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Show StatesmanSports Wednesday, Feb. 20. 2008 Page IS Perfect Kidd back The Blue and the White to Dallas Sports Debate in trade Sam Bryner is a senior majoring in business management. Comments can be sent to him sam,bryner@aggiemail.usu.edu David Baker is a senior majoring in print journalsim. Comments can be sent to him da.bake@aggiemail.usu. 1. Is the dunk contest back? Hell yes. There was a cupcake used during Saturday night's dunk contest. A pinkfrosted, cupcake. What's more intriguing for obese Americans than baked goods? You could sell anything with a bake-sale thing going on: Communism, a sequel to "The Number 23" called "The Number 24" or Ron Paul's presidential campaign. As long as there's brightly colored cupcakes, we're down. There were some other good dunks Saturday nightf too. Sorry, I got sidetracked by the cupcake. But what about Dwight Howard's Superman thing? His hand never got within like three feet of the rim. He just threw the ball through the hoop. Yeah, he jumped really high, but was it a dunk or just a floater in the lane? After going on hiatus for a number ot years, the NBAs slam dunk contest made a spectacular comeback Saturday night thanks to a few simple props—including a super man costume, Orlando Magic Nerf basketball hoop and a cupcake termed the "birthday cake." No time to explain all of the details of the dunks, but the one thing that made this year's dunk contest so amazing was the fact that we saw NEW dunks. So many years we just see the same old dunks over and over again. This year, in large part to Dwight Howard, we saw dunks that we had never seen before. We saw creativity mixed with spectacular athletic ability which made for one of the greatest slam dunk contest ever. 2. Second-half surprise in NBA? I'd be surprised if anyone in the East actually challenged the Celtics at all. I'll also be surprised if the East—with the exception of LeBron and Boston's big three—has any superstar players left after the trading deadline. I'd be even more surprised if what I'm about to say actually happened, mainly because it's impossible, but that doesn't mean I can't dream. What I'd like to see happen is the Celtics and maybe the Pistons and Cavs just move to the West, and let the rest of the East play Developmental League teams the rest of the year, while those teams in the West battle it out in a 12-team tournament for basketball supremacy. The biggest surprise in the second half of the NBA will most likely be—drum roll please—the fall of the New Orleans Hornets. I base this on the fact this team has never been in this position before. I don't think that they have the leadership to keep up with the pressure of being a top team. Will guys like David West continue to play above their potential? I don't think so. Also, on a more personal level, I despise Chris Paul and feel that my main man, Deron Williams, owns Paul in every way. Whether it's playing on the court in real games or in the All-Star skills challenge, Williams, simply put, always wins. 3. No. 1 Memphis or No. 2 Tennessee? First, we all need to ignore the fact that ESPN rigged the polling to get this No.l vs. No. 2 match-up for an in-state game most . people outside of backwards Appalachia ' " ri don't care about. Second,'how dift the Vols 'w make it up to No. 2? It makes sense for their women's team to be up so high, but the men? Maybe Memphis is actually playing the Tennessee women—the Lady Vols fit in well with the rest of Memphis' schedule, actually. But it doesn't matter whether it's the Lady Vols or Bruce Pearl's men's team, Memphis will run them out of Pyramid. Bruce might sweat through three jackets trying to get his Vols to keep up with Derek Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts. Two words, Bruce: Clinical Strength. Despite the fact that Memphis is undefeated, 1 am choosing Tennessee to win this in-state rivalry game on Saturday night. I base this simply off the unfair assessment that the SECii£3TSeiter conference than Conference-USA. Tennessee has played and beaten better teams than Memphis has. The Volunteers have played six top-25 teams and have won five of those games. On the other hand, Memphis has played only two top-25 teams. Tennessee also has the edge because guard Chris Lofton has proven to be one of the biggest clutch shooters in the past few years. This guy in crunch time can simply score from anywhere. Look for the game to be close, but the Volunteers will win. 4. Is the NFL Combine a big deal? It's a bigger deal than the NBA All-Star Game, or the Pro Bowl, and definitely VD—Valentine's Day— but don't tell that to chicks. Basically, the Combine is the savior of the awful, cold, snowy, depressing month of February. Good stats at