Sunday, February 20, 2011

Sunday Six Pack

MOVE OVER TIM DUNCAN

There's a new modern-era rebounding leader for Division I Men's Hoops. Morehead State Senior Kenneth Faried had 12 rebounds against Indiana State on Saturday surpassing Tim Duncan's 4 year total  at Wake Forest of 1570. The 6'8" Faried currently leads the nation in rebounding by nearly a rebound a game and now needs just 24 more rebounds to become the first Divison I men's player to hit the 1600 rebound plateau. He has two more regular season games plus whatever postseason opportunities Morehead State gets to get them and considering that he averages over 14 boards a game this year, he shouldn't have too much trouble doing it. Faried has gone over the 20 rebound mark 5 times this season and has never had fewer than 7. Morehead State is currently tied with Murray State atop the Ohio Valley Conference with a 12-4 record.

Photo Courtesy: dimemag.com

Faried is currently ranked #16 on ESPN's Chad Ford's Top 100 prospect list and projected to go in the mid to late first round of the 2011 NBA Draft.

Photo Courtesy: maxpreps.com

Men's NCAA Division I Modern Era (1973-) Leading Rebounders

Kenneth Faried - Morehead State - 1576 rebounds - Drafted: ?
Tim Duncan - Wake Forest - 1570 rebounds - Drafted: 1st overall, 1997
Derrick Coleman - Syracuse - 1537 rebounds - Drafted: 1st overall, 1990
Malik Rose - Drexel - 1514 rebounds - Drafted: 44th overall, 1996
Ralph Sampson - Virginia - 1511 rebounds - Drafted - 1st overall, 1983


DROPPING LIKE FLIES

First it was #1 Kansas getting beaten by in-state rival Kansas State on Monday 84-68. Then yesterday #4 Pitt took a one point lead with 12 seconds left only to watch St. John's come back down and hit a shot on the other end with 1.2 seconds left stealing one from the Panthers 60-59. Shortly after that, we saw #2 Texas miss a 3-pointer against Nebraska at the buzzer to lose 70-67. And now today, #3 Ohio State got beaten handily by #11 Purdue 76-63. So all four of the nation's top four teams lost this week. What does that mean for the polls? Most likely scenario, assuming #5 Duke beats Georgia Tech at home tonight, the Blue Devils will likely be your new number one on Monday morning.

Photo Courtesy: sports.chronicleblogs.com

IT'S NOT JUST THE MEN...

This was a rough week for the top ranked women's team as well. #1 Baylor will not be #1 any more come Monday. Prior to yesterday's game against unranked Texas Tech, Baylor had won 21 games in a row and only lost once all season, by one point to then #1 Connecticut. 3 weeks ago, they beat this same Texas Tech team 64-51. None of that seemed to matter yesterday though. Even a Britney Griner dunk couldn't tip the scales in favor of Baylor. Texas Tech closed out the first half with a 6-0 run to put them up 7 and pulled away in the second half to knock off the Lady Bears 56-45. The loss coupled with Connecticut's 21 point throttling of #8 Notre Dame yesterday all but assures that the 26-1 Lady Huskies will be the number one team in the country once again.

Photo Courtesy: stamfordadvocate.com

ALL STAR SATURDAY NIGHT

If you missed the festivities last night, you really need to watch this:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3 

All in all, it was pretty impressive. JaVale McGee dunked on two different rims at the same time, and then following that up by dunking 3 balls at the same time, Demar DeRozan busted out the East Bay Funk Remix and Show Stopper, Serge Ibaka dunked from behind the free throw line, and Blake Griffin jumped over a car. I was thoroughly entertained. The rest of the night was a little less exciting. The "shooting stars contest" doesn't really do it for me. Al Horford, Steve Smith, and Coco Miller won that contest for Atlanta when team Texas failed to hit the halfcourt shot in the final. And  the "skills competition" still need some work. It just doesn't seem like you get the best out of the competitors. Stephen Curry ended up the winner, and deservedly so, but Chris Paul missed a layup and Derrick Rose lollygagged his way through causing him to miss the finals. I dunno, I think they need better incentives or something. The three point contest was good though. Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and James Jones all made the finals. Allen hit 10 shots in a row in the first round, by Jones hit 4 of 5 money balls in the finals to pull off the upset over the Celtics teammates. And then there was the dunk contest. All in all it was a solid night number two, and tonight we cap it off with the all star game.



HOCKEY???

Photo Courtesy: thehockeynews.com

I really haven't talked a lot about hockey in this blog aside from the Winter Classic and the All Star Game. So now that we're down to the last 20 or so games of the regular season let's at least take a look at the standings and see how everything is shaping up.

Eastern Conference

1. Philadelphia 39-15-5 83 Pts
2. Tampa Bay 34-18-7 75 Pts
3. Boston 33-19-7 73 Pts
4. Pittsburgh 36-19-5 77 Pts
5. Washington 31-19-10 72 Pts
6. Montreal 31-21-7 66 Pts
7. NY Rangers 31-26-4 66 Pts
8. Carolina 28-24-8 64 Pts

Western Conference

1. Vancouver 38-13-9 85 Pts
2. Detroit 37-16-6 80 Pts
3. Phoenix 32-19-9 73 Pts
4. San Jose 33-21-6 72 Pts
5. Nashville 31-20-8 70 Pts
6. Los Angeles 32-23-4 68 Pts
7. Dallas 31-22-6 68 Pts
8. Minnesota 31-22-6 68 Pts

The West is still wide open as in addition to L.A., Dallas, and Minnesota, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and Calgary Flames also have 68 points and the defending champion Blackhawks are right behind them with 66. Then there's Columbus at 64 and St. Louis at 63. Expect things to get pretty exciting down the stretch.


ROOKIES GONE WILD

And the winner of the 53rd running of the Daytona 500 is... 20 year old rookie driver Trevor Bayne... With the win, Bayne breaks Jeff Gordon's mark as being the youngest drive to win the race. Gordon was 25 when he won it back in 1997.

Photo Courtesy: espn.com

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