Evelyn Lozada -- I'm QUITTING 'Basketball Wives

"Basketball Wives" star Evelyn Lozada claims she was stabbed in the back by producers and wants to leave the show for good ... TMZ has learned.



Sources close to the reality star tell us ... Evelyn feels producers violated her trust by allegedly divulging sensitive information about an illicit relationship she had in the past.

We're told Evelyn believes producers leaked the information to a female cast member in an effort to incite a violent confrontation between the two women on the show.

We're told Evelyn feels completely betrayed and even fired off an email to producers last night ... saying she wants to leave the show for good.

So far, no official comment from Evelyn.

See also
'Basketball Wives' -- Chris Bosh Boxes Out Baby Mama
NBA Star's Baby Mama Tapped for 'Basketball Wives'
Bball 'Wife' Whistled for Boredom -- Getting Bounced?

Fantasy Basketball: Tarnished Tuesdays

Last week the big news in the NBA was the massive amount of trading going on throughout the league. This week the news is unfortunately related to injuries. The former Mr. Eva Longoria, Tony Parker, is out for the next 2-4 weeks after injuring his calf against the Grizzlies on Sunday Night. George Hill should take over the starting duties in the meantime and makes for an excellent pickup as a source of 3's, steals, points, rebounds (for a PG) and assists. He should be able to resemble at least a poor man's Tony Parker while the Spurs' star PG nurses his calf injury.

The Cavs' Antawn Jamison fractured his left pinkie finger on Sunday and is reportedly out for the season, per the Associated Press. Another devastating blow for both the embattled franchise and its fans. Neither of Jamison's replacements should do anything notable. Samardo Samuels is too raw to recommend as a viable replacement. If anything, I'd say the streaky JJ Hickson could be in line for more minutes.

More injury news after the jump...



The Milwaukee Bucks just got hit with the injury bug fairly hard as Ersan Ilyasova and Andrew Bogut are both out for Tuesday's game at least. Ilyasova suffered a bad concussion on Friday, so he's out indefinitely. Head issues are very tricky, and teams need to be careful with them. Bogut injured his ribs in Saturday's game against the Bulls, and it appears he's resting short-term. Keep an eye on the injury-prone Center as he has battled injuries his whole career. He should be back shortly. In the meantime, Larry Sanders and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute make intriguing plays tonight.

The Los Angeles Clippers also have some injury concerns. The injured Mo Williams played on Monday and actually banished Eric Bledsoe to the bench. Williams is the new starting PG in LA, but he re-injured his ankle last night. The ankle doesn't appear to be serious, but if it lingers, Bledsoe is a nice play. Excellent news awaits the Clippers: Eric Gordon is nearing a return. Bad news awaits Randy Foye: Eric Gordon is nearing a return. Foye has been a beast as the team's starting SG and may play heavily while Gordon is eased into the lineup, but it doesn't look good for Foye in the near future. Gordon should be back on Wednesday. Get him in all lineups!

The King's Tyreke Evans is currently in a walking boot and will remain in one for at least two weeks. When he should return is big question mark depending on the play of Jermaine Taylor and Marcus Thornton, both of whom are playing well in Evans' absence. Thornton, who I touted yesterday, blew up for 29 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals and a block in a win over the Clippers Monday Night. Evans won't be rushed back as long as Thornton performs like this. If you're an Evans owner, make sure you have Thornton rostered.

Bad break (no pun intended) for the newly acquired Danillo Gallinari of the Denver Nuggets. The sharpshooter from Italy fractured his toe and is expected to miss the next 7-10 days. Wilson Chandler, his former teammate in New York, will assume Gallinari's minutes and is an excellent play in that timespan. People are down on Chandler since he left New York. Don't be one of them.

Deron Williams is nursing a wrist injury, but you wouldn't know that judging by the assist totals he's put up as a Net. He even put up a season-high 18 assists on Monday, but watch the injury report daily; the injury could flare up at anytime due to his constant usage of the wrist.

