Lather, rinse, repeat!

This blog entry was originally going to be titled "Thank you, Time Warner," for their exceptional tech support. Of course, by exceptional, I mean horrible.

- Florida 84, OSU 75, in a game that wasn't nearly as close as the final score would suggest. No, OSU wasn't beat down the same way UCLA was last year, but they were beat down nonetheless. This was about the easier cover (Florida -4.5 at tip-off) all year, in my opinion. Of course, gambling is illegal, so it's not like I made a bet on the game.

Some thoughts about the championship:

- Corey Brewer is now firmly a top-10 pick. Did you see that block on Greg Oden? This guy will easily be the next Gerald Wallace/Josh Smith, and if he expands his shooting range, he'll probably be better than either of them. How many players in the draft offer the same package as Brewer--ball handler, sharpshooter, on-the-ball defender, shot blocker, etc.? I'd sure as hell draft a guy like Brewer over, say, Brandan Wright. Heck, I'd take Brewer over Joakim Noah right now. I'd still take Horford over Brewer, though; Horford's game will be lethal if he could consistently hit a jumper. Going back to Brewer, though; I fear that the injury bug could very well plague his career.

- Greg Oden did not disappoint, even though he was obviously winded as the game wound down. Blame OSU coach Thad Matta for that. He had to give Oden a breather somewhere in the second half, even with his team down double digits. Still, Oden really impressed me yesterday. He showed excellent footwork, and a real soft touch. His jump hook still needs a bit of work, though.

BTW, it was pathetic watching Florida's bigs leaping into Oden to try to get a foul on him. If I didn't know better, I would have mistaken yesterday's game for a hockey game. Props to Oden for being able to stay on the court for as long as he did. He is now, undoubtedly, the #1 pick of next year's draft. That being said, I really think he should come back for another season. His post play is still not polished, and he'll have a great look at a national championship next year, as long as Mike Conley Jr. returns.

- Where will Billy Donovan end up? I think he's headed for an NBA job, unless his "Fab Four" (Noah, Horford, Brewer, Green) decides to all return for a run at another title. If even one of them, most likely Noah or Horford, declares himself eligible for the NBA draft, I see the rest, except maybe Green, leaving as well. If that happens, I can easily see an NBA team or two willing to pay Donovan somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million/year. Given the track record of college coaches moving on to the NBA, we know that $5 million/year is far too much, but we also know that teams in the cellar like to make splashes when it comes to hiring new coaches. I thought Miami was going to be a front-runner for Donovan's services, until reports surfaced that Shaq had no interest in playing for a college coach (I heard that on The Jim Rome Show yesterday).

(The post above was edited; what an egregious error I made! For some reason, I thought Donovan was a front-runner for the Michigan job, when we all know his name has circulated around the Kentucky job! Oops!)

- Mike Conley Jr. is an absolute stud. Taurean Green is nice, too; he'll probably be a good, solid, backup point guard in his NBA career.

- For all the love JJ Redick got in his career, Lee Humphrey might be an even better shooter than Redick. Humphrey comes with the same baggage as Redick: not terribly athletic, can't really create his own shot, not a great defender. However, his lightning-quick release ought to be able to help some NBA team.

Oh yeah, w00t! for baseball season! Even though the season has already started, I will make my league-wide predictions for 2007 in tomorrow's blog entry. Until then, happy blogging!