Let me first state, that yes, I recognize Tennessee lost the game last night against Vandy. But I want you to watch some examples of Tennessee's "two minute offense" and see how effective it was. Vandy was up 8 points late in the game and as UT employed this strategy they almost came back and won it.

Fastforward to 3:30 in the video and watch as UT contines to spread the floor and drive to the basket. If someone colapses on the offensive man, the UT player has an open player to dish the ball to. If no one collapses on the UT player, he is able to either make a lay-up or get fouled. Both should be high percentage shots. Most defensive players are afraid to play tough defense, because you don't want to stop the clock with a foul. It might even result in a wide open 3-point attempt, but that was their last resort.

Unfortunately what do most teams do? Run down the floor and jack up a 3. It's usually contested as everyone is expecting it to happen. Resulting in a low percentage shot. It requires the least amount of effort and the chance of getting an offensive rebound it slim. After the game a coach could cry, "We played hard. Our shots just didn't fall." And for some reason, most fans are fine with that.

Obviously, the real key to coming back is making defensive stops and hopefully having your opponent miss some free throws. That takes a lot of time and effort, so the key is to minimize your effort on the offensive end. It's very similiar to a two-minute offense in football. Spread the field, you have the defense on their heels not wanting to give up the big play and dink your way back in to contention.

So when you see your team jacking up three's late in the game, it the equivalent to a team going for the end zone from 50 yards out. Instead, be excited for lay-up's and free throws and hope you get some stops.

In Seth Davis's article today on SI.com he gives us this little nugget about Drake basketball...

They were a preseason pick to finish ninth in the Missouri Valley Conference. And why wouldn't they be? They lost four starters from last year's team that went 17-15 -- which, by the way, was their first winning season in 20 years. And even that was a mirage, since they only went 6-12 in the Valley. The Bulldogs' own coach, Keno Davis, picked them sixth last fall in that preseason poll. At the time, that seemed hopelessly optimistic.

So the question becomes, why would we care about Drake?

Ever since Gonzaga's improbable run to the Elite Eight in 1999, everyone wants to know who will be the "it" mid-major each year. For a while, it seemed like everyone was on the Butler bandwagon, however it seems that Drake has taken over as the new "Gonzaga" prediction for this year.

If you'll remember, there was a time when no one knew what a mid-major was. The teams from the big conferences dominated and you might have an upset or two. However, in 1999 Gonzaga made a run to the Elite Eight and everyone has been looking for the next "Gonzaga".

However, when people try to identify the next Gonzaga, they forget about some of the unique traits of that team. For starters, Gonzaga was a 10 seed that year. No one knew about them and thus everyone underestimated them. Secondly, Gonzaga was able to go further in the tournament because the number 3 seed (North Carolina) was knocked out early by Weber State. So their path to the elite eight was a little easier.

The problem with trying to identify the next "Gonzaga" is that, by doing so, you automatically elimate them from being the next "Gonzaga". Once the team is identified, everyone realizes that the team they are about to face is legit and they are not as succeptable to an upset. You see, if Drake wasn't ranked and they didn't have articles like this one written about them, no one would know that Drake is a good basketball team.

Also, because Drake is playing good ball, they will most likely be a four or five seed and will not be facing any teams that think they can coast against Drake. (Side note: I'm avoiding all Drake coffee cake Seinfeld references as they are too easy.) Thus, they won't be a Cinderella like Gonzaga was.

So maybe this year's "Gonzaga" is Kent St or St. Mary's. Well, I guess since this site is read by millions, everyone will have their antenna up now.

For some reason, many of the major sports sites (ESPN, SI, etc) continue to ignore the Reggie Bush lawsuit. Yahoo! Sports has been covering it though. Here's what happened today..

New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush failed to take a scheduled deposition Monday, after his attorneys filed a motion with the court asking that testimony of both the former USC star and his parents be concealed from the NCAA and media.

If you have nothing to hide, then why would you want your testimony concealed? That is an obvious point and I won't go any further with it.

I'll also skip the point that all the websites have followed the Kelvin Sampson saga every step of the way, but everyone continues to push the allegation of Bush receiving nearly $300,000 benefits under the rug.

Just for fun, let's say that Reggie Bush did receive the benefits and USC is found guilty. Obviously, USC would have to forfeit their 2004 National Championship and Oklahoma fans everywhere would scream that they were the National Champs. That should be obvious since an undefeated Oklahoma team faced off against USC that year for the National Championship, right? Well, as the pencil hawking ESPN analyst Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast my friend!".

