Austin- A Big Week in Basketball (U)

We’ve had a week off here at Take Charge, and it was a pretty significant week for basketball of all levels. Let’s start at the bottom. First of all, the Alden Varsity Basketball team had 3 playoff games this week. Nick Kibler had his best game of the season, scoring 17 points (career high) and grabbing 9 boards (season high). Alden beats Dunkirk at home by 30ish points. The following night, The Bulldogs travel to City Honors High School in downtown Buffalo to face off against the Lafayette Violets and their Puerto Rican point guard Lester Diaz, who leads Western New York in scoring with 31 points a night. The Bulldogs came into the night sending all-WNY free safety Brian Stoldt on Diaz, and it’s safe to say that Stoldt got the job done. He held Diaz to 12 points, his lowest outing of the season, en route to the Bulldogs upset victory. Dylan Dussault recorded career high numbers scoring, with 35 points. He also had 2o rebounds on the night. The Bulldogs then traveled to Tonawanda on Friday night, for a grudge match against the Warriors. Tonawanda had a 2-0 lead in the season series. Just 8 days prior, these teams met in the same gym, and the Warriors won by 25 points. There weren’t many similarities this night though. The deafening silence in the locker room pre game hinted that the fans were in store for a different, sort of smash-mouth basketball team. The Bulldogs played lock down defense, holding the high scoring Warriors offense to just 6 points in the first quarter, and only 17 in the entire first half. However, the 17-10 half time lead was too much for the Dogs to overcome, and they ended up falling short of a hopeful trip to Buffalo State once again, continuing this streak to a 16 year mark.

Next we turn to the NCAA. It’s been quite the week here as well. We saw #1 Syracuse lose 2 games in a row following that insane buzzer beater win against Pitt. First, the Orange were upset by the Golden Eagles of Boston College. Then they faced the Blue Devils in Duke and lost on a controversial finish. With a minute remaining, CJ fair drove the base line, and scored through contact. The referee broke 2 unwritten rules in the situation. First, in basketball, especially in close games, the tie goes to the offense, and calls like that aren’t made in game decisions. Next, when legendary coach Jim Boeheim expressed his opinion (probably more than he should have) he received a double technical foul and was ejected from the game. In my opinion, this was a disrespectful decision. But it’s over with. Here’s how the standings look in terms of significant teams; 1 is Florida, 2 is Wichita St, 3 is Arizona, ‘Cuse drops to 4, North Carolina is 19, SMU is 23. UConn and Gonzaga dropped out of top 25. Syracuse plays Maryland tonight, a must win game, and then they play Virginia later on this week.

In the NBA, All Star weekend passed by. John Wall was the leading dunker in what’s considered the worst dunk contest ever. Marco Belineli won the 3 point contest.  Cough cough who cares cough cough. The NBA All Star game was rather boring until the 4^th quarter. Melo was hot from deep, and Kyrie Irving was named MVP. Drummond was named MVP for the rising stars challenge. In conclusion, I am almost absolutely convinced that the NBA All-star game has one solo purpose, and that’s for NBA players who are on the trading block get a chance to talk to their buddies and find a new home. The End.

Heat Coming up Big in Road Trip. (S)

Last night the Miami Heat traveled to Oakland California to face off against the Golden State Warriors. This was the forth game out of a six game road trip that features some of the best teams in the Western Conference. Their first game in the road trip Miami faced off against the Los Angeles Clippers.  LeBron James had 31 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds, Ray Allen hit a clinching 3-pointer in the final minute, and the Heat snapped a five-game road losing streak against the Clippers with a 116-112 victory. This was despite Blake Griffin putting up 43 points and also came up with 15 rebounds and dished out the ball six times for assists. Dwyane Wade, one of seven Miami players scoring in double figures, had 14 points and eight assists. Miami put on an offensive clinic in what was one of the most competitive games of the year.
 In their next game on the road trip Miami fell to The Utah Jazz. A very disappointing loss to the Heat as Utah has been mediocre all year. With Utah leading by seven in the fourth quarter against the reigning champs, the Jazz forward released a 22-foot jumper that wasn't close. The Jazz came right back to the unaffected Williams and his back-to-back 3-pointers sparked Utah to a 94-89 win over the Miami Heat.
The Heat bounced back in their next game against a very young and talented Phoenix team. So after matching his season low with 13 points in Miami's' loss at Utah last Saturday, the four-time MVP was back to being LeBron again in Phoenix. He put on a clinic from the offensive end finishing the night with 37 points he also had 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 5 steals. The Heat finished the quarter strong and were able to put the Suns away 103 to 97. Last night the Heat faced off to another top tier western conference opponent in Golden State.  James capped one of his best games of the season in dramatic fashion, making a step-back 3-pointer with less than a second remaining to put the Heat past the Golden State Warriors 111-110. The shot was over one of the best perimeter defenders in the league Andre Igoudala. James shot 14-of-26 from the floor, including several dazzling dunks this put him at 36 points, 13 rebounds, 9 assists and 2 steals. 

