Huge day for hoops

I feel tonight almost like I have fast-forwarded to March.

That's when it's common for me -- and for any other fan of basketball -- to see multiple games in a day. Not so much in January. But today I did, and was rewarded by seeing Appalachian State's Donald Sims have an absolutely monster day (44 points) against Davidson and then, in the nightcap, watch one of the Charlotte Bobcats' most exciting wins ever.

Gerald Wallace rose over the crowd for an athletic putback at the buzzer as the Bobcats edged Memphis, 89-87, in a game it looked like Charlotte would lose most of the way. It was a frenzied ending and, according to the Bobcats PR staff, the first time a Bobcats player had made a "walk-off" field goal at home that resulted in a victory.

I was at the Bobcats' game for work and wrote about that one in a column. The Davidson-App State game was for pleasure. I took my eight-year-old son, who is constantly in the driveway shooting hoops, to that one. He saw Sims score more points than Stephen Curry ever did in Belk Arena.

For one afternoon, Sims really played like Curry -- making his threes, his free throws, everything. He dominated.

(And what a bargain that game was. The two of us sat in the bleachers for $14 total -- a deal anyone could get if they took advantage of Davidson's "Take a Kid to the Game" promotion).

Then I dropped my son off and went onto the Bobcats game, where Stephen Jackson wasn't shooting well. "I couldn’t hit a house if I was in the kitchen," said Jackson afterward. He went 6-for-20.

But Wallace saved the Bobcats -- first with a spectacular block of a layup, then with his putback that will inevitably be one of the team's biggest highlights of the year.

Hey, if I could have, I would have gone to UNCC's three-point win over St. Bonaventure, too, but that was at the same time as the Bobcats game. Still, it just goes to show you how much good basketball we have in our area this time of year. If you like basketball, these next 3-4 months really are something.