Time For Craig Counsell To Be Manager Of The Year

Going to get right to the point, as you might have noticed with today's headline: Craig Counsell of the Milwaukee Brewers must be the National League Manager Of The Year.

Not should. Not might. Not maybe. Counsell simply stated is the Manager Of the Year. Milwaukee doesn't have the big market bucks or deep owner pockets of the Los Angeles Dodgers or Atlanta Braves, two teams currently posting better records than the Brewers.

Instead, Counsell pushes the right buttons, makes the right moves and adjusts to the roster limits he has. And let's face it, he's dealt with a lot of injuries this year, plugging in rookies to fill out the lineup and still has the Brewers in the top spot in the NL Central.

Milwaukee is currently 84-64 as of this writing. Counsell, since taking over manager duties in 2015, has been in charge of the club for 1,237 games, including playoffs. His regular season record? Well, that's 670-601, a winning percentage of .525. Counting this season (unless there's a horrific collapse in these final two weeks), Counsell will have taken the Brewers to the playoffs in five of the last six years.

And while he's not under contract for next year, I get the feeling that he soon will be. A Milwaukee and Wisconsin guy through and through, he's the right man for the job.

There were cheers and tears this past week when the Former Green Bay Packer Quarterback went down with a season-ending injury. I didn't wish this on him, and am saddened that he won't be on the field. After all, he will be a Hall of Fame player and was OURS for 17 seasons. And the fact that the Packers will lose out on a first round draft pick for him, getting a second rounder from the New York Jets, doesn't make it any better.

Appreciate what that guy did for the Packers during his years here instead of focusing on the ugly way he left.

Can't help but wonder, though, how many of the scheduled prime time games of the Jets will now be flexed out. With the star of the show on the sidelines, doubt if a national audience (or the network suits) are keen on what the understudy brings to the stage.

 

Where Have The High Schools Gone?

 In a previous life, as a sportswriter with the Oshkosh Northwestern, I got acquainted with the newspaper's agate page. Well, addicted is more like it. I enjoyed scanning through the long list of type, looking for scores from schools I followed.

Those of you who still read newspapers (physical or on-line) know the agate page. Maybe not by name, but by sight. It's the page in the paper that carries the smaller type -- scores, standings, soccer, golf and NASCAR lists, etc. Pretty much a hodge-podge of information. It used to carry a long strip of high school scores (football and basketball) that wrapped up the entire state., but this is long before the internet.

The Wisconsin State Journal no longer carries those high school results. And while I'm far removed from those sportswriter days, I am still addicted to looking over the state's scores, following schools I am familiar with. I fill that addiction now via a Wisconsin High School Sports website. Sometimes the scores carry full results (scoring plays, yardage, etc.) and others just the score. But it fills the need.

The present high school season is a couple of weeks old, and I noticed something with a couple of  small schools I follow. THEY AREN'T PLAYING HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL ANYMORE!

Well, at least not at a varsity level. Their varsity schedule has been cancelled, and I've learned they are only playing JV due to a lack of numbers. Other small schools are opting to co-op with nearby districts. I keep wondering when Wild Rose will do this with my alma mater, Wautoma, for example.

Still others are going the 8-man football route. This is an especially popular move in the northern half of Wisconsin. Better for costs and roster sizes.

I quizzed a long-time friend in Eagle River, where Northland Pines High School had cancelled it's varsity football season, as to what was up.

"We just don't have the numbers," he said. "When my girls were in school, enrollment was around 800. Now it's nearly half that. We get retirees moving in, and that doesn't help the numbers. We're starting to see younger families with kids moving in. But interest in soccer has grown, and that takes the fast kids away from football. So we're playing a JV schedule and hoping for the best."

Am sure what is playing out in Eagle River and Wild Rose is happening all across Wisconsin. Not necessarily a trend I'm happy to see.

