It's a classic

Phoebe and I watched a somewhat cheesy but awesome commemorative dvd of the pistons 2004 championship season recently, and one thing stood out. Even though that was only 3 seasons ago, there are only 5 current pistons who were on that team! (Billups, Hamilton, Sheed, Tayshaun, and Lindsey "I said Whaaat?" Hunter). The other 7 on the roster were Ben Wallace (Bulls), Darko Milicis (Magic), Memet Okur (Jazz), Mike James (Timberwolves), Corliss Williamson (Kings), Elden Campbell (retired) and "Dunkin" Darvin Ham, who, Wikipedia tells me, was last seen playing in the Phillipines, for a team called the Talk 'N Text Phone Pals. The other teams in the "Fiesta Conference" are equally strange-sounding sponsored teams that actually sound like they should be fantasy baseball teams in one of our leagues: San Miguel Beermen, Sta. Lucia Realtors, and the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants. I'd love to have courtside seats for Phone Pals vs. Juicy Giants. That's not supposed to be ironic, either -- I actually mean that would be awesome!!

ANNOUNCEMENT

The blasketblog officially becomes open to posts about BASEBALL tomorrow, Saturday, at 12:00 EST.

The name of the blog will REMAIN THE SAME in spite of the confusion that might cause. It just will.

Please let peops such as Greg Ferguson and Dan Van Auken know about this fact in case they want to post. But don't just invite everyone you know, willy-nilly, because they might be nerds.

'sheed

I am amazed that Jake didn't post anything about 'sheed's shot in the pistons game a couple of nights ago. Not hearing anything has made me worried that Jake was dead.

Apparently, he claimed that he called glass on the shot, but then admitted that he hadn't.

'sheed

I am amazed that Jake didn't post anything about 'sheed's shot in the pistons game a couple of nights ago. Not hearing anything has made me worried that Jake was dead.

Apparently, he claimed that he called glass on the shot, but then admitted that he hadn't.

Scattered thoughts in the desert

Driving back from Vegas today, we listened to an awesome Warriors game on the radio. I often catch 15 minutes of a game on the radio while I'm driving, but it's been a long time since I listened to a complete game from starting lineups to victory on the AM band. Probably since MIDDLE SCHOOL, when I would listen to untelevised Michigan Basketball road games. Which brings me to point #2 -- During Ohio State's first half struggle against Tennesse, Phoebe and I were eating at the Wolfgang Puck restaurant in the MGM Grand. It took me more than 1/2 of dinner to make a comfortable ID, but after eavesdropping marginally, I was sure that we were sitting next to Brian Ellerbee, who coached Michigan between Steve Fisher and the just-fired Tommy Amaker. That was crazy!! We said hello, and he was really nice, and also pretty funny. During the second half of the OSU/TENN game, Phoebe and I were playing a one-table $60 sit-and-go tournament, and the game was so crazy that it literally stopped the dealer's action several times. Also, partially because it's the current home state of Scott (who I majorly disappointed by forgetting to initiate a sweet16 email pool), I put $10 on Tennessee with a +4 spread. So I was sad to see them lose, but happy to see them cover the spread. The other Big 10 news is that the season-long Flip-Saunders-to-Minnesota rumors were finally publicly killed by Saunders, and lo and behold, the very next day the Gophers bring Tubby Smith on board. Damn. Couldn't Michigan have figured out how to land Tubby? That would have been very slick. I mean, re-uniting Tubby & Tayshaun in the same state? According to a Q&A on Tay's website, they talk about once or twice per month. They could have saved on some phone bills and just had lunch at Zingerman's. So who will U of M get to bring their program out of the 10-year wreckage? Who knows. I googled my Elementary School classmate, Lavell Blanchard, whose U of M career I barely watched (because, for quite obvious reasons, I was at Columbia the entire time), and saw that he had (what might have been) his first NBA contract last fall, for 2 weeks with the Raptors, but was cut before the season started. In 1st grade I was pretty sure that Lavell would make the NBA. I guess I was finally right, but not really. This is a guy who won "gatorade national high school player of the year" in 1999. Who else won that? LeBron, Dwight Howard, Kobe, Marbury, Webber. Not too many people win that award and don't make it. I always wonder what he could have done with different coaching (Sorry Brian Ellerbee, my new friend!) But Lavell has a European career -- this year playing in France for the first time, which is interesting, because my last memory of Lavell as a peer (as opposed to a basketball player) is sitting next to him in french class in middle school. I think that the class was having trouble with "de" vs. "du" -- I bet he's pretty much got that one cleared up by now. But seriously, if Chris Webber can come back to the Pistons, so can Lavell. Come on, Joe Dumars -- I know you've got a Ronald "Super Dupe" Dupree-type roster spot for a real Michigan Man!!!! In other Pistons news, I think Lindsey "I said Whaaat?'" Hunter is due to return from his 10-game diet-pill suspension. I have given Lindsey his new nickname because when he found out about the suspension, he told the AP: "I said, 'Whaaat?'"" ... NBA FINALS NOTICE: Lindsey Hunter should be able to pester Steve Nash to a somewhat significant degree. Some time a few weeks ago, on-air, Steve Kerr (definitely improvising with this comment) called Lindsey the best on-ball defender of all time. Marv Albert gave Kerr a chance to walk the comment down to a lesser one, like, 'best on-ball defender in the game today', or 'best on-ball defender that Kerr played against', but Steve just kind of repeated it, and seemed stunned that he was actually failing to think of someone more deserving. ALSO -- other local news -- Gilbert Arenas' baby son was born in Walnut Creek, CA, recently. In fact, on exactly the same day that Phoebe and I went to Restoration Hardware in Walnut Creek and bought a Bocce Ball set. This would not make for much news, except for the fact that we had never been to Walnut Creek before, and probably never will again. Just think, if one of us had tripped over a display of sink faucets and ended up in the emergency room, we could have seen Gilbert there, with newborn Alijah Amani Arenas, who Gil has already nicknamed "TRIPLE-A" ....
"I said, 'Whaaat?'"

