Round 1 (West) - Texas advances

This talented Texas team toppled a Western conglomerate led by Mr. Big Shot.

With the NCAA Basketball Tournament right around the corner, I decided to create an NBA State Tournament to see which states are producing the best players.

Serious bragging rights are at stake!

Do certain states excel at producing certain positions? Which states have the most talent per capita? Most importantly, who’s going to win it all?

Help me decide by voting for each matchup, and we’ll crown an NBA State Champion right around the time of the NCAA Championship game.

NBA State Tournament Rules: - To qualify, players must have played in at least one NBA game this season (Sorry Brand & Oden) and be on a current NBA roster. - Players are affiliated with the state they graduated High School in rather than the State born in. (Information courtesy of: Basketball-Reference.com). Key differences will be noted. - There are 16 total “Teams” separated into 4 Regions. - Teams are seeded using this formula: Total population (rounded to the nearest million) x 1/2 + Total # of current players. - Smaller states are merged together until they total 16+ active players. - Rosters of 12 are chosen for each team. - Vote for which team you think would win in a 7 game series on a neutral court. - 1st Round Polls are open for 7 days ONLY before a winner is declared. - New 1st Round Matchup posted every 3 days. - After voting, please comment on which team you picked, how many games to win, and why.

#2 Seed

West Region

Texas (29 players)

Total Population = 23,904,380

PG: Deron Williams / T.J. Ford

Deron Williams was born in West Virginia, but he attended middle school and high school in Texas. I think everyone knows how good this guy is by now. It’s great to see TJ Ford back on the court and playing at an elite level. Calderon & Ford are perhaps the most potent 1-2 point guard punch in the league, so you have to assume that a Deron & Ford duo would be exceptional.

SG: Devin Brown / Daniel Gibson / Desmond Mason

After some dude named James, Devin Brown is the Cavs best all-around player. He’s like a smaller version of LeBron with 1/10th the talent (still pretty good). Admit it, you’ve mistaken him for LeBron at least once! When Daniel Gibson gets hot, watch out! This former Texas star can score, but he’s undersized and the rest of his game is still pretty limited. Desmond Mason is more of a small forward, but shooting guard is this squad’s weakest position. It doesn’t hurt to have an uber-athletic swingman on your bench.

SF: Rashard Lewis / Eduardo Najera

Rashard Lewis is another guy who moved to Texas at a young age. He’s a good player, but paying him $20 million per year is pretty ridiculous. However, as the 3rd or 4th option on this talented Texas team, he should thrive. I love Najera, and so should you. The guy hustles and bangs, but whenever tempers flare on the court, he’s the one playing peacemaker. He’s also a decent offensive player (18.4 ppg his senior year in college) who can knock down the three, but he never tries to force his own shot.

PF: Chris Bosh / LaMarcus Aldridge / Jason Maxiell

Bosh was born and raised in Texas, where he was named the high school Player of the Year by Basketball America in ‘02. Despite his lack of strength, he’s developed into one of the best big men in the game today. He can score in a variety of ways and is still improving. Aldridge is another skinny guy with serious talent. He’s a level or two below Bosh right now, but the potential is there. Enough of this tall, skinny, finesse nonsense tho. I added Maxiell to this team to give them some beefy power when Shaq is out. He gets bonus points for being one of the few guys that attacks the rim like it said something about his momma.

C: Shaquille O’Neal / Emeka Okafor

Shaq was born in New Jersey, but he started to receive national attention while attending Cole high school in Texas, where he led his team to a 68-1 record (how did they lose a game?). He’s still a very effective player, and this team is deep, so you can keep his minutes under 30 per game. Okafor was born and raised in Houston, where he grew up idolizing Olajuwon (not a bad player to emulate). While he doesn’t have the low post skills of Hakeem, he’s proven to be a very solid rebounder and shot-blocker.

Just missed the cut: Kenyon Martin, Kurt Thomas.

K-Mart got knocked off the squad by Maxiell, which is funny since both of them went to the University of Cincinnati and have similar games. You could easily make a case for including Kurt Thomas, but I went with youth over experience since this team already has Shaq. KT can’t run the floor like Aldridge and Maxiell, which is important when TJ Ford is in the game.

Everyone else: Maceo Baston, Ike Diogu, Jeff Foster, Gerald Green, Damon Jones, Acie Law, Chris Mihm, C.J. Miles, Kendrick Perkins, Ronnie Price, Quinton Ross, Brian Skinner, Jake Voskuhl, Von Wafer, Sean Williams.

Team analysis:

I expected Texas to be good, but damn! They have solid depth at every position, with shooting guard being their only question mark. The contrast in skills at each position is remarkable. Take point guard, where Deron Williams is big, strong and enjoys creating contact while TJ Ford is lightning quick and wants to run circles around people. But what I like most about this squad is their versatility. You could come up with ten different lineups and they would all be solid. For example, Deron is strong enough to play at the two, alongside TJ Ford. If you want to go small, you can move Lewis over to power forward and Bosh, Aldridge, or Maxiell over to center. Conversely, you could go huge with a lineup of: Deron, Lewis, Bosh, Okafor, and Shaq. There are numerous possibilities.

