Doubting Thomas’ intentions

Now, generally speaking, when a college basketball coach recruits heavily in the JC ranks, it means:

1) The coach and/or institution he represents doesn’t much care about character issues or academic issues of the athletes — as long as they can put that ball into the hole.

2) The coach and/or institution he represents can’t attract talented players with the proper academic credentials out of high school.

3) The coach is more concerned with winning quickly than building a program to last.

So, what are we to make of the fact that NBA pariah Isiah Thomas, in his first official act as Florida International men’s coach, has given out scholarships to four — count ’em, four – junior college players?

We don’t know what’s in Isiah’s mind, but the scholarships certainly seem to fit the scenario suggested by some of his critics — that he’s looking to make a quick score at FIU and parlay that into a return to the NBA.

This is only going to get better

Ah, A-Rod.

Those of you who have been waiting for the other shoe to drop in the A-Rod saga, direct your antennae-like appendages toward New York, where the Daily News is reporting more details from Selena Roberts’ upcoming book on Alex Rodriguez.

The book claims Rodriguez did not stop using steroids when he went to the Yankees — as he has insisted — and might have been juiced way back in high school.

As might be expected, Rodriguez is less than forthcoming about the latest allegations.

“I’m not going there,” he said Thursday. “I’m just so excited about being back on the field and playing baseball.”

I bet you are, Alex. And I’m just so excited to see what else Roberts will say about the man his teammates have dubbed “A-Fraud.”

Take me out to the … hell, not at those prices

The Yankees’ cutting of some of their more ridiculous ticket prices is not getting the PR pat on the back they probably were looking for.

Among the changes: Front-row $2,500 seats behind the dugouts will be cut to $1,250.

New York Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky was less than impressed, saying, “The people who built Yankee Stadium with their tax money can no more afford $1,200 a game than they can afford $2,500.”

The Yankee brass also cut tickets along the first- and third-base lines from $1,000 a game to $650, but it wasn’t out of the kindness of their hearts. It was out of concern for all the photos of empty seats.

“It was starting to hurt the overall brand,” said Donny Deutsch, chairman of Deutsch Inc., an advertising agency, when asked about the original pricing strategy. “People start asking whether you care about the fans.”

Is that a question you really need to ask?

Friday column: OK, OK, so I'm a curmudgeon

Yet another approaching birthday reminds me that I’m old.

How old?

I remember when athletes of the magnitude of Boston’s Kevin Garnett weren’t caught on camera cursing out their opponents in ways that suggested their foes had carnal knowledge of their female parental units.

I remember when athletes such as Chicago’s Ben Gordon didn’t immediately grab their groins and stare at their opponents after making a big play.

I remember when crowds at NBA arenas didn’t predictably break into a chant of “(the other team) sucks.”

The coarsening of the culture continues apace, in sports as in other areas of life. I don’t see this as a good thing in any regard but, as I mentioned, I’m old.

Old enough to recall when public-address announcers at ballparks and arenas didn’t see their jobs as avenues of personal expression or feel the need to galvanize the fans into a rabid backing of the home team.

Back in the day — when a working stiff like moi could afford to take in a game (more on that later) — PA announcers plied their trade in a way that lent an air of dignity to the event, instead of an air of homer hysteria.

Wednesday, The New York Times’ John Branch wrote, “There is a cacophonous trend, laced with attitude and partiality, making sound waves through the National Basketball Association. The public-address announcer — historically a measured voice, soothing the air an octave below the din — is taking on the role of cheerleader.”

Branch notes, for instance, that Denver’s Kyle Speller will sometimes punctuate a Nuggets dunk by shouting, “That’s what I’m talking about!” and “often bellows, ‘De-fense!’ or ‘Let’s go, Nuggets!’ to jump-start a crowd chant.”

Is it churlish for me to say that when I was going to games, fans knew when to cheer and what to chant without any assistance by the PA man? Perhaps, but, as I believe I said, I’m old.

Old enough to remember a time when Joe Six-Pack could afford big-league ducats. Increasingly, that is no longer the case. Look at New York.

Faced with an embarrassing number of empty seats, the Yankees are slashing the prices of some of the seats at their new baseball palace, seats that were going — or rather, weren’t going — for $2,500 a game.

A game.

Who came up with that pricing idea in the middle of the worst recession in decades? The same fellow who authorized the Ground Zero fly-by?

