Hilton Armstrong has been selected to play in the NBA D-League All-Star Game on Feb. 15 in New Orleans. Here's the press release:

NEW YORK, Feb. 3, 2014 – Twenty of the NBA Development League’s top prospects, including 16 who have NBA experience, have been selected to play in the eighth annual NBA D-League All-Star Game on Saturday, Feb. 15, at Sprint Arena inside NBA All-Star Jam Session at New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The game will air live on NBA TV at 3 p.m. ET.

Chosen to the NBA D-League All-Star Futures team are Hilton Armstrong (Santa Cruz), Seth Curry (Santa Cruz), Dewayne Dedmon (Santa Cruz), Justin Hamilton (Sioux Falls), Manny Harris (Los Angeles), Pierre Jackson (Idaho), Kevin Jones (Canton), DeAndre Liggins (Sioux Falls), Malcolm Thomas (Los Angeles) and Chris Wright (Maine). The Futures team will be helmed by Canton Charge head coach Steve Hetzel and his staff, who earned the trip to New Orleans by virtue of winning a tie-breaker with Nate Bjorkgren and the staff of the Iowa Energy, which had the same 16-9 record through games of Jan. 26, for the League’s second-best winning percentage.

Selected to play on the NBA D-League All-Star Prospects team are Isaiah Canaan (Rio Grande Valley), Robert Covington (Rio Grande Valley), Troy Daniels (Rio Grande Valley), Ike Diogu (Bakersfield), Devin Ebanks (Texas), Melvin Ely (Texas), Ron Howard (Fort Wayne), Othyus Jeffers (Iowa), Christapher Johnson (Rio Grande Valley), and Jarvis Varnado (Iowa). Rio Grande Valley Vipers head coach Nevada Smith and his staff will lead the Prospects team in New Orleans. They earned the right to coach the All-Stars having had the highest winning percentage with a 19-6 record in games play through Jan. 26.

“We’re excited to bring 20 top young NBA prospects to New Orleans to compete as NBA D-League All-Stars,” said Chris Alpert, Vice President of Basketball Operations for the NBA D-League. “The NBA D-League All-Star Game is not only an excellent opportunity for the League’s bright young stars to showcase their talents, but gives basketball fans from around the country the chance to watch up-and-coming NBA players in the midst of NBA All-Star festivities.”

The field of 20 players was selected by a vote of the NBA D-League’s 17 head coaches and was divided into two teams by League officials. Players were eligible to be selected based on having played in at least half of their team’s games through Jan. 26. Each player must be on an active NBA D-League roster at the time of the NBA D-League All-Star Game in order to compete.

Eight players with NBA experience are featured on the Prospects roster, including three current NBA players: Canaan and Covington, who have played in Rio Grande Valley on assignment from the Houston Rockets, and Johnson, a member of the Boston Celtics by way of a GATORADE Call-Up. Diogu, Ebanks, Ely, Jeffers, and Varnado round out members of the Prospects team with NBA experience.

An additional eight players with NBA experience make up the Futures roster, including Harris and Thomas, currently playing for the Los Angeles Lakers and Utah Jazz, respectively. Armstrong, Curry, Dedmon, Jones, Liggins, and Wright have also logged NBA minutes.

Last season, seven of the 20 NBA D-League All-Stars who played in Houston went on to earn GATORADE Call-Ups to the NBA later in the year. Over the NBA D-League All-Star Game’s seven-year history, 87 of the 126 players have had, or subsequently earned, NBA experience.

The 2014 NBA D-League Dream Factory presented by Boost Mobile will be integrated into Saturday’s NBA D-League All-Star Game, with action beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET when the League’s sharp shooters take to the court to participate in the NBA D-League Boost Mobile Thre-Point Contest. Skills competition activities will continue during the game’s halftime break, with the NBA D-League Boost Mobile Slam Dunk Contest.

The complete 2014 NBA D-League All-Star teams are below.

FUTURES ALL-STAR ROSTER

Pos. Player (Team) Ht. Wt. College Birthdate

C Hilton Armstrong (Santa Cruz) 6-11 235 Connecticut 11/23/84

G Seth Curry (Santa Cruz) 6-1 180 Duke 8/23/90

C Dewayne Dedmon (Santa Cruz) 6-10 255 USC 8/12/88

G Manny Harris (Los Angeles)* 6-5 185 Michigan 9/21/89

F Justin Hamilton (Sioux Falls) 7-0 260 LSU 4/1/90

G Pierre Jackson (Idaho) 5-10 180 Baylor 8/29/91

F Kevin Jones (Canton) 6-8 251 West Virginia 8/25/89

G DeAndre Liggins (Sioux Falls) 6-6 209 Kentucky 3/31/88

F Malcolm Thomas (Los Angeles)* 6-9 224 San Diego State 11/8/88

F Chris Wright (Maine) 6-8 225 Dayton 9/30/88



Head Coach: Steve Hetzel (Canton)

