The rich get richer.

North Carolina landed the nation’s top recruit, swingman Harrison Barnes (pictured), as well as two elite guards, PG Kendall Marshall and SG Reggie Bullock. All three players were ranked in the top 20 of ESPNU’s Top 100 prospects.

Roy Williams must be a happy man.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Via the LA Times…

He almost got drilled in the back of his head with a chair and didn’t even know it!

Greetings from “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party!” Of course, I’m not really in attendance, nor am I supposed to refer to this game by that moniker given the unsavory connotations. Since 2006, SEC officials have been calling it “The Florida–Georgia/Georgia–Florida Game.” How boring, but I understand their decision.

Since 1990, Florida has gone 16-3 in this game, following the domination by Georgia during the 70s and 80s. Last year, Florida got their redemption against Georgia after the notable “Gator Stomp” in 2007. Despite the intense rivalry, Florida was predicted to wipe out their opponents today. Simply put, Florida needed to have a huge day offensively to solidify their status as the No. 1 team in the nation. Although they weren’t dominant last week in their win over Mississippi, Alabama wasn’t impressive either.

To their fans’ delight, the entire Gators team showed up in Jacksonville in today’s 41-17 route over Georgia. Coach Urban Meyer decided to open up Florida’s passing game, which has been an issue all season. In doing so, he also strengthened Tebow’s Heisman campaign. Tebow completed 15 of 21 passes for 164 yards and two touhdowns (both to Riley Cooper). Of course, Tebow still ran the ball, scoring two touchdowns on 18 carries. With the first, Tebow surpassed Georgia alum Herschel Walker’s SEC record for rushing touchdowns. Tebow now has 51 to Walker’s 49.

All in all, Georgia’s flimsy defense was just what Florida to make an impact in the polls. Their defense is practically flawless week after week, so it should please Urban Meyer that his offense can overpower as well.

Man, we’re coming down to the wire. It’ll be very interesting to see what happens with Florida and Alabama.

Maybe, according to SEC commissioner Mike Silve. Per ESPN…

A source also told ESPN.com that Kentucky has been investigating Wall’s eligibility for months because his former AAU coach was a certified agent.

Brian Clifton, Wall’s AAU coach, was a certified agent with FIBA, basketball’s international governing body, for nearly a year. Under NCAA rule that equates to Wall accepting illegal benefits from an agent. Consequently Wall could have to repay any and all expenses Clifton footed during that period before he can play with Kentucky.

NCAA rule also stipulates that an athlete can be withheld from at least 10 percent of a team’s games as part of the punishment.

Wall was one of the top recruits — if not the top recruit — of the ‘09 class and if he’s ineligible for any part of the season it’s going to be a blow to the Wildcats. If not for the NBA’s age-limit rule, Wall probably would have headed straight for the pros, so this is another situation that could have been avoided if qualified high schoolers could bypass the collegiate ranks and play in the NBA immediately after graduating.

Tennessee men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl is in some hot water after making an inappropriate joke at a recent speaking engagement.

Tennessee men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl is apologizing for an off-the-cuff joke he made about a rural area of the state at a charity fundraiser Thursday, calling it “inappropriate.”

Pearl, speaking without notes, was addressing Tennessee Valley Authority employees about the challenges he and his staff face in getting players from diverse backgrounds to play as a team.

“I’ve got a tough job. I’ve got to put these guys from different worlds together, right?’ Pearl said. “I’ve got guys from Chicago, Detroit … I’m talking about the ‘hood! And I’ve got guys from Grainger County, where they wear the hood.”

Ouch. Making light of the KKK is not only offensive to the (non-racist) folks of Grainger County, but it’s also offensive to the black community.

He’s a successful coach, but I’ve never been a big fan of Pearl’s style and it dates back to 1995, when I was in college at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. My team won the D3 National Championship that year and the following season we traveled up to Fairbanks, Alaska, to play in the Tournament of Champions, which included the D2, NAIA and D3 champions from the previous season.