Watch the Atlanta Hawks this week. They could be without two starters early on, or they could be back to full-strength by tomorrow. Kirk Hinrich sat out Monday's game due to a wrist injury (caught me off-guard, otherwise I would've mentioned it in yesterday's column), and Josh Smith injured the sprained right MCL in his knee. Smith is currently day-to-day and even had his MRI cancelled (good news!!). It appears Smith will diagnose himself and determine if he's ready based on how his knee is feeling. In Hinrich's absence, promising PG Jeff Teague started, but he struggled putting up 7 points, 6 rebounds and a disappointed one assist. I wouldn't recommend Teague as Joe Johnson may even steal PG minutes from him with Jamal Crawford stepping in at SG.

Kentucky Wildcats Basketball: Dear Dan Owens

Dear Mr. Owens:

As Captain James Tiberius Kirk said to Commander Kruge in Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock, "I have had enough of you."

Your latest attempt to rabble-rouse for the Kentucky Derby Festival Classic has crossed the line from advocacy into an intolerable display of bad manners and worse sportsmanship. I am not inclined to rebuke your every utterance, but will you kindly, for the love of the game and its sponsors, stop trying to set Kentucky fans against each other, and stop trying to frighten UK's recruiting class into thinking that the Bluegrass is full of madmen with nothing better to do than attack the quite rational decision of young men and their families?

Many Kentucky fans in Louisville, like myself who have lived here since 1988, have attended the Kentucky Derby Festival Classic game many times. I have personally had a relationship with the KDF Classic on other projects, a relationship I value and appreciate. I love the Kentucky Derby Festival, the basketball game, and the excitement it generates in the River City.

What I do not love is your continued unethical offensive on the University of Kentucky for not having players attend this year's game, at least so far. Your outright attacks on the University in general and Head Coach John Calipari in particular are reprehensible, over the top, and utterly odious. Every Kentucky fan in the city, including me, would rather have a Kentucky player on the KDF Classic roster. At this point, every one of us will be disappointed. But that doesn't mean we won't attend the game.



John Calipari has continually told you and anyone who would listen that he isn't interested in involving himself in the decisions of our 2011 recruits. Whether or not he ever did so before is utterly and completely irrelevant, and at minimum, decorum requires that you accept his decision whether or not you agree with it. You have previously made your disagreement publicly known. When is enough enough?

Mr. Owens, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported today that you referred to former NBA star Michael Jordan, presumably in connection with the Jordan Brand Classic, thus, in an email to the University of Kentucky:

Regarding Jordan, Owens wrote, “He plays golf, gambles and butchers the King's English.”

Whether or not this is true is irrelevant. It is offensive ... no, unconscionable ... for an official involved with a class affair like the KDF Classic to attack another event in this way. This is the sort of rhetoric I have come to associate with the worst kind of sports fans and political hacks.

This reference to John Calipari is also far beyond offensive:

Owens also referred to Calipari associate William Wesley, also known in basketball circles as “World Wide Wes,” and his relationship with Gilchrist and Gilchrist's mother. Owens later sent an e-mail that he said was “a retraction of any false or defamatory comments.”

Mr. Owens, the familial relationships of the Gilchrist family are none of your bloody business, sir. Retracting your comments does not remove them, especially when what is required is an abject, self-abasing apology for this execrable rhetoric.

I regret having to say this, Mr. Owens, but in your zeal, you have beclowned yourself, and embarrassed the Classic and the Kentucky Derby Festival, and arguably the city of Louisville and Commonwealth of Kentucky. At minimum, I call on you to make a sincere and public act of contrition for this insensitive, narcissistic and utterly bellicose behavior.

