I can easily admit I’m part of a large group of fans and members of the media who are disappointed with what Hedo Turkoglu has done on the court his season for the Toronto Raptors.

And, if I’m going to be fully honest, ever since he signed with Toronto I haven’t been a fan of the idea of Turkoglu as a Raptor.

This past summer I spent the month of July in Australia for my sister’s wedding but I kept close tabs on Hedo Turkoglu’s courtship by Portland, how he almost signed and then his quick change of mind which saw him ink with Toronto.

When it became official that he would sign a five-year $53 million deal with Toronto I have to admit to stomping around my brother-in-laws house in disgust at this move by Bryan Colangelo.

After my little temper tantrum there’s little doubt in my mind that his family thought I had a couple screws loose.

Unfortunately my doubts about how effective Turkoglu would be in Toronto were re-enforced when he missed most of training camp and the preseason due to injuries.

Things didn’t get any better for Turkoglu as the season progressed because during the All-Star break he spent time in Turkey with his mother after she had open heart surgery. Dealing with a family members medical issues is never easy but when you’re living and working in another country it just makes it that much tougher to focus on your job.

Throw in the fact he had to wear a face mask for a couple of games and that only added to his frustrations on the court.

Then, when Turkoglu finally started to pull it together, he tweaked his ankle at the start of this month.

Through all of these issues Turkoglu just hasn’t been able to find a groove or comfort zone on the court with Toronto so far this season. Even though he’s averaging a respectable 12.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game – numbers that are close to his career averages – they aren’t close to the past two seasons when he averaged 19.5 and 16.8 points per game.

However, against Portland he started to show some signs of life. Maybe it was the fans at the Rose Garden getting on his case after what transpired this past summer but he seemed to finally show some aggressive moves on offense. He was attacking defenders off the dribble.  He wasn’t passing up shots in the paint. And, most importantly, he was looking to get his shot off instead of deferring to his teammates.

While he finished with a modest 14 points and five rebounds, he did it while shooting an impressive 5-7 from the field while being aggressive.

Turkoglu followed that up tonight by scoring 16 points and going 5-12 from the field.

Sure, that’s a bad percentage, but I’ll take it because he attempted 12 field goals and looked confident whenever the ball left his hand.

Plus, those 16 points nearly doubled the 8.9 points per game he’s been averaging so far this month.

After the game Turkoglu chalked up his play tonight to finally feeling healthy.

“I was feeling much better,” a modest Turkoglu told the media following the win against Atlanta. “It has been hard to settle on jumpers. I just decided I didn’t want to play like that anymore and I need to be more aggressive and get to the free throw line. I wanted to make some easy layups to get myself in a rhythm and tonight my ankle was feeling much better. Hopefully in a few days it’s going to be closer to 100 per cent.”

Or, as Chris Bosh told me after the game, maybe Turkoglu’s just one of those guys who thrives on pressure.

He knows there’s been a lot of expectations placed on him after signing a big contract last summer and Turkoglu is aware he hasn’t come close to meeting those expectations.

“I think sometimes pressure is a good thing,” Bosh told Hoops Addict when asked about Turkoglu’s strong play recently. “It brings the best out of some people and it will bring the best out in him during the rest of this reason.”

Regardless of the reason, it’s great to see Turkoglu finally find his groove in Toronto.

It may have taken him nearly 60 games, but if he continues to play like he has against Portland and Atlanta, then he may be one of the key ingredients to any success to the teams has in the postseason.

Which is all Raptors fans are hoping for at this point.

One of the reasons why I like it when the Atlanta Hawks swing through Toronto is because their coach, Mike Woodson, invites members of the media to his office. What makes this unique is that he’s the only coach in the NBA to do this and it’s always a blast to sit on a leather couch and chat hoops with him.

Tonight I was able to chat with Woodson about what he does to make sure his players don’t dwell on their convincing win over Toronto the last time these two teams met, the importance of his team winning the Southeast Division, what his team needs to do be considered in the conversation as one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference and the evolution of Josh Smith this season.

Download audio file (woodson0317.mp3)

Tonight I had the chance to chat with Atlanta Hawks rookie Jeff Teague about getting his first start of his NBA career earlier this week, the mental shift between coming off the bench and starting, what he’s learned battling in practice against Atlanta’s veterans and how he thinks Wake Forest will do in the NCAA Tournament.

Download audio file (teague0317.mp3)

With the NCAA Tournament kicking off on Thursday, I took some time this afternoon to chat with Aaron Torres about  first-round matchups he’s excited to watch, what high seeds could be booted early from the tournament, what teams are over or under-rated, how Kentucky’s lack of experience in the Tournament will play out and if Texas can regain the form that helped them start the season  17-0.

Download audio file (marchmadness.mp3)

The prize package will include a Coke Zero fleece jacket, cap, and a water bottle.

Right now there are only 10 people registered in the pool so you’re odds of winning a prize package are pretty good.

Why are they helping us out? Because they want my help in spreading the word about Coke Zero’s unique program called Dept. of Fannovation.

Coke Zero challenged fans the last few months to think of ways to improve the NCAA fan experience by submitting ideas to the Dept. of Fannovation for a shot at $10,000 and a trip to the 2011 NCAA Final Four. The top 64 ideas have been chosen, and fans can head over now to www.cocacolazero.com/ncaa to vote for their favorites in the “Coca-Cola Zero Brain Bracket Championship” — a survive and advance tournament similar in format to the NCAA one.

Unfortunately this giveaway is limited to residents of the US and Canada. Sorry.

Click this link to join the Hoops Addict March Madness Pool on Yahoo! Sports.

Even though the prize was provided by The Coca-Cola Company, the Coca-Cola Company is not a sponsor, administrator or connected in any other way with this giveaway.

