Let's talk Wolves, baby!

I have too much time on my hands now that the baseball season is over and was disappointed to find out that a dominating MAC team still has to play in the Motor City Bowl in NCAA Football 09. So I've actually watched the Wolves a little bit this season and have some opinions:

1. Randy Wittman still really sucks as a coach. His starting lineups change too often, there is no rhyme or reason to his substitions, and his teams get smoked in the 4th quarter.

2. It looks like the Wolves are finally giving up on the "Randy Foye is a PG" thought. Thankfully.

3. This team could be really interesting offensively. Jefferson is a beast on the blocks, Love brings some skills to the table, Mike Miller can shoot, and Telfair has come a long way from his early days. The pieces fit together fairly well.

4. This team is interesting defensively, only because it is a train wreck. Brewer's the only plus defender and they don't appear to have much of a game plan (see point #1). Expect the Wolves to be one of the worst defenses in the league again this year.

5. They could have four first round picks next season if things fall in place. FOUR!!! Will McHale take Abu Shamala before the NBDL can get him?

They still look like a 30-win team that might have some issues with the way their young players fit together, but I'm thinking they'll be more interesting since offense will be better and Love and Jefferson are worth watching.

I KNEW I should have drank more before writing a Wolves post. W, you know you want to do a drunken Wolves liveblog later in the season.

A quick Twins addition--please don't sign Casey Blake. Thank you.

This looks exactly like the

This looks exactly like the same gopher team I've been watching for years.

If adam weber ever throws

If adam weber ever throws to his second option it will be the first time

This michigan quarterback sucks balls

This michigan quarterback sucks balls

Return to Awesomesylvania (I mean NBDL draft stuff)

I've done live blogs of movies as I've watched them here before (notably Made of Honor and Jaws IV: The Revenge) and they seem to be semi-well received and I quite enjoy doing it so sit back and let another one have it's way with you as if you've had a good solid dose of GHB. Tonight, Mrs. W and I will be taking in Return to Sleepaway Camp, the fourth in a series of completely awesomely cheesy horror flicks. The first was good, the second was awesome, the third was ok. Hopefully the fourth is good for some drunken entertainment. Oh, yeah, I'm drinking. Shocker.

- We start with a Se7en-like opening, set to a wannabe Nine Inch Nails sounding band complete with newspaper type clippings flashing by far too quickly to read. I like where we're going with this.

- Followed up by a group of young boys in nothing but their underwear lighting farts. I don't necessarily like where this is going. We are now introduced to a main character, a fat kid named Alan, who is so solidly written that Mrs. W asked, "Does that guy have down syndrome." Things are not looking up.

- I'm actually going to the Gopher football game tomorrow, which is the first for me this season. Did you know the Gophers are favored by 8.5? Let me get this straight, a team that has just been exposed as not nearly as good as their record shows is laying more than a TD to a team that has owned them for like, two thousand years? Yeah, I'm taking the Wolverines and the points.

- Holy shit! It's a guy who talks with one of those things you put against your neck and it makes you sound like that part of the Beastie Boys' classic, "Intergalactic." You know, this. Those things are sweet.

- One really good sign about this movie is that all the cliches act appropriately. Jocks act like jocks, stoners act like stoners, black guys act like either 80s rappers or gangsters, and hot chicks act like sluts. Just like a true 80s style horror movie - excellent.

- The dude from the Sopranos who plays Big Pussy is in this movie, and Alan just called him a big pussy. That's the kind of writing that leads to an Oscar someday.

- Speaking of being a definite 80s Horror movie, we just had our first kill - the cook got dumped into a giant deep fryer of hot oil and got his face melted off. Truly an excellent kill that even Jason Voorhees would be proud of. It reminds me of Sleepaway Camp 2 where this super hot chick was killed by being stuffed down a port-o-potty toilet right after she humped some dude wearing a bandana. Also, Mrs. W just remarked, "this doesn't have the same feel as the other ones, it's too all over the place. There's no flow." I have never loved her more than this moment.

- Here's what's confusing, the Down Syndrome kid is confusing. I can't tell if he's supposed to be sympathetic or not. Everyone picks on him, so you'd think you're supposed to feel sorry for him, but he picks on all the younger kids and is generally a dick, so I don't really feel even close to sorry for him and hope he dies. I guess we'll find out how we were supposed to feel by if he lives or dies in the end. It's confusing. I'm as confused as a kid with downs syndrome with a kaleidoscope.

