Portland landed the hard-charging Gerald Wallace in exchange for the Vanilla Gorilla Joel Pryzbilla, Dante Cunningham and some 1st round draft picks. Wallace should be loved by Blazer fans, he’s an exciting player to watch.

To make things even better for the Blazers, several of the West’s best players were shipped out East, including the losses of Denver’s Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups and Utah’s Deron Williams, both of which are Northwest division rivals.

So what does this mean for the balance of power of West vs East. Here’s what I think. The East just moved past the West, with Boston, Miami, Orlando, Chicago and New York all possible Eastern Conference champions. But I feel that the West will win the NBA championship, as whoever comes out of the West (I’m betting on either the Lakers or Spurs) will have had a much easier playoff than the team coming out of the East.

Not to mention the fact that Blazers could get the Vanilla Gorilla back… things are looking good for Portland, who is one of the hottest teams in the NBA having won 7 of 8.

NBA.com Power Rankings:
1 Heat
2 Spurs
3 Celtics
4 Bulls
5 Mavs
6 Thunder
7 Lakers
8 Magic
9 Grizzlies
10 Blazers
16 Knicks

ESPN’s NBA Power Rankings:
1 Spurs
2 Mavericks
3 Bulls
4 Celtics
5 Heat
6 Magic
7 Lakers
8 Thunder
9 Trail Blazers
10 Grizzlies
15 Knicks – look for this number to change when the next ranking is released.

Here are the 5A boys basketball matchups for Friday March 4th, with OSAA ranking:
31 Marist (8-17) @ 1 Bend (20-2)
13 Pendleton (16-9) @ 5 Benson (20-3)
20 Sandy (14-11) @ 2 Corvallis (23-1)
9 North Eugene (16-7) @ 8 Crescent Valley (16-8)
11 Jefferson (14-9) @ 3 Milwaukie (20-3)
15 Sherwood (12-11) @ 4 Mountain View (15-7)
19 West Albany (12-12) @ 3 Wilsonville (22-3)
10 Hermiston (18-7) @ 7 Woodburn (17-7)

Winners Advance to the OSAA State championship tournament in Eugene. The championships are March 9-12 @ Matthew Knight Arena @ The University of Oregon in Eugene.

Here are my picks to win:
Bend
Benson
Corvallis
Crescent Valley
Milwaukie
Mountain View
Wilsonville
Hermiston

I just watched the Bend High boys beat South Albany 88-66 and they looked good. The Lava Bears are a quick and scrappy bunch who shoots the ball pretty well. As long as they don’t run into any giants (they aren’t the biggest team I’ve seen win the IMC) they should matchup well with most squads.

Last round scores for C.O. teams:
Corvallis 66, Summit 36
Bend 88, South Albany 66
Mountain View 51, Silverton 45

OSAA Rankings of teams remaining:
1 Bend
2 Corvallis
3 Wilsonville
4 Mountain View
5 Benson
6 Milwaukie
7 Woodburn
8 Crescent Valley
9 North Eugene
10 Hermiston
11 Jefferson
13 Pendleton
15 Sherwood
19 West Albany
20 Sandy
31 Marist

Looking at the above rankings, Bend is likely to play host to Marist. Mountain View could play host to West Albany, Sherwood or Pendleton… but I’m not positive about that.

Culver 1st in 2A/1A
Crook County 3rd in 4A
Redmond 7th in 6A
Bend 12th in 5A
Mountain View 16th in 5A
Summit 33rd in 5A
Full Results HERE.

• Kami Semick blog – “Born to Run…with child…in backpack??”
• State Wrestling Results.
• Snowboarders are morphing back into skiers at Mt. Bachelor. – Mark Morical
• “OSAA wrestling: Oregon wrestling dominated by handful of teams” – The Oregonian
• Kevin Love sets NBA record
• “Joel Przybilla says his Trail Blazers career might have one more chapter”
• Culver wins state wrestling.

Updated 3/1/2011: “As Love piles up double-doubles, Wolves pile up losses”
Lake Oswego graduate Kevin Love just recorded his 45th consecutive double-double. A record since they began keeping track of the stat.

The Intermountain Conference just isn’t the good old IMC of years past. With the changes to Hybrid and “special” districts, the only sure thing for Bend schools is that they play each other. While some district meets now include teams like Ashland and Eagle Point, it’s hard to say who the best of the “IMC” is… because there really isn’t an IMC anymore. But what we can see is how the three Bend schools stack up against each other. Simply by taking each teams’ league finish and giving 3 points for first, 2 points for second and 1 point for third. So here’s how they finished this winter:

Winter points totals:
Total
Bend 13
Summit 9
Mountain View 8

Boys
Bend 9
Mountain View 5
Summit 4

Girls
Summit 5
Bend 4
Mountain View 3

Boys Basketball
1 Bend
2 Mountain View
3 Summit

Girls Basketball
1 Bend
1 Mountain View
1 Summit

Wrestling
1 Bend
2 Mountain View
3 Summit

Boys Swimming
1 Bend
2 Summit
3 Mountain View

Girls Swimming
1 Summit
2 Bend
3 Mountain View

Totals of Fall and Winter Combined:
Summit 24
Mountain View 22
Bend 20

Fall Totals HERE.

Winterfest 2011 – Bend, OR from Joe Hite on Vimeo.

This is exciting stuff. Seven Central Oregon boys basketball teams playing elimination games on Friday.

Friday Games:
Summit @ Corvallis
• Sum 6-16 overall.
• Sum #26 OSAA ranking.
• Cor 22-1 overall.
• Cor #2 OSAA ranking.
• Cor 6-game win streak.

Silverton @ Mountain View
• MV 14-7 overall.
• MV #5 OSAA ranking.
• Sil 14-9 overall.
• Sil #12 OSAA ranking.

South Albany @ Bend
• SA 11-12 overall record.
• SA #13 OSAA ranking.
• SA 3-game losing streak.
• Bend 19-2 overall record.
• Bend #1 OSAA ranking.
• 12-game win streak.

Redmond @ West Linn
• Red 9-14 overall.
• Red #24 OSAA ranking.
• Red has lost 2-straight games.
• WL 10-14 overall.
• WL #23 OSAA ranking.

La Grande @ Crook County
• CC 11-13 overall
• CC #15 OSAA ranking.
• LG 5-19 overall.
• LG #41 OSAA ranking.
• LG has won 2-straight games.

Scappoose @ Madras
• Mad 10-13 overall.
• Mad #21 OSAA ranking.
• Scap 10-14 overall.
• Scap #25 OSAA ranking.

Stayton @ Sisters
• Sis 15-8 overall.
• Sis #20 OSAA ranking.
• Sis has won 4-straight games.
• Stay 13-11 overall
• Stay #13 OSAA ranking.

“Top 10 cities to Defy Death” – Livability.com