Diced Onions

Some random thoughts from the basketball world, both NBA and college:

Freeman has the Hoyas playing well of late.

-As quickly as Syracuse is imploding, Georgetown is surging. The Hoyas have won five in a row, including an impressive road win at Nova (who has lost two straight) on Saturday, and a home win against Louisville last night. What a difference a month makes. At the beginning of January, no one could figure out G-town, as they lost four of their first five conference games (their only win was against DePaul). If they can continue their win streak this Saturday against Providence (who beat Villanova last week), the Hoyas could end up back in the Top 10. Ahh, just another year in the Big East conference.

-Texas might be the hottest team in college basketball right now. The Horns have won 13 of their last 14 games, with their only loss coming in overtime to the UConn Fighting Kembas (Walker put on a show in Austin that game). Since that loss they've had impressive wins over Texas A&M (both home and away), Mizzou, and at Kansas, snapping the Jayhawks 69-game home win streak. Will the Longhorns be the next Daily Onions Final Four projected team? Ehh, not quite yet. Texas tends to lead you on in the regular season, only to bow out early of the tournament. They haven't made a Final Four since 2003, when Syra.....actually, maybe I will pick the Longhorns to go to the Final Four.

-Switching gears to some Association talk...Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, should write an apology letter to the teams fans (in comic sans, obviously) for the horrific team he puts on the court each night.  The Cavs have lost 21 games in a row, just two shy of the NBA record. Gilbert guaranteed the Cavs would win a championship before the "King" did, and Gilbert said you could take it to the bank. Would love to find that bank right now.

-Derrick Rose is the best point guard in the NBA. Deron Williams is second. Chris Paul on one and a half legs is third. Russell Westbrook is 4th, but could very well be second or third by the end of this season. Rajon Rondo is fifth.

-Congrats to Indiana Pacers interim head coach, Frank Vogel for his first win last night against the Raptors. Vogel is a South Jersey native (the birthplace of Daily Onions) and ran in the same basketball circles/camps as I did growing up. Vogel got his start as a student-manager at Kentucky, under Rick Pitino. He then followed Pitino to the Celtics as the video coordinator, and got hooked up with Jim O'Brien. Vogel served as an assistant coach for O'Brien during his time as the head man for the Sixers and Celtics. Best of luck to Vogel. We hope the rest of the year is a success and that interim tag is dropped for the 2011-12 season.