Monday, March 26, 2007

Monday 03/26 PM Quickie:
Hoops All-Americans, Jaws and Sadness

WSJ Tournament piece.

Exclusive: Peyton slams Brady.
Monday AM Quickie.


College Hoops All-Americans: I find it staggering that Durant and Oden DOUBLE the number of freshmen who have ever been named All-American, joining Wayman Tisdale and Chris Jackson. (Um: Carmelo Anthony?!)

I suppose it's a reflection on the level of talent that has simply skipped college for the NBA, thus Durant and Oden's place on the first team validates the NBA's age-limit rule (sort of).

Pretty interesting that Durant was the only unanimous pick of the entire team. Can't complain about the rest of the 1st team. I'm sure UNC fans will wonder how Hansbrough was displaced by Arron Afflalo on the 1st team.

The second team seems to have mistakenly included "Joakim Noah" where voters should have obviously written "Al Horford" (who made the 3rd team). Noah didn't deserve 3rd team either; I would have put Horford on the 2nd team, Corey Brewer on the 3rd team and Noah nowhere. And I say that as a Florida fan.

Jeff Green should have been on the second team, too. Aaron Gray had no business being on the 3rd team. He's whatever the opposite of a "snub" is.

Ron Jaworski is an inspired pick to replace Joe Theismann on MNF. I don't think there has ever been a better game analyst on MNF, and he's a far better compliment to Tony Kornheiser than Theismann was.

Finally, but most important: Condolences to family, friends and fans of UNC student/Heels mascot Jason Ray, who died today.

20 comments:

Tyler said...

Whats with the Aaron Gray hate? Who deserves to be 3rd team more than Gray??

jhawkjjm said...

I always think its interesting to look at this list with the list of preseason AAs. I never understood how Brandon Rush was a 1st team preseason AA. I agree with Horford over Noah for 2nd team. Horford is the better player, but he must get penalized for not yelling loudly after every play.

Also I love the AP's revised history of Kevin Durant leading Texas to the Big XII title. (The cnn version says this, I believe it may have been corrected on ESPN) That's simple fact checking on the APs part.

That really sucks about the UNC Mascot. RIP.

Josh said...

I know you're a UNC hater, Shanoff, but thanks for bringing the appropriate gravity to this tragedy.

CMFost said...

If you have not see the full list:
Associated Press All-Americans
First Team

• Kevin Durant, Texas
• Alando Tucker, Wisconsin
• Acie Law IV, Texas A&M
• Arron Afflalo, UCLA
• Greg Oden, Ohio State

Second Team

• Nick Fazekas, Nevada
• Tyler Hansbrough, UNC
• Chris Lofton, Tennessee
• Jared Dudley, Boston College
• Joakim Noah, Florida

Third Team

• Jeff Green, Georgetown
• Al Horford, Florida
• Aaron Brooks, Oregon
• Al Thornton, Florida State
• Aaron Gray, Pittsburgh

CMFost said...

Oh, on an unrelated note 5-No Hit Innings out of Dice-K against the reds today.

Patriots64 said...

Dice-K = Rookie of the Year and Top 3 in CY Young Voting.

Santana and Halliday will be tough to beat for CY!!

Brian in Oxford said...

Dan, is that picture on the WSJ website five, six, seven years old? You look 25 there.

ToddTheJackass said...

Umm... Dice-K also walked 5, including Alex Gonzalez. Any Red Sox fan will tell you that's not a good thing...

It was just a weak year for guards in general, but I'd still have taken Lofton or Aaron Brooks over Afflalo.

Jen said...

That is HORRIBLE news about the UNC mascot. RIP.

Anonymous said...

I could be wrong but did Derrick Byars just break a record for the guy to not make the all american team despite the fact that 3 guys who he beat for conference player of the year did?

Has this ever happend before? I want answers.

Needless to say I'm no Vandy fan, but how can you be player of the year in your own conference and not make the team and 3 guys from your conference do?

ToddTheJackass said...

@Guy,

It's because most of the writers who do the all-conference selections watch more of the games of all the teams in their conference. With All-Americans, it's nationally, and Vandy wasn't televised that much. It's much more of a popularity contest (read Noah, Joakim), than it is anything else. Same with any voting like this, but especially in college basketball where so many teams don't get national exposure.

I mean, how many of the guys who voted on this do you think actually watched Nick Fazekas play?

It's hard to get national recognition unless you have a ton of "hype" behind you. Byars just doesn't have that hype nationally, and Vandy isn't a sexy team (who apparently you can travel at will on).

futurelegendvinceyoung said...

Check this loser’s Star Trek apartment out.

Eric Chase said...

I figured this is a proper channel for the following thought...can we play demand that Kevin Blackistone and Fred Hickman take off those RIDICULOUS glasses!

Big Blog of Basketball Lists said...

If I remember correctly, Carmelo was 2nd team All-American that year behind David West and Josh Howard? I could be wrong...

I tried googling it, and wikipedia'ing it, and couldn't find a single bit of information on past AP All-Americans. Is anyone else running into this trouble?

Anonymous said...

uhm about the second team, do positions matter at all. and i for one hate noah almost as much as i hated reddick but for completely different reasons.
I hated reddick because he went to duke.
i hate noah because he has no real talent besides yelling and screaming and getting every call because the refs feel bad for the girl.
Seriously though what is he good at, have i been missing something. Horford and brewer are so much better.

Anonymous said...

Todd-

I know why it happens. I just wanted to know if it has ever happend to this extent before.

Conference player of the year passed over for All American by 3 players from his own conference?

That can't be common.

Josh said...

Aaron Gray averaged a double double in the Big East. If he had a Jeff Green to complement him, people would be saying "Roy who?"

jhawkjjm said...

Question: does a player who misses 20%-25% of the season deserve to be named All American?

I would say yes, but not 1st team. Being 1st team should mean something special. Does an NFL player who misses 4 games deserve to be All Pro? I don't think so.

(I have nothing against Oden, and this isn't a shot at him but rather a question thought of because of him.)

Big D said...

I'm sitting in JFK airport waiting for a flight to Logan... Please Dan... give me something to read before my flight takes off.

Also, I'm very much looking forward to Jaws on MNF. he's consisently one of the most insightful football analysts on TV - probably the only guy who actually does his own research before going on air.

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised to only see Oden from Ohio State there. I would have thought a couple other guys had been good enough to make one of the teams.

I am surprised Oden got first team, but I can't think of who was better once he played. He missed 7 games, but they were mostly against scrub teams ('cept UNC)...so most would just have been stat padding games. That's why I'm ok with it. If he had missed conference games, then no, he shoudl not be on team.