The Question

It's that time of year when I give my thoughts on the University of Kansas basketball team.  It took a few more games than usual to pull together a cohesive narrative about where this year's squad is headed.  I'll cut to the chase.  This year's team has more talent than last year's that rolled to the Final 4.  The qualifier in that statement is the eligibility of Silvio DeSousa.

This edition of the Kansas Jayhawks serves up enough talent to let head coach Bill Self play the kind of high-low basketball that he likes.  Even without DeSousa, Kansas has two outstanding post players in Doke Azubuike and newcomer Dedrick Lawson.  Lawson is the most skilled interior player at Kansas since Thomas Robinson.  He is the best passing big man in school history, he's kills it on the boards, can hit the three and defends.  Lawson appears to lack the kind of strength at the glass on the offensive end but I suspect he will improve in that area as the season rolls along.

The team is at its best when Doke is on the floor.  It's not just the offense but his defensive presence cannot be underestimated.  That's why the team will need DeSousa.  He is the only interior defender that can match Doke's physicality.  I doubt the Silvio ever sees the floor this year.

The other "interior" players are more than serviceable.  Mitch Lightfoot is a ball of good energy even though he's over matched most of the time.  David McCormack is a year away from being a useful post player but if he progresses at all he could make up for the loss of DeSousa.  And then there is K.J. Lawson, Dedrick's older brother.  I don't know what to make of Lawson.  He seems to be a player in search of a game.

While the team offers guards aplenty, the long range talents of Svi Mykhailluik, Devonte Graham and Malik Newman are sorely missed.  Lagerald Vick has so far shown that he could be a terror from three point land.  But I worry that this early season hot streak is simply fools gold.  The freshman duo of Quinton Grimes and Devon Dotson can and must contribute from long range.  Marcus Garrett appears to have failed to work on his jump shooting so while his defense and driving ability will come in handy, he remains a major liability on the offensive end of the floor.

Yet the nugget, the true gem of this team is in the back court.  Devon Dotson is the best freshman guard I've seen on a Kansas team since Darnell Valentine.  He's better than Jacques Vaughn as a freshman and that's saying a lot.  Dotson drives the lane fearlessly like Frank Mason, he plays defense just a notch below Valentine and has shown a decent outside shot that will only get better.

Guard play wins at the college level.  Kansas will roll through the Big 12 but will be hard pressed to make it to the Final 4 this year unless Grimes and Dotson make major strides.  It's going to be an interesting team to watch because they play with a fearlessness that's surprising for such a young squad.

Shoulda Coulda Woulda

Another season of high school cross country has come to an end in Florida.  Surveying the landscape of the aftermath the fall left me a little disappointed when it came to the results for Southwest Florida harriers.  Just a little.  The problem is the best cross country runners in the area are both middle distance aces, trying to up their game to 5,000 meters but more on that later.

The surprise of the season came from tiny Southwest Florida Christian Academy which qualified both its boys and girls team for state.  That's a big upgrade for SFCA.  I would include annual powerhouse Fort Myers in the same category.  Coach Yancey Palmer had his hands full handling both the boys and girls squads.  The Green Wave girls survived this season thanks in large part to the surprising junior, Stephanie Ormsby.  A top 20 finish landed her squad in fifth at State, just a spot behind Naples, which had the returning talent to make a run for the podium, but it was not to be.

The Fort Myers boys seemed full of question marks.  It took a steely sophomore Liam Holston hold the squad together.  The tenth place finish at State, just one spot ahead of the always tough Estero Wildcats spoke volumes about the coaching job done by Palmer and even more so for Estero's head honcho Brian Olitsky.  If you had told me that those two teams would race past Gulf Coast at the end of the year I wouldn't have believed you.  Olitsky peaked his squad almost perfectly.

Another trio of Lee County squads made it to State in their respective classes.  The girls of Bishop Verot, Cape Coral and Cantebury made the trip to Tallahassee.  Cape Coral's Cheyenne Young seemed positioned at the beginning of the year to make the most noise at State.  Ongoing health issues kept her outside the expected top ten finish in 15th.

The only top ten finish on the girl's side came from Cantebury super sophomore Jessica Edwards.  Injuries slowed her at the end of the season but she capped off with a nice run at State.  She slipped from her 2017 eighth place finish to 9th but ran 14 seconds faster on the same course.  Edwards is positioned for a great outdoor season of track if she can stay healthy.

That leads us to Estero's Hugh Brittenham.  He established himself as the best cross country runner male or female in Southwest Florida this season.  The state 800 meter champion made it his goal to win it all this year.  He came up short with a fifth place finish, two spots ahead of his 2017 finish.  More importantly Brittenham announced his collegiate commitment to Florida.  The Gators are always in the thick of it when it comes to national titles in track and field.  Brittenham will fit in nicely.