* It was great to see The Basketball Jones make their debut on The Score earlier this week.

* Kelly Dwyer does a fantastic job of calling out Michael Jordan. Seriously, why is Jordan sitting on the Bobcats’ bench when that is the exact thing that he ripped Jerry Krause for doing? Bush. League.

* Is Charles Garcia NBA material? It’s an interesting question raised by Tom Ziller and is one I’ll be tracking closely during pre-draft workouts in Toronto and Washington. I’ve had Garcia in my Mock Draft at different points this year, so yes, at this point I think he’s in the mix. However, my opinion could change once I see him against other prospects in live pre-draft workouts. Rashad will be keeping tabs if he attends a Wizards pre-draft workout and I’ll be sure to head to the ACC for his pre-draft workout.

* Speaking of the NBA Draft, two years ago I had Robin Lopez pegged as a legit big man in the NBA. During his pre-draft workout in Toronto he was head and shoulders above anyone else on the court (sorry for the bad pun) and I have to admit I was shocked to see his career look horrible during his first season and a half in Phoenix. Here’s a great article by Rob Mahoney talking about how Lopez has breathed life into his NBA career this season.

* Kudos to Jamal Crawford for earning his first trip to the NBA Playoffs.

* Interesting read by Mike Ganter about DeMar DeRozan and how he is more confident than he was the last time Toronto had a West Coast road trip. I hate to be pessimistic… but… I’m just not seeing this confidence and growth from the rookie that other people surrounding the team are reporting. Sorry.

* Fantastic article by Kevin Arnovitz that sheds light into Amadou Fall’s role with the NBA in Africa.

* Just in case you ever wanted to play Paper-Rock-Scissors against yourself…

* This past week Wendell Maxey wrote some gems about how teams attempt to guard Brandon Roy and how Portland flirted with the idea of drafting Adam Morrison instead of Roy.

Hoops Addict writers Rashad Mobley, Aaron Torres and myself will all be taking part and are going to give you the chance to try and prove you know more about college hoops than we do.

Click here to join. Good luck!

Alright, I get it: Raptors fans don’t want to listen to a 20 minute audio clip to hear a two minute anecdote about Oliver Miller.

Fair enough, but I truly think you’re missing out on a great story about Miller by not listening to my entire interview with author Rus Bradburd or by listening to the latest Hoops Addict Podcast. So, because I’m such a generous and caring journalist, here’s the clip of Bradburd talking about a night when his college coach, Nolan Richardson, walked into Miller’s hotel room to find him hoarding four pizza’s to himself.

Yes, you read that right: Miller had four pizzas to himself.

I’ve heard a lot of entertaining stories while talking with players, coaches and fellow writers while covering the NBA, but this has to be near the top of my list of all-time funny stories.

Download audio file (olivermiller.mp3)

During my chat with Samuel Dalembert on Sunday, we talked about Haiti, being given the NBA cares award in January and how the past few months have affected him and his family. Since the topic of family came up I asked if he had seen his family today or if they had plans to visit from Montreal (a five hour drive from Toronto). Dalembert proceeded to laugh and tell me it was way too early to see family due to the noon tip.

No big deal, right? Wrong. Turns out Dalembert was held out of the starting five because he was late for team meeting this morning. Oops!

Regardless of unknowingly asking the wrong question, Dalembert still provided a solid answer to my question. Classy move from the veteran when a young reporter asked the wrong question.

Here’s the audio clip of my chat with Dalembert:

Download audio file (dalembert0207.mp3)

This afternoon Holiday continued to up the ante by combining his scoring exploits (21 points) with seven rebounds and six dimes.

After the game when reporters asked him if he’s over being called a rookie he grinned before responding, “I’ve been over that for a minute.”

Some of the proof he’s close to shedding his label as a rookie came with how he was his able to deal with some adversity late in the game.  In the final minutes of the fourth quarter he committed what looked to be a costly tough turnover that would have gotten most rookies benched or would have hurt their confidence.

Not Holiday.

Instead, he rallied around his mental miscue and was a big reason why Philadelphia was able to escape Toronto with a big road win.

“After he made the turnover at half court he knew he made a bad play,” Eddie Jordan told the media after the game. “He stepped up, cleared his head and he attacked when he had to. That’s what we need him to do.”

Attack could be a bit of an understatement.

With Toronto clawing back to within eight late in the fourth quarter most coaches would yank a rookie when he committed a mental mistake late in a close game. Jordan, however, stuck with his rookie and Holiday rewarded him by scoring five straight points to ignite a late surge which gave Philly a 107-84 advantage.

Throw in an assist on Thaddeus Young’s three-pointer on the following possession and Holiday’s imprint on the end of the game was easy to see.

After a season with minimal attention from the media, following the game Holiday was taking his time getting changed before he could escape the locker room and jump on the teams bus. Which is fair, because it would be easy to assume the media would want to chat with Marresse Speights about the injury to his knee, Young about his career-high 32 points or get the two faces of the franchise – Andre Igoudala and Elton Brand – to provide quotes to fill up game recaps.

However, the focus of the media tonight was easily Holiday and how he’s able to cap off an impressive rookie season by playing some of his best basketball when his peers are fading.

Needless to say the modest Holiday was in for a pleasant surprise when a huge horde of media was patiently waiting for him at his locker. When he spotted the group of media waiting for him first his eyes widened in shock and then a huge smile stretched across his face.

While the brief moment of modesty was refreshing, if Holiday continues to play inspired ball like he did this afternoon he can expect to get a lot more attention from the media.

Here’s to hoping this is one aspect of the NBA that Holiday doesn’t adapt to because modesty while dealing with the media was almost as impressive as what he did on the court this afternoon.