I love the NBA Draft because of how fast it goes, especially when compare to the NFL Draft. Here are some of the things I was thinking as the night progressed.

1. The Portland Trail Blazers have absolutely worked the entire league in these last two years. Snatching Jerryd Bayless from Indiana in the Brandon Rush trade was genius, since PG is probably the Blazers’ weakest position. Now they’re loaded at every position. The only pick of theirs that I’d question is Joey Dorsey – not because of his game, though. Ever since the 2001-05 Jail Blazers era ended, Portland has been all about drafting and signing high character guys. Joey Dorsey is not one of those guys. Also, Joey does not get along with Greg Oden, the face of the franchise. Remember that Memphis/OSU game in San Antonio two seasons ago? They really don’t care for each other.

2. After years of getting destroyed by other executives, Kevin McHale finally got one right for Minnesota, because he finally found an executive he could outwit. The biggest trade of the draft was Minnesota sending OJ Mayo, Antoine Walker, Marko Jaric and Greg Buckner to Memphis for Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal and Jason Collins. If you take away the dead weight (apologies to Walker and Cardinal), it’s Mayo for Love and Miller. Advantage: Minnesota. Congratulations, Chris Wallace. You are the biggest buffoon to ever hold a position of power in the NBA.

3. My beloved New York Knicks drafted Danilo Gallinari, the Italian sensation whose father was a teammate of Mike D’Antoni in Italy. The New York crowd booed him like he was Pedro Martinez or something. Poor kid didn’t even know why. His highlight reel was not impressive. I hope this new administration knows what they’re doing.

4. Teams picked players 39 different times before the New Jersey Nets picked Chris Douglas-Roberts at #40. I will say the same thing about this as I did for the NFL people who waited until the draft was almost over to select Andre Woodson. Watch them play. CDR is one of the smoothest players I’ve seen in college ball in the last 15 years. Same goes with Shan(e) Foster. Jay Bilas had the audacity to say he needed to work on his three-point shooting. He said Foster had good range from the college three, but not the NBA three. Really? Because I remember Shan(e) Foster launching contested bombs against Kentucky for 4 years from just inside the midcourt stripe and barely even making the net move. Dallas got an absolute steal with the 51st pick. Also, how dumb are all 30 teams to go 60 picks and not draft Jamont Gordon? This man will make a roster, and will make 29 other teams pay. Don’t believe me? Watch him play.

5. The Lakers drafted Joe Crawford with the 58th pick. That’s just fantastic. I couldn’t be any prouder of Joe, after everything he went through, especially his senior year. I’m also glad that the Lakers chose him, because he’s good for them. Sure, he won’t get much playing time because he’ll be playing behind Kobe Bryant, but look at it this way: In the Finals, the Lakers were exposed as a bunch of pansies who had a total lack of mental toughness. Is Joe Crawford a pansy? Does Joe Crawford have a complete lack of mental toughness? If the answer to either of those questions is “no,” then he wouldn’t have been drafted.

Five picks I really liked

1. Golden State Warriors: 14th pick – Anthony Randolph (LSU)
2. Milwaukee Bucks: 8th pick – Joe Alexander (West Virginia)
3. Orlando Magic: 22nd pick – Courtney Lee (Western Kentucky)
4. Cleveland Cavaliers: 19th pick – JJ Hickson (NC State)
5. Chicago Bulls: 39th pick – Sonny Weems (Arkansas)

Five picks I really hated

1. Charlotte Bobcats: 9th pick – DJ Augustin (Texas)
2. Boston Celtics: 30th pick – JR Giddens (New Mexico)
3. Oklahoma City Sonics: 4th pick – Russell Westbrook (UCLA)
4. Indiana Pacers (from Toronto): 17th pick – Roy Hibbert (Georgetown)
5. Utah Jazz: 23rd pick – Kosta Koufos (Ohio State)

I’m Seth Stogsdill, full of tremendous upside potential.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk0aQg0p6Bw&hl=en]

That is Shan Foster, former Vanderbilt guard, singing the most basic song ever. We get it Shan, you wanted to play in the NBA. But you can only do one thing well and that’s shoot. That’s about your contribution to the game of basketball.

But that song must have won over Mark Cuban and the Mavericks, who took you 51st overall in the NBA draft last week. This video must have sealed the deal. Can we expect you to sing the national anthem before every home game? It’s the most floor time you should see.

