Perfection on various courts

I love the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.

Mostly, anyway. Really, I love the existence of and idea of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.

The execution of the Hall, though, is sadly dated and a bit stale.

Yes, I loved watching the introductory slide show the first time I saw it, but that was twenty-some years ago when the Hall opened.

And many of the exhibits were interesting...the first time.

I've, in fact, thought about donating a couple days of my summer time to help the Hall do some of the grunt work around the place, relabeling, correcting, dusting, whatever-they-needing.

I am more than excited (ecstatic, joyous, bubbly, thrilled), however, that the Hall is filming a replacement introductory video.

They've been filming some pretty impressive, Indiana basketball greats (both men and women) in some pretty outstanding locations...

• Damon Bailey in Bedford's gym (wish they'd visited Seymour High School)
• Larry Bird in...maybe his restaurant in Terre Haute
• Oscar Robertson in...maybe his house
• Steve Alford in the New Castle Fieldhouse, largest high school gym in the world and one of my favorite sports venues
• George McGinnis in Indianapolis Washington High School
• Bobby Plump in Hinkle Fieldhouse
• Stephanie White in Banker's Life Fieldhouse
• Katie Douglas (ok, I don't know her) in Southport High School's gym
• Judi Warren (1st Miss Basketball) in Hinkle Fieldhouse

Check out the photos on their Facebook post about the new film. Here are a couple of my favorites.

The awesomeness of Kelsey Mitchell

So, just how awesome is Kelsey Mitchell?

As the Buckeyes season wrapped up with a round of 32 loss to North Carolina, Kelsey set the following records...

• With three three-point field goals, including a tying basket with 39 seconds remaining, Kelsey Mitchell set the all-time NCAA single-season record for three-point field goals made with 127. Lisa McMullen of Arkansas State (1990-91) and Sade Logan of Robert Morris (2007-08) previously held the record with 126.
• Mitchell made at least one three pointer in all 35 games this season, an NCAA record for consecutive games in a season with a three-point field goal.  
• Mitchell scored 873 points this season, which leads the country. That is also the second-most points ever scored by an NCAA Division I freshman in a season. She finished 25 points behind Tina Hutchinson of San Diego State, who scored 898 points during the 1983-84 season.
• Mitchell's 873 points scored is a Big Ten single-season record, previously set by Kelly Mazzante of Penn State (872) in 2001-02.

Requium for a way of life

Nice tour of New Castle's Chrysler fieldhouse, the largest high school gymnasium in the world. The fieldhouse seats 9325 people over at Max Preps.

It's awesome.

Kobe Bryant, all about the volume...

This bit of statistical trivia came across ESPN's website this morning...

• Kobe Bryant had the 121st 40-point game of his career Sunday, but did so shooting 15-of-34 from the field. According to the Elias Sports Bureau research, only Wilt Chamberlain (72) has more games with 40 points when shooting less than 50 percent than Bryant's 51. No other NBA player in NBA history has more than 29 such games. 

It's early, and thinking about statistical projections when you're ten games into an eighty-two game season is foolish, but...from ESPN's NBA stats pages

• Kobe is currently second in the league, averaging 27.3 points per game (half a point behind LeBron). 
• Kobe is leading the league in field goals attempted by a pretty big margin (244 for Kobe in 10 games, 218 for Carmelo in 11 games, nobody else above 190).
• Kobe has the 119th best shooting percentage (37.7%) of all players who qualify for the leader boards...just behind Kevin Love (#118) and James Harden (#117).
• In points per shot, Kobe does come in a little better at #106 in the NBA with 1.12 points per shot.

Long term, this is clearly an aberration in  Kobe's shooting percentage for his career as he's shot 45.3% for his career and hasn't ever before shot lower than the 41.7% of his rookie season. Of course, this year's field goal attempts (24.4 per game) would be his second highest of his career after his 2005-06 season when he averaged 27.2 shots per game but scored 35.2 points per game on 45.0% shooting.

