While 4th ranked UConn was able to avoid a loss to lower ranked Florida State Saturday night, the Tar Heels of North Carolina were not so lucky. The UNLV Runnin’ Rebels, behind the great performance from wing Chace Stanback, were able to beat top ranked North Carolina 90-80 in the championship of the Las Vegas Invitational.
In the broadcast of the game, commentator Jay Bilas made a comment saying that Stanback was “one of the best shooters” and “he’s a real good barometer for this team. When they are making shots, they are real tough to beat.” Turns out Bilas was right tonight. Stanback scored a career high 28 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in an intense competition. As one of my HoopSmack colleagues said (shout out to Knowledge), “UNLV is playing Carolina very tough.” My guys’ namesake says it all. Cop the Underrated EP and check out knowledgebnz.com. Shameless plug ninjas!
While Stanback turned in a great performance, his teammates also did an impressive job harassing the North Carolina players and fighting for every rebound and loose ball. One stretch you see Rebel big man Mike Moser snatching up anything coming off the hoop and the next you see Stanback battling with Tar Heel All-American Harrison Barnes for a loose ball (looked like Barnes twisted an ankle but it didn’t look to affect his play the rest of the game). UNLV head coach Dave Rice made it a focus for his team to perform and execute their game plan. ”I could tell on the bus on the way over and at shoot-around how focused we were,” said the first-year coach. “North Carolina is so well coached. We expected to play really, really well. We felt we had a chance to be competitive. We have four seniors. We don’t want one game to define our program. We want to be judged on our consistency.”
Moser seemed to have jumped into the Lazurus Pit before the game because he was all energy and full of fight for the entire game (shout out to my comic nerds who get the reference). He scored 16 points but more importantly he grabbed 18 rebounds. Even point guard Oscar Bellfield got in on the boards pulling down 9 rebounds of his own. If you noticed the trend here you should be able to tell what happened in this game. The Rebels flat out out-rebounded (49 to 38) the Tar Heels and turned those opportunities into points. North Carolina head coach Roy Williams felt the same way and let the media know it,
“Needless to say, we are extremely disappointed. I would like to congratulate coach Rice and his team,” Williams said. “They did a nice job. We could never get our focus offensively the entire game. What killed us, they got 20 points on offensive rebounds to our six.” “I was surprised that we didn’t rebound the basketball better. I was surprised about a lot of things we didn’t do. We have to be stronger with the basketball. We have to guard the basketball better. We never did get the flow going. We have to be whole lot more patient.”
Second chance points. It doesn’t matter how good your team is, if you continue to give your opponent multiple chances to score…they’re going to score.
North Carolina didn’t have the composure of a top ranked team. The Rebels smacked them in the face coming out in the second half with a 14-0 run with the Tar Heels missing their first 10 shots. Instead of executing their offense, which they are known to do, they fell into this one-on-one playground variant style which led to tough shots (“challenged” as Bilas put it) and zero second chance opportunities. It completely took them out of “their” game which opened the window for the Runnin’ Rebels. Barnes scored a very inefficient 15 points shooting 6-for-16 from the field and committing two turnovers. John Henson played a solid game but at times looked hurried and wasn’t sure what he should be doing. Same goes for Tyler Zeller who all but disappeared from the front court in his 24 minutes of play. Henson and Zeller grabbed a combined 15 rebounds and if you are keeping count that’s three less than Moser had for the game. Two seven footers were out rebounded by a 6-8 guard-forward…yeah. Tar Heel point guard Kendall Marshall was able to find his teammates with his incredible passing but his lack of a consistent jumper was a major liability. The Rebels had no respect for his outside shot and were able to effectively cut off most of the passing lanes that Marshall routinely takes advantage of. Marshall finished the game with 7 points and 8 assists.
With this high profile win the Runnin Rebels will no longer be under the radar as they were for their first 6 wins this year. I’m sure coach Rice and his team won’t mind. Especially if it gives them a chance to land top Class of 2012 recruit Shabazz Muhammed. Things looking good for UNLV…replay of the ’90 season anyone?
Former NBA Players Association Executive Director Billy Hunter sent a memo to the union members Saturday night informing the players they will receive a 51.2 percent share of all Basketball Related Income for the 2011-2012 season.
