There’s a chance that in the future, some NCAA Tournament games could be shown on TNT. (Sports Business Journal)

Neat comparison of the frontpage headlines on ESPN and SI.com, and the difference in wording. (Juiced Sports Blog)

Freshman Jordan Hamilton exploded for 23 points as Texas beat Oklahoma State. Good thing the ‘Horns didn’t shorten that bench! (Tulsa World)

St. Louis fans on McGwire: “He’s brought a very big uneasiness to Cardinals baseball.” Good read. (Times)

Gary Williams is for expansion of the NCAA tournament. Spoken like a guy who has more NIT appearances (3) than NCAA tournament appearances (2) in the last five years. [Wash Post]

A hat trick for Sidney Crosby last night. (Post-Gazette)

Louisville beats Connecticut, dropping the Huskies drop to 13-9 and placing them on the bubble. (Courier Journal)

Bill Belichick to the Patriots: “Stay off Yearbook and MyFace.” (Boston Herald)

JD Salinger wasn’t exactly a recluse in Cornish, New Hampshire. (NYT)

When columnists are forced to write and nothing’s happening … play the respect card. (NOLA)

The creator of Calvin and Hobbes speaks. Er, emails. (Plain-Dealer)

Leandro Barbosa is Avatar.

LeBron sang along to Eminem’s lyrics. LeBron also torched the Lakers for 37 points, hurdled the Lakers bench in a single bound, shook up Kobe with a spin move, and the Cavs swept the season series from the Lakers. Kobe? Even though his supporting cast was at full strength – the Cavs will be without Mo Williams for 4-6 weeks – Bryant struggled miserably from the field, making just 12-of-31 shots (7-of-23 after the first quarter), and the Lakers bricked far too many free throws (15-of-24). Naturally, Kobe took a shot at his teammates after the loss.

[But first, you must see this hilarious Ricky Davis missed layup highlight. What a mess. He forgets which foot to jump off of, and then loses the ball even though nobody was around him.]

”They know I’m pissed off,” Bryant sniffed in the losing locker room. ”I don’t need to say anything right now … The mentality has to change. These are physical, tough-minded and hard-nosed teams types of teams and we have to make some decisions … That’s not part of our DNA … I’ll go into practice and strangle every single one of them.”

So the Lakers are soft and weak-minded. Got it, Kobe. Thanks. What an ungrateful little punk. Kobe, you know where you’d be if the Grizzlies never gifted you Pau Gasol?

”Last year, we were probably a little hungrier and played a little harder,” Bryant grumbled. ”This year, they were the hungrier team. They want to win a championship and want to go after it, so they’re playing with a sense of urgency that we played with last year. … Denver steamrolled us with their physical play. Cleveland on Christmas Day … ”

What a whiny little bitch. Kobe’s probably just pissed that last night’s poor performance took him out of the MVP race. It is down to LeBron and Kevin Durant – who play Saturday night – and Carmelo Anthony (leads the league in scoring) would be right behind them. Or, Kobe’s pissed at Phil Jackson’s reading assignment.

On the heels of Andre Agassi’s recent tome … other memorable athlete biographies. (New Yorker)

Wanted to make this its own post – Duke recruited this female hoopster, and then dumped her. Hard. (Charlotte Observer)

Pacman-Mayweather will not happen in Yankee Stadium … because the fighters would lose tons of money in taxes. (Newsday)

Penn State will be jacking up ticket prices big-time next year. (Post-Gazette)

Zack Greinke wins the Cy Young, statheads throw a party. Also, Greinke’s marrying this chick Saturday. (KC Star)

Disagree. Seven good years and the “swagger is gone” with bad, back-to-back losses? C’mon. (LA Daily News)

The 25 highest paid coaches in sports. (Business Pundit via Sports Biz)

With Jameer Nelson out 4-6 weeks, might AI surface in Orlando? (Sentinel)

Fresno St. running back Ryan Matthews, who leads the nation in rushing, is out with a concussion. (Fresno Bee)

Matt Bradley of the Capitals got bruised and bloodied last night. (DC Sports Bog)

Time, accelerated, at game six of the World Series. Neat. (NYT)

Drew Brees’ mom’s death was determined a suicide. (Statesman via Deadspin)

Finally, someone conveys while we have no problem with the Jets’ yappin’. Well done. (NY Post)

Malcolm Gladwell – thin-skinned, or was this necessary? (Gladwell.com)

We usually avoid blatant promotional junk, but geez.