Assistant Coaches: Jordi Fernandez (Canton), James Posey (Canton), Nate Reinking (Canton)

Athletic Trainer: Mike Gittinger (Canton)



PROSPECTS ALL-STAR ROSTER

Pos. Player (Team) Ht. Wt. College Birthdate

G Isaiah Canaan (Rio Grande Valley)* 6-0 188 Murry State 5/21/91

F Robert Covington (Rio Grande Valley)* 6-9 215 Tennessee State 12/14/90

G Troy Daniels (Rio Grande Valley) 6-7 200 VCU 7/15/91

F Ike Diogu (Bakersfield) 6-8 255 Arizona State 9/11/83

F Devin Ebanks (Texas) 6-9 215 West Virginia 10/28/89

F Melvin Ely (Texas) 6-10 260 Fresno State 5/2/78

G Ron Howard (Fort Wayne) 6-5 185 Valparaiso 11/14/82

F Othyus Jeffers (Iowa) 6-5 205 Robert Morris 8/5/85

G Christapher Johnson (Rio Grande Valley)* 6-6 201 Dayton 4/29/90

C Jarvis Varnado (Iowa) 6-9 210 Mississippi State 3/1/88



Head Coach: Nevada Smith (Rio Grande Valley)

Assistant Coaches: Paul Mokeski (Rio Grande Valley), Jason Young (Rio Grande Valley)

Athletic Trainer: Long Lam (Rio Grande Valley)



* - Indicates a player currently in the NBA

Hilton Armstrong is back in the NBA, after being called up from the D-League to the Golden State Warriors.

Here's the press release sent out on Wednesday afternoon:

OAKLAND, CA – The Golden State Warriors have signed free agent center Hilton Armstrong as a Call-Up from the Warriors’ NBA Development League affiliate in Santa Cruz, the team announced today. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Armstrong, 29, appeared in six games (all starts) with the Santa Cruz Warriors this season, averaging 15.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 3.00 blocks (fifth-best in the D-League) in 30.3 minutes while hitting 63.5 percent from the field (eighth). Armstrong, who spent the 2013 preseason with the Indiana Pacers, appeared in 29 games for Santa Cruz in 2012-13, leading the league in field goal percentage (62.8 percent) and earning Honorable Mention All-NBA D-League and Second Team All NBA D-League Defensive Team honors. The 19th D-League Call-Up in Golden State Warriors history (second this season), he holds career D-League marks of 13.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 2.37 blocks in 27.0 minutes over 35 games with Santa Cruz.

Originally selected by the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets with the 12th overall pick of the 2006 NBA Draft, Armstrong played five seasons with the Hornets (2006-09), Sacramento Kings (2010), Houston Rockets (2010), Washington Wizards (2010-11) and Atlanta Hawks (2011) and owns career NBA averages of 3.1 points and 2.6 rebounds in 11.8 minutes over 277 games (39 starts). He has also played professionally with ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne in France, Panathinaikos in Greece and Changsha Bank Guangdong in China.

A product of the University of Connecticut, Armstrong helped the Huskies win the NCAA Championship as a sophomore in 2004.

He will wear uniform #57.

*** Also, Jim Calhoun will continue his annual holiday tradition of helping the needy with holiday meals on Monday in Hartford. The details:

WHO: Coach Jim Calhoun, his family, a number of current players and Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra will join a team from ShopRite, the Hartford law firm of RisCassi and Davis, Omar Coffee, the City of Hartford Department of Families, Children, Youth & Recreation and the City of Hartford Department of Health & Human Services to provide holiday meals for 600 needy Hartford families. The meals were generously donated by Coach Calhoun, ShopRite and the Hartford law firm of RisCassi and Davis.

WHEN: Monday, December 16
5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. (Pope Park Recreation Center)

WHAT: Coach Jim Calhoun, his family, players and Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra will join a team from ShopRite, the Hartford law firm of RisCassi and Davis Omar Coffee, the City of Hartford Department of Families, Children, Youth & Recreation and the City of Hartford Department of Health & Human Services will distribute 600 eighteen pound turkeys and holiday meal fixings to needy families. This year's event is Coach Calhoun's 15th Holiday Food Drive.

Since Coach began his efforts in 1999, over $1.9 million has been raised to benefit Connecticut families in need.

