Mavs Back on Track

It's always interesting to see how a team responds after getting, for lack of better phrase, f'd up. Good to see the Dallas Mavericks bounce back last night, even if it was against the Golden State Warriors and their suspect defense.

The Mavs looked terrific last night, getting contributions from all over the place. We know that Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry can be counted on nightly, but it was everybody else that impressed me: Josh Howard looking all-star caliber again; Erick Dampier making us remember why he's one of the highest paid centers in the league; Brandon Bass showing why he deserves at least 20-25 minutes a game. Even James Singleton shot lights out.

On the other side of the coin, I've never seen a team more indifferent to defense than the Warriors. With the exception of Ronny Turiaf and maybe Andris Biedrins, everyone on that team is basically consumed with getting shots up. On certain nights, that can cause teams problems, especially when other teams try to get into a pissing contest and try to hang 140 on Golden State. But, at their best when they're fully healthy, the Warriors are no better than a .500 ball club. In order for them to get over the hump, two of their four primary gunslingers--Monta Ellis, Jamal Crawford, Corey Maggette, and Stephen Jackson--need to go. There's simply not enough balls to go around.

I was just thinking to myself that this is probably the only basketball blog in America that would lead with a 24 point blow-out in the middle of the regular season, especially on a night when No.1 played No.4 in college basketball and the game wasn't decided until about eight tenths of a second.

Don't worry, I can talk about that, too.

We're not even halfway through ACC play, but I don't think it's too early to proclaim the Wake Forest Demon Deacons as the league's premier team. The Duke Blue Devils showed a ton of heart getting back into the game late, but the Deacs showed just as much composure not folding under pressure. I know Stephen Curry has gotten more love with the media with his little boy looks and big boy game, but to me Jeff Teague has established himself as the best guard in America. His game is silky smooth, so much so that while players are running up and down the court at break-neck speed he's like Neo or Max Payne, seemingly freezing time as he finds openings into the lane. He didn't even play that well last night, but whenever that team needed a big play he was always available.

As good as Teague is, the Wake forwards were equally impressive last night. Both Aminu and Johnson showed the type of versatility that will help them succeed at the next level. Their ability to grab a rebound and take it coast to coast on defenders is what sets them apart from most bigs in college ball and also what sets them apart as a team from the other two ACC giants.

And with that, I'm off to sports writing class. Catch you on the flip side.

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before...

The Maryland Terrapins have a team by their throat, holding a ten to 15 point lead at some point in the second half. And yet, somehow that team manages to come back and win.

I went to the dentist on Monday for a filling. She gave me novocaine prior to going into the trenches to fix my tooth. What would have been painful without medication was pretty much a walk in the park. The inside of my mouth was so numb that she could have let off a firecracker in there and I might not have known.

That's almost how I feel about this year's Maryland team. Hell, I even forgot they had a game tonight!

Doesn't matter, it's not like I missed anything new.

My Maryland/Duke Story

These are my confessions...

Before I attended Maryland, I was a tepid Terp fan. Don't get me wrong, I liked them and all, but experiencing that '01-'02 national title run turned that like into full on l.o.v.e. Call me Fairweather Ferris if you want, but that was a special season filled with drunken nights, skipped classes and Garyland hoops. That season was part of the reason I'm still without an undergrad degree despite my writing prowess.

My first basketball love? Don't laugh... I became a basketball fan because of Christian Laettner and his shot. What an impressionable kid I was.

Make no mistake, though: Duke basketball may have been my first love, but I'm a full-on Terp fan. I camped out two weeks before they were coming to Cole Field House for the last time, getting sick and missing valuable class time in the process. By game-time I had little to no voice. But, it was all worth it when Steve Blake swiped the ball from Jason Williams while he was picking his nose at half-court before intermission, ultimately giving the Terps the momentum they needed to smother Duke in the second half.

Sweet as that victory was, sweet as that national championship run might have been, for some reason it doesn't replace what happened more than eight years ago in January. Roll tape.



The good news about basketball? Anything can happen. The bad news? Anything can happen.

