Even my girlfriend will know not to call me tonight from 6:00 to about 8:30 unless it’s to talk about how much Matt Painter looks like a ferret or how stupid of a nickname Boilermakers is. For those two and a half hours, I will have worked myself into a nearly rabid frenzy because, simply, it doesn’t get much bigger than tonight’s Purdue/Indiana game.

Forget that with a win my Indiana Hoosiers could claim a piece of the Big Ten title coming down the homestretch of the regular season, forget that this is the best Purdue has been in the past ten years, forget that it’s likely Kelvin Sampson’s last game as Indiana basketball head coach. This is about a rivalry. A basketball game that will be filled from the opening tip with, if I might borrow an SEC phrase, “Clean, old fashioned hate.”

For Purdue and their fans, (I’m really exercising every ounce of restraint that I have not to make any number of amusing cracks about West Lafayette and/or Purdue Students), this is a game about respect. For certain, Matt Painter’s Boilermakers are the surprise of the year in the Big Ten and maybe in all of college basketball but no one’s paying attention. Instead, all anyone can talk about is Indiana. Indiana’s season, Indiana’s super freshman Eric Gordon and most recently, Indiana’s coach and Indiana’s recruiting violation. Tonight, Purdue plays not to be the New York Islanders of Indiana state sports.

For IU, tonight’s win is a chance to knock Purdue back down to their rightful place as a second-tier Big Ten program and most importantly, the end to a perfect sports year. As an IU fan, I can think of nothing better than a year in which we upset Purdue on a last-second field goal in the Bucket game and then beat their brains out at home, snatching a piece of the Big Ten regular season title.

How big is this game? My girlfriend told me she might “catch a couple plays.” That’s big.

This is the third time that LSU quarterback Ryan Perrilloux has been suspended. He’s a junior.

I hope that Les Miles have the nerve to do what other college coaches (including himself), in both basketball and football, haven’t had the integrity to do: Kick this kid off the team. Time and time again, we see examples of athletic programs sending mixed moral messages to their players by giving the most talented break after break while preaching a message of accountability, respect and class to the kids seeing the least amount of playing time.

Case and point, last month Wake Forest dismissed a reserve running back for threatening messages he posted to his Facebook page. No second chances, no temporary suspension until they play a conference rival. Nothing. Just a handshake and a ride to the bus station.

Meanwhile, kids like Perrilloux who, for all intents and purposes has been a problem since arriving in Baton Rouge, has been suspended three times for violation of team rules. Former UConn point guard Marcus Williams was suspended by coach Jim Calhoun for his part in the heist of laptops from dorm rooms but was allowed to rejoin the team just in time for the starts of the Big East conference opener against Marquette. Isn’t that convenient?

I admonish Calhoun, Miles and coaches like them for taking moral stands of convenience and not sending a stronger message to not only their athletes but middle school and high school kids. The hypocrisy of the actions of these coaches and the special treatment received by the best players does not go unnoticed.

For now, the message seems to be that if you can run fast, shoot a jump shot or elude a blitz, you get to play by a different set of “team rules.”

My friend Brendan passed this onto me:

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Kyle Kendrick was shocked to learn that he’d been traded to the Yomiuri Giants in Japan for a player named “Kobayashi Iwamura.”

“I don’t know what to think right now,” he told reporters outside his locker shortly after getting the news from assistant general manager Ruben Amaro Jr.

Had he truly been thinking, he would have realized that such deals are prohibited. And with a little digging he could have found out that there is no Kobayashi Iwamura playing in Japan.

The “trade” was, in fact, a prank. The ruse was orchestrated by pitcher Brett Myers and was elaborate enough to include Amaro, manager Charlie Manuel, Kendrick’s agent, the media and others.

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(Indianapolis Star/Matt Kryger)

After persuading my girlfriend to watch Saturday night’s Michigan State/IU game (something that was entirely too easy, which leads me to believe that I’ve made a trade of dubious quality for myself down the road), we settled in to watch the game. Of course, most of the discussion from ESPN’s talking heads centered around the NCAA allegations against Indiana head basketball coach Kelvin Sampson and what his future may or may not be come later this week. During the course of the game, I explained to my girlfriend what he had done and then explained my hardline stance on what had happened and what I thought should happen to our coach. Her reply was something that floored me, an emotion that I had never considered or entered into the equation.

“That’s sad,” she said.