Heck, when I used to attend games, if you wanted to take in nine innings, you didn’t have to choose between a couple of tickets and that month’s mortgage payment.

But, like I said, I’m old.

And grumpy.

Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.

An ugly side of the beautiful game

Italian soccer continues to have a fan problem.

The Beautiful Country has a not-so-beautiful reputation for fan hooliganism and racism. The first helped prevent Italy from winning the bid to host Euro 2012. The second will cause two-time European champion Juventus to play a May 3 game without benefit of a crowd.

This because of the abuse showered upon Inter Milan striker Mario Balotelli, an Italian of Ghanaian descent, during Saturday’s 1-1 draw.

"The sporting judge ... considered that in the course of the game and on multiple occasions, fans of the home team, in various sections of the stadium, sang songs which included racial discrimination," a league statement said.

"Juventus are therefore obliged to play one game behind closed doors."

Juventus president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli strongly condemned the chants of his team’s fans, but Juventus is appealing the ruling, just the same.

As B.F. Skinner could tell you (if he were still with us), negative reinforcement works. So I say, keep penalizing the team, because that keeps penalizing the fans, who might — eventually — get the message.

Smelling like a Rose

Recommended reading: Rick Telander’s Chicago Sun-Times piece on NBA Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose.

At the moment, Rose is the Next Big Thing in the NBA, a cat-quick point guard who can penetrate the paint with the best of them (ask the Boston Celtics, if you doubt). Yet, according to Telander’s column, Rose has managed to avoid swelled-head syndrome — no small feat for an top-tier athlete today.

Telander quotes Bulls exec John Paxson: "Derrick is a great kid. He's got humility. He doesn't think he's got all the answers. He doesn't do it by pounding his chest."

The column says Rose learned the right approach from his family.

"You always try to treat a person the way you want to be treated," Rose’s mother, Brenda, told Telander. "That's the main rule. It comes from my grandmother."

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/telander/1540470,CST-SPT-rick23.article

Friday column: Any way you spell it, all this is d-u-m-b

I usually spent my 480 or so words each Friday hammering athletes for doltish behavior, but sometimes teams themselves do things that are just too dim-witted to ignore.

So, I’ll pass on NFL wide receiver wannabes Percy Harvin and Brandon Tate having possibly cost themselves millions by testing positive for pot at February’s NFL scouting combine (I don’t know that’s why they call it dope — but it certainly fits) and concentrate on recent actions by the Washington Nationals and the Detroit Lions.
Let’s start with the Nats.

Outfielder Elijah Dukes has found his way into this column before — let’s just say he has a history of anger issues that are compounded by, well, paternity issues. His arrest record (at least three times for battery and once for assault) impelled Tampa Bay to give up on his prodigious talent and send him packing to Washington.

In D.C., he’s done better — on field and off, but now he’s in trouble again. His offense? Showing up five minutes later than expected for a recent game.

So what was Dukes doing that caused him to be late? Was he involved in a scrap? Was he wooing a new inamorata? No. He was giving his woeful team some badly needed positive PR by signing autographs for Little Leaguers.

The Nats immediately turned the good PR into terrible PR by publicly disciplining Dukes with a benching and a $500 fine, a fine the Little League is raising money to pay — making the Little Leaguers look noble, Dukes look like a victim, and the Nats look like buffoons.

Despite what you might think, buffoon is not a registered trademark of the Detroit Lions, but it certainly could be.

Creators of the first team in NFL history to go 0-16, Detroit front-office types took a bold step this week to reverse the club’s fortunes — they redesigned its logo.

According to the Associated Press account, “The leaping lion appears more fierce, while the team name features an italicized slant.”

Now that should scare the competition.

At a news conference to announce these momentous developments — yes, they actually called a news conference — the team said the changes were consistent with its “sense of mission and direction.”

The only way the new logo truly could be consistent with the team’s direction is if the new Lion were depicted vertically and, yes, head down.

Back to the Nats.

The day before the Duke debacle, two players took the field with uniforms that misspelled the team name on the front.

Now, it’s true the Nats don’t make their own uniforms, so they can’t be blamed for that. But it’s also true it took all the team’s stretching time, warm-up time, batting practice, and three full innings for anyone to notice.

Perhaps that level of attention to detail helps explain that the team with the worst record in baseball is, indeed, the “Natinals.”

Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.

One toke (at least) over the line

So.

You’re an NFL general manager in need of a wide receiver in the upcoming draft. You’ve got your eye on Percy Harvin (in the uni) and Brandon Tate (in the suit) out of Florida and North Carolina, respectively.

