Air ball for the HSMSE girls' basketball team

HSMSE girls' team vs the Institue for Collaborative Education
photo form Tom Henning

This season for the girls’ basketball team at the High School for Math Science and Engineering was their worst year ever, with a 1-15 record. The team now needs to step it up and earn back their pride and glory.

The main reason for the bad record is the inexperience of the players. Sophomore forward,  Mikaela Bloch, describes some of the inexperience problem as, “Not looking at the basket when making the shot.” As these fresh members move in, the experienced players graduate. Donna Fintzi, the team’s leading scorer, seems to have most of the pressure on her after five seniors graduated last year and four graduating this year.

However, there were signs of improvement as the season unfolded. For instance, their two games with  Manhattan Village Academy, the HSMSE girls lost by a score of 55-6. During their second game together, the HSMSE girls moved closer to a victory with a score of 45-16.

The second game against Manhattan Village Academy show large improvements made by their members. They showed improvement both offensively and defensively in the second game.

This season is too late for a comeback, but next season is uncertain. A frustrated Fintzi sees the team having difficulties next season with the loss of four players. However, from these steady improvements, the team may rise to one of the best in the B-division.

Jeremy Lin's future with the Knicks

Jeremy Lin / MattBritt00 / Flickr

In the past few weeks Jeremy Lin’s popularity soared after he recorded 25 points, five rebounds, and seven assists on February 3rd against the New Jersey Nets. That game earned him a spot in the New York Knicks' starting line-up.

In his last game before All-Star weekend against the Miami Heat he struggled to bring the Lin-sanity to South Beach, ending the game with eight points and eight turnovers. This game left people questioning Lin’s skills.

In his first game back from All-Star weekend Lin had 19 points along with 13 assists against the Cleveland Cavaliers, proving that he is still capable of what he was doing a few weeks ago. He played consistently, with 14 points in each of the past two games and averaging four turnovers.

Throughout the season Lin was criticized on his average of 5.6 turnovers per game. Against the Cavaliers he had only one turnover, which is an improvement from his recent games. This game hints that he can maintain a low amount of turnovers and keep his average of 21 points in his past 16 games.

2012 NBA All-Star Weekend recap

All-Star Game 2012- flickr.com- markomni

The Amway Center in Orlando, Florida was home to the 2012 NBA All-Star Game. From February 24^th- 26^th, the best players of the NBA, both past and present came together to show off their skills. They enjoyed six different contests that were all a good way of leaving the playoff runs for laughs and fun. It was a critical break that had some crazy basketball action, all hosted by Orlando Magic center, Dwight Howard.

The weekend kicked off on Friday, February 24, with the Rookie vs. Sophomore game formerly known as the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge. Team Shaq coached by Shaquille O’Neal versus Team Chuck coached by Charles Barkley was the showdown. The main event was the New York Knicks newly found star player, Jeremy Lin. The star of the game wasn’t Lin, but a rookie for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kyrie Irving. Irving dominated the game, scoring 34 points and shooting 8-8 from the three-point line. Irving’s Cavaliers teammate, Tristan Thompson, led Team Shaq with 20 points.

Saturday, February 25, showcased specialized skills, ranging from shooting to speed and dunking. The Shooting Stars competition finals came down to Team Texas with ex-Rocket Kenny Smith, rookie Chandler Parsons, Sophia Young and Team New York with Landry Fields, Cappie Pondexter, and one of the greatest sharpshooters of all time, Allan Houston. Team Texas posted a time of 47.6 seconds, but it couldn’t stop Team New York who won with a time of 37.3 seconds.

The Skills Challenge, an obstacle course for the most agile point guards in the league starred defending champ Deron Williams of the Nets, Rajon Rondo, and the Spurs Tony Parker. Tony Parker won with a time of 32.8 seconds.

The action really heated up during the Three Point contest and Slam Dunk Contest. The Three Point Contest came down to Kevin Durant and rebounding monster, Kevin Love. The contest was close, but came down to the last money ball of the tiebreaker for Durant and he missed it to score a 14 whereas Love scored a 16.

