The Southern Highland Reader

From the because-I-just-can’t-help-myself department, here are a few basketball notes:

1. The Augusta Chronicle tells its readers that an entrepreneur’s plans to launch an all-white men’s professional basketball league in the southeast are meeting with an oddly tepid response.

In a statement, the All-American Basketball Alliance announced that “only players that are natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play … “.

The league is the brainchild of Don “Moose” Lewis, a professional wrestling promoter, who calls himself the league’s Commissioner and says he seeks to start teams in 10 or so southern cities.

“There’s nothing hatred about what we’re doing,” he told the Chronicle. “I don’t hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here’s a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like.”

The Atlanta Journal suggests that the whole thing might be a publicity stunt.

For the sake of Moose’s wallet, I hope so, because everybody who wants to sit and watch white guys play catch is over at the softball field.

2. The Washington Post’s Tracee Hamilton holds forth today on the NCAA’s notion to expand the NCAA men’s basketball tournament from its current field of 65 teams to 96.

This from the folks who can’t pull together a playoff system at all on the football side of things.

Writes Hamilton:

What is it about corporate greed that, when a company is making a kabillion dollars, it immediately begins wondering, “How can I make a kabillion and one dollars?” Capitalism is great, as long as you don’t screw up the product. The expanded field would definitely screw up the product.

Since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, has there ever been a year when you watched the Selection Show and thought, “Man, 31 teams got hosed.” No. There have never been 31 teams who deserved to make the field but didn’t. One or two, maybe. Not 31.

3. Former Western Carolina star Kevin Martin, a Sacramento King, is one of the top scorers in the NBA. But he gets a lot of his points at the foul line, and all that foul-drawing has been tough on his 6-7, 185lb. frame. He’s been injured for great swaths of each of the past three seasons.

He’s back on the court now, trying to form a cohesive backcourt with rookie sensation Tyreke Evans.

Moreover, he’s trying to add to, not disrupt, the chemistry that got the young and dynamic Kings off to a hot start. So far, not so good: the Kings have lost four straight since his return. To be fair, the losses were on a tough eastern road swing, but the team’s chemistry problems are evident.

2009-12-08 – Slam Online’s Joey Whelan’s take on Western’s win at Bradley:

Western Carolina out of the SoCon took down Bradley last night, significant because the MVC is looking stacked this season and because the Catamounts are now looking pretty at 8-1, their only loss coming to Texas. The rest of the early season schedule includes the aforementioned win over the Braves, solid victories over conference opponents Furman and Wofford and the win to hang your hat on for now, an 83-77 squeaker over Duquesne. This is an offense by committee with six players averaging between six and 11 points and five averaging been four and six rebounds. It’s always hard to gauge how these hot starts can carry over into the near year, but with the type of balance Western Carolina is showing, I like them in the SoCon to make some noise.

2009-12-08 – WCU beats Bradley.

2009-12-07 -Western Carolina’s mens basketball team enters tonight’s game against Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, with six straight wins in its back pocket, and a 7-1 overall record.

The Catamounts rose today to 15th in the collegeinsider.com mid-major poll.

The Cats are coming off of consecutive league victories over Wofford and Furman, and Western is ranked 97th in the Sagarin college basketball rankings from USA Today. Bradley, which competes in the Missouri Valley Conference, is 93rd. On the other hand, the Cats are 32nd in the national RPI rankings, Bradley 86th.

Western is playing a steady — and luxurious — ten-man rotation, and has had six different high-scorers in eight games. The Catamounts have shown flashes of potential on offense, including a record-setting night from three-point territory in a victory over Duquesne, but have hung their hats on their defense. Western is forcing 21 turnovers per game, good for a nationally fifth-best turnover ratio of 7.8. The Catamounts are ranked eighth in steals.

Tonight’s game is the first of a three-year three-game series with the Braves; two in Illinois, one in Cullowhee.

2009-11-29 – WCU at #52 in the national RPI, one spot behind Bradley, who Western plays next week.

2009-11-29 – Western Carolina forced 29 turnovers in a comfortable 75-59 win Saturday at Gardner Webb. As the the Shelby Star reported, Western beat the Runnin’ Bulldogs at their own up-tempo game. Brandon Giles, a senior all-conference selection, had 24 points after a quiet start to his season. This was Larry Hunter’s first win in four tries against Gardner Webb.