Good luck, fellas. As lopsided as this game looks on paper, I know you'll bring it against the Devils.

0for

Actually, the title of this entry should be something along the lines of, "Justin Cherot Doesn't Know Jack About Basketball."

Okay, so I'm off to somewhat of a tough start to the year so far. My daughter could probably point to whichever mascot she thinks is cooler and she probably would have won at least one game. Unfortunately, I was devoid of such expertise and I sit at a very Oklahoma City Thunder-like 0-5.

Hopefully with the slew of sporting games occurring this weekend I can turn the tide.

Before I get into predictions, I absolutely have to talk about my two teams (if you haven't read the disclaimer on the sidebar, do so), both of whom are about to figuratively send me off the top of a building into traffic. I'll start with my Dallas Mavericks.

In the midst of an untimely four-game slide, the Mavs would be relegated to the century's worst
lottery. Maybe it's been my denial for the past two years, but I'm starting to agree with every informed writer/sports geek: they're getting old. I would have to fact check this, but I'd say that they have the oldest backcourt in the NBA by a wide margin. Even though Jason Terry is having a career year and Jason Kidd is still a well-rounded point guard, both of them function better as beneficiaries of someone creating shots for them. Josh Howard is starting to come around, but it worries me that his rebounding is down. Dirk Nowitzki is quietly having one of his better seasons as a pro, but his mediocre three-point percentage has been a cause for concern.

The story of the season thus far: they can't finish off good teams. Defensively, they've been stout as a unit, allowing only two opponents thus far to shoot over 50% from the field. But, Rick Carlisle promise of a running Maverick team has failed to materialize midway through the season, and although you generally see good movement on offense for the first three quarters of the game, their half-court offense tends to really bog down during crunch time. How else can you explain 60 point first halves followed by 35-40 point second halves at times? I mentioned this to one of my friends earlier in the week and they agreed: Dallas needs a more dynamic lead guard.

I almost jumped for joy when the Mavs were talking with the Charlotte Bobcats about getting Raymond Felton, who isn't perfect but probably would be a good fit as a penetration threat on a jump-shot happy team. Alas, the Mavs reportedly have completed a trade with the Bobcats... just not a ground-shaking one (on a side note, I believe Ryan Hollins could be an upgrade over Diop offensively and Matt Carroll gives the Mavs a knockdown shooter... if they want to use him).

So, where are the Mavs headed? Hard to say. Their play over the next couple of weeks will largely impact whether they can make everything come together or whether they will pray for Stephen Curry to fall into the late lottery. There's no doubt that the talent is there to overcome their current malaise. The only question is whether or not that talent is past it's prime.

As much as the Mavs depress me, they don't irk me as much as the Maryland Terrapins. Another large lead midway through the second half. Another loss.

Ugh.

Other than the Big East this year, the ACC schedule is probably the most unforgiving. With the Terps lack of size and athletic ability this year, their margin of error is extremely thin, thinner than Nicole Ritchie on a diet. They just can't afford to play well 75% of the game.

And, what is with Greivis Vasquez going into this fake Kobe Bryant mode at the end of their games? Like, does he absolutely HAVE to be the hero in every game? Personally, I trust Adrian Bowie or Eric Hayes more with the ball during crunch time. This is nothing against Vasquez, but offensively he shoots okay and he penetrates okay. Hayes is by far the best shooter on the Terps, and Bowie has proven time and time again that he can rack anybody in college basketball. Again, nothing against Vasquez, but his shot selection in the waning minutes of the last two games has been horrendous at best.

Still, it's a team game, and Maryland just has to continue bringing it every night. I bitch and moan about this and that with Maryland, but even I have to admit that the talent level for them is down this year. For them to be 12-4 at this point in the season is a testament to Gary Williams' coaching. Say what you will about him not being able to actively recruit the best that the state of Maryland has to offer, but from an X's and O's standpoint he's done a good job with this group. For everybody saying he needs to be fired, the person taking his place better be damn good.

Sigh... predictions.

