I picked MIDNIGHT MUSINGS for the title of this column because there are a bunch of college basketball coaches who are up after midnight worrying, trying to figure out how to escape the dragnet of the FBI and their probe into college basketball corruption. It has resulted in at least three criminal investigations and could have a devastating impact across the sport in the coming months and years.
While Kansas and Wichita State would seem to have just a minor infraction-if proven true-some of the “Bluebloods” of college basketball are being tagged with serious problems. Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Arizona and Michigan State are just some that have been mentioned.
These investigations carry criminal charges, not the slap on the wrist sanctions that we usually get from the NCAA. Thus, these criminal charges would prevent the NCAA from being able to interviews people associated with these cases and could drag on for years.
Meanwhile look for a lot of posturing by coaches and universities and television networks AND the NCAA during the coming months and even years. They will call for more “corrections” than you can imagine because-most importantly-they CANNOT let this “cash cow” be taken to the slaughterhouse.
The words of famed UCLA basketball coach John Wooden are appropriate here: “Sports do not build character. They reveal it.”
CHALK TALK
Obviously, a big bunch of you did not spend much time watching the Olympics. The Pyeong Chang Winter Olympics were the least watched in history! Translation: NBC WILL NOT be able to get the big advertising bucks from sponsors next time. When you know that most Americans talked about Curling more than any other sport, you get a drift of the disconnection
Humorist Dave Barry once penned, “The problem with winter sports is that-follow me closely here-they generally take place in winter!”
Pyeong Chang, though colder than a well-diggers _____ might not have been the smartest choice to host sports that thrive on snow. It simply doesn’t snow much there. Over 90 percent of the snow in every venue had to be man-made.
Despite all of the “Kumbaya” and “Olympic spirit” this probably didn’t do much for world peace. Can we survive another light show of the magnitude of the closing ceremonies? Do we want to? Nevertheless, the next Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing, another place where people don’t ski and it doesn’t snow!
Would someone PLEASE explain the media’s fascination with Tiger Woods? The dude hasn’t won a tournament in years yet, tournament after tournament, Woods gets talked about by the announcers and gets the headlines in the newspapers. Last week, this was the headline in the DENVER POST, “TIGER WOODS LOOKS A LITTLE BETTER, BUT IS THAT ENOUGH TO CHALLENGE AT THE MASTERS? In a word: NO. Give it up already!
One wouldn’t want to bet much money on which team will win the Big 12 Men’s basketball tournament. Though there are favorites even the bottom teams are good enough to win it.
Count me in as one of those who votes for Devonte Graham of KU for Big 12 Player of the Year. Shaka Smart, Texas’ coach says, “It is incredible what he has done, especially when you consider that most games he gets no rest, going the full 40 minutes and still plays with incredible energy.”
Remember, it’s now March. Let all of the tournament madness begin!
Buddy Tabler is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and his views don’t necessarily reflect those of the paper. He can be reached at budtabler@gmail.com.
