Football? It's the time of year to start talking college hoops
We interrupt this unexpectedly intriguing college football season to switch the topic to basketball.
This hoops hijack comes earlier than normal because the season starts earlier than ever.
Memphis hosts the first two games Monday to kick off the 16-team Coaches vs. Cancer tournament that also features Kentucky, Connecticut and Oklahoma.
What's on tap in the early going as more than 340 Division I schools start jockeying to supplant Florida as the national champion?
Indiana shame: How many more shoes will drop in the wake of Kelvin Sampson's latest phone-call faux pas?
On Monday came reports that assistant coach Rob Senderoff, the Hoosiers' connection to high-profile recruits on the East Coast, would resign for his role in the mess.
Senderoff allegedly made many of the phone calls that ran afoul of the NCAA rules.
If Senderoff turns out to be the fall guy who keeps IU from being penalized further, then it's an old-school move that brings back the days when assistants always accepted blame for recruiting violations to keep the head coach safe.
But don't expect this to be the final word on Indiana's phone problems.
Super frosh: One reason Indiana will do its utmost to remain eligible for the NCAA Tournament is freshman guard Eric Gordon.
He's one of several studs spread around the country who'll challenge for all-league and All-America honors before potentially going pro after one year.
When Indiana played three games against outclassed teams from other countries during a whirlwind Labor Day tour of the Bahamas, Gordon scored a team-high 82 points in 86 minutes.
USC freshman O.J. Mayo piled up a game-high 34 points Sunday in the Trojans' Cardinal and Gold scrimmage.
According to the Los Angeles Times, that intrasquad game had to be called with 3 minutes and 24 seconds remaining because USC ran out of players.
Among other injuries, USC sophomore Daniel Hackett was out with a broken jaw. How did he hurt his jaw? Allegedly Mayo shattered it with a punch.
Mayo will battle (figuratively, hopefully) with UCLA big man Kevin Love, the 2007 Gatorade high school player of the year, for the right to become known as the best freshman in Los Angeles.
Finally, Final Four favorite Memphis likely will have freshman Derrick Rose at the point from the start, although the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports that Rose strained his knee during a scrimmage with Saint Louis on Saturday.
Recognize this surname? This won't affect the college hoops landscape for another three years at least, but Rich South sophomore guard Crandall Head told several members of the media Sunday that he intends to pick a college today or Wednesday.
Considering the 6-foot-4 Head has spent each of the last two weekends attending football games in Champaign -- and he has an older brother named Luther who made a bit of a name at Illinois -- can you guess where he's headed to school?
If Head commits to the Illini, he would become the fifth recruit to offer his pledge to Bruce Weber and his staff in the last three weeks.
Head would join Waukegan five-star prospect Jereme Richmond in the Class of 2010, with hopes that his decision will encourage Young point guard Anthony Johnson to accept the lone remaining scholarship.