Then — less than a week before the draft — you learn both tested positive for marijuana at the NFL scouting combine in February.

Considering the players know they’re going to be tested at the combine, you’ve got to be wondering, do these two players have a drug problem — or a brain problem? It would seem to be one or the other.

We’re talking the NFL here, no neither problem will keep a player from being drafted, but either one can cost a player draft position, and draft position can cost a player millions of dollars.

Let me repeat that: millions of dollars.

I do hope for both Harvin and Tate that refer was worth it.

Ah, so THIS is the end

In December after Mississippi State basketball Andy Kennedy was arrested following an altercation with a Cincinnati cab driver, he protested his innocence loud and long. So did his attorney,

"Frankly, the charges are absolutely not true,” the mouthpiece said. “This is not something we will tolerate and we will see this through until the end."

The end came Monday when Kennedy — that’s him being cuffed above — pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct and was sentenced to 40 hours community service and six months probation.

The incident — and Kennedy’s handling of it — didn’t get rave reviews from the Mississippi State administration.

"Andy should have handled this situation better as it relates to the time frame and subsequent dispute," said athletic director Pete Boone, who declined to extend Kennedy’s three-year contract despite acknowledging Kennedy’s on-the-court performance deserved it.

One of the ways the coach could have handled it better is not filing a defamation suit against the cab driver Mohamed Moctar Ould Jiddou, who told police Kennedy punched him in the face and called him a terrorist.

As of Wednesday, Kennedy’s lawsuit was still pending — but it probably won’t be helped by the fact that in court Kennedy apologized to Jiddou and a to valet who witnessed the incident and backed Jiddou’s story.

I'd love to see the mouthpiece spin that.

First day at school

At his introductory press conference Wednesday as the new face of Florida International University basketball, Isiah Thomas was presented as Isiah Thompson — not an auspicious start.

Less auspicious was Thomas dancing around questions related to the sexual harassment allegations that ended up costing his former employers — the owners of the Knicks — $11.6 million.

Less auspicious still was FIU athletic director Pete Garcia’s vague description of his vetting of Thomas, ending with the pronouncement, “We are getting a great human being.”

Thomas’ donating his first year’s salary to the school’s athletic department gives him a much-needed — if minor — PR bump. And Garcia’s hiring of Thomas already has accomplished its main purpose — getting people to talk about FIU.

So, look, Pete: Here I am, talking about FIU, and here's what I'm saying — This isn't going to end well.

Who knew the rest of us were worse?

Everyone knows the NFL has behavior … uh … issues.

Now, thanks to San Diego Union staff writer Brent Schrotenboer, we can see exactly how many.

Using public records and media reports going back to 2000, the newspaper compiled a list of arrests or major citations involving our weekend warriors. Among the findings: Defensive backs are the most frequent scofflaws, followed by wide receivers and running backs. The least likely to screw up are kickers/punters, followed by quarterbacks and offensive linemen.

The most surprising stat: Since 2000, there has been one arrest per 47 NFL players per year. In the general population since 2000, there has been one arrest per 21 people per year.

The links —

Schrotenboer’s column:

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/11/1s11nfl224027-misconduct-still-big-issue-nfl/?zIndex=80912

NFL arrests/citations since 2000:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/nfl/arrests.html

Arrest overview:

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/11/1s11nflrail224028/?zIndex=80914

Friday column: Competitive drive vs. perspective

Phil Mickelson was excited.

Kenny Perry was gracious.

Tiger Woods was pissed.

All of which helps explain their relative positions in the golf universe.

After a brilliant front nine Sunday at Augusta, Mickelson frittered away his opportunity to complete a comeback for the ages and win the Masters.

First, he put a ball into the water on 12. Then he missed a 4-foot eagle putt on 15. Then he blew a 5-foot birdie putt at 17.

Yet he was smiling when he came off 18.

“It was fun,” he said.

Perry, 48, bidding to make history as the oldest man to win a major, took a two-stroke lead with him to 17, only to bogey it and 18 to fall into a playoff, which he lost.

“I’m still proud,” he said, before going on to warmly praise the man who beat him, Angel Cabrera.

Woods started the day — like Mickelson — seven strokes back. He, too, made a run at the lead — only to bogey the final two holes.

“I was just terrible,” Woods told a TV interviewer, anger evident in word, tone and body language. “I don’t know what was going on. It was just frustrating.”

