It’s never too early to talk college basketball. And with the release of the first AP Top 25 poll, I felt it’d be a good time to unveil my early list of All Americans. To make things easy (and to spread my praise around the country), I’ve also included ten players to watch outside of my All American list. And, in case you were wondering, we’re still alive. School has been kicking our ass, but we’re not abandoning Sportable whatsoever. Stick around.

Center: Tyler Hansbrough, UNC. Duh. Psycho T has returned to Chapel Hill for several reasons. One is the fact that he’s probably not a lottery pick, so there’s really no sense in skipping his senior season. But this big ogre wants to cut down the nets in Detroit’s Ford Field. The Tar Heels have a hell of a shot behind Hansbrough, Danny Green and point guard Ty Lawson, who is still one of the most exciting players in the country. This is a no-brainer. Like him or not, slightly overrated or not, Hansbrough will become the first player in the history of college basketball to be a 1st-team All American four years in a row.

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If you thought that the SAT was a joke for high school athletes before, laugh even more now. According to this L.A. Times article, The College Board has decided that all students will no longer have to submit all their SAT scores to prospective universities, just the best score, as of the class of 2010.

Never mind the ramifications that it will have on normal students. This complicates an already murky landscape when it comes to the SAT for student athletes. Let’s be honest; most athletes aren’t exactly the brightest bunch in the head. Whatever methods they can take legally (or for the desperate, illegally), they will.

There have been more than a few times where an athlete would have a dramatic jump in their SAT score. Whether it was through hard studying (yeah…right), taking a class, or what many people would more or less accuse of as cheating, there were questions to be asked of a score change that seemed to be out of the ordinary.

Now? This decision opens up Pandora’s Box for the SAT. Those questions don’t have to be asked, to the delight of athletic directors all over this country. If those opportunities for cheating weren’t there before, they sure can be there now.

At least USC doesn’t like this decision and may still consider all SAT scores. That said, with O.J. Mayo being as retarded as he is in light of the allegations that are surrounding him, I don’t think it would make much of a difference.

Hosts: Sonny, Ryan, Rich and Kevin

In this episode, the entire Sportable staff discussed the dream NBA Finals matchup between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, which tips off tonight in Beantown. Can Kobe Bryant complete his MVP season with his first ring without Shaquille O’Neal. Or will Boston’s Big Three win their first ring? Also, how in the world is Doc Rivers going to outcoach Phil Jackson?

 

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Over the last couple of months, we’ve focused much of our NBA attention on the three blockbuster trades that went down within a couple weeks of each other. We spoke highly of the Lakers’ trade theft of Pau Gasol, and expressed some doubts about the moves for Jason Kidd and Shaquille O’Neal. Well, it turns out those concerns were justified. Pau’s Lakers? Moving on. J-Kidd and the Big Cactus? Gone fishin’.

Remember when there were whispers about the Mavericks breaking the Chicago Bulls’ record for most wins in a season last year? All was well in Dallas; they had the MVP, a rising star in Josh Howard and the bitter taste of defeat from their loss in the 2006 NBA Finals. But after falling to the upstart Golden State Warriors, the Mavs’ earth has seemingly rotated off their axis.

A more experienced team like the Mavs should not have been ousted in five games by the Hornets. As good as New Orleans has been all year, you would expect Dallas to show up in the postseason because of what happened last year. Didn’t happen. And that trade for Kidd turned out to be a nightmare, as the future Hall of Famer was abused by Chris Paul in five straight games. After such a great 2006 season, the Mavs’ entire franchise now appears to be snake bitten. Where do they go from here? They have a guy in Dirk Nowitzki who still refuses to show up in big games. And now they’re without their future point guard in Devin Harris, now playing for the Nets. Mark Cuban has done some great things over the years, but he screwed the pooch this time.

The Suns knew that something had to change. They had found out that defense wins championships after getting shellacked by the Spurs in two of the last three postseasons. But even with two giants inside, the Suns had no answer for the Spurs, who still managed to fly under the radar before the series started. All of the focus was on Shaq’s Suns, but how about those Spurs? We know how good they are, we just always seem to forget it. With two aging players in Steve Nash and Shaq, the Suns’ window of opportunity appears to be closing. Hell, it already has for their head coach.

So much for that. The Mavs and Suns made these blockbuster deals looking towards glory in April, May and June. But all of that now appears to be thrown out the window. But hey, at least Pau worked out.

An NCAA Tournament full of incredible performances by midmajors has now given way to four #1 seeds in the Final Four, something that’s never been accomplished in the NCAA Tournament. While some people complain about the “chalk” of this Final Four, we’re sure to close this thing out with three incredible matchups. Without further ado, a brief breakdown of the Final Four, which begins at 6:00 PM EST tomorrow.

UCLA vs. Memphis
Certainly the more intriguing game of the two, to me anyway. Both teams have been national championship contenders the last few years, but both have needed enormous contributions from true freshmen to get over the top this year. Lets start with UCLA, a team that’s been raped and pillaged by twice defending champ Florida in the last two tournaments. We know the contributers: Collison, Westbrook, Shipp, Mbah a Moute and to a much lesser extent, Mata(-Real). But without Kevin Love, this team is already out of the tournament. The Pac-10 Player of the Year has been even better than advertised. While CBS has stroked themselves to his outlet passes, Love deserves all the praise he’s received.

As for Memphis, they’ve been proving people wrong all season long. Hell, I had them losing to Pitt in the Sweet 16 and when they got into the Elite Eight, I thought they’d get spanked by Texas. Nope. You can have Beasley, Mayo, Love or any other freshman phenom. If I have the 1st overall pick, I’m taking Derrick Rose. I’ll admit to not having seen much of Rose throughout the Conference USA season but against Texas, I saw all I needed to see. Rose will be a Chris Paul/Deron Williams type of player in the NBA. No doubt about it. After dominating against guys like Drew Neitzel and D.J. Augustin, I see Rose getting the best of Darren Collison as well.

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I’m taking a different approach this year. In the past, I would rush through my bracket and have my national champion already decided by the night of Selection Sunday. I’ve taken a different approach this year, not officially completing my bracket until earlier today. While I feel like I’m taking the easy way out with three #1 seeds and a #2, the top-heaviness of this tournament is greater than in years past. So, without further ado…my picks.

Eastern Region: North Carolina. The Tar Heels will have the well deserved benefit of playing this entire region within a couple hours of their Chapel Hill campus. With two games in Raleign and two more in Charlotte, Roy Williams’ gang will be sure to have tons of support from the crowd. Talentwise, there’s nobody in Carolina’s half of the region that will give them a run for their money. But an Elite 8 matchup between the Louisville/Tennessee winner should be a good one.

In the bottom of this region, I expect it to go as planned. Saint Joseph’s is an intriguing upset over the Sooners but aside from that, I don’t expect Tennessee or Louisville to stumble before their meeting in Birmingham next weekend. The Cardinals are playing much better as of late, but I still don’t see enough quality wins from them outside of their home gym. We know the Vols can play away from Tennessee, so I think they’ll beat Louisville before falling to UNC in one of the best games of the tournament.

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