Lonzo Ball: Moving On To The NBA

In an post game interview after UCLA's heartbreaking loss to Kentucky on March 24, freshman guard Lonzo Ball told reporters he is off to the NBA. When a reporter asked Ball if that was his final game as a Bruin, Ball said, "Yeah that's my final game for UCLA. I appreciate all the fans and all the support." 

It did not come as a shock to most people considering the comments that his very outspoken father, LaVar Ball, has made regarding Lonzo's time at UCLA. Lonzo is a crafty guard with a lot of potential. He is the playmaker, the quarterback of the team. UCLA goes as he goes... or went, I guess I should say. 

I don't have a problem that Ball is headed to the NBA. He has the skills to be a premiere guard in the league and I believe that he is ready. But I do have a problem regarding this situation. First, the timing. Ball declared for the NBA directly after UCLA's loss to Kentucky in the sweet sixteen. In my opinion, I think that says a lot about him as a player. Your team just loss an extremely important game. For the seniors on your squad, they just played their last game. They would love to have just one more game let alone the three extra years you could have if you stayed. But yet, you go ahead and declare for the NBA. I think it's selfish to do that directly after the game. Ball made it all about him. It makes him look like he doesn't even care about the seniors or the team in general. Then it makes me question, "Did he ever really care about the team at all?" He did have an undeclared major which makes me think that he knew he was leaving after his first year anyway. Was he just in it for himself the whole time? 

Whatever the case, I cannot take away how great of a player he is. I am sure he will have success in the NBA. Good for him. But I think there are some unwritten rules when it comes to that kind of situation. A year ago when Peyton Manning won Super Bowl 50, he was asked a similar question, "Is this your final game of your career?" To that Manning responded, "I'll take some time to reflect, but I have a couple of priorities to take care of first." A month later, Manning announced that he was retiring. I think the way Peyton did it was extremely unselfish and classy. Maybe Ball could learn a thing or two from him. 

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below! 

- H²

A Truly Touching Moment

On Sunday (March 26), Mississippi State upset Baylor 94-85 to advance to the women's final four. The Lady Bulldogs junior standout guard, Morgan William, led all scorers with a game-high 41 points. She was absolutely phenomenal from start to finish, leaving the Lady Bears with too much too handle. William was 6-8 from three-point range, and sank clutch free throws in the final minutes of the game to lead her team to victory. 

As if advancing to the final four for the first time in program history wasn't enough, William was emotional for another reason. Almost three years to the date, William lost her father unexpectedly from a heart attack at the age of 44. He passed away her senior year of high school, but she knew that he was with her on Sunday night in Oklahoma City. 

At the conclusion of the game, Mississippi State head coach, Vic Schaefer, spoke highly about his 5'5" guard to ESPN in an interview. He even pulled her into the camera view and gave her some words of encouragement. It was a touching moment. Check out the emotional video below.

- H²

ESPN Dragging Out Cavs Sitting Their Big Three

On Saturday (March 18), head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Tyronn Lue, sat his big three against the Los Angeles Clippers to give them some rest. LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love sat the entire game. The Clippers went on to win the game in front of their home crowd 108-78.  

The NBA season is long and brutal. It's not like Lue wanted to lose the game, and I am sure he didn't want to lose by 30 points either. The NBA was not happy with Lue's decision because of the ratings and how many people tuned in to watch a game between two of the top teams in the NBA. 

LeBron made some comments about Lue's decision. Naturally, ESPN jumped all over this. Don't get me wrong, I love ESPN. I am just sick and tired of hearing about what LeBron said and this entire situation about sitting players. Yes, I get it. The NBA is upset with Lue's decision; however, what does Adam Silver expect the Cavs and the 29 other NBA teams to do when their schedules are crammed? It is just one of those things where the NBA can't do much about it, and neither can the teams. Let it go ESPN. I doubt people will remember that on March 18, 2017 Lue sat LeBron, Kyrie, and Kevin because they needed rest. 

The only people I feel bad for in this situation are the fans. People pay a lot of money to watch an NBA game, and when they go to see these stars play and they sit, it can be very disappointing. 

Once again, I understand ESPN's job is to report news so I have no problem with them reporting this story. I just feel like sometimes ESPN drags out one story that doesn't even deserve much attention because they can't find anything else to talk about. 

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below! 

- H²

Round of 32: Upset City

The March Madness Round of 32 was filled with upsets. The defending national champions were knocked off, a seventh ranked team knocked off a second ranked team, and a few Big Ten teams are proving to be serious contenders with theirs wins. 

East 

Eight ranked Wisconsin upset the number one overall all seed Villanova by a score of 65-62. Wisconsin's star guard, Bronson Koenig, sat on the bench a lot of the game due to foul trouble; however, he gave the Badgers a boost in the final minutes of the game to knock off the defending national champions. 