You see, there was another undefeated team that year that was didn't make the cut. Oklahoma, which looked awful in the championship game, was put in over Auburn that year. Auburn had made the run through the SEC, with three first-round draft picks in the offensive backfield, Ronnie Brown, "Cadillac" Williams and Jason Campbell. Obviously many fans in the SEC were outraged that their team didn't get in, while Oklahoma got in.

So instead of USC v Oklahoma, we would have had Oklahoma v Auburn. I'm not so sure that Auburn wouldn't win that game. Auburn had faced a much tougher schedule, and played in a much tougher conference.

Here's the ironic thing, Auburn has always played second fiddle to Alabama in their own state, even though they have won six games in a row. And once again, Auburn will play second fiddle nationally if USC has to forfeit their national championship.

If you were watching closely to the Memphis-Tennessee game Saturday night, you saw a strategy used against them that will ultimately prevent them from winning the tournament this year. To beat Memphis, defensively, you need to do two things. And Tennessee did both of those things last night.

First, you have to go zone against them. If you haven't read it yet, Sports Illustrated did a fabulous job detailing the new offense that Memphis is running. In one little paragraph, it mentions that Memphis doesn't have that dead eye outside shooter to make you get out of the zone. Therefore, Tennessee knew they could prevent Memphis from getting easy baskets by driving packing in the lane. No dribble penetration to the hole for Memphis last night.

When tournament time comes, Memphis will see this a lot. All it takes is one game, in one of those big arenas where the background is drastically different, and Memphis will be out.

Secondly, and believe me, this has been mentioned too many times on this site already, you need to install the "Hack-a-Tiger" defense. Similar to the "Hack-a-Shaq" defense, you need to put them on the line rather than allowing easy baskets. Obviously you need a little depth on your bench to do this, but the return is great. Seriously, 58% from the line. That is just pathetic.

While we're on the free throw discussion, what's up with Calipari's comments to Dick Vitale during the game? When Vitale asked Calipari if he was concerned about the poor free throw shooting, Calipari replied, "Not at all. We'll make them at the end of the game."

I'm sure you're aware that Memphis missed five free throws down the stretch, so I'm not sure where he is getting his confidence. Even if Memphis is 100% from the line in the last two minutes, how is he OK with giving up ten or so points during the rest of the game? He's OK with shooting 40% during the first 38 minutes of the game and giving up 10 or so easy points from the line? And yet he believes that somehow, they'll turn it on when the pressure mounts in the last two minutes. You can get away with that in Conference USA, but that won't fly in the tournament. It just doesn't make sense.

But then again, Calipari apparently has a short term memory. It wasn't that long ago that Memphis lost a chance to go to the NCAA because they couldn't hit a couple of free throws:

Saw this picture of Shaq from the Lakers-Suns game last night. There is no way he's at 9% bodyfat as Sports Illustrated claimed last week. For $20m you'd think he'd be in a little better shape. Let's take a look at Shaq using photos to see how much bigger he's gotten over the years.

As a Sun...

With the Heat...

As a Laker (Notice he's already looking a little smaller)..

With the Magic (Another dramatic difference)..

At LSU...

After looking at the LSU shot, scroll back up and look at his current picture. Huge difference. He's heading in Tony Gwynn territory. Not sure what I'm talking about? Check out this before and after shot.

Before....

After...

This picture cracks me up. If I had the time and ability, I'd take Coach K and Roy Williams and photoshop images of their heads onto this picture. This after they got into a little spat over how they handle injuries with the media.

You knew this was bound to happen sooner or later. With the current day media coverage, you can't have two elite coaches and programs coexist 6 miles from each other. And there is bound to be some bad blood between them after the bloody nose incident from last year.

This whole incident reminds me of two high school girls fighting over who's most popular. You have two camps that heard what someone said and they're mad at the other. Just ridiculous.

Also, do you think Williams is getting a little sensitive about this injury talk? Maybe Lawson is a little more hurt than everyone is letting on. Without Lawson, they'll be going home early again this year.

In case you haven't been keeping up with college football lately, here's what's been going on.

At LSU, Ryan Perriloux apparently can't follow the rules. According to the Times-Picayune:

Sources at the university familiar with the situation said Perrilloux's infractions involved missing classes, workouts and at least one team meeting, all violations of a private agreement Miles and Perrilloux reportedly reached last season. Perrilloux's situation could be even more dire, according to school officials who said Miles still is mulling the situation. Miles was unavailable for comment, but said in LSU's terse, four-sentence statement that the quarterback's status for spring football, which begins Feb. 29, is uncertain.

