Will Robinson, 1911-2008

Update: May 4, 2008 -- "Legendary Robinson was a dignified trail blazer", by Jerry Green of The Detroit News.

A great man, Mr. Will Robinson, passed away at 12:45 Monday morning (Detroit time). Mr. Robinson was 96 years of age.

You may ask who was Will Robinson?

Will Robinson was a man of many, many firsts; and, he touched countless people throughout his fantastic life.

This title in The Detroit News is a good description of Mr. Robinson: "Basketball pioneer, former Pistons scout, was a legend".

He was the first African-American coach in the Detroit Public Schools and first NCAA Division I head coach when he guided Illinois State (1970-75).

He led Detroit Pershing to state championships in 1967 -- a legendary team that featured Ralph Simpson and Spencer Haywood, who was Robinson's adopted son -- and '70.

Robinson was an NBA and NFL scout. He was a journalist, and he sold nickel pies during the Great Depression.

I've been a Detroit Pistons fan for about 22 years; so, I've definitely heard and learned about Mr. Robinson's numerous accomplishments in that time. In fact, I had the tremendous honor of meeting him a few years ago.

The Houston Rockets were still playing their games at Compaq Center; and, Mr. Robinson was at the game. I don't remember who the Rockets were playing that night; but, I clearly remember speaking with Mr. Robinson. He didn't know me from Adam; but, we spoke for a few minutes late during halftime while going over the first half stats.

My night was made; yet, as he was leaving to go to his seat, Mr. Robinson thanked me for my time. I was stunned; but, I did manage to thank him for his time and I wished him the best.

Thank you, Mr. Robinson, for everything you did in your life. God Bless.

USBWA votes

As a new member of the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), this year was my first opportunity to vote for the national awards for men's and women's college basketball.

Ballots for men's hoops were due on March 10 while the ballots for women's hoops are due on March 17.

There were difficult decisions to make; but, here are my votes for a few of the categories:

Men's College Basketball

Freshman of the Year: Michael Beasley, Kansas State.

Player of the Year: Michael Beasley, Kansas State.

Coach of the Year: Matt Painter, Purdue.


Women's College Basketball

Freshman of the Year: Maya Moore, Connecticut.

Player of the Year: Candace Parker, Tennessee.

Coach of the Year: Keitha Adams, Texas-El Paso.


UPDATED: 3/22/08 --
Here are the announced winners (thus far) of the awards:

Men's College Basketball

Freshman of the Year: Michael Beasley, Kansas State.

Coach of the Year: Keno Davis, Drake.

Player of the Year: not yet announced.

Rockets Love Fest

UPDATE, 3/18: Boston ends the streak with 94-74 win.
UPDATE, 3/16: Rockets make it 22 straight!
UPDATE, 3/14/08: 21 wins in a row!
UPDATE, 3/12/08: The streak is up to 20 straight wins!

The Houston Rockets continued their spectacular ride with their franchise record 18th straight win Saturday night. The New Orleans Hornets were losing team number 18. The national sports media has hopped on the bandwagon, too. Did you know "Rafer Alston is the most underrated point guard in the NBA?"

The Rockets have not just won 18 straight games. The last nine wins have been by double-digits which is one short of the league record.

It's amazing what winning can do.

A few months ago Tracy McGrady was worried about his injured left knee and whether he'd be able to finish the season. Plus, McGrady was complaining about the shooting background at Toyota Center. Fans were griping about McGrady's lack of toughness so much they wanted the Rockets to trade him. Quick. Fast. And in a hurry.

Eighteen straight wins later. McGrady is on a roll! He's scored 20 plus points -- in the first half -- for two straight games. T-Mac's 41 point, nine assist showing versus New Orleans was sensational! In fact, Rockets fans chanted "MVP! MVP! MVP!" during the ball game.

Now, since the Rockets have won six straight games without him, some fans want the Rockets to trade center Yao Ming instead of McGrady.

Rafer Alston has played very, very well during this Rockets roll. He's averaged 15.4 points and 7.2 assists per game during the streak. He's scored 20-plus points in three consecutive games for just the third time in his career.

And, Alston is letting his opponents know he and his team are playing well, too.

"I don't like them. They don't like me," Alston said. "They keep telling me to stop talking. I'm great at talking trash."

Paul, considered an MVP candidate, was pretty good at it, too.


"I wish I could be half as good as him one of these days in the NBA," Paul said, "since he thinks he's so great."

The Rockets are getting positive contributions from every player. Rookie forwards Carl Landry and Luis Scola have combined to produce Tim Duncan type numbers game in and game out. Dikembe Mutombo is a force on defense blocking and / or altering shots. Luther Head is scoring well off the bench. Chuck Hayes grabs rebounds; plays pestering defense; and cuts to the basket for easy lay-ups. Steve Novak is knocking down open 3s. Shane Battier is doing his job.

