The University of Maryland-Baltimore County just made NCAA basketball tournament history, becoming the first #16 seed to knock off a #1 seed (indeed, the number 1 overall seed) by beating Virginia 74-54.
Their team mascot? The Retrievers.
Good boy!
Somewhere, Jigsaw is smiling…
Though the site itself is still up, EPSN has announced that it is shutting down Grantland, it’s longform sports and pop-culture essay site.
Which is a shame, since Grantland sucked considerably less than ESPN’s regular site, which TO READ THE REST OF THIS SENTENCE, SIGN UP TO BECOME AN ESPN INSIDER! Grantland did a lot of interesting, in-depth analytics stuff and essays that were actually worth reading.
This is probably part of parent company Disney’s program of cost-cutting at ESPN, despite the network being their undisputed cash cow.
Two random updates:
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Though it’s basketball rather than football, and it’s just a post-season ban rather than the “death penalty.” Also seems to be academic cheating rather than handing players envelopes full of cash.
And SMU coach Larry Brown is suspended for nine games. Honestly, I had no idea Brown was actually coaching SMU these days, which has to be a big letdown for a man that’s won an NBA Championship. He has the reputation as one of the bast basketball teachers in the world, but just can’t manage to get along with people.
Next week: Real posts!
But for a lazy Friday night, you get this instead.
I would like to apologize to Houston Rockets fans everywhere. Two weeks ago, I said that coach Kevin McHale was doing a good job and how the Rockets were going to make the playoffs.
Naturally the Rockets immediately go on a six game losing streak, and yesterday they were eliminated from the playoffs. This will teach me to open my big, er, blog. If I had just kept it zipped, they might have managed to sneak in…
Last night the Rockets beat the Lakers to go 30-25. Barring an end-of-season meltdown (always a possibility), it looks like the Rockets will make the playoffs and be seeded somewhere between 6 and 8 in the stacked West. This is a mild surprise, given how shaky they looked early in the season and how two of what were their best three players going in (Kyle Lowery and Kevin Martin) have been out with health issues during the latest run.
Given the back-to-back defeat of the East-leading Bulls, and the still-tough Lakers, it’s time to consider that maybe, just maybe, Kevin McHale knows how to coach a little.
This is actually something of a surprise, since many people (myself included) were skeptical when Daryl Morey tapped McHale to be head coach after the departure of Rick Adelman (McHale’s Hall of Fame playing career notwithstanding). The fact that McHale was awful as the Timberwolves GM (drafting Kevin Garnett in 1995 was pretty much the only thing he did right as GM until the Kevin Love trade in 2008) and that he went 39-55 in two brief stints as their coach didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
But McHale has the superstar-deficient Rockets playing unselfish, team-oriented basketball. Though it’s hard to compare due to the strike-shortened season, McHale’s team is two games ahead of where Adelman’s was 11 games before the end of the season. Granted, having two legit centers in Marcus Camby and Samuel Dalembert (as opposed to the always-scrappy but height-challenged Chuck Hayes (whose stats in Sacramento are way down)) certainly doesn’t hurt, but no one going into this season would have thought that would remotely make up for all the time Lowery and Martin have missed.
Once again we’re faced with the possibility that Daryl Morey just might know what he’s doing.
When the three-way trade between the Rockets, Lakers and Hornets was announced yesterday, I wasn’t a big fan of the trade. The Rockets would have gotten Lakers’ center Pau Gasol, arguably the second best center in the game. The Lakers, who do not need any help in getting better, would have gotten the league’s top point guard in Chris Paul, the Hornets would have gotten Lamar Odom from the Lakers and Luis Scola, Kevin Martin and Goran Dragic from the Houston Rockets, plus the Kinck’s 2012 first round pick.
I enthused because I think Houston gave up too much for a 31-year old center. Scola is good for 18 points and eight boards a night, while Kevin Martin scores and extremely efficient 23 points a night (though he’s definitely a defensive liability). If Gasol had been 26 rather than 31, I would be more favorably inclined to the deal. (If Rockets GM Daryl Morey had a deal for the Nuggets Nene at hand with the freed-up cap space, as many suggested, then the deal becomes a lot more palatable for Rockets fans.)
But New Orleans clearly made out like bandits, receiving three extremely solid starters and a first round pick for a guy who was going to walk in eight months anyhow. Which is why they’re the ones most screwed by NBA Commissioner nixing the deal for vague “basketball reasons.”
As many commentators pointed out, this was a solid deal with risks and rewards for all concerned. Both Paul and Kobe Bryant have experienced knee problems. If they stay healthy and the Lakers land Dwight Howard next year, yeah, that’s going to suck for everyone else in the Western Conference. But if Paul and/or Bryant go down, and they don’t land Howard, then they’re in a world of hurt from having gutted their front court.
I’m all behind screwing the Lakers, but having Stern do it in this fashion, with so little justification, screws all three teams.
A perfect 0-82 season, that is.
I’m sure the Las Vegas odds against that are astronomical (after all, they do get to play the Nets), but it does go to show that maybe all this presumptive talk of an inevitable Heat dynasty was perhaps a wee tad premature.
(The Rockets also lost as well, but a 2-point loss to the defending World Champions on their own court the same night they raise their championship banner to the rafters is nothing to worry overmuch about.)
You might not have noticed, but the NBA Regular Season starts tonight. And what’s the use of having a blog if you can’t post foolhardy bold predictions?
So here are three bold predictions for the coming season:
Anyone else care to chime in with their own predictions?