The (much needed) Vent

            There is a good chance that if you are reading this, you are probably wondering where my weekly basketball posts on Indiana basketball have been. Truth be told, I don’t really have a definitive answer for you. I’ve been slacking pretty damn hard. I’ve disappointed the millions of fans and have let them down almost as much as Wiz has to all of the OG listeners back in his glory days of Prince of the City and Star Power mixtape’s and that’s as serious of a letdown you’ll see in this day and age. For that, I’m sorry yinz, but hopefully this post is the spark that I needed.

            I credit some of my laziness and lack of writing to the inconsistency that Indiana basketball has poised this year. It’s been almost impossible to figure this Hoosier team out. They’re like the girl you see at the bar who is wearing a real slutty outfit and looks like a perfect 10 from the back. She’s got a fit body, sophisticated heels and is basically wearing a sign on her head that says, “Take me.” She turns around and she is exactly what you had hoped for. Your buddies are looking at her saying that she’s nothing to special, just another broad at a bar. But you’ve been bending the elbow for the last couple of hours and let the booze convince you that it is acceptable to make a move. When you muster up the courage to start talking to her, everything is working out perfectly. She tells you her major, shows you pictures of her six-month old golden retriever and even grabs your hand to go dance with that gorgeous ass your boys have been starring at all night. You show her your best dance moves and see what she can bring to the table. When you finally muster up the courage to go in for the kill, you get completely turned down. No explanation is given and she just vanishes in the crowd. It makes no sense; you bought her a drink, made her laugh a few times and treated her with respect. Hell, you even ditched the rowdy late night shenanigans with your boys because you were expecting to bring this girl back. Yet, you got nothing. You’ve been blue-balled my friend. This girl led you on and made it seem like in a night where you weren’t expecting much, an amazing feat was about to be proposed to you and it was taken away. You stalk her in the morning when the drunk goggles are off and see that there was some unnecessary hype surrounding this girl, but there is some serious potential in her future. The 2013-14 Indiana Hoosiers started off the season flashy, young, exciting and had a lot of unreached potential, but then, like the girl at the bar, you realize that she just sucks and wonder why you just wasted your time.

            With regret and sorrow I give you the 2013-14 Indiana Hoosiers.

            When Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller declared for the NBA draft last April, everyone expected the 2013-14 season to be one for ups, some downs, but mainly a lot of optimism for the Hoosier fan base. After they announced their declaration, the 2013-14 Hoosier season would be one for personal growth. This comes as no stranger to Indiana basketball over the last decade. The program has gone through a regrowthing period for three out of the last six years. This in no way would be as bad as the past, but a national championship was certainly not going to happen right away. It was going to take some time. We have great recruits coming in, a couple of All-Americans, but mainly, good kids who come from good families. This was a team that would pull off some big upsets inside the Hall, would drop the rough away games every now and then and would have some hick-ups along the way against less inferior opponents. A tournament birth would be evident as long as they didn’t lose in the first round of the Big Ten tournament.

            So now we find ourselves coming up on seven weeks of Big Ten play. The Hoosiers are 14-11; eight of those losses have come from conference foes and six of them have come against teams with ten or more losses. Penn State beat them at home. Hanner Mosquera-Pera took the phrase ‘Turnin’ Up’ completely out of proportion. Purdue ripped out our hearts like Scorpion would do in Mortal Kombat and Tom Crean is one more bad loss away from being the consensus most hated person in Bloomington besides the East Coast girls who refuse to smile in pictures because they want to look like a Kardashian. Basically, everyone in Indiana is saying this right now.

We have come across a team that has surpassed disappointing and has reached a new level of pathetic. The question of how it got to this point is the question that ponders our mind every time before we contemplate wearing that crimson shirt out in public. In the words of Entourage’s Johnny Drama, “It’s a blood bath bro.”

            The frustration has become too much. The patience has met its course. We’re pissed and we have every right to be. Regardless of who is on the court and who puts up the numbers, when the lights go on and the band plays the alma mater as 17,500 people sing it, it’s time to kick it into another gear. But this team doesn’t understand that. That Indiana name on the jersey means so much more than anything else, but it appears as if they don’t seem to understand that. You can tell by the player’s demeanor when they walk around campus. You can tell when they are sitting on the bench or in the game. There is no pride. There is no leadership. There is no one on this team that will go up to Perea and physically punch him in the face for bringing more negative energy to the team. But the worst of it all is that after that loss at Purdue, there is no hope. People have given up on this team and are on the verge of giving up on the current system. The sad thing is they have every right to. One thing we knew was that this inexperienced team probably wasn’t going to make a run like last year’s team. That comes with the inexperience. But one thing that should’ve been implemented in their minds was the grit it takes to become champions. Champions aren’t built over night, but the attitude to develop them can and should be taught. But I guess even that has become wishful thinking.

            As I previously stated, there is no figuring out this team, which brings me back to a big reason why I haven’t written anything in well over five months. There is nothing to look forward too. I guess it’s because I haven’t had really anything nice to say and I don’t want to be “That Guy” who completely turns his back on his team when they start sucking, but enough is enough. I’m not turning my back on this team and won’t stop cheering for them. But it’s hard to support a team that plays like they don’t give two shits about the guy next to them in the huddle and it’s hard to support a coach who still can’t correct his mistakes.

            Simply put, it’s just hard to be an Indiana Hoosier fan right now and it may not get better for a long time. 

It’s In the Shoes, Man!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this isn’t an article that will state that Mars Blackmon is making his long awaited return from retirement from the Jordan sneaker commercials. Although no shoe can ever reach the level of sexiness that the Air Jordan possessed, Ektio, a clinically tested technology designed to prevent ankle sprains, could turn some heads and prolong some basketball careers.

The shoe, created by doctors Barry Katz, Tom Nordstrom and Steve Dribbon, incorporates straps that are built inside the walls of the shoe and lateral side bumpers that offer extra balance and stability.  The strap system acts as an internal ankle brace that brings the foot and the shoe together as a single unit, minimizing the movement that goes on inside the shoe. Unlike other basketball kicks, this one isn’t competing for which big shot NBA player is rocking this in a game. “We compete on performance and safety,” said Jon Katz, the vice president of sales and marketing at Ektio. “We put our energy into creating the best possible performance shoe and from the feedback we’ve gotten from our customers, we’re succeeding in every way.”

Ektio takes pride in their ability to prolong a career for a basketball player, but the guy they mostly boast about is their first prospected NBA player — Lester Prosper, a 6’10, 240 lbs forward out of Lynbrook, New York. However, given the freakishly athletic built of Prosper, 24, his journey isn’t your average story about a kid from the projects who is on the verge of making it, but it is a story that will have you hoping that one day, this kid gets the shot he rightfully deserves.

Prosper moved to the States from the small island of Monserrat in the Caribbean when he was 12 years old. In high school, he bounced around from school to school, stayed out late, got in fights — basically doing everything a teenage kid is not supposed to do. “I was hanging with a bad crowd man,” admitted Prosper. “The path I was on was heading no where.”

After moving from home to home, Prosper, at the time an 18-year old high school senior, ended up in the town of Bellmore, New York, where he found a place of residence at the Bellmore group home. It was at the home where he started to turn his life around and begin playing ball. “The kids in the home helped me get off the streets and lead me in the right path,” said Prosper. “We would play ball everyday and everyday I would get more athletic and more hungry to succeed.”

But even as his game got better, he didn’t have that motivation to succeed like most professionals develop. “I was just getting started and still wasn’t good,” said Prosper. “Luckily, one of my friend’s mothers on the basketball team at Mempham [High School] was very supportive and helped me get on the right track.” After a casual weekend trip to the luxurious Hamptons, Prosper saw what the good life had to offer. “That weekend changed me. It motivated me to strive for greatness. Every since that trip, I’ve been grinding everyday to make it.”

After playing ball for only one year at Mepham, he went onto play Division III ball close to home at SUNY Old Westbury. After graduating from Old Westbury in 2011, Prosper began his journey to the league. Having been undrafted, he played ball for a couple of years in Europe to improve his game before coming back to give the NBA another shot.

