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Thursday, February 8, 2007
Mark Bradley’s Friday Fallout
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Every Friday until the end of the regular season, we’ll look at who’s up, who’s down and what you should be watching as the countdown continues to the Final Four in Atlanta.
Rising
A week ago, Texas A&M was a good team that had won only one big game (over Oklahoma State on Jan. 20.) Then the Aggies won two big ones in three days, first surging from 10 points down to prevail at Kansas, then routing Texas at College Station.
A&M now seems the best team in the Big 12 and, alongside Ohio State, the strongest probable No. 2 seed on the NCAA tournament grid.
Falling
It isn’t just that Duke has lost three in a row (two of those at home). The Blue Devils must now play five of their last seven regular-season games on the road, and by the time that difficult run is done, this regal program could drop from the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since the preseason poll of 1996-97.
That’s a string of 199 consecutive appearances.
What we’re watching
Florida at Kentucky (Saturday, 9 p.m., ESPN).
It’s hard to envision the Gators losing anywhere the way they’re playing. Still unclear is what sort of team will greet them in Rupp Arena. The Wildcats led South Carolina 50-28 at halftime on Wednesday only to yield 61 second-half points. This prompted Tubby Smith to tell reporters: “We’ve got the best concentration of any team in America.”
He was kidding.
Mid-major of the week
Davidson has won 17 of its last 18 and leads the South Division of the Southern Conference by 2 1/2 games over the College of Charleston. Freshman guard Stephen Curry averages 20.1 points and is the second-leading scorer among freshmen behind Kevin Durant of Texas.
Curry’s dad was himself a shooter of note. He’s Dell Curry, who played at Virginia Tech and spent 16 seasons in the NBA.
Names to know
D.J. Augustin and Mike Conley Jr. aren’t the stars of their respective teams, but they figure to be a year from now. They’re freshman guards playing alongside more heralded freshmen — Augustin with Durant at Texas, Conley with Greg Oden at Ohio State.
Both rank among the nation’s top five in assists. Both are apt to remain in college for at least another season, unlike Durant and Oden.
SEEDS
If the season ended today, here’s what the top four seeds in each region should look like:
• East Rutherford Regional
1: North Carolina
2: Pittsburgh
3: Butler
4: Kentucky
• San Antonio Regional
1: Florida
2.: Ohio State
3: Memphis
4: Boston College
• St. Louis Regional
1: Wisconsin
2: Texas A&M
3: Oregon
4: Southern Illinois
• San Jose Regional
1: UCLA
2: Marquette
3: Kansas
4: Nevada
Fun with numbers
The only string of consecutive AP poll appearances longer than Duke’s belongs to UCLA. The Bruins were ranked for 221 weeks dating from 1966 — the beginning of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s sophomore season (freshmen were then ineligible) — to 1980.
Over that span the Bruins had four coaches (John Wooden, Gene Bartow, Gary Cunningham and Larry Brown) and won eight NCAA titles (all by Wooden).
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Hampton has to make it back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Every chance that Mike Hampton has gotten during the past 18 months, he has made a point to chat with the miracle that he wants to be.
More specifically, it’s the miracle that Hampton has to be.
Anything less for the accomplished left-handed pitcher recovering from elbow surgery, and the Braves will go from having a splendid chance to win their division for a 15th time in 16 seasons to just another team in the National League East with more question marks than exclamation points in its starting rotation.
So Hampton regularly chats with that miracle named John Smoltz, owner of a slew of victories, a slew of saves and a slew of dramatic comebacks from injuries. “The biggest advice that I’ve given Mike — and it isn’t what anybody wants to hear — and it’s time,” Smoltz said on Thursday at Turner Field during the Braves’ minicamp for pitchers. “People are really messing up by thinking that he’s just going to step in and give us what has been needed, but it’s not going to be that easy.”