Number two ranked Duke was upset by number seven ranked South Carolina by a score of 88-81. The Gamecocks forced the Blue Devils to commit 18 turnovers which proved to be the deciding factor in the game. This is the first time in program history that South Carolina is in the sweet sixteen. 

West 

The eleventh ranked Xavier Musketeers stomped the third ranked Florida State Seminoles by a score of 91-66. The Musketeers zone defense proved to be too much for the Seminoles. Five Musketeers scored in double figures. 

Midwest 

Number seven ranked Michigan upset number two ranked Louisville by a score of 73-69. The Big Ten Champion Wolverines have been nothing less than spectacular the past few weeks. Led by their exceptional guard, Derrick Walton Jr., Michigan committed only 6 turnovers in their big win. Ever since their plane scare a few weeks ago, the Wolverines have been playing at another level. 

South

There were no upsets in the South region of the bracket. The number one, two, three, and four seeds all advanced to the sweet sixteen (UNC, Kentucky, UCLA, Butler). 

With all of the upsets, my two brackets are not looking very good. However, I chose Kentucky to win it all in one and UCLA to win it all in the other. My predictions for the national championship are still alive. 

- H²

NCAA March Madness; Who Will Win?

It's the best time of the year again: MARCH MADNESS! With the first round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament coming to a close, I have only missed 4 picks on my bracket. Check out my bracket below! 

I am sitting in a pretty good position. The teams that have lost so far are teams that I do not have advancing into the second round of the tournament. In the CBS pool ran by a family friend, I am in sitting in third place. Not too shabby.

The only thing I regret doing is picking UCLA to win the entire tournament. Lonzo Ball and the rest of the Bruins are a great team but I just do not see them winning the entire tournament. After watching Kentucky win the SEC Championship, I see the blue and white winning the entire tournament. When the Wildcats play together, they are absolutely unstoppable. I truly believe this is Kentucky's year.

I guess we will just have to wait and see. 

- H²

Twitter Erupts After ESPN Comments on Katie Lou Samuelson

On March 6, 2017, University of Connecticut Women's Basketball guard, Katie Lou Samuelson, had a record breaking night. The sophomore scored 40 points, while going 10-10 from the three-point range. With that game, Samuelson set the Division I record for consecutive three-pointers in a game.

ESPN posted a story highlighting her performance on twitter. They captioned the tweet by saying, "No NBA player has ever gone 10-10 on 3-point FG." With that, twitter went crazy. I monitored the comment section and all I saw was hate. People from all around the globe commented on the post saying that one cannot compare a women's college basketball player to an NBA player. 

In my opinion, I feel that ESPN lacked inclusiveness in the caption. Is it an unfair comparison? The most simple answer is yes; however, I don't think you can make a comparison. The NBA and women's college basketball are extremely different, neither being better or worse than the other. I know, at the end of the day it is just basketball. But there are so many different factors that do not match up between both levels. 

I believe that if ESPN wanted to go with this comparison, a better caption would be, "No professional basketball player has ever gone 10-10 on 3-point FG." That way, you are including the NBA and the WNBA. 

Nonetheless, one cannot take away anything from Katie Lou Samuelson. Being perfect from 'downtown' is not easy to do. Kudos to her. That was a heck of a performance.

- H²

Kim Mulkey Emotional, Regretful Over Remarks

Baylor University has found itself in the spotlight. On January 27, a lawsuit was filed against Baylor University and the Baylor football program. The lawsuit claims that 31 Baylor football players allegedly committed at least 52 acts of rape over the course of three years, starting in 2015. Apart from the football program, at least 125 Baylor students have reported being sexually assaulted during that period of time. Needless to say, Baylor University is in a lot of trouble. 

After recording her 500th career win on Saturday, Baylor Women's Basketball coach Kim Mulkey stood in front of her home crowd at the Ferrell Center and responded to the controversy surrounding Baylor. After praising the University, Mulkey said, "If somebody is around you and they ever say ‘I will never send my daughter to Baylor,’ you knock them right in the face." 

At first, Mulkey stood by her comments showing no regret in the post-game press conference; however, days later she expressed her remorse over her words. On Monday February 27, Mulkey spoke in a press conference. Check out her apology below. 

In my opinion, I feel like Mulkey did not intend for her words to be taken in a negative, harsh manner. While I believe she should've used a better choice of words, Mulkey was not disregarding all of the alleged rape/sexual assault victims. She knows very bad things have happened at Baylor, but she continues to show her loyalty to the university through this difficult time. I just think her words were very insensitive to the situation. 

I feel like Mulkey did the right thing by addressing the media and apologizing for her remarks regarding the victims. It is not an easy thing to stand up in front of the media (aka the whole world) and admit what she said was wrong... but she did. For that, I feel like it has to count for something. Her controversial words have already sparked a raging fire in so many. It will be interesting to see if she receives any more backlash from this incident. 

- H²