- This is that hot chick who got killed in Sleepaway Camp 2 by getting stuffed down an outhouse toilet after humping a guy wearing a bandana:Her name is Valerie Hartman and you can see more of her by using the google.

- Kill #2: Tie up a stoner so he can't move and pump his mouth full of gasoline. Tape over his mouth so he can't spit out the gas (actually, it was a bumper sticker that said 'Drugs are for Dummies'). Then put a joint through the sticker and in the mouth and light it. It burns down and BAM! Explosion and dead stoner.

- Paintball scene. Direct ripoff of Friday the 13th part VI. I guess if you're going to steal bits, might as well steal from the best.

- I have now been forced to turn the movie, due to Mrs. W saying it sucks too much to even watch. I've never hated her more. It was pretty god awful I will admit, but I would have kept watching, at least to see if there were boobs. Plus, the original trilogy was absolutely classic, so this is a bit of a crushing blow. Much like Jaws IV. So, instead, I'll just comment on the results of tonight's NBDL draft, which I am totally pissed that I forgot to Tivo.

- Round 1, pick 1: Chris Richard, Florida. I thought he was on the Wolves. I'm almost positive. This must be some kind of mistake. Although I guess they could have cut him by now. When you have a guy like the Manatee, you don't really need another fat power forward. And whatever happened to Dametri Hill anyway? The original meathook, because it makes more sense because he played basketball. Dmitri Young is not the meathook. Also the answer is he's playing basketball in the hotbead of action that is Slovakia.

- Round 1, pick 2: James Mays. Either a rookie from Clemson or an old guy from Texas.

- Round 1, pick 3: Jermareo Davidson, Alabama. Good defender. Also i'm realizing there are 10 rounds to this garbage so I can't go through player by player. I'll have to skip to the good ones.

- Round 1, pick 5: Derrick Byars, Vanderbilt. I thought he would be a pretty good NBA player, showing once again that I know nothing about the NBA. Didn't stop me from betting on the Wolves game though.

- Round 1, picks 9 and 12: Denham Brown, UCONN and Smush Parker, Lakers. These guys are like 100. And Parker has already been in the NBA. I don't understand this draft.

- Round 1, pick 15: Cartier Martin, Kansas State. Dude was K-State's best player before Beasley and Billy "sky" Walker showed up. He should have been there with them, but got suspended or kicked off the team or something I don't quite remember, but that team would have been three deep instead of two if he stuck around. Bummer for them.

- Round 2, pick 4: Keith Butler, Temple. Actually if I remember he transferred to DePaul, but what an absolute stiff. I realize the pickings are slim and it's an NBDL draft, but this dude is going in the second round? I just looked it up and he averaged 1.8 points and 2.2 rebounds a game as a senior and he's 7-1. Second round. This is already getting stupid. Also I'm pretty sure John Travolta is secretly gay.

- Round 2, pick 7: Russell Robinson, Kansas. Now this a pick I can get on board with. And did you know Mario Chalmers is averaging 8 points, 4 rebounds, and six assists in 32 minutes a game for the Heat, and had 9 steals in a game already this year? And did you know the Wolves drafted him and then traded him for nothing even though they had a major team weakness at PG? I think I need to take a job out of state so I have an excuse to root for some other teams, this state is a wasteland.

- Round 2, pick 9: James White, Cincinnati. Remember him? Crazy athletic, went to Florida and then something happened I don't remember and ended up at Cincy because they'll gladly take any criminal? Yeah, I liked that dude.

- Round 3, pick 12: Kurt Looby, Iowa. Yep, Kurt Looby. Let's all treat this as a completely legitimate and real league when Kurt Lobby gets drafted.

- Round 4, pick 1: Kris Collins, New Mexico. That's right, the same Kris Collins who originally enrolled at Minnesota but was chased off due to "issues." Way to go Monson, you missed out on a guy who ended up drafted after Kurt Looby. That coul dhave set back the program for decades.

- Round 4, pick 10: Oliver Lafayette, Houston. I will personally guarantee this guy ends up with a stint in the NBA, although short it may be. Can score a bunch, and it turns out they like that.

- Round 5, pick 2: John Gilchrist, Maryland. Wasn't he on his way to being kind of a star, and then had some sort of mental breakdown and/or issues with the coach and ended up being kind of irrelevant? Is that right? Am I thinking of the right guy and right situation or am I way off here? His interests include jet skiing, which, if I may be a grumpy old man for a moment, is really loud and really stupid.

