Lebron for Mayor

Tuesday was extremely busy in the world of basketball, with several college games capturing my undivided attention.

The first part is true. Unfortunately, I slept in and out of some really good games. But thanks to the power of the Internet and an uncanny ability to wake up at just the right time, I didn't miss too much.

Rundown:

• Obviously the big news within the past week in the NBA was that the New York Knicks are clearing space for LeBron James' possible arrival, officially pulling the trigger on the second of two big trades Tuesday afternoon when they decided they'd be willing to deal with Cuttino Mobley's heart condition (hell, it's only a year and change). With that trade going down, the Knicks have assured themselves of having approxiamately $27.4 million to spend on that free agent class, meaning they'd have enough to get James and possibly another solid player. And, if the Cavs somehow hang on to James, which ESPN's Chris Broussard says might--gasp--actually happen--there's other sexy options out there for them, like Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire. No matter what, the Knicks have something they haven't had since Patrick Ewing was taking four steps to the hoop: hope. All New York fans have to do is be patient, and in the mean time enjoy the young but exciting team they have currently.

• I have no affiliation to them other than picking them to win the national title (and being right) in 2003 and thinking they were a possible destination for journalism in 2001, but the Syracuse Orangemen have been my sleeper pick to go deep in the tournament for the last two years. Don't remember them being in the tourney? That's because they weren't. They got screwed two years ago, and last year they lost two of their best guards in Eric Devendorf and Andy Rautins and still probably should have at least been in the conversation. But this year, with everybody healthy, I expect this team to be in the top half of an absolutely loaded Big East. Jonny Flynn is on the short list of best point in the country, and Arinze Onuaku is an animal inside. Throw in a versatile, diesel-looking Paul Harris and this team could--here we go again--be a team to watch out for in March.

• I mentioned that incredible Big East, and it's funny how a year changes things. Last year I felt like they were overrated, but in this year's landscape of college basketball they're going to be far and away the best conference in America. I watched bits and pieces of the Texas/Notre Dame game last night, and while I came away impressed with a Texas team still trying to find themselves without D.J. Augustin, the Fighting Irish are going to be a problem. I think I said in my tournament preview last year that it was all Luke Harangody and a bunch of players who couldn't start at mid-level Division I schools. Now that I have more of a handle on the pulse of college basketball, I take that back (prediction: I'm making a comeback this year). You won't find too many better shooters in the world in Kyle McAlarney, and I can't believe more people aren't mentioning Tory Jackson as one of the better point guards in the country. The Big East is going to re-emerge this year as the conference of conferences, and when it's all said and done Notre Dame will definitely have a say in who wins it. Of course, UConn, Pittsburgh and Louisville, among as many as seven others, will have a fair amount to say about that.

• Nick Calathes is the truth. I didn't get the chance to see him much last year, but the dude can play. His basketball IQ is off the charts. As a Maryland fan, skill for skill I don't see much difference between him and Grievis Vasquez except for maybe a more consistent outside shot, but when it comes to his ability to run a team efficiently and minimize mistakes, Calathes is everything that Vasquez wishes he was.

• There's a tie for weirdest story of the night. I'll go for the straight up basketball story first. This game wasn't on TV, but apparently Loyola (MD), coached by former Maryland assistant Jimmy Patsos, decided to go with bring the triangle and two out of the old coaches' book of tricks against Davidson and Stephen Curry. For the non-basketball inclined, it's akin to the box and one, where four players stay back in a zone while the remaining players shadows the other team's star. Back in high school I had a brief three game run where I scored close to 70 points in three games at the JV level, and in the second half of my final JV game Long Reach High School threw one at me. I struggled but I took it as a compliment: that's the defense teams use when they want to truly shut a guy down. Okay, so take that box and one and add another defender. They double-teamed Curry the entire night, and effectively took him out of the game, leaving him scoreless. The problem was Davidson was left with four players operating against three, and contrary to popular belief they can actually play. Despite their best efforts, Loyola still got trumped by 30. Pastos defense?

"We had to play against an NBA player tonight. Anybody else ever hold him scoreless? I'm a history major. They're going to remember that we held him scoreless or we lost by 30?"

Good point. But, I have a feeling the fans are going to remember them losing by 30 in the short term.

• The second one I actually found out the night before while watching the Washington Huskies play the revamped Kansas Jayhawks. The Jayhawks won the game handily, but I was intrigued by the Huskies' freshman point guard Isaiah Thomas. Different spelling, but definitely a familiar name, right? Some people remember him as an insane owner or horrific coach, I remember Isiah Thomas as a problem for opposing NBA point guards. Apparently he's a problem for Los Angeles Laker fans, too. During the game Doris Burke, sideline-reporting, shared an interesting anecdote on how Thomas got his name. Apparently his father, a Lakers' fan, was watching an NBA Finals' game where his team was playing the Pistons. His friend, a Pistons' fan, proposed the following bet. "If we win this series, you gotta name your unborn son Isiah." Guess who won that series?

Gambling is bad.

