Last night prior to the Wizards/Rockets matchup the scene in the Rockets locker room was anything but chaotic.  Yao is still with the team, but was out due to injury, and McGrady and Artest have since left the team.   Current players like Aaron Brooks, Trevor Ariza and Chase Budinger watched film and quietly joked with one another, and I was the only journalist/blogger in sight.  I took advantage of this serene atmosphere, and struck up a conversation with newly acquired guard Kevin Martin.

After spending his first five and a half seasons with the Sacramento Kings, Martin was traded to the Houston Rockets on February 18th, as part of a three-team deal that also included the New York Knicks.  Since the trade he has averaged a robust 23.1 points a game, and he’s given them the scoring punch they have lacked since McGrady’s knee injury last season.

I spoke to Martin about adjusting to his new team on and off the court, his keys to getting out of shooting slumps, and the unique bond between point guard and shooting guard.

http://www.hoopsaddict.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Kevin-martin.mp3“>Download audio file (a>)

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 the young reporter asked the wrong question.

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

Download audio file (dalembert0207.mp3)

Before that though, there’s still a lot of basketball to be played, as Championship Week kicked off with a bang this past weekend, and five teams- Cornell, Winthrop, East Tennessee State, Murray State and Northern Iowa- have already claimed their automatic bids.

Make sure to follow Hoops Addict all month long, for continuing coverage of the NCAA Tournament coverage and in-depth analysis. But before that, let’s get to the Final Power Rankings of the 2010 regular season.

1. Kansas (29-2, 15-1): The regular season ends right as it began: With Kansas on top. After convincing wins against Kansas State and Missouri this week, the NCAA Title has officially become the Jayhawks to lose.

2. Kentucky (29-2, 14-2): The little brother that’s been tagging along on Kansas’ backside all season has locked up a No. 1 seed regardless of what happens in the SEC Tournament. But with every game from now on a “lose and you go home,” proposition, is Kentucky ready for the pressure that the next month will bring?

3. Duke (26-5, 13-3): Love or hate Duke, there isn’t a team that plays harder defense for 40 minutes a game. And we all know defense wins championships. The Blue Devils will still need a few other breaks to win the big one, but Saturday’s performance against North Carolina should have wrapped up the school’s first No. 1 seed since 2006.

4. Syracuse (28-3, 15-3): At this point, all Syracuse can hope is that they won’t have to play Louisville in the NCAA Tournament, as they’re 0-2 against the Cardinals and 28-1 against everyone else. Either way, the Orange are the team nobody wants to play going forward, talented but almost pathologically unselfish. As we’ve said before, they’re college basketball’s ultimate team.

5. Ohio State (24-7, 14-4): Speaking of teams no one wants to play, it’s Ohio State, winners of 10 of their last 11 games. Although Purdue and Michigan State are good, the Big 10 Tournament should be the Buckeyes national coming out party.

6. Purdue (26-4, 14-4): Anyone think that obituary we wrote on Purdue’s season might have been a bit premature? While their wins without Robbie Hummel haven’t been pretty, it’s impossible to question this team’s heart, playing without their most important player.

7. New Mexico (28-3, 14-2): This is what New Mexico’s schedule the last week looked like: One game, one win, one Mountain West championship. Not bad huh? And should the Lobos win the MWC Tournament as well, they could be looking at a No. 3 seed come tournament time.

8. West Virginia (24-6, 13-5): Whether you were ready for it or not, West Virginia threw us into the madness of March with their overtime win over Villanova on Saturday afternoon. But despite all the Mountaineers talent down low, do they have enough guard play to make a deep tournament run?

9. Butler (27-4, 18-0): It only took one win for Butler to get to the Horizon League tournament final, which they’ll play Tuesday against Wright State. This team will be in the Big Dance whether they win their conference tournament or not, but could certainly use some momentum after Saturday night’s sloppy win over Milwaukee.

10. Michigan State (24-7, 14-4): On paper the Spartans have everything you want in a contender: Good guard play, size, and experience after last year’s Final Four run. But if you dig deeper and look at their schedule, the Spartans really haven’t beaten all that many good teams this regular season. Nobody could use a strong conference tournament run to boost their national image quite like Michigan State could this week.

11. Kansas State (24-6, 11-5): Don’t look at Kansas State’s loss against Iowa State Saturday as anything besides a (major) letdown after losing to Kansas earlier in the week. Think the Wildcats wouldn’t like to get one more shot at their cross-state rivals in the Big XII Tournament?

