The NBA Pre-Draft Camp Begins

The NBA Pre-Draft Camp in Orlando has begun. After one day, Dominic McGuire has decided that he's NBA-bound and will hire an agent. According to ESPN, that leaves seven players (Ohio State's Daequan Cook, Marquette's Dominic James, Texas A&M's Joseph Jones, Virginia's Sean Singletary, Nevada's Ramon Sessions and Marcelus Kemp, and Clemson's James Mays) competing in the camp who have not signed with an agent. Barring injury, Daequan Cook will stay in the draft and sign with agent Mike Conley Sr.

According to Aran Smith of NBADraft.net, there were some notable absences from the draft which include the following players, all of whom are bubble 1st-rounders.

* Sean Williams, PF/C, Boston College. I have a sneaking suspicion that a team drafting from 22-30 will draft Williams due to his defensive upside. Of course, Williams has a well-documented past and this raises another red flag for his character.

* Nick Fazekas, PF, Nevada. Plain and simple, Fazekas is a bubble guy. Right now, he's at the tail end of the 1st round on my board, but his absence may allow for another power forward to showcase his talent and move up the draft boards.

* Alando Tucker, SF, Wisconsin. Tucker is a victim of his own college success. If the NBA Draft operated on merit, then Tucker might not be tagged with the much-maligned "tweener" label.

* Gabe Pruitt, PG, USC. Pruitt is considered to be the 4th-best point guard (Conley Jr., Crittenton, & Law) in the draft, but missing out only allows for Ramon Sessions to fight for that spot.

* Arron Afflalo, SG, UCLA. Despite his failings against Florida in the NCAA Tournament (twice), Afflalo is the type of guard with a steady chip on his shoulder. The strongest franchises who are drafting at the close of Round 1 will get the sense that Afflalo will take it to the naysayers wherever he gets drafted.

Durant, Afflalo Go Pro ... Silence on Imus/Rutgers ... and Sanjaya Stays

In the foregone conclusion section of your news yesterday, you probably saw that Texas Longhorns freshman phenom Kevin Durant is declaring himself eligible for the NBA Draft in June. According to most draft projection sites with a conscience, he is slated to go as the second pick overall behind Ohio State's Greg Oden, who has yet to declare. A lot of sites have Durant going as the top pick, but that's difficult to understand because bad teams ( i.e. those drafting in the lottery) usually lack a defensive presence. Why not draft the guy who can alter the most shots, knows how to patrol the lane and has plenty of unrealized offensive upside?

Among the players who were on the fence about declaring was Arron Afflalo, who decided to forgo his final year at UCLA to enter the challenge of competing in the Association. Last spring, Afflalo tested the draft waters but pulled his name out of the bag prior the deadline and returned to Westwood. By rule, Afflalo's decision makes him draft-bound because he has tested the waters once. As for his stock, many of the NBA mock draft outlets are not impressed. In fact, according to five such outlets, he is listed between picks 21 and 34.

NBADraft.net 26
Inside Hoops 24
CollegeHoops.net 21
DraftExpress 34
NBA Wire 25

Although these are just educated projections lacking the knowledge of how teams will rate these players at league-sponsored camps, well-known players from nationally-renowned programs rarely climb the ladder. That's why I fear the worst in terms of draft position for Afflalo. Nevertheless, whichever team drafts Afflalo knows that they're getting a very hungry player, who can score in many different ways, has a good mid-range jumpshot and can play lockdown defense. He just gets penalized because you can watch him every Thursday and Saturday on national television.

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I'll be honest. When I heard Don Imus refer to the Rutgers women basketball team as "nappy-headed hos", my first thought was "another bigot who'll get away with saying something ridiculous and blame it on senility". By now, the same people who have Oden as the first overall pick should he declare ( i.e. having a conscience and a brain) know that "nappy-headed" refers to African Americans and that referring to a woman as a "ho" is misogynistic. The bullish Imus apologized, though many doubt his sincerity.

In short, I'm surprised that the wheels starting turning and that MSNBC (has more letters in name than viewers) pulled the plug on the Imus simulcast. Clearly, this wasn't a moral decision. Key sponsors pulled out. I know I'm beating a dead horse, but people with favorable positions - be they professional football players or hosts of a nationally-syndicated radio talk show - must be accountable for their actions. There are no two ways about it. In these two weeks off, Imus can get lessons in eloquence and class from Rutgers women's head coach C. Vivian Stringer.

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I'll be vilified for this admission, but I've [sorta] watched [parts of] American Idol this season. No, I don't watch every episode. No, I don't attend Idol parties. With that piece of self-incrimination out in the open, it is with great sadness that we say goodbye to the legs of the competition, Haley Scarnato. While overall ratings will remain high, ratings in the "horny male" demographic are bound to drop.

The real reason I'm blogging this evening about a non-sports topic is an analogy for the enigmatic Sanjaya Malakar. In a singing-only competition, he's toast. Stephen A. Smith would've called him "TARRIBLE" [sic] if he had the chance.