I mention all of this because a student of mine this past week mentioned that Kobe had set the record for most field goals missed in an NBA career at 13471 (and counting very quickly). The student then explained that there must be a correlation between shots missed, shots taken, and talent. Clearly, he said, anybody who's allowed to shoot that much must be making lots of their shots.

That's somewhat true, but the correlation between shots taken and missed is far from 1.0 for the greatest players.

The top shooters (field goals attempted all-time - from pro-basketball reference)...

1. Kareem - 28307
2. Karl Malone - 26210
3. Kobe - 24618 (would take two solid years of playing to catch Kareem)
4. Michael Jordan - 24537
5. Elvin Hayes - 24272
   (Kevin Garnett is the next active at #14 with 20792)

The top missers (field goals missed - also from pro-basketball reference)...

1. Kobe - 13471
2. John Havlicek - 13417
3. Elvin Hayes - 13296
4. Karl Malone - 12682
5. Kareem - 12470
   (Vince Carter is the next active at #13 with 10667)

The top makers (field goals made - same source)...

1. Kareem - 15837
2. Karl Malone - 13528
3. Wilt - 12681
4. Michael Jordan - 12192
5. Dr J - 11818
6. Shaq - 11330
7. Kobe - 11147 (would take six more years at current year's shooting percentage to get to #1)
   (Kevin Garnett is next among actives at #14 with 10341)

Top scorers (total points - from pro-basketball)

1. Kareem - 38287
2. Karl Malone - 36928
3. Michael Jordan - 32292
4. Kobe - 31973 (would take about three more years at this year's scoring average and really good health to get to #1)
5. Wilt - 31419
   (Dirk Nowitzki is the next active player at #11 with 26989)

The crack about Kobe not passing isn't entirely true. He has 5963 assists for his career, good for the #32 most of all time, averaging 3.8 assists per game (down from his career average of 4.8 per game).

McDonald's doesn't make the best burgers in the land, but they sell a ton of them.

Kobe Bryant is McDonald's...he's Wal-Mart...he's r-selected.

I taught her everything she knows...

...about stoichiometry.

Kelsey Mitchell, Princeton's career scoring leader, Ohio's Ms. Basketball and the Gatorade Player of the Year in Ohio.

And a heck of a chemistry student for me last year.

Update: My top tens

In a post two weeks ago, I listed my top ten movies, books, albums, comic books, and restaurants. I ended by asking if there were any other top tens you'd like to know. Smamy asked for my favorite sports venues.

In no particular order but grouped by sport...

• Seymour High School (high school basketball)
• I spent a number of March Saturdays in the Seymour gymnasium, often watching three games in a day, something that doesn't happen in the Indiana state tournament any more, sadly. I sat courtside. I sat in the highest extremes. I saw Bobby Knight in the stands. I saw Damon Bailey break the state scoring record. I saw New Albany win, and I had my heart broken.
• Southport High School (high school basketball)
• I've only seen a game and a half there, both in the same day when New Albany was undefeated and headed to an obvious state title - only they weren't because of Brownsburg High School and Gordon Hayward.
• New Castle High School (high school basketball)
• New Castle's gymnasium is the largest high school gymnasium in the country with seating for 9,325 rabid fans. I've never seen it full, but I love going to the Hall of Fame tournament whenever I can.
• Dayton Arena (college basketball)
• Five games are played there in a day for the Ohio high school basketball tournament, and they're pretty good games since it's the round of 32 for the state. I've never managed my dream of seeing all five even once. I have seen Princeton play there a number of times in the lucky years when the team is good and the tournament draw is right. I also got to see Indiana edge Temple in the second round of the NCAA tournament last year - admittedly in slightly worse seats.
• Assembly Hall (college basketball)
• Indiana's gymnasium is the first place that I saw a college basketball game, and at this point it's the last one I've seen one. Throughout the years I was taken there by my parents, and I've come to make a pilgrimage there once a year as an adult. I love the place.
• Cintas Center (college basketball)
• This is another place where I've seen Princeton's state title hopes end unsuccessfully and thankfully stay alive a number of times. It's often where the first few rounds are played and always where the Cincinnati area's final four representative is decided. Once since I've been at Princeton that representative was that Vikings.
• PNC Park (baseball)
• The Girl and I have made a number of rounds to various major league ballparks over the years, not having visited a new one for a long while now, though. The Pittsburgh stadium, at the confluences of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers is absolutely the perfect stadium. It's marvelously well designed and gorgeous.
• Wrigley Field (baseball)
• Without romance, without beauty, without the marvels of baseball, this is an aging, outdated, cramped stadium. With the romance, with the beauty of the ivy, with the marvelously picturesque, it's near perfection.
• Mud Hollow (soccer)
• Sure, this is because I lived in the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house and was able to watch a soccer game on our land, haranguing the visiting goalie from over his shoulder - we weren't allowed to stand right behind the goal. Once we were even told by the university that we were being too nasty and negative and had to move to the sidelines. I'm not proud of it, but those were some good times.
• Little Giant Stadium (football)
• For the homecoming games and parades and beauty pageants alone... 