The Green Bay Packers get their regular season going on Sunday down at Chicago against Da Bears. Some of the Las Vegas lines have put Packer wins at 7 1/2. I'll bet the over on that one, as I think Jordan Love and Company will surprise fans, especially as the season continues and the team grows together.

Every fan I've spoken with over the past few months is optimistic AND excited. Let's hope patience factors in as well.

Speaking of the Packers, noticed going through one of the NFL magazines I pick up that most professional coaching staffs number anywhere from 26 to 28 members. That's a lot of specialty coaches for teams that number 70 (53 regular roster, another 17 on the practice squad.

Back with the 1961 Packers, the 11-3 NFL champs (shutting out the New York Giants, 37-0), the 40-man roster was coached by Vince Lombardi and four (count 'em four) assistants! There was a defensive coordinator (Phil Bengston, who succeeded Lombardi as head coach), plus coaches for the defensive backs, defensive line and offensive line.

By the 6-8 1970 squad, rosters had grown to 47, but still had just four assistant coaches.

Just proves what a big, BIG business professional football has become.

Back at the end of March, I predicted 90 wins for the Milwaukee Brewers. Many thought I was insane. But here we are with 23 games to play and the BrewCrew stands at 77 wins, just a game and two games in front of the Chicago Cubs.

Milwaukee has a fairly tough schedule left: three games with the New York Yankees and Washington, seven with Miami and St. Louis before wrapping the season with three home games with the Cubs. In fact, The Brewers have 13 home games remaining, including their final six.

Meanwhile, those pesky Cubbies have six with Arizona, seven with Colorado, three with Atlanta and the three at Milwaukee. Only 10 of the final 24 are in the friendly confines of Wrigley Field.

Thinking that the Brewers will win the division and secure three Wild Card playoff games at home, while Chicago qualifies as a wild card. In fact, division foe Cincinnati could also snag a wild card spot.

Heading Into Baseball's Second Half

 

We've passed the mid-way point in the baseball season. The All-Star Game break always seems like the half-way point, but in reality it was a bit past that.

Milwaukee's Brewers hit the break at 49-42 -- 91 games, while 81 would be half-way. Still, that's a good place to be. And coming out of the break with a pair of shutout wins over Cincinnati's Reds is an even better start.

In fact, beating the Reds1-0 to head into the All-Star break, then again1-0 to open the second half was the first time in franchise history that the Brewers had won back-to-back 1-0 games. Add in Saturday's 3-0 victory and you can see that this squad has some serious pitching. Completing the sweep with a come-from-behind win yesterday gave the Brewers a two-game lead in the NL Central standings.

What has helped Milwaukee is the resurgence of Christian Yelich. After shattering his kneecap with a foul ball back in September of 2019, it has taken this long for Yelie to get his groove back. He's currently hitting .286 with 14 home runs and 49 RBI (not bad for a lead-off hitter). Yelich has been on f a tear since May after early season struggles. I'll take this average all day long.

Now, if a few other bats can start to heat up, it will make for an interesting second half. Especially if the front office can find a full-time firstbaseman to fill the gap left by the most recent injury to Rowdy Tellez. Heading down to see then play the Reds in a couple of weeks. Will give you an in-person scouting report then.

The best part of the season, though, is seeing those pesky St. Louis Cardinals roosting in last place, 11 games or so out of first. Don't be surprised if they start trading away pieces. Meanwhile, those Oakland/Las Vegas A's are turning their squad into a Triple A club while sitting at 25-70! Come on boys, you can set the futility record for losses.

One of the pluses that has come out of the rule changes in baseball has been length of game. When the Brewers won 1-0 heading into the break, it only took 2 hours and 4 minutes. That time was bested the same day by the San Francisco Giants, who only took 1 hour and 56 minutes to post a 1-0 win. Pitch clocks, no defensive shifts and the like add up to a quicker game. Nothing wrong with that.

