More news and notes from a busy first week of practice.

• Everyone is piling on Kelvin Sampson for his phone indiscretions.  AOL Fanhouse looks into the poor cell phone service excuse, while DeCourcy takes shots at IU’s compliance office.  One blogger wrote an open letter to Kelvin Sampson asking him to just go away.  Yesterday Sampson resisted talking about the issue at his press conference.
• Speaking of Indiana coaches causing trouble, the NCAA instituted a point of emphasis this year on abusive behavior by coaches on the sideline.   M2M has the definitive take on this.
• More IU-related content:  Bob Knight felt the need to talk about the MLB playoffs during his presser this week.
• Basketball Prospectus is up and running (woohoo!) – the first post that captured our attention was this one on what makes an assist an assist?
• MJ expects to watch his son sit the bench play at least once this year in Champaign.
• On Monday it was official that Mike Hopkins would succeed Jim Boeheim at Syracuse upon his retirement; by Tuesday, it wasn’t official anymore.
• So what really went down in practice between OJ Mayo and Daniel Hackett?  Was it an errant ‘bow or a flat-out haymaker to the schnozz?
• One of the underrated coaches at an underrated program, Randy Bennett at St. Mary’s got a two-year extension (through 2013). 
• Katz dissects the budding UCLA-USC rivalry, comparing it to UNC-Duke.  What he fails to mention is that SoCallers don’t care about college hoops nearly as much as the NCers.  That’s a Laker area, through and through.
• Injuries, Suspensions, etc.
  • Is Brook Lopez planning on playing this year?  He’s already out for the first nine games – now he’s indefinitely suspended for breaking team rules, which means he can’t even practice. 
  • Wisconsin starter Michael Flowers is going on a leave of absence for the cryptic reason of “medical problems.” 
  • Notre Dame super-soph Luke Harongody will miss 3-6 weeks with damage to his thumb ligaments. 
  • Mizzou senior forward Darryl Butterfield was arrested for domestic assault and suspended indefinitely by the team.
  • Remember our pal Frank Tolbert?  The good state of Alabama did not agree with local prosecutors that Tolbert was drunk while stealing driving his SUV away from the towing lot.  He is not expected to miss any games.
  • A bunch of UK players are injured in various ways.  Oh, and Alex Legion isn’t hurt, but his mom is some kind of prophet.     
• And more preseason chatter from various sources.
  • MSNBC has its preseason top 25 out (UNC #1).
  • Luke Winn spent the week slurping up whatever they’re selling in the RTP these days. 
  • Meanwhile, Jeff Goodman did a Tennessee three-step – Memphis, Vandy & UT. 
  • SEC:TGTBTD has it’s all-SEC teams ready – 3d Team, 2d Team, 1st Team (Chris Lofton, Jamont Gordon, Patrick Beverly, Richard Hendrix, Shan Foster).
  • Gary Parrish has his all-american teams + 10 ready (we like his balls to put Derrick Rose on the first team).   
  • Big 12 talk – apparently K-State is loading up on players, while KU is striking out on recruiting.  Yahoo asks if the Big 12 will ever win a title again, and oh yeah, Tom Osborne is the new AD at Nebraska.
  • Will Florida even make the NCAA Tourney this year?  Billy D. isn’t sure. 
  • Can UConn’s AJ Price stay away from the computer lab this year?  Jim Calhoun thinks he can. 

This is too good to be true, and yet it is absolutely true…

A senior defensive back for the Florida Gators is facing burglary charges, just days before Florida’s showdown with #1 LSU. Gainesville Police arrested Earl “Tony” Joiner, 21, early Tuesday morning outside a towing yard. Investigators say Joiner was trying to get his girlfriend’s car out of Watson’s Towing on SW 1st Street. Witnesses told police a man pushed open the heavy gate surrounding the fenced yard, which was not open at the time. The man got into a car and tried to drive away without paying the $76 towing bill. A police officer heard the suspect, identified as Joiner, tell someone on a cell phone, “I am probably about to go to jail, cuz I did push the gate open.”

Paging Frank Tolbert… you might wanna give your SEC comrade a few tips on the art of automobile retrieval. Such as…

1. Show up drunk at the towing compound in the middle of the night.
2. Climb fence.
3. Retrieve car.
4. Drive car through fence.

Joiner did none of these things correctly, and now he’s facing felony burglary charges.

Frank Tolbert – RTC’s Sweetheart of 2007-08

Ahh yes, thanks to the miracle of Facebook, we’re now BFFs with Auburn’s #1 Tiger, Frank Tolbert. As you surely recall from earlier this week, Frank is the perp legend who stuck it to the unscrupulous thieves towing companies on behalf of all of us. For anyone who has had to deal with the degrading, humiliating experience of begging for your car (+$275, cash only) from some smelly savage bastard with no teeth, Frank says word.

We also show our love for how Frank rolls, rockin’ the fingercuffs up top, and keepin’ it real down low (far right).

Keep making us proud, Frank.

Our first story of the day comes from Auburn, Alabama, situs of the university formerly known as East Alabama Male College. The natives there have apparently gotten a little restless, what with the gridiron sting of losing to a Tampa commuter school and insert-demeaning-moniker-of-choice-for-Mississippi State University in recent weeks. We haven’t even described how they feel about Nick Saban yet, but we’re getting off track here.

Even members of the hoops team are showing signs of distress:

Auburn senior basketball player Frank Tolbert was arrested Friday for third-degree criminal mischief stemming from an incident at a towing company lot. The Opelika-Auburn News reported the arrest Saturday. Tolbert allegedly jumped a fence at United Auto Collision in Auburn Thursday night to retrieve his SUV, which had been towed earlier in the week. Police said Tolbert damaged a metal fence when he drove through it to leave the lot. Tolbert averaged 11.8 points and 4.8 rebounds last year, starting in 28 of 32 games. He is one of three seniors on Auburn’s roster this year.

Now, we get just as PO’d as the next guy when our sled gets towed – legalized theft, it is. But it never occurred to us to simply hop the fence of the impound lot and ram our neon green Dodge Charger Daytona R/T through the gate. Maybe it had something to do with the open-air drug market going on outside the premises that spooked us. Nevertheless, given what we know about towing companies, we think Tolbert’s act of criminal mischief is about seventeen different kinds of awesome. Instead of Coach Jeff Lebo suspending him, he should give Tolbert a week off.