University of Georgia All-Americans Nate Schnugg and Jamie Hunt along with senior Josh Varela and sophomore Javier Garrapiz were named to the All-Southeastern Conference tennis team, the league announced Thursday.
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Eighth-ranked Georgia travels to Fayetteville, Ark., this weekend to play its final regular-season series of 2009 against Arkansas at Bogle Park. The Bulldogs and Razorbacks will play a double header Saturday starting at 2 p.m. ET, and a single game on Sunday at noon.
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Tired of everyone complaining about the BCS but nothing ever coming of it? 

Me, too.

But Ray Melick of The Birmingham News believes that’s just too bad for us.  In his view, no one has a single idea for a replacement for the BCS that “even a simple majority can get behind.”

Athletic directors, university presidents, academicians, bloggers, coaches, the media, the Congress and even the President all have different views of the how college football should crown a champion.

There’s no consensus.  A new system can’t gain traction because everyone wants to go in their own direction. 

Therefore it will be a long, long time before the BCS is replaced.

Makes sense, Mr. Melick.

It’s not unlike the fabled Rat King (thanks, “30 Rock.”).  A number of rats, whose tails have knotted together, can’t move forward because they’re all pulling in different directions.  That’s a rather disgusting way of looking at it.

Or think of it like the Kennedy Assassination. 

Cubans, John Birchers, the mob, Lee Harvey Oswald.  The American people argue and debate and assign guilt on whoever they believe pulled the trigger.

And because of that lack of focus the blame never lands back where it belongs: in the CIA’s lap.  They did it.  You know they did it. 

Who else could have changed the parade route?

Just watch “JFK.”

(I’m only kidding.  I love America, the CIA and the Patriot Act.)

Kudos to the SEC’s official website for putting together this long page of team notes from all 12 teams’ spring practices.

It might take a while to get through, but at least it’s in one place.

Nice job.

Ole Miss men's tennis head coach Billy Chadwick was named the SEC Coach Of the Year, while a league-leading five Rebels earned All-SEC honors as the conference office announced the yearly awards Thursday.  The Rebels, ranked No. 2 in the nation, won the SEC regular season going undefeated, the tournament championship and their eighth straight SEC West title.
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STARKVILLE, Miss. – The Mississippi State men's tennis team had two athletes earn all-Southeastern Conference honors following their performance during the 2009 season, as announced by the league office Thursday.
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Sixth-ranked Georgia plays host to 17th-ranked Florida in a matchup of the top two teams in the SEC East beginning Friday at 7 p.m.
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Last night LSU unleashed an offensive barrage for the ages, pounding out 16 hits and 13 runs in a 13-2 annihilation of Tulane which might have been one of the better performances of the season.

Things were so bad in the game for Rick Jones’ crew that he threw in the sock, er, towel, after his team batted in the top of the seventh down 11 runs. The Wave had already gone through four pitchers by that point and he had nothing left.

“Both of us have big weekends,” said Jones. “It doesn’t do either one of us any good to keep burning arms up when you’ve got a game that’s gotten out of hand.”

Of course, Jones’ statements are completely disingenuous and everyone knows it. After all, LSU had plenty left in the bullpen – the Tigers had used four pitchers in the first seven innings, but one of them was reserve infielder Buzzy Haydel, who Tulane couldn’t get anything done against in the sixth inning (Haydel gave up a leadoff base hit and then retired the side, striking out two). Chris Matulis had thrown 2 2/3 innings and only allowed one unearned run despite being completely unable to get his off-speed stuff over the plate. Matulis, who got the win and is now 5-2 on the season, was even joking about his performance after the game on Facebook, posting that he “lost my curve ball and change up…..if you find it let me know asap.”

So the idea that LSU was ready to get that game over with is ludicrous. The Tigers had at least half a dozen pitchers available to pitch in the eighth and ninth innings and thus protect an 11-run lead; after all, Derek Helenihi and Chad Jones would have seemed like quality options given that the Wave couldn’t hit Haydel.

But when Jones says he’s had enough and sends somebody down to start the bus, there isn’t much you can do but nod your head and accept your opponent’s capitulation. My guess is the Tigers would gladly have gone on beating Tulane to a pulp, but it’s hard to crank out base hits when nobody is throwing batting practice.

The game got out of hand during a remarkable 10-run fifth inning, which saw something I doubt has ever happened in a college baseball game. Ryan Schimpf and Blake Dean hit back-to-back home runs at the beginning of the inning, then sat back and watched as LSU batted around. Then Schimpf and Dean repeated the feat. Two players hitting back-to-back homers is a scintillating performance in the first place; doing it twice in a game is extremely impressive. Doing it twice IN THE SAME INNING? Unheard of.

