Problems fall on the players

One and done?
That’s what’s facing the Indiana Pacers.
The team that earned the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed is on the brink of elimination, trailing three games to two after a dreadful performance Monday in which it trailed by as many as 30 points.
In the 11 seasons since the opening round expanded to seven games, four other No. 1 seeds have fallen behind 3-2. Only one — the 2003 Detroit Pistons — was able to force a seventh game.
All of this leads to our first question.
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Who is to blame for the Pacers collapse? Players for poor play? Frank Vogel for lack of coaching? Management for changing team chemistry in the middle of what was a promising season?
—Joseph Vormohr,
Indianapolis

All of the above.
Management can be questioned for the mid-season trade of Danny Granger in exchange for Evan Turner. But Turner has put up numbers similar to those provided by Granger, who is injured, again, and the chemistry problems seem to run much deeper.
Certainly Vogel has been getting out-coached during the playoffs. Atlanta has been dictating the style of play. That’s unacceptable for a veteran playoff team like the Pacers, who were the best defensive team in the league this season.
But the bulk of the blame has to be on the players.
This team pushed the Miami Heat to six games two seasons ago, and lost to the same eventual champions in seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals last season. It won its first nine games this year, was 16-1 and had a 33-7 mark in mid-January. The roster has more than enough talent, especially in the Eastern Conference.
And it’s not as if the Hawks made some sort of incredible late-season turn-around like the 2007 Golden State Warriors did prior to upsetting Dirk Nowitzki’s top-seeded Dallas Mavericks. They lost six in a row in late March before squeaking into the playoffs with a 38-44 record.
Indiana is the far more talented team in this series. Even if there are coaching and chemistry issues, the Pacers’ players should be able to overcome them.
At some point, it becomes about pride. Or, at least, it should.
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What player holds the record for highest scoring average in Division I college basketball?
—Giles Laux, Portland

“Pistol” Pete Maravich is the king of Division I scoring.
Maravich, who played at LSU, averaged 44.2 points per game and totaled 3,667 for his three-year career. Both of those are NCAA Division I records by wide margins.
No other college player regardless of division has averaged even 35 points per game, with Austin Carr of Notre Dame coming in second at 34.6. Freeman Williams of Portland State is No. 2 on the total points list with 3,249 over the course of four seasons.
(The overall college record for career points is 4,045 in four seasons by Kentucky State’s Travis Grant.)
Maravich also holds the Division I records for most points in a season (1,381) and season scoring average (44.5), and is second in points in a single game against a Division I opponent with 69. He was voted Associated Press Player of the Year in 1970.
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Prior to Josh Ludy, who was the last Jay County High School athlete to play Division I baseball?
—Phil Ford, Dunkirk

This is actually a trickier question than it seems.
Josh Shatto, a 2006 JCHS graduate, played Division I baseball at IPFW, but that came after he spent two years at Ancilla College. Ludy (JCHS – 2008) actually played his first collegiate game before Shatto by about a week.
So Shatto, who won three games and had a team-best .267 batting average for the Mastodons in 2009, was the last Patriot to graduate before Ludy and play Division I baseball. But Dan Ferrell is the last Jay County graduate to play in a Division I game before Ludy.
Ferrell (JCHS – 1993), a left-handed pitcher, won nine games and recorded 104 strikeouts during his junior season at Indiana University before the Florida Marlins selected him in the 22nd round of the 1996 Major League Baseball Draft.[[In-content Ad]]