So I'm sure this will be a hot topic of conversation.  In a speech to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, Bobby Knight questions why Calipari is still allowed to coach.

"We've gotten into this situation where integrity is really lacking and that's why I'm glad I'm not coaching," he said. "You see we've got a coach at Kentucky who put two schools on probation and he's still coaching. I really don't understand that."

There's so much wrong with this statement that I don't even know where to begin.  It seems to dovetail nicely with Tru's commentary on the front page regarding media groupthink.  Calipari has been dubbed a "bad guy" by the media, therefore he must wear the black hat.  Now in comes Bobby Knight wearing his white hat to save the day????  I'm sorry, did I miss when Knight all of a sudden became a paragon of virtue and agreed with the media in general?  Does taking a paycheck from ESPN to sit courtside (which I will unashamedly admit that I love hearing him commentate a game) automatically change his outlook when it comes to listening to what the media has to say?

And when did Bobby Knight become the moral compass for sports?  At what point did the man who threw a chair and got banned from Peurto Rico become an expert on human behavior?  At what point did the man who promised to mold and protect young men and then choked one of his own players become a model of integrity?   When did the guy who rose to the blatantly obvious bating of a sportswriter's son on campus become a paragon of self-restraint?

None of these past behaviors of Bobby Knight's has any bearing on the integrity of Coach Calipari.  In fact, I recognize that I am engaging in one of the oldest forms of argument whereby I attack the messenger's credibility instead of the veracity of the message.  However, I cannot abide this sort of palaver of the worst sort.

Rotnei Clark hits on 13-17 threes as Arkansas wins 130-68 over Alcorn State.  The former Gillispie recruit and Willie Warren chum scored 51 points.  Pelphry has a gem in that one.  I remember watching the grainy Youtube videos of him a couple summers ago when Gillispie was still new and fresh to us.  Its a shame we missed out on him, he's the kind of zone-buster that Calipari could really use right about now.

Congratulations to Rotnei.

I'm almost positive that I heard on ESPN radio last night that BBM is being carried on ESPNU.  Please... please... please tell me this isn't true!  In years past, I have watched it live on WAVE 3 out of Louisville.  I would hate to miss it because Comcast and ESPN are still in a pissing contest...

I did see the link below in the FanShots that its available online, but its not the same as watching on TV.  It will be a travesty if I was able to watch the schedule revealed on local television but BBM is only carried by the World Wide Leader.

The likelihood of beating South Carolina has been the topic of much discussion around this website for the last few days.  Quite simply put, beating South Carolina has the potential to mean the difference between a mediocre season and a good season.

So what have we seen tonight as college football kicks off for the season on ESPN?

Continue reading this post »

The Elizabethtown News Enterprise had an interview with Andre Woodson in Sunday's paper (he's from just up the road in Radcliff).  I looked for a link online today... but no such luck.

More after the jump ...

Continue reading this post »

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4352863

Steve Spurrier has confessed that he was the one who did not include Tebow on his first team ballot for All-SEC and subsequently sent sports radio into a tizzy.  Apparently, this is such an important matter that he delegated the responsibility to his director of football operations.  No worries though... prior to submitting something with his name on it to the SEC offices; he did, in fact, "glance at it."

Honestly... if the coaches don't care enough to vote for these awards, why do we bother?  Then again, if we are going to use coaches polls to determine the national title... why don't they fill those out themselves? 

The world may never know.

So much for the vaunted "higher admissions standards at Duke."

Riddle me this...

How can a young man that had to repeat the 9th grade gain acceptance after his junior year to one of the most academically demanding universities in the nation?

By being good at basketball and committing to a program that is desperate for guards.

When guard Elliot Williams abruptly left Duke last month to transfer to the University of Memphis and closer to home to deal with a family illness, the Blue Devils' staff and the father of Class of 2010 commitment Andre Dawkins started to discuss the possibility of an early arrival for the 6-4 guard, who is ranked as the No. 10 player in his class in the ESPNU 100.

The program, after all, was down to only two guards on its entire roster: Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith. They were the only players shorter than 6-7 on the team.

So, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation, Andre's father (also named Andre) told the Duke staff to have the university's academic adviser look at Dawkins' transcript to see if an early admission was possible.

According to the source, Dawkins already had the necessary 16 core classes, a qualifying test score and the appropriate corresponding GPA to be admitted to Duke. Dawkins has been in high school for four years, starting out at Deep Creek High (Va.) in ninth grade before transferring to Atlantic Shores Christian High (Va.), where he repeated the same grade. That was done for basketball reasons, not academics, according to the source.

There was one hurdle, though. A player must be a high school graduate in order to be admitted. So this summer, Dawkins is taking the last class he needs to graduate.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4331592&name=katz_andy<!--QuoteEnd-->