Worst to First: The Anatomy of Basketball Redemption

New coach Nate Thornhill (wearing hat) has guided the Harry Van Arsdale basketball team to a 12-2 record and a playoff berth a year after the Cardinals finished 4-10. (Evan MacDonald/The Brooklyn Ink)
By Evan MacDonald
This is the story of a team that used to stink.
Last year, the Harry Van Arsdale boys’ basketball team in Williamsburg finished a woeful 4-10, nowhere close to a playoff berth. They were a lousy 7-35 over the past three seasons.
Then things began to change.
This year, the Cardinals are 12-2 entering the postseason. Under a new coach and a new understanding of what it means to be part of a team, many of the same players from those losing teams have changed not only the way they play on the court, but also the way they conduct themselves off it. They’ve helped Van Arsdale qualify for the postseason for the first time in years.
This is the story of how it happened.
The Coach
Nathan Thornhill is 25 years old. He’s not quite 6 feet tall, and he’s slender. He wears glasses, and has a neatly trimmed beard. Thornhill looks youthful; he could pass for one of the Cardinals’ players if he wore a uniform. He graduated in 2007 from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, where he was a basketball player and track and field star. He studied abroad in Argentina during his junior year in 2006, where he played semi-pro basketball for Ciudad de Buenos Aires.
Upon graduating, he relocated to Brooklyn, where he became a Spanish teacher and an assistant boys’ varsity basketball coach at Van Arsdale High School. He got a chance to watch those mediocre teams, and he wasn’t impressed. The losses weren’t the worst part, he says; it was what he saw in the team that really bothered him. He saw a group of players who expected to lose.
“The last three years, we just weren’t very confident,” Thornhill says. “You could just see it in the way we played and in our energy. We just expected to lose.”
When the school year began last fall, Thornhill was preparing for another year as an assistant coach. But then he heard that the previous coach, Adam Lustig, was stepping down to pursue a graduate degree, which he couldn’t do while coaching the team. So Thornhill, who was already the coach of the school’s cross country and outdoor track teams, decided to apply for the job. After writing to the school’s athletic director to express a formal interest in the position, he was hired.
In October, Thornhill called a team meeting. He knew it wasn’t going to be just any team meeting. He was making changes, especially to the culture of the team.
“I had the pleasure of playing college basketball,” he says. “So I figured I would coach them like they were a college team.”
It was a dress-for-success approach, so to speak, but it meant things were going to be serious. His goal, he says, was to come off like a jerk and let the players know he meant business. He was stern throughout, and set forth a list of expectations. He strongly encouraged players to join the cross-country team and required them to run three miles each day in order to be in better shape for basketball season. He also let them know he wasn’t limiting his approach to the basketball court; he mandated that they attend study hall every day after school. And then he dropped the biggest bomb of all: He told them that none of the players who were on last year’s team were guaranteed spots on this year’s roster.
To the players, the meeting was a little jarring. Players who knew Thornhill from his time as an assistant said they knew he was stern, but didn’t expect rules like this. Leonel Familia, who had just transferred to the school from nearby Bishop Loughlin High School in Fort Greene, sums up the team’s reactions succinctly.
“We were scared,” he says.
Thornhill was telling his players that they needed to commit themselves to the team or risk being cut. But that meeting would set in motion the events that led to a transformative season.
The Turnaround Season in Sports
Van Arsdale’s task was a difficult one, but hardly unique. Many teams — high school, college, and professional — have experienced quick reversals of their fortunes.
The 1980 Boston Celtics, after drafting Larry Bird, finished 61-21, a 40-game improvement, and advanced to the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals. In 1991, the World Series featured the American League’s Minnesota Twins and National League’s Atlanta Braves, two teams that had finished last in their respective divisions the year before. The 1999 St. Louis Rams, after finishing last in football’s NFC West the previous season, rallied behind quarterback Kurt Warner en route to a 13-3 season and an improbable Super Bowl victory.
And the 1969 New York Mets, a perennial doormat in baseball’s National League since their inaugural season in 1962, finished 100-62, a 27-game improvement over their 1968 record, en route to the franchise’s first world championship with an upset victory over the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. That turnaround was credited as much to their starting pitching as it was to their demanding second-year manager, Gil Hodges.
The Seeds of Change
From the moment that initial team meeting ended, Thornhill set about doing what many coaches aspire to do, but very few succeed in doing: He started to change the culture and attitude of Cardinals basketball. He knew it wouldn’t be easy. He wanted to instill order, discipline, and a sense of camaraderie. Not easy with a group of teenage boys.
As a player, Thornhill was a hard worker, and he knew the value of approaching basketball that way. He understood that you couldn’t get by on talent alone, and that the only way to be successful was to have that approach not just on the court, but also in school and in life. Always being in that frame of mind, he says, forces it to become a habit.
