The Red Storm Eye NCAA Tournament

        The Johnnies came into the college basketball season with really no expectations at all. The reason for that is because the Johnnies are a really young team with only three seniors and one junior, the rest of the team is made up of freshmen and sophomores. Right now the Red Storm are 15-10 and find themselves in the hunt for a tournament bid and for this St. John's team that is overachieving. The question is can the Johnnies actually make the tournament and while they do have the talent to make it their remaining schedule could be a problem. Out of the final five games that they have to play three of them come against ranked teams (Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Marquette). St. John's can definitely win those games but they have to give a consistent effort and play with intensity. In their last two games, which have come against Syracuse and Louisville, St. John's had some nice spurts and kept themselves in the game for a while but later on in the game they would get lazy, take bad shots, and turn the ball over which is why they lost both games. When the Johnnies actually do give a consistent effort we have seen what they can do, for example when they beat Notre Dame and Cincinnati. Those two wins alone are what give St. John's a chance to make the tournament. The Johnnies have had some bad losses as well (San Francisco an UNC Asheville) which puts pressure on them to win these last few games.


        The Johnnies need to win the two "easy" games on their schedule which are South Florida and Providence, if St. John's loses even one of those games they can kiss their tournament hopes goodbye. Winning those two games will not be enough, though, they will have to at least beat two of the ranked teams to be safe. St. John's definitely has their work cut out for them but they can do it if they give it their all. I don't expect them to make it very far in the tournament, maybe one or two upsets but that will be all but it is not because they are not talented but it is more because of their inexperience. Making the tournament would be huge for the Johnnies, though. Making the tournament will give them the experience they need for the years to come and they will know what they have to do to be a successful basketball team.

Knicks Need a Fix

    

      Before the season even started I was a big believer in the Knicks and thought that they had the talent to make it to the Finals. It may have been a bit of a based opinion but as the season went on I felt better and better about the Knicks. They have definitely had a successful first half of the season, especially since everyone thought the Knicks were too old to go anywhere this season and most experts had the Knicks finishing 7th or 8th. What people called old I called experience; Tyson Chandler and Jason Kidd are two veterans who won it all just 2 years ago and are great leaders as are veterans such as Kurt Thomas, Marcus Camby, and Rasheed Wallace. Many people still do not give the Knicks a chance to come out of the East but I still believe they have what it takes to upset the Miami Heat. Just because I see a lot of good in the Knicks does not mean I do not see the bad as well. As fast as I am to praise the Knicks, I am just as fast to point out their flaws.

        The Knicks' biggest problem is their inconsistency. One day we may see a game where they are moving the ball and are finding open guys and scoring at an unbelievable rate and then the next day they turn into an isolation team and are taking contested and bad shots. The team that the Knicks have to worry most about in the East is the Miami Heat and when you look at the Knicks last two games against the Heat you see a recipe for success. The Knicks averaged about 23 assists in those two games and averaged 108 PPG and held the Heat to 86 PPG. It goes without saying that the Knicks won those two games but not only did they win they dominated the Heat winning both games by 20 points. However, the way the Knicks are playing now they do not stand a chance against the Heat or any other top team in the East for that matter. Last night against the Raptors the Knicks had only 12 assists as a team and for that reason is why they only scored 88 points. Carmelo Anthony was completey out of his game but it didn't stop him from putting up 24 shots and only making 5. Carmelo said he felt like he had a deep arm contusion and his arm felt numb durng the game but instead of drawing the double team and passing the ball out to an open player he decided to take bad shot after bad shot. Carmelo is the leader of the Knicks and he has to know that when his shot is not falling he needs to do something else to help the team and for the most part he has done that this year but last night the old Anthony showed up and it wasn't pretty.

       The Knicks' problems are not all Anthony, though. Two games ago against the Clippers, Carmelo Anthony went off making more than 50% of his shots (14 of 26) but the Knicks still fell short in that game, again only scoring 88 points. The problem with the Knicks in that game was that Anthony was the only one scoring along with Felton who had 20 points and the rest of the team combined for 26 points. The two biggest weapons for the Knicks on the bench, Stoudemire and Smith, only had 9 points and 6 points respectively. What was wrong for the Knicks in that game? It's easy the Clippers ran the Knicks off of the 3 point line. There is no doubt that the Knicks are a great 3 point shooting team but they live and die by the three and teams have figured that out. The Knicks' defense also needs some help. Their interior defense has been decent but their perimeter defense is horrible and it is because they get caught in screens and do not fight their way through them and they end up switching and causing a mismatch. While teams are starting to run the Knicks off of the 3 point line the Knicks are not doing the same to other teams.

      It may seem like the Knicks have too many problems to fix but it isn't anything that can't be fixed for the second half of the season. For the second half of the season the Knicks are going to have to trust each other more and move the ball around to find the open man, they will also need Felton and Smith to penetrate more to find open shooters, and they will also need to feature Stoudemire and his new post up moves more to give the Knicks that inside presence. On defense the Knicks are just going to have to avoid the mismatches and they are also going to have to stay in front of their men and help each other when help is needed especially since the Knicks are not the fastest group of players because of their age. The Knicks mostly have to improve their perimeter defense and force players to take bad shots or force them inside to deal with the Knicks' best defensive players Tyson Chandler. The Knicks are still a very talented team but they need use that talent wisely and if they do eveyr other team should watch out because the Knicks will be a very scary team come playoff time.

