Georgia Underdogs

Georgia had tremendous heart going into today's game against Xavier. The underdogs got out to an early lead with Gaines and Woodbury. Soon, Xavier began battling cutting the lead to two. Surged, Woodbury hit a floater in the after 3 straight misses by the Underdogs. Hard defense by both teams makes it hard for anyone to score. Bliss got into foul trouble early with 2 foul midway through the 1st half. Gaines leads his team giving the a 7 point lead. At the break Georgia leads 36-26.
The 2ND half started out with a Georgia bucket by Bliss. The Underdogs showed great confidence and that the SEC is still a tough conference. The Under Dogs were having fun and relaxed. A steal by Lavender gives Xavier a serge. Still Georgia finds a way to score. Gaines ,playing like a pro, gets yet another steal and dunks on the other end. Now forced to call a time out 41- 30.Woodbury played like a pro with stop an pops when his team needed them. # 31 answers with the three. High intensity and sloppy play keeps the game close with a 10 point lead for Georgia. Xavier cuts it to 6 with aggression by Duncan. Fouls hurt Georgia . Humphrey picked up two in 10 seconds. Wow, turnovers and sloppy play allowed Xavier to come back. Rebounds and steals by Gaines keep hoop alive for Georgia. Stop and pop for three by Humphry. On defense, Georgia uses a 1-3-1. This zone defense is very effective for the underdogs. Turnovers hurt Georgia late. Woodbury tries to carry some of the load from Gaines. Gaines gets two the hard way but no foul. Still carrying the team, Gaines picks up #4. Gaines and Bliss use the pick and roll to keep the game close. The game starts to slip away under th minuete mark.

Clemson vs. Duke :Tigers roars, Blue Devils defeated

Going into the game on Sat. Match 15,2008, Duke seemed to be the favorites over Clemson. Clemsen's last win over Duke was in 1997. Some say that this was Clemson's best team in years.

Texas Longhorns Must Re-Enter a Winning State of Mind

The Texas started out 11-0 which matches the best start of Longhorn Basketball. It seemed that Texas was on a role and only looking to get better. Unfortunately, fatigue and a tough schedule stopped their winning streak. On December 22,2007, Texas lossed to Michigan State at the Palace of Auburn Hills. This loss made them fall from no.5 to no.9 . Still in the top ten, Texas was favored to win on December 29, 2007 vs. Wisconsin. In the final moments of the game, a questionable 3 pointer fired off by Augustin with 14 seconds on the shot clock and a missed free throw by Abrams late in the game would come back to haunt them. After the Abrams took his free throw, Wisconsin quickly went to their end of the court. A screen up top was set for Micheal Flowers.The Longhorns gave a pretty weak hedge and Flowers, poised, threw up a 3 point shot. Texas was down one with 2 seconds left. The Longhorns did not call a timeout and tried quickly to in-bound the ball. Atchley attempted to pass it in to Augustin, but it was stolen by Flowers. And thus, Texas received yet another loss. With losses to Michigan St.(who last year handed Texas a loss) and Wisconsin (a struggling team also) they are currently ranked 14Th . Texas is still looking up. With a new year under way and Conference play, the Longhorns can still make a march for the post season. D.J. Augustin is still one of the best if not the best point guard in College Basketball. They have talented guards in Mason and Abrams. Their front line also can look up. Damion James plays big every night for Texas. Also with Freshmen Forward Gary Johnson, who was sidelined because of a heart condition, is expected play at TCU on Jan. 2, 2008. It is only a matter of time for Texas to re-enter a winning state of mind.

Arizona Wildcat Basketball Arizona v. Illnois.

