With less than a month left in the regular season, it’s time to start focusing on the awards. For NBA Rookie of the Year there are many worth candidates. Here’s a look at the top five candidates to take home the 2008-09 NBA ROY award:
5. Eric Gordon, Los Angeles Clippers
Once given a starting spot, Gordon took off. Although he doesn’t have great height for the shooting guard position, he’s built like a tank and his strength makes him dangerous anywhere on the court.
4. Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder
Early on, it appeared as if Westbrook could be a bust. But he …read more

Anybody with a pulse has probably been keeping up with what’s been going on at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.
The United States basketball team destroyed Spain today 119-82 to advance to the medal round. This should come as no surprise. The U.S. has been abusing the competition since they got off the plane in Beijing and will no doubt bring home the gold and make up for the sins of the 2004 team that had to settle for the bronze.
Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Carmello Anthony and other members of the “Redeemed Team” are showing the rest …read more

If you like studying the NFL combine numbers and all, you’ll get a kick out of the NBA Pre-Draft numbers gathered in Orlando last week.
Thanks to rushthecourt.wordpress.com for bringing these numbers to my attention. And much thanks to draftexpress.com for their up close and personal work from Orlando last week.
You can see all of the numbers aka player heights, wingspans, body fats, verticals, etc here
Now on to some musings that may or may not completely correlate to the numbers
The no shoes height number is interesting to look at and all, but basically I wouldn’t worry about whether a guy …read more

Here are some closing thoughts as this Saturday is winding down:
- Oh how I wish I could have watched Washington State take apart Notre Dame. That is an impressive win. Notre Dame can ball it.
- Marquette deserved a better fate than they got against Stanford. Lopez’ last second baseline leaner was a lucky shot. He was heading out of bounds and wasn’t very square with the hoop. But those are the breaks.
- Xavier looked very impressive against a very good Purdue team. I have Xavier going to the Final Four in a couple of my brackets.
- UCLA should consider …read more

College basketball returns from its holiday hiatus with some great games this week. Here are a few games to keep an eye on…
Thursday January 3rd: #5 UCLA at #20 Stanford – the Pac-10 conference wars start up as Stanford’s Twin Towers (Brook and Robin Lopez) host freshman phenom Kevin Love and the UCLA Bruins. This matchup will give the winner an early leg up in the battle for the Pac-10 crown.
Saturday January 5th: Oregon at #21 Arizona – Oregon is slumping a bit after two consecutive road losses (at Nebraska, at Oakland) and a narrow home victory over Mount St. …read more

Things have gone from bad to worse for Stanford Cardinal sophomore forward Brook Lopez. Earlier this month, Lopez was ruled academically ineligible for the fall quarter. Now, the Cardinal have suspended Lopez indefinitely for a violation of team rules.