From the Frozen Wasteland

In case you missed it

2012-01-31T13:24:00.002-07:00

This happened last night.

The Clippers are bad

2012-01-12T23:06:00.000-07:00

Don Ryan / Associated Press

As part of my New Year's Resolution to only watch NBA games if I'm on my new elliptical machine (boy can I stand to lose some weight), I watched the Clippers/Blazers game while working my quads last night.

And boy are the Clippers not great.

This doesn't feel like news, considering the Clippers have been terrible for as long as I can remember (save the 2005-06 season where they made the conference semifinals), but with the talent they have this season, it's weird.

Blake Griffin flying around, blocking shots and dunking on people's heads, DeAndre Jordan doing much of the same, with Caron Butler holding it down with shooting and defense and Chris Paul directing the offense? Add in an older Chauncey Billups and you have a pretty decent starting five, if not great.

But instead, they're bad. I can't tell if Paul is just injured, but he recorded only three assists last night. I have no idea how you can play with The Blake Show and get three assists, but wow.

As my Quote of the Week indicates, Simmons believes the problem is with Clippers head coach Vinny Del Negro, who has a stellar 46% winning percentage for his career. From my vantage point, it did seem that the Clippers' offense was stagnant and involved poor ball movement, but my understanding was that Paul was the entire offense in New Orleans, so why can't he just run the show now?

It's a conundrum. Of course, with the season being as jam-packed with games as it is, we may already be seeing the effects of fatigue on some players. Combine a short training camp with weeks where you play five games in seven nights, and problems may arise.

It's be something to watch for sure this season.

Retro post: Star Wars: Episode 1

2012-01-11T17:06:00.000-07:00

This trailer was a big stinkin' deal in 1998. It's one of the first trailers I ever remember downloading from the interwebz, and I must have watched it 300 times with my brothers. The trailer represented so much promise, so much awesomeness and a whole lotta lightsabers to the 14-year-old me.

The today me sees this film for the pile of rotten that it is. Terrible acting, simplistic plot, Jar Jar Binks, etc. etc. etc.

The 1999 me saw Episode 1 eight or nine times in theaters.

In theaters!

Anyway, watching the trailer today, it's apparent that there are some really good pieces in there. That the execution was so poor is just a huge testament to Lucas' ineptitude as a director.

Anyone else remember watching this as a kid?

BYU vs. Tulsa bowl highlights

2012-01-05T18:28:00.000-07:00

BYU vs Tulsa Armed Forces Bowl 2011 from Furious Monkey on Vimeo.

First half was ugly, but a come from behind win is always fun.

Jimmer in the NBA

2012-01-04T10:14:00.000-07:00

It looks like he'll stick around. Jimmer definitely struggles defensively, but when he can consistently hit deep shots, and has a quick trigger to go with it, with good handles and passing, he'll be a commodity for most NBA teams.

The NBA is back

2011-12-27T01:59:00.000-07:00

Just an amazing video.

Basketball is back! Weekly thoughts on the season to follow.

For now, here are some abbreviated random impressions after two days.

1. The Lakers are done for this season. This predictably makes me happy.

2. The Heat look pretty darn good.

3. I know Rose looks really good, but I can't forget LeBron absolutely shutting him down in the playoffs last summer. And if the Bulls are counting on Boozer to be an integral part in their success, they have another thing coming.

4. Jimmer playing well for the Kings. Hitting more shots than he's missing, dialing in from long range, making some nice passes, etc. He'll stick around.

5. The Celtics are old.

6. If I'm Orlando, I trade Dwight for a collection of good players. This seems to have paid off for Denver, who look great in the aftermath of the Melo trade to the Knicks.

7. Lob City is gonna be fun. Chris Paul tossing it up to two of the most talented dunkers in the league night after night is fantastic.

8. Finally, the Jazz will be good, not great. Looking forward to seeing Favors and Enes and Hayward develop, while hoping Miles and Harris can hold it down.

Good to have the NBA back. The lockout wasn't positive for anyone.

December thoughts

2011-12-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

1. Woo the NBA is back! Can't wait for opening day on Christmas, and anticipate the wife will get mad at me for watching so much basketball.

2. BYU lost to TCU, beat Hawaii and are on their way to the Armed Forces Bowl to play the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes later this month. BYU could very well win 10 games this season to add to the list of mediocre seasons that seem great because the team had double-digit wins. Blegh.

3. Jake Heaps is transferring from BYU after it became apparent Riley Nelson will start next season. In my opinion, BYU chose to win now against bad/middling opponents while having no chance against great football teams. Dealing with the growing pains/mental issues of someone with the tools to make all the throws necessary is too hard, too time consuming, too frustrating.

I hope I'm wrong about Nelson, I really do. He looked pretty good against Hawaii, and that play where he ducked the pressure and threw a perfect pass to Hoffman for a touchdown in the third quarter was a thing of beauty. I'm just not convinced he can do it against Boise State in Boise, or Notre Dame in Indiana, or Utah at Rice-Eccles or Georgia Tech in Georgia (all games BYU has in 2012).

But hey, Riley will look great against Washington State, Weber State, Idaho and St. Winifred's School for the Blind in Central Texas. And BYU will get 8-9 wins, all will be well in Zion, hooray.

Then Nelson graduates and BYU is stuck with a starting QB with little to no experience for the 2013 season.

In short, I think it was a bad idea for Heaps to transfer, and I think it was a bad idea for BYU to choose Nelson over him.

4. David Stern blocking the Chris Paul-to-the-Lakers trade is annoying and seems unnecessary. If the Lakers think they can get it done with an aging Kobe and breaking-down Paul, minus Gasol and Odom, so be it. There's no way they were getting a Bynum-for-Dwight Howard trade, so the dream of Kobe/Paul/Howard was never coming true. If I'm Orlando, I look for another superstar trade chip to get in exchange for Dwight, even if it's not a center.

Football in November

2011-11-19T10:12:00.001-07:00

Image from www.bloodrunsblue.com

BYU is down four to Utah State with under two minutes to go, backed up nearly to their own endzone. Jake Heaps has struggled mightily against the Aggies tonight, leading to Bronco and Doman to decide to bench Heaps and bring in Riley Nelson to play against his old team.

Riley manages to bring the Cougars 99 yards for the game-winning touchdown, bedlam ensues, and my brother Seth and I look at each other with worried looks on our faces.

We knew one thing: Nelson is fool's gold.

Good enough to beat bad teams, will never, ever be the reason BYU beat a great team, or even a very good team. His throwing ability has improved this season from last, but he still has low arm strength and extremely questionable decision-making skills.

Heaps has not been much better this season, and definitely deserved to be benched. But for the long term, Heaps is the answer.

As evidenced last week, Lark is not going to take this team anywhere, and if he gets playing time over Munns, Munns has got to be even worse.

What a bad quarterback situation we have in 2011.

Then Riley broke a rib against the mighty Vandals and it looks like it's Heaps' show the rest of the way. He looked fine against Idaho, but let's be honest; it's Idaho.

Tonight's game against New Mexico State is actually a bit intriguing. This may be BYU's closest match in an opponent since that Aggie game in September. While these Aggies are only 4-6, they can put up points. They dropped 28 on Minnesota (in a win), 42 on New Mexico and 48 on Fresno State. While none of those may be good teams, it still shows these guys can get the ball in the endzone, and seem to be improving over time.

New Mexico State seems like a passing team, with 23 of their touchdowns coming through the air, but they can also run, with 14 of their scores coming on the ground. I worry most about BYU's pass defense, and firmly believe that if I were an opposing offensive coordinator with a quarterback worth a darn I'd pass 95% of the time against this Cougar team. Idaho, unfortunately, does not have a quarterback worth a darn, and you saw the results.

So on a snowy night in Provo, it's going to come down to whether or not the Aggies can pass well enough to score versus BYU, and whether Heaps can overcome his mental issues.

In trying to think of a prediction for this game, I realized I'm honestly unsure of what to expect, which is kind of nice after a few weeks of pre-determined outcomes.

Go Cougars!

Friday night again

2011-09-30T11:52:00.000-06:00

www.sbnation.com

Utah State at BYU! 6:00 p.m. at LaVell Edwards Stadium! Be there!

A grudge match of epic proportions. Utah state beat BYU down handily last year, 31-16, and it really wasn't even that close. They were up 24-3 at the half and shut the offense down, letting their running backs run the clock out, and they ended up averaging 4.1 yards a carry as a team for the game.

In other words, BYU was outclassed big time.

I'd like to say I expect the Cougars to destroy the Aggies, but the odds of that are bad. Utah State is averaging 42 point a game, and while a lot of those came against a bad Weber State team and a really bad Colorado State team, it still shows these guys can move the ball. Quarterback Chuckie Keaton is averaging 4.3 yards a carry and completing 67% of his passes. Running back Robert Turbin is getting 5.7 yards a pop and running for 121 yards a game.

In short, the defense will be tested this week.

The Aggie defense, on the other hand, is not as impressive. Giving up 34 points to the Rams? Ouch. Here's hoping Heaps and company can get on track for the first time this season. Might we see THREE offensive touchdowns tonight? We can only hope.

I expect another exciting game thanks to a poor offensive showing, culminating in a closer-than-we'd-like win over the Aggies, 24-21.

Finally, I have decided to award the Amazon.com gift card to Steven Johnson, who was the only person to predict Utah would beat BYU in the comments of the original post. The card is on its way, Steven, and I hope it will bring you joy as you think about how you picked against your beloved team.

Go Cougars!

Bad offense = fun?

2011-09-26T00:27:00.003-06:00

Photo: Cool slideshow at byu.edu

The Friday night home game against the UCF Knights turned out to be a pretty good one. After the Knights steamrolled BYU's defense on their first drive, I was worried this would be a rout, but then the defense showed up, and despite a few miscues, played pretty well the rest of the night.

Thank goodness for Hoffman's returned kickoff for a touchdown, or this game could have turned out very differently, and Heaps' bad performance would have gotten a lot more scrutiny.

But here's the deal: Heaps plays better, BYU wins 40-17, and I'm yawning in the fourth quarter.

As it was, it was pretty much down to the wire, as UCF had the ball with over a minute to go with the chance to tie it. My brother Josh mentioned it was an exciting game more than once.

So maybe this year won't be a season of a few tough games and mostly cupcakes. I expect the game against Utah State this Friday to be a tough win, if not an outright loss, and who knows if Jake's errant passes will keep Idaho State, San Jose State and Idaho (yes, BYU plays both bad Idaho teams) in the game longer than they should be?

The home schedule may turn out to be far better than everyone expected when it was announced.

Other random thoughts from Friday:

1. Kyle Van Noy is a beast. The play where he ran down UCF's quarterback from about 15 yards out was a thing of beauty. You can tell the QB is thinking he just bought some time to find a receiver by rolling out, and then KVN is there in about .3 seconds for the sack. Here's the play:

Out of nowhere.

2. BYU's defenders sure are injuring a lot of opponents this season. Several running backs, a few wide receivers, and quarterbacks have been taken out more than once after getting hit by a linebacker or safety. While I like the intensity, I think I'd take a little less oomph if it meant fewer blown coverages and missed tackles. Wrap up first, blow up second.

3. The offense still can't score. They had one long drive for a touchdown Friday, and their other TD came after getting a very short field thanks to a muffed punt reception (shades of the Utah game).

4. Riley Stephenson had the game of his life. I've never seen him absolutely boom so many punts in one game before, and winning the field position battle was a major reason for BYU's win.

5. On that vein, Justin Sorenson was great. Three out of four kickoffs were downed in the end zone, and the one that was returned only made it out to the 16 or so. He was also nails on his one field goal. I hope they let him try one from 50 yards plus; I think he can get it.

6. UCF's running backs were great. Big, strong, tough to take down, kept moving their legs. One day BYU will get a back like that. Juice and DiLuigi are nice and all, but not really starting talent for a Top-25 team (not that BYU is a Top-25 team).

7. Jake was bad. Under 50% completion percentage, one pick (not exactly his fault, but it was not a great throw) and one near pick (see previous parenthetical comment) and missing on third down throws all night. His overthrow of a streaking Jacobsen let the entire stadium down. Kid has all the tools, and I hope he can put it together, but how many games is he going to be subpar?

8. The offensive line has issues. Their run blocking was atrocious most of the game, and they get blown up by opposing defensive lines enough that Jake feels like he's going to get killed all the time. Accurate or not, it's not good for your quarterback to be that jumpy. I know there are injuries, but it seems the last three years we've heard how amazing the O-line will be, and then they're fat, slow and not particularly able to shove people out of the way. Something big needs to change here.

Finally, something something Big 12 invite something. Cougarboard's been all abuzz about some rumored interest the Big 12 has in inviting BYU to the conference, but you know my take on non-news: I hate it. I'll talk about an event once an event has happened, not before. Call me crazy, but I enjoy discussing facts rather than freaking out over potential future happenings.

Utah State preview later this week. In short, the Aggies are schizophrenic.

Friday

2011-09-23T08:39:00.000-06:00

So, how about that game on Saturday? I stayed until the end with my two brothers and sister, and boy howdy did it get comical towards the end. Though I guess that first Utah touchdown was pretty funny, in retrospect.

In short, that was one giant fail by every part of the BYU team. Offense was terrible, defense was great in the first half and got run over in the second, special teams was bad.

I'm not sure Utah is as good as they looked in that game, and I'm not sure BYU is quite as bad as they looked, but they may be close.

Anyway, I'm still trying to figure out who won the Guess the Score contest. I had some people comment on my Facebook status announcing the contest on my blog, and others who posted their guesses in the comment field of the actual post.

Give me a couple days to figure it out.

As for today's game, I expect a tough game. UCF beat Boston College 30-3, then lost 17-10 to Florida International. Depending on which team shows up tonight, this could be another bad game. However, it is a long road trip for the Knights, and that always helps.

Go Cougars! Commit fewer than 8 turnovers this week, and I'll count it as an improvement.

No time to say hello, goodbye...

2011-09-14T21:27:00.001-06:00

Image courtesy The Salt Lake Tribune

Let's just say working two jobs is doable most times, and intensely stressful at others.

Some points:

1. BYU always, always seems to drop a winnable game on the road early in the season. See: Boise State 2004, Boston College 2005, Arizona 2006, Tulsa 2007. So dropping a game against Texas in September in Austin is par for the course, I guess. Still, having a big halftime lead and then seeing the offense self destruct for the remaining 24 minutes was pretty troubling. From reports I've read, it seems Heaps was panicking quite a bit during that half, immediately dumping it down to a running back or wide receiver in the flat and rarely looking beyond them, regardless of the amount of real pressure he was facing. That, and apparently Doman is still a true believer in Anae's super-ultra conservative offense when holding onto a lead. Get up 10 points in the second quarter? Time to shut it down for the night and hope the defense can play like supermen for rest of the game. Ugh.

2. BYU vs Utah already? If the first two weeks of the season have shown us anything, it's that both of these teams' offenses are bad and both defenses are pretty impressive. I expect a 7-3 final outcome, with the lucky team coming out on top. Whoever gets that crucial recovered fumble or a punt returned for a touchdown, that kind of thing.

And, as is custom, I am holding another Guess the Score contest for this year. Place your guess for the final score in the comments, along with how many yards Heaps will throw for. The winner will get a sparkling new $10 Amazon.com gift card!

May the odds be ever in your favor.

That did not go as expected

2011-09-05T12:01:00.000-06:00

I Facebooked after the game that this was a heart attack on a stick. BYU's dominance of time of possession and total yards gained offset completely by a 13-0 score to begin the fourth quarter... then finally a nice touchdown pass from Heaps to Apo with 9:00 left in the game, capped off by the best defensive play I've seen from BYU in years where Kyle Van Noy blows up the QB, strips the ball, recovers the fumble and scores the winning touchdown.

It was a somber affair at my house for most of the game, but when KVN made that play, all seven of us watching exploded, probably scaring our neighbors to death and giving them the idea to hold a revenge party at 11:00 p.m. last night.

Season-saving play, in my opinion. How many times have we seen good BYU teams sink their seasons by dropping an early road game to Boston College, Arizona, etc. etc.? It was an ugly win, to be sure, along the lines of the famous Ugly Choke Job Salvaged by Miracle Vegas Bowl, but a win's a win, and I'm encouraged by the improved play of Heaps in the second half of the game.

He definitely needs to work on not staring receivers down, which is odd since I remember him doing a great job looking safeties off a few times last year, but maybe it was just nerves.

Anyway, the defense was amazing, the offense showed up just enough to get the win, and I'll take it.

Here's a highlight by Cougarboard's Furious Monkey:

BYU at Ole Miss 2011 by Furious Monkey from Furious Monkey on Vimeo.

I'm absolutely worried about Texas now, but if the defense can shut the Longhorns down, maybe BYU can squeak out a win.

Go Cougars!

Go Cougars!

2011-09-03T07:21:00.006-06:00

BYU football is finally back! It feels like last season was another life, it was so long ago, but football had returned, and that is awesome.

Short Ole Miss preview today: Ole Miss has a great run game and not much else. I expect the Cougars to be able to pass on them all day, but if the Rebels are able to get ahead early, thanks to some jitters on BYU' s part, they may be able today to control the ball and limit the Cougars' offensive chances to get back in it.

I double don't worry much about the famed SEC speed, but the weather may be a big concern... playing in 150% humidity is no joke, and I hope the coaches did everything they could to prepare BYU for the challenge.

I expect to see Heaps hit Apo and Hoffman for at least one touchscreen each, and the defense to record at least 4 sacks. This will be a big litmus test for the team; a convincing win here will make me believe they can best Texas handily, while a struggle will be cause for a lot of worry.

That said, I expect a win.

BYU 38, Ole Miss 24

It's almost time

2011-08-28T22:38:00.000-06:00

For the 4 of you who read my blog, I apologize for neglecting my duties the last few weeks and months. The lack of posts can be blamed on a few things:

1. Summer is boring for sports. You'll notice a similar pattern of neglect in past years from June to August.

2. The NBA is locked out, and this depresses me. I think we're going to lose the entire season, despite what David Stern is saying in interviews.

3. I've been working two jobs since mid-July, and any free time I've had has not been allocated to blogging.

So there you go. That said, football season starts like tomorrow (note: not tomorrow) and I'll be sure to blog the Cougars' games if nothing else.

To tide you over until then, here are some highlights from the 2010 season, which started terribly and ended okay.

I'll toss up a season preview/talk about Ole Miss a bit sometime this week.

Go Cougars!

A report from Jimmer's workout in Salt Lake

2011-06-15T16:46:00.004-06:00

Photo: Francisco Kjolseth - The Salt Lake Tribune

Cougarboard.com member cougsrule posted a detailed analysis of Jimmer's workout for the Jazz earlier today. Obviously he's a huge BYU fan, so take this for what it's worth, but he came away very impressed.

I had the opportunity today to watch the Kemba vs Jimmer workout at the Jazz Practice facility. Here is what I saw.
Conditioning: Jimmer was in the best shape of all those at the workout. I don't know if altitude had anything to do with it, but all the players looked winded, except for Jimmer. You could see the other players huffing and puffing and Jimmer was breathing effortlessly. Kemba was not as in as good of shape as Jimmer.
Court length speed: Kemba is very fast up and down the court. Jimmer is also very fast up and down the court, but Kemba is a little quicker, not much though.
Lateral speed: Actually Jimmer looked much quicker than Kemba in lateral movements. Not only that, but like his uncle Lee Taft has said he is very efficient with his motions. There is really no wasted motions in his movements. He was able to get by every one that guarded him and more importantly he was able to stay in front of everyone he guarded. Impressive.
Shooting: Jimmer is by far the better shooter. In fact it is not even close. There was one point where Jimmer went 36/40 from just inside the 3 point line. It was insane. It was swoosh, swoosh, swoosh....Not much rim contact. So impressive. Kemba didn't shoot well. In fact it was horrid at times. He did catch fire on some NBA threes during one drill where he went 7/10. Other than that I was calculating that he shot about 34% to 40% on the day. Jimmer shot 85% to 90% for the day. Huge difference. This was so evident.
Dribbling: Kemba is a fast dribbler, but his ball control isn't refined. He was very loose with his dribbling and I could see this being a problem for him at times. Jimmer's ball handling was excellent. His crossovers, quick step, and moves to the hoop where really impressive. He looked really quick and fast today.
Passing: Jimmer had some nice passes into the big men setting up layups. They were the kind of passes that made you say, "Wow"! Kemba passed well, but nothing overly impressive.

You can read more of his thoughts here.

Jimmer

2011-06-15T10:03:00.002-06:00

Infographic on The Jimmer. In recognition of him working out for the Jazz today.

As I've already said, I think Jimmer will be just fine in the NBA. Deadly accuracy from range, mental toughness, a nice crossover, strength, agility and creativity to get to the rim and finish... it will work out for him. Whether or not he'll ever be an All-Star, I don't know, but I expect he'll have a better career than Adam Morrison.

Post-mortem Finals thoughts

2011-06-13T16:27:00.004-06:00

AP Photo

1. After watching LeBron disappear earlier in the series, I was convinced he'd be back with a vengeance. This was not the case. Whether it was Dallas' zone defense, Marion's attempts at shutting him down or some mental breakdown, LeBron never jumped to that high level great players have in big moments. A disappointment in every way.

2. The Mavericks are possibly the only example in NBA history of a championship team with only one bonafide star. Who is Dirk's second banana? Terry? Kidd? Barea? None of these guys are All-Stars, thought they each had their times when they played well. It's amazing.

3. And Dirk wasn't exactly a virtuoso out there this series. He shot 41% from the field, 36% from deep and snagged 9.7 boards per game. He did hit an amazing 97.8% of his free throw attempts, but he didn't up his game like many of the great stars have done on the league's biggest stage. Game 6 was won mostly thanks to his role players, as he only connected on 30% of his shots (1-7 from deep) and scored 21 points. That said, Dirk hit shots late, when they mattered. Just a weird NBA champion overall.

4. This is the last professional basketball we will see for a good long time. The draft will be fun to watch, and maybe we'll have some summer leagues (?), but if the players and owners can't figure this out soon, we may miss half of the 2011-2012 season or more. Glad it was a hard-fought Finals.

5. It appears Rick Carlisle will get the recognition he's been working for all these years. His coaching was superb the entire series, and the way he managed to get his offense working against the vaunted Miami defense was impressive. And that zone... just shut down Wade and LeBron from time to time. I bet everyone in the East will work on implementing a zone defense in the offseason.

6. Good for Mark Cuban. The guy is often annoying and over-the-top, but he cares about his team a lot more than most NBA owners do. For him to see a championship resulting from his years of hard work and stress was good. Wouldn't mind him being the owner of the Jazz.

That's about it. Time to focus on the draft, then the imminent arrival of college football and we're back into the swing of things. Happy summer, everyone!

Jimmer and the draft

2011-06-10T16:51:00.004-06:00

Here's one outsider's (non-Mormon, non-Utahn) perspective on Jimmer as he works out for different NBA teams in the days leading up to the draft.

As a Mormon who played at a school that suspended a top player for having sex, Fredette seems to have a squeaky clean image as a nice young boy who just wants to play basketball. But he's actually pretty brash, both for moments like this one and the way he plays on the court. At BYU, Jimmer was a gunner at BYU who took shots that once got Allen Iverson(notes) termed a ballhog who wouldn't ever learn to play within a team structure. The man plays with brass balls; nothing about his style suggests humility or aw-shucks wonder at getting the chance to play a child's game on a huge stage.

Good to see people are recognizing his mental toughness and confidence. If professional sports has taught us anything, it's that ability can be (and often is) trumped by the mind. Kwame Brown, LeBron James, Ryan Leaf, Karl Malone... all of these names bring to mind immensely talented players who fell short due to mental breakdowns.

