Basketball

[|NCAA Bracket]

=//The Champ is Here//= The 2008 March Madness is now over and we now have a champion. It’s been about twenty days since it started on March 20, and ended on April 7. The champs have now revealed their talent. The Kansas Jayhawks are the NCAA 2008 champions. They defeated Memphis for the win. The score was 75-68. They were on a role after dominating against North Carolina and winning 84-66. Now they’re the NCAA champs until someone else wins it next year in Detroit.

Kansas was led by their forward Darrell Arthur with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Memphis was led by their guard, Chris Douglas-Roberts scoring 22 points. This is Kansas’s first championship game in 20 years. They manage to pull off a win against Memphis.

=//The Biggest March Madness Ever//= NCAA March Madness started Thursday, March 20, 2008. We will see who will be the NCAA champions in 2008. Will it be another cinderella team or someone that everyone expect to win it?

Since March 20, many upsets have already happened in the NCAA tournament. But the number 1 teams in each conference have not failed. North   Carolina, Memphis, UCLA, and Kansas are holding strong. The top number 2 teams are Tennessee and Texas. They are the only number 2’s still in it. Georgetown and Duke lost in the second round.

There is a team that surprised many people. The (10) Davidson Wildcats. No one expected them to go this far. They are working hard to make it to the Sweet Sixteen or even the Final Four. Their next game is against (3) Wisconsin Badgers.

= = =//UAB and (3) Memphis Duel Again// =

On Saturday, March 8th, UAB and (3) Memphis face off again. This time it was in Memphis. UAB were looking to win this one after the close one last time. Memphis was looking for an upset on their senior day. They got their wish.

In the first half UAB struggled. Their best player, Robert Vaden, was struggling from behind the arch. He had 13 points this game and averages 21.8 points. Vaden had the most turnovers with 8. The whole team put together had 23. Memphis only had 10 turnovers. Memphis led after the first half, 48-20.

In the second half UAB got more points than they did in the first half, but Memphis got more. UAB got 36 points in the second half and Memphis got 46. The total score was Memphis, 94, and UAB, 56. Joey Dorsey, on their senior day, led Memphis with 16 points.



=//**The Knock Off**//=

The game was play Saturday, February 23, in Memphis, Tennessee. The #1 team, Memphis, being 26-0, was looking to make a run for perfection and the #2 team,Tennessee, being 24-2, was looking to be #1 for the first time in school history. This being an instate rivalry game and #1 vs. #2, this game was very intense.

In the first half Memphis played monster defense on Tennessee's star player, Chris Loften. He had nowhere to move and couldn't even get a shot off. At the end of the first half the score was close at 34-35 Memphis leading.

In the second half Tennessee started to play a little better defense a took the lead. Loften hit 8 points and he gave the team some confidence. The final score of the game was 66-62 Tennessee with the big victory. Tennessee will definantly be #1 when the next polls come out.

=//**All Star Status**//= This weekend was allstar weekend and this year it's in New Orleans. It all started on Saturday, February 16th.

First they had the Playstation Skills Challenge. The contestents were Jason Kidd from the Nets, Chris Paul from the Hornets, Dwayne Wade from the Heat, and Deron Williams from the Jazz. Kidd and Wade were eliminated after the first round and it was down to Paul and Williams. Williams went first in the final round and he used his quickness to get through with a ending time of 25.5 seconds beatint the record set by Steve Nash in 2005. Paul went next and couldn't pull it off. He had an ending time of 31.2.

Next was the Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout. The contestents were Daniel Gibson from the Cavaliers, Richard Hamilton from the Pistons, Jason Kapono from the Raptors, Dirk Nowitzki from the Mavericks, Peja Stojakovic from the Hornets,and Steve Nash from the Suns. Gibson, Kapono, and Nowitzki advanced to the final round. In the final round, Gibson ended with 17 points and Nowitzki ended with 14 points. Kapono won with shootout with 24 points and tied the record.

The Dunk contest. It came down to Gerald Greene from the Timberwolves and Dwight Howard from the Magic. In the final round Greene took his shoes off and did put the ball between his legs and dunked but he didn't get a good score because he allready did the dunk before that. Howard set the stage with his awsome super-man dunk. He pull offf his jersy and underneath was a super-man shirt. Then he put on his cape a dunked from a little before the free throw line and threw the ball in. Howard ended up winning with 73% of the fans votes.

The All Star Game. East, 134. West, 128. the MVP of the game was LeBron James.

=**//What A Trade//**=  There was a big trade recently in the NBA. The Phoenix Suns trade Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks to the Miami Heat for a NBA veteran, Shaquille O’Neal. They hope the 35-year old center at 7’1” with four championships under his belt, can push the Suns to thier first title. This trade has been criticized by many fans because of O’Neal’s injuries and age, but the Suns aren’t concerned with it.  "Just the hype and hoopla around right now and the situation I think definitely adds a little rush to us," said Phoenix's Amare Stoudemire, who will move from center to forward once O'Neal debuts. "We are definitely excited about the situation." O’Neal makes his first debut with the Suns 2/8 at 9:00 ET against the Seattle Supersonics, but he will not play because of his injury. 