“I feel like the success of this team isn’t necessarily basketball-related. It isn’t because we’re talented, as much as we’d like to think that,” he says. “It’s about effort and hard work. Hard work on the basketball court is directly related to hard work in the classroom.”
Once practices began in December, Thornhill surprised the players once again by informing them that minutes would be allotted based on a player’s effort in practice. It didn’t matter if a player was the best scorer on the team, or the tallest player. If that player didn’t want to run and work hard, he simply wouldn’t play.
The relentless internal competition was difficult at first for the players. They now say everyone was practicing even harder to win minutes. Players often came close to blows, and regularly argued with each other.
“We’d be going so hard, pushing each other,” senior guard Joshua Manners says. “At the beginning of the season, people were so competitive that they wanted to fight.”
For the players, though, the transition worked because they were so hungry to play on a winning team. Last season, a player had quit the team, and the attitude was generally less serious. So although Thornhill’s new rules were surprising, there was no fighting back. Players were in such a malaise the past few seasons that they were willing to try anything to be successful.
Thornhill did have one advantage: His team had talent. Familia, a junior forward and one of the team’s captains, played in the post and had a nice shooting touch from the wing. And he could take charge.
“Leo is a very vocal leader,” Thornhill says. “He has the ability to analyze the game. He just sees the game of basketball very well.”
The other captain was point guard Jesus Pacheco, a senior. Thornhill says Pacheco is at his best leading the team through his sometimes-cocky attitude, which is evident in the way he plays and practices. He isn’t afraid to speak his mind, and never backs down from a challenge.
“Jesus is very, very confident,” Thornhill says. “Sometimes you even have to tell him to tone it down a little bit.”
Others, like Manners, Ayars, junior forward Raheim Lawson, senior guard Malik Clark, and senior guard Korede Griffith gave the team a solid group of scorers.
It did not take long after practices began for the players to sense an improvement. Still, the Cardinals couldn’t be sure they were really getting better. In practice, they were only playing against each other. Without competition they didn’t have a way to measure their progress. They didn’t have games to look to for concrete evidence of their skills.
They finally got the chance in their first two preseason scrimmages in December, the first against Bushwick and the second against traditional power Christ the King. The players were eager to see how much they had progressed, but even they were surprised by how things turned out. The Cardinals crushed Bushwick. Then they beat Christ the King.
“After those two,” Familia says, “we knew we were unstoppable.”
Buoyed by their early success, the team opened the season by running off six straight victories before finally falling to rival Grand Street High School on December 17. It was a loss that didn’t sit well with the Cardinals.
“We’d go home and read posts on Facebook about how we lost to them,” Familia says. “When we fell to 6-1, their crowd started chanting at us. But we beat ourselves that game. We shot 17-for-42 at the free throw line.”
But there were lessons in that loss, and the Cardinals didn’t let it become a major setback. They looked at the things they did wrong — the missed free throws, turnovers, and poor defensive rotations — and improved them in practice. The team became stronger. It was a theme that would define the Cardinals’ entire season.
The Psychology of the Turnaround
For the players, the most important thing about this season has been their relationships with each other. The players responded to Thornhill’s tough practices and stringent rules, and bonded together because of their shared experience. As often happens with teenage boys, fights and struggle brought them closer together.
“We have great team chemistry,” Clark says. “We know how each other plays, and the new kids fit right in.”
Thornhill was instrumental in creating that camaraderie. He took the team out for pizza after good games or scrimmages. He made them work together in the weight room, the cross-country team, and in the study halls. He even had them sleep over at his house before a tournament (with parent’s permission, of course).
One of the things that bonds his players together, he says, is their personalities. He jokingly refers to the team as a “bunch of clowns.”
“They’re always joking around,” he says with a laugh. “We’ll go out for pizza after a game, and you can’t get them to leave. They’re all sitting there ragging on each other, joking around.”
Familia said his team’s sense of humor is one of the things he likes best about being a Cardinal. “In the pizza shop, class, school, everywhere we go,” he says, “we’re always joking on each other.”
But how much does players liking one another actually bear on a team’s success? Basketball isn’t about personalities; it’s about scoring more points than the other team. It’s about execution. It’s about defense, passing, and shooting. How much would friendship really matter? According to one expert, quite a bit.
Dr. William Weiner is a clinical psychologist on New York’s Upper West Side who specializes in sports psychology. He’s been working with athletes for 15 years. He believes the most important factor in a team’s success is often chemistry.
