Houston Bound: Has Kansas Already Proved Its Ability to Make The Final Four?

They are 11 games into the regular season and they are off to an undefeated start. So is it safe to say the No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks will be making the trip to the Final Four in Houston?  Absolutely not.

After KU’s devastating loss to Northern Iowa in the second round of the NCAA tournament last year, it is established that you can never issue an early guarantee that a team will qualify the Final Four.  Ever.

But … is it becoming safe to say that Kansas has the ability to make the Final Four?  

Absolutely.

Kansas came into the 2010-11 season as a team that was returning multiple starters and bringing in even more young talent into the program.  Marcus and Markieff Morris have proved to the nation that they are one of the most dangerous combinations in all of college basketball.  The twins have become powerful threats inside and are now forcing opposing big men to cover them on the perimeter.

Don’t feel like coming out on them?  They won’t hesitate to make you pay.  Between the two of them, the Morris twins have drained 17 treys.

If you follow college basketball, you should already know that the addition of Josh Selby to the active squad has lifted the Jayhawks even higher.  Through just two games against Pac-10 teams, Selby is 11-of-24 from the field including an impressive 8-of-9 from beyond the arc.  Rain dance!

But it’s easy to make evaluations based on the players who make the highlight reels and get most of the interviews.  What you have to realize is that Kansas wins basketball games because of the contribution of every Jayhawk who steps onto the court.

Kansas has the ability to make the Final Four in part because of guys like Brady Morningstar, Tyrel Reed and Thomas Robinson.

You could easily look at a stat sheet and say, “I don’t understand why Brady Morningstar gets so many minutes. He only put up 5.1 points per game.”  

What a stat sheet wouldn’t tell you is that Morningstar is probably the most unselfish player on the Kansas squad.  He’s always looking to dish to the open man, even if he has a decent shot opportunity of his own.  Not that he can’t make shots, because he can, but the senior realizes what one more good pass can open up.  

He’s not concerned with dropping 15 points a game as much as he is getting his teammates a better look.  Morningstar is a main reason the Jayhawks ball movement has been so effective lately.  He also brings defense to the table, forcing turnovers and coming up with timely steals.

Tyrel Reed is a coach’s dream.  The kid plays his heart out every second he is on the floor for Kansas.  Reed is an all-around player who could start for most any team in the country.  He plays great defense, makes smart passes and takes smart shots.

His ability to make catch-and-shoot 3-pointers causes trouble for opposing defenses.  If Josh Selby can drive and cause defenders to collapse on him, expect a dish out to a ready-to-shoot Tyrel Reed toeing the 3-point line.

Reed was the reason Kansas was able to stay one step ahead of the Golden Bears last night in Berkeley.

Whether is was a clutch 3-pointer or driving and drawing a foul, Reed was dependable last night.
It’s also a good sign for Bill Self and company when you lose arguably your best player and can depend on your bench to step up.

Thomas Robinson is another up-and-coming standout for Kansas.  After Marcus Morris was ejected from KU’s contest against Cal, it was almost as if Kansas replaced him with a clone.  Kansas didn’t find itself without a strong presence down low as Robinson was able to step in and play well.  

He’s got freakishly long arms and broad shoulders, reminiscent of NBA star Dwight Howard.  Give him the ball down low and I feel bad for whoever has to guard him.  Robinson brings tenacity and an athleticism that is off the charts.  Give him another year and an argument will be made that he’ll be an All-American.

The Jayhawks may have more depth this season than Self has had in his time at Kansas—yes, even more than the National Championship squad of 2007-2008.  How many teams can sub in four players at a time and not lose all of their fire power?  Self’s free waves of substitutions sometimes look more like hockey shifts than basketball lineup changes.

And it goes beyond the three guys I’ve just mentioned.  All of KU’s players bring something special to the table.

Any college basketball fan knows that its team’s star players will have games where they can’t buy a bucket.  For that problem, you have to have depth on the bench to help recover.  

As each game passes, the Kansas Jayhawks continue to show just how effective their bench can be.

Like I said, no one can predict exactly who will be playing in Houston in a few months.  No matter how good Kansas looks or becomes as the season rolls along, its not guaranteed anything.

But as far as the ability to be one of the elite teams in the nation and the NCAA tournament come March, you better believe that Kansas now has the magic to make it happen.

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Deron Williams Has Proved He Is the Best Point Guard In the League

It’s a very questionable debate. Who’s better? Deron Williams or Chris Paul? Who is the best point guard in the NBA? Well, Williams has proved he is the better point guard, as his Utah Jazz topped Paul’s New Orleans Hornets in a 105-87 rout as Williams continues to add on to his winning record over Paul. Paul played well, having 17 points, nine assist, and five steals. But Williams played better with his 26 points, eleven assists, and five steals. It’s a fun match-up to watch.
“I’ve always followed that matchup,” said Jazz forward Al Jefferson, acquired in a trade with Minnesota this offseason. “To be a part of it and see it up-close-and-personal is amazing. They know each other well, have been playing against each other a long time. To see D-Will step his game up to a whole ‘other level tonight was just fun to watch.”
Williams enjoys the match-up.
“We always have fun playing against each other,” Williams s…

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2010 Oklahoma City Thunder: How Russell Westbrook Has Proved NBA Fans Wrong

On June 28, 2008, the then-Seattle Supersonics decided to draft the top defensive point guard available in the draft with the fourth overall pick.  His name was Russell Westbrook and many people were skeptical of the decision.

