BEVERLY HILLS (MI) – – Lots of stuff in the news these days and surprisingly enuf, some of it is actually basketball related:

— “The Greatest AAU Team Ever” sounds like so much hype, but in the case of the All Ohio Red 17-and-under squad featuring Juwan Staten, Jared Sullinger, Adreian Payne and a bunch of other superb D-1 athletes, the claim is totally warranted:

http://www.jjhuddle.com/news/articles/2009/8/4/greatest-basketball-team-ever-all-ohio-earns-that-distinction-in-aau

— Eliminate the July recruiting period? Let me put it to you this way: if slime-meister John Calipari at UK is all for it, then I am dead-set against the idea:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/12018533

— The greatest coach in sports history? No contest — John Wooden of UCLA:

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/article/2009-07-29/best-ever

— I have no idea who Chris Littman at The Sporting News is, but I don’t like how he assumes that Georgia Tech and Villanova will meet in the 2nd round of the Puerto Rico Tipoff:

http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sporting_blog/entry/view/29275/where_have_you_gone,_monster_early_season_college_hoops_tourney?

He also thinks the lineups for the various pre-season tournaments suck, too.

— Remember how moving the college hoops three point line back a foot was going to seriously hurt shooting percentages? Well, maybe not so much:

http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sporting_blog/entry/view/29209/chicks,_major_college_basketball_conferences_still_dig_the_long_ball

— Here’s a list of 20 things that make you look like a total sports doofus:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hruby/090731

Fortunately, I can plead guilty to only one of them and it’s a minor transgression: putting Red Wings flags on our family station wagon when the Detroiters made their first successful Stanley Cup run in the Stevie Yzerman era. Everybody in Motown was flying them back then!

— Chocolate covered bacon…on a stick. Can you tell that it’s State Fair time?

http://www.examiner.com/x-5112-Wisconsin-Culinary-Travel-Examiner~y2009m8d1-New-foods-on-a-stick-Wisconsin-State-Fair-adds-chocolatecovered-bacon-to-its-menu

— Not a big fan of Twitter, but this guy pretending to be obnoxious Yankee announcer Michael Kay is hilarious:

http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tvbizwire/2009/07/business-users-force-twitter-t.php

— Ever wonder how Netflix gets those DVDs to you so fast? Here’s how:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0804-netflixaug04,0,6424990.story

— Why would anyone intentionally go out into the Gobi Desert looking for a creature called the “Mongolian Death Worm” that can supposedly spit acid and throw lightning?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0804-netflixaug04,0,6424990.story

I’d rather catch fireflies in a jar…it’s safer.

— Then there is this factoid from Modern Drunkard magazine: wrestler Andre the Giant once consumed 119 beers in 6 hours!

http://www.drunkard.com/issues/10_06/10_06_andre_giant.html?hn

— Turns out that notorious Internet tough guy “Dex” the ring leader of the idiotic telephone terrorist group “Pranknet” is in reality just some schlub named Tariq Malik who lives with his mom across the river from Detroit in Windsor, Ontario:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0803091pranknet1.html

He’d live in his mom’s basement, but she doesn’t have one.

— Turns out the source of “Fartgate” at the last Buick Open to be held in Michigan was not Tiger Woods but rather wacky CBS reporter David Feherty:

http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/9888214/It’s-no-wonder-Tiger-has-to-be-so-guarded

My wife and I sat at a table with Feherty at the Chrysler Greater Greensboro Open several years back and he had the group in stitches.

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
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