Archive for April 20th, 2012

WATERCOOLER CHAT: HEAT BRING IT ON, HOWARD’S BACK, BROWN TO SMU

BASKETBALL

In the NBA, it was a battle sparring for the #1 spot in the Eastern Conference between the Chicago Bulls and the Miami Heat.  Currently, the Bulls are sitting in the top spot, but the Heat are trying to chip away at their lead.  But here’s the thing, the Bulls are still without Derrick Rose.  That doesn’t mean, however, that they can’t still play.  They’ve got a fantastic bench, and a team that truly gels together.  Except, they were going against LeBron, Wade, and Bosh — and gelling just isn’t enough.  LeBron had a 27 point, 11 rebound night and helped seal the deal.  Now the Heat are just a game and half from getting the #1 spot.  This will become very valuable during playoff time, as home court advantage seems to mean everything in basketball.  Miami 83, Chicago 72.

Elsewhere in the NBA, some very bad news for Orlando Magic fans.  No, Dwight Howard hasn’t been traded, but it looks like he will miss the rest of the season AND Olympics because he needs back surgery.  He’s been dealing with back issues since March, and the team felt that there’s no reason to risk it getting worse.  So the Magic will be without him for the post-season.  This… will be a catastrophe, as the Magic become a very beatable team without Howard.  Their bench isn’t deep, and they don’t even gel that well as a team.  It’s possible that the Magic could not only suffer a first round loss, but also get swept.

Finally, in college basketball, the SMU (Southern Methodist) Mustangs have been a complete afterthought.  You never see them in the tournament, and probably didn’t even know they had a team. But now, they want to start seeing a good basketball program, especially since their football program is getting better.  How to accomplish this?  Bring in a future Hall of Fame Coach in Larry Brown.  Brown is renowned not only as one of the greatest college coaches (given his tenure at Kansas), but also one of the best pro coaches (given his reputation for turning average teams into championship contenders).  Now he’s going back to college where he started, and hopefully SMU will have a team to root for again

Share
1 comment