Oh and no word on whether Ramel Bradley would like to collaborate with Shan. I hope not. But if I was Ramel, I’d pass my CD along to the Mavericks. Just in case…

We all remember the best thing about Billy Gillispie. No, no, not that he’ll win games, but that he recruits like none other! Yes, we all know that now and we worship it (well, most of us anyway).
Little did we know that recently there was a Billy Gillispie impression contest. All UK coaches were entered and early polling results seem to have found a tie for the leader.

Yes, Rich Brooks and Joker Phillips are leading early results. Rumor has it that they may form a joint ticket with Brooks eventually handing over the reigns to Joker at a later date.

All joking aside, have you seen the football recruiting recently? Putting a little pressure on Gillispie, boys? I mean, seven recruits in 10 days? You’re definitely working harder than the Ol Ball Coach, who decided to NOT be on campus for a recent visit. Then the kid decided to commit to UK. Amazing. Here’s the list of commits so far:

Brian Adams, Cumming (Ga.) South Forsyth, Athlete, 6-4, 210
Jordan Aumiller, Boyle County, Athlete, 6-4, 199
Mister Cobble, Central, DT, 6-0, 280
Jerrell Green, Paul Dunbar, RB, 6-2, 210
LaRod King, North Hardin, WR, 6-6, 190
Kevin Mitchell, Douglasville (Ga.) Alexander, OL, 6-7, 280
Jarvis Walker, Metairie (La.) Rummel, DB, 6-2, 202
Myron Walker, Metairie (La.) Rummel, DT, 6-0, 280
Larry Warford, Madison Central, OL, 6-4, 350
Justin Jones, Conyers (Ga.) Heritage, TE, 6-7, 240

The 2009 class is shaping up well. Two athletes, a handful of three stars and locking down some good in-state talent. Carmel, Ind. Quarterback Morgan Newton loves the Cats (just commit already, please?) and has publicly said that whatever school he commits to, he’s working his home state for pals to bring with him.

I know people around the SEC aren’t giving the Cats much hope this year. But how can you not see a turnover in progress when UK is no longer struggling for 3-star players, but stockpiling them early? How can you think Louisville is going to be better when they are being shunned by a majority of in-state recruits? Junior-college transfers are like cheap band-aids–they almost always fall off before getting the job done.

Now I know a bunch of 3-stars is nothing to brag about when half of the top 10 recruiting classes year in and year out are SEC schools. But the progress being made is huge considering the program’s recent past. This type of recruiting will separate Kentucky from the cellar with Vanderbilt. Will give them a yearly edge over Mississippi State, Ole Miss and at least Arkansas for this year. It will have them contending with South Carolina and Tennessee.

And you know what the best part is? This class is only just shaping up. Big props to Joker Phillips and Rich Brooks. They are proving out on the recruiting trail that UK is not a two-year wonder.

Patrick Patterson is the man. I can’t make it any clearer than that. I have a very biased opinion when it comes to comparing Kentucky’s players to players on other teams, but I think it would be difficult for an objective person to make a list of the top five power forwards in the college game today and not include Patrick Patterson. As it stands today, I think Patterson stands the best chance of having a successful career in the pros of all the returning power forwards today, including Tyler Hansbrough, ESPN. He’s that good. But what is it that makes him so good?

For starters, his game is wise beyond his years. As a freshman, his game resembled that of a 10-year NBA veteran. His fundamental skills reminded me a lot of Tim Duncan when he was at Wake Forest. I’m not saying that Patrick will end up being as good as the greatest power forward to ever play in the NBA, but you just don’t see college freshmen with the knowledge of the game like Patterson very often, which was why I threw out Duncan. That was the only guy I could think of.

He has great timing when he blocks shots. He doesn’t pick up too many cheap fouls on defense. He’s an excellent help defender. He always seems to be in the right position for rebounds. He’s a good free throw shooter. He sets clean, effective screens. He has good footwork in the paint. He knows how to use the backboard whenever he takes a shot from the elbow. He has a feathery touch on his shot, but is strong enough to absorb contact and finish if he gets it down low. He’s an outstanding passer for a big man. Remember the Tennessee game where he and Perry Stevenson had a 2-on-1 break and Patterson hit Stevenson on the crosscourt lob for the jam? Stevenson couldn’t have made that pass. Randolph Morris couldn’t have made that pass, and I don’t think Chuck Hayes could have either. If Stevenson had better hands back in December and January, Patterson could have put up some really nice assist numbers.

