NCAA Players Find NBA Teams in Draft
The NBA Draft is over, and most of the best college basketball players from last year’s NCAA basketball season are now on NBA rosters. The first two picks went just as expected, with the Portland Trailblazers taking Greg Oden of Ohio State as the number one pick and the Seattle SuperSonics taking Kevin Durant second overall.
After that there weren’t too many surprises. Al Hortford, Mike Conley, Jeff Green and Yi Jianlain went 3,4,5, and 6, respectively. One of the biggest stores was actually a trade between the Boston Celtics and Seattle SuperSonics. The Sonics traded Ray Allen to the Celtics in exchange for their first round pick, among other things. The Sonics now have an outstanding two guard in Durant, so there would be an obvious overlap with Allen and Durant on the court at the same time.
So now that all of your favorite college hoops stars have officially joined the ranks of professional ball, you can quit dreaming of going to StubHub.com and getting NCAA Basketball tickets to see them play. From now on, to see Oden, Durant and the rest, you are going to have to go to NBA games. Shame, shame.
Online Blogs Have the Draft Covered
A hoops blog will broadcast running commentary of the NBA Draft tonight. This sounds like a lot of fun because it will be a multi-dimensional, multi- point of view live blog, combining the opinions of several of the best NBA bloggers from around the nation. TrueHoop at ESPN.com had an article about it today, and the live feed sounds like it could either be a great success, or become totally confusing.
Now normally I wouldn’t try to steer people away from StubHub.com, where you can get tons of great NCAA basketball tickets, but if you get a chance, you should check it out.
In the ever changing world of sports news media, blogs are starting to take control of more and more of the conversation. And that couldn’t be better news for somebody like me, who just so happens to be writing a sports blog. Fans of NCAA players and NBA teams will get a unique (and very nerdy) look at the draft tonight. This is an exciting time to be a hoops fan.
USC’s Nick Young… So Hot Right Now
With the NBA Draft just about a day away, the basketball world is full of rumors of teams trading up to get higher picks, or trading away picks in exchange for players. One player that seems to be getting a lot of attention in the last hours before the Draft is Nick Young, formerly of the University of Southern California. Young was part of a successful USC season last year, and is considered to be a lottery pick in the draft, somewhere near the No. 10-15 pick.
Of course, according to many experts Young’s stock is rising considerably, and several NBA teams are positioning themselves to move into a higher pick in order to grab him. Those teams include the likes of the Boston Celtics, Memphis Grizzlies, Philadelphia 76ers, and the Charlotte Bobcats.
Young is a talented two guard with all the physical potential to be something great. The knocks against him: a lack of intensity… and he needs to bulk up a bit. Other than that, Young could become one of the best defending and scoring two guards in the league, and teams are taking notice. It’s a shame for Trojans fans that USC basketball tickets won’t get allow you to see Young in action. After the draft, you will have to go to the NBA page at StubHub.com to see Nick Young play ball.
As Draft Nears, NBA Teams Clamor for Top Spots
The NBA Draft is quickly approaching, and the talk of NBA teams trading up to get the best college and international basketball players is increasing exponentially in these last few days. Some of the NBA teams that are trying to move up the list to get the top NCAA basketball players include Phoenix, Golden State and the Lakers. The Suns have called for an emergency workout this week just in case they get to grab a higher pick. Corey Brewer, Joakim Noah, and Jeff Green and Brandan Wright are all expected to show up at what will surely be an intense workout.
Finding out which teams actually want which players is one hard task. Even the Portland Trail Blazers will not give away who they will draft as the number one pick overall. Every team is holding their hand close so that last minute deals can have a little added pressure to them. Will anything big happen on draft day? We will just have to wait and see.
You will not be able to get NCAA Basketball tickets anymore to see any of the fine players in the draft. After this weekend, you will have to go to their NBA team page at StubHub.com.
ESPN List Includes NCAA Games
Another list was compiled at ESPN.com, and it has a little something to do with what goes on at StubHub.com. Jim Caple has just compiled a list of the 101 things that all sports fans must experience before they die. It is a pretty good list, filled with some more obvious stuff at the top, and more obscure, underrated stuff near the end. Since this is an NCAA basketball blog, it I checked for you to see where college hoops games made the list.
Well, NCAA basketball fared pretty well overall. We have one game in the top ten, three games in the top 25, and 7 in the top 101. There would be eight if you counted 63: Camp out for tickets. The games that made the list are: 5. NCAA Subregional, 19. Duke-UNC basketball game, 24. ACC basketball tournament. 48. Lady Vols basketball game, 60. Maui Invitational, 61. Midnight Madness, and 62. Big 5 Game at the Palestra. You can always try to get these great NCAA basketball tickets at StubHub.com. Or, get tickets to a game that will be on your list of 101 things that you simply must see before you die.