Ever since Prosper came back to America, he has been impressing scouts and fans in attendance, including the people at Ektio, who signed him this past August to a sneaker deal. “Ektio is about hard work, safety and reliablility; attributes that all describe Lester Prosper,” said Katz. “He has made tremendous progress, especially for a guy that has only been playing organized ball for six years.”

Prosper had his doubts about the shoe in the beginning, but after a championship summer league game where he sprained his ankle wearing some Nikes, he decided to give Ektio a shot. “When I turned my ankle, I said to myself, ‘That’s it man. You can’t play like this. How can you help the team when you can barely walk?’” confessed Prosper. “But I’m not a quitter. I grabbed the Ektio’s from my bag, ran around a little and got back on the court. To be honest, I completely forgot I sprained my ankle — that’s how great this shoe is.

“I believe in the shoe and they believed in me when no one else was willing to,” admitted Prosper. “This shoe will change the game. It is prolonging my career and it will prolong other dudes too.”

Since signing with Ektio, Prosper has been playing in organized leagues all over the country and has made a name for himself due to his physical presence and astonishing defense, but most of all, through his hard work and dedication. “I’m coming man — I’m an inspired dude. I have great people behind me and I’m going to keep grinding until I make it. Just wait.”

 

Hoop It Up: The Streetball Show

 

It’s not the type of 3×3 tournament where you will get to see Miami’s Big Three go head-to-head with Brooklyn’s Big Three, but it is the type of tournament where a random player from a random city can get their one shining moment on the court.  On Labor Day weekend, on a blacktop located outside of Washington DC, Hoop It Up will host the Nationals & 3×3 Festival.

Hoop It Up was established in 1989 and is the original 3×3 national grassroots street ball tour. In the last two decades, over 500,000 athletes have participated in the numerous tournaments all over the country. Although there is an array of tournaments that Hoop It Up sponsors throughout the year, this is the one that creates the national buzz because of its compelling headliners.

Headlining the tournament this year will be the Lord Gym Saints out of Cincinnati. They have been the perennial winners of world championships in the College division, but due to their success, they will be participating in the Top Gun division for the first time. They are led by point guard, Antonio Price whose toughest challenges have been far from going up against bigger opponents in the paint. Coming from a rough childhood, Price could’ve taken the wrong path and continued in the shadows of his peers that surrounded him in his younger years. But basketball saved him. The love that he grasps for the game is unmatchable and it shows when he is on the court.

Price leads a program that has won 16 World Championships since 2005. Lord’s Gym has been with Hoop It Up since 1995 thanks to the continuous efforts from Reverend Al Mosley. Due to his constant assistance with Over-the-Rhine, he has helped at risk youths stay off the streets and stay on the basketball court. But unlike the plethora of other programs that attempts to keep their youth from living behind bars or six feet under, Mosley has a system; a system that resembles one that equivalents a university. In order to get a jersey for Lord’s Gym, Mosley makes sure the kids practice three times a week, get good grades and enrich their minds with bible study.  “Our affiliation with Hoop It Up has been life changing,” says Mosley. “Through these tournaments, these kids get to see that there is more to life other than guns, violence and crime.”

Mosley’s contributions go beyond what he gives his athletes. When they are grown up and in the real world, Mosley gives to his players something that some college graduates can’t even find — a job. He makes sure that when basketball can no longer be an escape for these men, they are occupied with a job that will continue to keep them away from the troubled neighborhoods that he helped them get off of when they were younger.

This 3×3 tournament may not be headlined by future NBA stars or have McDonald’s All-American’s putting on a highlight reel, but it doesn’t have too. This tournament will showcase athletes that truly have a passion and love for basketball. But they’re not playing for a contract or a scholarship — they’re playing for pride and for the love of the game.

 

 

 

A Big Handsome ‘Cat

When Cody Zeller made his announcement in 2010 that he would be attending Indiana University in the fall, Bloomington, IN erupted . Finally, the program was about to change and regain its rich tradition. You couldn’t walk around Bloomington that day and not see a smile on everyone’s face. I know because I was there. While watching the press conference in my dorm room, I jumped up like I was a middle school girl and a Justin Bieber Proactive commercial came on when he made his announcement. However, David Stern’s announcement on the whereabouts of where Zeller would end up for his professional career didn’t receive the same response that it did back in 2010. In fact, it couldn’t have been more different.

Want some proof? See for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-Bx34BAzdY

No one can really blame Bobcats fans for booing when Stern announced they took Zeller. I mean, it’s the Bobcats. They have to be pissed about something, right? If you remember, Zeller was very much under consideration of being the #1 overall pick in the 2013 draft before his sophomore season began, but like many projected first overalls in the past, their expectations aren’t met and all of the critics and analysts pick apart every weakness of their game. For Zeller, his weaknesses were shown immensely in games where he went up against bigger and stronger centers. He had trouble finishing around the rim at times and couldn’t make a basket with contact. In the Sweet 16 game against Syracuse, Zeller looked like a standard white kid from the suburbs that was scared to play against the inner-city kids. They toyed with him and exploited every ounce of weakness he had. When he announced he was declaring for the draft, everyone laughed and immediately dropped him lower on their draft boards.

What made Bobcats fans so angry was that they took an arguably soft big man over two 7 footers with sky high potential in Nerlens Noel and Alex Len. I talked to a few of my buddies who are Bobcats fans (Yes, believe it or not, there are some out there) about taking Zeller over the two bigs. They admitted that their number one priority was a center, because come on, when your starting center is Bismack Biyombo, your faith is limited or for that matter non-existent. But they needed a center desperately. Still, they signed Al Jefferson after the draft, but drafting Zeller over the two other big men was troubling to Bobcat fans.

But, here’s the kicker.

We’re talking about the Charlotte Bobcats. This is a team who can’t afford to take players because they excel at one position. They’ve been doing that for a decade and judging by their pathetic .346 regular season record since their inaugural season in 2004, it hasn’t worked. They need cats (no pun intended) that know how to play the game and can excel at different things. While Noel and Len will make their career living in the paint, Zeller is going to have the opportunity to show off his versatility, something he hasn’t been able to do in games because he’s played the traditional center position his entire life. That’s why the Zeller pick makes so much sense. If the expectations weren’t so high for Zeller going into last year, this would be considered a great pick and Bobcats fans would finally have something to smile about other than seeing Cam Newton courtside at the Heat game. Zeller is a pure basketball player and that is what they need the most. He has a very high basketball IQ, he has a quick first step, he has great vision, he runs the floor like a deer and he can stroke it from the outside.

Wait — he can shoot?

Although no one outside of Bloomington has seen or heard about this, at the 2012 Hoosier Hysteria (Midnight Madness for Indiana), Zeller actually ended up winning the three-point contest. And to answer your question, yes, sharp shooter Jordan Hulls was healthy and was in the contest as well, yet still lost to Zeller.

Because he has been forced to play in the paint his entire career, not many people have been able to see his other skills. At the NBA combine, he shocked all of the scouts in attendance when he showed just how athletic he really was. He placed first in the modified lane agility drill, broke the record for the highest standing vertical leap for anyone over 6’9 (35.5 inches according to NBA.com) and ran the fastest three-quarter-court sprint of all power forwards and centers.

We saw him make a living out of beating his bigger opponents down the court and flushing down a two-handed slam. We saw him make the smooth post moves and make buckets or get to the line. We saw him take a program out from the dungeons of hell and bring it back to its rich tradition. The Bobcats have never had a rich tradition and I’m not saying that Zeller will be their messiah and bring them to basketball royalty. But what I am saying is that Zeller will be a very interesting and exciting rookie in the 2013-14 season…

…I hope.

First Class Finals

Cue the violin, put on your My Chemical Romance album (if you actually have one, and if you do, the “My Parents Don’t Love Me/No One Understands What I Go Through” column can be found in a Hot Topic store near you), turn off the lights and have yourself a nice memorial service, because the 2013 NBA season is officially (sigh) over.

AND IT’S NOW OFFICIALLY BUCCOS SEASON!!! WHEWWWWWW!!!

