Is It Saturday Night Yet?

Two posts in one day? I'm as shocked as you are. Actually, after my Greg Oden post earlier, I felt the need to type out some random thoughts like I usually do. So let's get it.

• I can't explain how excited I am for the Final Four tomorrow. I'm actually considering skipping my friends' toga party tomorrow night to watch the game. Well, maybe not skip, but at least show up late.
• When David Stern first instituted the rule saying players had to be one year removed from their high school graduating class to enter the NBA, I was skeptical to say the least. No more. I have loved watching the tournament so far this year, especially the later rounds, and I have no one to thank but the Don. I hope every tournament from now on is this competitive with this much star-power.
• I love how whenever people mention high school senior Kevin Love, who is headed to UCLA next year, they feel the need to emphasize his outlet pass. I understand that outlet passing is even more of a lost art than the mid-range jumpshot, but still, it makes me smile.
• Okay, just watched some highlights of Love on YouTube. Yeah, his outlet pass is pretty impressive. Moving on.
• I read the New York Times article on O.J. Mayo and his "recruitment" to USC. It took me a few days to figure out what I thought about it and I don't think I'll be able to explain it all in a short bullet point. I think it needs a post all to itself. (Note: you may have to register to view the article, so check out BugMeNot.com)
• With all of the teams in the NBA who have no hope at making the playoffs doing their best to unintentionally tank the season, I'm waiting for someone to come out and do it without denying it or showing any remorse. The Bucks came close the other night when Michael Redd was shooting 14-18 through three quarters and then they sat him down for the first nine minutes of the fourth quarter and refused to pass him the ball down the stretch in losing to the Mavs. One team should just shut down the rest of their talented players for the rest of the season and call up as many NBDL players as they can. See if that will draw a fine. That would say more to Kevin Durant and Greg Oden that we want you to come out now and play for us than sitting and having small talk with one of their moms.

This post was a lot more than random thoughts. Whatever, I can't wait for the Final Four.

Greg Oden > You

The more I think about it, the more convinced I get. Greg Oden is going to be one of the top-5 centers of all-time.

I can't really put my finger exactly on why, but nonetheless the feeling is there. The last player we saw in the college level with his combination of skill, potential, and mentality was Tim Duncan.

He turned out to be a little more than a bust right?

But here comes the scary part about that analogy. Greg Oden is taller than Tim Duncan. Greg Oden is better at a younger age than Tim Duncan was. Greg Oden is more athletic than Tim Duncan was. And last but not least, Greg Oden is meaner than Tim Duncan.

I think that last part says it all right there. Sam Rubenstein from SLAM summed it up best last week when he said, "He is a throwback to when the big man was mean and intimidating."

Tim Duncan isn't mean and intimidating and he turned out alright. Why does Oden need to be then to succeed? Well, he doesn't. He'd be just fine if he didn't.

But can you imagine seeing Tim Duncan with a mean streak? Can you see him going down four or five times in a row and punishing the other team, physically and otherwise?

You never will, because it's not in his game; it's not in his personality. But it's in Oden's. I can see it. And with that, I can see almost unlimited potential.

I am a little biased towards the big man. I myself played in the post when I played. I grew up idolizing Hakeem Olajuwan, David Robinson, and Tim Duncan. The player I respect the most in NBA history (well, second to David Robinson that is) is Bill Russell.

Because of those things I want to see Oden succeed. I want Ohio State to win the national title on Monday and Oden to get the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. I hope that he leaves after this year and enters the NBA.

Call me boring, but I want to see him get drafted by the Boston Celtics. In my opinion the Celtics have the best jerseys in all of sports and seeing Oden in a Celtics uniform will conjure up classic images of Bill Russell.

Will the titles Russell won come with those images? Probably not. But Oden is a surefire franchise player and multiple titles are not out of the question. New rules aside, winning titles begins and ends with a dominant big man and Greg Oden is the next great one.

