Whitesell Basketball Camp

Yesterday, I took the day off and spent the day with my nephew Jackson. Let me say it was perfect weather to be up at Loyola. We got up there early so we headed over to the rocks. LU campus is COVERED in construction. It is crazy. Camp started at 9 am and I sat in the bleachers playing Nintendo DS (jackson's) and I actually got online to do a little work. Camp was awesome. There were like 5-6 players helping the coaches. So all together there were like a dozen coaches and 150 kids there. It was a little chaotic but fun. Here are a few pics from the day.

Boomer teaching passing drills. I know...it is a little far fetched.

Here is one of Jackson doing the rebounding drill with Polka.

A little look at the chaos of kids...

I had a blast yesterday. I wish I could have taken all four days off!

Whitesell's Basketball Camp

I am so EXCITED! Jim Whitesell's basketball camp starts tomorrow. No, I am not participating...but my nephew Jackson is. I am taking tomorrow off to take him to day one (of four). I am quite intrigued on how this camp will be run.

If you need me, you can find me at the Joseph J. Gentile center!

Go Ramblers!

NBA Finals!

Lakers/Celtics finals!

So they are here and for some reason everyone is jumping on the Laker train. I understand they have the best player on the court. They basically rolled through the DEEP west. Plus, Phil Jackons vs. Doc Rivers is the most lopsided coaching matchup maybe ever.

BUT...The Celtics play big. The Lakers play small. If the Celtics control the boards and play tight defense, they will control these games. There is a reason they went 2-0 against them in the regular season.

One of Pat Riley's big quotes was 'Rebounds = Rings.' Well, if that is the case, the Celtics are winning this thing. I am with Sports guy on this one. Celtics in 7.

NBA

So, the playoffs started and I think my emotions got into my head when making predictions. I should have taken Utah. I could never root for them but Deron Williams is really good and their coach is one of the best ever. I have no idea what I was thinking.

Also, I hope everyone is watching the West playoffs. Suns/Spurs had a great playoff game and it was game one in the first round. Just wow! Also, Paul took over the Mavs in the 2nd half and carried the Hornets to the win. Nice first playoff game ever! Wow!

More NBA

A quick comment before I get to the playoffs breakdown. The Celtics had the 'greatest turnaround' in NBA history. Lets not forget that last year they were tanking games at the end of the season in hopes of getting the number one pick. Signing Garnett and Allen was a huge plus with the turnaround but so was tanking games a lot of games.

EAST - Round 1

Celtics beat Hawks 4-0. This will be a joke of a series.
Pistons beat 76ers 4-2. The Pistons get a wake up call in this series.
Magic beat Raptors 4-2. Howard/Bosh matchup....fun!
Cavs beat the Wizards 4-2. No way LeBron lets his team depsite how bad lose in first series.

West - Round 1 - Just wow...this is crazy!

Lakers beat Nuggets 4-1. This is a bad matchup for the Nuggets. With Gasol, the Lakers have not problem running.
Mavs beat Hornets 4-3. As much as I love Paul and he will put up huge numbers in this series, his team will look to him too much because the talent around him is not that good. Dirk is starting to get that look about him again. Look out.
Rockets beat Jazz 4-3. Jazz are awful on the road. Plus I hate Carlos Boozer. Why did you not stay in Cleveland? ARGH! You stabbed a blind man in the back to boot!
Suns beat Spurs 4-3. Actually, I just dont know here. They got Shaq for this purpose. Amare is just awful defensively and always got in trouble trying to play Timmy. I love Duncan and I love Shaq. Who do I root for??????????

I will wait to do round 2 because my guess is that most of my picks are wrong.

Cheers

MVP Part II

Sport's guy came out with the 2nd part of his MVP Article. I really liked the article as I usually do when written by Sports guy.

He of course put Garnett #1 but I give him credit calling Garnett out for his faults. It will be quite interesting to see how the votes play out. All four of those guys had amazing years with impact on their teams.

