BEVERLY HILLS (MI) — The news out of Norwood that Chris Mack had closed his team’s practices all this week to the media and any outsiders reinforces some long-held notions expressed on many X Message Boards:

UD is not Xavier’s biggest rival

This game means much more to Dayton that it does to X

Elvis Presley is alive and well and living in an underpass on I-75 in Norwood

Normally at this particular time in this particular space I would launch into a diatribe about the school to the South.

Not gonna do it.

Wouldn’t be prudent.

Why?

Because, quite frankly, they ain’t worth the effort.

Meanwhile here is some linky goodness to what’s happening elsewhere in the wide world of sports:

— Fordham/UD coverage provided by a guy who never attended either school. Raymond Curren almost went to FU but ended up at Syracuse and penned this piece for The Mid-Majority:

http://www.midmajority.com/p/2633

— Linsanity is everywhere, even on the pages of Forbes magazine:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/02/11/9-lessons-jeremy-lin-can-teach-us-before-we-go-to-work-monday-morning/

— You want to end sports blackouts? Here’s how:

http://endblackouts.com/

— Everyone has pretty much written off the Flyers’ chances to make the Big Dance, but not USA Today. They still have Archie and the Boys on the bubble:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/story/2012-02-13/bubble-tracker-mens-basketball/53066778/1

— Reviewing the conference small forwards with Chris Johnson at the top of the list, from the Atlantic 10 Notebook at College Chalk Talk:

http://collegechalktalk.com/conferencenotebooks/atlantic10/2.13.12nolan

—Secrecy was the name of the game in the Memphis Tigers’ pursuit of an invitation to join the Big East:

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/feb/12/tigers-big-east-intrigue-pursuit-cloaked-in/

With all the conference comings and goings, you really cannot keep up with who is in what league without a scorecard. I still have trouble remembering that Nebraska is now in the Big Ten.

— What the loss to Temple (who Dayton beat on the road) did to the Musketeers’ collective psyche:

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/xavier/2012/02/12/the-temple-loss/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

— If you want to see how well 157 college hoops teams in the nation’s top 14 conferences are doing against their league opponents on a per-possession basis all in one place, then you have come to the right link:

http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2069

— Not sure how 5 Hour Energy became a billion dollar company, but here’s a story about the founder of Living Essentials, Manoj Bhargava, who spent some time with Buddhist monks in Tibet:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2012/02/08/manoj-bhargava-the-mystery-monk-making-billions-with-5-hour-energy/

I actually met Manoj when I called on Living Essentials back in my CNN days. Couldn’t convince him and his people to go national back in the day and now they are everywhere on cable TV. I did sell them a schedule on 97.1 The Ticket, the CBS sports station my second day on the job, since I already was familiar with their operation.

— Basketball’s best in Westchester (NY) County, UD recruiting target Isaiah Cousins of storied Mt. Vernon HS:

http://varsityinsider.lohudblogs.com/2012/02/12/mr-basketball-cousins-makes-it-a-mount-vernon-sixpeat/#.Tzhnp-UHU74.twitter

— You can never have too many stats. Here is a chart of the A-10 teams, ranking them on points-per-possession:

http://rushthecourt.net/2012/02/15/checking-in-on-the-atlantic-10-conference-7/

Is it any surprise that with their offensive struggles the Flyers are a pedestrian #9 in this key category?

— 30 of the best characters ever on Saturday Night Live, according to Paste magazine:

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2012/02/best-snl-characters.html

My prediction for the outcome of Saturday’s evening affair in Norwood?

I guess you’ll just have to read between the lines.

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