Now that I think about it, I wouldn't mind seeing him jump ship to play for the Spurs when his rookie deal expires.

I'm Never Really Asleep Cuz Only One Eye's Closed

I haven't posted in a while, and frankly, I haven't had time. Well, that's a lie. I have had time but I've been really busy and I just haven't had the motivation to post. I have been taking care of somethings that might really enhance this blog, so keep your fingers crossed on that.

I am delighted to tell you that my NCAA tournament bracket is healthy. I was planning on taking a picture of me lighting my bracket on fire and posting it up here, but my bracket looks good. I picked three out of four of the final four teams with only UCLA not there and both of my national championship teams are alive.

Speaking of sports contests that I'm in and get no real benefit from winning, I'm dominating my NBA.com fantasy league and in second place in my Yahoo! fantasy league with a bye in the first round of the playoffs. Who's beating me in my Yahoo! league you ask? Amazingly, my dad. I'm as shocked as you are.

Back to the Final Four though. The more I think about it, the more excited I am. For some reason this Final Four seems amazingly strong. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about; maybe I've been reading too much Bill Simmons; I don't know, but I'm excited.

My pick is still the Ohio State over Florida in the final. Greg Oden for MOP just because if Ohio State wins the NCAA will feel compelled to give it to him. I won't argue.

I haven't watched a lot of NBA this past week, my guess is I'm subconsciously saving my energy for the playoffs, or LeBron-Jamesing it, because I know I will be watching a ton of basketball when playoffs come around.

Speaking of LeBron, how about his new house? I'm thinking of faxing my résumé over there so maybe I can get a better paying job. Somebody has to work in his bowling alley, right?

That's about all for me tonight. I need more sleep these days.

Growing Up So Fast

Today is March 19, and by my calculations, that means I've been doing this blog for exactly a year now. Exciting stuff isn't it? So in honor of this being this blog's first birthday or one year anniversary or whatever you want to call it, I thought we might look at some of things I said in that first post:

This blog is going to be about basketball first and foremost. I will try to keep details of my personal life out of this blog just as much to maintain my privacy as to not bore you out of your skull. Whenever I feel the need to talk about something in the sport of basketball, I will probably post it here. The majority of these posts will be about the NBA, but occasionally college and other basketball will be discussed.

I think I've done a pretty good job meeting those criteria. I mostly talk about the NBA, I leave most of my personal life out of this, and I post my thoughts about what I see. All in all, an accurate promise.

My goal is to update this blog at least once a week. I am not sure if I will be able to stick to that plan, I have a habit of neglecting things after a while, but I will do my best. On here you will find game notes, articles, editorials, and other basketball news. I will even post links to stories and articles by me and other writers I find of interest.

This is where some of the deceit and lies begin. I honestly try to update the blog at least once a week. My real goal is to post Monday through Friday, but I think we all know that's not going to happen. The best part though is this line : "I have a habit of neglecting things after a while, but I will do my best." Ha! Yeah, I think the entire summer can be attributed to that sentence right there. I have done a pretty good job at posting some different things on here. I haven't done a full game notes in a while though, I should do that sometime soon.

The rest of the post just details some things in my personal life which I had said I wouldn't do right before that. And a little background info on the title of the blog. Good times all around.

Now on to real basketball stuff. The NCAA tournament so far can be described as mediocre at best. The one day where there were good games, I was nowhere to be found. Actually, I was at my sister's apartment playing Wii Sports and rocking out on Guitar Hero 2, so I

Here are some quick thoughts about the weekend in basketball:

• Yeah, Kobe Bryant scored a total of 115 points in two games this weekend, but don't people realize that he did it against the Timberwolves and the TrailBlazers?
• In my bracket, my national champion is still alive. In fact, my Final Four is still alive. In fact, my Elite Eight is still alive. Maybe this actually is a good NCAA tournament.
• How the Spurs follow up a 13 game winning streak in which they played excellent with back to back losses to the Bucks and Celtics, I will never know.
• On second thought, they did lose to the Celtics on St. Patrick's Day.
• There are only six more weeks left in the semester. Just thought you'd want to know.
• I really hope Greg Oden and Kevin Durant both stay in college for another year, just to mess with Memphis and Boston.
• Speaking of Durant, he should still be National POY.
• The NCAA needs a defensive POY. And if they already have it, they need to publicize it more.

