acleex

www.washingtonwizards.com

Forget about Gilbert's suspension. Apparently Javaris Crittenton ****** and loaded a handgun during Arenas' "pick one" note, according to a Mike Wise report from the Washington Post. A blow up is inevitable even if this DIDN'T HAPPEN. But what is your reaction if THIS DID HAPPEN for real!?

http://www.bulletsforever.com/2010/1/6/1237823/mik...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic...

Men only

Catch is that the player must have been in college for at least three years if not more, so that means no one and dones like Carmelo, KD, Beasley, and Bosh, and no two and throughs like Andre Igoudala, Blake Griffin, Caron Butler and CP3. Also, name four year seniors if at all possible. You can name players who played in 1998 or 1999 perhaps, but they should have played or at least will play two or more years in the 2000's

G: Jason Williams - Duke - He won a split of the National Player of the Year Awards in 2001 along with Shane Battier when they won the National Title over Arizona. He continued his dominance into the 2001-2002 season when he was the consensus MVP, and could have easily got Duke another repeat until Indiana decided to take a trip down memory lane... He scored 2079 points in three seasons in Duke, and if he stayed for 02-03, he would've probably broken Dawkins' record and got Duke to another Final Four or perhaps even better.

G: JJ Redick - Duke - He was a split national player of the year in 2005 and spoiled Andrew Bogut's coming out party, but he was the consensus POY in 2006. We all know him as a three point shooting bomber, but he also became better defensively and also better as a point guard when he had to play the role as he continued on with college, along with Shelden Williams who did the dirty work. He was the leading scorer at Duke when he was done, surpassing the men's record by Johnny Dawkins (2556), and the overall school record by women's star Alana Beard (2687), ending up with 2769 points good for the ACC All Time Record, though he lost it to Psycho T only three years later. And duh, he is the NCAA All Time Three Point King. JJ made one final four in 2004 with Chris Duhon, Luol Deng, and Shelden Williams plus he led the Dukies in the Sweet 16 every year.

F: Nick Collison - Kansas - He did not win any national player of the year awards, but he was a nasty rebounder and was a great scorer for the Jayhawks, along with Drew Gooden and Kirk Hinrich, as Kansas got to the 2002 and 2003 Final Fours. He was a 1st Team All American in 2003, after getting KU to the final game against Syracuse.

F: Tyler Hansbrough - North Carolina - He was the core of the second wave of Roy Williams' time at UNC after their 2005 title team basically got dismantled by early defections to the NBA. While there, he got UNC to the 2008 and 2009 Final Fours, and won the 2009 National Championship. He was the 2008 National POY and would've been the 2009 POY too if Blake Griffin just wasn't quite as good.. But Psycho T has this on everyone on this list. He was an All American EVERY YEAR at UNC, becoming the leading all time leading ACC scorer along the way.

C: Emeka Okafor, Connecticut - His college years were directly in the shadow of the women's basketball team's threepeat, so they had (and deserved) the bulk of the national attention in Storrs. Instead of pouting about this like his coach did back in those days, Emeka shotblocked and rebounded the Huskies to at least the Sweet 16 every year along with future NBA stars like Caron, Ben Gordon, and Charlie Villanueva, and was able to finish his career by winning the 2004 national title with his women counterparts, including an awesome clutch performance against Duke in the semifinals. He gets some more points for being the Academic All American POY as well in 2004, as he graduated with a 3.8 GPA in 2004 in Business Administration, not some "fluff" major like "Communications" or "Sports Management" that many athletes take if available. He was probably the best shot blocker and rebounder of the decade, in my opinion. Okafor also came to UConn as a sophomore academically, and is a true winner in the court and the classroom, which makes him even more remarkable.

Coach of the Decade:

Roy Williams (Kansas and North Carolina)

Coach Williams led his teams to four final fours, two each with the Jayhawks and Tar Heels, and two national championships with UNC, and no team he had finished worse than the 2nd round in the Big Dance. Williams also completely revived the men's basketball team from mediocrity, since they went through two straight years without a berth in the NCAA tournament before he came, and after coming, Williams was able to use the talented yet inconsistent stars recruited during the Matt Doherty era and win a title only in his second year at his alma mater. I'd say his most remarkable year was the 2005-2006 season when he led a very young team after losing all of his major contributors to graduation or the Association, because many, including me thought they'd miss the dance, but instead they got a 3 seed in the tourney and could have very well made at least the Sweet 16 if George Mason didn't end up in their way.

