Basketball season sneaks up on sports fans

by Trent Trammel, staff writer

 

With only a handful of games left to be played in the World Series and pro and college football nearing their halfway marks of the season, basketball season has kind of snuck up on some of us. 

The NBA has already started their preseason games, while NCAA basketball is gearing up for the start of the season on Nov. 7.  Personally, I am ready for the basketball seasons to begin, because I have so many questions that I would like to be answered.

Can the Dallas Mavericks win their first championship? Will we finally get to witness a back-to-back national championship since the early 1990’s?  Finally, will Lebron James get his first MVP trophy and show everyone that he is next great one?

So many questions that won’t be answered until at least the All-Star break or until the playoffs and March Madness are over. But lucky for you, I will answer my own questions with predictions of what I believe will happen this year and into next year.

Will the Dallas Mavericks win their first NBA championship? That is a tough one to answer right off the bat. Most of their players from last year’s Western Conference Championship team are back including all-stars Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry, along with young phenoms Josh Howard, Devon Harris, and Maurice Ager (2006 first round draft pick). That is a pretty good team to start with. But since they all have playoff experience, excluding Ager, it makes them that much better.

The biggest hurdle the Mavs must overcome is whether they can bounce back after the crushing losses to the Miami Heat in the NBA finals. I give all the props to the Heat last year. They built that team to win a championship last year, and Miami got the outcome that was expected.

But I think the Mavs can win it all, assuming that there are no significant injuries. With notable home games against powerhouse San Antonio Spurs and the Phoenix Suns, if the Mavs can defend their home court and play well against division teams, I can see them returning to the finals.  Depending on the opponent, Dallas could finally get the championship that the Mavs have waited for a very long time.

Now, I get to talk about one of my favorite winter sports.  I say “one of my” only because I don’t think anything beats college football bowl games or the NFL playoffs. But the question I had for this year’s NCAA season is will there finally be a back-to-back national champion? The last time NCAA men’s basketball saw such a think was 1991-1992, but this year could be the first time since then. 

In March of 2006, the world saw a young and talented Florida Gators team, do something even Vegas couldn’t predict, that’s win the national championship.  No one had Florida winning the whole thing until the Final Four, three rounds into the tournament.  Florida has the best shot at posting two consecutive national championships on its resume since all five starters return for this season.  Returning all the starters from a defending national championship team is a pretty good ingredient for consecutive titles. If you look at the 2005 national champions North Carolina Tarheels, they didn’t have many returning starters and they were bounced out of the 2006 tournament after the second round.

Billy Donovan, Florida’s coach, is in his prime and has hopes of returning to the championship game for the third time in seven years and winning his second consecutive title. Gator stars such as Joakim Noah and Al Horford are already pre-season All-Americans, and with Taurean Green, Lee Humphreys, and Cory Brewer all coming back this Gators team should be better than last year and be a legitimate title contender. 

Only a few teams stand in the way of the Gators holding the rank of the best college hoops team, North Carolina has a young and talented team, as does Texas and Kansas.  The biggest challenge may come from the Duke Blue Devils.  The Blue Devils have owned the basketball spotlight during the last decade or so, and with Coach K coming back, Duke could pose a threat to those hungry Gators.  Ironically, the last team to post back-to-back national championships was the 1991-1992 Duke Blue Devils. But look for Florida to stay strong throughout the whole season and make it to the Final Four with a chance to accomplish something that hasn’t happened in 15 years.

As for the James question, will he win his first MVP title?  When I start thinking about how good this guy is, or if he will ever be as good as the great ones, I could go on for hours. But I only have so much space to take up, so I will make it simple.  James is one of the most skilled players in the game and has shown what he can do for his age. Remember, he is only 21 years old.  He earned Rookie of Year honors in 2004, which I thought should have gone to Dwayne Wade, and he was selected as an All-Star in his first three seasons.

Not good enough for you yet? James has already drawn comparisons to one of the greatest players in history, Michael Jordan. Those are all stat comparisons though, not achievements and title comparisons. 

On that note, I think this year you will see the first title comparison of James to Jordan.  That’s right, I am going out on the limb before the start of the season and declaring that Lebron James will be the MVP in the Eastern Conference.  Some will agree and some won’t. But when you look at it there are only a few preseason candidates who might actually be there at the end. You have Chauncey Billups of the Pistons, Michael Redd from the Bucks, and Vince Carter and Jason Kidd of the Nets.  That’s four players who stand in the way of his first MVP title.  That is pretty stout competition, but as long as the Cavaliers play well and James does what he is suppose to do, a MVP award will look real nice in his trophy room at the end of the 2006-2007 season.

Well, all but one of my three questions was answered.  The Mavericks will get to the finals, but whether the can win it all can only be decided then.  The Gators will protect their crown and remain NCAA national champions. King James will get the elusive MVP award, and just maybe the Cavs might stand in the way of the Mavericks winning their first championship.  Who knows, only time will tell.