From the Back Porch: It’s a Two Turtle Race.

This time of year is perfect. Football is in full swing, MLB is rounding into shape for the playoffs and the weather outside is perfect: warm days and cool nights. The bottom line is I simply feel better when sitting on the back in such favorable conditions, knocking back a cold beverage and listening to sports on the radio - or Dave Matthews Band [read more...]

Big Ten Preview

Big Ten football is a lot like American Idol. It may be good, it may be bad, but whatever it is, a lot of people are going to watch and talk about it. Last year, the conference sent two teams to BCS bowls, two others to New Years Day bowls and produced the number one pick in the April NFL [read more...]

Kelvin Sampson: Recruit Found to Have Lied to Investigators, but NCAA Continues with All Charges

The Indianapolis Star is breathlessly reporting that former Indiana basketball head coach Kelvin Sampson knowingly violated NCAA rules regarding the phoning of potential high school basketball recruits. However, Dana O'Neil of ESPN reports a different side to this story. Here's what Mark Alesia of the Star reports: Kelvin Sampson's director of basketball operations at Indiana University told the NCAA that the coach [read more...]

March Madness

March always leaves a gap in the Chicago sports calendar. More so this year as we were expecting to be talking about a long Bulls playoff run. Instead, we are donating alarm clocks to Chris Duhon. So, with six weeks before the NFL draft, the Cubs and Sox two time zones away, I'm giving you appointment-viewing television this weekend. Here [read more...]

Land Of Opportunity

Sometimes, people get what they deserve. And other times, life just isn't fair. For example, in the NBA this season a team like the Denver Nuggets could miss the playoffs because they are in the Western Conference, even if they finish with as many as 15 more victories in the season than a playoff team in the East. In college [read more...]

Kelvin Sampson’s World Today

"Failed to comply with sanctions imposed ...""Exceeded NCAA limits ..." "Acted contrary to the NCAA principles of ethical conduct ..." "Failed to deport himself in accordance with the generally recognized high standard of honesty ..." "Engaged in an impermissible recruiting contact ..." After a one week "internal investigation" of the above charges, Indiana University President Michael McRobbie announced that Kelvin Sampson and the school [read more...]

“Big Red” Dawn

When Hoosier Nation wakes up from its week-long nightmare this week amidst allegations of major NCAA violations, Kelvin Sampson-barring a Jimmy Chitwood feel-good miracle shot-will most likely no longer be coaching at Indiana University. And just as waking up from your worst real-life nightmare, the mental after-effects will be tough to shake for quite a while for those who cheer [read more...]

Eric Gordon and the Fate of the Big 10

Let's say you are really hungry and decide to go out to some fancy Italian restaurant. Not a run of the mill place, but something really nice; the Olive Garden on HGH. You get one of those meatballs the size of a baby's head to go along with some nice pasta, and the garlic bread is warm and crispy on [read more...]

Mike Davis “Resignation” No Racial Divide

I don't know what's worse, the fact that Wayne Gretzky's wife, Janet Jones, gambled half-a-million dollars on pro football, or the fact that The Great One never noticed that his wife gambled half-a-million dollars on pro football....Even if Darko Milicic finally gets to play significant minutes after being traded from the Detroit Pistons to the Orlando Magic this week, I [read more...]

Unfortunately, Knight is Bigger than Boss

When Bob Knight was head coach at the University of Indiana, it was common knowledge that no one, not even the Chancellor of the university, could do anything about Knight, even when Knight threw chairs, made foul comments, and generally embarrassed the school. That is until Myles Brand took over as the head of the university: Knight was investigated by the [read more...]