I think Jimmer will be just fine in the NBA. Will he be the league MVP? Probably not, but he can shoot, handle the ball and pass well. The shooting alone should be enough to guarantee his spot on a roster for years to come, because who doesn't need someone who can hit 30-footers? If Eddie House can remain in the league, so can Jimmer.

And his craftiness around the rim and a quick crossover and first step will be enough to get him layups from time to time, in addition to preventing all but the best defenders in the league from just getting up in his chest and daring him to shoot.

Of course, considering the state of the NBA, we probably won't even have a 2011-2012 season, so seeing Jimmer on an NBA court won't happen for a good long while.

How the DVR kills sports

2011-06-09T16:26:00.003-06:00

I like Chuck Klosterman. While he's most well-known for his writing (Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Eating a Dinosaur), I was introduced to him because he's a frequent guest on Bill Simmons' podcasts. He has a very analytical mind, and is constantly challenging Simmons' arguments and why Bill feels the way he does about things. It's kind of exhausting to listen to, and it bugs Simmons sometimes, but I like it.

Anyway, these two get along so well that when Simmons started Grantland.com, a place for columns and essays about sports and popular culture, he immediately grabbed Klosterman and made him a consulting editor.

Klosterman's first contribution to the site is titled "Space, Time and DVR Mechanics" and is about how watching sports has to be a live experience or it's pretty much terrible.

It doesn't matter how much I sequester myself or how thrilling the event is — if I know the game has finished, it's difficult to sustain authentic interest in what I've recorded. I inevitably fast-forward to the last two or three minutes (even when I have no vested interest in the outcome). Since I'm watching the game purely for entertainment, it shouldn't be any different from the real thing. It should, in fact, be better, just as it's more enjoyable to watch self-recorded episodes of Frontline or Storage Wars or any other traditional show that lives inside my DVR. In theory, I should be able to enjoy every single game I want to see, on my own schedule — all I need to do is avoid the Internet for a few hours and not glance at the ESPN ticker on public TV screens. But it never works: I get home, I start watching the recent past, and I find myself rushing toward the present.

So why is this?

It's a question I've asked myself a few times. With my NBA League Pass, I was able to watch games from previous days, but I rarely, if ever did. And if I did load up the previous night's games, I found myself fastforwarding a lot, like Klosterman mentions.

Read the rest of the column, you won't regret it.

If I can't grow up to be Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman is a fine second option.

Oh hey, Game 5 all of a sudden

2011-06-09T14:21:00.005-06:00

Whoops, kinda checked out there for Games 2-4. To make up for it, here are my random thoughts on the series so far:

1. Where on earth did LeBron go in Game 4? He refused to attack the basket, settled for 3-pointers and didn't seem all that engaged on defense. I've defended him through thick and thin these last few years, but Game 4 was terrible. He shows up in any way, shape or form on Tuesday and the Heat win, go up 3 games to 1 and have a 99.9% chance of winning the series. Instead, LeBron seems entirely disinterested. I don't get it. I have read arguments that he's just tiring out... he's averaging 44 minutes per game in the playoffs, and getting virtually no rest in the second halves of these games.

2. You can't allow game-winning layups in the NBA. You especially cannot allow them in the Finals. If I'm coaching Miami, I send help as soon as Dirk makes a move towards the hoop in that situation. I don't think he's a good enough passer to find the open guy, and once he's barreling in there I think the help man can pick up a charge.

3. Can we stop anointing NBA players who have a good game while sick? Yes, Michael Jordan destroyed the Jazz in the Finals while he apparently was on his deathbed. And yes, Dirk had a fever with a cough on Tuesday. He shot 31% from the field, however. Yes, going 9-10 from the line and hauling in 11 boards was nice, but it wasn't exactly a superhuman performance.

4. Remember when I wrote that Miami's lack of an actual offensive system would hurt them eventually? I figured it would catch up to them sooner than now, but the day has arrived. Miami's continual fail over the last 5-10 minutes of the fourth quarter is killing them. If their offensive ineptitude isn't costing them games, it's letting the Mavs get into a position to potentially win.

From Basketbawful:

We'll start with a basic play-by-play of Miami's offensive possessions over the final six minutes and 50 seconds (of Game 4):

Missed jumper, missed jumper, turnover, turnover, turnover, missed jumper, missed jumper, missed jumper, missed layup, two made free throws, missed jumper, one made free throw, dunk, missed jumper.

Bottom line, when it's crunch time, the Heat are falling apart. That's gotta change.

5. Dear Chris Bosh: It was nice of you to show up for the first half of Game 4. But would it kill you to score in the second? Dude was terrible, taking really long jumpers and turning it over in the fourth.

6. Dear Mike Miller and Mario Chalmers: Your jobs are to hit open 3-pointers. That is it. If you go a combined 2-8 from deep, you might as well not be there.

7. Deshawn Stevenson, what has happened to you? You shot a very meh 37% from deep during the regular season, but in the Finals you're hitting fully 56.3% of your attempts from out there. 56%! Your form is ugly and I never expect the ball to go in, but wow are you on fire.

8. Mr. Barea, congratulations on scoring 8 points on 3-9 shooting. This was by far your best showing in the Finals... apparently the Heat play better defense than the Lakers, eh?

9. Finally, way to step into the Wayback machine, Shawn Marion. You're averaging 15.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and a block per game, while shooting 52% from the field and 90.9% (!) from the line. You're playing much, much better than I expected you to. If the Mavs win this thing, they should give you an extra big piece of the Credit Pie.

Before Game 4, I believed the Heat were winning the series in 6. But now, with the incredible Shrinking LeBron/Miami offense and the continued great play of Marion, I honestly have no idea who will walk away with the trophy.

Let's say Miami in 7. I can't imagine the Heat will fail this much down the stretch for two of the next three games.

Game 1 recap

2011-06-01T16:16:00.004-06:00

(Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

This was eerily similar to Game 5 in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Heat played it close or were down most of the game, then turned it on and smashed their opponent into the ground late. And just like Chicago, Miami shot poorly, but their own defense kept them in the game to allow them a shot at closing it out strong.

Despite my belief that Dirk is unstoppable, he is apparently pretty stoppable. Sure, he scored 27, but he was only 7-18 (38%) from the field. He hit all 12 of his free throws, which was nice, but he couldn't match LeBron and Wade's flurry late.

Shawn Marion had a great overall game, but disappeared in the fourth. When Marion in probably your best player, you're not going to win.

And really, who else did anything for Dallas? Barea was 1-8. Jason Terry scored 12 points in the first half, but ended with those same 12 points on 3-10 shooting. Peja was 0-3.

Meanwhile, LeBron was consistently good, ending with 24/9/5 on 56% shooting. His thunderous dunk in the fourth quarter was just part of a bunch of back-breaking plays, but boy was it impressive.

Wade struggled at times, but finished with 22/10/6 on 47% shooting, really a testament to how well he played when they needed him to show up.

You'll notice those two combined for 18 rebounds. When your perimeter players are corralling boards like that, you're in a good spot. Bosh added nine, and Haslem and Miller combined for 11, helping Miami get a 46-36 edge in that category for the night. They also grabbed 16 rebounds to Dallas' 6, a major factor in any win, but especially in the Finals.

In all, I don't see what Dallas can do. Kidd played Wade fairly well defensively, but in the fourth, Dwyane showed he can rise up and shoot over him any time he wants. LeBron scored from everywhere, and Bosh owned the first half.

If the Heat can continue to force Dirk into quick shots and make him extremely uncomfortable, look for this to be a short series, as no one else will get it done for the Mavs.

It's amazing the turnaround the Heat have made in close games. During the regular season they dropped close contest after close contest, and were labeled as a team of chokers by many.

Now? When it counts? Wade and LeBron turn on the afterburners and bury people. Remember when I said in the playoffs it often comes down to who can score on this one possession? These two have somehow managed to figure out whose turn it is to rip the heart out of the other team, and there's no bickering about who gets the alpha male status. It's kind of amazing. For all intents and purposes, LeWade killed Dallas last night, not the two separate players.

Hubie Brown was on Mike and Mike this morning talking about how impressive the Heat's defense has been lately. Since getting blown out in Game 1 of the Chicago series, they've given up 75, 85, 93, 80 and 84 points. In today's NBA that's ridiculous. Dallas averaged almost 104 points per game against a good defensive squad in Oklahoma City, but the Heat just throttled them.

We're probably seeing the start of a Miami dynasty here, and while I'll probably be sick of these guys in two or three years, right now I'm a fan.

Finals Preview

2011-05-31T10:44:00.001-06:00

I can't wait for Game 1 between Miami and Dallas tonight. Shoot, I was up at 4 a.m. today to get to work and won't be home until 5:30 and I'll still watching it live. As mentioned previously, I fully expect these games to be knock-down, drag-em-out fistfights from now until the series is over. It may not go seven games, but I want the ones we do get to be epic.

Here are the five factors I think are important in this matchup.

1. Who wants it more? Dirk needs a ring to validate his career, unfair or not. James needs a ring to even enter the discussion of "Who is the greatest player of all time?" Jason Kidd has little to no time left before he retires; you know he'll give everything he has. Wade has less motivation than some, but Wade at 80% motivated is better than Jason Terry at 100% motivated.

But still, Wade and Haslem have titles. No one in Dallas has one, and that counts for a lot. And it's not like there will be first-Finals jitters for the Mavs, either. Dirk, Terry, Kidd have all been here before, and they know how intense the pressure is and how bright the spotlights are. Most importantly, they know how bitter it is to come this close and go home losers.

Advantage: Dallas

2. Dirk vs. The World: Dirk has been unstoppable this postseason, scoring 28.4 points per game while shooting 51.7% from the field, 51.6% from deep and 92.9% from the line. Those numbers are ridiculous all the way around. Great FG% for a center. Amazing FG% for a 3-point specialist. Free throw shooting in the realm of Larry Bird.

Which is not to say he hasn't been defended well. Often he's shooting with a hand in his face, fading away on one leg, as that's the only position the defender has given him. And it still goes in. A lot. The question is: can anyone on the Heat slow Dirk down, and, if they cannot, do they just let Dirk get his 30 and stop everyone else?

I think we'll see the Heat switch between using LeBron, Haslem and maybe even Joel Anthony in a one-on-one matchup against the German. I doubt we'll see a zone, as Dirk has been doing well finding open shooters and the Mavs are hitting 38% from deep this postseason. I'm not sure any of these players will slow Dirk down, but I think LeBron has the best chance. He's too quick for Dirk to get around, has good height and a great vertical. After watching him destroy Derrick Rose in conference finals, I think James may do okay here.

But in the end, I bet they just let Dirk get his and focus on making the rest of the Mavericks take difficult shots.

Advantage: Dirk. Long-term advantage: Heat.

3. Battle of the old point guards. Jason Kidd has 18 years of NBA experience under his belt. Mike Bibby has seen better days and has been around for 13. These guys will be guarding each other a lot, which should lead to some questions. "Is Bibby scoring 15 ppg in the Finals after averaging 3 ppg in the previous 15 games due to his newfound offensive prowess? Or is it because Kidd can't stop anyone from doing anything these days?"

In short, whichever old dude can get it done will be a huge contributor to his team. Both of these teams are good defensively, and an extra 3 from Kidd or layup from Bibby here can be huge.

Kidd may be older, but he's playing better (10 points, 7.7 assists, 4.5 rebounds per game) than Mike (3.6 points, 1.2 assists, 1.2 rebounds per game) these days. I'll give the edge to him hitting some clutch 3's and stripping Bibby for a crucial turnover or two.

Advantage: Dallas.

4. Does Barea run wild? In 17.5 minutes per game, he's scoring 9 points and dishing out 3.5 assists. He's hitting 43% of his shots overall and 31% from deep. I give you these numbers to show A.) He's not as amazing as you may think from watching ESPN and B.) There's a reason he only plays 17 minutes per game. That said, he provides a big boost off the bench and can really frustrate defenses while providing a spark to the Mavs as a whole.

Do the Heat just stick LeBron on him and say "Go for it, little man?" Again, watching him shut down Rose was eye-opening, and if he can stay in front of the MVP, he should be able to stay in front of the best pickup player ever in the history of mankind.

Sorry, Jose, your days are numbered.

Advantage: Heat

5. Who stops the three-headed monster? I imagine Chandler will work on slowing Bosh down, which is fine, except Bosh plays outside the paint, which will drag Tyson away from the hoop, giving LeBron and Wade free reign to waltz in for a dunk whenever they feel like it.

And why are these two waltzing into the paint? I answer your question with another questions: Who does Dallas have that can remotely slow down either of these guys on the perimeter? Can Shawn Marion do it? Okay, let's say he can keep one of them in check. Who handles the other? Jason Terry? DeShawn Stevenson? Peja? I don't see it happening. What this boils down to is either Wade or LeBron getting a green light to attack the hoop for pretty much the entire game.

Dallas may try a zone and dare James Jones and Mike Miller to beat them, but while Miller is hitting a whopping 21% of his deep attempts (27% against Chicago), Jones is a blistering 45% from downtown in the playoffs. Considering Miller will likely be shooting against Peja or Kidd, I think his numbers will improve, meaning a zone is an invitation to a barrage of 3's the likes of which helped Dallas sink the Lakers.

In the end, it's been a rare game where Bosh, Wade and James all have bad performances at the same time. This was the case in Game 5 against Chicago, but the Heat's defense kept them in it long enough that some game-saving heroics were possible at the end.

For them to have four games of stinkitude? I can't believe it will happen.

Advantage: Miami.

Final Finals prediction: Heat in 6. Weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth commence from people who had no problem with Boston winning the 2008 title.

Heat! Mavericks! Tuesday on ABC!

2011-05-27T11:41:00.005-06:00

And with a blocked 3-point attempt from Derrick Rose last night, we have our NBA Finals matchup set.

I watched the fourth quarter of Game 5, and was struck by how similar it was to Game 5 in the Dallas/OKC series. Young team is up late, the lead seems fairly insurmountable, and the veterans get it done, closing on a huge run to win it all.

LeBron hounded Derrick Rose into a 1-10 shooting night, including blocking that series-clinching 3-point attempt.

James also held Rose to 6.3% shooting in the series when guarding him directly.

Six point three percent? Holy moley!

The rest of the Bulls were no better. Boozer made one of his six shot attempts. Deng was 6-17. Ronnie Brewer was the only Bull to shoot near 50%, and hit four of his five, including a huge 3-pointer late to give the Bulls a (presumably) comfortable lead.

When Ronnie Brewer is your best shooter, you know things are going poorly.

Up until the last five minutes, no one for the Heat was playing well, but LeBron added two deep shots, Wade hit one and got to the hoop at will and that was that. This game demonstrates the amazing utility of great defense. If your shots aren't falling and you can't stop anyone, you're going to lose by 20. But if your shots aren't falling and you can lock down your opponent, you'll be in position to win the game. The Heat only scored 83 points on 39% shooting as a team, horrible numbers. But they held the Bulls to 80 points on 35% shooting, so they are on their way to the Finals.

Want to read a bitter and sarcastic take on the Heat making it to the Finals? You're in luck!

As a mini Finals preview, what strikes me the most is the lack of young talent on either team.

Dallas has Dirk (13 years), Kidd (17! years), Terry (11 years), Peja (13 years), Marion (12 years), Haywood (10 years), Chandler (10 years). Even DeShawn Stevenson has been in the league for 11 seasons now. J.J. Barea is the youngest player to get any playing time for the Mavs, and he's got five years under his belt now.

The Heat run out James, Bosh, Wade, James Jones and Haslem (all at eight years now), Mike Miller (11 years) and Mike Bibby (12 years). Joel Anthony is their lone young gun getting time in the playoffs (four years).

That is a whole lot of combined experience for both teams. I give the edge to Dallas in this area, as head coach Rick Carlisle has coached 1,181 regular season games (60% winning record) and 93 playoff games (52% win percentage).

I admit not knowing much about Rick besides the fact that he looks like Jim Carrey.

It's not like he's bounced around a lot, either. He's coached for the Pistons, Pacers and Mavericks. He doesn't make the news for being a great coach or a terrible coach. He's not the Bobby Knight type or the legendary type like Jerry Sloan or Greg Popvich. He just keeps on keepin' on, taking his teams to the playoffs sometimes and winning more than he loses.

In contrast, Heat head coach Eric Spoelstra might as well be a teenager. He has 246 regular season games under his belt (60% win rate) and 27 playoff games (59% win rate).

Anyway, this should be a great series between two teams that know how to win. Wade might have the edge here, being the only star with a ring, though I don't imagine Dirk or James will choke here. They've shown great poise in finishing off good teams to get to this point, and I expect barnburners from Game 1 on. You hear me? Barnburners!

Certainty

2011-05-25T16:02:00.002-06:00

Well, that was somewhat anticlimactic.

Yes, both Conference Finals Game 4's went into overtime, but the results mean our Finals matchup is virtually locked in.

Teams up 3-1 in the NBA playoffs have won 96% of the time. And nothing I've seen from either Oklahoma City or Chicago makes me feel they can win three games in a row against Dallas/Miami.

Honestly, I feel that a lot of this boils down to poor point guard play. I know I've ranted about this before, but Westbrook and Rose are shoot-first point guards who have no ability/desire to actually run an offense, especially in late-game situations.

The one game OKC has won in the conference finals, Westbrook sat the entire fourth quarter. Coincidence? He's shooting 34% from the field, 28% from deep and has 21 turnovers to 19 assists. That is absolutely horrific. Yet, in a late-game situation when the Thunder need a bucket, he insists on driving on 5 players and/or attempting a difficult jumper. It's maddening.

Same story for the reigning MVP. Rose is shooting 39% from the field, 22% from the 3-point line and has a vaguely not-terrible assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.6. Last night, in a must-win for his team, he shot 8-27 overall, 1-9 from deep with 7 turnovers and only 6 assists. Poor decision making abounds.

For example, here's Derrick Rose's attempt at a game-winning shot last night.

Seriously? You come out of a timeout, come back to the court with 8 seconds on the clock, and that's what you run? Isolation of your 6'3" point guard against the 6'9" freak of nature that is LeBron James? What were you expecting to happen, Tom?

Now, neither player's supporting cast has been lights out. For all the love Kevin Durant gets, he's shooting 43% in this series, and has hit only 4 of his 25 shots from long range. Meanwhile, in Rose Land, shooting specialist (translation: he can't do anything else) Kyle Korver has hit 27% of his shots and 3 of his 11 attempts from deep, while center Joakim Noah is hitting at a 29% clip... an egregious failing considering he never wanders farther than four feet from the hoop.

So the fact that the Thunder and Bulls are each staring at the precipice of failure isn't all on the heads of their young point guards, but their performances grate on me more than Boozer's (continued) lack of defense or Mike Bibby's lack of lateral quickness.

If neither OKC or Chicago make it to the Finals, this will be yet another year that a team featuring a non-elite point guard wins the title. Outside of Rajon Rondo and possibly Chauncey Billups, no elite point guard has won an NBA championship in the last 20 years. The Lakers did it with Derek Fisher. Spurs with Tony Parker. The Heat with Gary Payton, and the Bulls with Derek Harper. The Rockets used Sam Cassell and Kenny Smith.

Not since the 1990 title went to the Pistons, and point guard Isiah Thomas, has an all-time great at that position won it all.

No Steve Nash. No John Stockton. No Chris Paul. No Deron Williams.

This year, either Mike Bibby or Jason Kidd will get a ring. And while Kidd is definitely one of the all-time greats at the point, he's also definitely on the tail end of the tail end of his career.

Looking back at the assist leaders for the last 10 NBA regular seasons, it's a list of never-won-it-all players. Andre Miller. Baron Davis. Stephon Marbury.

This is an interesting phenomenon. Should NBA GM's avoid drafting or trading for serviceable point guards, and look for elite big men and wings instead?

Are the Jazz better off with Favors and Harris rather than Deron? Will Chicago ever get it done with Rose? Is facilitating your team's offense well really that important?

It bears watching in the coming seasons, in my opinion.

Dallas/OKC Game 2

2011-05-20T14:35:00.003-06:00

Much like the Heat were able to do in the East, the Thunder came out and stole home court advantage from the Mavs last night. It was a fun game to watch, as both teams shot well and the first quarter was a flurry of great passes and alley-oop dunks (thrown by the 43-year-old Jason Kidd) that got everyone excited. Marion in particular threw one down that I was amazed he was able to catch. I guess the Matrix still has it to some extent.

The big story here is that OKC starting point guard Russell Westbrook sat on the bench the entire fourth quarter, along with three other starters, and KD finished the game out with Eric Maynor, James Harden, Nick Collison and Daequan Cook.

Now, I really like Maynor, and think he'll be a good starting point guard one day, and James Harden was certainly on fire last night (scoring 23 points), but Collison? Daequan? Wow.

I have to wonder if Thunder coach Scott Brooks got tired of watching Westbrook try to win games by himself in the fourth, completely ignoring everyone else (including Durant). Shoot first point guards never go anywhere (exception: Allen Iverson in 2001), and they especially do not work when they aren't the best player on the team. In Oklahoma City, that's Kevin. And Westbrook needs to figure that out or he's going to find himself traded.

In other news, Dallas scored 100 points and lost. This is mostly because they let OKC shoot 55% from the field and 38% from downtown. That 55% shooting percentage was given up by the Mavs only once before this season, showing just how bad defensively they were.

Dirk scored 27 points on 10-17 shooting, but a lot of people are saying he needs more touches for Dallas to be successful. Not sure if this is the case, as OKC is clearly keying in on him and daring everyone else in a horse uniform to beat them.

Regardless, the Thunder have the upper hand now, but I'm not convinced they'll end up going to the Finals. These teams are pretty evenly matched, and I can't wait for Games 3-7.

It continues

2011-05-19T16:43:00.006-06:00

Heat/Bulls tied 1-1 after two games in Chicago.

Mavs up 1-0 after the first game in Dallas.

Haslem returning to the Heat was a huge deal in their Game 2 win.

Dirk was unconscious in the first game of the Western Conference Finals.

Both Derrick Rose and Russell Westbook continue to shoot poorly in the playoffs. Is it too much to ask that our superstar point guards hit around 45-50% of their shots in the postseason? Westbrook is at a disgusting 39.5%, while Rose is shooting 41%. Derrick is also hitting a full 25% of his 4-point attempts, while Russell is shooting 31% from deep.

I know these are supposed to be the guys of the future, but Nash, Paul and Deron are all good-to-great shooters. Having your point guard jack up shot after shot and miss way more than he makes has got to hurt the offense. Either Rose and Westbrook need to tone it down and stop shooting so much or they need to start hitting more.

In other news, here's a great breakdown of Game 1 of the Dallas/Oklahoma City series.

I love stuff like this. I never see it when I'm watching, but having someone break it down is really helpful, and it makes me watch for things the next time I catch a game.

Can't wait for game two of Dirk vs. KD tonight. I thought I'd root for the Thunder no question during this series, but the Mavs are playing so well I can't help but like them a bit, too.

Uncertainty

2011-05-10T10:09:00.003-06:00

Can we ask for anything more from these playoffs? We had an overtime Heat win followed by a triple overtime game in Oklahoma City last night, and the Hawks are giving the Bulls everything they can handle while Memphis plays the Thunder tough even in losses.

Even the Boston/Miami series, which the Heat lead 3-1, had an epic game in Boston where Rajon Rondo came back from a dislocated elbow and Garnett and Pierce submitted all-time great-level games in a big win.

Quick looks at all four series:

Celtics-Heat

Unfortunately for the original Big 3, they couldn't sustain the level of play they exhibited in Game 3 and will most likely lose the series now. That Game 3 required Garnett and Pierce to play out of their minds while James, Bosh, and to some extent Wade, all had terrible performances. That wasn't going to happen again.