I've been two NFL stadia - the Hoosier Dome and Paul Brown Stadium (only from the concession stands, never seeing an actual game).

I've been to a number of major league baseball stadia...

• Atlanta - Turner Field 
• Baltimore - Oriole Park at Camden Yards
• Chicago - Wrigley Field, US Cellular Field
• Cincinnati - Great American Ballpark, Riverfront Stadium
• Cleveland - Jacobs Field
• Detroit - Comerica Park
• Miami - Sun Life Stadium
• Milwaukee - Miller Park
• Minneapolis - Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome (now torn down)
• New York - Shea Stadium, Yankee Stadium (both now torn down)
• Philadelphia - Citizen's Bank Park
• Pittsburgh - PNC Park
• St Louis - Busch Stadium (now torn down)
• Washington, DC - Nationals Park

...and a few minor league ballparks - Durham, Indianapolis, Louisville, Dayton.

I've seen big-time tennis in two cities - Cincinnati and Indianapolis, including the Davis Cup in the latter.

I've seen one major league soccer game - the Columbus Crew when they were playing at The Horseshoe on Ohio State's campus.

I've seen high school basketball in dozens and dozens of other gymnasiums - mostly in Indiana and some in Ohio.

I've seen a couple of minor league hockey games - in Cincinnati and Indianapolis.

"Hoosiers revisited" visited

A couple of weeks ago Calen and I went to New Castle High School to see the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Classic tournament - won by Greensburg in two impressive performances - and stopped by the Hall of Fame and museum across the parking lot. While we were there we tried watching "Hoosiers revisited", a video playing in the museum.

Luckily there was a sign saying the video was available on YouTube.

And, yeah, I have something in my eye. There's an eyelash. Shut up...

And, man, I need to gets to Knightstown.

Larry and Bill...heaven...

Holy crap did I enjoy watching this.

I could listen to Bird talk basketball forever, and bringing in Bill Simmons to lead Larry...wow...

Simmons is enough of a fanboy to play to Bird's ego, but he's also knowledgeable enough to push Bird to some interesting places.

Watch this today.

Funny AT&T commercials

I appreciate that AT&T set up these two great commercials with a pretty solid ad campaign and then perfect timing during the NCAA tourney.





The hug is marvelous...

Survival...barely...

Had a blast at UDayton Arena today. Two very close games...

Much happier when it was OSU in trouble. I've nothing invested in them.

Terrified for most of the IU-Temple game, but IU survived...thankfully.

Court briefs

It's my favorite time of the year: March Madness.

I spent a few hours this weekend watching basketball - wish it was more hours, but the Hoosiers took it on the chin against Wisconsin again. In the process I noticed two really pretty things...

