UNT96

More fuel for our conspiracy theory Aaron. If the Mavs or Cuban makes a comment like those than we get fined. If the Lakers say it then it MUST be true so Stern admits that they miss calls. Complete BS. YThe rules should be the same for everyone. Problem is Dallas became the the little piggy that cried wolf and now they can't even complain when it is legitimate.

I cannot tell you how long I have been waiting for the Mavs to dominate. I mean it has been really nice the last few years with them playing rung and gun ball but what they are doing now is really something special. Is Dirk the best player in the NBA? I think he might be. Could be my Mav glasses on this one but I cannot imagine trading him for any player in the NBA. That includes Kobe... and Shaq. I don't think this team would be this dominating without him.

Well it was put on the agenda last year but was changed half way through the season this year. Come on Court, give me this conspiracy theory so I can hate the Lakers even more

I'm with ya man. There is a serious conspiracy going on in the NBA. It started when the Bulls broke up and the NBA was left spinning with no reason what so ever to watch. Then came the Lakers. All of the sudden the ratings go back up and the NBA starts calling them the greatest team ever. It was so bad that this year, half way through the damn season, they CHANGE THE DAMN RULES for the playoffs to give the Lakers more time to win the first round because they might not be as good as last year. How can anyone stand by and let this happen? It is one thing if they change the rule during the off season but changing it in the middle of the season is just a flat out atrocity. F*** the Lakers, Go T-Wolves. T-Wolves in 5 (maybe 6

One observation from the TNT coverage... Charles Barkley is one of the biggest morons ever. This guy strains just to get a complete sentence out. Is it REALLY that tough for them to find an ex-player that can string together 5 or 6 words in a row? Great game though, a little too close for my taste but a lot more fun than a blow out. I don't buy the crap about how counting that last 3 pointer incorrectly by Nash was a deciding factor. If you have to rely on last second antics than you lose the game 9 times out of 10.

Thought I would post this over here because most just check this board. Mean Green Golf Team Wins Sun Belt Conference Title NICEVILLE, Fla. (4/23/03)- The North Texas men's golf team captured the 2003 Sun Belt Conference Championship with a final round 296 at Bluewater Bay Golf Course and Resort to win by ten strokes and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Regional Championship

Hey Steve, I think Leonard has already gotten two red shirts. One when he first got here as a frosh red shirt and then another for a medical redshirt. Last year was his first full season (kind of - more like 3/4 of a season), correct? I don't think the NCAA will give him another one but crazier things have happened. I sure hope so, we literally fell off the map when he got hurt last year. With no Davis this year we will need Hopkins more than ever if we expect to win over 5 games.

Totally agree about Garnett. He actually had an even better game than those numbers. I think he was 26-16-6 shortly after the half when he relaxed a little. They rested him quite a bit and he spread the ball around a ton in the second half. If this game was even close then the guy could have probably set some sort of triple double record for the playoffs. I never really pay attention to the T-Wolves but tonight I was cheering for them all the way. It really is amazing that he was able to put up the numbers, none the less putting them up against the might Lakers. Go T-Wolves! Beat the Lakers in 5!

One of the biggest smiles on my face right now. 29 point win, total and complete domination. The Lakers look tired and uninspired.

Coaches do have a penalty in their contract if the school has a lawyer on staff. Just like players, coaches are asked to pay to get out of their contracts. Most of the time the school that they are going to will buy it out but either way there is a check and balance.

That is correct, he would have to sit out a year either way. My point was that since WKU granted him a release, he will be able to sit out on scholarship rather than pay his own way. I think that if you screw over the school that you committed to that you should have to pay for at least one year of your own school. Teaches integrity. I respect RV for refusing to give Jason Miller a release because of this.

