NBA All-Breakout Team

These are the players that either are finally living up to their potential, having career seasons, or simply overachieving.

PG: Jrue Holiday, Philadelphia 76ers

After a regression last season, Holiday is finally taking the next step Philadelphia fans hoped for after his sophomore campaign. After averaging 14.0 ppg and 6.5 apg in his second year, his line fell to 13.5 ppg and 4.5 apg in the season he was supposed to break out. His shot selection was routinely questionable. With added responsibility now from head coach Doug Collins, he's playing at an All-Star level, averaging 18.4 ppg and 8.9 apg, complete with improved play on the defensive end. And the last three games while he's been injured, the team has shown they can't win without him.


SG: O.J. Mayo, Dallas Mavericks

The born scorer had fallen out of favor in Memphis, coming off the bench in every game last season and desperately needing a change of scenery. Signing with Dallas was a blessing for him, as his scoring is up eight points from last season, and his field goal percentage from .408 to .482. He's shooting an incredible .512 from beyond the arc, proving he spent long hours in the gym in anticipation of this rejuvenated stretch.


SF: James Harden, Houston Rockets

I know he's actually a shooting guard, but he's more fit for this than anyone at the SF position. He's gone from sixth man to superstar in just an offseason, and his scoring is up over eight points to 25.0 ppg, good for fifth in the Association. He's answering the questions of whether he can be a first option in an absolute manner, and he's managed to steal all of Jeremy Lin's unnecessary attention in Houston.


PF: Glen Davis, Orlando Magic

In a team stripped of talent, someone had to replace at least some of Dwight Howard's production. Becoming a nightly starter has yielded terrific results for Big Baby, and he's proven to be one of the few Magic players actually worthy of a starting role on an NBA team. He's averaging 15.7 ppg and 7.9 rpg, but he'll need to improve his shooting percentage (.439) if he wants to be big time.


C: Anderson Varejao, Cleveland Cavaliers

He's always been known as an energy guy, but its taken him until his ninth season to be mentioned for All-Star consideration. He's been a solid rebounder for the bulk of his career, but he's taken that skill to new levels this season, leading the league at 14.6 a night to go along with a career high 13.8 points. All that's left for him to do is stay healthy, as he's played in just 56 games the previous two seasons.

Bench:

Omer Asik, C, Houston Rockets

I was among the many that were stunned Rockets GM Daryl Morey offered a three-year, $25.1 million deal to a guy that looked like all he could accomplish on an NBA court was awkwardness. Turns out, for the most part, Asik can play. He's averaging a double-double after posting just 3.1 ppg and 5.3 rpg as a backup big in Chicago last year.


Kemba Walker, PG, Charlotte Bobcats

The closest thing the Bobcats have to an All-Star, Walker has taken a giant leap forward from his rookie campaign. His scoring is up six points to 18.1 a night, and he's averaging over six assists as well. Perhaps the most improvement has come on the defensive end, where's he's disrupting passing lanes, accounting for two steals a game, sixth in the league, whereas he only averaged 0.9 last year. His abysmal field goal percentage last year, .366, is up to a respectable .428 for a point guard. He's starting to make the fans in Charlotte, which have suffered through quite a bit the past few seasons, have glimmers of hope.


Goran Dragic, PG, Phoenix Suns

Taking over for Steve Nash is no small order, but Dragic has done it admirably. He's averaging 15.0 points and 6.4 assists a night, and has compiled a 20.04 player efficiency rating. On defense, while not the greatest on-ball defender, he's seventh in the NBA in steals with just under two a night.

2011-2012 NBA Preview (Part 2)

Continued from Part 1, which was posted on December 18.

10) Washington Wizards

This team is still developing and loaded with potential, but the playoffs probably aren't realistic for this coming season. Except for the veteran Rashard Lewis, every starter on this team has room to grow. If Jordan Crawford is able to break out beside John Wall, the Wiz could have a top backcourt for years to come. Wall's development is key: he needs to play better on-ball defense, decrease his alarmingly high turnover rate, and move better without the ball. All of this comes with experience, and he has superstar potential. Washington also has a two big men capable of averaging a double-double in Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee, as well as rookies looking to make an impact in Jan Vesely and Shelvin Mack. While the future does look bright for this organization, it should be a few years before this team makes any noise.