Arizona Wildcats can be said to be a team with adversary. From losing crucial games against unranked-put solid Virginia and ranked Kansas. But inspite of the adversary, Arizona sees the light through it all. Jerryd Bayless, only a freshmen, is the unprecedented leader of this Arizona team. Bayless surges his team with his energy and defence. He has a cunning eye to score. In Arizona vs. Illinois game at the United Center, Arizona did what they had done all season. In the first half of the game, Illinois completely shutdown Jerryd Bayless. He had no points in the first 19:30 of the game. In the first half Arizona shot 36% from the field and 20% from the 3 point line. The Baylessness scored about 18 PPG in the previous game. Shaun Pruit had his way in the paint first off. Jordan Hill kept Arizona close to striking distance. Hill hit huge shots and made defensive plays to keep his team in the game.Brock and Frazier made amazing plays to add to the Illini lead. Mike Tisdale made three that made Illinois pull away in the first half. Suprisingly, Arizona found an answer. With 23 seconds left on the clock, Jerryd Bayless hit a big three to accomidate a run by the Wildcats.
In the second half, Arizona seemed yet again surged by Jerryd Bayless's energy. Nic Wise made tremindous plays to help with the come back. Wise improved his game tremindously for Arizona. Jordan Hill had 23 points and 14 rebounds to lead his team. Trenton Mechom and Brock looking for the win made three for the Illini. Chase Budinger also added 8 point and 3 assists. But the hero was unquestionably Jerryd Bayless. Bayless had 17 point in the second half including OT. The last play after a Jordan Hill put back to tie the game, the Illini brought the ball down and Frazier attemped a shot with seconds left Nic Wise block the shot attemp and thus the end o regulation to overtime.
In OT, Budinger scored a 2 pointer at 4:41. Arizona found a way to stop Pruit and the Illini guard play. In the end, it was Jerryd Bayless all day. The play of the game was Jerryd Bayless driving and rising up for a monster slam. Later, Bayless made major free throws for the Arizona win. Jerryd Bayless's game is pretty yet powerful. He is the leader of the team on the court.
Later, Bayless talks about all-star coach Lute Olson. "Coach Olson is a great coach," said Bayless "We're going to give him his privacy, and we're going to wish him the best of whatever is going on. We just have to move on without him." A mature move by the Freshmen point guard striving to bring his game back to amazing play.

Texas Longhorns Doin' Just Fine

Today the number 8 Texas Longhorns squared off against Kevin Love the number 2 ranked UCLA Bruins. Many thought with the loss of stud guard-forward Kevin Durant that Texas would lose its ability to win as well. But the Texas Longhorns are doin' just fine. They are getting along very well without Kevin Durant in their offense. They are stronger. Perhaps the difference maker is D.J. Augustine who posted 19 points in tonight's game. He improved his scoring as well as his "point guard vision" over the summer.
The game started out with UCLA on top and soon Texas gained the lead. At the half, Texas led by 12 points. The superior guard play of Texas got them up early. Mason was Mr. Hot Shot in the first half, but D.J Augustin was The Second Coming of Steve Nash throughout the entire game. In the second half, got UCLA back into the game. Damion James hit needed shot for Texas. Atchley also contributed to the Longhorn victory.They led at points during the game. D.J. Augustin had the most amazing night finishing in the lane, creating for his team as well as himself ,and also keeping poise in end-game situations. The game winner for Texas was sparked by the aggressiveness of D.J Augustin. He drove in and threw up a shot(or was it a pass) and Damion James, Augustin's other partner in rhyme followed it to be up by two. The Bruins went to the other end and got an open three point look, but missed. This is no doubt the biggest game all season so far for Texas.

Maui Madness 2007 James v. Paulus

(photos from Espn.comAP Photo/Michael Conroy)
This year's Maui Invitational was full of spectacular play as well as play not so spectacular. The two finalist, Duke and Marquette, were by far and obviously the best teams in the invitational. The EA Sports Maui Invitational Championship game was a whirlwind to say the least. Two of College basketball's most improved point guards squared off. Dominic James's game has improved. However, during the game, he made some questionable shots and missed easy looks. In Dominic James's credit, he made plays that were so spectacular that awed the Duke Defense. He slashed through the Duke defense breaking it down for easy lay ins and offensive put backs. In the end he posted 12 points. Unfortuanetly for Marquette, the ability of the Duke Blue Devils to take charges and to draw fouls aloud them to get Marquette into foul trouble. Inspite of this, the Marquette defense still went strong with intensity. Cubillan's forcefulness on the ball and much needed 3's kept Marquette in the game. Acker, also a spark of the bench, made much needed plays. Marquette's Matthews and McNeal also contributed as well with McNeal putting up 11 and Matthews chiped in 12. Hayward, the sophomore power foward, came up big with 14 points.The Dukeys also had their share of highlights. Duke constant ability to execute and score on almost every possession it seems was one of the deciding factors for the game. Although Marquette's defense held Duke's Henderson to only 7 points, Duke charged on. The projected MVP of the tournament Kyle Singler gave his team a much needed 25 points. A series offhand screen-dribble-hand off freed Paulus only for a split second but was just enough time for him to put up daggering 3's that helped keep the game in further grasp from Marquette. One of the deciding facors was the rebounding. Duke out rebounded Marquette 34-24. In the end, Marquette's Big three and bench could not overcome Duke and fell 77-73.

