This and that on the Bobcats

* Prior to Charlotte’s game against Cleveland on Sunday, Bobcats point guard Raymond Felton was sitting in front of his locker, talking trash about how his alma mater, North Carolina, won the ACC tournament. He was also proposing a bet — he gets the Tar Heels in the NCAA tournament, and everyone else gets the rest of the field.

* Center Emeka Okafor, who won an NCAA title at Connecticut, was nowhere to be found at the time. But Okafor did show up long enough to tell me that the Bobcats still believe they can make the playoffs. “That’s what we set out to do at the beginning of the season,” Okafor said. He added that until the Bobcats are officially eliminated from the postseason, “We’re approaching the rest of the season like we can make it.”

* Veteran point guard Earl Boykins signed with the Bobcats in January and has struggled while backing up Felton. Boykins is averaging just 4.6 points per game and shooting a miserable 31 percent from the floor in 19 games with Charlotte — one season after averaging more than 14 a game in Denver and Milwaukee. That said, he did seem to enjoy Felton’s proclamations about North Carolina, as Boykins walked around the locker room, shook his head and laughed while Felton boasted.

* As usual, Boykins received an extremely warm reception when he checked into the game in his native Cleveland. But unlike years past, he didn’t light up the Cavaliers this time (four points on 2-of-4 shooting).

* I also sat down for a one-on-one with Bobcats swingman Matt Carroll, who talked about the team’s growth and how he feels good when thinking about the Bobcats “big picture.” Look for the interview on Pro Basketball News in the coming days. In the meantime, I will tell you that Carroll is right up there with Washington’s Antawn Jamison, Golden State’s Matt Barnes and Memphis’ Mike Conley when it comes to being one of the most professional and polite people I’ve ever had the opportunity to meet.

* I’m not exactly going out on a limb here, but it’d be a basketball miracle if the Bobcats made the playofs this season. Still, they have to feel good about their future. Okafor, Felton, Gerald Wallace and Jason Richardson (who was phenomenal in the Cleveland game with 33 points), are a formidable foursome. Throw in role players like Carroll, center Nazr Mohammed and rookie Jared Dudley, and Sean May and Adam Morrison (out for the year with injuries), not to mention another lottery pick … and the ‘Cats could roar very soon.

* Six of the Bobcats’ next seven games are on the road — including a West Coast swing at the end of the month that will take them to Utah, Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles to face the Lakers. They’ll need to win at least five of those games, maybe more, to have even an outside shot at the playoffs.

College or pros in March?

J.A. Adande wrote that the final weeks of the NBA regular season will be more exhilirating than the NCAA tournament in an article on ESPN.com. I don’t totally agree with that, but I don’t totally disagree, either.

The craze of college basketball is rarely topped at this time of year, and the ratings will show that the NCAAs will be much more watched than the NBA during the next three and a half weeks. But today’s college game can drive me nuts.

 Or more accurately, today’s college coaches can drive me nuts.

I feel like kicking in the television set every time I watch college coaches call timeout after timeout after timeout in the game’s final moments. It happens every time I watch a game (at least, it does at the big-time Division I level), regardless of the score, regardless of what’s at stake. This has been a trend during the past decade, and it’s killing the college game.

There’s also the fact that college basketball lacks stars. Yes, I know about Kansas State’s Michael Beasley and Memphis’ Derrick Rose — but ever since the top players began jumping straight to the NBA after a year (or, as the case used to be, without going to college at all), the game has lacked that special something.

These are no longer the days of Patrick Ewing and Larry Bird staying in school all four years. Heck, even Michael Jordan stayed for three.

But until the NCAA starts paying its athletes, at least a little something, everyone will be gunning to get to the bright lights and big cities (and big money) of the NBA as soon as possible. And unless that happens (highly unlikely), the NBA will possess the strong marketing arm it needs to overshadow the college game.

Even in March.

Welcome to the all-new PBN blog

Hi everyone. Thanks for taking time to visit the blog. I’ll be writing a lot of NBA stuff in this very spot (as will assistant editor Justin Powell), so stay tuned.

For now, just let us know what you think of the site — what needs to be added, what we should take away, why I deserve to be fired, etc.

We’ll be redesigning Pro Basketball News this summer, so your input is vital.

To be added in the coming days: A message board and team-by-team blogs.

As for the blog, it will consist of more than thoughts. We’ll also be updating it regularly with REAL and sometimes BREAKING news. Unlike a lot of independent sites, PBN is actually at the games and inside the locker rooms. And today marks the first day in which will begin publishing SEVEN days a week.

 Enjoy the final few weeks of the regular-season and I’ll talk to you soon.