All Star Weekend and the Second Half

This was by far the most uneventful, disappointing All-Star Weekend I have ever seen, punctuated by a piss poor Dunk Contest. Terrence Ross won simply because he could dunk- on the first try (sometimes) which can't be said for the other contestants. Who in hell decided each player should get 90 seconds to complete 1 dunk? I think a present day Jordan competing at age 50 would have been more interesting than than this collection of nobodies. This contest needs a drastic change or they may be better off scrapping the whole thing. How did throwing a bounce pass through a hoop and dribbling around cones become more watchable than high flying dunks?

The one bright spot was Kyrie Irving. Dan Gilbert probably got his first boner since LeBron (who was extremely disappointing last night) left town. This kid is a bonafide stud and after his rising stars, three point shootout, and ASG performance Cleveland should be excited for his continued growth.

Now for my second half predictions:

1. LBJ will not win MVP- not sure if Durant or Paul takes it home but LeBron will not.

2. Kevin Durant will win most improved player. He can't not win this.

3. The NBA champions will reign from the western conference. Thunder, Spurs, or even the Clippers are in play here and the Heat don't have the depth any of these teams do.

4. The Lakers will make the playoffs and Dwight Howard will resign in the off season.

5. Josh Smith will get traded in this next week and as a result the Hawks will miss the playoffs.

6. The Celtics will be a 6 seed or better and win their first round playoff series. It's the second half. They'll play better.

7. The Pacers will be the 2 seed in the East. They play great defense and the Knicks don't.

8. There will be at least one more major injury ( aka ACL tear) to a premier player in the league that will have a direct effect on that player's team's results in the post season. I don't know why but this is becoming a bigger and bigger problem.

9. Stephen Curry will miss more time with an ankle injury, BUT lead the Warriors to a first round playoff win.

10. Whoever wins the lottery will be lucky to have Ben McLemore on there team. And hat same team would be stupid to pass on him.

Umass schedule check

Wins: 
Miami(FL)(11-0 in conference) 
East Carolina 
Ohio (9-1 in conference) 
Tennessee 
Providence 


Losses: 
Northeastern 
Miami(OH) 
Eastern Michigan 
Northern Illinois 

nice to have the good teams keep winning, but the bad teams keep losing..... 

providence and tennessee seem to be the wildcards in our OOC as potential quality opponents

Umass out of conference schedule: 2/8/13- 2/9/13

Wins:
#8 Miami(FL) ( 10-0 in conference)
Ohio( 8-1 in conference)
Elon(9-3 in conference)
Northeastern(11-1 in conference)
Harvard(5-0 in conference)

Losses:
Siena
Miami(OH)
Northern Illinois
East Carolina
Eastern Michigan

Handicapping the A-10

1. This is my pic of the week

I would be really surprised if St Louis doesn't cover this game, although the Spiders have played great at home recently, I think that streak comes to an end tomorrow. 

I watched both the St Louis vs Umass(big Umass fan) and Richmond vs Umass games ... and I can tell you Jordaire Jett is a one of the best , if not the best perimeter defender in the A-10. Richmonds offense is based around shooting 3 pointers and that plays into one of St Louis's greatest strengths... 


Darien Brothers is a good player for the A-10 but STL has a NBA potential defender that will most likely matchup with him. crazier things have happened but I would be surprised if the Billikens don't cover

2. My gut tells me this game is gonna be closer than I think, but I'm taking X to cover 7.5 over Duquesne.


the Dukes, to put this nicely, have been pathetic this year... pathetic...

Although Xavier has been wildly inconsistent this year, my brain tells me they should come out firing and win this game easily

The talent level, experience and confidence are all on the side of X and they are still in the hunt for post-season action
3. even though 18 is a big line... I'm still taking La salle at home to take care of business against Fordham..

This game means a lot more to La Salle and they are really tough to keep up with. 

