The Tennessee men’s basketball team officially put the finishing touches on its 2008-09 season Thursday when it hosted its annual postseason banquet at the Knoxville Marriott.
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Content provided by Dawg Sports.

I believe the success of the “Kyle Gets Contrary” series is attested to by the reaction the first two installments have garnered in the blogosphere, so I am moved to go out on a limb in this third installment, in which I part company with the overwhelming majority of college football bloggers. Here goes:

I don’t like Mike Leach.

Oh, I have nothing against him personally; I’ve never met the man, so I cannot comment on his personal character. I have, however, remarked upon the character he plays on the sideline:

I know it’s sacrilege for an active participant in the college football blogosphere to say so, but I don’t particularly care for Mike Leach. I respect him as a coach, and I have no basis for disliking the man personally, but he strikes me as being like those guys in high school who tried to be weird strictly for the sake of being able to brag about how weird they were. That’s the hit I get off of Coach Leach’s public fixation with pirates and his purposeful quirkiness. I don’t mind those attributes in a sportscaster or a blogger, but I don’t particularly need to see a Division I-A head coach let his freak flag fly solely so he can make a production out of celebrating how odd he is. It’s like he’s a sports talk radio host caught in a football coach’s body.

The foregoing assessment, when initially aired last November, drew cogent retorts from fellow SB Nation bloggers Seth C of Double-T Nation and Skin Patrol of Hogs Haven, so I may have been a little rough on Coach Leach over the whole pirate thing (although, really, now is not a good time to be pro-pirate).

Accordingly, I wouldn’t mention this at all, but for the fact that Dr. Saturday recently noted Coach Leach’s latest slam against N.F.L. coaches who dare to disagree with him. Rather than voice his opinion like his mama raised him right, Coach Leach reacts to criticisms of his system and his players by being bratty, condescending, and insulting.

That doesn’t make him refreshingly forthright or amusingly quirky. It just makes him rude.

It also raises the question, “What did Mike Leach ever do that entitles him to talk this way to other coaches?” It was one thing for Steve Spurrier to say “something just happens to them at Georgia” while he was beating the Bulldogs like a bass drum or to say “you can’t spell ‘Citrus’ without U-T” when his Gators’ annual victories over the Volunteers routinely sent Tennessee to the Citrus Bowl; it might be ill-mannered, but it ain’t bragging if you can do it, and the Evil Genius did it (hence the “genius” portion of the formulation).

What in Mike Leach’s resume justifies such childish and churlish demeaning of his coaching coevals, though? Yes, I know, Lubbock was hardly a hotbed of football success prior to his arrival, but it isn’t as though he was Bill Snyder taking over Kansas State, however similar their non-conference scheduling practices may be.

Texas Tech hadn’t had a losing record in any of the seven seasons preceding Coach Leach’s arrival in Lubbock and the Red Raiders had attended five bowl games in that seven-year span. Granted, Spike Dykes’s last four Texas Tech teams lost five games apiece . . . but, then again, Mike Leach’s first four Red Raider clubs all lost at least that many.

Nine years into his tenure in Lubbock, Coach Leach has transformed Texas Tech into an offensive powerhouse, for which he deserves credit. What has he won, though, that has earned him the right to take potshots at N.F.L. coaches who dare to doubt that his players will succeed in a pro-style system?

Is it his 5-4 record in bowl games? Is it his three fourth-place finishes in the Big 12 South, or perhaps the three times his teams have tied for third place in the division? Could it be the five times his Red Raiders have finished at or below .500 in conference play, or maybe his 29-29 record in games played in venues other than Jones AT&T Stadium? Is it perhaps the fact that Mike Leach has guided his teams to the same number of conference title tilts as Lane Kiffin has?

This is not to say that Mike Leach isn’t a good coach; he is a good head coach and an outstanding offensive coordinator (although it is open to debate to what extent Hal Mumme made him rather than the other way around), and he has earned the right to smart off about Texas A&M. Still, actually winning something with your players ought to be a prerequisite to directing scathing put-downs to fellow coaches who doubt whether they would be able to win anything with your players.