We were non-scholarship, so after we “upset” the host team, Alaska-Fairbanks, in the first round, we played Pearl’s D2 Southern Indiana team in the tourney championship. They jumped out to a 20-plus point lead, but after we went on a run in the second half to cut into the lead, he yelled on the sideline — “Do I have to call a timeout? Do I really have to call a timeout?”

I remember thinking: Is this guy for real? His all-scholarship team was playing our non-scholarship D3 school and he’s over there mocking us on the sideline to make a point to his team?

Since then, I’ve always thought that Pearl was a loudmouth who didn’t often think before he spoke, and he’s done nothing to disprove that notion in his tenure at Tennessee.

I love sports, but that doesn’t mean they’re perfect. Here are ten things that drive me crazy on a regular basis, in order of increasing stupidity:

10. The scoring system in tennis
Love? 15? 30? 40? Deuce? Actually, I kind of like “deuce.” But why not just go to four, win by two. It’s the exact same thing and a lot easier to follow when you’ve already thrown back a couple of Bloody Marys.

9. The overkill of NASCAR
Does it really take 500 laps to figure out which car and driver are the fastest? Here’s an idea: Make every race 50 to 100 laps and limit the number of pit stops. Every decision will be magnified and second-guessed and strategy will become an even bigger part of the sport.

8. Offsides (in soccer and hockey)
Anytime that you have defenders trying to encourage offsides calls by pulling up as they run/skate back to protect their goal, it’s not a good thing. There’s no offsides in basketball and it works just fine. When Randy Moss outruns a cornerback, play doesn’t stop because he has a clear path to the endzone. Why not reward anticipation and speed, and make soccer and hockey that much more exciting by creating a flurry of one-on-one situations between the striker/forward and the goalie?

Read the rest of this entry »

- SPORTSBYBROOKS reports that ESPN The Magazine will be doing a “nude” issue this fall featuring Danica Patrick.

- NO GUTS NO GLORY informs us that former Kentucky head coach Billy Gillispie got popped for a DUI. No word on whether or not Gillispie was drowning his sorrows over his inability to close the deal with ESPN sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards.

- THE COOLEY ZONE describes a new insurance that is hitting the market — fantasy football insurance.

- EPIC CARNIVAL has video of the 10 best one-kick knockouts in MMA.

- With all the recent talk about NBA scorekeepers inflating certain numbers, DAILY THUNDER wonders if this is happening to Kevin Durant, who averages far more assists at home than he does on the road.

- BALL DON’T LIE copped out a bit by including rookie deals, but they put together a list of “the top 10 value-for-money deals of the last decade.”

- THE DAGGER discusses Rick Pitino’s weird press conference.

- DIME says that Ricky Rubio will sign (or has signed?) a six-year deal with a Barcelona team. The news comes via a source from RealGM. Meanwhile, the WORLDWIDE LEADER says it’s not a done deal yet.

- SPORTSBYBROOKS tells the story of a couple of Wisconsin radio guys who are urging Packer fans to donate all those Favre jerseys to the homeless.

What’s a G.A., you might ask? It’s a graduate assistant, and they are generally unpaid (or very poorly paid) wannabe coaches fresh out of college who do all the things the coaching staff doesn’t want to do. Bill Murray’s son, Luke, just joined new coach Sean Miller as a G.A. at Arizona.

What does Murray bring to a basketball program? I have no idea. Presumably, neither does he; he only graduated college in 2007 and is still a G.A., meaning he’ll be doing quite a bit of quiet learning — preparing tape, taking notes, keeping the clipboard handy, that sort of thing — for at least a few more years. But he’ll be interesting to watch. If he has one-tenth of his father’s charisma, it’s only a matter of time until he’s a major college hoops coach on his own.

Good luck to Murray in his new endeavor. Something tells me he’ll do just fine.