Last week, Tony Bennett resigned his position as the head basketball coach at Virginia; the college basketball season will begin in about two weeks. Bennett’s career at Virginia included a national championship – – can’t get much better than that – – plus a loss as a #1 seed to a #16 seed in a March Madness tournament – – can’t get much lower than that. And he did all that and more by recruiting players who generally stayed with the program for at least 3 years and usually 4 years and who went to class to earn a degree. In explaining his retirement, he said that he was no longer the right person for the job and did not want to continue to be “a square peg in a round hole” (his words).
College sports have been transformed in the last several years in ways that few people predicted once the idea of paying college athletes gained traction. Combined with the transfer portals, the college revenue sports are now the Wild West; there are high school recruits who have hired agents to negotiate deals with prospective colleges. I did not have that on my collegiate sports bingo card…
College sports have lost some great coaches in the past few years and many of them have alluded to the drastic changes in college sports as part of the reason for their decision to retire. Here is a list in no particular order off the top of my head; I am sure there are others:
- Mike Krzyzewski
- Roy Williams
- Jim Boeheim
- Jay Wright
- Nick Saban
- Tara VanDerveer
Now add Tony Bennett to this list …
Jerry Brewer had a great column in the Washington Post about Bennett and his decision to retire. Here is a link to that column; I strongly recommend you take 5 minutes to go and read it.
Staying with basketball – – this time at the NBA level – – Lonzo Ball is back on the court with the Chicago Bulls after being out with injuries since he played in 35 games back in the 2021-2022 NBA season. After his second game with the Bulls in the NBA regular season, Ball declared that he was “pain free”. What kept him out so long was that he needed a “cartilage and meniscus transplant in his left knee”. Knee surgery has come a long way in my lifetime making specific knee ligaments and other structures known to folks who did not major in biology or go to medical school, but adding the word “transplant” to that new vocabulary makes me sit up and take notice.
Lonzo Ball arrived in the NBA in 2017 to an inordinate level of fanfare created by his father. Lonzo spent two years with the Lakers and then two more with the Pelicans before joining the Bulls and getting injured. I’m not sure that any kid coming into the league could have lived up to the level of hype surrounding Lonzo, but no one could ever say he was dogging it when on the court. It is good to see him back in action. Hopefully that “transplant” is good as gold.
Switching gears … The Canadian Football League will play its final week of regular season football this week. There is only one playoff slotting still in doubt. Let me explain the CFL playoff system.
- The CFL has an East Division and a West Division. [Aside: Unlike the US, folks in Canada have a sense of geography. Not a single team in the East Division is further west than any team in the West Division. Amazing!]
- Three teams from each Division make the playoffs.
- Round 1 pits the third-place team in each Division against the second-place team in that Division with the second-place team hosting the game. Division winners get a BYE.
- The two winners of those Round 1 games then travel to play their respective Division winners in Round 2.
- Those two winners then square off for the Grey Cup which will take place on November 19.
The only thing still in question this year is in the West Division where Winnipeg leads with a record of 10-7 and Saskatchewan trails by half a game at 9-7-1. Here is the scheduling for this weekend:
- Winnipeg is on the road against Montreal. Montreal leads the East Division and has the best overall record in the CFL this year at 12-4-1.
- Saskatchewan is at home against Calgary. Calgary is dead last in the West Division and has the worst overall record in the CFL this year at 4-12-1.
Looks to me as if the schedule mavens in the CFL got it right for 2024.
Finally, I mentioned Mike Krzyzewski above; so, let close with this observation from him:
“The truth is that many people set rules to keep from making decisions.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………