The Tar Heels and Spartans opened the season on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson
The Oklahoma City Thunder became the first time to advance to the semifinal round of the 2012 NBA Playoffs, closing out their sweep of the defending champion Dallas Mavericks with a 103-97 win.
Sixth man James Harden - recently named to the preliminary roster for the 2012 Olympic basketball team - scored 15 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter to close out the defending champs.
The Thunder will face the winner of the Lakers/Nuggets series in the semifinals. Los Angeles leads that series, 2-1.
Ryan Anderson led the NBA in three-pointers made and attempted this year and posted career-bests in scoring, rebounds and shooting percentage. So he's a fine choice for most improved player honors, right?
Depends who you ask.
Critics will point out that the only category where Anderson showed a major improvement is minutes; he went from an average of about 22 mpg off the bench last season to 32 mpg as a starter this year, and that otherwise, his numbers are right in line with his 2010-11 performance.
Of course, there's something to be said for moving from a bench role to a starting job without any drop-off in productivity. Lots of players get a similar opportunity and have all the weaknesses in their games exposed
New York's Toney Douglas, for example, was pressed into service as the Knicks' starting point guard this season. By February, he was out of the Knick rotation entirely.
USA Basketball released a preliminary 20-man roster for this year's Olympic men's basketball team back in January. They planned to cut the list down to 12 in time for Team USA's training camp in July, but injuries have done much of the work for them. Four players from the initial list - including center Dwight Howard and guard Derrick Rose - have sustained injuries that will make it impossible for them to play in London this summer.
Howard's absence, in particular, could make life difficult for USA Basketball. His injury leaves Tyson Chandler as the only true center on the initial roster. That won't be a problem against most of the teams in the Olympic tournament, but Team Spain should have both Gasol brothers and Serge Ibaka in their frontcourt, and that trio will present major problems.
On the other hand, Team USA is crazy-deep in the backcourt (Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Russell Westbrook, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade) and on the wing (LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Rudy Gay) which could make it a lot easier to get by with, say, Chris Bosh or Kevin Love manning the middle.
When Gregg Popovich retires, we'll look back at his career and accomplishments. And we'll wonder why he didn't win NBA Coach of the Year more often. He's this season's honoree, and he won in 2003... and he probably deserved several other trophies.
Not that he'd want them.
This season, Coach Pop took a team that was knocked out in the first round of the 2011 playoffs and gave up George Hill - a key backcourt sub - into a compressed season that was supposed to make life super-difficult for veteran teams...
And led them to a 50-16 record, tying the Chicago Bulls for tops in the NBA.
Tom Thibodeau of the Bulls - last season's coach of the year - placed second in the voting, while Indiana's Frank Vogel was third.
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