March Madness Picks: Midwest Region

First Round:
1 Louisville vs. 16 UNC A&T: Louisville wins easily, no explanation needed.
8. Colorado State vs. 9 Missouri: Will be close but Mizzou should advance due to high powered offense.
5 Oklahoma State vs. 12 Oregon: Pac 12 champs Oregon may pull off the upset, but Marcus Smart will be too much for the Ducks.
4 St. Louis vs. 13 NMSU: St Louis is very talented for an A-10 team and will win easily.
6 Memphis vs. 11 St. Marys: Memphis, led by balanced scoring will advance.
3 Michigan State vs 14 Valpo: Valpo wont have any tournament magic left from the days of Bryce Drew
7 Creighton vs. 10 Cincinnati: Cincy's scoring struggles will come back to haunt them
2 Duke vs. 15 Albany: Duke is too much for Albany
2nd Round:
1 Louisville vs. 9 Missouri: Louisville should continue its run to the elite eight uncontested before any challengers pose a legit threat.
4 St Louis vs. 5 OKSU: St Louis should advance as they are more talented and have the best name in basketball, Jordair Jett
3 Michigan State vs. 6 Memphis: MSU is too big and Memphis is too inconsistent as MSU wins by a decent amount.
2 Duke vs. 7 Creighton: Led by Doug McDermott, the Blue Jays have a chance to knock off duke but Seth curry's shooting and Plumlee's size will be too much.
Sweet Sixteen
1 Louisville vs. 4 St Louis: St Louis' run ends with the Cardinals full court pressure.
2 Duke vs. 3 MSU: Tom Izzo's team has the discipline and the size to beat Duke and they should pull it off.
Elite Eight:
1 Louisville vs. 3 MSU: If Keith Appling plays well, the SPartans will advance, if not Louisville will run away with the game.

MARCH MADNESS

The NCAA march madness bracket was released last night and there were a few surprises, as the pac 12 champion, Oregon received only a 12 seed and has to play the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the 1st round. Some other notable matchups are Wisconsin vs. Ole Miss and UCLA vs. Minnesota. Both Wisconsin and Ole Miss made it to their respective title games, but lost. Wisconsin plays one of the slowest paces in the league, and Ole Miss has the Sec's leading scorer and the NCAA's craziest player, Marshall Henderson. Henderson is very talented, but cannot stay focused and his antics aggravate many, such as when he taunts and mocks the crowd. UCLA and Minnesota should go down to the wire as both teams are full of athletic scorers that can get to the rim.

Help Refugees Get Education

Over nine million refugees in countries around the world are deprived of education and the chance to play sports such as basketball. To help these people ninemillion.org was created in association with Nike and supported by the NBA to help these youths. The ninemillion campaign focuses on providing educational services to refugees all over the world, as well as providing them with the opportunity to play sports. I chose this cause because I feel that everybody should have access to education, because without any education it is hard to advance in life. Luol Deng (pictured above) of the Chicago Bulls pledged to give $50 for every basket he scored during the season. Deng was born in Sudan and fled as a refugee himself to Egypt and later to England where he turned into a basketball star, and now he is giving back to his home country and to those going through the difficult times that he had to go through as well.

Deandre Jordan's Dunk Top 5 Dunks of the Year

Deandre Jordan posterized Brandon Knight the other night in what may have been the dunk of the year. Jordan nearly leaped over the smaller Knight, knocked him over, then slammed the ball through the basket off of the alley oop from Chris Paul. Jordans dunk raises the question of what has been the best dunk this year. Here's my top five
5. Jeff Green over Al Jefferson

Jeff Green made an huge statement last night, dunking over former Celtic Al Jefferson, then hanging on the rim over him. This dunk completed Green's comeback from heart surgery and signified his return to form.

4. Jr Smith's Reverse alley oop

This dunk defies gravity as Smith goes up and brings the ball all the way down then back up off of the pass from Pablo Prigioni
3. Blake Griffin from Jamal Crawford

Jamal Crawford went between the legs then lobbed it to Blake Griffin for the windmill dunk in what is probably the most creative combination of dunk and alley oop ever.
2. Harrison Barnes posterizes Nikola Pekovic

Barnes elevated over Pekovic to announce his entrance into the league.
1. Deandre Jordan

Buckeyes Upset Hoosiers, Big Ten Madness Continues

Tuesday night the unpredictability of the Big Ten conference continued as the Ohio State Buckeyes upset the Hoosiers in Indiana on senior night. This may very well be the last game in front of the Indiana home crowd for Indiana's stars, such as Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller. The Buckeyes were led by Deshaun Thomas's 18 points and Aaron Craft's 15 points and 4 steals. The Buckeyes pulled away halfway through the second way led by craft and reserve guard Shannon Scott (pictured above) who also had 4 steals to go with 8 points. This is a signature win for the Buckeyes that will help boost their seeding come tournament time.