- Round 6, pick 1: Isaiah Fox, Arizona. Was supposed to be a pretty big deal - wasn't. Some may choose to blame it on injuries, I choose to blame it on sucking.

- Round 7, pick 14: Kris Clack, Texas. He's really old, but before he was all old and stuff he was a monster for the Longhorns. He was a shooting guard who couldn't shoot, but he was so quick he could still drive on people and could just jump all over their heads and dunk on their stupid faces. He was like a Rico Tucker who couldn't shoot the three. Or, more accurately, Rico Tucker is like a combination of Kris Clack, Glen Rice, and Magic Johnson.

- Round 10, pick 12: Ashanti Cook, Georgetown. I have nothing really to say here, but he's the only guy in the last three rounds who is even worth mentioning. I really plan to Tivo this next year, I can foresee several laugh out loud moments, like Abu Shamala getting picked. As for now, I will say adios, and I'm sorry the sleepaway camp thing didn't work out. I'm looking forward to my hangover curing screwdriver tomorrow at Jimmy's pre-game. Go Michigan!

Undefeated, Baby

That's right, Gopher hoops is 2-0 after last night's 92-62 victory over whoever Northern State is. Neither game counts, but they all count in my heart and really, isn't that what matters?

Score looks good, boxscore looks good, and I tried to watch, but between a late start on the BigTenNetwork.com feed which was choppy, laggy, and blurry and trying to watch the game as well as watch The Office and other assorted television programs with the misses, not to mention keeping Wonderbabytm occuppied, it was a little difficult. Although I'm usually shy about giving my opinions when I'm not fully informed, I'm going to bravely struggle through anyway, for your entertainment and information.

BACKCOURT:
It's obvious already that this is going to be the strength of the team. Not only are Joseph, Westbrook, and Nolen the best players on this team, they are also the best scorers. Not only can they score, but all three of them can score either from the perimeter or driving to the rim, where they all excel at dishing it off when needed as well. Add that they are the best defenders on the team, except for Damian Johnson, and this is where success will come from. Even Hoffarber is showing a little more drive to the hole ability, albeit against sub-par competition but at least he's trying. I think it's clear that there isn't a single player from a Division III college in Minnesota or South Dakota who can guard any of these guys.

Kevin Payton actually got a few minutes and looks like he's probably a really nice person.

THE WING GUYS:
I wrote last time that neither of the JuCo wing guys, Carter or Bostick, were very impressive against St. Cloud State, and tonight one of them changed my opinion and the other one left me very concerned. Carter was awesome tonight, showing the athleticism and ability that made him the talk of the early practices. He led the Gophers in points (17) and rebounds (7) and added in 2 steals, 2 assists, and a blocked shot and just generally looked like a different player from the Paul Carter who showed up on Monday. I'm going to chalk that first game up to nerves, and hop on board the Carter train.

Bostick is another story. Right now, he's looking more like a Monson recruit than a Tubby recruit. I expect him to get his shit together, because I don't think you win the JuCo Player of the Century or whatever he won by sucking like this, but it is a bit disheartening to see him play like this against to sloppy teams who can't stop Travis Busch. He did grab six boards and showed some good athleticism and defense, so there is definite promise here, but he needs to get his offensive game in better shape.

INSIDE TYPE FOLK:
Other than Carter, the other dude who really made a big leap from the previous game was big ole Ralph Sampson III. He showed a pretty awkward hook shot, but most hook shots look a little awkward so I'm cool with it. He used it twice that I saw so I think he feels pretty comfortable with that move. Once he had the defender way overplaying him to that side and could have/should have done a drop step the other way and would have had an easy dunk, but he's young and that kind of footwork and game will come in time, I'm not expecting the Dreamshake right out of the box - we'll leave that for Busch. Overall he was more active and aggressive, and ended up with twelve points in fourteen minutes, not bad considering he was under the weather.

I never really noticed Iverson. He only played 15 minutes, and as I said I wasn't exactly watching really closely so I only saw him in for one stretch when he copied Sampson's awkward jump hook which missed. He ended up with six points and shot four free throws, so I'm going to take that as a sign of being more assertive on offense. I have a lot of confidence that these guys will develop just fine and form some sort of Twin Towers kind of thing and not become the next Kyle Sanden and Kevin Loge tandem. (side note: Grandslam, who used to write the golf posts here, now works with Kyle Sanden. I haven't figured out how to work this into a bit yet, but rest assured, I will.)

