Why New Orleans Hornet Chris Paul Should Be MVP

Let's face it, the 2007-2008 New Orleans Hornets have made for one of the most surprising stories in sports this year.

The emergence of Chris Paul, as everyone knows, has been and continues to be the key to this team's success.

In just his third professional season, CP3 has developed the ability to score from almost anywhere on the court. He has an exceptionally high basketball IQ, and an uncanny eye predicting plays before they happen.

He performs with ardent passion and, most importantly, Chris Paul puts his teammates in the best possible positions to succeed.

This last characteristic immediately evokes memories of Isiah Thomas, and is the definition of a true point guard. He is a leader who makes everyone around him look good.

Examples? Let's start out with number 30. One figured that David West looked the part. He is a big, strong, and physical player with a decent amount of athleticism and a consistent mid-range game.

Yet, thanks to Paul's efforts and the increasing attention given to him by other teams this season, West has improved his interior play. He has also benefited from having more chances to convert those open opportunities into points.

West has almost perfected the 17-foot jumper thanks to the attention teams give Paul everywhere on the court, and Peja out on the perimeter.

After all, Paul calls David the "17-foot assassin." But make no mistake, without Chris, it's doubtful that West would have made this meteoric rise from decent NBA power forward to bona fide Western Conference All-Star.

Tyson Chandler has undoubtedly benefited from CP3 as well. People always expected big things from Tyson, yet he still seemed to underachieve while in Chicago.

Coming out of high school, Chandler looked like a sure thing. He was 7'1", fast, strong, and played with a passionate fire not found in every high school athlete.

He had great hands and a great ability to box out almost any opponent and bring down the rebound. Like West, Chandler looked the part.

Yet upon first entering the league, teams found that Chandler wasn't much of an offensive threat. His jumper was mediocre at best, and he wasn't particularly physical, fleet of foot, or disciplined on defense.

As most know, Chandler had little success in Chicago. He still appeared to be a young kid trying to learn his way through professional basketball. He wasn't surrounded with many great players during those years either.

But like West, Chandler is now regarded as one of the league's premier centers. How did this happen? Well, he has matured quite a bit from his years in Chicago.

Chandler does still tend to argue with referees far more than he should, and he still lets his emotions get the best of him once in a while. But this is a far cry from the immature and overrated player that he once seemed to be.

A change of scenery had to have invigorated Chandler. He seems to thoroughly enjoy playing with this squad in New Orleans, and he seems to enjoy being around his teammates.

Every time I see him practicing on the court, talking to his coaches and to others in the organization (including the lowly intern that I am), he constantly sports a smile on his face, and seems upbeat about the forthcoming game.

Of course, winning helps everyone's mood. But it does seem as though Chandler is becoming more at peace with himself. Perhaps this comes simply from getting older and more comfortable with the landscape of professional basketball and the NBA.

But Tyson Chandler's success on the basketball court, like West's, has most benefited from the intelligent and unselfish play of Chris Paul, and the high-octane, up-tempo style of play enacted by coach Byron Scott. Chandler's Baby Bulls were more Wisconsin Badgers than North Carolina Tar Heels.

It's evident that this fast-paced style of play is more to Chandler's liking.

Relatively quick for a center, Chandler has the ability to get up and down the court quite well. He has benefited from the strong outlet passing of Chris Paul and a myriad of alley-oops from his star point guard.

He is near the top of the league in shooting percentage, even though his mid-range jumper is not much better than it was at the United Center.

Paul's ability to make Chandler's opportunities easy ones have made him look like an absolute stud, statistically. He is becoming more and more a player for whom teams need to seriously plan.

Quite a turn-around from the afterthought the opposition regarded Chandler to be in Chicago.

In case there was any doubt, Chris Paul is the backbone to this team. He is the primary reason why Tyson Chandler and David West are having career years, and he is the reason why Peja Stojakovic is once again among the league-leaders in three-point shooting percentage.

Paul is also the reason why bench contributors like Jannero Pargo and Julian Wright are having breakout seasons.

