As the college basketball season winds down I have to reflect on a strange season. Strange because I just didn’t feel it this year. Maybe it was the Oregon Ducks pathetic excuse for a season, maybe it was my total mishit on predicting teams road to the final four and beyond, or maybe it was just a lackluster year for college basketball. I hope it’s not the later. I hope it’s just that I didn’t connect with any of the teams or their talented players and that next year will be different.

I’ve always loved basketball beginning in high school when I rooted for the Wilson High School Trojans. That school’s program reached its zenith during my high school years and a basketball fan was born.

I fell in love with college hoops when I was in graduate school at the University of Oregon. Not only did I finally have a team to root for, but it came at an opportune time when I was disenchanted with the NBA as a lackluster group of spoiled athletes more concerned with glitz than blitzing across the court.

That has finally changed over the past few years. My Boston team, the Celtics, turned themselves around with passion and fight to win last year’s championship (which I got to experience when I was visiting Boston during the championships)… and my Portland team, the Trailblazers, are a group of fresh young talent led by Brandon Roy and spiced up by Spanish star (and Mallorcan born) Rudy Fernandez. I hoped we’d draft Kevin Durant over Greg Oden, but since that year – when we had the number one draft pick – the Blazers have soared. This year we’re going to the championships and it’s going to be a Rip City year again in Portland. Go Blazers!