In Tuscaloosa, Jeremy Elder, a redshirt freshman defensive lineman, decided to rob a couple of students and then flee back to the athletic dorm. Here's a short summary from the Tuscaloosa News.

Hilton and White were in the parking lot at 11:05 p.m. Saturday when a man wearing a black T-shirt and checkered black and white Alabama baseball cap approached and demanded money. According to the deposition, the robber “fled” by walking toward the rear of Bryant Hall, a residence hall on the east side of campus where Elder and other student-athletes live.The deposition, apparently a summary written by police, stated that Elder “admitted to committing the robbery” on Sunday. It does not say to whom or under what circumstances the admission was made.

In Knoxville, kicker Dustin Colquitt has to forfeit his scholarship and will be suspended for five games after he was charged with DUI and leaving the scene of the accident. This after Colquitt had four alcohol related incidents in 2004. But that's not all for Tennessee this offseason. The Tennessean provides us with a list of everything that has gone wrong at Tennessee this offseason.

• On Jan. 11, freshman receivers Gerald Jones and Ahmad Paige were issued misdemeanor citations for marijuana possession. Freshman offensive lineman William Brimfield was also in the car, as was an Oklahoma high school football player visiting Knoxville on a recruiting trip. Brimfield and the high school student were not cited.
Fulmer disciplined Jones, Paige and Brimfield with community service at a drug rehab center and participation in police ride-alongs.
• On Jan. 21, freshman running back Daryl Vereen was arrested and charged with public intoxication and underage consumption on campus. His punishment was similar to that of Jones, Paige and Brimfield. Vereen also has a semester-long curfew.
• On Jan. 26, offensive lineman Anthony Parker was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor. Fulmer said he would punish Parker internally.
• On Feb. 2, Vince Faison, a walk-on defensive back, was arrested and charged with DUI. He was suspended for the first two games of the 2008 season.
• On Feb. 13, linebacker Dorian Davis and defensive back Antonio Wardlow were dismissed from the team for unspecified violations of team rules.

Yes, these are all SEC schools. But you can find stories outside the SEC as well. Apparently, Noel Divine and some of his teammates put the beat down on some students outside of a bar Saturday night in Morgantown.

First, let me state that these players represent a small minority of the college football population. Not all college football players are thugs. Secondly, Colquitt and Elder will get their day in court.

Isn't it interesting how we tend to see many more of these offenses occur in the offseason? Especially, during a time when most college presidents will have you believe these guys need less time to spend on sports and more time to spend on academics.

If we're really concerned about the student athlete, lets go ahead with the playoff system just to keep these guys out of trouble. Look, at this point, I'll use any illogical argument to get a playoff system.

Why not, the illogical arguments work for preventing a playoff system.

It's a bird,

It's a plane,

No, It's a glorified "Tip-In"!

Really, how do they consider it a dunk? You might call it a lay-up, but you can't throw the ball in the basket from that far away and call it a dunk.

By now you've been bombarded with the NASCAR coverage, as it's Daytona week. Didn't their "season" just end?

A couple of years ago, NASCAR was the hot new thing. It was going to replace hockey as the number four sport in America behind football, basketball and baseball. NASCAR also had a lot going for it already, like a passionate fan base and it was an American sport.

But has it really taken over? Has it grown in popularity or is it more visable now that ESPN covers some of the events? The sport obviously has more money now, because of the TV contract, but really, have they attracted a new audience? Or are the people watching it the same ones that always did?

There is no doubt that NASCAR fans love their sport and are loyal to their team. I once worked with a woman that would only buy gas at Texaco because she was a fan of the "28" car, which was sponsored by Texaco at the time.

I think NASCAR struggles with the same issues that soccer does. Don't get me wrong, NASCAR is currently way more popular than soccer in the US. However, would NASCAR be a popular sport if it originated in Europe? I don't think so and here's why.

1. Both sports are much more fun to play than to watch.

Passionate fans for both sports will argue that their sport is fun to watch. But a "newcomer" to the sport doesn't pick up on the nuances real easy. I watched the last ten minutes of a race last year and it all seemed the same. You'll hear the same thing about soccer. All they do is kick the ball around the field and never score.