In order for Kentucky to have the kind of season that I think they’re capable of having, Patterson has to take his game to the next level. Given Coach Gillispie’s track record for player development at both UTEP and Texas A&M, as well as the progression the team made through last year’s conference season, I have a feeling that Patterson will do just that. He will develop. He will step up his game and take it to the next level. One of the reasons why I think this will happen is because of the talent surrounding him. God bless Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford, but they were never that good at feeding the post because they were always scorers first, passers second, and there’s nothing wrong with that. With either Deandre Liggins or Kevin Galloway playing the point and with their size advantage over 99% of the point guards they’ll face, feeding the post shouldn’t be as big of an issue as it was this past season. Another player that can help Patterson elevate his game and help Patterson do the same for him is Perry Stevenson. By the meat of the SEC schedule, Patterson and Stevenson had developed a very nice chemistry, which carried over through Stevenson after Patterson injured his leg in late February. If Stevenson makes the same strides he made over the course of last season, he’ll take a lot of pressure off of Patterson, he’ll prevent Patterson from drawing as many double teams as he saw last season, and that will open up the entire offense and make it potentially lethal.

Mercy, would you look at how angry he is? That’s another advantage he’ll have, especially once the SEC season begins. Can you think of a returning player in the SEC as physically imposing on both sides of the ball as Patrick Patterson? The only one that comes to mind is Jarvis Varnado from Mississippi State, but that’s because all he does is block shots. Dave Bliss is gone. Richard Hendrix is gone. Duke Crews is gone. Marreese Speights is gone. Dwayne Curtis is gone. Charles Thomas is gone, and do I need to keep going? Unless a freshman like Harold Thompkins from Georgia or any of those new bigs from Florida step it up, Patterson should have his way with the entire conference. Once that happens, I can only hope that he’ll start to receive as much respect from media, referees and fans alike as Tyler Hansbrough, because deep down inside, if you’re reading this, you know who’s better, and it isn’t the guy who shoots a dozen free throws every game.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, and Patrick Patterson says, “Read the column or else!”

Deandre Liggins is from Chicago, Illinois, George Washington High School. He is one of the top point guards in the 2008 class, and is the highest ranked **** recruit in his class. Make no mistake about it, the kid can go. He would no doubt be the crown jewel of Kentucky’s incoming class of newcomers, except there’s this one little problem.

Nobody knows if he has qualified to play yet. Academic issues sent him to Findlay Prep School n Nevada, where they help players take care of those things, but everything still rides on the results from the SAT that Liggins took three weeks ago. However, it isn’t my job to be the bearer of bad news, so I’ll just tell you everything I know about the situation. All signs point to Liggins making it. There are some pretty good pieces of concrete evidence that backs my hypothesis, and I have some conjectures to back it up as well.

Liggins is enrolled at the University of Kentucky. I never did this because stalking is wrong, but apparently, you can look him up in the university’s directory and he’ll be there. That’s a good sign. I found out last night from unofficial recruiting insider Dave Kersey that there was a scrimmage yesterday, and that Liggins was introduced to the rest of the team at this scrimmage. That can’t be a bad sign. The SAT results were also supposed to come out on the 26th, which came and went without any bad news. I am of the belief that bad news travels faster than good news, which makes me think that if Liggins wasn’t going to make it, we’d have already known by now.

So, I’m writing the rest of this piece under the assumption that Liggins will be eligible to play for the Big Blue in 2008-09. The man is the real deal. For a point guard, he’s huge at 6’5”. His court vision is nothing short of phenomenal. Honestly, he reminds me a lot of Derrick Jasper, only everything Jasper could do, Liggins can do better. He’s a pretty assertive guard, considering that Washington and Findlay had deep rosters that kept Liggins’ minutes reasonably low for a starter. He’s got a decent jumper with a rainbow arch on it, so it’s very tough for opposing guards to block. He can step into the path of a defender and take a charge if necessary, and he’s a good enough leaper to block shots like Jasper did.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C1Y8jY-E6k&hl=en]
Highlight reel (also includes clips of Darius Miller)

If Liggins qualifies, there is no doubt in my mind that he’ll start. That will take tons of pressure away from Kevin Galloway and Michael Porter, and will also keep Jodie Meeks at his natural position at the 2. His passing should leave Patrick Patterson and Perry Stevenson open for easy baskets in the paint, and his penetration should make it easier for Meeks to spot up on the corners and hit threes. Simply put, if he plays, Deandre Liggins may very well be the most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to helping this team take the next step. We already know that we’re probably going to see consistently great efforts from Patterson and Meeks. Liggins can make them and everybody else on the team so much better.

I’m Seth Stogsdill, and I’m appalled at the lack of props for Joker Phillips on this site.

