I Like Turtles

This blog entry has nothing to do with basketball but I felt the need to write this blog. The blog is my reaction to this video:



At first I found this amazingly funny. I could not stop laughing at what this kid said and the way the reporter reacted after he answered her question. "I Like Turtles" was his response to her question and I found it really funny. And then after watching the video over and over I started to get aggravated. I was really pissed off at how dumb this kid was. If you look closely it looks like he smirks so maybe he was just being a wise guy bit I doubt it. He's from Portland and it looks like he was born and raised in a trailer. I'm sorry if I offended anyone. I understand that he is a little kid and maybe he was nervous but that makes no excuse to say "I like turtles." First off she asked about his face paint and he said he likes turtles. What the heck???? Honestly how dumb can a kid be. I'm gonna guess that maybe he's 5-8 years old. When I was that age I was able to understand what people were asking me and I was able to give a normal human-being response to them. Also, when I was that age I was able to pronounce the word "Turtle." If that was my kid I would've disowned him for embarrassing himself as well as me. Did you see the way the reporter reacted? She had no idea what to say. She was probably thinking, "Wow, what a stupid kid, we couldn't interview a kid who knew how to speak and knew how to respond like a normal person? This is horrible. If this was my kid I'd kill myself. Wow I feel bad for his parents"
This video shows the importance of going to school. I believe that kids should start going to school at the age of 2 so that this doesn't happen again. If I see another video of a kid who doesn't know how to get interviewed I am going to be very mad. I felt the need to vent. Thank you for listening.

Friday Ballin'

After class on Friday, Lou Musto and I played basketball in the gym at school with a few of my friends. We played with two of your other students, Steve McCann and Luca Panarelli. First off, Lou Musto sucks. Well he doesn't suck, but he is too strong. At first, he couldn't make a layup because he would shoot the ball too hard. I guess that's a good thing in life, but not on the basketball court. So we played a 5 on 5 game at first. Me and Luca were opposing captains. My team was Me, Lou Musto, My friend Dave the Jew aka "Sherman", my friend Nick Curran, and my friend Drew. Luca's team was Luca, Semi-Pro Joe Ruopoli, Steve "Blake" McCann, this kid Joe, and some weird kid who really really really sucked. After the first three or four points most of us stopped trying. So we decided to fool around and unfortunately that made me look bad. I was on a fast break and I decided to do a Karl Malone pose while going up for a layup and Luca blocked me. Before we started playing, everyone kept telling me that they wanted to be included in my blog and I said that they have to do something memorable and luckily for Luca that was memorable. We stopped playing full court and played 4 on 4 halfcourt. My team ended up being Me, Nick, Steve McCann, and my friend Dave. We played against Luca, Drew, Semi-Pro, and Lou Musto. We easily beat them and I finally got into my groove. Our team was well-rounded. With the inside presence of Nick, the outside shooting of Steve, the jumping of Sherman, and the greatness of me, we were unbeatable. We won the first game and played a second. We were winning 15-2 and then began to fool around again. We ended up winning 21- 16 but it could've been 21-2 if we really wanted. It was fun playing and hopefully we will play more often.

MARCH MADNESS

It's that time of year once again. The time where basketball is on for the whole month of March. The time where I wish I didn't go to St. John's because our basketball team sucks and couldn't even make the Big East tournament. But it's ok because we do play in the Big East which is one of the most competitive conferences in the NCAA unlike Rider College who plays in the "WACK" MAAC. But anyway, it is NCAA tournament time. The time where 64 colleges get the chance to play for the right to be the best college in America.
Today is "Selection Sunday" Selection Sunday is when a committee comes together and picks the best 64 teams and seeds them according to their records, strength of schedule, and other aspects. Teams vie for bids in conference tournaments. Each Division I conference is guaranteed one representative in the NCAA Tournament. So even weak conferences like the Ivy League, NEC, or the "wack" MAAC have one team in the tournament. But other conferences like the Big East, ACC, and the Big 12 have multiple bids for the tournament. The tournament is divided into 4 regions East, West, North, South and there are 16 teams in each region seeded 1-16. The field starts off with 64 teams then is narrowed down to 32 then the "Sweet 16" followed by the "Elite 8" then the "Final Four" and eventually the Championship.
Even though the brackets have not been selected yet and nobody knows what schools are going to be seeded in what region and what seed I have an idea of who the number 1 seeds will be in each region. North Carolina will definitely be a number 1 seed as will UCLA. Memphis will definitely have a number 1 seed. They were 30-1 in the regular season which was the best record in the NCAA. I'm not sure who the 4th number 1 seed will be but I will find out by 6 oclock tonight. I will write more about the tournament as it progresses. And I can't wait for it to start. The first game is March 20th. Like Dick Vitale says, "It's MARCH MADNESS BABY!!!"

