TERRY MOSHER
Former Washington State basketball coach George Raveling will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame this coming September. That means he will join the late Marv Harshman into the Hall of Fame devoted to honoring coaches, players, referees, teams and contributors (Raveling falls into this category).
I’m pretty sure Harshman would welcome his one-time coaching nemesis, although there would be some reservations. Harshman wasn’t fond of George’s apparent need to attract attention to himself. Harshman said as much in the book “Harsh” that I wrote on Marv. In fact, it was that assessment that incurred the wrath of Raveling and resulted in a suit against Marv and myself. The suit was eventually dropped, but not before scaring both me and Marv to death.
Raveling is a good guy and has not only been a good coach but an excellent ambassador for basketball over the years. It’s about time that his contribution to the sport is recognized.
Whatever happened to deflategate? It has just sort of fizzled out, like a leaky football slowly losing its air. It was a stupid controversy anyway. Every quarterback in the NFL examines the footballs to get the exact feel they enjoy and it should be no mystery that they are not all going to weigh the same.
I know if I was a quarterback I would want a ball that gives me a good grip. If there is too much air in a football, it becomes harder to grip. I remember when I was a young kid and playing basketball the feel of a basketball was important to me. I didn’t want one that was too slippery; it had to feel just right.
More than once as a young kid playing I ran across game situations where I didn’t like the ball. It was too hard and hard to grip and shoot. But I never protested. It was what it was.
In contrast thee were games in which the ball felt great and I could do just about anything I wanted with the ball, including shooting extremely well. Sometimes I felt like I could be blindfolded and shoot the basketball with my back to the hoop and still make it.
Anyway, I think too much – way too much – was made of deflategate.
That final Seahawk play, by the way, will live on in the lexicon of NFL football. I have heard Pete Carroll explain the thinking behind the pass, and it makes football strategy sense in a way. And if you have seen the shot from above, the pass was wide open when Russell Wilson threw the ball. As Wilson has said, it was a touchdown all the way – except Malcolm Butler made a defensive play for the ages.
Of course, I’m with you. No matter the football thinking – the over thinking – the pass should have been a run with Marshawn, even if the play had resulted in yardage loss. The is the best running back in the NFL and you have to give it to him even if the Patriots were thinking the game thing and were loaded for it. If an offensive lineman or two can’t create enough space to get a yard, the Seahawks didn’t deserve to win.
One thing I learned very early in my life is that no matter how good you think you are as a quarterback (which is what I was) or how good a running back you have (which we did when I played), you don’t get anywhere unless you have some guys up front who can block. I remember many times shouting out my offensive lineman to bock somebody – just once.
So if Marshawn couldn’t get a year, like I said, the Seahawks didn’t deserve to win.
Speaking of offensive lineman, I see that Ukraine finally gave up the ghost and had its troops retreat from the key city of Debaltseve, leaving it to Putin’s “Green Men.” The city is an important link for Putin and Russia to the city of Luhansk, which the rebels (Green Men) also control. It provides a central transport hub from Russia to East Ukraine.
The sad part of this tragic mess is that we and our allies gave in to Putin, allowing them extra time in the so-called peace pact that was just recently agreed to, to pound Ukraine troops and Debaltseve, forcing the retreat.
This continued Putin mastery over the U.S. and its allies is remindful of World War II when England’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich Agreement, giving Hitler and his German forces the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. That agreement was just a prelude to Germany’s invasion of Poland which triggered the war.
Putin is serious about reestablishing the old Soviet Empire, and the West does little to combat him. They have offered sanctions, but Putin is not going to be pushed back because of sanctions. He will continue to gobble away at East Europe until somebody truly stands up to him…
If nobody does?
Just go back to Chamberlain and 1938 to get a clear picture of what might happen.
That’s enough for today.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.