Ben's Brain - NBA

Could Beanie Wells slide out of first round?

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:34:00 -0400

Before breaking down the can't miss events of the weekend, including the NFL Combine and a massive ACC hoops battle...

At the end of the college football season, Ohio State RB Chris Wells was projected to be a top-10 pick by many a pundit following his back-to-back 1000+ yards campaigns and 30 career touchdowns with the Buckeyes. Yet, with the NFL combine upon us - and the draft just two months away – Wells is now being projected into the bottom half of the round and based on team needs and other projected moves, could the bruising back slip completely out of the first round?

Calm down Buckeye Nation, hear me out before hyperventilating (besides, he is not the only Buckeye dropping on draft boards. In addition and for the record, I did not attend Michigan, though I did stay at an Ann Arbor Holiday Inn once). “Beanie” is still rated as no less than the second running back on most boards, behind Georgia’s Knowshon Moreno and ahead of Pittsburgh’s LeSean McCoy and Iowa’s Shonn Greene, among others and there a many factors that could keep Wells among the top-32 selected.

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Wishing I had Nate Robinson's hops

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:25:00 -0400

Before discussing Matthew Stafford, Maurice Jones-Drew and the Pitt Panthers...

There is no way to better illustrate that we are in a dead spot on the sports calendar than to say the weekend highlight was the NBA dunk contest and that I am looking forward to this week's NFL Combine. The latter is true, though that is primarily due to the insane amount of time I spent this weekend debating where to slot Percy Harvin, the merits of the Eagles taking a tight end over a running back in the first round or the potential of having FOUR centers go in the first two rounds of my latest mock draft. Yes, I have need help.

In between watching You Tube clips of Josh Freeman, I filled up my sports plate primarily with college hoops, a side of the rain-shortened Daytona 500 (I tried getting into it as I mentioned in Friday’s post, but somewhere around Kyle Busch’s wreck and finding Godfather 2 on cable, I lost track. Don’t give up on me NASCAR nation, I just need to ditch the remote) and a dash of the rain-delayed PGA tour stop in Pebble Beach.
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Lions should pass on Stafford, tackle other needs with top pick

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:37:00 -0400

Before discussing Matt Cassel, a stellar week in the NBA and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover model Bar Refaeli…

Like many of my fellow mock drafters (or is it mock draftees? draftites?), I have the Detroit Lions selecting quarterback Matthew Stafford with the overall number one pick.

If the lot of us is correct, the Lions will have made a mistake.

In the role of prognosticator, my job is to predict what each team will do when its turn during the April 25 draft comes up, putting its needs, the draft board, rumors, team history and other factors over my own personal opinion.

The latter is why God (or Bill Simmons; I am never sure whom to give credit to) created blogs.

(Um, Ben, how does that make sense? Sounds like political double talk to me, affording you the opportunity to be correct regardless how the pick turns out. Hmmm).

Ok, hear me out. Yes, the Lions are in dire need of a quarterback. In fact, no team has a worse collection of signal callers right now and I’m not sure how much my opinion would change even if Jon Kitna were to return.

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