Beech Tree News Network

I usually opine about college basketball after NCAA finals … so here goes.
--- I seldom blame referees, but this season the officiating has smelled to high heaven.  The biggest blunder I witnessed all season, or maybe ever, was when two players on the same team went up for a rebound and both had their hands on the ball at the same time.  The ref called it “interference” and gave the ball to the opposing team.  There was at one time, may still be, if two teammates grabbed the ball at the same time and held it for so many seconds, that was a “jump-ball.”  OK.
--- All teams are weak on basic fundamentals.  When I was a wee lad I used to play ball with my older cousins in their back yard.  They were both on the high school varsity.  The first thing about defense they taught me was ALWAYS STAY BETWEEN YOUR MAN AND THE GOAL.  Time and again I see the defense get to “ball-watching.”  This is a costly fixation; the offense slips in behind and scores.  A fifth-grade mistake.  Watch your man, not the ball.
--- Too much selfishness.  Bobby Knight may not score very high as a likeable man, but he has one of the most astute coaching minds around.  His philosophy always was: “If the poorest shooter on the team is the only many open, pass it to him.  Players play on a team.”
--- All teams are weak on in-bound plays.  Needs work … lots of work.
--- Players need to learn they have a slim and none chance of making a basket, especially a long one, off a running dribble.  Not saying can’t, just saying slim.  Too many forces are acting on a body in motion, ruins accuracy.  Simple physics working against you is the clod in the churn: inertia, velocity, centrifugal force, centrifugal twisting-moment, and a hatfull more … you might could throw in ring-around-the-collar and dandruff … a little levity.
--- To say referees are not biased is to say they are not human.  I see it more in referees in certain geographical locations.  I’ll not elaborate, but to my mind the U. S. Civil War will never be over.  You cogitate.
We weren’t issued “what the big boys wore under their trunks,” so I wore “fruit-of-the-looms” under mine --- social security.
Shoot low sheriff, they’re ridin’ Shetland ponies.
Kindest regards …..