11) Toronto Raptors

DeMar DeRozan is the future of this team. He has the superstar potential, and Toronto should really try to keep him there for the long term. Andrea Bargnani is a potent scorer but also one of the worst rebounding centers in the league. Look for Ed Davis to take the starting power forward job from Amir Johnson in the near future; both of these guys are young, but Davis should be able to make more of an impact on both sides of the ball. Toronto hopes 23-year-old Jerryd Bayless is the heir apparent to Jose Calderon for the starting point guard job, something only time will tell.


12) Detroit Pistons

The Pistons invested $25 million in Rodney Stuckey, which is odd considering it may be Brandon Knight who becomes the point guard of the future for this team. They also brought back Tayshaun Prince, who will give them about thirteen points and four boards a game for the next few years. Much of the success of this team hinges on the development of Greg Monroe, who goes into the season as the starting center. Far from a sure thing, though, is the power forward position, which is currently held by Jason Maxiell. Behind him is a big waste of money in Charlie Villanueva. The team's 2011 2nd-round pick, Vernon Macklin out of Florida, may be the eventual replacement for Maxiell.


13) New Jersey Nets

The ultimate goal here is still to bring in Dwight Howard. Until then, even with Deron Williams on their side, the Nets will continue to be basement-dwellers. Brook Lopez scored well but only recorded what is an embarrassing six boards per game considering the guy is seven feet tall. I don't see any more 25-game losing streaks for this team, but success is still a long way off.


14) Cleveland Cavaliers

Cleveland actually started winning quite a few games by the end of the season, finishing at 5-5 in their last ten. The city would love to see Omri Casspi develop into a viable NBA starter in LeBron's former position, and Kyrie Irving to start off strong. It's almost a given Kyrie will commit way too many turnovers in his rookie campaign, but become a force to be reckoned with right out of the get-go.


15) Charlotte Bobcats

This roster is full of holes the management has created. DeSagana Diop, a vet who averaged 1.3 ppg last year, goes into the season starting in the middle. Next to him is Boris Diaw, a man with a monstrous contract who has underachieved tremendously. At least their backcourt isn't too shabby, where D.J. Augustin can score fifteen a night from the point guard slot. Gerald Henderson can score alongside him as well, and of course, Kemba Walker looms from the bench.

Western Conference will be written soon. 

UConn Alone on Top

It was about as ugly as it gets. But someone had to come out on top in last night's 2011 NCAA Men's College Basketball National Championship, and the UConn Huskies rose to the occasion, knocking off the Butler Bulldogs.  It was the third championship for coach Jim Calhoun, just the fifth coach to do so. He joined the elite company of John Wooden, Adolph Rupp, Mike Krzyzewski, and Bob Knight.  At 68, Calhoun is the oldest coach to ever win a national championship.

Butler certainly had the heart, hustle and defense required to win the final game, but they simply could not make shots. Brad Stevens' team shot a championship record-low 18.8% from the field in the 53-41 loss. They made only three, yes, three two-point field goals in the whole entire game. For the night they shot a miserable 12-64, including 9-33 from beyond the arc. Some of Butler's shooting woes should certainly be credited to the stifling defense from the Huskies, but it was also just an off night. Butler center Andrew Smith repeatedly missed easy layups, as well as star and future pro guard Shelvin Mack. Matt Howard could not find his stroke either, shooting just 1-13, the only make coming from beyond.

Coming in, Butler supposedly had the edge on the bench. However, the reserve unit had all of two points on the night, courtesy of two made free throws from former starter Ronald Nored. Aside from the shooting, though, Butler really did not play that awfully. They only turned the ball over six times and forced eleven. However, a key point in the game would be the rebounding battle, which was won by UConn, 51-40. Butler played exceptional defense until the end neared, when they switched into the zone for one of the first ever times. This was them basically holding up the white flag, and was an attempt to speed up the game as a desperation attempt.

Kemba Walker by no means played his best game on the biggest stage, but what he did was enough. He went without an assist on the night, but scored sixteen and pulled down nine boards. Jeremy Lamb was the X-factor for UConn, being able to shoot over the shorter Butler D using his long frame, and frequently contest Butler shot attempts. The freshman finished with twelve points. Big man Alex Oriakhi outplayed Matt Howard, recording the only double-double for either side, with eleven points and eleven boards.

