1. After the NCAA suspended Jamar Samuels for receiving $200 in cash for food from a former AAU coach before Kansas State‘s game against Syracuse, a lot of the typical anti-establishment talk arose. We even mentioned it yesterday — should we penalize a player for wanting to eat? It’s a sentiment straight out of Jay Bilas’ playbook. As Dennis Dodd of CBS points out, though, the rules are the rules. And he argues that the NCAA’s ruling wasn’t unfair in any way.
2. In your Not Surprising News of the Day, Kansas forward Thomas Robinson became a finalist for the Naismith Player of the Year award. For much of the year, the media has tabbed Robinson and Anthony Davis as the two front-runners, but Draymond Green and Doug McDermott are also in the mix here. All fine choices, but we’ll have to wait until the Final Four to learn the winner.
3. Yesterday, we linked you to an article about how the Big 12 tried to halt Missouri from leaving for the SEC. Here’s a breakdown of the story in simpler terms from an ESPN blog. Lots of money, lots of drama and lots of debate. It just wouldn’t be conference realignment without all of those qualities, would it?
4. So what if Frank Haith‘s team bowed out in its opening game of the NCAA Tournament? Before that, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association named him the Coach of the Year. That’s an honor that not even the Big 12 gave him this season. Despite getting Norfolked, there’s no question Haith had a terrific season after the Mike Anderson debacle and the injury to Laurence Bowers. He may not be as beloved as he was a week ago in Columbia, but he got the ball rolling with this year’s 30-win season.
5. Baylor has been a fascinating story ever since Scott Drew rebuilt the program from the ashes after a murder scandal, and it’s even more interesting when you consider the university’s president: Ken Starr. If you’re a political junkie — or if you read the news, like, ever, during Clinton’s second term — you’d know Starr was the lead investigator in that Clinton case involving a blue dress and a brown-haired intern. Storylines, storylines.

dnspewak (343 Posts)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 at 7:31 am by dnspewak and is filed under big 12, microsites. Tagged: baylor, frank haith, jamar samuels, kansas, missouri, thomas robinson. 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.