Coach K Cuts Down One Net – Can He Build Up Another?

Frank Doyle looks back on a catastrophic weekend for the Bucks, an ominous warning from San Antonio and what could be the scratchy sound of checks being scribbled by the Jersey shore.

Disaster has descended on the Milwaukee Bucks. Milwaukee bounced back from bad beat losses against Cleveland and Orlando to end the Suns’ winning streak on Sunday, but at a huge cost.

Phoenix had strung ten wins together but the clock was ticking and the Suns were two point underdogs at the Bucks on Sunday despite that winning streak. Milwaukee won easily, 107-98, but a bad fall saw Bucks center Andrew Bogut dislocate his right elbow, strain his wrist and break his right hand. This is a blow Milwaukee can ill-afford.

Milwaukee has pronounced the surgery on Bogut’s hand a success but it’s highly unlikely Bogut will have a part in the playoffs. It’s tragic news for Bucks fans as playoffs and Milwaukee basketball have not been synonymous in recent years.

It adds to the pressure on Brandon Jennings – Jennings has been phenomenal for Milwaukee but he’s only one man and he’s a rookie. It’s an awful lot to ask.

Now the Suns have cooled, Miami has the longest winning streak in the league with eight straight wins. That streak hasn’t been compiled against the most frightening of opposition and it’s likely to extend to nine when the hapless Sixers visit Miami, but how that form will translate in terms of NBA basketball betting come playoff time is harder to say. It all depends on D-Wade. As ever.

In the West, San Antonio reminded everybody of why nobody wants to face the Spurs in the playoffs. They say the Spurs aren’t what they were and that Tim Duncan is getting too old but the Spurs handed the Lakers their hats on Sunday, winning 100-81 at the Staples Center with Tim Duncan clocking up his 35th double-double of the season. I should be so far over the hill.

Finally, down in the basement where there are few signs of life, Duke’s fourth NCAA title returns the question of whether or not Mike Krzyzewski will leave Durham to coach the Nets in the NBA. Coach K is clearly very happy in Duke and has nothing to prove to anyone but the money on offer is so staggering that a man would be doing himself a disservice if he didn’t at least think about it.

Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov is reportedly willing to pony up between $12 and $15 million a year without Coach K saying anything positive at all, so that could easily hit twenty if they sat down to talk. Very few college coaches have been able to make the transition, either in basketball or football, but those that did try got paid an awful lot of money to do it.

Some say Coach K would be mad to leave Duke for the Nets. But with that sort of money, Mike Krzyzewski will have enough money to hire Doctor Gregory House himself as his private physician if it all goes wrong.

XIV: Gabriel Morency previews the NCAA Championship game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bns3CFTYBbU