How'd Tennessee lose so many games this year?

Does anyone want to be in the NCAA tournament this year? I'm starting to think the field needs to drop to 48 for a season, because the bubble teams just keep choking away opportunities. This is good news for UF, because should they be able to handle UK tomorrow they still have a decent opportunity to qualify for the NCAA tournament as result. Last night it was Arizona and Providence coming up short, as well as South Carolina laying an egg against Tennessee. The only teams who've made significant moves to help themselves this week have been in the Big Ten - Minnesota, Ohio State and Penn State all won critical games. Everyone else just keeps blowing it, which means the conference tournament week will be fascinating. I'm looking forward to getting to Tampa.

Urban Meyer was back in a public capacity for the first time in a while yesterday, and that led to a couple of interesting developments. Meyer indicated that Tim Tebow would have gone pro had the NCAA not been accomodating on allowing donations to his father's orphanage in the Phillipines. He also commented for the first time on Lane Kiffin's stunt from after signing day. Meyer handled the Kiffin thing correctly, making it clear he's still not happy without making remarks to escalate the situation. This year's SEC meetings in Destin should be a barrel of laughs. As for the Tebow thing, my grandmother received a solicitation from Bob Tebow's ministry last year featuring a family photo prominently showing Tim. I was surprised that was considered kosher under NCAA policy, but apparently it was.

Congratulations to former Miami coach Larry Coker, being announced today as the first head coach of Texas San Antonio football. Part of the issue for Coker in getting a look for a job the last couple of years has been that he's 60, which is a lot older than most D-1 programs want a new head coach to be. Phillip Fulmer will find out about that soon, unless he's willing to take a job at a non-BCS school who needs the name recognition he can bring. Coker always seemed like a good guy who simply wasn't cut out to run a program like Miami. All the successful Hurricanes head men over the years have had an air of ruthlessness about them. Coker seemed more like he would be happy to take the whole team to Dairy Queen after the game.

Apparently I now live in America's thirteenth most manly city. I guess the fact WWE's cavalcade of steroid abusers is here this Sunday followed by rodeo next week meets their criteria really well. Not sure what Richmond's doing that's manlier than this place, but maybe we can challenge them to a fight. If you'd asked me to name the manliest city in the USA, Nashville's not the one which would have sprung to mind. Grand Rapids ahead of Vegas seems a bit off as well. Have a good weekend and I'll see you back here Monday.