Austin- All-Star Weekend (T)

The entire all-star weekend line ups are set in stage, from the dunk contest all the way down to the big dance. Kyrie Irving, Dwyane Wade, Paul George, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony. DeMar DeRozan, Paul Millsap and John Wall will all be making their first all-star game appearance for the Easten Conference. Joining them coming off the bench are Chris Bosh, Roy Hibbert, Joakim Noah and Joe Johnson. LeBron will be making his 10th all-star game appearance, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade will be making their 9th appearances. 

For the western conference, we also see 3 new faces. Stephen Curry will make his first appearance, and he also cracks the starting lineup. This comes as quite the surprise to me. I think we all expected Chris Paul to be the starting point guard in the west, especially since he was the MVP last year. The NBA doesn’t usually take chances in the all-star game. And we don’t often see many changes. Anyways, the rest up the lineup reads; Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, Blake Griffin and Kobe Bryant. Anthony Davis and Damian Lillard both make their first appearance to the All-Star game in their sophomore seasons respectively. Dwight Howard, Dirk Nowitzki, James Harden, Tony Parker, Chris Paul, and LaMarcus Aldridge round out the West roster.

For a minute let’s just pretend that the players take this game seriously. It’s could get pretty interesting. The west is staring a point guard, a shooting guard, a power forward and a center. Traditional. Where the East is starting a point guard, a shooting guard, a swing man and 2 small forwards. So there’s obviously some match ups that’ll be interesting to watch. Or, I mean, they would be interesting to watch if these guys played any defense at all what so ever. But it’s all good. Most people are looking forward to other events throughout the weekend.

The dunk contest this year has some supreme athletic characters, and some big names. Something we haven’t always seen in years past. To put it into perspective, this could be the best dunk contest line up since at least Vince Carter, and maybe even since Jordan. John Wall, Paul George and Terrance Ross represent the east, and Harrison Barnes, Damian Lillard and Ben Macklemore represent the west. These are a bunch of young guys who spend a lot of their time in games with their heads above the rim. Rumor has it that Macklemore is going to attempt a 720 dunk, but we’re just going to have to wait and see. Paul George is my personal pick to win the contest, mostly because of that crazy 360 windmill dunk that he performed earlier in the season in a game. In conclusion, it’s not very often that we see something new in the dunk contest, but this year we have some creative young minds with some insane athleticism.

Over to the 3 point contest from Foot Locker, we see new faces here as well. Aaron Afflalo, Bradley Beal, Kyrie Irving and Joe Johnson make up the East contestants. In the west, Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, Kevin Love and Marco Belineli round out the contestants. I’m glad that for once this contest doesn’t just consist of big name players who aren’t even really shooters, but we actually have some of the best shooters in the league to check out. My personal pick for the winner is Steph Curry. It’ll be interesting.

Things to watch for-

1.      Damin Lillard is the first player ever to be in all 3 major all-star weekend contests.

2.      Joe Johnson is being called the worst all-star game selection since 2001.

3.      Joe’s gotta make a name for himself this weekend.

4.      He should do it by wearing a different pair of J’s every 5 minutes.

5.      Ugliest jerseys ever? 

NCAA Prospects (Cont.) (t

Alright, so far the list is;
1. Jabari Parker
2. Marcus Smart
3. Andrew Wiggins
4. Joel Embiid

Next on the list is Aaron Gordon, the 6'9 power forward from Arizona. This is another guy who has insane athletic ability. He's been compared to Kenneth Faried, and I'd say that they have a lot of similarities. They're both hardworking, defensive minded guys who play a large part of their game above the rim, but I think that AG has some aspects that could push him above Faried in the coming years if he chooses to enter the league. There's often a lot of raw talent and room for improvement, and although Gordon has both of these things, he's got aspects that push him above the other big men in the nation. The freshman forward is an excellent passer, which is a rare skill among players his size. The fact that he's playing on one of the best teams in the nation doesn't hurt his draft stock either.