Bulls-Hawks

Derrick Rose continues his campaign of shooting poorly and hoping no one notices. In Game 4 he scored 34 points on 35% shooting. His assist numbers were great, but the dude needs to get others involved even more if he can't be more efficient than that.

From Basketbawful:

Here's what the Bulls offense looked like in the fourth quarter (of Game 4):

Carlos Boozer missed layup; Rose made 10-footer; Rose made 14-footer + 1 free throw; Rose made layup; Rose missed layup (blocked by Teague); offensive rebound; Rose missed 14-footer; offensive rebound; Rose missed 8-footer; Rose missed layup; Kyle Korver made 17-footer (Rose assists); C.J. Watson turnover; Taj Gibson 2-for-2 at the line; shot clock violation; Rose turnover; Luol Deng missed three-pointer; offensive rebound; Rose made 7-footer and the foul; Rose misses free throw; Rose made layup; Rose missed layup; Rose missed 6-footer; Rose turnover; Salvatore’s blown call; Korver missed three-pointer; Deng made layup (Rose assists); Korver turnover; Rose made layup.

In summary: The Bulls' fourth quarter offense consisted of only 2 assists (both by Rose), 4 free throw attempts, 5 turnovers and 17 field goal attempts...12 by Rose.

That's just bad basketball.

Also in this game, referee Bennett Salvatore took some heat for initially calling a foul on the below play then changing his mind.

Salvatore initially blew his whistle and raised his arm as if to call a foul, but then ran to the scorer's table to wave it off.

And despite the complaints I've read, that was the right thing to do. Rose created the contact with Crawford there; if anything it was an offensive foul and I'm sick of players who create contact getting rewarded.

I have no idea who will win this series. The Bulls are the better team when it's actually, you know, a team, but if Rose keeps dominating the ball I like Atlanta's chances. Josh Smith is playing well, and Joe Johnson is tearing it up, averaging 21 ppg on 54% shooting overall and a blistering 66.7% shooting from deep.

Memphis-Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City had three last-second shots last night, and all three were terrible. Luckily this didn't come back to bite them in the end, but I have to wonder about their coaching.

Russell Westbrook is going to the Derrick Rose of Point Guards Who Shoot Too Much, as he took 33 shots last night, 13 more than Durant, and recorded only five assists. To be fair, he shot much better than Rose (45%) but come on, dude. Pass the rock and maybe you don't need three overtimes to beat Memphis.

Marc Gasol is a beast. Last night he had 26 points and 21 rebounds (10 offensive) on 55% shooting. Z-Bo 34 and 16 on 36% shooting, but mostly made up for that by hitting 16 of his 17 free throw attempts. The guards for Memphis aren't nearly as good, but maybe in the playoffs it's all about the bigs.

Another uncertain series. I'd like to give the nod to the Grizzlies, considering their dominance down low, but Game 7 is in Oklahoma, and that's a big deal. I'm just rooting for exciting games the rest of the way.

Los Angeles Lakers-Dallas

And I've saved the best for last. Considering the current state of the Jazz, my enjoyment of this NBA season was tied directly to the odds of L.A. winning their third title in a row. While the Lakers had their bad moments during the regular season, they were still favorites to win it all, and my happiness was in dire jeopardy.

Then the Mavs swept L.A. and absolutely crushed them doing it.

All is well.

I mean, the Lakers even came off as completely classless in the series loss, thanks to Artest, Odom and Bynum all behaving badly at points. I couldn't have asked for more.

So I'm basking in the glow made possible by Jason Terry playing out of his mind for this series and Dirk being Dirk. Sure, the Lakers will probably trade Matt Barnes and a couple draft picks to Orlando for Dwight Howard, but right now, the franchise is in shambles.

I'm sure David Stern is quaking in his boots at the prospect of an Atlanta-Memphis Finals, but it'd be a fun ride to get there.

Upset upsets upsets!

2011-05-03T21:04:00.001-06:00

Major upsets across the NBA in this, the second round of the playoffs in 2011. The Grizzlies stuck it to Kevin Durant and his Thunder in Oklahoma City, Dallas overcame a 16-point deficit to beat the Lakers in L.A and Atlanta has a 1-0 lead on the Bulls going into Game 2 Wednesday.

The significance? 76% of Game 1 winners in a 7-game playoff win the series. Past indicators are no guarantee of future performance, but that's a pretty hefty stat. And the trends we saw in these first games (Boozer can't really score on Zaza/Horford, Perkins could not handle Z-Bo, Dirk was unguardable at the high post) are not likely to change.

A Dallas/Memphis conference finals would not shock me. Nor would a Miami/Atlanta final in the East. Or a Boston/Atlanta final, to tell the truth, although Boston is in an 0-2 hole). The parity here is kinda shocking. No team looks complete, they all have weaknesses they're trying to hide.

In other news, Derrick Rose won the MVP award today. Now, I know it's a regular-season award, but boy howdy are his stats atrocious in the playoffs so far. He's at 38% shooting overall and 23% from deep against the Pacers and Hawks.

Yuck.

To be fair, the other young and seeming heir to the point guard throne, Russell Westbrook, has also been struggling, and since he has Kevin Durant to pass to, it seems an even more egregious sin than Rose's wanton chucking.

Anyway, it's been one heck of a postseason. Here's to another few weeks of great basketball.

Elimination Thursday report

2011-04-29T07:53:00.004-06:00

Things certainly felt... final last night in the National Basketball Association.

1. Dallas beat the Blazers 103-96, in Portland, to win the series 4-2. My original prediction had Portland winning in 7 games, as I assumed Dallas would get good numbers from Dirk and not much else. Turns out, Jason Terry scored 22 and Marion contributed 16 points on Thursday, two players I didn't expect that much from. Meanwhile, Wallace, Aldridge and Matthews had good games, but the team as a whole only made 5 of their 21 3-point attempts, and while their percentages of 44% from the field and 80% from the line aren't terrible, especially for the playoffs, they let the Mavs shoot 50% from the line and Dallas made 86% of their freebies.

Looking at the series stats, Portland didn't play poorly, Dallas just played better. Close series, and the horses came out on top. Sometimes that's the way it falls. And for Dallas to close it out on the road is kind of impressive. I had them getting smoked by the Lakers in the next round, but now I kind of feel like they can win a game or two.

2. The Lakers beat up on the Hornets last night, in New Orleans, 98-80. Paul submitted a nearly superheroic line of 10 points, 11 assists and 8 rebounds, but he needed a real superheroic performance to get the win. Poor guy got very little help in this series; Trevor Ariza shot 41%, Marco Bellinelli was 39%, Jarrett Jack shot 35% and Paul's lone bright spot was Carl Landry's 45%.

Anyway, LA is huge and a matchup nightmare for anyone. Sorry, Hornets. Get some better pieces around Chris Paul.6%

3. Atlanta finished off the Magic 84-81, to win the series 4-2. Another outcome I failed to predict, and what's funny is I gave a lot of credit to the Hawks... I just assumed Dwight would go crazy and his shooters would be average. Instead, Redick hit 35% of his shots (6% from deep!), Jason Richardson was a 35% shooter as well and Turkoglu hit 30% of his looks (23% from deep). As a team they hit 26% of their 3-pointers, while letting the Hawks hit 36% of theirs, including Crawford's blistering 45%.

Tough luck, Orlando. Better luck next year.

In other news, Real Salt Lake got beat 1-0 by Monterrey (a club team from Mexico) in Sandy, Utah. If Real could have scored a single goal, they would represent North America in the World Club Championships or something, which would have been cool and maybe I would have become more interested in soccer. As it was, they got shut out, at home (did I mention that a tie would have been as good as a win? Silly soccer), and went home losers. Tough break for those who hope American soccer can take off.

The Jazz are fine

2011-04-27T09:58:00.002-06:00

It seems a lot of the Jazz talk on the radio this offseason has been doom-and-gloom type stuff. Lots of complaining about losing Deron, about the team's record over the last half of the season and a longing for the good ol' days when the Jazz were in the Western Conference Finals.

My response? That's ridiculous. It's no secret I was tired of the Deron/Boozer/Okur trifecta as early as 2008. That nucleus was good for 50 wins and absolutely no chance at an NBA championship. The team's ceiling had been hit. Everything from that point to the Deron trade was just treading water.

The Jazz team right now is not good enough to win a championship either, but the difference is, they are far from reaching their ceiling.

For starters, hey, the Jazz actually ended up with Derrick Favors! He's 6-10 and 246 lbs. at 19 years old. Kid works hard, as evidenced by how built he is. Had 17 points and 8 boards against Tim Duncan (okay, the ghost of Tim Duncan) and the Spurs earlier this month. He shot 51.7% from the field this season and 59% from the free throw line. He averaged 8 points and 5 boards with a block for the Jazz, all while playing less than 20 minutes a game.

In short, I think this kid is going to be a monster on both ends of the floor. Not just an offensive player, like Boozer. Not just a defensive player, like Fes (to whatever extent he is a defensive player). A complete big man, the likes Utah has not seen since Karl ~~left for L.A.~~ retired.

Losing Deron hurts, but I think getting Harris and Favors (along with some draft picks) was more than a fair trade at this point. Harris is a very serviceable point guard, and I don't see him as a weak spot for the Jazz at all. The blossoming of Hayward into a good-maybe great? guard has been surprising, but if continues on his upward trajectory he might turn into the slashing/shooting guy on the wing Utah's been needing for decades.

Slap on a good-to-great center in Jefferson and Millsap as a 6th man/small forward and that's a good starting five. Maybe they'll be as good as the 2008 Jazz team, maybe they'll be worse in the end. But maybe they'll be better, and that's what I'm focusing on.

I do wish this draft were better, as it appears to be worst possible time to get lottery picks in the 6 AND 12 spots. That said, there are always diamonds in the rough, and we don't know for sure who will pan out and who won't.

In addition, the Jazz have tons of cap space to work with, thanks to Andrei's $17.8 million contract finally expiring.

And I may be a BYU homer, but I'd be fine with the Jazz picking Jimmer at 6. If he can score 50 points in college when being double teamed, he can score 10-15 in the NBA when he'll be single covered at best. And if he's playing with two legit low-post options in Favors and Jefferson? Kick it out to the Jimmer and start running the other way, because he'll hit at least 50% from deep when he's wide open.

To sum up, if I can't root for a team that is dominant (2006 BYU, 1996 Jazz), I'd rather cheer for a team with the potential to get there than one with no shot at it.

The Jazz are fine.

BYU basketball is popular

2011-04-25T15:36:00.001-06:00

In case that's hard to read, it's a chart of the highest-rated sports broadcasts on cable over the last month. Up top? BYU vs. Florida in the Sweet 16. Not bad. People love the Jimmer.

Of course, it ended up being one of the worst games of his career, but still.

Here are the highlights.

Weekend NBA updatery

2011-04-25T14:07:00.002-06:00

1. Sorry, Denver, but your scrappy "no real star, who you gonna guard?" offensive just isn't enough to make it past the Thunder. Durant and Westbrook didn't have the best games Saturday, and in fact, OK City went over 6 minutes of game time without scoring at one point and the Zombie Sonics still won. J.R. Smith was not fouled on the final shot... it was amazing defense from Harden and Smith should have passed it once it was clear he wasn't getting anything close to a good look. Thunder up 3-0.

Prognosis: goodbye Nuggets.

2. The Celtics completed a sweep of the Knicks Sunday. I would feel sorry for the fans in New York, but most of them are also Yankees fans, so whatever. Not all that surprised the pairing of Amare and Carmelo didn't exactly take off, but you'd have thought they could at least win one game. The Knicks as a whole might have had a chance to win some games if they'd played some defense, at least. Boston spent most of the second half of the season struggling to score on anyone, but Ray Allen shot 65% from deep against them on the series and Pierce was at 50%. Add in Rondo's freakish triple double of 15 points, 11 rebounds and 20 assists in Game 4 and you have a pretty big bag of defensive fail.

From Basketbawful:

[Rondo joined] Magic Johnson, Jason Kidd, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson and LeBron James as the only players in NBA history to record six career playoff triple doubles.

A Mike D'Antoni leading a team known for poor defense? Whodathunk? Boston wins 4-0. Prognosis: the Celtics need to look this good against a team that cares about the other end of the floor before I'll take them seriously.

3. Portland beat the Mavs Saturday behind Brandon Roy's 18 fourth-quarter points. Dallas shot only 40% as a team, and while Portland only made 42% of their looks, Nowtizki's 20 points weren't enough. Like I said, both teams have their flaws, and it's going to be a close series. Tied 2-2.

Prognosis: Dallas wins.

4. The Sixers beat the Heat Sunday to extend the series at least one more game. In a nutshell, Wade and LeBron had great games and no one else showed up for Miami. Bosh: 5-12 and 5 rebounds. Bibby: 0-6. Chalmers: 3-9. Jones 1-3. Just an ugly offensive showing for the Heat's role players. The Sixers weren't exactly on fire themselves, but rookie Evan Turner scored 17 on 7-13 shooting to help Elton Brand's 15 points, and they got it done. Heat up 3-1.

Prognosis: good job showing some life, Philly, but it's not enough in the long run.

5. Similar story for the Magic and Hawks. Dwight continues tearing it up (29 points, 17 rebounds and 2 blocks in Game 4) but his supporting cast is terrible. Turkoglu shot 2-12, including a last-minute 3 attempt at the end of the game. Jameer Nelson was 3-12 and Redick shot 0-6. In fairness, the ghost of Gilbert Arenas did score 20 points on 9-18 shooting, but if not for this unexpected good night from him, the loss would have been much worse than three points. Apparently the strategy of "get a dominant big man and surround him with shooters" doesn't work if your shooters can't shoot. The Hawks had four guys in double figures, including the red-hot Jamal Crawford, who is averaging 24 ppg and 47% shooting from deep for the series. Atlanta leads 3-1.

Prognosis: Atlanta is scrappy.

6. Derrick Rose's bad shooting numbers finally caught up to him as the Pacers beat the Bulls 89-84 Saturday. Rose shot 6-22 from the field, bringing his series average to 29 ppg on 35% shooting overall and a blistering 17% mark from deep. He was outscored by Deng, Boozer and Noah, while taking several more shots. Rose himself was 1-9 from deep... someone needs to tell this kid to stop jacking them from behind the line. You don't see Rajon Rondo doing that, do you? He knows his limitations and doesn't hurt his team by shooting from range. Anyway, Hibbert and Granger both had double-doubles in the close win. Chicago leads 3-1.

Prognosis: it'd take a miracle for Indiana to win, especially considering Mr. Stern has no intention of his league MVP getting ousted in the first round. Sorry, Hoosiers.

7. Memphis punked the Spurs for the second time in three games Saturday behind Zach Randolph's 3-pointer with less than a minute left to put Memphis up four. Here's how improbable that shot was: Zach was 8-21 on the night and had only hit 8 of his 43 three-point attempts on the season. Duncan afterwards said he didn't think Randolph would shoot it from there, and he had every reason to think that, but sometimes the basketball gods smile on otherwise poor shooters. Ginobili and Parker combined to shoot 10-24 from the field and Duncan only scored 13 points on 11 shots. Pau's little brother contributed an efficient 17 and 9 in the win. Memphis up 2-1.

Prognosis: San Antonio is old, but they'll figure it out.

8. And the cherry on top of a good weekend in NBA basketball: Kobe Byrant shoots 5-18 and spends the night yelling at his teammates in a classic Lakers loss to the Hornets. Chris Paul was brilliant, racking up a triple double line of 27 points, 13 rebounds and 15 assists and flat out destroying anyone who tried to guard him. He got good help from Trevor Ariza, Carl Landry and Aaron Gray, as the team shot a relatively blistering 44% from the field. The Lakers had five guys in double digits, but Gasol only pulled down 4 boards and Odom was 1-7 from the field. Series tied.

Prognosis: CP3 can't keep it up forever, but look out for the Thunder, Laker fans.

Some statistical analysis

2011-04-22T14:31:00.006-06:00

My buddy Stu took some time to compile the average years played in the NBA for each team in the league. I told him if he sent me the data I'd blog it, so here I am.

To begin, here are the numbers:

Sacramento: 2.57 24-58

Minnesota: 2.69 17-65

Washington: 2.80 23-59

Toronto: 3.06 22-60

LaC: 3.21 32-50

Houston 3.26 43-49

Golden State: 3.5 36-46

Portland: 3.571 48-34

Cleveland 3.6 19-63

OK City 3.714 55-27

Memphis: 3.66 46-36

New Jersey: 3.73 24-58

New Orleans: 4.06 46-36

Indiana: 4.13 37-45

San Antonio: 4.73 61-21

Denver 4.78 50-32

Utah 4.9 39-43

NY: 5.0 42-40

Philadelphia: 5.06 41-41

Phoenix: 5.21 40-42

Detroit: 5.26 30-52

Charlotte: 5.40 34-48

Milwaukee: 5.42 35-47

Chicago 5.46 62-20

Atlanta 5.714 44-38

Orlando: 5.923 52-30

Dallas 7.8 57-25

Boston: 8.26 56-26

Miami: 8.26 58-24

LAL 8.5 57-25

Boy that is ugly. Maybe if I were better with Excel I could manage to make it look prettier.

Anyway, the last stats class I took was my senior year of high school, so let's see what I can do.

For starters, the top seven teams are in the playoffs. The bottom seven teams are out of the playoffs. Milwaukee has the honor of being the oldest team in the NBA to not make the post season, while the Blazers are the youngest.

Two jumps up from Portland we have the Thunder, who are not only super young, but also a real threat to win the West. Meanwhile, the Pistons, Bobcats and Suns struggled mightily while being older than most teams in the league.

Obvious outliers (oooh a fancy stats term):

-Houston because they are so young but still almost managed to sneak into the playoffs.

-Portland for being so young and so good.

-OK City for the same reason as Portland, only moreso.
-San Antonio for winning 61 games while having the average experience of squads like the Pacers and Nuggets. I had no idea Duncan, Parker and Ginobili were surrounded by such relative newcomers.

-Detroit for having as much experience as the Knicks and Jazz but winning only 30 games total. They've got three guys with over 11 years of playing time and can't even make the playoffs. Of course, who can blame them when these three guys are Ben Wallace, Tracy McGrady and Richard Hamilton?

What does this show? Well, my poor methodology displays the fact that unless you get super lucky in the draft and end up with really young studs like Oklahoma City, having experience on your team definitely helps you reach the top of the NBA standings.

Unless it doesn't. Then you probably made some bad signings somewhere along the way.

Feel free to forward this invaluable information to and NBA GM's you know.

And if any of you are stat heads, feel free to enlighten me to hidden nuggets of information I may have missed. I can offer temporary, limited fame!

NBA ramblings

2011-04-19T10:17:00.003-06:00

-So the Heat smacked the Sixers around for a while last night, and when all was said and done they led the series 2-0. Philly shot 34% for the game, despite a decent night from Evan Turner. If the Heat win it all this season, it's going to be on their defense, and their defense looked good here.

-Also last night, the Bulls toyed around with Indiana some more and ripped their hearts out for the second time in two games. Derrick Rose continued his ways of shooting poorly from the field and earning a ton of trips to the free throw line. Boozer showed up, scoring 17 points and pulling down 16 boards. Granger led an amazingly balanced effort in scoring from the Pacers, as nine players scored at least 6 points, and one more scored 5. If nothing else, this series might give Indiana fans some hope for next season.

The Rose thing is interesting. Normally I hate it when a player scores 25+ on 40% shooting, because hey, if the entire team shot that poorly, they'd definitely lose, right? Scoring a lot in an inefficient manner isn't that impressive. But with Rose, his free throw attempts and conversion rate are so high it almost offsets it. Would I like to see him hit more of his shots? Yeah. But if he keeps forcing people to foul him, and then keeps making 12-13 from the stripe like he did on Monday, I'm willing to overlook the field goal percentage mark a little.

-The NBA said "Oh yeah, that was totally offensive interference on Kendrick Perkins that one time."

Had the officials whistled Perkins for an illegal touch, the Nuggets would have gotten possession with a one-point lead and just over a minute remaining in regulation; instead, the Thunder took a one-point advantage and held on for a 107-103 win to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven first-round series.

Ouch. That said, this was one bad call, one moment in the game that didn't go Denver's way. The night was made up of thousands of moments, and if any of them had gone differently, maybe that offensive interference call wouldn't have even mattered. If there were three, four, five egregiously bad calls, then you can complain, Nuggets. But one call? Play better for the first three quarters and make the score late so lopsided in your favor that bad calls don't even matter. Good luck in Game 2.

-Dwight Howard won his third Defensive Player of the Year award in a row. As Ball Don't Lie wrote,

...you should probably be up for putting Dwight Howard's grinning mug up on Mt. Rushmore for leading this group of sieves to the third-best defense in the NBA in 2010-11.

Spot on. That the Magic were that effective on defense with Jameer Nelson, J.J. Redick, Gilbert Arenas, Hedo Turkoglu and Jason Richardson covering the perimeter, then Dwight was simply transcendent this season.

Here's hoping he gets some help in Game 2 against the Hawks tonight.

Supplemental playoff draft idea

2011-04-18T12:18:00.004-06:00

Do you wish you could watch Blake Griffin in this year's playoffs? Miss seeing Deron Williams, Stephen Curry or Brook Lopez? I have an idea on how to improve the quality of the playoffs and make everyone happy.

In short, the NBA should institutes a supplemental playoff draft.

After the regular season ends, each playoff team can draft one player from a non-playoff team to join their squad for the playoffs. The draft order is determined by final regular-season record, which means the Bulls would choose last and the Pacers would choose first this year.

So say the Pacers take Blake. They have him for every game until they get eliminated. At that point, everyone goes home and Griffin is a Clipper again next fall.

Pros

1. Fans of non-playoff teams have a reason to watch. Any Clipper fans who don't normally care about the playoffs are now watching the Pacers play, increasing TV ratings and boosting revenue across the board. The same goes for fans in New Jersey, San Francisco, Houston and many other markets.

2. Players on bad teams get valuable playoff experience. Blake Griffin plays against the Bulls, gets to understand the intensity of the playoff experience, and returns that much more valuable for the Clippers. When the Clips finally manage to reach the playoffs themselves, they have a battle-hardened Griffin ready to lead them... he knows exactly what to expect and doesn't need to spend a couple games figuring things out.

3. In today's NBA, there are no 70-win Bulls teams. There are no Showtime Lakers or Bird/McHale/Parrish Celtics. Teams in the past were way more loaded than they are today (mostly thanks to league expansion), and even the Lakers, Spurs and Bulls have holes they wouldn't mind filling. Even if you're getting the 16th-best player of those not in the playoffs, that's awesome.

Here's a non-scientific list of the best 16 players not in the playoffs (according to the Yahoo! fantasy rankings in my league this season).

1. Stephen Curry

2. Monta Ellis

3. Al Jefferson

4. Dorell Wright

5. Kevin Martin

6. Eric Gordon

7. Channing Frye

8. Steve Nash

9. David Lee

10. Andrei Kirilenko

11. Brook Lopez

12. Carlos Delfino

13. Luke Ridnour

14. Andray Blatche

15. Brandon Jennings

16. Javale McGee

Somehow Blake doesn't rate on this system, which is ridiculous, but you get the idea.

The Bulls add Javale McGee while the Pacers get to choose from Griffin, Curry, Ellis or Jefferson. Meanwhile the Spurs can add Andray Blatche and the Nuggets can grab David Lee. Not a bad setup, in my opinion. No one is stuck with a scrub, and if a team doesn't want to risk ruining their team's chemistry, they can just pass.

Potential Cons

1. Owners might not want their best players risking injury to help another team, similar to how Mark Cuban has complained about Dirk playing for Germany in the Olympics and other international tournaments.