First there's the Big Ten's logo for their basketball tournament. It was on the center of the United Center court, and it's just gorgeous...

It's pretty enough just on its own, but it's even better when you look at where the design originates. Each of the color flags represents one of the Big Ten's eleven(yeah, I know - there are twelve and it's still the Big Ten) schools. I'll run through which I think is which in clock order...

1. red & grey - Ohio State (or Wisconsin)
2. red & white - Indiana
3. purple & orange - Minnesota
4. red & dark grey/black - Wisconsin (or Ohio State)
5. purple & lighter purple - Northwestern
6. dark blue & light blue - Penn State (though I've never seen them in the light blue)
7. green & light green - Michigan State (again, haven't seen the light green)
8. gold & black - Purdue
9. yellow & blue - Michigan
10. yellow & black - Iowa
11. orange & blue - Illinois

Apparently Nebraska's addition a few years back didn't merit changing the logo. I'm curious as to whether Maryland & Rutgers will get any addition/change or not.

The other outstanding court design that I saw this weekend was the Mountain West's entire court design.

I'm not necessarily sold on the Reese's logos, but that's just for the money. I love, love, love the mountains along the bottom side of the court. 

In the whole-court design shown there, though, the true glory of the court doesn't quite shine through. The designs aren't painted on the court but are rather either inlaid or varnished in darker stains of wood as part of the court. Up close (at least up close on TV as I saw it), the design is just stunning. Check ESPN's photos of the UNLV-New Mexico conference championship game.

The Big East is dead! Long live the Big East!

ESPN is reporting that the 'Catholic 7' schools have finally agreed to keep the Big East name as they form their new conference. The parts of the article that surprised me...

• Joining the Catholic 7 schools -- DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, and Villanova -- in the new "Big East" this fall will be Xavier and Butler, sources said.
  
  Creighton has emerged as the favorite to become the 10th team, and would also join next season, according to sources. - Really? So we'll have NYC teams playing against Nebraska teams?
• The departure of the Catholic 7 schools, which would officially begin their new league on July 1, also could mean Notre Dame joins the ACC this summer instead of 2014.
  
  Sources said Notre Dame has planned on remaining in the Big East for the 2013-14 academic year as long as the Catholic 7 schools did so. However, if those schools left before then, the Fighting Irish would also look to join the ACC this summer.
  
  If unable to join the ACC in 2013-14, the Fighting Irish would consider spending one season in the Catholic 7 league before moving to the ACC in 2014, a source said. - Notre Dame, whore of the world...how the heck would the Catholic 7 really start play this fall?
• While Butler, Xavier and, most likely, Creighton are expected to join the new Big East this fall, the Catholic 7 schools are also expected to add Dayton and St. Louis in 2014 for a 12-team league.- Wow...that's an interesting league then. Barely in existence and already looking to get bigger. Sheesh...
• In the past two years, 16 schools have left or announced they were leaving the Big East. - That's a pretty staggering number. Man...

Dangerous thoughts

After last night's win, I'm starting to dream of a sixth banner...

Source

Let's take a trip

I'm thinking I'd like to start visiting some of the best college basketball arenas in the country, maybe one a year, probably over Christmas break.

I'd rather get to them in the heart of conference season, maybe sit courtside during the big rivalry game, but that could be a bit cost and time prohibitive.

So, what are the best arenas in the country?

