Tiger is really keeping his word about cooling down on the course and keeping his cursing to a minimum. Time for another cursing rehab stint?

A lot has been made about Lebron and his “decision” and the incredible backlash that ensued. Bill Simmons had a great mockery of it with his decision on SportsNation as to whether he would re-up on his Clippers tickets for the upcoming season, or change to another team.

Steve Carell with Paul Rudd on the ESPY’s also mocked it with some shameless restaurant plugs.

Carell and Rudd on the ESPY’s “The Decision”:

Simmons on SportsNation “The Decision”:

Jamarcus Russell was arrested today for possession of a controlled substance in Mobile, Alabama.  The substance was codeine syrup, or cough syrup infused with codeine. Russell obviously didn’t have a prescription for it.  The arrest was part of a sting operation. Russell was arrested at his Mobile home (not mobile-home, in Mobile, AL) by police and was later released on $2,500 bail. JaMarcus was born and went to high school in Mobile.

The codeine cough syrup is commonly called ‘Purple Drank‘ in the Hip-Hop community. Codeine is a narcotic that in large quantities lead to sedation and altered states of consciousness. While codeine is a pain killer, this concoction is used more as a recreational drug in the Hip-Hop community than to cover up any real pain.

This pretty much ruins any chance of JaMarcus getting even a min contract for anyone this off-season. With training camp looming and his court date set for July 20th (will probably be pushed back), It’s doubtful any team will be as stupid as the Raiders were originally.  Russell will certianly go down as the worst #1 pick in NFL history, but I’d go as far to say he is the worst NFL player in NFL history.  He had a career QB rating of 65 and a career completion rating of 52% with 18 TDs and 23 INT including 70 sacks.

This is a win for Al Davis probably in his mind.  He probably thinks “Hey, I got rid of him just in time.”  Well, you were two years late on that one Al, but for any of you non-Raiders fans it’s a win for you, because you know your team probably won;t make the mistake on Him with a min salary and roster position that someone was likely to.

If you respond better to listening to rap than you do reading a boring Wikipedia page, here is Fraser Boy with Miek Jones and Paul Wall to explain it in a gospel hymn:

Chappelle Purple Drank:

Tyler McGill, Celtics fan, somehow got his friends to bet him that he wouldn’t walk from Madison Square Garden in downtown New York, to the TD Garden in Boston. The distance? 200 miles.  This idiot/genius walked 200 miles in order to get his buddies to buy him tickets to game 3, 4, and 5 at Boston vs the Lakers.  This probably netted him a cool $1000-$2000 worth of tickets PER GAME ($3k-$6k Total).

That works out to be about $15-$30 per mile, and about $45-$90 an hour for this guy. Check out the CBS News video:

There has been a lot of talk about how Duke has the easiest road to the Final Four in Indianapolis, and Kansas, the overall #1 seed, has one of the hardest.  Duke has the most losses of the #1 seeds (5), all of which were on the road.  Duke was also given the play-in game.  Disregard the play-in game, since the first game for #1 seeds is always a joke, #1 has never been beaten in the first round.  Kansas, Kentucky, and Duke all won their conferences and conference tournaments.

Here’s where the conspiracy theorists come into play.  The NCAA is in its final 3 years of its lucrative TV contract with CBS (11 years, 6.1 billion).  They can opt out after this tournament.  They want another huge contract from either CBS or ESPN/ABC if they can match the CBS bid.  CBS is losing money on the NCAA’s just like NBC lost money on the Winter Olympics ($250 million).  So the NCAA wants to make sure ratings are huge this year to make sure CBS bids high and ESPN/ABC is drooling for the opportunity.  It’s also the same reason the NCAA is considering adding 31 teams to the NCAA field to expand it to 96.  Money.  Big Money.

So why Duke?

Duke is ratings gold.  Duke has always been ratings gold.  There is never controversy with the basketball program at Duke.  Everyone in America either loves Duke or hates ‘um.  Just like the Yankees, Red Sox, Lebron, and Kobe people show up when Duke is in town.  And they watch on TV.  Living in California, I am able to watch literally all but 1 Duke basketball game each year.  CBS and ESPN love them.  I can only watch about half of UCLA games, 90% of those are on local Fox Sports.  That’s how big Duke is nationally.