And he is headed to Murray St of all places. I think this is a bad precedent to set. Kids should have to sit out a year while paying their own way. BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Western Kentucky University head men's basketball coach Darrin Horn announced Tuesday that Patrick Sparks has been granted his release, a decision that comes based on consideration that began prior to the end of the 2002-03 season. "Patrick Sparks contributed to the success of Western Kentucky basketball the last two years," said Horn, who was hired April 15. "He has informed me that he wants to explore other options. It is obvious that this is a decision that Patrick has not rushed into, but has considered over a long period of time. I wish Patrick and his family all the best in their future endeavors." Sparks was selected first-team all-Sun Belt Conference last year after leading the Hilltoppers with 13.3 points and the SBC with 5.9 assists per contest. He also set a school season record with 84 three-point field goals and topped the squad with 73 steals. The Central City, Ky., resident ranked in the top five in the Sun Belt assists, assist-to-turnover ratio, steals and three-point field goals per game. Sparks was twice named the league's Player of the Week, and he was also the Most Outstanding Player at the Aéropostale Sun Belt Conference Tournament after helping lead Western to the title - and the automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament that goes with it - with a 64-52 victory over Middle Tennessee March 11. In his first year on the Hill, Sparks set school freshman records with 117 assists, a team-best 71 threes and 46 steals while averaging 10.7 points per game. He shot 45.6 percent from the field, including hitting 43 percent from behind the three-point arc. Sparks was selected to the SBC all-tournament squad as he keyed the Toppers' run to the championship with a last-second field goal in a one-point victory over New Mexico State in the semifinals. He ends his career ranked second all-time with 155 three-pointers and 10th with 119 steals. His 39.3 three-point field-goal percentage stands third in the career record books. The Hilltoppers concluded last season 24-9, with a 12-2 record in the Sun Belt Conference East Division. Western has appeared in three straight NCAA Tournaments, won the last three SBC Tournaments and claimed three consecutive East Division titles while posting a 76-20 (79.2%) mark during that time.

What a crap way to go out. I imagine that MJ will long second guess his decision to try and make yet another comeback. The discouraging thing is that he is probably playing more rounded basketball now more than ever. He is not as selfish as he used to be and for the first time since the 1st or 2nd championship people were enjoying watching him play rather than hating the Bulls for being so damn good at all costs (i.e. Dennis Rodman and Co). I wish he would give it one more year, this is no way for a legend to go out. Scoring only 15 points, on the road, in a 30 point loss during the middle of a 5 game losing streak. Basketball deserved better than that. I guess the easy answer is to say that he made a mistake by coming back again but it was sure fun watching him give it another go. As much as I love to hate this guy I wish he would stick around a little bit longer.

Ok, according to the ESN playoff tracker the Mavs are going to be a 3 seed playing the Lakers, this is with the updated info frojm tonight's win against the Spurs. The Kings are listed as the #2. Here is my confusion. The Kings, at best, can end the season at 59-23 and that is if they win tonight against Utah. The Mavs have finished at 60-22. Now I know that the Kings own the tie breaker if there is a tie but it is mathematically impossible to tie them. So why are we not the #2 seed playing Utah instead of the Kings?

Great discussion idea, I can't help but think that a little bit of tact would have gone a long way with this fight. Rather than "demanding" that Augusta adhere to her will before the Masters rolled around, perhaps Burk could have set up a commission to study the issue jointly with the club.. and actually show the a group of or at least ONE lady that had applied and been turned down by the club. Fact is, there isn't one. Whewre is the prejudice if nobody is being hurt other than her ego? I think that the fact that less than 40 people showed up for her little protest this weekend pretty much summed it up (and that is the 4 day total by the way.. one day had 7 people). Gotta hand it to the media's facination with the KKK, all I have heard for the last month is that the KKK was going to be there. The fact is that the KKK refused to come but rather a "splniter" group of the KKK came. This is actually ONE person. That's right ONE person that was told by the KK that he had the right to protest if he wanted and that was his perogative, but the protest was not an official KKK cause and they would not back him on it. So in all we have this count for protestors this weekend: 40 total (over a 4 day period) FOR Martha's cause. 1 SPLINTER member that happens to also beling to the KKK. 127 Media members covering the event to their displeasure. Sounds like the Media both won and lost. They won because they outnumbered the protestors by over 3 times as many people. They lost because it was a total smooze fest where on all three days (first day of the 4 was cancelled due to rain) they were done filming by 11 a.m. Laughable, good for Hootie for not being "handled" by this individual.

Agreed, I dare say that Dirk is the best player to ever wear the Mavs uniform. Even last night in a pathetic Mavericks showing, Dirk still walked out with 34 points.

Nash is 20 times more consistent than Van Exel and is a leader on the team. You cannot buy leadership, that type of respect has to be earned and there is no way I would let one of the hearts of this team go. I think we are all forgetting just how terrible the Mavs were for SOOOOOO long. We need a big man to take on Shaq, but so does everyone else in the NBA. He is an unstoppable monster.

