Moving On and Moving Up

While ESPN's Andy Katz had a nice article last week on Brian Butch's progress rehabbing from his gruesome elbow injury, word came out today that Butch missed the cut for Team USA's Pan Am Games roster. Although I thought a month ago that his outside shooting and rebounding might have been an asset to the squad, maybe the fact that Butch may not be 100% recovered yet played into his performance at the tryouts.

Regardless, there were five big men chosen among the 14 finalists, with the roster to be trimmed down to 12 in the coming days. Beloit's very own Kyle Weaver made the cut, along with Washington State teammate Derrick Low, so it looks like the committee was putting value in team chemistry. Drew Neitzel was an obvious choice, but Tennessee's Chris Lofton was a surprising omission. I love that they stuck Eric Maynor on the team as well.

While Butch will be moving on in his rehab instead of playing ball in Brazil this month, Alando Tucker has managed to shine occasionally in NBA summer league action. With one game left to play today, Tucker is the leading scorer on the Suns, averaging over 18 ppg in four games. Unfortunately, the Suns only won once. I was able to catch the first Phoenix game live on NBA.com, but joined late and didn't see much of Tucker. You can actually watch the entire Phoenix-Philly game in which Tuck poured in 29 points on NBA TV. From the highlights, his shooting looks more fluid and he appears comfortable as an NBA 2-guard. But it's only summer league, right? I can't wait to see him lace'm up for real this fall.