Phi Slamma Jamma...

OK…so I thought Jeff Green would show up in G-Town’s 67-60 loss to Ohio State, being the Hoyas best player an all…apparently not…in the end it was too much Mike Conley Hr. as the little Buckeye PG scored 15 points on 7-for-12 from the floor with 5 boards and 6 assists…he was at his best in the first half with Oden glues to the pine with foul trouble, scoring 11 points on 5-for-7 shooting…the vaunted Oden-Hibbert matchup added up like this: Oden 13 points and 9…Hibbert 19 points and 6 rebounds…however, Oden had the play of the night with a ridiculous dunk attempts with about 6½ minutes left….he basically broad-jumped about 2 feet inside the foul line, with his right hand cocked WAY behind his head, and tried to dunk over Jeff Green with the ball hitting back of the rim, but Green getting called for a blocking foul…

As for Florida’s 76-66 win over UCLA, they were too big, too good and too timely…too big: Noah and Horford both drew a lot of attention inside and then passed out to open shooters all night...plus big man Chris Richard went 7-7 for 16 points…too good: Gators best player, SF Corey Brewer finished with 19 points on 5-for-7 shooting, including 4-for-5 on 3-pointers, while harassing UCLA’s best player, SG Aaron Afflalo into a 17 point, 5-14 shooting night and 5 fouls…too timely: with a 29-23 at the half, the Gators hit 4 threes in the first 7 minutes of the second half, three of those by SG Lee Humphrey to sprint ahead to 47-30 with 13:20 to go…

Tonight? In a rematch of the NCAA football championship, albeit with the script flipped (meaning Florida is the favourite now…duh) the questions will be:

Can Greg Oden stay out of foul trouble? Oden played a total of 161 seconds in the first half against Georgetown…in fact in his last three tournament games he's logged only 18, 24 and 20 minutes of court time respectively…Florida has three bigs in Noah, Al Horford and Chris Richard that will all pressure Oden on both offence and defence…in order for the Buckeyes to have a chance to win, Oden must play at least 30 minutes…

Will history matter? On Dec. 23 in Gainesville, Florida blew open a very close game with a 31-7 run, during which the Buckeyes panicked, towards winning 86-60…

Will Florida’s guards be better? In the abovementioned December matchup PG Taurean Green scored 24 points on 9-for-12 shooting (with four threes) with Brewer (18 points on 7-for-13), and Humphrey (12 points, two 3-pointers) making tremendous contributions…meanwhile, OSU PG Mike Conley Jr. is all world right now, averaging 18 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals per game in the tourney…while SG Ron Lewis is averaging 21 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal…although…

Corey Brewer vs. Ron Lewis? After making Aaron Afflalo disappear can Brewer do the same to Lewis? The 6-foot-4 Lewis shoots poorly against bigger defenders such as Georgetown's 6-foot-8 DaJuan Summers, who blanketed him on Saturday as well as the 6-foot-9 Brewer, who harrased him into a 3-10 for 9 points in their last matchup in December…

Is Florida due for a stinker? Remember, the Buckeyes have won 22 straight dating back to January 9th, while a little over a month ago, Florida crapped the bed by 10 points against both LSU and Tennessee…and a little over a week ago, they almost spit the bit to Butler…

I’m going with the Gators, who are too experienced and really rolling right now…make it Florida 84, OSU 79 with Corey Brewer as the MOP…

Terrific April Fools Day joke here by Suns owner Robert Sarver who called Suns coach Mike D'Antoni on his cell phone yesterday morning indicating that after Nash and Nowitzki went out to dinner Saturday night, Nash was arrested for DUI and needed to be bailed out…apparently he had D'Antoni going for a minute or two before he realized what day it was…

The Raptors are in the playoffs for the first time in 5 years and that’s no April fools…

Wow….Pacers PF (playing C, but only because Jermaine O’Neal is too chicken to play it) Ike Diogu went for 18 points and 13 rebounds in 32 minutes in a 100-99 win over the visiting Spurs…

Interesting story on who graduates their players and who doesn’t…

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/03/post_61.html

Given the Hall of Fame inductees will be announced today, good article here about which current players should get in…

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/marty_burns/03/30/hall.worthy/index.html

Great story (thanks for the forward Noel), and you MUST PLAY THE VIDEO…Drexler’s dunk over the guy from Memphis is out of this world…

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=jamfest83&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1

Mike Freeman has clearly lost his mind…

http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/10102396