Still this season left me wanting more.  It's not a slight against of the squads or the coaches.  They are doing their best.  But the intensity that used to reside here seems to have faded.  I don't know if it's due to the untimely death of the great Jeff Sommer, who molded Estero into a powerhouse, or if we are just in a down cycle.  But Southwest Florida its share of Footlocker finalists in the past.  I'm sure more are on the way because the coaching is there to see to that.

Marathon Madness

ESPN made a complete mess of the New York City Marathon.  The coverage, production, talent decisions, by and large, were among the worse I've seen in television.  I speak from knowledge.  I worked for 30 years in television.  I am an Emmy nominated sports producer.  ESPN simply was out of its depth.

Before I go into full blast mode I will compliment ESPN for a great primary announcing crew.  Jon Anderson is a big running fan.  He's shown his stripes in the network's track and field coverage.  Tim Hutchings and Carrie Tollefson have the knowledge to add color to any road race or track and field event.  If viewers could have gotten two and a half hours of that trio with a good dose of Paula Radcliffe from the in race vantage point and a true distance runner other than Matt Centrowitz in the men's race we would have had a great crew.

Instead the producers felt the need to start jamming pre-produced pieces offering the human aspect of the race about an hour into the coverage.  We were forced to endure Sage Steele, who interviewing skills leave much to be desired.  She has no insight into the sport, completely lacking in the abilities that Anderson consistently shows when he's handling interview duties at track meets.  ESPN should have put Anderson in Steele's role and left Hutchings and Tollefson to handle the race duties which both are more than capable of doing.

As the real racing unfolded shortly after the halfway point of the women's race, the soft-soap people features began to fill the screen.  The telecast missed the three key breaks in the women's race as Mary Keitany worked her magic on a talented field.  It was infuriating to realize that something significant had happened while we learned about someone's heart rate or some charity runner.

The men's coverage was almost as bad.  Matt Centrowitz offered little insight into the racing and the sound problems plagued his efforts and Radcliffe as well.  ESPN missed much of the early breaks in the men's race because it failed to utilize split screens in its coverage as it focused on Keitany who had already destroyed the women's field. 

Fortunately after Keitany hit the finish line we got a chance to watch the three way death match between Ethiopia's Lelisa Desisa, Shura Kitata and Kenya's Geoffrey Kamworor.  Kitata worked tirelessly throughout the race to inject pace and break up the field but Centrowitz seemed completely unaware of the tactic.  In the final three miles Desisa pulled away leaving Kamworor and Kitata for dead.  Yet Kitata summoned the strength that seemed otherworldly to try and chase Desisa to the finish.

The thrill of the men's battle couldn't make up for the flaws of the broadcast.  ESPN needs to take a page from the other world marathon majors.  Show the race.  Use the split screen more and stop trying to put a face on the race by highlighting the hobby runners.  Explain what it takes to be a pro and why these runners are the fittest athletes in the world.

Bob Delivers

You never really know what to expect when you go to a Bob Dylan concert.  Tuesday October 23rd marked the 15th time I've seen the living legend and he delivered.  It was an amazing performance of classic songs that had been re-crafted as Dylan is want to do in unexpectedly brilliant ways.  From the opening number, the Academy Award winning "Things Have Changed," Bob was determined to reinvent himself. 

Dylan performed 18 songs that spanned the 50 plus years of his incredible career.  From "Don't Think Twice It's Alright" to the epic "Like A Rolling Stone," Dylan worked his magic in the reinvention of many classic songs.  Then Bob would deliver a newer gem like "Scarlet Town" just as it sounded on the album.  It's never boring.

There were so many highlights to the performance it's hard to pull up enough superlatives to enshrine the concert.  Dylan sounded great playing a grand piano, whereas before when I had seen him playing an electric piano, the sounded seemed muddled and lost in the mix.  His harmonica playing was sterling.  On the handful of times in the past when I had seen him play it his command of the instrument sounded disinterested.

The centerpiece of the show was the sparkling guitar play of Charlie Sexton.  The handful of times Charlie was let loose, such as on an epic "Love Sick," Sexton's playing crackled.  The last time I had seen Bob 12 years ago Charlie had left the band and his absence was considerable.  Sexton playing alongside Donnie Heron who holds down the pedal steel is reminiscent of the days when the great Larry Campbell played with Bob's band in the late 90's and early 2000's.

The backbone of the band is the steady bass play of Tony Garnier who has played alongside Dylan for nearly 30 years now on his Never Ending Tour.  Garnier was locked in tight with drummer George Receli who delivered a knockout solo during "Thunder on the Mountain."  This may well be Dylan's best ever ensemble since his days with The Band.

I went in the night full of apprehension.  The current recordings you can find on YouTube of this tour don't fully deliver the power of Dylan and his band.  At age 77 he doesn't appear ready to slow down.  The troubadour seems like he's ready to deliver another decade of his remarkable music.