We're just days away from the Green Bay Packers heading into training camp and the official start of the LoveFest in Green Bay. After 30 years of quarterbacking from a pair of Hall of Famers, the Packers will be led by Jordan Love.

Their schedule is only 24th in the league on opponent strength of schedule. They have three short weeks, which is a lot, but less punishing when your starting quarterback is under 25.

Had to laugh when I saw this on the wire, that a doctors' group that promotes plant based eating and animal rights was making a big fuss over a summer college baseball team named Macon Bacon.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine sent a letter urging the team to change it's name. The group has also sponsored a billboard imploring Macon fans to "keep bacon off your plate."

Geez. Lost your sense of humor down there in Georgia?

Baseball's Newest 25 & 40 Man

Hats off to a dear friend, now baseball's 25&40 man.

Not a statistical leader by any stretch of the imagination, mind, you but a front office leader.

Ted Tornow, who grew up in Menasha and was a three-sport athlete for the Bluejays, took the field this week for his 25th Opening Day as General Manager of the Clinton LumberKings. In fact, this Opening Day was Ted's 40th of his career in baseball, one started right out of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (Hail Titans!). Been friends with Teddy since his high school days, when I was covering teams in the Fox Valley for the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. I could tell you some great stories, but I digress.

Clinton is part of the Prospect League, a summer league for college athletes much like the Northwoods League of the Madison Mallards. Which, by the way, is a franchise where Ted's oldest son, Brett, is working in the front office. (Must be in the genes!)

When Ted took the job at Clinton, the city was still part of the country's minor league system. That unfortunately ended a few years ago when MLB dropped over 100 minor league affiliations. But Ted and the LumberKings shopped around and found a home in the Prospect League.

Congrats, Teddy. Proud of you, buddy...

Major League Baseball hit June 1st and perhaps we can say that the Oakland Athletics are close to being mathematically eliminated. The franchise, packing it's bags to move to Las Vegas (and a 30,000 seat stadium that has yet to be built) is already 34 games below .500! At 12-46, this club could break the all-time record for futility set by the 1962 New York Mets. In their first season, the less-than-amazing Mets lost 120 games. With 104 games yet to play, the Athletics have a shot at the mark. By the way, the A's are a bit of a vagabond club to begin with, starting in Philadelphia in 1901, moving to Kansas City in 1955 and then to Oakland in 1968.

Oakland is averaging just 8,675 fans per game in their pit of a stadium, the Oakland Coliseum. That's dead last in MLB. Hell, the afore mentioned Madison Mallards get nearly 6,000 (and more) per game at Warner Park!

Those folks who clamored for baseball in Florida? Miami (third in the National League East) ranks 29th at 12,119 while Tampa Bay (tops in the American League East with an amazing 40-18 record) sits at 26th, averaging just 17,360. Your Milwaukee Brewers? Leading the NL Central and ranked 13th with 28,849 fans a game.

The Green Bay Packers are having OTAs this week, crucial for a young squad with 32 rookies on the roster and a host of first-year men.

David Bakhtiari, the somewhat grizzled veteran offensive tackle, talked with media earlier in the week about being part of the rebuilding process. And make no mistake about it, Green Bay is rebuilding with a massive youth movement.

Perhaps Bakhtiari should give Wisconsin native Joe Thomas a call. Seems like he was part of a rebuild annually while forging a Hall of Fame career with the Cleveland Browns.

Now He's A Jet...Careful What You Wish For, Aaron

 So, with apologies to "West Side Story" let's paraphrase these lyrics -- "When you're a Jet you're a Jet all the way from your first INT to you limping away...."

(If you need to, kids, go ahead and Google it...)

Now that Aaron Rodgers has gotten what he wished for/pined for/asked for/demanded -- a trade -- he's a New York Jet. Hell, it's been decades since this original AFL franchise (begun in 1960 as the Titans, but after three years became the Jets, and by 1969 behind quarterback "Broadway" Joe Namath, winning Super Bowl III). 

