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NBA Draft Predictions: Northwest Division

Posted: Jun 22nd 2009 9:00AM by Matt Steinmetz (author feed)
Filed under: Jazz, Nuggets, Timberwolves, Trail Blazers, NBA Draft, Thunder

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The Minnesota Timberwolves might not have had the best regular season in 2008-09, but they're sure going to be a factor come the NBA Draft on Thursday.

New president of basketball operations David Kahn has five picks to use, including three in the first round. Minnesota has the Nos. 6, 18, and 28 picks in Round 1, and two more in the second round.

Will Kahn use all of those picks to drastically remake the T-Wolves' roster, or might he package a couple of picks or three in order to land a veteran difference-maker? More on the Northwest Division after the jump.

More: 2009 NBA Mock Draft | Atlantic Division
Pacific Division | Southeast Division | Southwest Division

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NBA Draft Predictions: Southeast Division

Posted: Jun 19th 2009 7:00AM by Tim Povtak (author feed)
Filed under: Bobcats, Hawks, Heat, Magic, Wizards, NBA Draft

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With only one lottery pick (Washington), there isn't a lot of draft buzz around the Southeast Division. The Orlando Magic, who reached the NBA Finals, don't have any picks, and the Miami Heat, who lost in the first round of the playoffs, have only picks in the second round.

Washington Wizards

Picks: No. 5 (first round), No. 33 (second round).

Needs: After such a disastrous season, they need one of those Obama Stimulus giveaways. They need a quality big man who can rebound, but they also need help on the perimeter so that Gilbert Arenas can limit his minutes and avoid getting hurt again. They need depth, and most importantly, they need some durability because there were too many guys sitting out too many games last season.

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Dionte Christmas on Life As a Sleeper

Posted: Jun 3rd 2009 10:00AM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: NBA Draft

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FanHouse's Matt Steinmetz attended the big NBA draft work-out in Oakland, Calif., on Monday and Tuesday. Temple's Dionte Christmas was one of the prospects. A killer backcourt scorer, Christmas looks to be a second round selection. Christmas talked to the media after Tuesday's run. This is the transcript.

Q: How did today's workout go?

A: I think this is one of my better workouts. I picked the right time to shoot the ball well, in front of a lot of coaches. I came in here and showed these coaches that I can definitely be a shooter for someone's team.

Q: Were you able to show anything else?

A: Yeah, I thought I did a great job on Terrence Williams today. He's a hot guy on the market right now and I just wanted to come in and show that I can defend a guy like him, with his abilities and athleticism. I thought I did a great job with that as well.

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Finding Fennis in 2009 Field

Posted: Mar 19th 2009 8:00AM by Ray Holloman (author feed)
Filed under: Midwest Region, West Region, South Region, East Region

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Some pictures are worth a thousand words.

This one was worth only a long, drawn-out "hmmm...", the kind of clueless head-cocked sound your dog might make if you asked it for stock advice.

Finding Fennis Dembo

Kwadzo Ahelegbe, Northern Iowa You won't get his name right on the first try, but he's used to that. If you're Purdue, who the 12th-seeded Panthers face in the first round, you won't be able to stay in front of him. He's used to that, too.

Don Ryan, AP

Ben Woodside, North Dakota State: The Bison point guard redshirted his freshman year as part of a group of four dedicated to making the NCAA tournament in the school's first eligible year when they would be seniors. He has the bona fides as a clutch performer, hitting the game-winning shot in the Summit League finals and he is the fifth most efficient offensive player in the nation.

Eric Landwehr, AP

Kenny Hasbrouck, Siena: The MAAC player of the year has heart-breaking skills and a heart-warming story. Last year he led the Saints to a first-round upset of fourth-seeded Vanderbilt. His biggest fan is his father, who watches every game from a wheelchair courtside.

Mike Groll, AP

Jerome Randle, Cal: Sure, he's a BCS performer, but if you're looking for this year's sharp-shooting legend, Randle is it. The junior connected on 46.8 percent of his 3-point attempts this year, third in the nation.

Harry How, Getty Images

Eric Maynor, Virginia Commonwealth: Maynor already brought down one college basketball Goliath when he toppled Duke in 2007. Now the scoring point guard, now a senior, is going for the rest of Goliath's family. Up first is UCLA, the same team Dembo torched for 41 points 22 years ago.

Matt Rourke, AP

Dionte Christmas, Temple: His Temple Owl team couldn't fit more comfortably on his back if he offered drink service while they're there. A strong scorer, Christmas could last two weeks in a wide-open bottom half of the South bracket.

Joseph Kaczmarek, AP

Garrison Carr, American: Before the Eagles knew where they were going to play, Carr was already in shooting range. The school's all-time leading 3-point shooter is just two away from breaking Patriot League record, and maybe your bracket, too.

Matt Rourke, AP

Artsiom Parakhouski, Radford: With a nickname like the Beast of Belarus, you wouldn't have to do much to get noticed. Fortunately for the Highlanders, he's pretty darn good anyway. There's not much chance of the first-ever men's 16-seed victory here but Parakhouski is a lot more interesting than opposing point guard Ty Lawson's toe.

Steve Helber, AP

Jeremiah Dominguez, Portland State: The 5-foot-6 point guard may have to have teammates get things off the top shelf of his locker for him, but he's the one handing out assists on the court. The Vikings are back in the NCAA tournament and a great first-round upset bet, thanks to the Big Sky player of the year Dominguez.

