It's not everyday that KU gets compared to Doink the Clown, so you knew I had to pass this one along.
ILLINOIS -- Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka
The Illini is tough to root against, as was Snuka when he first burst onto the professional wrestling scene with his high-flying arsenal of moves. And just as Snuka was crushed by The Undertaker at WrestleMania 7, Illinois will get destroyed by USC (remember, they're The Undertaker) in the 2008 Rose Bowl.
KANSAS - Doink the Clown
No matter how hard you tried to rationalize Doink as a legitimate wrestler, he was still a clown. It was impossible to see past that. (You couldn't even take some of his wins seriously ... like that time he attacked Crush with a prosthetic arm.) That's been the rub against Kansas this season as well. At the end of the day, the Jayhawks are completely untested and unaccomplished and have never been taken seriously. But they've certainly been amusing.
Congrats to Adam Crossett, Academic All-American.
Latest recruiting updates: Robert Steeples, Gahn McGaffie, Kenji Jackson, Justin Blackmon, and more on Dan Hoch.
Dave Matter has a nice look back at Chase Daniel's weekend.
I've been slowly throwing together information for a series of 2007 review/2008 preview football posts, and I came across something pretty interesting in regard to OU. No matter what, they're going to be a Top 5 team at the beginning of 2008, but they have a LOT of juniors--Reggie Smith, Curtis Lofton, Malcolm Kelly, Phil Loadholt--who might or might not go pro, and that could make the difference between them being a really good team and an unbelievable one. Crimson & Cream Machine noticed the same thing.
Sunday Morning QB has a fun series: Am I a Bowl Team? First up is one Missouri fans should probably know...
Pat Forde tells Michigan and Arkansas fans, be careful what you wish for. You wanted Lloyd Carr/Right Reverend Nutt gone so bad? You thought great coaches would be falling all over themselves to replace them?
COUNSELOR: Have a tissue, Alex. Perhaps it's time to look deeper -- why did you all run off Houston Nutt, a man who won three SEC West titles and compiled a 75-48 record? Is Razorback Nation trying to be something it's not?
I say this firmly, but without condemnation: You are not Florida, not LSU, not Tennessee, not Alabama, not Georgia, not Auburn. Arkansas is about the seventh-best program in a murderous league.
But that's just the on-field situation. Off the field, this place is the Ozarks version of "General Hospital." You've had more melodrama hovering over your school than anywhere in America over the past 12 months. You've had fans suing the school, and other fans firing back at those fans.
Ha...and yes, I can't help but think of certain Mizzou fans chanting "Fire Pinkel" in bars in the first half of the 2005 Independence Bowl...
Steve Walentik talks about Mizzou Basketball's horrid attendance so far. Granted, the Purdue game bumped the season average up by about 200, but uh...yeah, needless to say, they fell just short of the sellout they were hoping for. And hopefully we can work Justin Safford into the rotation a bit more. Carroll's injury is getting him more PT in practice, I guess.
The KC Star talks about Demarre Carroll playing through pain...I guess we're lucky that it's this time of year, when the games are either cupcakes or sparse. Hopefully he gets healed up.
Finally, Corn Nation's tribute to departing volleyball senior Sarah Pavan is one part cheesy, one part creepy, but hey...if we had a 6'5 All-American senior who had led our team to a national title and about 400 wins in 4 years, I'm sure I'd be just as cheesy right about now...