Latest Hoops Poll Musings
ESPN has just released a Top 25 preseason poll and a mock bracket for the next NCAA Basketball Tournament, even though the tourney is almost a full year away. Still, I’m sure you’ve checked it out and are scratching your head about a few things. Some teams seem like they got a little bit more love than they deserved. Let’s take a look, shall we?
Fist of all, you have to notice that Florida, though it lost pretty much it’s entire starting five, including stalwarts Corey Brewer, Al Hartford and Joakim Noah, and almost lost is coach, Billy Donovan, still managed to break into the list… at No. 25. Who would have thought? Even Andy Katz’s explanation admits that he doesn’t have much of a reason for putting Florida in this poll, other than the fact that Florida is… Florida. If you’ll notice, it takes more words to justify Florida’s spot here than it does to justify any other team’s position. Is it just me, or does ESPN have a Florida bias?
At any rate, you can get tickets to any of the teams in the Top 25, including Florida Gators tickets, at StubHub.com.
New Mexico State’s Theus to Coach Kings
The former New Mexico State head coach, Reggie Theus, was recently named as the Sacramento Kings’ newest head coach. The search began for a replacement for Eric Musselman after his tumultuous first and only season with the Kings managed to only eek out 33 wins. Sacramento is a team littered with problems and falling fast, but Theus has a lot of optimism about his future and the future of the Kings in Sac-Town—and for good reason!
In his first year as coach of NMSU, Theus took what was a 6-24 team in 2004 and turned them into a 16-14 team in 2005. He then made multiple NCAA Basketball Tournament appearances, and led the Aggies to a conference title. He was also an assistant for a few years under famed Louisville coach Rick Patino. Theus played hoops for Jerry Tarkanian at UNLV in his college days. While in the NBA, Theus played for the Kings during their first season in Sacramento after moving the franchise from Kansas City. In fact, he scored the first professional basketball point in Sacramento Kings history.
Though you can no longer get NCAA basketball tickets to see Reggie Theus play or coach, you can still see his teams, UNLV and New Mexico State, by visiting StubHub.com.
More College Hoops Preseason Rankings
You know college hoops season is getting close when Joe Lunardi starts putting out Bracketology updates. Well, actually the season is about as far away as it could get right now, but that won’t stop us from getting excited about the new list of top teams, the rankings debates and all the beautiful anticipation you could ever want.
Lunardi has UCLA, North Carolina, Louisville and Memphis as the number one seeds in the NCAA Basketball Tournament next year, which is only slightly different from yesterday’s rankings devised by Andy Katz, which would have Kansas in there instead of Louisville. With Lunardi’s report, there is little room for debate because he doesn’t comment on the positions of the teams, he merely puts teams into slots and forgets the reasoning. Katz, however, will get you debating his every point about why teams got placed where they did. I just can’t wait for college basketball season to start!
Well, you can at least start buying some NCAA Basketball tickets at StubHub.com. Right now, but that’s about as close as you will get to seeing some hoops action in the middle of the summer.
New College Hoops Poll
Because the last day to declare eligibility for the NBA Graft was yesterday, and the rosters for most teams are all but set, ESPN has listed a new Top 25 poll for fans to discuss and bloggers to blog about. The top of the list shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise. Memphis got the number one spot, which was a pick many people made immediately following this last NCAA Basketball Tournament. The Tigers will return pretty much their entire roster, while many teams including Florida and Ohio State, have been gutted by the Draft.
North Carolina, Kansas and UCLA make up the number two, three and four teams, respectively. Of course, the preseason Top 25 is merely a reflection of the returning players combined with the teams performance last year. We won’t know if there are any truly outstanding freshman college hoops stars until the season starts.
Last year was dominated by freshmen like Greg Oden and Kevin Durant, and this year might not be so different. Just because your team didn’t make the top 25, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still keep checking StubHub.com for some great NCAA basketball tickets for next year.
Green of Georgetown to Stay in Draft
5:00 pm today marks the deadline for NCAA basketball players to remove their name from eligibility for the NBA draft. Jeff Green, the versatile forward from Georgetown and one of the most sought-after prospects, has decided over the weekend to forgo his senior year of college to join the ranks of the National Basketball Association.
Most analysts believe that Green could be picked up as early as the fifth pick in the draft, but likely will not go any lower than the 20th pick. Several NBA teams, including the Celtics, Bucks, Bobcats, Bulls and Sixers have all made trips out to Georgetown to see Green take part in workouts. Any one of those teams could end up with a lottery pick that could land Green.
Although Jeff Green will not return to help the Hoyas back to another Final Four, center Roy Hibbert has decided to stay. So you can get Georgetown Hoyas basketball tickets to see Hibbert play at your source for great college hoops tickets, StubHub.com.