The Halfcourt Trap Vol. I, No. 36

With a huge celebratory weekend in Knoxville on the horizon, here are the topics that intrigue the Trap this week:

1. Pickens Not Grinning. In this era of agents, intermediaries, and search firms, it should be impossible to make the mistake Oklahoma State just did. They scuttled a coach without having a significant upgrade already lined up. Mike Holder and T. Boone Pickens apparently thought an open checkbook was a sufficient substitute for doing their homework. You run Sean Sutton out of town if you know you’ve got Bill Self, Billy Gillispie, or Jamie Dixon on the hook. You don’t do it to get turned down by Chris Lowery and be forced to settle for Travis Ford. That is incompetence on an epic scale.

2. Walking Out Of Memphis. Derrick Rose is leaving to be one of the first two picks in the NBA Draft. Chuck Martin will apparently be the next coach at Marist. Joey Dorsey has exhausted his eligibility. Derek Kellogg is at least an even money choice to be the new coach at UMASS. Chris Douglas Roberts figures to join Rose on the early entry list. John Calipari is about to sign a lucrative extension that will pay him $2.5 million annually. He’ll earn every dollar filling the aforementioned holes. Tyreke Evans will help. The addition of Devin Ebanks would also aid the reloading process.

3. As The Warriors Turn. Don Nelson’s decision to sit Baron Davis in the second half of Monday’s must win game against Phoenix has people harkening back to Nellie’s destructive feud with Chris Webber. Everyone seem to be attempting to read the tea leaves regarding this situation. Is Nellie trying to force Davis to opt out of his contract? Is he trying to force management to buy him out of the option year they recently exercised? Here’s hoping that it was actually what he said it was: Baron was exhausted and playing poorly. Nothing more. The Warriors are as exciting to watch as any team in the Association. Having been in Oracle Arena for two games last week, I can attest that their fans are as energized as any in the league. For the sake of entertaining basketball, and a loyal fan base that has suffered enough, I hope this is a temporary bump in the road.

4. Great Eight. This year’s Western Conference Playoffs promise to be as good as any in the history of professional basketball. Look at it this way, the lowest seeded team in the group sends Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin, and Marcus Camby to the floor every night. San Antonio-Phoenix is worthy of being an NBA Final. Utah and Houston are going to reprise their epic duel last from last postseason. New Orleans-Dallas provides the intrigue of an ascending franchise against one of the West’s constants this decade. It promises to be a mesmerizing run to June.

5. Eastern Front. It seems a foregone conclusion that Boston and Detroit are going to meet in an Eastern final that will harken back to those teams’ wars of two decades ago. While Cleveland-Washington and Orlando-Toronto have the makings of taut, electric series, they are just the appetizers for the Celtic-Piston main course.

6. Bowlsby-ed Over. Bob Bowlsby has always been a respected college athletic administrator, notably at Iowa and now Stanford. However, his miscalculation of how to handle the extension of Trent Johnson’s contract has left the Cardinal basketball program in a precarious postion. Stanford is not an easy job. One bad hire could plummet them to the bottom of the ultracompetitive PAC 10 in rapid order. Bowlsby now has to live up to his reputation or face the consequences.

Until next week, stay classy, Volnation.