On and on.

Houston has hit 74-of-188 (.394) 3-pointers over their last seven games, reaching double-digits made from downtown in five of those contests.

Whichever player head coach Rick Adelman puts in the game gets the job done when called.

The Toyota Center crowd has been electric. The players are jumping up and down and chest bumping during times-out. Overall, the team is confident; energized; and excited to be on the court.

When will the Love Fest end? Who knows and honestly who cares?

What now, Hilton?

I'm not the Houston Comets public relations person; but, I would like to offer some advice to Mr. Hilton Koch, the owner of the WNBA's Houston Comets.

Actually, my thunder was stolen from a person (a Comets' season-ticket holder) earlier this morning on The HRR's message board.

Here's part of what she wrote:

IT'S TIME FOR AN OFFICIAL LETTER TO THE STH'S, from the owner and coach, explaining things to us! For what it's worth...

This statement is in response to Monday's news that forward Sheryl Swoopes, a Houston Comets and women's basketball icon, signed a free-agent contract to play basketball with the Seattle Storm.

Swoopes' decision to sign with Seattle is just the latest change for the Comets' organization. Earlier this year, the Comets announced they would play their home games in Reliant Arena instead of Toyota Center.

Surprisingly, many people (including the media) still do not know the Comets have a new home.

Why not?

Simply put, the Comets have done a poor job keeping their name in the public eye.

Houston's pro soccer franchise, the Houston Dynamo, generates and receives more media attention than the Comets.

Team Texas, the new professional spring football team, has billboards posted across town. Team Texas generated a buzz among the local media by putting together a great draft party a few weeks ago. Their season is about to begin.

Clearly, the Comets fall way behind the Astros, Rockets, and Texans and the major colleges / universities for coverage and attention from the media.

Hilton, women's basketball in Houston (college and professional) is a tree falling in the woods. If people do not know you actually exist, people will forget about you.

Ironically, with Swoopes' signing to leave the Comets and join Seattle yesterday, the Comets have received more publicity and recognition in the city of Houston in the last 24 hours than they received when they announced their move to Reliant Arena.

Hilton, do not pass up opportunities to make your voice heard and your team recognized. Your head coach, Karleen Thompson, needs to be seen and heard in Houston, too.

Comets' fans want to be informed and involved about their favorite team.

If forward Tina Thompson decides not return to the Comets this season, as the same season-ticket holder included in her message board post wrote, "KT (Karleen Thompson) and H (Hilton) can't be serious if they think a team will survive without Tina."

A pro team being out of sight and out of mind won't be a pro team for very long.

"Think Pink" Week

Life is full of twists, turns, and surprises. I had planned to write about the "Think Pink" Week before it began; but, my laptop monitor had other ideas. Thursday evening, the monitor went dim; and, I couldn't see a thing on the computer screen. My plans to write had been postponed. Fortunately, a friend of mine was able to solve the computer problem; and, now I'm writing once again.

February 8, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) announced that over 900 participants have committed to the 2008 "Think Pink" initiative.

The "Think Pink" initiative is a global, unified effort for the WBCA's nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond. The week set aside for this year's initiative is February 8 - 17.

"The WBCA is very excited to promote an initiative that touches all levels of our membership and unifies them for such a great cause," said WBCA CEO Beth Bass. "It has been remarkable to watch the support of this initiative grow from 120 teams last year to over 900 teams from a variety for sports for 2008. With the help of each of our members, the women's basketball community and beyond can make a difference in the fight against breast cancer."

Despite two mastectomies years apart, my grandmother, the strongest woman I've ever known, died of breast cancer a few years ago. I got involved in covering women's hoops to honor my Granny. She always told me "To be the best I can be at whatever I choose." (I remember being a smartass kid and responding back to her "Even if it means robbing a bank?" Granny didn't miss a beat and replied, "Even robbing a bank. Don't get caught and never, ever do it again."

I don't know if I've covered women's basketball to the best of my ability; but, February 9, was filled with women's basketball for me.

Saturday morning, I drove to College Station, TX, to cover the Texas A&M game (11 a.m. tip) against nemesis Texas in the Aggies BTHO (Beat the Hell Outta) Breast Cancer. The Aggies played their best first half of basketball all season and led 39 to 22 at halftime; however, the Longhorns played much better in the second half and pulled as close as four points (59 to 55). But, the Aggies came through down the stretch and won the game 66 to 57.

"In the first half, we played as well as we could," said Aggies head coach Gary Blair. "In the second half, I said, ‘let’s just win the first five minutes.’ We came out and played so sluggish, but Texas was doing the same thing. Somebody was going to wake up and want to win this ballgame along the way and Texas did. We made enough plays down the stretch and Aqua (Franklin) made a lot of good decisions."

