Jamaal Tatum was released by the Atlanta Hawks. Tatum has not been completely healthy this Fall and that hurt his chance to make the team. It looks like he'll have to prove himself in the D-League before getting a crack at the NBA.
In other news Randal Falker was named as a candidate for the John Wooden award. The current list of candidates consists of the top 50 players in the Nation and Falker is the lone candidate from the MVC.
The news about Falker being a top 50 player in the country makes me wonder about how much weight should be put into top 150 lists for recruits and player rankings. It's fun to see guys like Anthony Booker and Kevin Dillard on the list of top players headed to SIU, but for every Booker there is a guy like Falker who many of the so called "major" programs passed on and later became a top 50 player in the nation. Falker was never touted as a "four star" recruit but when it's all said and done he will have had a much better career than many of the players that were ranked ahead of him coming out of high school.
Also, give credit to Bruce Weber, Matt Painter, and Chris Lowery for being able to spot talent that others did not see.
