This week, FanHouse is taking an early look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
The way the season ended for the Memphis Tigers last year was totally devastating. Memphis ended the season 38-2 and many in Memphis still have a hard time thinking about the 38 wins. Rarely has there been such an amazing season that brought upon such intense disappointment.
Now that Derrick Rose, Chris Douglas Roberts, and Joey Dorsey have NBA contracts and Memphis looks to who will replace much of what made the team such a success in the previous few seasons. While Rose was only in Memphis for one year, CDR and Dorsey were key components of a team that went to the Elite 8 twice, and the Final Four (and championship game) once. With Dorsey in the middle, and Douglas Roberts on the wing, Memphis went 104-10 over the last three seasons.
When it comes to rookie hazing, I like the NBA's approach (dancing in front of thousands of people) more so than MLB's (bending gender roles), though I think we can all agree it's better than what some high school football teams do.
The regular season can't come soon enough for Houston's second-year players. As Shane Battier explains, Luis Scola, Aaron Brooks, Carl Landry and the like will be subject to the same humiliation that Joey Dorsey is up until the moment they play their first regular season game of their second season. Of course, if you watch around the 2:45 mark, you'll see that Scola seems to be handling himself better than most.
I can't really pinpoint what it is about this video that I found so entertaining -- like Shoals, I'm just surprised at the guy's charisma and ease in front of a camera. Sure, we expect as much from veterans, but it's not something that's necessarily innate (self-link alert!) with incoming rookies.
Random segue: after seeing Dorsey first-hand at the summer league in Las Vegas, I just wanted to add that the guy is an absolute house. You can see it a little on TV, but it doesn't do him justice: he not only dwarfs reporters but also his fellow players. I'm not kidding, his shoulders make Dwight Howard blush.
You have to give it to Joey Dorsey. If you want to immediately show the coaching staff and your teammates that you're willing to stand up for your guys, getting thrown out of a summer league game is kind of the way to go. Apparently Dorsey found a hard foul given by Dee Brown to Gustavo Barrera was a bit out of line, and decided to let Brown know about it. He kept at it, and eventually the ref bounced him . The best part? Yeah, he was in street clothes. He tweaked his ankle yesterday, and took today off. So a 2nd round rookie managed to get himself thrown out of a summer league game that he wasn't actually playing in. We're not sure whether to reward the young man for his tenacity and passion, or simply tell the guy, "Dude. Summer league. Settle down. "
Oh, and by the way, Dee Brown ended up tipping in the game tying shot to send the game to overtime, where the Wizards defeated the Rockets. So there's that.
Crystal Ballin'takes a team-by-team look at what should, could, and probably will happen in the June 26th NBA Draft.
If NBA greatness translated to the front office, ho-boy, would the Bobcats be unstoppable. Unfortunately, it doesn't. And as such, Michael Jordan's Tarheel-homerism-fueled draft rampage will only be stopped this year by everyone flocking back to Chapel Hill. Oh wait. Larry Brown's still coming.
Picks: #9, #38
Needs: A big man who can score and/or complement Emeka Okafor in the post (read: let him play power forward). Or perhaps an aggressive, defensive minded bigger guard-forward that can keep Adam Morrison off the floor when Gerald Wallace gets hurt.
Best Case Scenario: Brook Lopez drops to number nine, although considering how guard/non-big man heavy the top part of the draft is, this seems pretty unlikely. There's chatter that people aren't enamored with Brook's lack of upside though, and nothing scares an NBA front office away from someone like "lack of upside" (see: Battier, Shane). And speaking of homerism -- I'm going out on a limb and saying the Cats should trade down in the second round and pick up local UNCG product (respect the alma mater, please) and 3/4 tweener Kyle Hines, or just roll with a Joey Dorsey/D.J. White frontcourt addition.
Bullets Forever has a great little look at a type of player they dub "Senor Propolo" -- second-round productive low-post players. This has been a pet cause of mine since last summer, when I spent half my free time building support for the Paul Millsap Doctrine, which argued that per-minute production in the NBA was a good indicator of talent level.
BF's championing of Senor Propolo takes a slightly different tact, looking specifically at short but strong college post players who end up producing just fine thankyouverymuch at the pro level. There have been big successes in each of the past three drafts, including Leon Powe, Ronny Turiaf, Brandon Bass and Millsap (yeah!). Carl Landry's the one who sticks out to me -- in Houston's run of almost two dozen straight W's, Landry sat right up there with McGrady and Scola in terms of importance. It's easy for us to ignore the garbage-can production of the Landry sort, but when offered consistently (that's the key), it's extremely valuable.