The most controversial competition of the weekend was the Slam Dunk Competition. All participants were newcomers to the competition. Chase Budinger finished his three dunks with a spectacular reverse blindfolded dunk to honor homage to Cedric Ceballos. Jeremy Evans finished with a Karl Malone tribute where he jumped over comedian Kevin Hart. This dunk was controversial since Kevin Hart is only 5’ 2”, which isn't an astounding feat for a great leaper.

On Sunday, February 26^th, it was a tale of the conferences to end the All-Star Weekend. The West had star players like Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant and the East had LeBron James and Dwayne Wade. Kevin Durant was the MVP with 34 points and Kobe Bryant earned some fame for passing Michael Jordan to lead all-time scoring in the All Star Game. James ended the night with 36 points and some great dunks, whereas Wade ended with a triple double. One unlikely star was Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin, who turned up the heat to score 22 points and picked off James’ pass when the East had a chance to tie. "I can't turn the ball over like that," James said. "I let my team down, but overall it was a great weekend."

The West always had dominated the game, but gave up an 18-point lead. "With all these great players on the floor, you never know what will happen. Guys making big shots and they cut it down to one. We were up 18 [at halftime]," Durant said.

The 2012 NBA All-Star Weekend

All Star 2012- Cinefilo- Flickr

The 2012 All Star Weekend at the Amway Center in Orlando was a spectacular show of the NBA players’ abilities. Kobe Bryant broke Michael Jordan's record for most career All-Star points, while Kevin Durant took home MVP honors. Other players showed their skills in the various challenges that comprise the All-Star Weekend.

 The Western Conference defeated the Eastern Conference in the All-Star Game 152-149. The West got off to a quick head start and had 88 points by the first half. By the third quarter, things changed and LeBron James hit three three-pointers and cut the West’s lead from 21 to 12. Shortly thereafter, Dwyane Wade’s hard foul of Bryant gave him a nasal fracture. Despite his injury, Bryant then surpassed Michael Jordan’s record of 262 points for most All-Star career points on a dunk and now has 271. By the fourth quarter, Bryant and Russell Westbrook’s great scoring led the West to a victory.

Former Knicks player Allan Houston’s half court shot won Team New York the Shooting Stars Challenge. The team consisted of Houston, WNBA player Cappie Pointdexter, and Knicks player Landry Fields.

Kevin Love beat Durant, Mario Chalmers, Anthony Morrow and others to win the Three Point Shootout. In an amazing performance of ability, Love won two tiebreakers, one with Chalmers and one with Durant, to claim the ultimate victory.

Fan votes named Jeremy Evans winner of the Slam Dunk Contest. The Utah Jazz player started off with a bad play, but then shocked the crowd with his most amazing dunk. Gordon Hayward, a fellow player, sat on a chair and threw two balls in the air. Evans jumped over him and dunked both.

In the Rising Stars challenge, Team Shaq defeated Team Chuck 146-133. Kyrie Irving played phenomenally, showing his skills with an alley-oop to Paul George and several long range shots. He finished with 36 points. Others, though, didn’t play very well. Jeremy Lin, a previous sensation, made only two points. As Team Shaq co-head coach Ron Adams thought, it was an enjoyable game for all. "There were a lot of dunks," he said in an Associated Press article "I think the guys had fun … it was a fun game. Interesting game."

Overall, The All-Star Weekend was an impressive performance of the NBA’s best players.

Will Jeremy Lin's story continue?

Jeremy Lin photo taken by teamstickergiant/Flickr.com

Jeremy Lin, the rising star of the New York Knicks, is leading the team to numerous victories. Before the All-Star break Lin rose from being an anonymous new player to one of the top point guards in the NBA. Lin has created a name by being the MVP of many games and improved a team that had a bad record. Now, Lin was doing this consistently, until his team played against one of the top teams in the NBA, the Miami Heat where Lin seemed visibly shaken.