“Chemistry is everything,” he says. “There are endless examples of teams that should be good on paper, but fail. But chemistry is essentially a function of the culture a coach instills.”
Thornhill, to that end, is serious, but he isn’t completely removed from the clowning around. While players shoot free throws at practice, he’s constantly blowing his whistle and hitting the buzzer on the scoreboard, creating loud distractions. And when a player misses, he chides them.
“Uh-oh…Spaghettios,” he says.
The players, in turn, speak of how much they enjoy playing for Thornhill. And, says Weiner, as much as players’ relationships with each other are important, their relationship with their coach can be just as crucial.
“The players need to come to believe there’s something in it for them,” he says. “There’s needs to be something in their interest, so they’re not just horses in the stable, being brought out to work.”
Thornhill has instilled a culture where players and coach care equally about each other, even more than wins and losses. The friendships are crucial. The victories are just a product of those friendships combined with hard work and a disdain for the losing seasons of the past.
“I actually feel like it’s a brotherhood,” Ayars says. “I would honestly fight for every single person on this team.”
The Rematch
After the Grand Street loss, the Cardinals reeled off wins in five of their next six games. By that point, the rest of the school had taken notice. While last year’s team only had a few fans come out to games, this year’s squad regularly plays in front of about 300 spectators in the packed Van Arsdale gymnasium. But the players don’t let it affect them.
“Nobody even takes notice,” Pacheco says of his teammates. “People from the school will come up to us and tell us, but we don’t care. We just try to stay modest.”
The players also succeeded in keeping their emotions in check, right up into the final regular-season game: a rematch against undefeated Grand Street. For the Cardinals, it was Senior Day, with posters bearing the seniors’ names adorning the Van Arsdale gymnasium. And more importantly, it was a chance for revenge.
The teams were close throughout the first half, but Grand Street took an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter. Still, the Cardinals weren’t done. They stormed back to tie the game, and eventually forced the contest into overtime. And through it all, the Cardinals players were as one.
“I was on the bench,” Ayars says. “We all had our arms locked together. We wanted to get that win.”
The Cardinals won that game behind huge shots from Griffith and Pacheco in the overtime. Familia ended it with a pair of free throws in the 60-56 victory.
When the final buzzer sounded, the noise didn’t stop. The Van Arsdale scorekeeper held the buzzer down for 10 seconds in celebration as fans swarmed the players on the court. Players took off their jerseys and swung them above their heads, relishing the moment.
On the Eve of the Playoffs
You can see the bond between the Cardinals when they practice. Practice isn’t just going through motions — Thornhill doesn’t allow slacking off. Every player works.
Throughout the drills — 3-on-2 fast breaks, full court sprints, and defensive formations — the players are lively and talkative. They let each other know when someone isn’t pulling his weight.
“Josh, you need to slide over and help,” Familia yells at Manners, his defensive partner during the 3-on-2 drill, after the two had surrendered another basket.
Thornhill is an active coach at practice. It isn’t enough to tell a player that he messed up. The only way to go about it, he says, is to tell the player how to correct his mistake.
“Yes, Josh should’ve helped, but you keep getting beat,” he tells Familia. “You need to slide down and take away the baseline.”
The approach, he explains, comes from a coach for whom he had played. That coach didn’t bother to try to correct mistakes. He simply sat his players on the bench until they improved. Thornhill is different.
“If a player doesn’t seem confident in himself, I or another coach will talk to him, but not to say that he sucks,” Thornhill said. “Just to let him know what he needs to do in order to get on the court.”
But no drill seems to get the players going more than their boxing-out drill. Thornhill places the ball at mid-court, and divides the players into two teams. The offensive team’s objective is to grab the ball within five seconds. The defensive team is supposed to stop them.
At the whistle, the offensive team’s players rush toward the ball, while the defensive team tries to box them out. Pushing and shoving is key. Plus, the players now know every trick. One offensive player, for instance, will stand behind another, creating confusion for the two defenders. Another player starts more than 15 feet away from the ball, making it easier to run by his defender.
“Let’s go, let’s go!” Pacheco shouts. “Who’s hungry?”
The losing team is forced to run sprints. But even when the Cardinals are divided, they are still together. While half of the players are running sprints, the other half of the team is on the sidelines, loudly cheering them on.
“Everybody is putting in the work,” Pacheco says. “Everybody is sweating bullets.”
The first step in the Cardinal’s transformation is complete. The team is a winner. But the playoffs begin Wednesday night and the players want to play on. They open against Staten Island’s Port Richmond Raiders, who finished 7-7 this season. The game will tip off at 5 p.m at Van Arsdale.
As he enters his first playoffs as a head coach, Thornhill has his sights set high.
“We want a banner,” he says. “There are no basketball banners on the walls here. We want to be the first.”