But seriously, sports life will kind of suck unless the Pirates actually don’t botch this season.

Coming after a season that was condensed due to the lockout in 2011, this season needed to be one for the Guinness Books and it certainly did not disappoint. From the Lakers experiment completely failing in the beginning of the season, to everyone hopping on the Golden State Warriors bandwagon these playoffs, this season was truly something special. Unfortunately for me, I really wasn’t able to follow it. From February-May, I lived life with no NBA. All of my knowledge for the season came from highlights on ESPN.com, fantasy basketball on yahoo.com and the occasional glance at one of Zach Lowe’s 25,000-word columns when I was stuck in one of my three-hour lectures about European art. I missed the All-Star game; I missed the Heat’s inconceivable win streak, I missed the Knicks collapse (again) and I missed what it seemed like every big name player basically tearing some part of their body.

Even though I missed the better half of the regular season and the beginning of the playoffs, it didn’t affect me too much. I don’t have a team I root for on a daily basis and I’m not one of those guys who will act like the biggest fan for a relevant team. But you know what, not having the NBA wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. But I could never, in my wildest dreams imagine not being able to watch these NBA Finals. Not having that would be like not being able to make fun of those girls that don’t smile in pictures at the clubs because they want to look like they’re either a Kardashian or some sort of model. Life without those two things would just be incomplete and dull. Luckily, life for me isn’t all that cruel.

Although I’ve only been alive since 1991 and can really only say I’ve watched the NBA Finals often since 1998, this series was bar none, the best series I’ve ever seen. You can argue that the Celtics/Lakers from 2010 and also Celtics/Lakers from ‘84-85 were better and more entertaining series, but there was just something so unordinary about this series. Every possession you just knew something remarkable was about to happen and it could’ve been from any of the 10 players on the court (with the exception of whenever Tiago Splitter was in the game). Every game, a different player stepped up to the plate and had their Sportscenter highlight. Whether it was Chalmers in Game 2 or Duncan in Game 6, we sat on our couches, looked at our friends and said, “Did that dude just do that? DAT DUDE JUST DONE DID DAT!!!” The best part is that the next game, it was always somebody different who would do the impossible. This whole series can be explained as a 10 person Tag-Team Heavyweight boxing match that went 15-rounds; someone would take a hit, get knocked down and come back with a right hook that knocked them right back on their ass. It would go back and forth and back and forth.

This series went a little more than just the blow for blow punches it seemed to appear as. It was basketball at its best. Clearly it was the best two teams in the league going the distance in a head-to-head dual, but it wasn’t dirty. You didn’t see any technical’s or any dirty flagrant fouls. Both teams played with a tremendous amount of class and you saw it at the end of Game 7. I wasn’t necessarily rooting for either team to win or lose; I just wanted to see seven games like most people. But nothing gave me more joy then to see Gregg Popovich run up to LeBron and D-Wade with something that I would’ve never thought I’d see even if they would’ve won the finals in San Antonio, a smile.

“Why?”

“You just basically gave these douchebags another championship. This was your last chance at winning a championship and it was in your hands. You were about to prove to everyone in the world that dynasty’s are made by good management and great coaching, yet you handed it over to a coach who shouldn’t even share the same sideline with you on a silver platter. HOW THE HELL ARE YOU HAPPY?!”~ Every person in America not from South Beach.

What that smile symbolized was a sense of acceptance and joy. You could see at the end of that game that everyone realized that this was a series that would be remembered for a very long time. Granted, there were no happy faces on the San Antonio roster, but there was a hell of a lot of respect. Everyone on the Spurs could’ve just shook hands with the Heat organization, instead they all met at half-court and embraced each other like Mom and Dad embraced you the first time you saw them after your first semester of college. That just shows how much class the Spurs organization has.

Speaking of class…

When David Stern announced the Bill Russell Most Valuable Player award, I’m sure by now you’ve noticed LeBron’s pose when he had both trophies in his possession?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=upWBcUdWLMM

Why can’t you, the face of the NBA and the greatest player in the world just raise the trophy, smile and embrace everyone cheer on your name? But that’s the thing — he is the greatest player in the world and he has earned that right to do whatever he wants. He has taken too much shit to deserve all of this hatred. That look was a straight up ‘F U’ to everyone that has ever talked negatively about him or doubted him for a second. It was a look basically saying, “Look at me now.” That’s the thing — look at him. He’s got four MVPs, two rings, one gold medal and he hasn’t even reached his prime yet, yet is still disliked. At this point, what’s the point of hating him? Okay, if you’re from Cleveland, I can understand your hatred because he was the only good thing you’ve had going for you since Major League was a box office hit and if you’re a Knicks fan you just hate him because you’re stubborn as hell and can’t appreciate everything he is doing, but that still doesn’t give people the right to hate him. He didn’t handle the announcement well at all and he realized that. But to not appreciate the things he is doing is a shame and you will regret it in the future.

Enjoy the ride because we are witnesses and the Iron Throne is in possession of The King.

The NBA Finals and Hip Hop — Who Is Who?

           I guess it’s not ideal that this entry goes in after the first two games of the NBA Finals, but unfortunately, on this particular instance, this idea didn’t click to me until earlier this afternoon. So, let’s just close our eyes, take a deep breath, and pretend that the series is tied at 0-0 and its actually a best of five series.

Danny Green vs. Ab Soul

            Smooth, calm and overshadowed are the adjectives to describe these two. When watching Green on the court, you think to yourself, “Man, that kid can shoot, he can dribble, he can play perimeter defense. Wait — HOW IS HE ONLY AVERAGING 9.8 POINTS?! It’s a great question, but the answer is simple. He’s got a Hall of Fame player that checks in for him off the bench. The same can be said for Soul.  His skill level isn’t at the same place as the other guys in his Black Hippy group (Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q). Although his skill-level is one of the better ones in the industry, until he breaks away from Kendrick and Schoolboy, that skill will just be a mere image to those around him. The same can be said for Green. Just watch what he did in the first half of Game 2. The kid was ready to pull a Reggie Miller at the Garden on the Heat, but his game isn’t going to be talked about in the future. It will be his teammates who are just better than him.

Udonis Haslem vs. Curren$y the Hot Spitta

        Not many hip-hop fans realize this, but Spitta ain’t young. He’s been around the game for quite some time now. At 32, he still has maintained his large fan base. His mixtapes all send the same message and for the most part talk about the same stuff, but they get the job done and people still enjoy hearing what he has to say. He does what he needs to do to keep his fans happy. His music won’t be Grammy worthy and he won’t be remembered as one of the G.O.A.T, but he will continue to put out good music and will continue to be a successful rapper

        When the Heat won the finals last year, D-Wade wasn’t the only player who won his second ring in South Beach. Haslem was right there with him during that 2006 run. Although he is not a franchise player, he hasn’t played for another NBA team. (He played in Francein 2002-2003). Through those years, he has been incredibly sufficient for his standards. He’s not flashy, he’s not an All-Star nor will he be a Finals legend like Robert Horry, but he will continue to satisfy the Heat’s needs and will continue to help his team contend for championships.

 

Kawhi Leonard vs. J. Cole

            Introducing the X-Factor to this year’s NBA Finals — Kawhi Leonard. He has one task and one task only — to limit the greatest basketball player in the world of his chances and to do whatever he can to stop him. Unfortunately, it’s 99% impossible for anyone to do that, but he will have that 1% chance to prove everyone wrong. Leonard is turning into one of the players that have been inducted into the infamous category known as “Pop’s Guys” and this series against Miami will really determine whether or not he stays as one of those guys. So far, he has done the best job out of anyone that has guarded James, but there is still plenty of basketball left to play. He’s got (hopefully) another five games to continue to prevent the King from taking over the game.

            And then we have J. Cole, the young, versatile, and electrifying rapper signed to Roc Nation whose sophomore album comes out June 18^th. The reason he is compared to Leonard is because he, like Leonard, has something to prove. Because Cole is the first guy to be signed to Jay-Z’s label and has expectations to be the next Hov. While that may be unfair, the spotlight is on him and he is looked upon to meet those expectations. This album has so much to do with his legacy and how he will be viewed in the next couple of years. This is his test. In order for him to pass, it has to be a smashing success.

