Louisville and Kentucky

Final score Kentucky 69 Louisville 61, Kentucky wins the battle of the state and will play for the NCAA championship on Monday. I wasn't surprised Kentucky won.

Ohio State and Kansas

Final score Kansas 64 Ohio State 62. This surprised me, all the "experts" picked Kansas except the Kansas City media. Tonight's game it's KU versus UK.

A twilight zone existence

This world is a polar opposite of his former world, that's the plight of Lamar Odom. In Odom's former world he was a talented basketball player and valued member of a NBA championship team. In this world he has trouble chewing gum and dribbling a basketball at the same time. In his former world his shots almost always went in the basket, in this world he now misses more than he makes. A quality passer throughout his career for that of a 6-10 player, in this new and strange world his passes often miss the mark and roll harmlessly out of bounds. He longs so desperately to return to his former world, the world where he was hailed as a hero and loved by all. In this world the patrons have even begun booing him, in his former world this never ever occurred. In this twilight zone world his average and field goal numbers are at an all-time low, in this twilight zone world he even received a DNP! (did not play coach's decision) This had never occurred in his entire 13 year career. What should our hero do to extricate himself from this strange, forbidding land? The answer may ultimately lie with the man of 1,000 tee shirts.

Enough already

As a party of one I'd much appreciate if ESPN would drop it's column "Lob City Ledger," Fox Sports could also remove it's permanent headline "Battle for L.A." The Lakers are playing a little better and most likely will finish ahead of the Clippers at least in the regular season. As I wrote a couple of months back the addition of Chris Paul would make this team better. Many think the Chauncey Billups injury has been the culprit in the teams less than spectacular play. I say bunk, the 35-year old Billups certainly brought a veteran presence to the team, the culprit is team defense which has dropped significantly. Billups didn't play all 5-spots on the floor that's why the lack of his presence is not the significant factor many would have you believe. This Clippers team is better than last years team with the additions, they will make the playoffs. Early on I think the media was caught up in the prospect of Paul lobbing the ball all day long to Blake for dunks. I have no idea of the number of completed lobs for dunks however until this team learns to play defense they will continue to suffer. A portion of the problem might be laid at the feet of head coach Vinny Del Negro. Former Piston Bill Laimbeer as a guest analyst on NBA-TV provided this little gem I thought I would pass on, "you cannot dunk your way to an NBA championship." This team is the prime reason I try to refrain from predictions. Shortly after Christmas and when they were playing well ESPN's Chris Broussard jumped on the Clipper bandwagon declaring them to be in the Western Conference Finals, what did you say Chris? Of course at this point it could still occur however I doubt they will be playing for the Western Conference crown.

You will be discovered rest assured

Last week I provided information on the outstanding freshman season of Marcus LoVett. This Class of 2015 profile from Rivals.com is slightly different from the earlier one, they list him as a 6-foot 160 pound point guard from Burbank California. Those familiar with Rivals are aware they utilize a rating system with 5-stars being the highest number awarded to a prospect. No stars are awarded Lovett at this stage, my guess he's a freshman and perhaps they wait until the sophomore year before awarding stars. In any event this provides us proof once again no matter who you are or where you are, if it appears you have any degree of talent you will be discovered. San Diego State and UC Irvine have become first in line offering this 15-year old a scholarship. (Rivals.com)

It's more than Brown

There was no intent to place all the blame for the Lakers poor play on Mike Brown. I've had a couple more opportunities since last week to access team play and it's more than Kobe. Kobe is at an all-time low shooting, most of the shots are not difficult they are just not falling. In any event I hope his shooting slump is soon over. Sports fans Steve Blake is not the answer as the back-up point guard, honestly I thought he would play better than last season due with no triangle offense to deal with. Brown does not escape my blame completely his rotations are certainly unusual, he pulls Sessions out with 6 or 7 minutes left in the 1st quarter. Sessions is 25 years old, is he that out of shape? Brown does wholesale subs basically leaving no offense guys on the floor at times. The balance of the bench with the exception of Matt Barnes has been average to slightly below, Barnes is the only bench player that appears to play with any confidence. Is it broken, no but it needs a tune-up, it's not running at full capacity, my automobile and the Lakers.