Lin’s future is one that is causing tremendous controversy. It is uncertain of what will happen in the future, but his amount of assists, rebounds, and points are not to be overlooked. Lin is improving day by day, but when he faced the Miami Heat he seemed star-struck. Some television shows such as ESPN are focusing way too much on Lin’s great performance.

In an article by Joe Cowley, “Will the Jeremy Lin story end in glory?", he noted Lin saying, “I think hopefully as the season progresses, it will go from that to the New York Knicks, and hopefully the Knicks can win basketball games, we can make a good push after the All-Star break and people will start talking about the Knicks and not necessarily me."

If the statistics are laid out, it seems that Lin is on his way to the playoffs. Although the Knicks are still not the top team, Lin can definitely use his skill to get his team there. Many people disagree with the idea of Lin leading the team after All-Star weekend, which is contradicting to his performance before the All-Star break. It is most likely that Lin will continue his outstanding performance similar to the past and that he will lead the Knicks to the playoffs.

Frustrating season for the Dragons

Hsmse boys' basketball team / Sara Louie

This season the boys’ basketball team of the High School for Math, Science, and Engineering failed to make the playoffs unlike last year. In the 2010-11 season, the team made it to the playoffs with a 6-6 record and eventually was eliminated in the first round. Going into the second half of this season, the team was 4-2 with high chances of exceeding last year’s record and making it to the playoffs once again. As the second half of the season progressed, the team had a 6-3 record with five games remaining and needed only one win to advance to the playoffs.

The team at that point was at its peak and things fell apart as the team went on to lose their next five games. The team in the end had a 6-8 record with no chance of making it to the playoffs. “We played five very competitive teams, one team on our level, and one team that we should’ve beaten,” said junior forward Kavan Edwards. Edwards, who missed one game this season, led the team in scoring. He felt that other teams adjusted to their style of play when they faced them for the second time. “Our team kept playing the same way through out the season and the other teams seemed to have caught on to our style of play.”

Even though the team didn't make it to the playoffs they put up a great effort and in the end, just came up a bit short. The team will make this season a learning experience for next season and will try to build on the new talent they receive in order to surpass this year’s performance.

Ryan Braun wins doping trial due to late delivery

Ryan Braun / Dishfunctional / Flickr

On February 23th 2012 there was a case to find out if Ryan Braun had taken drugs to enhance his performance. The sample was taken by Dino Laurenzi Jr. October 1st after a playoff game between Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks at Miller Park. The case was overturned, because the sample wasn’t sent directly to the laboratory, but first 44 hours after it was taken.

Laurenzi was supposed to take the sample to a Fed Ex office to send it, but it was Saturday and he thought none were open. He said there was, “… no FedEx office located within 50 miles of Miller Park that would ship packages that day or Sunday,” to Suntimes.com. Instead, Laurenzi stored it in his basement in a cool place following protocol. He sent it the following Monday afternoon.

Braun won the three-person panel appeal with a two to one vote. Rob Manfred, the executive vice president for labor relations, voted to accuse him. Michael Weiner, who represented the players union, voted to let him off. The tiebreaker was Shyam Das, arbitrator between the management and the players union. He also voted to let Braun off.

Manfred and MLB management disagreed with Das’ decision. Baseball officials say it’s the first time a drug suspension has been overturned. "As a part of our drug testing program, the commissioner's office and the players' association agreed to a neutral third party review for instances that are under dispute. While we have always respected that process, Major League Baseball vehemently disagrees with the decision rendered today by arbitrator Shyam Das," said Manfred to ESPN.com

On Friday February 24th Braun tried to raise questions about the testing process. He called the process, “fatally flawed,” and said there was numerous Fed Ex offices nearby that were open after the game ended. “There were a lot of things that we learned about the collector, about the collection process, about the way the entire thing works, that made us very concerned and very suspicious about what could have actually happened,” Braun said to NYTimes.com

Maybe there was accident during the testing process as Gary Wadler, a former high-ranking official in the World Anti-Doping Agency, said, “It’s a highly scientific process, and no one is entirely perfect.” Or Braun had actually taken drugs to enhance his perfomance. Either way he is free to play for now.