Wake Forest/Clemson- UNC is still the best team in the ACC, and I think they'll win the league crown when the dust settles, but the Demon Deacons are tough. There are some good guards in this league, but I think Jeff Teague might end up being the best at the next level. So explosive. It seems like every year Clemson starts off really strong, but it's like an optical illusion because they never really play anybody out of conference. If this game were in Winston-Salem it'd be a blow-out, but Wake wins a relatively close game by six or less.

Louisville/Pittsburgh- If this were a game of "Who do you think will have more players in the NBA?", the Cardinals would win. But, college basketball games aren't decided on prognostications and suspect websites. I'm not sold as Pitt being the best team in the country, but they'll beat Louisville by more than ten.

Ravens/Steelers- I'm going to take a principle I normally apply to college basketball: it's hard to beat a team three times in a year. Especially with the games being so close, I just can't see that happening. This will be a low-scoring affair, and have your surround sound on and popping, because you will hear helmets smacking and bones cracking. The X factor is Joe Flacco: how will he adjust after two subpar games against the Steelers? Judging by his performance in the postseason thus far, he'll be fine. Ravens by at least a field goal.


We'll see how this turns out...

Pick 'Em

In an attempt to spice things up on my blog and possibly get ready for a big bounce-back year in March, I'm going to start posting game predictions.

Since this is primarily a basketball website, I'm going to try to keep the picks basketball-oriented, but come Friday or Saturday you might find a football prediction or two. Either way, I'm going to keep a running tally of my record throughout the year and by year's end I will make a determination about whether or not I should try to make a living gambling on games (joking, I think).

At my best, hopefully I will just add to my intrinsic basketball ethos. At my worst, you can just rant all over my wall on Facebook about how I should just stick to my day job (which incidentally I keep getting worse and worse at).

Even though this game has already tipped, I'm nowhere near a TV, so I can make a prediction on Georgetown and Syracuse. The Hoyas are one of the most complete teams in college ball this year, but if they have a weakness it's probably knocking down shots from the perimeter. The Orange's pet defense for the last million years? A 2-3 zone. While they aren't exactly stout defensively, Johnny Flynn and Eric Devendorf will more than make up for it on the offensive end. I see the Orange winning a fairly high scoring game in the seven to ten point range.

Maryland needs a win against Miami just to make people forget they lost to an HBCU. Will they get it? Well, considering that they haven't won against the Hurricanes since they joined the ACC in the 2004-2005 season, at least you'd think the Terps would come into this game hungry. I'm going to say that they go down there and beat the Hurricanes by ten plus, and although I have to admit this is kind of a homer pick, I just don't think Miami is that good.

Finally, although the Spurs have been playing lights out ball lately and the Lakers will go into SBC Center short-handed, I think Kobe Bryant is good enough to will his team to victory. Lakers in a close one, five points or less.

By the way, one thing about my predictions. As much as I would like to nail this point spread thing dead on, I'm going to treat it like real sports and say a win is a win. Once I perfect the art of getting the games right, maybe then I'll delve into point spreads. Until then, we'll see how I do.

And yes, my posts last time do count as two losses, thank you.

Free Darius!

The Portland Trailblazers are playing the role of extortionists in today's news, basically threatening to sue any team that decides to put a perfectly healthy and possibly helpful Darius Miles on the court for at least two games.

In 2007, Miles came off the Blazers' books when it became apparent that the former Hootie and the Blowfish front man---wait, that was Darius Rucker---had suffered a "career-ending" knee injury. That's $18 million off their salary cap, giving them the flexibility to become a player in the free agent market. Ah, but the fine print... they always get you with the fine print. Now that Miles is apparently healthy once again, miraculously healed from that "career-ending" injury, Miles would be back on the Blazers' books at his ridiculous $18 million salary. Looking back on a career where he has nevered averaged more than 14 points per game or 6 rebounds, how he garnered so much money leaves me befuddled, but that's beside the point.

The point is that the Blazers, obviously privy to the fact that Miles stepping on the court will cost them severely, sent out a mass e-mail to the 29 other teams in the NBA and the league office threatening anybody who signed Hootie with "litigation".

