From: schrandt@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college
Subject: Re: BB vs Geography
Date: 23 Jan 93 17:08:45 GMT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

In article <1jq2q6INNke6@gap.caltech.edu>, eastout@ugcs.caltech.edu (Eric A Stout) writes:

> 	I think there may be some merit to the argument that ESPN/television
> has had an impact, by exposing prospective recruits to Eastern teams and by
> the promise that THEY, the players, will likewise be exposed if they elect to
> go east to play.  Though I would assert that huge amounts of college hoop on
> TV is a phenomenon of the last decade, not of the entire period following the
> decline of UCLA.  The only other blame I can assign falls on the coaches.
> There have clearly been extremely talented teams on or near the left coast in
>the last several years:  Arizona, with Sean Elliot et al, leaps to mind, as do
> last year's UCLA chokers.  Certainly enough talent to win a championship; if
>Villanova could do it in '85 with half the team high on cocaine, why not?  But
> none of the coaches have been able to take them over the top.  Larry Brown 
> gave
>it a shot with UCLA, but didn't quite make it (which maybe explains why Kansas
> got put on probation after they won the championship:  Brown HAD to cheat to
> get one :-) ).  

In defense of my team ;^)....  Tho Larry Brown cheated, he didn't do a
very good job.  None of the players he had violations with amounted to
much.  This team won despite great odds.  They were not Championship
caliber, but they pulled it off with a lot of heart -- and a lot of Manning.

> And besides that, recruiting is the coach's job, too.  For
> Heaven's sake, if Bobby Knight can get players to stay in Bloomington, IN, of
> all God-forsaken places, where one is in definite danger of encountering 
> things
> like WINTER, Lute Olson (Olsen?) should have an absolute field day recruiting
> in Tucson, AZ!  But they just can't seem to convince the players that if they
> go there, they have a shot at a title.
> 	Maybe it's the competition on the West Coast, the fact that while there
>are usually two or three pretty darned good teams here, none (neither?) of the
> conferences is ever stacked out like the Big Ten or the ACC.  The PAC-10 may
> be strong at the top, but downright flaccid at the bottom.  And the Big West/
> PCAA has traditionally been strong at the apex only.  The fact that the top
> teams don't have top-level competition night in and night out in the
> conference
>season leading up to the tournament may to some extent explain their early-ish
> exits from the Dance.
> 	In any event, it turns my stomach to think that someone believes that
>it is moral purity which has left West Coast college basketball at the feet of
> the East and Midwest; I'm sure some more reasonable explanation will offer,
> even if one doesn't care for the possibilities I've suggested.

Moral, pure college basketball is akin to

1) military intelligence
2) religious tolerance

It's an oxymoron.
 
> Eric A. Stout
> eastout@molest.ugcs.caltech.edu
> (A translocated Hoosier, for anyone who wonders where my biases lie)
> 
-- 
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\                                                              /
/ Jody Schrandt:  Loyal Jayhawk, Avowed Metal-head, MBA-to-be  \
\ All flames welcome, but returned ten-fold...                 /
/ "Eat my shorts, man"  -Bart Simpson, 1986                    \
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