Sorry for the prolonged absence. A day of traveling and three days without reliable Internet access tends to make keeping up with events rather difficult. So I will put up a few quick points.
- Lance Stephenson was selected with the 40th overall pick by the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night. Stephenson would have been well served staying an extra year in Clifton. Another year of seasoning in the Big East would almost certainly push him into the first round and the guaranteed money that comes with those picks. But given his well stated and long standing desire to play in the NBA coupled with the potential lockout looming like a dark, ominous and impenetrable cloud over the NBA once the current collective bargaining agreement expires.
- Tony Stubblefield has left Mick Cronin's staff at the University of Cincinnati to take a job with Dana Altman at the University of Oregon. I am not really that surprised by this move for Stubblefield. He had a choice between coaching for Cronin at UC in the toughest basketball conference in the country, in a make or break year with a very high chance of not being retained. Or he could head west to Eugene to coach for Uncle Phil Knight's favorite sports program, under a proven winner, in a brand new 200 million dollar arena. That isn't a very hard decision in my mind, really hard to blame Stubblefield for this decision.
- The Cincinnati Commandos, which seems to be about 40 per cent Ex-Bearcats, won the Continental Indoor Football League title on Saturday. This is more tangentially UC related than anything else but still, something interesting to see.
- Mardy Gilyard has signed a 4 year 2.34 million dollar contract with the St. Louis Rams. It is good to see a guy like Mardy get rewarded for all the hard work that he has put in since being suspended for his academic transgressions in 2006.
- Lastly, still no official word on the rumors that are frantically circulating in the wake of Vidal Hazelton's cryptic tweet from last Saturday. The speculation that has blossomed around this has been pretty interesting. I have heard and seen everything from getting multiple transfers from USC, UC getting invited to be a replacement in the Big 12 North, or an announcement for renovating and expanding Nippert Stadium all the way to simple things like UC getting new uniforms for this season from Adidas. Of all the rumors the most likely in my mind are UC getting some transfers from the USC program or new uniforms from Adidas which has taken a big interest in the UC Football program.