The rocket's needed a good start to this season to get that confidence and swagger back coming off last year's disappointment, and even though there are still many questions and problems i am very impressed overall with houston's performance so far. we currently stand at 8-4 with a ugly win over the washington wizards tonite, who are not looking like an elite team yet alone a playoff contender. two defining wins for us so far have been blowouts of dallas and miami, two teams that are the cream of the crop in their respective conferences and were considered title contenders coming into the season. dallas overcome a sloppy start to win seven straight and look like a great team again while the heat have been playing horrible and stand at 4-7 right now. they are not playing defense and lack any energy, dwayne wade is the only guy keeping them afloat cause noone else is stepping up. it is no coincidence that yao had 30+ in both these games, as it is proven time and time again that when yao gets his touches we win games. this has been our main problem down the stretch and closing games, as it seems that we can never get yao the ball enough in the 4th quarter and just turn the ball over and jack up bad shots (tmac...). the main disturbing things so far have been the simply average play of tracy, who is missing way too many shots, making too many bad passes, displaying horrible shot selection (especially down the stretch), and is just not the monster scorer he used to be. the one thing he is doin really well is attacking the defense with his playmaking, since his shot isn't falling he is getting teammates involved and making some great passes. the other thing is a big problem with turnovers and closing games, as we jump out to big leads but can never maintain them because of a combo of poor shooting, turning the ball over, and defensive breakdowns. the turnovers are usually a result of bad passes from rafer and are other guards and a failure to get the ball to yao, which leads to bad shots. yao has been extremly dominate so far, his free throw shooting has made him unstoppable cause opposing teams have no choice but to foul him. when yao scores, we win, and when tracy pitches along with his big threes and scoring it's always an added plus. i wish bonzi would get his act together and start playing with the team soon ,as i believe this story of bonzi not playing yet is a lot more serious than people are saying. experts had bonzi penciled in for 6th man of the year in preseason but when he finally does join the team from whatever he's been doing, he is gonna be out of shape and out of wack with the team and with chemistry. i'm actually really surprised he hasn't been more motivated to come back after that disappointing summer for him, when he expected to get major money from some team after his huge playoff performance but when noone offered what he wanted and it was already the preseason he panicked and signed a quick one-year deal with the rockets, who he considered a title contender. the recent broken hand of kirk snyder makes bonzi's comeback even more imperative, as kirk's excellent driving ability and athleticism provided some of our most consistent bench scoring. im glad chuck hayes came back soon from that hyper-extended knee too, it looked bad and he only missed two games, his hustle, defense, and rebounding is vital without much of an inside presence beside yao. but overall, we've played well and we should continue to improve as the new players start to coexist and get healthy and tracy continues to get back in playing shape and regain his confidence, even though it's apparent hes not gonna be the player he used to be. as long as we keep running the offense through yao, he should be dominate enough to carry us through the season, so his health is everything for our success.

Well we enter the season with great, even championship, expectations, so i was pretty excited to get this year kicked off. we have ended the opening week 1-2, average and a little disappointing, but it's so early its hard to make conclusion on anything. the only disturbing note i can find so far is the poor play of tracy mcgrady, who managed to get 25 in the 1st game despite poor shooting but who only got 8 against dallas and 14 against the new orleans hornets. when ur the star of the team and considered one of the elite scorers in the game you need to get more points than that, he also needs to shoot better and drive more. i think he will eventually find his rhythm because he is a good player, and his unselfish play has been impressive and beneficial to the team, but i doubt he will ever get his feared driving ability back thanks to his back injuries, which seem to make him afraid of major contact. that used to be the tmac i know, the one who would charge at an opponent and finish by either dunking on or over the defender or else pulling off some crazy athletic scoring move. i guess i have to settle for the jump shooting tracy now, but if he finds his rhythm he is probly the best shooting superstar around. we lost our opener against the jazz, who really played fantastic, i dont blame our boys for that one. carlos boozer went crazy on the boards, banging inside, and with the midrange shot while deron williams looked fantastic and explosive and second year man outta high school cj miles made some big threes in the 1st half. all these guys made up for the surprisingly poor play of star andrei kirilenko, who looked invisible on both ends, and pick and pop big man mehmet okur, who missed most of his shots. ususally these two are key to their team's success but not that night. they surprised even myself by destroying the western conference champion mavs 108-76 on saturday, riding an unstoppable 36 point game from yao to make up for a nonexistent night from tracy. luther head came up big with scoring while rafer made plays happen and was pretty consistent with his shot, something he's had trouble with in the past. our defense was also stifling, limiting anyone who's name wasn't dirk to basically nada. against the hornets we looked pretty good in spots and our defense was very solid but we didn't make the big plays when we had to, while they did, and our shooting and offensive production was poor overall, causing us to lose 96-90. tmac was off, yao didnt get enough touches, and shane missed a few big threes even though he was player of the game thanks to his hustle, defensive energy, and team leading 18 points from a couple corner threes in the 1st half. both teams looked kinda sloppy on offense and shot horribly from the free throw line, but chris paul was a brilliant playmaker with 16 assists, david west made the shots when he needed to and was very consistent, while peja kind of got out of the shooting slump he's in by sinking some deep threes. i dont think this average start will have any impact on the season and i think fans will eventually see us become a dominating team, the main problem we have right now is finding a set rotation and getting everybody, especially the new players, incorporated together. bonzi wells has made minimal impact at best but he missed all of training camp and the preseason so it will take him a while to get situated. once we all come together and tracy finds his offensive rhythm we will be an elite team, mark my words.

