PUSHING PACE

Tennessee played Michigan State in men’s basketball on Sunday afternoon. It was an exhibition game. The Volunteers won 89-88.

Rick Barnes is the head coach at Tennessee; he used to have an assistant coach named Brian Cousins. What ever happened to him?

Tennessee jumped out to a 15-1 lead to start the game.

I like Dalton Knecht of Tennessee; he’s nice.

Bill Raftery calling Xavier Booker “The X Man,” is not good. There’s only one “X-Man.” That was Xavier McDaniel.

Just once I’d like to see a basketball player get up off the floor instead of a teammate helping him up.

I like the Detroit Pistons. They play the right way. They beat the Chicago Bulls Saturday night 118-102, snapping a 15-game losing streak to the Bulls.

Zach LaVine, DeMarr DeRozan, RJ Barrett, Julius Randle…Bulls and Knicks will never go far with these guys. They may get their numbers but they are not helping you win big games and not making guys around them better. Split them up.

Draymond Green is back for the Warriors.

Denver Nuggets off to a 3-0 start.

Atlanta Hawks beat the Milwaukee Bucks Sunday night by 17. Damian Lillard shot 2-12.

Clippers crushed the Spurs by 40.

LeBron James had 27 points, 15 rebounds and 8 assists in a losing effort against the Kings.

Magic Johnson is a billionaire according to Forbes magazine. Magic should build a basketball facility in his hometown of Lansing, Michigan. I would run it for him.

I’m pulling for St. John’s to turn it around with Rick Pitino. Johnnies beat Rutgers in an exhibition game but lost to Pace, a D-2 school.

Shilo Sanders of Colorado had a big hit on a UCLA receiver Saturday night. Sanders was ejected for targeting. The flex pose after the hit was weak.

Giants-Jets was an awful game this past Sunday.

Happy birthday Phil Chenier.

R.I.P. Frank Howard.

HORNS UP

Last week I was watching Michigan-Michigan State football on NBC. The announcer said MSU football was trending up.

WHAT?

I believe the Spartans were down 42-0 at the time of the comment.

If you follow sports, you know about the situation at MSU. If you don’t, just google Mel Tucker.

The Wolverines beat MSU 49-0. The week before the Spartans blew an 18-point lead entering the 4th quarter at Rutgers and lost the game. Today they got beat at Minnesota 27-12. They have now lost six straight games. Their record is 2-6.

Let’s be honest; they are not trending up, they are trending down.

It’s going to take a while before Michigan State is relevant in the Big Ten.

The new head coach is going to have a tough job.

Speaking of Michigan football – their situation with the recording of games by a staff member is bad. Funny thing is they are so talented they don’t need to do that.

The James Harden situation in Philadelphia is ridiculous. Just let him go. Remember in 1976 when the New York Nets sold Julius Erving to the 76ers for $3 million dollars?

Middle school basketball season is underway. I am beginning my third season as head coach. I love it.

Currently reading an outstanding book by Jerry Lynch, “Let Them Play.” It’s about youth sports, coaches, parents and players. Good stuff.

Did you see the video clip of the basketball ref punching the coach on the sidelines?

Jim Boeheim was hired by ESPN. I recall driving to Syracuse taking a high school player on an unofficial visit. We met assistant coach Wayne Morgan, Boeheim wasn’t around. Not sure where he was.

Good for Charles Barkley speaking up to Adam Silver about domestic violence in the NBA. Guys can’t put their hands on a woman.

I have already seen mention of “MVP” leaders in the NBA. They haven’t even played one full week.

HBO Real Sports with a fantastic feature on Dan Hurley, head coach at UConn. Also features his dad Bob and brother Bobby. Must see…

Why do announcers scream while announcing games? I tried watching the NBA on opening night and the broadcast was quickly put on mute. Phil Mushnick of the New York Post has recently written about these types of announcers.

E-Mail: SteveFinamore@Yahoo.com

SHAI GILGEOUS-ALEXANDER

It’s all about the team…

HUBERT DAVIS

Men’s head basketball coach at the University of North Carolina.

WINNERS WIN

Michigan beat Michigan State 49-0 on Saturday night. The Wolverines are on a roll.

Jim Harbaugh’s team has won 33 of their 36 games.

They are 22-1 in their last 23 Big Ten Games.

I love their culture in Ann Arbor and love QB JJ Mccarthy. Here was his comment after their victory Saturday night when asked about how they deal with the distractions?

(Update: Sunday, 12:50 PM) The “distractions” is an opposing coach accusing Michigan of scouting the opponent in-person which is a no-no. So the NCAA is starting an investigation. The staff member accused has been put on paid leave.)

