NBA

The Super Bowl may be over, but that just means that the NBA comes front and center.  Last night, Kobe Bryant and the Lakers traveled to New York to take on the Knicks in Madison Square Garden.  Normally this would be a marquee game, but the Knicks have been abysmal this decade.  David Lee put up a nice game for New York with 22 points, but it was Kobe that took center stage.  He scored 61 POINTS on the night.  Incredible!  And by getting to sixty-‘ONE’, Kobe broke the record for most points ever scored by one player in Madison Square.  He is truly playing on another level right now.  LA Lakers 126, New York 117.

The bad news for the Lakerks, Andrew Bynum is definitely out, and hopefully Kobe and Pau Gasol can carry them through to nab the top spot in the West.  The good news for the Lakers:  Bynum will only be out for a maximum of 12 weeks.  That brings them to the playoffs, but many thought Bynum was the missing link in last year’s finals.  With him in the line-up, the Lakers are a very tough team to beat.  So if you’re the Lakers right now hearing the Bynum news, you’re thinking “Hey… it could be worse”.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

The UCONN Huskies were named as the #1 seed this week, and it seems to now be a weekly tradition, they had a tough, high-ranked match up right way.   Teams have been getting the top slot, then losing right away.  In UCONN’s case, it was #7 Louisville waiting to bring them down.  However, UCONN wasn’t going to fall prey to this formula.  They absolutely crushed Louisville behind another terrific game from their dominant center Hasheem Thabeet.  He had 14 points and 11 rebounds.  Their forward Jeff Adrien also came to play with a team high 18 points.  The Huskies look great, but the Big East is full of talent, and UCONN will have to watch their back each and every night.

Finally, some more college b-ball news.  The Georgia Bulldogs are definitely most known for their football program, but occasionally they pop-up as a competitive basketball program in the SEC.  In the late 90s, they had some pretty good rankings in the NCAA tourney.  Well, they just fired their coach Dennis Felton after he started the season 9-12, but more importantly, went 0-6 in the SEC.  And anybody who understands Southern sports knows that the SEC is viciously competitive.   Now, there is a rumor that Georgia might be interested in none other than the inimitable Bobby Knight.  Knight had a pretty good run at Texas Tech, getting them decent seedings in the tourney during his tenure.  Well, Georgia’s recruiting is pretty good, and with Knight at the helm, they could really return to prominence.  They just better make sure all their bench chairs are bolted to the floor.