To offset this, I would have the drafting team pay one or two million dollars to the non-playoff team in exchange for rights to the player. Maybe even a second-round draft pick on top of cash considerations. And the owner's guy gets the playoff experience needed to benefit his team next season.

2. Players might not want to assist another team's effort to win a championship. In that case they can remove themselves from the draft, though in order to offset this reluctance they'd also be paid handsomely for their time and effort. In addition, they may end up getting historical credit for helping another team win a championship, as in "Kevin Love assisted the Denver Nuggets in winning three championships while part of the Minnesota Timberwolves." And as previously mentioned, they get playoff experience... a vastly important factor if you'd like to win one for your team one day.

They also get the added benefit of other teams watching them in the playoffs. If Curry tears it up against the Lakers and helps the Nuggets get to the conference finals, you don't think his value goes up? His next contract is going to be larger than it would be if he were just part of the perpetually non-contending Warriors.

And to top it all off, you know David Stern loves this idea. It increases TV revenues, gets his young stars more exposure, and creates more even playoff matchups (though that's not much of an issue this year).

I think this idea would work. Your take?

March Madness lives on

2011-04-17T22:31:00.001-06:00

(Photo: Jayne Kamin/Oncea-US PRESSWIRE)

Is the 2011 NCAA men's basketball tournament bleeding into the NBA playoffs or what?

No lower seed this weekend has been embarrassed. In fact, three of them have outright won Game 1, meaning the Lakers, the Spurs and the Magic have already lost a home game to what people considered to be vastly inferior opponents.

Dag. This is why I don't gamble on sports.

Anyway, here's my breakdown. More detail available from games I actually watched.

Chicago-Indiana

An absolutely heartbreak for the Pacers. To lead the entire game, only to utterly choke in the final two minutes or so... that stings, and I don't even care about Indiana.

Rose was unstoppable. For a team that publicly pronounced they had to slow down Rose to beat Chicago, the Pacers sure did a bad job. 39 points is always impressive, though he was ice cold from dowtown (0-9) and as a result shot only 43% overall. But he got to the basket so often, and in such a way it was impossible to block his shot or draw a charge, that he attempted 21 free throws, making 19 of them. Normally I hate seeing a stat like that, but believe me, Rose earned every one of those attempts, getting smacked in the face and hammered across the arms more than once. The Pacers tried to make him earn his points, and he did.

The other thing that stuck out was how bad Boozer was. 12 points on 4-11 shooting and 6 rebounds? That's what the Bulls are paying him $14 million for? And besides the horrendous offensive showing, he was completely outclassed by Tyler Hansbrough on the other end. Psycho T scored 22 points on 10-19 shooting, most of which was one-on-one against Carlos. This was despite catching an elbow to the temple from Kurt Thomas and apparently being knocked unconscious at one point in the game.

Midway through the 4th, the Pacers were essentially running the offense through Hansbrough and he was coming through. Then they inexplicably stopped giving him the ball, were unable to score over the last 3 minutes of the game and lost as Rose did whatever he wanted on offense. I believe if Hansbrough hits one or two more jumpers over Boozer's pathetic excuse for a defensive effort, Indiana could have won this one.

As it was, massive collapse, loss, try again next time.

Miami-Philadelphia

Miami doesn't run an offense. Defensively, they're very good, and LeBron and Wade can both get to the hoop pretty much any time the want, but it's essentially pickup ball. Elton Brand, Thaddeus Young (best name in basketball) and Jrue Holiday all had great games for the Sixers, but in the end, Miami's Big Three were too much, even if the rest of the Heat were worthless.

Miami's lack of a structured offense will hurt them eventually this postseason, but not against Philly.

Orlando-Atlanta

I'm going to choose to believe I lit a fire under Dwight Howard with my criticism last week. I mean, 46 points and 19 rebounds? Really? Jameer Nelson also had a great game, contributing 27 points, but no one else really showed up for the Magic. Arenas: bad. Turkoglu: bad. Bass: bad. Redick: bad.

Meanwhile, the Hawks had five players reach double figures, and four of those scored at least 15. Crawford had one of those games he's capable of producing, scoring 23 points on 5-6 shooting from range, and Joe Johnson was not terrible, putting up 25 points on 9-16 shooting himself. Overall, Atlanta shot 51% from the field and 43% from deep; those numbers will win you games no matter what time of year it is.

Dallas-Portland

A close game throughout, but in the 4th quarter it was the Nowitzki show, as he scored 18 points over the final 12 minutes. Most of those were from the free throw line, and as I didn't watch I can't comment as to whether they were legit fouls or not, but still an impressive stretch of basketball. Kidd was Dirk's second banana last night, and without his 24 points I doubt Dallas wins.

Aldridge scored for the Blazers, and Camby rebounded (18 total), but overall they were just no match for the big German.

San Antonio-Memphis

25 and 14 for Zach. 24 and 9 for Lil' Gasol. Three other players in double digits. These are not the last decade's Spurs.... no way the Grizzlies shoot 55% from the field with a younger, healthier Duncan and Co.

But this afternoon it was the younger, healthier Grizzlies taking it to the legends and coming out on top. Duncan wasn't terrible, scoring 16 and pulling down 13 boards, and Parker got to the line a ton on his way to scoring 20, but you can't shoot 40% from the field as a team and expect to win without some amazing defense. And San Antonio just doesn't have it right now.

Epic upset in the making here.

Los Angeles-New Orleans

It appears the rumors of Chris Paul's demise are greatly exaggerated, as he out-dueled Kobe on a way to a big win for the Hornets. 33 points, 14 assists and 7 rebounds is clearly a better line than 34 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds, I don't care how many rings the Black Mamba has.

Carl Landry came up big, scoring 17 and apparently helping the Llama to a 2-9 shooting night.

Kobe had no help from anyone in this game, but I wonder if he'd involved his teammates a little more early if it would have paid off in the end. Five turnovers for Bryant in the loss.

Boston-New York

Tight Game One, fitting for a predicted tight series. All five starters with double digits for Boston. Poor shooting from Pierce, Garnett and Rondo. Meanwhile, 28 and 11 from Stoudamire, but little help from Carmelo, Billups or anyone else. Does not bode well for the Knicks.

Oklahoma City-Denver

Durant with 41 points on 13-22 shooting, 3-6 from downtown, and 9 rebounds. Kid is a winner. Westbrook held up his end of the "best backcourt in the NBA" label, scoring 31 points and dishing 7 assists to go with 6 rebounds. No one else did much (outside of 11 highly effective minutes from Maynor (I miss that guy)), but it didn't matter. Oklahoma holds off a strong effort from the star-less Nuggets for a close win.

Denver needs more from Ty Lawson (10 points) and Wilson Chandler (9) if they hope to keep this series close.

Western Conference playoff predictions

2011-04-16T00:05:00.004-06:00

I don't have quite as many thoughts about the matchups in the West, and it's late, so this post will be a bit shorter than my one from earlier today.

Memphis-San Antonio

I know what you're thinking. "The Grizzlies? In the playoffs? Against the Spurs? I'll get my broom." And yes, while the Duncan\Ginobili\Parker trio has been winning championships since what seems like the Reagan presidency, these are not the 2003 Spurs, and the Grizzlies are better than you think.

Zach Randolph had a monster season for Memphis, averaging 20 and 12 on 50% shooting and often pulling down upwards of 20 rebounds in one night. Sure, he's crazy, but at least lately, he's been good crazy. Put him next to Pau's little brother and you have a formidable front court, maybe enough to contain Timmy.

If Rudy Gay were healthy (out for the entire playoffs with a shoulder injury) I may give even pick the Grizzlies with some confidence, but as it is, San Antonio's experience and coaching is just too much. Maybe next year, Grizz.

Spurs in 5.

New Orleans-Los Angeles (Lakers)

This matchup is just sad. Chris Paul is working on what I have heard are knees completely devoid of cartilage, and his best teammate, David West, is done for the year. Outside of these two, no one else scored more than 11 points per game this season, and I guess Emeka Okafor is their second banana for the series. Yikes.

Meanwhile, L.A. has looked disinterested more than not over the last few weeks, losing to the Jazz, among other terrible squads. That said, Odom has been lights out since marrying that Kardashian robot, averaging 14 and 9 on 53% shooting, and Pau is Pau. If Bynum can be healthy, it's tough for anyone to beat these guys, let alone a team led by a crippled point guard.

The only way I see L.A. dropping even a single game is if Kobe goes into Bad Kobe mode and shoots 40 shots at a 23% clip. Not going to happen; he only goes into that mode when he's worried, and the Hornets won't put up enough of a fight to rattle him.

Lakers in 4.

Portland-Dallas

An interesting series, if only because both teams have received a lot of hype in the past, and then came crashing down to earth. The Mavs haven't been the same team since losing to the Heat in the Finals in 2006, and the Blazers have finally succumbed to the hex put on them by that witch, and injuries to just about every player on that team = bad times.

Dirk is Dirk, and the 7-foot shooting guard submitted another great season, scoring 23 points per game on 51/40/90 percentages while pulling down 7 rebounds a night. That said, he's lacking a Robin to his Batman. Jason Terry and Caron Butler are good players, but not suited to carry more of a scoring load than they already do. Then you have the broken shell of Shawn Marion (12 points and 6 boards a game) and Tyson Chandler, who's a double-double machine when healthy.

Portland has some good pieces: LaMarcus Aldridge turned in the best season of his career, but before the Gerald Wallace trade, no one else on the roster was especially impressive. Brandon Roy's knees are gone. Wesley Matthews is good, but he's not the key to winning a championship. Wallace has been decidedly Gerald Wallacey for the Blazers, averaging two blocks, two steals and seven rebounds per game on top of 15 points. In addition, he's the exact type of defender that has been able to slow Dirk down in the past.

In short, this is a tossup. Dallas has homecourt, which I imagine will be a big advantage, but not enough of one to affect the final outcome.

Blazers in 7.

Oklahoma City-Denver

To start, the Thunder are my pick to beat the Lakers in the playoffs this season. They almost did it in 2010 without any kind of defensive post presence, and with Perkins, I see them pulling it off. But to get there, they have to get past a surprisingly lively Denver team.

The Nuggets lost both Carmelo and Chauncey Billups in February, but managed to finish the season winning 18 of their last 25 games. Looking at the roster, this team is filled with great role players, but the closest thing they have to a star is Nene. That said, who is Oklahoma City going to guard? Gallinari is a scorer, Afflalo is a waterbug, Wilson Chandler was a fan favorite in New York and J.R. Smith can get hot at any time. There's nobody to key on.

Meanwhile, the Thunder are humming. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook have proven themselves to be the best backcourt in basketball, and with the added strength of Perkins in the middle and a freed Ibaka roaming around creating havoc, this is a well-built squad.

It should be an entertaining series, but in the end, OK City's star power is too much for the Ewing Theory Nuggets to overcome.

Thunder in 5.

Eastern Conference playoff predictions

2011-04-15T09:11:00.007-06:00

My NBA watching this season was a complete disaster.

After the wife and I decided to get rid of our cable, I decided the only things I'd really miss, and couldn't get online free somewhere, were the NBA and NCAA football.

Turns out there wasn't anything I could do about the football side of my sports withdrawal, but the NBA does offer a League Pass option for broadband users. After researching my options within the program, I chose a package that let me pick eight teams to watch (all home and away games, unless televised).

I chose Golden State, the Clippers, Miami, the Knicks, Portland, Oklahoma City, Chicago and Boston.

In retrospect, I think I picked well from an entertainment perspective.

Anyway, this plan cost around $100, which I felt was a reasonable price for an entire season of watching Blake Griffin and LeBron James do their thing. For the first few weeks, everything was great. The picture quality was good, and I could stream the games to my TV if I didn't feel like sitting at my desk to watch Kevin Durrant score 43.

Then we changed ISP's to a cheaper, wireless option. It saved us around $25 a month, and the initial download speeds we were getting were great. For about a day.

Then everything went to pot.

From the 3.2 megabit download speed I was enjoying, it dropped to around 40 to 50kb/sec, utterly unsuitable for streaming media like Youtube, Netflix and... the NBA League Pass.

I figured it was just a temporary problem, but after two days of this, I called my ISP and was told they were throttling my connection because we used streaming media.

Yeah, apparently this cheap, 3.2 megabit package was only for people who check their e-mail and play Sudoku online. Stream anything for a period of time and they throttle you. Go over your 5GB monthly download cap, they throttle you.

I actually spoke with the tech who signed us up for the service initially, and he had the gall to tell me he asked what we use the internet for, and I said nothing about streaming. Dude, ever since we got rid of cable, internet streaming is 70% of what we do with our connection! You never asked me that question, and if you had, I would have told you we use Netflix and Hulu almost every day.

Anyway, Netflix and Hulu are generally able to work okay with extensive and time consuming buffering, but the NBA League Pass just can't do it, seeing as to how it's a live stream and all.

Bad times.

Bottom line, I watched almost no NBA over the last few months of the season. I faithfully read the blogs, which is nice, but I haven't seen anyone play an entire game, and that stinks.

But since when has a lack of knowledge and insight stopped me from offering my opinions before?

The good news is that I'll be watching a ton of playoff basketball over the next six weeks, thanks to making some arrangements. Expect a lot of blogging on the National Basketball Association through early June.

Without further ado I give you my 2011 NBA Playoff Predictions, Eastern Conference Style!

Video courtesy The Two Man Game via Ball Don't Lie

Chicago-Indiana

Remember waaay back in 2008 when I wrote David Stern had rigged the draft to get Chicago the #1 pick and thereby restore the Bulls to their rightful place as NBA Royalty alongside Boston and L.A.?

That plan certainly worked.

Anyway, the Bulls are a great team, mostly defensively. Second best squad in the league at giving up points, at just over 91 a game. As we've learned, this trait is hugely important in the playoffs, when things slow down and getting that one stop at the end of the game can be the difference between winning a championship and going home a loser.

It's weird to think Boozer is on this defensive juggernaut, but as I've argued extensively in the past, put him next to a defensive center/team and his defensive liabilities, which are many, aren't as much of a problem anymore. The Jazz playing him with Okur was a disaster of epic proportions. The Bulls playing him with Noah, a defensive player if there ever was one, equals success.

The Pacers are an interesting bunch. Danny Granger is a poor man's Kobe, Roy Hibbert was tearing it up for a while there and then cooled off a whole bunch and they have two identical moderately useful white forwards in Tyler Hansbrough and Josh McRoberts.

I can see the Pacers keeping it close in two or three games, but overall they just don't have the talent or coaching to beat Chicago.

Bulls in 5. Derrick Rose gets more ammo for his (mostly deserving) MVP campaign.

Miami-Philadelphia

Ah, the Heat. Target of billions of pounds of internet vitriol over the last nine months. Were Wade, James and Bosh overly cocky last summer? Definitely. Was expecting the team to win 70 games unreasonable? Maybe, maybe not. Losing Haslem was a giant blow, and the same goes for Mike Miller. Give them a defensive specialist down low and a guy who can hit wide-open 3's and the LeChyane Washames group can win a lot.

But even if these three have to do it all themselves, there's no better place to make it work than the playoffs. Grind it out games, where one guy who can get to the hoop at will is invaluable... and Miami has two.

The Sixers had a roller coaster of a year. Started terribly, worked their tails off to get into a decent playoff spot, then tanked the last few games to earn a date with Miami. I guess when Andre Iguodala is your best player, that's about the best you can do. Sorry, Philadelphia.

Heat in 5.

Orlando-Atlanta

Hooray for Dwight Howard! He is finally showing post moves, and as a result, scoring more than he ever has before.

That said, an improvement from 20.7 ppg to 23 ppg is not exactly mind blowing.

There's still a lot of room to grow with Dwight, but I honestly just don't see it ever happening. He doesn't have a tenth of a percent of the "I will step on your throat until you die" attitude Jordan had, and in the NBA, that's what makes the supremely talented legends. Dwight's abilities + a killer attitude = at least 30 points per. Maybe more. The dearth of talent at center around the league means he has tens of games a year where he just needs to dominate Jamaal Magloire and Hasheem Thabeet in order to own the league, and he just doesn't want to do it.

Regardless, he is still a force of nature and even all by himself I think he could beat Atlanta. This is not to malign the rest of Orlando's roster; Jameer Nelson, Jason Richardson, J.J. Redick and Hedo Turkoglu are not bad pieces. This team won't make it to the Finals, but it will be enough to get past the Hawks.

Meanwhile, Atlanta is relying on max contract guy Joe Johnson to get it done. Yes, the same Joe Johnson who scored 18 ppg on 44% shooting from the field and 29% shooting from deep this season. $16.3 million this season. And over the next FIVE seasons? He'll earn 19, 21, 23 and 24 million. Per season.

Thank the Hawks and this contract if this NBA lockout extends too far.

On the plus side, Josh Smith is always fun to watch, and the Horford/Pachulia combo may be enough to throw Dwight off his game. Who knows, maybe Jamal Crawford might get hot one game and bury the Magic in 3's.

But in the end, Orlando comes out on top.

Magic in 6.

Boston-New York

Two good teams, both with major flaws. Let me break them down for you.

The Celtics are old and injured and need to rely on good playoff minutes from Shaq and Jermaine O'Neal to be a contender.

The Knicks can't play defense worth a lick and D'Antoni only uses 6 guys a night, leading to fatigue in the long run.

Bill Simmons has been complaining for weeks about the February trade that sent Kendrick Perkins to the Thunder in exchange for Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic. Yes, Perkins was somehow a defensive presence down low despite being 6'4" and having no vertical. But he wasn't exactly all-world or anything.

That said, when your backup options are a 39-year-old (THIRTY NINE) Shaq and a guy who scored 5 ppg for you in 24 games, I think I might be upset, too.

Sure, Shaq was surprisingly halfway decent for the Cavs last year in the playoffs, recording 11 points and 5 boards a game on 51% shooting while banging around on defense. I'm just not sure he can do it again.

Add in the reports that apparently Perkins and Rondo were BFF's and Rajon's been moping around for the last two months and you see the problems.

The opposing argument (from GM Danny Ainge) is that the trade set the Celtics up to be more prepared for the future, but it seems they sacrificed the 2010-2011 season to do it. We'll see how it works in the long run.

The Knicks are greatly rejuvenated (Stern rejoices) thanks to signing Amar'''''e Stoudamire last summer and acquiring Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony at the trade deadline. Much like the Heat, these three players are capable of winning a bunch of games on their own, or they would if Chauncey hadn't started declining and Stoudamire could guard anyone/rebound in the playoffs.

I expect some entertaining games in this series as D'Antoni tries to solve the riddle of Boston's defense (lessened with the departure of coach Tom Thibodeau to Chicago). The Celtics don't have anyone who can guard Carmelo, and if Amar'''''e can have his way with Garnett, New York might actually win this series.

But in the end, Playoffs Rajon Rondo is Playoffs Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen can still shoot lights out and Garnett is always able to motivate through insanity, so expect the Celtics to prevail. This round, at least.

Celtics in 7.

I'll throw up a Western Conference prediction list later tonight.

BYU football hype

2011-04-11T15:29:00.005-06:00

A poster over at Cougarboard.com shared some information he got from an unnamed member of BYU's administration. Take it for what it's worth, but I found it interesting and exciting.

- Team has the best depth that Bronco has ever had. This is the first year under Bronco that we have actually maxed out our full scholarship allotment (85). In '05 and '06 we were way "under-manned" due to so many academic and HC dismissals. Broco believes this is his first year when we are actually 2-deep at every position.

- Defensive players Bronco is "gushing over" this spring: D. Sorenson (calls him the heir apparent to Andrew Rich), Hague, Hadley, Kaveinga.

- Said Phillips' role is still uncertain. Needs to become more well-rounded if he is to have a significant role as a RB...needs to improve receiver skills to play in the slot. Is definitely an athlete and will be a play-maker - but he needs some seasoning yet.

- Said Bronco/Doman still have a lot of belief in Riley Nelson. Heaps is the clear starter and is better suited to stretch the field and run the offense, but Riley's ability cannot be ignored. There will not be a "split" QB situation, but Riley will very possibly see the field and use his legs to make plays in some capacity.

- Said this year's OL is setting up to be perhaps the best BYU has ever had. All of the starters are veteran players...2-3 with NFL potential. Backups are all legit and there isn't a huge gap between many of the 1's and 2's.

- Said Bronco had a wake-up moment last year when he re-involved himself in coaching instead vs administrating. Said it even surprised him how the players responded. It became evident to him that the offense needed the same type of influence.

- Doman's offense is built around the talents of this team - OL and QB. Said it makes sense to go back under center and "ride the hogs" to victory. Said the offense is built around a strong running game, mixed with a vertical passing attack. Described Anae's offense as ball control - "tick, tick, tick, tick, tick". Described Doman's offense as a down-hill running, big play passing blend - "tick, tick, boom" (his words). Said Doman was frustrated at times with the lack of big play play-calling, and he wants to get back to that. The associated risk is a lot more 3 and outs (something Anae rarely did), but coaches think the D is good enough to hold their ground and give our O more opportunities. In his opinion, Doman's greatest fault is perhaps his impatience...he loves the vertical throws, as does Heaps. It will be a challenge to remain as successful on 3rd down conversion as we have become accustomed to, but we will see a lot more big plays and hopefully more points.

- Said under Doman, the offense is trying to establish the same mentality that the defense has had the past few years - cohesion, unity, work-ethic, attacking mentality. This has been lacking in the past. Defensive players in the past have worked a lot harder than offensive players. The "Band of Brothers" was a mentality of the D moreso than the O.

- Said the existing staff needed the personnel change probably more than the players did. Said he hasn't been around a coaching staff so focused and friendly to each other. "Maybe they're still in the honeymoon, but I've NEVER seen this kind of synergy at BYU in the past."

- Said Quezada is one of Bronco's favorite players on the team. Bronco called him the poster-child of what he is looking for in a non-LDS player. Has an incredible work-ethic and is just very humble and focused.

- Said Bronco has reached a level with the HC Office to where they almost let him handle everything internally. This is because Bronco has proven to take infractions very seriously and he often addresses problenms before it hits their radar. Said Bronco and the HC are on the exact same page, and they see eye to eye on the handling of infractions. Said Bronco has only had one instance in his tenure where he felt the HC was amiss and he let them know it. (He wouldn't tell me what the incident was - I am guessing balloon-gate).

I love that the team is finally full... that there's enough talent for an honest-to-goodness 2-deep, where the fans won't have to cringe in fear when the starter takes a rest. The OL talk is also encouraging... football is won in the trenches, after all... but we've heard this kind of talk before and then watched overweight and out-of-shape big boys fail to protect the quarterback or open up holes for the running backs.

Anyway, good stuff. Only a bajillion more days until BYU @ Ole Miss! Let the countdown begin!

Micro blog post

2011-04-06T22:35:00.002-06:00

It's been two months since I last blogged! And I have about 300 different topics to blog about, but no time to write 300 posts.

Here we go!

-Jimmer and BYU made it to the Sweet Sixteen, where they lost because they had zero post presence. Jimmer then won every single Player of the Year award except for the Bob Cousy, which went to the best point guard in the NCAA, Connecticut's Kemba Walker, who had zero assists in the boring and horrific title game against Butler.

-BYU basketball head coach was wooed by several "BCS" schools, including future "BCS" school Utah. He said thanks, but no thanks to all of them, and signed a new 5-year deal with BYU.

-Derek Rose is getting a lot of buzz as the NBA's MVP. In a weak season, I guess he's a viable candidate, but 25 points per game on 44% shooting from the field and 33% from deep isn't overwhelmingly impressive.

-The Jazz were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs by the Lakers, and then turned around and beat L.A. last night, hurting the Kobe Show's chances of getting a #1 seed. All the losing Utah has been doing doesn't bother me... it translates into a better lottery pick this summer, and the young guys need to learn sometime.

