Starter: Ray Allen

If you follow my twitter (do it, I’m really interesting), know me personally, or were within earshot of the 02116 area code when I won my ticket, you’ll know that I had the amazing fortune of attending the Celtics/Lakers game last Thursday during which Ray Allen set the all-time record for three pointers made (though he still needs 63 more to match Reggie Miller’s record if the playoffs are included). I spent more money than I should have, but it was a perfect combination of events: Celtics vs. Lakers, Ray needing one three to tie the record, and Reggie Miller himself being in attendance as he was broadcasting the game for TNT. Since Ray is my favorite roundballer of all time, I had to go.

A lot of people are curious when I mention that Ray Allen is my favorite player, so I’ll explain why. First and foremost, he’s a fantastic player. Though he’s lost some ups, in his prime he may have been the best player pound-for-pound besides Allen Iverson, as he was not only a fantastic shooter, but an extremely quick driver and solid finisher at the rim. He has a high “basketball IQ,” plays great defense and really has few weaknesses on the court. I was discussing with a friend before the game how most three-point specialists don’t last very long because they can’t get open or play defense, and that his complete game is what makes Allen special and will likely make his record one that’s tough to top.

While I’m always hesitant to pass judgments on players’ personal lives, it seems like Ray has few weaknesses off the court as well. Every coach he’s had says he works harder than any player they’ve coached, he does plenty of charity work, and he just seems genuinely nice. I admired him on his previous teams at Connecticut, Milwaukee, and Seattle, and when he was acquired by my favorite team I was overjoyed.

After a multi-day quest to obtain a ticket, I got lucky and scored a 1st-row loge seat (Pro tip: I’ve had the best secondhand-ticket luck with ebay over Stubhub or a ticket broker). While it was in the corner, it was roughly 25 feet behind Ray’s Mom, so I was pretty happy with its location. And as you’re aware, Ray set the record in the first quarter, and the Garden erupted. The teams continued play through his tremendous standing ovation, and then when a foul was called Ray walked over and shook hands with Reggie Miller. At the end of the first quarter, he hugged Reggie, then hugged his Mom, and then his wife all while the crowd cheered their lungs out.

While the Celtics ended up losing the game, it was the best loss I’ve ever attended in person, and one of the best events of any sort I’ve been present for. Congrats to Ray. Though in typical Ray fashion, he gave this quote after the game: “It was a magical moment, being in this building. I felt a little embarrassed that there was so much attention surrounding this moment.”

He’s more focused on banner 18 than personal milestones, I’d say.

Reign Man

Remember when Shawn Kemp dunked on Chris Gatling, and Gatling was like, “Dude, that’s gonna be a fly poster,” then they bro-hugged it out? Well, now you do.

Bellevue Supersonics? Why It Wouldn’t Work

A few days ago, David Aldridge published a very well-researched, informative, and overall wonderful column on NBA.com about the lingering discontent from the Supersonics’ shady departure from Seattle. There’s an interesting paragraph about two-thirds of the way through the story where Aldridge brings up former Sonics coach Lenny Wilkens, who then discusses the possibility of returning the Sonics to the area. Only this time, the Sonics might move to Bellevue, which Aldridge describes as “a suburb about 15 minutes from downtown [Seattle].” Aldridge writes:

Wilkens says there are groups with Eastside ties that are discussing coming together to make another run at the legislature, with the intention of buying an existing team and moving it to a new arena in Bellevue. He acknowledges that he doesn’t even know all of the players, so nascent are the plans — “I know some of them, and I know they’re pretty solid,” Wilkens says — but that a plan is coalescing.

This is the point where I want everyone to pause and go ahead and back the eff up. While Aldridge cites the reasons Bellevue would make a good landing spot for a new team—most notably the fact that Bellevue is full of rich people (mostly from Microsoft money) to build the new arena the Sonics would demand—I’d like everyone to think about the reasons a team in Bellevue wouldn’t work. None of the following is really about basketball, I don’t think.

