Time to rest the weary

1985-86 Celtics

The Cleveland Cavaliers are 39-1 at home. Only the 1985-86 Boston Celtics had a better record (40-1). With a win tonight against the Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland could match that record, however they currently stand at one-and-a-half point underdogs. Why? Because they will probably lose. Here’s why:

Monday night’s win against the Indiana Pacers secured home court advantage throughout the playoffs for the Cavaliers. Therefore, if Cleveland is to lose a series against an opposing team, they would have to be beat at least once at Quicken Loans Arena; a feat that only the Los Angeles Lakers accomplished this season with their 101-91 victory on Sunday, February 8th. Needless to say, the Cavaliers are ultimately the favorite to go all the way this season. However they most likely will not tie the Boston’s record of only one loss back in the 80’s.

Coach’s decision

Coach Mike Brown has a no brainer here. Sit LeBron James. Sit Mo Williams. This two-headed beast for the Cavs is reaching the heights achieved only by the likes of Pippen and Jordan, and Malone and Stockton. Right now the two combine for 46.2 points and 11.3 assists-per-game. That’s just under 46-percent of Cleveland’s scoring per game and over 50-percent of its assists.

James Williams

So why risk it? Give the guys a much needed night off. James and Williams have played in every single game this season, each averaging over 35 minutes-per-game. Ben Wallace strained his knee a few days ago. Wallace spent a considerable amount of time on the disabled list earlier this season with a broken leg. Unfortunately that leaves the team with Delonte West and Zydrunas Ilgauskas as the two main scoring threats.

Losing on the fan’s night

Coming off of a six game losing streak, Philadelphia needs to pick up momentum heading into their first-round playoff matchup with Boston. Expect Andre Iquadala to put up close 30 points without Wallace closing down the paint,

Andre Iguadala

and Andre Smith to have 10 plus assists without the defensive capabilities of Williams and James.

On fan appreciation night in Cleveland, the crowd is going to get a great big thank you by witnessing only their second home loss of the season.

Time for some Madness!

So it’s March Madness – Billy’s favorite time of the year. Christmas is alright, my birthday just makes me feel older, but March Madness makes me care about the little things in life again; like Siena and Cleveland State. But lets face it, this year sucks. Only one seed higher than a 5 made it to the Sweet Sixteen, and that was a 12-seeded Arizona Wildcats team that had a less-than spectacular Pac-10 season, but is still a powerhouse to be dealt with. Plus I’m a sensitive guy who puts way to many low-seeded teams into the Sweet Sixteen so my bracket is already, well, in the trash. So let’s talk about what really matters: The National Invitational Tournament or NIT.

The big man gets the best of Nebraska once again

The shortest team in Division I (334 teams) is the Nebraska Cornhuskers. That’s a major conference team that who’s tallest starting player is Chris Balham who stands at 6-8 with shoes on. And he only plays 10-minutes per came because of knee injuries. So most of the times 6-4 Ryan Anderson gets stuck with guarding the tallest player from the opposing team.

While the team doubles down a lot, it is still quite the inconvenience and their first round opponent the New Mexico Lobos new that. They used 6-9 Daniel Faris and used him well. He took advantage of Nebraska’s shortness and dominated the paint with 28-points and 13-rebounds. Nebraska picked a bad time to have their worst defensive night of the year (83 points) and their leader Ade Dagundoro was held to 8 points on 2-13 shooting.

New Mexico lost next round to a tough Notre Dame team who was able to match their size with All-American Luke Harangody. Harangody had 26-points, 11-rebounds and 2-blocks in the Irish’s 70-68 victory.

Wildcats split the difference

Kentucky Wildcats…Davidson Wildcats. Both played Monday night. One lost, one won. They didn’t play each other.