Who wouldn't want to drive a car around at 180 mph? It seems like a lot of fun. But watching someone else do it for 500 miles gets a little old. Speaking of scoring....

2. There is not much scoring in either sport.

A common argument about soccer is that a 1-0 match is a high scoring affair. It's not near as much fun as a basketball game. The same could be said about NASCAR. They race around and around until someone comes out on top. It does you no good to be in the lead at the half way point.

3. "Games" are too long

When the Olympics roll around, people enjoy watching the track races because they are short. Even the longest "non-marathon" races only last 30 minutes. But a NASCAR race lasts three hours. If the end is all that matters, then why tune in early. As for soccer, the same holds true. There seems to be no urgency in the game. You just feel like everyone is thinking, "We'll score in the 80th minute."

So just watch NASCAR over the next couple of years and see if the sport continues to get all of they hype it currently gets. If ESPN drops the contract next time, you'll see considerably less on coverage and it will go back to where it has always been.

Wow, when I proclaimed Indiana "Over-Rated" a couple of weeks ago, I never thought it would get that bad. I didn't mean for the "Under Review" curse to include NCAA sanctions. Florida seems to have dropped off the face of the earth, and Kansas St did just as I predicted.

I have only one team to add to the list right now. Tennessee.

During Vandy's demolishing of Kentucky Tuesday night, ESPN showed the Bracketology projections for the SEC. As of Tuesday night, here's who they have in:

Tennessee - #1 seed
Arkansas - #7 seed
Florida - #8 seed
Mississippi St - #9 seed
Ole Miss - #10 seed
Vandy - #10 seed.

These projections were made before Florida lost at home to LSU and Ole Miss lost on the road at Alabama.

It seems the only legitimate team in the SEC this year is Tennessee. And even they have questions. They lack depth in the post and they notoriously take off during stretches of their games.

So the observation has to be made. Many people are discounting Memphis's season because of the weak conference they play in. And yes, the SEC is still stronger than Conference USA. But is Tennessee being challenged in conference play? Are they really that good?

I believe they are a top 15 team, I'm just not sold on them as a number one seed. If you're not playing anyone, then you're not going to get any better.

We'll find out more during the Memphis v Tennessee showdown next week. Don't be surprised to see Tennesse go down hard though.

You heard it hear first.

At the end of the hearing, Rep Waxman starts "summarizing" the events of the day. Clemens apparently disagrees with some of the summary. As the argument starts, Waxman is agast that Clemens would have the nerve to question him. At one point, he gets so frustrated he bangs his gavel. Amazingly, Clemens backs down. Really, that's all it took, to bang the gavel?

Wouldn't it be nice if we had the power of the gavel in other areas of sports? Imagine what it would be like if we could settle disputes with a gavel? It would probably make PTI pretty boring. However, consider some of these scenarios...

You're arguing who's the greatest college football quarterback ever. Things are going well, until one of your friends suggests Tommie Frazier. At that point, you've had enough. You bang the gavel and the argument is over. Your friend had gotten out of line and it needed to be stopped.

Or what if a coach questions why his player lined up in a certain position? In response, the player gives several half-hearted answers, all of which aren't acceptable. Finally the coach just bangs the gavel and the player walks dejected to the bench. End of excuses.

Consider a referee who's taking all kinds of abuse from the coaches and fans. It's getting out of hand and he needs to show them who's in charge. He bangs the gavel, and everyone calms down. The point has been made. No need for technical fouls or kicking someout out of the game.

We'll know "the gavel" has finally made it when a player uses it as a form of trash talk. On a dunk which effectively seals the victory or a sack that ends the game, if a player gets up and bangs his imaginary gavel, that would just say it all. It would be the modern day equivalent of saying "Scoreboard!".

Sometimes we need to have a clear definition of authority. "The gavel" does that.

Hey if you don't like this post. Well....

I have some friends who coach in the local youth baseball league. As the new season is approaching, they have been exchanging e-mails regarding who's available in the draft. They've tried to keep quiet about the new kid that moved in down the street. They've even planned their vacations around all-star season. You get the picture, they take it pretty seriously.


One thing is a given though. Their son will be on the team. They won't allow another coach to come in and draft their son on another team, even if he couldn't hit the ball. Well, there may be a few that might consider it, but surely the wives would overrule it. On second thought, the wives can be even more harsh than the dads.


But this is just youth baseball. You'll never find anyone criticize the coach's son when the kids are involved. Right?