2008-09 ROSTER BREAKDOWN: DARIUS MILLER

The man pictured above, teabagging a helpless player that is dumb enough to take a charge against him is Darius Miller, from Maysville, Kentucky, by way of Mason County High School. He won Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball for 2008 as the state’s best high school player. But of course, you already know that unless you’re from Mason County and have been in mourning since you found out Chris Lofton played the entire 2008 season with cancer.

I kid, Mason County – sort of. As I was saying, Darius Miller might be the most forgotten, underrated recruit Kentucky has had since Chuck Hayes back in 2001. I don’t know why Miller doesn’t get the publicity that other recruits get. Shortly after Miller committed to Kentucky last fall, the attention switched from him to Scotty Hopson, who reopened his recruitment after opting out of his letter of intent with Mississippi State. Hopson eventually chose Tennessee, which makes me wonder if Christian County will now secede from the state and turn orange like Mason County did when what’s-his-face signed with Tennessee. Then, *** Butler signee Shelvin Mack played out of his mind at the Kentucky/Indiana All-star Games, and now people say he’s better than Miller because Miller didn’t set the world on fire with his performance in the same games. Are people that shallow? If all of that were true, couldn’t you argue that Paul Pierce is better than Kobe Bryant because Pierce had a better NBA Finals than Bryant? You can sense the lack of logic in this statement, I hope, which means that I also hope you can sense the lack of logic in anybody saying that Mack is better than Miller. Mack will put up great numbers at Butler because he’ll probably be their alpha dog for at least three years. But that does not make him a better talent than Miller.

It’s very tough to pin down a player who reminds me of Darius Miller, either from college or the pros. He’s an extremely athletic wing with the body of an NBA small forward. I’m not sure if there’s any one thing that he does spectacularly, but he’s solid at everything. He’s a solid shooter, a solid scorer, a solid rebounder, a solid passer and a solid defender. He’s one of the most versatile players I’ve ever seen come out of high school.

The biggest knock on Miller is that he often appears lazy on the court. I’ve had it explained to me in a different way, however. I’ve heard people say that things come so easy to Miller that it looks like he’s hardly trying when he’s actually working very hard. This is the same misunderstanding that UK fans had about Tayshaun Prince. If it turns out that those people are wrong, and Miller actually is lazy, I can’t imagine him staying that way under Coach Gillispie. Look at Perry Stevenson as an example. Could you imagine that the same guy who dominated the paint against Tennessee says that his favorite activity is sleeping? Like I said, I’m not worried about Miller not developing. He’ll improve significantly every single year for Kentucky, and I’m excited for it.

I’ll leave you with some videos of Miller doing what he does.

Big dunk against Campbell County

Hoopsreport.com highlight reel

Game winner against Lexington Catholic

I’m Seth Stogsdill, and I really like this kid.

This was just too good to not pass along to you guys.

You see, I’ve recently discovered the magic of a feed reader (I use Google) and it’s magnificent. And one of the blogs I added was Third Saturday in Blogtober… a mix of Tennessee and Alabama, I think.

Anyway, they do weekly Limericks and this week’s was pretty good.

Check out the blog to see them all, but here is Kentucky’s limerick for the week.

Kentucky

The Bluegrass miracle this year was not
Kentucky won the game that was hard fought
Another year
No more players to fear
And Kentucky’s football program is completely shot.

And then my favorite of the week, on Georgia QB Matthew Stafford.

Georgia

There’s a gunslinger in Athens named Stafford
To his receivers he throws frozen cords
Won’t beat you with his legs
He’s emptied too many kegs
And in the pocket seems likes he’s doing a crossword.

Ah, Limericks at Lunchtime. Don’t act like you don’t enjoy them.

Yesterday around this time, we asked a $300,000 dollar question: Would Joe Crawford be drafted?

Last night, right before midnight (and the drafted ended), we had an answer as the LA Lakers drafted Crawford with the 58th pick in the draft. Two picks after Crawford, the draft was over.

The pros for Crawford go something like this:
–Drafted by the Western Conference champions (and who look to stick around for a while).
–Learning from the reigning MVP
–Learning from one of the greatest coaches in the game,

And some of those pros can be easily flipped to cons:
–He’s behind the reigning MVP, Kobe Bryant.
–As a late second-round pick, he’s not promised to make the team, or even play.

Hopefully Joe can make the Lakers, we could see back-to-back years with NBA champions boasted former UK players. Good luck to you Joe and thanks for all the memories.