I Pushed the Buzzer

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Cjones

Although the NCAA Tournament has already begun with the “opening round” games, the action gets underway in earnest tomorrow afternoon. To celebrate, here are my three top March Madness buzzer beaters.

Off the top of my head, the greatest buzzer beater ever is probably the late Lorenzo Charles’ dunk to win the 1983 title for N.C. State. (Tyus Edney is up there, too.) I was all of four years old when Charles put the Wolfpack over the top, so I can’t really count that one as a personal favorite. With that in mind, I’ve included only shots that I recall seeing as they happened.

3. Drew Nicholas (Maryland) v. UNC Wilmington, 2003: Mostly for the way that Nicholas ran off the floor immediately after the shot. Maryland, the 2002 champion, defeated UNC Wilmington and Xavier before being eliminated from the 2003 tourney by Michigan State.

2. Christian Laettner (Duke) v. Kentucky, 1992: Cliché, I know, but I have a vivid recollection of practicing that shot in my parents’ driveway immediately after the end of the game.

FYI: According to the Wall Street Journal, Laettner is currently a D-League assistant coach for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and a defendant in several civil suits. (Tip of the cap to Charles P. Pierce at Grantland.)

1. Richard “Rip” Hamilton (UConn) v. Washington, 1998: I watched this one with my roommates during my freshman year of college. The suspense increased with each UConn attempt and finally reached an unbearable level before Hamilton won the game for the Huskies.

UConn lost in the next round to North Carolina, which was led that year by Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter.

Least Favorite: Matt Howard (Butler) v. ODU, 2011: This game still has the ODU Monarchs and their fans wondering what might have been. After this first-round victory, Butler advanced all the way to the national final before losing to UConn.

Reading List

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Cjones

From time to time, It Goes to XI will highlight excellent basketball writing, as well as notable writing on other sports and unrelated topics.

Photo apropos of nothing: Denver's Kenneth Faried (35) should show more respect to Kurt Thomas, the oldest player in the league. Photo by Barry Gutierrez (AP), courtesy of @pdxtrailblazers.

Are the Washington Wizards really that close to becoming a contender? Vishnu Parasuraman says yes on Grantland.com.

Is this the same UCLA program that reached the Final Four in 2006, 2007, and 2008 and produced NBA players like Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, Aaron Afflalo, Jrue Holiday, and Luc Mbah a Moute? Say it ain’t so! Unfortunately, George Dohrmann of Sports Illustrated says it’s so.

More college basketball trouble in sunny SoCal: Michael McKnight investigates the federal investigation of possible point-shaving at the University of San Diego.

Junior Elena Delle Donne has led Blue Hen women's basketball to new heights this season. Photo courtesy of the University of Delaware.

Frank Deford shines a light on Elena Delle Donne, the leading scorer in women’s Division I college basketball this year.

Sam Amick’s interview of Adam Morrison was featured here; more recently, Amick caught up with Gilbert Arenas, who’s been MIA since he was amnestied by the Magic in the pre-season. Arenas has apparently been playing ball at his local Y. Can you imagine showing up to a pick-up game and getting stuck guarding Agent Zero?

I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve never seen the Harlem Globetrotters in person, even though they’ve been making regular stops at the Constant Center for several years. I probably won’t catch them this weekend, either; I plan to use my basketball allotment on Virginia Wesleyan’s tournament game on Saturday night. Even so, here is Kim O’Brien Root’s profile of Hampton alum and current Globetrotter Donte “Hammer” Harrison.

In other sports news, pitchers and catchers are reporting, including ageless wonder Jamie Moyer.

Just for frequent commenter Adam K.: Mike Wise holds forth on draft strategy for the Washington Redskins.

Finally, Leap Day news of the weird (and macabre). (Tip of the cap to Michael Kruse.)

Coming Soon to a Lottery Team Near You

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Cjones

Kentucky freshman Anthony Davis (23) shoots over Vanderbilt's Festus Ezeli (3), the newest member of It Goes to XI's All-Name Team. Photo by James Crisp (AP), courtesy of cnnsi.com.

Anthony Davis of top-ranked Kentucky posted the line of the day yesterday against SEC rival Vanderbilt. Davis went for a career-high 28 points (10-11 from the floor, 8-9 from the line), grabbed 11 rebounds, blocked 6 shots, and topped it off with two assists. The win over Vanderbilt was Kentucky’s 20th in a row, and clinched the Wildcats’ 45th SEC regular-season title.

Davis with the rejection during Kentucky's first defeat of Vanderbilt this year. Sorry, Festus! Photo by Mark Cornelison (Lexington Herald-Leader), courtesy of cnnsi.com.

For the season, Davis averages a team-best 14.3 points per game and also leads Kentucky in rebounding (9.8 per game) and blocked shots (an eye-popping total of 138). Depending on the number of games that Kentucky plays in the SEC and NCAA tournaments, Davis has a chance to break the Division I record for blocks in a season, which was set in the 1985-1986 season by the Naval Academy’s David Robinson (207 in 35 games). (Asterisk alert: the NCAA has only kept official records of blocked shots since that 1985-1986 season. Who knows how many Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, or Lew Alcindor sent into the stands?)

Like Robinson before him, Davis was the beneficiary of a late and drastic growth spurt that helped to make him one of the most sought-after basketball recruits in the country. Even after just one season of college basketball, it’s hard to imagine that he will not be the first pick in this spring’s NBA draft. Fans in New Orleans and Charlotte are surely salivating.

Should he choose the professional route at the end of this season, Davis could do worse than to follow in the footsteps of another lottery pick coached by John Calipari, Marcus Camby of UMass.

Veteran Marcus Camby tallies two points for his current NBA club, the Portland Trail Blazers. Photo courtesy of leknott.com.

After leading the Calipari’s Minutemen to the Final Four (a finish since vacated by the NCAA) in his junior year, Camby entered the 1996 NBA draft, where he was the second overall selection by the Toronto Raptors. (The Sixers picked first that year and selected Hampton’s own Allen Iverson.)

Camby is currently in his 16th NBA season, and as a soon-to-be 38-year-old, is currently the 6th-oldest player in the league (tip of the cap to sportige.com). After playing in Toronto, New York, Denver, and L.A. (for the Clippers), Camby is currently with his sixth franchise, the Portland Trail Blazers.

Like fine wine, Camby has improved with age. Camby was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 2006-2007, his 11th year in the league, and made the NBA All-Defensive Team the following year. This year, he has started all 31 Blazer games in which he has appeared. By contrast, during the labor-abbreviated season of 1998-1999, Camby was a key piece for the Eastern Conference champion Knicks squad, but didn’t start a game until the NBA Finals. Although Camby is likely in the twilight of his career and is not a focus of the Blazers’ offense (3.8 points per game this season), he is still starting and contributing for an NBA team contending for a playoff spot.

Check back here to see where Anthony Davis is playing in the 2027-2028 season.

Current NBA player Marcus Camby (21) finished his college career during the first Clinton administration. Photo courtesy of photobucket.com.