DeMar DeRozan About Killed a Guy With a Silly Dunk Last Night, College Basketball News + Podcast Talking Expansion
There comes a time in every basketball players life when they realize a couple things. The first being they can dunk on anyone, the second being you very well have the possibility of having some dudes nuts in your face on a poster. Those two thoughts came together last night during Team USA’s 50-point win over China as DeMar DeRozan about threw down one of the best dunks I’ve ever seen.
There’s a lot going on in this beautiful Vine. The first is obvious DeRozan’s attempt to commit murder on live TV. The moment he takes the power dribble, you knew something was about to happen. DeRozan has always been a great dunker, competing in some dunk contests. I did not think he was going to try to 360 and yam on this dude.
Second, the defender. He does the smart thing by fouling. In fact he should have fouled harder. The golden rule is always don’t get put on a poster. He does just enough to bump DeRozan off his spin to avoid the dunk going through.
Third is Draymond Green in the background who did what I assume is the equivalent to basic white girls saying they can’t even. The arms in the air, falling backwards and screaming. That was everyone’s reaction who watched this live.
For the game, it was a ho-hum 50-point win over China. Kevin Durant showed out in front of the Warriors crowd as he scored the first 10 points of the game, including a 3 right off the opening tip to get Team USA going. However, it was DeMarcus Cousins who led Team USA with 21 points as he’s solidifying the fact we’re all screwed with him playing in Sacramento.
It was a lot of the same for Team USA, who used a trap press to force the tempo then attacked China with threes thanks to the shortened 3-point line. When that wasn’t working they just attacked the rim with athleticism because of the incredible depth USA has on the wing. Next up is Venezuela in Chicago on Friday night.
UCLA Player Leaves School to Play Overseas
One of the weirder stories in college basketball yesterday was the unexpected announcement by UCLA’s Jonah Bolden to go play overseas after playing one year for the Bruins. Bolden was a partial qualifier for UCLA, being declared ineligible as a freshman but did start some games last year as a sophomore. Bolden was ranked as high as No. 25 in the country coming out of high school, but his numbers never reflected his talent as he averaged just over 4 points and rebounds last year. The blow for UCLA is the fact Bolden could play against anyone thanks to his size (6’10”) and athleticism. The Pac-12 seems to be opening up for Oregon as UCLA and Arizona both have lost a key contributor to go play in Australia. I honestly can’t remember the last time a player declared this late to go play overseas, who was already in college, so it’s something to watch to see if there were eligibility issues again for Bolden.
BYU Gets Former Top-100 Player
Another late transfer was announced yesterday as LJ Rose – a former top-100 recruit transferred to BYU from Houston. This isn’t the first time Rose transferred, as he started his career at Baylor. Rose is a graduate transfer, so he’ll be eligible this season for BYU after missing nearly all of last year due to injuries. Rose is a 6’3” point guard that led the AAC in assists with 5.5 per game as a sophomore.
Podcast: We sat down this week to discuss quite a bit on the podcast including Team USA and if anyone can challenge them in Rio. On top of that we talked about the July recruiting period and the emergence of Michael Porter Jr., and Trae Young. Why it sucks that Porter Jr., is going to Washington and the lack of depth at point guard. There’s also plenty of expansion talk and trying to make sense of the Mike Longergan situation.