O.J. Mayo (photo. Gary Land)Even with two high-profile games on the schedule (and another involving the Bulls), the NBA took a backseat yesterday to college ball, as everyone was focused on the NCAA Tournament. Thursday’s main event had future #1 pick Michael Beasley and his Kansas State squad going up against future Lottery pick O.J. Mayo and USC. From what we hear, it was a good game, with Beasley putting up 23 points and 11 boards in a Wildcats win. We say “hear” because if you were on the East Coast and weren’t at a sports bar with multiple feeds, you didn’t see more than a minute of the game. Look, we know there are a ton of Duke fans in the New York/New Jersey area. And we know the Duke/Belmont game actually ended up being the best game of the tourney so far. Still, it was no industry secret that K-State/USC was the game on everybody’s radar, and yet the East Coast viewers got pretty much the entirety of Coach K’s great escape and next to none of Beasley/Mayo … One time in the first half they cut to the K-State game for about 10 seconds, and all you saw was two USC defenders draped all over Beasley while the announcers were talking about how they’d been running a box-and-one on Beasley earlier. Whatever USC did worked on the first half, as Beasley had just 5 points at the break. But Bill Walker had 17 in the first half to help build the Wildcats’ lead. Walker ended up with 22, and O.J. scored 20 in the loss … Right after that ill-fated inbound play that cost Belmont dearly against Duke, there was a referee conference over how much time to put on the clock. One of the announcers said, “If it’s anything over three (seconds), you can get a shot. If it’s under three, you’re looking at a tip situation.” Um, bro, that only applies to over/under 0.3 seconds, not 3.0 seconds … Out of the still-on-fire Rockets, the impossible-at-home Spurs and the finding-themselves Mavs, which Texas team would you have picked to give Boston the toughest time this week? Probably not the Mavs, right? But they were right there at the end of the game last night, holding the lead until Ray Allen knocked down a three coming off a screen for the go-ahead bucket. The scary part? Boston has two other guys who can consistently make that same shot in clutch situations. Kevin Garnett (20 pts, 13 rebs, 3 stls) forced Dirk (22 pts, 19 rebs) into a miss on the other end, and from there it was a matter of the C’s hitting their free throws to ice the win … The most impressive part of the Celtics’ road trip is how they’ve been able to absorb a big run and a raucous crowd from the home team and still stay in the ballgame. You need that in the playoffs … Without the braids, Tyronn Lue looks like a middle-aged Kid from Kid ‘N Play … Derek Fisher started last night’s game like he wanted to stick it to every Jazz fan who booed him the last time the Lakers were in Salt Lake. Four seconds after tip-off Fisher hit a three. Later, Fish made the defensive play of the game when he chased down a 2-on-1 Utah fast break and intercepted a Deron Williams behind-the-back pass off the bounce and ignited an L.A. break in one motion … After getting hammered in the first half the Jazz showed some more life in the second, but couldn’t close the gap enough. The loss snapped Utah’s 19-game home winning streak … If you missed it on DimeMag.com yesterday, we debuted the behind-the-scenes video from Kobe’s Dime #39 cover shoot. We got up with Kobe a few months ago when the Lakers come through Philly, as KB made a point of doing his first photo shoot in his hometown. Check out the video and Patrick Cassidy’s cover story HERE … Maybe the Bulls couldn’t stop Tim Duncan (22 pts, 10 rebs, 3 blks) because they don’t have any experience dealing with effective low-post scorers in practice. Whatever the case, TD gave Chicago’s defensive-minded bigs (Noah and Tyrus) major buckets … During the early block of Big Dance games we kept track of everything on our March Madness Live Blog. If you’re stuck at the office and can’t park it in front of a TV for today’s games, we’ll get your back again today with another live blog … Also yesterday we dropped the first in our series of “Bracket Tales”: first-hand stories of the Tournament