The question at the top

One of the best things about the current season is that there is no clear frontrunner for the title. The Mavs and the Suns both have incredible records, but the Spurs with their recent winning streak are just as credible, and it makes sense to worry about the Jazz, Pistons, Rockets, and even the Heat as title contenders. I exclude the Cavs because I won't believe they can take the Pistons in a playoff series until I see it. In any case, the winner of the West will be ravaged by a difficult playoff schedule - two or three rounds of cutthroat games against evenly matched teams - whereas the East winner could have it comparatively easy.

Imagine this scenario: Phoenix defeats the Nuggets, the Spurs, and the Mavs to face the Pistons in the finals, who went through Orlando, Chicago, and Cleveland. The Suns could easily play 20 playoff games by that point as compared to Detroit's 15, with far fewer off-days and far more left on the court. Who would you favor?

Horray!

I am glad to see folks back in the blogosphere...

(1) I wish that I could say my absence was due to anticipation for a sweet professional basketball playoffs. I was anticipating basketball playoffs to be sweet, but of the undergraduate sort - and I was severely disappointed yesterday. Onto the pros.

(2) I really like the way that the East is shaping up. First, the team that comes out of the East WILL have a chance of winning. And perhaps it will not be the PISTONS. Jake mentioned one potential first round matchup whose repercussions will send shockwaves all the way to Berkley, but I think that MIAMI/WASHINGTON and more importantly BULLS/RAPTORS both are extremely sweet first round matchups. I hope it sticks this way.

(3) I DO NOT like the way the West is shaping up. The first round is going to be stupid. There are 4 good teams in the west, but they are easily ranked in order (as was apparent by Suns/Mavs game on Wednesday). At this point I predict NO 7 game series in the West and NO upsets. I may back down on that later

(4) College basketball starts again in 1.5 hours. Yesterday, Ben e-mailed me something about PENN and I assumed that it had to do with COLLEGE BASKETBALL PENN (who at the time I received the e-mail had just tied Texas A and M). It did not.

(5) Who is Linas Klieza?