The NCAA tournament has given us plenty to talk about after its first weekend. We’ve been treated to six overtime games (the tournament record is seven), big time upsets (Duke, Syracuse and Kansas all failed to win more than one game) and memorable finishes (ask THE University of Dayton). But between all of the madness that has commenced this week, one game has managed to stand above the rest: No. 8 seed Kentucky vs. No. 1 seed Wichita State. [Read more…]
The ambiguity of the word “valuable” has always been a sticking point for MVP voters at the end of the year. Does the MVP award belong to the best player, or the player who’s most integral to his team’s success? [Read more…]
The Knicks have won five straight games and now sit just 3.5 games from the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference. The fans of Gotham are finally excited about the Knicks for the first time this season. The Bucks come to New York on Saturday, and if the Knicks can pull out an expected victory, they’ll close the gap between them and the Hawks even further. Right now, ESPN.com has the Knicks’ playoff odds at 15%. With the Knicks having five
Let’s play a quick game of “Name That Big Man”: Since the All Star Break (nine games), Player A, an All-Star, has averaged 19.0 points on 51.6% shooting in 33 minutes per game. Since the All Star Break (nine games), Player B, not an All-Star, has averaged 16.3 points on 51.3% shooting in 27 minutes per game. [Read more…]
When forward Mike Scott came to Atlanta Hawks training camp in 2012, he was labeled by then-coach Larry Drew as “a solid pick-and-roll option.” In other words, although Scott proved himself to be a legitimate offensive weapon in his five years at Virginia (medical redshirt in 2010), no one really expected him to develop into more than a decent midrange shooter at the next level. [Read more…]
As I predicted two weeks ago, the Sixth Man Award race has heated back up. With Reggie Jackson and Manu Ginobili returning to their roles on the bench for their respective teams, Markieff Morris has finally found some serious competition for the award. With 30-plus games left for each team on the schedule, there are bound to be several key games ahead that could help determine the winner of this award. As luck would have it, Manu Ginobili’s return to full strength
Sources told Yahoo! Sports on Monday that there is “no chance” the Knicks trade free agent-to-be Carmelo Anthony by the Feb. 20 deadline. Let’s face the facts: even with Anthony, the Knicks are a mediocre basketball team in a horrendous Atlantic Division. [Read more…]
NBA fans do an awful job of protecting the image of their favorite sport. This is not the NFL, which has been America’s pastime for a generation and can do no wrong in the eyes of its fans. The only time the NFL has an image problem is when a storm affects satellite reception. This is also not baseball, which has a considerable image problem with its collection of prima donnas on PEDS. But it also has more than a century of