Weekly Thoughts

Here are some assorted thoughts on last week's tournament action (and a few other things):

-Who had the worst week ever? Joey Dorsey. Apparently his pathetic performance in Memphis's win over Texas A&M was not even remotely humbling for Dorsey. Instead, the inconsistent big man felt it necessary to tell the world that he was at least as good as the much heralded and "overrated" (if you ask Dorsey) Greg Oden. Dorsey promptly followed his horrible performance in Thursday's victory with, shockingly, an even worse one in the loss to Ohio State. Oden put up 17 points and 9 rebounds despite foul trouble once again limiting his minutes; Dorsey managed to not score a single point in the entire game. Dorsey could not have dropped his stock more even if he tried to in this tournament. Between his big mouth and not-so-big production, NBA GM's across the country are thinking "maybe we should stay away from this guy..." Hopefully for Dorsey, Isaiah Thomas will draft him with the Knicks first round pick and start him over David Lee--the best rebounder in the league.

-No matter what happens next week, this tournament has to go down as one of the most boring ones over the last 10 years. I love March Madness more than anyone, but it's hard to deny that this year left us yearning for a couple more shocking first-round upsets, a few double-digit seeds making the Sweet Sixteen, someone other than 7 of the top 8 seeded teams making the elite eight...well, you get the picture. It was almost inevitable that after a whole year of wondering "who will be this year's George Mason!?", a run that will likely not be replicated for decades, we would end up disappointed.

-I mentioned in the last stock watch that Tajuan Porter is a "burning or freezing" kind of player. Well he showed us both--after his lights out performance in the UNLV victory, he was ice cold against Florida, going 0-9 from the three point line until the last couple minutes. He's easy to love when he's on fire, and, well, still pretty easy to love when he plays poorly. Come on, who doesn't root for (as Raftery would say) THE LITTLE GUY!?

-Was anyone even remotely surprised upon hearing Ron Artest was talking about retiring? Normally, when one of the better players in any league discusses retirement in their mid-20's, everybody is completely and totally shocked. But we've become so numb to the Artest antics that nobody even flinched when they heard about his domestic violence charges that landed him a restraining order against a family. One can't help but laugh at the fact that this is the same family who he wants to retire to spend more time with. Maybe basketball is getting in the way of writing them e-mails.

-Kobe Bryant is without question the most talented player in the NBA. His 4 game streak of 50-point performances is one of the most impressive individual performances in modern sports. And what's more, the Lakers actually won all four games by a few points each, Kobe shot well above 50% from the field, and everybody knew he was shooting any time he had the chance. Essentially, Phil Jackson said "score more points" and Kobe abided. He truly is unstoppable.

-Greg Oden should not have made the AP All-America 1st team. This isn't a "who's gonna be the best pro" team, it's who performed best. Why is Oden, who missed the first seven games of the season and then averaged 15 ppg on the team over a guy like Jared Dudley, who led the ACC in both scoring and rebounding and carried an extremely mediocre team to a respectable season. Oden had a good freshman season, but it was not worthy of being named one of the five best players in the nation.

-Florida demonstrated their versatility once again. If Humphrey continues to shoot that well from the arc, the Gators will repeat without too much trouble (as I've believed the would all season...please let me be right about something!). Which brings me to another interesting point; there is a very real possibility that Florida and Ohio State could meet in the National Championships of both college football and basketball in the same calendar year. After getting thrashed by the underdog Gators in the BCS championship, and then again during this basketball season, could anything be more of a kick in the balls than losing the basketball championship to them too? Furthermore, if Florida wins it all, they will have won the last three championships in the two major college sports, an unbelievable feat. Throw in the story of the four junior roommates staying in college to win another championship together, the potential subplots could ruin our lives for the time leading up to the big game.