Summertime Ft. D.J. Jazzy Jeff

-It's more than halfway through this summer and my impending trip to southern California looms large on September 19th. Hopefully I can stay longer than a couple days but that might not be the case in the event that a teaching job is received during the final couple weeks of August. Either way, can't wait to see you both, even if it is for a short period of time.

-Pretty sure you guys have already reached this point....but MLB has truly lost its luster for me. Complete disinterest, even with my beloved A's. If they go on their typical August tear, my allegiances will still fall with Summer League ball on nba.com and the start of the European soccer league seasons in England, Spain and Italy. I can't quite pinpoint the exact reason as to why my interest has faded so dramatically. Perhaps it lies in the sheer amount of man-hours required to make it through a 162 game season or the frequent lulls in the action. It says something that a VERY patient person like myself (teaching kids) can't sit through more than a half inning before flipping to Deadliest Catch or Reno 911.

-Got to observe a couple T. Hansborough games during Summer League and I was a little surprised to see the numbers he was able to put up with ease, albeit in SUMMER LEAGUE. Bayless teased me last summer, so I'll withhold judgement until November. It's looking like he'll see about 20 minutes a game providing foul trouble relief from either Jeff Foster or Roy Hibbert (who is just as gangsta as he wants to be....Spice 1). Along the Pacer lines, I've spent a couple of hours reviewing advanced Pacers stats from last season and this season should show a few improvements. For details, explore this place for a bit.

-Boston's defensive efficiency rating is out of this world and Rasheed Wallace is only going to make it better. Look out for them boys next year, but that's it...as age is sure to set in during 2010-2011.

Episode VI: Return of the Poot

Sorry I've been away for such a long time.  It's not that all of my extra time has been spent watching the playoffs, I've been working on my Civil War class which is now finally done FOREVER.  That also means that I am officially a certified teacher. Look out kids!  Here are my more poignant thoughts on the 2009 NBA Playoffs.

-The Atlanta Hawks have really impressed me over the last two years.  Losing to a dominant Boston and Cleveland team is nothing to be ashamed of, and with any luck of the draw next year, they could be a force to be reckoned with in the playoffs.  I wish that Joe Johnson had more of a defined role. Reminds me a little of Rashard Lewis, in that you aren't really sure what you are going to get out of him on a nightly basis. "I'm a SCORER TONITE! Never mind, I feel like playing lockdown perimeter D and rebounding." 

-Every year I continue to hate the Lakers more and more.  Pretty sure that I pinpointed the reason during the Houston series. Just about every Laker throws on that "I'm god's gift to the earth" look on their face after every made basket. Or they are bitching their ass of to the ref and have the "pouty" face on. PUT A SMILE ON YOUR FACE ONCE IN A WHILE!! You are playing a game and it is supposed to be fun isn't it?

-The Baseline blog on Sporting News has been KILLING since their startup right before the playoffs.  Well, actually Shoals has been killing it.  Pretty sure he is my new favorite "author" ever.

-Sad to see Kevin Garnett's from this year's playoffs.  Big Baby is highly annoying and I've never enjoyed watching him, including LSU days. And I CANNOT for the life of me figure out why I don't like his game being that he reminds me a little of ME.

-Bulls-Celtics epic series did not turn me on as much as the mainstream media. Simply for the reason that it was a 2-7 matchup with key stars injured.  That is all except for the 57 OT game.

-Kobe Bryant holds on to the ball for about 40% of the Laker's possessions.  That means about half the time the Lakers have the ball, the other 4 players are doing just about nothing except spotting up for an inevitable wide open jumper or a quick jog back to the defensive end.  How does that NOT save a ton of energy.  No wonder Ariza, Fisher, Odom and Bynum play phenomenal defense on the other end. That's pretty much all they have to worry about....and hitting WIDE OPEN jumpers.

-Hoping to throw some thoughts on paper regarding the upcoming Draft in the next few days, keep your eye on the blog.

Pray Break

I'd say Poot's World is entering the Matt Millen Detroit Lions era circa 2002. We don't quite know when we're gonna get out this funk, but maybe this summer we can pick up a draft pick that will send us to the top. Mike, the Birdman, Pugh just got busted for a Schedule 1, and will be gone for 2 years, and Poot, well... Poot will be standing trial at the supreme court for HGH next month. As for me... I heard the Warriors wanted AK-47 and Steve Nash this off-season... I'm hanging it up boys...