12. Villanova (24-6, 13-5): The fear that we’ve had all year for Villanova (their lack of size down low) seems to have finally caught up with them for good, as they lost their fourth of six games to West Virginia Saturday. If this team can’t turn it around in the Big East Tournament, expectations of a return trip to the Final Four might go out the window as well.

13. Gonzaga (25-5, 12-2): If Gonzaga can just make their foul shots, they could very well find themselves in the first Final Four in their school’s history. But first they must get by their biggest conference rival- St. Mary’s- in the WCC Tournament final Monday night. Be sure to tune in.

14. BYU (28-4, 13-3): The Cougars did exactly what they were supposed to do this week, rolling over TCU on the road. This team will be in the NCAA Tournament no matter what happens in the Mountain West Tournament, but would sure like another shot at New Mexico, which has already beaten them twice this season.

15. Tennessee (23-7, 11-5): There was a lot of basketball played this weekend, but maybe not a better performance than Tennessee’s road win at Mississippi State. Despite their doubters, this team still continues to get it done game after game, and will be a tough out in the NCAA’s.

16. Wisconsin (23-7, 13-5): Well, hell froze over Sunday afternoon as Wisconsin finally (FINALLY!) got an impressive road win, in front of the Orange Crush at Illinois. In all seriousness though, the Badgers are coming on strong, especially with Jon Leuer finally healthy. Leuer may be the most underrated big man in the country right now.

17. Temple (26-5, 14-2): Temple emerged from a loaded Atlantic 10 with a regular season conference championship, which is no small feat. But to get a conference tournament title, they’ll need to run through a slew of desperate teams trying to impress the NCAA Tournament committee (Dayton, Rhode Island, Charlotte, St. Louis). Think they’re up to the challenge?

18. Baylor (24-6, 11-5): If you’re looking for an off the radar team who might make some noise in the tournament, Baylor may be your pick. They’ve got all the ingredients needed: An experienced point guard (Tweety Carter), a pure scorer on the wing (LaceDarius Dunn) and two shot blocking big men down low (Ekpe Udoh and Quincy Acy). At this point, I’d be more surprised if Baylor wasn’t playing the second weekend of the tournament than if they were.

19. Pittsburgh (24-7, 11-5): Quick straw poll: Who saw Pittsburgh ending the regular season tied for second place in the Big East? Anyone? Despite going to the Elite Eight last year, this may be Jamie Dixon’s best coaching job yet.

20. Vanderbilt (23-7, 12-4): Saturday’s loss against South Carolina was nothing more than a hiccup for one of college basketball’s most underrated teams. Like Baylor, the Commodores have all the ingredients needed to make a deep run this March.

New to the Power Rankings: Baylor

Dropping Out: Georgetown

(Author’s Note: Aaron will be Tweeting all day Wednesday live from the Big East Tournament, and for all of Championship Week from his couch. To get all his inside thoughts, on everything college hoops, follow him, click here or add him at Twitter.com/Aaron_Torres

Also, to read all Aaron’s writing as we get closer to March Madness, be sure to visit him at www.aarontorres-sports.com)

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.

In the ninth edition of the Hoops Addict Podcast, Rashad and Ryan discuss:

• The return of Shaun Livingston to the NBA
• We debate if calling Reggie Evans a “dirty” player is accurate
• We have an Oliver Miller anecdote for Raptors’ fans courtesy of author Rus Bradburd
• Juwan Howard talks about his desire to get into coaching once he retires
• Antawn Jamison jokes about being willing to clean his teammates houses if that’s what it took for Cleveland to win an NBA Championship this season
• LeBron James planning to change his number next season
• We talked about missed interviews we regret and Ryan shares a funny story about missing an opportunity to chat with Elisha Cuthbert

Download audio file (pod0206edit.mp3)

Before the game I chatted with Jay Triano about his game plan for guarding Williams and it worked out pretty well as they held him to 4-9 from the floor and only 12 points.

Here’s the audio clip of Triano telling Hoops Addict how he planned to guard Williams:

Download audio file (triano-lou.mp3)

Having Chris Bosh out of action hasn’t been beneficial to Andrea Bargnani’s scoring output as he has shot a woeful 31-74 (41.9%) from the field over his last five games. Hardly the kind of shooting you want from the post player you’re looking to step in and replace Bosh’s 24.5 points per game.

However, it’s not for a lack of trying. Bargnani has led Toronto in field goal attempts in three of those games so his dip in productivity appears to be a simple case of the big man not being able to hit his shots.

Despite what stat geeks might try to persuade you there’s a reason why basketball isn’t analyzed strictly on numbers or stats.

According to Jay Triano, Bargnani’s recent shooting slump is largely attributed to the kinds of different looks opposing defenses have been throwing at him.