That's all for tonight.

NCAA Tournament Day 2

Time to watch the second days games. The first day was rather underwhelming. I enjoyed the VCU-Duke game, mainly because Duke lost. Okay, totally because Duke lost. But no big upsets (because really, we all saw the Duke loss coming) yesterday. Day 2 starts off with Virginia-Albany.

• UVA jumps out to an early 13-2 lead. Not good for Albany.
• Albany almost gets a steal but the ball rolls out to a UVA player who drains a three. 19-2.
• Nike's Second Coming commercial still hasn't gotten old. I've got the song on my mp3 player. They should just have that song as the background music for every commercial.
• Back to back Albany buckets and now it's 21-9. But J.R. Reynolds for UVA answers back with a three. He's 4 of 4. 24-9.
• 5 of 5.
• 6 of 6. 29-11. Timeout Albany.
• 7 of 7. And just so you know, we're barely halfway through the first half.
• Both teams just trade baskets back and forth. It's 40-21 with three and a half minutes left in the half. No jokes to be found.
• I think every team in division 1 is required to have one shaggy-haired white kid who's only tall enough to play point guard, sits at the end of the bench in his long-sleeve warm-up top, and be the first player out on the court to slap high fives with everybody as they come off the court for timeouts.
• J.R. Reynolds has 23 at halftime for UVA who's up 45-25 at halftime. I'm going to the Georgia Tech-UNLV game to watch Thaddeus Young play.
• It's 25-14 late in the first half of this game, and there is hardly anybody in the crowd. What a waste of good seats.
• I just realized I don't know what Thaddeus Young looks like or what his number is.
• Just googled it, he's number 33. Now I know.
• GT was down by 14 buy they're climbing back in it by getting fouled and hitting freethrows. Note to everybody, that's how you get back into games.
• Halftime of that game with UNLV up 31-25, can't watch North Texas play Memphis, so it's time to go back to UVA-Albany, which is still at halftime.
• Lunch break. Left-over spaghetti.
• Just tuned into GT-UNLV again and it's tied at 40 with 15 mins left. Finally a good game.
• UNLV stretches it back out to a seven point lead, 55-48 with 7 mins left.
• Jeremis Smith, beastin'. Just like he did in high school. He got a tip-dunk to bring the Yellow Jackets within three, 55-52.
• Haven't seen much from Thaddeus Young yet, I'm hoping this will be the reverse-jinx.
• Right after I type that last sentence he air-balls a jumper from the freethrow line.
• First final of day 2, Virgina beats Albany 84-57. And the peasants rejoiced.
• UNLV gets bucket and a phantom foul off an inbounds play with 1:11 left to go up 61-59.
• GT turns it over on the other end with a 5-second call.
• Gaston Essengue for UNLV hits two freethrows to put UNLV up 4, 63-59 with 35 seconds left. Weird, I played against him in junior college. I forgot he transferred to UNLV.
  
• And UNLV holds on to win 67-63. Meh.

You know what, I'm tired of blogging. I'm done, I'm just going to watch the games for the rest of the day and possibly weekend. Adios.