I hope the Matt Millen comparison doesn't relate to what I want to say, but yes folks, today is a great day to be a fan of a bad team in the NBA,. While the conference finals are seeing fan-boys pop up over the globe, and Vince McMahon and the Denver Nuggets are set for a steel cage match during halftime of Game 4, we are given the pleasure to spectate into the future of our miscreant franchises. The Lottery will take place (the one which doesn't involve people getting stoned to death), and my hopes are up, as I'm sure your guy's are, that the the long breath that lasts between the opening of envelopes 9-7 will not hear the Golden State Warriors name be called; Rather, one of those fateful 4 ping-pong balls will land in the 1,2, or 3 spot, and a franchise will be rocketed to blog stardom for the next 1.5 months. I have studying to do, but here are my thoughts...

1. Blakey
Would be pumped, we have a hole at Power Forward for an explosive beast around the bucket. Could you imagine an AB, AR, and Blake Griffin front court? My genitalea are trembling...

2. Rickey
What would be better than a Rick Rubey Monta back court? First, getting to see if Rubio's stellar defense is what it has been prophesized, since he would be guarding the best point guards in the world on a daily basis. I'm on the fence between Brandon Jennings and Rubio, but that's the beauty of being slated at 7 right? Ricky's gonna be something special but the last white lottery pick I said that about was Adam Morrison.

3. Hasheem Thabeet
Wait... Did I say I wanted to get the 3rd ping-pong ball?


If my Warriors don't get what they deserve... my hopes heavily rest on the OKC Thunder's chances. What if this team got Blakey? Maybe James Harden could move KD to SF and Green to PF? 2nd fav team in the league for sure.

Well let's take a break out of our day to cross our fingers, light some incense, and rub Poot's belly. Today is what makes franchises boys....

No Good When Working

Have to apologize for the frequency of postings. As the amount of classwork/regular work increases, the amount of free time left spent on a computer diminishes to about 5 minutes a day. And of course those 5 minutes are spent updating myself on the newest Yo Gotti tracks or finding out if Kevin Pelton has found out the secret to advanced basketball statistics. Fear not ladies and gentlemen, the playoffs are here and I foresee that the frequency will again rise for the next couple of months. Quality will go probably go down, but who am I kidding, it never was that high in the first place. After one complete season of a League Pass subscription, my regular season awards as follows, with no explanations...

Rookie of the Year:

Sixth Man:

Defensive Player of the Year:






















Most Improved Player:


































Coach of the Year:























MVP:

Inspiration

This will be short and sweet because i have to get to class, but reading Ball Don't Lie's power rankings this morning, jump-started my day with a rallying-cry I thought no-one in warriors nation, besides myself, was getting behind these days. While that statement may seem a little narcissistic, just rack your brain for the Warriors headlines these days... Team falling apart, Management in Shambles, Don Nelson is Crazy... Well, thanks to a streamlined and thoughtful weekly Rankings by Kelly Dwyer, I was happily able to read this over my morning coffee.

24. Golden State Warriors - The worst part about this sad, pathetic, pointless mess? This team is so, so fun to watch. They have legitimate talent, and a good GM and good coach could take this kernel and do great things with it. To say nothing of possibly the best local play-by-play team in the NBA covering things, and an All-Star fan base. Sad, sad, sad.

So many correct things in one small paragraph, (minus the fact Chris Mullin will be gone next year). Jim Barnett and Bob Fitzgerald are the best play by play team in the league, they are absolutely loaded with young talent, arguably more than Portland and Memphis, and they have a coach who will be the all-time winningnest next year... Can I say more?

The Mystery Of Findlay Prep

About a week ago, ESPN hosted a tournament where the Top 8 high school teams from across the country competed in a 3 day event to see who was the "National Champion." I was completely unaware of this due to my 55 hour work week during the games but received word from a friend that Findlay Prep School upset Oak Hill Academy to take home the top honors and the title of "NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!" This lead to a research session between my friend and myself for information on this mysterious school in Henderson, Nevada. Our findings are as follows...

-Findlay Prep was founded 3 years ago as a college preparation high school. This year was its first as a regular high school, which means that no one on the team is eligible for a 5th year of basketball.

-The first thing that struck me as I opened up the school's website was its complete devotion to the basketball team. There is a brief "Mission Statement" about the school in the bottom right hand side of the website. Other than that, the school seemed to revolve completely around its basketball team. Don't get me wrong, everyone and their mother is aware of the fact that Oak Hill is first and foremost a basketball school, but at least their site pretends to have some sort of academic intent and create the "student-athlete ideal." I even had to click on 3 links before getting to their basketball team's website. Findlay on the other hand, has no mention of classes, curriculum, field trips, student organizations etc.