There have been Player/Coaches before, like Bill Russell of basketball's Boston Celtics, Curly Lambeau of our own Green Bay Packers and Frank Robinson in baseball's Cleveland Indians.

Rodgers is apparently pioneering new ground as a Player/General Manager for his new team. Granted, during the last few seasons in Green Bay, it seemed like Number 12 (now Number 8 in The Big Apple) was in an apprentice GM program. He constantly wanted this player or that player around him in the locker-room.

That will no doubt get more emphatic in New York. After all, the already signed free agent wide receiver Allen Lazard. Other free agent/buddies include Randall Cobb, Mercedes Lewis and Mason Crosby. Of that trio, I have a sneaking gut feeling that Crosby will be back in Packers' Green & Gold before too long, kicking in Lambeau Field for a 17th season.

In New York, Rodgers will feel the heat from fans and an unforgiving media. AND there's a little thing called a schedule that may well keep the team reeling. Two games each with Buffalo, New England and Miami, as well as single games with Dallas, the New York Giants, Kansas City, Los Angeles Chargers and Philadelphia. Getting the Jets into the playoffs, a mythical place this franchise hasn't visited since 2010, will be a daunting task.

Maybe he gets the Jets to the playoffs, maybe not. Maybe he plays beyond this season, maybe not.

Whatever the future holds for Rodgers, let's be glad that the Season of (Jordan) Love has arrived in Green Bay. And let's keep our expectations in check, shall we? Remember, Rodgers was a lofty 6-10 in his first season as a starter after holding the clipboard for three years, while Brett Favre fared a little better at 9-7 in 1992.

When your best player, The Greek Freak, is a streaky free throw shooter at best (and has been his whole career), it can kill a team. It did, among many reasons, as Giannis went 10 of 23 from the free throw line and the Milwaukee Bucks dropped a 128-126 overtime decision to the Miami Heat. The loss ended a brief playoff run for the Bucks, with the 8th seed Heat winning, 4-1.

Tough series for the Bucks, who were without Giannis for essential three of the games (he only played 11 minutes in Game 1 before leaving with a back injury). I said all season long that a HEALTHY Milwaukee team was capable of winning the title. But the key word there was healthy, and things just didn't fall for them.

Expect more than a few changes during the off-season as the Bucks reload.

Bye Bye, Aaron (Finally!)

Now that the long-awaited, much anticipated (and dissected) trade with New York Jets has ended the 18-year tenure of quarterback Aaron Rodgers with the Green Bay Packers, let me speak for a majority of Packer fans.

'Bout friggin' time!

A long time ago, most of us reached our ARF, our Aaron Rodgers Fatigue limit. Ready to move on and begin the Jordan Love Era in Green Bay -- and hope against hope that our 30-year-run of Hall of Fame quarterbacking, from Brett Favre to Rodgers, continues with the Next Guy Up.

Green Bay and New York swapped first round picks this year (Packers moved up to 13th from 15th). Jets gave GB another second rounder this year, Packers gave Jets a fifth rounder. Jets also gave a second round pick in 2024 that could become a first round choice should Rodgers play 65% of the offensive snaps at his new home.

All in all, a good exchange for the Packers, who now have 11 draft picks (and four of the top 78). This should help reload the team AND give Green Bay an impact player or two. Think tight end will be the first position that the Packers fill on Thursday.

Thanks Aaron, by the way, for the GREAT memories. Enjoy New York -- though we all expect it will be a short stay career-wise.

A few weeks ago, John Brockington passed away at 74. The former All-Pro fullback ranks fourth on the Green Bay Packer career rushing list, rushing for 5,024 yards from 1971-77. Brockington was the first NFL running back to put up over 1,000 yards rushing in each of his first three seasons in the league.

