"The Stack" 2-23-17
Dillon Brooks and the Oregon Ducks overcame a 16 point second half deficit to beat California 68-65 Wednesday night. It was one of several game-winning shots throughout college basketball Wednesday night. An incredible night of college hoops.
Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
The Stack is back on this Thursday and the NBA trade deadline is today at 3 PM ET. Who is going to get dealt? We’ll talk about some of that plus college basketball so let’s get right to “the stack” for today, Thursday, February 23rd:
NBA trade deadline approaches
The NBA trade deadline is today at 3 PM ET. We’ve already seen one blockbuster trade with DeMarcus Cousins going to New Orleans from Sacramento. There were a couple of minor trades on Wednesday, but nothing big. The Washington Wizards traded for Bojan Bogdanovic from the Brooklyn Nets along Chris McCullough. In return the awful nets receive a lottery –protected 2017 first round draft pick and Marcus Thornton and Andrew Nicholson. Bogdanovic is a good player, but he isn’t a star. He’ll help the Wizards though.
Another bad team, but one with at least a brighter future than the Nets, the Philadelphia 76ers also made a trade sending Ersan Ilyasova to the Atlanta Hawks for Tiago Splitter and a future second round pick. There will also be swap rights on another second round pick in the future. Ilyasova will help the Hawks as they were looking for frontcourt depth.
Derrick Rose is possibly on the trade table with the Minnesota Timberwolves reportedly in the mix to land the New York Knicks point guard. Rose would reunite with head coach Tom Thibodeau if the trade happens. Ricky Rubio would likely be sent to New York as part of the deal. The Timberwolves want to part ways with Rubio and have been looking to do so for quite some time. They may have found their partner.
The Los Angeles Lakers have inquired about getting Paul George from the Indiana Pacers. Look at Magic Johnson being aggressive so quickly into his tenure as president of basketball operations. And the Detroit Pistons are reportedly open to trading Andre Drummond. Doubt that will happen. Drummond is a good player, but if the Pistons can get a bunch of riches in return, they would be crazy not to deal him. We’ll see what happens today and have reaction to it tomorrow.
College basketball gets crazy Wednesday night
It was an absolutely bananas night in college basketball. There were two last second game-winning shots, both on the ESPN family of networks. #6 Oregon came back from 16 points down in the second half to beat California 68-65. Dillon Brooks had a rough night, but nailed the game-winning three point shot to lift Oregon to the victory. Their defense helped turn things around in the second half as well as getting their three point shooting down. Oregon does scare a bit, but I am rather convinced they have what it takes to make it to the Final Four. They blew a big lead on the road at UCLA just a couple of weeks ago. They did the opposite tonight and it paid off. Syracuse improved their chances of making it to the NCAA Tournament by beating #10 Duke 78-75 on a last second three by John Gillon. It was quite a good game.
Duke was far from the only ranked team that went down or was upset Wednesday night. Minnesota went on the road and won their sixth straight game overall with a convincing 89-75 win over #24 Maryland. Providence came back from a double-digit first half deficit to beat #23 Creighton 68-66 on the road. Kyron Cartwright nailed a three-pointer with 2.2 seconds left. Did we mention there were some game-winning shots in the final seconds last night?
There was a big upset last night in Philadelphia where #2 Villanova fell to #22 Butler 74-66. Butler has swept the season series from Villanova. I still have a lot of faith in Villanova, but Butler’s win is getting me more on board with them as March fast approaches. And #8 UNC won a hard-fought game against #7 Louisville 74-63, but what people are talking about more from this game was the fan who got ejected at halftime after saying something to Louisville head coach Rick Pitino that made him go berserk. Apparently he said something about Pitino sucking. OK then. Plenty of great college basketball action last night. Is it March yet?
Ole Miss imposes one-year ban
The Ole Miss football program has been a little wild lately and due to some compliance issues and trying to appease the NCAA, the school has self-impose a one-year bowl ban for next year. This comes after they received a new notice of allegations from the NCAA regarding a lack of institutional control. Head coach Hugh Freeze is a major reason why these allegations have taken place. He has to get better control of his coaching staff or hea could be on his way out of a job next year. He definitely is feeling the heat after not making a bowl game this year. We’ll see what this does.
Coming up Friday: NBA trade deadline reaction plus other top stories in sports
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