Who am I kidding? We've all seen the grandmother, with the cigarette hanging out of her mouth, who cusses out the shortstop for not getting his head down on a ground ball.


So I guess the story about Mark Richt allowing his son to sign with Clemson makes sense. Richt's feelings were summed up best here:


"I think the pressure on a head coach's son is not healthy," Mark said. "That's probably the toughest thing. As much scrutiny as there is now, it's just not healthy. I wanted Jon to go off and be his own man. I wanted him to understand that being the head coach's son was not the easiest thing to be. After I explained everything to him, if he still wanted to come here, we would have worked it out one way or the other."



But where would Richt, get such an idea? Isn't Richt beloved among the Georgia faithful? Surely, the Bulldawg nation would give their coach a little latitude, right?



At this point, I'm sure everyone loves Richt right now. But as we've discussed before, everyone is forgiving while your winning. (Sounds like a cheesy coaching line) It wasn't that long ago that Tubby Smith's son, Saul, received unbelievable scrutiny while running the point for Kentucky. Don't forget that Tubby won a national championship at Kentucky. If you forget how harsh it was, just look at this line from a 2000 Sporting News article.



Indiana coach Bob Knight delivered an extemporaneous defense of the point guard after IU ended its five-game losing streak against Kentucky, saying, "I would take Saul Smith in a heartbeat. All that call-in bull--, that's ridiculous for a kid to have to put up with any crap."


And that's from a coach for an opposing team.


So it appears Coach Richt made the right call with his son. Although, I do have to wonder, if his name was Coach Pryor and his son's name was Terrelle, would he have made the same decision?

No, that's not Andy Kennedy men's basketball coach for Ole Miss. He's probably the most influential IRS Agent in the country today. So, what does that have to do with sports? I'm really not sure.

His name is Jeff Novitsky and he was the lead investigator in the BALCO case. According to this New York Times article, he was assigned to the steroids case because money laundering is usually involved. Novitsky has been involved in several steroid related cases including Jason Grimsley, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

Novitsky seems to enjoy the spotlight and some of his motives have come into question. And those questioning his motives have a good point. If Clemens or Bonds ever used steriods, why is an IRS agent involved? I highly doubt Clemens or Bonds are involved in a money laundering scheme. But going after the dealers wouldn't bring him near the attention that bringing down a big name athlete would.

If you're tired of hearing about steroids and baseball. If you believe that, yes they were used and we will never know the whole truth about it, you can blame Novitsky for keeping this story alive. What else would he do if he didn't have steroids to get him in the papers, audit a tax return?

As a fan of SEC Basketball (pitiful as it is this year), I've been watching Pierre on the sidelines for a long time. His story must be told.

Years ago he played an Assistant DA on the hit show Law and Order under the name Richard Brooks.

After some time, the call of basketball must have been too much for him. A name change was necessary, so he could gain credibility in the basketball community. I mean, really, who's going to take an actor seriously when he's out recruiting.

Today, "Bruce Pierre" was named interim head coach at LSU after John Brady was fired. "Pierre" has stayed out of the limelight so the public wouldn't catch on and thus he has hidden his identity all these years. You can see him in this picture below.

Surely, you are smart enought to figure out that I am joking. However, he really does look like him. You have to see him in person, or on TV for this to really work. As he stays in the spotlight longer, more photos will be available and you'll see the resemblance.

I realize polls are meaningless. Especially polls ranking college football recruiting classes. But you have to take a look at this breakdown and ask yourself, does something stand out here?

Rivals

1. Alabama

2. Notre Dame

3. Florida

4. Miami

5. Oklahoma

Scout

1. Alabama

2. Notre Dame

3. Miami

4. Florida St

5. LSU

Sporting News

1. Alabama

2. Notre Dame

3. Florida

4. Oklahoma

5. Miami

ESPN

1. Miami

2. Clemson

3. Alabama

4. Florida

5. Georgia

A friend who sent this to me also included three other recruiting services rankings (Emfinger, Lemming, Super Prep) as well. I left them out just to save space, but they were all very similar to the Rivals, Scout and Sporting News polls.

So the question has to be asked, why is ESPN's ranking so different from everyone else? Notre Dame is not even listed in the top 5. Also, Georgia and Clemson came out of nowhere on the ESPN list.

This started a chain reaction of e-mails (all by admitted Bama Homers!) with various conspiracy theories that would make a message board go wild. A couple of the theories include:

ESPN left off Notre Dame because they are affiliated with NBC.