-In a related story, hey, the Jazz got Derrick Favors! Sure, they had to give up their All-Star point guard to do it, but as some radio guys argued so astutely last week, what NBA champ got there on the back of a point guard?

-In a related related story, I appear to have been way off about Gordon Hayward. Over the last month or so he's averaged 10 points per game on 54% shooting from the field and 50% from the 3. Plus he had a sick throw down dunk on the entire Lakers team last night, so that was good.

-Spring football camp is a cruel institution. There have been loads of great reports coming out of BYU's camp, which gets me all excited for football season, but then I remember football is like six months away and I get sad. That said, apparently Heaps is a machine, linebacker transfer from USC Uona Kaveinga has been tearing it up and Ross Apo is apparently the second coming of Randy Moss. Spring game this Saturday. I'll be there, snow or shine (it's supposed to snow).

-The uprisings in the Middle East are a giant mess. Egypt will most likely end up being run by someone bent on invading Israel (that won't end well). America's involvement in Libya seems a lukewarm, weird situation; the rebels are safe from being bombed from above, but Gaddafi's troops are free to flamethrower and shoot to their heart's content? I just don't get how air strikes are horrifically against international law, but ground-based weaponry is just fine for slaughtering your own people.

-Carmelo Anthony went to the Knicks, where the team proceeded to lose a bunch of games and then win five in a row as of today. Not sure where I stand with this team yet. The playoffs will be a big help deciding.

-When I purchased an Evo 4G last summer, my biggest concern was the lack of a tactile keyboard. I learned about Swype, a program that uses swiping motions along the touch screen to type instead of "typing." After learning the beta was closed, I waited for an official release. Six months later, I discovered Sprint had pushed out Swype to my phone automatically, and all I had to do was enable it. While annoyed I wasn't exactly informed, I've loved it. I can actually use Google Talk now, and while I may go back to a tactile keyboard one day, for now the touch screen is fine.

-This government shutdown thing is ridiculous. Republicans want to cut .005% of the national budget and Democrats want to cut .002% of it. The argument is reportedly unsolvable. Ugh.

-Pastor Terry Jones burning a Koran is stupid, insensitive and bigoted. Muslims murdering UN workers on another continent in retaliation is evil.

-To finish off where we started, I believe Jimmer will do just fine in the NBA. If he can shoot as well as he did at BYU with teams double and triple teaming him, I think he can handle hitting a few wide-open jumpers for someone like Phoenix or Denver. Stephen Curry is his closest analogue in the association, and he's a good-to-great player for the Warriors.

Now back to your regularly scheduled somewhat frequent blog posting schedule.

San Diego State at BYU, tonight

2011-01-25T15:03:00.004-07:00

I'll let ESPN's Pat Forde do the talking.

[San Diego State head coach] Steve Fisher says it's the Game of the Year in the Mountain West Conference. But that's an understatement.

It's the biggest game in MWC history. But that's an understatement, too.

Here's the proper statement: The San Diego State-BYU matchup Wednesday night in Provo, pitting the No. 4 team in the polls against No. 9, is the biggest game in many years for every team that resides outside the power six conferences.

Near as The Minutes can figure, this is the first top-10 matchup of conference opponents from outside the big six leagues in seven years.

Well then. The mood on Cougarboard.com seems to be pretty confident; most people there have picked BYU to win fairly handily. And with Jimmer playing for BYU, who can blame them? Not sure how you stop someone who can shoot from 35 feet out and get past you if you try and play up.

Should be a fun one to watch. Tune into CBS College Sports at 8:00 p.m. Mountain tomorrow to witness the fireworks.

More Jimmer

2011-01-24T10:41:00.002-07:00

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

This kid has range.

Plus, he's got a shot of passing Danny Ainge to become BYU's all-time leading career scorer.

According to this Cougarboard.com poster, it's pretty much in the bag, assuming there isn't a major collapse, like Jimmer simply not scoring like he has been or BYU losing in the first round of the MWC tournament and/or the NCAA.

He's a special talent. Get to the Marriott Center and watch him in person if you can. It'll be something to tell the grandkids.

Jimmer

2011-01-12T12:19:00.001-07:00

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

47 points. 16-28 from the field, 6-9 from deep, 9-9 at the line.

What more can you say?

Jazz at Clippers, second half

2010-12-29T22:50:00.002-07:00

(See first half commentary here.)

1. I think Jefferson heard me in my last post. Immediately comes out and hits a nice jumper. Now has 14 points on 6-10 shooting.

2. Griffin pases well, too. Drove baseline, drew a defender and zipped it to a cutting Jordan, who was fouled. I think Blake is a better rookie than Karl Malone was. Complete package and just terrifying.

3. Hayward just hit a nice 3-pointer after missing his previous four shots. I dunno... still don't see him sticking in the league.

4. Griffin with another fantastic pass in the paint. If he's going to be an elite passer in addition to what he already is? He's going to destroy the league.

5. Hayward hits another 3. Nice, high, arcing shot. I am motivating Jazz players left and right.

6. Just had a discussion with my in-laws about when Griffin will start getting superstar calls. I say soon, as in this season.

7. Jefferson hits another pretty turnaround one-hander from the baseline. I'm going to badmouth him more often.

8. Eric Gordon hits from long range from the corner. Only shooting 33% from there on the season, but he's definitely a shooter. Clippers have nice pieces. Did I already say that?

9. Jazz just had about four shots in a row blocked inside. Interior defense is another good piece.

10. Deron for three from a foot or so behind the line. Need more of that from him. 36% from there on the season. Gotta pick it up a bit.

11. Another block, this time on Memo's shot. That's two the Turk has had sent back already. I like it when he drives, but too often that leads to him getting embarrassed. No hops.

12. Hayward hits another jumper to give the Jazz a 76-70 lead. Boy, is he terrible.

13. Clipper offense looking disorganized. Jazz took the lead and L.A. seemed to fall apart. Coaching? Vinny Del Negro doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

14. For as well as Fes played in the first half, he's yet to make an appearance in the second, and there's only 44 seconds left in the third quarter. Jefferson hits what is basically a set shot to give the Jazz a 79-70 lead.

15. Memo misses a three from the corner, hustles to get his own board and banks it off the glass with three seconds left in the quarter. Jazz up 11.

16. Blake with only three points in the third quarter, all from the free throw line.

17. Eric Bledoe for three. Another shooter for the Clippers. Jazz only up four, 81-77.

18. Ronnie Price sneaks in for an offensive board amongst the trees, and puts a missed Memo shot back in. Dang.

19. Blake with a nice block on an attempted Price layup, Hayward cleans it up for two more. The rookie with another three two plays later. Coming out party for Gordon? 15 points on 5-10 shooting so far.

20. Clippers settling for a lot of long-range shots right now. Jazz pulling away as Jefferson hits another shot. Utah up 13. Jefferson scores another, with harm, next time down the court. 26 points for Al to go with nine rebounds. Jazz 93-79.

21. Griffin trying to bring the Clippers back on his own. Don't think it's going to happen.

22. Baron for three, cuts the lead to nine with 5:22 left. Enough time?

23. Nope. Jefferson with another shot.

24. Griffin with a jaw-dropping spin move into a pretty push shot. Cannot guard him one-on-one.

25. Millsap and Griffin get tangled up on a rebound and earn a double technical. I think that was a bit of a hasty call from the ref. They were about to get up and run back down the court after exchanging a couple shots. Let it go.

26. Gordon feeling it, hits another jumper off a pass from Jefferson. Can he do this consistently? Or is this a Clippers thing?

27. Millsap with a fadeaway jumper on the baseline over Griffin to give him 12 points and 9 boards. Amazing when that kind of performance is kind of an afterthought. Jazz looking good.

28. Griffin almost gets his head stuck in the rim on an alley-oop from Baron. What more can you say?

29. Jazz up 99-90 with 2:00 to play. Since young T-Mac is not in the arena, I'd say the lead is safe.

30. Jefferson swallows up a Griffin inside shot, sends Blake to the ground. Ballgame.

31. Jefferson with the dagger. Hits a fadeaway in the paint for his 31st point to push the lead to 11, 103-92.

32. Griffin hits a three with 12 seconds left. Nice wrist flick, nothing ugly about that. Meaningless shot, but still.

Ho hum, yet another come-from-behind win for the Jazz. They love doing this, and it worries me. If the habit continues into the playoffs, watch for an early exit.

Deron finished with a fairly pedestrian 16 and 7 with five turnovers.

Jefferson with 31 and 10, 59% from the field and perfect from the line.

Fesenko never got back on the floor after halftime. Kind of a disappointment.

A good road win against a recently surging Clippers team. Nice way to come back from a disappointing loss to the Blazers in Salt Lake earlier this week.

Are these running commentary posts any fun? Let me know if you want to see more.

Jazz at Clippers, first half

2010-12-29T21:45:00.001-07:00

Watching the Jazz play the Other L.A. team right now. Boy, I miss watching Jazz games. When I decided to go without cable a few months ago, I knew not having sports would be rough, but I figured I could get by with the NBA League Pass and random websites of questionable legality. Turns out the situation has been great except that I can't get Jazz games on the League Pass and finding games on the internets has been a lot harder than I thought it'd be.

Anyway, here are my thoughts on the game as I watch at my in-laws'.

1. Fesenko! I have loved his potential since I saw him in the Rocky Mountain Revue a couple years ago. His quickness is nuts for how big he is, but he's struggled a lot learning the game and harnessing his abilities. This season hasn't really been any different from most of his career (translation: he sits on the bench), but for some reason, Sloan decided to give him some play tonight and he's been awesome.

Perfect from the field on three shots, a super impressive block on Blake Griffin (we'll get to him in a bit) and he's adjusted a few other shots. I hope he can pull it together. He's been the key to beating the Lakers for the last few seasons, in my opinion.

2. Jefferson is a disappointment. I've been following box scores, and his 47% shooting is definitely a concern, but I hadn't been able to see how tentative he is until tonight. He takes too long in the post and relies too heavily on his little jump hook. I thought coming to Utah and playing with an actual point guard would help his game, but he's recessed. And as I typed that, he hit his third shot in a row. Hmm.

3. Blake Griffin in a beast. I know, he's the worst-kept secret in the NBA right now, but holy moley. Big, strong, quick, fearless and can jump out of the gym. He reminds me of Dwight Howard with much better footwork and understanding of how to score. He's a special, special player. Scoring 21 and pulling down 12 a game in what is essentially his rookie season? He'll be a great one for years to come.

4. And then there's DeAndre Jordan. Another guy on the Clips who can sky and throw it down. He just caught a lob from Baron Davis about a foot above the rim, two feet out and jammed it home with two hands.

5. Al-Farouq Aminu hit three shots in a row from deep at one point. Maybe after the first one, Jazz defenders, you should cover him a little more closely, eh? But not, the next two shots were completely uncontested. Shooting 46% from 3 in his first season. Do some homework, Utah.

6. Memo looked good in limited minutes in the first half. Wish he could play halfway decent defense, but it is not to be. I'm reading Bill Simmons' Book of Basketball right now, and he makes it a big point to discuss a player's impact on the defensive end when evaluating their impact on the league. Okur needs to be a 25+ points per game scorer to really make me feel like he's making up for his complete lack of effort on the other side of the floor.

7. Deron didn't seem very involved in the first half. But after checking the box score, he's got 10 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds. Maybe my expectations are too high.

8 The Clippers have some good pieces. If old man Baron Davis can play well, this is a potentially scary team down the road, if not this season.

Other random thoughts as I wait for the second half to begin.

-Watching the Lakers self-destruct against the Spurs last night was very fun to watch. Call me a hater, but every time Kobe goes into "I am awesome" mode, shoots 30 times, misses 22 of them and the Lakers lose badly it makes me happy.

-Boozer playing well for the Bulls. Paired with a good-to-great defensive center in Noah, that's a fantastic situation for him.

Second half comments next.

Multi-topic post for the week

2010-12-17T20:40:00.003-07:00

This week has been insane. And the craziness is not over yet. Long story short, my family has two weddings and a funeral, as well as Christmas, over the next two weeks.

So here are my thoughts on a variety of topics.

1. I care very, very little about BYU's bowl game tomorrow. I can't even tell you the name of it off the top of my head, though I do know they're playing UTEP and the game will be held in Albuquerque. How will Heaps look? That's pretty much all I care about.

2. The Obama Tax Compromise Bill (or whatever it's called) passed. Far as I can tell, lots of conservatives are mad, and lots of liberals are mad. In my opinion, that means it must be fairly good.

3. Seems those interested in running for president from the right wing in 2012 are starting to poke around. If the Republicans nominate Palin, I am done with them forever. In all honesty, no one I've seen interests me much at all. Maybe someone will come out of nowhere like Obama did in 2006.

4. The Heat are starting to figure things out. I knew their less-than-stellar start was no indication they'd fail all season. Mike Miller's return will be huge.

5. I was feeling great about the Jazz until tonight, when they got blitzed by 30 points in New Orleans. Outside shooting is definitely a concern, as CJ Miles is inconsistent, Raja is consistently mediocre (36% from downtown this season) and Hayward is not an NBA player. Another area of concern is that Al Jefferson is shooting 46% on the season when his career FG% is 50%. I hope he figures out what's wrong soon.

6. BYU basketball is fun to watch. I've caught a few games already this season, and their defense is absolutely stifling. I'd hate playing against these guys... there's just no room to do anything. Against Hawaii, the Warriors resorted to driving wildly into the lane and throwing the ball at the hoop as soon as any contact was made. That was their entire offense for minutes at a time. Jimmer is a stud.

No promises I'll be able to blog any more this week, or next week, for that matter. This might have to be a "see you after New Year's" kinda thing. I'll keep you updated.

Ugly choke job followed by more choking

2010-12-11T14:34:00.005-07:00

I know this is late, but gack the loss two weeks ago got to me.

Could BYU have done any more to give away that game?

At the start of the fourth quarter, the Cougars led 13-0, Utah's offense couldn't do anything and while the lead felt tenuous, it would take a lot of work for the Utes to come out ahead in the end.

Which they did.

The reasons why have been hashed out by many writers by now, and I can't shake the feeling that the Cougars put a bow on this game and gifted it to the Utes. A shanked punt goes off a BYU special teams player. As a BYU corner is being tackled after an interception, then having the ball ripped out somewhere in there and turning it over.

And then topping it all off by completely failing to block a Ute coming off the edge on the potentially game-winning field goal.

Just overall a gross way to lose.

The silver lining is that Jake Heaps' performance was better than any of Max Hall's three career games against Utah. The final drive where he was left with third and long more than once and made a play anyway was very encouraging.

A lot has been said for Anae's play calling, and while I'm not entirely convinced he's terrible, he does have some pretty predictable tendencies. Running it up the gut when you're down one with time running out and deep in your own territory is never smart.

Regardless, we put another chapter in the amazing story of BYU vs. Utah in the books. Here's hoping it can continue even with Utah in the PAC-Whatever and BYU independent in football.

Our winner for the 2010 Guess the Holy War Score 2010 Extravaganza was Steven, who submitted a score of 24-17, BYU. He got Utah's score exactly correct, and was just a touchdown and a two-point conversion away from getting BYU's. His guess that Heaps would pass for 200 yards was also darn close to Jake's actual stat of 228 yards.

So the Amazon.com gift card is his, and has been sent. Congrats!

I'll get back onto the blogging horse pretty soon. Expect a few rants on the NBA, politics and the weather over the next week or so.

The Holy War, 2010 edition

2010-11-26T11:27:00.004-07:00

Photo courtesy the Deseret News

It's been an interesting year for both BYU and Utah fans. While each team feels like they're at roughly the same spot, talent-wise, Utah got here by falling fast from a #5 national ranking, and BYU arrived where they are after firing defensive coordinator Jaime Hill and winning five of their next six games.

To simplify, neither team is outstanding this season. Utah's #20 ranking in the BCS standings seems a little inflated, and I believe BYU's improved defense puts them near the top 25.

Both teams have a young quarterback who has struggled mightily at times. Both teams have put up tons of points on lesser opponents and gotten blown out by the likes of TCU. Neither team has a 100-yard-per-game rusher, and neither team has a 100-yard-per-game receiver.

This makes it interesting for both defenses. There's no one to focus on... no Austin Collie to worry about or Alex Smith to try and gameplan for.

I believe this means that this year, maybe more than any in recent history, there's a great chance a relatively unknown player can be the hero for the winning team tomorrow.

And speaking of history, the last 15 years of this rivalry indicate that when both teams are relatively equal in terms of talent, it's a dogfight. So if 2009's overtime victory for BYU didn't give you a heart attack, this year's matchup might.

I've thought long and hard about who should win on Saturday, and for the longest time I just couldn't come up with an answer. If I thought Jordan Wynn was a better quarterback, I'd be afraid of him throwing every down and giving BYU's (typically) underwhelming secondary fits. As it is, I think he can be rushed and confused just enough to negate the fact that I have been afraid every time an opposing quarterback dropped back to throw deep against the Cougars this season.

Jake Heaps has looked pretty good these last few weeks, but Utah did a great job of destroying Max Hall the last three years, and Hall also looked great against middling teams. I am willing to bet Utah's defense will focus on confusing Heaps and making the game too fast for the true freshman, while living with the results from J.J. DiLuigi, Josh Quezada and Bryan Kariya.

I'd like to see BYU play ball control, pound the football. In 2008, Harvey Unga had his way with the Ute defense, but Hall's five interceptions were enough to give Utah a convincing win. If Bronco and his staff realize that Heaps is not going to win this game on his own, and put the game on the backs of their... uh... backs, I like BYU's chances.

On defense, watch for a swarming defense against Utah's running game. Since Hill's firing, BYU's opponents have rushed for an average of 77 yards per game. I think the Cougar defense can handle a straight-ahead running attack, but we all know Utah loves using reverses and other trickeration to take advantage of that fact. BYU's defenders need to be aggressive, but stay home on their assignments to account for the trick play.

My prediction: BYU 24, Utah 21.

As is tradition, I'm running the Guess the Score contest again. Leave your prediction for the final score in the comments, along with how many total yards passing yards for Heaps.

The winner gets $10, in cash or as a gift certificate to Amazon.com.

Good luck all, and go Cougars!

Inspirational story

2010-11-13T21:01:00.002-07:00

This feature was published in the 2010 Fall issue of Pontoon & Deck Boat magazine.

Access for the Disabled

Ex-firefighter seeks take boating to everyone

By Brandon Barrus

Tom Smurthwaite was once a firefighter in Rochester, New York. A backdraft explosion blew him down a set of stairs and crushed his back, giving him spinal nerve damage, and leaving him in constant pain. He’s unable to sit, and such an injury has limited many people to a life staring at the ceiling from bed.

However, Smurthwaite is not like most people. He decided that his injuries would not keep him from doing the things he loved, and with the help of friends, he designed and his friends modified two garden tractors, for doing yard chores. He also modified a station wagon so he could drive while in a prone position.

Smurthwaite lives almost directly on Lake Ontario in New York, and became interested in what it would take for him to start boating. His research led him to Custom Pontoon Boats and owner Jeff Collier. Collier had just completed a pontoon boat for a customer in a wheelchair, and had displayed the results on the company website (www.custompontoonboatkitsetc.com).

“It was a great size, and the twin Lenco electric DC motors were perfect,” Smurthwaite said.

Tragically, the original owner of the boat passed away just a short while after Custom Pontoon Boats delivered the finished product. The late owner’s sister contacted Collier to see if anyone might be interested in buying the boat, and Collier immediately thought of Smurthwaite.

“Jeff asked if I wanted to buy it and have him make the changes I needed,” Smurthwaite said. “It was a little odd at first, but the sister had heard of my modified tractors and car and was hoping I’d buy the boat.”

Smurthwaite decided to purchase the boat, and Collier went to work on the modifications required for the former firefighter to get out on the lake.

A bridge on the waterway from his home to Lake Ontario requires that the whole boat be no higher than the top of the 25hp Mercury engine in the down position.

The in-deck area was already designed to accommodate someone who is disabled, so Collier added a platform for Smurthwaite to lie on while driving the boat.

The finished product is quite a sight. The low profile allows Smurthwaite access to Lake Ontario, while the twin Lenco electric DC motors are controlled by a joystick at the helm; the motors can propel the boat at 3.5 miles per hour and allow him to maneuver the boat at the dock like he’s in a car.

“You can turn on a dime,” Smurthwaite said.

The 25hp four-stroke Mercury gas engine can reach a top speed of 13 miles per hour. It is steered with a stick steer controller, so there is not wheel at all on the boat.

Today, Smurthwaite enjoys motoring along Lake Ontario on calm sunny days, or just taking the pontoon out to the third-mile-long pond in his backyard.

Smurthwaite’s vision extends beyond himself; he hopes he can inspire others to follow his example.

“I’m just trying to get the idea of driving in the prone position out there, so if there’s anyone out there who doesn’t know this is possible, they can design it and run with it,” he said.

For more information on Custom Pontoon Boats, visit their website or call 937-323-2770.

Brief thoughts on BYU @ CSU

2010-11-13T11:04:00.003-07:00

As happy as I was with the outcome of the UNLV game last week, that feeling is tempered quite a bit by the knowledge that the Rebels are a bad football team. Really bad. Heaps found open guys on a consistent basis? UNLV corners and safeties. DiLuigi, Kariya and Quezada ran all day? UNLV defensive line and linebackers. Defense shut the Rebels down for almost the entire game? The UNLV quarterback couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

So today's game is a bit more interesting; while CSU isn't a world-beater, the Rams are better than what the Cougars faced last Saturday. Okay, 3-7 isn't exactly scary, but Utah State's 3-6 isn't either, and look what happened last month.

CSU's quarterback, Pete Thomas, has completed 66% of his passes for 2200 yards and 10 touchdowns on the season. He's also thrown 10 picks, so he's not Heisman material, but it worries me he's good enough to take advantage of a shaky Cougar pass defense today.

The Rams have two running backs averaging over 4.5 yards a carry, but BYU's rush defense has been amazing since Hill was fired, so giving up huge chunks of yards on the ground is not a concern, in my opinion.

In short, this is a true test of where the Cougars are as a team. If they struggle against the Rams, I expect losses against Utah and Clemson to end the season, making BYU barely bowl eligible. Or, heaven forbid, they lose to CSU today, we'll see five wins at the end of the season, and BYU won't go to a bowl for the first time since 2004.

Election Day

2010-11-02T12:30:00.001-06:00

You may have noticed it's been a while since I have commented on politics. In fact, my last purely political post was back in March, when President Obama's healthcare bill was passed.

I expressed dissatisfaction with both the Democrat and Republican parties in our nation at the time, a feeling that has only deepened since.

Despite my lack of posting on the topic, I have continued to read and watch views from all angles of the political spectrum. And I find my cynicism only deepening. There are very few politicians I feel I can truly support, and to be honest, I won't be able to vote for any of them today, which doesn't speak well for Idaho.

That said, I am not so naive that I think the current state of politics in America is something new. My friend Stu linked me to an informative video on the topic.

Crack open a history book, indeed. Politics is a dirty business where the only thing that matters is getting votes. If you can run an underhanded campaign without looking bad to your electorate, you'll probably win. This environment doesn't tend to attract the best and brightest; instead, those with the power to manipulate and tell people what they want to hear tend to move into this world.

That said, I will be voting today, even if I go straight third party.

Get out there and do your duty. Do some research into the candidates you will be voting on, and make an informed decision.

You'll probably get a sticker.

The day approaches

2010-10-19T17:35:00.002-06:00

As you can probably guess, I'm anxiously awaiting the NBA's regular season opening night next week. This summer has been filled with trades and signings and draft picks that promise big things, but nothing has been proven yet.

Will Blake Griffin tear it up in the regular season like he has in the preseason?

Will the Heat win 70 games?

Can John Wall effectively run an NBA offense?

