Obama was reelected. Despite his first-term malfunctions there’s one reason, and one reason only…LIKEABILITY!
Not only is Mike Fratello a highly informative centerpiece on NBA Network’s “GameTime”, but the “Czar of the Telestrator’s” breakdown of Indiana’s defense vs. Butler or lack of same, was so clear and concise that even the take it or leave it basketball fan could understand every stroke of his educated marker. With 667 career victories staring the 30 GM’s and team owners squarely in the face, it’s inconceivable that Fratello’s not coaching somewhere in the NBA.
Speed is only good when wisdom leads the way.
Mike Krzyzewski learned the above little tidbit many years ago which is just one reason why the Dookies will remain a contender for national honors as long as Coach “K” sits on the throne. Why didn’t we have Duke in our pre-season Top 5? Simple answer, we didn’t know! We didn’t know that Quinn Cook, a 6-0 high school star who started only 4 games as a freshman and averaged a mere 4.4 ppg/1.0 apg and shot 25% from tripleville would develop so rapidly into a primetime lead-guard whose passing through traffic and trifectas at crunch time have become standard fare. We didn’t know that Ryan Kelly, the 6-11 sr. forward, who could shoot before he could talk, and blessed with the wingspan of a condor, had gained needed strength and added protypical moves to his repertoire. We were well aware of freshman Rasheed Sulaimon’s potential as a perimeter scoring threat, but at 6-4 he’s quicker than the flick-of-a-bic and that left us, and his opponents, gasping for breath. When he gets his act under complete control he’ll become the whole package. And Coach K will see to that. To no one’s surprise, Mason Plumlee has developed into a bluechip pivot following his 11 ppg/9 rpg, 57% fpg and 11 double-double jr. campaign. Mason, now a bona fide candidate for the John R. Wooden Award, has reached such high expectations that his recent double-double in Duke’s rout of Temple, was considered his poorest outing of the season. And think about this. Marshall Plumlee, the 6-11 brother of Mason and the graduated Miles, made his debut against Cornell after coming off a pre-season injury and redshirting a year ago. At the same stage of their respective careers Marshall is the best of the Plumlee’s and brings a mountain of depth to the frontline as will 6-8 frosh cornerman, Amile Jefferson. With Andre Dawkins sitting out 2012-13 as a redshirt, even more minutes than his 30.2 per game of last season fall into the lap of 6-2 sr. Seth Curry. Corny but true, the son of former NBA great, Wardel, is lapping it up. The 38.3% three-point maven of a year ago owns a jumper that defines perfection and is the go-to guy from beyond the arc at winning time. Here’s a prediction. He’ll not improve on his 87.3% from the charity stripe. Tyler Thornton, a 6-1/195 lb jr. guard, swished 35% of his triple tries (38 fgp/77.3 ftp), so won’t be a burden off the bench. We almost forgot freshman sleeper, Alex Murphy, a 6-8 former redshirt who plays harder than most and runs the floor like a derby winner. He adds to Coach K’s biggest problem, finding minutes for all this talent! As for K himself, there’s little we can tell you that hasn’t been well-documented in every conceivable venue. All-time winningest Division I men’s coach (927 entering this season), a quartet of National Titles and cerebral recruiting decisions by himself and astute assistants, Chris Collins and Steve Wojciechowski…that’s “WoJo” to most. There is a new wrinkle, however. Duke reached No. 1 on Dec. 17th for a record 16th year at the top of the heap at least once. It was the 123rd week in their storied history (33 years under Mike) that the Blue Devils were ranked No. 1. That’s 11 weeks behind the all-time leader UCLA, so you know the count is on! Now Krzyzewski lives and coaches by his signature axiom, “next play”. After losing to Lehigh in the first-round of the NCAA Tourney last March, ‘The Cameron Crazies’ next play can only be this year’s National Championship. The frightening aspect regarding the current Blue Devil contingent is… they can only get better!