Then he stalked off, smileless, joyless.

Woods isn’t into fun. He isn’t into moral victories. He’s into winning — period. His hyper-competitiveness is one of the reasons he’s so good.

No one becomes a successful pro athlete without being competitive — and Mickelson is quite successful; Perry, too, for that matter. But Woods’ competitiveness is of a different order. He doesn’t just love to win — he absolutely hates to lose.

When I’m rooting for an athlete, I prefer he or she be steely eyed. But in real life — and no, sports isn’t real life — it’s a little more complicated. In a February column about CEOs who helped lead us into recession, Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post noted, “many of the men who have lost other people’s money describe themselves as sportsmen, and operate with an absolute win-loss mentality.”

Wrote Jenkins: “Edward Bennett Williams called it ‘contest living,’ the unrelieved striving in which ‘every effort is marked down at the end as a win or a loss.’

But in real life, not everything is a clear win or a clear loss. In real life, results are often mixed, and their ultimate legacy has a lot to do with how they’re viewed.
This is how Perry viewed the Masters:

“I will look at this as a special week. It wasn’t perfect, but I’ll go home tonight with my family and we’ll have fun.”

There’s a word for that — perspective. I don’t know that that helps Perry in sport, but I’m quite certain it does in life — real life.

Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.

Class will tell

So, have the Buffalo Bills become the new Bengals?

On New Year’s Day, safety Ko Simpson was arrested and charged with disorderly outside (guess what?) a bar.

On Feb. 11, Pro Bowl running back Marshawn Lynch was charged with carrying a concealed, loaded and unregistered 9-mm handgun. This follows a summer incident in which he hit a pedestrian and fled the scene.

Then Saturday, safety Donte Whitner was arrested for his role in what Cleveland police called a “near riot” outside a blues club. Whitner, who was Tasered by police, was charged with aggravated disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

What makes the Bills the new Bengals is not just the arrests but the attitude, best exemplified by Simpson, who while police were arresting two of his friends, kept yelling, "I'm Ko Simpson with the Buffalo Bills. I am worth millions!''

A match made in, well …

Does the pairing of Pete Garcia and Isiah Thomas look like a perfect match or what?

Garcia, the athletic director at Florida International, made a splash Tuesday by hiring Thomas as his men’s basketball coach, though Thomas has zero experience in college coaching.

Garcia not only overlooked Thomas’ unproductive-to-disastrous runs as a coach and exec in the NBA at Toronto, Indiana and New York, he overlooked some strange-to-distressing personal behavior by the Hall of Fame point guard.

That behavior included the recent incident in which Thomas apparently overdosed on sleeping pills — then tried to convince the press it was his daughter who was rushed to the hospital. And it includes alleged sexual harassment that resulted in Madison Square Garden paying a woman $11.6 million.

So why are Thomas and Garcia a perfect match? Well, according to Greg Cote of The Miami Herald, Garcia’s “own university president admonished Garcia publicly last week for ‘unprofessional management, poor leadership style, misuse of state resources and [creating a] hostile work environment.’ ”

They’ll get along just fine.

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/colleges/story/999863.html

Heroism and hypocrisy

Recommended reading: Michael Weinreb’s ESPN piece on a team and a protest I’d never heard of — Claire Bee’s Long Island University basketball team that boycotted the 1936 U.S. Olympic Trials because that year’s Games were to be held in Hitler’s Germany.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=weinreb/090414

More recommended reading: Mike Bianchi’s column in the Orlando Sentinel pointing out the hypocrisy of professional sports, which looks askance at marijuana use while making tons of money of the sale of alcohol.

Writes Bianchi: “I love a beer or two when tailgating with friends or watching the Magic play in a sports bar. Most fans do, in fact, drink responsibly and believe a couple of beers positively enhance their sporting experience. But you’re blind if you can’t see that alcohol abuse is a much more serious problem in sports than is pot smoking.”

Bianchi isn’t advocating legalizing marijuana, and neither am I. But pointing out hypocrisy is always fair game.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orl-sportsbianchicol15041509apr15,0,3194200.column

And we haven't even heard from PETA yet

Note to all high school coaches out there: You’re dealing with impressionable, not-fully-formed minds. Choose you words carefully.

Palm Harbor (Fla.) University High baseball coach Jeremy Albrecht probably didn’t think twice about using the phrase “snake-bitten” to describe his team’s recent losing streak.

Too bad.