After 149 days of venomous back and forth and 15 hours of legal negotiations, Hunter and union leaders Derek Fisher and Maurice Evans agreed to a 51.2 percent share which is down from the 57 percent share they enjoyed in the last Collective Bargaining Agreement. Hunter notified the players that the new deal points will be “incorporated into a litigation settlement agreement early next week and the next steps will be to re-form the union that disbanded after a disclaimer of interest to dissolve itself on November 14th. “The NBPA will then re-form as a union,” Hunter wrote, “and negotiations may take place on various other CBA issues. The players will then vote to ratify a new CBA.”
As mentioned earlier, negotiations on several secondary items (The “B” list) still needs to occur before a deal can be ratified by the players and the owners. Looking at the information in the memo, it appears the most troublesome aspects for the players have been addressed (those aspects being the unlimited escrow system, prohibition of teams over the salary cap from making sign-and-trade deals, and the inability of teams under the salary cap to use their mid-level exception if it takes them over the cap). The owner’s “ultimatum” proposal contained very harsh penalties and seem to eliminate the “middle-class” of the league. These new concessions by the owners will greatly help this group of players and should alleviate most of the concerns that led to the dissolution of the players union a couple of weeks ago.As ESPN’s Marc Stein detailed, these are the issues that Hunter felt were significant beyond the BRI share:
• Owners dropped their demand for unlimited escrow to reimburse teams in subsequent years if they spent too much on player salaries in any given season.
• A player finishing his rookie scale contract will be eligible to receive a maximum salary equal to 30 percent of the salary cap — up from 25 percent — if he signs with his prior team and is either a two-time selection to the All-NBA first, second or third team; twice an All-Star starter or a one-time MVP.
• Owners dropped their demand to cut the rookie wage scale as well as their demand to eliminate extend-and-trade deals as seen in February when Carmelo Anthony landed a lucrative contract extension as part of the trade that sent him from Denver to New York.
• Annual salary increases will be set at 7.5 percent in “Larry Bird” contracts and 4.5 percent in non-Bird deals.
• Owners dropped their demand to eliminate player options for high-paid players.
• The owners agreed to a $4 million “apron” above the tax threshold which stipulates that teams may go above the luxury-tax line by $4 million and can still use the entire $5 million mid-level exception — or acquire a player via sign-and-trade. Teams above the $4 million tax apron are limited to a maximum $3 million mid-level exception that can be extended out for three seasons and used every year.
We’ll see if this passes with a vote coming sometime in the next week but judging from the response from owners and players on twitter, you can probably bet on a season starting on Christmas.
2011 NBA Draft First Pick Kyrie Irving:
Heats owner Micky Arison:
Clippers point guard Mo Williams:
Current Detroit Pistons wing and former Gonzaga alum Austin Daye:
All-Star Hornets point guard Chris Paul:
Click here for Billy Hunter’s complete memo to the players.
Compromise. Negotiation. Tentative. Concession. Acknowledgement. Accommodation. Middle ground. Win-win situation. Understanding. Its finally happening. After 149 days the lockout had ended and the NBA season is set to being on December 25th. Thank you Tim Tebow Jesus.
“We want to play basketball,” NBA commissioner David Stern said. The two sides (with their legal counsel) met for more than 15 hours on Friday to put an end to arguably the dumbest professinoal labor dispute in human history. We are now at the “handshake agreement” stage with the real deal still needing approval from both owners and players. So the threat of Michael Jordan, Paul Allen, and any other hardline owner still looms. Stern remains confident that the deal will get done:
its still subject to a variety of approvals and very complex machinations, but we’re optimistic that will all come to pass and that the NBA season will begin Dec. 25.
Assuming both sides take the deal, training camps and free agency will begin on December 9th with a triple header to open the season on Christmas day.
