Built Ford Tough

Rivers really needs to learn to use his teammates more. You can tell that he has talent with the ball in his hands, but it seems like once he gets the ball the only thing going through his mind is either driving into the paint or taking a jumper. He could be a really solid playmaker if he would use his teammates more rather than forcing up these wild layups that have nearly no chance of going in. It would only make him a more effective player out there and open up more room for him. The other thing I noticed is that his left hand is really weak. He missed 3 layups/floaters with his left, two of which didn't even hit rim. He is always trying to go to his right and the times when he does go left, he seems to be a bit out of control. He has talent, but his game certainly needs a lot of work if he is going to become a star in the NBA like many people believe. It should be fun watching his development this season and next (I think it would be best if he stayed for his sophomore season).

And Crosby scores 5 and a half minutes into the game after blowing by McDonald on a 1-3. He is amazing.

This Duke team really doesn't impress me all that much from what I have seen so far (Michigan St. game and the first 10 minutes of this Tennessee game). I haven't had a chance to catch an Florida, Louisville or Syracuse game yet, but out of all of the early season favourties that I have seen, Duke impresses me the least. I don't know what exactly it is about them that turns me off, but something about them makes me think that their current 6th seed isn't a true indication of where they are among the best teams in college. They aren't a bad team by any means, but they don't see to me to look like a top 5 or 6 team in the country. One thing I do like about them is their backcourt, though. Assuming Rivers becomes less of a blackhole during the course of the season, I think him and Curry compliment each other very well. Neither are true point guards, but both have good enough ball handling to serve as point guards in the college game (Curry could develop into one, but Rivers is definitely a shooting guard). I do like the inside-out threat they have going with Rivers' strong slashing ability combined with Curry's excellent shooting. Rivers still has a lot of work to do on his game, but come Janurary/February, I think he might be one of the better scorers in the nation, although he likely still won't give much of anything else.

That same guy who had Young 1st had Bautista 7th. I don't really care all that much about MVP awards in any sport, though. More often than not they go to the best player who has some sort of great story on a top 4 team in the league rather than going to the player who is actually the most valuable player in the league.

That makes sense and all, but I still don't agree with it. Sure, you can spin the numbers in a way to make it look like a pitcher appearing in 30 games is comparable to a positional player playing in 150+ games, but as far as I am concerned a positional player has a much larger impact on a team throughout the course of a season. When a picther plays I don't deny that more often than not he is the most important player on the field, but in my opinion, a positional player has a significantly larger impact on a teams success over the course of a season. I'm not really going to argue it in any sort of depth because I can understand why somebody would think that a pitcher may be deserving of an MVP award. I just don't agree with it and likely never will, unless a pitcher is out there shattering records or something.

According to Nick Kyperos this morning when he was on Hockeycentral at Noon, tickets for the Pens/Isles game is going for as much as $1,000 a pop. Must really suck to be one of those fans who had tickets to this game in early-mid October and gave them away since they figured it was a Monday night game against the lowly Islanders.

Final score was 73-61 for Michigan. Memphis went ice cold in the 2nd half. They finished the game on a shooting slump that saw them go 7-31 from the field. Duke vs. Tennessee coming up in about 15 minutes.

Michigan looks to have iced it. Up 70-56 with about 2:30 left. Memphis really shot themselves in the foot just now. They let Michigan run the shot clock down to about 8 seconds left and then committed a silly reach in foul. If the game wasn't over before that, it certainly is now.

Michigan is currently up 53-41 over Memphis with about 12 minutes to play in the 2nd half. Barton is really struggling for Memphis with just 9 points on 3-10 shooting and he also has 3 fouls. For Michigan, Hardaway Jr. has 11 points and 3 assists on 4-7 shooting and Burke has 11 points and 2 assists on 5-9 shooting. Anybody who wants to watch, just go to: http://www.firstrowsports.tv and look under basketball.

I get that Verlander was filthy and absolutely dominant this year, but how on earth can a guy who plays in 34 of his teams 162 games be considered the Most Valuable Player in the a league? I don't care if he won 25 games, but there is no way that you can convince me that a player who plays in 20% of his teams games is worthy of winning the MVP. Just when I thought that baseball voters were finally starting to get when it came to awards by giving guys like Hernandez and Greinke Cy Young's even though they didn't have 20 wins. As far as I am concerned, nobody other than Ellsbury or Bautista deserved consideration for the award.

I'm not exactly sure since I live in Canada and don't get ESPN and very few games are televised for me before March Madness. All of my college ball watching is done online. Their next game is on Thursday at 7PM EST against North Carolina Asheville. The next UCONN game that I know for sure will be televised is on Saturday December 3rd at 3:15 PM EST against Arkansas. It will be broadcasted on ESPN and ESPN3. They may have some televised games before that, though. I'm not exactly sure what kind of tournaments they are playing in so assuming they make it to the finals of some tournament, I am sure they will be on ESPN at some point before that.