NCAA Tournament Day 1

Some random notes during the first day of the NCAA tournament:

• Stephen Curry really impressed me during Davidson's first round game against Maryland. If you watched the game, you were beaten over the head with the fact that he is the son of former Hornets sharpshooter Dell Curry.
• Curry (the younger) was impressive with his obviously good shooting stroke, excellent passing, and big-game swagger. Watching him play I could hear Mike D'Antoni in Phoenix salivating. He's just the 10th leading scorer in college basketball, with a game that his perfect for his Suns' system, and oh yeah, he's a freshman.
• Speaking of Curry having an NBA dad, how come every time we watch a player whose parent, sibling, or other relative is a former star athlete, we are reminded of that fact whenever possible? How many casual basketball fans have actually heard of Dell Curry? I have, but I'm a nerd when it comes to things like that. I should know. But casual fans watching the tournament, if he didn't make at least one All-Star team, they don't care.
• I watched a little bit of Louisville's shellacking of Stanford and there was one thing I noticed, there has been talk of Stanford center Brook Lopez being a top 10 pick, but from what I saw, he was owned by David Padgett. I understand that Padgett is a junior and Lopez is just a freshman, but still. I need to see a lot more than someone playing well in the severely disappointing Pac-10 for them to be considered a top 10 pick, especially in this draft.
• It's a shame Davidson lost, they were fun to watch. They played very fast paced and played hard, but ultimately they got tired and Maryland pulled away.
• After the first wave of games (3 games) my bracket is perfect. I'm pretty sure I just jinxed myself.
• Next up: Belmont vs. Georgetown. Jay Bilas is commentating on this game. This won't be annoying or anything.
• While Verne Lundquist and Jay Bilas talk about Georgetown coach John Thompson III, a graphic comes up showing his record and the camera cuts to...the security guard. Well, he's black, so at least they got that part right.
• Bilas mentions that one of the players for Belmont can "hit an open shot if you give it to him." I'm pretty sure that 95% of the players in the tournament can do that too, but thanks for the expert analysis.
• Jeff Green = nice. And I mean that in the way New Yorkers use it.
• Georgetown center Roy Hibbert is a good passer out of the double.
• Actually, Hibbert is just a good passer, period.
• Jeremiah Rivers? Great, another kid with an NBA dad. (Doc Rivers if you couldn't guess)
• Georgetown starting to build a lead. Probably because they're playing Hickory High School, sans Jimmy Chitwood.
• Jay Bilas just said Belmont coach Rick Bird "likes to take you back door after timeouts." I feel violated.
• Looking at Georgetown's gray jerseys, I couldn't help but think that they should all be wearing the white/gray Air Jordan XIX's. Why? I don't know.
  
• Andrew Preston for Belmont looks like Dennis from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
• "He's a scratch golfer and that one scratched his nerves." Verne Lundquist should be fired.
• Halftime of GU-Belmont, so I'm going to Oral Roberts-Washington State. James Brown is doing commentary? The Godfather of NFL Pregame Shows is working overtime at CBS.
• Oral Roberts has a guard named Ken Tutt. Awesome.
• Oral-Wazzu is boring. I wish I could turn to Texas A&M-Penn, but I can't because of local blackout rules and whatnot.
• Vealy, Tutt, Liberty, Oral Roberts has got some great last names.
• Wazzu has made as many baskets as Oral Roberts has shots taken so far in the second half (11/17 to 5/11), not good.
• Kyle Weaver (Wazzu) just smashed on somebody on Oral Roberts.
• With Wazzu up 55-47, I'm going back to GU-Belmont.
• GU swings the ball away from Hibbert, probably just to mess with him.
• Hibbert is Rick Rossin'. (Hustlin')
• GU is dominating. I'm moving to Old Dominion-Butler.
• Thank God for March Madness on Demand. I'd be pissed if I had to miss all these games because of work. Instead, I'm getting paid while I'm watching them.
• The best part of the first round is that there are too many teams playing for CBS to do the cheesy puff pieces already.
• Butler "makin' it rain" and pulling away from ODU.
• I just looked at the scoreboard and apparently Texas A&M is now losing to Penn. They've been outscored 21-6 in the 2nd half so far. No good can come of this.
• George Washington-Vanderbilt. Two schools named after dead white guys.
• GW's coach looks like a black Hannibal Lecter.
• I've got GW upsetting Vandy in the first round. Why? Because George Washington could kick Cornelius Vanderbilt's ass any day.
• If you don't have an angle from the block to the rim in the post, please shoot a hook shot. Please.
• A player for Vandy's last name is Skuchas (pronounced scoo-ches). I feel a Jay and Silent Bob reference coming.
• Vandy up 13-2 early.

