r-e-s-p-e-R-t

-- Guess who's investigating UNLV now? Nevada state government. It appears the men's basketball team last year spent $13,100 for a chartered plane to a road game while the women's team, traveling three days later, spent $2,400 to fly commercially to the same city.

-- During last night's game between Connecticut and Boston College, my frustrated father asked, "Yoni, how can you root for BC? Anybody who roots against UCONN is, by definition, an anti-Semite." Uhhh, right. As you might have guessed, pops has been a Jim Calhoun fan since the days of Nadav Henefeld and Doron Sheffer.

-- Blogger Jeff Jotz recaps the Notre Dame-Seton Hall match-up, noting that scrawny Pirate point guard Justin Cerasoli, starting in his first collegiate game, scored 16 points and dished out 4 assists in 34 minutes. More importantly, Cerasoli played solid defense against Chris Thomas. Learn about the freshman, Cerasoli, here.

-- Reader Kevin let me know of a must-read "Where are they now" article about former Michigan State star Shawn Respert. Wonder why Respert didn't make it in the NBA? He had cancer. I wish Shawn the best of health.

-- Mike Davis won't last long at Indiana. Even my mom would have him fired after last night's game against Northwestern.

What happened Wednesday night was not just embarrassing, it was dismal, arguably the lowest the Hoosiers' program has fallen in decades (although there were some pretty ugly moments last season). They didn't just lose their Big Ten opener to the Wildcats, but suffered their worst loss of the season.

As it turned out, the Hoosiers we saw during the non-conference season are precisely the same team today, still incapable of piercing a zone defense, still lost on the boards, still making the same insipid decisions with the basketball, still inclined to lose its composure at a moment's notice.

--The (A.J.) Price is wrong this season. (Marcus) White is out until next. Connecticut will have few options at point guard for the entire season as their would-be starter attempts to get healthy. Though Purdue will benefit from the services of a former Connecticut forward beginning in the second semester of 2005-06.

-- A Circuit Judge today paved the way for University of Louisville basketball games to be broadcoast on Sirius Satellite Radio. Sweet.

-- Twenty-two people were arrested for scalping tickets outside the University of Kentucky-South Carolina game. Sucks to be them. Ditto for both Kansas State men's basketball players who were yesterday robbed by armed men.