We've had a bunch of surveys on the NBA pretty much, so I'll make one for college hoops. Here are the questions:

1. Who do you like better, Duke or Maryland?

2. Who do you think is the best men's player (as a college player, don't consider pro career) from North Carolina?

3. Who would you want to coach your college team if you had to choose between these four, Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Pat Summitt (Tennessee), John Calipari (Kentucky), or Geno Auriemma (Connecticut)?

4. Which team do you like better, Connecticut, or Syracuse?

5. Your favorite cinderella team in the NCAA tournament?

6. Your favorite upset in the NCAA tournament?

7. Who do believe is your men's team of this decade?

8. Which school do you think will win the NCAA Division I men's basketball championship this year?

9. Which conference do you follow the most?

10. Will the Connecticut women's basketball team be undefeated again this upcoming season?

11. Speaking about undefeated teams, will there be an undefeated men's college team in the next 10 years?

*****************************

My answers:

1. Duke

2. Tyler Hansbrough

3. Tough choice, but Coach K just a little above Summitt

4. UConn

5. Davidson College in 2008

6. George Mason beating UConn in 2006

7. Men's team of the decade is a real toughie since in men's ball so many teams are disintegrated after one good tourney run to the NBA draft, but I'll have to go with Michigan State, given that they won the ship in 2000, but have been to several Final Fours (00, 01, 05, 09) with clearly different cores in different parts of the decade and made the dance every year.

8. I think it's the KU Jayhawks

9. The ACC

10. No, but I think they will repeat as champions

11. No, because we don't see teams today with the superchemistry like we used to in the 80's and early 90's, again because so many of these talented players on talented teams leave for the NBA draft, especially after the team goes on a nice run in the Dance.

http://www.uconnhuskies.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-r...

http://www.utsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/0...

Well not what you're thinking, but the men's basketball teams will have a home and home series to continue on women's basketball's biggest rivalry, even though they bitterly decided not to play each other for some time.

Do you guys think UConn and Tennessee are playing against each other because Jim Calhoun and Bruce Pearl honestly want to play against each other, or because of media and alumni pressure to have them play a basketball game against each other again? Though I want to say the former, I think it's the latter even though Tennessee especially became pretty good the last few years. Though this is still a good match to see, I think it's pressure to have them play each other.

Since the NHL playoffs are right now going on at the same time as the NBA playoffs, I thought it would be kind of cool for us to have some player analogies, of a player in the NHL and who he'd be in the NBA.

Here are some from me, all players from the hometown Washington Capitals.

Alex Ovechkin - His NBA equivalent is LeBron James. He's physical, a monster scorer, and also a great passer.

Alex Semin - Caron Butler, another great scorer.

Niklas Backstrom - Steve Nash, the assist man of the Caps

Donald Brashear - Historically, Bill Laimbeer for sure, but today, probably Rasheed Wallace is as close as I could get since he fights almost every game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx3cmeLhEcg

Sure his rapping is bad, but this coach does have a fun side and given that Tennessee men's basketball has become a consistent NCAA team under his watch from being a not so great SEC team. This is good in my opinion and I think players will want to play for him! Also his players' tribute to Pat Summitt show how a men's team can show respect to a women's team when both teams are good, unlike Connecticut.

Of course at the end of the day, we all know that the players win the games, not the coaches, but he is one of basketball's best teachers. After reading his biography and his scrappy blue collar and immigrant background, I can appreciate his tough but delicate approach to the game. The US, and UConn should be very proud that Auriemma will lead Team USA in London toward our 5th straight gold.

Question here is now that Auriemma is the new face of Team USA and he's gonna have to work his butt off for both the country and his normal day job as UConn women's coach, will the UConn women's basketball team (or other team if he coaches either the UConn men or another women's or men's program) suffer to a degree performance-wise because of it over the next 3-4 years?

