2008 Euroleague Final Four, Juniors: Top Prospects
By Aran Smith 5/10/08 Overall the group of prospects from this year’s junior competition was very good. There was a solid 5 or so NBA level prospects with another 5 guys with a shot to develop into NBA prospects in the future. After last year’s dissapointing group in Athens, it was good to see a…Draft Buzz
By Aran Smith 5/9/08 Chinese Star’s Career Likely Over Reports out of China say that 19-year-old Xu Yong, the top NBA prospect since Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian has been diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer that is extremely dangerous and if confirmed will likely end his basketball career and even worse could…2008 Euroleague Final Four: Juniors Recap
By Aran Smith 5/4/08 FMP Zeleznik wins EF4 Junior Tournament Boxscore Behind 25 points from Dejan Musli, 21 points from Bojan Subotic and 18 from Andrija Milutinovic FMP was able to overcome Nihad Dedovic‘s 29 point effort for a 80-70 victory. Best described as having a relentless demeanor, FMP withstood a second half rally by…2008 Euroleague Final Four: Juniors Day 1
By Aran Smith 5/2/08 Thursday Thursday kicked off the Junior competition and it quickly became apparent that this year’s 1990 group is significantly stronger than the 1989 group that competed in Athens a year ago. Barcelona 73 Red Star 69 In the first game of the day, Barcelona came out hot in the second half…
Who’s No. 1: Rose or Beasley?
By Aran Smith 04/17/08 Last year the Greg Oden vs. Kevin Durant debate began midway through the season and turned into the biggest hoops discussion of the year, raging all the way to draft night with the Trail Blazers ultimately taking the big man out of Ohio State with the top pick. This year’s draft…
Stock Watch: National Championship
Stock Watch: National Championship By Aran Smith 4/14/08 After taking a week to digest the final game and speaking with NBA scouts about the top prospects, here’s a look at who helped and hurt themselves in last Monday’s National Championship game. Rising Mario Chalmers 6-2 181 PG Kansas Jr. The shot heard round the basketball…
Stock Watch: Final Four
By Aran Smith 4/7/08 While Saturday’s Final Four match ups didn’t live up to the billing with a dream-scenario four number one seeds turning into two blow outs, there’s still hope that Monday night’s match up between Memphis and Kansas can have the excitement to make up for it. Here are the prospects that are…
Stock Watch: NCAA Tournament
By Aran Smith 4/4/08 Rising Tyler Hansbrough 6-8 245 PF UNC Jr. No one was more impressive in the second weekend of the NCAA tournament than Tyler Hansbrough as he carried the Tar Heels to victory in a close-fought battle with Louisville, converting numerous key baskets in the closing minutes. Hansbrough’s will to succeed is…
Stock Watch
By Aran Smith 3/27/08 Rising Stephen Curry 6-1 180 PG Davidson So. When we think back on the 2008 NCAA tournament and the first weekend of upsets, big games, and Cinderella stories, nothing will remain indelibly etched in our minds stronger than Stephen Curry’s shooting performances taking down two goliaths in Gonzaga and Georgetown. Curry…
Players evaluated closely during NCAA tourney
By Aran Smith 3/20/08 Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Isiah Thomas. What do they all have in common? Besides being among the greatest players ever at their respective positions, they all won championships on both the NCAA and NBA level. Every year, the Big Dance sets the stage for the…2008 Final Four Predictions
By Aran Smith 3/19/08 East South UNC (1) Memphis (1) Mt St.Mary’s(16) UNC Memphis UT-Arlington(16) Indiana (8) Indiana Miss St. Mississippi St.(8) Arkansas (9) UNC Memphis Oregon (9) Notre Dame (5) Wash St. Pittsburgh Mich. St.(5) …
Stock Watch
By Aran Smith 2/22/08 Rising Russell Westbrook 6-4 187 SG UCLA So. No player has seen their stock take a greater jump this season than Russell Westbrook. Despite being projected by NBADraft.net as a top 20 pick in 2009 prior to the season, few scouts were tracking or mentioning Westbrook. He averaged just 3.4 points…
Kyle Weaver Interview
By Aran Smith 2/20/08 Aran Smith: Your big 24 point win over USC, ended a three game losing streak at home. A streak that seemed unfathomable before the season. Were you and your teammates beginning to worry things were reverting back to pre-2006 form? Kyle Weaver: Oh no. I don’t think me and the teammates…
Stock Watch
ByAran Smith 1/10/08 Rising James Harden 6-5 220 SG Arizona St. Fr. James Harden has the Sun Devils riding high after recent wins over Pac-Ten powers Oregon and Arizona. His clutch 26 point performance in Arizona State’s OT win over Arizona Wednesday night has scouts beginning to wonder if Harden is not only the top…
Rodrigue Beaubois Interview
By Aran Smith 1/3/08 Rodrigue Beaubois, (pronounced Boo-Bwah) a potential first rounder, is one of the the top point guard prospects in Europe today. Like a number of the top French players, Rodrigue is from (French Caribbean island) Guadeloupe. His manager Raoul Ramdine discovered him at 17 after hearing about him from some coaches in…
Stock Watch
By Aran Smith 12/14/07 Rising Eric Gordon 6-4 220 SG Indiana Fr. Despite his recent back injury, scouts are becoming more and more enamored with Indiana’s Eric Gordon’s potential as a scoring guard at the next level. Gordon came down hard on his back after being up-ended against Tennessee State. He finished with just 8…NCAA Top 25 Poll
By Aran Smith 12/11/07 With finals week going on, it’s a slow week for college basketball games and our own Kevin Duffy is off. Aran Smith fills in and Kevin will return next Tuesday with his weekly poll critique. Team (Record) AP Poll Rank / ESPN/USAToday Rank 1. North Carolina (8-0) 1 1 North Carolina…
Stock Watch: First Impressions
By Aran Smith 11/28/07 Year of the Freshman, Part 2 It’s quickly shaping up to be another extremely strong draft driven by possibly the deepest and most talented freshmen class of all time. Last year’s draft had 8 freshmen in the first round, (including 5 of the top 10 picks) and this year’s class could…