For anyone who watched this year's McDonald's All-American Game Dunk Contest, the  lasting image isn't of the winner (for the record it was future Blue Devil Gerald Henderson), but rather of the man who stole the show with several mindblowing dunks, future Arizona Wildcat Chase Budinger.  

Budinger, a San Diego native, is arguably even better at volleyball than basketball.  He won the Mizuno High School Volleyball Player of the Year Award this season and was a mainstay on the U.S. Junior National Team.   That's not to say he isn't a fantastic basketball player as well, as he was named the California Player of the Year and is widely considered the best basketball prospect out of San Diego since another goofy red-headed dude named Bill Walton. 

Although they both come from San Diego, Budinger's game should not be confused with Walton's at all.  A solid 6-8, Budinger blends the raw explosiveness that comes from his volleyball background with a great sense of the game and overall athleticism.  I think his natural position is at small forward, although he could excel equally as well at shooting guard or even power forward if needed in a pinch.  One observer has compared him to another former Wildcat, Sean Elliott, and I think the comparison is apt.  Whether his game ends up being as complete as Elliott's was is left to be seen, but Budinger does have a level of  athleticism that Elliott never had.

He'll have a chance to play tons of minutes early for Arizona Coach Lute Olson as Budinger can easily step in the small forward spot vacated by NBA draftee Hassan Adams.  With a veteran point guard in Mustafa Shakur there will be plenty of opportunities for Budinger to display his scoring touch.

And while there was some thought that Budinger was going to continue to try to continue his volleyball career at the high national levels, he dispelled a lot that concern in a recent interview at NBADraft.net  where he more or less said that his volleyball career was over and his focus was entirely on basketball.

Budinger's success should at the very least give basketball hopefuls a reason to consider taking up some volleyball as well, as the jumping and attacking instincts learned from the sport can add some depth to one's basketball abiliites. 

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Reason #98 to be Excited About the ‘06-’07 Season: Arizona’s Flying White Boy

Ex-UNC Head Coach Matt Doherty’s arrival in Dallas as Head Coach at SMU promises to erase some ghosts of the program’s past and will help bring the Mustangs a national profile.

1987 was a terrible year for SMU Athletics. Not only did the school’s football team get sentenced with the “death penalty”, SMU’s basketball program, which was rightfully ecstatic about the impending arrival of local product Larry Johnson, were to find out the devastating news that LJ couldn’t qualify academically. Johnson went on to junior college in Odessa and eventual stardom with UNLV, the NBA, and as a crossdresser in his famous Converse ads. SMU’s basketball program took an opposite path, fielding some competitive teams but never really mattering on a national level.

The announcement this spring of Doherty’s hiring was the first real step in bringing the program forward. Doherty’s influence and impact has been immediate, shifting the program from a Continue Reading »
Reason #99 To Be Excited about the ‘06-’07 Season: Matt Doherty’s Exorcising the Ghost of Grandmama in Bringing National Relevance to SMU

The words "dominant center" and "college basketball" have been almost mutually exclusive since Bill Clinton was President. Enter Indiana-native Greg Oden, who is the two-time Parade/Gatorade High School Player of the Year and 7 feet, 1/2 inch of post goodness. Oden is the real deal, period. With a chiseled physique a la David Robinson, Oden, who is Ohio State bound, is the most complete center prospect to land in the college ranks in years, thanks in no small part to the changes in NBA eligibility rules which require players to wait a year before being allowed into the Association. Oden would have been a virtual lock at the #1 spot if he had entered the draft. Instead, he goes to a Ohio State team that could achieve "Fab Five" type success with the talent they've started to stockpile. In addition to Oden, they've pulled in Mike Conley who is ranked by Rivals.com as the #3 point guard prospect as well as getting top 25 players in Daequan Cook and David Lighty. Unfortunately, this show may only last a year as it will be tough to pass up the call of the NBA after this season if Oden lives up to even a fraction of the hype around him. In any case though, Greg Oden is definitely one of the 100 things to love about the 2006-2007 college basketball season.

This is always the time of the year my head starts going insane from basketball withdrawal. The NBA Draft is done and gone and NFL training camps haven’t even started yet to at least give some alternative to mid-season baseball.

Rather than drone on about the summer monotony, it’s time to look ahead at all the good things this upcoming college basketball season will have in store. On this site, we’ll be starting a brand new series of posts over the next few months detailing the top 100 things to look forward to about the upcoming season.

Look out for the first post in the next day or so. The ordering is fairly random, so being Reason #100 is no more or less important than reason #2.