Is Al Jefferson enough of a defensive upgrade for Utah to actually hang with L.A. this year?

Will Amare be a classic 20-10-50 guy in New York?

Is Dwight ready to unleash a devastating post game on the rest of the league?

No one knows yet. And that's what is awesome. I can't wait to find out.

In other sports news, my lack of commentary both before and after the BYU/TCU game reflects my complete lack of interest in the Frogs manhandling the Cougars once again (also I was out of town last week). I saw the outcome in advance, and nothing that happened on Saturday surprised me in the least.

Okay, in all honesty, BYU's run defense was immensely impressive. That TCU scored only three points until there were two minutes left in the half was due to the run-stuffing domination of BYU's defense and TCU's determination to keep running it up the middle despite having great success through the air. Once the Frogs remembered that BYU's secondary is consistently pathetic, they cruised to an easy victory.

The latest focus of discussion regarding why BYU is so utterly mediocre this season is Jake Heaps. He definitely struggled against TCU and didn't much of anything against San Diego State, so fans are rightfully questioning whether or not he has what it takes to be an elite Cougar quarterback when all is said and done.

I'm still on the fence. I notice that Max Hall was absolutely dominated by TCU in 2008 and 2009, and he is BYU's winningest QB ever, and is now starting in the NFL. Struggling mightily against the Horned Frogs (as a true freshman, no less) is no indication you are a scrub.

That said, the true test begins now. BYU plays Wyoming and UNLV over these next three weeks. If Heaps consistently overthrows receivers and takes bad sacks against these two programs, I'll start to believe all the hype surrounding this kid was unwarranted.

However, if Heaps does well in these games, I see a bright future ahead of him.

It's that clear for me.

False alarm, everything is normal

2010-10-10T10:23:00.003-06:00

My "Mass hysteria!" post from Friday appears to have been incorrect. BYU still owns the Aztecs, having beat them even when BYU was at its lowest point in six years and SDSU was at its highest point in six years.

I'm also definitely happy to be completely wrong in my prediction. And along those same lines, it was kind of nice going into a game where watching BYU go up 14-0 in the first quarter was exciting, rather than expected. The crowd was pumped and it got very loud more than once.

I loved BYU's gameplan of "We're playing ball control and smashmouth football, and if you want to beat us, meet us in the trenches." Considering the poor play of BYU's receivers and the explosiveness of the Aztec offense, it was a genius strategy and it paid off, to the point that BYU would have won by two or three touchdowns except for a couple big turnovers and penalties at important moments.

If I had any questions about Hill's firing before yesterday, I don't anymore. The defense that play last night was completely different from the one that faced Utah State, both in results and just plain attitude. The guys last night were fired up, sprinting to the ball, stringing out sweeps and smashing dives. Sure, the secondary gave up some big plays, but considering how good a quarterback SDSU's Ryan Lindley is and how big and talented his receivers are, it could have been much, much worse.

Bronco imposed his will on this group and they played like their lives depended on this win.

Even if this game had turned into a BYU loss, I would have come away happy about the improved effort and desire this Cougar team exhibited Saturday. Not so happy that I expect a win at TCU Saturday, but happy nonetheless.

Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria!

2010-10-08T23:31:00.007-06:00

When I first decided to go to this home game against San Diego State, I thought to myself, "Hmm a boring game to attend, but that's okay." I fully expected BYU to stomp the Aztecs into the ground.

Then Air Force happened. And Florida State. And Nevada. And Utah State.

Let's just say I'm now pretty much expecting a loss. Against San Diego State. Black is white, white is black, up is down. It's disconcerting.

After taking a closer look at the Aztecs, this squad is scary, especially compared to last season's team. Last year they recorded four total wins, one of which came against Southern Utah University, a 1AA team. The 2010 Aztecs can get their fourth win tomorrow, five games into the season.

Sure, their three wins have come against some less-than-impressive programs, like New Mexico State, but they did dominate Utah State, who you may remember rolled the Cougars in Logan last week.

San Diego did take a three-point less at Missouri two weeks ago, but considering it was a road game and the Tigers are 4-0, that's not anything to be ashamed of.

The Aztec offense is frankly scary. They're ranked in the top 15, nationwide, in points scored and passing yards, and they're 23rd in rushing yards, at 213 yards a game. The offense features two rushers averaging over five yards per carry, and six receivers averaging over 15 yards a catch.

So if the defense wants to go bend-not-break, prepare for a long afternoon. However, I have to imagine Bronco realizes the strategy of hoping the opposing quarterback makes a mistake doesn't work if your offense is anemic. I hope to see many, many blitzes, from all angles and all yardage situations.

But in the end, I don't expect BYU to win. I expect to see improvement over last week, but the defense just doesn't have the talent to stop San Diego.

Offensively, I'm not sure what we'll see from Heaps and company. If the receivers are interested in catching passes, and Heaps makes better reads than he has at times, we might see BYU break the 20-point mark for the second time this season.

But I'm doubtful. Regardless, I'll be there cheering the Cougars loudly the whole game.

Prediction: SDSU 42, BYU 17

It's NBA time!

2010-10-07T17:34:00.003-06:00

I haven't blogged about the NBA since July, and for good reason: very little has been happening. But now that the preseason has begun, and Dwyane Wade has injured himself, it's time to get things underway.

Remember my rantings about the shortcomings in Dwight Howard's game a couple years ago? Well, it appears Dwight is taking another step towards trying to develop a post up game, and that step is working with Hakeem Olajuwan.

Back in 2009 I wrote

Can you imagine Howard's body with Hakeem Olajuwan's game? I don't think I exaggerate when I say an individual with that pairing would average 40 points and 15 boards a game over and entire season. Easily.

What took them so long to adopt my idea? Whoever made this happen either deserves a big raise or a knock on the head for not doing it in 2004, when Dwight was drafted.

Here's some video of Howard working out with The Dream. It's pretty impressive.

If Dwight's post game develops to even half of Hakeem's this season, I will be very excited.

However, if he can't get it done this year, I don't think he ever will, and he'll go down as one of the biggest wastes of talent in NBA history.

In other news, Hakeem looks like he could still school a lot of centers in the NBA today.

Go Dwight.

Drops

2010-10-06T12:34:00.001-06:00

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

The creator of this "highlight" reel counted 13 dropped passes versus Utah State. These passes would have counted for 200 yards and three touchdowns.

Let's be generous and say half of those balls were uncatchable; that's still seven catches for 110 yards and two touchdowns, which would have made Heaps' stat line:

34 of 55 for 380 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Not bad for a true freshman quarterback being forced to sling the ball the entire second half.

Anyone who says BYU's woes are due to Heaps underperforming is way off base here. Defense and receiver ineptitude are killing the Cougars.

Descent

2010-10-05T18:00:00.002-06:00

In highlighting the DOS game Terminal Velocity back in July, I have now realized I was in error. While Terminal Velocity is a good game, the truly great action flight sim of that era was Descent.

Not only was Descent released before Terminal Velocity, it has higher quality graphics, better AI and better gameplay, in my opinion.

In Descent you play a mercenary something guy in the future, when the planets of our solar system are being mined for precious ore. Unfortunately, the robots doing the mining turn evil and the capitalist pigs who own this operation hire you to get rid of the infestation.

Each level involves you flying around the inside of a mine getting lost and shot at by robots. To win, you find the central reactor (which also shoots at you), destroy it, and escape the mine before it completely explodes.

That last element is probably the most entertaining part of the game. Desperately scrambling to get to the exit as the computerized voice (female, obviously) counts down to your demise... only to have to fight through a wave of enemies before finally escaping with your life with two seconds left on the clock = awesome.

The three-dimensional element was also amazing. Doom was a very popular first-person shooter back then, and for Descent to improve on the concept by introducing tunnels and enemies above and below you as well knocked my socks off.

The game just looks and sounds amazing. The music is great and the sounds work with a surround setup so you know what direction from which you're being shot at.

Descent was also one of the first titles to introduce a multiplayer experience over a network. Blasting robots is fun, but blasting your friends is even better.

And finally, Descent had a recording feature which allowed you to save videos of your gameplay to analyze later or show to others. That was very revolutionary for the time.

All of this adds up to a game that has fantastic replay value, even 15 years later. I found this online and fired it up on DOSBox; it is still as fun and addictive as it was when I was 13.

Descent is another shareware title, with the first few levels available at no cost, which means it found its way to my family's collection pretty quickly.

I award Parallax Software 20 points for developing this game. Sure, all you ever did was Descent and its many sequels, but that's enough to put you into my Gaming Hall of Fame.

A defining loss

2010-10-04T09:52:00.005-06:00

Utah State's complete domination of the BYU Cougars on Friday stripped away all the rationalizations. Brigham Young does not have a good football team this year. Not even close.

The research I did before this game calmed some of my fears that the Aggies might win. No team in the WAC, that had been absolutely obliterated by SDSU, could beat the BYU Cougars, down year or not.

As the clock was running out in the second quarter and the score read 17-3, I posted this as my Facebook status:

"An historic beatdown is brewing."

A few minutes later, Utah State returned a kickoff 67 yards to the BYU 33 yard line and the Aggies scored another touchdown with 49 seconds left in the half.

The rout was on.

Okay, so BYU's defense only gave up seven points in the second half, but that's because there was no need to move the ball in large chunks; all Utah State had to do was run run run, get first downs, chew up the clock and win.

The Aggies rushed for 242 yards on 59 carries, good for a 4.1 ypc average.

Quarterback Diondre Borel only had to throw it 13 times, and he completed 10 of those 192 yards and a touchdown.

It was as perfect an offensive showing as you can have against a team with an ineffectual offense. Ball control, pass when you need to, collect tally in the win column.

Focusing on that ineffectual offense, combine a true freshman quarterback with receivers who look worse at catching the ball than I do at my family Turkey Bowl every November, add a dash of "down by double digits" and that's it.

I believe Jake Heaps will be a great quarterback, and soon. He showed a lot of confidence on Friday, while at times in his previous playing time he appeared shaky and uncertain. He has the tools to make every throw on the field, it's just a matter of putting it all together and giving him some receivers who can catch balls that bounce off both hands.

I also liked what I saw from freshman Josh Quezada. He's fairly quick, pretty strong and falls forward when he gets tackled. If BYU hadn't been down by three touchdowns in the second half, I think we would have seen more carries from him.

So the future looks bright. Kind of. I'd feel better if a tight end would step up and take the starting spot. I'd also appreciate a wide receiver or two deciding they are catching everything thrown their way, and if Luke Ashworth gets benched for the rest of eternity.

In a related story, BYU defensive coordinator, Jaime Hill, was fired on Saturday. While the offense is clearly in big, big trouble, the defense is only a bit behind it in terms of depressing fans.

I'm not sure what to expect with Bronco calling the defensive plays, but if there's no visible improvement, I will be very, very worried.

So go Cougars! Next game at home, against the usually hapless Aztecs. It will be a much different game than I anticipated when I first saw it on the schedule.

BYU at Utah State preview

2010-09-30T20:49:00.004-06:00

This is an odd one. For the vast majority of my life, Utah State has been a blip on BYU's radar. It's nice of them to schedule the Cougars on the Friday before General Conference every year so as to avoid conflicts with meeting times, but I can't recall ever being even remotely worried the Aggies would win that game.

In looking back at the overall series, I do see the 2002 score was BYU 35, Utah State 34, but as I've mentioned before, I was out of the country during that season. The only wins the Aggies have had against BYU in my lifetime were 1.) 11 days after I was born and 2.) October 30, 1993. That was a long time ago.

So it's weird to come at this game feeling like it needs actual analysis. Like there's a real chance Utah State can win this game. And after a week one narrow loss to Oklahoma, the Aggies looked like a real threat.

And after a 38-17 thumping of the Idaho State Bengals (the closest college football team to me), they looked slightly more legit.

However, Fresno State beat them 41-24 and the San Diego State Aztecs ripped them 41-7.

So never mind.

The Aggies do have two running backs averaging over 4 yards per carry; Derrvin Speight and Michael Smith are not terrible, and anyone not terrible is going to move the sticks against this BYU defense.

Senior Diondre Borel is something of a running quarterback, and we know how well the Cougar linebackers can deal with that kind of talent (hint: not all that well).

I don't expect Utah State to go nuts tomorrow, but if they score less than 21 points I'll be stunned. And considering BYU is averaging 15 points per game this season, that means the offense needs to step it up if the Cougars want a win.

No dropped passes. No overthrown balls. Fewer fade routes and more stuff over the middle. Run the hurry up more often; Heaps has looked best when he's snapping the ball in under 10 seconds, for whatever reason. And more Quezada.

If these things happen, I see BYU breaking out and scoring 34 or more Friday.

If these things don't happen, look for another embarrassingly low point total and the Aggies' third win in 30 years against their rivals to the south. If you can call it a rivalry.

Nevada at BYU analysis

2010-09-27T18:01:00.004-06:00

BYU running back Josh Quezada (photo courtesy the Deseret News)

While my prediction of a fairly big Nevada win was correct, the way the Wolf Pack earned this W was a bit different than I expected.

The first half was all Nevada. They racked up huge yards on the ground and did well through the air. Halftime score: BYU 10, Nevada 24. While the score doesn't look unsurmountable, I admit I had no faith the Cougars could get a win.

In the second half, the Wolf Pack put it into grind-it-out mode and had two drives longer than eight minutes. Sure, some fans will point out Nevada only scored three points in the second half, but when you're giving up third-and-17 type plays with consistency, you are not playing well.

BYU's "bend but don't break" scheme kills me. A good, patient quarterback will hit those short passes on the sideline, and a decent running back can pick up yards when they need them. It's unsustainable.

And that was it. Jake Heaps missed on some big throws, certain receivers dropped some passes, and BYU's offense was unable to get into the endzone when it needed to.

Heaps will improve. He will look better against Utah State and SDSU than he did last Saturday.

Preview of the Aggies' best chance to beat the Cougars since 1993 will be posted Thursday.

Looking back, looking forward

2010-09-24T21:07:00.003-06:00

BYU football took a bigger step backward in 2010 than I anticipated. I knew the team was replacing Dennis Pitta, Harvey Unga and Max Hall. I knew they were replacing Scott Johnson and Jan Jorgenson. I just didn't know the players replacing these guys would be so woefully unprepared to take over.

1. The quarterback position has been mostly terrible. Junior Riley Nelson failed to produce and true freshman Jake Heaps has failed to produce much so far. I figured the reason for the shared time at quarterback was due to the fact that both players were great, but instead, apparently both players are bad. That's disappointing.

2. The wide receivers and tight ends have been consistently terrible. I can't find any official stats on this, but it feels like there have been more dropped passes in three games so far this season than there were for the entirety of 2009. What happened to the concept that BYU receivers might not be burners, but they catch everything thrown their way? These guys not only can't beat guys downfield, but they can't catch balls that hit them square in the hands. Tight ends and wide receivers both are failing spectacularly both in catching and getting open.

But that's not all! Oh no, we also have to account for blocking. You may have noticed BYU likes to run a play where they immediately get the ball to a wide receiver on the outside and let him run with it. This play is almost entirely dependent on other receivers blocking for the guy with the ball, and it's worked fairly well in the past. This season? Fail fail fail. The receiver catches the ball and he's tackled. The end. Replays sometimes show blocking receivers half-heartedly leaning towards a defender, but that's about it. It's somewhat infuriating. I'm just about ready to write off the entirety of the wide receiver and tight end corps.

3. The defense has been just embarrassing. Against Florida State, I lost count at 18 missed tackles by BYU linebackers and linemen. Failing to wrap up, failing to take good angles, failing to get good pressure on the quarterback. The only saving grace of the defense has been the play of cornerbacks Brandon Bradley and Brian Logan. While they haven't been spectacular, they've made some great plays in spots. How weird is it that the corners are the strength of BYU's defense? What is this, Bizzaro World?

4. The running back situation is not bad. DiLuigi has been playing extremely well, averaging 7 yards on 38 carries so far on the season. That's Luke Staley-esque. The problem is, he's definitely a "get to the edge" type runner, and not a "between the tackles" runner. I think maybe Quezada can be that guy, but so far he's gotten one carry on the year. Here's hoping he can grow into the role to complement J.J.

In college, more responsibility falls on the head coach than in any other sport at any other level. The head coach recruits his players, unlike in the NFL where players are drafted. So if a year comes along where the team takes a huge step backward, it's either the coach failed to draft the talent needed or the coach failed to adequately prepare his team for the upcoming season. Either way, bad news for him.

I like Bronco, I really do. I love that he rescued BYU from the depths of 2002-2004, but 2010 is more than just a hiccup, in my opinion. It shows a real lack of something... whether it's recruiting acumen or coaching ability, I don't know. But this team could definitely end the season under .500, and I don't think that's acceptable for a program like BYU.

Tomorrow's game is at home against Nevada. When I first saw the Wolf Pack on the schedule for this year, I mentally marked it as a win. I mean, shoot, Nevada is a WAC team. Now, I'm not so sure.

The Wolf Pack are 3-o on the season. Their three games so far: 49-24 win over Eastern Washington at home (not all that impressive), 51-6 win at home over Colorado State (getting my attention) and 52-31 win at home over Cal (okay now I'm scared). Sure, all three of their wins are at home, but they're putting up big point totals while holding up pretty well defensively.

The big worry? On the season, Nevada is ranked 5th nationally in rushing yards, at 302 per game. Considering how easily Air Force and Florida State racked up the yards on the ground against BYU, this will be a nightmare.

Will Heaps have any easier time passing against Nevada than he did Florida State? Most likely. Will he find it so easy that he passes for 400 yards and 4 touchdowns? Probably not.

I expect the score to be around 42-27 for the Wolf Pack. Another big loss and hopefully, another big step towards getting back to respectability for this BYU team.

Man down!

2010-09-23T23:11:00.004-06:00

Apparently Bronco's quarterback carousel problem has been solved for him. From the Deseret News:

Mendenhall said Nelson hurt his non-throwing shoulder during fall camp, but that injury wasn't discussed publicly. Early in the Florida State game, the injury worsened after Nelson absorbed a hard hit.

Team trainer Kevin Morris described it as "a severe injury to the shoulder" and that Nelson will undergo surgery as soon as possible. "We felt like it was necessary right now to get it done," he said.

Part of me feels bad for Riley. The kid plays hard at Utah State, loses a ton of games, and gets the chance to play for BYU. He comes in at what was probably the worst time possible for him; Heaps is breathing down his neck, the offense as a whole is worse than it's been since 2003 and the early schedule is brutal. Despite all of this, he went out there and played his best, giving everything he had to this team.

And now it's all over.

But the other part of me doesn't feel that bad. It's not as if Riley is a true Div-I FBS starting quarterback. He can't pass that well, he's not especially fast and his reads are subpar. He got more of a shot at glory than he should have, in my opinion, and he failed to make the most of it.

So now we enter the Jake Heaps years. Against Florida State he showed flashes of brilliance while making a ton of mistakes. This is to be expected from an 18-year-old true freshman playing against an ACC defense that is pretty good. He'll learn to step up in the pocket. He'll develop a sense for when a blindside hit is coming and protect the ball. And his timing on crossing routes will improve.

Now, I don't know how high he'll actually go. Is his ceiling Ty Detmer? John Beck? Max Hall? Brandon Doman? There have been far more talented players who have failed in college; for him to be unable to adjust to the speed of the game wouldn't be surprising.

But from that hurry-up touchdown drive he led near the end of the first half, I saw a lot of good things. His touchdown throw to Cody Hoffman with 14 seconds left in the second quarter was beautiful; anytime the quarterback looks off the safety and drills a pass to a crossing receiver I'm impressed.

So I expect a lot of bumps over the next few games, and I expect Heaps to improve every week. Will BYU win? Probably not a lot. BYU's defense is too poor to keep the Cougars in games. But the offense will score more points than they have recently and I'll be happy.

Go Cougars. Tomorrow I'll preview the Nevada game and discuss my many concerns with this team as a whole.

Washington at BYU prediction

2010-09-04T09:12:00.005-06:00

It's tough to predict what will happen in the first game of the season. There are new starters at many positions, and even if you return your quarterback, running back and tight ends (as BYU did last year), things can be very different than you expected.

And this year? When BYU has not one, but two new starting quarterbacks? New tight ends? New running backs and linebackers? Good grief; I have no idea what this team will look like today.

The one thing I'm reasonably sure of is that if BYU's defense can contain Locker and force him to be a pocket passer, I like the Cougars' chances. In last year's game, the final drive for Washington was essentially Locker running all over BYU's defense and making one or two passes. It reminded me of Vince Young against USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl... Vince Young would beat every Trojan defender and pick up 10-15 yards whenever he wanted.

From my untrained eye, it didn't appear either BYU or USC devoted a linebacker to spy on Locker or Young, but maybe they did and the running quarterbacks were just that good.

Regardless, I'd like to see BYU's Jordan Pendleton or freshman Kyle Van Noy waiting for Locker every time he tries to scramble.

Do that, and I predict BYU wins 24-17.

If Locker runs at will, I predict Washington wins 31-21.

Go Cougars!

What better game to get BYU fans excited?

2010-09-03T17:05:00.003-06:00

Exactly one hour until BYU faces off against Washington in Provo in the 2010 season opener. It's almost time.

2006: a year that began as a disappointment for Cougar fans and turned into one of the most memorable seasons ever.

After close losses at Arizona and at Boston College, BYU was 1-2 and looking shaken. Thankfully, the fourth game of the season was a nice and easy 38-0 win over the hapless Aggies of Utah State, and quarterback John Beck and company were able to be fully rested and ready to play TCU in Forth Worth in game 5. A 31-17 win over the Horned Frogs thanks to one of the all-time great performances by a BYU quarterback gave the Cougars a lot of national attention.

They continued their season, steamrolling everyone who got in their way. SDSD: 47-17. UNLV: 52-7. Air Force: 33-14. Colorado State: 24-3. Wyoming 55-7. New Mexico: 42-17.

Going into Rivalry Week, BYU was 9-2 and poised to win a MWC championship for the first time since 2001.

Standing in the way, however, was Utah. Utah, a team that had beaten BYU four years straight, including a 52-21 beatdown in 2004 and frustrating 41-34 overtime loss in Provo in 2005.

Utah wasn't exactly spectacular in 2006, but the team was 7-4 coming into the Holy War. And regardless of how bad the Utes look in any given season, they always give BYU a fight. While the Utes weren't competing for the conference championship themselves, playing spoiler for BYU is always fine with them.

The stage was set, and the result was nothing less than epic.

Here's the highlight:

That radio call from Greg Wrubell gives me the chills every single time.

With one pass, John Beck cemented himself as one of the greats in BYU quarterbacking history and the Cougars were back on top as conference champions. A 38-8 win over Oregon in the Las Vegas Bowl gave the team 11 wins and put it in the same company with the 1996 and 2001 squads.

All thanks to one play.

Game of the day - UCLA at BYU 2008

2010-09-02T18:51:00.004-06:00

An unexciting GotD for Thursday. September 13, 2008, and the UCLA Bruins are coming to town. Interestingly enough, BYU had played UCLA twice in 2007, the first time being a 27-17 win for the Bruins in Pasadena. BYU had gotten its revenge in the Las Vegas Bowl later that year, in what I dubbed the "Ugly choke job salvaged by a miracle" game.

I was definitely worried for the third game against UCLA in a little more than one year. After a loss and a less-than-impressive bowl win, I could only really hope BYU didn't embarrass itself at home.

Let's just say I was way off.

Hall threw for 271 yards on 27-of-35 passing and seven touchdowns.

Austin Collie caught 10 balls for 110 yards and two touchdowns.

Dennis Pitta had five receptions for 47 yards and two touchdowns.

And as incredibly on-target as the offense was, the defense might have been better.