After that game, I drove back to Houston and headed to Hofheinz Pavilion to catch the second half of the Houston Lady Cougars game against SMU (2 p.m. tip) . The game was Houston's "Think Pink" game; and, a lot of fans attended the game. The referees used pink whistles in the game and the Lady Cougars wore pink t-shirts over their jerseys.

Unfortunately, UH simply didn't play well in the game. When I arrived at Hofheinz, SMU led 60 to 33 late in the second half; and Houston's starters were seated on the bench. I walked to the courtside area; sat down; and looked at some of the stats. The Lady Cougars trailed SMU 43 to 20 at halftime. Simply put, SMU played well and Houston did not.

"Give SMU credit, they came in here and hit shots," interim head coach Danny Hughes said. "We struggled in the first half to create any sort of consistency offensively and that hurt us. Sometimes, a loss can be a good thing. It helps you re-focus your efforts and continue to get better as a team."

SMU won the game 74 to 51.

The loss ended Houston's eight-game winning streak.

After the Houston game, I stayed at Hofheinz for the Rice - Tulsa game (5 p.m. tip) . (Rice's home court is being renovated; and, since Houston Baptist University's Sharp Gym -- the Owls temporary home this season -- was being used by HBU for their own basketball games, Hofheinz was chosen to host the Owls game against the Golden Hurricane.)

Rice ended a five-game losing skid with a 69 to 59 victory over Tulsa. The Owls, wearing pink shoe laces, played well during the game; however, there were stretches during the ball game which caused me to wonder if the Owls would find a way to lose once again.

Rice freshman post Morgan Mayse scored a career-high 18 points to help Rice win the game.

"I’m very proud of the team for fighting through some things in a game that seesawed back and forth," Owls head coach Greg Williams said. “The team has been working hard and we haven’t hung our heads. Tulsa plays a very good match-up zone. Morgan and Emery (Carter) stepped up on the interior and played physical in the second half with Valeriya (Berezhynska) being in foul trouble."

Three women's hoops games in seven plus hours. Each game involved with the WBCA's "Think Pink" Initiative.

I hope Granny is proud.

HRR Thoughts and Dr. James Cone

It's been almost two months since I wrote an HRR "Basketball for Thought", and, that's too long. However, this article won't be very long nor will it center around basketball very much.

First, The HRR is free. Yep, that's right -- FREE. While there is still an HRR Members' Section, there is no longer a subscription fee for it. Those people who were kind enough to spend some of their money toward The HRR no longer have to do so; however, they do receive "inside info" before anyone else. (Loyalty is very important to me; so, the least I can do is provide them information I don't submit anywhere else.)

Generally, after a few days, I'll post the info I gave them in the non-Members HRR blogs, too.

The HRR is mostly blogs now; and, the blogs are available for free via email and / or RSS feeds. Subscribing to the HRR blogs is fairly simple: click on a subscription link for one of the HRR blogs and follow the steps. (The home page (www.TheHRR.com) is the easiest place to see all of the links.)

Shifting gears to the NBA, I want to say I don't like the NBA's (Commissioner David Stern a.k.a. The Godfather) decision to have head coaches and / or select players wear microphones during the national television broadcasts. I'm a purist. When I'm not covering a Rockets' game, I watch basketball for the action on the court. I don't want to hear a coach tell me what happened in the first quarter -- before the start of the second quarter. (I don't like the coaches talking to the analysts during the baseball games either.) Reality television has ruined sitcoms and television dramas and now it's being used to dumb down sports.

Now, on a more serious note, a few days ago, a friend of mine forwarded me an email; and, I'm glad he sent it. (No, it wasn't one of those money making email tracker things.) This email included a link to a PBS episode of Bill Moyers Journal featuring Dr. James Cone.

During the interview, Dr. Cone explains the relationship -- as he sees it -- between the Christian cross and the noose and the lynching tree.

Very interesting. Check it out:
Part 1 -- http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/11232007/watch.html
Part 2 -- http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/11232007/watch2.html

FYI

This won't be very long.

The 2007 - 2008 basketball season upon us. The Houston Roundball Review (The HRR) will focus on the Houston Rockets and local women's college basketball. Period.

Why?

First, I'm expecting big things from the Rockets this season.

Second, very few local media outlets in Houston "show any love" to the Houston area women's college basketball teams or women's hoops in general.

This news does not mean I will not attend (and cover) men's college basketball games or high school games. However, since I'm working just about between 30 and 40 hours per week during the day, plus working with World Ventures as well as Ambit Energy, there are only so many hours in a day, my focus will be on the Rockets and women's college hoops.