Tuesday, February 08, 2005
we are the world
-- Rusty Miller of the Associated Press has this evening's must-read after interviewing several Ohio State players who are upset at the Buckeye administration for self-imposing an NCAA Tournament ban in December. At 16-7 and having won four Big Ten games in a row, Ohio State (RPI: 50) would be a bubble team were it not for the school's preemptive action. Coach Thad Matta is wisely avoiding this hot potato.-- Say you were Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel and you had just written a solid column detailing, one team a time, the Big Ten's decline. Would you then end your column on this self-contradictory note?
Big Ten followers should savor Illinois' current run, because there may not be another one like it for a while.
If, save Wisconsin and Illinois, every Big Ten team is indeed down, why shouldn't the Fighting Illini dominate the conference for the next couple years? Notwithstanding Illinois' extreme success in non-conference games this season, Mandel's conclusion fails to jive with his main argument.
-- The Panama-born guard with a Muslim first name and a Jewish last name who plays at a Baptist university in North Carolina was today selected to Seth Davis' All-Glue Team. Here's to religious tolerance.
-- Former Georgia guard Tony Cole is back in jail after violating his probation on a felony bad-check charge. Where's Jim Harrick now?
