The Randomness of Me

It's been awhile since I posted anything on here, so I think I'll just do a lightning round of topics.

• Lost in the great Kobe Bryant point string is the fact the Los Angeles Lakers are still a fatally flawed team and never was that more apparent than in their loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night. The Lakers, as has been the case all season long, can't defend anyone and it was only because the Grizzle are such a horrendous team that the Lake Show wasn't blown out of the water more. The Grizzlies were 3-for-15 from the three and missed their first 10 from distance and many of those were uncontested looks. What's more, the Lakers on offence can't get anyone other than Kobe or Lamar Odom, it would seem, to knock down shots with consistency. Sasha Vujacic is perhaps the only other player on the team whom you might actually think about defending on the perimeter. But LA went 13-for-35 (35!!!) from three on Tuesday night and had its fair share of open looks all the while blowing a lead that reached 15 points at one stage.

• Smush Parker is maybe the easiest starting guard in the league to defend. You don't have to have any respect for his shooting ability and if you can take away penetration from him, it's not like he's going to hurt you by finding other guys because, let's face it, he's a shoot-first style point guard who can't shoot.

• Nas' latest album "Hip Hop is Dead" has sparked a handful of debate on the topic the title speaks so loudly of. I'll blog on this more soon, but needless to say the hip-hop community never really gets the point. This whole "is it dead?" question isn't really a yes or no debate, although those who have a voice seem to want to make it that way. Incidentally, it's not his greatest album but his commentary on the genre is excellent in a handful of the tracks and makes the album, for hip-hop purists like me who were waiting for someone to step up and say something, worth the buy. (Ed. note: I'm aware the album is some three months old. I live in Brandon, cut me some slack.)

• It's official: I have no idea how to pick NCAA pools. My bracket blew up early again this year but I keep finding new ways to fail at predicting. Ironically, my bracket was a shambles this year because I went away from picking favourites. We all know that NCAA introduces us to Cinderella every year. Well, every year but 2007, I suppose. Two No. 1 seeds and two No. 2s are into the Final Four, leaving us without an upset special to hang our hats on.

One note pertaining to last weekend's games and it comes from the UNC-Georgetown regional final in which the Heels absolutely crumbled down the stretch. UNC coach Roy Williams has long been elevated in public opinion as one of the great coaches on the continent but there, in front of a national TV audience, was blatantly exposed. The Hoyas wiped out a late 11-point deficit and then brutalized UNC in the overtime all despite the fact that the Tar Heels had owned that game up until the final three minutes of the second half. The Heels absolutely owned the glass for the better part of the day — evidenced by their 20-10 edge in offensive rebounds — and Georgetown got itself into the game-long deficit mostly because it couldn't get second-chance points for itself and couldn't stop the Tar Heels from getting theirs.

But Georgetown goes to its 2-3 zone late in the second and suddenly UNC can't shoot a lick. The Tar Heels went 1-for-24 from the field over a 15-minute stretch that spanned part of the second half and overtime. But while they were absolutely horrendous from the field, two things happened that kept the Tar Heels from just getting the one or two hoops that could have sealed the win:

Even against a soft zone defence, they couldn't rebound the ball and looked like they had lost all desire to chase down loose balls and errant misses.

AND

Roy Williams refused to call a timeout.

And that's where the legend gets called out. No timeouts called in overtime even as the Hoyas built a quick six-point lead and had the crowd going bonkers in the first moments of OT. No timeout to calm things down, to make an adjustment against the zone. No timeout to just regroup and try to end the Georgetown run. Nothing.

Call it whatever you want, but a "legend" coach should know better.

• The Pittsburgh Steelers will take Nebraska DE Adam Carriker with their first pick of the 2007 NFL Entry Draft. Yes, this is me hoping, but it's also a very real possibility. A lot of mock drafts have the Steelers going for another DE — Florida's Jarvis Moss — and that's not a bad situation for the Steelers at all. Moss is versatile and should be able to make the adjustment to playing in the current 3-4 set that the Steelers have employed for years or to a 4-3 that many believe they'll switch to next year under new coach Mike Tomlin. However, just because many are picking Moss in their mocks, I'm going the other way and having wishful thinking that Carriker will be around and the Steelers will want him.

Do you realize I'm still waiting for my Nebraska and pro football worlds to collide just ONCE in this lifetime? Between Carriker's possibility of being a Steeler and December's announcement that the Winnipeg Blue Bombers added Zac Taylor to their neg list, I'm pretty much losing my mind. It has to happen some time. Please.

• One last CIS note, for those who care: The Brandon Bobcats men's basketball team stands to lose just two players from this season's team that was oh-so-close to winning a national championship but there is one player who is up in the air and with him carries a lot of 'ifs' for next season's squad. If PG Yul Michel doesn't return for his fifth season, the Bobcats are going to need to regroup fast. BU loses shooters Chad Jacobson and Taylor Cherris-Wilding and, as important as those two were to its season in 2006-07, Michel's presence can't be overstated. You have arguably the best defender in Canada, a veteran leader who rarely turns the ball over and regularly puts his teammates in better situations. It's very difficult to find a player with that kind pedigree to run your team. This would still be a very talented and experienced team, but if the Bobcats want to return to the place they were this March and be a legit contender on the national scene, they'll all have their fingers crossed that Michel returns.

That's it for today. Again, nothing overly deep or engaging. Just like the author.