Clark Kellogg passes off the plainly apparent as his own special insight
>> Wednesday
CBS's Clark Kellogg has constructed a few insights on college basketball. After all, he played for Ohio State in the 1980s, a point that takes up an entire paragraph in his article.
An interesting sidenote is that Kellogg starts off by bemoaning the fact that the growth of the NCAA tournament has somewhat overshadowed the importance of teams' winning their conferences. Kellogg conveniently leaves out the fact that it's the same suits at Viacom signing his checks that have had a pretty significant role in the growth of March Madness.
He's not prepared to make picks on who will win their conferences this season, but "I am prepared to offer my take on what I look for in conference champion-caliber teams." Good Clark, we were waiting breathlessly.
So, Clark- Someone who's played (at Ohio State no less) and followed the game as long as you have should surely be able to hand down some wisdom to us uneducated peons on what makes a great college basketball team, right? What's that? Oh, how convenient! You've outlined 6 things that teams should do to win conference championships. What YOU look for in those calibre teams:
1. A 60/40 blend of experience and talent
Wait, why 60/40? If you only have a 59/41 blend of experience and talent, are you fucked?
2. Toughness -- mental and physical
"Toughness" is probably favorite sportswriter/sportscaster justification on why teams are better. Clark, are you Lee Corso in disguise?
3. A go-to player
In other words, good teams tend to have a good player who doesn't make a lot of mistakes. Rumor has it that two good players help even more.
4. Winning on the Road
Yes Clark. Teams that win their conference do have a tendency to have won more than half their league games.
5. Make shots
Likewise, teams that get shut out, or who don't make a lot of shots, have a less-than-stellar track record when it comes to hanging banners.
6. Balance and versatility
In other words, one-dimensional teams (Demon Brown-era Charlotte) don't win many championships? Sheeit. Get outta here.
Thank you Clark Kellogg. I know so much more about basketball than I did before I started reading your insight into the obvious. These attributes may be what you look for in a championship-calibre team, but they're also what pretty much everyone else looks for as well.
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5 comments:
Wait a minute...Captain Obvious looks an AWFUL lot like Captain Planet.
As resident comic book nerd/expert on this blog, I gotta go ahead and correct that one. That's Captain America, dummy. Laugh all you want that I know that, but Iain and I are both comic book nerds, and we can both beat your asses.
I read the article, then I clicked the link to last week's op-ed. Kellogg offered his expertise on what makes a "freshman (or any players) excel." Amongst the attributes, a player should possess 1.) talent, 2.) smarts and savvy, 3.) "work rate" -- I think he meant "work ethic", and 4.) good coaching.
Maybe Clark should look into what makes a journalist excel. I think I would put "talent" at #1 for that position too.
Boys, I think it's pretty obvious what happened here. Dude's clearly got shit to write about college basketball in December so, what the hell? You dust off a golden oldie that could be from any year of the past decade and BOO YAH! Journalistic gold, Jerry, gold.
Although his writing may seem trite and unoriginal, he's a very good studio guy/color commentator. With today's burgeoning crossover into different facets of media, a career broadcaster like Clark has been forced into writing, where he clearly does not possess the same skill level.
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