40 Acres Sports

Basically just PJ Tucker talking trash to Fred Jones (Oregon). Pretty entertaining. (via)

Article on Chris’ basketball travels now that he’s in Berlin.

It will be harder for UT students to get tickets this upcoming basketball season as the athletic department has announced they would be cutting 1,600 guaranteed seats. There will still be the same number of student tickets for the lower bowl (1,200) but only 840 in the upper mezzanine level. According to senior associate athletic director Doug Messner only twice in the last two seasons would students have used all 2,040 of the tickets still guaranteed for them.

I’m encouraged that the athletic department is taking steps to improve attendance and game atmosphere, but I’m not completely sure this is the answer. The reason student attendance is low for most games is because those upper mezzanine seats are terrible and even the majority of lower level seats are behind the basket and high off the court. If they designated more lower level seats for students then student attendance would increase. Put students behind the opponent’s bench and the Erwin Center is immediately a louder and rowdier place to play.

Source

Hopefully this won’t affect his season too much. (via)

He had about 5 inches and 50 pounds on everyone, but he looked good. Big potential.

New Blazer talks about basketball video games and the NBA.

Former Longhorn T.J. Ford was traded late last night from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Toronto Raptors for forward Charlie Villanueva. The Raptors were looking for a pass-first point guard who can drive and dish to players like Chris Bosh and first overall pick Andrea Bargnani. Ford and new teammate P.J. Tucker just missed each other on the 40 Acres, but they’ll have a chance now to together help the Raptors run and gun like a Canadian version of the Phoenix Suns.

The income taxes suck, but it should be a good opportunity for T.J.

The tenth edition of ESPN’s Bill Simmons’ running draft diary is absolutely hilarious. He’s pretty spot on with his remarks about the picks and his employer’s coverage of the event. My favorite comment:

10:20 — The Mavs take Maurice Ager at No. 28. He puts his head in his hands and starts sobbing hysterically as his entourage congratulates him. It’s about time we had some emotion tonight, dammit. Ager walks up to the stage in a triple-breasted, oversized beige suit, goes to shake hands with Stern and immediately gets whistled for a foul on Dwyane Wade.

This was the first time I watched an entire NBA Draft and it was good entertainment. Moves much faster than the NFL Draft, but includes a lot more players no one has ever heard of going to teams I couldn’t care less about.

Lebron James picked up a few new teammates Wednesday night including UT guard Daniel Gibson with the 42nd pick. The experts seem to really like the pick this deep into the draft but still worry about whether he can end up being a point guard. Playing with James should make anyone a better player.

With the 35th pick the Toronto Raptors select Texas forward PJ Tucker. Video below of Jay Bilas and Greg Anthony praising Tucker and praising the pick.