If there’s one thing about Twitter I absolutely love, it’s the ability to exercise the right of free speech in 140 characters or less. Random thoughts become landmines in the sand, exploding entertainment for the world to see. Well the rap artist formerly known as Ron Artest took to the social networking soundboard to air out some frustrations he’s having with the current state of the NBA Lockout. All this seemed to have been ignited by a Lakers fan tweeting him how she missing the Lake Show. DUDE GOES IN!!! Observe:
So we’ve established that Metta misses (in this particular order) diehard Laker fans & Oscar-winning actors Jack Nicholson & Denzel Washington, Laker girls, Joey Crawford’s sweat, being dunked on by Blake Griffin while wearing tight shorts and shooting airballs. Please keep in mind, he made it perfectly clear… he’s not gay. This is ultra-entertaining and it’s easily conceivable that some, if not all, of these things are truly things the 6’6”, 240lb small forward longs to get back in his life. But he doesn’t stop there. Observe again:
Shots fired at Ray Allen & the Boston Celtics! KG is reading this somewhere cussing at the computer scene hella hard with a string of spit hanging from his chin. Meanwhile Glen Davis reads this crying for reasons no one can explain and Doc Rivers continues to follow the Duke basketball team to watch his son, Austin, be a jittery freshman. But I’m glad that Mr. World Peace found time to tweet between the cooking and doing of hair because he threw out some interesting proposals to end the lockout. Playing owners in a game of 1-on-1 and calling out the G.O.A.T. in MJ. Arm-wrestling Mark Cuban (who I could see doing it strictly for the publicity), a sing-a-long with Don Nelson, a hotdog eating contest against David Stern (remember folks, he’s not gay), a Billie Jean dance-off against Usher or a rap battle against rap mogul & Nets minority owner Jay-Z (I don’t care to see this at all, click if you dare). Tell me these stunts wouldn’t be an attention-getter for the casual NBA fan. In a day & age where game-shows-on-crack-disguised-as-reality-TV rule the air waves, this would be a crazy new revenue stream for the league… funny how Metta World Peace has ignited more creativity in getting a new deal done than Billy Hunter & David Stern have in 145 pointless days of “negotiating.” But Ron-Ron’s not done! He even takes sarcastic shots at his commish:
If LeBron James made David Stern breakfast in bed, Shaq tucked him in bed and Ron Artest was his housekeeper, then Adam Silver would be out of a job and we’d still be without NBA basketball this Christmas! Thank you Metta World Peace for sharing your thoughts of what could be done to bring basketball back to us. Oh, I’d also like to thank you for clearing up why every player doesn’t have a vote on what should be done to fix this problem. Team representatives make a whole lot more sense now.
November 18, 2011 at 3:41 am · written by HoopSmack
North Carolina, Harrison Barnes, Anthony Davis, Anthony Davis’ uni brow, Terrence Jones the space cadet, Bradley Beal aka Jesus Shuttlesworth, the terrible Big and Pac 12, Baylor, Quincy Miller, Stromile Swift, Upset City, Gonzaga, UW Huskies, UCLA and its fondness for hot garbage. What don’t we talk about in Episode 37! We even have a special segment dedicated to Marvin Williams (Shout out to Tae).
Download Episode 37 on iTunes, Zune Marketplace, SlapDash Radio, Stitcher Radio, Podomatic or right-click here to save to your machine. Leave us feedback on the iTunes store, send us an email at feedback@hoopsmack.com or hit us on Twitter.
You can also leave us a voicemail message at (509) 795-1858.*
With the players latest refusal of the owners offer, we move to the next stage in this drama…the smear campaign.
Locked-out players, which include stars Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony, filed class-action antitrust lawsuits against the league this past Tuesday which effectively moved the labor dispute from the negotiating table to the gladiator arena federal court. NBPA executive director (is it former now?) Billy Hunter has called the NBA’s latest proposal “regressive” and “the opposite of what good-faith bargaining should produce”. Super attorney David Boies has been quoted as saying the NBA lockout violates antitrust laws by refusing the allow players to work. Boies, who you may remember from the NFL’s work stoppage, also made mention to Commissioner David Stern’s ultimatum to the players union to accept the owners last proposal or face a much harsher proposal. He stated that “it turned out to be a miscalculation” that actually strengthened the players case because it proves that the collective bargaining process has ended.
“If you’re in a poker game, and you run a bluff, and the bluff works, you’re a hero. If someone calls your bluff, you lose. I think the owners overplayed their hand,” Boies said at the players’ association headquarters. “They did a terrific job of taking a very hard line and pushing the players to make concession after concession after concession, but greed is not only a terrible thing — it’s a dangerous thing.”
Not to be outdone, Stern has stated that the latest actions by the players association (disclaimer of interest, de-certification) are “legal ploys” meant to portray to the other as not bargaining in good faith. Its a tactic to open the door for an antitrust lawsuit against the league. He even brought up Jeffrey Kessler, the counsel for the union, and his inflammatory words during a February 2010 bargaining session suggesting that players would abandon the collective bargaining process. This led to a preemptive suit filed to the National Labor Relations Board by the league.
It was Stern’s own words though that wrap a bow around this entire transition, “There comes a time when you have to be through with negotiations, and we are.” Now, the negotiations are over. Side meetings…over. Phone calls…don’t think so. Text messages…nada. Facebook pokes…negative.