Jodie Meeks couldn’t get open all night for the Kentucky Wildcats. He averages 15.9 field-goal-attempts per-game, but put up just 9 against a tough Creighton Bluejay’s defense. But it was his last one that counted the most. That 9th field-goal-attempt was a 3-point play in which he drove to the lane and made a tough one-handed lay-up while Creighton was trying to draw a charge, instead they got called for blocking, Meeks made the free-throw, Meeks was the hero, and Kentucky won 65-63 in a game in which Creighton played better. Tough loss Creighton. Go talk to Wichita State and see how they feel. Check the March 6 play-by-play if you forgot.

One Wildcat is up, that means the other is down. The match-up was set. Davidson vs. St. Mary’s. Patty Mills vs. Stephen Curry. While Stephen had 26-points and 9-rebounds, his job with constant double and triple teams is to dish the ball and rack up those assists. He knows this. That’s why a just-injured Patty Mills was able to combine 23-points and 10-assists and win not only the box score, but the game as well. Final score: St. Mary’s 80, Davison 68.

Check this guy’s highlight tapes to learn a little court vision Curry.

Nebraska’s going dancing! No they’re not.

The Nebraska men’s basketball team made a blip on the bubble watch radar last week. They were tied for fourth in the Big 12 after riding an emotional three game win streak that included road victories against Texas Tech and Colorado, as well as a three-point home win over then #17 Texas. Then they traveled to Columbia, Missouri, and like most dreams of the big dance midway through conference play, they faded off into oblivion.

First half

Ade Dagunduro

Nebraska played their game in the first half; they played tough defense, controlled the offensive tempo, and limited the fifth-highest scoring offense in all the land to just 25 first-half points. Nebraska’s one legitimate drive threat, Ade Dagunduro, was being aggressive and getting to the foul line while Cookie Miller was managing an offense that regularly took at least 30 of the 35 second shot clock to put up a shot.

Second half

Missouri began forcing turnovers, hitting three’s, and well, playing their game. The tale of two halves. Matt Lawrence came out firing, hitting three three-pointers and Missouri forced Nebraska into a season-worst 20 turnovers. They had only averaged 11 per-game. The benches cleared with almost five minutes to go in the game and not even the rested could help improve Nebraska’s abysmal 28.6 percent shooting percentage.

What it means, and where Nebraska is headed

The game pitted the Big 12’s number one defense against the Big 12’s number one offense, and the offense one. Quite frankly, Nebraska played one of it’s worst games of the season, shooting terrible and coughing the ball up left and right, but the game should have been closer. Nebraska is not as bad as they looked on Saturday afternoon. They are a tournament caliber team, but they’re just not ready for the big dance yet. NIT, here comes the Cornhuskers…again.

Doc Sadler’s philosophy of defense and toughness is rubbing off on his team, and the conditioning that this Nebraska team has should help get it some unexpected victories down the stretch.

Doc Sadler

Nebraska has road games left against three very good teams in Kansas, Kansas State and Baylor, as well as home games against Iowa State, Colorado and Texas A & M. If I had to bet, I would say Nebraska will go 4-2 and finish in the top half of the Big 12, but come selection committee time, I just don’t see Nebraska in the dance yet. Losses to Maryland-Baltimore County at home and Oregon State on the road do not look good, as both teams currently stand with losing records.

But Madison Square Garden and an NIT Championship are definitely not out of the question.

Go west my young child…or not?

Right now, everybody wants to focus on the Kobe vs. LeBron debate. Can King James finally take his throne, or is Kobe still just a step ahead? Will one of these basketball phenoms prove to be better than the great Michael Jordan when all is said and done? Who cares? The debate isn’t going to have an answer until they are both retired and we can weigh their entire careers against each other, so hold your horses and lets talk about something relevant: the Eastern conference vs. the Western Conference.

What happened?

Since Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls ran off six straight titles in the 1990’s (lets not count the two years he attempted to play baseball), the Eastern conference has one three NBA Titles; the 2004 Detroit Pistons, 2006 Miami Heat, and last year’s Boston Celtics. The Western conference has one seven, well actually the San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers have combined for seven. A dominant offensive Western Conference has been flat out bigger and tougher than their comrades from the East. Only one of those seven championships went to seven games, and two of them were swept in four. However, this season things are playing out differently. Yeah, last year the Boston Celtics went 66-16 and won the championship, but this year the overall tide is changing in more than just one city.

