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Steve Rivera Ventures

This just in! Just kidding, but …

by on Jul. 28, 2010, under Sports

Good to see the Pacific 10 Conference finally – after all these years – get it when it comes to publicity. Other than USC and Oregon in football and UCLA and Arizona (sometimes) in basketball did the Pac-10 get the publicity it deserved.

Sure didn’t come from the PR people through the years. But now that fairly new Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott has taken over the league has been in the front pages. Sorry USC, but your front pages for being a cheat doesn’t count. The fate of Arizona should come soon when it comes to basketball.

But Scott has had some pretty good ideas. First making a change to the Pac-12 (officially with Utah and Colorado now in the mix) and now with a media junket to the east coast to get some publicity. How long the publicity lasts will be up to the football gods and just how good the teams are. Here’s a prediction: not for long.

But having the football coaches go to New York to meet the media (if any were interested) was genius. And all this time – and Scott saw it – the Pac-10 cried, ‘what about us?’’

“It seemed to be a bit of an excuse and that the Pac-10 in my estimation was very laid back and passive in terms of how it went about telling its story and promoting itself,” Scott told the media about his perception of the Pac-10 in his first year as commish. “To me the disconnect was people worried about that but they were not really doing much about it.”

Well they did. Now, we’ll see how long it lasts.

Wise move?

So former UA guard Nic Wise has landed in Europe in Germany. Guess we now know why he didn’t head to the NBA last year before his senior year. No team thought he was good enough. And they didn’t think so again after what was a decent senior year at UA. But you are what you are when you’re an undersized 5-foot-9ish point guard.

He’s now with the Telekom Baskets Bonn and coach Michael Koch is quoted in Eurobasket.com as saying, “Without a question Nic will really help us. With many different head coaches in the last years, he had to have responsibility and it shows in his playing style. His stats went up in each year. Just because he is short, you can’t underestimate his three-pointer.’’

Wise is being compared to Jason Gardner. In four years of covering it never came up. At least not with me. They are two totally different players with two totally different attitudes. The only similarity was their stature. Here’s hoping Wise’s knees hold up so he can have a European career to be proud of.

More in TC Sports Network:

Foothills girls to state final

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 10:23 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Carlos J. M.

    Wise is a coach’s son.  He’s played for a number of coaches.  He’s been playing the game for a number of years.  He wants the ball in his hands when it counts.  He knows basketball.  He’s a winner.

    Wise can hit the jumper from 2 or 3 pt land.  He can penetrate and lay it in or dish it to the open man.  Knees and all, he can run with the best of them.  He mostly plays sound D for a series of sets but tends to let his guard down over a 20 minute half and 40 minute game.  But that’s OK because he’ll never be asked to play anything close to 40 minutes a game again, ever.

    Where Wise meets his downfall is when he begins to think too much, dribble too much, make the game much more than what it really is – a game.  And a golden opportunity as PG, floor general, coach on the court to give, and get, his.  Still, I seriously wonder if anyone has taken him aside and really explained to him what the job of  a PG is?  He’s not nearly as vocal, instructive, strong in his leadership ways as he needs to be to play the position. 

    Wise reminds me of that guy we all knew in HS or college or at the “Y” who we all knew had it but was afraid to fully show it, for fear of being looked at as a know it all, do it all, see me all.  He’s been, believe it or not, holding back.  He has to let it all come out and now.  And may the chips fall where they may.  Maybe being spurned by the NBA – no, make that disrespected by the NBA – will help place a chip on his shoulders the size of Texas.  Then we’ll see the real Nic Wise.  

    • http://steveriveraventures.com Steve

      Carlos, how long do we have to wait to see the real Nic Wise? Disrespected? Didn’t I ask the readers about two months ago if they would draft him if they were an NBA exec? Answer? Are you kidding me?

  • vegasallen

    A realistic view:

    Wise was an ok college player who unfortunately, will never play in the NBA. That bid to retire his number was ridiculous.

    His long range shooting was good as a Junior but mostly deserted him as a Senior. His chance to advance his career hinges on developing a great 3 point shot and staying healthy. Most likely, he’ll be coaching within 2-5 years.

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