I have a memory of Brockington's rookie season, 1971, that stands out. Had won a pair of tickets to the Packer-Cincinnati Bengals game on a charity drawing through Oshkosh Lourdes Academy. The game was Oct. 3, 1971. Attempting to tackle Brockington in the game, Cincinnati defensive back Ken Dyer suffered a broken neck, ending his playing career. We (had taken buddy Brian along to the game) were shocked as Dyer was taken from the field on a backboard. It really brought out the fact that NFL football is a violent, violent sport.

We even sent a card to Dyer during his stay at Green Bay's Bellin Hospital. Got a card back from him as well, though sadly that has been misplaced over the years.

Brockington would go on to carry 216 times for 1,105 that season, a 5.1 average and one of the few bright spots in Dan Devine's first year as coach, as the team finished 4-8-2.

Not sure if the Milwaukee Brewers were paying attention to littl' ol' me awhile back when questioned about the seventh inning "last call" -- probably not, in all honesty. But it seems are just one of many ballclubs that have extended beer sales with games being shortened in length.

Home Opener Observations From AmFam Field

The Milwaukee Brewers opened the 2023 season this week with their 54th home opener -- well, 55th if you count the one as the Seattle Pilots in 1969. The 10-0 beat-down of the New York Mets gave the Brewers a 28-26 home opener record (and 3-0 at American Family Field after going 10-10 when it was Miller Park along with 16-16 at County Stadium).

By my count, Monday's opener was my 31st, and this third straight win puts me at 19-12. Monday was a sellout, with 42,017 on hand (capacity is 41,700).  Trust me, there were NOT 42,017 witnesses to the game. Could see a lot of empty seats up on the fourth deck, which tells me a lot of people just stayed out in the parking lot, tailgating.

Gotta say, I was holding back on judgement of the new rules that Major League Baseball has put into place until I could see it in person. Those rule changes (pitch clock, limited throws to first base, no defensive shifts, larger bases) have shortened game length, in some cases by A LOT (like the Miami-Minnesota game on Wednesday that clocked in at one hour, 57 minutes!). Well, not all games are reduced by that much, but last year the average length of games in the MLB was just over three hours. Experimenting with the rules in the minors last year found games reduced by just over a half-hour.

Let's give it a until, say, June 1st to see just how much these changes have impacted the game and tightened them down. Personally, am thrilled not to see batters step out after every pitch to adjust every piece of clothing they have one, or for pitchers to walk around the mound getting mentally ready. Just play ball, fellas!

One wonders how that move impacts concession sales, especially beer sales which were traditionally given a "last call" in the seventh inning. But we digress...

This year's Milwaukee team featured six new starters, including three rookies -- centerfielder Garrett Mitchell (technically a rookie, though he had seen some playing time at the end of last year), second baseman Brice Turang and outfielder Joey Wiemer. Those three add a lot of speed to the lineup, as well as a shot of fresh enthusiasm.

As of this writing, after Mitchell's walk-off home run Wednesday led to a sweep of the Mets, the Brewers are on a five-game winning streak with a 5-1 record. The hated St. Louis Cardinals come to town for a three-game set this weekend.

Those very Mets that the Brewers just out-scored 26-6 in three games, in part thanks to 10-0 and 9-0 shutouts, have the biggest payroll in baseball as the 2023 season gets under way. spending $355,436,854 on their squad. The other New York squad, the Yankees, are second at $274,249,873.

Rounding out the top six are the San Diego Padres ($247,610.217), Philadelphia Phillies ($236,260,439), the Los Angeles Dodgers ($221,759,500) and Los Angeles Angels ($212,228,095). With the exception of San Diego, all are considered "big market" teams.

And where do our lowly small market Brewers fall? All the way down to 21st out of 30, with a payroll of $116,351,987. A large chunk of that goes to Christian Yelich ($22 million), and Brewer fans are hoping that he comes close to earning that salary this year.

At the very bottom are the Baltimore Orioles ($60,422,300) and the Oakland A's ($57,795,000). Let's toss in the fact that the Orioles are in a big, big rebuild and have brought a number of talented (and cheap) players up from the minors.

