The final five have been revealed in the Down the Drive Ring of Honor voting. You have until the season opener against Austin Peay to vote.
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Bearcat News
deveroes part 4.wmv (via NU8D)
I posted parts one, two, and three. This showed the second half of the game where SLATS really started getting into a rhythm and imposing their will on Goodies BBQ.
Vaughn, Holloway join forces to lead SLATS | Cincinnati.com | cincinnati.com
As you probably expected, SLATS won the Deveroes Summer League on Saturday by sixteen points. While most of the incoming Bearcats freshman didn't play, the team got a nice surprise visit from Deonte Vaughn who put up 34 points for SLATS. While it was nice to see him there to guide Davis and Sanders (the only two freshman playing that day), I would have liked to see them get more playing time. For the most part, Deonte and Tu (which I hated him being on the team) ran the show. On another positive note Cheikh Mbodji again looked solid defensively. Yancy Gates was also missing from the game because he was trying out for Team USA.
Top 50 UC basketball players | cincinnati.com | Cincinnati UC | Cincinnati.com
Here's a list from the Enquirer of the top 50 basketball players of all time. It was put together by Koch so, well, you know. It probably wasn't researched that thoroughly or compiled with much detail. It's slow nowadays so enjoy!
Recruiting
Plant City QB Bennie Coney narrows choices to Cincinnati, Virginia Tech - OrlandoSentinel.com
Bennie Coney is closing in on his commitment and it's coming down to the Cincinnati and Virginia Tech. We've known for quite some time that Coney wanted to end his recruitment before the end of the summer so he can focus on his senior season. Well it looks like he will end his commitment this week and there's a very good chance he could announce for the Bearcats. He's just about the perfect quarterback to run Butch Jones's offense and will open doors for more highly rated recruits to come to Cincinnati. I'm not sure about the quarterback situation at Va-Tech but he could start as a true freshman at UC, especially if he wants to enroll in December as he plans. This could be a breakthrough week in recruiting for the Bearcatsand it all starts with a verbal commitment from Bennie Coney.
Errol Clarke - Yahoo! Sports
The biggest UC news from the past few days was Errol Clarke's commitment to play for the Bearcats. He will be the 14th commitment of the 2012 class and the first true linebacker to commit (Josh Posley will play LB at Cincy but is a DE/OLB hybrid in high school). Anyways, we don't know much about him as he seems to be a very private person. The only thing you need to know to get excited about him is that a.) he's a linebacker, b.) he went to powerhouse Miami Central, and c.) he's a FREAKIN' linebacker! At 6'2" 215 lbs, he definitely has great size coming out of high school for the linebacker position. It also seems like the Dwight Jackson and Carroll Phillips commitments in the 2011 class are paying dividends as it looks like Coach Jones and co. are establishing a pipeline at the high school.
Top QB recruit Gunner Kiel picks Indiana - Campus Rivalry: College Football & Basketball News, Recruiting, Game Picks, and More - USATODAY.com
Very solid move by Gunner Kiel and, obviously, a great pickup by Indiana. Kiel is a great prospect and will likely garner starting time as a true freshman in 2012. For Indiana, they are getting more than just a great field general. His commitment will likely pull commitments from better and better recruits in the 2012 class. It will also create a lot of buzz around the program which is always good considering the Hoosers have been sitting near the bottom of the Big 10 for years now. For Kiel, he has a chance to become a state hero in Indiana who decided to stay home instead of going to the SEC. While this is a risk for him, he has a chance of becoming a legend by turning that program around.
Around the BEast
In the FCS Huddle: Villanova decision huge for CAA - latimes.com
While the article focuses on how Villanova's decision could affect the FCS conference the CAA. But I'm going to focus on a few points made by the Wildcats' head coach Andy Talley. He claims that it's becoming difficult to recruiting because of the Big East/Villanova limbo they are in right because in one stretch he can tell recruits that Villanova will join a BCS conference but when that never happened, the recruits withdrew their commitments. These were FBS-level recruits, too, which would have helped the transition to competing at a higher level. Now the coach is relegated to recruit FCS-level players like before.
Around the Nation
General Public Tickets for Big Ten Football Championship Game Sell Out Within Two Hours - BIG TEN OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE
This is a good sign for the Big Ten's conference game as every single general public ticket has already been sold to the conference's championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. While the ACC championship game has for the most part been kind of a flop, a neutral site game in the Big Ten, like the SEC, will draw huge audiences because of the national interest towards the matchups of the game and the cult-like following of the teams in those leagues. If the Big East were to go to 12 teams and have a CCG, they should follow the PAC-12 model of having the conference's best team host the game.
2011 NFL free agency - NFL Nation Blog - ESPN
For everything free agency, check out ESPN's blog that is covering it very closely. It seems like the biggest winners over the past few days have been the Patriots who picked up Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ochocinco and the Eagles who picked up Nnamdi Asomugha. There were tons of rumors that Asomugha might go to the Jets which would have made an insane passing defense. Probably one of the worst offseasons so far probably has to be from the Bengals who let their star cornerback go to Houston, are still operating about $50 million under the salary cap, and are finding out how free agents simply don't want to work under Mike Brown. Thank god I've adopted the Bears as my team but the dysfunctionality of the Bengals is newsworthy in-and-of-itself.