Posts Tagged ‘John Wall’
Goodbye OKC… (And Good Riddance!)
I’m going to break this blog up into a two-day event. With so much information to cover from the weekend in Oklahoma City I’m going to break my final blog into two parts: game-related and non-game related events. And to keep with the theme created by the University of Northern Iowa — schooling KU — I will tackle this blog with an educational approach.
What we learned this weekend:
Cole is going pro.
The combination of Sherron Collins graduating and Xavier Henry more than likely going pro, Cole Aldrich is pretty much a sure thing to jump ship as well. Adding to this is the little scare he got in the lost to Northern Iowa, where he rolled his ankle pretty severely. What if something more severe were to happen in his senior season — a la Sam Bradford — and he suffered a possible career-ending injury? I don’t think he’ll take the chance and he’ll go for the guaranteed money awaiting him at the next level — especially with already being a projected lottery pick.
Xavier is not NBA ready and will be a major work in progress at the next level.
In two postseason games, the freshman from Oklahoma City scored a combined 19 points. That’s a mere two points more than fellow freshman phenom John Wall of Kentucky scored in one game this weekend. In comparing the two, Henry was far-and-away the worse of the two talented frosh.
In the two games, Henry shot a combined 8-of-13 and was 3-for-6 from behind the arc. Wall, meanwhile, scored 31 points in his two games and went 10-for-16 from the field and a very impressive 6-for-10 from 3-point range.
While all signs point towards Henry heading for the pros, I hope that NBA teams take caution in what they are drafting in Xavier. He’s talented, but nowhere near the type of talent needed to succeed in the pros. Wall is ready, Henry is not.
K-State fans truly do believe that KU is their biggest rival.
The large group of Wildcat faithful making the trip to both games on Saturday prevented any true home court advantage for the Jayhawks. The K-State fans followed suit with the Northern Iowa fans and were salivating throughout the game with the possibility of their fellow Kansans falling in the early rounds.
As my sister said, it was kind of sad to see. On Thursday, the KU fans were hooting and hollering to see K-State pull away from North Texas. And then again on Saturday, those Kansas fans that stuck around after the loss kept pulling for their in-state neighbors. But knowing K-State fans, had the shoe been on the other foot, they would do anything to see the Jayhawks lose.
It is most definitely sad to see that only one fan base approaches this as a rivalry — Kansas State — while the other side, KU, can really care less. As I’ve written in a column, KU doesn’t approach K-State as a rival. All of KU’s anger and hatred is geared towards Missouri
Poor K-State fans!
Pullen is the better Chi-town guard.
I’m a KU grad. I love Sherron Collins — ever since he used the word “gooder” in an interview I had with him during his freshman year. He has the heart of a champion, but doesn’t have the outside shot necessary to truly be a champion.
In KU’s lost to Northern Iowa, Collins went 0-for-6 from 3-point range — for those counting, he had two fewer 3-pointers than forward Marcus Morris in the game. Against Lehigh, he was 2-for-4 and everything he put up just looked ugly.
Now, take a trip down I-70 to Manhattan and take a look at fellow Chicago guard Jacob Pullen. The Kansas State leader had a decent first game against North Texas, going 2-for-6 from 3-point range and scored 15 points. Fortunately for the Wildcats, they didn’t need Pullen as much because Denis Clemente carried the load in a the rout of the Mean Green.
But turn the clock forward two days and when a birth in the Sweet 16 was on the line, the leader of Kansas State rose to the occasion — unlike his KU counterpart. In a close game with BYU, Jacob Pullen played the game of his life — literally. He scored a career-high 34 points, going 7-for-12 from behind the arc — and was 1-for-3 from inside the arc — and was a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line.
Plain and simple, when KU needed its leader, he failed to deliver. When K-State needed its leader, he delivered them to the promise land. As long as Pullen stays out of foul trouble — and Clemente continues to compliment his fellow guard — the Wildcats will make a deep run into the tournament.
The MLB isn’t the only organization with officiating issues in postseason play.
The officiating is Oklahoma City was bad. REALLY BAD! In all six games I watched, the officiating was one-sided throughout each game. Every team had reason to complain — UNI wasn’t whistled for a foul until the 10-minute mark against KU, at which time, the Jayhawks already had six against them. In the K-State game on Thursday, North Texas was shooting one-and-one by the 11-minute mark in the first half.
Against BYU on Saturday, K-State was whistled for more early fouls in the second half than the Cougars were. But even then, they should have easily been in double-digits by the midway point of the second half. It’s sad to see such a great sporting spectacle such as the NCAA tournament constantly get tarnished by bad officiating. I guess it could be worse, they could rule a foul ball when it was inside the foul line by a foot (thank you MLB refs for being worse)!
UNI has perimeter shooters, which will help them get a long way in the tournament.
For all the complaints about the poor officiating and the horrendous shooting performance by the Jayhawks, I have to give some serious mad props to the Northern Iowa perimeter shooting. Especially Ali Farokhmanesh. The guy was hitting lights out from 3-point range throughout the KU game — and for those who didn’t get to watch the UNI vs. UNLV game, he hit the deep, deep 3-pointer in the final seconds to finish off the Rebels — so what did KU really think he would do with the ball in his hand, wide open, UNI up by one with seconds left in the game. He would shoot, and make it. Ultimately putting another dagger in another team.
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