Kobe joins in on the fun: Lakers guard says he 'can go into attack mode anytime' 04/10/2003 By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News PHOENIX – First of all, Kobe Bryant wants to make it clear that the Mavericks did not shut him down Tuesday night in Los Angeles, when he scored but 14 points on four-of-16 shooting. Second, be afraid. Be very afraid. After swatting the visiting Mavericks, 108-99, the Lakers were more than willing to dismiss their possible first-round foe. Should the Mavs, or anybody else who faces the Lakers in the playoffs, be worried? "Yes, for sure," Bryant said. "We've been through all this before. We've paid our dues and proven ourselves. You have to learn how to handle those situations. We've been through tough Game 7 situations. There's no substitute for that." The inference, of course, is that the Mavericks have not. And while it may well come to pass that the Mavericks play somebody else in the first round, it's clear that the Lakers wouldn't mind at all if they faced the Mavs to start chasing their fourth consecutive NBA championship. The Mavs applauded themselves for the job they did against Shaquille O'Neal and Bryant, the NBA's most dominant duo. But they still got beat, handily at that. Bryant said it had nothing to do with him being shut down. "We see these other teams and I score 14, 15, 18 points and they all say: We did a good job on Kobe," he said. "Not true. I'm enjoying being a playmaker at times like this. I can go into attack mode anytime." But Tuesday night was not the time for that. Instead, Devean George, Robert Horry, Rick Fox and Derek Fisher were heroes. "There are a number of ways of playing us," Fox said. "Let Shaq and Kobe get 80 points between them or double-team Shaq and Kobe and see what the rest of us do. Very rarely do you see that game plan, so very rarely do we look like we know how to play." Now, it's a matter of whether the Mavs can avoid the Lakers. "If that's the hand we're dealt, we'll deal with it," Raef LaFrentz said. "But ideally, no. No team wants to start against them in the first round. They're a great team that started the season poorly." Cuban rejoins team in Phoenix after stop After a side trip to Las Vegas, owner Mark Cuban was with the Mavs on Wednesday in Phoenix. Cuban was at the NBA's board of governors' meeting Tuesday and, when a snowstorm hit, he had trouble getting out of New York. "I knew I wasn't going to make it to LA in time for the game, so I stopped in Vegas because I knew I'd be able to watch the game there," Cuban said.

Yeah, we really do need a general forum where we can discuss just about anything; but this is not a free "public" board, every click and every post takes a little bit more money out of Harry's pocket so I would never give the guys a hard time about it. Do you guys ever read the independent arguement forum? Man, I can see Iron Man doing some damage on there regarding world events, he seems to be able to hang well with intelligent smack talk. Check it out if you are bored.. your free Delphi username and password will work. Indepedent Arguement

That's the good thing about having a team like the Lakers around... no matter how bad your team does, you still have a reason to watch the rest of the games to cheer against the Lakers. We could potentially become Sacramento fans for about a 2 week period; something most of us would turn our noses to the rest of the year. Consequently, I feel the same way about the Dallas Blowmonkeys..err Cowboys.. but that is a different arguement for a different day...in a different forum. Needless to say it has been absolute Heaven for the past 5 years. Go Mavs! Go Portland! Go Sacramento! Go San Antonio! Beat the Lakers!

