Winning The Lottery (Barely)

Julian goes 13th, to the New Orleans Hornets. Still don't really understand why he flip-flopped and decided to leave; with a dominant junior season (which wouldn't have been hard to envision) he could have gone top five in '08.

The upside for him, aside from instant financial gratification, is that he gets to go to a team that doesn't suck, but isn't so loaded that he'd be relegated to the bench, either. Playing alongside Chris Paul and former OSU dunk specialist Desmond Mason isn't such a bad thing.

Congrats, "Noodle!" I miss you already.

Jacque Wins Title! Jacque Wins Title!

Jayhawk To Win NBA Title

Cleveland's upset over Detroit ensures that for two years running, a Jayhawk will receive an NBA championship ring: either Drew Gooden and Scot Pollard of the Cavaliers, or Pollard's old classmate Jacque Vaughn of the Spurs.

(I think we asked this last year, but can anybody remember any other Jayhawks winning NBA titles, besides JoJo White?)

Unlike Wayne Simien's spectating role last year with the Heat, at least two of these guys (Gooden and Vaughn) will play significant minutes. Drew's in the starting lineup and Jacque is 2nd-string PG behind Tony Parker. And if Cleveland coach Mike Brown is smart, he'll give Pollard some minutes as well; I think he could guard Tim Duncan more effectively than any of their other big men.

I'm particularly sentimental about Scot and Jacque, who played on the best KU teams never to make the Final Four. (Their '97 team was ranked 1st in the nation almost that entire season, with Duncan's Wake Forest team ranked 2nd; both teams tragically fell short in the tourney). Both of those guys, if I'm not mistaken, still live in Lawrence. Seeing one of them get a ring will be very cool.

Pollard lovers, check out this hilarious Q&A on the Cavs website, wherein Scot extols the virtues of Allen Fieldhouse and attempts to revive the "high ten."