My favorite month is September.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again I’m sure.  The smells, the way the temperatures drop a little, little kids at football practice, you name it I love it all.  Not to mention college football starts, pro football starts and baseball gets near playoff time.  But my favorite thing about September is that it ends and turns into October when college basketball and high school basketball officially get under way.

Each year I try to watch Hoosiers once to remind myself of the great sport that high school basketball is.  I never won a state championship and it bothers me to this day.  I played at some large schools and had some great memories but I wanted that state title.  All over the country kids have been working hard all summer long for their opportunity to play, whether it be a senior year or freshman year, the time is now.  I’m often asked when I started to take basketball serious and it was in 7th grade.  I started then at really working hard and developing as a player.  I’m a little concerned with kids now who are spending too much time on video games or the computer instead of playing ball outside somewhere.

What it comes down is that you don’t have all the time you think you do.  The time flies by and it is never the same.  Those of you preparing for high school basketball please realize what a precious time you have at your disposal.  I often ask people why so many people are interested in high school sports because I know the answer.  The answer is simple…we all wish we were still out there.  We all wish the cheerleaders were cheering for us and people were yelling our name.  We wish we had that feeling of being in shape and performing in front of large crowds.  We want that feeling again of being a part of something bigger than ourselves.

If you are reading this and still in high school, please enjoy it.  For those of you that aren’t, get out and watch some games this fall and look back thankfully at those experiences of youth.

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It seems the Jazz don’t really care what Kirilenko says on the topic they are expecting him to live up to his contract and show up when training camp starts.  The Jazz can expect it all they want but it doesn’t mean he’ll play hard at all.  He is and will more and more of a team cancer as the season gets closer to beginning. 

In a recent radio interview that is now an article in the Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com/sports/ci_6970226, Deron Williams clearly stated that Kirilenko doesn’t work as hard as the other players and if he had the choice to pass between Kirilenko or Matt Harpring then the choice was obvious. 

It’s a good article for anyone who has an opinion on the subject.  My opinion remains strong to get rid of the guy as soon as you can before you lose more leverage in the deal.  If the Jazz are serious about trading him then get it done because the back and forth is just beginning.  Now that Deron Williams has called him out Kirilenko will more than likely come back with a jab and with each comment the Jazz are more and more forced to deal him. 

I won’t write another separate blog on this for a while, any updates will just be additions.

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I love this guy.  Andrei Kirilenko reportedly wants out of Utah.  In a report that is circulating over every sports website, Kirilenko blames Jerry Sloan for wanting out of the organization.  I find this so funny that I can’t stop laughing.  Do the Jazz even care anymore?  We are talking about a player who averaged 8 points and 4 rebounds a game and couldn’t hit the side of a barn with his shot outside of 5 feet.  I live in Utah and Andrei is like the girl in school that kisses you one day and won’t talk to you the next.  You just don’t know what you are going to get or expect. 

But let’s look into this further.  He lost some playing time this past season to rookie Paul Milsap.  Milsap had a great season and surely would’ve been a first round pick if the draft was done again.  Milsap makes Kirilenko very expendable.  Does Kirilenko shoot the ball well or is he a threat on offense?  No.  He is barely guarded when he is outside of the key.  He lacks strength and isn’t a great foul shooter.  Is it Jerry Sloan’s fault that Andrei can’t make a jumper?  Of course not.  Milsap does all the little things at a much smaller price and constantly provides a spark for the team.  He brought heart every game which is something that Utah questions about Andrei.  If Andrei is going well then he is all over the court with energy, but give him an early foul and you may as well go sit him in the locker room.  When Andrei is on his game there are few players who are better defensively.  He can guard multiple positions and with his ‘go go gadget’ arms he seems to block or nearly block any shot that is taken around him.  I’ll miss that but nothing else. 

Let someone else have this guy because he is the 4th option for the Jazz now and doesn’t deserve the touches.  He lost the confidence of his point guard and rightfully so.  Deron Williams is a future all star and when you couple him with Okur and Boozer you have the nucleus.  Kirilenko is on the outside looking in and it bothers him.   I say stick Milsap in there and let’s see what happens.  I know you wont’ see a much different win loss record because Milsap provides the intangibles so well.

