Ranking the League from worst to first…

30. New Jersey Nets (3-40) Last week: Lost at Phoenix; lost at Golden State; lost at Utah. You know how some teams can play any style and win? The Nets have become adept at losing with any style. Last week they lost trying to run. They also lose in the halfcourt, lose when they go big, lose when they go small, lose with a youth movement, lose with vets, lose at home, lose on the road … their company softball team probably stinks, too.

29. Minnesota Timberwolves (9-36) Last week: Lost to Oklahoma City; lost to New Orleans; lost at Milwaukee. If you’re into moral victories, the Wolves can be proud of at least taking the Thunder and Hornets down to the wire. The talent and competitiveness is there; you just see the execution failures that come with a young team. Read More »

You would think that if you’re in the NBA fraternity that you would have an easier time building a friendship with one of the stars in the league. Unfortunately that’s not always the case. Indiana Pacers rookies Tyler Hansbrough and A.J. Price learned that the hard way when they came across KG over the summer. According to this snippet from this Boston Globe story: Read More »

Principal D-Stern had to have been pleased with his product yesterday, as two of the NBA’s three preseason games took place outside the United States. In Taiwan, the Pacers blew out the Nuggets: Troy Murphy put up 20 points with four threes, and Brandon Rush (20 pts) knocked down six triples, but the real story was Roy Hibbert. The kid was a BEAST, going for 20 points, 11 boards and eight blocks. Granted, Nene being out meant Denver started Johan Petro at center, but he only played 10 minutes before Birdman and K-Mart assumed most of the duties inside. It’s just preseason, but in the Nuggets‘ two games against NBA teams (they smashed a team of kids from Belgrade), they haven’t looked good at all … Read More »

After putting together the modified Top-50 list of players from ‘08-09, I had about 50 leftovers who just missed the cut. And from that, there could’ve been a whole sub-category titled “Wait ‘Til Next Year.”

We’ve gone over the centers, two-guards and small forwards. Now here are five point guards who look the most ready to crack the 2010 Top-10 with their performances next season: Read More »

As not to break my own “It’s just summer league” adage, I won’t get too excited about the fact that Roy Hibbert and Tyler Hansbrough are rampaging through Orlando right now for my Pacers like Robert Parish and Kevin McHale in ’86 (with A.J. Price as their Dennis Johnson).

We’re still months away from the real games, from even beginning to determine whether Hansbrough will become the good pro I think he’ll be, or the Lottery pick bust his harsher critics think he’ll be. Read More »

After Michigan State upset UConn in the first of yesterday’s Final Four games, Jim Calhoun said, “We’re pretty good, but they’re close to special.” But are the Spartans special enough now to handle North Carolina? State came out hot like cayenne pepper on UConn, seemingly scoring on every offensive possession for the first five minutes, punching UConn in the mouth first and maintaining that momentum throughout … Read More »

Are we seeing the early stages of a new, more mature Gilbert Arenas? The other day he announced his “retirement” from blogging, and instead of gunning for 40 in his season debut last night, Gil was clearly making an effort to pass the rock and get other guys their looks. Read More »

After struggling in their first-round game against Cal State-Northridge, Memphis finally played like a 2-seed should. As for 1-seed UConn, they never missed a beat from their first-round mollywhopping of Chattanooga. Read More »

This morning on New York sports radio, they were debating whether or not last night’s UConn/Syracuse epic 6-OT game was the greatest sporting event ever held at Madison Square Garden. If you fell asleep, or missed it for other reasons (more on that later) this highlights are below.

We want to know how our readers experienced the game – Were you there? Did you stay up for it at home? Where did you watch it? Who did you watch it with? Let us know in the comments section…

We’re not even gonna lie, though, none of us really watched much of the second NBA game last night (Cavs/Suns) — those who weren’t at MSG for the UConn/Syracuse Big East tourney game were glued to the TV watching it. If you missed it, you missed the college basketball equivalent of 300. After the refs waved off an Eric Devendorf three that appeared to give ‘Cuse the win in regulation, the game went to SIX OVERTIMES. Every time Syracuse had a chance to take the lead in the first five OT’s, it seemed they missed the easiest shot possible. One time Paul Harris (29 pts, 22 rebs) had a clear path for a dunk and the ball slipped out of his hands, then another time he had two chances to score right under the basket (with no Hasheem Thabeet around, who’d fouled out) and couldn’t convert. Syracuse finally took the lead in the sixth OT, and knocked down its free throws down the stretch to pull out a 127-117 win … Jonny Flynn was a BEAST for the Orange. He went for 34 points, 11 assists and six steals, hitting all 16 of his free throws and playing something like 67 minutes … Read More »