I get that bloggers like him because he gives good interview. He doesn’t communicate in coachspeak. That may make him quotable, but it doesn’t make him right. It may, in fact, merely make him a slightly less puffy Eric Cartman. Ere we lavish too much praise on Mike Leach for being such a colorful character, therefore, we should recall the wise words of Crash Davis:

Your shower shoes have fungus on them. You’ll never make it to the bigs with fungus on your shower shoes. Think classy, you’ll be classy. If you win 20 in the show, you can let the fungus grow back and the press’ll think you’re colorful. Until you win 20 in the show, however, it means you are a slob.

Mike Leach is a talented coach who has revived, and has revived interest in, Texas Tech football. For that, he is to be applauded. In principle, he even deserves our admiration for being willing to defend his players from what he considers to be unfair criticisms. There is, though, a right way and a wrong way to go about it, and Coach Leach goes about these things the wrong way. You don’t hear Mark Richt ripping N.F.L. coaches who question his quarterbacks’ abilities to succeed in the professional ranks, and Mark Richt has coached two Heisman Trophy winners, the winningest quarterback in Division I-A college football history, and a No. 1 draft pick.

If Mike Leach wins a Big 12 championship, he can mouth off to every coach in the country. Once he can claim honestly to have captured as many conference crowns as Mack Brown, he can rip into his colleagues with willful abandon and the blogosphere will think he’s colorful. Until he improves upon his 2-7 records against both Oklahoma and Texas, however, Mike Leach’s sophomoric tantrums just mean he’s all mouth.

Go ‘Dawgs!

Content provided by The Slophouse.

The NCAA’s annual release of the Academic Progress Report usually goes by without much notice by fans at some campuses. This year at Arkansas, that’s not the case.

If you haven’t already, make sure to read Bob Holt’s article today on athletic director Jeff Long’s thoughts and worries on the near-certain promise of a lower-than-desired APR score for the Razorbacks basketball team. The NCAA will release the score next week, but it’s believed the Hogs’ number will be below the NCAA benchmark of 925.

Here are the bare bones you’ll need to know from Holt’s report:

An APR multi-year score of 925 – which the NCAA equates to an approximate graduation success rate of 60 percent – is considered the cutoff point at which teams could be penalized by losing up to 10 percent of their scholarships.

Arkansas’ multi-year score in men’s basketball last year was 944, but that figures to drop in the latest report.

Why? Well, because none of Arkansas’ six seniors listed on the roster in the 2007-08 academic year graduated, Long revealed. And the departure of Patrick Beverley last summer didn’t help matters. Will it be enough, though, to knock Arkansas’ four-year APR score below 925? We’ll find out next week.

But here’s some good news. The report in today’s newspapers evoked a response from one of those former Razorbacks today on Twitter. Steven Hill, the 7-foot center known for his shot-blocking and defensive prowess, cleared the air with a tweet this afternoon.

stevenhill01: Its now public that I didnt get my degree. Im 1 online class away and am enrolling in it tomorrow. I will have my degree in 7 weeks or less.

Congratulations, Steven.

Hill was in the NBA for a short period of time with the Oklahoma City Thunder this past season, and played in seven games for the franchise’s NBDL affiliate in Tulsa. Injury cut his season short, but he started in five of seven game appearances and averaged 7.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.3 blocked shots a game.

Next year’s APR score will be interesting, too. The departures of Montrell McDonald, Brandon Moore and Andre Clark figure to factor into the score.

The APR is serious business, folks. A score below the benchmark the first time usually merits a word of warning from the NCAA. A second year of a low score in the multi-year report — called “occasion two” — results in scholarship and practice restrictions. The Tennessee-Chattanooga football program has reportedly hit “occasion three penalties” with its upcoming multi-year APR score, according to a report in the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

As a result, the Mocs are banned from postseason play next season, and will lose 3.15 scholarships and four hours of team time, according to the report.