FYI those big spenders in Oakland attracted a whopping 4,930 fans to their Wednesday game. This is a franchise that is desperate need of a new stadium somewhere, though the odds of it staying in Oakland appear to be slim.

Johnny Davis, the 10th player taken in last spring's NBA draft, is finally getting significant minutes with the Washington Wizards. The former Wisconsin Badger star spent most of the season bouncing between the G-League and riding pines with the big club on home games. The past few games, he's been starting and scoring in double figures -- putting up 20 against the Bucks earlier this week and another 20 last night.

Meanwhile his twin brother, Jordan, has entered the transfer portal and will leave Wisconsin. This while Tyler Wahl has opted to stay for a final season, one granted via the COVID year.

Ready Or Not, Here Comes Baseball's Opening Day!

 The Milwaukee Brewers will kick off the 2023 season today in beautiful, chilly Wrigley Field, facing the Chicago Cubs in the season opener.

We'll wait until Monday for the Crew's home opener against those big spenders, the New York Mets. Will be in attendance for Monday's game. As home openers go, and this is Milwaukee's 53rd,  I think this one will push me north of 30 for in-person viewing.

Lots of rule changes for baseball heading into this season, things that had been tested at the minor league level with an eye toward speeding up the game. Seems the moves had trimmed 26 minutes off games, getting them well under the 3 hour+ average of last year. Will reserve judgement until I see them in action.

Will be a new-look squad that takes the field on Thursday, for sure. New faces at catcher, the infield and the outfield. The strength of the Brewers will still be their pitching staff. That starting rotation of Corbin Burns-Brandon Woodruff-Freddie Peralta-Eric Lauer-Wade Miley could well be one of the best in baseball. Certainly in the top five.

Keep thinking that the key to the success of this Milwaukee team hinges on getting Christian Yelich back to form. I would settle for 80% of what he was prior to the injury a couple of years ago. If he can get on base consistently, he's gonna be a threat to steal a ton of bases (remember, baseball increased the size of the bases this season. When it did so in the minors, steals increased by over 26%).

The new rule the effectively eliminates the defensive shift will also benefit Yelich, who won't see three guys on the right side of the infield and two more in the outfield.

It's probably a given that the hated St. Louis Cardinals will win the Central Division. But I expect the Brewers to win 90 games and grab a wild card berth after battling those Red-Birds down to the wire.

The Wisconsin Badgers exited the NIT semi-finals not with a bang but a wimper this week, falling to North Texas 56-54. That's what happens when you fail to score a friggin' point for the final 9 minutes of the game!

This is the Badger team we've seen all year, one that lacks a consistent, take-charger scorer. This is a hole that Coach Greg Gard needs to fill via the transport portal. That and a big, athletic body down low. Steven Crowl might be 7-feet tall, but he's not the most athletic guy on the court.

Wisconsin finished 20-15 for the season, but played 23 games that were decided by six points or less OR ended in overtime. The squad went 13-10 in those games, and that's just not good enough.

Let's see who comes in via the portal, who goes and how the 2023-24 Badgers shake out.

All of the  #1 seeds heading into the tourney are now headed home; first time since 1979 that's happened. And speaking of the tourney, ESPN reports that, of the 20 million bracket entries on their site, only 37 had the correct Final Four of UConn, Miami, San Diego State and Florida Atlantic. That's a whopping .000185% with the correct picks. OMG!

Time to put up a statue for women's hockey coach Mark Johnson, whose Badgers won a seventh national title, and the third in five years (counting the missed COVID season).

There are those calling for Johnson to take over the floundering men's program, but let's slow that roll. Men's hockey is a different beast facing different challenges (losing players to junior programs and the NHL, for example).

March Madness Reigns Supreme

 Are your brackets busted?

You're not alone. Most of us have suffered through a Lawrence Welk opening round (unless you're a certain age, YouTube the reference!)

