Hey, it's a post: Friday morning-ish

So I was just in my car for a little bit, and with nothing else on at the moment, I was forced to listen to Colin Cowherd's ESPN Radio show. I say "forced" because I don't particularly like Cowherd (the reasons are myriad, but here are the two best ones: 1. he's an admitted Pac-10 homer and inexplicable Notre Dame lover, and 2. in 2004 he said that if the Pistons beat the Lakers, it would "ruin basketball"). But I'll take "marginal sports talk" over "FM radio" most of the time nowdays, plus he was talking about the NFL draft. Anyway, as Cowherd sees it, there are seven "can't-miss" players in this draft. See if you can name them. Try to guess. Seriously. Bah, don't bother. You can't. The list is notable not for who's on it, but who's not. His Magnificent Seven? 1.) Reggie Bush, RB USC. 2.) D'Brickashaw Ferguson, OL Virginia. 3.) A.J. Hawk, LB OSU. 4.) Michael Huff, DB Texas. 5.) Matthias Kiwanuka, DE Boston College. 6.) Vernon Davis, TE Maryland. 7.) DeAngelo Williams, RB Memphis. Does any of this matter? Of course not. But I think it's interesting to see another person who is extremely leary of Leinart and Young. Is it because of the teams they're going to? Because I can't think of another reason to downgrade Leinart; he's as good a college QB as I've probably ever seen. [/begrudging]

This is the second mock draft I've seen that predicts the Lions to take Jay Freaking Cutler at #9. *Sigh* For what it's worth, he has the Browns taking Chad Greenway. How much that is worth, however, may be in question, as he has Kiwanuka dropping to #22.

What about replacing stud players leaving for the draft? More specifically, what about that bizarre, amorphous, ultimately meaningless world of recruiting rankings? MWB anti-fave Stewart "I may or may not look like Erin" Mandel has tackled top-rated recruiting classes of the past several years, and whether or not they lived up to the considerable hype. Bonus points for mentioning that, although Texas in 2002 is the only #1 class he feels was warranted in retrospect, he goes out of his way to talk about OSU's filthy-good class that year. Huzzah. (Link credit to EDSBS)

And while we're still tangentially talking about the NFL, word is getting out about all the hip celebrity parties going on in the Detroit area due to the Super Bowl festivities. Of course, there will be Maxim parties and a Playboy party, and Diddy will almost certainly have something going on (Diddy of the "P." variety, not of the "The" variety, in case you didn't know). Best reason to make the trek up? Four words for you: celebrity DJ Biz Markie.

Okay, so I'm watching "Cold Pizza" right now for some reason, and Jay Crawford is interviewing the newly-crowned NCAA "Woman of the Year" ... some ... diver from Tennessee. It's awfully awkward, because Crawford is marvelling at how the girl has called him "sir" and "Mr. Jay," and he so obviously is dying to get a hummer from this girl that I'm not sure whether I should laugh or cry or change the channel. Wait, this is "Cold Pizza," I know exactly what I'm gonna do.

In light of Wednesday night's UM/MSU game, where Michigan received an astounding 34-10 advantage in free throw attempts -- an advantage which prompted even noted UM homer MGoBlog to proclaim "Spartans got jacked something fierce" -- Wonk, or rather, Wonk's readers, venture into the murky waters of the "home court advantage" in Big Ten basketball. Worth it for the bizarre Tom Penders story alone, but also an interesting look into a phenomenon that we all seem to have just accepted in college basketball: blatant favoritism of the home team by officials.

I read a month or two ago about how pissed off Illinois fans are that some suburban Chicago phenom has chosen to go to Durham instead of Champaign. I'll bet they're really angry now. While Coach K. is laughing on his pile of money with many beautiful ladies.

Lastly, some SI college hoops writer has OSU at an admittedly lofty #12 in his personal "power rankings" this week. But that's not why the link is here. The link is here because Mr. Winn had the fantastic taste to compare Villanova's Mike Nardi to Don Flamenco from "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out." Bravo, sir. Bravo.