robin lopez – Rush The Court

Syracusean Thoughts

rtmsf — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:29:21 +0000

A post today from the most entertaining Syracuse sports blog Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician got us thinking about a couple of seemingly disparate things today.

First, is there any more difficult impossible charge for a college athlete to shed than that of some kind of sexual assault? Similarly, is there any more difficult impossible charge for an institution and the police to prove than that of some kind of sexual assault (eliminating the outright rapes involving DNA, of course)? Usually all that anyone can seem to agree upon is that something happened involving a player and an unnamed woman. How far [...]

2008 NBA Draft Musings

rtmsf — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:20:13 +0000

Thanks to N-Bug’s liveblog of the NBA Draft last night, we felt like we were almost in the building sniffing David Stern’s manscent and Darrell Arthur’s ire. What’s the record for lowest pick of someone in the Green Room? The best we can muster is Rashard Lewis at #32 ten years ago. Anyone got a lower pick left stewing in the Green Room all night?

Unfounded Rumors of a Kidney Problem Sunk Arthur’s Stock (photo credit: AP)

Darrell Arthur’s Kidney. The story of last night’s draft, of course, was the unsubstantiated rumor of a serious undisclosed kidney problem that arose during Darrell Arthur’s medical [...]

2008 NBA Draft Live Blog

nvr1983 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:36:39 +0000

Well this is sort of unplanned, but rtmsf asked me to do this and I’ve got nothing else to do tonight so I figured I would throw up a live blog of the events.

7:30 PM: Everybody’s favorite commissioner/megalomanic David Stern walks to the stage. Pretty weak response from the crowd. Minimal booing and almost no response to a mention of the WNBA. I think Isiah and Dolan have broken the New York fans.

7:38 PM: Stern announces the Bulls’ selection of Derrick Rose. Kind of anti-climatic, but surprising how quickly the consensus swung from Michael Beasley to Rose in such a [...]

6.11.08 Fast Breaks

nvr1983 — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:53:39 +0000

O.J. Mayo worked out with the Miami Heat on Saturday and according to Chad Ford looked very good in dominating Tyrone Brazelton. Apparently, Mayo has become good friends with Dwayne Wade and combined with this workout it increases the possibility that Miami may select Mayo #2 overall, which would mean that the prior unaninimous #1 pick Michael Beasley may fall all the way to Minnesota at #3. Even Kevin McHale can’t screw that up, can he? Michael Weinreb of ESPN’s Page 2 with a look at how cheating was different in the 1980s than it was with O.J. Mayo. Maybe UCLA won’t [...]

05.27.08 Fast Breaks

rtmsf — Wed, 28 May 2008 03:29:19 +0000

Some post-Memorial Day items of interest…

Former Georgetown guard Jeremiah Rivers will transfer to Indiana (perhaps he sees immediate PT awaiting in 2009-10?). Who’s coming back? Memphis guard Antonio Anderson, Marquette guard Jerel McNeal and Alabama guard Alonzo Gee declared their intentions to return to school, ensuring that Memphis will have at least one starter back from its national runner-up team. One intriguing name who is still undecided, WVU’s Joe Alexander, described his daily routine in Vegas getting ready for the pre-draft camp. Speaking of which, the Orlando Pre-Draft Camp begins tomorrow. Here is the list of players invited. Frank Burlison at Scout.com has [...]

04.01.08 Fast Breaks

rtmsf — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:45:34 +0000

We haven’t broken out one of these in a while, but there’s no time like the present…

The Lopez Bros. say adios to Stanford, merely three days after losing their Sweet Sixteen game to Texas. Western Kentucky head coach Darrin Horn is reportedly the choice to take over for the embattled G. David Odom at South Carolina, making Horn the second WKU coach in the last five years to leave for an SEC school (Dennis Felton – Georgia). Update: apparently Odom isn’t leaving SC after all – in fact, he’s getting a new 10-year contract! Not that anyone expected otherwise, but Midwest Region [...]

Sweet 16 Preview: South & Midwest Regions

nvr1983 — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:41:25 +0000

South – #1 Memphis vs. #5 Michigan State (9:57 PM): It seems like a lot of analysts consider this the best of the Sweet 16 games. I just don’t see it. I’d take either of the 2-3 matchups (Tennessee/Louisville or Texas/Stanford) over this game, but I still think it should be an interesting game.

Tom Izzo has done a good job getting the Spartans back on track after a bad February stretch where they lost 3 of 4 games. The Spartans returned all 5 starters from last year so they obviously have experience, which helped them withstand that rough stretch. [...]

ATB: Shipping Out

rtmsf — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:35:29 +0000

01.03.08

Game We Didn’t Watch (but wish we could have). #5 UCLA 76, Stanford 67. Actually, we very much would have liked watching this game, but NHL hockey got in the way on our local FSN channel. Worthless. Anyway, tonight UCLA very quickly got a significant leg up on the Pac-10 race by winning in Palo Alto – we suspect not many other teams will leave the Bay area with a win there this year, now that the Lopez twins (21/20 – wondertwin power… shape of… Dwight Howard?) are fully activated. Tonight Stanford [...]

The West Side is the Best Side…

rtmsf — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 21:19:13 +0000

2Pac was right after all

Quite a bit was made last season of a renaissance in the quality of basketball in the Pac-10 conference, as it ended the season as a top three conference in both the RPI and Sagarin ratings in addition to earning a record six NCAA bids for the conference and enjoying the prestige as the only conference with multiple teams in the Elite Eight (Oregon and UCLA). There has always been a surplus of talent on the west coast, especially in the Seattle and SoCal areas, but it was largely characterized by players [...]