15 grand could have bought a lot of Zima

I'm in the middle of my first trip to Birmingham for SEC Basketball Media Days. Saying there's a difference between the experience here and that of the football circus late each July would be an epic understatement. That event takes place at the Wynfrey Hotel, which is attached to the Galleria mall. This one is at the Birmingham Marriott, and has approximately one eighth the amount of media as football. At the Wynfrey, coaches are marched around to a series of nine interview rooms, typically stalked by a cloud of cameramen everywhere they go. The basketball coaches sit down at a table and talk to anyone who wants to come over for 45 minutes. It was a nice, relaxed vibe. Bruce Pearl in particular was a lot of fun to just listen to talking basketball. Today we'll get to do the same with Billy Donovan as well as Billy Gillispie and John Pelphrey - I'm looking forward to it.

Despite Saturday being another of the incredibly annoying 12:30 kickoffs that UF never seems to be at their best for, they should be able to cruise against Kentucky. They were better than the Wildcats to begin with, and now UK is a complete wreck thanks to huge injury issues. Other than Randall Cobb, they don't seem to have any playmakers of note with the loss of Lyons at WR and Locke at TB.

FSU has an important game with Virginia Tech this week. This is the first time since they got worked over by Wake Forest the nation is taking them seriously. The Hokies are certainly beatable - their offense is embarassingly bad. The Seminoles will have to do what damage they can without Bert Reed due to him blowing off class. Some people over there have tried to hype the redshirt freshman into "their Percy Harvin", which he's not. He is a talented guy who was showing good progress, and will be missed on an offense still lacking playmakers.

People have the right to spend their money however they choose, of course, but safety Ken Hamlin of the Dallas Cowboys apparently had way too much of it. How else to explain what would posess someone to have fifteen thousand dollars worth of tires and rims on their Escalade? It's no surprise someone stole them, although I'm not sure why the Dallas Morning News wrote the story up like it was a major crime.

Back when I started working at WRUF in the summer of 1994, the news Zima was being discontinued would have been a huge deal. Somehow the idea of getting drunk off flat Sprite was really appealing to women back then. Maybe those guys trying to bring back Crystal Pepsi at the political conventions have found their next cause.