My guess is that it's possible, because the best example is what Coach K was like with the Duke men's team and the US men's senior team last year. Sure the US won the gold, but he had less time to devote to Duke, and in 2006, 2007 and 2008 the team underperformed, to say the least. Definitely Coach K could have led Redick to another final four or better in 2006, and the 2007 and 2008 teams were definitely Sweet 16 worthy. But not only was he deeply involved with USA basketball at the same time, but so was the rest of his own Duke staff. I'd imagine that Auriemma would be in a similar light since he will use his staff as well for Team USA. I don't think recruiting will suffer though because the UConn women's basketball reputation and tradition speaks for itself, like Duke men's basketball does. What do you all think?

I know anyone can hit one winning shot any game, but Butler did it twice this season, albeit a lost one, after stabbing another dagger on Shawn Marion and the Raptors!

My pick is the Southeast Division. Here's why.

1. FOUR of the five teams (Heat, Magic, Hawks, Wiz) have made the playoffs in the last five years, and there's still an outside chance that all five will if the Bobcats sneak in this year. In addition, the Heat, Magic, and Wiz have advanced to the 2nd round or better in the last five years all with relatively young teams. When this division first came about in 2004-2005, everyone called this the cupcake division since the Wiz, Hawks, and Magic were bad then, and the Bobcats were in their first year. No one exactly knew how good the Heat could be yet.

2. All the teams have All Stars or at least All Star worthy players who can take over games and lead them to victory.

Magic - Dwight, Hedo, Rashard, Jameer (why isn't Hedo an all star?)

Wiz - Caron, Antawn, Gilbert, (the draft pick could be Blake, we dunno yet - then this could be a scary team)

Hawks - Joe, Mike, Al, Josh (Mike Bibby single handedly turned them around)

Heat - Dwayne, Jermaine, Mike (O'Neal's old, but he's still effective)

Bobcats - Raja, Boris, Emeka (great chemistry so far though they've never been All Stars, yet)

I expect the Southeast to be a bloodmatch every game next year and the playoff teams from this division could do deep in the playoffs. This division will be the most competitive among intra-division play.... This may not be the "best region", but among the teams in there, it will be rough.

The Duke women's team just got whooped by Michigan State in the 2nd round, in.... East Lansing..

Definitely no doubt that the Spartans were definitely looking for some revenge on their former coach, Coach P (now at Duke), and they got it. Did you see the guys storming the court after the game? I like revenge games and kudos to Michigan State, even though the Spartans played a 2nd round NCAA tournament game at home......

I think he's gonna start and I think Haywood will be back by the Cleveland game in the Verizon Center too, since that is our only true marquee game left at home. The coaching staff shouldn't "manage minutes" like they did last year and just let him play if that's what Gil wants to do.. Even with Arenas and Haywood back, I still think the Wizards will probably lose because of chemistry issues though I wouldn't be surprised to see them win, but at least we can see how this team could look next year minus the draft pick.

After Villanova won the 1985 NCAA tournament (and played some games at home at the tournament), men's basketball teams aren't allowed to play tourney games at their home arena or at a place they call home more than 3 times, or something like that. In the NCAA women's tournament, it looks like a number of schools are playing AT HOME, regardless of seed, and it gives them an unfair advantage when they are lower seeds especially like Rutgers who blew out Auburn in Piscataway! Others like Maryland and UConn are #1 seeds and they should be rewarded with playing at a location close to home, but they shouldn't play at home nevertheless. A tournament should always be neutral. The Terps could play at the Verizon Center and they'd fill it up more than a Wizards game as of late and sell every seat. UConn could make TD Banknorth more rowdy than a Celtics game and sell every seat too.

No wonder why some women's programs have been able to dominate so many years... It's because they get to play games AT HOME!

By getting Tina Thompson, a natural power forward, you'll have her AND Lisa Leslie in the front court which is scary to say the least. The only problem LA has is age, with Milton-Jones, Leslie, AND Thompson all at 34 or more years of age, but they've been healthy and have never missed a beat all their pro careers. Just imagine what a lineup of them and Candace will be like... You could put Candace anywhere, I'd put her at SF so she can play a role like what LeBron does for the Cavs. That Sparks lineup could if healthy will be nastier for the WNBA than the Lakers dream lineup of Fisher, Kobe, Pau, Andrew, and Shaq next year if it comes to be. I've heard rumors of Shaq wanting to come back to LA, even though I don't think it'll happen.