In recent weeks, I've noticed a trend more disturbing than awkwardly high number of votes keeping him on the show at the expense of better talent. Lately, he's been judged based on an adjusted scale [because he's an atrocious singer] and America (and India) won't vote him off the show. Let's not get a "not horrible" performance mixed up with an "okay" one. All in all, this is crystal clear to me. This is reminiscent of the 2000 Presidential Election race between then-governor George W. Bush and now-Oscar Award winner Al Gore when political pundits graded Bush on a different scale due to his comparative inability to participate in an actual debate requiring intelligent answers.

While I'm not telling you to vote Sanjaya off (I'm lying), I'm asking everyone to not get it twisted. He's tarrible [sic] and should be graded just like everyone else. That's all.

Saturday Night Live...Tournament Talk

...South Region...
#2. Memphis vs. #1. Ohio State [aka And 1 Mix-Tape Team vs. More than just Greg Oden's Team]

A track meet to say the very least, Coach Calipari's Tigers gave Matta's Buckeyes just about everything they could handle for 34 minutes. During the final six minutes of action, the Buckeyes all but ran the Tigers out of the gym defeating second-seed Memphis 92-76. All four number one seeds still have the potential to match up in Atlanta.

Despite early foul trouble for 7-footer freshman phenom Greg Oden (nothing new in this tournament thus far), Mike Conley Jr./Ron Lewis/DaQuean Cook kept the Ohio State University within punching distance of the athletic, speedy Tigers. Despite lights-out first-half three point shooting (7-10 for the Tigers), foul trouble plagued them down the stretch. Between Andre Allen's (who played quite poorly) and injured (or so we were told) Chris Douglas-Roberts' 5 fouls apiece, the Tigers lacked the slashing and kick-out ability to find consistent shooting down the stretch. 4th-year senior Jeremy Hunt was impressive from the field, 26 points, but lacked enough scoring counterparts to take down the sharp-shooting Buckeyes.

When Oden was in, he was downright dominant. 17 points, 9 rebounds, and a key 3-point play were just the highlights of another impressive performance from the oft-heralded freshman. Returning with four fouls mid-way through the second-half, Oden help spark a key 20-8 run that allowed the Buckeyes to assume a commanding double-digit lead.

Hitting their final sixteen free throws was only icing on the cake for the Buckeyes, reaching their first Final Four since the Michael Redd-led 1999 team. Ironically enough, that team's appearance has been erased from the records due to violations. With this Buckeye team locked into one of the spot's in Atlanta, we will be able to see one of the best freshman trios in recent memory with Oden/Conley Jr./Cook. Only question that remains is who will they be matched up against???

...West Region...
#2. UCLA vs. #1. Kansas [aka Afflalo/Shipp are TWINS vs. Runnin and Gunnin Jayhawks]

One of the more interesting defensive-minded matchups of the entire tournament thus far (nearly a combined 30 steals), the Bruins and Jayhawks battled to the very end for the second spot in the 2007 Final Four. Despite a torrid start, Kansas rarely had a string a successive offensive possessions. Fortunately for Bill Self's squad, their defense was up to the challenge of the UCLA motion offense. At least during the first-half...

UCLA, often labeled as lacking offensive firepower, hit countless key shots late extremely late in the shot clock. Whether it was Afflalo or Collison, the Bruins seemed to have little trouble hitting daggers from beyond the three-point line despite being covered heavily by Jayhawk defenders. Extending their lead from 4 (half) to 11 early in the second half, the Jayhawks could never pull any closer than 5 for the rest of the game.

The 68-55 UCLA victory over Kansas was led throughout unsurprisingly by their savvy backcourt duo of Pac-10 Player of the Year Arron Affalo (24 points) and this year's best surprise out West Darren Collison (14 points and four clutch late free throws). Shooting 53% from the field was a nice surprise, yet in the end it comes as no surprise that UCLA was anchored by Howland's typical suffocating perimeter defense. It's no surprise many experts, including yours truly, believe that Coach Ben Howland has his Bruins playing better than last year's National-Runner Up Squad. Perhaps a re-match with Florida is only a week away (the Gators match up with 3-seed Oregon tomorrow afternoon).

The typical 18 points from Brandon Rush paced Kansas; however, Julian Wright (only 8 points) was a shred of his usual self. Kansas was limited inside the paint throughout the game, lacked consistent outside shooting, and often began pushing the ball in-and-out during their possessions until the final 10-12 seconds of the shot clock. Despite avoiding the first-round upset that plagued them in the previous two years (remember Bucknell and Bradley?), the Jayhawks have to be disappointed in not reaching the Final Four with perhaps the nation's deepest and most talented lineup.

Nevertheless, the Bruins march on and have impressively moved on from the loss of All-American guard Jordan Farmar to make a return trip to the Final Four in 2007.

UNC/Georgetown & Florida/Oregon tomorrow. Let's see if the chalk prevails...