from the guys who’ve been there. Yesterday Mateen Cleaves talked about what it’s like to win a national championship … How hilarious was George Mason coach Jim Larranaga’s pre-game speech? He started off talking about how the program’s 2006 Final Four run was magical, and therefore, “Your fans think you guys are magicians! And I believe it’s true!” Then he pulled out a folded-up sheet of computer paper with the Notre Dame leprechaun on it and screamed, “Make ‘em DISAPPEAR!” … And is it just us or does Cal State-Fullerton’s coach look like a slightly older version of Jim Boeheim wearing 1980’s clothes? … One of the Dime crew was in D.C. for the Duke/Belmont and Arizona/West Virginia games. He sent this along: “During a break in the second game, Belmont’s coach walked to his seat in the crowd and got a standing ovation from the Arizona and West Virginia fans. Very classy and cool.” … Late-night treat for those of you who have NBA TV: Michael Jordan’s Playground, the quasi-movie/Jordan highlight tape from way back in 1990. Other than the always-watchable MJ highlights, this film did NOT age well. If you don’t remember, the “plot” involves a kid (Tyrin Turner, a.k.a. Caine from Menace II Society) who’s worried about getting cut from his high school team, ends up playing ball with Mike at some random playground and gets some inspirational words of advice mixed with Jordan highlights. Then it really gets crazy at the end, when Mike is signing and dancing alongside Full Force (the bad guys from House Party). Could you see LeBron or Kobe or D-Wade EVER doing something so cheesy/fun nowadays? No way … We’re out like Full Force …
March 21st, 2008 at 4:40 am
Chris Cason says:
The ending of the Bulls season should be spent developing the young talent not setting up a first-round ass whooping.
www.mvn.com/nba-bulls
If Duke would have lost, my bracket would have been totaled. Mayo can now prepare for draft workouts while Beasley earns his #1 pick status.
March 21st, 2008 at 4:43 am
Flying-Dutchman says:
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh Michael Jordan’s Playground, that takes me back.. Altho I was like 10 when I watched it, it takes me back… I actually still have the VHS in my room
March 21st, 2008 at 5:08 am
YOUNGFED says:
Big Ups To All My HATERRRRSSSS!!!!!
March 21st, 2008 at 5:12 am
KB24! says:
Kobe, hands down is the MVP this season. Mayo put up a good game. He just doesn’t have any players around him at SC. Maybe he might stay around and have Lil Romeo as his back up… He also could of used Walker just like he did in highschool and BEAST everyone around. Beastly is a BEAST! He gets buckets like no other. In foul trouble the first half and was subbing in and out in the 2nd half. He still puts up a double double. Drops threes occasionally, and has some handles in his game. He should be 1st pick if he decides to go to NBA.
March 21st, 2008 at 5:13 am
YOUNGFED says:
P.S
I’m mad as hell Good Friday isn’t a Federal Holiday, Damn’. WHY? WHY? WWHHHHYYYYY!!! Dammit Man.
March 21st, 2008 at 5:14 am
YOUNGFED says:
IT’S K-HOVA BABY!!!!!!
March 21st, 2008 at 5:19 am
YOUNGFED says:
TOP 5 Small Fowards:
1.) Lebron
2.) Bird
3.)Barkley (3 & 4)
4.)Magic (Top 5, 1-5)
5.)Reserved for B-Easy
March 21st, 2008 at 6:23 am
holla says:
that’s so fucking weird. I woke up this morning with “Anything is Possible” going through my head. I’ve seen MJ’s playground approximately 7000 times. Great highlights, otherwise semi-gay. Holla.
March 21st, 2008 at 6:33 am
holla says:
Serious question: If DWade or Bron were to do a “Playground” type video, who would be the 2008 equivalent of Full Force? We need a 1. hella lame, 2. virtually anonymous 3. quasi hip-hop group with at least 4. one female singer….I’ve got the Black Eyed Peas. The Peas meet qualifications 1, 2 and 4, but may be too well-known. WHO IS THE MODERN DAY FULL FORCE? Holla.
March 21st, 2008 at 6:45 am
Hollowhustla says:
New Edition minus B Brown
March 21st, 2008 at 6:54 am
KBY says:
Didn’t Lebron already do some stupid dancing? Granted it was on SNL but still..
March 21st, 2008 at 7:13 am
Logan Light says:
LeBron did just that when he threw on those hammer pants and added the flat top with Jimmy Kemmel.