            [Wow — I really just said smashing, didn’t I? I gotta stop watching the Austin Powers trilogy].

Mario Chalmers vs Big K.R.I.T.

            For those that don’t consider Chalmers just as implicated of a role to the Big Three that Chris Bosh are just dull basketball fans. There, I said it. Chalmers has been delivering night in and night out and has given the Heat what they need through his tenure in South Beach; a solid point guard who can run the offense and win games. Here’s the thing. If you put Chalmers on another team in the league, he is putting up All-Star caliber numbers. Unfortunately, as long as LeBron and Wade are in South Beach, Chalmers will continue to be apart of the supporting cast. Is that bad? Not necessarily, because he won’t win a title anywhere else other than with those guys. However, even though his game will continue to blossom over the next few years, he won’t be considered in the top tier of his class.

            K.R.I.T. couldn’t be any more similar to Super Mario. K.R.I.T. is considered to many as one of the more underrated rappers in the hip-hop industry. Yet because of his style and genre of hip-hop, he won’t be a Kendrick Lamar or a Drake. He’s his own type of artist and is unlike anyone else around him. He will continue to put out great music for his followers and fans, but that’s not going to cut it. It’s a shame because K.R.I.T. has that capability of being one of the best of his generation. Unfortunately, too many people are obsessed with the generic style and they aren’t ready to broaden their horizons. He and Chalmers are both some of the best at their position in this day and age, but people won’t be able to realize that because of the talent that is around them.

Manu Ginobili vs The Game        

By far the two comparisons with the absolute least in common in this column, but their style of play and their reputations around their industries couldn’t be more alike. Both guys should be considered as some of the best in the game but are overshadowed because of the other flashier and younger cats in the game. Both have been around for quite some time and have made a good name for them, but they don’t get the notoriety they deserve. The Game was the only reason why West Coast rap didn’t die in the 2000s. If it wasn’t for him, there is no Kendrick Lamar or Schoolboy Q. He was the only guy making anything from the west coast and doesn’t get the love he deserves. Ginobili is a contributing reason why the Spurs are the dynasty of the 2000s. Plus, Manu has played such an intricate part in why there are Latino players in the NBA. Even though he will one day have his name enshrined in the Hall of Fame, he still doesn’t get that much love.

Chris Bosh vs. Lil’ Wayne

            When Bosh put up the numbers he did while with Toronto in the mid-2000’s, people thought he could’ve been the next premiere forward in the game. His game was smooth and was an issue for every team’s defense. The problem was, he didn’t have a supporting cast. Yes, he still killed the game, but killing the game doesn’t mean much in basketball unless you win championships. He went to Miami to win however many championships LeBron promised. But what people weren’t expecting was that Bosh would have to alter his game drastically and with that, his game has deteriorated. In his last three seasons in Toronto, he averaged 23.0 PPG and 9.8 RPG. The past three with Miami, his stats have diminished to 17.7 PPG and 7.8 RPG. But now, watching him in the postseason, Chris Bosh has turned into Chris Botch and is now just a mere image of those better than him on his team. The same happened to Weezy as soon as Drake’s stardom took over Young Money. The Carter’s II and III along with Da Drought 3, Dedication II and No Ceilings are some of the best albums and mixtapes ever put out. As soon as Young Money started to get some press as being one of the best labels in the rap industry, Wayne wasn’t Wayne anymore. His lyrics got dull, his beats were average and he thought he could play electric guitar and rap over it. It just wasn’t going to work. That’s how Wayne and Bosh will be remembered; at one point, they were the best at their respective positions and were a couple steps away from being mentioned with some of the greats, but then their games went downhill as soon as they weren’t the face of the franchise. But, one should never give up hope. They still have some skills; they just need to rediscover it.

Tim Duncan vs. Jay-Z

            Young Hov and The Big Fundamental. It’s a match made in heaven. Timmy is, no ifs, ands, or buts, IS the greatest power forward to ever play the game and should be considered one of the best 10 players to ever lace ‘em up. He is the Don Corleone of the NBA. He played against Jordan. He guarded Shaq. He played alongside The Admiral, David Robinson. He is a basketball legend and the best part of it is he’s 37 years young and is still the best center in the league. His game isn’t done yet. He’s still able to put it on every night and can put up impeccable stats for a 37-year old on any given night.

Jay-Z is, no ifs, ands, or buts, IS one of the top three rappers of all time. It doesn’t matter what your order is, but he is in your top three. He is at the top of the food chain in the rap game. He was on tracks with Biggie and Big L. He’s made kids from the projects into rappers. He may not make another album like Reasonable Doubt or Blueprint, but he will make music and it will be pretty damn good. It doesn’t look like Duncan is retiring from the game anytime soon and is still bringing his A game every night.

Dwayne Wade vs. Drake

            Watching D-Wade play can either be as exhilarating as this past season of Game of Thrones or as agonizing as it was to watch the last three seasons of Entourage. It’s painful, it’s bad and you just want it to get back to its days when it was the best thing to watch. But then there are times where you watch him and you just wonder what the hell he’s doing and where in God’s name is the guy who earned the nickname Flash. Luckily, Flash Wade came to play in Game 2, but we can’t guarantee that we will continue to see that the rest of the series. The same can be said for Drake. Both of them exploded out of a cannon in their early years and were the best thing to happen to their respective games in such a long time. There was a point in time where they might not have been considered the best in the game, but they were. D-Wade from 2004-2010 was untouchable. His game would make your jaw drop and would cause you to make a face as if a Victoria Secret model just walked right by you and was wearing lingerie. Some of Drake’s lyrics make people shake their head and rewind the track a few seconds to try and comprehend if someone is actually capable of writing down a lyric that smart. Unfortunately, we as fans expect these guys to continue to put out songs and stats that they put out once upon a time ago. We want D-Wade and Drake to go back to their old ways of being the best, but they just won’t be. There continues to be younger and better talent out there. But don’t get it twisted, these two are still some of the best in the game and they will be until they call it quits.

Tony Parker vs. Kanye West

            Plain and simple — there is no Kanye West if he was never along side Jay-Z and there is no Tony Parker if he wasn’t playing next to Tim Duncan. With that being said, some of Jay-Z’s greatest songs (This Can’t Be Life, Encore, H to the Izzo) were all produced by Kanye West. Not taking anything away from Hova’s lyrics, but Kanye’s beats made the songs that much better and the music intrigued people more and more. As the latter years have approached, both of them are now considered to be the best 1-2 combo of rappers in the industry and it showed when Watch the Throne came out. Although historically Jay will most likely hold a higher place in royalty to his successor, right now, in this game, Kanye is arguably the better lyricist and it showed on WTT. Parker came into the scene and was a great setup man for Duncan and helped him become the greatest Power Forward of all-time, but as time went on, Duncan got older, and Parker started to hit his prime. He is still in the prime of his career and it only looks like he will continue to get better. Parker will be a Hall-of-Famer one-day and will be remembered as an amazing point guard and for having one of the only NBA Finals jump shots that received just as much of a jaw drop than when the Stark family was smited. But his legacy will forever be as the guy who made Tim Duncan who he is.

LeBron James vs. Kendrick Lamar

             They’re both young. They’re both flashy and they’re both the best in the world. Both of these stars can’t and won’t be touched by anyone around them anytime soon and the kicker is, everyone around them knows it too. Their opponents know that they are at the top. They know that no matter how hard they work, they won’t match them. They have more than just an impeccable skill level — they have a natural born gift that doesn’t come around very often. Will both of them go down as the greatest of all time? Right now, it’s too early to imagine. But for now, one thing is for certain — both of these men are at the top of their game and if they continue to do what they have been doing, the sky is the limit.

            Special thanks to Adam Mitrani (@AMitrani717) for helping me create this list.