Well its taken me a while to write this not only because of the start of basketball season but because it has taken me quite a long time to get over the depressing fact that this not only is the worst loss in the school's history but it probably killed our season unless we can pull off an improbable upset of michigan this weekend. we are always great in bounce-back games and haven't lost back-to-back since 2001 but this is the best michigan team in years and playing them at their place doesnt help much. well just a pretty sickening loss that left a bitter taste in my mouth and in every iowa fan's mouth for sure. they way we played in the 2nd though we deserved to lose, so that lessens the impact and the surprise of it all because anyone could see it coming. we jumped on them early with some good offensive balance, albert young still isn't back but simms can hit that hole fast and gave us some nice runs, while a long td pass from tate to scott chandler put us up 21-7 and had me sitting back comfortably thinking this would be our yearly dismantling of a crappy hoosiers team. but im afraid indiana is a team on the rise and they played with a lot of emotion at home and for their coach terry hoepner, coming back from brain surgery only a week ago. the hoosiers' freshman sensation at QB, the athletic and strong-armed kellen lewis, solidified his spot as indiana quarterback of the future while tossing former starter-turned scrub blake powers to the side while putting on an amazing 2nd half, connecting with 6 ft. 7 wideout james hardy multiple times for scores. with tate in there and considering the team we were playing, i didn't get too worried, but we had no answer for their offense and could not sustain a drive either. hardy was such a matchup nightmare for our undersized cornerbacks and their backs were running all over us, it was just a nightmare and really frustrating to watch. no pressure, no stops, no nothing from our defense in that 2nd half. injuries to a bundle of key players hurt us big time as well, as we lost playmaking run-stuffer mitch king in the middle, which hurt our run defense, and our top wideout, dominique douglas, who's been one of tate's favorite options and our most consistent. hard-hitting safety marcus paschal only played garbage time so he made no impact in the passing game and like ive already mentioned, albert young never played so we didn't have that reliability at running back, as evidenced by simm's 2nd half fumble and subsequent tentative running. when you are having a bad day, can't make any stops or sustain drives, it is imperative that you don't turn the ball over but that's exactly what we did, and it's amazing that with all these problems we were still in the game, a testament to how average indiana is as a team. our only 2nd half score came from a goal-line burst from simms, but that was the only time we got in the redzone until our final play, when tate led a spectacular looking drive down the field into hoosier territory and looked like he'd found a perfect rhythm and confidence, until wideout andy brodell let a pass slip off his fingertips as a hoosier cornerback made a diving catch to pick it off. it was a real stab in the heart and i just went numb all over, it took me a few hours to comprehend the fact that we just shot ourselves in the foot and blew our chances at a big-ten title in a season where we really had great expectations. kyle schilcher was also surprisingly bad, missing 2 field goals that could have tied or won the game. i know we will be angry and motivated for michigan but im just not sure if we can ride that energy to a victory over one of the best teams in the nation, i mean who else has to play the number 1 team (ohio state) and the number 2 team (michigan) in the same season? thats gotta be a record or something. well even if we lose next week we can still win out and finish well, landing a spot in another january bowl like we have for the past 3 or 4 years, but i was really hoping for something more this season, i guess that was just wishful thinking because we cannot keep getting by on third-tier recruits like we have in the past...