Dean’s first home run had a stewardess on it – not to mention free peanuts, champagne in business-class and an in-flight movie. I hear Marley & Me is a good flick. The ball landed past the wooden fence in the batting-cage area beyond right field, which is a good 450-475 feet from home plate. His second bomb was a no-doubter as well. And he also had a double, his 10th of the year. Dean, in fact, was 4-for-4 on the evening, pumping his batting average up to .335 (he now has 10 home runs and 44 RBI’s for the season). Schimpf was 3-for-4 in his own right with a double to go with his two homers; he’s up to .329 with 11 doubles, 14 homers and 47 RBI’s to lead the team in all three categories. But D.J. LeMahieu also had a good night, going 2-for-4 to push his average up to .369. And Sean Ochinko, back from missing last weekend with a tweaked hamstring, was two-for-three with a double and a pair of RBI’s; he pumped his average to .350.

As a team, LSU is now hitting .315, which is pretty healthy. 74 home runs in 46 games isn’t half bad either. The Tigers will travel to an expectedly rainy Fayetteville, Arkansas this weekend for a key three-game set with Arkansas (13-7 SEC, 30-12 overall), who stands just a half-game back of LSU in the standings, in an effort to extend their current six-game win streak.

The Hogs have won five of their last six, including an 8-7 win over Oklahoma in 10 innings Tuesday. They took two of three from Tennessee in Knoxville last weekend, though in doing so they fell out of first place thanks to LSU’s sweep of Auburn. Arkansas isn’t a particularly impressive team looking at the stat sheet; they hit only .277 as a ball club with 55 homers in 42 games. The Hogs will run a little (50-of-69 in stolen bases on the year) and they seem to do a nice job in close games. On the mound they bring a nice team ERA of 4.41, though with 40 home runs allowed and an opposing batting average of .260 they’re not a dominating pitching staff.

The two top pitchers the Hogs have are junior lefty Dallas Keuchel (6-1, 4.30 ERA, 60.2 IP, 12 HR, 46 K, .290 BAA) and sophomore right-hander Brett Eibner (4-2, 3.23 ERA, 39 IP, 18 BB, 43 K, .201 BAA). Former LSU right-handed pitcher T.J. Forrest (2-3, 4.74 ERA, 43.2 IP, 17 BB, 35 K, .265 BAA) has been the Saturday starter for most of the season but he came out of the rotation last week with a tired arm; Forrest is expected back in the rotation this weekend.

Arkansas will use its bullpen probably more than any team you’ll see, as the low innings-pitched numbers among its weekend starters will attest. They’ve got a strong closer in junior lefty Stephen Richards (4-0, 1.03 ERA, 26.1 IP, 12 BB, 35 K, .159 BAA), who has eight saves, and three other relievers – Mike Bolsinger (3-4, 2.72 ERA), Justin Wells (2-0, 3.43 ERA) and Sam Murphy (2-0, 6.08 ERA) – have all thrown 25 innings or more this year.

2010 Recruiting – Wide Receivers: Continuing in our series of looking at the 2010 football recruiting class by position, today we’ll take a gander at the wide receiver spots. As our readers are aware, this fall will be the last for Brandon LaFell, who is likely destined to leave LSU as the all-time school leader in several receiving categories. But R.J. Jackson and Chris Mitchell will also depart, meaning that while LSU has stockpiled some high-quality young talent behind them there will be some opportunity for newcomers to play early and head coach Les Miles and wide receivers coach D.J. McCarthy will be looking to replenish the numbers there.

To that end LSU already has two commitments from wideouts – Mike Davis of Skyline High School in Dallas, rated as a four-star recruit by both Rivals and Scout and listed on the ESPN Top 150 watch list, and Tharold Simon of Eunice, who is an ESPN 150 watch list member but rated only a three-star by Scout and not rated by Rivals.

Davis (6-0, 180), who is a supremely polished receiver with great hands and superb route-running ability, is the kind of guy who could put LaFell’s impending records to the test. He’s got good speed if not track-type speed, but his acceleration and change of direction makes for his getting ridiculously wide open on a consistent basis – and on film you can tell this guy doesn’t require a perfect pass to make the catch (ESPN’s evaluation of him also makes note of the fact he has lousy quarterbacks throwing him the ball but he gets the job done anyway). Davis put up massive numbers as a sophomore and junior at Skyline, and it’s expected he’ll do something similar this year. He might be the most highly-rated of LSU’s recruits so far; Scout rates him the No. 7 wide receiver in the country.