Texas Basketball: How Much is in Your Glass?

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Many of us witnessed a second straight meltdown on the hardwood earlier today. Texas has now dropped back to back road games, has wilted away its two game conference lead, and, for the time being, given up any hopes of landing on the No. 1 line in the NCAA tournament. The real question revolves around what to make of the losses to Nebraska and Colorado. Two teams with their backs against the wall who came up big or clear cracks in the Longhorn armor? Minor road blips on the road to the Final Four or a first and second draft blueprint of the ideal takedown of Texas?

From the open threads in each of the two conference losses, there are clearly fans who will vehemently argue each side of the issue. Some might call those who are commenting that the sky is falling, Chicken Littles or reactionaries or pessimists. Some might call those who are easily brushing off the defeats as Barnes defenders or blind or adorning burnt orange glasses.

For the purposes of this piece, let's identify the two sides as Glass Half Full and Glass Half Empty. Even if you already know on which side you are, I encourage you to read the full piece. Understand the other side and then defend yours in the comments. Remember to keep it civil and rationale. With the high emotion of a loss worn off at least some, there is no place for "On a good day, Texas could take down the Lakers" any more than there is room for "This ‘Horns teams is the worst in the history of the university." Neither comment is rationale nor productive.

Now with the ground rules set, let's take a look at both sides of the coin, starting with the negative after the jump.



Glass Half Empty

Defense of Guards: After Alec Burks' performance today, some might say that a pattern has developed. Ashton Gibbs (24 pts, on 8-of-14). Kemba Walker (22 pts on 8-of-27). LaceDarius Dunn (26 pts, on 11-of-26). And now Burks (33 pts, on 10-of-21). When Texas faces an elite guard, that guard goes off and usually affects the outcome of the game. Many believe that to win in March, you must have great guard play. Given that axiom, Texas will run into an opponent in the NCAA tournament with a great guard or two and that will be our exit ramp.

