Pitchin' with Pritch: Good finish to the track season
Congratulations to the 2019 PCS boys and girls track squads and their coaches for a very competitive season. The boys ended up ninth in Class D scoring 19 points at Omaha Burke track this past weekend.
The boy’s 3200 meter relay finished with the second place medal and the runners on that relay were Jaden Dietlein, Colton Pouk, Matthew Hahn and Caden Waitley.
Dietlein picked up another medal by placing fourth in the 3200 meters and Caden Waitley got his second medal by placing third in the 800 meter run.
It was a good finish to an outstanding season. I have always believed track is the key to success in other sports, so it is good to see students participating and doing well.
Professional basketball
The ongoing NBA is starting to get down to the last few teams and my interest still is only in watching Golden State as they try to get to the finals for the fifth straight year.
The last four years it has been just the Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, but the Cavs don’t have LeBron so they are not in the picture. The Warriors have a number of players and the last two games they’ve been playing without one of their biggest stars in Kevin Durant.
Durant is scoring at a 32-point clip per game but suffered a leg injury and has not been playing since. The last two games Portland has had big leads but cannot seem to put the finishing touches on games that appear to be over to everyone but the Warriors team.
In game two the Warriors were down 17 and Steph Curry, who is an above average player to say the least, hadn’t scored at the half but got 33 in the second half and 16 in the last five minutes, and the Warriors won.
In game three Durant didn’t play again and the Warriors were down 15 at half and again made a third quarter run and ended up winning by 11 points. Not only do they play pretty good on offense but every once in a while they play pretty good defense, and last Saturday night, after giving up a bunch of points in the first half, held Portland to 33 points in the second half.
Draymond Green probably isn’t the first name you would come up with if you were thinking about who the best player is or the most important player on the Warriors, but like a lot of teams, the guy who gets the most press isn’t always the guy who makes the team do well.
Green had 20 points, 13 rebounds, 12 assists and four steals in game three. He was the spark that started the fire and the gas that kept it a big blaze for the second half. So now the Warriors are up 3-0 in a seven game series and the next game was played after this was due so either there will be a fifth game or the Warriors will be in the finals for the fifth straight year.
They might not sweep the Trailblazers but I don’t think they can win four in a row from them either.
Nebraska basketball
While on the subject of basketball, I think there is a lot of excitement about having Fred Hoiberg as the new Husker Men’s coach, but there have been some questions about what is happening to the roster.
It isn’t really that hard to figure out. Hoiberg is trying to get people he thinks will fit into his system and give the Huskers the best chance to be successful in the Big 10 and on a national front also.
Anymore, with the number of players who will transfer at the drop of a hat, there seems to be some decent players out there looking for a place to play. Play is the key word here because anymore just being a part of the team isn’t quite good enough for some players.
Even being a starter and playing a lot isn’t always enough and a couple of years ago Nebraska had some of their players who got a lot of minutes of playing time taken off for what they thought was a better situation.
Whatever it is that motivates college kids or high school kids or whatever they perceive as a better situation for them, they do it. Loyalty isn’t a real important word to a lot of them, but then coaches play the same game in college and professional situations.
Anyway, it took about a month from the time that Hoiberg was hired for him and his coaching staff to almost completely flip the men’s roster at UNL. The Huskers lost four players to expired eligibility, one to graduation and six transferred.
Isaiah Roby is trying the profession thing but didn’t hire an agent so he could come back, but he has been talked about being a first round draft pick so I would bet he is gone.
About the only name I see on the roster now from last year is Thorir Thorbjarnarson, and yes I had to find an old program to spell Thorir’s last name. I am glad to see Doc Sadler is back as an assistant. I got to know him when he was the head coach and he is a good guy in my books.
Along with Doc and all the new players on the roster, I just hope my season tickets will bring me some exciting expectations and a topic to visit about on that 300-mile round trip to PBA this