Early Summer Thoughts (on Drafts, Flicks and the Hogs)

An NBA Draft Worth Watching Again

Greg Oden, Kevin Durant and then what?

That's the main question headed into tonight's NBA Draft. Will Atlanta grab Ohio State point guard Mike Conley, Jr. at number three? How about Florida Center Al Horford? Or Chinese 7-footer Yi Jianlian? A lot of big names sit atop the board this year: it's probably the deepest draft in ten years.

The big trade rumor in the days leading up to Selection Thursday has circled around the future of Kevin Garnett. It sure sounds like the Timberwolves are finally ready to pull the trigger on a deal for their franchise leader of the past eleven years.

All Minnesota wants back is a couple of high draft picks, which isn't asking all that much when you consider that KG is the only player in NBA history to average 20+ points, 10 + rebounds and 4 + assists for ten consecutive seasons.

Whose going to get him though? The Boston Celtics make no sense . . . Why would KG want to languish in the lottery there when he can stay at home and do it Minnesota? I don't think the Lakers really make all that much sense either . . . KG and Kobe co-existing with no other legitimate help to speak of? Not likely.

But the Phoenix Suns, now there's an idea. NBA sources say Phoenix has been talking to Minnesota and Atlanta about a three-team trade that would net them the Big Ticket's services for a package starting with the #5 pick in the draft.

Sounds good, but if you're Phoenix, you can't give up Amare Stoudemire to make this deal happen. Shawn Marion---versatile as he is---would make way more dispensable sense because he tends to be a perimeter player, much like Kevin Garnett. But you need to keep Amare to have a threat in the low post.

If this deal somehow goes down, and Phoenix trots out a lineup with Stoudemire, Garnett, Nash, Diaw and Barbosa next year, you can forget about it already. The Suns are your 2008 NBA Champions.


Finally, The Year's First Really Good Movie

This year's class of movies has been routinely awful. There's no other way to put it. Spiderman 3 . . . Pirates 3 . . . Shrek 3 . . . Enough with the garbage sequels already!

There really haven't even been any truly good DVD releases of late, which downright stinks for a moviehead like me. But finally, there's something to feel good about. It's called Knocked Up.

Judd Apatow (40 Year-Old Virgin, Anchor Man) directs the film, which focuses on the plight of a slacker (played by Seth Rogen) who has a one-night stand with a motivated entertainment reporter (played by Katherine Heigl). Of course, the night of fun leads to an unexpected pregnancy, but the movie isn't about morality lessons. Instead, it's about growing up and becoming a responsible adult, something that Rogen's slacker is forced to do in a hurry.

Plot details aside, the movie is seriously funny. (I literally caught myself laughing out loud four or five times in the first half hour.) And the best part about it is that never once do you feel like the flick is trying too hard, something that most definitely can't be said about the aformentiened triquels, or whatever you want to call them.

If you stick with it, you'll see that---much like Virgin---Knocked Up has a heart to it too. I'll give it a strong four stars out of five. Director/Writer Apatow is clearly a talent to be reckoned with. And so, in a movie year that's vying for the right to be called the worst of all-time, Knocked Up sits on top of the heap as the best of the year.


2007 Razorback Football Schedule Looms Tough

For the first time in three years, there's no early-season game with USC (thank goodness), but that doesn't mean Arkansas won't have its hand full with plenty of brutal SEC games. Two months to go until the season opener with Troy, here's my ranking of the five most difficult games on the '07 slate for the Hogs.

#1- at LSU, November 23rd. The Tigers are scary wherever you play them, so going to Baton Rouge the day after Thanksgiving is downright brutal for the Hogs. QB Jamarcus Russell is gone, but all LSU does is reload yearly with one of the four or five deepest recruiting wells in America. This game looms as large and as difficult as last year's season finale defeat against the Tigers in Little Rock.

#2- at Tennessee, November 10th. The Volunteers hate losing to Arkansas and should be out for revenge after getting pounded on national television last year in Fayetteville. Neyland Stadium is always a very difficult place to play, and you'd figure Phil Fulmer already has this game circled as a key contest on his calendar.

#3- home for Auburn, October 13th. I realize Arkansas dominated the Tigers at Auburn last year, but Tommy Tubberville is already out to prove that it was a fluke. Like many of Arkansas' opponents this year, Auburn will come to Fayetteville with a chip on its shoulder. And two linebackers keyed in on Darren McFadden at all times.

#4- home for Kentucky, September 22nd. Some folks may want to scoff at this pick. Ahead of Alabama? Yeah, I think so. The Wildcats were one of the most improved teams in the country last year (9 wins, crushed Clemson in a bowl) and they return a host of talent. None more gifted than QB Andre Woodson, who's undoubtedly the best quarterback in the SEC this year. Throw in the fact that Kentucky has a history of playing Arkansas tough (seven overtimes ring a bell?) and there's no reason to think the Wildcats won't make it another nail-biter this year.

#5- at Alabama, September 15th. This is clearly the key game to the season, but it's not nearly the toughest. Surely, Nick Saban will have his Crimson Tide up and ready for the game in Tuscaloosa, and there's no question that the fans will be whipped up and into a drunken frenzy by the time the nationally televised game gets going at six o'clock. But it's my belief that the Razorbacks are getting 'Bama at the right time of the year: early. I just don't see how Alabama's porous defense is going to contain Arkansas' ground attack.


-JAB