I was stunned. I didn’t really know what to say. In my anger as an IU basketball fan and as someone who had embraced Sampson as the leader of my favorite team and my alma mater, I had never stopped to consider the human price in all of this. Here’s a guy who has one of the top 5 jobs in his entire profession and it appears that he’s thrown all of it away, leaving a once-brilliant career in total jeopardy. Make no mistake about it, sanctions or not, Kelvin Sampson is a heck of a basketball coach and as I watched him embrace his players and pump his fists, it did occur to me that the entire story was a little sad, as my girlfriend had originally emoted.

This was a guy who had put our much-beloved program back in the national spotlight and has now found himself in the cross hairs with seemingly no way out. All of the people that had originally loved him and praised the work he had done to land big-time recruits and put Indiana basketball back in the top 10, stood on Kirkwood Avenue in Bloomington with a microphone in their face and called for his job.

Come to think of it, that is pretty sad.

There are any number of reasons why, despite my best efforts, I just don’t like the NBA. The play, often nights, is sloppy and unmotivated. The season is entirely too long. The playoffs have too many days between games particularly in the early rounds. But no reason for my NBA apathy is more clear than my disdain for the way franchises bow to the whim of their player. Vince Carter whined about wanting to be traded. He got it. Tracy McGrady wanted out of Orlando. He got it. Pau Gasol was a complete malcontent in Memphis and the Grizzlies gave him away for Kwame Brown and a bag of Fritos. Add Jason Kidd to the list of the NBA’s most talented whiners. After complaining for what feels like six years about how badly he wanted out of New Jersey, Dallas stepped up and made an offer, sending half of their bench to New Jersey in exchange for Kidd, who was originally drafted by the Mavericks before heading off to Jersey.

Not so fast, George hasn’t agreed to be included in the deal and has, for the moment, delayed it. While I don’t think anything can stop this trade from happening, I think that NBA franchises need to stand firm on trading unhappy stars. While you don’t want a toxic personality in your locker room but chances are, with a player of Kidd’s ability, you aren’t likely to get value. GMs and owners need to send a clear message to players that they will abide by the terms of their contract or they can sit out until that contract expires. Instead the message they’re sending is that they’re spineless and easily manipulated and if the players stomps his feet loud enough and long enough he’ll get what he wants.

Still wonder why the majority of the country doesn’t care about professional basketball?

Indiana mens basketball players should be focused on their huge conference matchup against Wisconsin tonight (one game in a treacherous three-game homestand that sees Michigan State and archrival Purdue come to Bloomington in the next week) but instead they may be having to worry if they will have a coach by year’s end.

The NCAA released allegations yesterday saying that head basketball coach Kelvin Sampson misled (see: lied) to Indiana University and NCAA investigators regarding improper contact with recruits. In a letter sent by the NCAA to Indiana University, it is alleged that Sampson knowingly and willingly violated telephone recruiting restrictions (set in place because of violations made during his tenure at Oklahoma) and then lied about it. Not good.

That allegation is among five “major violations” that Sampson has been accused of by the NCAA. When I see the words major violation, I’m thinking vacating wins and I’m thinking postseason ban, both of which mean that Kelvin Sampson’s tenure as Indiana University head basketball coach is over.

Sampson, Indiana Athletic Director Rick Greenspan, and other university officials will appear before the Division I Committee on Infractions in June and have until May to issue a written response to the allegations.

So where does Indiana go from here? Self-imposed sanctions, unless it’s a postseason ban in 2009, aren’t likely to be enough and as an Indiana alum and an IU fan I am embarrassed. Sampson needs to go and he needs to go right this second. If Rick Greenspan isn’t sitting down at his desk right now to negotiate the terms of Sampson’s firing or resignation then he deserves to be fired too. Enough is Enough.

I think Bob Knight is an egomaniac and I am certainly the furthest thing from a Bob Knight fan that any Indiana University alumnus could be but at the very least, he ran a clean program that managed to win three national championships. Make no mistake, Indiana basketball fans (and boosters) want to win but they want to win the right way, the fair way, the clean way.

Before anyone says anything, the return of Bob Knight as Indiana head basketball coach would be a horrible, horrible idea and a gigantic leap backwards for the program. Knight couldn’t win at Texas Tech because he couldn’t recruit and I’d venture to say that Eric Gordon, Derrick Rose, Kevin Love or Michael Beasley aren’t going to come to IU and get screamed at for a year or two before heading to the NBA and it’s that quality of player that Indiana needs to compete against Michigan State, Illinois, Wisconsin and a Purdue team that, under Matt Painter, appear to be headed back to Big Ten contention. They are the league’s top team at present.

Rick Greenspan hired Coach Hep, a move that saved the IU football program from permanent obscurity and has led a capital funds campaign for brand spanking new athletic facilities at IU and if he’s interested in keeping his job, he needs to make sure that Kelvin Sampson doesn’t keep his for very much longer.