In conclusion, this has nothing to do with anything, but watch it anyway:

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

I Found Rico + Sad News

If you recall, if you actually read this thing more than once in a while, I was a bit concerned about King Rico. He hadn't participated in any preseason anything at Pepperdine, and although he was listed on the roster I couldn't find any information about what was going on with him. Good news and bad news.

The good news is I figured it out (scroll down). I had forgotten that he had injured his knee at the end of last season to the point where he needed surgery. The bad news is that he has not recovered to the point where the doctors have cleared him to play yet, and haven't guaranteed a return this season. Good luck and godspeed Rico. The world needs you.


I'd also just like to mention a quick RIP for Michael Crichton, who died today of cancer at the age of 66. Even though his last two books really sucked, he kicked ass up until then. Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Sphere, Congo, and Timeline were all way awesome, and I'm sure he would have recaptured the magic. His last book will be published May 4, 2009, the title has not yet been released. RIP you crazy, science-loving weird dude.

Well. That was kind of unattractive.

I just got back from the first Gopher game of the season, unofficial it may be, and I have to say I am very much not turned on right now. The Gophers managed to win by somewhere around ten or so, I don't really know for sure and I'm not really in the mood to get all uppity and "look stuff up" so this is what you're going to get.

Before I get started, I have a fun little story to tell you about Dawger. We (myself, Snacks, and Old Man W) were going to meet at Sgt. Preston's before the game, and then meet Dawger somewheres around the arena. We get there, and I get a call from the little guy and he can't park because he has no money. It seems Super Sioux Fan spent all their money on hockey sticks, assault rifles, and KKK gear, and the poor guy didn't even have enough money to pay for parking tonight. I had to run around half the arena to find him parked on the side of the road sobbing, and gave him the ten bucks to park. It was sad. Nearly as sad as the Gopher performance tonight, so without further ado we will get to it. I'm going to do this in sections.

BACKCOURT:
Might as well start with positive since these guys were awesome. Al Nolen, Lawrence Westbrook, Devoe Joseph, and Blake Hoffbauer were the four best players for the Gophers tonight.

Nolen was undoubtedly the best player on the court. He impressed me last season, and looks like he's taking an even bigger step forward this season. He could pretty much get to the rim at any point tonight, granted against inferior competition, but he looked extra quick. Still doesn't always make the best decisions, but with his quickness, defense, and jump shot he is without question a Big Ten-caliber point guard.

Westbrook looks like his confidence is through the roof this season, as it should be. You don't score 40 points a game in high school without a massively high level of confidence, and after this first game it looks like L-Dub might be approaching that area again. A whole lot of catch and shoot, getting to the rim at will, and lockdown defense. I expect big things from Westbrook this season.

Hoffarber was probably the most impressive player tonight. With the risk of sounding a bit foo-foo, he looks like he's lost a little baby fat and put on some muscle. He abused the SCSU guards tonight, using his intelligence and limited quickness to get to into the paint and find cutters when the help defense came. His lightning quick release may have gotten even quicker, and the moved back three point line didn't seem to bother him. He will never be an alpha dog, but he may be developing into a high quality asset, despite my year long belief against that possibility all last season. I must be drunk on early season euphoria right now.

Devoe apparently made some Rico-like decisions early in the game, or so I was told by Snacks since I was ten minutes late thanks to the Dawger welfare program, but the second half was a different story. I didn't really see the perimeter shot I was looking for, but he looked very good driving the ball to the rim. Again, it was against short white guys whose recruiting consisted of calling the head coach and begging for a chance to try out, but he looked good. Most impressive was his defense, smothering and reminiscent of Al Nolen. Currently my favorite Gopher.

THE WING GUYS:
I'm talking Devron Bostick and Paul Carter here, and this was pretty ugly. For all the praise Bostick got coming out of JucCo and Carter has gotten since coming to Minnesota, I couldn't be less impressed. I guess the one good thing is I found out Paul Carter is left-handed, which means he's 17% better than a right handed version of himself. He seems to be athletic enough to create his own shot when he wants to, he just needs to make it every so often. That's high praise compared to what I saw out of Bostick. Not even I am cynical enough to give up on him this early, but dude, he was pretty much nonexistent against SCSU. Grade = F.

