Darrell Moody: This Warriors team a fun bunch to watch


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Growing up in the Bay Area was tough if you were a Warriors fan save for the 1974-75 season when they beat the Wes Unseld-led Bullets to win the NBA title.

The teams of Don Nelson were fun to watch, but didn’t play defense, and everybody knows if you don’t play defense you have no chance to win a championship. Face it, you aren’t going to score 115-120 points a game. That just doesn’t happen. The Warriors of 2015 have shown they can play some great defense at time, especially with Andrew Bogut in the middle.

I’m not a big NBA fan. I much prefer the college game.

This team, however, is special. It’s a great mix of youth and experience. Steve Kerr made the right decision to take the Golden State job instead of the Knicks job. Kerr has made all the right moves, and the team was smart not to deal Klay Thompson.

And what can I say about Stephen Curry? This guy is the best pure shooter I’ve seen since the legendary Jerry West, and Thompson isn’t far behind. They are the best 1-2 shooting punch in the game today. The NBA game suffered for years in my opinion because the outside shooting stunk, and the Warriors’ duo is changing the perception of that. The outside shooting still isn’t what it should be in the NBA, but I think it’s getting better.

The Warriors and the Memphis Grizzles will be an interesting series, and I see the Warriors winning it in five or six.

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Makenzie Tucker played a key role in Carson High reaching the state volleyball tournament last fall, and she has parlayed that success into a trip to Australia.

Tucker, who did a tremendous job serving and digging in her role as the libero for the Senators, has been invited to participate at the 27th annual Down Under Sports Tournament in June put on by International Sports Specialists.

Tucker would play both indoor and beach volleyball as a member of the Pacific Conference squad. There are tournaments scheduled in each sport.

Teammate Natalie Anderson has also been invited, but it’s not known whether she’s going to make the trip or not.

International Sports Specialists, Inc. started in February 1989 thanks to the efforts of George O’Scanlon , who fell in love with athletics. O’Scanlon has been trying to promote sports both in New Zealand and Australia.

Tucker served up 67 aces, contributed 28 assists and had a team-leading 243 digs this past season.

The trip is not cheap. The athletes are required to come up with approximately $4,500 which includes airfare and housing. This is a good chance for people in the community to help out a deserving athlete.

If you are interested in helping sponsor Tucker, go to www.downundersports.com/makepayment. If you’re contributing by check it should be made out to Down Under Sports. If you wish to pay by phone, call 435-753-4732.

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After spending five-plus hours at Saturday’s regional track trials, I’ve come up with a few ideas that would lead to quicker meets.

The first would be to have qualifying times and marks for each event. It’s painful to watch guys who can’t throw the discus more than 110 feet. And it’s equally painful to see girls at the varsity level only throwing the shot 25 feet. The regional trials shouldn’t be an event where everybody gets in. The way it’s handled now, all you have to do is be breathing and you can compete.

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Donnie Nelson of the NIAA confirmed he has talked to track coaches in the area, and he would like to see all regionals in track held at Carson High starting in 2017, and he wants to have it run like a state meet which means competition on Friday and Saturday instead of splitting the event over two Saturdays. Makes sense to me, but what do I know, I’ve only been doing this for 40 years.

The current Division I system is idiotic.


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