-Coming from a purely basketball standpoint, I was surprised that Findlay's team consisted of only 8 players. Strange as that may sound, looking at the team's stats for the year showed that 1 of their players only played 5 total games. Albeit he averaged 11 ppg during his brief stint, but most of Findlay's season was played with only 7 basketball players. Listening carefully to the ESPN recap of the game, you'll notice that the announcer says that all 8 players are Division 1 recruits. Not a bad set of individuals to have on "campus."

-The school's website raised quite a few questions, so I continued my research on Youtube where I found an 8 minute documentary on this team's season. My favorite part of this episode was at the 1:30 mark, where the campus map shows signs for the school's Gym, Fields, Athletic Office, Campus Center, and Cafe. No directions to classrooms of any sort, or anything academically related. It's food, fields, and basketball courts my friends. The coach is interviewed during this piece and did shed some light on possible scholastic endevours that these 8 individuals take part in. Apparently, Findlay is loosly associated with The Henderson International School, a private school that costs approximately $17,000 a year to attend. The coach (who ironically looks like a pre-pubescent John Calapari, only increasing his "shadiness factor") mentioned that the players are "integrated" into the Henderson School for classes. I checked out the school's financial aid page and it stated that "funds for financial aid are very limited." Translated: "The only students that recieve financial aid at Henderson are 8 students...chosen at random." The documentary also mentions a couple other fun facts, including the extreme difficulty of practice. Yes that makes sense, considering the coach can't even run a full 5 on 5 scrimmage! The documentary states that it is Episode 1, but we couldn't find an Episode 2, only a preview of it.

-More searching in the archives of Youtube unearthed this gem. It takes the viewer into the living situation of the 8 members of the basketball team. They all eat, sleep and live under the same roof with the Assistant Coach playing the role of father/mother. Not sure, but that sounds like some sort of NCAA rules violation. Especially after hearing that all 8 of these players were "hand picked from all over the world."

-Fun little video Findlay made a couple of years eariler based on my favorite Nike Basketball campaign. Notice that the team is only slightly bigger in size, and that all the players are sporting a variety of accents from all over the globe.

So what does all of this say about the supposed "monumental upset" of Oak Hill Academy? It wasn't an upset at all! These guys were bred to be star prep basketball players and in no way could you call this game a "David vs. Golaith" matchup. Please take into account that I did not write this piece out of any sort of jealousy or to start any sort of contravorsy. I don't think that Findlay is some sort of morally corrupt school that breeds future D1 recruits who bring down the "student athlete" montra. Hell, I would have loved to have gone to this school had I not been lacking in additional height and basketball talent. It just seems that something slightly shady might be going on in the outskirts of Las Vegas. To be honest, my friend Brekke and I spent most of our time laughing over AOL Messenger at all of the sites visited and videos watched. It was a fun way for me to spend my morning avoiding my Civil War Independent Study class. Special thanks to Brekke by the way, couldn't have done this without you mentioning Oak Hill's loss.

Weekend in Review + Weekend in Preview

-Not much beats the first couple days of March Madness in your typical college basketball season. I guess this year veered away from the normal buzzer beating upsets that we are used to on Weekend 1. Can't complain, there were a few upsets here and there, but nothing truly inspirational such as the U of Florida wins of old, or the Valpo experience of B. Drew. Seeing Wake Forest lose was a slight turn on, but it lacked character and ESPNClassicability. No mention of brackets as far as "MY BRACKET SUCKS," or things of that nature, as the novelty has truly worn off for me. It's for the love of the game folks.

-Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill are on my watch list for their game against Louisville. They will truly have to take over if Arizona hopes for a win against the ridiculously deep Patino squad. Chase continues to climb the draft board daily? Afraid he may be another Joe Alexander? Not I said the fly. His utterly unflappable midrange game will translate well in the league and he will learn quickly that a little effort will be required to create space for an open shot, something missing from the college game. No worries though, "Athlete Budinger" has not been released. October 2009.

-2 seeds losing to 3 seeds is not considered an upset in my book. So will any of the 1 seeds be upset this weekend? In an ideal west coast world (a world we should strive harder to create in the midwest) Gonzaga and Arizona would pull off the shockers. Sadly, my beliefs are that Connecticut and Pitt. will be the 1 seeds catching the Final 4 omission. Good luck to all.....and BIG NEWS coming in a day or two.