Monday, February 26, 2007

Great Week End of B-Ball

NCAA
-Texas Tech held on to beat OK. State 59-57 in Lubbock Saturday. Tech did everything they could to give the game to the Cowboys. Tech had a comfortable eight point lead with about four minutes left but channeled Shaq or Ben Wallace from the charity stripe shooting under 60% for the game. All-American Jarius Jackson finally sank two ft's for the win with 14 seconds left. Tech is now tied at 7-7 in the Big 12 and close out the season against Baylor and Iowa State. After they win both games they will have won 20 games including wins over Texas A&M (twice), Kansas, and a 15 point win at Arkansas and should earn a spot in March Madness.
-Ohio State beat Wisconsin 49-48 in a match up of #1 vs. #2 to win the Big Ten championship. My pre-season pick is looking better and better as the season goes on. The Buckeyes are rolling towards March and are beginning to gel after adjusting to life with and without Greg Oden. $$$$$ Oden finished with a modest stat line (11 points, 5 rebounds, and four blocks) but had a solid game. It was teammate Mike Conley Jr. (Sr. won a gold medal in the triple jump at the '92 Summer Olympics), who won the game with a floater in the lane that dropped with 3.9 seconds left. Can you believe Oden and Conley played together in high school? No wonder they won three straight state championships at Indianapolis Lawrence North. Looks like they are going for four championships in a row. Whoever drafts Oden next year should also draft Conley Jr. when he declares... they know how to win together.
-Defending NCAA champs Florida Gators slipped again in the SEC. This time it was 66-56 to a struggling LSU Tiger squad. LSU was without their stud Glen "Big Baby" Davis but it didn't matter. LSU jumped out to an early lead and never let it go. Terry Martin and Garrett Temple stepped up in the big mans absence to combine for 35 points. Losses to Vanderbilt and a disappointing LSU in the same week? Whats wrong with the Gators?
NBA
-The mighty Dallas Mavericks continued their historic march towards their first championship beating the Nuggets in a 115-95 laugher. Dirk Nowitzki continued his brilliant play finishing with 31 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assists. While so-called experts such as John Hollinger preaches to fans to ignore the win/loss column and insists that now San Antonio is the best team in the NBA despite trailing Dallas by 8.5 games and Bill Walton (among many others) fawns over the Phoenix Suns who trail Dallas by 3.5 games, the Mavs keep winning. They have won 11 in a row and 46 of their last 51 games. The Mavs are the best team in the league, I don't know why pundits hate the Mavs but it is obvious that they do. Steve Nash was underrated as a Mav and now is extremely overrated with the Suns. He's doing the same thing in Phoenix that he did in Dallas (and that includes break down and fail in the playoffs). And now there are idiots like ESPN's Hollinger who has seemingly devised a new way to rank teams instead of wins and losses. I can see it now, ESPN sat down in a meeting room after the Mavs started winning and said, "well we have to devise a way to demean what the Mavs are doing," and Hollinger raised his hand and said, "I have an idea." I will ramble on further on this subject in future blogs while the Mavs will continue doing what they do best...win!

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Introduction to My Blog

Heymons!
Thanks for visiting my blog. This blog presents me the opportunity that no other journalist will admit; that they ARE biased. I am a HUGE Dallas Mavericks and Texas Tech fan and I will never make any apologies for my biased opinions in respect to these two basketball teams on this blog. There are biases all over the country in respect to sports journalism and I am sick of so-called journalists pretending otherwise. Whether it be the dreaded East-Coast bias, SEC football bias, or even the huge negative impact that ESPN's Sportscenter has made on my beloved sport of basketball (will explain in future blog), respected sports experts excert their will on an unsuspecting public behind the pretense of objectivity. Not me, not here... I will highlight the big games with my biased opinions supported by stats and hard core facts. I welcome all challengers and any debate regarding NCAA and NBA basketball. Furthermore, I am also an Ohio State Buckeyes fan for this season, and this basketball season only. Let me explain...
After watching Greg Oden play high school basketball for two years I was convinced that I was watching this next dominant center. Besides Shaq's glory days, which are way behind him, there has not been a real big man in the NBA for a long time. Oden is the missing link that joins players such as Mikan, Chamberlain, Russel, Jabar, Shaq etc. to future generations of game changing big men. So when I heard that Oden had signed with Ohio State, it was a no brainer. The Buckeyes will win the NCAA Championship this year and will continue to do so as long as he decides to stay in school. Even before last season was over I implored anyone I cared about to join me in putting money on OSU with Vegas to win it all in 2007. So this year I am a Buckeyes fan.
Big games this weekend in both the NBA and NCAA. Look for my breakdowns on of course the Mavs/Nuggets game and Texas Tech/Ok. State game. Also, ABC's Sunday doubleheader featuring the best of the least err East (Detroit vs. Chicago and Cleveland vs. Miami) and a huge matchup that could decide the Big Ten when #1 Winconson visits #2 Ohio State on Sunday. Big upsets including LSU over #4 Florida.