Good Luck Mr. Meeks

I know, I know, it's been awhile. Real quickly before the NBA Draft tips off tonight (catch that pun there? Pretty good, huh?), I wanted to give everyone a flash back to the night that really got Jodie Meeks to where he is now. Without this 54-point effort on rival Tennessee's home floor, Meeks likely would not have his name in the draft pool right now. So here we go, enjoy:

Get Ready for a Slouch Sunday

Sunday, June 7, has all the makings to be a beautiful day in sports.

We'll start with the College World Series. If you despise the MLB during the regular season as I do, you can still enjoy "America's Pastime" during the long grueling summer months. It's called college baseball, and perhaps more appropriately it's called effort and passion. These players give their all every play, whether they're on the mound, at the plate or fielding across the diamond. Yes, it's the playoffs and not game 50 of 162, but also realize these guys have been giving it their all the entire season.

If you're a Virginia fan such as the writer here, you should be especially excited. It's the first trip ever for the Wahoos to the Super Regionals and they're one game away from making it to Omaha. The Hoos choked away Game 1 against Ole Miss, only to have the favor returned to them in Game 2. Down one in the eighth inning, Virginia rallied behind a throwing error from the Ole Miss second baseman to plate two runs and stave off elimination. Game 3 will begin at 3 p.m. down in Oxford, Miss.

Also beginning Sunday afternoon is the Memorial Tournament. Tiger Woods made a decent comeback Saturday to enter the final round only four strokes back from the leader. Mark Wilson and Matt Bettencourt (who and who?) are the leaders at 9-under, but the story has to be a PLBT-favorite, Geoff Ogilvy. After shooting a 63 on Saturday, the 2006 U.S. Open champion is only two strokes off the lead. Other big names at the top include Jim Furyk (-8), Davis Love III (-7), Ernie Els (-5) and Stewart Cink (-4). I still like Furyk to win it, sorry Geoff.

Don't forget about the Pocono 500 either. Because of rain on Friday, the starting lineup for Sunday's race will go by points, except points leader Tony Stewart will start from the rear. Stewart wrecked his car in Saturday's practice session and will have to resort to his backup car, therefore moving him to the back of the field. Because of Smoke's misfortune, three-time Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson will start on the outside of row one alongside teammate Jeff Gordon. Admittedly, I am not a fan of Pocono, but a race is a race.

Finally, if your bottom hasn't gotten enough of a rest and there's still food in the pantry, enjoy those NBA Finals. As predicted on Thursday, the Magic lost big in Game 1 and the critics began to jump off the bandwagon a bit. Well, we'll see if Big Dwight and the boys can come back in Game 2 and make PLBT look like Nostradamus.

Enjoy the day folks, should be a dandy of a Slouch Sunday.

It's goooooooood!

2009 NBA Playoffs Predictions - Finals

They're here. Finally, the Finals have come and it's been one wild road for both teams. The Los Angeles Lakers are the favorites to win but you can't ignore Orlando. Listen, the Magic have gone through a very underrated Philadelphia 76ers team, the defending champion Boston Celtics, the NBA's best record Cleveland Cavaliers and now they face the team that most people would say is the best (over Cleveland). In addition to the teams, they've faced Paul Pierce, LeBron James and now it's Kobe Bryant.

So the question has to be raised, will I chose Orlando because they've always been my favorite team? Or will I put the bias aside and take the Lakers? Hmm, decisions, decisions. I said it a few posts back, Kobe is better than Lebron - by a pretty good margin in my eyes. But the Magic are soaring with confidence right now. You can rest assured, as everything in this blog, it will come down to my opinion and the bias will be left at the door.

Another question with Orlando is whether Jameer Nelson will come back to join the Magic in this series. Now talking with others and listening to radio and TV, many people are questioning whether this is a good move or not because it could affect the team chemistry. My take goes like this: Nelson averaged 16.7 points per game and 5.4 assists when he was playing. The Magic were also 32-10 with him at the point. As good as Rafer Alston was during the Conference Finals, he only averaged 12.5 points and 3.8 assists. That just shows you how good Nelson was because Alston was amazing during those Conference Finals. Bottom line is, you have to play your best players and Nelson averaged nearly 30 points a game against the Lakers when they played during the regular season. I think Alston should still start for chemistry and game fitness' sake, but putting Nelson in instead of Anthony Johnson would be HUGE.