INSIDE TYPE FOLK:
What does it say when Travis Busch is your most aggressive inside player? Again, it's early, so I'm certainly not condemning Iverson or Sampson to a life of sucking, but they looked extremely tentative tonight. They seemed to alternate between not even trying to get position and getting position, getting the ball and passing it right back out. I think Iverson looked a little better, had better footwork and seemed to have more of an idea of what he was doing with the ball, while Sampson looked a little more lost. I have faith that both will end up being excellent players, and hopefully tonight was just that first step, small as it may have been. And I bet Travis Busch would be a hell of an intramural player. I think we'll see him on the And 1 tour someday. Think about it, the Professor to Hair Pie? Genius!

So there you go. Right now, My pick of fifth in the Big Ten this year feels a bit optimistic, but then again, I'm a pretty optimistic guy. Homerish, even, so I'm going to go with it. I won't mention how I was really underwhelmed by the new guys tonight.

Last thing is that tonight was awesome because I got one of those shirts that the cheerleaders throw out. The probably gay male cheerleader tried to throw it to Dawg, probably because he's a cute wrestler type, but Dawg has stubby T-Rex arms so I was able to simply reach in front and take it away from him like I was Jimmy Hitchcock. It made me feel very good about myself.

Also, they really need to turn the heat down in the Barn.

Also also, I'm a little bit drunk so I hope this post makes sense. A little.

[EDIT: I just realized I forgot to talk about Jonathan Williams. He's really bad. The End.]

Weekend Review

WHO WAS AWESOME

1. Texas Tech. I mentioned last week that I was curious to find out if the whole run and gun by Texas Tech was a mirage or if they were a legit title contender, and Saturday’s win over #1 Texas showed that they are definitely worth mentioning. I think both of the teams I’m going to talk about right after this are better than they are, but a win over the #1 ranked team in the country is still a huge win, even if they play like crap and still almost beat you. A semi-miraculous dropped interception by Texas following a complete Tech collapse gave them new life, and Graham Harrell took advantage hitting Michael Crabtree, who is an absolute monster, for a TD to give the Red Raiders a 39-33 win, and probably jumping them up to #3 in the polls.

2. USC. Lest you thought an early season loss to Oregon State would knock the Trojans out of national title contention, they have done more than enough the last few weeks to serve notice that they are very much one of the top teams in the country. The beat up on Washington this week, winning 56-0 after leading 42-0 at halftime, just two weeks after thumping Washington State 69-0 after a 41-0 start by half. In between those games they travelled to 5-2 Arizona and knocked off the Wildcats 17-10. I don’t know if the defenses in the Pac 10 are just terrible or if Mark Sanchez is really that good, but he’s been carving people up this season, to the tune of 15 TDs vs. 5 INTs (3 in one game) in Pac play. The Trojans may very well be the best team in college football right now.

3. Florida. If it isn’t USC, it may very well be the Gators. Currently ranked 5th, they made a statement in a very big way, going into Georgia to face the #8 Bulldogs and walking out with a 49-10 victory that was only that close because of a garbage touchdown Georgia scored late. I’m not entirely certain what to make of Tim Tebow. Obviously with his size, strength, and speed he can dominate a game, and is pretty much a TD machine, like against Georgia this weekend he rushed for three scores and passed for two more. I’m just not sure what’s going to happen NFL-wise. In any case, with this win over Georgia and a 51-21 massacre over #4 at the time LSU, the Gators have a good argument that they are the #1 team in the land.

4. Bernard Berrian? I'm really kind of unsure about this one. On the one hand, he's scored in four straight games and made a couple of really, really nice catches yesterday. On the other hand, he had one ball where he was in the corner of the end zone and seemed to have no clue where he was and didn't get his feet in bounds, and he had another one where he pulled an Eric Decker and let it go right through his hands straight to a defender. But still, four straight games with a TD? We'll put him here for now.

5. College Basketball. No, not this weekend, but everything kicks off tonight, baby, and I couldn't be more excited. Sure, it's exhibition ball, but it will be nice to see some college hoops highlights on sportscenter and get away from the constant barrage of homoerotica that is football.

WHO SUCKED

1. Gopher Football. Some things never change, right? Despite a hugely successful season thus far, it’s not even surprising that the Gophers lost on an interception return for a TD with 12 seconds left in a tie game on a ball that was perfectly thrown to the Big Ten’s leading receiver who let it go right through his hands, off a defender’s facemask, and into another defender’s hands. I figured there was no way they were going 11-1 and their lofty ranking was a bit of a mirage, but when you lose at least lose at Wisconsin or to Iowa, this was embarrassing. They had plenty of opportunities to win this game, but a stagnant offense and the inability to stop backup Northwestern QB Mike Kafka, who underwent a metamorphosis (note the awkward literary joke here) into Tim Tebow for the afternoon. This doesn’t exactly ruin the season or anything, since you’d pretty much have to be delusional to think they were BCS bound, but it just announces that things are pretty much status quo with Minnesota football. Thank god basketball starts today.

