Mid-season hoops recap

In a prior article, I delved into local hoops teams and made some predictions on how the seasons would progress. The crystal ball failed me in one team - the CU Men's Hoops team - and succeeded fairly well in another one - the Denver Nuggets. Here are my (abbreviated) report cards and I should note that I have followed both as much as someone who works and is in school can:

CU Men's Team: Coach Bzdelik's team is very young and has a lot of growing to do and has lived below the predictions I made for them this season. CU is not have a traditional powerhouse basketball team and doesn't have a lot of in-state talent to draw from. The last truly good-to-great player from in-state that went to CU was Chauncey Billups; and he was a truly great high school player and all-star in college (see below for more in Nuggets commentary). Even the player of the year winners for Colorado high schools that have come to CU have done mediocre to good on the college level (see Levi Knutson). The team has made progress and it's nice to see players on the team develop and improve their overall play during the season (the prior coaching regime often had highly-touted players come in as Freshmen and not leave much betters as Senior's). Good things should be coming the Buffs way as the team gains experience and more physical maturity.

This year's rotation includes 7 freshmen and sophomores and only one junior and one senior. This means they have the ability to improve and how shown signs of this all year. They have lost nearly 10 games in the final minute or two against teams that had twice the talent and size that the Buffs currently do. They play an offensive style (think of a more modern Princeton offense) that spreads out the defense and makes the opponents work hard on defense as the Buffs are constantly setting backdoor screens and moving in space. The defensive schemes are often what keeps the Buffs in the game as Bzdelik has played a mixture of man-to-man, zone match-up schemes and even the 1-3-1 half court trap. I can guaranty you no team in the Big 12 enjoys playing the Buffs, despite their lack of size and experience. Good things are to come for this program. Top Big 12 teams often struggled against the Buffs and their style of play. This leads me to believe that much better things are to come!

Denver Nuggets: The Nuggets are having a great year and leading their division (against the always tough Jazz and the upstart Trailblazers). This team is on pace for as many wins as last year and has the chance to be better in the playoffs as well as win more regular season games. Their is one reason for this and that is quite simply Denver's NBA All-Star point guard: Chauncey Billups. Everything this team was lacking last year (4th quarter poise, maturity, team play and an on court leader), Chauncey has brought to the team. This has improved Carmelo Anthony's level of play, Kenyon Martin has been a consistent contributor with a point guard that can distribute the ball and Nene is playing his best, injury free season of his career.

All of this leads to a few points:

1) Chauncey Billups deserves to be in the discussion regarding the League MVP. He may not deserve to win, but he should be in that conversation. Look at Detoit and Denver. These teams are the same as last year, sans Chuancey and AI are on different teams. Which team looks like they are going some where this year? That should tell you how great this guy has become.

2) George Karl is a possible coach of the year candidate. He had what could be one of the toughest seasons any coach could ever imagine last year given his team showed him little to no respect and at often times looked completely helpless/lifeless on the coaching bench. This team is performing this year and his off-season discussion with his team to play his kind of basketball and the removal of Iverson have greatly improved the Nuggets this year. His benching of Carmelo Anthony after he refused to exit a game was the move of a coach confident in his job and showed needed and necessary leadership.