I really think that the Phoenix conditioning coaches should get the MVP. I mean Grant Hill played in over 70 games and average 32 min a game without injury. Shaq is running better than ever and somehow Nash's back is holding up. How is that possible?

Here's to a great NBA playoffs.

More NBA

I am having some fun with MVP talk. And I hinted at the end of my article how amazing this MVP race is. Sports guy completely agrees with me and calls this year's MVP race the fourth best in the last 47 years. Here is part one of his MVP article. Part II is coming out tomorrow.

NBA MVP

Clearly, my brother and I disagree on this point. I find it funny that he thinks the only two MVP worthy candidates are in the East (James and Garnett). I really think that the MVP race should be a three man race between Bryant, James and Paul. I think Garnett should be in 4th place in the voting.

I have been a Garnett fan since he was playing basketball with Ronnie Fields at Farragut. I have always loved his game. If I had to write down my top 10 favorite players ever, he would be on that list. 20-10-5...always. This year's statistics are very similar to every other year's statistics (if you pro-rate them for minutes played). Garnett missed 11 games this year, almost 1/7th of the year. What was the Celtics record? 9-2. Many nights, he is not even the most valuable player on his team. Ray Allen and more importantly Paul Pierce are great players that also play for the Celtics and carry the team as well. Garnett's biggest achilles heel (always has been) is that he does not take the big shot. He is more willing to pass the ball with the game on the line than demand it. The Celtics really did not have to worry much about that this year given ALL the talent on the team. Has Garnett instilled his will on the Celtics? Yes. Did he do that in Minnesota? Yes. Why does Garnett not have more MVP trophies then??? He is the same player he has always been but for some reason, this year is different. Not really.

Lebron may finish averaging 30/8/7. Well, if he does, he will be the third player ever to do it (Jordan and Oscar Robertson ). You can argue that he or Kobe (i really think James) are the two best individual basketball players on this planet. Not many people will disagree. Lebron's defense has really stepped up this year. His biggest problem is that the last team to have an MVP and not win 50 games was Mose Malone...has not happened in a while. Is that right? Well, it goes down to what you definition of MVP is? Best player on the planet or most valuable to your team.

End of a game, down one or two, I want the ball in either Kobe or Lebron's hands. No question about it. Kobe also plays better defense than anyone out there. He is the best defensive player out there. Do I like him as a person? No. He is amazing offensively and just as good defensively? Yes. Is his team the number one seed in the best conference? Yes. That says a lot and I see him being MVP.

One last thing people want in an MVP. Someone who makes his teammates better. This is the reason Nash won MVP not once but TWICE. Lets look at Paul. He is having a better year than Nash ever did with less talent. Before he got to the Hornets, they were talking about moving. David West was a nobody and Chandler was considered a bust. After one year, Chandler is playing for USA basketball team and West is most improved player(with his numbers going drastically up). The year after that, West is an All-Star and Chandler is considered for the All-Star game. This year, the Hornets were projected to be maybe the 8 seed. CP makes his teammates better. There is no question. He has the team fighting for the #1 seed in the West and has revived basketball in the city of New Orleans. No one means more to his team than Chris Paul.

With all this said and if you are still reading, consider me impressed. I really think Kobe wins the award this year. Does he deserve it? Well, that is up to the voters and I am not one.

Sidenote: The NBA is just loaded with talent right now. The MVP race right now is a 4 person race. Wow!

Chris Paul - MVP

If Chris Paul does not win MVP this year, they should take away BOTH MVP trophies that Steve Nash won. Paul is putting together maybe the greatest year a point guard has ever had. If this guy played in New York, he would maybe be in the hall of fame already. Here is an except from Sport's guy:

Paul is ridiculously, overwhelmingly, incomprehensibly good. Look at his numbers since the All-Star Break: 25 points, 12 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals, 55 percent shooting, 49 percent on threes and an astonishing 6-to-1 assist/turnover ratio in 18 games ... and that doesn't even account for all the passes he makes that lead to foul shots. You can't play point guard any better than that. It's impossible. Other than that, you'd have to go with their foul shooting in close games -- Peja's at 94 percent, Paul and West are in the mid-80s, and every guy in their rotation is 80 percent or above except Tyson Chandler.