Any of you Laker fans who also follow the Sparks believe that 2009 is a championship year? After all, the Sparks won both of their championships when the Lakers won a title just a few months before in 2001 and 2002.

I know we kicked out Eddie Jordan after we lost to the Knicks with only seven or eight dressed players... Well, body-wise the Hawks were fine. but from what I heard on the radio on the way back from Verizon Center, the Hawks didn't get to the DC airport until SIX AM this morning from Cleveland. At 6 AM, that's when the last of our large snow bands hit here... We got the big snow storm that slammed Alabama, and Atlanta and it hit us yesterday into today. So in other words, the Hawks had a rough night last night and were groggy from the commute. They were rusty today, especially in the first half, and we should have beaten them. Almost any other team would. At least Kudos to the Hawks for keeping focus on the task at hand, especially after a rough loss to the LeBrons yesterday which was a winnable game. And also another unexcusable loss for Washington. Even without Butler, the Wizards or any other team should be able to soundly beat a team that is obviously tired and played a bit out of sync in the first half. I'm real frustrated by this one...

Anyone from Atlanta know if the team even got much sleep after getting to the airport? That I'd like to know.

I don't want to touch too much on Jim Calhoun's rant on the political activist who was there solely to get him pissed. But Calhoun did point that he'd like to retire someday and that struck a chord with me.

Calhoun is 67 right now, so perhaps he has a few years left in him if he's healthy (like Coach K though he is younger), but he has had multiple bouts with skin cancer, most recently this past season, and during his 2003-2004 championship season, Calhoun had prostate cancer. His contract ends in 2010, and though his mentality would probably want to continue coaching, I dunno if he can continue much longer because of health. When you add the fact that his dad died of a heart attack when he was 15, this needs to play into your decision if you're the UConn administration if you're gonna seriously renew his contract after this season, given that most coaches are never in their last season of a contract... After all, I'm not surprised if Calhoun doesn't have the healthiest heart either and any extension he gets would go past his 70's...

If Calhoun were to retire, I don't think that his assistants are necessarily ready to coach one of the best teams of this decade. Their associate head coach, George Blaney on the surface is a perfect man to take the job, since he has been a successful Div. 1 including being head coach at Seton Hall, another Big East school, though he enjoyed his best success at Holy Cross. However, Blaney is a problem given his age, since he's 76. You don't want to replace an old coach with an older one. The assistants have had decent time as assistants, but given that neither Sellers or LaFleur have been a head coach yet still gives you a question mark on whether or not they can keep the Huskies as a perennial power...

The most notable former UConn assistants now being head coaches at other programs are Dave Leitao at UVA and Karl Hobbs at GWU in Washington. Hobbs has had some decent recruiting and I think he may make a good replacement for Calhoun as he has led the Colonials to several NCAA appearances and has recruited some great players, though this year is a downer for his program. Leitao hasn't seemed to be as great, but he is in the ACC at one of the perennially downer teams of the conference.

Or should UConn look outside the box for some of the up and coming coaches in the mid major conferences when Calhoun retires (I don't think it'll be too long)..

My hope is that UConn looks across the banners in Gampel Pavilion and offer their women's coach Geno Auriemma the job and become the men's head coach when Calhoun calls it quits... Auriemma has never said that he wanted to coach the UConn women forever, and has openly said that he sometimes wants a new challenge. He is super competitive and his quick basketball system would fit in well with Calhoun's players. He has a lot of swag, comes out as cocky to others, but that can feed into his team in a positive way as it has with the women. Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird are his best examples of players who have skills, and the swagger, which has undeniably come from his coaching. He can do the same for the men as well as anyone.

