Scores n Stuff

        Michigan State took on the Louisville Cardinals in an epic OT game, which Louisville played better than MSU in the first half, leading by 8 through then. MSU was always a strong team and were extremely underrated according to me and the rest of the basketball intellects at my school. Almost all of them had MSU go to the elite-eight, but nobody predicted them going to the final four. MSU turned it up a lot in the second half though with Travis Trice leading the way. Trice is scoring 5 points more per game during the tournament, so the pressure is making him better. Trice had 17 points and 5 assists. His teammate Denzel Valentine also scored 15 points, 7 rebounds, and dished out 6 assists. The game went to OT when Louisville's Mathiang hit the first of the two free-throws, the first was incredibly lucky, bouncing high off the back of the rim and in. Wayne Blackshear couldn't help Louisville pull off a win even though he put up 28 Pts, 3 Reb, 1 Ast, 1 Blk. MSU: 76 Louisville: 70.
       Duke easily beat Gonzaga to set the Final Four 66-52. I dislike Duke, but they are a great basketball team and quite possibly could be the only one that can beat Kentucky, who won again in a thrilling game against Notre Dame. The biggest news of the game was not that Duke had advanced, but that Gonzaga had lost the heart and soul of their team, Kevin Pangos. Pangos was the leader for Gonzaga, best at scoring and getting better with his hair-
Freshman:





Sophmore Part 1:

Sophmore Part 2- Tourney Time:

Junior:

Senior, the great shag:
 

Oh and DeAndre Jordan threw down the dunk of the season. But is that better than Gerald Green's, earlier this season's? Gee I don't know.
                                                                      --KSP--

Sweet 16 Picks

 Here are KSP's Sweet Sixteen picks!
Midwest:
1 Kentucky > 5 West Virginia- Kentucky had to fight hard to beat Cincinnati for the most part of the game hinting that maybe the Wildcats were getting tired. The West Virginia Mountaineers are peaking at the right time after the win against a good Maryland team. But that's not enough to beat the Wildcats, due to the size of their players, and the amount of tall bigs Calipari has, WV won't be able to win this game.
3 Notre Dame < 7 Wichita St.- Notre Dame went to the wire against the 6th seeded Butler Bulldogs, and they had some costly turnovers at the end of the game. Fortunately for the Irish, Butler could not come up with the game-tying 3-pointer at the end of the game, so the Irish won, barely. Wichita St. beat Kansas by double-digits, after being seeded way too low, Van Vleet is peaking in scoring and Wessel is contributing more and more so I think Wichita St. will pull off the upset in OT.
West:
1 Wisconsin > 4 North Carolina- Wisconsin is really, really good, Kaminsky is doing great, Sam Dekker is adding to the scoring table, Nigel Hayes is notching 10+ points, they are doing great. North Carolina is good but not near as good as the Badgers. The only way North Carolina would win would be getting the Wisconsin starters in foul-trouble, because the Badgers are not a deep-team relying mostly on their starting 5. Otherwise Wisconsin will keep rolling.
2 Arizona > 6 Xavier- I know Arizona has really good players, Stanley Johnson, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, T.J. McConnell, and Kaleb Tarczewski. I don't know anything about Xavier, so yeah this is kinda awkward...

East:
8 N.C. State > 4 Lousiville- I KNEW NC STATE WAS GONNA BEAT VILLANOVA, IT WAS ON MY BRACKET, I KNOW THEIR SQUAD LIKE THE BACK OF MY HAND. I just needed to get that out, I was right. Villanova was ranked way too high and N.C. State was the best unranked team in the whole NCAA, the wolf pack is killing all the teams like the rap collective of a similar name .
My brackets totally busted so what have I got to lose if this prediction is wrong, Louisville has the netter team, but I'm just so happy I predicted N.C. State upsetting no.1 Villanova.
7 Michigan St. > 3 Oklahoma- MSU is a really underrated team, they are coached well and have great players and they beat (2) Virginia, Oklahoma almost lost to Dayton. Pretty obvious huh?
South:
1 Duke > 5 Utah- Duke is a beast team, they are way too OP and they are the only team that can possibly beat Kentucky, Utah is good but not near the Blue Devils level.
2 Gonzaga > 11 UCLA- UCLA made it really far for an 11th seeded team, they play good basketball and have a solid group of players. Gonzaga has the incredible Kevin Pangos and the rising star Kyle Wiltjer, they seem to be unstoppable in every aspect of the game, plus, Pangos is the best decision maker and court-general in all of college basketball. I hate to bring this up but Gonzaga scouts need to think of who to get when Pangos is gone, like, Pangos is everything to the team. Gonzaga has a cool name too according to my dad.
                                                                         --KSP--
 