I don't want to make this into an Anthony Davis vs. Andre Drummond thread, but if Drummond's shotblocking numbers have you drooling, you might want to take a look at Davis'. He is averaging 4.5 a game (in just under 25 mpg) and has yet to block less than 3 shots in UK's first 4 games, including a 7 block game against Kansas. I've watched 2 of his games so far, and the guy is an absolute force when it comes to blocking and altering shots. His length, athleticism and timing is just scary. Anyways, like I said, I don't want to turn this into a Davis vs. Drummond thread (that should be saved for later in the season when both of them get accustomed to the college game). I just wanted to mention it.

Rather than creating seperate game threads that get no more than 3-4 posts each, I figured I would make a thread devoted to all of the games of the Maui Invitational Championship Round games that start tomorrow. For anybody looking for information on the tournament, you can check out the official website: http://www.mauiinvitational.com/ Tomorrow's games are: UCLA vs. Chaminade (9:30PM EST) Georgetown vs. Kansas (Midnight EST) Tennessee vs. Duke (5:30 PM EST) Michigan vs. Memphis (3PM EST) The winner of the UCLA-Chaminade game faces the winner of Georgetown-Kansas and the winner of Duke-Tennessee plays the winner of Michigan-Memphis.

What are your thoughts on the play of Drummond early on in the season? He has been widely regarded as the next great big man and the best big man prospect since Greg Oden. When he announced that he was going to be joining the Huskies this season it was major news and many people believed that he would possibly be the missing piece that they needed to contend with the likes of UK, UNC and OSU for a national championship. However, he has struggled during his first 4 games of the season and has looked like a non-factor more often than the impact player expected of him. He is averaging a very pedestrian: 6.3 ppg l 7.7 rpg l 2.7 bpg l 1.7 topg on 40 FG% and 23 FT% in 19 mpg His numbers are somewhat inflated even, since he scored more than half his points, grabbed half his rebunds and blocked half his shots in one game (an 11/14/4 game against Maine). Clearly it is way too early to declare him a bust or anything like that, but compared to the other marquee freshman in Anthony Davis, his play has been a huge dissapointment. Has his broken nose hindered his performance? Did he possible underestimate the competition jump from high school to college? Or, possibly, is he just not as good as he was made out to be and is more raw than anticipated?

CBC will be broadcasting the game, for those of us in Canada who want to watch his return. Great news, though. I am far from a fan of the Pens, but getting Crosby back in the NHL is great if you are any sort of a fan. I don't care if you are a Flyers fan or a Capitals fan, the NHL is better off with Crosby healthy and playing. I'm obviously not expecting much from him considering it has been nearly a full year since he last played in an NHL game, but just seeing him on the ice again is going to be great.

I just watched the last episode the other night (late, I know, but I have to watch them online) and all I have to say is that it was random as hell. I expected Dexter to wake up and it was all a dream or some corny shit. That was strange.

Pretty much the ideal game for the Leafs. They really broke it open in the 2nd scoring 4 goals on 10 shots. Lupul was great with 4 points, Kessel was buzzing all night long and easily could've had a 4 points of his own as opposed to his 2. Bozak played really well centering those two. That line did a great job of controlling the puck in the offensive zone and creating scoring chances in a variety of different ways (off the cycle, off the rush, etc...). They moved the puck really well on the PP as well. Franson was fantastic at both ends of the ice. That was without a doubt the best game I have seen him play as a Leaf He did a nice job clearing the puck in his own zone, was aggressive on offense and showed his strong shot on that goal in the 2nd, even if it was a bit of a stinker (the shot was nice, it was just from way too far away that it should've been saved). I heard he played well in the Nashville game but I was at work so I missed that one. Hopefully he can continue this strong play and show why so many Leaf fans, myself included, were excited about picking him up in the offseason. Gustavsson was brilliant between the pipes. It looked like it would be another long night after the Caps scored on their first shot of the game. Even though it wasn't a weak goal (deflected off of both Liles and Franson) you couldn't help but think that Gus would have a meltdown like we have seen in the past. However, that was not the case at all as he went on to make 37 straight stops. My favourite part of his game was that he didn't have to make any higlight reel, athletic, desperation saves because he was in excellent position all night long. His positioning is obviously a big part of his game that he struggles with, so it was awesome to see him be so positionally sound tonight. Games like these are why I think that he could possibly become a #1 goalie in the NHL.

I completely agree about Teague. I thought he looked like complete garbage in that game, and I have not been impressed by him at all. In fact, if you take a glimpse in the game thread I made, you will see that I thought he looked like crap. As for Davis, I do agree that early on he showed his youth and made questionable decisions, such as those jump shots that you mentioned. I think part of that was due to the fact that this was his first high profile college game, against a prestigous school like Kansas and the game was in Madison Square Garden. He seemed nervous and anxious at the start of the game. However, as the game progressed and he got his nerves in check and his feet under him, I thought he showed a relatively high IQ for a freshman playing his second college game. He didn't make any glaring mistakes/poor decisions offensively (aside from those questionable jump shots early), he didn't committ any stupid fouls and he was generally always in the right position on the floor, both offensively and defensively. In terms of the two highly projected big men in the 2012 draft (Drummond and Davis) Drummond is the one who doesn't play very smart at times. I can understand where you are coming from in terms of Robinson looking good, but I just can't say that he looked better than Davis did. I thought Davis was quite easily the best player on the floor in that game, and I wasn't even much of a fan of him and thought he was overhyped coming into Kentucky. His play thus far is making me think twice about that as he looks very impressive thus far (although today, going by his numbers, he didn't look that great).