I’ve heard and read rumors of Shawn Marion for Kirilenko and it makes me laugh.  Did the Suns watch any game film of Kirilenko?  Will he do that much better playing in a running game when he lacks the ability to finish like Marion does?  Nash won’t like it I can tell you that much.  At this point I’d take whatever I could get as soon as I could get it and say thanks.  If he doesn’t want to be in Utah then Utah will want nothing to do with him.

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Let’s get right to the point.  With Midnight Madness less than a month away these 5 players have their campuses very excited and give each program hope for a Final 4 spot in March.

 #5….Michael Beasley (Kansas St.)  Highly sought after recruit who probably would’ve gone wherever Bob Huggins ended up.  Huggins was smart and didn’t waste his year away from coaching.  He took the time to establish some good relationships with kids without having to adhere to all the rules that follow coaches.  Then Huggins left for West Virginia and Beasley is staying put.  Beasley is a 6*9 beast of a player with strong offensive and defensive skills.  He is very athletic and will be able to guard most small forwards in college basketball.  He’ll be one and done and a lottery pick next season barring injury.

 #4…Derrick Rose (Memphis)  Rose was clearly the best player in Illinois last year and spurned the Illini for Memphis.  He will play for a solid team and a coach with pro experience.  Rose is a do it all point guard who has amazing court vision and athleticism.  He can get to the rim at will and makes his teammates better.  If he develops a consistent jumper he’ll be a top 5 pick in the draft next year.  Without it he may be in school for a couple years.  My gut feeling is that he’ll have an average season and decide to come out for the draft.

#3…Kevin Love (UCLA)  Ben Howland got a great player in Love.  After watching video of this kid, he is very polished and ready to play from the start.  Great court vision for a player his size and a good passer.  Has excellent post moves and is very smooth.  I look for Love to be one and done also as he would’ve been a top 10 pick this season had he come out.

#2…Eric Gordon (Indiana)  I absolutely love watching this kid play basketball.  Great shooter, great scorer and great athlete.  Has good size, strength, long arms and can defend.  I wish he were wearing the orange and blue but instead he’s Kelvin Sampsons to screw up.  Sampson hasn’t produced a lot of pros despite being considered a great recruiter.  Gordon will change that as he’ll be gone after one excellent season at Indiana. 

#1…Oj Mayo (USC)  We’ve all been following him for years and I’m shocked he’s playing in Southern California.  Who would’ve guessed this?  When he was getting scholarship offers in 8th grade, Tim Floyd was still coaching the Bulls.  Now here we are years later and Mayo is in the Pac 10.  Great size, strength and the ability to score every time he touches the ball sets him apart.  I put on the top because he is going to bring visibility to this program that it hasn’t seen before.  USC will be on tv now and start it’s progression away from just being a football school and Mayo is a major factor there.  He’ll be a lottery selection in next years draft.

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The Trailblazers have to be reeling with the news of Oden’s microfracture surgery.  I know I’ve mentioned it earlier but it bears repeating.  Greg Oden, though he looks 40, is only 20 years old and having a major knee surgery that will keep him out this season and he may not be at full strength by the time next season rolls around.  People in Portland are having visions of Bowie all over again.

The Mavericks announced that they have resigned Devin Harris to a 5 year 42 million dollar contract.   Harris was a lottery selection out of Wisconsin where he gave my Illini fits.  He has been somewhat of a disappointment early in his career but had career highs of 10 points and 4 assists a game.  I’m a bit of a Harris fan, like I’m a fan of infectious diseases.  The guy flops more than the combined amount of falls in a World Cup soccer game.  He spends more time rolling on the wood then he does running on it.  He’s the american version of Vlade Divac.  Let the Mavericks have him and continue to lose in the first round of the playoffs.  Nobody can really defend Baron Davis, but Harris was schooled there and couldn’t answer on the offensive end like Deron Williams did against him. 

Allan Houston is apparently going to be a Net.  I like this for New Jersey.  The guy claims to have a healthy pain free knee.  I think that’s kind of ironic considering it was arthritic before.  Have they found a cure for arthritis yet?  I didn’t think so.  The guy is a 15 minute a night player and will provide a big spark at times for them.  I wouldn’t draft in fantasy sports by any means but I hope he does well. 

Lastly, I just got a hunch that Kevin Durant might be the rookie of the year favorite.  Oh and the gm that took him just might get a raise and say that he would’ve taken him even if he had the top pick.  Sure…we all would have.