It's starting to now look iffy whether Nelson will even play or not so who knows? The Orlando Sentinel is saying that Nelson won't play in Game 1 and counting that along with the Lakers immense experience advantage make me believe the Lakers will take Game 1. Simply put, the Lakers have been here before - last year. I think they'll jump out to a big lead early and it will look ugly, the Magic will make one of their patent runs thanks to their 3-point shooting, but the Lakers will win Game 1 by 10-15 tonight in a pretty ugly game. The analysts will start jumping off the Magic bandwagon and people will say this series will be a sweep.

I think the Magic will respond in Game 2 and come away with a victory and an opportunity to win the series at home because of the 2-3-2 series format of the finals.

Taking a step back, I'm actually pretty confident in this series. I think the Dwight Howard/Lamar Odom matchup is a good one because both players will beat the other on offense. Neither one can keep up with the other in different ways. Howard is stronger, Odom is faster and has a much better shot. People say Trevor Ariza will be able to guard Rashard Lewis...ehh we'll see about that. I believe Bryant will guard Hedo Turkoglu but the key to this series is how Mickael Pietrus will guard Bryant - not Turkoglu. Turkoglu can't keep up, but Pietrus can. Charles Barkley couldn't stop talking about how good of defense Pietrus played on James despite James' numbers and I couldn't agree more. Bryant will put up numbers just like James did, but you'll also notice as I pointed out, most of James' points were right at the basket - he couldn't hit the jumpers. Part of that is because he's really not that good of a shooter compared to his driving ability, but a big part of that is because of Pietrus' defense. Bryant is a shooter, Pietrus is the key.

Again, I like Orlando's chances here of breaking both their own and my Championship Virginity. Only two years after getting dumped by Billy Donovan during his week as the head coach, Stan Van Gundy and the Magic will silence the critics for the third straight series and win in seven games. That's right, Magic win in seven.

Lakers in Game 1
Magic in Game 2
Magic in Game 3
Lakers in Game 4
Magic in Game 5
Lakers in Game 6
Magic in Game 7

Get Your Basketball On

I heard about this on Sportscenter this morning and had to check it out.

I just ordered it and will probably dominate on the courts now. Coach Calipari has some camps coming up, I think I'm going to try out for the team now. Watch out John Wall, I'm going to steal that starting spot if you're not careful!

Sports Today - 6/3/09

There's a lot I want to get to today. Everything from LeBron James being a baby, to the Magic trying to break my Championship Virginity will be discussed. Oh yeah, wait, how about that great debate? Looks like the Magic didn't get the memo sent by David Stern and the NBA officials...

Baby Puppet
We have a puppet down and his name is LeBron James. The NBA wanted it. Most of the fans wanted it. But the Magic didn't care and now LeBron is sitting at home...probably by himself because he's a sore loser. Listen, Mo Williams walked off the court after Game 6 too, but I sort of expect that from him - or at least I'm not that disappointed in him. He's not the face of the franchise, he's not the face of the NBA, James is. James needs to be a bigger person, take a deep breath and shake his Olympic TEAMMATE'S hand. He doesn't need to be overjoyed and skipping around, he doesn't need to have any facial expression of happiness. Just look Dwight Howard in the face (if nobody else), shake his hand and head back to your locker room.

Also, if you're going to talk to the media after a great win like Game 2, you have to do it after a tough loss too. Here's the thing though, the game was never in doubt. It wasn't a last second loss or anything like that, the game was over by three quarters. Back to my point though...You can't just talk when it's good stuff. It's called being a professional LeBron. You're a very mature man and you carry yourself very well. But I definitely lost some respect for you after that Game 6 no-show. You can't eat dessert and skip your veggies.