KU has taken a gamble that firing the AD will keep the b-ball coach from bolting to North Carolina. Let's hope it doesn't work so they have to eat this guy's contract for nothing. Woe is us... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, April 9 Bohl says Williams maneuvered to get him fired -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ESPN.com news services LAWRENCE, Kan. -- The University of Kansas fired athletic director Al Bohl on Wednesday, a move widely viewed as an effort to persuade men's basketball coach Roy Williams to remain at the school. "I would not resign," Bohl said. "I was fired." Hired in 2001 to replace Williams' close friend and longtime Jayhawks athletic director Bob Frederick, Bohl clashed early and often with the popular basketball coach. His departure has been viewed as an almost foregone conclusion since rumors surfaced in February that UCLA would pursue Williams for its head coaching job after the season. But the speculation intensified after North Carolina coach Matt Doherty resigned before the NCAA Final Four, opening the position Williams -- a Tar Heels alumnus -- passed on three years ago after an agonizing week for both the coach and fans of the Jayhawk program. The university has called a news conference for 4:30 p.m. ET. Bohl told the AP he would meet with reporters at his home an hour later. "They wouldn't even let me talk with the media on campus," said Bohl, 55, who was hired specifically to repair the school's long-suffering football program. At his news conference, Bohl will read a statement in which he accuses Williams of orchestrating his ouster. Bohl's statement will include the following: "(The) Kansas basketball coach had the power to crush me or let me fly and he chose to crush me. This is a sad day in college athletics when a college basketball coach can hire and fire an athletic director." Drue Jennings, a member of the KU Endowment Association Executive Committee and the KU Alumni Association Board, has agreed to serve as interim athletic director pending the outcome of a national search, the university said in a statement. Jennings, 56, will not be a candidate for the position. He received degrees from the university in 1968 and 1972. Williams, who steadfastly refused to address questions about North Carolina before and after the Jayhawks lost to Syracuse in Monday night's national championship game, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Bohl was previously director of athletics at Toledo and Fresno State, and was credited with turning around the football programs at both schools. His major move at Kansas was firing football coach Terry Allen with two games left in the 2001 season and replacing him with Oklahoma offensive coordinator Mark Mangino. The decision to fire Allen made Williams' displeasure with Bohl public. Williams was especially angry that Allen was fired while the season was still under way. A few months before Allen was fired, Williams was a prominent coach at an ethics seminar and endorsed a proposal urging schools not to fire a coach whose sport was in season. "And then it happens at my very own school," Williams said at the time. "How embarrassing." Bohl fired back publicly, saying, "Roy is the basketball coach, and I am the director of athletics. I was hired to fix this football program, and that's what I'm going to do." When their clash became public, Bohl's support vanished among alumni and important contributors to the program. During a pep rally at the Final Four in New Orleans, Bohl was booed by Kansas fans. He was later asked if it were possible for him to be effective while being that unpopular. "The cheers far outweighed the boos," he snapped. "Yes, they booed. Are you kidding me? You guys have been writing it like it's a case where Bohl's got to go, so Roy's going to stay here. Hey, it's been pretty good music that we've been to two Final Fours. Those people, they don't even know Al Bohl." Williams said Tuesday he planned to meet with North Carolina patriarch Dean Smith on Tuesday night, and it was expected he would again receive an offer to return to Chapel Hill. Bohl had pledged to do all he could to keep Williams at Kansas. Bohl's departure may or may not influence Williams' decision to remain as Jayhawks coach or leave for the North Carolina job. Williams will be allowed the right of first refusal by Carolina and is expected to make a decision soon. Sources said the Tar Heels would not give Williams a week to make a decision, which he took three years ago when he turned down their offer. However, they might to have to wait -- Williams is scheduled to leave for Los Angeles on Friday to attend the presentation of the John Wooden Award. He will attend with Kansas senior Nick Collison, who is one of five finalists for college basketball's player of the year honor, and Williams himself will receive an award -- the Legends of Coaching, which recognizes lifetime achievement in coaching. Past recipients include Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Lute Olson and Denny Crum. Information from ESPN.com senior writer Andy Katz and The Associated Press was used in this report.

This about sums up his cocky ass attitude. I hope we draw them in the first round of the playoffs and just pummelize them. I would be happ;y to see Big Old Shawn Bradley just step on that sore pinky toe all night long and take Shaq out for the whole playoffs. Certainly would be the most he could do for the Mavs at this point. I seriously would be COMPLETELY happy to lose the rest of the series (all of them) if we could just beat them and their fabricated 5 game first series (UGGHHH!!!) and keep them out of the second round. It would be just as good as a championship to me. By the way, Raef had 28 tonight while Shaq was held scoreless for the first 12 minutes of them game and ended with 14 total. It was way into mop up time that the freak of nature broke the double digit mark in the fourth quarter. How can someone that just had such a horrible game talk out of his ass so much?

I was just playing about the hat, I have one just like it that I used to build a room onto my old house and has seen me through about 1000 rounds of golf. Lots of blood, sweat, and tears have gone into it (with the emphasis on sweat) and I wouldn't give it up for anything.

Link please. Hey Aaron, have you gotten the DVD yet? You are on the back cover with that Lime Green Talons shirt and God awful hat... you have etched your way into Mean Green history.

Montana campus taken over by squirrels: Yikes! Link to full article: UM campus taken over by squirels