SB Nation User Blog: chirop1

Jordan Crawford dunks on LeBron... Nike confiscates the evidence

chirop1 — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:39:52 -0000

I heard about this story on The Herd with Colin Cowherd at lunch today. According to this article:

During a scrimmage Crawford was matched up against LeBron James...and dunks on him. High School prospect Dwight Powell sets the scene:

They were split into teams, and LeBron had his own team. In all the college player’s eyes, I could see a little fire burning, with all of them itching to show what they have against arguably the best player in the world. One player in particular definitely left their mark in Jordan Crawford of Xavier. On an inbounds play, The King was a step slow, and Crawford put a two-hand dunk on him.

I was shocked, but nothing will change my opinion of King James. Jordan Crawford on the other hand has some bounce!"

However the story of the dunk does not end there. After the dunk, LeBron and Nike executives in attendance decided they rather not have video evidence of the dunk get on the internet. Nike officials approached videographers in attendance and confiscated their tapes. This move could have backfired on Nike as the dunk has grown into a legend and has become a hot topic on various basketball related sites on the net.

Jordan Crawford is of course the younger brother of Joe Crawford and was the subject of much conjecture when he transferred from Indiana amidst the Kelvin Sampson debacle. Its an interesting story. I havn't dug around enough yet to see if there are videos out there, but from what I'm seeing it looks like the story may be legit.

Harrison Barnes does not have nice things to say about us...

chirop1 — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:27:05 -0000

The number one player in the country expresses some very real concerns about the state of the Kentucky program in this interview.

How has the departure of John Calipari from Memphis to Kentucky impacted you?

It hasn’t really. He’s a good coach. I don’t know if I like the way they’re doing things right there now though. Seems like he left Memphis kind of in a bad situation and then guys at Kentucky are getting their scholarships taken back. I don’t know yet. It’s a competitive place though, you know college basketball, and it’s only getting more and more competitive.

This is the first that I've seen comments like this out there from our current targets. Its a real shame, because if there's one player that I want in a UK uniform... its Harrison Barnes. He's articulate, skilled, and will make a great ambassador for a program one day.

I fully support the difficult decisions made by our coach (with the possible exception of the Kevin Galloway situation), but I hope this is a temporary phase we are going through. I would hate for this to be something that becomes a real concern to recruits of the future.

Harrison Barnes talks after the Jayhawk Invitational where he played against KU commit Royce...

chirop1 — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:24:05 -0000

Harrison Barnes talks after the Jayhawk Invitational where he played against KU commit Royce Wooldridge.

ESPN Radio discusses Vegas odds for next year

chirop1 — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:27:25 -0000

I was listening to Eric Koselias this morning on ESPN radio and he was going over the Vegas odds for next season. He said that MSU, Kansas, and UCLA are all at 10-1 (which he said would be a good bet on Kansas if Collins et al come back), Louisville and someone else are at 8-1, and the top two teams according to Vegas are UNC and Kentucky at 6-1.

Color me stunned. I'm as much of a homer as the next guy around here, but I'm not ready to crown Kentucky as King of all Basketball one year after they missed the NCAA tourney. It is nice to be considered relevant again though.

2009 is over. Who was the team of the decade?

chirop1 — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:06:13 -0000

Now that the 2009 tourney is over, I have a topic of discussion.

Who is the team/program of the decade? In the 90's, it was pretty much a toss-up between Duke and Kentucky. Who is it for the 2000's?

Carolina can make a strong case with two national titles and (I believe) two other Final Four appearances. However, they also had an NIT appearance and an 8-20 debacle in that stretch of time.

Florida played for a title in 2000 and won back-to-back national titles and then followed it up with two stellar recruiting classes that went to the NIT.

Arizona and UCLA were consistently good, but never closed the deal on a title.

Duke started the decade strong but has been in a very un-Duke like funk for the last 4 years or so.

UConn was strong, but only has one title this decade and a couple of down years.

Given that information, I will say its a toss up for Florida and Carolina... but neither team has as strong a claim to it as teams from the 90's had. Carolina is definitely better poised for dominance in the 2010's.

Thoughts?

Poll

Team of the decade 2000-2009?

North Carolina

68 votes

Florida

25 votes

Duke

1 votes

UConn

8 votes

UCLA

0 votes

Arizona

0 votes

Kentucky (No Final Fours and the last few years be damned!)

10 votes

Other (Please specify in comments)

4 votes

116 votes | Poll has closed

Meeks 2nd Team AP All-America

chirop1 — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:17:01 -0000

Meeks 2nd Team AP All-America

I know we're all caught up in Calipari fever... but I thought Jodie deserved a nod.

Well done young man, well done.

Debunking the South Carolina being "more talented" argument

chirop1 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:55:44 -0000

I have seen over and over the argument that "South Carolina is a more talented team than Kentucky" and I'm tired of it.

Rivals 2005 team ranking Kentucky doesn't show up here (its the Jared Carter class) and neither does South Carolina

Rivals 2006 team ranking The class of Meeks, Jasper, Stevenson, and Porter comes in at number 11. South Carolina does not appear.

Rivals 2007 team ranking The class of Patterson, Legion, Stewart, and Williams registers at number 13. South Carolina is again absent.

Rivals 2008 team ranking Liggins, Miller, Galloway, and Harrelson register at number 21. Still no South Carolina.

We've all been round and round about what it really means to have 5 star rankings versus 4 stars. And yes, Legion and Jasper are gone. Ultimately, the fact that cannot be denied is that Kentucky definitively has outperformed South Carolina in the recruiting battles.

In fact, I would argue that looking over those lists... the only two teams who are arguably more talented than Kentucky are Tennessee and Florida... and we beat them!!!

I'm not a negative person by any stretch of the imagination, similarly I'm not one that looks for excuses. When I make a mistake, I will own up to it. (Often I will explain my reasoning that lead to the mistake... but I make no excuses.) Its time for this team to play to their potential. We do NOT have the talent to compete with the UConns and UNC's of the world, what we should expect is to be competitive night in and night out in the SEC. That is reasonable for a fan to expect.

Obama poster... Gillispie version

chirop1 — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:16:49 -0000

Obama poster... Gillispie version

SprtsNation Poll: Which slumping team is more likely to turn things around?

chirop1 — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:05:25 -0000

SprtsNation Poll: Which slumping team is more likely to turn things around?

Options are Georgetown, Kentucky, Maryland, and Notre Dame.

Bogans traded to Bucks

chirop1 — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:53:56 -0000

Bogans traded to Bucks

Part of the fallout of Jameer Nelson's potentially season ending injury. The Magic need a point guard... Bogans was their bargaining chip.