Thank Yous & Turkeys: College Hoopdom Food-For-Thought Cheers & Jeers
More than 20,000 thank yous can't begin to express infinite appreciation for setting the stage regarding procedure in Texas saving life of a grandson when he was only two days old. The gratitude beyond measure is for world-famous heart surgeon Dr. Denton Cooley, who performed well in excess of 20,000 open-heart operations before passing away several years ago at the age of 96. He was a three-year letterman (1938-39 through 1940-41) on Texas basketball teams combining for a 51-21 record. The 6-3 Cooley, named the 32nd most influential student-athlete in 2006 when the NCAA celebrated its centennial anniversary, saw action in both of the Longhorns' games in the inaugural NCAA Tournament in 1939 after they captured the Southwest Conference championship.
"I've always had the opinion that my training in athletics equipped me for a life in medicine," Houston-based Dr. Cooley said, "and particularly in surgery because there's so much of the physical part involved. Surgery is a specialty in which a person must have vigor and a healthy body to perform at his peak. It requires a certain amount of physical training as well as mental training. In surgery, operations are accomplished by teams. As in athletics, a strong individual effort is possible only with the support of a good team. The morale of the team must be maintained by the captain. And these are the things individuals learn in a program of competitive sports. We learn to accept defeat but not to be satisfied with defeat; that there is no alternative for winning. Extra effort and determination and hard work and practice are what lead to accomplishment and victory."
Again, thank you Dr. Cooley for your extra effort and determination and hard work. A Thanksgiving holiday week absolutely should include the time-honored tradition of a smorgasbord mulling over a mixture of heartfelt Thank Yous while also chewing on tasteless Turkeys. The list of candidates in college basketball is extensive stemming from issues and individuals your most grateful for and those of dubious distinction. Following is a healthy serving of food-for-thought Thanksgiving tributes and tongue-lashings for hoop observers to gobble-gobble up:
THANK YOUS
Cheers to mid-major players deserving post-season recognition this season if A-A voters are paying attention.
Cheers to multiple players carrying the torch for their father at the same school dear old dad attended or playing under their father at the same university.
Cheers to this season's crop of entertaining freshmen although they pale in comparison to the depth exhibited by gifted group in 1979-80.
Cheers to ex-college hoopers dominating as NFL tight ends as long as they don't #KneelWithJemele or #ColonKrapernick.
Cheers to Canada, which could again provide a north-of-the-border All-American.
Cheers to the Big East Conference, which appears to be continuing a renaissance after losing prominent members to supposedly superior leagues.
Cheers to "old-school" seniors for not abandoning college hoops early and giving the sport at least some modicum of veteran leadership by attending the same school their entire career.
Cheers to pristine playmakers who show again and again that "pass" is not a dirty four-letter word amid the obsession with individualistic one-on-one moves by self-absorbed one-and-done scholars.
Cheers to model coaches who have their egos in check and carry their personal profiles in school media guides after, not before, the player bios.
Cheers to upstanding schools having their academic priorities in order although it is getting increasingly difficult not to accept the stereotype that universities need to be one-dimensional sports factories to assemble successful NCAA Division I basketball programs.
Cheers to entertaining little big men (players 5-10 or shorter) who inspire us with their self-confidence and mental toughness in the Land of the Giants.
Cheers to women's hoops, which has improved immeasurably while the men's game has suffered somewhat from inattention to fundamentals such as competent free-throw shooting. The team-oriented women look for passing angles to teammates "flashing" into the lane while far too many one-dimensional men seek camera angles to trigger a "flash-dance" routine. Some of the self-centered men haven't quite comprehended it isn't platform diving or figure skating they're participating in and you don't secure extra points for degree of difficulty.
Cheers to junior college players and foreigners who overcome perceptions in some misguided quarters that they are the rogues of recruiting. Many of the premier players decades ago first attended a juco to help establish their credentials but lowering of academic standards has significantly reduced that flow.
Cheers to the numerous promising first-year coaches assuming control of programs this season. They need to remember the fortitude exhibited by many of the biggest names in coaching who rebounded from embarrassing defeats in their first season as a head coach. An active luminary who lost multiple games to non-Division I colleges in his initial campaign before ascending to stardom as the all-time winningest coach is Duke's Mike Krzyzewski (lost to SUNY-Buffalo, Scranton and King's College in 1975-76 while coaching Army).
TURKEYS
Jeers to Hall of Fame coaches Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), Tom Izzo, Rick Pitino, Bill Self and Roy Williams (North Carolina) for respective Eeyore-like analysis after their schools became immersed in assorted Hall of Shame scandals. How close did Mike "Let's Move On" Krzyzewski come to joining this negative ACC-heavy list in aftermath of reasons for recruiting player paid by AAU coach/convicted felon, Reggie Love's profane party photographs, mediocre starter having $100G in jewelry, Rasheed Sulaimon's "Title IX" departure from Duke and one-and-done rental player Jahlil Okafor's infatuation with clubbing before the then NBA rookie center acquired a baby-sitting security guard before ever helping the Philadelphia 76ers win a game?