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– Brandon Marcello
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Content provided by Kentucky Wildcat sports beat.

So says the Raleigh News & Observer, which posted an update on John Wall, the UK point guard…

Content provided by John Clay’s Sidelines.

John Wall’s search for a 2009-10 college took an unexpected turn on Thursday when the Raleigh, North Carolina guard told the Raleigh News and Observer that he will take an unofficial visit to North Carolina Central in Durham on Friday.

An excerpt:

“I want to find out what a historically black school has to offer,” Wall said Thursday night. “This is a visit to find out some things.”

Wall had planned to trim his list of eight schools to three or four by Friday, but, “truthfully, it looks like it is going to be Monday now,” Wall said Thursday night.

Content provided by John Clay’s Sidelines.

Ex-UK commitment Dominique Ferguson, one of the top forwards in the class of 2010, has narrowed his list to seven schools, and the Cats are among the seven.

Inside the Hall, via IndySportsNation.com, reports that the Indianapolis forward says he is considering Indiana, Kentucky, Arizona, Texas, UCLA, Wake Forest and Florida.

Ferguson committed to Billy Gillispie and Kentucky but re-opened his recruiting when Gillispie was fired. New UK coach John Calipari has been in Indiana re-recruiting Ferguson.

Rivals.com ranks Ferguson as the sixth best player in the 2010 class.

Scout.com ranks Ferguson the ninth best player.

On the heels on a strong showing last weekend at the Drake Relays, the Ole Miss track and field team looks for another outstanding performance Saturday when the Rebels host the Mississippi Open from the Ole Miss Track and Field Complex. 
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Former Alabama linebacker Woodrow Lowe has been named to the 2009 class of the College Football Hall of Fame it was announced on Thursday by the College Football Hall of Fame Foundation, Inc. Lowe was one of the Crimson Tide’s all-time great linebackers, playing for legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant from 1972-75.
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Content provided by Razorback Expats.

Charles Balentine remains well-known among Razorback fans for hitting the 3rd biggest shot in Arkansas history (we’ll give you two guesses as to what #1 and #2 are), but many other details of his storied career are slipping away into the mists of time.

So, in the spirit of our “Where in the World is Eugene Nash?” post from last year (and the very enlightening two-part Q&A that followed) we’re now focusing the massive power of the Razorback Expats community towards helping us track down Balentine. Aside from the occasional article, there aren’t a lot of details about his current whereabouts online, which is where you guys come in.

Our goal is to conduct a very casual interview with #24 so we can get his take on Razorback basketball during the late-period Sutton era, and of course his role in it. So, if you know Charles Balentine, have information about his whereabouts or, best of all, actually are Charles Balentine, please contact us at razorbackexpats at yahoo dot com.

Our hope is that this will be a lot of fun for all involved…we look forward to hearing from you!

Content provided by Jerry Tipton on UK basketball.

Former UK standout John Pelphrey sent a two-page letter to Arkansas fans who bought season tickets for next season. Pelphrey, who will be entering his third season as Arkansas coach, wanted the fans to know he appreciated their support.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sportswriter Bob Holt quoted fans as saying they couldn’t remember a coach making such a gesture.

Pelphrey said the letter was not sparked by the Razorbacks’ 2-14 SEC record last season. That marked the program’s worst conference record since 1971.

“I don’t think it was something specifically last year in terms of wins and losses,” Pelphrey told the Democrat-Gazette. “I just think it’s important that everybody knows we’ve got a plan and we know what we’re doing and we’re excited about it and working hard.

“We understand who we are and where we’ve got to go and where we want to be some day. We’re committed to that.

“I want them to understand just how appreciative we are for all they do for us as a university and in particular as a basketball program. And I wanted to keep everybody updated on what’s going on.”