No, it won’t be. There is Hampton’s football mentality. He had a chance to prosper at defensive back at Florida State, Florida and Rutgers before choosing baseball.
“He’s tough, and that’s one reason why we need to keep an eye on him, I think,” said Braves manager Bobby Cox, who nevertheless praised Hampton for “so far following the program 100 percent” during his rehabilitation.
That said, spring training begins next week in Orlando, and Cox wants to push Hampton along slowly. He wants his pitcher fit enough to throw maybe five or six innings at the start of the regular season. “But then you get itchy to get going,” Cox said of Hampton, “and that’s when you really have to slow down a little bit. I’m not trying to be overly optimistic, because the fact is that he did go under the knife, and I’ve got my fingers crossed.”
The same was true of Cox regarding Smoltz. Even so, Smoltz went from missing all of the 2000 season for Tommy John surgery on his throwing elbow to becoming one of the most dominant closers ever to returning as a prolific starter headed for the Hall of Fame. Hampton glanced toward Smoltz’s locker before saying, “As much as he’s been through with his elbow, he’s probably the one guy who proves that, if he can do it, anybody can do it.”
Well, Hampton has to do it. He has to return from his Tommy John surgery that came after five trips to the disabled list in 2005. He has to be healthy enough to complete a potentially solid rotation of Smoltz, Tim Hudson, Chuck James and likely Kyle Davies.
Hampton has to do it, because those others have issues, too. Smoltz finished last season tied for the most victories (16) in the NL, but he is three months shy of 40. Hudson has spent his two years with the Braves as the antithesis of the ace who won 15 or more games for four consecutive seasons in Oakland. James was a prolific freshman, but that doesn’t mean he’ll become a prolific sophomore. Although Davies is another talented youngster, he missed most of last year with a groin injury.
A creaky Hampton would just exacerbate the situation. “Having him back would be huge, ” said Hudson, his sentiments echoed by Cox, who added, “He really could get us over the hump. He’s that important.” Said Smoltz, “Man, I hope he does make it, but history shows that he will have his struggles, and we’ll be counting a lot on him. Which is not a good formula. Whoever can take the pressure off him and let him do what he needs to do would be great.”
This would be better: A healthy and an effective Hampton taking the pressure off everybody else.
Permalink | Comments (67) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Hawks’ pieces don’t fit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
When you get as bad as the Hawks, it isn’t enough just to pick up some good players. You have to add the absolute right players at the absolute right moment. Billy Knight has gotten a couple of keepers — Joe Johnson via a sign-and-trade, Josh Smith with the 17th pick in 2004 — but too often there have been better options available. And that’s why the Hawks remain where they are.
Josh Howard would have helped more than Boris Diaw did. Josh Childress is coming along, but Luol Deng and Andre Iguodala have come further faster. About Marvin Williams as opposed to Chris Paul and Deron Williams, too much has been said already. And there was simply no reason to burn the No. 5 pick on Shelden Williams last summer, not when Brandon Roy and Randy Foye and Rudy Gay and Marcus Williams were out there.
Billy Knight has presided over four Hawks’ drafts. In each of the four, he took the wrong guy with his first pick. Go back to the M. Williams decision yet again. (Sorry, I know this gets tiresome.) Put Paul or D. Williams in the same backcourt as Joe Johnson and you have a real point guard working in tandem with one of the best off-guards in the business. As we know, Knight has this vision of interchangeable players manning multiple positions, but positions exist (and endure) in basketball for a reason.
Having a real point guard — meaning someone other than the glorified backup Speedy Claxton, for whom Knight spent $25 million — would have put last year’s team and this one in the playoff chase. (In the lamentable NBA East, it’s hard not to manage that much.) Having a real point guard would have given this franchise a viable future. Instead it’s back to the lottery, hoping the ping-pong balls align for once, hoping that if the Hawks do snare one of the top three picks in the upcoming draft Knight will break his pattern and take the right guy for once.
Permalink | Comments (32) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