R.I.P. KSP's Bracket 10:30 AM-11:45 AM , 3-19-15

Brackets... R of 64

This is the overview of my bracket: -Funny Video if u don't want to read this :p
Round of 64-
MW:
1 Kentucky > 16 Hampton- Kentucky is the best team in the nation, Hampton is unranked but they will scare the Wildcats in the first half, by only being down by 15.
8 Cincinnati > 9 Purdue- Purdue has a cool name. Puuur-Dew.
5 W. Virginia < 12 Buffalo- There is some paranormal activity in the 12 vs 5 match-ups, 12 seeds usually have the upper hand, also Buffalo is too strong to be 12 seed.
4 Maryland > 13 Valpraiso- Maryland is really good, they have a larger shot at beating Kentucky than you think.
6 Butler < 11 Texas- Texas lost many close games and were great against good teams, they will go far.
3 Notre Dame > 14 Northeastern
7 Wichita State > 10 Indiana- Wichita has a great guard duo in Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker.
2 Kansas > 15 New Mexico St.- KU obviously. Hope not, but yes.

W:
1 Wisconsin > 16 Coastal Car.- Wisconsin will destroy.
8 Oregon > 9 Okla. St.- This will be very close.
5 Arkansas > 12 Wofford- No 12 seed upset here.
4 North Car. > 13 Harvard- Tarheels are great.
6 Xavier < 11 Ole Miss- Watch this comeback happy team win.
3 Baylor > Georgia St.- Sorry Kevin Ware, stay strong bro.
7 VCU > 10 Ohio St.- VCU is my team! VCU has great defense and has an amazing coach.
2 Arizona > 15 Texas So.

E:
1 Villanova > 16 Lafayette
8 NC State > 9 LSU- Don't sleep on NC State.
5 Nothern Iowa > 12 Wyoming- Congrats to N. Iowa for having a great season.
4 Louisville > 13 UC Irvine
6 Providence < 11 Boise State- Boise is such a cool name. Boy Zee! Boy Zee!
 3 Oklahoma > 14 Albany
7 MSU > 10 Georgia- All of the basketball intellects at my school and me agree that MSU is great.
2 Virginia > 15 Belmont

S:
1 Duke > 16 UNF/RMOR- I hate Duke.
8 SDSU < 9 St. Johns- Look out for Rysheed Jordan, same last name, same number, same dunk.
see?
5 Utah < 12 SF Austin- I really like SF Austin.
4 Georgetown > 13 E. Wash.
6 SMU > 11 UCLA- SMU is better than UCLA.
3 Iowa State > 14 UAB
7 Iowa > 10 Davidson- Steph isn't there, Davidson is going nowhere.
2 Gonzaga > 15 No. Dak. State- It'd be pretty gnarly if NDS won though ;)
                                                                      --KSP--

College Basketball digest.

        Right now the NBA is boring except for whenever Russell Westbrook plays, so lets get into some NCAAM ball. #1 Kentucky took the SEC Title today in a 78-63 win against #21 Arkansas. Kentucky remains unbeaten going into the NCAA Tournament where, presumably, they will be a #1 seed and a predicted winner of the whole thing. Brackets are also set to be out today, I will post a link of a bracket soon. Kentucky was lead by Willie Cauley-Stein with a double-double, 15 Pts, 10 Reb, 2 Blk in the game. Kentucky led 41-25 the first half, but was outscored 38-37 in the second half. Kentucky is still the best team in the nation and is getting better everyday.
       #13 Iowa State won the Big 12 Title for the second straight time downing # 9 Kansas 70-66, Iowas State is known for their second half comebacks and this was a perfect example of a 'comeback kids' masterpiece. They were down by 14 going into the Half-Time, and were down 17 at one point, so Georges Niang decided to take it personally racking up 19 Pts, 5 Reb, 2 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 Blk, in the game, but he couldn't have done it without the efforts of Abdel Nader (13 points), Jameel McKay, and Monte Morris (11 points each). It's always good news for Kansas to lose because they are really disrespectful and hateful to the rest in the midwest I'm a Mizzou fan and don't like them. Wayne Selden Jr. was spectacular yet again for the Jayhawks though, with 25 points and 5 rebounds.
        It was a fairly close game in the ACC Championship, #19 North Carolina fought #11 Notre Dame through most of the game. Marcus Paige notched 24 Pts, 2 Reb, 5 Ast, always an extremely reliable player, very good shooter and gives his all out effort. But the Fighting Irish held the lead throughout with their star player Jerian Grant leading the pack. Grant has always been very good but he took it to the next level when it mattered most, hitting up this stat-line 24 Pts, 10 Ast, 15/18 Free Throws. The Irish grabbed the title away from the state of North Carolina, first time in a few years that Duke nor North Carolina has won the ACC championship. Notre Dame: 90, North Carolina: 82.
         Now we wait to fill out our brackets...
                                                                           --KSP--