Finally, a shout-out to my Mavericks. Everybody was screaming lottery a week and a half ago, and now we're back to .500. It's going to be a Black Friday for the Lakers.

If they lose this early-season match-up with the Lakers, I will name my unborn son Sasha.*

By the way, check out my new NBA Live blog, http://www.quikcadence.blogspot.com/. It basically details the trials and tribulations of an up and coming Live player. My latest entry shows that I'm well on my way.

*While Sasha Cherot does not have a bad ring to it, I am just joking.

Back to School

Hopefully by now you've had a chance to gander at my NBA preview (please scroll down if you haven't, I don't feel like a hrefing). If you haven't, go ahead and read it.

I'll wait...

Done? Good. Now, take what you've just read, move the Nuggets and Pistons up for what may have been the smartest trade in NBA history for both teams (how about me calling the Iverson trade?), move Atlanta somewhere in the six to eight region, kick the Wizards out of the playoffs, and cut and paste the Mavericks into the "We the Best" category.

Okay, do everything but the last part. But, please, whatever you do, don't cut and paste the Mavericks into lottery category. At press time, they've won two in a row (including tonight) and I expect them to make it three in a row against Houston tomorrow night on the es-pen.

So, now that I've proven to you that I have been keeping up with the NBA, I want to shift gears to college basketball. Why not? I mean, the worldwide leader has basically force-fed me college roundball for the past 24 hours. It's as good a subject to talk about as any.

While I am glad that college basketball is back, I always find myself thinking ahead to the draft, and what better way to satisfy both my basketball and analysis jones than to watch two probable lottery picks duke it out in an early-season barometer game.

I learned a fair amount from the Oklahoma/Davidson game, which the Sooners won, 82-78. Allow me to share some of my observations:

• It's the Sooners' third game of the season, and already at this point you would have to legitimately convince me that Blake Griffin is not the best player in the country by far. The game just comes so easily to him, almost like he's a man amongst babies... not boys, babies. I forget who the color guy was for tonight's game (maybe Fran Fraschilla?), but he said that Griffin reminds him of Amare Stoudemire. I actually think that sells him short. Yes, STAT is a freakish athlete, but Griffin's ability to handle the ball and pass the rock actually remind me of a more athletic Chris Webber (or, Webber pre-chronic unexplainable injuries). He had 25 points and 21 rebounds, and he made it look ridiculously easy. Honestly, if I had the choice to build a franchise around Griffin or Michael Beasley, I'd go with Griffin, and I don't think I'd be in the minority either.

• On the other side of the gun, Stephen Curry is, in my own words, a childman (if Lebron is a manchild, then Curry has to be a childman; this is a good thing and has to do more with his stature than his manhood). With this kid, it's almost like what the hell is he going to do next? For all intents and purposes, Curry played a subpar game tonight, and still scored 44 friggin' points! I recently learned in news editing that exclamation points are generally frowned upon in traditional print journalism, but tonight Stephen Curry (speaking of faux pas, the second mention of an aforementioned individual's first name is a no-no) is so good that he makes me not care if I brake rules or use words wrong or whatever.! On the collegiate level, he is absolutely amazing. Of course, it's debatable how good he'll be at the next level. With him sliding over to the point this year, his stock is going to have one of two outcomes: either it rises skyhigh because GMs see him as having the potential to run a team on a nightly basis, or it falls like Circuit City because GMs peg him as a Juan Dixon-type NBA player. Personally, I don't care. I just know for right now I'd take him over any collegiate player to fight a 40 minute war.

• I want to show some local love to Kyle Cannon, a sophomore forward for the Sooners and a brief (one game) summer league teammate of mine two years back. He didn't get the chance to play against the Wildcats tonight due to a slight groin injury, but in the past 20 years or so there have only been a handful of players from Howard County who have even smelled Division I. I could be very wrong (and please feel free to correct me, my loyal readers), but aside from Carl Jackson, a forward from Penn State, Cannon is the first one I recall being on scholarship from the jump at a major DI school. Get well, Kyle. We need someone to represent HoCo. I tried, but it's a funny thing about basketball: schools don't tend to look too hard at 5'10", 145 lbs. shooting guards who can't play defense.




• I neglected to watch the UNC/Kentucky game only because it was as predictable as an episode of Dora the Explorer: Dora has a problem, bosses your kid around, solves the problem, "dadadadadada We did it" and so forth. The only exciting part is when Swiper the Fox actually swipes something from Dora and Boots and runs away cackling. That excites me. Anyway, terrible tangent aside, I already feel bad for the Tar Heels. If you watch TV or listen to the radio or read silly blogs on the Internet, you probably already know that North Carolina should win every game by 40 and will cut down the nets without breaking a sweat. I'm sorry, but I'm going to make a bold prediction (in lieu of having to write a college basketball preview, haha): UNC will not win the national title. Too much pressure, and UNC hasn't proven that they can rise above to this point. I'm not hating, I'm just stating.

Maybe if you kids are lucky, daddy will have some analysis of the Mavs/Rockets game tomorrow. Either that, or I'll see you at the all-star break.