The Day After the Season Almost Ended

In 30 years, when we look back on the annals of history, people will talk about three things: The discovery of fire, the Flint, Michigan Mega Bowl and how no matter where you were, whether it was Dayton, Ohio, Bloomington, Indiana, New York, Italy or Prague, on March 24, 2013, if you were connected to a flatline, you’d probably be pronounced legally dead. The events that took place all across the world for Hoosier Nation during the two hours of a lifetime that was a basketball game, will be forever talked about and forever relieved in the eyes of Hoosier fans everywhere.

Here are a few things I took away from the game.

1.    Khalif Wyatt…WOW!

Let me start off by saying this — if Victor Oladipo misses that 3-point shot with 14 seconds left, I am willing to bet my lifetime supply of Rogaine that Fran Dunphy would’ve called a timeout, gotten the ball into Wyatt, would free him up to go isolation on Cody Zeller and would’ve done to him what Kemba Walker did to Gary McGhee in the Big East Tournament in 2011. We don’t know what would’ve occurred on the next couple of possessions, but we can assume with the way the game was going and in the beast mode that Wyatt was playing in, that he almost beat the most talented team in the country single handedly. The Hoosiers did not have an answer for him. It took three different guys to guard him, yet he still went off.

A couple of my best friends attend Temple and have been on the Wyatt bandwagon for a couple years now. Because he was in a mid-major conference, he wasn’t going to get the notoriety he deserved until he went on the big stage. Well, Wyatt has shined this season on the big stage (33 points against Syracuse at MSG, 26 at Kansas, 30 against VCU and 31 in each of his two tournament games). If I weren’t furtively praying for Wyatt to sprain his ankle in the first half Sunday, I would have been cheering for him more than the Florida Gulf Coast bench does after every alley-oop. Wyatt has won the hearts of March Madness lovers and rightfully so.

Khalif Wyatt, Hoosier Nation salutes you.

2.    Leadership

I remember sitting at home in late January after the Hoosiers lost to Wisconsin and were getting ready to play Michigan State at Assembly Hall. After taking my normal pregame ritual of letting loose my bowels, texting IU friends and sending iMessage videos to my friends of which included a duo of Doc Emerick and Gus Johnson voice impersonations on the preview of the game, my Dad came back from working out and mentioned he was listening to the Tom Crean show in the car. (Quick side note: I was home all of January in preparation to studying in Prague. Do NOT even think about judging me for the iMessage videos because 1) they are absolute GOLD. 2) I do the best Gus Johnson impression out of anyone in this world and I needed some amusement. 3) You try being 21-years old in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania while all your friends are either already in Europe or at college. My point exactly.)

Anyways, he mentioned that Crean called out his seniors on the lack of leadership that they have possessed so far this season. The Michigan State game did not attest to that because the leaders stepped up, but that’s not important right now. What is important is that the senior leadership sure as hell showed up on Sunday from Christian Watford and Jordan Hulls.

Wait, Hulls?

Yeah — Hulls.

Hear me out for a paragraph or two. When Hulls went down with his shoulder injury, IU’s lead started to slowly vanish. They started to lose their rhythm and lost their mojo quicker than Austin Powers did while in the shack with Ivana Humpalot. Everything just went bad towards the end of the first half and you started to wonder whether or not Hulls was going to return from the locker room at all in a jersey or in an Adidas sweat suit. Luckily he tried to put on his best Willis Reed and played through the pain. Despite only scoring five points and only shooting the ball five times, his presence was astronomically felt, especially in the winding minutes of the game.

Hulls’s fade away jumper with just over two minutes left cut the Temple lead to two. On the very next possession, his fellow senior [Watford] made arguably the most significant play of his career and the biggest play of the Hoosiers season when he blocked Anthony Lee of a dunk and reassured his heroism in Bloomington forever. I mean seriously, when he graduates in May, we need to reward him with a medal, or a holiday, or something! I’m starting a petition that changes the name of the HPER (Health and Physical Education and Recreation) gym in Bloomington to be named after him. He could’ve easily given up on that play and it would’ve been a four-point Temple lead, but the senior leader made a senior play.

But my main point is this, when Hulls was out of the game, things crumbled. When he was in, everything was just dandy. The energy was there, the spirit was alive and most importantly, the leadership had finally arrived.

4.    What is Crean’s deal?

Even though I have the utmost respect for him and really do like having him as my team’s coach [at times], I really don’t understand his methods. I counted over half a dozen times where the guys on the court looked exhausted, out of sync or were just flat out being outplayed AND HE DID NOT CALL ONE TIMEOUT!!! I don’t understand it. He did not call one timeout the entire game. You have five for a reason and you don’t use one of them? Why? Someone… please explain this method to me!
One of my main issues I had with the coaching was that Wyatt could have EASILY gotten into early foul trouble EASILY if the players would have stepped in and taken EASY charges. Granted, telling a player to take a charge shouldn’t have to happen at the college level, let alone in March, but if it wasn’t happening, it should have been reassured. Wyatt was out of control in the early stages of the first half and there could have EASILY been three charges called on him if someone stepped up.

Did I mention how easy it would’ve been for him to get out of the game and for Indiana to stomp on the throat and win by 20? If I didn’t, I’ll remind you again — it would have been soooooooooooooo EEEAASSSYYYYYYY.

Speaking of things being easy…

5.    My life in Europe

It’s pretty damn easy.

6.    The Professor Knows His Students

It seems to be a reoccurring theme with the coaches that go up against Tom Crean; they all take his game plan and stuff it back in his face. Dunphy, a business professor at Temple, did just that, but with a twist. It’s no secret that if you play Indiana and you outrebound them, outhustle them and outwork them physically you will win the game. The thing is, that might not have even been Temple’s game plan. That’s just the Philly style of play.

Quick trip down memory lane: In the summer tournaments and state playoffs I played in high school, a lot of our games would be against the inner-city schools from Philadelphia. Because my coach didn’t have enough any faith that the only white kid in the gym was able to compete in these games, I would sit picking splinters out of my ass and admire the physical play of these Philly teams and would gain a much stronger appreciation for street ball. Every loose ball, they got. Every fight, they instigated and every defensive possession, they made their presence felt with tenacious and physical defense. The three best players on Temple (Wyatt, Scootie Randall, Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson) all reside from the Philadelphia area and their style of play goes hand-in-hand with the way basketball is played on the playgrounds of Philadelphia. Dunphy played towards his strengths and it just so happened that physicality and fundamentals are exactly what Indiana lacks.

7.    The 30 years of my life that were taken from me last night.

But seriously… I’m not even joking.

Hey Mom, if you’re reading this, you can hold off on the subscription of Prozac I asked you to get me with three minutes to go.

NCAA Basketball Power Rankings

In case watching the road to the Super Bowl, the return of Barry Melrose’s mullet or the new season of House of Lies has preoccupied your time to watching college basketball this month, you’ve missed a thrilling few weeks. After being granted a No. 3 preseason ranking, John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats are a couple more losses away from the NIT, a Temple player is rising his national player of the year stock every game he plays, there have been six top 10 teams to lose in the last week (Louisville twice), Villanova could actually make it back to the tournament and oh yeah — Larry Brown is somewhere out their coaching a Conference-USA team.

Yeah, it’s been a pretty exuberating season of college hoops. One of the best storylines of the season is that there is no dominant team like Kentucky was last year. A lot of teams have the chance at having that one shining moment in Atlanta when April rolls around. But you know what the best part about this season is?

I wasn’t kidding when I said Kentucky is a couple losses away from the NIT. How great is that?

[Nodding my head and smiling while typing these words.]

BOO-YAH!

Here are my Top 10 power rankings for college basketball.

10. BUTLER

Even though Butler is a mid-major basketball program, it is hard not to consider them one of the better teams in the country. If you were to end the season today, Butler would be a lock as a No. 1 seed in the tournament. Yeah, I said it and in case you didn’t understand, BUTLER WOULD BE A LOCK AS A NO. 1 SEED IN THE TOURNAMENT. Along with Duke, they have beaten the most top 10 teams in the country (three) including Indiana who was at the time ranked No. 1.