• According to ESPN's Andy Katz...(arenas where I've already seen a game crossed off)
• Kansas - Phog Allen Field House
• Duke - Cameron Indoor Stadium
• San Diego State - Viejas Arena
• Louisville - KFC Yum! Center
• Butler - Hinkle Fieldhouse
• Indiana - Assembly Hall
• New Mexico - The Pit
• Gonzaga - The Kennel
• Arizona - McKale Center
• Kentucky - Rupp arena
• According to Travel Channel (repeats from prior lists avoided)
• Syracuse - Carrier Dome
• Arkansas - Bud Walton Arena
• Oklahoma State - Gallagher-Iba Arena
• Vanderbilt - Memorial Gym
• Stanford - Maples Pavillion
• UCLA - Pauley Pavillion
• Utah State - Smith Spectrum
• Penn - The Palestra
• North Carolina - Dean Dome
• Minnesota - Williams Arena
• Fannation (repeats avoided)
• Michigan State - Breslin Center
• From RantSports (repeats avoided)
• Wisconsin - Kohl Center
• From Rivals.com (repeats avoided)
• Florida - O'Connell Center
• St Bonaventure - Reilly Center
• UNLV - Thomas & Mack Center

Of those, anybody have a particular recommendations?

I thank you

To my loyal readers...

Goin' Frazey

The Girl noticed on the Fraze Pavilion schedule mailed to our manse that there's a certain famous person coming to Dayton on August 6. Looks like we'll be getting tickets...

Practicing a trip down memory lane

Happy 10th Anniversary, Answer...AI...you don't need to practice any more...



At least the man has a sense of humor...



Thanks, Calen for pointing this out...and for Jay Morrison from the Journal News for pointing it out to her...

I chose division II

Actually, I chose Division III, but it wasn't because of my athletics.

This past Thursday night, however, I chose to go see the NCAA Men's Division II basketball national semifinals because they were being played over at the Bank of Kentucky Arena on Northern Kentucky University's campus.

The NCAA brought in all eight of their Elite Eight teams into Northern Kentucky to play the Elite Eight on Wednesday, the Final Four on Thursday, and the championship on Saturday. I have two connections to Bellarmine athletics - Coach Sullivan is an assistant for the women's basketball team, and the men's team has a NAHS graduate in their National Player of the Year, Braydon Hobbs. The men's team spent much of the year ranked #1, so I knew they had a good chance to make it that far. With that spirit I hit up Ticketmaster to get myself and The Girl a pair of tickets for the Final Four round. At only $12 for full price - and The Girl being able to get the three buck student discount, the tickets were a bargain. Sure, the $4 convenience charge didn't thrill me, but that's what I get for wanting to be assured of a ticket.

We got there mid-way through the first half of the first game, in time to see the Western Washington Vikings take on the Stonehill Skyhawks (with their awful mascot costume). Clearly, there was no need for me to worry about getting a ticket...

Seriously, I know that WWU is 2450 miles and that Stonehill is 930 miles from NKU as the Google flies, but I would've thought they might be able to get a bus of students rolling across somewhere. Instead, WWU had about twenty parents cheering for them. Stonehill did have a few students at the game.

Once the Bellarmine crowd started to show up for their 9:30 game,the place at least started to fill in a bit. Bellarmine is only 100 miles away from the Bank of Kentucky Center...

It's not like all the seats in the place were taken up, just that Bellarmine outdrew all the rest of the teams combined.

Sadly, Braydon and the Bellarmine Knights came up short, falling 79-72 to Montevallo.

Of course it saved me from having to pick up tickets for the championship game on Saturday - where Western Washington took down Montevallo 72-65.

The most wonderful time...of the year

I love March...love it...

I've seen a half dozen high school basketball games in the past few weeks (though, sadly, the Princeton Vikings came up short in both girls and boys this year). I also managed to catch the Bellarmine-NKU women's game a while back and am hoping to catch Bellarmine's men's team in the elite eight in a week or so.

Plus, the D-I championships are ready to get under way after eight of the top ten teams (including all of the top four) lost this past week.

And, MIT is playing the D-III national semifinals this weekend. Go Engineers!

Now I just have to get to Thursday so I can watch games for four straight days.

Still?

The #3 University of Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team beat the #13 Georgetown Hoyas by a score of 80-38 today.

I get that the spread from the best women's teams to the next batch of good women's teams has historically been HUGE, but I was under the impression that the gap was getting smaller.

What the hell, then, was this?