March 21st, 2008 at 8:13 am
djKianoosh says:
heartbreaker for belmont. those kids were well coached (for the most part) and played their hearts out. there was one play where i forget who but a duke player was driving for a layup and one of the belmont guys just picked his pocket clean and took off for a fast break. it was a beautiful gem of a defensive play. as for being coached well most of the time, they had a couple golden chances to go up on Duke in the final 10-20 seconds but duke played some good d and stole that one inbounds pass too easy. where was he throwing that? couldn’t they get a cleaner play?
CBS and NBC suck. (NBC does the same thing during the olympics.) All I wanted to see was Mayo vs Beasley and granted, the Belmont game was nice, but just cause we’re in DC doesn’t mean we want to see Duke. at least put the other games on a different channel.
March 21st, 2008 at 8:15 am
Travis says:
Modern Day Full Force = Da Band… Cheesy Making the Band group with a female rapper & singer, and they could have diddy in the background doing some dumbass dance
March 21st, 2008 at 8:52 am
YOUNGFED says:
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
Malice from rap group “The Clipse” discussing Baby and Lil Wayne. This is funny as hell and seriously gay. I know everyone has seen the video of them kissing but this is hilarious.
“Malice: The kissing s**t ain’t nothing new. We been out there, we seen the kissing then. So if we wanted to say something we could have said something then. Matter of fact, my tour manager seen them kissing like “Yo yo, you seen them?!” We was like f**k that s**t leave it alone, let’s get this money and go about our business, because that’s how we did it. So if we wanted to instigate and have something to say we would have said something then.”
March 21st, 2008 at 8:54 am
doc says:
they had that duke game in philly too.Kepp that shit in north carolina
March 21st, 2008 at 9:23 am
Brown says:
Damn, y’all had it bad down there yesterday. I got to see pretty much the entire K-State/USC game on tv here flipping to the Duke game during the breaks.
Youngfed, Good Friday is a federal holiday here in Canada.
March 21st, 2008 at 9:56 am
YOUNGFED says:
Go Ahead Rub it in BROWN. lol. “Supposedly”, The US Federal Gov’t doesn’t recognize religous holidays, But I say thats BS anyone ever heard of Christmas, WTF! They claim we’re celebrating Santa Claus and not the religous aspects, again ever heard of the Easter Bunny, Dammit. I’ma write my congress man, I WANT MY MONEY. LMAO
March 21st, 2008 at 10:26 am
YOUNGFED says:
NEWS FLASH:
SIGNS THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END
Here you go. This will take you clear through to Monday with the craziness. A son strangled his own mother, killing her. A-HA! That’s not even a sign that the world is coming to an end. Here is where it all unravels into a sign the world is ending. Police say that the mother and the son were actually engaged in a sexual relationship that started when he was simply 8 or 9 years old. At the time of the strangulation, he was 22 years old and his mother was 47 years old. Oh, it really does get worse. The 22 year-old son had a 19 year-old wife and guess what? She was also having sexual relations with the now-dead mother. This all went down in the Lewiston, Maine, a place that I assumed was fairly normal. It seems like the 19 year old wife (Kayla) was about to leave her man (Mathew Audet) and ,after the death of the mother, she talked to cops. She told them she saw the strangling and also had sex with the mother. WOW!
March 21st, 2008 at 10:27 am
T Ton says:
What are you complaining about getting Good Friday off for? It’s not like you are the Church going type or you just mad because you won’t go time and a half at Mickey D’s?
March 21st, 2008 at 10:42 am
Faze 2 says:
@ YOUNGFED #7 - couple of problems with that… first of all, Magic Johnson was a point guard. Sure he was 6-9, but he was a point guard - that’s what he’s listed at in the record books and that’s the position he played. second, barkley is a power forward even if he’s short. and third, you’re reserving the fifth greatest small forward slot of all time for michael beasley without saying the dude’s gotten earn it by taking someone else’s spot? What?
So you have two legit choices on that list with Bird and LeBron, even if you wanna be an idiot and say that LBJ is already better than Bird. Larry has three rings, LBJ has none. Bird is one of the most clutch players ever, and LeBron was swept in the finals.