Am referring to A One anna Two anna Three used to start the music, only in the case, it denotes the teams knocked out early in the men's NCAA tournament.

One-seeds Purdue and Kansas are done -- Purdue knocked off by a 16-seed and Kansas by #8 Arkansas in round two. Two-seeds Arizona (beaten by #15 Princeton in the opening round) and Marquette (bounced by #7 Michigan State yesterday). Tough to count out Coach Tom Izzo, who has taken Michigan State teams to the tournament 25 straight years.

It truly is a year in which anything can happen.

Just when you think you've seen, along comes the D-5 championship game in the WIAA girls' state basketball tournament.

Chippewa Falls McDonell Catholic Central beat Blair-Taylor 61-46. McDonell was 23 of 28 from the free throw line. Blair-Taylor NEVER went to the free throw line. That's just amazing!

In the boys' state tournament, hats off to DePere, winning the D-1 title for the school's first championship in 89 years! Their 30 wins the most for an unbeaten champion (and the most for a team overall) since Appleton Xavier went 28-0 on the way to the D-3 title in 2017.

Am thinking that the WIAA competition committee needs to take a long, hard look at how the parochial/private schools are divided up come tournament time. Schools like Chippewa Falls McDonell Catholic Central and Wausau Newman Catholic, the teams the squared off in the D-5 title game, have a distinct advantage over the majority of small, rural state high schools.

Same could be said for Kenosha St. Joseph and Onalaska Luther, the teams in D-4.

Perhaps bumping them up a division, regardless of enrollment, is the way to go. And don't even get me started on the topic of public money supporting these schools.

Have to laugh at tournament time of year. It made my Grandma so mad. Not that she had a bundle of cash bet on a team, but that the local ABC and CBS stations carried the games -- and NOT her "stories" as she called the soap operas so common in the 1960s.

Kids, these were the days of few channels, no cable and no VCR or recording capability. And stations couldn't run their regular programs at 1 or 2 in the morning because stations signed off at midnight.

Many of you know just what I'm talking about. Still, fond memories all in all.

You Gotta Be Kidding Me!

Had this little tidbit passed my way by a good friend out on the Left Coast. He's a  life-long career newsie like me, and apparently Mild Bill has waaaayy too much free time on the his hands and acces to the interwebs. He spotted this story out of Oklahoma about a high school boys' basketball game with a final score of 4-2.

Yep. That's not a typo. An honest-to-God final score of 4-2. What, couldn't anybody find the ladder to get the ball out of the peach basket (gotta love being able to slip in a James Naismith reference!) A score like that brings to mind the pre-shot clock days of college basketball, the North Carolina four-corner (lack of) offense in particular. Also called the stall by many. Quick show of hands, how many found that style of play boring??

So, in Oklahoma there now seems to be an outcry for a shot clock at the high school level. Weatherford (19-1) was the 4-2 winner over Anadarko (13-8). Not sure of Weatherford has employed this type of "attack" (and we'll use that term loosely here) before, but it sure produced a stinker of a game.

The call for the shot clock surprises me. Not that they are calling for one, mind you, but the fact that it's 2023 and they haven't implemented it yet! Further investigation shows just eight states currently using a 35-second shot clock at the high school level. Another big surprise.

High school sports seem to be like a battleship, taking years to turn in the seas of change. Hell, until 1994 Iowa girls' basketball was still running with a system of six-on-six basketball and a limited number of players on the offensive attack. It was a half-court game with three forwards and three guards who COULD NOT cross the center line, were limited to two dribbles and had three seconds to either shoot or pass the ball.

This while the rest of the country was playing five-on-five, full court hoops.

So the fact that high schools across the country are slow to implement a shot clock doesn't surprise.

In many cases, it may well be a cost factor for school districts. So how about this -- the National Basketball Association and it's players' association step up and fund it? Hell, put the NBA logo on it while you're at it.

Seems like a win-win to me.