Why can't we just anoint Marion Barry and move on?
Rutgers running back Ray Rice is headed to the NFL, and I think I speak for all of us when I say thank you and good luck. Tiquan Underwood and Kenny Britt will be the best receiving tandem in the conference next year, and Mike Teel has improved each year he's been in Piscataway, but the Scarlet Knights were the best over the last two seasons when Rice was opening up the passing game, and not the other way around. This one hurts RU, but it certainly helps the rest of the league.
Louisville freshman running back and former Trinity High School standout Blayne Donnell was arrested and charged with second-degree assault yesterday stemming from a fight that took place last month.
Christopher Miller, 19, recently told The Courier-Journal that he and Donnell fought at a party for several minutes before Donnell sought help from several other males. Miller subsequently sustained a broken jaw and other injuries.
"We are well aware of the situation involving Blayne Donnell," U of L coach Steve Kragthorpe said in a statement. "This matter will be addressed internally and we'll be very attentive to how this will be handled throughout the judicial process."
Miller said that as he was leaving the party in Old Louisville on Dec. 15, he said, "Forget U of L's football team - and forget Arkansas with Petrino," a reference to former UofL coach Bobby Petrino, who now coaches at Arkansas.
Donnell took offense, Miller said, and, after an exchange of words, they fought.
So this kid, Christopher Miller, starts running his mouth about U of L football for no reason ("forget" Louisville, eh?), becomes a willing participant in a fight with a player who took exception to his comments, loses said fight, and this is assault? If sucking at fighting gets you paid then I'm pretty sure I should be retired by now.
Anthony Allen and his father were in town yesterday to see if they could get the stipulation that prevents Anthony from transferring to Arkansas lifted. They could not.
Amos Allen said the family was not upset by U of L's ruling yesterday and would move forward in their search to find Anthony a new school. He said they are exploring a list of about 10 schools right now, and that Anthony might go to a community college this semester if necessary.
This whole thing is still so incredibly juvenile. Basically what Kragthorpe and Jurich are saying is that if U of L allows Allen to play for Petrino, then other players who see this and enjoyed life under the previous regime might become inclined to follow suit. Well if these players are being forced to play for a program they would otherwise leave, then how inspired can we really expect them to play on Saturday (or Thursday, or Friday, or one time Tuesday)?
Let the kid go play for Petrino if he wants to.
You probably didn't catch the story when it first "broke," but Syracuse wide receiver Taj Smith (the short guy with dreads who I'm pretty sure tripled every single one of his career numbers against us) has declared himself eligible for the NFL Draft. I'm not saying that he's not going to be drafted or anything, but when you're not the best wide receiver on the worst BCS conference team in the country, uh, maybe "foregoing my senior year to pursue other opportunities" is the better media play.
SI.com's Seth Davis is giving stock advice for a bevy of college basketball teams, and it's safe to say that he's still pretty high on Louisville's prospects.
This has got to be the easiest pick on the board. Remember, last year the Cardinals were 6-4 in the Big East in early February and looked to be headed to the NIT. Then they got healthy and ended up a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tourney. This time, they got healthy in January. If they stay that way -- and if Edgar Sosa can somehow finagle his way out of Rick Pitino's doghouse -- then another mad dash is in the offing.
I'm not sure why anyone would care, but Joe Lunardi (who sucks) has released the latest installment of his Bracketology deal, and Louisville is listed as the eighth closest team to getting into the tournament that isn't, or No. 73 if you prefer that. You know, if Lunardi is going to do this thing in early January then I wish he'd at least have the balls to predict who he think is going to earn each league's automatic bid instead of handing the Ivy League to Harvard because it's one of two teams to play a conference game and the only one to win one. But I suppose that would be more difficult than, oh I don't know, waiting until you get some inside info and updating your bracket at the last second on Selection Sunday and then claiming to be a sage (I saw what you did with Arkansas).
Louisville still has an open date on its 2008 football schedule, and in case you were wondering (you weren't?), here are the Division I schools that also have at least one hole to fill on their schedule:
Arkansas
Army
Boston College
Brigham Young
Central Michigan
Eastern Michigan
Georgia Tech
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Kent State
Louisiana-Lafayette
Louisiana-Monroe
LSU
Louisiana Tech
North Texas
Ohio
Oklahoma
Southern Miss
Troy
Tulane
UAB
UCF
UNLV
Virginia Tech
Western Michigan
Wisconsin
Maybe the silver lining in sucking for one season is that you can get someone decent to play you.
With each new day it seems like Georgia does something to gain significant ground on Vanderbilt in the race for "SEC school I want to lose the least." First they agree to a home-and-home with Louisville, then they storm the field after a first quarter touchdown, and now their president says publicly that the BCS is "undercutting the sportsmanship and integrity of the game," and calls for an eight-team playoff.
"I believe the season is already too long and demands too much of athletes and the universities that serve them," Adams said at a news conference. "But this year's experience with the BCS forces me to the conclusion that the current system has lost public confidence and simply does not work."
Adams would like a special NCAA committee to work out the particulars, but the plan calls for the winners of the four major bowls -- Rose, Sugar, Orange and Fiesta -- to play semifinals at least one week later, with the championship game the following week.
Michael Adams: Voice for the mute college football fan, and speedy point guard on the 1994 Washington Bullets.
Finally, here's a sweet YouTube of Everick Sullivan's reverse dunk and game-winning three-pointer against Florida State in '89.
It's amazing how much more anal we've become about the clock in such a relatively short period of time. If that game had been played last night there would have been a five-minute discussion at the scorer's table, around two seconds would have been put back on the clock, and we all would have been bombarded with about ten promos for the next night's games on ESPN.