Who, What, Where?
Are you familiar with Farmingdale State College, how about AJ Matthews? Neither names familiar to you, well don’t feel terrible the athlete and school were unfamiliar to me too. Farmingdale State is located in East Farmingdale New York about 40+ miles from downtown Manhattan. As for Matthews he’s a senior at the school, it might be a little difficult to overlook him if he walked into a room, he stands a shade over 7 feet and weighs 215 pounds. His basketball numbers are certainly noteworthy, 27.2 points per game 15.4 rebounds and 4.0 blocks. We might conclude it may be easy to compile those numbers with his height and the fact he’s playing Division III ball. Evidently folks who get paid see a potential star on the horizon. NBA scouts have begun showing up at his games despite the fact few Division III schools have managed NBA careers. The last might have been Devean George drafted by the Lakers in 1999. George managed an 11-year NBA career with three teams. I’ve set up an alert for myself in order to track his progress this season, it will be interesting if he manages to secure a draft spot.

Derek, Derek
Longtime Laker fan that I am, love me some Derek Fisher.  I must be the person to inform Derek his career is over, has been for at least 3 years. After the Lakers traded him he played out the season as a member of the Thunder. The season concluded and the Thunder chose to not resign him. As training camp opened I read stories indicating Fisher was searching for a playing job not in the front office as we might suspect. He wanted to play again despite his age and mileage on his body. Mark Cuban’s Mavs (who are going through something) signed Fisher. I guess we could say there is a youth movement working in Dallas. The Mavs lost 39-year old point guard Jason Kidd to the Knicks; he’s been replaced by 38-year old Derek Fisher.

Boy he’s really tall!
You might remember an alert on Mamadou Ndiaye from Senegal. Ndiaye is attending Huntington Beach Christian School in Southern California. He has another distinction that sets him apart; he’s 7-5 and 310 pounds. With a height of 7 feet 5 inches he is the tallest player in the nation, high school, college or the NBA.  ESPN's list of of the Top 100 prospects he's number 77.  Ndiaye verbally commented to the University of California-Irvine on November 14th.  He certainly is considered a project due to the limited time he's played the game.  I have a question for you, whens the last time you heard a coach or scout refer to a 5-11 or 6-0 prospect as a project?  Viewing video of Ndiaye in action he moves very mechanical at times, at 7-5 in high school he's easily a foot taller than most opposing players.  That fact alone makes his numbers (blocked shots) somewhat misleading.    

His appearance continues to be pushed back
If you’ve been reading Words for a period you know I defended Andrew Bynum. His skill set I believed made him the 2nd best center in the NBA.  I was Disappointed when he was traded to the 76ers.  Injuries prevented him from attending training camp and he was missing in action at the start of the season.  News reports first indicated his return to the court was imminent, then it became next week, next week then became mid-December.  Now it's reported Bynum’s status is unknown.  I’m sure if the 76ers were aware he was “damaged goods” they never would have made the trade. I hope he is able to return to the court at some point this season.

I wish I could figure this one out
I wanted to see UCLA specifically Shabazz Muhammad‘s game, the guide indicated they were to play Texas. Naturally I figured the game would be in Austin, wrong, it was played in Houston. Not only was it played in Houston it was played in Reliant Stadium home of the the NFL Texans. When I turned the game on 10 minutes after it started the number of empty seats disguised as spectators was evident. I have continued to ask this question why must we continue to schedule basketball games in football stadiums? I’d like to see the shooting percentages for a team in a football versus basketball arena. In any event back to the game, it wasn’t a very good game to watch. Muhammad aided UCLA to a 65-63 win. His game, only fair 16 points 0 turnovers but 0 assists and only 2 rebounds. He’s playing the shooting guard but 2 rebounds for a 6-6 guard are caused for questions in my mind. Later I read the attendance was a generous 3,000 fans in a football stadium. I’ve attended state championship high school games with those type of numbers.