An Apology Is In Order . . .

Today's post is sponsored by the NBA and NCAA basketball. Ok, no not really, but that seems to be most of what's happening in sports these days that's actually related to the game itself. With one off-court tennis story thrown in for good measure:

1. Recently, I sat within a few feet of J.J. Redick who was riding the Orlando Magic pine (i.e., sitting on the bench), and I feel kind of bad because I gloated about his presence. But just now I realized it's not his fault that he was overrated. It must be hard to go from being the premier player at one level to playing garbage time, so J.J., I'm sorry for yelling at you during the game.

2. The Celtics lost to the Denver Nuggets, putting them in the double digit loss column. I just wanted to point that out. Nothing further.

3. Go west, young men. The Jason Kidd trade is complete, with the Dallas Mavericks picking up Devin Harris and a few other players and items added to the shopping cart. I almost forgot he was with the Mavs when he first came into the league, so this is a reunion of sorts. With Shaq set to debut with the Phoenix Suns against the Lakers tomorrow night, this will make for a very interesting western conference battle. It seems like everyone's defecting for the west these days, which just might explain the sagging ticket sales on the opposite shore.

4. It looks like the Indiana Hoosiers are going to have no choice but to fire coach Kelvin Sampson for all of his NCAA recruiting violations. I don't feel too bad for the school because it seems that they knew what they were getting themselves into but went ahead with it anyway. Just another case of reaping what you sow.

5. So after nearly a year and some change of sniffing around, the ATP tour finally found a rat among its ranks. Although other players (almost all of them Italian, "coincidentally" says the ATP) have been fined for betting on tennis matches, they finally found the guy who pulled a Pete Rose and bet on his own games. Only his name is Giorgio Galimberti. Lovely. Like Rose, Galiberti denies ever betting on himself to lose, but that contradicts the ATP's own findings that he bet on himself to lose on at least one occasion. Galimberti is now out of the top 1,000 ranked players in the game, so perhaps he's just desperate for a few more dollars. The ATP isn't throwing the book at them, although perhaps they should if they want to send a message to others. This could be very bad for an already struggling game depending on how high up the rankings this thing really goes . . .

Taxes = Run Down

Tax time. Let's face it. The only reason that I bother to file this early is because I expect to get a refund. I've let the government use my money tax-free long enough, so it's time for them to pay up. That means that I spent most of the evening sorting through documents, but for us, that means it's time to run it down:

1. Sad news today out of Minnesota where Vikings defensive end Kenechi Udeze has been diagnosed with leukemia. Life certainly has a way of interfering when you least expect it. Prayers for a speedy recovery to him and for his family during this difficult time.

2. Uno the beagle won Best in Show at the 132nd Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the first time that a beagle has ever won the honor. I would put excerpts of the AP article here but you really need to read the whole thing to get the proper effect. Trust me. Apparently Uno has the making to be (I'm sorry) top dog being billed as the All-American dog because of his popular breed. Not only does Uno get to eat steak (more like swallow if you've seen a dog eat) on a silver platter at a swanky New York restaurant but he also gets to ring the opening bell on Wall Street and make the TV rounds. Yet he can still eat his own crap and sniff other dogs' nether regions and no one bats an eye. Life is not fair.

3. The Detroit Pistons have quietly racked up nine wins in a row. If it's not the Boston Celtics, it's just not news. Well, when they lose prior to the NBA Finals, perhaps someone will find it interesting then.

4. Indiana University basketball program looks to be in some trouble over allegations of improper calls to recruits in violation of the NCAA rules. Not just a few, a whole lot. So is that how they got Eric Gordon? By calling him a lot? I'm going to go on record as saying that that only works in some instances and not others. No further comment.

5. This dispute over the shot clock pausing for 1.3 seconds in a heavily-contested rematch of the women's NCAA final featuring Rutgers vs. Tennessee has turned serious. Ordinarily, people wouldn't notice the pause, but in this case, a foul is alleged to have occurred during the pause, which, if the clock had been performing normally, would have come after the game was over. As it was, the foul was ruled to have occurred prior to the buzzer, and Tennessee ended up winning the game by one point on the made free throws. Now the inventor is speaking out and saying that the clock is fine and human error could have caused the problem. Really, the inventor? Is the shot clock business so competitive that the inventor of the NCAA's choice du jour feels the need to publicly defend his product? Perhaps his competitors are jumping in trying to push their shot clocks upon the slightest sign of a malfunction. That's a tough business. Those of you who were thinking of getting into it may want to reconsider.

How Come You Don't Call Me

The Indiana Hoosiers and their coaching staff have violated the NCAA rules for making excessive calls to basketball recruits this past year.

This all happened while the head coach, Kelvin Sampson, was on probation for excessive calls while a coach at Oklahoma.

Indiana has decided to voluntarily sanction itself by foregoing one scholarship and by not giving the coach a scheduled $500,000 raise. The coach threw the assistant coach, Rob Senderoff, under the bus, saying that he made the calls (three-way calls ot the recruits' home), but neither assistant nor coach will be fired, and the NCAA says that they are OK with the sanctions given to coach and team.

Nothing new here. I'm sure some coach is violating the NCAA rules as I type this. It's virtually impossible not to given the all-encompassing nature of their rules. (Witness the NCAA's latest rule adjustment on bench decorum). I just wonder how he got caught.