In honor of midnight madness kicking off across the country this very night, i think its time to give a small hawkeye b-ball preview. its supposed to be a rebuilding year for us this season because 2 or 3 of our starters are gonna be guys who have never played before, but look at the national champion florida gators last year, there had little to no hype because all their players were unproven and look at all the success they ended up having. i think we could be dangerous in the big ten and surprise a lot of people, everyone is counting us out but the rest of the conference is starting over as well, there is no clear-cut favorite. right now i guess the two main teams are wisconsin, who is returning the core of their squad, including prolific scorer alando tucker, and ohio state, who is creating massive hype with their star-studded recruiting class lead by 7-foot beast greg oden, but all of that could change pretty fast. our biggest strength will be the backcourt, where we have the most experience and returning, proven talent. adam haluska will have to carry most of the scoring load and improve his consistency, i expect him to do well and ascend into a leadership role. hes a great athlete, scorer, and when hes on from downtown hes pretty unstoppable. hes just more of a streaky shooter who disappears in key times, but its his senior year so he should get better at all that. mike henderson, our point guard, has quietly been one of our most valuable players the past few years. he will be one of our key players this season, and his improvement last year was very apparent. hes always been a tenacious defender whos known for embarassing opposing point guards by snatching the ball from their nose, and hes a solid playmaker and efficient at running the offense, but the biggest thing that nobody noticed was his offensive improvement. hes pretty quick and dangerous at getting to the basket and making something happen, and hes a really underrated three point shooter. he passed up a lot of attempts last season because we had jeff horner on the team, but now he should have more confidence taking those shots. tony freeman is our other backcourt star, very talented but probably wont start unless the hawks want to use an undersized lineup. freeman is more of a natural 2-guard because hes a great shooter from downtown and a dangerous scorer as well who puts these priorities ahead of playmaking, but he is quickly learning to improve and master the point guard position because he is only 6 feet tall. will be our key player in the near future, like perhaps next season. all the other starters will probably be frosh, one nice thing is that we had a surprisingly great recruiting class, steve alford has always been a bad recruiter whos missed out on such studs as kirk hinrich, kyle korver, and raef lafrentz, so this recruiting class was even more of a treat. one of the other nice things about this class is the athleticism and college-ready strength and game that they bring, the iowa program hasnt had great (or even good) athletes since the BJ Armstrong days and has always been more of a blue-collar program, so its a nice plus. the only other question mark i guess is the center position, either texas juco-transfer kurt looby or 7-foot incumbent seth gorney will start. looby will definitly be the better player and serious stud down the road, hes a great athlete with good size and skill, but hes really raw and more of a potential player, while gorney is big and tough but doesn't have much on the skill side and he looks like butt-head from beavis and butt-head. iowa is always a great defensive program, so thats nothing to worry about, and our backcourt should be one of the best in the big ten, but our season will hinge on the play of the young players, so we are either looking at an NIT appearance/miracle big-ten berth or else a horrible disaster. we could make another legendary big ten tourney run and make it like 3 years ago, and with florida last year im not worried and have faith and anticipation that we could have a surprise season, we always do pretty well when theres no hype on us and it will be interesting to see how this wide-open Big Ten season goes.

This was a immensly important win for us because the hawkeyes desperately needed a rebound game to recover their confidence and pride after the ohio state loss. we won 47-17, easier than any win we have gotten this year excluding maybe montana, but the big storyline for me was how well we ran the ball. our running game has been a major issue all year and we haven't really had that balanced running and passing attack with albert young getting only 50 yards a game, and with albert out against purdue (announced only minutes before tipoff) i didnt expect anything to change. i knew damien simms had an explosive burst up the middle with gamebreaking ability, but he seemed too small to be an every-down back, and shonn greene is a beast, a powerful runner who has looked unstoppable whenever he gets a carry, but he hasn't gotten enough touches to garner any confidence from me. i was even more skeptical, not to mention furious, when simms fumbled the ball on his 1st carry. but they really impressed me and proved me wrong, simms ended up with 2 touchdowns and a couple big runs, getting both of the biggest runs for the iowa running game this year (if that tells u anything), while green continued to look unstoppable whenever he got the ball and got plenty of big 1st downs, a really underrated workhorse who should still get plenty of touches when albert returns. the big question now is if albert is the undisputed number 1 back, he has been overally disappointing this season so far, valuable with his versatility and recieving skills but yet to have a 100 yard game or make iowa's running game enough of a threat. he has nfl-level talent but his underacheiving big time, will be interesting to see how things turn out when he returns. drew tate had a big rebound game, getting two touchdown passes to tight end scott chander (making up for that crushing fumble against osu) and another one to blue-collar fan favorite fullback tom busch, who the broadcasters just could not get enough of. i can see why everyone loves him, when i was up at the iowa-isu game he was talking to a kid with down syndrome and showing him around and introducing the kid to everybody, a really great guy and hardworker with outstanding blocking ability who deserves all the glory he is getting. so our offense was pretty unstoppable with tate rolling and the running game looking unstoppable and making big play after big play, standout recievers were andy brodell, who had a few long receptions, and the consistently good frosh dominic douglas, whos great hands and athletic ability are proving to me that he will be iowa's go-to-guy in the near future. herb grigsby is fast, but too small and hasn't made the impact some thought he would. our defense was also surprisingly dominate overall, just gave up a few big plays at the end, because purdue came out with a high-powered offense with great speed and a solid QB, i honestly thought they would give us problems after watching them hang with notre dame for a while last week. something else to note was adam shada's interception return for a 99 yard touchdown, it was a huge play and the longest INT return in iowa history, and should really give shada a big confidence boost after the disappointing start to the season he had, i have really not been impressed with him and all his grabbing so far but this play could be defining for his season. so a great win for us, and should give us momentum (beating indiana will as well this week, we can't overlook them though) into the game at michigan in 2 weeks.