SPORTSbyBROOKS has been all over the Bernie Fine story, and he asked the tough question – why didn’t ESPN share the damning audiotape of Laurie Fine with the authorities back in 2002? Check out the video above as the story is starting to grow.

With the NBA in a lockout, it’s not a bad time to look at the incoming college freshman. These 10 guys can dunk. I hope they can, you know, shoot, dribble, pass, rebound and play defense too. Those things are also important.

Shaquille Johnson is heading into his senior year, but he’s dunking like a pro. Let’s hope the rest of his game is just as good…

As expected, Kyrie Irving went #1 overall to the Cavs, and Derrick Williams went #2 to Minnesota, a sign that the T-Wolves could not swing a satisfying trade for the Arizona forward. If he’s not moved in the next few days, he’ll be asked to play small forward alongside Kevin Love and Darko Milicic on the front line.

Conventional wisdom had Brandon Knight headed to Utah, but the Jazz went with Turkish big man Enes Kanter instead, which is odd considering the presence of Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson on the Utah front line. The Cavs went with Texas freshman Tristan Thompson at #4. Apparently, he played Williams to a standstill in a recent workout and that won over the Cleveland brass. He plays the same position as J.J. Hickson, so I’m not exactly sure how the two are going to develop together. (For what it’s worth, John Hollinger’s Draft Rater had Thompson ranked #3.)

The Raptors surprised no one at #5 by going international with Lithuanian big man Jonas Valanciunas, who has the potential to provide some rebounding alongside softy Andrea Bargnani. At #6, the Wizards went with Jan Vesely, a Czech swingman with a penchant for dunking…hard…on people.

At #7, the Kings took Bismack Biyombo (of Congo) but it appears that he’s part of a three-team trade with the Bobcats and the Bucks. Biyombo is probably headed to Charlotte, while the Bucks’ pick at #10, Jimmer Fredette, is headed to Sacramento. For their part, the Bucks acquired Stephen Jackson to replace John Salmons (on his way to Sacramento) and Corey Maggette (on his way to Charlotte). Milwaukee needs scoring and Jackson brings that while also playing good defense on the other end of the floor. The Bucks are also expected to acquire #19 pick Tobias Harris (of Tennessee) in the deal.

You may remember Kyle Singler’s first trick shot video. Well, he’s back for more and this time he’s going to get buckets from the top of the Duke chapel.

D3 guard Jacob Tucker won the 2011 NCAA dunk contest. He stands 5’11″ and claims to have a 50-inch vertical.

Northern Arizona coach Mike Adras voted for Ohio St. as his #1 team, not the UConn Huskies, who actually won the title.

In case you missed it, here is CBS’ annual “One Shining Moment” video from last night:

Connecticut shot 34.5% from the field, including 1-of-11 from long range, and turned the ball over five more times than Butler and still won the game by 12 points.

More than anything else, the story tonight was Butler’s shooting. They made just 12-of-64 (19%) from the field, and only 3-of-31 (10%) from two-point range thanks in part to UConn’s 10 blocked shots.

Greg Anthony called it the worst performance he’s ever seen in a championship game and that’s half true. It was a terrible shooting performance, but the Bulldogs played pretty great defense, holding UConn to just 53 points on 35% shooting. So for that they should be commended.

Regarding the shooting, UConn contested a lot of shots, but the Bulldogs missed some open looks as well. If anything, tonight’s game is yet another argument that the Final Four should take place in a basketball arena instead of in a football stadium. There was a piece in the Wall Street Journal today about how the shooting in domes decreases by an average of 4%. It’s simply tough to shoot in such a big building because there isn’t anything behind the basket to help give the shooter a frame of reference.

I’m not going to go into specifics about player statlines because they’re all pretty ugly (on both sides), but the play of UConn’s Alex Oriakhi (5-of-6 from the field, 11 points, 11 rebounds, four blocks) and Jeremy Lamb (12 second-half points, seven rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block) were collectively the difference in the game. Oriakhi gave Matt Howard and Andrew Smith fits around the basket and Lamb’s scoring broke the game open in the second half.

Congratulations to Jim Calhoun and UConn on a great year. It’s amazing to think that we have a national champion who didn’t even finish in the TOP HALF of its conference. (UConn was 9th out of 16 teams in the Big East.) Since they didn’t bother to mention it during the telecast, let’s not forget that Calhoun will be suspended for the first three games of the Big East schedule next season for recruiting violations that happened under his watch. For his part, Calhoun has fought the NCAA’s ruling every step of the way.

The smoke is gathering around John Calipari.

Allegations have emerged as part of an ongoing FoxSports.com investigation that one of Calipari’s former assistants broke NCAA recruiting violations.

But a nearly two-year FOXSports.com investigation revealed that [Bilal] Batley also broke NCAA rules by making repeated impermissible telephone calls while at both Memphis and Kentucky to recruits, such as DeMarcus Cousins, and their parents.

When approached by a FOXSports.com reporter after his news conference on Friday, Calipari refused to address any questions concerning whether he was aware of Batley’s calls and whether or not Kentucky self-reported the violations.

NCAA rules state that all telephone calls made to or received from a recruit, his parents, legal guardians or coaches must be made and received by a team’s head coach or three countable assistant coaches.

According to Memphis and Kentucky, Batley was not a countable coach at either school.

The report goes on to quote Cousins in saying that Batley played a “big role” in his decision to follow Calipari to Kentucky.

“We stayed in contact with him frequently,” DeMarcus Cousins told FOXSports.com.

High-schooler (and top 2012 point guard recruit) L.J. Rose admitted that he spoke to Batley frequently while he was at Kentucky.

Batley has something of a checkered past, including an accident in Texas in which he was driving a van full of players. Two players were killed and five others were injured. He was not indicted.

He also worked for Kelvin Sampson at Indiana during the time when Sampson and his staff were found to have broken recruiting violations. Batley joined Calipari in Memphis about a month after one of the players) he was recruiting at Indiana (Nolan Dennis committed to Memphis. Hmm.

At best, Calipari is guilty of bad judgment in hiring Batley. At worst, he knew about the illegal contact and turned a blind eye. Worse yet, he endorsed it.

Nothing has stuck to Calipari in his college coaching career, but both of his trips to the Final Four (at UMass and Memphis) have been vacated due to NCAA violations. Marcus Camby was found to have had illegal contact with an agent while Derrick Rose had someone else take his SAT.

Is this year’s Final Four appearance next on the list?

Read the entire FoxSports.com piece here.