Houston Rockets Make History

The Houston Rockets have made history this season. They now own the second longest win streak in NBA History. They haven't lost a game since late January. They won 21 in a row. They are second only to the 1972 Los Angeles Lakers who won 33 in a row. Ironically they go for 22 in a row today against the Lakers. The reason I think that this is such a big deal is because the Rockets lost their all-star center Yao Ming in the middle of their win streak and also they have played some of the elite teams in the NBA. In the 2000's there has been only one team to win 18 or more games in a row and that was the 1999-2000 Lakers. The Rockets on paper aren't that great of a team. They have many young guys and many old guys. Their only all-star is Tracy McGrady who I believe is one of the top 10 players in the NBA. Although they do not have the star power or the talent that the other top teams have, they are playing as a team and are playing with heart. Before their win streak they were 9th in the west and now they are tied for first with the Lakers.
The game today between the Rockets and the Lakers has a lot on the line. First, it is for first place in the Western Conference. The Western Conference race is very tight. Only 8 teams make the playoffs from each conference but from 1st place to 8th place all the teams are capable of beating each other. Second, the Rockets are putting their 21 game win streak on the line against a team that holds the record for most consecutive wins. Both teams are playing without two of their superstars. The Lakers are playing without Pao Gasol, the Spanish all-star who sprained his ankle two days ago against New Orleans and the Rockets are playing without 7'6 Chinese big man Yao Ming who has a stress fracture in his foot and will not play for the rest of the season.
Many people believe that Rockets streak will end today against the Lakers because they feel that the Lakers are stronger and will outplay them. The big matchup in today's game is gonna be between Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady. They both can score 50 points each and both lead their teams. Even if the Rockets win today I don't think they will tie or break the 33 game win streak record held by the 1972 Lakers because their next 5 games are against the top 5 teams in the NBA. Besides the Lakers today, they have the Boston Celtics who are the best team in the league, the New Orleans Hornets who are number 3 in the West, then they play Golden State who is number 8 in the west, and finally they play one of my favorite teams the Phoenix Suns who are in 4th place in the Western Conference. If the Rocket's can somehow win these 5 games and extend their win streak to 26, then I think they can reach 33 because their games after that are against crappy teams like Sacramento, Minnesota, Seattle twice, and the Clippers. But you never know what can happen in the NBA. We can only wait and see.

New York Knicks: Best Team In The League....NOT

One of my favorite teams in the NBA are the hometown New York Knicks. They have a rich history. They have a winning tradition and always had perennial all-stars and future Hall of Famers. They have won 2 NBA Championships and numerous Eastern Conference Championships. Names like Earl Monroe, Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Bernard King, Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Larry Johnson and Allan Houston used to grace the New York Knicks teams. They were on teams that made their fans enjoy watching them. Chemistry, unity, camaraderie were all characteristics that past Knicks teams had that led to their success. They also had great coaches. Pat Riley, Jeff Van Gundy, Larry Brown are all great coaches that had led the Knicks or the other teams they coached to greatness.
Let's tune in to the last 4 seasons. The Knicks haven't finished above .500 since 2001. And since then have only reached the playoffs once. From 1990-2001 they made it to the playoffs every season. What is going on with these guys? Now they have a bunch of ragtag classless players who care more about money than they do about the game. Just last week Zach Randolph and Nate Robinson argued with each other on the bench during a game against Washington. If they weren't restrained by their teammates they would've definitely started throwing punches. What I wanna know is why does the Knicks front office put up with that garbage. Also, Isiah Thomas is the worst coach I have ever seen. He has to go. With him coaching the Knicks will never be a good team because he sucks and nobody wants to play for him. Also, they have to get rid of Stephon Marbury. He is the worst point guard I have ever seen, I hate him. I don't know who to blame. The players, the coach/president, the NBA? I dont know. All I know is that a fan can only be loyal for so long. Being a Knick fan is like being a Jet fan, you have to love to be disappointed.

I Still Love Basketball

Last Tuesday night, my friends and I went to go play basketball again. In one of my past blogs I wrote about how much I sucked. In this blog I'm gonna write about how much I don't suck. We started playing at around 10 PM. There ended up being 15 of us at this minuscule gym. So we had to have a 4 on 4 tournament. I played in the first game and we were up against some crappy team that we destroyed. But one of my team-mates got hurt so we had to pick up this other kid. Our second game was pretty easy too. It was a team led by another student of yours, Luca Panarelli, they sucked too (sorry Luca), but its true we beat em pretty bad. The next team was easy as well and we won again. This made our record 3-0 for the day. We then played a very good team which also had another student of yours Steven McCann. They were bigger and on the whole stronger. My team consisted of this kid with weird feet, a skinny wanna be Jamal Crawford, a very strong kid, and of course myself. The team we were up against had an average height of about 6 feet. I was guarded by this big dude who is about 6'2-6'3 and I'm only 5'8. The game was going pretty easy. We were at one point up 9-1 and the game is up to 11. But out of nowhere, the other team made a crazy comeback and the score was 10-8 with us winning. But then our team captain (the kid with weird feet) hit the game winning shot and kept us undefeated. We then won 3 more games until we were once again matched up with the team that almost beat us. Instead of us taking the early lead it was the other way around. They were up 9-3. We made a small run to cut the lead to 9-7 before the "wanna be Jamal Crawford" took an ill-advised three pointer which he air balled right into the hands of our opponent which led to an easy layup. We ended up losing 11-7 and our undefeated night was over. 7-1, not bad right? As we sat on the sidelines watching the other teams play for the first time all night we felt the agony of defeat and we were all torn and beat. Our best player's toe was bleeding through his sock, the feet of the kid with weird feet got even weirder. I still wanted to play, so I fired up my teammates by using a line from "Remember the Titans" and it worked. We played again and won two more games before everyone decided to leave.
We ended up 9-1 for the day. But the main story is that I played good basketball as compared to last week. I was hitting three pointers left and right, I was posting up on kids, I was hitting my floaters and my layups. It was great to finally play good again. So as we were leaving the owner of the place never asked us to pay. So I got in my car while the rest of my friends stayed lingering in the parking lot. Then I saw the owner come outside, he told my friends that we had to pay. One of my friends said that we left a credit card number inside so the man went back inside to check. And as that happened everyone ran to their cars and fled.
The reason that I named this blog "I Still Love Basketball" is because after we played I was all sweaty and I went outside in the cold weather and got sick. And even though I got sick and didn't feel well and felt like dying, I Still Love Basketball.