His players decided that if they were, indeed, snake-bitten, the way to handle it was to get a snake, kill it and bury it the field. So that’s what they did, buying the reptile, chopping off its head, and interring it in the pitcher’s mound.

Now the coach has been suspended.

And I’m left to wonder, how are kids being raised these days? I mean, if you’re going to sacrifice a snake to the baseball gods, don’t you have to CATCH it? What’s with buying a scape-snake?

No way that’s going to work …

Unclear on the concept (fortunately)

Recommended reading: Bud Withers’ piece in the Seattle Times about Gonzaga’s Mark Few, who evidently doesn't understand that college basketball coaches, when they’re not coaching or recruiting, are to be out campaigning for better-paying jobs.

Instead, Few seems to be — gulp — content with his job and his life.

Few, who has four children under 10, likes being in Spokane.

"It's not that he's at Gonzaga because he doesn't have other options," Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth said. "He's there because he wants to be there.”

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/budwithers/2009015822_withers10.html

Words, words, words

So.

The “war on terror” has become an “overseas contingency operation.”

“Toxic assets” are becoming legacy assets.

George Orwell would be spinning in his grave if political spin-doctors hadn’t rotated him out of the earth years ago.

Sports has never been immune to Newspeak. Coaches have been calling loses “moral victories” for decades. Yet it seems Toyland is not taking full advantage of the linguistic flexibility being shown in Washington, D.C.

For instance, UConn men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun could paint the misdeeds that led to the current NCAA probe into his recruiting practices as an “oversight investigatory job-stimulus program.”

Now, let’s see … what could the Yankees call the fans who bought season tickets in certain sections of the bleachers of New York’s new stadium — only to find their seats have obstructed views of the field? Considering the way the team has played opening the season, how about blessed?

Just asking

Wait a minute.

An arbitrator has ruled the New York Giants can’t recoup $1 million from the signing bonus of Plaxico (Quick Draw McGraw) Burress because money already earned, such as a signing bonus, can’t be forfeited even if a player subsequently gets into trouble.

But according to Burress’ contract, a portion of his bonus is to be repaid "if the player was unable to perform due to his own misconduct."

Doesn’t shooting yourself in the thigh with your own (unregistered) gun at a nightclub — leading to a hospital stay, an arrest and a club suspension — qualify as the player’s own misconduct?

At least he's not screaming about 'practice!'

Well, that didn’t take long, did it?

When Allen Iverson was told he would have to come off the bench for the Detroit Pistons, he said he was OK with it.

To help the team win a title, he said, he’d do "whatever it takes."

Less than a month later, he not as sanguine about his new role.

"I'd rather retire before I do this again," Iverson said this week. "I can't be effective playing this way. I'm not used to it. It's tough for me both mentally and physically. If I'm able to go out there, I should be able to get it done and I can't right now.”

Coming off the bench is tough for a lot of players; yet a lot of players manage to do it, manage to play well, and manage to do it without threatening to quit.

Ah — nothing like a diva with diminishing skills.

Personally, I don’t see the value

OK. Some of the seats at the new Yankee Stadium and the Mets’ new Citi Field are reasonably priced (for the times), and that’s nice.

What’s not nice is some of those seats have restricted views. How restricted? Well, according to The New York Times, one Mets fan who bought a 15-game package discovered he couldn’t see the warning track or about 20 feet of the outfield from the left-field line to center field. “In other words,” the fan said, “I will only know if a home run is hit if I am listening to a radio at the game or I wait to see the sign from the umpire.”

But that Mets fan is lucky.

In Section 201 of the new Yankee Stadium, fans won’t be able to see left field at all and, in some cases, not even third base. Why? Because their view is blocked by the walls of the Mohegan Sun Sports Bar, which sits above Monument Park behind the center-field fence.

The Yankees are mounting five flat-panel screens on each side of the restaurant’s outer walls so fans can see on television what they miss live.

Ah, take me out to the ball … I mean, take me out to the flat-panel TV screens.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/sports/baseball/01seats.html?ref=baseball

Friday column: Getting to the heart of things isn't easy

Roger Goodell wants to search the heart of Michael Vick.

I wish him luck.

In discussing the former Atlanta quarterback’s chances of being reinstated to the NFL, the commissioner said, “I think it’s clear he’s paid a price, but to a large extent he’s going to have to demonstrate … that he has remorse for what he did and that he recognizes mistakes that he made.”