Texas High School football, 1994. Team trails 41-7 in the third. After that …

Did Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown make a wager that will make Roger Goodell unhappy? (Joe Bucs Fan)

Thunder Collins, the former Nebraska running back, received a sentence of 90-110 years in jail. He had some interesting things to say in court afterward. (Omaha WH)

If you like college hoops and recruiting, this is a must-read. (SI)

Here’s a strong piece on the Andre Agassi book that uncovers how the former tennis star found his author. (NYT)

Frank Lampard blames injury on lack of leg room on an airplane. (The Beautiful Game)

Bill Simmons and Seattle sportswriter chat about the Sonics leaving Seattle. (Times)

Josh Pastner and Memphis won big on the recruiting trail this week. (USA Today)

No Ballin’ today: Lakers 121, Suns 102. Shannon Brown highlight below. (LA Times)

John Beilein’s a damn good coach; Michigan could make the Sweet 16. (Michigan Daily)

If Rutgers defeats South Florida 31-0, but nobody cares enough to attend the game, does it even matter? (Star-Ledger)

Happiest states, according to some poll: Utah, Hawaii, Wyoming, Colorado, Minnesota. (Westword)

High school star Harrison Barnes is making his college decision this afternoon; Seth Davis guesses Duke. (Fan Nation)

Brittney Griner will be the name you hear about in women’s basketball this year. She dunks. (News-Express)

Shannon Brown, skywalker.

Oldie, but goodie!

Agassi writes:

“While we’re waiting for the food we riffle through a stack of New York newspapers. I see Lupica’s column is about me. I shouldn’t read it but I do. He writes that the U.S. Open is mine to lose, but you can count on the fact that I will find a way to lose it … Agassi simply isn’t a champion.”

Agassi eventually reads the column to his trainer, Gil Reyes.

Agassi writes: “Gil looks up and sees me turning white.”
Reyes asks, “What’s wrong?”
Agassi writes: “I read him the column. I’d like to meet that Lupica one day.”

Agassi’s beef with Lupica seemed to begin in 1989, according to the book, when Agassi defeated Connors at the US Open. Lupica, it was known a the time, was in the tank for Jimmy Connors:

“MIke Lupica, a columnist for the New York Daily News, points to my nineteen unforced errors in the third set and says I carried Connors merely to prove I was tough enough to go the distance. If they’re not trashing me for losing on purpose, they’re ragging me for the way I win.”

Lupica would go on to poke fun at Agassi in Esquire Magazine in the 1990s – some might say he was doing so in an effort to remind everyone that Connors was a better, classier champion. Agassi joins Charles Barkley as the most outspoken members of the anti-Lupica fan club.

This book still has not found a home with a publisher. Perhaps in the current marketplace, this book would have been snapped up if Patrick were willing to pander to a lower-common denominator and indulge in self-pity, and also play some easy “cards” publishers seem to find fashionable. Those include, but are not limited to, turning this into a religious treatise (Patrick has his faith, but considers it a private issue not to be forced on others), getting on the gun-control and anti-video-game soapboxes (he believes individuals are accountable for their own actions), and doling out that “blame.”

Maybe if he had claimed to have developed a drug dependency during his amazing recovery and gone through rehab with Maureen McCormick, David Hasselhoff, a Bernie Madoff mistress, and James Frye, this would have sold long ago. Nope, “all” he is a well-adjusted, amazing All-American success story of recovery as he moved on with bullet fragments in his brain and with his physical movements still affected.

In Terry’s next rant, hopefully, we’ll get names of the publishers who tried to force the above plots into Ireland’s tome.

Patrick Ireland: Columbine’s Boy in the Window

Some thoughts on the Brewers grabbing 2B Felipe Lopez. (J-S)

Matthew Stafford hopes to avoid the fate of former Bulldogs QB David Greene, a 2005 3rd round pick who is now selling insurance. (AJC)

From Friday: Mark Cuban’s insider-trading case was dismissed from court. (Sports Business)

A golf book written by the venerable Dan Jenkins? Yeah, it’ll probably sell well. (Courier-Journal)

Yao missing next season will have international ramifications. (Yahoo)

Brian Dawkins was a 7-time Pro Bowler and only lived on 1/3 of an acre? Anyway, you can buy his house – former Eagles LB Jeremiah Trotter’s wife is the real estate agent. (Philly.com)

Seattle lost to the Sonics, but it has embraced the Sounders. (Seattle Times)

Overconfidence cost Wall Street. (Gladwell)

Israel Gutierrez of The Miami Herald on memories: “It was the game where Florida lost to Gonzaga on a last-second tip-in by Casey Calvary. It was my first in-person taste of real March Madness, and being in that locker room with Mike Miller covering his face with a towel so no one could see him crying, and Teddy Dupay bawling, it was just real emotion.” (4th and Fail)

A bit more background and detail into the Andre Dawkins-Duke news from last week. (Fay Observer)

The good news about the sordid Erin Andrews story is that only two newspapers – as best we could tell – touched the story. (Freep, USA Today)

If you missed the ESPYs, someone live-blogged it. (EW)

This will be printed and tape to the wall near our desk – right next to this story. (NYT)

About six weeks old, think we were on vacation: Conor Jackson of the Diamondbacks on General Hospital.

Jonny Flynn of the T-Wolves with a pretty nasty windmill jam in the summer league.

As heard on Stern this morning … “Rock around the cock, err, clock.”