I have never been as proud to be a Western New York native than I have in the past year at what has been done to save the lives of athletes injured during the course of play. What was done for Bills tight end Kevin Everett, who may never play football again but walks today because of the immediate care he received, and Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik by Buffalo’s medical professionals is nothing short of amazing, nothing less than a miracle.

In case you hadn’t heard, Zednik has his carotid artery nearly severed by a teammate in a freak accident during the third period of Sunday’s game against the Sabres in Buffalo. Doctors estimate that Zednik lost as much as a half gallon of blood in the accident. The carotid artery transports blood to your brain. Doctors say teammate Olli Jokinen’s skate blade just missed Zednik’s jugular vein.

Zednik underwent emergency vascular surgery to reconnect the artery, which was clamped for 15 to 20 minutes during the surgery.

Today, Zednik was listed as “stable,” “awake” and “oriented” in the ICU at Buffalo General Hospital and showing no initial signs of brain damage. Attending surgeon Sonya Noor described Zednik’s condition, physical and otherwise, as “very good.” Not bad for a guy who somehow managed to skate three-quarters of the way to the bench with a cut throat before falling limp into teammates’ arms.

The 32-year-old forward from Bystrica, Slovakia is expected to recover, suffer no brain damage and maybe suffer “a little hoarseness” somewhere down the road. Wow. Do you believe in miracles?

A letter from WGA West president Patric Verrone to membership (courtesy of United Hollywood):

Dear Fellow Members,

Patric M. Verrone
President, WGAW

MarketWatch is reporting that the deal runs through May 2011 and calls for an annual pay increase of 3.5% per year and does have a clause dealing with internet residuals.

The Bottom Line applauds the WGA for reaching an agreement with the studios, one that appears to be in the best interest of their profession in the near-term as well as the long-term as new media continues to evolve into a commercially viable property.

Hello everyone, my name’s Patrick and I’m a draft freak.

I’ve heard the first step to overcoming addiction is admitting that you have a problem so here I am. I love the NFL draft. I love the meaningless 40 times, shuttle runs, bench press numbers and critiques of throwing motions all of which are a scientific way to analyze something that has proved to be nothing if unscientific.

That being said, I am a huge fan of the mock draft if, for no other reason, than to see how badly my Philadelphia Eagles will disappoint me by selecting yet another offensive or defensive linemen when they are other glaring inadequacies but I digress. I should add that last year’s decision to trade out of the first round (with divisional rival Dallas) and then take Houston QB Kevin Kolb with the team’s first pick of the draft in the second round was enough to make me pause for a moment, in stunned silence, before yelling at the television.

That said, I was parousing Scout Inc.’s Todd McShay’s (a guy who bears an uncanny resemblance to Destin Beach Safety Patrol Chief Joe D’Agostino) mock draft and was disappointed that he had my team taking Miami defensive end Calais Campbell. I mean why wouldn’t the Eagles take a defensive end from the U when Jerome McDougle worked out so well with the 15th pick in 2003.

That said, looking over this first round mock, there are a couple prospects I’d be very leery about drafting. For the record, one of them is NOT Indiana’s James Hardy, who McShay has going to San Fransisco with the 29th pick the team received from the Indianapolis Colts. Hardy’s size and speed at the wide receiver position makes him a unique talent though he needs a little work on his route running and needs to become more physical against press coverage.

Darren McFadden, Arkansas. I would be very, very careful about drafting Run DMC because he reminds me of another great college running back who has been something of a dud in the NFL: Reggie Bush. To be successful in the NFL, McFadden will have to quickly learn something that Bush has yet to learn in his first two seasons, you can’t outrun everybody in the NFL. McFadden’s east-to-west style of running would be a concern for me, though he is a terrific pass catcher out of the backfield. What makes Adrian Peterson such a great college and NFL running back is that he is great in space but can also run between the tackles and be an every down back. I’ve yet to see both of those qualities in McFadden.

Early Doucet, LSU. McShay has the LSU senior going to Jacksonville late in the first round and I can’t stress enough how awful this pick would be for Jacksonville who has other holes to fill and have wasted first round picks on receivers in recent years (the underwhelming Reggie Williams and combine hero Matt Jones, who is looking to play himself out of the league). By his own admission, McShay says Doucet will be a good number 2 receiver. I don’t know about you but I’m not paying millions of dollars in guaranteed money to a number 2 receiver unless his name is Wes Welker. Doucet is undersized but fast, could be a good return guy as he tries to find his bearings as an NFL receiver.

If you haven’t heard Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut, download it on iTunes or pick it up. It’ll be the best 10 bucks you’ve spent in a while.

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