Jamie Squire, Getty Images

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South Region Roundtable: Mid-Majors, Sun Devils and Question Marks

Posted: Mar 18th 2009 12:30PM by Matt Snyder (author feed)
Filed under: South Region

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The NCAA tournament is just one day away, so FanHouse writers and editors got together to talk over each region. The Midwest Region got the ball rolling, followed by the East. Now, the South. What is intriguing about this region, and who do we like?

Matt Snyder: The one thing I like about the South Bracket is it's the one bracket with a bit of a mid-major flavor. Butler and Gonzaga should both have a shot at taking down Ty Lawson (right) and the mighty Tar Heels, and Western Kentucky has a solid chance at beating Illinois in the first round.

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Temple Pounds No. 8 Tennessee, 88-72

Posted: Dec 13th 2008 2:23PM by Shiloh Carder (author feed)
Filed under: Tennessee, A-10, SEC

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It may be only December 13th, but Christmas has exploded in Philadelphia. Temple's Dionte Christmas took over in their upset of No. 8 Tennessee.

Christmas scored 35 points, including seven three-point shots, to cruise to an 88-72 win. As the Vols closed the game to within four points in the second half, Christmas nailed three three-pointers to give separation and, ultimately, the win.

It wasn't just Christmas. The Owls did a fantastic job breaking Tennessee's press, moving the ball around and taking the wide open shots they received. It was also remarkable that Temple did an outstanding job of withstanding some runs by the Vols and then widen their own lead.

The Owls shot 55 percent for the game and held the Vols to just 36 percent shooting.

Fellow FanHouser Chas Rich said it perfectly: "(Christmas) has been their best player for the last couple years, but this is the sort of big stage game that gets national notice."

I'm hoping this does get Christmas some run as a great basketball player and not just a guy with a cool name. He's been nearly a 20-point scorer over the past two-plus seasons and has led the Atlantic-10 in scoring the past two seasons.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation: the Atlantic 10

Posted: Oct 27th 2008 5:25PM by Shiloh Carder (author feed)
Filed under: Xavier, A-10

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With the fall beginning and college basketball just around the corner, it's time to look back at what our favorite teams did during their summer vacations. Some did some good things; some had a bad time. So let's look back at who did what in our How I Spent My Summer Vacation series.

Today's look is the Atlantic 10.

The A-10 is routinely one of the better non-football conferences. They finished 7th in the conference RPI rankings last year and sent Xavier to the Elite Eight.

Still, there is a lot to be done for a league that struggles to find its niche among viewers in Big East, ACC and Big Ten markets. A lot was done this offseason.

Bernadette McGlade Becomes Commissioner

McGlade was an associate commissioner in the ACC and brings a ton of experience with her to the A-10. Her biggest task will be exposure for the conference. As I said, the A-10 is a wide-ranging conference filled with several small schools but also in some major U.S. cities. Even if you live in one of these cities, it is tough to find an Atlantic-10 game on anywhere.

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Upset Wednesday Leaves Charlotte Alone Atop the A-10

Posted: Jan 17th 2008 8:20AM by Josh Alper (author feed)
Filed under: Xavier Basketball, A-10 Basketball, Mid-Majors Basketball

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If there's a downside to the return to prominence for the Atlantic 10, it's nights like Wednesday night. It's not a downside for fans of good basketball, mind you, but for coaches and fans of favored teams like Dayton and Xavier. Rather than holding serve until their showdown next week, each found themselves upset on Wednesday night while Charlotte held serve at home and found themselves at the top of the heap after beating St. Joe's 70-66.

They can thank Leemire Goldwire, who may not settle for a spot on the all-conference first team. He may have designs on player of the year and last night's 36 points will help him make his case. While Goldmire was doing the offensive lifting, his teammates took care of slowing down the league's best shooting team. The Hawks were making more than 50% of their shots in A-10 play entering the game but were held to 44% and continued to struggle from long range.

Charlotte remains a flawed team. They turn the ball over too much and shooting 43% last night actually represented a step up in the world. That's going to make it hard for them to hold onto the top spot but three straight wins are three straight wins and, as Wednesday showed, there won't be easy nights in the A-10.

Continue Reading Upset Wednesday Leaves Charlotte Alone Atop the A-10

Atlantic 10 Preview

Posted: Jan 8th 2008 7:00PM by Josh Alper (author feed)
Filed under: Xavier Basketball, Umass Basketball, A-10 Basketball, Mid-Majors Basketball

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There's been no doubt about which mid major conference has been the biggest surprise to this point of the season. The Atlantic 10 has played the eighth toughest non-conference slate in the country and has a sparkling 113-65 record to show for their efforts. They've beaten teams from just about every one of the power conferences, they've won on the road and at neutral sites and reclaimed the standard that they ceded to the Missouri Valley conference in recent years.

You have to go back to 2004 to find a year when the league landed more than two teams in the big dance and, entering this season, it didn't seem like things would be all that different. Everyone knew Xavier is a consistently strong program but it was hard to find too many bullish projections about a second team that should be making March plans. What a difference two months make.

As of right now, it's almost impossible to see the league landing fewer than four teams in the tournament. Seven teams are in the top 67 of the RPI, three teams in the Top 25 and they've compiled so many quality wins that, barring a complete collapse by two of the front-runners, anything less would be criminal.

Let's break it down:

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