Sports Page Atlanta

The 2008-09 Atlanta Hawks regular season schedule was released today. You can see the Hawks schedule here.

The Atlanta Hawks and the National Basketball Association (NBA) today announced the 2008-09 schedule, and for the first time in six years, the Hawks will be featured on national television during the regular season as Atlanta and Boston meet for the first time since their thrilling first round playoff series, as ESPN televises the Wednesday, December 17th game from Philips Arena. The World Champion Celtics return for a second time on Friday, March 27.

The Hawks open the season on the road Wednesday, October 29 at Orlando, and three nights later, Atlanta will host the Philadelphia 76ers in their home opener (Saturday, November 1 at 7 p.m.).

The 41-game home schedule is highlighted by 24 weekend dates – with 10 games on Fridays, eight on Saturdays and six on Sundays (four of them during the afternoon). Atlanta will play eight straight at Philips Arena from December 13 to 29, and seven in row during a 14-of-20 home stretch between March 7 to April 15 (final day of the regular season), and six consecutive road contests during a 12-of-16 away stretch from January 31 to March 6. The Hawks’ busiest month of action occurs in March when the Hawks play a total of 17 games, with 12 of them at home.

In addition to the home opener on November 1, other notable contests include two games against the Cleveland Cavaliers (November 13 and March 1) and division rivals, the Orlando Magic (January 7 and April 4), while the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers visit Atlanta on Sunday, March 29.

Paul over at the Georgia Sports Blog has put together a very interesting look at the Dawgs upcoming basketball season. He’s had to make a few assumptions about early tournament opponents, but all-in-all he’s done a fabulous job looking ahead at the UGA basketball team’s strength of schedule.

Thanks for the work on this Paul!

As I said yesterday, we play a solid mix of Top 100 teams, and we really only play two teams are who are total locks to have sub-300 RPIs. In this age of escalating buyouts for low major RPI teams, it’s a good schedule.

The folks over at Hoops Addict are running the first annual Hoops Addict Floor Burn Tournament.

Each night ESPN, NBA.com and YouTube are flooded with clips of players soaring through the air for rim rocking dunks, buzzer beating three-pointers and blocked shots that make your jaw drop in amazement. While those are all entertaining plays, teams who win championships need players who are willing to get a little dirty and do the little things needed to help their team win. As valuable and crucial as these players are to their respective teams success, these players rarely get the credit or respect that they deserve. With that in mind, the First Annual Hoops Addict Floor Burn Tournament will kick off this week.

Over the next few weeks we’re going to pare down 32 participants until we’re left with one final player who will be heralded as the First Annual Floor Burn Tournament Champion. As players are eliminated, they’ll be matched against the bracket below them. For example, the winner of the West/Powe match-up will face off against the winner of Dudley/Nocioni in the second round.

In the first round, Atlanta Hawks guard, Mario West is pitted against Leon Powe from the Celtics. West is pounding Powe in the voting so far, but let’s everyone go check out Hoops Addict and Vote For Mario West!

The Georgia Tech men’s basketball team got a piece of good news from the NCAA yesterday as new graduate student, and former St. Francis University basketball player, Bassirou Dieng was given permission to play in the upcoming 2008-09 basketball season.

NCAA rules require student-athletes sit out one year when transferring, but the NCAA can grant a waiver when the student-athlete enrolls at an institution in a graduate program which is not offered by his previous school. Dieng, who received his undergraduate degree from St. Francis in the spring in Political Science and International Studies and will begin his graduate studies at Tech in the fall semester.

Dieng (pronounced BASS-uh-roo dee-ENG), who is 6-9 and 215 pounds, has one year of eligibility at Tech. In two years at St. Francis, he averaged 8.5 points per game, 5.2 rebounds per game and shot 46.2 percent from the floor. Dieng also played one year at Norfolk State (2004-05) before moving to St. Francis, where he sat out the 2005-06 season in accordance with NCAA transfer rules.

Randolph Morris is coming back to Atlanta.  The former Landmark Christian superstar signed a 2-year contract to play for the Atlanta Hawks. 

The 6′11″ power forward/center has played part of 2 NBA seasons with the New York Knicks and has played in 23 games including 2 starts.  The former Kentucky Wildcat scored 2.6 points per game and 2.0 rebounds per game last season.

He is not Josh Childress, but the Atlanta Hawks might have signed his replacement. 

The Hawks signed Maurice Evans to a 3-year/$7.5 million.  Evans is 6′5″ and has played six seasons in the NBA including last season with the Magic.  With Orlando, he played in 68 games while starting 47.  He averaged 9.3 points per game and 3.1 rebounds per game. His career-high came this past season against of all teams the Atlanta Hawks back on April 15th when he knocked in 27 points in a Magic win.

He has played for the Timberwolves, Kings, Pistons, Lakers, Magic and now the Hawks. 

Georgia Tech center Ra’Sean Dickey has decided to transfer and play basketball professionally in the Ukraine. 

The 5th year center did not play last season.  In 3 seasons, he averaged 8.7 points per game and 5.1 rebounds per game.  More importantly he made over 60 percent of his shots during his Yellow Jacket career.  His best season was his sophomore season where he averaged 13.2 points per game.

He will play in the Ukraine with his former Tech teammate Anthony Morrow.

The Atlanta Hawks swingman Josh Childress will now be playing his games for the Greek team Olympiakos.  The contract is for 3 years for $32.5 million.  The Hawks had offered the 4-year veteran a 5-year/$32 million contract.

Childress called this ‘an opportunity of a lifetime’.

The Hawks retain the rights with Childress for the next 2 years.

The Atlanta Dream has won a game! Yes, after losing their first 17 games of the season, the Dream has won.  Atlanta defeated the Chicago Sky 91-84 at Philips Arena.  Former UNC Tar Heel Ivory Latta was the hero scoring 16 of her 18 points in the 2nd half.  Jennifer Lacy also added 18 and Kristin Haynie dished out 11 assists. 

The Dream now go on the road for 6 games and return home on July 22nd against Sacramento.

The Atlanta Hawks don’t have any picks in this year’s draft (unless a trade happens) so times are a little slow with Atlanta’s only playoff team.

They did make some moves with their assistant coaches, though.  Out is David Fizdale and scout Harold Ellis and staying put is Larry Drew and Bob Bender.

Now the Hawks must focus on what they will do with Josh Smith and Josh Childress.