While I understand why the Blazers' organization would be upset, how do you think NBA teams will respond? I have a daughter. When I tell her not to play with her food or she won't get to eat the rest of it, maybe I'm expecting her to eat her food, but she's at that stage where she's willing to push me to see if I'll take away her food.

The Blazers are me; the rest of the NBA is in their terrible twos. Despite Portland's best efforts, someone is going to sign this dude, and even though the Blazers have big and bad semantic language, the fact of the matter is that the NBA supports this move. That's that. Deal with it.

That being said, from a basketball standpoint how can you take Miles seriously? I know he's only 27, but his best asset is his athleticism, an asset hindered by his constant knee troubles. He can't shoot, and even if he could he has no offensive moves to speak of. He's not big enough to slide into the post, and he's no longer quick enough to guard perimeter players. If there was ever an argument for players going to college, look at Miles.

I don't think he's worth the trouble of going out on the limb, but mark my words: SOMEONE is going to sign him.



Game previews tonight:

The Boston Celtics are struggling. The Cleveland Cavaliers haven't lost at home. This seems like an obvious one, but if the Celts were ever going to have a bounceback game, tonight would be good timing. Believe it or not, I think the Big Green Machine goes in there and gives LeBron and co. their first home loss of the year.

Oh, and Dallas wins by 60.



Okay, ten.

Morgan State!?

If I do indeed start posting more blogs in the future, you can thank the Morgan State Bears for bringing me out of hibernation.

Honestly, tonight was supposed to be about the hyped Duke/Davidson match-up, and I missed more than half the Terps' game because, like most NBA scouts, I was tuned into ESPN dissecting Stephen Curry's game and pro potential. As much as I would like to discuss Curry's potential (synopsis, he'll end up being a shorter, more dynamic version of his dad at the pro level), I'd be doing the local fans a disservice if I didn't talk about with this monumental upset.

Thus far, Maryland had been crushing inferior non-conference foes like clockwork. True, they hadn't really played anybody, but it seemed like they had learned not to take "cakewalk" teams for granted. Losing to American and Ohio at home last year will do that to a team, I guess. Anyway, I thought the whole "playing down to your opponent" phase was history.

Nope, apparently not.

On the eve of ACC play, the stretch that will undoubtedly make or break Maryland's season, they came up positively limp against Morgan State. At home. Embarrassing.

I remember switching the channel from the Duke game after the Blue Devils withstood a late run by the Wildcats to escape, and I noticed that the Terps only led by three at halftime. A little troubling, granted, but I figured that Gary would throw a couple "F" bombs at them in the locker room and the good guys in red would finish the Bears off. Maryland's start to the second half confirmed that hypothesis, as they went to the first TV time-out up seven.

More surfing from me. I decided to check in with the Tennessee/Gonzaga game, and at the time the Volunteers were rolling, so I turned back (which, by the way was the first of two mistakes: obviously I missed a great overtime win for the Zags, but I also watched Pineapple Express sober en lieu of the game).

Anyway, I check back in with the Terps, and all of the sudden the Bears are back in the game again. This dude Reggie Holmes keeps jacking threes, and the Terps look absolutely lost in their half-court offense. Suddenly a 14-point lead is cut to one. But, I keep telling myself, "I can't see Morgan State winning this game. I'll believe it when the buzzer sounds."

Oh, but the buzzer did sound, and when it did the CSN camera crew's lenses were fixated on the Morgan State family section, carrying on like they had won the national championship.

It's not like the Bears didn't give the Terps chances to win. But, with Greivis Vasquez taking one abominal shot after another and Landon Milbourne missing clutch free throws, Maryland couldn't come through.

I promised not to rip them, because that would absolutely take away from what Morgan State accomplished. Credit to their coach Todd Bozeman, more infamous than famous in college basketball circles because of his NCAA violations at Cal in the mid-90's, for having his team ready to play. The Bears could have very easily folded when down 14 and said, "Hey, they're supposed to do this anyway. They have significantly more funding than we do and they recruit nationally while we take all the scraps they don't want." Props to the Bears--no sarcasm, no cynicism, just props.

