In case you haven’t heard, Andray Blatche has been doing pretty damn well lately. This sparked a recent Twitter debate amongst a couple of the better NBA writers on the ‘net.

Mike Prada of Bullets Forever has suddenly elevated Blatche to one of the best power forwards in the league (in terms of who you’d want on your team over the next five seasons). The only players Prada would take over Blatche is Josh Smith, Kevin Love, Chris Bosh, Blake Griffin and Pau Gasol. This is, of course, factoring in value of play and value of contract.

Tom Ziller, of several places all over the Interweb, but most notably SacTown Royalty and NBA FanHouse, seems to disagree, wondering specifically about Al Jefferson, Carl Landry, J.J. Hickson, Michael Beasley and LaMarcus Aldridge, and saying that Prada is “in lonely company taking Blatche over any of them, let alone ALL of them.” The debate raged on.

The disclaimer is that my friend Mr. Prada has always been a bit over-amorous for Andray Blatche. I, on the other hand, have always been a bit too skeptical, perhaps unfairly so. Although, in my opinion, and since I’m writing this on my site, Blatche has always ‘made his own bed’, if you will, (and I’m not taking about when he got caught soliciting an undercover cop he thought was a prostitute), with his inconsistent play that has often derived from lack of conditioning, focus and a commitment to the game.

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One cool thing about Google Analytics is the ability to get stats on the network locations of visitors. Most come from big network providers (”locations”) such as Comcast, Verizon, Cox, BellSouth, RCN, etc.. Other stats indicate visitors from specific government entities or large companies.

I really appreciate all readers from the networks above and every place in between, but today, as we continue to bring in 2010, it’s all about the colleges. Why? Because Andray Blatche says so. C’mon Son.

Below are the top 50 colleges and universities that visited Truth About It.net in 2009 (and a map below the jump). Thanks to all for stopping by, but mainly, stay classy [insert school mascot or dorm name here].

1. university of maryland
2. occidental college
3. george mason university
4. georgetown university
5. george washington university
6. virginia tech
7. university of california, los angeles
8. howard university
9. harvard university
10. northwestern university
11. johns hopkins
12. university of missouri-columbia
13. college of william and mary
14. haverford college
15. university of southern california
16. university of virginia
17. temple university
18. american university
19. stanford university
20. virginia commonwealth university
21. new york university
22. columbia university
23. university of pennsylvania
24. university of california san diego
25. duke university
26. university of massachusetts
27. indiana university
28. university of washington
29. university of maryland at baltimore
30. university of texas at austin
31. james madison university
32. university of miami
33. boston college
34. pennsylvania state university
35. ohio state university
36. boston university
37. princeton university
38. university of pittsburgh
39. university of toronto
40. washington university (in saint louis)
41. massachusetts institute of technology
42. university of california – berkeley
43. rutgers university
44. university of california irvine
45. university of wisconsin madison
46. cornell university
47. oxford university
48. university of baltimore
49. mcdaniel college
50. carnegie mellon university

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Time for a win folks. I’ll be on ESPN’s Daily Dime Live around game time to discuss. Got a good feeling about this one.

The Wizards don’t want to be number one with seven

If the Wiz lose by four points or less again, they’ll surpass the 76-77 Suns with the most consecutive losses within that margin. The spread is Golden State by 2.5.

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Ok, the look on Gilbert Arenas’ face is etched in my mind too … but I’m also getting used to it.

Arenas had one of his better offensive games of the season against Sacramento on Wednesday night. It was just his fifth game getting to double figures in field-goals made (10), tied for his second most free-throws attempted (12) and third most made (10), only the fourth time he took more than three three-pointers and shot fifty-percent or better (3-6), and his sixth time shooting 45% or better when taking 10 or more shots (.455).

All signs of progress for Gilbert.

Of course, the team is pretty much the same. Last night was the fourteenth time the Wizards have shot below 45% this season (43.2%). They are 1-13 when that happens. It was also the thirteenth time the Wizards have tallied less than 20 assists (13). They are 1-12 when that happens.

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(flickr/coolgates)

There was a mini-spike in Randy Foye news last week. On Monday, after watching a video about Foye on NBA.com, I wondered if he could be ‘the’ difference maker.

On Wednesday, the WaPost’s Michael Lee put together a nice piece on Foye off his notes from a previous meeting. Here, we learned of a potential style conflict between Foye and former T-Wolves head coach, current Wizards assistant, Randy Wittman. Lee also related something Kevin McHale once told Foye before a matchup against Dwyane Wade, “Anything he can do, you can do.” Foye battled and finished with 29 points to Wade’s 31. The game came down to a last second foul call that Foye did not get … Wade probably would have.

Predating Wade-Foye comparisons, looking back into John Hollinger’s vault, we find Foye associated with Vinny Del Negro. Before he was drafted in ‘06, ESPN compared Foye to Ben Gordon, while NBADraft.net to Chauncey Billups. But it was DraftExpress FTL … in their ‘best’ case, Randy Foye is Mike James; worst case, Juan Dixon. Yuck.

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[Ed. Note: this is the first post by newcomer docfunk, who was introduced in the previous post]

During each Wizards game I hope for 3 things:

1. Gilbert Arenas escapes unscathed.
2. DeShawn Stevenson does his face-wave much to the chagrin of former-Bullet turned broadcaster, Phil Chenier.
3. Caron Butler takes 20 shots or more.

The Wizards are often dismissed as a cavalry of role-players marching to the syncopated beat of Gilbert Arenas. For the past 2 seasons, we have witnessed the Wizards attempt to play Rockband sans-drummer. What resulted was a throw-the-controller inducing 19-win season which we blamed (unfairly) on Eddie Jordan’s playlist.

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I was on a break outside the other day, catching some fresh Penn Quarter air, taking a stroll around Freedom Plaza, when this little kid came up to me, and said, “Hey Mister … don’t you know that the Wizards need another big man? Haywood, Jamison, Blatche, McGee, and McGuire aren’t going to cut it.”

“Easy lil’ fella,” I told him. “We’ll keep looking around to see if we can add someone else, but we feel comfortable about what we have currently and the depth of our ballclub.”

The kid then kicked me in the shin and ran away.

I suddenly woke up from my slumber and realized those weren’t my words, those were Ernie Grunfeld’s words. I had a mission …

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Avidly watching (and blogging) the Wizards this past season, I came to the conclusion that while meaningfully improved, team defense still had a long way to go, especially in terms of guarding the perimeter. Since the end of the 07-08 season, there have been differing opinions on whether the Wizards defense had really improved from 06-07.

First came the Washington Times Wizards beat writer, Mike Jones, citing a “dramatic transformation” resulting from the debut of Randy Ayers’ defensive philosophy. Jones’ main statistical argument was that the Wizards went from allowing a league worst 104.9 points per game in 06-07 to 99.2 ppg in 07-08, 12th in the NBA. Mike Jones also pointed out that the Wizards went from getting out-rebounded by 1.8 boards per game to having the edge over opponents by 0.4 rpg.

Kevin Broom, in a polite counter-point on RealGM.com, concluded that the theory of Wizards defensive improvement was a fallacy. Broom was correct to write that per game statistics should not be used as a true indicator of improvement as game pace (the average offensive and defensive possessions) helps to tell the true story. In 06-07, the Wizards played at the 5th fastest pace in the NBA. In 07-08, Washington was the 4th slowest. As Kevin Broom puts it:

What happens if this season’s Wizards played at the same pace as last season’s? Their points allowed per game would rise from 99.2 to 104.3. In other words, this “improved” defense that Jones and mainstream media are celebrating is in reality an “improvement” of just 0.6 points per game.

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