Time to go home. I'm done with notes for today. Time to just enjoy the games.

March Badassness

I watched probably the best basketball game of the season so far last night when the Suns beat the Mavericks in double overtime. Everybody and their step-mother has already written about it today, I'll just say that it was everything it was expected to be and leave it at that.

There was one thing I was thinking during the game though. Whenever Phoenix gets scored on, they take the ball out of bounds and head up court immediately. They are obviously the fastest team in the league at going from defense to offense, thanks mostly to Steve Nash.

My thought was this: why don't teams try to slow down the Suns by pressuring the inbound pass off of a score? The man closest to the inbounds pass could pressure the ball. I'm not talking a full-court press, I'm just talking about something to slow down that inbounds pass to give you a chance to set up your defense before the Suns get down on offense.

I don't know, I'm not an NBA coach, obviously, but it's just a thought.

The NCAA tournament starts today, actually, I'm watching the Maryland-Davidson game on-demand as we speak. I'll have my thoughts on the first day posted late tonight or tomorrow morning. Not that they really matter, it just keeps me entertained.

Who's my pick to win? My bracket has the Ohio State University beating Florida in the finals, so by my calculations that means neither of those teams will make it past the Sweet Sixteen.

I saw 300 a couple of nights ago. Awesome movie. It's badass level was pretty much off the charts. One thought I had throughout the movie was that it was good to see John Amaechi get a start in movies:



Oh boy, I'm going to hell, no more gay jokes. Enjoy the tournament.

Madness

I'm on spring break right now, so things have finally died down. I actually have free time that I'm not spending asleep. I was able to watch a ton of college basketball this weekend but not much NBA. In my opinion, as far as basketball goes, this is probably the best time of the year. The conference tournaments and NCAA tournament in the college ranks and the stretch run before the playoffs in the NBA. It doesn't get much better than that.

I watched a lot of the Big 12 tournament mostly just to watch Kevin Durant play. The more I watch of him, the more impressed by him I am. He can score in pretty much any way. If he gets a look at the rim, chances are good that the shot is going in. He has a little trouble getting the ball sometimes, I think that's partly due to his lack of strength, but that's his main offensive weakness. That and his ability to set-up his teammates. I know he's not a point guard, but I haven't seen him make many plays for his teammates.

I got to watch some of Greg Oden this weekend also. Though he's not as spectacular to watch as Durant, I think if I was starting a team, I would go with Oden over Durant. I think it's better to build a team around a player like Oden than it is a player like Durant.

But what it really comes down to in the draft this year, assuming both leave college for the NBA, is the team you have right now. If the Celtics get the first pick, they should take a Durant. They've got a good low post presence with Al Jefferson. But if Memphis gets the first pick, I believe they should take Oden. They don't have a strong low post presence and pairing Oden with Pau Gasol would automatically give Memphis one of the best front courts in the league.

It all comes down to who you have on your team, how long you're going to have those guys around, and what style of play you are going to play as to who you draft first, Oden or Durant. But number don't lie, and dominant centers win more NBA championships than dominant swingmen, unless your name is Michael Jordan.

I Need A Vacation

Things have been busy the last week or so, and the first half of this week looks to be no different. I wasn't able to catch much basketball last week. I caught the Spurs playing the Magic last Friday as well as some of the Nuggets game on ESPN, but off the top of my head, I can't think of who they played. Whatever. I also saw a little of bit of the Spurs-Rockets game Saturday night. Other than that, nada. Hopefully in a couple of days things will slow down a bit and I'll get to relax and watch some basketball. Hopefully. By then I think I'll be in spring break mode.