Gus back in net. Colborne playing his 2nd game in the NHL. Tim Connolly with his 400th career point.

You mean for Kansas, right? He certainly didn't look like the best player on either team in that game. Don't get me wrong, he had a solid game against a very, very talented Kentucky front court, but Anthony Davis was, at least in my opinion, easily the best player in that game. His impact on defense was absolutely huge as every time any Jayhawk got into the paint. I think he had 7 or 8 blocks in that game, and he altered at least another 3-4 of them. On offense he didn't really get to showcase much of his skillset (such as his playmaking ability, which is excellent for a guy his size, obviously due to his time as a point guard) because he was so effective finding the weak spots of Kansas' defense and converting easy baskets around the rim. Even with him not being able to show much of his offensive game, he was still a pretty significant factor on that end because of his great athleticism and length. Robinson was good and he impressed me, especially considering how overmatched he was from a length and athleticism standpoint, but Davis was clearly the best player on the floor that night. Welcome to the site, by the way.

Grabovski out for the next 2 weeks with a leg injury (I think it might be a knee to be specific, but I'm not sure). Could be more as Wilson mentioned the words "at least 2 weeks" more than once. As for MacArthur, I'm not exactly sure what is wrong with him. Connolly will return on Thursday against the Predators, so that helps soften the Grabovski a bit. The question is whether or not he will even still be playing when Grabo comes back, which I doubt. In non-injury related news, according to Dreger the Leafs were offered a 2nd round pick and a player for Cody Franson, but Burke supposedly declined the offer. If that is true, the player must have been a salary dump or something because I don't think Burke would turn that kind of offer down if it was a decent player when you consider Franson doesn't even play. The Leafs also have guys like Aulie, Lashoff, etc... in the minors who could come up and play in a pinch. Of course it could also not be true. Dreger's big source in the Leafs locker room is Nonis, and he could just be using Dreger to try and boost Franson's value a bit more, should they want to move him.

Kentucky's athleticism and length advantages over Kansas are really showing to start the 2nd half. They are getting a hand on basically every shot and every pass that the Jayhawks are attempting, which has enabled them to get out in transition where, as I said before, they are absolutely deadly. The Jayhawks are going to need to make better passes, have crisper ball movement and use Kentucky's aggressiveness against them by making some more backdoor cuts and ball fakes. Davis has looked very impressive to start the half. He has been all over the floor. Whether it is blocking shots, finishing in transition or whatever, his length is giving Kansas fits. I think Kidd-Gilchrist has looked awesome, when he isn't trying to prove that he can shoot long range jumpers, tonight as well. These next few minutes are going to be huge. Kansas really needs to stop the momentum that the Wildcats have gained since the start of the half or else this game might get out of reach.

Teague finally gets his first assist. :o Lucky for him, too, because he was so damn close to committing yet another turnover (on a 3-1 no less) because of a stupid play. He was fortunate to have the ball bounce right back to him and have a wide open Davis to throw a lob to.

Marquis Teague has been absolutely awful in the first half. He has been playing completely out of control and making terrible decisions with the ball. Last I saw, he had 0 assists and 6 turnovers in like 12 minutes of playing time. It has been a pretty ugly game all around so far. I fell asleep for about 5 minutes or so and missed the last bit of the first half, but prior to that it was just brutal basketball being played. I will say that Kentucky is deadly when they get out on the break. Guys like Jones, Kidd-Gilchrist and Davis are very scary in transition as they are all so quick and athletic for their size. It is too bad they look completely disorganized in a half court set, but that should get better as they gain experience and develop chemistry with one another (and if their point guard stops playing like a jackass). As for Kansas, Withey impressed me in the first half. He was active on the glass, a factor defensively altering/blocking shots and even chipped in with some offense as well. If he can give Kansas this kind of play in the 2nd half and Taylor plays like he is capable of, Kansas can certainly come up with a win in this game. He screams 2nd/3rd option to me. I think he is going to be a very similar player to Andre Iguodala when he breaks into the league. A great defender, solid passer, above average rebouder, tough slasher, dangerous in the open court and just a general outstanding all-around player. His lack of a jumper and diverse offensive game is likely going to prevent him from becoming an elite player, but I see no reason why he can't become a very good player and a huge piece on a championship calibre team. He is going to wind up being one of those crucial glue guys that all championship teams need, but I don't think he is ever going to become the focal point of a championship calibre team. His game just doesn't seem to suit that kind of a role, but that is no knock against him as I think he is going to have a long, successfull career. Of course this could all change as he is still very young. If he develops a reliable jumper, post game and tightens up his handles who knows what he could become.

So scratch the comment about the game being in 10-15 minutes, haha. I completely forgot that the Duke-Michigan St. game was before this one and it wouldn't start until that was finished. Game should get underway around 7:05-7:10 EST.