Dennis Rodman Calls North Korean Leaders "Great Leaders"

                             This week Dennis Rodman led a diplomatic mission into North Korea along with three members of the Harlem Globetrotters. The goal was to connect with North Korea's leaders, especially Kim Jong Un, who is an admitted big fan of the Bull's teams from the early 90's that Rodman was a key part of. Rodman said he enjoyed Kim Jong Un's company and he even went as far as to say  "Guess what, I love him. The guy's really awesome." Dennis Rodman then said that Kim Jong Un and his father, Kim Jong Il and his grandfather "were great leaders." This is yet another controversial statement made by Rodman, whose past antics dwarf  his in North Korea. His statement is controversial because Kim Jong Il's rule was defined by his harsh dictatorship and tension between him and other countries like the United States of America.

Stephen Curry's Career Night

Last night Stephen Curry exploded for 54 points at Madison Square Garden on 18-28 shooting and a staggering 11-13 on three pointers. Curry was one three pointer from tying the NBA record for a single game of 12 made threes set by Kobe Bryant and tied by Donyell Marshall. The Knicks tried doubling Curry but he simply passed out to the open man and made the right basketball play, finishing with 7 assists. This game signifies Curry's breakout as a rising young superstar in the NBA. He is shooting a whopping 46% from deep this year while shooting over 7 three pointers per game. This has never been done before, not even by the best three point shooters ever such as Ray Allen and Reggie Miller. Even though he may not even be the best shooter in his family as his father, Dell Curry was a great three point shooter, Curry can now be considered one of the great three point shooters the game has seen

LeBron James vs. Michael Jordan

LeBron James has been playing beyond great recently as he has made 70 of his last 96 shots and has scored over 30 points while making  over 60% of his shots in each of his last six games. With Michael Jordan's 50th birthday coming up on Sunday, many are debating on who is the better player and who would win in a game of one on one. While Jordan's career achievements trump Lebron's, especially his six championships to Lebron's one, Lebron is a better athlete and arguably a more talented player. He is bigger, faster, and most definitely stonger than MJ. However, Michael has a killer instinct that Lebron does not possess. Lebron James is more talented than the great Michael Jordan, but Jordan is still a better player than James because of his will to win.

NBA All Star Starters and Reserves Announced

The starters for the NBA's all star game were announced last week and there were multiple surprises as the starters are determined exclusively by fan voting. The fan voting system is flawed because while the all star game is for the fans. However this means that the players most deserving of an all star selection do not always get voted in as starters. This year LeBron James of the Miami Heat was the leading vote getter, closely followed by Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks. Anyway, Here are your 2013 NBA all star game starters as determined by the you, the fans.

EAST ALL-STAR STARTERS

• 

  Dwyane Wade

  Miami Heat | Guard

  Votes: 1,052,310

• 

  Rajon Rondo (injured)

  Boston Celtics | Guard

  Votes: 924,180

• 

  LeBron James

  Miami Heat | Forward

  Votes: 1,583,646

• 

  Carmelo Anthony

  New York Knicks | Forward

  Votes: 1,460,950

• 

  Kevin Garnett

  Boston Celtics | Forward

  Votes: 553,222

WEST ALL-STAR STARTERS

• 

  Kobe Bryant

  Los Angeles Lakers | Guard

  Votes: 1,591,437

• 

  Chris Paul

  Los Angeles Clippers | Guard

  Votes: 929,155

• 

  Kevin Durant

  Oklahoma City Thunder | Forward

  Votes: 1,504,047

• 

  Dwight Howard

  Los Angeles Lakers | Center

  Votes: 922,070

• 

  Blake Griffin

  Los Angeles Clippers | Forward

  Votes: 863,832

         

While there are the usual superstars starting, some players such as Kevin Garnett and even Dwight Howard were voting as starters based on reputation alone. Howard is a having a subpar season, not only based on his lofty standards, but relative to other NBA front court players. He is currently making a horrendous 49% of his free throws and Howard is producing at a career low rate for points and rebounds, save his rookie season. He was simply voted a starter because he is a big name. This year the western conference's starters look much stronger than the those of the eastern conference as they have better guards in Los Angeles' two best guards, Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul and Kevin Durant to counter the east's Lebron.