Western Conference Predictions

        Over the last few years the Western Conference has been a tougher than the Eastern Conference and this year is not any different. A Celtics team without Rondo has a pretty good chance to make the playoffs since the only team that has a legitimate chance of catching them is the 76ers with a 21-26 record and 3 games behind the Celtics. The Western Conference, on the other hand, has a number of teams competing for the 8th spot such as the Utah Jazz (27-22), the Houston Rockets (26-23), the Portland Trail Blazers (25-23), the Los Angeles Lakers (22-26), and the Dallas Mavericks (20-28). The 8th spot and possibly the seventh spot will come down to the last day of the regular season and although the top 6 teams are pretty much a lock, the order of those teams could come down to the last day as well. Here is how I see the playoff picture for the Western Conference looking at the end of the regular season.





8. Houston Rockets - This is a very young team being led by Jeremy Lin and James Harden but even though they are young they have a lot of talent. James Harden is 5th in the league in scoring with 25.8 PPG and has definitely made a name for himself in Houston. The Rockets are great offensively, averaging 105.1 PPG which is good for 2nd in the league but their defense is not as good. The Rockets allow 102.6 PPG which is 27th in the league. People questioned what the Rockets were trying to do with their team when they got rid of Kyle Lowry and Goran Dragic to bring in Jeremy Lin, who had not yet proved himself, but they made a big splash landing Harden and now find themselves in the playoff hunt.



7. Utah Jazz - The Jazz are not a flashy team and they are not very scary to face but they are a playoff team. The team has a lot of talent with Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Mo Williams, and Gordon Hayward. The Jazz are not much different than they were last year when they made it into the playoffs as an 8th seed and got swept by the Spurs. The Jazz are good enough to make the playoffs but not good enough to win a playoff series, especially when they would have to face either the Thunder or the Spurs in the first round.



6. Denver Nuggets - The Nuggets are a team that many people thought would make some noise in the West. Some even gave the Nuggets a chance to make it to the Wester Conference Finals. Not me. The Nuggets are definitely a good team. They have Danilo Galinari, Ty Lawson, and Andre Iguodala. The Nuggets have never had a problem on offense it is their defense that gives them trouble and Iguodala was believed to help them defensively but that has not been the case. The Nuggets have allowed 100.7 PPG and that is what will get them in trouble come playoff time. The Nuggets are also a team full of role players but have no superstar on their team so when they need a clutch basket who gets the ball? I don't know and neither do the Nuggets.



5. Golden State Warriors - This is the surprise team of the Western Conference this year. I have always thought that the Warriors had a lot of talent on their team and I thought it was only a matter of time until they made the playoffs. A team with Stephen Curry, David Lee, Andrew Bogut, Klay Thompson, and Jarrett Jack, now that sounds like a pretty good team to me. The Warriors are good enough to make some noise in the playoffs. I can see the Warriors making it to the second round and giving it a good fight in that second round. This is the team that no one wants to face come playoff time.



4. Memphis Grizzles - I could have easily put the Warriors in this spot but I believe in the Grizzles. The Grizzlies may have lost their best scorer in Rudy Gay but let's not forget what happened two years ago when Gay was injured, the Grizzlies upset the top seeded Spurs and then took the Thunder to a game 7. Without Rudy Gay the Grizzlies are left without a go to scorer but they also improve their spacing and ball movement. Oh and they also have one of the best front courts in the NBA with Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph.



3. Los Angeles Clippers - The Clippers are one of the deepest teams in the league but the last few games have showed us all that being the deepest team does not mean being the best team. Jamal Crawford is a sixth man of the year candidate but you can't expect a bench player to carry your team and Blake Griffin is an all star this year but shooting 65% from the free throw line is not going to cut it and he is going to have to do more than dunk to carry the team. My point is these are all good players to have but they are missing their leader, Chris Paul. The Clippers are 3-7 in their last 10 games and that's mostly because of the absence of Paul. Paul makes the game easier for his teammates, he gets them all of the easy shots. Paul made Crawford a sixth man of the year candidate and Paul is the one that creates Lob City for Griffin and Jordan. With Chris Paul this team is dangerous and a championship contender but without him they have to just try to hang on to their 3rd seed.



2. Oklahoma City Thunder - The Thunder are definitely a championship contender and are the favorites to make it to the Finals. The Thunder have two all stars on their team, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant, and also have one of the top shot blockers in the NBA, Serge Ibaka, and they have a very good sixth man, Kevin Martin. Durant is having his best season yet, averaging 29.4 PPG, 4.4 APG, and 7.5 RPG. Durant is doing everything his team needs from him. Durant is one of the best scorers in the league and when he gets going he cannot be stopped and then to be paired up with another great talent in Russell Westbrook just makes the Thunder that more dangerous.



1. San Antonio Spurs - Every year people say that the Spurs are done because they are too old but yet they always find themselves in that first place spot. The Spurs are probably the smartest team in the league because of their veteran players and their veteran coach. Tim Duncan is having a great year, Tony Parker is having another good year, and then with all of the talented role players that the Spurs have it is a tough team to stop. The Spurs would love to make up for their tough loss in the Western Conference Finals last year. The Spurs seemed unstoppable winning their first 10 playoff games only to lose four straight to the Thunder. I believe we will all see a rematch of last year's Western Conference Finals but it won't be as easy to get there as it was last year with the emergence of the Warriors and the Clippers.