The Magic are legit
Throughout the regular season people questioned on various radio and TV shows whether Orlando was the best team in the Eastern Conference. Usually, that question was answered quickly and swiftly, "no." Now, with the dust all settled we have found out that yes, in fact, Orlando is the best team in the Eastern Conference. Their inside-outside game seems to be enigma for other teams and the Magic are four games away from their first Championship in their history.

The championship would break the Magic's Championship Virginity and my own. If you'll notice the banner of this blog made by Lydia White, you'll notice there are a lot of teams on there that don't win. By championships I mean from football, basketball or baseball. Liverpool has won, but it's soccer, not many people in America care about that. Kentucky has won two championships in my lifetime but I didn't care two cents about UK back then, I was a Wahoo fan and still am. Speaking of Wahoos, UVa hasn't won anything and likely never will. I was much too young to appreciate the Redskins Super Bowl XXVI victory over Buffalo. The Orioles have never been anything since that punk kid stole the ball on the "home run."

This is my chance, this is Orlando's chance. I think this will be a great series and I'll try and get a post up either today or tomorrow previewing it.

College World Series
College baseball has reached the Super Regionals and it's good stuff. While I have to agree with Warren Sapp and believe major league baseball is about as exciting right now as "paint drying," college baseball is in the good stuff. The Hoos will play against Ole Miss down in Oxford, Miss., in a three-game series that should be a dandy. There aren't any Fresno State-esque teams this year, but it's still great baseball. I suggest you take a gander.

Jeff needs to step down
Jeff Van Gundy will be calling the NBA Finals while his brother Stan is coaching the Magic. Jeff has been outspoken in saying that he is pulling for his brother and the Magic. Yet, ESPN/ABC is still letting him call the games. I don't get it.

Jeff does a decent job covering the games in my opinion, but this is a blatant conflict of interest. If I've ever seen something screaming bias, it's this. If Orlando's getting blown out you can't tell me Jeff is going to talk about them the same as he would if Los Angeles was getting blown out. This is a joke of an excuse for management, ESPN.

Why doesn't Kirk Herbstreit predict the game's he's going to call? It's because you all in Bristol, Conn., say it would influence the way he calls games. OK Jeff isn't predicting the games but he is ROOTING for one of the teams. Kirk could pick Michigan to beat Ohio State but that doesn't mean he's rooting for them. How can you not let someone predict a game but still let someone root for a team?!

Jeff said he would step down and not cover the game if ESPN didn't want him to and said he would understand. ESPN insisted. Rick Barry does a good job covering games - get him to cover it! It's called journalism and ethics ESPN...

The Great Debate?

I'll start out by saying I love sports radio. Some people say it's just a bunch of shock jocks sitting in their street clothes behind a mic stirring up whatever story they feel like just to talk. OK, that's fine, there certainly are those people that do that and there are shows like that. But there is one story that every show, good or bad, talks about: Who is better - Kobe Bryant or LeBron James?

There's a Vitamin Water commercial asking it, Nike has puppet-Kobe and puppet-LeBron going back and forth. And yes, all the sports radio is fixated on the question. My take was Bryant is better but just barely. After watching the Conference Finals though, and thinking about last year...well it's a no-brainer - I'll take Bryant in a heart beat.

First, let's look back at last year's Conference Finals. Remember when Cleveland played Boston? James could not hit a shot outside of 16 feet to save his life. There was brick after brick and the questions began to arise about his jump shot. Fast forward to the 2008-09 season and we see James with a better jump shot and much better defense. But wait, now in the Cleveland/Orlando Conference Finals we seem to have reverted back to the days of last year, and thus my answer to the "great debate" is pretty easy.

In Game 1, James hit shots all over the court. He hit 3-pointers, he hit jump shots and had numerous emphatic dunks. His box score: 20-30, 3-6 behind the arc, 6-10 from the line, 49 points, eight assists, six rebounds. That's a heck of a game.

