1. Happy MLK Day, everyone.  There’s probably no other American sport as impacted by the civil rights legislation spearheaded by the nonviolent resistance of Dr. King and his fellow agents of change as that of basketball.  Fifty years ago, major college basketball was whiter than virgin snow and the prevailing sentiment was that black players were too undisciplined to play the game at an elite level.  Look around today — how could so many people be so dreadfully wrong?  King’s lifelong work helped so many people in this country, and one of the relatively insignificant (in the grand scheme) results of his work was to change such an uninformed and misguided perception about black athletes (and basketball players in particular) for the better.  Our sincere hope as we celebrate Dr. King’s life today is that every player of color who will play a college basketball game this week understands the sacrifice and pain that he and others endured a half-century ago so that they can suit up and play nowadays without anyone raising so much as an eyebrow.
2. Kentucky’s John Calipari held a telethon called “Hoops for Haiti” on Sunday that raised over a million dollars for the earthquake-stricken island nation.  Notable donors included Ashley Judd, Jim Boeheim, Dick Vitale and even former UK coach Tubby Smith.
3. Cornell’s Jon Jacques, a 6’7 senior forward for the Big Red, blogs for the NY Times on his team’s recent trip to Kansas and learning what the word “snowdrift” means.  Keep in mind he’s spent 3+ years in Ithaca, NY, already!
4. Marquette transfer forward Jeronne Maymon has enrolled at Tennessee, and will be eligible to suit up for Bruce Pearl’s team next season.  While on the subject of the Vols, suspended players Melvin Goins and Cameron Tatum were reinstated on Sunday for practice and will be on the bench for UT’s next game versus Alabama on Tuesday night.
5. Mike DeCourcy examines the ridiculous second half that Texas forward Damion James gave his Longhorns on Saturday night to preserve their first #1 ranking ever.

rtmsf (3998 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 3:20 am by rtmsf and is filed under morning 5, Regular Features. Tagged: cameron tatum, cornell, damion james, jeronne maymon, john calipari, jon jacques, kentucky, marquette, melvin goins, mlk day, tennessee, texas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.