WHERE: Pope Park Recreation Center, 30 Pope Park Drive, Hartford

A lot of talk about and with Amida Brimah at practice Saturday, after UConn prepared for Sunday's 2K Sports Classic with Boston University. Kid's off to a great start, with 14 blocks in his first three collegiate games. The Huskies were 55th in the nation in blocked shots last year. They're fifth early in this season, thanks largely to the 7-footer from Ghana via Miami.

Here's a story I wrote about Brimah shortly after he committed to UConn last February, chronicling his path from the soccer fields of Ghana to the hardwood of the U.S.

Asked Brimah today if he knew about UConn's legacy of shot-blockers (Emeka Okafor, Hilton Armstrong, Hasheem Thabeet, etc.) before coming to America. Not even close. In fact, the only basketball player he knew about while growing up was Michael Jordan.

Brimah went up against Thabeet this summer during pick-up games at Gampel. He said he played well against him -- didn't block any of his shots, but didn't get blocked, either -- and marveled at just how big and strong Thabeet was.

Thabeet also gave Brimah a bit of advice.

“He told me, when I was playing against him, even though he was bigger than me, I was playing hard, and he just gave me the advice to keep playing hard and stuff," Brimah said.

It's natural to compare Brimah and Thabeet. Both are 7-footers from Africa who were converted soccer players relatively new to basketball when they arrived at UConn. A.J. Price noticed the similarities during the Greater Hartford Pro-Am this summer.

"You hate to compare somebody to somebody, but that's the first thing you see," Price said. "I watched Hasheem be the same way when he first came here, not really knowing how to use his body, know how big he is. (Brimah) has the same problems right now, but he has a good basketball IQ, which is unteachable."

I asked Jim Calhoun if Brimah was ahead of where Thabeet was as a freshman, and he quickly answered, "No." But he also pointed out that Brimah is ahead of where Thabeet was offensively.

Kevin Ollie was still in the NBA when Thabeet arrived at UConn as a freshman.

“I know Hasheem was blocking shots and was amazing," Ollie said. "They used to have Hasheem in the sand pits, working on his hands and things like that so he could probably catch a little bit better. But it would be unfair for me to compare him, because he’s going to be his own player, anyway. He’s not going to be Hasheem Thabeet, he’s going to be Amida.”

Shabazz Napier recalls when Brimah committed to the Huskies, nobody knew much about him.

“I think we looked, but he didn’t have a lot of highlights on YouTube. He had one where he was just blocking little kids’ shots, so we were like, that’s one thing he knows how to do well, but we didn’t expect much. We expected a helping hand, but he’s been doing so much for this team.”

Napier was impressed by what he saw from Brimah this summer, however.

“He didn’t whine about getting hit down in the post, he blocked a lot of shots in pick-ups. I saw a lot, but you don’t know what was going to happen during the game atmosphere. You didn’t know if he was going to play well against Maryland, with that big atmosphere. That’s kind of a shock to a lot of freshmen coming in.”

“It’s rare, but when you have it, it’s spectacular … We’re just happy he’s on our team.”

*** No official word on letters-of-intent from Daniel Hamilton, Rakim Lubin and Sam Cassell, Jr., though it appears UConn is waiting to receive all three (or two, or however it may work out) before making an announcement.

But we'll reiterate: the Huskies are not worried about Hamilton backing off his commitment, as has been speculated.

*** Napier knows UConn can't keep shooting 54 percent form 3-point land forever. When the shots aren't falling at some point, he'll be ready to step up.

"That’s when I’ve got to be more aggressive," he said. "I haven’t taken a lot of shots, just because my teammates are making a ton of shots. That’s good for us. As long as I put myself in the right position to get my teammates open, they’re going to knock it down. Niels is on a crazy streak shooting … I don’t expect him to make his next eight in a row again. But he’s a great shooter, guys are getting it to the right spots, Omar’s getting to the right spots. Once that point in time comes when a lot of guys aren’t hitting shots, then I’ve got to be more aggressive.”

*** UConn is in the midst of a stretch of six games in 14 days.

“It’s a good grind, the grind we like. It’s how it’s going to be in the tournament in Memphis, then we’ve got to come back and play in the march to the Final Four. I like this kind of grind. We’ve got to understand that it’s part of basketball, every team is going to go through it. Even in conference play, you’re going to be in a grind and a bind when we get into January and February. This is going to be a great tune-up for us.”

Shabazz Napier didn’t have much of an impact over the first 37 minutes of Saturday night’s Final Four bout with Kentucky.

He missed his first six shots from the floor and hadn’t scored at all to that point.