Paul may be small in stature, but he is far from diminutive in his influence over this ball club, his passion on the basketball court, and in his unselfish play. He has a drive to be perfect in all facets of the game, and even as a 22-year-old he demands the same from his teammates.

Let's face it, without everything Paul has brought to the table this season, the New Orleans Hornets would probably have a worse record than they had last year. A stronger and deeper Western Conference of a year ago wouldn't have made life any easier.

You know something significant is happening when the Hornets can shoot a combined 39 percent from the floor, have a star point guard shoot 6-19 from the floor and make a monumental four turnovers during a critical fourth quarter span, be down by 14 on the road against a solid Orlando Magic squad, and STILL FIND A WAY TO WIN!

Paul's influence and overall play this year has made everyone around him better, even when he is having mediocre games by his own personal standards.

Wins like last night's capture the essence of what this overachieving team is doing this season.

The Hornets are 51-22 with cellar-dwelling Miami and New York coming up in the next few days. After that, they square off against Golden State on ABC Sunday, then Dallas and Utah to name a few.

This team isn't guaranteed a top-four playoff seed yet, but if it can play like it did last night against a playoff team, and still win, I'd say the Hornets' chances are good.

But a deep playoff run? Let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.

With the exception of Boston, the Hornets have improved their stock like no other team.

A city has jumped on the proverbial bandwagon, and now games are regularly being sold out. Boston never had attendance problems, even when its teams were struggling.

With all respect to D-West, Chris Paul has no Paul Pierce. Boston plays in the East. As a result, Kevin Garnett is no more deserving of the MVP than is Chris Paul. He just has better talent around him, and plays inferior teams more frequently.

But more importantly, unlike Garnett, Kobe, or even LeBron, one can argue that 22-year-old Chris Paul has changed the way a whole city looks at basketball.

Now I wasn't here for the pre-Katrina Hornets years, and obviously not when Maravich led the New Orleans Jazz, but this city likes a winner. Before the Hornets began to win, the city really didn't support the team through its bad times.

At the advent of the season, attendance numbers for games often lingered in four digits. Now? Let's just say it's difficult to hear yourself think during Hornets' home games at the Hive.

Especially when the crowd is chanting, "MVP, MVP."

Hilltopper Basketball: Giving "Big Red" a Real Reason To Cheer

If you're a die-hard sports fan like me who watches a ton of TV, then the chances are pretty good that you've seen the ESPN and/or the Capital One commercials that often feature mascots partaking in ridiculous activities. The Virginia Cavalier, Wisconsin's Bucky Badger, the Stanford Tree, Syracuse's Otto Orange. And then there always seems to be that big red blob with the letters "W K U" etched on a belly similar in size and color to that of Peter Griffin.

While watching these commercials, have you ever asked yourself: "Who the hell is that, and what university does he or she represent?" If you're like me and have ample time on your Tuesday evenings to answer that question, then you would find out that the mascot's name is "Big Red" and it represents Western Kentucky University, the pride of the Sun Belt Conference.

Western Kentucky University? Yes, it exists...just ask Drake and San Diego.

Prior to the 2008 NCAA men's basketball tournament, I could potentially ask a sample of 50 contributors to the Bleacher Report where Western Kentucky University is located, and what conference it plays in. Chances are I could count the number of respondents who replied with "Bowling Green, Kentucky, and the Sun Belt Conference" on one, maybe two hands. And we're supposed to be experts. Yet I would bet that at least 75 percent of those same respondents would probably tell me they recognized Big Red and knew which university he represented.

Thanks to the exploits of the Western Kentucky University basketball team during the 2007-2008 season, and in the NCAA tournament more importantly, this institution of over 18,000 students located in the southwestern Kentucky community of Bowling Green, might just be living up to its tagline as a "Leading American University with an International Reach." People may begin to recognize WKU more for its basketball prowess than for its bizarre award-winning mascot, or for being the alma mater of Cleveland Browns Head Coach Romeo Crennel.

