Thursday afternoon’s phenomenal performance and game-winner from Kemba Walker in the Big East Tournament felt like big fat reminder from Walker to the rest of the basketball world that he needs to be in the Player of the Year discussion. Kemba was back for seconds last night in prime time against Syracuse, aka “New York’s College Team,” and the hometown kid absolutely murdered it in a thrilling UConn overtime win. Kemba finished with 33 points, 12 boards, five dimes, and six steals in front of an audience that included Bill Clinton … The Huskies will match up with Louisville for the Big East Tournament championship tonight. Rick the Ruler‘s crew clawed back from a big first-half deficit to beat Notre Dame in overtime … As Kemba’s performance was winding down, the monster that is Jimmer Fredette was just getting warmed up out west. The extended New Mexico basketball family will long have horrible nightmares about what Jimmer did to them last night. Fredette hung 52 on the Lobos – 33 in the first half alone. Catch the highlights when you can – Jimmer gave them the sampler platter of pullups, fadeaways, step-backs, and a few threes that were so deep, they probably should have been fives or sixes … The most amazing stat from Jimmer’s 52? He was only 1-of-1 from the line. Think about how incredible that is. Normally when guys have monster scoring nights, they will spend a ton of time at the stripe racking up points while the clock is stopped. Fredette’s scoring binge was almost entirely made up of shoot-your-face-off offensive awesomeness … Twitter was crazed during Jimmer’s performance. EASILY the best tweet though came from Lou Williams who posted: “50pts and can’t get any buns after the game..#baddeal” … Speaking of the Sixers, they knocked off the Celtics 89-86 in Philly last night to prove that the serious run they’ve been on for the past month is no fluke. Since January, aside from last night’s win, they’ve beaten the Spurs, Hawks, Knicks, Nuggets, Bulls, and Hornets (not to mention coming with a hair of beating the Thunder on Wednesday night) … Elton Brand had 14 points and somehow Spencer Hawes came up with 14 and 10. Boston fans better pray that Shaq comes back at some point and can reasonably hold it down in the middle. If they let the likes of Spencer Hawes do that to them with no Kendrick Perkins along the front line, you can’t be feeling good about the video game numbers that guys like Dwight Howard and Carlos Boozer could give them in the playoffs … Yesterday a reporter asked Doc Rivers what would happen if Kobe tried to shoot on Boston’s floor after game like he did in Miami on Thursday night. “Turn the lights out,” replied Doc. “No doubt about it. The lights have to go out.” … Stephen Jackson returned from a hamstring injury to lead the Bobcats in an upset 97-92 W over the Blazers. Gotta love S-Jack. Dude comes back from missing three games and immediately puts up 25 shots. He finished with 29 points … In Oklahoma City‘s cruise-control win over Detroit, Russell Westbrook‘s 13-point, 11-assist, four-rebound night officially put him in an elite group of players with 4,000 points, 1,500 assists and 1,000 rebounds in his first three years, The only other guys in the club are Oscar Robertson, LeBron, Penny Hardaway, and Chris Paul … Who would have guessed that Blake Griffin‘s matchup with Kris Humphries would have been as entertaining as it was last night in New Jersey? Humphries went 8-8 from the field to finish with 19 points and 20 rebounds. Blake went for 23 and nine, but with the game tied with a few seconds left, missed a foul shot that would have won it for the Clips. The game went to OT and the Nets pulled out the W, their fourth win in a row … Out in Oakland, the Warriors rallied from 21 down against the Magic to beat Orlando in overtime. Monta Ellis had 39 and Dorrell Wright had 32 (on eight threes) to lead the way for a Warriors squad that made 21 triples on the night … We’re out like buns.
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