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Greg Oden was questionably the best player in the NBA draft this year.  The Blazers had a choice of Greg Oden and Kevin Durant.  After Greg Oden was clearly outperformed by Durant in the summer leagues and nearly making the Olympic squad, the Blazers could have been questioning if they made the right choice with that selection.  However a recent injury and surgery has to alarm the Blazers as they look forward to the coming season. 

Greg Oden recently announced that he’ll be having surgery done to one of his knees that has been bothering him for quite some time.  Let’s put this in perspective, Oden is only 19 years old and not even in his first season yet and in the past two years he’s had a major wrist injury, tonsillitis and now knee surgery.  What’s that about?  I know that many people have these things happen but this has to bring up some red flags.  I remember another high pick the Blazers had that got hurt right away and it has cursed the franchise ever since.  Sam Bowie.  Now I’m not saying that Oden will fall the way of Sam Bowie at all but this has to make you question if this is a pattern following the likes of Marcus Camby.

I’ve had Marcus Camby on my fantasy team for a number of seasons and he’s great to have until you see the DNP-ripped fingernail.  I hope that Oden gets healthy because he is as exciting a prospect as I’ve seen in a while.  Defensively he could have played in the NBA when he was in high school.  He will develop offensively but anyone who watched the national championship could clearly see that he was head and shoulders better than Noah and Horford down low.  He dominated two of the better big men in college last season. 

But just like I’ve called Marcus Camby Mr. Glass for the past few years I may have found a new nickname for Greg Oden…Lladro.  For those that don’t know it is the real expensive porcelain that is hand carved from Spain.  Very expensive and a big money loss when broken.

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Webster’s dictionary has commitment as a pledge or a promise or an obligation.  I have no reason to doubt Mr. Webster or Mrs. Webster for that matter or even Miss Webster if that’s the case.  I do doubt though whether the NCAA should change the word committed when talking about college athletics. 

Since this is a basketball blog I will keep it focused on that, but in college football the term commitment is as loose as it gets.  Players constantly are changing where they say they are going to go.  Basketball hasn’t been that way in the past as when a player commits to a school other schools tended to focus on other players to sway.  Football also has many many more scholarships to fill each season and they can afford to continue to recruit committed players.  However, in basketball that simply isn’t the case.  Most college coaches only have a couple scholarships each year to give out and have to use their time and energy wisely.  To go after a committed player is a strain on recruiting resources and is a big gamble.

Eric Gordon, in my opinion the best player from last years high school class, had committed to the University of Illinois.  You all know my love for the Illini so I won’t try to hide it.  Kelvin Sampson got the Indiana job after Mike Davis was let go and went after Gordon.  Gordon decommitted from Illinois and signed with Indiana.  I was crushed.  Eric Gordon is a one and done player and a signature recruit for a coaching staff.  As much as it pains me to write this I don’t think Sampson did a lot wrong here.  Sampson had to give it a shot as Gordon was an Indiana kid and nobody ever told him ‘no’.  He was doing his job.  In the coaching ranks it is being debated whether or not this is ethical or not and some would say that it isn’t ethical to go after a committed player.  Personally I see both sides of this argument and I have a hard time siding with either of them. 

Basketball has the advantage of having 2 signing periods throughout the year where football only has one.  That plays a large role in decommits as so much can happen in a year.  What I think needs to happen and should happen is that a player signs a letter once he has committed and if he wants out then it would have to be granted.  It would force kids to make more thought out decisions and teach them to learn to live with their choices.  Football needs to add a second signing day plain and simple and they will see this cut down a lot.  If they don’t they will continue to have recruits poached up until and including signing day.

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Recently the University of Illinois, my favorite school by a long way, lost their top assistant coach Tracy Webster to the University of Kentucky.  This has caused an uproar to Illini Nation and has disturbed me a little bit.  I’m a die hard fan who will live and die with whatever decisions are made but the decision that is to be made by coach Bruce Weber is a big one.  He has to pick someone who can recruit Chicago well, has a good name and recognition.  A name being thrown around right now is Dickey Simpkins, formerly of the beloved Chicago Bulls.  It got me thinking a little bit about former players that have coached and how well they done as coaches whether in the pros or college.  Now I’m going to leave some out of course because I’m going off memory but bear with me a little bit here.

