LARNED — It’s not as important as what’s happening in the Ukraine, but that was quite a flap in the Atlantic Coast Conference when new-member Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim went ballistic and ran onto the court protesting a key charging call during the Orange’s 66-60 loss at Duke over the weekend.
What’s amazing to me is that Boeheim was not fined or suspended. Goodness, we’ve seen coaches do far less and still draw a fine or a suspension.
Could it be because the ACC commissioner, John Swofford, wanted to treat Boeheim with kid gloves because this is the first year for Syracuse in the ACC and Swofford didn’t want to rock the boat?
It kind of reminds me of seeing a sign on a Septic Tank truck that said, “Caution — this truck is full of political promises.”  All politics are not played in Washington D.C.  
By the way coach, of course it was the right call!
The “block/charge” rule in basketball causes more misunderstandings than any other.
In order to draw a charge, the rules provide that a defender is simply required to obtain what is referred to as “legal guarding position” against the dribbler and that is obtained by having both feet on the floor, facing the dribbler.
That’s it!
The defender IS permitted to move, contrary to what you hear a lot of television commentators say. They often say “the defender was not set”.
That IS NOT a requirement. Yes, sometimes officials miss that too.

Quick now, can you tell me who won the gold medal in Curling at the Winter Olympics in Sochi?

Kansas just clinched at least a tie for the Big 12 basketball championship. That makes 10 straight conference championships.
That’s absurdly ridiculous!  
One of the most remarkable achievements in sports.
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said, “It’s really kind of amazing what Kansas has done, to be honest.”

In a crazy quirk in scheduling, the Larned High School girls and boys basketball teams played their final  regular-season  game of the season Tuesday and won’t play again until the sub-state at Russell on March 6-8.
That has happened to a lot of Class 4A teams due to the split into two divisions of 4A.
Oh well, they say “practice makes perfect” and these teams are going to get a lot of practice time during the week-and-a-half break!

Kudos to the Great Bend boys, who, with their win over Liberal last week, notched their eighth win of the season.
Since January the Panthers have been on a tear, turning around their season!

Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden had “Two Sets of Three” rules that he got from his father and passed on to every team he coached:
1. Never lie.
2. Never cheat
3. Never steal
and
1. Don’t whine
2. Don’t complain
3. Don’t make excuses.  
Worked pretty  well!
The discussion now amongst the “experts,” the “bracketologists,” is whether or not Wichita State deserves a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.  
Those that don’t do their homework point at their schedule, the weakness of the Missouri Valley Conference.
I disagree.
You have to also look at what the Shockers did in the tournament last year.
Besides, take ANY of the power conference teams and send them to Indiana State or Northern Iowa or Missouri State on a cold winter night and I don’t think they would do so well.
The Shockers may not win the NCAA Championship but , make no mistake, they are for real!

Charles Tabler is a contributing writer from Larned