Number 6 on my big board is Julius Randle, the freshman power forward from Kentucky. He started the season off higher on my big board, and it's rather peculiar. He opened the season with 7 consecutive double doubles. Since then he's only had 2. However, he's still scoring 13 points and grabbing 9 boards per game. So it's safe to say he's not going anywhere. His 6'9, 250 size is just about ideal for his position, and where he slightly lacks in athleticism, he makes up for with a unique solid jumper for a guy his size. He seems to be to be like a Zach Randolph kind of player, and it'll be interesting to see what he becomes.

NCAA- Prospects (Cont.) (t)

So far. my list reads
1. Jabari Parker - Duke- Fr. - Forward
2. Marcus Smart- Oklahoma St- So.- PG
Number 3 on my list is Andrew Wiggins, the shooting guard from Kansas. This guy is an extremely athletic scorer, and his speed and quickness is what jumps out to me the most. The 6'8 guard scores 15 points and grabs 6 boards a game. I see him as a Paul George- like player. He has that great ability to create his own shot and shoot over defenders, and he'll never lose a match up due to athleticism. So far on the list we have Parker, who could be the next LeBron or Melo, Smart, who could be the next Dwayne Wade, and Wiggins, who could be the next Paul George. Now obviously nothing's a given, as these 3 guys combine for only 1 complete year of college ball. But those are realistic possibilities. Joel Embiid is next on my list, and he's number 1 for big men. He's scoring 11 and grabbing 8 rebounds a night, but it's his defensive paint presence that stands out the most. He's blocking nearly 3 shots per game, and he's the anchor to the Kansas Defense. As a freshmen, he's got a lot of room to grow, on both sides of the floor, but with his 7'0 height and great potential, he could be the next Tim Duncan.

Edward Hutschenreuter (Q) Eastern Conference Powerhouses Battle off

This past Monday in American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL the Miami Heat battled against the Detroit Pistons. Leading the charge for the Heat was Dwayne Wade who played a phenomenal game. He looked energetic and at some points explosive, coming up with 30 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.In this game Wade put on one of his vintage performance as he was on the attack from early on. He was slashing to the basket and getting to the rim easily against a soft Detroit defense.Wade, who sat out four consecutive games last month to rest his troublesome knees, looked rejuvenated. He shot 13 for 19 and played 37 minutes, this was his  fifth-highest total this season it also was a season high in points for the all-star guard.. Lebron James also had a phenomenal night as he nearly ended the night with what would have been his first tipple -double of the year. Lebron finished the night with 24 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds, this was just 2 rebounds short for the Heat's first triple-double of the season. Lebron couldn't pick some rebounds up late in the game. Dwayne Wade snagged one from Lebron with 4 minutes left in the game Lebron had this to say on it "D-Wade knew what he had going on, too," James said. "He was like, 'I need this double-double.' He had a heck of a game. He was spectacular." Chris Bosh also quietly had 17 points which helped the  Miami Heat to win their 4th game out of the past 5. Leading in scoring for the Pistons was Brandon Jennings who ended the night with 27 points and also had 7 assists. The Pistons were behind for almost the entire game and did not take it very well. They four technical fouls on the night and were playing very chippy basketball.