Free Throw Shooting: Before the Colorado game, Texas was shooting a horrific 64.4% as a team from the free throw line, good for 297th in the country (KenPomeroy). After a game stalling, 20-of-34 performance against the Buffaloes, that number will only get worse. Missing free throws is bad enough, but when that inability changes substitution patterns at the end of game, fans should be really worried. In the NCAA tournament, if Texas is holding a three or four point lead in the final minute, can Rick Barnes really afford to keep Dogus Balbay (58%) or Tristan Thompson (48%) on the court? On the offensive side, the strategy is clear-take them out and insert Alexis Wangmene and J'Covan Brown to knock down the free bees. But what about the other side? What if Barnes can't substitute as the ball change ends? How worried are you now about the Texas defense if the best perimeter and best post defender are watching from the sidelines? Free throw shooting has yet to truly cost the ‘Horns a game, but in March, it only takes one.

One-on-one offense: As we slaughtered the Sam Houston States and Coppin States of the college basketball world, the new Texas offense based on the Utah Jazz and UCLA principles looked pretty good. In fact that same offense looked solid as the Longhorns raced to early leads and cruised past Big 12 foes like Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Missouri, and Texas Tech. However, in the face of adversity, this year's Texas offense looks a whole lot more like the 2010-11 Texas offense than it does a true motion, screen, cut, and re-screen one.

Look no further than the last two Saturdays. As Texas yakked up double digit leads in Lincoln and Boulder, Texas was busy reverting to one-on-one basketball. Jordan Hamilton tried to create his own shot or simply stood still on the perimeter waiting for his chance to launch a contested 24 footer. J'Covan Brown took his role as instant offense to a new level with multiple no pass-first shot possessions. Even the calming influence of Cory Joseph looked to create off the dribble instead of run the more efficient inside-out attack through Tristan Thompson. With the talent margin getting smaller in smaller in each advancing round, the chance that Texas trails in a tournament game is near 100%. After what we've seen in the last two losses, Texas doesn't have the patience or trust in their offensive system to keep running their stuff and come from behind.

Inability to play the full 40 minutes: During the 11 game conference winning streak, there were whispers about this as an issue. Now that Texas has dropped two of its last three games, those whispers sound more like premonitions. The Longhorns jumped to double digit leads in so many conference games, particularly home ones, that Texas wasn't forced to focus and execute for a full two halves. Again, as opponents get tougher and tougher, very few games will be won in the first half. Most tournament games, beyond maybe those in the first round. will require two solid halves of basketball. Texas hasn't played a full 40 minutes in weeks, and there is no reason to suspect they get it together any better away from the Erwin Center.

Lack of Depth: Sure the timeouts are longer in the NCAA tournament, and if players aren't in shape by now, they never will be. However, Texas started the season with a slim roster after the move by Avery Bradley to the NBA and the decisions by Varez Ward and Shawn Williams to transfer. Couple those with the plan-for-next-season decision to red-shirt Clint Chapman and Texas was quickly down to just nine scholarship players. Given the limitations of Jai Lucas, some might argue that Barnes is only playing with eight. In Boulder, six players accounted for all the minutes but 13.

Is March going to be any different? Maybe. Alexis Wangmene will be back on Monday but Jai's skill set isn't going to change. Texas will field, at best, eight likely NCAA tournament players. Barnes has two frontcourt subs in Wangmene and Matt Hill and one backcourt sub in J'Covan Brown. That's it. Eight is probably enough on paper but foul trouble and limited abilities should scare Longhorn fans.

Glass Half Full

Tristan Thompson is a Longhorn: TT should be freshman of the year in the conference and first team all Big 12. He is a game changer on both ends. His low block skills create space for Hamilton, Joseph, and Brown on the perimeter for threes or driving angles and open mid-range looks for Johnson. His body control and first and second chance jumping abilities give the Longhorns a legitimate chance on the offensive glass and help mask a still developing offensive scheme.

All that said, his defense makes his an even more valuable ‘Horn. TT's timing and ability to block shots from the help side make the lane a dangerous place for opposing guards. His consistent last line defense also provides opportunities for the Texas guards to pressure the basketball. Pressure creates mistakes, extra possessions, and easy buckets. Pressure also makes feeding the post more difficult. With Thompson on the floor, Texas has a chance to beat anyone in the country.