This Seasons Ora

This season's college basketball talent was thought to see a huge drop off in talent since the 2007 NBA draft class left to larger hights. The amazingness of Kevin Durant, the togetherness of last year's Florida Gators, and the game-changingness of Greg Oden were the hot topics and storylines of college basketball. But the news of this year is filled with even more freshmen phenoms and team oriented play. This season has a different feel and ora to it.

"Fresh" Legs Getting "All-Star" Recognition

Everyone knows that the new College Basketball freshmen class is loaded with big talent. Most of the freshmen would already be in the NBA now if it wasn't for the ruling. This Freshmen class features guards like Eric Gordon of Indiana, Derrick Rose of Memphis, O.J Mayo of USC, and Jerryd Bayless of Arizona. All of these guards have had their stardom in their respected High Schools. But does that mean that these collegiate student athletes should be decked with their own websites before even playing a regular season College Basketball game. Now don't get me wrong. The class of 2007 has its studs, but we are still talking about strictly guarded and merchandised NCAA student-athletes. These athletes are being adored and they haven't even turned 19 yet. What is up with that? But seriously folks,I "ain't mad 'em". They are making all the right moves a good businessmen would make. Basically they are preparing themselves for the future.

Back to School Again?

This is the start of something new . Today I would like to congratulate the NBA prospects that decided

to go back to school. Those were some sweet choices. But the biggest story for the number one person who needs to come back to college basketball is Dominic James. Dominic James was named freshman of the year and rookie of the year in the 2005-06 season. With his spectacular athleticism and spunk , in mock NBA drafts, he was rank 15 -20.

Unfortunately, Dominic James could not keep that up for the 2006-07 season. He started out with a bang , but soon turned for the worst. From being booed by MU students to disturbing leg cramps. This has been a trying year for James. He went to draft camps in hopes to becoming the next best PG, but James had trouble getting invited to draft camps. Even in all of that James still has basketball dreams fueled by the successes of other athletes and his ambitions of greatness.
"Dominic James, I am begging you. If you have not already, go back to college. You are way too talented to be taking this abuse. James, McNeal, and Matthews can be the big three for college basketball. Then, after your Senior year go to the draft. You will be 110% better, trust me.You are a great player just get your head on straight and practice hard don't be arrogant, as some have called you, but walk with humility .Don't take this as a set back, but take this as a learning experience and practice for the next season and the next time you enter the draft. The road to success takes a lot of off season practice and hard work. Your work ethic must improve if you want to play on the next level. It is going to take studying Steve Nash, Tony Parker, Jason Kidd, T.J. Ford, and even New Jersey's Marcus Williams. When people talk about Tiny Archibald or Earl the Pearl Monroe listen up and take notes. You must get mentally tough and make up in your mind that you are going to score when its needed. Don't just watch an NBA game, study it. Look at the spacing and the way good point guards breakdown defenses. Also look for new ways to get your shot off. You know what you have to work on so work on it so that I can see you in the NBA one day and say 'he's a hard worker' . Don't ever slack off in practice. Hustle on every level is rewarded and can compensate for your weaknesses. I am looking forward to seeing you in the MU gold and blue! Remember what one former MU player turn Finals MVP says, 'hard work pays off.' Get connected with JESUS. Accept HIM a just see where HE will take you. Dedicate your life to HIM today . Let HIM cleanse you from everything you have done wrong. I did and I will never be the same! 'For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 1 John 5:4.'For GOD so loved the world that HE gave HIS only begotten SON that whosoever believeth in HIM should no perish but have everlasting life ! 'John 3:16 " says one anonymous fan of Dominic James.After listening to Stu Jackson, his decision may be to go back to school again.