College Basketball Fever

Even though there's a ton of talent in college basketball this year, it's taken a minute for me to really get into it. That probably has to do with being completely subdued for the last few weekends, including when the Memphis Tigers dismantled the Georgetown Hoyas (at least that's what I heard). Oh yeah, and the fact that Maryland absolutely sucks this year. How do you lose to Ohio and American after winning 44 of the last 45 games against non-conference opponents? Hopefully they'll turn it around in conference play, but in order to impress the committee they may have to be nearly flawless at this point.

But, I digress. After watching some ball yesterday, I think I'm getting that college basketball jones back. Texas losing to Wisconsin without their leading scorer; Dayton drilling Pittsburgh like they were a Division II freshman team instead of one of the last remaining unbeaten teams; an exciting Oklahoma/West Virginia game where I got my first look at Blake Griffin (while he doesn't put up the insane stats of the other more ballyhooed freshman, he does pretty much everything well and I think he'll be better at the next level than in college).

Memphis/Arizona was the game I was actually looking forward to, but unfortunately it coincided with the Patriots run at perfection (congrats, now if you can concoct a three game winning streak it'll really mean something). I did some flipping but ultimately the buzz died down once I learned that Jerryd Bayless, another fabulous freshman who I think would have given Derrick Rose fits, wouldn't be playing.

I mention that game specifically because the bulk of most team's non-conference play is over, and now the meat and potatoes of the schedule--conference play--will be underway soon. Fair or not, you always try to draw some conclusions from non-conference play, trying to analyze which teams have separated themselves from the competition. To me, Memphis has separated themselves from pretty much everybody.

I know that North Carolina is number one, but Memphis has played a brutal out of conference schedule and come away unschathed. Sure, they were favored to win all of those games, but being favored to win and winning are two different things (like Maryland was favored to kill American). They now get to play the 16 of 18 games against over-matched Conference USA foes (they still have Gonzaga and Tennessee). To say they'll go undefeated in the regular season is a bit presumptuous, but after watching the Patriots do it while I hated on them every week, honestly name a game that they'll lose. I know that's the beauty of college basketball, but I'll take the opposite approach: I'll believe it when I see it.

The Tigers are just too balanced and too good for anybody in the nation to beat them on paper. Obviously there's Rose, who according to Chad Ford is a hybrid between Deron Williams and Chris Paul but more athletically gifted than both. But, you also have Chris Douglas-Roberts, the most overrated-underrated player in the nation (meaning that he's not underrated but everybody says he is); Joey Dorsey, who looks and plays like a damn football player (just ask Roy Hibbert); and Robert Dozier, another athletic forward who gives teams problems. The one question you would ask about this team is their ability to consistently connect from outside, but, on paper, they have to be the favorites to win it all at this point.

Dallas won yesterday against the Hawks. That is all. No praise until they start playing consistently.

Happy New Year to everybody. You'll be happy to know that one of my resolutions is to write more in the new year. Like, maybe at least once a year.

Oh yeah. I wanted to advertose my MySpace page to people because I currently have no friends. Maybe I really don't... but at least check me out.

Dallas... In My Own Words

One of my old teachers at Towson (damn that seems years ago, huh?) used to have a requirement for graded blogs. He used to make it a requirement to link at least one article in each post with an encouragement for more than that. As an opinionated writer, I used to really hate it. Sure, I love to react to sports news and such, but I think sometimes links can bog down an article.

Anyway, here's your one link: the Dallas Mavericks, my beloved Dallas Mavericks, looked absolutely listless last night in their 88-81 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. I guess I can take some solace in the fact that they looked listless and still had plenty of opportunities to win, but that's not the point.

The Mavericks lost 15 games all of last season. So far this season they've lost 12. In 29 games.

One could make the case that it's good for the NBA, that the league has far more parity than it has had in previous seasons. After all, they're only a game and a half in back of the Spurs right now (who are going through their own issues but I'm not a San Antone guy so...). But, I'm not going to give them a pass.

The defensive intensity is way down compared to last year. I don't have last year's stats right in front of me, but I believe they're giving up about five more points a game, which of course directly effects their scoring margin, which I think is cut in half. I've only watched a couple of their games this year, and in every game I've seen they get beat down the court. In transition defensively they look like one of the slowest teams in the league, which should not be.

Dirk Nowitzki is the main culprit. In every game I've seen him play on television this year I've seen him get abused, and usually he can off-set that with solid offense. And, in all honesty, his numbers are down on that end, too.

Charles Barkley made an interesting point at half-time. He said that the Mavs should make a trade to get Jason Kidd, and that--outside of Nowitzki--they should use any means neccesary to get him. At first, I dismissed it, taking his comment as just Barkley being Barkley. But, then I thought about it. As unconventional as the Mavericks' offense is in functioning well without a true lead guard, Kidd would make things crisper and would give them some diversity in their offense. Yeah, he can't beat some middle schoolers in a three-point contest, but he would create easier opportunities for the Mavs. The question is, who would you give up, and would the Nets take him/them?

Best case scenario would be that the Nets take Jason Terry and maybe an expiring contract, but the Nets are smart. Having just turned 30, Terry I think is in the early decline in his career. The Nets are going to want either Devin Harris or Josh Howard and someone like Brandon Bass. Is that really worth an aging Kidd, who would be extremely valuable in the short term but maybe not as valuable long-term as Howard or especially Harris?