2009-11-26 – WCU tops Duquesne (post)

Sacramento Kings swingman Kevin Martin, a Western Carolina University product and currently the National Basketball Association’s third-leading scorer, suffered a hairline fracture of his non-shooting wrist in a collision with Allen Iverson during Monday’s win over Memphis.

Kevin Martin (PAUL KITAGAKI JR., Sacramento Bee)

Martin, who scored 48 points in that game and another 29 in Wednesday’s loss to Atlanta, must decide today whether to wear a soft cast and continue playing — risking further injury — or to treat the injury with surgery or a hard cast.

Martin wasn’t given a choice by the team, he announced Friday, and will undergo surgery for the injury. He’ll miss at least two months.

Martin’s career has been dogged by injuries, and he’s sometimes criticized for being “soft”.

Read more here from the Sacramento Bee on Martin’s response to the “soft” accusation.

CULLOWHEE–Former Western Carolina basketball player and current NBA standout Kevin Martin got the royal treatment in Indonesia this week, as he visited to head up the inaugural Indonesia Development Camp as part of the NBA Cares program.

Martin took his grandma along — and went despite some bombings that preceded his trip by a matter of days.

Here’s an excerpt from the Sacramento Bee’s feature about the trip:

It was a new experience in almost every way even for Martin. Upon his arrival, the newspaper in Surabaya splashed a greeting across the top of its front page showing Martin with his arms spread wide. Upon his departure, the paper ran a full-page ad from the DBL with pictures of Martin’s visit and messages from dozens of the league’s players wishing him well and encouraging him to become an All-Star for the first time this season.

“One time, I felt like (President Barack) Obama – and that’s no exaggeration,” Martin said. “There were like a thousand … people with signs around the basketball court (in the arena during a DetEksi game). It was crazy.

“It’s fun to be able to give back to the community and the world in a good way. It just makes you look at the other side of it, beyond basketball.”

Read the piece from the Bee here.

SAN FRANCISCO–Former Western Carolina standout Kevin Martin, now a Sacramento King, dropped 50 points on the Golden State Warriors Wednesday night.

Unfortunately, Golden State took an overtime 143-141 win in the grueling defensive struggle; a fate that has all too often befallen the Kings this year as they continue their drive toward a high lottery pick.

Amazingly, but not unexpectedly, Martin converted but 11 shots from the field – the rest of his points came at the free throw line, where he hit 26-of-29.

Dime Magazine put Martin in Jimmy Chitwood’s shoes in this piece on Thursday, making fun of Sacramento for giving Beno Udrih the last — and unsuccessful — shot.

CULLOWHEE-What connects Cullowhee and Schnectady? In our case in point, Fran McCaffery, who used to coach at UNC-Greensboro, and now heads up the Siena program does.

Siena is mixing it up at the Old Spice Classic tournament at Disney World this week, and McCaffery’s emphasizing to his team that NBA scouts will be on hand in droves (Georgetown and Tennessee are also in the tourney).

In an interview with Mike MacAdam of the Schnectady Daily Gazette, McCaffery used Kevin Martin as an example. Writes MacAdam:

Another player McCaffery points to to illustrate how NBA scouts shouldn’t prejudge the ability of mid-major and small-conference players is the Kings’ Kevin Martin.

McCaffery coached against the Zanesville, Ohio, native when Martin played for Western Carolina in the Southern Conference, and McCaffery was the UNC-Greensboro head coach.

McCaffery was contacted by a Sacramento sportswriter this summer for an opinion on how Thompson would fare in the NBA, and McCaffery compared Thompson’s situation to that of the lightning-quick but smallish Martin.

“It’s who you are, not what league you came from,” McCaffery said. “And I said I had the exact same conversation with you guys five years ago when you were trying to figure out who Kevin Martin was, where’s Cullowhee, North Carolina? He averaged 24 points a game, and they’re paying him 60 million. So it doesn’t matter. He’s from Zanesville, Ohio, he didn’t go to Ohio State, he went to Western Carolina. Now, why did that happen? Who knows? But he’s one of the best players in the NBA.”