Last night in a out of conference battle the Chicago Bulls traveled to US Airways Center, Phoenix, AZ to take on the Phoenix Suns. The Suns have been playing great basketball as of lately in the tough western conference and the Bulls have been playing poor basketball in a poor eastern conference. This seems like it would be an easy win for Phoenix but it was just the opposite. Chicago came to play and possibly got back on track with a huge win.Carlos Boozer finished the night with 19 points and 12 rebounds as the Bulls snapped Phoenix's 5 game win streak. The key to success for Chicago was that they shared the ball, they had 5 players over double figures which is just great basketball. They also got good shots as their shooting percentage was 47% which was tremendously better than the 28% they shot in their last game against Sacramento. Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau had this to say on the win "You could have used an excuse if you chose to do so, but that's what I love about the team," "They come out and they're going to fight. They picked themselves up and did it together, and you could tell in the first quarter the commitment to get back, the commitment to get to put their bodies in front of people and take charges, make hustle plays, make effort plays." The Bulls shut down Phoenix's offense with some hard-nose defense. Leading in scoring for Phenix was Goran Dragic who ended the night with 24 points. The reigning Western Conference player of the week couldn't do just enough to get his team the victory. For the Sun's it is a minor speed bump on a tremendous season for the Bulls they hope it is the game that will give them some sort of spark to get their season back on track. 

NCAA- Draft Prospects (Q)

Let's be honest, it's a boring time in the NBA right now. There doesn't seem to be any big trade or play off implications, and All Star weekend is the most interesting thing to look forward to in the near future. Therefore, we look to the collegian level, where the road to the tournament is heating up. I mean, we can do this, since this is "the blog about all things basketball."
The NCAA this year is led primarily by freshmen. Most people think that freshmen make up the top 4 or 5 players in the country. My feelings differ slightly. Right now, Jabari Parker is the number 1 player on my list. Duke is having a tough season, but he's been a bright spot. Parker in my opinion is the best college player since Carmelo Anthony. He simply is an unstoppable force. He has an NBA body with LeBron-like athleticism. The 6-8, 235 lb forward is averaging 19 points per game, and he's shooting 47 percent from the field. He's also grabbing 8 boards a night. I attended the Syracuse-Duke game last weekend, and Parker was a force to be reckoned with. He fouled out with somewhere around 3 minutes left in the overtime-bound game, but before his exit, he was nearly unstoppable. He has a very strong high-post game, and he simply elevates over bigs when scoring down low. If Parker doesn't foul out of the game, this may have been different. Number 2 on my big board is the 6-4 point guard from Oklahoma State; Marcus Smart. Smart is another guy with an NBA body and athleticism, and in my opinion he's the best sophomore in the country. He's currently averaging 17 points, 4 assists and 6 rebounds a game. He's been the key piece to O State's success this year, and  I see the 'Boys as a serious threat in March this year. Stay tuned as I continue my prospect list in the days leading up to NBA All-Star weekend.

Austin - NBA Bowling (R)

As the title reads, this blog was originally going to be about an NBA bowling tournament, because Mr. Currin told me that he watched an event involving NBA players bowling yesterday, however I think that he was mistaken. I truly do believe that he watched an NBA bowling event, but I am pretty sure that the event that he watched was actually a re-run from last year's tournament, involving members of the Los Angeles Clippers. Blake Griffin beat Chris Paul in the finals of this event. After conducting my research for this happening, I was unable to find any information regarding a bowling event that took place yesterday, so I believe that RC watched a re-run from February 3rd, 2013. Anyways, this is where things got interesting. I while trying to find a video of this on You Tube I stumbled upon a video of Blake Griffin's high school days. It was a highlight reel of a game against a team led by Derrick Rose and Eric Gordon. It's so weird watching NBA players from when they were my age. They look so young it's just so funny. Blake Griffin was huge in high school. He was one of those big guys who thought they could do it all, but he was a really bad dribbler. Like awful. But as expected, he was pretty dominant in the low post. This video led me to find other videos from NBA guys in high school, such as the classic matchup between St. Vincent St. Mary's and Oak Hill. This was the LeBron James- Carmelo Anthony match up, which we saw a little bit of in the “It’s more than a game” documentary about LeBron James’ high school career. Interestingly enough, Brandon Jennings went to Oak Hill academy as well.  I also found a video about Chris Paul that made me recall a story that I once heard about him. Chris Paul had a relationship that I can relate to; he was very close with his grandfather while growing up. He had the kind of grandfather who attended all of Chris Paul’s sporting events, and he was his number 1 fan. In 2002, Chris was the class president and starting point guard at West Forsyth High School, in North Carolina. Chris Paul Signed with Wake Forrest College in November 14, 2002, rather than pick a hat off of the table, Chris took his grandfather’s hat off of his head, and he put it on, to decide his choice. The next day, November 15, Chris’s grandfather was found dead in his home at age 61. On November 16, Chris Paul had his next basketball game. With help from an insane 24 point 2^nd quarter alone, Chris had 59 solo points with 2 minutes remaining in the 4^th quarter. Paul drove to the basket, and was fouled hard in the act of scoring, resulting in a possible 3 point play. At this point, Paul was just 5 points away from the state record for points in a game. However, Chris had 61. And his grandfather died when he was 61 years old. So Chris lay on the ground for a few moments following the foul. He then got up and walked to the free throw line. The ref tossed Chris the ball, and Chris threw the ball right back to the ref, counting as his attempt. Chris was then subbed out of the game, and he walked to the bench, while receiving a standing ovation from his home town crowd. When he got to the bench, his father met him on the floor, and Chris collapsed into his father’s arms. 