#3 Seed

West Region

Colorado (6 players) +

Arizona (3 players) +

Kansas (3 players) +

NV(2)+ SD(2)+ OK(1)+ NM(1)+

Everyone Else (0)

Combined Pop. = 32,248,191

PG: Chauncey Billups (CO) / Mike Bibby (AZ) / Earl Watson (KS)

This massive conglomerate of 14 states is led by one of the top point guards in the game. Billups was born in Denver, named Colorado Mr. Basketball three straight years, and led his high school to two state titles. He can hold his own against any PG in this tournament. Mike Bibby can score, but he’s a liability on the defensive end. Earl Watson is a very capable backup PG, so it might make sense to give him all of the backup minutes behind Chauncey, while moving Bibby over to backup two guard.

SG: Mike Miller (SD) / Maurice Evans (KS)

Mike Miller was born and raised in South Dakota, and he’s clearly the best NBA player ever from that state. He’s superb all-around on offense, and you have to imagine he’d thrive playing alongside Mr. Big Shot. Mo Evans was named the Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year in ‘97 and played college ball at Wichita St. before transferring to Texas. He’s a good athlete and strong defensive player, making him a decent backup.

SF: Richard Jefferson (AZ) / Kelenna Azubuike (OK)

According to Jefferson’s Wikipedia page, “his parents were both Christian missionaries and he moved around frequently growing up.” However, he attended high school and college in Arizona, and he donated $3.5 million towards his alma mater’s future hoops practice facility. R-Jeff and Azubuike are both excellent athletes, and they give this squad a formidable small forward duo. I would try to play ‘Buike some minutes at power forward, because…

PF: Jason Smith (CO) / Kenny Thomas (NM) / Louis Amundson (CO)

This team has some major holes in their frontcourt! I gave Jason Smith the starting nod because he’s had a solid rookie season for Philly. It looks like the former Colorado St. star has a promising future. Did you even know that Kenny Thomas is still in the NBA? Me neither. I used to be a big fan of his, but he’s clearly on the downside of his career. I’m going with Lou Amundson as my 12th man energizer. The kid won D-League Rookie of the Year honors last year, after averaging 7.6 boards and 2.5 blocks per game. I would love to see what he can do in extended NBA minutes.

C: Channing Frye (AZ) / Michael Ruffin (CO)

It wasn’t too long ago that Frye was considered an “untouchable” young star on the rise. I’m not sure what happened, but this team will need him to step up and play big minutes. Michael Ruffin stands only 6-8, but he’s carved out an 8-year NBA career by running the floor and banging in the paint. We haven’t seen much of him lately, but in ‘00-01, he pulled down 5.8 boards in just 19.5 minutes per game.

Just missed the cut: Pat Garrity (CO), Adrian Griffin (KS).

Remember when Garrity was a key contributor for Orlando? He played 2,584 regular season minutes back in ‘02-03, but has played a TOTAL of just 2,349 minutes since then. Adrian Griffin is a nice defender, but Evans and Azubuike are much more versatile.

Everyone else: Marcus Banks (NV), Nick Fazekas (CO), Eric Piatkowski (SD), C.J. Watson (NV).

Team analysis:

I really like this team at PG, SG, and SF, but they might be the weakest team in the tournament at PF and C. As a whole, their big men are soft, undersized, inexperienced, and unproven. I won’t say they don’t have talent, because Smith and Frye can still develop into solid starters, but they’re certainly not at that level yet. That’s why I suggested playing Azubuike some minutes at power forward. He’s only 6-5, but he’s not afraid to battle under the boards. A lot of these states aren’t producing that much NBA talent these days, which makes it even more impressive when stars such as Billups and Miller emerge.

NBA State Tournament

Round 1

West Region: #2 vs. #3

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Poll Ends: Wednesday, March 5th @ 11:59pm PST

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My pick:

in 4 games

Sorry giant conglomerate of Western states, but you have no chance against Texas.

I’m a firm believer in Chauncey’s willpower to win (59-40 playoff record since he joined the Pistons), but even Mr. Big Shot will have trouble winning one game against this Texas behemoth.

Voting for the next matchup won’t begin for awhile, but you may as well start thinking about it: California vs. Texas = It’s on!

Click here for West Region matchup #1: (1) California vs. (4) Washington/ Oregon/ Alaska.
Click here for South Region matchup #2: (2) Florida vs. (3) North Carolina/ South Carolina.
Click here for South Region matchup #1: (1) Alabama/ Georgia vs. (4) Louisiana/ Mississippi.