UPDATE! UPDATE

In some of my previous posts I wrote about the Slam Dunk Contest and the 3 Point Shootout, but I never posted the results. I know it's a little late but I don't care because I feel like writing about it and judging by my counter, nobody looks at my blog anyway and that hurts my feelings.
3 Point Shootout Results:
I wanted Steve Nash to win because he is one of my favorite players and he's Canadian, but unfortunately he didn't. As I was watching it looked like he wasn't even trying. Most of the contestants didn't try. Mainly the "superstars." Aside from Nash, Peja Stojakovic seemed like he didn't even wanna be there neither did Dirk Nowitzki or Richard Hamilton. If you know anything about basketball you would know that these four are all-star players and they are household names. It kind of got me mad that they weren't trying and didn't care. If I had to chance to win money just by shooting a basketball I would sooo do it. But whatever, what can I do right? Jason Kapono ended up winning the contest for the 2nd year in a row. Big whoop. A random fact about this years 3 point contest was that every participant was born in a different country.

Slam Dunk Results:
My vote for most likely to win the contest also lost. I thought Rudy Gay was going to win, but he obviously didn't. Instead, Dwight Howard won. He did do some pretty amazing dunks. He got 50's (the highest you can get) on all four of his dunks. Gerald Green came in second place but I don't think he deserved it. Dwight Howard was amazing. He was the best I've seen since Vince Carter won in 2000. Here are videos of what I think Dwight Howard's best dunks were:

The "Superman" Dunk:


The Behind the Backboard Windmill Dunk:


Off the board Dunk:

PRESSURE

This blog is my comparison to Prof. Farley's blog titled "Still in NYC"
Watch this video:



This was the first thing that came into my mind when I saw that video. It does have some similarities in that a lot of people are watching and being confused by what is going on. This commercial was in 2004 when Lebron James was just a rookie. It was about all the pressure and expectations he had coming into the NBA. Lebron James did meet his expectations and he did overcome the pressures.

The way that the people in the video in Dr. Farley's blog confuse and trick the people, Lebron James does the same. He stops and everyone doesn't know what to do. Mike Bibby (#10 on the White Team) is in shock and looks like the people in the other video. He just watches and is in a state of bedazzlement.

Dr. Farley, I don't know what is missing from that post that you made on February 14th. I read it over and over and I think that since I kept looking for it, I couldn't find it. Maybe thats because when you look for something that isn't there, you obviously aren't going to find it.

Return of the Man

During spring break the greatest 18 year old Filipino named Virgil Quijano (me) made his return to the hardwood after almost two months of absence. I haven't played basketball since January 6th 2008 and I made my return on March 1st 2008 (yes I remember the exact dates). A few of my friends wanted to play and I wanted to get back in shape so we decided what the heck let's play. We went to this gym that was open till late. We got there at 10 PM and kept playing until about 1:30 AM and we didn't even have to pay. But that's neither here nor there. The big story here is that I played basketball again. Its supposed to be like riding a bike right? WRONG! My friends haven't seen me play in a while. Last they saw, I was a dead-eye shooter and I was quick and basically just good. But that wasn't the story that night. I was so rusty that I had to guard this kid Sal Linea who doesn't know the difference between a lay-up and a jump shot. There was 6 of us so we played about 15 3on3 games and I went maybe 8-7. And of those 8, in four games my team was spotted 10 points and the game was up to 11. And then these guys challenged us to play and we spanked their backs. :) Then eventually they beat us. The good thing about this is that I started to get back into basketball shape. Mind you that I used to be a Varsity player my Junior year of high school. So its not like I'm a never was. I'm trying to leave my "Has-been" status and become good again. Especially since there's a 3 point shootout during Greek Week which I'm 99.983737% sure that I'm gonna win for my frat, the Almighty, Iota Alpha Sigma Knights. So I'm going to start playing more often and I'm going to return to greatness.