Breaking News: KCP Jump Shots Are Scaring Young Children
The wheels on the Detroit Piston wagon have come flying off in the last two weeks. Sunday night’s loss to a mildly talented Charlotte club was the sixth straight L for the Detroiters, and probably the nail in their 2015 playoff coffin. The Stones are now 12th in the paper-thin Eastern Conference, a full five games back of Indiana for the #8 seed.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
The culprits are a many, but chief among them has been second-year man Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Over his last four games, KCP cannot seem to buy a bucket. Wait, did I say “cannot seem?” I meant to say he is currently incapable of tossing a pea into the middle of Lake Superior. From a canoe in the middle of Lake Superior.
Take a guess as to how many 3s Mr. Pope has knocked down in his last 17 attempts from deep. I’ll give you a hint -- its synonyms are none, zilch, and goose egg. It might seem impossible, but it’s true; Caldwell-Pope is zero for his last 17 from three point land.
You cut the guy some slack for still being a young player and trying to find his foothold in the league. But no 2-guard in the NBA should ever take close to 20 consecutive threes before once splitting the nets. It would be prudent for KCP to eschew the long ball more often and take the ball to the rim, but frustratingly, that’s something you only see from him on rare occasions.
He recently managed to play three straight ballgames without once earning a trip to the line. High-flying 22-year-old swingmen should not be encountering three-game stretches where they hoist 14 treys to go with zero free throws.
In no way is this brutal six-game losing skid entirely on the shoulders of young Kentavious, but the aforementioned numbers are impossible to dress up. In these final 20 games of 2015, with the playoffs out of reach, it’d be nice to see KCP really work in earnest on the attacking aspect of his offensive game.
Instead of a night where he jacks up seven or eight from downtown, try and make it a game with five or six attempts from the stripe.
Plus, he could use the practice from there (77% as a rookie -- 68% in year two).
Plenty of Michigan Power in the MAC Tourney
Eastern and Western Michigan have their work cut out for them if they want to go dancing later this month. In order for one of these schools to capture the MAC Tournament title, they will need to win five games over the next six days, beginning tonight. Talk about penalizing the bottom half of the league.
But while the bottom-feeders have to endure what is basically a basketball marathon this week, a top finisher like Central Michigan all but has the red carpet laid out for them in the bracket. By finishing with the best mark in the 12-team conference, CMU is automatically placed into the semi-finals of the tourney, needing just one victory to reach Saturday night’s title game in Cleveland.
The MAC is a league with plenty of parity, making the Chippewas’ triple-bye a super-important reward. When just about anybody can beat anyone else in the conference, you want to play as few games as possible.
And while the roads for Eastern and Western look outrageously difficult, both squads have at times appeared very capable of getting hot and reeling off W’s.
The Eagles finished the year on a high note with a destruction of Toledo, and the guard tandem of Raven Lee/Mike Talley is as good as any in the MAC.
The Broncos took this title last year, and tournament MVP David Brown is still there, a senior now, and probably not looking to play his last college game anytime soon.
It should make for a very interesting week of hoops for our state’s mid-major hoopers. I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t at least one representative from the Mitten in the final come Saturday evening.
A Season-Ending Thud for the Detroit Titans
The Detroit Titans saw their season come to an uneventful end on Friday with a blowout loss at the hands of Cleveland State. The Titans had high hopes entering the year, but the team never really materialized and was unable to come together for any extended stretch during the 33-game campaign.
It is probably time for the program to head in a different direction with their head coach. Ray McCallum, Sr. has been at the helm for seven seasons, and things seem to be trending in the wrong direction.
McCallum was fortunate to have a very loyal and ultra-athletic son willing to bring true NBA-level talent to U of D for three seasons while giving his Pops a ticket to the NCAA Tournament in the process. But there have been no other NCAA berths to speak of.
In fact, in the two years since Ray Jr. jumped to the pros, Sr.’s Titans have struggled mightily. 13 and 19 last year, 15 and 18 this year -- under .500 in Horizon League play both times, as well.
There was a fair amount of talent lining this year’s Titans team, but McCallum could never quite settle on a consistent rotation. He’d often play too many guys, making for funny box scores where a handful of players would log between 10-20 minutes apiece.
The team’s star, Juwan Howard, Jr., had a lukewarm senior season, and while it would be unfair to lay that blame entirely on the head coach, a certain amount of responsibility does naturally go to the guy with the whistle and clipboard when players don’t improve.
Fans of the UDM program have long labeled McCallum as an excellent recruiter, but a less-than-average actual basketball coach. Unless you’re John Calipari at Kentucky or Pete Bell at Western U., that disparity just won’t fly.
Seven years in one place is an eternity in today’s sports world. It’s time for the Titans brass to scour coaching staffs around the country and find a new face to jolt some energy back into this leaking program.
“Free” Throw Line Proving to Be Anything But in East Lansing
With a marginal roster, full credit goes to Tom Izzo for directing his charges to a 21-10 (12-6 Big Ten) record on the year. With the right draw, you could even see this dark-horse Sparty group making a pesky March run. But the train won’t get very far from the station if the shocking team-wide ineptitude at the free throw line continues. Here are the Spartans free throw shooting numbers over the last four games:
19-29 vs. Minnesota (65%)
4-9 at. Wisconsin (44%)
17-29 vs. Purdue (59%)
11-20 at. Indiana (55%)
There are few things in sports more frustrating than watching your favorite club yak away an important game at the free throw line. Izzo and Co. have about a week and change to get it straightened out
I Cried Harder When Allan Houston Left
I get that Ndamukong Suh jumping ship to Miami is a big story, but should it really cause Detroit to get into a citywide tizzy? I don’t see it.
First off, the guy is a defensive tackle. Not a quarterback. A defensive tackle.
Is it an important position? Sure. As much as each of the 22 starting spots on the field carries with it some level of importance.
But is it the key to winning? The key to winning a Super Bowl? A position worth backing up the money truck for and crippling a team’s cap space? Most definitely not.
Hey, remember Daniel Muir and Antonio Johnson!?! No?? Let me help. They were the starting defensive tackles for the Indianapolis Colts in the 2010 Super Bowl.
How about this year’s big game? The four behemoths playing on the ball were Tony McDaniel and Kevin Williams for Seattle, Vince Wilfork and Sealver Siliga for the Patriots. Yes, Williams and Wilfork have had their days as dominant NFL linemen, but those days are 5-7 years in the rear view. The other two space-eaters are more or less anonymous.
Long story short, it just doesn’t make sense in today’s game to break the bank on a player at that spot.
The main issue for the Lions remains today what it has been for the better part of 60 years -- underwhelming (putting it gently) quarterback play. Whether Suh stayed or left, he was never going to be the most critical piece of the Lions puzzle.
That onus will always fall on Matthew Stafford, the guy that’s played six years in the league and is still light-years from being described as a “franchise quarterback.”
Suh is undoubtedly one of the top guys at his position. Maybe even the best. But is he 50 times better than your average 335-lb run-stuffer found all across the league? 75 times better? I don’t see it.
Combine that with a long pattern of immaturity that very nearly culminated with him being made ineligible for this year’s playoff game against Dallas, and at least to this scribe, it seems like an open-and-shut case.