Simon is actually rated as an “athlete” by Rivals and a safety by Scout and ESPN, though watching him on film he looks a lot like Michael Clayton. At 6-4 and 185 pounds his frame is almost identical to Clayton’s, and the way he plays with abandon on a football field is reminiscent of Clayton as well. This guy will absolutely knock the hell out of you, which perhaps makes him more valuable as a safety, but that physicality is pretty useful in a downfield blocker as well. Simon’s speed is listed in the 4.5 range, but that seems deceiving; he’s definitely got football speed which looks faster than 4.5. Not to mention another in-state wide reciever prospect coming to LSU with reported 4.5 speed, 2009 signee Morris Claiborne, just ran a 10.3 100-meter dash in a track meet last weekend.

Simon might end up a safety, in which case LSU would be looking for two more wide receivers rather than one. Regardless of the number, the top prospect on LSU’s board at wide receiver – or any other position, for that matter – is Trovon Reed of Thibodaux High. Reed (6-0, 175, 4.3 40), the top player in Louisiana for 2010, is a Percy Harvin-type player who plays virtually every offensive skill position for his team and last year put up some unbelievable numbers – 91 rushes for 761 yards (8.4 average) and 10 touchdowns, 694 yards and 10 touchdowns passing and 19 catches for 344 yards (18.1 average) and one touchdown receiving. Those stats were good enough to get Reed District and Region MVP honors, though he was only a second team all-state selection.

LSU looks like they’re in good shape for Reed, though he’s being chased by pretty much everybody in the country. Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Auburn, Ole Miss, Florida, Florida State and Oklahoma are also in the mix, but the word is that LSU feels pretty good about their chances for landing him.

After Reed, the guy who seems to be LSU’s most likely target at wide receiver right now is Justin Hunter, a 6-4, 185-pounder from Ocean Lakes High School in Virginia Beach, VA. Hunter’s favorites list also includes Florida, Penn State, North Carolina and Virginia Tech among others, but he told Tiger Sports Digest that he almost committed to LSU when visiting two weeks ago and that the Tigers are definitely in the lead. ESPN has Hunter on its Top 150 watch list and Rivals rates him a four-star recruit, while Scout says he’s a three-star player and the No. 58 wide receiver in the country. Hunter boasts a 40 time just under 4.5 and high jumps 6’10″ – he used those skills to reel in 34 passes for 536 yards and 10 touchdowns in leading Ocean Lakes to a 12-1 record and the best season in school history last year. Hunter also ran three punts back for touchdowns.

Other receivers who could be in LSU’s mix include Da’Rick Rogers (6-2, 200, 4.35 40) of Calhoun, GA, Demarco Cobbs (6-2, 200, 4.5) of Tulsa, OK Central, James Louis (5-11, 180, 4.4) of Atlantic High School in Delray Beach, FL, DeAndrew White (5-11, 170, 4.4) of Galena Park, TX North Shore and a pair of in-state players – Jarrett Fobbs (5-11, 180, 4.55) of Shreveport Huntington and James Wright (6-2, 185, 4.5) of Belle Chasse. Fobbs and Wright are getting wait-and-see treatment from LSU at the moment, but either could enter the picture with a good showing at LSU’s June camp.

Other Stuff: LSU 2011 baseball commitment Ryan Eades tore his labrum and can’t pitch the rest of this season, but Tuesday Eades contributed in other ways. The 6-5, 230-pounder had three hits, including a home run, and drove in six runs in leading Northshore to a big win over Mandeville. Eades, who has a mid-90′s fastball when healthy, also plays shortstop for Northshore; performances like this week’s might help shift him from a pitching prospect to a guy Paul Mainieri looks to for middle-of-the-order power. By the time he gets here Sean Ochinko will have graduated and LSU could be looking for a first baseman.

Yesterday’s Advocate had an article about the speculation for LSU players’ prospects in the 2010 NFL Draft, and obviously the big names there are Brandon LaFell and Ciron Black, who had they gone out this year would have been first-day picks. Charles Scott, who was told he’d be a third-round pick, will also be on all the draft boards. But I wouldn’t discount the draft stock of guys like Keiland Williams, Richard Dickson, Rahim Alem, Al Woods, Perry Riley and Charles Alexander; those defensive guys particularly could be ready to skyrocket if things work out under new coordinator John Chavis. Harry Coleman’s development as a linebacker could get him drafted as well; he’s a guy who NFL teams will definitely look at as a gunner on special teams. Jacob Cutrera and Danny McCray are also athletes with enough size and speed to attract NFL interest depending on how their senior seasons play out.

And speaking of LSU football, a rather bizarre story surfaced yesterday in that Les Miles is now on Twitter and will be posting tweets before and after LSU games this fall.

Huh?

I hope he’s giving that gig to a student assistant or somebody. I get that it’s a recruiting ploy, but Twitter?

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And Maria Sharapova is even taller than I thought. Heels or no heels. This is ESPN E:60′s Extreme Makeover where Maria Sharapova works with Matthew Stafford.