On paper, Butler looks like your standard mid-major program that could mayyybeeee get into the tournament, yet have been a perennial scare for teams on their schedule the last four years. Why? It’s a mixture of things. For one, they are located in the basketball haven of Indiana and receive all of the leftovers that Tom Crean and Mike Brey don’t want. When that happens, Brad Stevens picks them up like Rick Moranis did in the Little Giants and forms a winning ball club. Over the last four years, Stevens has recruited these 3-star caliber players and has turned them into playing like a 5-star caliber team. Despite their one-point loss Wednesday night at La Salle without their best player Rotnei Clarke, the Bulldogs are still one of the hottest teams in the country and although they may not be the sexiest team in the country, they have been the most efficient.

You want a reason for Butler’s continual success? It’s Brad Stevens.

9. OREGON

[In my Sheila Broflovski voice from South Park] WHAT WHAT WHAAAT!

            Call me crazy, but Oregon has been the biggest surprise in college basketball besides the Cinderella boys from Butler. This is supposed to be a team that is a football powerhouse, has smoking hot cheerleaders, the best athletic apparel in college, but notorious for an irrelevant basketball program. However, that irrelevant team is now 6-0 in league play and ranks first in the Pac-12. They have beaten the two basketball powerhouse programs in their conference this year in, at the time No. 7 Arizona and No. 24 UCLA and won’t have to see them again until the conference tournament. What the Ducks have going for them is that they have a good combination of experience, depth and talent. With five players averaging double figures in scoring and a pretty easy remaining schedule, Oregon could be alive in the final days of March.

8. MICHIGAN STATE

Tom Izzo’s Spartans started the season a bit rocky, despite their upset over Kansas in early November. When you watched them play early on, you kind of scratched your head and wondered just how much they would miss their All-American from last season, Draymond Green. As it turns out, they’ve survived quite well without him and have been getting great minutes from his predecessors, Derrick Nix and Adreian Payne, and have been led by the backcourt of Keith Appling and Gary Harris. Both of these guards have been nightmare matchups for teams all season, but especially in the last couple weeks. They have won six straight including two upsets in a row against Ohio State and at Wisconsin. On Saturday, they head to Bloomington where they will face conference rival Indiana in a pivotal conference matchup. We’ll see if the Hoosiers find their early season magic or if the Spartans can continue their hot streak.

7. INDIANA

This is awfully generous of me to put them this high in the power rankings. Even though I am a Hoosier fan, watching them the last month has been as painful as pissing out kidney stones, except I’m not sure which one I’d rather go through. Every time I watch this team, I think of the Kentucky game, the resurrection of Indiana basketball, the preseason No. 1 ranking and the consensus National Champions, and that team hasn’t shown up since November 27 against North Carolina. They haven’t played a complete 40 minutes of basketball since and it’s taking away more hair off my head than my genetics are already.

Is it time to panic? I’m not sure yet. Against Minnesota last week, they dominated the first half of the game and went into the half up 23. Twenty-three points! To the No. 8 team in the country! That 23-point lead was only so comforting, when the Gophers put up 52 points in the second half and only lost by seven. Next up was Wisconsin where Bo Ryan basically told the college basketball world, “Hey, my team may not be that good this year. I may not have an All-American guard anymore, but I can do whatever I want against a Tom Crean ball club” after his Badgers upset the Hoosiers at Assembly Hall last Tuesday. After Wisconsin was Northwestern and it ended up being the exact same situation that happened a week earlier against Minnesota — the Hoosiers came out with a great first half and completely blew it in the second, but still came out with a win.

What exactly is the meaning of all of this?

Two things:

1)   Poor Coaching

Tom Crean is an incredible recruiter, an illustrious motivator and a great first half coach. But when the opposing coach figures out a system to beat his game plan, it’s over. It goes from watching the team that actually looks like they could compete for a national championship, to watching a team that wouldn’t win an NIT game. The one major flaw of his coaching is not being able to adjust to game situations and it has bitten Indiana in the ass so far. Think about it—how do you think they lost their two games this year?

2)   Poor Bench and No Depth Makes a Hoosier Vulnerable

Remember when all of the talk going on around college basketball was about how deep Indiana is and how essential their talented bench will be come March? Unfortunately, they have been plagued by injuries to Derek Elston, Austin Etherington and Maurice Creek this season but they were still supposed to go eight or nine deep even without those guys in the lineup. Crean still goes deep into his bench, but those guys haven’t been producing the way they are supposed to. Freshmen Jeremy Hollowell and Hanner Mosquera-Perea haven’t been living up to the hype they had coming in and fellow freshmen Peter Jurkin hasn’t even seen relevant minutes yet. Hollowell has been playing out of position and Mosquera-Perea is more raw than the World Wrestling Entertainment on a Monday Night. All they are left with lately is Will Sheehey and Remy Abell who both are currently in a shooting slump, ironically enough.

Even though things are looking a bit shaky in Bloomington right now, they are still ranked in the top 10 and are still winning games. This Saturday against Michigan State will be a HUGE test for the program and for the outlook on the remainder of the season.

6. ARIZONA

Arizona is the team that really pisses me off even though I have absolutely no basketball ties to them. They have become that team who hasn’t played anyone, hasn’t played in enemy territory, was on the better end of the worst call in college basketball this year , yet is still ranked in the top 10 somehow. If it wasn’t for their 70-66 loss to Oregon a couple weeks ago, the ‘Cats would be ranked No. 1 in the country. Crazy, huh? That just goes to show how, for one, crazy this college basketball season has been now that every No. 1 team is losing week by week and two, how weak Arizona’s schedule has been and will continue to be. Tonight they go up against the “always in trouble with the NCAA, coach that has lost all control of his ball club ever since Jordan Farmar left, wait until the year 2020 for them to get hit with a fat sanction for some reason,” UCLA Bruins in Tucson. This is a big test for the ‘Cats for they have not had a real signature win since Christmas against No. 17 San Diego State.

5. DUKE

Who would’ve thought that missing a tall and dangly, awkward, nerdy looking kid, who resembles the Wolverine from X-Men would affect a basketball team so much? Losing Kelly hasn’t been the death of Duke’s season but it sure hasn’t helped. The games at North Carolina State and Miami would’ve been tough no matter what, but would they have won if Kelly were in the lineup? Who knows? But it doesn’t matter. Duke still lost those two games as the No. 1 ranked team and is still missing 13.5 PPG and 5.5 RPG each game they play without Kelly.

Even though it’s Duke, and even though they will most likely not cast away from a top 10 ranking this year, they are in trouble. Losing to NC State is one thing, but to follow up with the way they played against Georgia Tech in the first half was a disgrace. It was one of the handful of Duke games I’ve actually watched from tip to the final horn and I wasn’t impressed. Then, after last night’s annihilation handed to them from Miami, my finger was getting closer and closer to pressing the panic button. They are missing Kelly more than anyone would’ve thought and it is finally showing. Luckily for Duke, the ACC is no better than the Pac-12 this year. (When in a million years would you have ever thought that would happen?) The Devils have played their toughest matches on the road and the remaining games against ranked opponents will be played at Cameron Indoor so they shouldn’t have to suffer too much longer. Hopefully by the time March comes around, Kelly will be 100%.

4. SYRACUSE

It seems kind of disrespectful of me to put a team who just knocked off the No. 1 ranked team last week not in the top three, but for a good reason. It’s not so much that I don’t think Syracuse is good, because I do. (They are my midseason national champions, FYI) but it’s because I don’t think Louisville is that big of an upset to begin with. They were gifted that No. 1 seed. They didn’t earn it. You know how many ranked teams they’ve beaten this year? ONE! They’ve only beaten one ranked opponent all year and it came in November at a resort in the Bahamas. Nothing against Syracuse, and I apologize in advance to my brother who is a Syracuse alum, but it wasn’t that great of a win.

The next two weeks of games for the Orange will say a lot about their character. They are going through complete déjà vu from last January when they announced that star center, Fab Melo would be out indefinitely due to ineligibility. Now they are without star forward James Southerland for the same reason. They have a tough three opponents in road games at Villanova and Pittsburgh and will host No. 24 Notre Dame at the Carrier Dome on February 4^th. If they can walk away from that stretch without losing and without Southerland, they will prove that they are a serious national championship contender.

