nolan!

-- Former University of Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson has been contacted by a Tulsa booster and is interested in returning to the school he coached from 1980 to 1985. During his previous stint with the Golden Hurricane, Richardson led Tulsa to three NCAA tournaments and an NIT championship. After leaving for Arkansas, Nolan took the Razorbacks to 15 NCAA tournaments in 17 seasons, including back-to-back championship games and the 1994 title. Nolan, the "winningest coach available," would be a tremendous choice for Tulsa (or Massachusetts or Missouri. Though he would be wise to avoid a stint at Indiana).

"One of the (Tulsa) boosters called me after the Christmas break and asked me if I had any interest in coming back," Richardson said...Moving into Conference USA next season along with WAC schools UTEP, Rice and SMU, the Tulsa job is expected to be one of the best available prior to the 2005-06 season.

"(Details of the settlement with Arkansas) would need to be worked out," said Richardson. "But I am interested in getting back into college basketball."

-- Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel speaks with John Calipari about Memphis' struggles. Coach blames a difficult schedule. I fault Sean "head-case" Banks.

-- The Richmond Times-Dispatch, in a hard to understand editorial maneuver, publishes John Raby's AP wire story on the West Virginia Mountaineers. The result is a ho-hum piece from which Richmond basketball enthusiasts would learn nary an anecdote about John Beilein's team. For Virginia and West Virginia papers covering WVU, I would suggest asking an in-house sports reporter to produce an interesting write-up. Deadlines, sure. But standards, also.

-- St. John's pulled out of the Big East postseason tournament as part of the school's self-imposed penalties for the Abe Keita scandal. Mike Jarvis, however, has not pulled out of his analyst responsibilities at ESPN. Were I an employee at the "worldwide leader," I would use any excuse I could find to get Jarvis off the air.

-- Fresh from "working" the Auburn-Virginia Tech BCS game, Auburn alum Charles Barkley is back to working on his book, due in May, titled "Why Do White People Hate Me?" My thought? It's gotta be the shoes.

-- USC's Lodrick Stewart checked-in with the understatement of the month: "I didn't expect half the stuff that's been going on in this program."

-- A judgment on the eligibility (or lack there)of University of Cincinnati freshman shooting guard Vincent Banks is expected later this week. Banks would improve the Bearcats' depth.

-- Is Northwestern really experiencing a surge in interest? Could students be frozen out in the cold, unable to get tickets? Or is the school's latest press release a New Year's prank?

-- Steve Rivera of the Tucson Citizen suggests road games will be difficult to win in the under-appreciated PAC-10.