It has become a common theme around UNLV’s basketball team, this game-by-game analysis by others of Chris Wood. Of his production and attitude and effort and whether that eating motion he makes after sinking a 3-pointer is really necessary or, well, just another level of self-serving folly.
There is something magical about a small town. Something perfectly dreadful and yet charmingly nostalgic. The people of it understand each other, seemingly always straddling a line between love and hate, acceptance and resentment. Until heartache arrives. Then a small town unites.
On any other day, Stephen Curry’s seven 3-pointers would have been the only story. Sideshow aside, Curry shot life back into the Golden State Warriors, and that’s what mattered most to underdog bettors. The Warriors were aiming to get even in a first-round playoff series. The Los Angeles Clippers are tied up in a full-blown media circus.
In this high-stakes poker game, Billy Donovan is holding a real cool hand. The Florida coach has four senior starters and a sophomore who’s a hot shooter.
There isn’t a better teammate on UNLV than Khem Birch. He is as thoughtful and sincere a kid as the Rebels have had in years. His heart is as big as his wingspan, a young man who at times can be as naive as he is compassionate. There is no phony to him.
For some reason, the first thing that popped into mind upon reading former Brigham Young gunner Jimmer Fredette was on his way out with the NBA’s Kings was a “Seinfeld” episode called “The Jimmy.”
#rebelforlife. Yeah. That lasted two months. It was a hashtag that accompanied a tweet from Katin Reinhardt that refuted a Review-Journal article on the UNLV basketball team about rumors suggesting the freshman guard was considering a transfer.
Through the years, Jerry Tarkanian has remained steadfast. Unlike Pete Rose, he did not have to apologize. For anything. All that has changed is how the basketball establishment views him.
There is no better drama this time of year than the NCAA Tournament, enough to warrant time on any big screen.
When I see this season’s Florida Gulf Coast basketball team, I see the Jacksonville basketball team of 1969-70. They even play in the same conference, something called the Atlantic Sun. Twenty bucks and the home edition of “Jeopardy!” if you can name all 10 members.