3. FLORIDA

True or false—Florida gets the least amount of attention out of any top ten team this year.

You better say true!

Serious question though—when have you ever watched anyone talk about how dangerous of a team Florida has? Never, yet Florida has been one of the only teams in the country to not have a setback or a game where you wondered what team actually just played. Since their last lost to Kansas State on December 22, their lowest margin of victory has been 17 points. Their other loss came to Arizona in Tucson where they only lost by one. But Florida goes under the radar because of the conference that they are in. In a year where the SEC is less than adequate and where it’s perennial powerhouse (Kentucky), hasn’t lived up to the expectations ESPN’s All-Access series set them out to be, any success out of the conference doesn’t go as noticed as other conferences. Florida has the depth and experience to hopefully take them pack to the Final Four, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since the Joakim Noah days. But before they can even begin to think about March Madness, they still have to go through Ole Miss, Kentucky twice and a rematch at Missouri. Other than that, it should be smooth sailing for the Gators.

2. MICHIGAN

            In a conference that features the best players, arguably the best coaches and the most hostile basketball courts in the country, Michigan currently holds the throne in the Big Ten and rightfully deserves my No. 2 power ranking. Michigan went into Columbus and was a jump shot where the ball rattled around the rim away from beating their biggest rivals and being the No. 1 team in the country. Fortunately enough for the Wolverines, they came out with the biggest win in the Big Ten this season when they went into Minnesota and beat the No. 9 ranked Gophers.

Winning on the road in the Big Ten is no easy feat and for Michigan to go on the road and almost knock off two top 15 teams back-to-back says a lot about this team. When you prove that you can win on the road in the Big Ten and beat up on teams that you’re expected to beat up on game in and game out, you have the makings of a championship caliber team.

1. 1.  KANSAS

There are teams in college hoops that are frustrating to watch, and then there are teams who you never know which team you will see. Then you have teams who are always going to put on a great display of basketball. Kansas is one of those teams that play great basketball every single night, regardless of where the game is. They are one of the few teams in the country where on any given night any one of their five starters could be their leading scorer. That’s why they are the best team in the country right now.

After the Jayhawks lost big man Thomas Robinson and Tyshawn Taylor to the draft last year, a lot of speculation went into affects that this could be a fall-off year for the Jayhawks. They haven’t missed a beat. In fact, this team could be better than that team who went blow for blow with Kentucky last year in the national championship. Elijah Johnson is doing better than expected at replacing Taylor at the point, Jeff Withey is a double-double machine and is looking like the 2009 Dwight Howard of college basketball and Ben McLemore is turning heads and could be projected as the #1 overall pick in the 2013 draft. But above all, they are just so well balanced and disciplined. No one else in college basketball is like them. Every guy who gets in the game has a role and they accept that role. That is why they are doing something that no one else seems to do — win. Even though a lot of their games have gone down to the wire lately, they have pulled out the wins and have continued to climb up the charts.

 

The Day That Changed His Legacy

The date is January 31^st, 2000. The new millennium has just arrived. The Backstreet Boys and N’Sync are still teenage sex symbols and Tim Couch is expected to be the greatest quarterback since Dan Marino. [Sheesh.] But more importantly, Super Bowl XXXIV is happening at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Kurt Warner and the comeback kids of the St. Louis Rams went up against Steve McNair and the high-octane offense of the Tennessee Titans. [The Rams beat Tampa Bay and the Titans beat Jacksonville in the conference championships. Sheesh.] You may remember this game as the game where Kevin Dyson was one yard away from winning the Super Bowl or the game where Kurt Warner looked as if he would be the quarterback of the decade. However, on such a memorable night while the only topic of discussion should have been on the first Super Bowl to be decided on the last play of the game since Super Bowl XXV, the game was overlooked by the acquisition of a homicide, allegedly performed by a man who would one day become the greatest linebackers to ever strap on a helmet.

We all know the story from here. Following a Super Bowl party, Ray Lewis and a couple of his friends were in the midst of an altercation outside of an Atlanta nightclub, resulting in the stabbing deaths of two men. Atlanta police held Lewis and his two other companions, Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting for questioning later that night. Eleven days later, they were indicted for the murders of Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar. The three were acquitted of the charges and no other suspects have been arrested for the homicide. Although the charges have been completely diminished from Lewis’ record, the dark shadow of that night will follow him all the way to Canton.

The Baltimore Ravens will be returning to the Super Bowl after their stunning upset over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Foxborough last Sunday. Regardless of whether you like Lewis or not, one cannot resent what has transpired on the fields that Ray Lewis has played on the last three weeks. After coming back from what everyone believed to be a season-ending injury, Lewis has recorded an astonishing 44 tackles in three playoff games. His team has overcome the “not skilled enough on both sides of the ball” notation and is now just one win away from hoisting the Lombardi, yet Lewis is still the disliked by so many people.

Why?

Off the field, he could be mistaken as one of God’s sons with all the good he does for people. He has done countless charity events all across the country. He has become an ambassador to the National Football League and is arguably one of the greatest pitchmen in sports. He has been the cover boy for professional athletes on what it takes to be a positive role model in this country. (Oh my God. He’s the talented Tebow! I can’t believe I just realized this.) Yet even though he is doing everything he is supposed to do, he is being portrayed as more of a villain to society than The Joker was to Gotham City. Unfortunately, whatever you may think of Lewis, you can’t argue the fact that he has brought this scrutiny upon himself, even if it is unintentional.

There are plenty of people in this world who love Ray Lewis and who respect what he has done for football. Hell, I’m a Steelers fan and I have the utmost respect for him. But I can’t speak for everyone who owns a yellow towel. There is still a plethora of people that strongly dislike him and they are going to find whatever reason they can to insult him. For example, in the last few weeks, he has been incredibly conspicuous with his comments about God. This has led a lot of people to feel very uncomfortable. Some condone giving all praise to God after receiving awards or winning games, but others don’t care if you believe all the praise goes to God. The more he has praised God and has cried in Sal Paolantonio’s microphone, the more people have portrayed him as an attention whore. If people believe that he wants attention, fine. They’ll give him the attention, just not in a positive way. They will attack his personal life background as much as possible and do whatever they can to hurt or annoy him. Does that make it right? One could argue differently, but it’s the only way people can hate him. They can’t take shots at his football playing ability for the dude is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. No one with common football sense would ever do that, but they can easily take shots at his personal life. The people that dislike him want to believe that he killed those two men in 2000. They want to be able to witness him get this far and come out empty handed. That’s what happens when you have a resume as prestigious as his and are playing for the biggest prize in sports.

But why is all of this scrutiny and distaste for him all of a sudden happening two weeks before his final game ever.

That night in 2000 has just become another tragic homicide. No one really pays too much attention except those that were emotionally impacted. We wouldn’t talk about it again until his future induction into the Hall of Fame. But now that there is two weeks of media buildup for the biggest event in sports entertainment, we as sports fans and as a society are going to look for any plausible story in these two weeks of anticipation to talk about. Ray Lewis is the center of the Super Bowl, both the good of him and the bad.

By the time February 4^th rolls around, win or lose, Lewis will be remembered as the greatest Raven of all time, but his legacy — 13-time Pro Bowler, 10-time All-Pro, 2-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, NFL 2000’s All-Decade Team and Super Bowl MVP, will include a long list of footnotes that all date back to that date exactly 13 years ago next Thursday.

The NHL is Back…Finally! Preview of Pens vs. Flyers 1/19

Before I start this column, let us all join together in letting out the biggest sigh of relief and an even bigger middle finger to this man:

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/sports/photos/2012/09/13/bettman940-8col.jpg

[Sighing]

            [Still going…]

           

 

            [Alright, one last one and let’s get started]

In case you haven’t been up to date with, well, the only positive hockey news to come out since September, the NHL and the NHLPA agreed on a collective bargaining agreement on January 12^th. The agreement will be in effect until it expires after the 2021-22 season or until Commissioner Bettman finds another way to rip out the hearts of hockey fans.

