Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Catching Up - NCAA Tournament (3-29-11)

It's been a minute or two since my last post, but wow, this has been a great tournament.  Let's touch base on some items:

1) It hurt to see my Dukies lose to Arizona, but I knew that they would have problems with Tristan Thompson or Derrick Williams in one of those matchups.  Williams D-E-S-T-R-O-Y-E-D the Blue Devils all over the court and dare I say (this hurts) that the Blue Devils qu, it's hard to write this,...the Blue Devils quit.  I've never seen a Coach K team just pack it in, but I got that feeling watching the game (they basically pulled a Jay Cutler).  All of the people that say that Nolan had a bad game because of Irving on the floor, I just don't buy.  Nolan just had a bad game, at the worst possible time. 

2) Shaka Smart has this VCU team looking like world beaters.  Their last game against Kansas was just hard to put into words.  It was like watching a heavyweight fight and the favorite (Kansas) came out and got a few jabs in early (their 6-0 lead) and then challenger (VCU) landed like a 6 punch combination.  Kansas was stunned for the entire rest of the first half.  They played better in the second half but they were just too far behind.  VCU is going to have to pony up some money to keep Smart and we'll soon see how much money that will be. 

3) While VCU is the darling this year, please don't forget about Butler.  They find a way to win or at least they put themselves in the position to win.  I do think that Florida gave the game away in regulation and we won't talk about that Pitt game.  How do you not get a better shot than a fade-away 3 pointer when you had over 20 seconds left on the clock and the game is tied?  Arrrrrggghhhhhh.  All I could do was to talk to my son about what to do in that situation and that the kid could have gotten that 3 point shot anytime he wanted to during that game (with probably the same result).  Nevertheless, Butler has to be the favorite going in to this game and maybe they win it all this year.  They only missed it by about 4 inches last year.  We'll see.

4) John Calipari has a chance to win it all.  This Kentucky team is loaded and they are athlethic and long enough to cause each of these other 3 teams problems.  I'm wondering when Jones will turn it back on to the way he was playing earlier in the year.  Harrellson has been the piece for the Wildcats, and I would imagine that him stepping up makes missing Enes Kanter all that much easier.  Our prayers go out to Coach Cal and his family as he is dealing with his father and their loss of Cal's mom. 

5) K-E-M-B-A.  This guy is actually carrying a team and has done this for a while.  He's in such a groove and seems to have command of the Huskies offense and their ability to win.  Funny story, one of my guys (yes T-Rell) saw Kemba working out this summer with Tim Grover and came away VERY VERY unimpressed.  He didn't see why this kid was garnering any attention.  Suffice it to say, T-Rell has eaten those words since Kemba beat his cousin, Dion Dixon, and the Bearcats in the second round of the tournament.  But back to Kemba, he can get the Huskies all the way there, he's that good.  We'll see what happens from here. 

6) The Fab Five, Jalen Rose, Grant Hill, and Duke.  Yes, I watched the ESPN documentary on the Fab Five.  Didn't know until the end that Jalen was the producer.  Man, I remember when that team hit the scene and man, those were some bad dudes.  I do understand what Jalen was saying about not being recruited by Duke and the perceived lack of 'soul' of brothers that went to Duke. 

(Several stories here)  My cousin went to an HBCU in Durham, NCCU and dated a young black girl that went to Duke.  She often encountered the stigma associated with being black and going to Duke and how it made you less of 'black' person.  With that said, she was smart and wanted to be a doctor (which she is today) so she made the best choice for her when it came to schooling. 

I ran track for a local Durham track team (do the Durham Striders still exist?) and we were always over at Wallace Wade Stadium for practice and meets.  I took courses during the summer (while in high school) at Duke, and was all ready to play for Steve Spurrier at Duke but he left for greener pastures (Florida) in 1990.  But the stigma I encountered (and I never enrolled at Duke) was that I was trying to be 'white' by going there. 

So the perception was there about blacks that attended Duke.  With that said, I think Jalen would have done himself a service by saying that 'when I was 17 or 18 I thought this way, but now that I'm older and wiser I see the error of my ways'.  I think this would have allowed him to keep it real and also let everyone know that we all grow and evolve.  Without doing that Jalen, and rightfully so, caught a lot of backlash from not only Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley, Coach K, and a whole bunch of other people.  I don't think that Coach K recruits in certain households and not others, I think he recruits the best talent.  Coaches gotta win.  Jalen was a left handed, 6'8" point guard who wasn't really a defensive player and wasn't a great shooter.  Think of the guys on those Duke teams: Hurley, Brian Davis, Thomas Hill, Grant Hill, Christian Laettner, Antonio Lang, Bill McCaffrey, etc.  Jalen wasn't going to get Hurley's spot and he also wasn't going to be happy with coming off the bench. 

Hopefully this all goes away and we can get back to talking about basketball and how it brings all people together for the common good.  Jalen, write an apology letter or something and finally make this go away. 

The only odd thing is that as good as that Fab Five team was they lost to the ACC's best in back to back years ('92-Duke, '93-UNC). 

Thursday, March 17, 2011

2011 NCAA Tournament - Brackets

Ok, it's that time, yes, it's Shamrock Day (officially St. Patrick's Day), but it's also the start of the NCAA Tournament.  And yes, I don't fall for this 68 teams with teams playing earlier this week to get into the field of 64, the tournament starts today!!!!  With that said, I have done several brackets and no one at work wants to put money on those brackets this year after I took everyone's money last year with my Dukies becoming the National Champions.