Now that I've had a chance to calm down from last night's debacle, my opinion is keep everybody... for now. I said it a couple posts back: it's too early for that panic button. But, a couple more weeks of teeter-tottering and... hey, interesting closing thought: assuming Howard stayed, do you think he's give up #5?

Random Musings From Tonight

I meant to get off work earlier, but when you have more issues than Britney Spears coming up every damn shift, you can only do so much. Man, life will be so much easier when I get a real job (snicker).

Even still, I got to see a decent amount of basketball tonight, mainly the Lakers/Nuggets game. Allow me to go beyond the 111-107 score for a couple of impressions.

• First off, how about Allen Iverson? I can't believe there are people out there who think he's washed up just because he doesn't look to score 30 + every night. C'mon, people! That's by design for the betterment of the team. Iverson might be one of the only people who can average 24 a game and critics will be like, "Oh, he's lost a step." 51 points on 17-28 shooting should shut up those haters for a minute. More amazing than the 51 points was a crazy stat that one of the announcers (okay, the one who wasn't Jon Barry) said. It's well-documented that Iverson is one of the best conditioned athletes on the planet, that's a no-brainer. What I didn't know was that he was clocked at 4:30 in the mile. 4:30!!! Makes me wonder if he chose the wrong sport.


• But, in the 4th quarter, we all saw who the best player on the floor was. After sitting out all but 30 seconds of the 3rd, Kobe Bryant came out and dominated in the final frame, making an array of MJesque shots. Actually, you know what? We as fans and members of the media have to stop comparing him to MJ. Kobe Bryant is Kobe Bryant. I know I'm going to catch flack for this comment but that's okay, that's why Blogger has comment boxes: if I were playing a pick-up basketball game on the playground and I had every single NBA player who's ever played the game in the talent pool... alright I guess I'd still take Jordan first. But, I'm telling you, I'd have to really think about it (I did, it took me about a minute and a half to write that sentence, but mostly because I had to check my grammar).


• J.R. Smith is one of the most enigmatic players in the league. He's got ridiculous athleticism, a pretty good jumper and a decent handle, but he's also constantly out of control and makes some God-awful decisions at both ends. I'm about to make a sad comparison. On talent alone, do you know who he reminds me of? Josh Howard. Actually, I'd make the argument that he has a better jumper, better handle and more athleticism than Howard, and as we all know Howard's an all-star in the West. But, aside from lockdown defense, Howard excels at the intangibles, and Smith straight-up Justin Cherot's them (flunks). I said it before the beginning of this season: I think if Smith is ever going to fully blossom, he needs a change in scenery.

I was a little frustrated that the Mavericks/Spurs game wasn't on ESPN tonight, but that was nothing compared to how I felt when I found out that the Mavs lost to a Spurs team without Tim Duncan. That loss puts them at a very human 12-7 this season. What the Hellmuth is going on?

Wait, wait... I promised myself before the start of the season that I wouldn't get hung up on regular season results, even though I assumed I'd have to pump myself down rather than the other way around. So, that being said, it's way too early to hit the panic button with this team. I could delve deep into stats, the rotation (hopefully Avery will go back to starting Jason Terry with more regularity) and defense, but what it really boils down to is that the Mavs are playing down to their competition. Let's see, they've lost to the following teams: Atlanta, Portland, Indiana (who incidentally is better without Jermaine O'neal than with him), Milwaukee, Washington's lucky asses, New Orleans, and San Antonio. With the exception of New Orleans and maybe Milwaukee, all of those teams are pretty mediocre (yes, without Duncan the Spurs fall into that category, too).

This isn't anything to celebrate. You really should win the games you're supposed to win, but sometimes you don't. That's why they play the games, I suppose. Anyway, my point is that Dallas will be fine. They'll finish anywhere from 1-3, and then they'll do their thing once the second season starts. This Maverick fan is not worried.

Now, if they're 12-12 by the next time I write, I'm going to purchase a domain name on GoDaddy called http://www.fireaveryandtradedirk.com/. If the link works in two weeks, you'll know something went terribly wrong.

Speaking of terribly wrong, how about them Terps, who lost on Sunday to VCU? I could go on a mad Maryland rant here, and I really want to (by the way, any feedback from the Hayes' comment, ladies?) but as I said a couple posts back, I'm not expecting Maryland to be world-beaters. Right now honestly VCU is a better team... or at least they have a better back-court. Either way, I don't consider this loss an upset of Appalachian proportion. After all, they did beat Duke in the tournament last year.

I guess what worries me more than the loss is James Gist's lack of improvement from junior to senior year. Okay, I guess that's not really fair; his statistical improvement. The only number he's improved significantly from last year is his turnovers, which are a Telfair-like 3.3 a game. Even if his guards aren't knocking down perimeter shots to take the pressure off of him downlow, I think he's still a good enough player to drop more than 13.4 points per game. Bold statement: out of Terrence Morris, Lonny Baxter, and Chris Wilcox, I think Gist probably has more talent than all of them combined. Somehow Maryland has to get him more involved.

For now, that's about all I have. I'm Justin Cherot, somebody sue me.