Even though Bettman has been a pompous villain to those who love and support the league over the last five months, he earned some brownie points in my eyes. Instead of having the first game of the shortened season be played in a market where the legalization of marijuana is probably more imperative to their citizens than hockey is, good ole’ Gary decided to add two more games during that time, one for our friends up north between the Ottawa Senators and the Winnipeg Jets and one for the battle of I-76 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers.

            Dun dun dun.

One word — blood. Lots and lots of blood will be on the Wells Fargo Center ice come Saturday at 3:00 pm. Ever since the Flyers knocked out my beloved Pens in the first round of the playoffs last year, there has been a bad taste in Pens fans mouths. Getting knocked out of the playoffs is one thing, but getting dominated by your cross-state rival and most hated opponent is another. You simply don’t let it happen. It’s the code of hockey. The Pengiuns got dominated and in return, they followed the Delta Tau Chi chapter at Faber College’s old saying. “Don’t get mad, get even,” and in hockey, the only way to get even after getting your teeth knocked in, is to knock out the other teams.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jCBeV2aHd8

Even though these two teams haven’t played against each other in almost nine and a half months, there is no love lost between these Keystone State rivals. They don’t like each other. Old friends are now foes and fellow countrymen are now enemies. One thing is for certain; there couldn’t have been a better first game for the NHL to kickoff the season.

Way to go Bettman! You still suck though.

Anyways, here are the keys to victory for both teams on Saturday.

Keys to the Pens success:

1)   Crosby keeps his cool

In the playoffs, hockey fans saw a side of Sidney Crosby that they have never seen. It didn’t include his smooth stick handling abilities or his quick feet on the ice, but his inner demon. He played that entire series as if he was on the fourth-line. He wasn’t acting like the guy who once upon a time racked up 120 points when he was 19-years old. He was timid, overly aggressive and pissed off, but not the type of pissed off that gives you the incentive to want to kick your opponents ass like Reggie Miller did to Spike Lee and the Knicks in ’95. Instead, he was the type of pissed off that affects how you play the game. He let the entire city of Philadelphia and the players that play in that city get under his skin and take him out of his game. When you wear that C on your sweater, that can’t happen.

Crosby needs to hone his inner aggression and use it to his advantage. He is bar none the best player in the world. You know it and I know it. But in his defense, he was probably overly excited to finally get back on the ice after such a long time out dealing with his concussion and was frustrated that he wasn’t dominating like he has throughout his hockey career. If the Penguins want to come out of Philly with a win, Crosby can’t let himself get taken out of the game.

2)   New season Flower

When the Penguins drafted Marc-Andre Fleury in 2003, they knew it would take some time for him to progress. In about three years of NHL experience, he would quickly become one of the leagues best goaltenders. However, the Marc-Andre Fleury that the Pens grew to love didn’t show up against the Flyers in the playoffs last year. He let the flashing red light behind him go off 30 times in six games. If this weren’t the playoffs that Fleury once dominated, he would’ve been picking splinters out of his pads after Game 3. He needs to rekindle his game that has gotten him to this point and it starts on Saturday. The first impression of the season is a lasting impression. He can’t let what happened in the past get in the way of what is going on in the present. This could be the season that Fleury blossoms into the league’s best goaltender; he just needs to finally prove it.

3) PLAY YOUR GAME!

The Flyers series was an aberration for the Pens. When they went to Philly, they let the hostile environment completely take them out of their game. All Crosby wanted to do was drop the gloves, Fleury played like he’d never been on skates before in his life and Peter Laviolette outcoached Dan Bylsma to a T. I wasn’t alive back in 1980, but from the research I’ve done and the countless times I’ve watched the movie Miracle, I could hypothesize that watching this series was similar to watching the Soviets play everyone before the infamous U.S. game in the medal round.

The Penguins have a team that has two of the three best players in the world in Crosby and the Hart Trophy recipient (MVP), Evgeni Malkin. They have a dangerously scary power-play line that features Crosby and Malkin, along with James Neal (led the league in power-play goals last season with 18), Kris Letang and Chris Kunitz. There is a reason why Vegas has the Pens as favorites to hoist up the cup in June, but they are more than likely going to have to go through Philly to get their first. They have the pieces to the puzzle to make them contenders, but they need to make a statement in a city that can alter their style of play.

 

Flyers Key To Success:

1. 1.    Does Bryz Belong?

I think for me, the worst part about not having the NHL for the first three months was not being able to watch the HBO original series, 24/7 The Road to the Winter Classic in December. Last year, the Flyers were being tracked and no one else was being watched more than goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.

Through Bryzgalov, we learned that the stereotype that goalies are just the weirdest human beings on Earth is very true. They all have their own unique trait, but Bryzgalov really takes it to a new level with his comparisons of dogs being the equivalent to beautiful blondes and his outlooks on the universe. However, if he were putting up great stats and not letting the puck get in the back of the net, then it would be cool, right? The problem is, he wasn’t putting up great stats. In the beginning of the season, he struggled tremendously but at times showed some signs of resilience. But no matter what kind of game he had, one word stuck out to Flyers fans on what their goalie was besides psycho.

Inconsistent.

Some games he was on fire, others he was colder than the ice he skated on in Russia. When playoff time came around, they needed him to step up, yet he remained inconsistent. They needed at least some consistency and stability at defense and especially at goaltender. They were unable to sign a top defenseman or goalie in free agency and chose that as long as Bryzgalov didn’t talk to them before or after games and brought them to the playoffs consistently, they would pay him. Now he just needs to prove he is worth that $51 million he is getting paid over nine years.

Although Bryzgalov walked away with a series win in the first round, he didn’t play well. He still let up 26 goals in the six game series. In order for the Flyers to beat Pittsburgh on Saturday, they are going to have to count on their man between the pipes to limit second chance opportunities. The Pens are exceptionally good at “cleaning up the trash” around the net. They attack the net at will and are very scrappy. Bryzgalov is going to have to take care of business and prove in front of his home crowd that he belongs on Broad Street.

[Anyone else catch that D3 Mighty Ducks reference?]

1. 2.    Use the fans to your advantage

I was talking to one of my buddy’s from Philadelphia yesterday about the upcoming game. We bickered back and forth via texts about who was going to win and why. He finally said to me, “Do you really think you have a shot in hell?” I did and I still do, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not going to be a battle. It was then I realized that Philly fans hate three people/things — Clubber Lang, Billy King and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Think back to when the Pens went into Wells Fargo for the playoffs. It was a hostile environment to play in and they played in fear. Flyers fans have the craziest and most faithful fans in hockey.

Now imagine the first game of the shorten season against the Penguins.

Exactly.

Philly fans are pissed off. All they’ve had to look forward to over the last three months is Flyers hockey. The Phillies disappointed everyone, the Eagles resembled a comedic act, and the Sixers will be lucky to see Jake Shuttlesworth’s real life twin Andrew Bynum ever step foot on the floor this year. They have been dying to cheer about something besides Union soccer.

3. Can Claude Conduct Captaincy?

Ha. Try saying that five times fast…

With the injury to former captain Chris Pronger, the Flyers aren’t sure if or when they will ever see #20 skate on the ice again. While Pronger continues rehabbing his concussions, Claude Giroux has been named the captain, and in case you’re not that aware of what it means to be captain, there is no bigger honor than putting the ‘C’ on your sweater. When you get the title of captain, you think back to guys like Gretzky, Lemieux, Messier and what they meant to their team. However, the question that Flyers fans are asking is whether or not Giroux actually earned it. Last season, he put up personal bests in goals, assists and points, but nothing that was too jaw dropping. He meant a lot to the success of the team, but taking a guy like Pronger’s letter is a big responsibility and it will be interesting to say the least to see him try and exceed those expectations. He is already beloved in the city of brotherly love, but he has a chip on his shoulder. He needs to show that he is captain worthy by scoring, but most importantly, by winning. He needs to come out with a statement game against the Pens in order for the Philly faithful to believe in him.

I don’t know about you, but I’m still sighing from that first sentence that the NHL is back!