Author: John Paulsen (Page 789 of 937)

      Just one shocker on Thursday

      March 16, 2007 /

      #11 VCU beat Duke! That’s right, all the haters can rest easy for a few months. A combination of poor foul shooting (20-32), turnovers (17) and VCU’s Eric Maynor (22 points, including the game winner) did the Blue Devils in.

      Save for VCU and #9-seeds Michigan State and Xavier, all of the top seeded teams moved on yesterday, making it one of the quieter starts in recent memory. Usually a #3 or #4 seed is knocked off on the first day. There is a nice slate of games today, featuring #7 Nevada vs. #10 Creighton, #8 Arizona vs #9 Purdue, #7 UNLV vs. #10 Georgia Tech and #6 Notre Dame vs. #11 Winthrop. That list doesn’t even include the three 5/12 matchups. My guess is we’ll see at least two double-digit seeds pull the upset today.

      I’ll finish with a complaint. Yesterday at 3 PM here in California, and there was a game going on, yet my local affiliate was airing an episode of “The Price Is Right.” Granted, Vandy blew out GW, but why in the world would you show Bob Barker when there’s a game to broadcast?

      Get real.

      College Basketball, March Madness

      First set of games complete, no upsets yet

      March 15, 2007 /

      No shockers yet as #6 Louisville, #3 A&M, #2 Georgetown, #7 BC, #3 Washington St., #5 Butler and #4 Maryland all advanced. Thus far, I’m 7-0 in my bracket, but things aren’t looking too good for George Washington, my first upset special. They’re trailing Vanderbilt 27-10 in the first half. Ouch.

      A few random thoughts from the early games:

      Boy did Stanford lay an egg. You have to consider the effect of a West coast team traveling to the Midwest to play a game at 9:30 AM PT, but these are college kids, they should be ready to play day or night. Louisville looked strong and should give A&M a great game. The Aggies struggled against Pennsylvania, but wore those Ivy brats down in the second half. I have A&M going to the Final Four, and after today’s performances, I’m not feeling great about that pick…The announcers were going on and on about how Stanford big man Robin Lopez decorates his shoes. Apparently, he’s an artist, while his twin brother is a writer. All this discussion was going on as Robin was at the free throw line bricking two free throws. Note to self: spend less time drawing on my shoes and more time practicing my free throws…Best name of the tourney (so far)? Ken Tutt of Oral Roberts. Do you think his parents named him that on purpose?

      There are some interesting matchups coming up later – #6 Duke vs. #11 VCU and #8 Marquette vs. #9 Michigan State.

      College Basketball, March Madness

      Bucks fire Stotts

      March 14, 2007 /

      The Milwaukee Bucks have relieved Terry Stotts of his coaching duties.

      “Terry has done the best he could in a difficult situation, especially with all of our injuries,” said [GM Larry] Harris. “I felt it was in the best interest of our organization to make the decision now and move forward, rather than wait until the end of the regular season. I want to thank Terry for his hard work and dedication to our team, and wish him well.”

      The Stotts hire felt like a desperation move after Flip Saunders shunned the Bucks, instead deciding to take the Detroit job. Milwaukee has a good young nucleus in Michael Redd, Mo Williams, Andrew Bogut and Charlie Villanueva. None of those guys are very defensive minded, however, and the Bucks have struggled on that end of the court, yielding a 5th-worst 103.3 points per game.

      This group needs direction from someone they’ll listen to.

      Larry Brown, care to take this job on?

      NBA

      Mavs vs. Suns tonight

      March 14, 2007 /

      Can’t wait for the NCAA Tournament to start tomorrow? The two best teams in the NBA square off tonight at 9 PM ET on ESPN. Both teams have won nine of their last ten and are jockeying for playoff position in the West. It should be a good one.

      NBA

      The Knicks extend Zeke

      March 13, 2007 /

      Knicks owner James Dolan said last summer that Isiah Thomas was on notice and that he wanted to see considerable improvement this season or changes would be made. Apparently, a 29-34 record – currently good enough for the #8 seed in the lowly East – represents enough progress, so much so that Dolan decided to extend Thomas to a non-disclosed, multi-year deal.

      More than the record, Dolan praised Thomas for getting the team to play together and for the improvement in the Knicks’ young players. Second-year forward David Lee has become one of the NBA’s best sixth men, and Eddy Curry has turned into one of the top centers in the East.

      “I think every player has done well under Isiah,” Dolan said. “I think we have a great future.”

      Thomas is certainly a better coach than he is a GM, but since he’s been scientifically proven to be the worst GM in the NBA, that isn’t saying a whole hell of a lot. Virtually every trade he has made has backfired in one way or another, and the team is in horrible shape in relation to the salary cap. But after this season, an astounding $52 M will come off the payroll, as the salaries of Allan Houston, Jalen Rose, Maurice Taylor, Shandon Anderson and Jerome Williams will be erased from the books. To put that $52 M into perspective, it’s more than the total payroll of the Hawks and the Bobcats.

      This extension brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “rewarding mediocrity.”

      NBA

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