James Harden

The front-runner in the MVP race right now, baring any injury is James Harden. He finished second place last year to Russell Westbrook who had one of the best seasons that the NBA has ever seen. Harden had a breakout season last year averaging slightly over 11 assists per game to go along with 29 points and 8 rebounds per game. Usually numbers like this would be good enough to win MVP especially with how the Rockets finished as  a team last year. The main reason why I think the Harden deserves to win the MVP this year is because his minutes per game has decreased from 36 down to 35 minutes while raising his points per game to 31. This is coming while the Rockets added Chris Paul over the summer, and many analysts wondering how Harden and CP3 would mesh together. This duo has worked out perfectly for the Rockets as they are in first place in a loaded western conference. This is a huge factor in why Harden should win MVP this year since he is leading this team to do better than the Golden State Warriors.

March Madness

0-135. All 16 seeds that played a number one seed before Friday, March 16th were 0-135. This all changed when the UMBC Retrievers defeated the Virginia Cavaliers 74-54. This game is the definition of March Madness for me because who would ever think that a team that no ta lot of people had heard of could defeat the number one team in the nation and to do it in the fashion that they did. UMBC was able to break down the best defensive team in the nation by scoring 74 points on a team that had only allowed 54 points per game all year. The UMBC offense was able to put up a staggering 53 points in the second half alone to close out the Cavaliers. this game mad me question the statement "offense wins games but defense wins championships" because the number one defense in the nation was torn apart by the number 16 seed who had only scored 39 points in a loss to Albany January 21st. Was this game a fluke for the Retrievers, that they were able to shoot as well as they did? Or was it a Virginia team that went into the game thinking it was going to be an easy win and underestimated their opponent and realized that they needed to try harder, but it was too late?  

UMBC Point Guard K.J. Maura

Welcome

My name is Tyler Ihrig, and I am a freshman at Slippery Rock University. My major at Slippery Rock is Sport Management. I am from Rochester New York, where I have lived all of my life. I attended Rush-Henrietta Senior High School where I played basketball, baseball and football. I have an average family size, with a mother, father and a sister. My favorite sports teams growing up have been the Buffalo Bills, Boston Celtics and Notre Dame.