Ball Hawk: Pros In The Shower & Other Observations

Spring break brought basketball, basketball, and more basketball, as March Madness was clearly the headline story in sports. It was also the second time I spotted a former professional star athlete at a local Dallas-area fitness club baring all with only a towel on his head and walking around the locker room talking to himself. March Madness What a crazy week. My bracket took the form of a complicated relationship going from bliss to anxiety to anger and ending with depression. On the bright side, like most complicated relationships, there was a lesson learned at the end: never pick a team from the state of Utah ever again. It was a "Triple Crown" of red lines crossing out incorrect picks on my first round match ups, as Utah, Utah State, and BYU all lost. I was encouraged when I correctly called VCU not upsetting UCLA (Eric Maynor really forced that last shot), Dayton beating West Virginia, Wisconsin taking down the overrated Florida State Seminoles in a thriller, and Sienna knocking off Ohio State in what was probably the most exciting game of the first round. After that, things completely fell apart. Illinois lost to Western Kentucky, the Memphis Tigers took apart my favorite team (the Maryland Terrapins), and just a few hours later Washington went down to Purdue. Adding insult to injury, the possible Upset Pick of Arizona State over Syracuse only ended up upsetting me. My "Stephen Curry" of this tournament, James Harden, looked afraid to shoot. I went from second to eighth out of 19 people in the blink of eye; my only saving grace being Xavier advancing to the Sweet 16 (many others had Florida State beating Xavier). I refuse to completely give up hope, but a few things need to change in the Sweet 16. For one, Pittsburgh needs to get their act together. Two close games in a row in the supposedly easiest rounds for a one seed? The Panthers were my pick to win the championship, so it's a discouraging sign. Secondly, Missouri HAS to defeat Memphis in a match up of Tigers. Judging by Missouri's slim margin of victory against Marquette and Memphis's slaughter of Gary William's Terps, that seems like a tall order. If Tyreke Evans can somehow be slowed down, Missouri has a shot. Finally, Villanova needs to beat Duke (and preferably by lots of points). I'm expecting the Wildcat's physical style to overwhelm the Blue Devils, but as this tournament has proved I've been wrong many times before. NBA Draft The NBA regular season hasn't even concluded yet, but the NCAA tournament already has me thinking ahead to this summer's draft (what else is a Wizards fan to do?). Blake Griffin continues to prove he will be the number one choice regardless of who obtains the top pick. I listened to fans of Texas and OU's second round opponent Michigan whine about how Griffin seemingly got every call he wanted, but that's a direct result of a player that catches the ref's attention by using his body in all the right ways. Players that have developed such a habit in college usually succeed in the NBA right away, because they can get to the free throw line whenever they please. If Blake can get his percentage at the charity strike up to 70% in the pros, he can definitely be an All-Star caliber player. Another guy getting a lot of hype is Ricky Rubio, who's playing in Europe right now and might wait until 2010 to enter the draft. Comparisons to Pete Maravich have already sprung up, and watching Ricky play it's easy to see why. He plays a free-flowing pass first style but isn't afraid to pull the trigger when his team needs it. I don't know if he will experience a ton of success in the NBA only because there aren't a ton of teams in desperate need of a PG to lead their team. On a squad like Minnesota, Sacramento, or even Golden State where he could run a run-n-gun offense (Monta Ellis could slide back to his natural position, the two-guard, and they could look to deal Jamal Crawford) Rubio could put up great numbers. Brandon Jennings, who jumped to Europe instead of college ball this year, also intrigues me. His numbers aren't great, but you have to remember that European basketball has tougher competition than the college game, and just two years ago Jennings was the number one rated high school guard.