Notes...3-11-15

        Chicago has lost the last few games in horrible fashion, our defense is falling apart. The defense we are known for has not been seen since last season and we have been carried by our scoring, but since Derrick and Jimmy are out we have a hard time scoring. Pau Gasol tries but he misses a lot, Taj Gibson is also injured for a little bit so we have nobody that can get us the rebound (Noah is being out-hustled more and more in rebounding). Coach Thibs is trying to keep us together but his tactic of making the players play 40+ mpg is making our players tired and weak. Unfortunately we missed our greatest chance to get a little more fire-power by not getting Nate Robinson. Nate was our main scorer when our best players were out 2 years ago, and he still as that craziness in him take can make him go off at any time. Nate is also good at getting to the rim and is extremely underrated for his jump-shot abilities. Nate was a free-agent and the Bulls didn't act quickly enough, keeping Cameron Bairstow and Kirk Hinrich on the team when we could get Nate Robinson.
          A great battle happened on Monday, Anthony Davis, the amazing player with the unibrow ('Uni-Wow') almost hit a career high in scoring, and it was his best game this season, he had 43 Pts, 10 Reb, 6 Ast, 1 Stl, 2 Blk. Davis had a great game but the Bucks were still in it thanks to Giannis Antetokounmpo, our favorite player known as the 'Greek Freak' who notched 29 Pts, 5 Reb, 4 Ast, 3 Stl, 3 Blk, he and Michael Carter Williams (25 points) led the Bucks. I wish I watched the game because two of the dominant tall, young, players were battling viciously to win an important game (Pelicans) and a not-so important  game (Bucks - pshh it's the Eastern Conference, chill). Pelicans won 114-103.
          FACT- Russell Westbrook has had 5 Triple-Doubles the past 6 games, the Knicks have had 3 Triple-Doubles in the last 12 years.
                                                                                     --KSP--

Unknown Youth Troops

The Bulls were trailing by 5 last night against a hot Russell Westbrook who a notched this the last 5 games:
Mar.4: 49p/16r/10a,
 Feb27: 40p/13r/11a,
 Feb26: 39p/14r/11a,
 Feb24: 20p/11r/10a,
 Feb22:, 21p/8r/17a
That's insane and we beat them without Taj Gibson, Jimmy Butler, and Derrick Rose, and we beat 'em because of our young guys. Nikola Mirotic has already been a monster shooter, and had 20+ points the last 3 games, great for a rookie, closest thing to 'Wiggins Like'. E'Twaun Moore is a player only Bulls fans knew before this game, he was honestly only known for having a unique name. But last night E'Twaun stepped up and scored 19 points and grabbed 4 rebounds, he only averages 2.4 ppg too. E'Twaun was very clutch late in the game, after a beautiful pass from Pau Gasol, he hit a 3-pointer to take a two-point lead with ~4 seconds left. I went crazy and it was 9:30. Niko was also great he had 26 points and 8 rebounds, been amazing last 3 games, with 29 against the Clippers, 23 against the Wizards, and last night with 26. Niko is giving us hope again, he is a very hard-working player. Russell Westbrook was on fire the whole time with 43 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists. The commentators kept saying it was a really good, equal, smart, fun game to watch, and it was.
                                                                            --KSP--

NBA All-Star voting is broken.

            If you have been following basketball this season you know that a team that was not good last year, the Atlanta Hawks, are now the best team in basketball with the best record in their conference, at 37-8. You also know that they stretched a 19 game winning streak that ended in February.  They have a wide variety of players who each specialize in a distinct part of their system. Kyle Korver is their SG and is the first player in history to average over 90% from the free-throw line, 50% on field goals, and over 50% on three-point shooting. Steph Curry is leading All-Star voting and is well deserved to lead it, but people like Steph because of his shooting ability saying that he is the best shooter in the league at 90% free-throws, over 40% field goals, and 40% on three-point shots(ESPN.com). His shooting compared to Kyle Korver is cute. Korver has almost a 60% percent field goals the past ten games, while Curry just cracked 50%.  He torched one of the best defensive teams in my Chicago Bulls hitting 7 of 9 3 point shots. But Kyle Korver isn't even on the list for the All-Star voting, he didn't crack the top-ten with this great shooting. An aging injured Kobe Bryant got over 1.15 million votes and Korver didn't get much to any. But let’s stop talking about Korver, let's talk about his team. The Hawks are on fire right now and have great players like Jeff Teague the leader with 17.1 points per game, and Al Horford is averaging almost 18 points the last ten games with 8 rebounds. The whole team effort is amazing, Millsap is passing way more and letting other players shine for their unique abilities like DeMarre Carroll who is having a breakout season.

