The Day in Hoops

This morning, my three year-old son pulled out a pair of my wife's nylons and asked if he'd ever be allowed to wear them. I told him when he's averaging 40 points a night for the Lakers, he can wear any women's clothing he wants...

Kobe Bryant may be a dick, but he sure does have balls. He demands the ball in the big moment and delivers time and time again. Tonight, despite having an off game and a sore wrist, he was absolutely money down the stretch. He may not be a great man. He may not be a great teammate. But if there's 5 seconds left in the game, there's nobody else I'd want with the ball in his hands...

If you aren't at work, here's a good Kobe related link...

If Lebron James wants to take any consolation in missing his potentially game winning jumper, there's plenty of footage of Kobe in his first couple seasons with the Lakers throwing up airballs as time expired. So there's hope for Lebron that in a few years, he'll be burying that shot. Still, I'll bet Wise Lebron whips Athlete Lebron's ass when he gets home...

I don't know if anyone watched the postgame on TNT, but when did Chuck Daly become Tony Curtis???

At the beginning of the season, both Indiana and Detroit were 10 to 1 to win it all. I liked both bets, but only put money on Indiana. That should have been a sign as to what kind of gambling season I was going to have...

In college hoops, Arizona loses at Oregon State. Corvalis is actually a tough place for elite teams to play. It's in the middle of nowhere. It's easy to take the Beavers lightly. The fans get up big for the game. If you can't take the crowd out of the game early, then you're in for a long, long night. The loss drops Arizona one game back in the Pac-10 race. I'm sticking with Cal to win the Pac-10 this year (1.5 pt dogs at Stanford tomorrow- are you kidding me??)...

UCLA lost center Lorenzo Mata to what looked like a pretty bad knee injury. If he's out for a significant period of time, UCLA will have lost their #1, #2, and #3 centers this season. They'll likely be starting three guards and two forwards vs Washington Saturday, who themselves start three forwards and two guards. With no centers in the game, it should be pretty high scoring...

Pitt is still unbeaten. I haven't seen any of their games, so I can't comment on this season's team, except to say that Pitt hasn't lost a step since Ben Howland left. Jamie Dixon is looking like the Bill Belichick to Ben Howland's Bill Parcells. Only, you know, on like one-one hundredth the scale...