the Combine are usually the difference between first and second rounders and those who don't get drafted at all. We're talking millions of dollars here. Plus, it's like sweeps week for the NFL Network, who are just happy they have something interesting to put on TV during the offseason. And you get to watch people bench press. What's more enthralling than that? DALLAS (AP) — Jason Kidd is a member of the Dallas Mavericks. Again. Finally. The long-discussed, oncescuttled and ultimately reconfigured deal to bring Kidd from New Jersey back to the team that drafted him was finalized Tuesday. He was reintroduced in Dallas 14 years after the Mavericks made him the No. 2 pick. Back then, Kidd was supposed to help turn around one of the worst franchises in sports. Now, as one of the league's best point guards, he's seen as a crucial piece in the Mavs' pursuit of a championship. "There's no bigger reward than to have that championship trophy in your hand," said Kidd, who lost in the NBA finals twice with the Nets. "That's why I'm here. Because Dallas has its eye on that prize." The eight-player deal, in the making since before the AllStar break and talked about a lot longer than that, sends Kidd, forward Malik Allen and guard Antoine Wright to Dallas. The primary piece headed to New Jersey is point guard Devin Harris. The others are center DeSagana Diop, swingman Maurice Ager, forward Trenton Hassell and retired forward Keith Van Horn. rartner. We Fit Your Needs MATERNITY INSURANCE Costs as little as $75 - $175 / MONTH Pays out as much as $5000 - $7000 Must be in effect 10 months BEFORE you deliver Works great with other health insurance policies Great prices on all Life, Health, Auto & Renters Cache Valley Insurance, Inc. 94 South Main, Losan (435) 7524560" Ask for Amanda or Curtis If you're not comfortable in chest paint... SHOW ME :' fa. The NFL combine is much like the upedm-1ing BracketBusters game for Utah State. It's useless. Players come and are tested on all sorts of random skills and other weird activities. Yes, it's great that one guy can run a really fast 40-yard dash or that he can jump a really long distance standing in one place, but how much does this really tell us whether or not a player can play? History would probably show mixed results. When I see a guy suited up in full pads playing on Sunday in front of millions of fans on TV and in the stadium making great plays on the field, then I will respect a guy for being a good player. Until then, I base whether or not that guy will be a good NFL player on what his accomplishments were in college. r n i " |d » A unit ft ...Game Day T-Shirt $4 5. Rant Here's my nomination for stupidest person in the sports world: Heir to the LSU offense, quarterback Ryan Perrilloux. Instead of starting preparation for a run at a repeat in '09, Perrilloux is violating team rules—probably skipping classes, meetings and workouts, or the like—and has been suspended indefinitely by LSU. If he doesn't pull his swollen head out of his pompous ass, he may piss away one of the best gigs in college sports right now. How hard is it to show up and sleep through a 1000-level class? Perrilloux was suspended last May for trying to get into a riverboat casino with his brothers driver's license, so maybe he's just spending too much time honing his blackjack skills to follow team rules. Well, the basketball team went on the road and lost three straight games. They blew a big lead against Hawaii and made dumb mistakes against San Jose to thwart their comeback efforts. And it seemed like after the first loss against Nevada, the team was content that they played hard in the second half and tried to make a comeback. Well, hopefully now the team has gotten the point that in order to contend for conference championships they have to win on the road. It seems that some guys show up to play while on the road but others leave their game in Logan. I believe that if any group of guys could pull of the improbable and still win the title, it would be this group. Go Aggies. Bracket Buster February 19 - 22nd Joseph Smith Memorial Fireside Lunch for the Bunch Friday, Fcb 22 at the Kent Concert Hall. 5:30pm Thursday Fcb 21 at Noon in the Cultural Center. Bagels, doughnuts and I lot cocoa for jusr s 1 Special guest speaker is Sister Shcri Dew You must have a ticket for this event. Tickers arc free for registered Institute students and arc available at the Institute Bookstore. UtahState UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE Restoration for Spring 2008 is still open Register @ wise.ldsces.org Religion In Life Fri. 11:30 Kelly Mills Director of International Missionary Training Centers and the former Mission President of the Japan liikiioka Mission. Hawaiian Haystacks for b a r t e r . |