Price and Huskies drop Marquette

#2 ranked Connecticut Huskies defeated a tough #10 Marquette Golden Eagles team on the road, 93-82. A.J. Price led the Huskies with a career high 36 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists. Stanley Robinson chipped in with 19 points and 10 rebounds of his own. Hasheem Thabeet once again was a deterring force underneath the basket notching 14 points and 15 rebounds and 5 blocks. The win gave Connecticut Head Coach Jim Calhoun his 800th career win. Jarel McNeal paced Marquette with 26 points and 5 assists. Along with losing the game the Golden Eagles also had the misfortune of losing point guard Dominic James, who broke a bone in his foot during the early moments of the contest. According to Marquette Coach Buzz Williams James will get surgery and miss the remainder of the season.

New Trend?

Is this the new thing to do nowadays in the NBA? Shoot half court bombs during the pregame warm ups? First Dwight Howard, now LeBron James got ready for their respective games by practicing these miraculous heaves. Maybe this is why Devin Harris can hit running 45 foot shots during games. Doubt it, but it looks good.

Amazing Shot from Harris

Devin Harris took this amazing shot tenths of a second before time expired to beat the Philadelphia 76ers 98-96. Players gathered around the scorers table for several minutes while referee's checked the replay on the miraculous shot. Andre Iguodala hit one of two free throws with 1.8 seconds left on the clock allowing the Nets one last opportunity to win the game. Harris did just that in dramatic fashion. The all star finished with a game-high 39 points.

Nasty Nate

Nate Robinson is maturing into a consistently solid NBA player. Yea I said it. Early in his career it would be safe to say he drove Knick fans crazy more than he made them happy. As of late he has been a bright spot for New York. This month he has been averaging 23.6 points per game, 5 rebounds, and 5.2 assists all in his 5-9 180 lbs frame. During his last 5 games he had been averaging LeBron James type numbers (30 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists) including this 41 point performance. Robinson completely took over the game in the second half scoring 32 of his 41 points on 11-18 shooting. After winning a very entertaining dunk contest during all-star weekend, Robinson has used that momentum to elevate his game and try leading the Knicks back to the playoffs for the first time since the 2003-2004 season.

Wade gets 50 in loss

Dwyane Wade had a career high 50 points along with 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Wade shot 17-30 from the field while his teammates managed to shot 20-59. Despite Wade's heroics the Miami Heat fell to the Orlando Magic 122-99. Dwight Howard led the Magic with 32 points and 17 rebounds.

Rafer Alston aka Skip to My Lou, looked good at the point, playing slightly more of a facilitator to his new Magic teammates than their injured all star point guard Jameer Nelson. It's still questionable to see if Alston can keep Orlando in the NBA title discussion quite like Nelson had them. Alston experience and familiarity with Head Coach Stan Van Gundy make probably make him the best candidate to do so.

New #1 in College Basketball

Following a busy weekend of college basketball. The Pittsburgh Panthers earned the #1 rank in the latest poll. On Monday Pittsburgh beat then #1 (now #2) Connecticut behind the dominate play of DeJuan Blair's 21 points and 23 rebounds. Blair continued his dominating play on Saturday with a 20 point 18 rebound performance, setting a school record with 41 rebounds in 2 games. The Panthers mauled DePaul 80-71.

Greivis Vasquez led the unranked Maryland Terrapins with triple-double over the 3rd ranked North Carolina Tarheels in Overtime. Vasquez finished with 35 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. Not only did Vasquez score the first 16 Maryland points, he also lead the Terrapins back from a 16 point deficit to force overtime before closing out his outstanding performance with a eye-opening victory.

Blake Griffin and the Oklahoma Sooners' hopes at a #1 ranking were put on hold by the Texas Longhorns. Texas defeated then #2 Oklahoma 75-63 behind hot late shooting from A.J. Abrams, who finished with 23 points. Griffin was accidentaly hit in the face causing him to leave the game with a concussion. Despite being without possible player of the year in Griffin, the Sooners kept close behind the strong play of freshman Willie Warren. Warren finished with a game high 27. Griffin's status is questionable for Monday's game against #15 Kansas.

Stephen Curry and the Davidson Wildcats lost to the #22 Butler Bulldogs 75-63. Curry, the leading scorer in Div. 1, struggled to find his rhythm early missing his first eight shots. Curry missed the previous game with an ankle injury while insisting the ankle felt fine by the start of the Butler game. Curry finished 6-23 shooting, for 20 points. below his 28.6 average.