Under 35-year-old Head Coach and WKU alum, Darrin Horn, the Hilltoppers have become this season's Gonzaga. And I'll happily admit that I chose them to play UCLA in the Sweet Sixteen this year, upsetting both Drake and UConn (the latter matchup obviously never came to fruition) in the first two rounds.

I've always been a believer that in order to have success in the NCAA tournament, you need to have solid experienced guard play, and a number of players who can light it up from the outside from any time. Western Kentucky had that coming into the tournament. They have an NBA prospect in 6'5 swingman Courtney Lee, who has the physique of a Joey Dorsey and the quickness of a Darren Collison (okay, maybe not that quick, but you get the point). They have an experienced and intelligent point guard in Senior Tyrone Brazelton, who managed to light up the scoreboard when teams would often swarm Lee, a solid two guard in A.J. Slaughter. They also feature another sharp shooter in Ty Rogers, who made one of the more remarkable game-ending shots in recent tournament memory against Drake, and two sizable big men in Jeremy Evans and D.J. Hagley who are monsters in the paint, and pride themselves on their defense foremost.

In checking out these first round matchups on Selection Sunday, I saw a team that, like Drake, had dominated its conference tournament, and seemed to be playing its best basketball at the advent of the NCAAs. But compared to Drake, who was having its best season in 35 years, and had the reputation of the entire Missouri Valley Conference on its shoulders, Western Kentucky really had none of that added pressure. One could argue that WKU's out of conference schedule was comparable to Drake's. WKU played Gonzaga and Tennessee very close on the road, losing by three and six points respectively. It dominated its conference competition, with the exception of fellow tourney member South Alabama.

A 12-5 matchup against a mid-major having to live up to the hype as a highly-ranked squad throughout the season was just what Coach Horn and his team wanted. When it’s this time of year, many coaches feel that its far more preferable for their team to fly under the radar and be perceived as an underdog, then to have all the pressure on them to deliver the goods that were expected all along.

After all, Drake was a team WKU matched up quite well against in terms of overall personnel and general style of play. Everyone talked about Drake's spectacular perimeter play, but no one seemed to mention WKU's guard talent, or its superior inside play. On paper, it should have been an incredibly high-scoring game, and the two teams would not disappoint.

The Hilltoppers carried the momentum of that miraculous finish against Drake (after dominating the first 36 minutes of regulation mind you), with an impressive wire-to-wire win over the University of San Diego. The Toreros were visibly bruised and battered after their hard-fought come-from-behind upset of the Connecticut Huskies, one of the most physical teams in college basketball. The Hilltoppers showed they could score over 100 points one day, and hold a team to 63 two days later.

I had a hunch that this squad was a versatile one that could win a ball game multiple ways, and it showed its ability to clamp down on the defensive end in its second round victory over UCSD.

Just as I predicted.

Yet as much as I love this Hilltoppers squad, they're about to run into a buzz-saw. UCLA is playing its own backyard, and although WKU might have the guard play to keep up with the Bruins for a half, it certainly doesn't have the size, depth or experience that the Bruins have.

I also picked the Bruins to win it all in a Bleacher Report article exactly one month ago, and I'm not straying from that prediction.

This matchup will be close for at least the first half, but UCLA should run away with this one in the last ten minutes, closing out with a 78-67 win.

UCLA will find a way to stifle WKU's studs on the perimeter, and force the Hilltoppers to beat them in the paint, which won't happen.

Nevertheless, the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers should be proud of themselves for a solid season, and a memorable tournament run. One can bet that that the University has increased its "international reach" just a little farther with its basketball team's recent performance. But this being the NCAA tournament, who knows what will happen in this Sweet 16 matchup of 1 vs. 12. I've been wrong in plenty of my picks in this year's tournament, and I could blow this one too.

One thing I am certain of is that Big Red will be out and about in full force in Phoenix, sporting that WKU on his belly, and a constantly drunken and bewildered look on his face.