Can score in a multitude of ways: As shown all season long, Texas can beat you in a number of ways-Hamilton or Joseph from deep, Thompson on the low block, Gary Johnson from the elbow, Dogus Balbay in transition, or even off screens and cuts not previously seen in Texas half court sets. Good teams have the ability to score in at least two ways; great teams can score from three spots.

With J'Covan and Cory, Texas can definitely score from the guard spots. With Hamilton, opponents must focus on taking away the wing too. And with Tristan on the low block, opposing coaches must decide whether or not they must double the post. When all three components show up, Texas is unlikely to lose. And even if just two components are present on a given night, Texas still defeats most opponents.

Lock Down Defense: Throw out the second halves of the Nebraska and Colorado games as anomalies. Texas has been simply outstanding on the defensive end of the floor this season. It starts with the ball pressure of Balbay and extends to the wing where Joseph roams and even into the improved defensive skills of Hamilton. Even if opposing offenses navigate past the perimeter defense, Thompson's long arms and impeccable timing are probably waiting. Those are just a few of the reasons why Texas has been ranked No. 1 in adjusted defensive efficiency for most of the year.

Unlike last year, Texas is communicated in helping on defense. Opponents rarely enjoy straight line drives to the basket or uncontested jumpers. Given this near constant, NCAA tournament foes better have career nights to move past the ‘Horns.

Ability to Win Away from Home: A lot of teams gaudy home records help mask an inability to win away from home-think Missouri. Texas doesn't have that problem. In fact, the Longhorns most impressive work has been accomplished away from the Erwin Center. Texas owns defeats of Illinois in New York City, North Carolina in Greensboro, Michigan State in East Lansing, Kansas in Lawrence, and Texas A&M in College Station. Few, if any, teams have that many quality wins, let alone quality road wins. Given their road success, winning on a neutral court in March should be cake.

Jordan Hamilton: Jordan is as big a match-up problem as any player in college basketball. Most college teams and future NCAA tournament opponents don't have a 6-6 or 6-7 three man that can stay with Hamilton. If coaches decide to play small, Jordan can easily shoot over defenders. If coaches decide to go big, Jordan has enough ball skills to take slower defenders to the hole, especially by attacking the baseline. While there are a few teams that have someone that can handle Jordan that list is very short and the chances of running into one of those teams and players are small. Therefore, from the opening tip, Texas will likely have an extreme advantage with its best offensive player.

Those are just a few of the arguments why Texas won't make it to the second week of the NCAA tournament and why the Longhorns are destined for an '08 or '03 like run in March.

Basketball Economics

carier basketball

Kevin Clark has a fascinating piece in today’s Wall Street Journal comparing pro basketball in this country with pro soccer in England:

Carmelo Anthony’s trade to the New York Knicks Monday night is the latest sign that the NBA is drifting in one distinct direction. It’s becoming a league where a handful of glamour-puss teams are attracting all the marquee players and where, if recent events are any indication, they may vacuum up championships for years to come. In fact, as more stars like Anthony defect to these few teams, the league may quickly come to resemble (gasp!) English soccer.

In England’s Premier League, which is widely considered the world’s deepest pro league, only four teams—Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester United — have managed to finish No. 3 or better in the final league standings over the past seven seasons. Not coincidentally, these teams have also been the prime destinations for mid-career superstars who’ve taken a change of scenery.
My question is whether this development is a new one.

Since 1980, five N.B.A. teams — the Bulls, Celtics, Lakers, Pistons and Spurs — have combined to win an incredible 27 of 31 championships. By comparison, the five most successful teams in pro football have won 17 Super Bowls since 1980. The five most successful Major League Baseball teams have won only 13 championships in that span.

Because only five basketball players are on the court at any one time and a team can give one of those players a disproportionate number of shot attempts, stars play an outsize role in basketball. One great player — Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan — can help a team win a handful of championships. It’s a good example of a winner-take-all industry.

Basketball stars do seem more likely today to join the same team deliberately. But it’s not yet clear if this trend will concentrate basketball championships any more than in the recent past.