Both sides are in survival mode. The game has changed from discussing system issues and BRI splits, to finding evidence of bullying, strong arm tactics, and determining what “good faith effort” means. With this change of mentality it can only spell doom for the 2011-2012 NBA season (games cancelled through Dec. 15; approx 26% of the season). With the sides focusing on making the other look bad, there isn’t any time or resources left to actually fix this “broken” system. “The NBA lockout discussion has moved from BRI to CSI.”, Washington Examiner writer Craig Stouffer wrote. Apparently there is a thin line between splitting billions of dollars and presenting Exhibit A in a court of law.
Long Beach State looked every bit the NCAA Tournament team in their 86-76 upset win against 9th ranked Pittsburgh Wednesday night.
Oozing with the maturity and confidence that comes with game experience, the senior-laden Long Beach State 49ers gave the Panthers of Pittsburgh all they COULDN’T handle playing with a fearlessness that seem to intimidate the Big East powerhouse.
Behind the leadership of Casper Ware and Larry Anderson, the 49ers were able to dominate all aspects of the game and left little room for failure. Ware scored a career high of 28 points, James Ennis added 19 of his own (including some disruptive perimeter defense that kept Ashton Gibbs and the Pitt backcourt out of the game), and Anderson finished with 12 points and dished out seven assists.
The 49ers rarely trailed in this game and they maintained a double digit lead for most of the contest. Pitt didn’t play a “terrible” game but they just couldn’t match the intensity of Long Beach State. Battling for rebounds, grabbing loose balls, taking charges, effective help defense, it didn’t matter. Long Beach State just outplayed the Panthers plain and simple. “They wanted it more than us,” Pitt forward Nasir Robinson said. “They worked harder. They ran harder. They got to loose balls. They executed better than us. They outsmarted us.”
With this win against a Top 25 team, Long Beach State has gained some confidence going into what may be the toughest non-conference schedule in the nation. Coach Dan Monson must be looking to avoid another NIT tournament berth because thats the only way I can describe a schedule that contains North Carolina, Xavier, Louisville, Kansas, and San Diego State…all before Christmas.
Beating a Top 10 team is definitely a step in the right direction for this 49ers team and we will see if they can use this momentum to tackle what seems like the rest of the Top 10.
“He’s like a vending machine,” Gonzaga senior Robert Sacre told the Spokane Spokesman Review. “You know what you’re getting when you put a coin in.” I’m not sure about a vending machine but Gonzaga freshman Kevin Pangos put on a show in the win against Washington State Monday night 89-81. Pangos tied a school record by hitting nine 3-pointers and finishing with 33 points. “I was just feeling it and got some open looks,” said Pangos, a native of Newmarket, Ontario. He was 9 of 13 from 3-point range to tie the record set by Gonzaga great Dan Dickau, who hit nine 3s….twice.
Although its definitely premature to compare Pangos to Dickau (its Pangos’ first career start and his second game), his 33 points helped the Zags build a 21-point second half lead and it was the most scored ever by a Gonzaga freshman. More than Blake Stepp. More than Adam Morrison. More than Dan Dickau. More than John Stockton…yes that John Stockton.
While its the second game of the season, is this performance an indicator that the Zags may have found the point guard solution? Have they addressed their arguably weakest position? Who knows but its a good sign and in the end Pangos can be the next in the great line of Gonzaga guards. Not only did he score points in bunches, he also dished out six assists, only turned the ball over twice and played some respectable defense against the Cougar backcourt.
We’ll see if Pangos will deliver this type of performance on a consistent basis, but if he can improve as a perimeter defender, run coach Mark Few’s offense smoothly, get that Gonzaga frontcourt involved, and knock down open shots, Gonzaga may be ready for another deep March tourney run.
November 11, 2011 at 7:18 am · written by HoopSmack
The ball is now in the players court. The owners have made a proposal and now its time for the players to save us from this lockout pergatory. Join the HoopSmack crew as they talk about what the players should do and the Michael Jordan backlash.
We also discuss some real basketball…thats right…NCAA college bball is here ladies and gentlemen! Harrison Barnes is a fraud! Anthony Davis is that dude! What were you thinking coming back Jared Sullinger?!! Go Huskies!!!
Download Episode 36 on iTunes, Zune Marketplace, SlapDash Radio, Stitcher Radio, Podomatic or right-click here to save to your machine. Leave us feedback on the iTunes store, send us an email at feedback@hoopsmack.com or hit us on Twitter.
You can also leave us a voicemail message at (509) 795-1858.*
