Stock Watch: NCAA Tournament
By Aran Smith 4/4/08 Rising Tyler Hansbrough 6-8 245 PF UNC Jr. No one was more impressive in the second weekend of the NCAA tournament than Tyler Hansbrough as he carried the Tar Heels to victory in a close-fought battle with Louisville, converting numerous key baskets in the closing minutes. Hansbrough’s will to succeed is…
Stock Watch
By Aran Smith 3/27/08 Rising Stephen Curry 6-1 180 PG Davidson So. When we think back on the 2008 NCAA tournament and the first weekend of upsets, big games, and Cinderella stories, nothing will remain indelibly etched in our minds stronger than Stephen Curry’s shooting performances taking down two goliaths in Gonzaga and Georgetown. Curry…
Players evaluated closely during NCAA tourney
By Aran Smith 3/20/08 Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Isiah Thomas. What do they all have in common? Besides being among the greatest players ever at their respective positions, they all won championships on both the NCAA and NBA level. Every year, the Big Dance sets the stage for the…2008 Final Four Predictions
By Aran Smith 3/19/08 East South UNC (1) Memphis (1) Mt St.Mary’s(16) UNC Memphis UT-Arlington(16) Indiana (8) Indiana Miss St. Mississippi St.(8) Arkansas (9) UNC Memphis Oregon (9) Notre Dame (5) Wash St. Pittsburgh Mich. St.(5) …
Stock Watch
By Aran Smith 2/22/08 Rising Russell Westbrook 6-4 187 SG UCLA So. No player has seen their stock take a greater jump this season than Russell Westbrook. Despite being projected by NBADraft.net as a top 20 pick in 2009 prior to the season, few scouts were tracking or mentioning Westbrook. He averaged just 3.4 points…
Kyle Weaver Interview
By Aran Smith 2/20/08 Aran Smith: Your big 24 point win over USC, ended a three game losing streak at home. A streak that seemed unfathomable before the season. Were you and your teammates beginning to worry things were reverting back to pre-2006 form? Kyle Weaver: Oh no. I don’t think me and the teammates…
Stock Watch
ByAran Smith 1/10/08 Rising James Harden 6-5 220 SG Arizona St. Fr. James Harden has the Sun Devils riding high after recent wins over Pac-Ten powers Oregon and Arizona. His clutch 26 point performance in Arizona State’s OT win over Arizona Wednesday night has scouts beginning to wonder if Harden is not only the top…
Rodrigue Beaubois Interview
By Aran Smith 1/3/08 Rodrigue Beaubois, (pronounced Boo-Bwah) a potential first rounder, is one of the the top point guard prospects in Europe today. Like a number of the top French players, Rodrigue is from (French Caribbean island) Guadeloupe. His manager Raoul Ramdine discovered him at 17 after hearing about him from some coaches in…
Stock Watch
By Aran Smith 12/14/07 Rising Eric Gordon 6-4 220 SG Indiana Fr. Despite his recent back injury, scouts are becoming more and more enamored with Indiana’s Eric Gordon’s potential as a scoring guard at the next level. Gordon came down hard on his back after being up-ended against Tennessee State. He finished with just 8…NCAA Top 25 Poll
By Aran Smith 12/11/07 With finals week going on, it’s a slow week for college basketball games and our own Kevin Duffy is off. Aran Smith fills in and Kevin will return next Tuesday with his weekly poll critique. Team (Record) AP Poll Rank / ESPN/USAToday Rank 1. North Carolina (8-0) 1 1 North Carolina…
Stock Watch: First Impressions
By Aran Smith 11/28/07 Year of the Freshman, Part 2 It’s quickly shaping up to be another extremely strong draft driven by possibly the deepest and most talented freshmen class of all time. Last year’s draft had 8 freshmen in the first round, (including 5 of the top 10 picks) and this year’s class could…
2007-08 NBA Season: Expert Picks
By Aran Smith 11/1/07 NBA Champs: (Tie) Suns/Spurs The consensus is that the NBA championship will once again come down to the match up between Western Conference giants: the Suns and Spurs. Hopefully this time around the referees won’t interfere with the outcome. The Mavericks got one vote, so despite their surprising first round exit…2007 NBA Summer League: Day Four
By Aran Smith7/10/07 Link: NBA.com Official Summer League Site The top performers of day four were Marcus Banks, Rodney Stuckey, Marco Belinelli, Nate Robinson and Craig Smith. (1-2) San Antonio Spurs 61 – (1-1) Boston Celtics 53 Boxscore This was an interesting match up with the Celtics playing a lot more of their team’s core…
Bryce Taylor Interview
By Aran Smith 10/4/07 Aran Smith: In the Pac-Ten Conference final against USC you shot a perfect 11-11 with 7-7 on 3s for 32 points. You were really in the zone. Describe that game a little, and what that feeling is like. Bryce Taylor: Well for any scorer really, once you make a few shots…
Ryan Anderson Interview
By Aran Smith 9/28/07 You just got out of practice, describe a normal day of practice, what kind of stuff do you work on? Well we get in there at 1 every day, and normally we have to get taped and stuff and ready to play. We do palates every Wednesday and then we lift…
2007 Las Vegas AAU Tournaments – adidas Super 64 Final
By Aran Smith 7/29/07 Behind the trio of Derrick Favors, Chris Singleton and Delwan Graham, the Atlanta Celtics were able to upset last years champs Pump and Run Elite (CA) 75-64 to take home the 2007 adidas Super 64 Championship. The Celtics came in the underdog, but with a deeper bench they were able to…
2007 Las Vegas AAU Tournaments – Day Two & Three
By Aran Smith 7/25/07 Pool play wrapped up on Monday with Nike playing at Cox Pavilion in the morning and adidas taking over at 2:40 and going until 9 PM. For Nike, who has most of their top players down in Orlando at another tournament, one of the few headliners is 6-3 shooting guard Willie…
2007 Las Vegas AAU Tournaments – Day One
By Aran Smith 7/23/07 The 2007 Las Vegas AAU events (Nike Main Event, adidas Super 64 and Reebok Summer Championship) got underway on Sunday but with Sonny Vaccaro (the man who created Vegas summer basketball and all three tournaments), out of the game, the match ups and opening rounds lack the same fireworks of a…