The primary reason it wouldn’t work is simple: traffic. Only in the dreams of anyone living in the Seattle Metro area is Bellevue 15 minutes away from anything. Sure, it might not look that far on a map, but if you’ve ever driven on I-90 or the 520 floating bridges (the two main routes connecting Seattle and Bellevue), then you know it can take hours (yes, plural) to drive those 10 or so miles to Bellevue, especially between 5 and 7 p.m., when people will be driving to the games. A proposal to build a light rail system connecting Seattle to Bellevue has been on the table for years in order to combat the traffic, but I don’t see that as a real solution. Not only would it take years to build because it would necessitate construction on one of the existing floating bridges, but the proposal has been continuously met with opposition from the same rich Bellevue-ites who don’t want a fancy rail system decreasing their property values. I also don’t believe the light rail would combat the culture of driving in the Seattle Metro area, especially when the markets of Everett (north of Seattle) to Tacoma (south of Seattle) and the other Eastside areas are accounted for.

The cultures of the two cities is another problem. Bellevue has been on the rise for years. To call it a suburb is a disservice in a way: it has grown to become its own city—a smaller, more compact version of Seattle. I would say a minor rivalry has been brewing since Bellevue began its ascension, and I don’t think Sonics supporters would claim a team in Bellevue as their own, even (or especially) if it was still held on to the Seattle forename. I would predict a brief honeymoon period where the Bellevue Supersonics would be embraced by most of western Washington, only to see attendance decline as fans stop braving the stop-and-go traffic to see a team that would still belong to a city other than their own. Then the Sonics could find themselves in the same position that led to their departure in the first place (minus the owner publicly making the team worse so he could pack it up and skip town).

Yes, I’m getting ahead of myself, just like everyone else. I want a team to return Seattle as much as any Seattlite, but I want it to succeed.

P.S. Any Sonics post is reason enough to link to the Presidents of the United States of America song, “Supersonics” and Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Not in Our House.”

A Little Creative Outlet

Lately my writing has been a little sidetracked by what I’ll just refer to here as real-life writing and trying to get the blog moved and redesigned. In search of another creative outlet, I decided to grab a pencil and paper and attempt my first drawing in years. Well, here it is. It’s not perfect; there are some crazy issues with proportion and foreshortening there, but still, not bad for shaking off the rust, if I do say so myself.

Starter: Blake Griffin

Who is he? After playing two seasons at University of Oklahoma, Blake Austin Griffin was the first overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Clippers.

Why do we like him? Most notably, we’re making Griffin a TNIB starter for his basketball fury. A knee injury forced him to miss all of last season, and last night he made his NBA debut in spectacular fashion. Dude scored 20 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, and had four assists in his first game, which is a great stat line but doesn’t show how good he really was. Not only did he dunk over pretty much the whole Blazers team and seemed like he wanted to break the Staples Center, but he ran fast breaks like a (very large) guard. Griffin’s feel for the game is impressive, as is his willingness to sacrifice his body despite a history of injuries (he also had two minor knee injuries and a concussion in college). Unfortunately, his team lost because he disappeared in the second half. That wasn’t really Griffin’s fault, though. He disappeared because the Blazers defense played well toward the end of the game, his teammates forgot he existed and refused to pass to him, and he was clearly exhausted from carrying his team through the first half.


*Youtube videos via @Jose3030, who you need to follow if you’re on the Twitters.

October Madness II

Last fall, I made two sets of predictions: first I tried to guess every matchup for the FBS bowl season. That went very poorly. Then I tried to predict the NCAA Men’s Tournament field in October. This went a little bit better, as I predicted 32 of the 65 teams in the field, and even nailed a handful of seeds exactly. While the football experiment went so badly that I decided not to punish you all with a repeat performance, I had fun picking the tournament field, and this year 68 teams get to go instead of 65 (thankfully not 96). My goal this year: 40 teams, 10 exact seeds. We’ll call it the 40-10 Challenge.

I’ve also decided, as a means to help aid my quest for the 40-10, that I will forgo tossing my personal affections into my picks. So Penn State, Hofstra, and Boston College will all not be found below. Sorry, locals; it hurts me too.

East Regional—Newark, NJ1.