            That was a week ago and the All-Star rosters have already been decided. No Hawks players got the starting spots but 3 of them got into the reserves, Al Horford, Paul Millsap, and Jeff Teague. All 3 of which, got in only by the coaches votes. Jimmy Butler who is also having an astounding season and is the leading candidate for the Most Improved Player award also had to have been selected by the coaches because the people didn't pick him. A guy named Dwyane Wade got picked by the fans, even though he is not an exciting player and is 33. The Heat, the team Wade plays for is having a losing record being 26-33. So how is it fair that a player who is carrying a very good championship caliber team in the Chicago Bulls with Jimmy Butler, losing to an aging player who is aching and playing on a losing team in front of fans who don't even care anymore because LeBron James left? I think we all can agree that that's not right.

            Kevin Durant is one of my favorite players, unfortunately KD has been injured all of this season and has only played 22 games this season. He got in to the All-Star game and replaced an exciting player named Damian Lillard. Damian Lillard is 24 years old and plays for the Portland Trailblazers. In last year’s playoffs he hit a long three-pointer with 00.3 second left in the fourth quarter against the Houston Rockets. If he hadn't hit that shot the Blazers would be shut out from the second round of the playoffs again, but Lillard racked up his confidence and hit it. The crowd at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon went berserk, Lillard was tackled into a dog pile by his teammates, as the Blazers finally made it to the second round of the playoffs. As Damian held a mic and shouted "Rip CITY!" to the crowd he didn't know that he would become even better the following season. Lillard is averaging 21 points per game, 6 assists per game, and 5 rebounds per game, leading the Blazers to a record of 39-19 as of March 3rd .Damian was sure to have been rallied up to make it to this year’s NBA All-Star game but he got snubbed. He couldn't even make it to be a replacement player. Even KD thought that was unjust.

             Boogie Cousins is having fun in Sacramento even though his team is losing, he still is putting up massive numbers 24 PPG, 13 RPG, and 2 blocks per game(ESPN.com).DeMarcus 'Boogie' Cousins has been a fan-favorite with the Kings and loves it there. He also got to be on Team USA on the FIBA World Cup team last summer, stealing the show along with Anthony Davis. Meanwhile, a player named Kobe Bryant is injured and is likely to miss all of the season, even though he was selected to be an All-Star which he deserved. Does that mean Boogie can replace Kobe by being the replacement All-Star player for the West, well, we'll have to find out because right now the NBA is in a frenzy in preparation for the game. But Boogie must be spooked to be playing that well and only to become a replacement for the game, how good are the players? Some are better and some are a little worse. Like Blake Griffin, a fan's selection player who is averaging 22 PPG, and 7 RPG(ESPN.com). Griffin has already been a Slam Dunk champion and a NBA draft first pick player. How does a player who is not playing better than another player who does not have many awards get to the All-Star game in a blowout. You'll just have to ask the 700,000 people who voted for Blake.

              A week after I wrote the last sentence, Blake Griffin got injured, which means his replacement will be, Damian Lillard, the player I talked about earlier. I don't know how this happened, that everybody who got snubbed made it, I think it is crazy how lucky the NBA got. Now Adam Silver, the commissioner, does not have to explain to some reporters why MVP candidate Damian Lillard, who is leading a team to a 39-19 record is not in the All-Star Game. They caught a break, but next year the events that caused those players to make it will probably not happen, so will the NBA take out fan voting and not have to face the heat of how great players are getting snubbed, or will they get criticized by reporters, writers, bloggers, and people who aren't biased on choosing the same 'used to be good' player to make the All-Star game?

            I can change that by writing more and more, trying to get more page views and informing others of this problem. I’m also trying to find some e-mails of commentators and NBA writers that support this, like Jeff Van Gundy, or Bill Simmons (I don't know if he supports it). That's all I can do for now, because I don't have people that can spread the word like other bloggers have. I hope I have made you think about his problem, and I may have even convinced you to want to stop this. All stats are from ESPN.com, NBA.com, Basketball-Reference.com.
                                                                           --KSP--