WEST BLOOMFIELD (MI) — The advent of the college basketball season is a mere month away and it really can’t get here soon enuf, can it? The sports pages have been rife with articles about the shoe company recruiting scandal and the impact it will have on the game moving forward. It is dark times such as these that require some musical accompaniment and who better than Steely Dan and the tune “Bad Sneakers”:

Bad sneakers and a Pina Colada my friend
Stompin’ on the avenue
By Radio City with a
Transistor and a large sum of money to spend…

Linky goodness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy2G6TlRMUQ

Rather than re-hash this freakin’ mess for you in this space, let’s look at some of suggested solutions, shall we?

Sports Illustrated:

https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2017/09/27/fbi-investigation-ncaa-recruiting-rules-agents-benefits

Jay Bilas:

http://thebiglead.com/2017/09/28/jay-bilas-ncaa-fbi/

Mark Adams:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1975625462712337&id=1484928401782048

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1975228016085415&id=1484928401782048

Elsewhere in the land of layups and three pointers:

— Anthony Grant is doing his best to provide 4 star combo guard Dwyane Cohill with a top shelf Class of 2018 running mate. Anthony Nelson is down to Seton Hall, UD and Minnesota, where he is on an official visit as I write this. The Hall appears to have the inside track on Nelson, so the “next man up” in the recruiting funnel would be one of these four guys:

Anfernee Simons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=AHKrzf_dd1M

Chance Moore

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/preps/kentucky-high-school-sports/2017/07/22/fern-creeks-chance-moore-flooded-college-attention/492836001/

Talen Horton-Tucker

https://umhoops.com/2017/09/22/talen-horton-tucker-talks-visit-michigan-recruitment/

Antwann Jones

https://scout.com/college/basketball/recruiting/Article/Four-star-2018-wing-Antwann-Jones-decommits-from-Oklahoma-State-108135358

— I’ll be making the journey down to The Gem City to take in the lone UD hoops exhibition game on November 4th. The following day it’ll be time to get some burn in the 2nd Annual Twitter All-Star Game hosted by David Jablonski of The DDN out at the McAfee Sports Center in Beavercreek.

— Those of us who are long enuf in the tooth and fondly recall the glory days of UD-owned WVUD FM 100 “The Radio Station” will remember the name “Dolby Joe” Reiling. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Dolby recently passed away in LA at age 65. Here is Joe’s obit from The Hollywood Reporter:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/joe-reiling-dead-los-angeles-radio-personality-was-65-1047246

Joe was one of the absolute nicest people I have ever befriended and was a member of the semi-legendary WVUD Burnouts softball team. T&Ps to Joe’s daughter Krista and her family.

— Really nice piece on Davidson HC Bob McKillop:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article174870291.html

— The story of John Saunders, the late ESPN host and his battle with depression is told in the new book “Playing Hurt: My Journey from Despair to Hope”:

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/news/john-saunders-playing-hurt-depression-self-help-espn-career-john-bacon/1lvgzycw2vth12ffulmegc0l7

— The Cassini spacecraft certainly went out in a blaze of glory, sending us up-close pics of Saturn before burning up in its atmosphere:

http://time.com/4941643/cassini-saturn-nasa-photos/?utm_campaign=time&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&xid=time_socialflow_twitter

— 50 years ago, Don Hewitt at CBS Television invented 60 Minutes and changed TV journalism forever:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/09/don-hewitt-60-minutes-50-years-anniversary

— If you are into random goofy images, then this link to the latest 75 pictures posted to Livejournal is for you. Warning: some NSFW content and lotsa foreign language captions.

http://www.stmintz.com/playground/ljimages/ljimages.php

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at: [email protected]