EMOTIONAL RESCUE

Many people get emotional, angry, frustrated, perturbed…

I’ll be the first to admit, I have been jammed up in the past and have come out of it okay, sometimes not okay.

We all have a breaking point.

Jared Grasso, men’s head basketball coach at Bryant University is involved in a situation. Google his name and you can find out what’s happening. Recent;y a police officer showed up to his home. Here’s the body cam recording of the incident.

YOU WANT TO PLAY WITH THE BIG BOYS?

I started a new book about the Flint Water Crisis, “What the Eyes Don’t See.”

How about James Harden and his situation in Philadelphia. Haven’t we heard this story before?

Mel Tucker, former Michigan State head football coach – all the people that vouched for him when they were looking for a new coach, do they step forward and say, “we got it wrong?”

We need more multi-sport athletes. Why are kids giving up a sport to specialize?

Rich Paul has written a memoir. I am going to get it.

Dan Campbell has done a fantastic job with the Detroit Lions. If haters are going to blame a coach when te teams does poorly, I am going to hype them up when they win.

Be a real man and stop abusing women. Would you want someone doing that to your mother, sister or daughter?

I still have not watched a single pitch in the MLB playoffs. I listened to Derek Jeter the other night make his debut on the set with FOX. Good job. I love Jeter and his family. They did it the right way.

They want schoolteachers and coaches to do a better job with their kids? Parents, it starts with you first.

Michigan-Michigan State football this weekend in East Lansing. Last Big Ten loss for the Wolverines was against the Spartans. U of M have won 21 of their last 22 conference games. 32-3 in their last 35 games.

Penn State-Ohio State high noon on Fox this Saturday.

I have been lobbying for it for years. All-Star weekend with the NBA, International all-stars vs NBA all-stars.

A high school boys varsity basketball has been fired for not reporting a deviant situation with his JV coach.

https://www.mlive.com/highschoolsports/2023/10/derrick-mcdowell-among-4-farmington-basketball-coaches-fired-amid-sexual-assault-investigation.html

I GOT MY 5

ESPN recently came out with a Top 100 players list for the upcoming season.

I took a glance at their Top 10 and decided to come up with a list.

Here’s my Top 5:

UNFORCED TURNOVERS

What is up with Miles Bridges of the Charlotte Hornets?

I met him when he played at Michigan State. Seemed to be a cool dude.

Looks like he’s in trouble with the law again…

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/38651241/hornets-miles-bridges-turns-warrant-issued

Audrey Dahlgren, Sports Director at WLNS in Lansing, Michigan was fired from her job recently for something she posted on Twitter. Careful what you post.

MLB playoffs going on right now…I have not watched a single pitch. No interest.

NBA pre-season is underway…I have not watched a single second of action. No interest.

Dillon Brooks was fined $25,000 by the NBA for recklessly making contact with Daniel Theis. Brooks was ejected from the game.

The NBA should play a regular season of 72 games. While they’re at it, change the amount of time for each quarter. Go from 12 minutes to 10.

Kai Jones was waived by the Charlotte Hornets. The former first round draft pick requested a trade on Twitter. Jones averaged 2.7 points and 2 rebounds in 67 career games with Charlotte.

A girls high school basketball coach has stepped away from her gig; she’s been accused of “bullying” the players.

The NIL in college athletics is being talked about often. Basketball coach at Ball State, Michael Lewis called it, “pay for play.”

Coach Prime is not happy with the Colorado late start Friday night vs Stanford.

Michigan Wolverines football is 31-3 in their last 34 games. 20-1 in their last 21 Big Ten Games.

No one’s happy anymore. Even Coach Izzo from Michigan State mentioned earlier in the week that he is “unhappy.”

Don’t worry, be happy…

SteveFinamore@yahoo.com

R.I.P. BRENDAN MALONE

Sad news out of the basketball world. Brendan Malone, father of Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone has passed away. He was 81.

Brendan was from New York City. Attended Rice High School and would go on to play at Iona.

His coaching journey was amazing.

Power Memorial High School.

Fordham, Yale, Syracuse and Rhode Island.

Three stints with the New York Knicks.

Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Toronto Raptors, Cleveland Cavaliers, Kings and Orlando Magic.

Pistons won back-to-back titles while he was an assistant coach under Chuck Daly.

He was one of the true basketball lifers.

There’s a great a story from Five-Star Basketball Camp about Malone telling the late Tom Konchalski to take Aubrey Sherrod in the camp draft. Malone had to rush home for the night and would be back the next day, missing the draft. Instead Konchalski picked a kid named Mike Jordan.

Condolences to the Malone family.