And here’s a real top SF of all time
1. Bird
2. Dr. J
3. LeBron (probably too high here)
4. Elgin Baylor
5. Rick Barry
6. Bernard King
7. James Worthy
8. John Havlicek
9. Michael Cooper
10. Mark Aguirre
11. Scottie Pippen
March 21st, 2008 at 11:17 am
YOUNGFED says:
Faze:
Eat a Dik, 1st off all I’ma say is BIRD HAD MCHALE, and PARISH, so Fuk a Ring. Nuff Said.
2nd Magic makes the alltime list at any position, flat out and 3rd Barkley didn’t just play power. But I will give you DJ at #5
March 21st, 2008 at 11:20 am
YOUNGFED says:
TTON
Since when do McDonalds employees get federal holidays off and have computers at their job. Come on dude if you gone crack jokes come correct pimpin’. Also we get double time not time and a half
March 21st, 2008 at 11:21 am
Jurassic says:
@ post #19
What the phuck is wrong with you?
This a hoops page. If you ain’t got hoops to discuss, keep that Enquirer shit to yourself
News flash?
March 21st, 2008 at 11:32 am
word says:
I agree with #1 the bulls do need to work on Joakim and Tyrus cuz those 2 got a lot of potential with the right training. I wonder whats gunna happen post season, they need to ship out Hinrich, Duhon and Gray and get a real PG
Duke fucking sucks and surely got lucky yesterday, if yall want a laugh peep this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fYOgC2Qbqh4
I think there’s a part 2 to that
And man oh man the Celts just are the motherfucking best right now. The team is stacked and with their minds right, they will get shit done in the playoffs.
oh and todays full force= g-unit
March 21st, 2008 at 11:34 am
word says:
lmfao… i agree with jurassic, nobody wants to hear about fucked up white people in maine
March 21st, 2008 at 11:36 am
YOUNGFED says:
Thought it was funny.
BIG UPS TO ALL MY HATERRRRS!!!
March 21st, 2008 at 11:37 am
YOUNGFED says:
PS Nobody said you had to Read it.
March 21st, 2008 at 12:26 pm
THE BACH says:
No mention of how fired up the Black Mamba was against the Jazz???? The guy was just sick and is hands down the MVP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 21st, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Byrd says:
Yo dime I thought you guys knew what was up. Go to sportsline.com and you can watch any game in the tourney for free, and I know you guys are online a lot. You could have watched Beasley pick up his fouls and you also could have watched my boys (MSU) handle temple.
March 21st, 2008 at 4:40 pm
T Ton says:
Youngfed, I wouldn’t know that since I’ve never worked there. You sure you don’t work there since you seem to know so much about their policy on a holiday pay? Besides you could have the day off and be posting from your computer at home.
March 21st, 2008 at 5:55 pm
apollo 33 says:
you guys need to know what the fuck you’re talking about before you start writing smack. beasley was in big time foul trouble first half, it wasn’t usc’s dope defence. and they said the 3 second thing because they had to go the length of the floor, so they would need someone to tip the inbounds to another guy for a shot. come on smack, man up.
March 21st, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Austin Burton says:
Why would you have to tip an inbounds with 3 whole seconds left? Did Grant Hill tip it to Christian Laetner? Come on Apollo…
March 21st, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Jurassic says:
“and they said the 3 second thing because they had to go the length of the floor, so they would need someone to tip the inbounds to another guy for a shot”
wtf?
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:02 pm
apollo 33 says:
inbounds pass, from their own baseline, goes to some guy who tips the ball (clock starts) to another guy who can then shoot it. use your fucking head.
March 22nd, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Austin Burton says:
That was the Valpo/Bryce Drew play, and while it did work, it’s not the only option in that situation. You can catch and shoot:
Full court with 1.6 seconds left:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JuQ-dlhyfNc
Full court with 2.1 seconds left:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AY-iq58_oz4
Full court with 3 seconds left:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=oAZvnJ_sngI
And that’s just Duke. Use your head…
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:22 pm
apollo 33 says:
ya i know, i didn’t make the call, i just said what they meant. so you can stop doing research to try and prove a point to me, i’m just trying to stop smack from writing shit that straight up didn’t happen.