New Power Rankings-Eddie H (R)

In ESPN weekly power rankings from Marc Stein the Oklahoma City Thunder once again reign supreme sitting atop the rankings. The Thunder recently went on a 10 game winning streak in which they played tremendous basketball. They played six games on the road one in Miami  were they absolutely destroyed the Heat. Kevin Durant is playing unstoppable right now and in his past 10 games is averaging more than 30 points per game. He is making a case for an easy MVP winner. The Thunder are also putting on this quote on quote clinic as you can call it without all-star point guard Russell Westbrook who is out with a knee injury. In second place in the power rankings were the Indiana Pacers who are still playing dominant basketball. Indiana is posting a 36 and 10 record which puts them atop the Eastern Conference standings by 3 games over the Heat. The Pacer's are almost unstoppable at home only loosing a twice there all season. The key to Indiana's success defense. The are first overall in points allowed and have two of the best defenders in the league in Paul George and Roy Hibbertt. Now in third place in the rankings were the Los Angeles Clippers. The Clippers had another fabulous month of January posting a 12-4 record with Chris Paul only playing in 2 of the games. He is hopefully returning this week after a ankle injury and will only add to the success the Clippers are having. The only other Eastern Conference team in the top ten comes in at number 6 and that is the Miami Heat. Miami has a 33 - 13 record so far this year and is playing very good basketball. They do seem like they are coasting as of recently though. But with Dwanye Wade back in the line-up we will see how the Heat are doing. Miami are heavy favorites to return the the Championship but work and improvement is needed.

Eddie H- Eastern Conference News - (R)

Over the weekend on Saturday, February 3rd the Indiana Pacers signed Andrew Bynum to a one year contract worth 1 million dollars. This will keep the large center on the Pacers roster for the remainder of the season. Bynum will join the the Pacers next week and will likely back-up the all-star center Roy Hibbert along with Ian Mahinmi. If Bynum stays healthy and is able to contribute as a bench player the Pacers will easily have the deepest bench as far as the center position goes. Acquiring Bynum also kept him from going to conference rival Miami who was hoping to add another big-man to the spot they are most clearly lacking. The Heat could have outbid the Pacers for Bynum because they had all of their mid-level exception of $3 million to spend. However, the Heat currently have a full roster of 15 players and a luxury-tax bill of $15 million, meaning creating room for and signing Bynum would have been expensive. I believe that Andrew Bynum will be very successful in Indiana if he can stay healthy, he will over a fresh body to come in to clog up the paint. Also buzzing in everyone's ear right now is the Eastern Conference All-star roster and back-ups was issued and left out was Indiana Pacer shooting guard Lance Stephenson. Lance is averaging a career high in points per game at 14.3 and has the most triple doubles in the Eastern Conference. He is also passing the ball and rebounding very well. All these credentials go along with his determined and hard-nose defense that he play. Obviously there was many people that felt he got cheated out of the game in New Orleans. This is what Lance had to say on the fact
"I'm mad. I feel like I had my breakout year last year," Stephenson told reporters after practice Friday, according to The Indianapolis Star. "I showed I can play with anyone on the floor and I felt like this year, I brought a little bit more to my game.
"But other people saw it differently. I'm just going to keep working hard and prove everyone wrong."

I feel like he defiantly should be playing in New Orleans but America must not.