Sunday, March 18, 2012

UNC's Kendall Marshall breaks his wrist

Just when North Carolina got John Henson back from a wrist injury, another Tar Heel goes down with a wrist injury. This one might be the most important.

Point guard Kendall Marshall fractured his wrist late in a third round win over Creighton. Now an already thin guard corps gets even thinner with the seldom used Stillman White as the only healthy ballhandler on the team. This could be a big blow to North Carolina's national championship hopes.

Marshall was probably the best point guard in the nation, as he knew how to set up his talented teammates and put them in prime position to score. He also started to find his scoring rhythm as the season went on. Even though the Tar Heels boast four future pros on the team Marshall was the conductor on the Carolina freight train.

The Heels will still be dangerous, but whether they'll be championship good without Marshall remains to be seen.    

Stay in school alert: Texas guard J'Covan Brown

With the first weekend of the NCAA tournament coming to a close. There will be plenty of speculation of who will be staying in school and who will take the option of entering the NBA Draft.

One such player is Texas guard J'Covan Brown. Brown was the leading scorer on this year's Longhorns squad, which featured six freshman in the playing rotation. That made him the team's unquestioned leader. On previous more talent laden Longhorns teams Brown was overlooked during his freshman and sophomore years. This year Brown stepped it up more out of necessity since the Longhorns had to have someone take the big shot or generate any offense.

Brown now has his eyes on the NBA. He does have the skills to run the point but with Myck Kabongo starting alongside him, Brown had to play off the ball a lot more this year. He won't do that in the NBA. At 6-1 he would be overmatched by bigger 2 guards. He can play point but he never had to do it on a full time basis. If you look at his stats, he needs to work on his shot.

After the tournament loss to Cincinnati, Brown didn't give a straight answer as to whether he'd come back or not.

"At the end of the day, I have family to take care of " Brown said. He does have a 1 year old daughter and I can see why he might be tempted by future earnings. But I think he may be going overseas to make a living. I'm no scout so I could be wrong but I know there are some that might agree with me.  

Heat staff still not convinced Curry can help

Eddy Curry was signed to provide the Miami Heat with some bench depth and front line help. So far he hasn't given them much and it looks like it'll remain that way.

Barry Jackson from the Miami Herald reported that even though Curry has lost weight and is under 300 pounds the staff isn't convinced he deserves more time on the court.


Eddy Curry has dropped below 300 pounds for the first time in a while, and coaches rave about his work ethic. Udonis Haslem said his defense in practice has improved immensely. But the staff still isn’t convinced he can offer as much than Dexter Pittman (especially defensively) in limited minutes. And Spoelstra has barely used Pittman the past three games

Man. From being a lottery pick to being on par with Dexter Pittman. They'll both do more than me with a basketball than I'll do my entire life, but when you (Curry) were supposed to be a building block and a mainstay in the league and bomb that just says you got by in high school on pure talent. And now you're barely beating out Dexter Pittman for limited minutes. Remember when Curry and Tyson Chandler were supposed to be the foundation for a young Chicago Bulls team?  

That seems like it was 20 years ago now.