Besides pitching a complete shutout, the defense forced four fumbles and recovered three. They also recorded one interception.

It was utter domination.

Here's the highlight, from FuriousMonkey.

Sometimes blowouts can get boring, but when it comes to beating down a team from a BCS conference, I can watch all day.

Could we see a similar result on Saturday? After the controversial way in which BYU won at Washington last season, I'm worried about a loss. But maybe the team will surprise me with one of its all-time great performances.

More details and game of the day

2010-09-01T18:52:00.004-06:00

We've been getting more and more information on BYU's decision to become an independent in football and move its other sports to the West Coast Conference. One of the more important bits is ESPN's new relationship with the Y. From the Seattle Times:

BYU and ESPN have reached an eight-year deal for the network or one of its affiliates broadcast the Cougars' home games, which at the moment are a lot of open dates.

(BYU athletic director Tom) Holmoe said scheduling as one of just four independents in major college football was an obvious risk that BYU considered, but felt the Cougars still have enough name recognition and a large fan base that should make building a schedule without eight conference games at least a little easier.

As scheduling is the biggest concern of any BYU fan when it comes to independence, it's good to see ESPN is assisting in this effort. Teams that may have been reluctant to play the Cougars in the past may be more open to the idea if the game will be broadcast on ESPN.

One of the future opponents will likely be Notre Dame, which Holmoe said is working with BYU to iron out the details on a six-game deal through 2020. Another is archrival Utah, which is also leaving the Mountain West after getting an invitation to join the Pac-10 next year.

Holmoe said he has been talking with Utah athletic director Chris Hill about ways to keep the annual clash going while no longer in the same conference.

"We both are in agreement in that it's an important game to continue," Holmoe said.

A series with Notre Dame is always good, and I am definitely in favor of continuing the rivalry with Utah. Good news all around. And it gets better.

Salt Lake Tribune writer Michael C. Lewis reports:

Not only will [the deal] vastly expand the potential audience for Cougar games — every home game will be televised nationally, on either an ESPN channel or the school’s BYU-TV network — but it also will help the Cougs fill their annual 12-game schedule by enlisting ESPN as a partner to help arrange match-ups.

Every home game televised nationally and distribution over BYUTV? Great news for fans who can't get the mtn thanks to HOA arrangements or other circumstances, and in addition, it exposes BYU football to NCAAF fans everywhere who might not have ventured into the 600's.

On to the game of the day!

It's August 25, 2001. LaVell Edwards' era at BYU is over, and new hire at head coach Gary Crowton's first game is against Tulane in Provo. I watched this game at my uncle's house a few blocks from the stadium, and the anticipation of seeing a brand-new coach and what he could do was palpable.

Tulane struck first on a 75-yard touchdown run from running back Mewelde Moore, and three rushing touchdowns from Cougar back Luke Staley in the first quarter later, the score was 21-21.

BYU scored 49 more points to Tulane's 14 over the next three quarters, and if there's one thing fans knew, it was that Crowton's offense was going to be pretty good. We also knew Luke Staley was special, and 21 more touchdowns later, he won the Doak Walker award.

Here's the highlight. Thanks to Cougarboard.com member Garn.

BYU averaged 46.8 points per game that season, the highest a Cougar team has averaged in school history. Of course, after Staley broke his ankle against Mississippi State later that season, the team was never the same under Crowton.

But for one hot day in August, it seemed the sky was the limit.

Feeling like football

2010-08-31T17:30:00.003-06:00

Photo courtesy of cougarstats.com

During my lunch break today, I drove to the store to pick up some cilantro and Worcestershire sauce for my wife. I rolled down my window and noticed a distinct chill in the air; it was closer to 70 degrees than 30, sure, but it definitely felt more like fall than summer. In addition, I was listening to ESPN radio and for the first time in a while I heard two guys talking college football. They were debating the merits of scheduling cupcakes or powerhouses for a team's out of conference schedule, and they each made some great points. It was such a welcome change from the endless talk about NASCAR and baseball and golf that I couldn't help but smile.

We're ramping up towards the best sports time of the year, November 1 through January 4. During that time we have the World Series, the start of the NBA season, college football, NFL and college basketball.

And today, for the first time, I feel like that blessed time is actually approaching.

On to today's video. The year is 2004. After going 5-7 in 2002 and 4-8 in 2003, the collective BYU fanbase was feeling pretty low. I was spared from the psychological trauma of losing to Nevada and getting shut out by Utah thanks to my time spent in Madagascar as a proselyting missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The two years I was out of the country coincided perfectly with the worst two years of BYU football during my lifetime. In a way, it couldn't have worked out any better for me.

I returned home to Utah in December of 2003, and as BYU obviously did not play in a bowl that year, I had a full nine months to wait for the return of Cougar football.

The last time I had checked, BYU had gone 12-2 in 2001 and the offense was a high-scoring powerhouse. Despite my family's best attempts to acclimate me to the new reality that the Y was no longer any good, I could never bring myself to believe it.

September finally rolled around, and the first game on the schedule was at home versus Notre Dame. The last game I had seen BYU play against Notre Dame was in 1994, when the Cougars went to South Bend and beat the Fighting Irish 21-14. Yeah, there had been a 33-14 road loss to the guys in green in 2003, but as far as I was concerned, that had never happened.

BYU was going to win this game.

I remember it being abnormally cold for September 4, I remember John Beck's arm strength being impressive and I remember an absolutely fantastic throw and catch from Matt Berry and freshman Austin Collie to give BYU a 20-3 lead in the third quarter. BYU's defense, a strength of the team from 2002-2003, appeared to be as good as I'd heard.

Sure, Notre Dame scored on a 54-yard pass from sophomore Brady Quinn and then Berry threw a pick-six to make the finally tally closer than it should have been, but in the end, BYU came out with a victory, just as I had expected.

Thanks to Jennerstein for the video.

And for that day, BYU fans had hope that maybe the program was back on its feet after its long nightmare. Unfortunately, that season also gave us ugly losses to Syracuse, USC, UNLV and Utah, but at that moment, everyone was happy.

It's funny what a season-opening win can do.

The Deseret News layoffs

2010-08-31T17:15:00.003-06:00

From the Associated Press:

Utah's longest publishing daily newspaper said Tuesday it will cut nearly half of its staff and consolidate breaking news operations with affiliated television and radio operations.

The Deseret News announced that 85 newsroom positions are being eliminated, although some staffers will be enlisted for a transition period. The layoffs include 57 full-time and 28 part-time employees.

This is sad news for anyone in the business of writing. The paper was founded in 1850, more than 150 years ago. For such a longstanding institution to be forced into this position is pretty amazing.

Though considering the recent fates of Newsweek magazine and the Washington Times newspaper, maybe this shouldn't be such a shock.

This is a sticky issue, and I know after newspapers put their product on the internet for free back in the late 90's it's been hard to put a lid back on that box, but you have to remember someone produces the news. Someone gathers it. Someone edits it. Someone creates the layout, whether print or digital. This stuff doesn't come out of thin air, and those who are responsible for informing us about the goings on in our cities and states and countries and world will be compensated for it.

This is the case unless the demand for news sinks so low there just isn't any financial incentive to do it anymore, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Maybe we'll see it once we reach the point of Idiocracy, but that's a while off yet.

BYU goes independent

2010-08-31T17:05:00.002-06:00

Image courtesy byucougars.com

The talk has been going on for weeks now, but it appears the news is official: BYU football is going independent and the other sports at the university will join the West Coast Conference.

The move, which takes effect for the 2011-12 season, changes the face of major college sports in the western third of the country — at once weakening the Mountain West (BYU’s current home) and strengthening the WCC, whose members include three Bay Area schools: Santa Clara, St. Mary’s and USF.

This is huge for BYU, though in what direction is still unclear. There has been talk that ESPN wants to give BYU its own TV deal, and I imagine that was a big part of BYU's decision to try and make it on its own.

My initial reaction? I think this will work. I think BYU's exposure playing on ESPN instead of the mtn is huge, and the flexibility of scheduling different teams every year instead of playing the same old San Diego State and UNLV in football will also make the school more visible across the country.

I'll post more details as they come, but for now, I'm excited.

Happy Football Week!

2010-08-30T12:45:00.001-06:00

I'm amazed at how quickly the football season has arrived this year. Though considering all of the sports news we've had this summer: the World Cup, LeBron-O-Mania, Jefferson to the Jazz, BYU's independence rumors and quarterback controversy... I haven't had a lot of time to get bored and wish for September to hurry up and arrive already.

Because my time spent thinking about the upcoming season was so short, I'm not quite in the mood for football yet, and I get the feeling a lot of other people are in the same boat.

To remedy that, I'll be posting one BYU highlight every day this week, until gameday.

Today we have BYU at New Mexico in 2005. Prior to this game, BYU football was in a bad place. After a great 2001 season, head coach Gary Crowton pretty much ran the program into the ground from 2002-2004. He was fired before the 2005 season, and defensive coordinator Bronco Mendenhall took over.

The first few games of the 2005 season weren't much to get excited about. The year started with a 20-3 loss to Boston College at home. After shellacking Div-II Eastern Illinois in game two, the Cougars lost to TCU and San Diego State, respectively. A 1-3 record was not what fans were hoping for with this new coach, and it didn't look like the program would get back on its feet any time soon.

The next team on the schedule was New Mexico. The Lobos are usually a decent team in the Mountain West, and while they never really fight for conference championships, you can count on them to finish around .500 in conference. The New Mexico defense is generally pretty good, and the team gives BYU a challenge almost every time they play.

After scoring first on an 11-yard pass from BYU quarterback John Beck to tight end Dan Coats with ten minutes left in the first quarter, the Cougars felt confident that maybe this could be the game where BYU makes its way back to prominence.

However, UNM scored 24 points to BYU's seven over the next two quarters, and the Cougars found themselves down 27-13 with time running out.

Here's the highlight:

Video courtesy Cougcan of cougarboard.com

I watched this game in the office of my college's newspaper, and I must admit my interest was pretty low for most of it. However, during that final touchdown drive I was glued to the screen and jumping up and down after every big play. It's the game that brought me fully back into the BYU football fold.

BYU finished the season winning five of its last eight games... nothing spectacular, but better than we'd seen in the recent past.

Since the 2005 season, BYU has won 43 of its 52 games and the universe is on the correct track again. Many fans look at this New Mexico game as the turning point for the program.

Here's hoping trend continues, and I think it will, assuming this two-quarterback system thing works out.

Go Cougars!

BYU is going with a two-quarterback system for 2010

2010-08-27T12:35:00.004-06:00

Photos courtesy The Deseret News

This is from multiple sources, but here's Deseret News writer Jeff Call:

Junior Riley Nelson will start for BYU when the Cougars open the 2010 season against Washington on Sept. 4.

Coach Bronco Mendenhall said Friday that Nelson will take the first snaps against the Huskies, but reiterated that true freshman Jake Heaps will also play.

I'm glad to see Bronco reads my blog, and it's nice to know what we'll see next Saturday from the quarterback spot.

Offensive coordinator Robert Anae said of the two-quarterback system: "We have two starters."

Can't get much clearer than that.

While there are examples of successful two-quarterback teams, there are just as many, if not more, where the system blew up and contributed to a failure of a season.

Last year, Michigan played freshman Tate Forcier, a mobile quarterback with a pretty good arm. Head coach Rich Rodriguez also had freshman Denard Robinson, who was mostly a running QB and inferior to Forcier in the eyes of many college football fans. Rodriguez continued to give Robinson fairly heavy minutes as the season went on, and Forcier lost a lot of his confidence and/or became upset that he wasn't the clear starter and leader of the team. Michigan started the season 4-1 but won only one of their last six games. Other factors definitely played into this failure, but the two-quarterback system didn't work here.

An example that hits closer to home is BYU in 2000. Three quarterbacks got significant playing time; Charlie Peterson, Bret Engemann and Brandon Doman all had at least 90 pass attempts on the season, with Peterson starting the year and Doman finishing it. The team finished 6-6, losing to San Diego State and Colorado State along the way. To be fair, the Cougars did have to play at Florida State and Virginia, both tough games, but this team underachieved, thanks largely in part to the complete lack of stability at the quarterback spot.

Why does this happen? Why can a two-quarterback system drag a team down?

1. Ego and confidence. If a quarterback gets recruited by a team like Michigan or BYU, they have been "the man" for their high school team for three or more years. They have dominated their teenage opponents and been the clearcut leader of their team for a long time. Bring them into a situation where that's not the case, and they can feel slighted or crushed at the lack of trust the coaching staff shows in them. For a lot of these kids, football is everything, and if they start to feel like they aren't good enough to play the game they love at this higher level, they can start a death spiral of pity or anger. It's hard to win football games when one or both of your quarterbacks feel this way.

2. Lack of preparation. Neither quarterback gets the practice reps they need to be truly ready for games. There is only so much practice time available during the week, and a freshman quarterback like Heaps needs all the snaps he can get if he's going to be effective against the Washingtons and Air Forces of the world. In the two-quarterback scenario, he's splitting time with Nelson, probably close to 50/50, and his preparedness level is effectively cut in half. The same goes for Nelson, though it can be argued he doesn't need as much practice to be ready for gameday, thanks to his prior experience in the program.

3. Offensive confusion. The offense has to prepare two types of play every week. The offensive linemen have to work on protecting a pocket passer like Heaps and covering a scrambling Nelson. Wide receivers have to block more when Nelson is in, versus running their routes if Heaps is throwing the ball. Similar to problem number two, this leads to players not being quite ready when Saturday comes around.

Now, the nice thing about BYU's situation is that I believe both Heaps and Nelson are mature and level-headed individuals with lives and goals outside of football. I don't think either of them will enter into a death spiral anytime soon, though as the season wears on, one or both of them might.

ESPN.com's Andrea Adelson actually quoted both players on this subject in a post today.

"I know this will give us an opportunity to have a highly successful season," Nelson said in the statement. "Jake and I both have the ability to lead our team and offer unique skills that will help us be successful as an offensive unit. I am excited about this opportunity and fully expect that we will carry on the great tradition and legacy of the quarterback position here at BYU."

And from Heaps:

"I am 100 percent behind this decision. I feel the coaches have made the right decision for both Riley and I and this football team. Riley is a great player and I'm excited to have the opportunity to contribute. This isn't about me or him; it's about us -- it's about doing what we can to help our team."

Very impressive attitude from both of these players, but again, it's early.

I'm excited that BYU has a definite strategy in place for the 2010 season, and I think it could be a lot of fun to watch. That said, I am wary of potential problems that may arise, and will keep a close eye on these areas as the season progresses.

Jazz Jackrabbit

2010-08-26T17:32:00.002-06:00

This game is possibly the best shareware title for PC in the 1990's. Jazz Jackrabbit gave you fantastic music, great graphics and it was all around super fun to play. The game embodies the spirit of my gaming experience as a teenager; as I never had a console gaming system growing up, I mostly obtained free shareware titles and played them until my fingers bled (or my parents yelled at me to get off the computer).

Jazz Jackrabbit was released in 1994 by Epic MegaGames, one of many classics these guys created around the same time. I also played a lot of Jill of the Jungle, Epic Pinball, and Xargon, all from Epic. Today, the company is better known for games such as Batman: Arkham Asylum and Gears of War.

It's hard to explain just how fun it was to run around as a green rabbit with a bird for a pet, blowing up turtles. Today's games have much, much better graphics and more involved gameplay, yet for some reason they can't duplicate the feeling of these earlier PC titles.

Just part of getting older, I guess.

Bronco and The Great Quarterback Controversy of 2010

2010-08-23T18:04:00.001-06:00

To begin with, I'd like to say that I love Bronco Mendenhall. His overall performance as BYU's head coach has been borderline spectacular, and to take the team from where it was in 2004 to where it is today has been great to see as a fan.

That said, he needs to pick a starting quarterback already.

For those of you who live in a hole (or don't care about BYU football), the story of the Cougar offseason has been "Who will start at quarterback in 2010?" Here is a quick rundown of the contenders, in alphabetical order.

Jake Heaps: True freshman, very, very highly recruited coming out of Skyline high school in Washington state. Has a great long ball.

James Lark: Came from Pine View high school in Utah, was named the 3A MVP his senior year. Redshirted the 2006 season and served a mission in Russia. I've never seen him play.

Jason Munns: Recorded a pass efficiency rating of 140.8 his senior year at Southridge high school in Washington state. Stands at 6' 5" and redshirted in 2007 before serving a mission in Mexico from 2008-2010.

Riley Nelson: Started eight games at Utah State as a freshman, completing 55 percent of his passes for 925 yards and six touchdowns while rushing for 290 yards. Mobile.

All four of these guys tore it up in high school and have the ability to start for an FBS program. The problem is, at most, two guys can get significant playing time, and most schools would rather have one guy get the majority of the snaps.

So as unfair as it may be, the race is between Heaps and Nelson for the starting job. That's how it was during spring practices, and that's how it is now, during fall practices.

Now, I feel that Heaps should start, if just because he has more eligibility left than Nelson and has a higher ceiling. Add these reasons to the fact that Bronco steadfastly continues to comment that both players are playing equally well, and you have a junior quarterback who can't clearly beat out a true freshman. Let's just make it Heaps and be done with it.

With the season opener against Washington a little less than two weeks away, coach Bronco Mendenhall said the quarterback race is "dead even." He added that a starting QB probably won't be named until game week.

Is this true? Does Bronco really believe both quarterbacks would do equally well starting for BYU? Or has he chosen one of them and decided not to announce this publicly, the better to make sure everyone involved keeps working hard?

Either way, I'd like to see a decision made public by the end of the week. Since the play styles of Nelson and Heaps differ so greatly, the offense needs to know how they will be playing against Washington, or the game will be a scrimmage for BYU, where they try to learn on the fly.

On the other hand, if Bronco is keeping his decision a secret in order to throw off Washington's attempts to prepare for the Cougars, then kudos to him.

And on the other other hand, maybe he's planning on giving both quarterbacks extensive playing time, like Utah did last season or Florida did with Chris Leak and Tim Tebow a few years ago. While I'm not a fan of this method, it can work, and if Bronco wants to give it a shot, I trust him enough to not complain too much.

The more I think about this, the more I think I'm not really bothered by not knowing who will start in a couple weeks as long as Bronco knows what he's doing. It adds to the suspense and anticipation I have for college football in general, which makes everything a lot more fun. Only 12 more days to go!

Pool basketball is awesome

2010-08-23T12:15:00.000-06:00

Who doesn't love pool basketball? I found this video posted on Yahoo's Ball Don't Lie blog, and holy cow do I want to do this, despite the very real risk of breaking my neck.

Summer is awesome. Isn't summer awesome? Last night the wife and I spent a few minutes reminding ourselves what the coming Idaho winter will be like, and it made us sad. But then we remembered that it isn't winter yet! It's August! And I can still do stuff like jump off my deck into my pool with my buddies! If I had a pool!

Wednesday thoughts

2010-08-18T12:30:00.002-06:00

1. I forgot to mention that as part of the Internet-TV-is-the-only-TV plan, I downloaded a free app from the Android marketplace called myRemote that allows me to control my computer from my phone over wifi. I generally use it to control the mouse for Netflix or Hulu videos, and it works really well. Easy to set up, and did I mention it's free?

2. The wife sent me this chat a earlier this morning: "OK, we are getting a flat panel tv and installing it high on the wall ASAP." There was a bit of an incident where the toddler almost pulled our 19-inch tube TV on top of himself, but an epic roll kept him from being harmed. May be researching HDTV's here in a couple weeks. Recent trips to Walmart have informed me prices keep falling, which is nice.

3. There are severe rumblings that BYU is planning to go independent, like Notre Dame. Andy Katz over on ESPN.com posted a big article on it earlier.

BYU is moving closer to leaving the Mountain West Conference, becoming a football independent and re-joining the Western Athletic Conference in all other sports by a Sept. 1 deadline to withdraw from the MWC for the 2011 season, multiple sources said Wednesday.

"I'm not sure how it could stop now unless BYU gets nervous," said one source with knowledge of the situation.

The Cougars have been exploring the possibility since in-state rival Utah left the Mountain West for the Pac-10 earlier this summer.

Well. I'm not sure how to feel about this, and a lot depends on how the details shake out. This article also says BYU will be playing four to six WAC teams per season as part of the deal, which is extremely underwhelming. I thought playing SDSU and UNLV every year was bad... to downgrade to Idaho and San Jose State would just be depressing.

However, independence also means BYU would keep all the money it gets from bowl games, and might allow for a TV deal involving a new BYU sports TV station.

Reports are there will be a press conference tomorrow, where a lot of details will be revealed.

More then.

So far, so good

2010-08-17T17:15:00.000-06:00

Last night I installed the new video card. This took way longer than it should have, as the people who design cases for Compaq are morons.

Then, after putting everything back together, I installed the drivers and whatever so the new card would work. That was pretty easy. I then ran the S-video cable from the desktop to the computer, and nothing happened. I fiddled around with the settings on my new video card (which, again, is new, and therefore entirely unfamiliar to me) and after about 20 minutes, got the image on my computer screen to show on the TV screen, as well. Hooray!

Tested it by watching a few minutes of Burn Notice on Hulu, and it looks fine. Not great, but fine. Today I signed up for a 2-week trial of Netflix (technically our second free trial in about three years) and since we have a Wii, we will be able to stream some high-quality stuff that way.

I've been searching for ways to watch college football and NBA games on the internetz for free. I have had some success, but I'm open to suggestions if anyone has experience in this area.

Tonight we may actually cancel the cable, though now that I think about it, we're not caught up on our shows that are on the DVR, and that may take a few days.

Making the leap

2010-08-16T17:15:00.001-06:00

It's time.

Mandi and I are going 100% internet television. Assuming this works, we're canceling the cable and using our desktop computer to stream our shows to our 19-inch tube television (great wedding gift; thanks, Julie, Brooke, Eric, Amy, and everyone else I'm forgetting!)

I bought this card off Amazon, as it comes with a 7-pin S-Video output port (and it can also run some of my games a bit better than the stock card that came with the desktop).

And then I bought this cable to connect from the card to the TV. While the TV has an S-Video port, I figured going RCA on that end should be fine.

With the great improvement in internet TV, from Hulu to ABC.com, I think this can work. Sports obviously will be a problem, but for BYU and Jazz games I can go to my in-laws' across town.

I'll be setting it up tonight, and will post updates.

Wish us luck.

Historical photography

2010-08-05T17:30:00.004-06:00

The above photo was created by an alice at www.mymodernmet.com. For the project, she apparently took photos of modern-day sites in Europe and Russia and then inserted photos from World War II to match up. I find the pictures absolutely astounding, and they have really helped me grasp the realities of WWII in a way I hadn't before. See more here.

The above photo is part of a collection owned by the Library of Congress and posted on The Denver Post's website. They are some of the only color photos taken during the Great Depression, and like the WWII images, these help me connect to a time in history I felt far removed from. Something about seeing people in real color, as opposed to black and white or pictures colored after the fact, makes them a lot more real.

I love History, and even minored in it in college. I am enthralled by any information about pretty much any era in any part of the world, and while I know many people don't share that same enthusiasm, I think it's important that everyone have the context of knowing where we came from and what humans have done in the past. We can learn a lot this way.

Less than six weeks to go

2010-07-27T07:41:00.000-06:00

A reminder of what happened in BYU's opening game last season.

Old Spice meets BYU

2010-07-15T20:03:00.000-06:00

This wins the internet. Nicely done, BYU students involved.

Captain America teaches values

2010-07-15T19:23:00.000-06:00

Bring up a child in the way he should go...

Raja rings the bell again

2010-07-15T17:15:00.001-06:00

I continue to approve of the changes the Jazz are making lately.

The Deseret Morning News has reported that Utah are prepared to signed Raja Bell, pending Bell passing a physical.

