David Ramsey   Gazette sports columnist David Ramsey offers opinions, views and thoughts on the world of sports

Called Colorado College assistant coach Joe Bonnett Wednesday to talk about hockey, but he had a more interesting subject on his mind:

His new daughter.

Joe and his wife Laura welcomed Vivian Van Rensselaer Bonnett Sunday morning. She was six pounds, 10 ounces. She joins brothers Noah and Samuel. Her middle name is Joe’s mother-in-law’s maiden name.

“She’s doing great,” Joe said Wednesday.

Former Palmer star Reggie Jackson has declared for the NBA Draft, and I like his chances to succeed in The Big Show.

At Palmer High, Jackson dominated despite a so-so jump shot.

At Boston College this season, Jackson grew  into a consistent jump shooter, sinking 50.3 percent of his shots, including 42 percent from 3-point range.

He’s always had the required air show to succeed in the NBA. Now, he has the shooting touch.

Jackson could change his mind. He has not hired an agent and can wait until May 8 before announcing his final decision.

If Jackson returns to BC’s Eagles for his senior season, the team will be ranked in the nation’s top 15 heading into 2011-2012.

I don’t think he’ll be back. I think an NBA team will see a chance to grab an NBA-ready athlete. Jackson will someday be among the NBA’s top 20 picks in the draft.

I think that someday will arrive in the 2011 draft.

For some reason, Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post and Aaron Lopez, formerly of The Rocky Mountain News and currently associated with the Denver Nuggets decided to engage in a footrace.

Two sports writers racing … what an idea. Why didn’t I ever challenge Milo Bryant to a race to determine the Fastest Sports Columnist in the Springs?

Here’s the footage of the Hochman-Lopez race of the century: (It’s fun to watch)

http://www.nba.com/nuggets/video/2011/03/29/TheRacemov-1611523/index.html

Chauncey Billups nearly directed the Denver Nuggets to the 2009 NBA Finals. It would have been an uplifting, heartwarming story: the star returning to his hometown in the twilight of his career and carrying a franchise to its highest heights.

Billups crafted an impressive career, leading the Pistons to an NBA title while playing the game the right way. He’s all about team. He revolutionized the Nuggets when he arrived.

But that was yesterday.

The Nuggets are soaring since Billups and Carmelo Anthony were shipped to New York, and the focus has been on Carmelo, largely because the focus is always on Carmelo.

But you have to give credit to Nuggets execs, who made a brilliant move when they persuaded the Knicks – maybe even forced the Knicks – to take Billups.

The Nuggets were freed from a public relations nightmare. Billups is scheduled to earn $14.2 million next season, at least $10 million more than his market value. If he had stayed in Denver, the Nuggets would have been forced into a messy public money battle with Billups.

By sending him to New York, the Nuggets saved themselves the hassle of dealing with reality, and the reality is Billups is a weary, aged point guard who should be thinking about retirement or at least to moving to the bench.

With Billups gone, the Nuggets now can look to two ultra-quick, youthful point guards in Raymond Felton and Ty Lawson. This duo is all  about today and tomorrow.

Billups is, as Knicks fans are discovering, about yesterday.

Richmond’s Chris Mooney and Butler’s Brad Stevens are acting very strangely. They are the most coveted young basketball coaches in our nation, and they could double – maybe even triple – their salaries at a larger program.

But Mooney just signed a 10-year extension with the Richmond Spiders, and Stevens seems completely disinterested in leaving Butler.

I’m thinking Mooney is going to follow the example of his mentor, Pete Carril, who coached Princeton’s Tigers for 29 seasons. Carril is clearly Mooney’s basketball hero.

Last season, much of the credit for Butler’s run to the national final was given to Gordon Hayward. Turns out, much too much credit was given to Hayward. Butler was not a decent team led by a great star. Butler was a great team led by a decent star.

Now, with Hayward playing for the Utah Jazz, it’s clear that Stevens is the true star of this team. Butler plays ferocious defense, and the Bulldogs don’t play this ferocious defense in spurts. They play stalking, hassling defense for 40 minutes, every night.

Stevens, who’s only 34, is clearly one of the best basketball coaches anywhere or any age.

But he seems content at Butler, a sleepy campus on the edge of Indianapolis. Maybe he will continue to say no to a massive pay raise. In some ways, his choice makes sense. At Butler, the game remains relatively pure. If Stevens departed to coach at, say, Tennessee, he would encounter all kinds of pressure and temptation to cut corners.

At Butler, Stevens has been winning with second-tier recruits, and this is a blessing.  They haven’t been as spoiled as first-tier recruits, and they are actually interested in practicing the forgotten art of defense.

Hey, stranger things have happened.