“He’s the focal point of other teams defenses now so he’s facing traps which he hasn’t faced before,” Triano explained to the media after a win against New York. “We got him to get it out of the trap a couple of times so he didn’t have to make a play and that’s when we started swinging the ball. We were then able to do what they do which is attack with penetration after the ball is swung.”

Sounds logical, right? The problem once again is staring at a stat sheet won’t back this up. Even though Bargnani was kicking the ball out of the paint and doing a great job of initiating Toronto’s offense, basketball doesn’t count the “hockey” assist so when he started the teams offense by swinging the ball around the perimeter to find an open teammate he didn’t get credit for.

Instead, all that shows up on the stat sheet is the atrocious 4-15 he went from the field.

But even that stat lies. Watching him play during this stretch he hasn’t jacked up a lot of ill-conceived shots. Instead, the majority of his shots looked good when he released them and he’s attempted most of his field goal attempts within the flow of Toronto’s offense.

The problem that is likely throwing off his rhythm and timing is the fact he has needed to adjust to seeing double-teams for the first time in his NBA career while Bosh has been out of action.

Despite being in his fourth year he’s had a tough time making the adjustment to reading what the defense is giving him.

“I think I did some good stuff and some very bad stuff when I was double-teamed,” Bargnani admitted to the media Friday after a win against New York. “Sometimes I lost the ball and other times I had a real good pass to find an open teammate.

“I’ve still got to get much better because I’m not used to seeing a double-team. CB (Chris Bosh) is the guy that normally gets double-teamed.”

Which is all part of the learning curve for Bargnani. Being thrust into a prominent role within Toronto’s offense is sure to be challenging as he and the team both try to find ways to win games without Bosh.

Luckily for Bargnani this trial by fire looks to be over once Bosh returns on Sunday.

Photo Credit: Nathan Gilbert

However, in Toronto this season both players have managed to find their groove and are enjoying career years. Johnson is averaging career highs in rebounds and minutes while Weems is shattering any stats he accumulated last season in Denver.

This evening Johnson picked up his first start of the season and provided Toronto with a huge spark in the first quarter with eight points and three boards. He finished with 14 points and eight rebounds.

Weems, meanwhile, scored a career-high 20 points while saving most of his scoring for the fourth quarter where he scored 10 of his points.

After the game Weems was grinning while he joked with the media about how he was able to exploit Tracy McGrady, who “is getting kind of old” and couldn’t keep up with him.

“I had Tracy (McGrady) on me most of the fourth quarter and I just tried to attack them every time I got the chance,” Weems boasted to Hoops Addict while smirking. “Jarrett (Jack) and Jose (Calderon) did a great job of penetrating and kicking to me and I tried to attack the paint and get some easy buckets. I think with Tracy getting a little bit older I just tried to exploit that.”

A couple of lockers down Johnson was searching for some cough medicine to help with the cold he is fighting through. Tonight he battled through some cold symptoms but “coughed it out” during the game.

While talking with the media Johnson was sitting in a chair at his locker and his voice was strained as he attempted to talk through his cold but he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face while talking about how big this win was for Toronto.

“It feels great knowing we were down a couple of sick players,” Johnson told Hoops Addict. “It was just a team effort. It feels great to have a win and know I was able to bring energy in a game where key guys were out due to feeling sick.”

A typical modest answer for a player who battles on a nightly basis for Toronto. Some night he’s the first big man off the bench while other nights he leads the team in rebounds.

Still, both Johnson and Weems realize how big this season has been for their careers. For players like Johnson and Weems remember far too well what it was like to be on the fringe of the NBA and when given a chance to shine they won’t step down.

It’s because of what Johnson’s battled through and endured during his career that there was no chance something as small a pesky sore throat would keep him off the court tonight.

And, for Weems, there was no chance he wouldn’t gloat over taking McGrady to school in a pivotal fourth quarter.

This evening I had the chance to chat with Tracy Murray about being honored tonight at the Air Canada Centre, what it’s been like catching up with old friends while in town, why he regrets leaving Toronto to play in Washington and his involvement with Amir Johnson’s AAU team.

Download audio file (tracy-murray.mp3)

Trust me, if you’re a fan of college basketball this is a book you’ll want to read.

On the weekend I was able to chat with Bradburd about a wide range of topics including what inspired him to write a book about Richardson, the constant tension Richardson had with Frank Broyles during his time at Arkansas, why Richardson had a dislike for “book coaches” and the unique situation Richardson had in Tulsa where players frequently came over for dinner or to spend time with his family.

Download audio file (rus1.mp3)