Michigan State: My top overall seed. Kalin Lucas, Delvon Roe, Durrell Summers, Korie Lucious…Tom Izzo made a wise choice returning to East Lansing; there’s more talent there than with the Cavs.

16.Sam Houston State vs. Quinnipiac: Two teams that almost qualified last year get rewarded with a battle to face Izzo’s Spartans.

9. San Diego State: Led by Kawhi Leonard, the Aztecs will have one of the country’s most experienced and dangerous front courts.

8. Maryland: The Terrapins are a bit of an unknown after losing three seniors that averaged double digits scoring, including emotional leader Greivis Vasquez, but Sean Mosley is a leader and Jordan Williams could be the Terps’ next star.

5. Texas: Rick Barnes lost three starters from last year’s underachieving squad, but stellar freshman Tristan Thompson should help soften the blow.

12. Play-in Game! Washington State vs. Indiana: The Cougars could be fighting for the Pac-10’s dignity as a major conference while Tom Crean could be on the verge of making the Hoosiers a March mainstay once more.

13. Akron: Zeke Marshall should develop in the middle and Brett McKnight provides veteran leadership to the MAC champs.

4. Syracuse: No Big East team lost more than the Orange, but with Rick Jackson, Kris Joseph, and Scoop Jardine still in the mix, they’ll find themselves near the top of the conference again. Look out for the latest Melo in upstate New York, freshman center Fab Melo.

3. Ohio State: The Buckeyes lose Evan Turner, but return everyone else, and add an awesome freshman class led by Jared Sullinger.

14. Western Kentucky: One of the most consistently dangerous mid-major programs, the Hilltoppers could make early noise this year in the Puerto Rico tip-off with UNC and Minnesota as possible opponents.

11. Seton Hall: I was wrong on the Pirates last year; so help me god, I won’t be wrong again. New coach Kevin Willard, former Louisville assistant under Pitino, has one of the best offensive teams in the country, and a wide open Big East.

6. Virginia Tech: The Hokies lost nobody from last year’s 25-9 squad and are led by phenomenal talent Malcolm Delaney. They shouldn’t be left sweating on Selections Sunday again.

7. Butler: Last year’s Final Four darlings shouldn’t fall too far back, but Gordan Heyward’s early escape to the NBA does hurt a bit. Detroit has the talent to challenge in the Horizon, but nobody in conference can match their depth.

10. Clemson: The Tigers lost their coach (Oliver Purnell) and star (Trevor Booker), but have everyone else back, including seniors Demontez Stitt and Jerai Grant.

15. Coastal Carolina: The Chanticleers just missed out on a trip to the NCAAs last year, but a pair of former Gamecocks, Chad Gray and Mike Holmes, should be more than enough to get them there this year.

2. Kansas State: Frank Martin is developing the Wildcats into a perennial powerhouse, and Jacob Pullen should compete for Big 12 Player of the Year.

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State of Major High School Basketball

With prospects that arrive and depart from campus within a year, college hoops stars are often gone before we get to know them. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m always interested in where these guys came from as much as where they end up going. I decided to dig into three recent recruiting classes to see what the numbers tell us about where the future stars of the NCAA tourney and the NBA are coming from.

I went to the excellent website Rivals.com and looked at their top 150 prospects for the 2009, 2010, and 2011 recruiting classes (the John Wall/Sophomores, incoming freshmen, and current high school seniors) and broke them down by home state. The numbers, I must warn, will be slightly skewed because there are some powerhouse prep schools located in states where basketball doesn’t necessarily otherwise thrive. For instance, New Hampshire has twelve top 150 prospects over the three year spread, placing them in the middle of the pack statewise, however all twelve went to prep schools and were from other states, including a whopping eight that attended Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro. However, if we’re thinking about what we’re tracking here, this is where these guys play ball, where they train, where they are coached, and where they compete, so by that token, the numbers are 100% accurate.
The numbers: 1. California: 42Texas: 423. North Carolina: 364. Virginia: 285. Georgia: 276. Illinois: 247. Florida: 228. Maryland: 169. Indiana: 1510. New York: 1411. New Jersey: 13Tennessee: 1313. New Hampshire: 1214. Alabama: 10Nevada: 10 Michigan: 10Ohio: 1018. Pennsylvania: 9Mississippi: 9Washington: 9 21. Massachusetts: 822. Missouri: 6South Carolina: 6Arizona: 625. Connecticut: 5Minnesota: 527. Arkansas: 4Kentucky: 4Oregon: 4Wisconsin: 4West Virginia: 432. Iowa: 3District of Columbia: 3Utah: 3Louisiana: 336. Oklahoma: 2New Mexico: 238. Rhode Island: 1Kansas: 1Canada: 141. Colorado: 0Nebraska: 0Montana: 0Wyoming: 0Hawaii: 0 Maine: 0Vermont: 0Idaho: 0North Dakota: 0South Dakota: 0Delaware: 0

