Half Way Through the Knicks First Season With Amare

or the New York Knicks, the 2010-11 NBA season has been a rather up-and-down campaign.

Initially, after a rather successful offseason highlighted by the signings of Amar'e Stoudmire and Raymond Felton, expectations were very high.

However, the team stumbled out of the gate, earning a dismal 3-8 record through their first 11 games.

Nevertheless, New York managed to right the ship, proceeding to torch their opponents throughout the course of a 13-1 run, which set their record at 16-9.

But then their schedule began to toughen up, as they were soon to face Eastern Conference powerhouses like the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat and Orlando Magic, followed by a matchup against the league-leading San Antonio Spurs and a Western Conference road trip which included a game at the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers.

And while they lost to many of their more-highly-touted opponents, the Knicks still managed to go 6-6 during this stretch, putting their record at 22-15.

Yet with their January 19 loss to the Houston Rockets, New York is currently in the doldrums of a four-game losing streak, with a record of 22-19 at the halfway point of the 2010-11 season.

And with upcoming matchups against playoff teams like the Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, Heat, Atlanta Hawks and Dallas Mavericks over the next two weeks, the Knicks' schedule doesn't look to get much easier.

Still though, the franchise is currently sitting in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, and it is a full five games above the next team.

So despite their less-than-desirable play of late, there's still hope for the Knicks.

Tiger and Phil are back and ready to battle

Tiger Woods is back next week.

So is Phil Mickelson.

Thanks to the Farmers Insurance event at Torrey Pines, Woods and Mickelson are playing in January, and that in and of itself is an eye opener. Both will make their PGA Tour debuts for 2011 next Thursday.

Fact is, Mickelson couldn't even wait until next week. He's teeing up Thursday in Abu Dhabi on the European Tour with the other three major champions from 2010—Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen and Martin Kaymer.

Lee Westwood will also start his season before Woods. He's been on site in Abu Dhabi, knocking some of the rust off his game, as he's been rehabbing his bothersome leg and ankle that troubled him in the last few months of 2010.

This early start is a big departure for Mickelson from his typical routine. But Left has said that with the exception of the Masters, last season was not up to snuff for him.

Woods has been absent from Torrey Pines since his U.S. Open victory there in 2008. He was recovering from surgery in 2009, then missed 2010 with his self-imposed exile after his personal problems went ballistic.

Jimmer Fredette: The best guard in college basketball

Is there anything Jimmer can't do?

I'm referring to Jimmer Fredette, the outstanding senior guard from Bringham Young University all the while repressing the urge to make several references to Jimmy, the gym rat who referred to himself in the third person on Seinfeld.

This is the same Jimmy Fredette who's lighting up the college basketball world and starting a battle with UCONN's Kemba Walker for the national scoring lead in a unprecedented race we have not seen...since 2006.

Of course, that was when J.J. Redick and Adam Morrison went back and forth all season for the scoring title and before both were selected in the first round of the 2006 National Basketball Association draft.

Morrison's now a bench warmer with a ring, while Redick's a serviceable pro.

Instead, Jimmer was pretty sweet on half-court jumpers in the first half of a blowout win against Texas Christian University.

Perhaps the most impressive thing, which was a clear make from almost the half-court line, is the confidence of Fredette to make the shot.

He's shown he can be dangerous from anywhere on the floor. He can penetrate and score inside, he can knock down the outside shot, and he can pull it down and distribute to his teammates. He's a very complete player.

What can you do when he's hitting shots like this without any effort. You can't touch him. Don't touch Jimmer. Okay—I had to do at least one Jimmy reference.

Granted, he's had trouble making easy dunks when he's by himself, but he's in a world by himself right now and some team in the late first or early second round of this year's draft is going get an absolute steal in Fredette.