This game will be very dependent on how Fordham defends the perimeter and how La Salle shoots from the perimeter

your going to be able to tell what type of game this is going to be within the first 5 minutes
4. Next up, I'm taking URI at home against St. Bonnaventure


URI is coming off an 81-53 drubbing @ Umass on wednesday but that isn't indicative of how they have played this season.

Their record may be horrible but they have played most teams very close and even pulling off an insane win @ St louis (17-5 overall, 6-2 in A-10)

expect a close game either way, but I would give the edge to the Rams.
5. I'm taking Temple(+3.5) over Dayton in Ohio.

more of a feeling than anything else but from watching a little bit of both teams over the years, I would say Temple is the better coached and more talented team. 

Wyatt is a monster and I'm not sure Dayton has anyone to stop him.


6. taking Umass to cover -3 over St Joseph at the Mullins center.

I live in mass and their is a driving ban in place until further notice... 
home court advantage to be not as much of a factor, but I think Umass is simply a better team overall.

They are starting to pull it together the later in the year it gets and remember, this is a team that was 
in the final four of the NIT last year, they have an older bunch of guys and really want to make a run this year

7. and the last game I'm taking Butler to cover against GW(home)


You would probably be confused by this line if you simply looked at the records and standings, but GW has been streaking through A-10 play with wins over @Umass and home against Charlotte.


That being said, and although I do like GW to play well for the rest of the year, I don't see them sticking with this technically sound butler team.

Umass Basketball: Out of Conference Schedule update

Wins: 
Harvard (2x) ( 4-0 in con) 
Siena 
Miami (8-0 in con) 
Northeastern (9-1 in con) 
Miami(OH) 
Elon(8-2 in con) 
East Carolina 

Losses: 
Tennessee 
NC State 
Ohio 
Northern Illinois 
Eastern Michigan 


overall I would say everything evened itself out... still have Providence playing today... well see what happens

Big Impact: Jose Calderon

Jose Calderon may seem like an insignificant piece of the Rudy Gay trade, but I'm here to tell you hes not. As much as the Toronto Raptors have been tough to watch the past few years, they have always had a couple of interesting players I keep my eye on(most notably Ed Davis and DeMar DeRozan ).  Most games would consist of horrible rebounding, forced off balance shots and easy layups for the opposition, there was one bright spot,  Calderon . Always in control and efficient , he seemingly was the driving force in keeping the Raptors close through the first half or sometimes the 3rd Quarter. A great outside shooter with even better vision and passing ability, Jose was the unsung hero of a miserable team and was mostly cast off as part of the problem by people that only check box scores and look at the standings.

Another team I had taken interest in(yes, I do waste a lot of time watching pointless games) was the Detroit Pistons. They also had some interesting young pieces and I found myself rooting for them this season. The feeling I got as Andre Drummond's ability slowly developed and came into focus was that they have the front court of a 7 or 8 seed eastern conference team, but the selfish, schizophrenic  backcourt that will keep them in the lottery. Nothing personal against Brandon Knight, I love his natural skill, but I think he needs some more time to develop and was cast into far more responsibility than he could handle.  Both he and Stucky have more bad shooting nights than good and don't have the control over the team that a PG of a playoff team would. I left it at that and stopped watching them, I paid attention to Drummond's quietly exciting rookie season off the bench  through the box scores and was left wondering what the Pistons were gonna do with their top 15 pick next year.

Then, it happened... the Pistons traded for the perfect piece. After I was done patting myself on the back for diagnosing the Pistons problem and being on the same page as them, I became excited.  If they aren't to proud and allow Jose to shift into the starting lineup, they can make a playoff run. Losing Prince will certainly hurt, but with Monroe and the budding star Drummond down low, they have a shot to grab the 8 seed.

Fun Fact Of The Day

Kobe Bryant is currently shooting 46.9% from the field this year on 964 attempts. This includes 51.4% from 2pt range. Russell Westbrook has taken the 2nd most shots in the league, 851 (113 less than Kobe) and is shooting 41.4% from the field and 43.7% from 2pt land.

Wow.

It is worth noting that those numbers have declined each month of the season so far....