Baron rarin' to go
UCLA point guard Davis rediscovering touch, fitness
Posted: Tuesday January 12, 1999 06:20 PM
UCLA sophomore point guard Baron Davis tore the ACL in his left knee last April, and thanks to a lackluster approach to his rehabilitation, he was more than 20 pounds overweight when he returned to the Bruins' lineup on Dec. 2. But Davis has already shed most of the extra pounds, and his knee appears to have regained almost all of its strength.
Davis put up 20 points and six assists in the Bruins' 82-75 win over seventh-ranked Arizona on Jan. 2. He added a career-high 22 points in a win at Oregon on Saturday.
Davis told me he isn't even close to being 100 percent healthy, which is bad news for the rest of the Pac-10. Four of the Bruins' top six players are freshmen, but if Davis' knee holds up, this could be one very dangerous team come March.
Midseason letdowns
Below are my choices for the three most disappointing teams so far this season.
In third place is South Carolina. Senior guard BJ McKie might be the SEC's player of the year, but he's not getting any help. The Gamecocks are dead last in the league in scoring and are off to an 0-3 conference start.
In second place is Washington. The Huskies began the year ranked 14th on the heels of their Sweet 16 appearance last March, but they're also off to an 0-3 start in the Pac-10 and have dropped out of the Top 25. Washington has faced a brutal early schedule and lost senior guard Donald Watts for almost a month with a sprained ankle.
And coming in at the top of disappointments is Massachusetts, off to a 5-8 start that includes losses to Marshall, Davidson and St. Bonaventure. The Minutemen are suffering from a lack of a true point guard, and coach Bruiser Flint is catching the heat. The team was actually booed by its own fans during the loss to Davidson.
Conference call
Notre Dame is expected to announce on Feb. 5 whether or not it will leave the Big East and join the Big Ten next season. While some published reports have called the move a done deal, there is still a better-than-even chance that Notre Dame will remain a member of the Big East. That's because the school's alumni are adamantly opposed to going to the Big Ten, believing it will hurt the school's football program, which continues to reap benefits from its independent status.
If the Irish moved to the Big Ten, they would most likely begin playing football in that league when the school's contract with NBC expires in 2005.
Sports Illustrated writer-reporter Seth Davis covers the college basketball beat and appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated.
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