all in the family

-- The Philadelphia Inquirer's Mike Jensen takes a look at his preseason list of coaches on the hot seat. His advice to Massachusetts' Steve Lappas? Buy yourself $50,000 worth of NIT tickets. My advice to Lappas? Hit the road, Jack. And don't you come back no more. (Nikki Cox of "Unhappily Ever After," by the way, recently broke off her engagement and is back on the market). Jensen's thoughts on Jay Wright? What a difference a year makes. Advice for Mike Davis? Get out while you still can. Pete Gillen? A lost cause. Herb Sendek? Bad news is Vitale is on his side. Good news is so is Caulton Tudor (as I noted yesterday). Henry Bibby? Gone.

-- Bernie Wilson of the AP profiles the last in a long line of Waltons. Chris, a fifth-year senior at San Diego State, has -- you guessed it -- struggled with injuries. I'm interested where he lands after graduation. Europe? Perhaps. But methinks the youngest Walton may soon wind up on the bench or in a booth.

-- Time for Michigan State to rely more on underclassmen and less on seniors, or so suggests Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press. Out to looking to Alan Anderson, Kelvin Torbert and Chris Hill for leadership. In with depending on Paul Davis, Maurice Ager and Shannon Brown for production. Not a bad column, though Rosenberg's argument proceeds awkwardly. He starts by writing that Michigan State may not be broken, only to then advocate a particular fix.

-- Dijon Thompson scored 24 points including the game-winning basket to lead UCLA over Washington State in a must-win game for the Bruins. Last night's tough loss notwithstanding, Nick Peters of the Scripps-McClatchy Western Service finds "venerable coach Dick Bennett" making progress at Washington State.

-- Bruce Weber would like his Fighting Illini to go undefeated. Or so writes investigative journalist Jim Benson of the Pantagraph.