Going into halftime Butler appeared to have most of the momentum after a tough three at the buzzer for Shelvin Mack. Though they led just 22-19, they looked in great shape heading into the second half. Supposedly the six field goals they had scored was just a fluke, and in the second half both teams would come out more sure-handed. But it was not to be. Butler would have a streak of 13:26 with only one made field goal, and again have just six for the second half as well. Their woeful shooting doomed them in their chance at redemption, coming oh-so-close (a bounce on a Gordon Hayward time-expiring shot, in fact) just a year ago. While Connecticut rejoices, Brad Stevens and Butler ponder what could have been, while aspiring for yet another opportunity to pull down the net this coming season.

2011: The Year of the Improbable Final Four

Butler's Matt Howard

Connecticut, Kentucky, Virginia Commonwealth, Butler. Not the Final Four most of us predicted, or would have even thought possible. Many said (myself included) that one of the teams, VCU, should not have even been selected into the tournament in the first place. And judging by their regular season resume, they indeed should not have. Butler returns as a Cinderella for the second consecutive year, being an inch or two from knocking Duke off in the championship game a year ago and becoming national champions. In order to do it this time around, they will have to knock off the suddenly surging Rams of VCU, then upset one of the big name schools, the winner of UConn and Kentucky, in the championship game.

By now your bracket may have already been through the paper shredder, possibly just after the first round. You're not alone. As you may already know, this was possibly the worst bracket year ever. Two Final Four teams probably wins you your pool. Some pool winners might only have one correctly picked Final Four team. After all, there is only ONE bracket of the almost six million on ESPN's Tournament Challenge that have all four selected correctly. The wild card causing this was VCU, who had no impressive victories in the regular season and had to begin their Road to the Final Four with a play-in game against USC. After knocking off the No. 1 seed Kansas Jayhawks this past weekend, Jamie Skeen and the VCU Rams are one of the last four standing, their improbable journey not yet completed.

Apart from the team, university and its fans, who has enjoyed this VCU run the most? Probably the selection committee's chairman, Ohio St. A.D. Gene Smith. Why? The bracket his committee unveiled was criticized to no end (see my post from March 10, Let the Madness Begin, where I was also critical of the committee's selections), because of the admittance of VCU and UAB in place of Colorado and Virginia Tech for the final at-large bids. ESPN's Jay Bilas called this "a joke", and college basketball analysts and fans across the country were in an uproar. But boy, has VCU ever proved them all wrong. Sure, UAB went on to haplessly fall in the play-in, and maybe Colorado should have made it in to the tourney instead of them, but VCU's admittance into the Dance was meant to be. The Rams have made Smith and the committee look like geniuses.

VCU seems to play better on short rest, when teams have less time to prepare. Lacking the athleticism and pure skill of the teams they have knocked out, they find ways to win in other ways, such as moving the ball around for open threes. Other teams have not had a chance to see them play much, and only a day or so to prepare, so they do not know what to expect. The only team that came close to beating VCU was the 10th-seeded Florida St. Seminoles, who had the multiple days in between the first two rounds and the Sweet Sixteen to prepare. Butler will have an entire week, and I am sure few will be taken aback if the Bulldogs advance one again to the finale.

National Player of the Year candidate Kemba Walker leads the charge for UConn as they face Brandon Knight and the young guns of Kentucky. Most people had Kentucky losing to Ohio State on their bracket (I boldly went with Kentucky in one of the few picks I got right). UConn, the Big East champ, was a favorite along with Duke out of the West region. While UConn is the favorite, based on the way Kentucky has played recently this game is essentially a toss-up, and an argument could be made for either squad.

Most of this country will be cheering loudly for the mid-major to knock of the big-name school on April 4 in Houston for the conclusion of *arguably* the greatest postseason all of sports has to offer. Does either VCU or Butler have enough left in the tank to pull out two more Ws? Or will this year be a repeat of the last, where Goliath gets the best of David? We'll know next week.

What is it that compels us to watch sports?