Vick has apologized, but Goodell is looking for more than words; he’s looking for something that indicates true repentance, not just regret for getting caught.

But how does one judge a person’s heart, especially when there’s incentive — in Vick’s case, millions of dollars from a resumed NFL career — to feign contrition?

Candor was the question facing Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats and his wife this week when Officer Robert Powell apologized for turning a traffic stop into a scene from RoboCop.

Powell acted like a jerk after pulling over Moats for running a red light as Moats and his wife tried to get to a hospital to see her mother in the final minutes of her life. Powell not only was not sympathetic, he pulled his gun and pointed it at Tamishia Moats when she kept walking toward the hospital and her dying mother.

It’s worth noting that Powell’s apology came through his lawyers, and that it’s not the first time the officer has been accused of over-reacting, leaving him on thin ice with the Dallas Police Department.

Despite that, on Monday the couple accepted the apology. Ryan Moats did add, however, “I hope it’s sincere.”

Ah, there’s that heart thing again.

If motive for proffered remorse is suspect for a man trying to reclaim a fortune or a man trying to keep his job, how about for a man facing a life sentence for torture and murder?

Tuesday, Kaing Guek Eav — better known as Duch — former commandant of a Khmer Rouge torture house, apologized in a Cambodia courtroom, saying, “I would like to express my heartfelt sorrow.”

Prosecutors were unimpressed, noting that Duch’s contrition didn’t come until many years later. The time lag, of course, doesn’t preclude the sorrow from being genuine. But who knows?

I will say this: Duch struck the right chord when he said, “My current plea is that I would like you to please leave an open window for me to seek forgiveness.”

Powell resigned Wednesday, which doesn’t change the fact that Moats and his wife left an open window for him. Was their acceptance of his apology justified? If Vick and Duch are believed, will that belief be justified?

Some 14 centuries ago, a Hebrew prophet named Jeremiah said it best: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

As I said, I wish Goodell luck. Anyone judging hearts needs it.

Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.

Sportsman of the Year

Yes, I know it’s early in 2009, but I’d be surprised if anyone can top the sportsmanship of one Michael Kinahan, coach — make that former coach — of a youth soccer team in Scituate, Mass.

The Boston Globe reported that Kinahan, trying to pump up his team for the coming season, named his players “Green Death,” urged them to eat undercooked red meat and stressed the importance of winning at all costs.

In a letter to his players, Kinahan said, “I believe winning is fun and losing is for losers,” and said they should be ready to play like a “Michael Vick pit bull.”

Players should prepare, Kinahan wrote, for “bumps, bruises and (to) even bleed a little,” and Kinahan promised to “heckle” the league’s young referees.

But any heckling Kinahan will do this season will come from the stands, as he has quit as coach of “Green Death.” It appears that parents took offense at his letter — though I can’t see why.

After all, 6- and 7-year-old girls have to grow up sometime.

Just in time for the Final Four

Recommended reading:

If you like probing the seedy side of “amateur” basketball, check out Greg Cote’s Miami Herald piece on the at McDonald's All-American game, also known as an “overglorified culmination of a dubious, sleaze-tinged underbelly of All-American excess and greed.”

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/story/977838.html

Then there’s William C. Rhoden’s column in The New York Times on what he calls the “extensive trafficking in players” that funnels high school phenoms — and often their coaches — to the next level.

Can you say meat market? Rhoden can.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/sports/ncaabasketball/30rhoden.html

There are two good columns on John Calipari’s move from Memphis to Kentucky.

ESPN’s Pat Forde writes about Calipari’s checkered past and how the Wildcats’ desperation to recapture past glory might backfire.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=4032093&sportCat=ncb

Speaking of desperation, Geoff Calkins has a terrific piece in the (Memphis) Commercial Appeal about a city so pathetically intent on winning college basketball games that citizens staked out Calipari’s house, practically begging him to stay with the Tigers.

Writes Calkins: “This kind of thing can’t possibly be all about basketball, can it?

“And it’s not, of course. It’s about our fragile sense of ourselves. When Calipari was on national television, Memphis was on national television. When Calipari was winning big, Memphis was winning big.

“So what if the city had a lousy mayor and an empty Pyramid and a soul-crushing problem with crime? It had a totally kick-butt basketball coach.

“And now the basketball coach was leaving. Going to Kentucky. Leaving Memphis with the mayor and The Pyramid and the crime.”

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/apr/01/we-learned-little-more-about-john-calipari/