The reason a lot of people love and hate Duke is the type of players they recruit.  They recruit smart kids, kids of successful parents (country club kids). So most of the players are squeaky clean, tattoo-less players and (as much as it sucks to say) white guys.  They are just more marketable.  The NCAA is also having problems marketing it’s big name players since they only stay for 1 year and they completely miss out on the stars of the past (Lebron, Kobe, Garnett, Bynum).  So they resort to marketing legendary coaches and elite programs.  Coach K is a walking legend in college sports.  He’s Bob Knight (his mentor) without the controversy and with more titles and final fours.  And the Duke players stay usually for 3 or 4 years with the exception of Maggette, Brand, Avery, Deng and 1 or two others.  So those players are more recognizable and marketable to CBS audiences.

So did CBS have anything to do with getting Duke the easiest road to the Final Four?  Probably not.  But they would if they could.  Did the NCAA consciously give Duke an easy road in the tournament, like people have speculated in years past?  Most certainly.  Just look at the top 5 seeds in the table below and their corresponding divisions.

Duke has the worst ranked team in the AP with every seed except the #4 seed Purdue.  Well Purdue is sans their best player, and probably deserves a much lower AP rank, but the AP doesn’t much take into effect injuries like the NCAA committee seems too (even though they said they don’t take that into account).

So Duke has the weakest #2, #3, #5, and maybe, probably that #4 with Purdue being without their best player.  I feel like this is unheard of for one division, especially not the overall #1 seed.  Duke usually does get an easier road in the NCAA, and is notoriously over seeded, losing early in quite a few of the last tournaments.

Now bear with me on this one.  I’ve summed up all of the AP rankings for each division by simply adding each ranking in each division.  The higher the number, the weaker (in AP rankings terms) the competition in the top 5 seeds.

• Midwest (Kansas/Ohio St) – Ranking sum: 53
• East (Kentucky/WVU) – Ranking sum: 44
• South (Duke/Villanova) – Ranking sum: 64
• West (Syracuse/Kansas St) – Ranking sum: 61

So Duke is definitely the easiest in that sense, with Syracuse in the West a close second.  The West is probably only this weak because the California, Arizona, and Washington teams are so bad, so they just fill in whatever team can garner the most attention out there.

So the facts definitely support the thought that the NCAA has manipulated the NCAA tourney field to get Duke playing more games deeper into the tournament.  I wouldn’t call it a conspiracy. It’s more like a great business decision.  If Duke goes to the Final Four, and maybe even the Championship game, the ratings for CBS could explode, and in all seriousness could make the NCAA over a billion dollars in an increased TV deal for the next 10-15 year stretch.  And this isn’t an oil company pocketing the funds and saying screw everyone who fills up at the pump.  All that money is used to bumb up the other non revenue sports in the NCAA.

So for now, we’ll have to deal with Duke getting an easier road to the Final Four year after year.  It’s a business people.  They still have to win 6 games to win the title.

Tony Kornheiser of PTI has been suspended from his nightly TV show for 2 weeks after hilarious remarks about Hannah Storm (Above left) and her outfit on Sportscenter this morning.  Storm often dresses in skirts and casual attire rather than trying to dress like a new anchor.

Kornheiser’s Remarks:

“Hannah Storm in a horrifying, horrifying outfit today. She’s got on red go-go boots and a catholic school plaid skirt … way too short for somebody in her 40s or maybe early 50s by now…She’s got on her typically very, very tight shirt. She looks like she has sausage casing wrapping around her upper body … I know she’s very good, and I’m not supposed to be critical of ESPN people, so I won’t … but Hannah Storm … come on now! Stop! What are you doing? … She’s what I would call a Holden Caulfield fantasy at this point.”

All I can do is laugh.  He didn’t say anything all that offensive about Storm.  But the words definitely merit a suspension.  ESPN personalities too often talk trash on other ESPN personalities, this is ESPN’s step to curve that.

On another note, at 47, Hannah Storm looks fantastic and should feel empowered to wear whatever she wants as long as ESPN approves it.  And while PTI is usually garbage unless it’s Wilbon and Kornheiser, it seems like at least 50% of the time one of them is unavailable or on vacation.  So a replacement for Kornheiser for 2 weeks is nothing new.  He will not be suspended from his radio show.