Jeers to Division I schools in a chaotic restructuring of conferences forsaking tradition although the quest for mega-leagues could be delusional because they're vying for television revenue that might not exist as network sports divisions operate at ample deficits in pandemic era.
Jeers to the striking number of power conference members who've provided a long list of players on their rosters participating in an authentic "War on Women."
Jeers to recruiting services incapable of discerning who should have been a Top 100 recruit coming out of high school. Ditto to announcers who infect the sport by spreading this virus without ever seeing any of the players enough to properly evaluate them.
Jeers to marquee coaches such as Bruce Pearl (Auburn) who've served up assistants as sacrificial lambs when the heat of an investigation of their program intensifies. Let's hope Pearl recognizes his current residence and has lower percentage of his latest SEC roster run afoul of the law than he did with Tennessee.
Jeers to anyone who incessantly castigates the majority of undergraduates declaring early for the NBA draft. Before accepting the party line that many of the players are making monumental mistakes by forgoing their remaining college eligibility, remember that more than half of the NBA's All-Pro selections in the last several decades left college early or never attended a university.
Jeers to any school for not promptly granting a recruit seeking to enroll elsewhere a release from its letter-of-intent when he wants to attend another institution for legitimate reasons.
Jeers to "Me Generation" showmen who've failed to comprehend their respective teams don't benefit on the court from a trash-talking Harlem Globetrotter routine.
Jeers to self-absorbed players who spend more time getting tattoos and practicing macho dunks than team beneficial free throws. It all hinges on dedication. There is a reason they're supposed to be "free" throws instead of Shaq-like "foul" shots.
Jeers to high-profile coaches who take off for greener pastures despite having multiple years remaining on their contract or don sweaters and workout gear with a logo of a sneaker manufacturer instead of their school during TV games and interviews. Where is their allegiance?
Jeers to network analysts when they serve as apologists for the coaching community. When their familiar refrain echoes throughout hoopdom, they become nothing more than the big mouths that bore.
Jeers to marquee schools forsaking entertaining non-conference games with natural rivals while scheduling a half-dozen or more meaningless "rout-a-matics" at home.
Jeers to several colleges hiring tainted coaches, showing winning is still more important than dignity at some schools of lower learning. The crass-act enablers of academic anemia know who they are!
Jeers to defrauding coaches who manipulate junior colleges and high schools into giving phony grades to regal recruits even before encouraging them to take lame courses at their day-care facilities to keep the team GPA out of danger zone. Ditto coaches who steer prize high-school prospects to third parties toying with standardized test results.
Jeers to "fatherly-advice" coaches who don't mandate that any player with pro potential take multiple financial literacy courses. Did they notice in recent years that products from Alabama, Georgia Tech, Georgetown, Kentucky and Syracuse filed for bankruptcy after combining for more than half a billion dollars in salaries over their NBA careers? What contrived classes such as Afro Studies at North Carolina are taken in college anyway if a staggering 60% of NBA players file for bankruptcy five years after retirement?
Jeers to overzealous fans who seek to flog freshmen for not living up to their high school press clippings right away. The impatient onlookers need to get a grip on themselves.
Jeers to the excessive number of small schools thinking they can compete at the Division I level. There are far too many examples of dreamy-eyed small schools that believe competing with the big boys will get them national recognition, make big bucks from the NCAA Tournament and put the institutions on the map. They don't know how unrealistic that goal is until most of the HBCU and hyphenated/directional schools barnstorm the country during their non-conference schedules in college basketball versions of Bataan Death Marches.
Jeers to lap-dog media embarrassed looking the other way at Louisville when stripped naked by lap-dancing Katina the Escort keeping copious copulation comments to assemble one of the biggest stories of the decade (Get Your Fill in the Ville) while the press passed out from Pitino Personality or his bourbon. How many other Pitino Places are out there such as Bo Knows Affairs at Wisconsin?
Jeers to coaches who weigh in on political issues thinking anyone cares about their self-serving views. They sound dumb as a doorknob (a/k/a rooftop-dancing bartender AOC).
Jeers to ESPN (Extra Sensitive Pious Network) for rejecting a charity hospital ad promoting Jesus several years ago while giving forums to individuals who either lie to NCAA investigators as a head coach, lose new coaching job due to drunkenness, become a recruiting guru for the network after shady dealings at the highest level, specialize in man-check motivation, practice reprehensible race-baiting with the intellectually-bankrupt "Uncle Tom" bomb (Jalen Rose), damage our ears with Screamin' A. Stiff or spew journalistic-junk spin over the years with lunatic liberal propagandists Howard Bryant, LZ Granderson, Jemelle Hill and Bomani Jones.