ESPN's chief analyst Tom Luginbill is married to an Auburn girl.

It could be that ESPN did better research than everybody else and thus their rankings are different. Nah, that wouldn't be any fun. If you have any more theories as to why they are so different, let me know.

If you were writing a bio on Tyler Hansbrough, wouldn't this best sum it up?

An All-America candidate in 2007-2008 ... A pre-season candidate for the John Wooden and Naismith Awards, symbolic of the nation's best player ... Named a pre-season All-American by Dick Vitale's Magazine ... Known to everyone as "Psycho T" ... Watch him play and the description fits (fights for every rebound, tough, aggressive, a winner) ... An intense competitor, who has made an impact for North Carolina during his three seasons on campus ... Strong at both ends of the court ... A fierce competitor on the offensive boards, and a tough defender and rebounder ... Tough, hard-nosed and a tremendous competitor ... Unstoppable around the basket ... Many people compare him to former Stanford All-American Mark Madsen ...

This bio was actually taken from Mark Madsen's website. I just changed the year, school and nickname. And look, I get it, this might not be the most original comparison.

But if you watched the Duke-UNC game last night, you saw Coach K run what I'll call the Mark Madsen offense. Early in the game, Duke pulled Hansbrough away from the basket and he was about as effective as Madsen is in the open court. And when they needed to run some clock late in the game, they just got Hansbrough away from the basket. It was a mismatch all the way.

The comparison is too easy:

Both have goofy nicknames (Psycho T vs Mad Dog).

Both are undersized big men.

Both need to wear some of those shoes that help you jump higher.

Both will have memorable college moments. Hansbrough with the bloody face. And Madsen with the putback dunk in the tournament (celebration is at 1:05 in the video).

And yes, both are white.

Unfortunately, he made it up. Here's Hart's statement:

“I wanted to play D-I ball more than anything. When I realized that wasn’t going to happen, I made up what I wanted to be reality,” read a statement sent out by Teri White, assistant superintendent of the Lyon County School District, on behalf of Hart. “I am sorry for disappointing and embarrassing my family, coaches, Fernley High School, the involved universities and reporters covering the story.”

Sometimes we forget that these players are kids. Although, I can see a 40-year old trying to pull this off as well. Hart's an 18-year old who let a lie get out of hand and now he's paying for it. No doubt the next couple of weeks, he'll be the butt of all the jokes all over the internet. You won't find any here. I feel pretty confident that he's already learned his lesson.

The real question of the night is, did North Carolina not realize that Duke was going to kick the ball back out to the 3 point shooters? I can understand once, but all night long?

As I've discussed the last couple of weeks, the Basketball polls are a joke. I had intended to give you the current group of "Over Rated" teams on Monday. However, the Mike Hart saga happened and then I wanted to give you my Duke-UNC thoughts early, in case they discussed it during the game tonight.

Because of that, two of my "Over-Rated" teams have already lost this week and I missed out on it. Florida and Marquette both had ugly loses on ESPN this week.

Keep an eye out for these teams, as I feel they are currently "Over-Rated"

Stanford - they're good, just not a Top Ten team.

Indiana - We're just now finding out about them, since they didn't play anybody early. They've got two games on the road this week.

Kansas St - So they beat Kansas. But they turned around and got beat by Missouri. They have a couple of easy games this week, (Nebraska and Oklahoma-both at home) so you know they'll get moved up next week. Then they'll really be "Over Rated".

Side note: If you didn't stay up and watch the Gonzaga - St Mary's game on Monday night you missed a good game. St Mary's looks pretty good and has a freshman point guard, Patrick Mills, that can ball. I do have one comment on the game though.

What's up with the lighting in St. Mary's gym. (I couldn't find a good link, but these kids dancing during halftime will have to do). It reminds you of that old rec center gym that you play pick-up in. St. Mary's, you guys can do better than that.

As talked about on Monday, you knew this story would make national headlines. Just about every major blog has talked about it and now the Washington Post had an article on it today.

Since we promised to follow this story to the end, here's an update.

California and Oregon definitely did not recruit Hart. And now, Hart is claiming in a police report that a man named Kevin Riley misreprented himself as a recruiter. There's even talk of some money being exchanged.


Here's what the Reno Gazette Journal had to say about the story today:

Hart claims, in a report taken Saturday by the LCSD, that a Kevin Riley falsely represented himself as a recruiter -- a middle man to big-time college football programs -- and led the 6-foot-5, 290-pounder and his family to believe there were scholarship offers available when there were none.