2. South Florida. What a weird team to figure out. Two seasons ago they kind of made their “We have arrived” statement by knocking off #7 West Virginia at West Virginia the last game of the season, then won the Papajohns.com bowl behind super awesome do it all quarterback Matt Grothe. Then last season, they come out of the gates on fire, starting off 6-0 including wins over #17 Auburn and #5 West Virginia, and ended up ranked all the way to #5. Immediately after they completely imploded, losing three in a row to Rutgers, UCONN, and Cincinnati and ended up in the Sun Bowl instead of anything meaningful, where they got crushed by Oregon. This year, they once again started off on fire, going 5-0 with a win over #13 Kansas and getting them ranked tenth. Same pattern held, as they have now dropped three out of the last four to inferior competition, culminating in Thursday nights embarrassing loss to Cincinnati (not technically the weekend but whatever). Once again the Bulls find themselves heading towards some insignificant bowl rather than anything even within sniffing distance of the BCS games. Grothe is a junior at this point, so they have one more chance to get it right.

3. Michigan. It’s not exactly breaking news here that Michigan football sucks this season, but since they lost to Purdue Saturday that guarantees them a losing season, which warrants mentioning. The 48-42 loss, on a sweet hook-and-ladder play, drops the Wolverines to 2-7 overall, meaning they will end up finishing under .500 and will not be playing in a bowl game for the first time in the last 34 seasons. My, how the mighty have fallen. Between the collapse of the football program and the total suckitude of the basketball team since the Fab Five left has their ever been an athletic program in such a free fall? Granted, Indiana basketball is on it’s way, but for now, the Wolverines need to be considered as the biggest collapse in the history of the world, at least since the Gophers/Texas Tech bowl game. At least Brandon Minor looks pretty good.

4. Kansas City Chiefs. Oooooof. Brutal. They looked like they were cruising to win #2 on the season, with a 24-3 (including a TD pass TO Tyler Thigpen) lead with 2 minutes to go in the first half. They then gave up a kick return for a TD and a FG in those final two minutes, and still managed to have a lead until Tampa scored a TD from Jeff Garcia to Antonio Bryant with 19 seconds left and converted the 2-point try, and then won in overtime. Dwayne "The Show" Bowe deserves much, much better.

5. Detroit Lions. Sure, it's getting a little redundant putting them here, but yesterday was a special occasion that was quite similar to the above Kansas City paragraph. Except they were looking for their first win, and only had a 10 point lead on the Bears at half, but had knocked starting QB Kyle Orton out of the game, which is surprisingly a bad thing for the Bears this season. Except enter Rex Grossman, he of the career 32/34 TD to INT ratio, and he marched them up and down the field, throwing for one TD and running for another and saving my hopes in our Survivor Pick'em. Calvin "Megatron" Johnson deserves much, much better.

Transfer News

In news that I was completely unaware of, Bryce Webster is now going to play at Cal State Fullerton starting next season.

After transferring from the Gophers, he had agreed to play at Utah State and that was the last news I had heard. I stumbled across the linked article, which says that the assistant coach who Webster wanted to play for at Utah State left to coach at Santa Clara, and Webster backed out of his commitment and has been playing at Irvine Valley Community College. He will sign his official letter of intent in the fall signing period (November) and begin play for the UC-F Titans in 2009-2010.

In other transfer news that I wasn't aware of, it appears Brandon Smith will not be playing for TCU this season. Based on the timing of his transfer last year, he should be eligible, but is not listed on their roster, either on their own site or ESPN or anywhere, and is not mentioned in TCU's own season preview. I can't find any mention of what may have happened anywhere, and there is no listing for him with another team out there. There is no news on him even on TCU's website. The only thing I could find was from this thread on a TCU message board. Not a ton of info, but this "Heard he was coming back but no one has seen him on campus" is the closest thing I found to any actual information. Anyone know anything?

Since we're on transfers and I'm sure you're wondering, Limar Wilson has used up his eligibility after playing last season at Tarleton State University. He averaged 6 points and 3 assists per game, starting 26 of their 31 contests. He still couldn't shoot, hitting 25% from three and 40% overall. I think Engen Nurumbi is still at Grand Canyon State. I don't really know because their website won't work. I'll be sure to keep you posted.