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 Friday, December 13, 2002
Kidd has the Nets thinking big
By Brent Musburger
Special to ABC Sports Online
This is All-Star week in the NBA, and what do you think the No. 1 topic of conversation is when the players and executives get together in Philadelphia?
Well, for the first time all season, it won't be about Michael Jordan's return. Everyone, and I mean everyone, in the NBA is talking about the New Jersey Nets. Can the Nets keep winning? Can the Nets actually win the Eastern Conference and play for the NBA championship? Yes and yes.
Earlier this week, the Nets scored a convincing 34-point victory over the team with the best record in the NBA, the Sacramento Kings. That showed me that the Nets possess both the talent and the desire to keep pushing.
|  | | Jason Kidd has raised the level of play in New Jersey. |
If you exclude Shaquille O'Neal, who is always the NBA's MVP, the No.1 player in the league this season has to be Jason Kidd. By bringing his great playmaking skills east, suddenly Keith Van Horn and the rest of the Nets are living up to expectations.
The person who has put this team together is a general manager by the name of Rod Thorn. Yes, the same Rod Thorn, who used to hand out the fines and suspensions from the NBA's front office. What is easily forgotten about Mr. Thorn is that he was the general manager in Chicago when a fellow by the name of Michael Jordan was drafted No. 3. Now, Thorn is responsible for elevating Byron Scott to the head coach's job, orchestrating the trade for Kidd and also acquiring the underrated pivot man Todd MacCulloch from the Philadelphia 76ers.
From where we stand, the Nets are in this Eastern Conference race all the way.
Going quackky
Now to the college game, and the most underrated team this season. It would have to be the Oregon Ducks.
Can't any team from Eugene, Ore., get any respect? First, it was the BCS giving the Ducks football team the short shrift. Now it's the pollsters who are putting down the basketball team. Despite a 10-point road victory at Arizona last month and a 30-point blowout of the Wildcats in Eugene in December, Oregon still finds itself ranked behind the Wildcats.
But let's now insert an AFLAC trivia quiz: Name the head basketball coach at Oregon and even one of his players.
Well, the Ducks coach is Ernie Kent, who played for the team in the mid-'70s, and his team has moved to the front of the Pac-10 by firing away from behind the arc. Luke Ridnour, Luke Jackson and Freddie Jones are the sharpshooters who make Oregon one of the great darkhorses as we approach tournament time. The ABC cameras will highlight the Ducks this Saturday at California (ABC, 5 p.m. PT).
Dick Vitale and I will be at Georgia Tech Saturday (ABC, 2:30 p.m. ET), where No. 1 Duke should keep driving towards another ACC title. Tech appears a couple of years away from rebuilding its program under head coach Paul Hewitt.
Then on Sunday, Dick and I will head up to Boston, where the Eagles will host the amazing Miami Hurricanes (ABC, 2:30 p.m. ET). Perry Clark's 'Canes have jumped to 11th in the nation, and they head to Boston looking to atone for their five-point loss to the Eagles last week.
Loving the dogs
A few final thoughts on the Super Bowl victory by the New England Patriots …
I couldn't be happier for coach Bill Belichick, quarterback Tom Brady and the rest of the Patriots organization. It gives you chills when you think that a team named the Patriots can win the Super Bowl following the events of Sept. 11. The National Football League put on a great show and made us feel proud of this country. I talked to a lot of people who were at the game, and even with the increase in security, they said it was a marvelous experience. A win by an underdog like the Patriots is why we all follow and love sports so much.
On the other side, I was in St. Louis last weekend for the Virginia-Missouri basketball game, and all I heard over and over on the radio was that Monday's victory parade would start at Union Station at 4:30, and that the team logo was already painted on the street.
Secondly, I heard an interview with Isaac Bruce on how he was going to be the game's MVP.
Thirdly, the Post-Dispatch proclaimed that a Super Bowl victory would make this St. Louis offense the third-best of all-time.
So, folks, how do you spell overconfidence? R-A-M-S!
Two big questions remain with the NFL. Where will backup quarterback Drew Bledsoe land? Down here in south Florida, the Miami Dolphins fans are hoping it's here, but I don't see the Patriots trading him within the division. But how about the Chicago Bears?
And who will be the next head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? You've got to believe it will be Jon Gruden if the Bucs can make a deal with Al Davis and the Raiders. But anyone will tell you that making a deal with Al Davis is never, ever easy.
Eye on Salt Lake
Good luck to Michelle Kwan and all the American athletes as they begin their quest for gold out at Salt Lake this weekend.
I know that the good folks in Utah will put on a good show. If you have never been around an international competition and the Olympics, I urge you to make every effort to go. High security or not, it will be worth your time to be around an Olympics on United States soil.
Read Brent Musburger's weekly column on ABC Sports Online every Tuesday.
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