To put things bluntly as well, Geno Auriemma and the UConn women's team is bigger than Jim Calhoun and the UConn men's team in terms of national significance. That may be why Calhoun and Auriemma apparently didn't have a great relationship before. It doesn't matter if the UConn men have more NBA players right now than anyone else or won two championships in their only two final four appearances when the women have more WNBA players than anyone else too, they won five championships, went to nine final fours, and have made the Dance 20 straight years, while Calhoun has coached some pretty mediocre teams during his years at UConn. Either way, I can't see any reason why Geno can't develop and recruit NBA talent. Any top men's recruit should know who he is. The only adversity Auriemma will have to face is defections for the NBA draft, which every coach deals with, but some do better than others. As women's coach, he will almost never have to face seeing a player fail to graduate since the WNBA requires that all entrants be four years out of high school.

If Geno wins a men's championship at UConn, boy would that be surreal... This is definitely a good challenge for him that he may be looking for and I think he wants this job at least a little to be honest.

If you think that taking Auriemma away from the women's team would be bad, think again. Auriemma's top assistant, Chris Dailey has been with him since he came to UConn in and probably has as much to do with UConn's ascent to the top of women's hoops as he does. She would easily take the top job without question and still be able to keep the Huskies where they have been.

So what should Connecticut do to replace Calhoun in a few years, maybe sooner? Try to lure Hobbs from GW? Bail out Leitao from UVA assuming he's not

I don't think Eddie Jordan should have been fired given the team's injuries, but it seems that Grunfeld has fallen in love with Butler, Jamison, and Arenas to the point where he can't see them leave for any reason. Not that I want the players out, but if a team's core is injured for 2 seasons, that's what the team is more likely than not. I'm okay with him staying or going, but if he stays, Grunfeld has gotta make an aggressive move to make the team better. This year's trade for Crittenton hasn't shown dividends yet.

If Ernie is gone after this year, perhaps we should try to make a bid to steal Mitch Kupchak of the Lakers. He should be pretty motivated to come back to DC since he was drafted by the Bullets, and played for us, and helped win an NBA championship here too as a player. Right now, I don't know if anyone in Washington's basketball operations area is even thinking about making a move (either now or during the draft period) to get this team better, since it looks like the consensus is that if Gilbert is healthy, we will win the Eastern Conference if not win it all. That's not impossible, but that is still a big stretch.

If Grunfeld is axed, since Tapscott is 99% likely not to be coach next year,

For best, my top three:

1. Time Warner Cable Arena (Charlotte Bobcats) - I saw a Duke/Davidson game there a year ago: Newest facility in the NBA so it is nice, naturally

2. Conseco Fieldhouse (Pacers) - Rather new facility, I like its lobby area too. I went there during summer and saw a Fever game there, not a Pacers game

3. Verizon Center (Wizards) - In the middle of downtown, pretty spacious inside. I think Verizon Center is the best NHL arena by far since I see a sea of red, sorry Bruins fans, the TD Banknorth Garden doesn't come close!

Worst NBA Arenas (I only have one)

1. Amway Arena (Magic) - Only one floor for 20,000 people to use four bathrooms.... Not good is all I can tell you. Those lines were horrendous At least the Magic are building a new arena in Disney World or maybe in downtown I forget, but I bet you that arena will be sick when it opens. I saw the Magic vs. Celtics game there a month ago while on vacation in Disney World.

Anyone think this is a good all time team for the Washington Wizards? This includes guys who played for the Wizards when they were the Washington/Baltimore Bullets, and the Chicago Packers/Zephyrs.

Anyone else have an all time team for their favorite team?

ALL TIME WIZARDS

G: Earl Monroe

G Gilbert Arenas

F: Bob Dandridge

F: Elvin Hayes

C: Wes Unseld

Bench:

G: Phil Chenier

G/F: Michael Jordan (old of course)

F/G: Caron Butler

F: Juwan Howard

F/C: Mitch Kupchak

C: Walt Bellamy

The face of the WNBA and the "Lady Lakers" (I know they're the Sparks) is going to finally call it a career, and she can still play as well as any center in the league, even after having a daughter a couple of years ago. Given that Candace is going to have a baby and will miss probably half of the season depending on when the baby comes, I think Leslie is going to give a super performance for her last season. I predict she will be the frontrunner for MVP over Sue and Candace (if she plays 75% of the season)

http://www.wnba.com/sparks/news/Lisa_Leslie_Announ...