So who are the Propolos this year? BF argues for Richard Hendrix of Alabama and D.J. White of Indiana. Joey Dorsey misses the cut because his lack of offense, but in my view, even if he lacks a key Propolo attribute, he'd be a good pick in the second round based on his defense and rebounding.
"There's absolutely no reason anyone would have any clue," a clearly perturbed Paxson said at the NBA's predraft camp. "It doesn't do me any good to even respond to this stuff. I'm tired of it already. Nobody has any idea. Anyone who speculates can do that. That's fine. But nobody knows."
A real people-person, that Pax. On the one hand, it's hard to blame Paxson: of course this surely constant barrage of questions, renewed with each passing rumor, has to be annoying. But it will only last a month, and at the end of the road awaits an incredible prospect (either way). It only gets better from here, man. Carpe diem.
Also, Pax could have fun with this and start floating lower-rung prospect names. Hell, he could start making up names. "Yeah, we're going to bring in Stanislav Slapadappawinkidinkivic for a workout. We think he could be a great fit with the first pick." That'll teach the hard-working beat writers. That'll teach'em.
NBA draft pundits/experts/whathaveyou's always have two schools of thought. One, who a team should take and two, who a team will take, given their draft position.
Joey Dorsey, on the other hand, doesn't mess around. He is just flat out letting everyone know what is going to happen. Because, apparently, he has some sort of inside source.
'Chicago's got a lot of pressure on them because Derrick's from Chicago,' Dorsey said. 'But they're going to take Beasley. I've got the inside. They're going to get Beasley. ... I'm not telling you how I know. You'll see June 26. I can't say any more.'
Dorsey might be right, but neither the Bulls or the Heat are willing to say so.
'I'm not going to get into any details on that,' Heat general manager Randy Pfund said when asked how Miami's work leading into the draft, including the scheduling of workouts with potential lottery picks, is going.
Clearly, Pfund is just pflustered by Dorsey's call out of the Bulls in the top slot.
Now, the bonus to Dorsey's gamble here is that he has a 50/50 shot, since no one else even enters the conversation. Unless of course Paxson slipped up and already told Derrick Rose they are not taking him and Rose told Dorsey, which I suppose, is actually plausible if you've followed the Bulls recently.
John Feinstein of the Washington Post and William Rhoden of the New York Times are both discussing Memphis on the morning of the title game. Each writer has zeroed in on the same thing. Either because of the program's past history of NCAA rules issues, the color of the players skin or the style of play, Memphis has been the outsider at this Final Four featuring three of the game's most storied programs.
Rhoden takes issue with the overuse of terms like athletic and long when describing Memphis. Too often, they are code words for black players who play undisciplined basketball and are only interested in the highlight play. That's certainly the case here, since Memphis is guilty of neither of those things.
The reality is that the Memphis offense is not turning the ball over and the defense is suffocating, and Memphis can play virtually any style at any time.
Bill Self deserves every plaudit he's getting and it's easy to see why Oklahoma State wants to spend the GDP of Iceland to bring him to Stillwater but whose team was it that let their opponent off the mat on Saturday night? John Calipari's team kept their foot on UCLA's throat while it was Kansas that lost all discipline and focus.
No. 1 seed Memphis manhandled Texas 85-67 and cruised to the Final Four today, giving us yet another boring NCAA Tournament game but also getting us one step closer to having all four top seeds playing in San Antonio.
The Tigers never really struggled. Although the Longhorns scored the last six points of the first half and the first six points of the second to keep things from getting too out of hand, this was the Tigers' game all the way. They took an early lead, held their ground, and then dominated most of the second half.
Chris Douglas-Roberts, Derrick Rose and Joey Dorsey all had big games for Memphis, and Texas played an oddly passive defense. The Longhorns failed to exploit Memphis's greatest weakness -- free throw shooting -- by rarely fouling until the game was out of hand, and when the Tigers did get to the line, they were uncharacteristically accurate.
After two straight years of getting stopped in the Elite Eight, Memphis is about to advance to the Final Four.
This week, FanHouse is taking an early look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.
Bullets Forever has a great little look at a type of player 
On occasion of second-round prospect 
NBA draft pundits/experts/whathaveyou's always have two schools of thought. One, who a team should take and two, who a team will take, given their draft position. 
John Feinstein of the Washington Post
No. 1 seed Memphis manhandled Texas 85-67 and cruised to the Final Four today, giving us 