But, where does that leave the Terps? If you think a loss like this just ruins their season, think back to last year. They lost to American and Ohio in non-conference play, but somehow managed to beat the #1 Tar Heels in Chapel Hill. This team might not be better than last year on paper, but so far they've shown me more cohesion (tonight's game not withstanding). I'll put it like this: if the Terps go 8-8 in conference and win a game in the ACC tourney, they should be in. Period. The ACC is going to be very tough this year, and provided Michigan State runs through the Big Ten like I expect them to and Michigan makes the dance, the committee will view Maryland favorably. The Morgan State loss will be a tough pill for the Terps to swallow for now, but it won't doom them. In fact, if Gary Williams is any kind of a coach (which I think he is), I would think they'd respond well to a loss like this. I feel bad for Georgia Tech.

That being said, what a dumb loss (sorry, couldn't help it).

One and Done? Not in Basketball...

Stop me if you've heard this one before:

Before the regular season starts, a collegiate team is absolutely stock-piled with talent and they appear untouchable like Elliot Ness and crew, preseason No. 1 or 2 with every analyst in America on their jock like a weird stain. A loss? Impossible. There's no way any team can even come close.

And then they go out and lose a really dumb game early in the season.

If it sounds familiar, that scenario actually played out twice this year. The first time was on Sept. 25th, 2008 when the USC football Trojans got shocked during a nationally televised game against the upstart Oregon State Beavers in Corvallis, 27-21. The second time took place this Sunday when the North Carolina basketball Tar Heels somehow lost to the BC Eagles, 85-78 in a game that wasn't even THAT close.

Despite the fact that USC rolled their remaining opponents by 70 points per game (hyperbole), that one eye sore of a loss made sure that no one would ever mention them again in terms of being contenders for a national championship, even after they handled Penn State in the Rose Bowl.

The Tar Heels, on the other hand, still have plenty of season to go, and chances of people forgetting about this early season slip-up come March and/or April are pretty good.

What's my point? Stop me if you've heard this one before: college football desperately needs a playoff system.

It's not just the whole USC thing. Maybe the Trojans really aren't the best team in college football and they really don't belong anywhere near a national title game. But, look at some of the other stories that came about this college football season:

• The Texas Longhorns beat the Oklahoma Sooners, who will be playing Thursday for the national championship, on a neutral field early in the season. Take away Michael Crabtree's miraculous reception in the waning moments of their battle with Texas Tech and the Longhorns would be undefeated. Yet, due to Oklahoma's scoreboard diffusing offensive performance in every game after that loss and weird computer rankings that people with college degrees can't explain, Texas had to settle for the No.3 spot in the BCS (as an aside, if you missed Colt McCoy tonight, he was his usual ridiculous self).
• The aforementioned Texas Tech Red Raiders got blown out by the Sooners later on in the season after being flawless 3/4 of the season, and everybody stopped talking about them.
• The poor Utah Utes went undefeated, and while no one would ever confuse the Mountain West for the SEC, they went out and flat-out destroyed the Alabama Crimson Tide, who in their own right were No.1 for the majority of the season only to be pushed out of the picture after losing to the Florida Gators.

Instead of waiting a month for kids to play in second rate bowl games, you take that month and you have a sixteen team playoff. Win four games and you've earned a national championship. That will kill all this talk about, "The BCS got it right this year", or, "I really think so and so deserved a shot at the title." If Utah can beat Alabama in a pro-SEC environment, who's to say that they can't beat Florida or Oklahoma? They did everything they were supposed to do, and the highest they'll finish is fourth in the polls.

People say I'm partial to basketball, and they're probably right, but at least in college basketball there's no controversy at the end of the year about who the best team is. True, the best team didn't win last year in my opinion, but at least everybody had the chance to play it out. Despite how great Carolina has looked this season (aside from Sunday), I still think that the field has a better chance than UNC of winning the national title. That's why they call it March Madness: crazy stuff happens!

New Year's resolution that probably won't come true: I'm going to try and get it in at least twice a week in terms of posting and blogging and what not. I feel like my brain cells are getting rusty, probably from inhaling all those bad fumes located in our aisles.