Isiah Thomas-  I’m still messed up by the spelling and pronunciation of his name.  This guy was an amazing basketball player and clearly one of the top 50 players ever to play the game, but he hasn’t faired so well in his coaching and especially gm roles.  Isiah coached the Pacers and was let go by Larry Bird there.  He didn’t do bad.  Now he coaches the Knicks in an attempt to clean up his mess there.  Isiah is a .500 coach so far in his career.   I think this year will make or break him as a coach and could be his last chance.

Clyde Drexler-University of Houston-  This didn’t last long at all.  Being a college coach is much tougher than a pro coach in that it is a full time year round job.  Not that being a pro coach isn’t tough it’s crazy, but Clyde lasted a season here and realized it just wasn’t for him. 

Bill Russell-  In my opinion, one of the top 10 players of all time and the guy I would want on my team over anyone to play the game.  Statistically wasn’t that great of an offensive player but there hasn’t been a defender like him since he retired.  Bill Russell actually player coached the Celtics very successfully and had a decent run with the Sonics in the mid 70′s before bombing as the Kings coach for not even a full season. 

Let’s change gears a little bit….

 Phil Jackson, Jerry Sloan, Pat Riley, Scott Skiles, Byron Scott, Don Nelson, George Karl…never mind.  Players can and are great coaches go ahead and hire Dickey Simpkins Illinois and sign some good kids for me so I start to sleep at night.

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I wanted to devote a blog to one of my favorite products that is being sold on the market right now.  I love the strength shoe.  If you have read any of my articles on www.hoopskills.com you would find that I reference them a lot throughout as they played a huge role in the development of my speed and quickness. 

I had one of the original sets and in fact I still have them today.  They are old and worn down and the tread is absolutely useless at this stage in the game, but I can’t give them up.  Part of it is sentimentality and the other part is loyalty.  How could I throw away something that played such a large role in getting my schooling paid for?

When I was younger and they had just come out people would make fun of my shoes as I played regular games with them.  But when I could compete with players with those shoes on then they knew I’d do better when I took them off.  The most obvious effect for me was in my first step and in my ability to accelerate quickly.  People ask if it helped my jumping and I can’t say that it did, but for many others it has for sure helped their jumping ability. 

I would love to get some comments from other people who have tried them but let me leave with a story of mine.  They didn’t stay in the closet and they weren’t put away when other people were around.  I wore them.  I wore them when I was doing conditioning and I wore them while i practiced each day.  I did all my drills in them and I didn’t allow my results to decrease as a result.  I didn’t let the shoes become an excuse.  Was I a better ballplayer because I wore those shoes?  Yes, I believe I was.  But I can say that I was a better ballplayer because no matter what kind of shoes I was wearing I was playing and working to get better.  That’s what matters and if you get the shoes and work at it you’ll see the results like I did.  Again, i’d love to get some stories on how people have used the shoes or I’ll field questions on them as I get some questions that come in occasionally through the site.

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It could be.  Now I have some serious gripes when I watch these guys play but I’m not sure how much of it is straight personal bias.  I love watching these guys play together for the most part with the other part being when Kobe Bryant gets the ball.  I watched a game last week when Lebron James didn’t get a shot for minutes while Kobe was trying to dribble around player after player.  I wonder if they ever remind him that they aren’t in LA.  The straw that stirs this teams drink is James.  He is one of the few guys that makes everyone else better out there.  He has what Magic and Larry had as a player.  Size and all around ability.  He can’t help but pass to an open player.  When he is on the top of the zones I feel very confident that someone will get a wide open shot or a dunk.  They have fast breaks all game long with James, Bryant and Anthony and that is as close to as good as it gets.

The best thing the country has done is gone to a program.  I can see the difference and as much as I dislike his game at times, Bryant is the teams leader on the court.  The players clearly look to him for guidance and Bryant expects it out of himself.  But the program being established has set the tone and with the crushing of Argentina on Sunday by 37 points the USA has sent the message that they are back. 

With a guaranteed Olympic spot and the odds on favorites to win the gold we can only hope that no injuries take place except to Tyson Chandler (just kidding), maybe that way we can get another big man or two to help Stoudamire as a scoring threat.  Teams let Howard go one on one all game and they don’t even sniff at Chandler when he’s out there.  Let’s just hope no injuries take place and that the USA brings home the gold in 2008.

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