Obtaining money with a false pretense is the charge on the report at this time, said Deputy Dan Lynch, who took the report. Finding Riley could be difficult, though.
"It's an ongoing investigation but we have no suspect at this point and no info to identify a suspect," Lynch said.

So at this point, the story is going one of two ways. Either Hart made up everything from the beginning and he's now made up another story to try to cover his tracks, or Hart was scammed by some loser trying to pretend to be a recruiter.


Stay tuned.

In college basketball, home court advantage is a pretty big deal. That's what makes the tournament so great, because everyone plays on a neutral court. That might not be the case this year. I'm sure everyone in Chapel Hill and Durham have been aware of this for some time now, but you won't hear about it nationally until the conference tournament week. (Unless this post goes national, one can dream) It appears that Duke and UNC are in a fight for a number 1 seed and home court throughout the tournament. Maybe, I'm jumping the gun here a little bit, but it's definitely not unrealistic.

Sure the rivalry between Duke and North Carolina is big, however, for these two teams, getting the number one seed has some additional importance this year. Raleigh is hosting 1st and 2nd round games. A quick check on Mapquest shows that is approximately 30 miles away from both schools. With the new seeding format, they will both probably end up there.

That is not near as important as the regional final, which is being hosted in Charlotte. Obviously, the team that doesn't get a number one seed will end up in another regional. Therefore, if Duke or UNC runs the table and ends up a number one seed, they will not have to travel more than 2 hours to play any of the four games required to get to the Final Four. So keep an eye out on these two teams, especially in the ACC tournament. We could be looking at a guaranteed final four slot for one of them.

So when you're watching Dickie V gush on about the pagentry of this rivalry on Wed night, you'll know what's really going on. Do you think that Coach K and Roy Williams don't know what's at stake? It should be fun to watch.

Here's a crazy story recruiting story for you, taken from the Reno Gazette-Journal:

Less than 10 hours after Fernley offensive lineman Kevin Hart announced in front of the entire student body he would be signing a letter of intent to play football at California, questions were raised about the validity of the commitment.

At issue is whether Cal or any other program has actually offered the 6-foot-5, 290-pound left guard a scholarship. Hart made his announcement Friday afternoon.

The story goes on to detail that someone may have tried to impersonate Cal's Coach Jeff Tedford and at this point, we're not really sure if they have even offered Hart a scholarship. Law enforcement is getting involved and this is becoming a national story.

I'll try to follow the story to its conclusion so we can see what happened. After the Duke Lacrosse scandal, you never want to rush to judgment on who's to blame here.


It did get me to thinking though. How was someone able to pull it off? It's simple really. We all have the dream of playing big time sports. Hart looks like he has a Division I offensive lineman's body type. (You can see his picture from the Reno Gazette-Journal on the right). Hart attends a high school which has never had a student receive a scholarship to a Division I school directly out of high school, so he has no examples to base the recruiting process on. It's the perfect storm of circumstances and all the chips fell into place.


What high school athlete wouldn't want to be talked about everyday on the recruiting websites? Even now, I'd love to sit in front of a microphone with everyone from the town looking on and tell them which school I was attending. I'd have my hats lined up (Georgia, Alabama and USC). I'd have given misleading quotes so fans on each school's message board would have something to talk about. I'd even pick up the wrong hat at first. It would be the USC hat, because we all know I had USC on the list just to give me some recruiting cred. And I'd tell the whole world I'd be attending......


I guess you'll have to wait for the press conference.


Update: Both Cal and Oregan have said they were not recruiting Hart.

"Since you are being saturated with Super Bowl coverage, I thought I would have a Super Post day. Five short posts about non-Super Bowl related news. If you don't care about one of the topics, move on to another."

Apparently, Heath Evans is not a big Tommy Tuberville fan. In this article, Evans, who was recruited by Terry Bowden, details how Tuberville didn't think he was an SEC caliber player. This on the heals of having a great game against Tuberville the year before when he was the coach at Ole Miss.

Isn't it fascinating how many players succed at the college level and don't at the pro level? Likewise, there are a number of players that were not starters in college, yet go on to have solid pro careers. I guess it's all about opportunity. Being in the right place and system at the right time.

Also I love how Evans gets the final shot at Tuberville. He's going to give back, not by endowing a scholarship or by making a donation to the athletic program, but by opening a Dunkin' Doughnuts franchise in Auburn. Nice. Nothing says "Thank you for all that you've done for me", like a cream filled doughnut.