This team would not even be .500 right now if it wasn't for him and they are the one seed right now?!?

He is playing at a higher level than Steve Nash ever did. He somehow won the MVP twice!!!

2008 CBI! The real tournament!

CBI or college basketball invitational started yesterday. NCAA - please - overhyped. NIT - more lame big conference schools. What you need to be watching is the inaugural college basketball invitational.

Only 16 teams are invited to the EXCLUSIVE tourney. Valpo is one of those teams and I see them running the table! The Horizon league is just too tough.

In all seriousness, one aspect of this tournament that I really do like is the fact that the championship game is not a game but rather a best of three series.

Go Horizon League!

P.S. I must give credit where credit is due. Thanks Nelson for telling me about this underhyped tournament!

Basketball

So, last night I played basketball in what was probably the first time in over three years. Murph for months has been organizing basketball games on Wednesday. They rent out a court over at Hamlin. It is really cheap and they usually have 9-12 people. Last night they were running low on people and my workout buddy told me he could not lift. So I decided to play some ball.

Overall, I had a good time. It was pathetic how rusty my basketball insticts were. I was never a good basketball player by any stretch of the imagination but the little things were slipping from me. I was not cutting fast enough on pick and rolls, I caught myself multiple times standing around watching the offense work. We won't even get into my shooting touch or lack thereof!

Anyway, it was fun and I will probably do it a little more going forward!

Chris Paul vs. Lebron James

Wow. Just wow. Everyone knows Lebron James and I wrote many blogs ago about how Lebron is that good and probably better than most people think.

Well, Chris Paul is someone that you could argue is the best player in the league. I love Lebron but I am just trying to let you all know that this kid is ridiculous. If you have not noticed, New Orleans has the best record in the West. Last night against Dallas, Paul has 31 points, 11 assists and nine steals. Of course, Lebron has 31 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists last night.

Anyway, everyone knows about Lebron (and rightfully so). Everyone needs to start giving more credit to Chris Paul. He is that good.

2008 Dunk Contest

Dwight Howard put on quite the display this weekend in the dunk contest. If you did not see it, you should watch it (superman, mini-hoop). I could not find the one off the wrong side of the backboard and the one that he pushed the ball off the backboard with one hand and slammed it with the other. That last one I thought was his best one. There were a few years there were the dunk contest was just dying. No one really wanted to do it and it was not very good. Let me tell you. This years was great. There were great dunks all around but no one was better than Dwight. We have not seen a big man that has a vertical leap like this. The kid can play!

Kevin Garnett

It really is a shame that Kevin Garnett is just now getting the recognition he deserves. Everyone knows him and knows he is a great player. People just starting to realize what an intense competitor he is. No one matches his intensity and all he cares about is the team winning. He is easily one of my favorite players of all time. His career statistics are 20, 10, and 5. Thank goodness he has a couple people with him these days so people can truly appreciate this guy.

Of course, I do not think the Celtics will win the championships but this takes nothing away from Garnett.

LU Outlook

Now that I have been to two LU games (one good and one bad), I have a better feel for the team.

This Rambler team is going to miss Blake more than anyone is willing to admit. I hate to also mention Majak and his amazing all around game. Despite losing two very talented seniors, they will have an okay season.

As coach says, this team is scrappy. Yes, their offense is missing the weapons and yes, we will stuggle against big teams but this team plays extremely hard on defense. They never quit and always continue to attack. They do not have much of a chance against Butler but everyone else in the division they can hang with. No game will be a blowout but they probably wont win too many.

HOWEVER, there is an offensive player that is able to play starting January 1. This could change everything. This team is fun to root for because the effort is always there.

Lets hope I am wrong! GO LU!