With that said, I am willing to put these two brackets up for your perusal and please feel free to vilify me if you got jokes.  I'm standing by my picks though!!!!


So here is my best take on the brackets:



Here's my other one:




Who you got?!?!?!?  Let the games begin.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

NBA 2010 Top 50 NBA Players (as of 2-28-11)

Yes this is late, but trust me when I say that both NYSTOM and I are getting swamped at work.  Maybe we can hit the lottery and then do this for our everyday gigs.  Nevertheless, the data is a little aged, but take a look at the Top 50 NBA Players as of the end of February. 



Player
Team
PS
PPG
RPG
APG
FG%

1
Howard, Dwight
orl
C
23.21
13.83
1.21
0.597
199.0882
2
James, LeBron
mia
SF
26.21
7.50
7.16
0.488
198.0413
3
Duncan, Tim
san
PF
13.49
9.15
2.85
0.488
193.7175
4
Wade, Dwyane
mia
SG
25.54
6.88
4.39
0.500
190.4961
5
Gasol, Pau
lal
PF
18.74
10.41
3.54
0.531
189.3930
6
Bryant, Kobe
lal
SG
25.08
5.26
4.89
0.461
186.7251
7
Parker, Tony
san
PG
17.12
3.14
6.61
0.518
185.6269
8
Stoudemire, Amare
nyk
PF
25.89
8.59
2.73
0.507
185.4698
9
Westbrook, Russel
okl
PG
22.03
4.88
8.36
0.436
184.5343
10
Rose, Derrick
chi
PG
24.81
4.37
8.14
0.445
182.1897
11
Nowitzki, Dirk
dal
PF
22.84
6.72
2.54
0.524
181.8743
12
Garnett, Kevin
bos
PF
15.08
9.29
2.51
0.519
179.0560
13
Nash, Steve
pho
PG
16.36
3.70
11.39
0.507
173.9784
14
Randolph, Zach
mem
PF
20.16
13.13
1.79
0.486
173.6717
15
Durant, Kevin
okl
SF
28.50
7.19
2.76
0.464
172.7729
16
Horford, Al
atl
C
16.00
9.80
3.61
0.571
172.6940
17
Love, Kevin
min
PF
21.03
15.53
2.47
0.471
171.7634
18
Griffin, Blake
lac
PF
22.87
12.48
3.56
0.509
171.6079
19
Boozer, Carlos
chi
PF
18.95
9.73
2.28
0.535
170.7735
20
Paul, Chris
nor
PG
16.13
3.92
9.62
0.470
168.6212
21
Ginobili, Manu
san
SG
18.19
3.86
5.00
0.425
164.2644
22
Aldridge, LaMarcus
por
C
22.41
9.05
2.08
0.499
163.6797
23
West, David
nor
PF
19.14
7.68
2.36
0.514
163.5997
24
Scola, Luis
hou
PF
18.79
8.28
2.46
0.498
163.0532
25
Bosh, Chris
mia
PF
18.34
8.16
1.82
0.487
162.2730
26
Jefferson, Al
uta
C
18.00
9.23
1.52
0.493
159.4366
27
Blair, DeJuan
san
C
8.58
7.25
1.08
0.502
158.9333
28
Millsap, Paul
uta
PF
17.32
7.92
2.32
0.531
157.6024
29
Hilario, Nene
den
C
14.87
7.20
2.00
0.626
157.4849
30
Chandler, Tyson
dal
C
10.52
9.50
0.38
0.652
156.4335
31
Smith, Josh
atl
PF
16.65
8.72
3.43
0.477
156.0895
32
Pierce, Paul
bos
SF
18.98
5.00
3.19
0.496
155.9694
33
Martin, Kevin
hou
SG
23.25
3.15
2.41
0.441
155.8031
34
Odom, Lamar
lal
PF
14.61
8.97
2.87
0.547
155.1063
35
Rondo, Rajon
bos
PG
10.87
4.49
12.11
0.508
151.7320
36
Brand, Elton
phi
PF
15.28
8.79
1.40
0.523
149.5215
37
Miller, Andre
por
PG
13.28
3.98
7.36
0.459
148.8415
38
Bynum, Andrew
lal
C
11.36
7.72
1.28
0.558
145.5766
39
Allen, Ray
bos
SG
17.41
3.59
2.81
0.501
142.3402
40
Curry, Stephen
gsw
PG
18.48
3.50
5.78
0.488
141.6201
41
Ellis, Monta
gsw
SG
24.91
3.43
5.45
0.455
140.7503
42
Lee, David
gsw
PF
16.08
9.37
3.31
0.490
140.2678
43
Gay, Rudy
mem
SF
19.80
6.22
2.83
0.471
138.4459
44
Noah, Joakim
chi
C
13.50
11.89
2.43
0.522
138.4131
45
Johnson, Joe
atl
SG
19.29
4.16
5.24
0.446
138.2816
46
Marion, Shawn
dal
SF
11.83
6.62
1.21
0.510
138.1781
47
Hibbert, Roy
ind
C
13.07
7.72
2.14
0.452
138.0826
48
Sessions, Ramon
cle
PG
12.69
3.05
5.47
0.466
137.9650
49
Bass, Brandon
orl
PF
11.02
5.69
0.81
0.505
134.7052
50
Hill, Grant
pho
SF
13.84
4.57
2.46
0.492
134.6938

I won't even comment on this one, but I will look forward to the next release of the Top 50 in the coming days.