In Game 2 however, James hit three - yes, three - shots from beyond four feet from the basket. And one of those three baskets was the game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer. His stat line for the game was 12-23, 1-3 from behind the arc, 10-12 from the line, 35 points, five assists and four rebounds. Yes the numbers are still good, yes he had the 3-pointer that we will all remember for years, but only three of those 12 buckets came from beyond four feet.

In Game 3, James hit two - yes, two - shots from beyond two feet from the basket (also known as a dunk). His stat line for the game was 11-28, 1-8 from behind the arc, 18-24 from the line, 41 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds.

Listen, obviously he fills up the stat sheet and obviously he's a great player or we wouldn't be having this discussion, but you have to look past the box score. The vast majority of his points are coming from the free throw line or off dunks/lay-ups. Is that his fault? No, he has a big body and should drive to the basket because he's so difficult to defend, but it leads me to my first check mark for Bryant - shooting.

Bryant, unlike James, gets the vast majority of his points of jump shots and 3-pointers. Bryant is a much, much better shooter than James, it's not even a debate. Just go to the shot charts and look at it.

Bryant is also a much better free-throw shooter than James. In the four games of the Western Conference Finals, Bryant has missed a total of four foul shots - James missed six in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals alone, and 12 in only three games. Also keep in mind that many of those foul shots were in crucial situations.

That leads me to my next point: Bryant is the best closer in the game, hands down. I know you're going to point me to Game 2 and James' amazing shot to give the Cavaliers the win, and James' performance a couple years ago when he scored 25 straight points in the fourth quarter against Detroit, but Bryant is more consistent in closing games and is better at it. While James will drive to the basket every time because he's so hard to defend, Bryant will pull up and sink that winning basket with such regularity it's scary.

Finally, Bryant is still the better defender. James' defense has improved drastically this season but I'll still take Bryant on defense over everyone in the league (including my favorite player and the winner of the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year winner, Dwight Howard).

That leaves us with Bryant as the better shooter, foul shooter, closer and defender. Is James gaining ground? Yes, at a fast pace too. But as of now, I'll take Bryant in a heart beat and it's a pretty easy decision if you ask me.

2009 NBA Playoffs Predictions - Conference Finals

After going seven for eight in the first round, and embarrassingly skipping the second round, PLBT is back for your Conference Finals predictions!

In the Western Conference Finals - which tip off tonight at 9 on ESPN - we have the red hot Denver Nuggets taking on the "bipolar" Los Angeles Lakers as Kobe Bryant called them. The Nuggets seem to be the trendy upset pick in these playoffs thanks to the stellar play of Carmelo Anthony and the consistent play of point guard Chauncey Billups. It's been no secret, the best move during the season was by the Nuggets in acquiring Billups from the Motor City. His attitude, leadership and highly underrated skill have taken the Nuggets to another level.

The key to this series will be how the Nuggets front line of Nenê Hilario, Chris Andersen and Kenyon Martin, does against the Lakers front line of Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom. What I love about this Nuggets team is their physicality. What I despise about this Lakers team is how soft they are. I understand they're from Los Angeles but the acting by the Lakers is absurd - even more so than the Boston Celtics, and that's saying something.

Still, the Lakers have experience, and perhaps even more importantly, they have Kobe Bryant. I don't see Bryant letting his bipolar group letting this one slip away but it will take them seven games. This series will be close throughout and it will be very chippy throughout. Lakers in seven.

In the Eastern Conference Finals, PLBT's Orlando Magic take on the best team and player in the league in the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James. What's promising in this series from a Magic stand point is the confidence their now playing with and the fact that Orlando took two of three against Cleveland with the Cavaliers' one victory coming in close fashion in Cleveland.

What hurts the Magic's chances is how incredibly good Cleveland is at home. I really don't think home court advantage is that big of a deal in the NBA, I've said it so many times. I think Utah has an advantage, Detroit used to but no longer does and Boston's is fabricated and overrated to no end (I understand they used to have one, but those days are long gone). Well, when you go 39-2 at home throughout the season as Cleveland did, I'd say you have a homecourt advantage. Keep in mind, one of those losses was the last game of the season when Cleveland had absolutely nothing to play for and still only lost by one in overtime to the Philadelphia 76ers.