Duke extracted some revenge over Wake Forest with a solid 101-91 victory. Gerald Henderson led Duke with a career high 35 points (11-15 shooting). Jon Scheyer, whom was asserted into the starting line up as the point guard, added a career high of his own with 30. Last month, Wake Forest beat Duke in Winston Salem on a last second shot.

New Top 25...

James shows Milwaukee why he is King

LeBron James pulled out the full arsenal of maneuvers scoring a "double nickel" Friday night. James filled up the highlight reel with something contrary to what we are used to seeing him do. Make three's. James hit 8 three point bombs, 4 of which came during a 3 minute span where he notched 16 points. LeBron may have borrowed Stephen Curry of Davidson's touch and forgot to give it back. Zydrunas Ilgauskus summed up the performance best saying, "It was almost like watching a video game." That's exactly how James looked, hitting fade-away three point baskets and running jump hooks down the lane. Surprisingly, we weren't granted any high-flying dunks from James.

On a side note Anderson Varejao's flop sparking a small skirmish in the second half was classic Varejao. I thought the NBA was supposed to fine and penalize excessive flops? Varejao is one of the worst in the League with this. I'm all for the Cav's being so team oriented that they back each other during scuffles and even go as far as as a team physically checking on injured players when they are down on the court. However, Ilgauskus had no business making his way toward Charlie Villanueva after he knocked down Varejao. It led to the domino effect of emotion. I can see this creating future problems that the League will have to deal with especially in the playoffs. Issues similar to the ramifications of the Steve Nash/Robert Horry charge attempt/ body block (depending on if you're a Suns or Spurs fan). The league should set a standard distinguishing the difference between a peacemaker and an instigator in a situation. Possibly penalizing the instigator more heavily. I didn't see the game live so I don't know if it happened but Ilguaskus should have been awarded a technical at least.

Sooners # 1?

If Oklahoma can beat Texas Saturday night, the Sooners will more than likely become the nation's number 1 ranked team in the polls next week. The Big XII for the third consecutive year has arguably the best player in the country, in Blake Griffin. Griffin dominates with his own style of play different yet similarly to former Big XII players of the year Kevin Durant and Michael Beasley. Freshman Willie Warren has been overshadowed by Griffin yet has had a solid freshman year, including this ferocious dunk. Looks like Griffin isn't the only Sooner that has NBA scouts buzzing.

Garnett out 2-3

Kevin Garnett strained his knee during the alley-opp attempt late in the 1st half. Head Coach Doc Rivers said that Garnett was willing to give it a go in the 2nd half, but Rivers quickly declined not wanting to risk further injury to his all-star and future hall of fame player. According to reports Garnett's MRI disclosed a strained muscle behind his knee. This will put him out 2-3 weeks. The Celtics will continue their road trip without Garnett, facing the Suns on Sunday. Both teams will be without their respective all-star forwards. Both teams are also lobbying to sign former Sacramento Kings forward Mikki Moore. Moore was waived on Feb. 19th

Breaking News: Amare Out For Season

Apparently Amare Stoudemire was hit in the eye once again during the Phoenix Suns route of the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night. Despite scoring 42 points, Amare aggravated a previous eye injury he sustained in the preseason this year. He will have season ending surgery to repair a partially detached retina in his right eye. Although Amare should fully recover from this injury, it is a crushing blow to the Suns who looked to make a run for a higher seed in the Western Conference playoff as they reentered the beloved faced pasted style offense with the new head coach Alvin Gentry. Is the Suns season over along with Amare's?

Pre Trade Deadline Week

It was a very eventful week of transactions before the NBA's trade deadline. There were no Pau Gasol type trades from last, that will probably have an effect on any championship level teams at the end of the year. Yet in still interesting moves were made.

• Orlando Magic acquire Rafer Alston; Houston Rockets acquire Kyle Lowry and Brian Cook; Memphis Grizzlies acquire Mike Wilks, Adonal Foyle and Magic's first round draft pick.
• New York Knicks acquire Larry Hughes; Chicago Bulls acquire Tim Thomas, Jerome James and Anthony Roberson
• Knicks also acquire Chris Wilcox; Oklahoma City Thunder acquire Malik Rose
• Sacramento Kings acquire Rashad McCants and Calvin Booth; Minnesota Timberwolves receive Sheldon Williams and Bobby Brown.
• Kings also acquire Andres Nocioni, Drew Gooden, Michael Ruffin, and Cedric Simmons; Bulls receive Brad Miller and John Salmons.