For more details

http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_17695823?obref=obnetwork

Colorado College freshman Jaden Schwartz will get an early chance Friday to play in his future home. Schwartz and the Tigers play Friday against Boston College at Scottrade Arena, home of the St. Louis Blues.

As you probably know, Schwartz was a first-round pick of the Blues in the spring of 2010.

Schwartz has delivered, despite injury woes, a superb freshman season for the Tigers.

Will he return?

“There’s been no discussion,” CC coach Scott Owens said this week. “I have no idea what anybody is thinking.

“But he could stand another year or two to really establish himself as a premier prospect.”

Owens appears optimistic about Schwartz’s return. He said the Blues are “historically a college-friendly organization.”

If  Colorado basketball coach Tad Boyle is wise, he’s paying as little attention as possible to the NCAA Tournament.

But I suspect he’s watching as many games as he can. And I suspect he’s being tormented by what he sees.

Boyle’s CU team deserved a tournament bid. The Buffs were on a serious roll. The Buffs might even have been blessed with, say, the No.  12 seed at last weekend’s tournament action in Denver. (Yes, the powers that be in the NCAA might have allowed the Buffs to play close to home. Remember, Air Force’s Mountain West Champion team was given a No.  11 seed for games in Denver in 2004.)

We all know what happened to Richmond, the team that did claim the No. 12 seed. The Spiders defeated No. 5 Vanderbilt in a game that has been called an upset but really wasn’t.  CU could easily have won that game.

And then Richmond defeated No. 13 Morehead State. Boyle and his Buffs would have done the same thing.

It’s a leap – but not that big of a leap – to imagine the Buffs in the Sweet 16. Marquette, a No. 11 seed that barely made the tournament, is still in the Big Show.

Instead, CU is competing in the National Invitation Tournament, the dreaded NIT. Yes, the NIT has a rich history, but the NIT was last relevant in the 1970s. The Buffs play host to Kent State tonight.

Sure, winning the NIT would be sweet, but not nearly as sweet as merely playing in the NCAA Tournament. 

Boyle deserved better. So did CU fans.

Chris Mooney, who worked four seasons as an Air Force assistant and one season as head coach, is suddenly The Candidate when it comes to coaching vacancies. Athletic directors at North Carolina State, Georgia Tech and Tennessee are plotting as we speak to persuade Mooney to coach their basketball teams next season.

Of course, he can only coach at one campus.

Mooney is only 38, so he has youth on his side. He’s also blessed with a superb eye for talent. He was part of a staff at Air Force that found such hidden talent as Antoine Hood and Nick Welch and turned one of college basketball worst teams into the best team in the Mountain West. At Richmond, he chased point guard Kevin Anderson, who had been overlooked by recruiters despite a sensational high school career in Atlanta. Anderson is one of the nation’s top point guard, yet another demonstation of Mooney’s skills as a recruiter and, more important, as a judge of talent.

Richmond’ s dazzling weekend in Denver, which included an “upset” of Vanderbilt and a smackdown of overmatched Morehead State, zoomed him into the national picture. He deserves all the attention. He did a superlative job at Air Force. He’s done a superlative job at Richmond.,

And he’ll do a superlative job at his next stop.

Mooney obviously enjoys working at Richmond, and my prediction is his next stop will be a bigger, more glamorous version of Richmond. I’m talking about a Stanford or a Northwestern or, maybe, a Duke.

Here’s video of Mooney on ESPN’s First Take and also video of him chatting with Jim Rome:

http://www.richmondspiders.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/mooney_chris00.html

George Karl and Carmelo Anthony were never meant for each other. Anthony is, like many NBA stars, primarily concerned with, well, himself. Karl is an NBA coach with a high school coach’s mentality. For him, it’s all about team, about sharing and sacrifice and making the extra pass and playing a hustling brand of defense that verges on stalking.

From the moment Anthony arrived in Colorado, the Nuggets were his team. Sure, he shared the franchise with Karl, but only kind of.

Now that Anthony has been granted his fondest wish and has taken off for New York, we finally can fully appreciate and admire Karl’s coaching style. Without Anthony, who stands beside David Thompson as the most gifted player in Nuggets history, Karl has led Denver to eight wins in 10 games. The Nuggets crushed New Orleans on Monday night, despite the absence of Arron Afflalo and Danilo Gallinari.

The Nuggets went, in an instant, from one of the most star-obsessed teams on our planet to one of the least star-obsessed teams. This should be an enormous blessing once the playoffs arrive.

For seven seasons, the Nuggets playoff opponents used a simple strategy to stifle the Nuggets. Defenders surrounded Anthony, daring the rest of the team to score. The strategy always worked, except for two series wins during the Nuggets 2009 run to the Western Conference Finals.

The strategy will fail this season.

This is, finally, a true team.

This is, finally, George Karl’s kind of team.