The Detroit Pistons traded Arron Afflalo and Walter Sharpe to the Denver Nuggets for a bag of chips today. As a Lakers fan I'm a bit disappointed to see Afflalo is going to be playing on a hated rival. Is Joe Dumars giving the Nuggets a contender? First Chauncey Billups for Iverson, now Afflalo and a stiff for a future second round pick. I was hoping Afflalo would get some PT with Stuckey traded away but I guess Detroit is committed to turning over the team, starting with the 2008-2009 opening day starting back court.

The Trojan Men's Golf team came painfully short of winning the 2008 NCAA Men's title. Ugh, 2 strokes!? Anyways I salute them on another great season.

Making things worse those asses from across town are whooping up the individual and team titles. Piling on yet another meaningless title to their total of 103 insignificant NCAA plaques. I HATE LOSING TO UCLA. The only thing worse than UCLA are traitors like OJ Mayo. He recruited himself and took money. What an asshole!

I was reading on scout.com that Malcom Lee has really come into his own. I'm not sure how to take these comments(see below) but it looks good in print:(free story)

Malcolm Lee, the 6-4 junior point guard from Riverside (Calif.) North, gets a slight edge as the top West Coast player in attendance. His length, quickness and deep range make him a very exciting prospect at the next level. Lee has the ball-handling ability to play the one, but his shot is getting good enough that he may play significant minutes at the two. As an illustration of just how much we think of Lee as a prospect, we think he's a better prospect at the same age than Arron Afflalo.

And Afflalo just took UCLA to back-to-back Final Fours, was the Pac-10 POY and a consensus First Team All-American. Of course, Lee has a long way to go before he's the player that Afflalo is today. But, as a prospect, Lee has better physical traits and skills than Afflalo did as a high school junior.

I'm starting to worry about AA's draft status. It's become fashionable just to say 'He's a possible 2nd round pick' and we all know that is bullshit. AA is a top collegiate defender and has a very competitive mindset. I suspect Utah at #25 may be his destination.

Earlier today I went to the UCLA ticketexchange to buy tickets for tomorrow's game. To my shock and amazement I saw 2 tickets available in section 212B row 2 seats 5 & 6 for only $43 each! I scrambled to log in and buy them. I filled out my credit card information, checking everything closely to make sure it was right. I hit submit.

"Incorrect Billing Address"

So I check it.....and it's correct.....so I submit it again.

"Last 3 on back of card are incorrect"

I go back to the form and realize that hadn't populated when I went back in my browser.

So I try a different card. But by the time I entered all that information someone else had bought the tickets because ticketexchange doesn't hold them for two minutes like normal ticketmaster purchases. To make things worse I had the same problem buying the other tickets too.

So I called ticketmaster and they told me the bank rejected it and it wasn't the billing address. I got paid today so I wondered what was up with my bank.

So I called my bank and they said my balance was easily more than enough to cover the purchase. So they sent me to atm/fraud protection. 10 minutes on hold. The lady tells me she can't hear me and to call back. 10 more minutes on hold. This guy tells me that when the 3 digit number on the back of the card was entered incorrectly it shuts down my card. He's turned my card back on now....

I'm left asking myself 'What the hell happend the first time when it said billing address incorrect?'.

To sum up this stupid story, I need 2 tickets for tomorrows game against Oregon St. Please email me at alcor805@yahoo.com if you can help.

Thanks

I was reading the Sean Salisbury article on joesportsfan.com when I came across this gem:

Stupid Quotes From Jay Bilas

"I don't think that the players in this game, are ever going to play in a bigger game than Duke - North Carolina.  There may be games with more on the line, such as the Final 4 or the National Championship...you are judged as a player by how you play in this rivalry." - Jay Bilas insinuating that a Duke-North Carolina game is "bigger" than the National Championship for the players.
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"Throw out the RPI, that doesn't mean anything to me. Look at the RPI Top 50 wins." - Jay Bilas, comparing the tournament resumes of Bradley and Seton Hall

To clarify: RPI means nothing, but the record versus the teams who have high RPI's is extremely important.  Makes perfect sense.
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"You also have to watch out for Wichita State and Seton Hall.  If Seton Hall were to beat Wichita State, that would be a seed upset." - Jay Bilas on the 2006 Tournament game between #10 seed Seton Hall and #7 seed Wichita St.

That was the latest lesson in Jay Bilas' class entitled "7 is a lower number than 10".
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bilas"Minneapolis is the nightmare region of this year's NCAA Tournament...Villanova goes into the tournament with some uncertainty...Nevada (is) a very dangerous team...and Boston College (is) a real threat to reach the Final Four because they're an angry team...down at the bottom of the bracket, teams like Oklahoma, Ohio State, and Florida (are) more than capable of reaching the Final Four...but you've got to watch out for the upset minded teams: teams like Wisconsin Milwaukee (and) Northern Iowa - a Giant Killer...and I'll give you a sleeper, Georgetown a sleeper to reach the Elite Eight and possibly the Final Four." - Jay Bilas during one segment on the Sunday Sportscenter

For those keeping score, in the Minneapolis region Bilas wanted to keep an eye on the following teams - Villanova, Nevada, Boston College, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Florida, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Northern Iowa and Georgetown.  In other words, pretty much everyone

Back in the old days Jim Healy would have humiliated idiots like Jay Bilas.

I noticed a great story on Collison on CBS Sportsline.

'Collison warming UCLA hearts these days, not bench' by Gary Parrish

 At times, it was difficult. Darren Collison, without hesitation, will acknowledge this now, how tough things became last season when, for more minutes than not, the obviously talented UCLA point guard found himself on the bench, watching, observing, yearning for playing time that never quite came in the bundles he would've liked.

 Sure, the Bruins were winning.

That was nice.

Sure, Jordan Farmar was a future pro.

That was understood.

But beyond those details, the facts were simple. Collison was a gifted basketball player good enough to start for most teams, and when this is abundantly clear to everybody you know and everybody who knows you, it can be hard to remain patient and focused on the greater good without wondering whether things are going correctly, whether the plan is going as planned.

 To wonder is natural.

So Collison wondered.

"It was frustrating because I think everybody thinks when they are a high school star that they are going to start in college their first year," Collison said.

"So that was the frustrating part, not getting a starting position. But at the end of the day, I learned a lot, and I just decided to work harder and harder because I knew eventually success would come my way."

Eventually is now.