JL's Rants

College Basketball
Funny how things change from season to season with NCAA Coaches, After a successful 28-8 season at Stanford University Coach Trent Johnson is gone. Leaving several fans with the How did that happen question. Stanford Athletic Director Bob Bowlsby has got some explaining to do. Could it be that Bowlsby couldn't rub shoulders with the proud and honest Johnson? Unless Bowlsby has some sort of righteous explanation than his tenure should be questioned. Coach Johnson had strong ties to Standford University and will be hard to replace. After 28-8 season and two sweet 16 appearences, a 159-122 record in 9 years of coaching he was hired today to be the Head Basketball coach at LSU. He takes over a team that has a record of 11-21 in the last two years. This is a loss that Stanford will regret and one that LSU will profit from.

As expected, USC freshmand Guard O.J. Mayo will enter the NBA Draft, he's more than likely going to be a top-10 pick.

Also as expected, UCLA freshman Center Kevin Love will enter the NBA Draft and will more than likely be a top-10 pick.

Syracuse lost high scoring freshman forward Donte Green to the NBA draft. He averaged 17 points a game.

NBA

Another trip to Portland has gone bad for the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers blew a chance to gain 2nd place in the Western Conference on Tuesday night letting LaMarcus Aldridge & Channing Frye go off for a combined 44 points and 22 rebounds. The Lakers are 2-12 at the Rose Garden. It was reported that Center Andrew Bynum will return from injury and play this sunday in a home game against the San Antonio Spurs. One of the biggest games of the season will be the friday contest at home against the Western Coference leading New Orleans Hornets.

The Lakers need to get their defense in gear otherwise these games prior to the playoffs will not end well. The idea of outscoring teams will not have a successful ending. I don't think that bringing Andrew Bynum back alone will improve the defense it will take a concerted effort by everyone on the team to fix that side of game.