"Since you are being saturated with Super Bowl coverage, I thought I would have a Super Post day. Five short posts about non-Super Bowl related news. If you don't care about one of the topics, move on to another."

We got a taste of them last night. A team that is not one of the big 4 right now (Kansas, Memphis, UNC, Duke) and not many people are talking about them. Although they suffered an injury last night, overall they are starting to get healthy and they shoot free throws really well.

Keep an eye out on UCLA. They play in the #2 RPI ranked conference, so if they win their conference it will be hard to keep them away from a number #1 seed. And although I don't like him very much as a pro, I still think Kevin Love is a great college player. Also, they play defense really well and that goes a long way in the tournament.

Just remember, there is only one team to make the Final Four the last two years. Guess who?

"Since you are being saturated with Super Bowl coverage, I thought I would have a Super Post day. Five short posts about non-Super Bowl related news. If you don't care about one of the topics, move on to another."

Love him or hate him, he'll be in the broacast booth Wednesday for the Duke/UNC game. The writer of this article did an excellant job of telling us the Dickie V story just like he said it. You'll get tired just reading it.

I still favor Gus Johnson more than Dickie V and was outraged that he was in the studio Saturday.

I'll have more on the importance of Duke and/or UNC winning their conference and getting the number one seed later this week.

"Since you are being saturated with Super Bowl coverage, I thought I would have a Super Post day. Five short posts about non-Super Bowl related news. If you don't care about one of the topics, move on to another."

If you follow recruiting 24-7, then you've already heard of this guy. If not, here's a name to look out for, Terrelle Pryor. He's a top recruit who's narrowed his choices down to Ohio St, Michigan, Penn St and Oregan. Here's what a recruiting analyst for Scout.com has to say about him:

“I think the best comparison you could make to the last five, six years would probably be Vince Young,” Bob Lichtenfels, a recruiting analyst for Scout.com, said, referring to the Tennessee Titans quarterback who won a national title in college at Texas. “But, personally, I think he’s going to be better than Vince Young. That’s nothing against Vince. He’s a great player. Terrelle is just a difference maker.”

That's what I love about recruiting analysts. They can make bold predictions about players and no one goes back and checks them on it. We've seen "5-star" players flop and we've seen "no-star" players become All-Americans. And since no one goes back and looks at the previous classes, we'll take a look at them later this week.

One other quick thought about Pryor. Who's he playing in this picture? The 125 lb rec team from his neighboring city?

"Since you are being saturated with Super Bowl coverage, I thought I would have a Super Post day. Five short posts about non-Super Bowl related news. If you don't care about one of the topics, move on to another."


Last week, I told you that the Florida Gators where "Over Rated". Once again, we had a team go down on the week I gave them the infamous label.

You could see this one coming though. The Razorbacks have been playing well lately and they played the Gators at home. The Gators also had a week off, so any momentum they had gained was lost during their time off.

The Razorbacks are an experienced team with a new head coach. They're tall and athletic and they should be a team you watch out for in February. Their coach, John Pelphry, is a long time Donovan assistant and friend. This probably contributed to their win, as he could scout the Gator's offensive and defensive schemes better than anyone.

If the name Pelphry rings a bell, you probably remember him from the Kentucky team that lost to Duke on this play. He's number 34 for Kentucky who never moves.

Pelphry joins Donovan and Anthony Grant as Rick Pitino protegees who are now coaching in the college ranks. They have also followed Pitino's lead and are sharped dressed on the sidelines.

I'll have to do a little more research on them, but they may just be the first Play is Under Review "Under Rated" team. On second thought, probably not. The AP voters will "over rate" them in a week or two.

I've updated the "What's out There" section of this site again. With all of the Super Bowl coverage this week, you had to know that there would be several good "features" written. I especially liked the one about Ernie Adams, the man behind the scenes in New England.

Also, I've listed it in another post, but you have to read the two features on the Eastern Arizona basketball coach. Just a simply unbelievable read. You can find them here and here.

When trying to make your prediction and/or look intelligent at your Super Bowl party, remember that the Giants were playing great football in Week 17 and they still couldn't beat the Patriots in their own stadium. Also, no one talks about the fact that the Giants returned a kickoff for a touchdown, which kept the game a whole lot closer than it would have been. The Giants haven't gotten any better since that game and the Patriots have not gotten any worse. Don't get caught up in the hype, the Patriots are 12 point favorites for a reason.