The Knicks roster will look better. Larry Hughes could possibly have a re-resurrection in his career with the opportunity to play with New York. D'antoni's system should be a great help toward that. Getting out and running similarly to what he did during his stint in Golden State should excite Knick fans. Hopefully it will not stunt the development of Wilson Chandler in the process. Wilcox adds another big athletic body. Wilcox in the fast paced style the Knicks have should be able to finish around the basket and use his athleticism in the open floor while allowing David Lee to be more fresh at the end of games.

I like Sacramento's moves as well. Although they won't be making a playoff run this year, I think they can be competitive with their young talent. McCants off the bench gives them scoring when Kevin Martin is getting rest. Nocioni will get the opportunity to play more without Loul Deng to share time with. Young players Spencer Hawes and Jason Thompson will get more opportunity with Miller gone. Drew Gooden is solid and should get more touches with the Kings.

Chicago will benefit with a true center presence in Miller and John Salmons has improved each year he's been in the league, he adds depth to the both guard and forward positions.

The biggest question from the week that was is if Alston will pick up where Jameer Nelson left off. With Nelson's season ending injury, the Magic were in need of a point. They picked up Tyronne Lue, who is a decent backup to assist another solid backup in Anthony Johnson. It will be interesting to see how Alston and the Magic mesh.

Proper Penalty?

Should Zach Randolph have been fined more than 2 games? Randolph claimed it wasn't a punch. It obviously was, the intent however wasn't to do enough damage to cause much harm. I'm confident in this after remembering how he broke Rueben Patterson's eye socket, his own teammate at the time, during a altercation in practice during their days in Portland. Whenever I see an altercation in the league where fists are thrown I think back to Carmelo Anthony's MSG brawl and how heavily and unjustly he was suspended. It seems as though the more the altercation escalates the higher the penalty laid from David Stern. Had Amundson retaliated would Randolph get 5 games? To Randolph's defense, he admitted to not reacting properly. Head Coach Mike Dunleavy said, "He said to me on the phone today, 'Coach, man, I'm sorry. I had a lot of stuff going through my head. I got frustrated with all the pulling and tugging and holding, and I just reacted. It was dumb." Randolph had got word from his sister prior to the game that his father was in intensive care.

Bad intial call or bad make up call?

LeBron James was fouled on his alley-opp attempt point blank. Danny Granger had no view of the ball in flight when he attempted to break up the pass. There was a substantial amount of lower body contact as well. Granger even added the late fist pump to signify the illusion of good defense. On a side note I think basketball players are the best non-professional actors in the entertainment business, maybe they should give NBA players more roles and musical artists less...
James made a great play on the ball. He saw the ball the whole way and made little to no contact with Granger. Send the teams to overtime at worst, don't compound the situation with a make up call.
People say "How can you make that call" so late in a game. A foul is a foul whether is 8:00 left in the 1st quarter or 0.08 left in the fourth. You can't wait until the end of the game to let the players decide the game, they should have the opportunity to decide it throughout the course of the game.

T-Mac done?

I've been reluctant to pull the trigger on this comment of McGrady. However it is more evident than ever that McGrady's injuries are too severe and repetitious for him to perform at the level we are used to seeing him at. When I saw the highlight of this dunk on Tyrus Thomas I know McGrady fans were excited to see that flash from the past. At first glance it didn't look as impressive from the standpoint of his explosiveness. Granted it was with the left hand, just not what we are used to seeing from him. He starred Thomas down as if he were a rookie in Toronto again and it was his 1st poster in the League. He acted as if he had to add to the theatrics of the play, like the dunk wasn't enough. Like if he stares at him it will make the play look better. Then Monday night on the break in Milwaukee... his teammates may have found humor in it, but I see it as a culmination of McGrady's game. McGrady doesn't do the things we see from other superstars in the League anymore. He no longer separates himself. He doesn't exert himself on defense, he doesn't get tough rebounds in traffic, and he is not shooting the ball to superstar standards statistically or even visually for that matter. He settles for contested jump shots as opposed to getting to the basket much more frequently. I understand the he is playing through injury, nonetheless McGrady is a shell of himself at this moment in time.