But Napier’s fingerprints were all over the final 2 ½ minutes of UConn’s 56-55 victory over the Wildcats. The freshman guard had a big basket, a big rebound, a bad turnover and two big free throws over that span – all after surviving a low blow earlier in the game.

Napier’s two foul shots with two seconds left sealed the victory for UConn. He had grabbed the rebound of a DeAndre Liggins 3-pointer and went to the line with the chance to send the Huskies to Monday night’s national championship game.

“The first thing that was going through my mind was the Syracuse game, when I had the chance to make the free throw to end the game and I missed it,” Napier recalled. “I saw my mom in the stands and said, ‘I’ve got to make this, man.’ After I made it, I was ecstatic, I was happy. I felt like I redeemed myself.”

Napier had picked a good time to hit his first field goal of the night, a nifty driving layup with 2 minutes, 30 seconds left that capped a 6-0 UConn run and gave it a 54-48 lead.

However, with the Huskies clinging to a two-point lead, Napier turned the ball over in the lane.

“I was kind of upset,” Napier said. “I felt like I let my team down, and that’s the worst feeling in the world.”

UK’s Brandon Knight grabbed the loose ball on the floor and called timeout with 16.6 seconds left, setting up a chance for the Wildcats to win the game or send it to overtime. But Liggins missed the 3-pointer, Napier grabbed the rebound and redeemed himself with the two free throws.

The freshman also did a good job much of the night guarding Knight, the Wildcats’ top scorer who shot just 6-for-23. He seemed to frustrate Knight, too, causing the UK freshman to hit Napier in his man region just before a timeout late in the game.

“He said it was accidental,” Napier said. “It was uncalled for. I was trying to get the timeout, and he just swung. I’m like, ‘Just play basketball, man.’ There’s no reason for that. We’re on a big stage, we’re trying to get to the same place, there’s no reason for that.”

A trip to the national championship game is enough to let Napier forgive and forget.
“He just looked at me. He knew he was wrong for it. At the end, I said, ‘Is that intentional?’ He said he didn’t mean it. It’s over with.”

So Tired?

As if winning five games in five days at the Big East tournament or nine games in 19 days to get to the Final Four wasn’t taxing enough, there’s another reason to question how fatigued UConn might be right now.

When the Huskies take the floor on Monday night, it will be their 41st game of the season – most by any team since 1945, when Oregon (30-15) played 45 contests.

On Saturday, UConn and Virginia Commonwealth tied the modern record (since 1948) of most games in a season, which has been done seven other times: Duke in 1986 and last season, UNLV in 1990, Kentucky in 1997, Florida in 2007, and Kansas and Memphis in 2008.

Hilton Heads to Houston

Hilton Armstrong was in the UConn locker room after the game, congratulating various Husky players.

We're always looking for local angles these days, so a story on Jeff Schwartz, the New Haven native and 1982 Cheshire High grad who is the agent to numerous NBA stars -- not to mention Jim Calhoun -- was a natural.

Jeff's an interesting guy. He focuses on taking clients who are good people, and in return really tries to foster a family-type atmosphere with them. Guys like Emeka Okafor, Jason Kidd, Lamar Odom, even Calhoun, look at Schwartz as more than just an agent. He's been to Calhoun family weddings, once lived for a short time at Kidd's California home, and, yes, he was in the wedding party at the famous Odom-Kardashian nuptials last September (no comment on whether Lamar signed a pre-nup!).

And while Schwartz represents Calhoun, it's important to note that the coach doesn't steer his ex-players to him. Yes, Okafor, Hilton Armstrong, Charlie Villanueva and A.J. Price are Schwartz clients. But the dozen or so other ex-UConn players playing professionally right now chose other routes.

"Sometimes it works against me," Scwartz admitted. "Coach is tough on those guys, and at the end of year, when they're all done, sometimes they want to run as far from him as possible. The shackles are off."

Here's Schwartz's take on a couple of other subjects that didn't make the story:

(On the proliferation of street runners and dirty agents who have had too much influence on some amateur players in recent years)

"I wish that there was tighter scrutiny with it. You’ve got some really good agents out there who do things right way, but then you've got a lot of people who put kids in harm’s way. We talk to our union a lot about it, trying to keep things at a professional level and allow college kids to enljoy college experience. I think it’s an issue across sports. I don’t know how it gets solved."

(On the rule that a player must be at least one year out of high school to be drafted by the NBA)

"I think the more mature someone is, in general, the better chance they have at success at anything. However, I represented Martina Hingis when she was 16 years old and No. 1 in the world, so I've seen it from all sides. I really think it’s on a case-by-case basis. Do I think, overall, it’s helpful to have a year or two of college? It never hurt anybody. I think it’s good thing."