Many people had the team selecting Kevin Love out of UCLA with their pick based on the reasoning that the Sonics had just secured the future of their wing players and would likely go for a long-term big man.

However, the media was very divided with their grade of the pick and some thought that Oklahoma City made a Portland-like draft bust by going with a player that hasn’t proven himself that much offensively.

Russell Westbrook took a lot of criticism during his rookie year after a lot of those in the media wanted to accuse him of not being a “true” point guard even though it was his first time EVER playing the position.  Not a lot of people took the time to realize it was his rookie season playing a position he never played before. 

Of course he was going to fail a lot that season. 

But he also made more improvements in that season than anyone else put in a similar situation. 

Halfway through his rookie season, the man who everyone thought the Thunder should have drafted, Kevin Love, was having a very average start to his season.  He was being exposed as an undersized power forward, while Russell Westbrook was starting to turn heads.

Coming off the bench, he averaged 4.1 assists, 1.9 steals, and 12.3 points a game while performing amazing defensive.

Even after the season, people wanted to accuse him of being extremely inconsistent, claiming he would never be a true facilitator for the Thunder. 

I never quite understood that, I knew that he was extremely raw and pretty inconsistent, but how could people accuse him of not being a true point? During his rookie season he had awesome on-court vision and passed the ball really well. 

His only drawback was that he tried to do too much at times and never had a true jump shot on top of non-existent range outside the three-point line.

However, in his rookie season, especially in the playoffs, he has made unbelievable improvements.

Everyone in the area had heard about the hard work he had put in prior to last season, but everyone was still extremely quick to predict him to keep the Thunder back from making any improvements.

Although, he became a lot more patient, developed a free-throw line jumper, and learned to cut down on his mistakes for the most part, his speed was setting him apart.  He was a mismatch for the majority of the league and many teams could not contain Westbrook.

He made his plays on the defensive side and made the SportsCenter top 10 with his dunks on a weekly basis.  Everyone in LA and Oklahoma will remember the Westbrook dunk on Lamar Odom for a long, long time.

Now with his performance in the FIBA Championships, many people consider his defensive attributes one of the best in the league for a point guard.  He has literally shut down everyone he has defended and made explosive plays on the offensive end.

He has turned a lot of heads in the past, but there are still many haters in the media.  And he’ll definitely look to prove them wrong again this season.

Like Westbrook would say, “Why not?”.

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The NBA Is a Business and Dan Gilbert Proved It!

I know everyone is getting sick and tired of this LeBron James saga about signing with the Miami Heat and apparently letting down the city of Cleveland by not re-signing with the Cavaliers. But, I am here to say why Dan Gilbert’s comments about LeBron show you that he never did care about LeBron James.

“As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier. This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his “decision” unlike anything ever “witnessed” in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment”

These were first few comments spoken by Dan Gilbert in the long and nasty note regarding LeBron James.

Were these comments really necessary?

How can someone actually say that LeBron James let the city and the team down? You really mean that with the departure of LeBron, Gilbert is loosing a ton of money. That is the more important factor and problem that I have Gilbert’s comments.

LeBron did anything and everything for the Cavaliers. He put the Cleveland Cavaliers back on the map. The last time that the Cavaliers were even mentioned was how Jordan beat them with a game winner in the first round of game five back in 1989.

It took nearly 14 years and a first overall pick for the Cavaliers to be back on the national basketball stage!

Now, that LeBron has been with the Cavaliers for seven years, and brought them millions and millions beyond millions in revenue. Gilbert now has nothing like LeBron on his team to bring in that extra revenue. And instead of being a man and facing the facts that a player is leaving, instead of venting off on LeBron, he should take it as if a player just left and not take it to personal.

So, Gilbert is not showing his true colors. That he never really liked LeBron as a person, he only liked LeBron because he brought them wins and money that have never seen in years. Dan Gilbert is disgusting for what he did. He himself proved that he never liked LeBron, he only liked LeBron as a money maker.

Gilbert proved that basketball is nothing more than a business.

Owners now a days do not care about the player, they just care if that player can bring money to their pockets. Then once they loose that money maker, a owner (Gilbert for example) goes insane and just rants on and on about how LeBron gave up on the team. Rather, he is just upset he will not get the same revenue he would have if LeBron was still in a Cavaliers uniform. 

Another point is that if say LeBron was doing terrible, he would not care at all if LeBron left. But since LeBron just brought so much to the table for the Cavaliers and Gilbert, if LeBron was nothing than a bum, Gilbert would not even have cared if LeBron walked.

Do you see Gilbert making a big letter about Big-Z leaving…?

For you Gilbert, if you really cared about winning and keeping LeBron in Cleveland, you would have done everything in your power to surround LeBron with the talent to win an NBA Championship.

As well, the burning of LeBron’s jersey is just another example of a disgraceful fan. If you are a true fan of a player and he leaves a team, you do not burn his jersey and say he is terrible. You accept that he has gone and acknowledge the talent in the player. Besides, LeBron though amazing at basketball, is still a human being that has feelings. All you Cleveland fans and Dan Gilbert proved you never cared about LeBron James as the person..

 

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