What I learned:There was no surprise at the top with large states known for their athletics, and Texas and California lead the way. Colleges like UCLA and University of Texas benefit from this “hometown” advantage in recruiting.
Interestingly, though, there didn’t appear to be as much of a “hometown” advantage as in football. The University of Kansas flourishes because of their ability to recruit nationally. Likewise, schools with prominent hoop histories are like Wisconsin, West Virginia, Kentucky, and UConn are forced to draw from all over the country to keep their rosters stocked.
The same high/prep schools kept popping up. Among the schools that had seven or more prospects over the three years are: Hargrave Military Academy (VA), Oak Hill Academy (VA), Brewster Academy (NH), and Findlay Prep (NV). That means in any given year, these teams are fielding full rosters of Division I major conference talent players. Other schools with four or more prospects: DeMatha (MD), South Kent (CT), Rice (NY), Chicago/Whitney Young (IL), Word of God Christian Academy (NC), Quality Education Academy (NC), Arden/Christ School (NC), St.Patrick’s (NJ), Christian Life Center (TX), and Mater Dei (CA).
Likewise, certain cities kept popping up. Cities that had three or more high schools sending prospects: Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Raleigh, Chicago, Richmond, Atlanta, Memphis, Jackson (MS), Portland (OR), Washington (DC), Seattle, Birmingham, Phoenix, Baltimore, Charlotte, and New York. Memphis, Chicago, and Dallas were the most prominent. Notable exceptions: Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, St. Louis, Detroit, Miami, San Francisco, Denver, Minneapolis/St.Paul, and Oklahoma City.
I also noticed that some programs that not so long ago were considered upstarts are now regularly are attracting top talent. Gonzaga, Butler, and Xavier are dipping from the same pool as Michigan State, Memphis, and Syracuse. They can not be considered underdogs any longer.
I found it interesting that some colleges with past prestige would struggle to recruit in their own cities. In places like Texas where cities like Dallas and Houston are fertile recruiting grounds, there are multiple programs finding success. Last year alone, Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, UTEP, Houston, and North Texas all made the NCAA tourney. By the same token, the city of Memphis supplies talent to in-state powerhouses like Vandy, Tennessee, and Memphis. The two notable exceptions? What about DePaul in Chicago and St. John’s in New York? St. John’s has struggled to attract local talent with guys like Lance Stephenson (Cincinnati), Durand Scott (Miami), and Tobias Harris (Tennessee), but this year coach Steve Lavin has them on the brink of returning to success. DePaul, meanwhile, has a new coach in Oliver Purnell, but is much further away from competing. If Purnell can get a little something out of what he’s got, DePaul could find themselves at the epicenter of Midwest hoops. They may want to hurry up though; next year’s class is particularly deep, but the city’s top three prospects have already committed to Kentucky, Louisville, and Illinois.
Speaking of Kentucky, does anyone recruit more widely than John Calipari? This year’s freshmen include top 100 prospects from Oregon, Florida, California, and Virginia. Next year’s class already is drawing top 20 talent from Indiana, New Jersey, Illinois, and Oregon.
Know a great prep matchup coming to your area? Post it in the comments. And keep your eyes open in the coming weeks for our massive NCAA hoops preview as well.

**Photo Courtesy of  Chris Fleck via Creative Commons License