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We weighed in yesterday on the product-of-a-slow-news-day controversy involving the media relations department at Kentucky and the school’s student-run newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel. We won’t rehash the whole thing here, but now the AP Managing Editors Association has responded to UK, calling the behavior of the school’s Sports Information Department “reprehensible” and “abhorrent at a taxpayer-owned institution.” Seriously? Without mentioning the actions of the involved student reporter, they also “urge” UK to restore the media access of both the paper and the reporter, even though their access was denied for less than 24 hours and was probably restored in full before the APME even wrote that letter. Did they read anything about this before sending it? It comes off like a formality.
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“2012 NCAA Tournament Champions Michigan Wolverines.” Sound good, Ann Arbor? Your boy Jordan Dumars thinks so. Not only does he think it sounds good, he thinks it should happen, and confirms that that’s what his team says — “national championship” — at the end of every workout. Dumars, a transfer who will become eligible by the holidays, is not predicting nor guaranteeing such an achievement, just saying that’s where the squad is aiming. We wholeheartedly support players taking this tack when asked to give prognostications on how they think their upcoming season will go. If a kid says something like, “Well, I think we’ll go 20-14 and hopefully do well in the Tournament,” as far as we’re concerned, he just lost 14 games and got bounced in the second (former first) round. Strong work, Jordan.
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In yesterday’s M5 we slipped in a link about how Texas A&M’s president had, according to a report in the New York Times, sent a later containing his school’s kiss-off to the Big 12. The school denies this ever happened. A&M, however, confirms receiving a letter from the office of Big 12 commish Dan Beebe detailing the withdrawal procedures for leaving the conference. And by “detailing the withdrawal procedures,” we pretty much mean “explaining how much it will cost you” and “things we need to sign saying we won’t sue each other.” The linked article above notes that while A&M would like to have this done by the beginning of the season, it may take until week two or three. In other words, folks, get on board with this if you aren’t already.
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Recruiting insider and (from what we hear) legendary ladies’ man Evan Daniels and the crew at Scout.com have released their rankings of schools’ recruiting classes for 2012, and we wonder how loud the alarm bells will sound within a few fan bases: North Carolina’s class is 9th? Duke 11th? Kentucky…not listed in the top 20 or the honorable mention?!? Relax, you various shades of blue. It’s hard to ascend the rankings when you don’t sign anyone. Duke’s ranking is based on one player, UNC’s on two. Kentucky hasn’t signed a single player from the 2012 class. There’s a reason Daniels entitled this list the “Early 2012 Class Rankings.” Just over half of Scout’s top 100 recruits for 2012 are unsigned, so unfortunately for a certain blueblood school that’s been rebuilding for a few years that sits atop the current Scout list, it’s not a matter of if but how far they’ll fall once prospects start making their selections.
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Every one of the RTC compounds is lousy with recycling bins and solar panels, so we’re all about recycling and reusing and sustainability and all that stuff, and letting people know you’re proud of the measures you’ve taken to reduce your impact on the environment. To that end, Kansas State has unleashed — fanfare, please — EcoKat, their mascot for the whole green-going movement. Whoa. For the sake of the KSU senior in the costume (whose pluck we admire), here’s hoping that EcoKat is never unmasked and her true identity never revealed. Ladies and gentlemen, we ask you…how hot is this?