Bell has played few games over the last two seasons. Since going to the Suns in 2008, he's appeared in only 28 games, moving from Phoenix to Golden State to Charlotte. Considering this will be his 11th season in the league, maybe missing all those games means he's got less wear that we expect.

Regardless, Bell is a career 41% shooter from deep, and hit 47% of his 3-pointers while a Sun. He's also known for his tenacious perimeter defense, and seems to have an ability to get under Kobe's skin to some extent.

In short, he's exactly what the Jazz need after losing Korver and Wes Matthews.

As an aside, it's interesting that now that I feel like the Jazz have some pieces that will help them potentially beat the Lakers in a playoff series, the Heat come along and become the team to watch out for if you're contending for a title.

LeBron, Wade, Bosh, Haslem, Mike Miller, Chalmers and Ilgauskas = seven pieces that can easily win it all next season, in my opinion. And the Heat aren't done signing players, either.

Watch out, NBA.

Al Jefferson to the Jazz

2010-07-13T13:52:00.003-06:00

As reported by ESPN:

The Utah Jazz have finalized the terms of their expected trade with Minnesota to acquire big man Al Jefferson.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune and The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the Jazz have agreed to send two future first-round picks to the Wolves in exchange for Jefferson. The deal is expected to be announced later Tuesday.

Sources told ESPN.com on Monday night that the Jazz and Timberwolves were on the verge of completing a trade that would slot Jefferson's contract into the $14 million trade exception that Utah created earlier this week in its sign-and-trade deal sending Carlos Boozer to the Chicago Bulls.

Excellent news for Jazz fans everywhere. I admit I was worried that Kevin O'Connor and company would stand pat after losing Boozer and Korver, partly in order to save money and partly because there just weren't any great big men free agents available.

But just when I thought the Jazz management couldn't possibly be any dumber, they go do and do something like this and totally redeem themselves.

Jefferson is an excellent replacement for Boozer, and an upgrade in many ways. For starters, he averaged close to 20 and 10 in Minnesota, where he was expected to earn every one of those 20 points on his own in the low block. I expect his scoring to go up at least 6 or 8 points per game this year, just because now he'll have Deron Williams feeding him great passes for easy buckets a few times a game.

In addition, while Jefferson is not exactly a defensive specialist, he blocked 1.3 shot attempts per game last year, and is both taller(6" 10") and has a longer wingspan (7' 2") than Boozer. I am also willing to bet his vertical is higher than Boozer's, as well, which isn't really that difficult considering Carlos can jump about 2 inches off the floor.

He is only 25 (Boozer is 29) and his contract expires in 3 years.

Add in the fact that Jefferson is coming from a perennial loser in Minnesota to a playoff team in the Jazz, and he may find a bit more hop in his step come November.

I like this signing. It may be the biggest trade in the history of the franchise, when all is said and done.

And just like that, I'm excited for the 2010-2011 Jazz season.

Well done, Mr. O'Connor.

LeBron-O-Mania: The Backlash

2010-07-09T17:30:00.002-06:00

After watching LeBron announce he would be signing with Miami last night, I figured Cavs fans would be pretty upset with this decision. Because, you know, it's Cleveland. And their economy is (was) based on LeBron James.

What I did not expect:

1. Cavs fans absolutely frothing at the mouth over LeBron's leaving and

2. Fans from other teams getting very, very upset.

I've read rant after rant about why people are mad, and I think I can organize these rants into five categories.

1. People who feel LeBron betrayed the Cavs.

2. Those who feel LeBron exhibited extreme narcissism in the way he made the announcement.

3. Kobe/Laker fans who fear the Heat now and try to mask their fear by tearing LeBron down and claiming Kobe is clearly the best player in the NBA today.

4. The Heat Triumvirate will never work because look at the Lakers in 2004!

5. LeBron chokes in the playoffs and needs Wade to carry him to a ring. LeBron will clearly be Wade's lackey now.

Obviously there is overlap among the categories, but these are the main elements I see.

And I simply do not agree with any of them.

For starters: loyalty. This is a big one. From the latest Bill Simmons mailbag:

This is a drunk email but I've never felt this betrayed. The deepest circle of hell is reserved for those who betray and LeBron earned his spot.

There are many, many other e-mails that express the idea of betrayal, but this one does it best, I think. To these people I ask, "What did LeBron owe you, exactly?" He single-handedly resurrected your franchise when you drafted him back in 2003. He brought the Cavs out of 17-win seasons into the playoffs, then the Finals, with multiple 50- and 60-win seasons in the books. He averaged 27 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists over those seven seasons, while shooting good percentages that improved every year. He carried teams that would have won 30 games without him.

And he did all this without a single All-Star as a teammate. Every year, Cleveland management were completely unable to find him his Pippen, his Gasol, his Ray Allen. No one in the history of the NBA has won a championship on their own, and LeBron saw the writing on the wall. How patient did you expect him to be? Did you want him to stay with the Cavs for 10, 11, 12 years? At what point would you condone him leaving to chase a ring, like the Karl Malones and Gary Paytons of the league? Is that the legacy you expected him to want? A decade or more of playing with terrible teammates in Cleveland and then grasping onto a Kevin Durant-led franchise when he's 35 for the chance at a title?

For whatever reason, whether it be bad teammates, poor management or sheer failure seeping from the pores of Cleveland, LeBron was not going to get a good shot at winning a championship in Cleveland, and he knew that.

A Simmons reader made this good point:

Think about it, [LeBron] never went to college and has been looked upon as a franchise savior since before he was drafted; now he can live in one of most fun cities in America and play ball with two of his best buddies in the league, and he doesn't have to carry the franchise every night.

I think this has a lot of truth in it. Can you imagine being tasked with saving basketball in your hometown at the age of 18? And then spending the next 7 years giving everything you had to make that happen, only to fail again and again and again? I don't think LeBron has the temperament of a Jordan or Bird; he wants to win, but he doesn't want the weight of an entire franchise on his shoulders forever.

And even in the above cases, do you think Bird stays in Boston forever if his best teammates are Mo Williams and Anderson Varejao? Does Jordan stick around in Chicago if, after seven years, he is playing alongside Delonte West and Anthony Parker? Somehow I doubt it. At some point, loyalty must take a backseat to winning.

Let's not forget that Shaq left Orlando to go to L.A. for his titles. Or that Kobe was very vocal in demanding a trade when his best teammates were Smush Parker and Kwame Brown. These guys want to win, every single one of them, and to single out LeBron as somehow being this immoral individual because he left Cleveland is illogical and inconsistent.

Now let's tackle the next argument: LeBron is cruel and narcissistic in the way he announced he was leaving.

Cavs fans, let's pretend LeBron announced he was leaving in a regular press conference, as is typical in the NBA. ESPN still sends a camera crew. They still have an hour-long special where their analysts debate the topic. Not much is different at all, and would you really hate him less?

It's surprising how many people outright despise the LeBronapalooza Hour, yet the ratings for that thing were through the roof. Blame the millions of Americans for being so predictable that ESPN knew they would watch.

Continuing on, if I have to read another Laker fan rejoicing because now Kobe is beloved and the ultimate champion while LeBron will be a loser forever I will throw up. Here's an example:

Just watched the LeBron train wreck. Just thought what Kobe is doing right now. Bet you he is in the gym right now. That's why LeBron will never win a title. LeBron does crap like this and Kobe gets better.

Really? You'd think after Kobe generally stunk it up in the Finals and has his bacon saved by Gasol and Artest that Black Mamba fans would be a little more discreet. But if you'd like me to keep bringing up Bryant's terrible performances in NBA Finals games, I will, while addressing point number four.

The Lakers in 2004 were a pretty amazing team on paper. Gary Payton, Kobe, Karl Malone, Shaq... these guys were supposed to steamroll the Pistons in the NBA Finals. Instead, they lost, four games to one. And apparently this is incontrovertible proof that teams with more than two superstars cannot win it all.

Not exactly.

For one, Gary Payton scored 4 points per game on 32% shooting.

For two, Karl Malone was greatly hampered by a knee injury, and scored only 5 points per game on 33% shooting.

And finally, The Black Mamba himself scored 22 points per game on 38% shooting, including 17% shooting from downtown.

Thankfully, Shaq showed up, recording 27 points and 11 rebounds a game on 63% shooting, or the series would have been a sweep.

In short, the 2004 Laker Team of All-Stars really only had one guy playing at an elite level. Are you telling me LeBron, Wade and Bosh will fail that spectacularly? It's possible, but I don't see it happening outside of freak injuries.

The last point I feel compelled to address is the argument that LeBron choked in the playoffs and needs to ride Wade's abilities to win a championship.

That is utterly ridiculous. Look at Game 5 of the Cavs' series against Boston this year. This is a game Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert specifically mentioned as one that LeBron quit in. James' line for that game: 15 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds on 3-of-14 shooting. Sure, that's one heck of a bad shooting night, but he was still rebounding and passing well. How great are you when this stat line is what you end up with when you aren't even trying?

In Game 6 of that series, when all hope for Cleveland was essentially gone, LeBron poured in 27 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists. He gave everything he had to the franchise, and it's not his fault Antawn Jamison, Mo Williams and the rest were casting up brick after brick and failing to contribute in other ways. The supporting cast was just not good enough.

Now, Wade is an elite player, there's no arguing with that. But since Shaq got old and mostly ineffective, how many rings does he have? He needs LeBron as much as LeBron needs him. Could they each win titles with lesser teammates? Absolutely. But if they're friends, why not play together? Their styles complement each other well enough, and I think they'll succeed in Miami.

It all hinges on the fact that neither of them have issues sharing the ball. The Shaq/Kobe teams had problems because neither one of those guys liked making assists (yet notice how they won three championships together anyway). With Wade and LeBron each constantly looking out for wide-open teammates, I believe this team will be very, very fun to watch. Just imagine a two-on-one fastbreak where Wade and James are flying down the court.

And on ESPN last night Michael Wilbon (I think) commented that we've seen these two play together before... in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Wade was finding LeBron under the hoop for an alley-oop dunk, LeBron was driving and kicking to wide-open Wade on the perimeter. It can work, especially when you've got a talented low-post guy ready to make teams pay for overplaying either one of these guys.

The Heat just need to find players who are willing to play in a system where all they're asked to do is make wide-open jumpers and they have an excellent chance to win a ring. Rumor has it they'll be signing Mike Miller, which is a good choice, considering he shot 50% from the field and 48% from deep last season. Another good addition could be Kyle Korver or maybe a Roger Mason.

It'll be interesting to watch, that's for sure. I'll definitely rooting for them to win, but that's mainly due to my irrational Laker hatred.

Feel free to argue any of the points I've made... I recognize I am definitely in the minority on this thing, and I'm open to having my mind changed.

LeBron-O-Mania

2010-07-08T12:55:00.003-06:00

Tonight's the night.

Talking heads and typing fingers have been obsessing over where LeBron James will play for the 2010-2011 season for years now.

And thanks to the wonders of ESPN and King James' ego, we get an hour-long special dedicated to watching him make his final decision, much like some high school athletes do when committing to a college.

Will there be hats involved? I kinda want to see hats. The entire hour can be spent watching LeBron move as if to put on a Chicago Bulls hat, only to put it back down and reach for the Cleveland Cavaliers hat, then pick up the Miami Heat hat, over and over. It'd be riveting.

ESPN columnist Bill Simmons has given his take on the situation, and he essentially believes LeBron will end up in Miami with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade.

Here's my breakdown of where he may end up and what the end result would likely be:

1. New York Knicks: The franchise is cursed with bad management. Sure, they already got Amar'e Stoudamire to sign with the Knicks, but Stat doesn't play great defense and I don't trust him in the playoffs. If LeBron goes here, he fails to win a championship anytime soon.

2. Miami: Assuming he signs with Bosh and Wade, this team wins, and wins fast. I don't care that the Heat would have little to no money to sign any great role players; the Lakers won it all with Derek Fisher and Sasha Vujacic as their role players a month ago, for heaven's sakes. I imagine a few veterans would be interested in joining this team for peanuts because it screams "RING!" I also don't buy the argument that LeBron and Wade each need the ball in their hands to be happy; both guys average around 7 assists per game. And are you telling me LeBron wouldn't love being able to move without the ball and catch passes in great positions to score? He's been playing "LeBron vs. Everyone" ball for years now and I can imagine he's tired of it. Which brings me to

3. Cleveland: No way, Jose. If I'm LeBron, I ditch this franchise. They have had seven years to give him a decent supporting cast, and the best they could do was sign Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison. That is just sad. The only All-Star LeBron has ever played with is the aforementioned Mo, and we all know that selection was a joke. Also, if I am a Cleveland fan, I completely understand if he ends up leaving. I would blame the Cavs management long before I got angry with LeBron. Similar to how I will be much more angry with the Jazz management than with Deron Williams when he ends up signing with the Lakers in a couple years.

4. Chicago: This one makes a lot of sense, especially considering Boozer is heading there (good riddance). A starting lineup of Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, LeBron, Boozer and Joakim Noah is pretty darn attractive. Sure, that frontcourt is undersized, but Noah's defensive ability and intensity might be enough to offset Boozer's complete lack of interest on that side of the floor. And they would score. This isn't as much of a slam dunk as Miami would be, but I like this team to win a championship in the next three years.

Personally, here are the two things I'd like to see as a result of this offseason:

1. LeBron needs to end up with at least one legit All-Star as a teammate. I get sick of people ragging on him for not winning, as if anyone else in league history was winning rings with complete scrubs as teammates. Pau Gasol and Ron Artest saved Kobe's bacon in Game 7 of the Finals last month, and every other great to play the game has similar experiences with their lesser, yet very talented, teammates.

2. A team needs to be assembled that can challenge the Lakers. I hate L.A. with a fiery passion these days, and if this all shakes out to where no one team has the talent needed to beat the purple and gold, I will be very upset.

My prediction? I think LeBron goes to Miami. All the talk about how his ego couldn't handle it.... meh. If he wants a ring, he makes that move. No one says Magic was no good because he played next to Kareem and Worthy. No one discounts Larry Bird because he had Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish. And no one says Wade is a subpar player because he won his ring with Shaq.

Get it done, LeBron. Silence your haters and and crush Kobe's hopes of getting a sixth ring forever, and you and I will both be happy.

Old-timey video game nostalgia

2010-07-02T12:55:00.001-06:00

Today I give you Terminal Velocity. Released in 1995, it was one of the first games my family got for our 486 computer.

Great memories. The soundtrack was awesome, and while the 3D graphics look really pixelated now, 15 years ago they were very impressive. And what 13-year-old boy doesn't like flying around in a futuristic plane blowing stuff up?

The gameplay was a lot easier than other flight sims that were available at the time. As you can infer, there are no controls other than left/right/up/down, shoot, switch weapon and afterburner. You also didn't need to worry about inertia or falling if your speed got too low.

In addition, it seemed a shield restore would pop up just when you needed it. I don't remember dying a whole lot in this game.

Definitely a great one. Nice work, Terminal Reality and 3D Realms.

CNBC's take on LDS business

2010-06-28T17:30:00.001-06:00

An interesting look at Latter-day Saint influence in business worldwide, and the missionary program's assistance in that area.

Countdown to college football, 2010 style

2010-06-28T12:55:00.000-06:00

Every year, towards the end of the college football season, I start getting burned out by all the games, and by the time it's all over, I'm not that sad to see the sport go.

But then after a few months of NBA overload and the realization that the summer months are filled with nothing but NASCAR and golf, I look longingly towards the days when there are upwards of 27 college football games on TV during an average week in the fall.

So to help you get in that same state of mind, I introduce you to an incoming freshman at BYU: Josh Quezada.

Out of La Habra high school in California, this running back is 5'11" and 210 pounds. He was All-Everything in 2009, and I am excited for this kid to don Cougar blue.

I could say more, but all you really need to know about him as a runner can be seen in this Youtube video (skip to 2:15):

Breaks tackles, can see the field well, good speed, changes directions quickly... haven't had a back with this level of talent come to BYU in a while. Soothes the sting of losing Harvey a bit.

I'll be profiling other BYU players as the weeks drag on.

Go Cougars!

Gordon Hayward

2010-06-25T12:55:00.003-06:00

Well, I didn't see that coming.

After spending most of the year wondering about who the Jazz would take in the 2010 NBA Draft with the Knicks pick they got a few years ago, the expectations went from "Hey, Utah could get Evan Turner or Derrick Favors!" to "Hmm, maybe they can get Greg Monroe," to "Uh, Cole Aldrich?"

Readers of this blog know I fervently believe the most glaring weakness on this Jazz team is lack of interior defense. This has been a major problem in the playoffs for the last three years, and so far Jazz management have been unable to solve the problem.

Despite the lack of home-run big men available to Kevin O'Connor at the ninth pick last night, I had hoped the Jazz would at least take a stab at Aldrich or Ed Davis in an attempt to give the team what they need.

So what happens? Utah takes Gordon Hayward.

My honest reaction was, "Who?"

Here's who: Hayward is a 6'7" small forward from Butler. He shot 29% from the 3-point line and made 46% of his field goals last season. He averaged less than one assist per game.

You may remember him as the guy who missed the last-second fadeaway baseline jumper against Duke in the NCAA title game.

I am displeased. After watching a few highlight clips of this kid, his dribbling is terrible, he can't jump and he can't defend.

So to sum up:

1. The Jazz gave Ronnie Brewer away for nothing last season because they had too many players at the shooting guard/small forward spots.

2. Then they draft Hayward, who is essentially Brewer, complete with poor shooting numbers (30% from deep last season at Butler), but without the impressive defense or ability to get to/finish at the rim.

3. In the draft, you either pick based on need or take the best player available. Hayward is neither.

4. I'd much rather have seen Utah take Davis or Aldrich (even if he measures small) or even Patrick Patterson.

5. But even if the Jazz absolutely coveted a small forward, Kansas' Xavier Henry is a superior pick to Hayward.

6. Does this mean the Jazz now feel that Fesenko and Kosta are the answers to their interior defensive weakness? Because last time I checked, the answer was a resounding NO.

Bad news all around.

However, I'm waiting until free agency is over before getting too upset. All that matters is that the Jazz acquire someone who can shore up the defense under the hoop. If they end up trading Hayward and another player to get that done, this draft was a success.

The only problem is that I can't imagine there's a team out there salivating over the possibility of getting Hayward.

Boy, what a pick.

The goal that saved soccer in America (for now)

2010-06-23T12:29:00.001-06:00

If this goal doesn't happen, Americans go back to not caring about soccer for the indeterminable future, and who knows how much longer it takes for the sport to gain real and serious ground in the United States? We'll follow and support national teams as long as they're winning, but as soon as they start losing or otherwise choke (and a tie to Algeria most definitely would have been classified as one of those) we go back to watching Wipeout and wishing (real) football would start.

As it is, Landon Donovan kicks the ball in the net and we care about this sport for at least another few days.

Also, I find it interesting that the two most important goals for the U.S. came when the opposing goalie was unable to fully control a save. Not sure how frequent an occurrence that is, really, but in general I like it when the team I'm rooting for actually beats their opponent, rather than the opponent beating themselves. This feels kind of cheap. Maybe I'm way off base here, though.

Catch up on the NBA playoffs

2010-06-03T17:30:00.001-06:00

The Jones: 2010 NBA Playoff Recap from The Basketball Jones on Vimeo.

I have been woefully neglectful in my coverage of the NBA playoffs since my initial first round predictions (where I went 5-3). Part of that has to do with my annoyance that the Jazz experienced a repeat of the last two seasons, and part of that comes from seeing an inevitable Lakers/Celtics matchup coming our way.

Again.

And frankly, I don't care. I know the league wants me to believe Boston/L.A. is the pinnacle of basketball evolution, but I don't believe them.

Both of these teams reached elite status thanks to major free-agent acquisitions that ranged from kinda iffy (Garnett) to flat-out dirty (Gasol). I don't feel either organization got where they did through honest dealings and that bothers me.

Or maybe I'm just jealous that the Jazz never seem to pull off these "Wilt Chamberlain for spare change" trades.

Anyway, go Boston, but only because my hatred for the Lakers exceeds all of my other dislikes in sports.

And for those Laker fans who are crowing about Kobe's recent stat lines, keep in mind he's been playing against Utah and Phoenix, the two worst teams in the playoffs when it comes to defending an elite shooting guard. We'll see how he performs against the Celtics.

Here's hoping it's similar to his 2008 showing, when he scored 25 points per game on 40% shooting.

World Cup ad

2010-05-21T09:52:00.000-06:00

Rajon Rondo lives for the playoffs

2010-05-10T10:44:00.005-06:00

The first time I heard about Rajon Rondo, it was from Bill Simmons as he raved about the kid's talent in a column on ESPN.com. It took a couple years, but eventually Rondo blossomed into the great point guard that Simmons had seen coming. He's long, quick, athletic and he passes exceptionally well. The biggest flaw to his game is shooting, but for whatever reason, he can get to the rim even with his defender knowing he's not going to take that 15-foot jump shot.

The most interesting aspect of Rondo's game is the way he statistically blows up in the playoffs. During the regular season, he's a good-to-great point guard. During the 2008-2009 regular season, he averaged 12 points, 8 assists 5 rebounds and a couple steals per game. Then the playoffs rolled around, and over 14 games he averaged 17 points, 9.8 assists and 9.7 rebounds per. The guy was a walking triple double.

Apparently that's just how Rondo is wired, as we see a similar story this year. From November to April, he averaged 13.7 points, 9.8 assists and 4.4 rebounds. Playoffs? 17.9 points, 11.4 assists and 7.1 rebounds, including an incredible 29 point, 13 assist and 18 rebound performance against the Cavs yesterday. He just takes it to another level when the games matter most, a characteristic all the greats have had.

He may have been overshadowed by Garnett, Allen and Pierce these last couple of years, but watch for him to take this team over as The Big 3 age.

World Cup 2010

2010-05-06T12:15:00.000-06:00

I don't often covet things this much, but I want to go to the World Cup in South Africa pretty badly. I spent five months there in 2002 as a proselyting missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints... most of it in the Cape Town region of the country, though I was near Johannesburg for a couple weeks.

South Africa is a stunningly beautiful country with its share of problems. Poverty abounds in what are called townships, essentially shack cities made up of non-whites. While apartheid is no longer law in South Africa, the people continue to segregate themselves pretty effectively, and racial tensions are always high.

Nonetheless, I've wanted to go back pretty much since the day I left. But the prospect of visiting while the nation is hosting the World Cup kicks that desire into overdrive.

If you were paying attention to the time I was there the first time, you'll notice 2002 was a World Cup year, and the way soccer brought all South Africans together was nothing short of amazing. Black, white, colored (a South African term for children of a mixed relationship), it didn't matter. They all loved Bafana Bafana (a nickname for the national team meaning "boys" in Zulu) and cheered them on from their homes and from bars during every match.

I can only imagine what uniting power this event will have on the country, possibly to a long-lasting positive effect, and I'd love to be there to see it.

The Freakonomics bloggers wrote about a temporary effect hosting such a large event can have on a nation.

Hosting an international football event does, however, seem to improve national wellbeing (the “feelgood” factor). The BPS Research Digest blog reports that the games are associated with big happiness boosts: “three times the size of the happiness boost associated with gaining a higher education; one and half times the happiness boost associated with getting married; and nearly large enough to offset the misery triggered by divorce.” The effect, unfortunately, lasts less than a year.

Pretty neat stuff, and a big reason sport is so popular worldwide. You invest a lot into a team, a player, a sport, and then, every once in a while, it all pays off.

Go Bafana Bafana!

Top 10 plays of the first round

2010-05-03T10:48:00.002-06:00

Don't agree with J.R. Smith's breakaway dunk being #3, personally. I generally give more credit to plays made when there are defenders within 50 feet of the guy making the play.