COMMENTARY- ON MATT’S MIND

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Rockets bid Yao farewell

Goodbye, Yao. Hello, early offseason for
the Houston Rockets. It’s a shame that a
team riding a 13-game winning streak has
to play the remainder of its season without
all-star big-man Yao Ming.

That’s the life of a Western Conference
team.

As the standings currently … stand,
Houston holds the West’s seventh-best
record and is 3.5 games ahead of Denver-
holding onto a playoff spot.

Yao leads the team in scores (22.0 PPG),
rebounds (10.8 RPG) and blocks (2.0
BPG). How that kind of production can be
replaced at the drop of a hat is impossible.
It’s also worth mentioning that Yao, the
NBA’s tallest player, leads the Rockets in
free-throw shooting (85 percent).

The Rockets’ best chance of making
the playoffs, oddly enough, is to win the
Southwest Division. They’re two games
behind leader San Antonio. With no viable
threat to counter – say, Tim Duncan
– Houston’s chances look bleak.

Dikembe Mutombo, anyone?

No. 1 saw this coming

The Tennessee Volunteers had to win
Saturday at then top-ranked Memphis
just to prove it was the best team in the
state.

The pollsters rightfully ranked the Vols
No. 1 in the nation Monday, only to watch
No. 18 Vanderbilt pull an upset of its own
over Tennessee the following night.
So much for being the best team in the
state.

Volunteers coach Bruce Pearl was thrilled
to knock off Memphis and knew that meant
his squad would assert itself atop the rankings
for the first time in the century of the
program’s existence. However, Pearl, in just
his third season at Tennessee, understood
his team was vulnerable in the same way
Memphis was. Vanderbilt is no joke this
season, and falling to the Commodores on
the road is not a bad loss (if there is such
a thing as taking a good loss).

Before the showdown with Memphis,
Pearl joked that he and Lady Vols coach
Pat Summitt had a combined seven national
championships … with Summitt chipping in
seven. Pearl won’t have to wait another 100
years to be No. 1 when his orange blazers
are actually in style again (no disrespect,
Bruce). Come April, the total will be nine
combined championships following the
most successful season in Volunteers
basketball history.

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