ATL Report – Atlanta News and Gossip

Having grown up in cold country, I know a little something about the wintertime blues.  When you get home from school and then have precious few minutes to do farm chores in the cold, then get to the house after dark, it can be a long cold winter.  But the thing that was as comforting as a warm fire or cup of hot chocolate was basketball.  With all due respect to the highest level of competition, the NBA, hoops to me meant high school and college basketball.  During junior high school, then high school, the weekly or maybe even twice a week trip to see the local team meant a brightly lit gym, loud crowd and a chance to be an analyst of the area talent.  The snow might be piled high outside, but inside there was a hot rivalry and the warm popcorn served up by the high school booster club wasn’t a bad perk either.  Then in college, some hard work and good fortune meant there were play by play opportunities as a training ground for post graduate career openings.

Then dame fortune smiled so wide she nearly cracked her face: a job in basketball hotbed Lexington, Ky.  Big Blue mania, with a fan base so intense there was no off season.  Spring and summer simply meant it was recruiting season.  Louisville, Ky. was if possible, even better to me. You not only had the Wildcats, but the Louisville Cardinals and right across the Ohio River, the Indiana faithful made sure the media saw Hoosier red too.  A three year stay in Pittsburgh came during the infancy of the Big East Conference when some guy named Ewing was the best of the big men on campus.  Once again, my timing was wonderful when in 1984 making Atlanta home meant Cremins and company were just beginning to make tobacco road fans realize there was roundball somewhere besides North Carolina.  Hugh Durham had some pretty good talent coming through the doors in Athens too.  Righ now however, it’s the roundball version of depression: “hoopression”. 

The Yellow Jackets and Dawgs have a combined one conference win at the moment.  The Georgia State Panthers have not been able to mold a number of new faces into a unit.  Kennesaw State is going through an expected painful transition into Division 1 hoops.  It’s enough to make you climb to the nearest backboard and jump, except I’d probably clang off the rim like so many of the shots I’ve seen this season.  While many local high school stars are shining brightly, they’re not yet of age to help turn the locals around.  What’s a college hoops enthusiast to do?  Yes, there’s always the modern day benefit of so many televised games.  But watching on the screen isn’t like feeling the vibrations of the roar that has gone up so many times over the years at Alexander Memorial Coliseum when Mark Price nailed a jumper, or Dennis Scott made a miracle three or Ismael Muhammad hammered a dunk so thunderous the crowd had to catch its collective breath for a moment before the cheers replaced the stunned silence. Here’s waving the white flag of surrender to father time.  Now, there’s the anticipation of warm weather providing the opportunity to chase the little white ball around a carpet of green while hoping next year brings better times watching kids bounce the big orange ball on the hardwood.  Fore