I am so devastated about what happened to the Eagles yesterday that I am in no position to write about the NFL Playoffs going on right now, so I'm going to try something different. It's one of those random things I've been thinking about for a little while, good enough that I'm not going to talk about the BCS Championship like a million other people, or how Nnamdi Asomugha is now a free agent, or how the Heat are winning every night like ESPN spends half of Sportscenter talking about every day, or how Rex Ryan won't shut up and coach, or how the Mountain West has two teams in the Men's Basketball top 10 (yes, it's true), or how Carmelo might be going to New Jersey, or how Marshawn Lynch can't be stopped, or how Michigan might have a new coach after three years of losing under RichRod, or how Kemba Walker continues to dominate college basketball. Nope, I'll pass up all of those topics to ponder this question, which relates to why we care at least a little bit about all of this stuff in the first place. What exactly is it in sports that makes us devote countless hours of our time staring at, or if our team is on, screaming at the TV, spend far too much money on merchandise, and buy ridiculously-priced tickets to, in many of our cases, make a commute to a stadium in a city full of traffic,  an overcrowded public venue, where, once you finally find your seat, there's probably gum or something sticky on it, as well as the guy behind you screaming obscenities before he drunkenly spills beer on you, on top of the fact that the temperature outside might just be subzero and your seat is behind a pole or something, all to watch a couple kajillionaires throw a ball around.

Love of the game for us fans? Yeah, that's certainly a factor. I could go on and on about that and bore you to death about that; for that is definitely a reason why, but any sports fan knows they love their favorite sport already. There's simply something else, something more, that triggers our brains to devote so much of our time to what is just a game.

You might never have even thought of sports this way before. It's an industry that has us hooked, an addiction in a sense. Why? Well, right now I'm going to try and figure that out, put on my Sherlock Holmes trench coat or whatever.

The people that hate their city's teams, well, the frontrunners in many cases, I'll never understand them. Yeah, yeah, your second cousin once removed lived in Dallas, so obviously you are entitled to be a Cowboys fan. Mmhm. Makes a boatload of sense. But for those loyal fans that love their city's team (and no, I'm not talking about the people who jump on the bandwagon once their team makes the championship), that watch them every time they're on, city pride is definitely a factor. I live in Philly. The fans here are known for getting tasered, drunkenly vomiting on cops and their families, and the such. Fans here boo the guys that are the reason our team became good in the first place. Many of them are complete fools. But the one thing everyone still has, much of the time to a far too great extent? Yup. Pride. When the Phillies win the World Series (as they will this year) we all get to go rub it in the face of the Mets fans who are privileged enough to now perennially watch their team suffer. When a team wins, a city wins, just as New Orleans demonstrated after their Super Bowl win last year (not gonna happen again, said the now 8-9 Seahawks.)

But wait a second. That still doesn't totally answer the question. The citizens of a city aren't the guys on the field, or court, etc. Nope. It's the athletes, many of them fresh out of the police station, or even jail, convicted dog-killers, or guys who've served time for manslaughter (not many), but the DUIs are countless, all this because they think they're on top of the world. The clueless ones, anyway, who think because they're a celebrity they can get away with that stuff. Why should a city cheer for them, millionaire criminals. Well, most of them aren't, for one. The good guys of sports vastly outnumber the bad (at least, that's how it appears), the Curtis Grandersons, Aubrey Huffs, and Jim Joyces of sports. Or is it all an act? Is that just to promote fans to regard them and their teams well? Do the players actually care about the fans, who are the reason they are so filthy rich in the first place? Is signing autographs and doing charity work and the such just for a good image for them, to make their lives easier?

For some athletes, that could be the case. But many of them, they realize they really are blessed to be in the position they are in, and do humanitarian acts out of kindness as they should. They're not fake. The other day I saw a documentary as part of ESPN's Year of the Quarterback, called Tim Tebow: Everything In Between. Now I know I'm getting a little off topic here, but when he went to that hospital to comfort a child who eventually would die, and text him for days after, I knew it was out of his heart, and not an act to promote his image, as, however unfortunately, some of the guys do.

My point from this is hard to understand, especially taking this question I posed originally into account, but it all links together. To put it all into simpler terms, I'm just further questioning our devotion to sports, wondering why we seem to bond, or at least strongly root for these athletes, even though most couldn't care less about each individual fan, like each of us care about them. Because in sports, they are the ones playing, not us. We don't win the Lombardi trophy, but as a fan, when our team wins, a speck of it goes to us.