Cleveland Cavaliers

The Eastern Conference has three of the four best records in the league; the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic and Boston. The Cavaliers are still led by King James who once again is averaging close to a triple-double every game, but it’s the discovery of a true shooting guard that has balanced things out in Cleveland. Larry Hughes was always streaky and never consistent with his shooting ability, but Mo Williams, who came over in the off season from the Milwaukee Bucks is putting up 16.5 points and four assists per-game. Not since the 2005-2006 season when Cleveland had a healthy Zydrunas Ilgauskas (out for the last month with an ankle injury) has Cleveland had a player besides James average over 15 points-per-game. As I’m writing this I’m reading how Williams just put up a season high 43 points, to go along with 11 assists and eight rebounds against the Sacramento Kings (Western Conference) in a Cleveland 117-110 victory. Point proven.

Orlando Magic

This year is also marked by the improved play of the Orlando Magic, who with a record of 34-10 are ranked 4th in the NBA right now. The Magic own one of the most essential ingredients to competing against the Western Conference: a dominant big man. Dwight Howard is bringing down 14 rebounds and blocking nearly four shots per-game. His ability inside allows Orlando to compete with the Tim Duncan’s and Yao Ming’s of the West. Along with the improved play of point guard Jameer Nelson, Orlando has a dominating 18-4 record against Western Conference opponents this season.

And just for the record, LeBron is better.

What happened to Big 12 basketball?

Big 12 basketball was finally putting things together last year. We sent six teams into the wolves of March Madness and the Kansas Jayhawks came out on top of the 65-team dogfight to be crowned National Champions.  A freshman from Kansas State by the name of Michael Beasley won nearly every national freshman of the year honor and was even voted by rivals.com as the nation’s top player.

Oh, how things have changed.

The Kansas Jayhawks are…average?

Keep in mind this is not Billy Donovan’s 2006 Florida Gator team that won the national championship, then returned all five starters and won it again in 2007.  No, the Jayhawks were lucky enough to head down a different path.  They lost five players to the NBA draft, including their top four leading scorers; Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers, Darnell Jackson and Darrell Arthur.  That’s more than 50-points per game that they need to replace.  There is no overnight cure for that, but they do have a freshman beginning to shine light on the program once more.

Tyshawn Taylor was sporadic during the beginning of the year, committing four turnovers in a road loss to Syracuse and netting only three points in a devastating home loss to Massachusetts that dropped Kansas out of the top 25 rankings.  However as Big 12 play is beginning he seems to be finding his own.  He went for 20-points against Kansas State and 14 against Colorado, helping Kansas open up league play at 3-0.  The question remains though, will Kansas lose another potential star to the NBA draft?  Some experts are already predicting Taylor could be a first round pick if he declares after the season.

Bright Spot: Blake Griffin

The one bright spot in the Big 12 this year has to be the play of the Oklahoma Sooners, who are led by the Griffin brothers, most notably younger brother Blake Griffin who is putting up ridiculous numbers this season. After a dominating freshman season that saw him averaging nearly a double double per game, Griffin has done the scary, but inevitable: improved.

Eighteen games into the season, he has 14 double doubles and is averaging 22 points per game, eight more than his freshman campaign. Not to mention he’s #1 in the nation in rebounding at 13.4 grabs per game. He’s led the Sooners to a #5 ranking and is a front-runner for the Naismith Award, which is given to the nation’s best player.

While Oklahoma is a lock for the dance in a barely mediocre Big 12 conference, it will be interesting to see how Griffin can handle the size and presence of the teams on the east coast. I don’t think I’m the only person who would love to see Griffin square off against North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough in March.

And the #1 pick in the 2009 NBA Draft is…