With the homecourt advantage and the physical prowess that James is, I sadly am picking the Cavaliers to win this series. I think the Magic can win a few, but in the end the Cavaliers take it in six to set up the championship that the NBA and the majority of its fans want to see. Bring on Cleveland vs. L.A. Bring on King James vs. Kobe.

What a Difference

On April 1 everything changed for the Big Blue Nation. In stepped John Calipari, but more importantly, in stepped a transformation of a once proud program that had been humbled by teams like Gardner Webb, San Diego, Houston and the Virginia Military Institute.

The Cats were the home to one of the most heralded basketball coaches of all-time in Adolph Rupp. They continued their success with Joe B. Hall and were then sent to the cellars with Eddie Sutton and the infamous briefcase of money. Rick Pitino brought them back in the early-to-mid '90s and Tubby carried the torch on from there. Never though has a coach done so much in so little time as Calipari has done.

When Calipari stepped up to the podium on April 1 to accept one of the premier jobs in all of college basketball, the Wildcats resembled pedestrian kittens more than their namesake. Now those Cats couldn't look any more ferocious or any more intimidating.

First, let's look at the roster difference between March 31 and May 19.

March 31:
PG - DeAndre Liggins
SG - Jodie Meeks
SF - Darius Miller
PF - Perry Stevenson
C - Patrick Patterson

BENCH:
Michael Porter
G.J. Vilarino
Jon Hood
Kevin Galloway
Ramon Harris
A.J. Stewart
Josh Harrellson
Daniel Orton
Matthew Pilgrim

May 19:
PG - John Wall
SG - Jodie Meeks (name still in NBA Draft pool, but I think he'll return)
SF - Darius Miller
PF - Patrick Patterson
C - DeMarcus Cousins

BENCH:
Eric Bledsoe
Jon Hood
Darnell Dodson
Ramon Harris
Perry Stevenson
Daniel Orton
Josh Harrellson

Now I could put in some other guys on that list but that leads me to the one predicament this crew faces; the scholarship dilemna. The team currently has 16 scholarship players with the Wall commitment, and if Meeks returns they will have 17 scholarship players. The problem is that the NCAA allows a maximum of 13 scholarship players. As I said above, I think Meeks returns which would mean four people will be moving out of the Cats Den. I think Donald Williams is gone, A.J. Stewart is gone, Kevin Galloway is gone and Matthew Pilgrim.

Many people will say Liggins leaves before Pilgrim, and Harrellson perhaps before either. I disagree for this reason: the Cats are more loaded in the front court than the back court. Yes, Wall and Bledsoe are great talents, but if one gets injured or they get in foul trouble or something like that, Liggins - though not very talented in my opinion - can give you a couple minutes. Don't forget Liggins was recruited by Calipari back when Cal was at Memphis. In the front court the Cats have Patterson, Orton, Cousins and Stevenson.

This team went from maybe they'll make the NCAA Tournament in 2010 and be a 10-seed or something of that nature, to now beind looked at as a national championship contender and either a one or two-seed! It's been one of the most impressive pieces of work I've ever seen in such a short period of time. I cannot overstate it folks. A recruiting class of three-star prospect G.J. Vilarino, Hood and Orton has been transformed to one of the best recruiting classes of all time.

Lexington, Ky., is once again the capital and talk of the college basketball world. Why is that? Calipari. He's not only doing this amazing recruiting work in the states but has openly talked about trying to bring in a seven-foot center from China. Calipari has talked about trying to globalize the UK name and bring over coaches from China as interns to try and teach the game and spread the game throughout the world. The man is doing big things.

In addition to this, gone are the "cream puff" games that UK was beginning to routinely lose, and in are the big name teams - or at least that's what Calipari is trying to do. UK will face Connecticut in the SEC/Big East Invitational on December 9 in Madison Square Garden. Calipari has mentioned trying to schedule Texas in Louisville and is trying to move Big Blue Madness (aka Midnight Madness) to the football field at Commonwealth Stadium.

I'll leave you with a video of John Wall, the Cats' newest (and best) commit. Leave your thoughts in the comments section. It's a great time to be a UK basketball fan.

Updates

Yes, this post probably should have come before last night's, but I wanted to get that out as quickly as possible, so now on to the updates...

First of all, summer is here and with that comes more free time and more time to post on the blog. Will the post numbers die down again come August? Yes, that would be the wise assumption, but hopefully they won't die down as much as they did this year, but they probably will, and sadly perhaps even more so.

The reason for this is that I will be the assistant sports editor of the Kentucky Kernel this upcoming school year and I will be the UK men's basketball beat writer. While I am ecstatic for this opportunity and challenge, it will take a tremendous amount of my time and dedication and the blog will take hits because of that. I encourage and ask you to read the Kernel though. It is one of, if not the best daily collegiate newspapers in the country.

We'll talk more about UK basketball in the next couple days. The immense impact and change the program has gone through in the last few months has been quite the spectacle.

The NFL offseason is among us and with that comes speculation, promise, rumors and prognostications. Similar to last year, PLBT will be go in-depth during the long summer months and give you opinions, analysis and estimations.

In the immediate future though, we have the conclusion to the NBA playoffs. Ladies and gentlemen, the playoffs thus far have not been as good as they were in 2008, but that could definitely all change with the conference finals and championship. In '08 the playoffs were phenomenal and really got me back into the NBA for the first time in a long time, but they dragged on toward the end and got boring. This year the playoffs have been somewhat long and boring (though that Bulls/Celtics series was one of the best ever and the Nuggets/Mavs series was highly entertaining both on and off the court). Now, with King James and the Cavaliers taking on PLBT's favorite, the Orlando Magic, in the East, and the Lakers vs. the upstart Denver Nuggets in the West, the potential is there.

After watching Sportscenter this morning, one thing is definitely clear; the fans want to see LeBron James in the championship. Their poll question asked the fans what championship matchup they wanted to see, and the results showed Cavaliers/Lakers and Cavaliers/Nuggets well above the Magic and either Western Conference foe. I, personally, want to see my Magic in there, but hey I know I'm in the minority and the Cavaliers vs. Lakers would have my full attention as well.

In addition to the NBA Playoffs being around the corner we have the Champions League Final between Manchester United and Barcelona on May 27.

So there are a few updates. If you have any more questions just holler at me in the comments section.

(Insert Cliché Magic Oriented Headline Here)

What a beautiful night!

If there is one thing I've learned from the NBA Playoffs this year it's that a sports hatred (which is different from a real life hatred, of course) can quickly escalate. In playing the Boston Celtics seven times, I grew to absolutely despise everything about the Celtics.

Their egos, their acting, their complaining, their belief that everything should be given to them, and their egos again - it was infuriating! Alas, the better team won and now the NBA's best team during the regular season - and in the playoffs - is awaiting. And they're plenty rested.

During the regular season, the Magic played the Cavaliers well, winning two of three matchups including a 29-point victory at home back in early April. What the Magic showed Sunday night is that when they're on, they are really on. Forward Hedo Turkoglu played to his potential and showed his shot can be deadly for opposing teams. More than that, he attracted so much attention that it opened up space not only for big Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis, but for one of my favorite players on the team, Mickael Pietrus. J.J. Redick played great defense on Ray Allen throughout the series and has been a pleasant surprise in taking minutes from rookie guard Courtney Lee.

It's been awhile since PLBT was back in business (we all know that), but looking back on the first round predictions, PLBT went seven for eight, with many of the series lengths close also. Sadly and unfortunately second round predictions weren't made, but there will be conference finals predictions coming shortly. It's been a shame at how big of a dip the number of posts this blog has gotten recently, but it will rise again now that summer has arrived and I have more time. As always, leave comments below, whatever they may be.