What’s on my mind? I don’t know — why don’t I stand on my head and let’s see what falls out? Here we go:

— Got to Spectadium sports bar at 6:55pm last Wednesday night, just in time for the tip-off of the SJU game. Only one problem: the manager had his dish pointed at SBS 6, transponder 6 and all he got was a bunch of snow. Me and the 6-8 other Flyer Fans in attendance were reduced to watching the Bottom Line on ESPN2 for the score and the infrequent highlights on ESPN. That was enough to piss off the Pope. I went home at halftime and listened to Larry and Bucky on the net.

— I don’t care what “Sit Down” Digger Phelps says — St. Joe’s is an outstanding team and is worthy of being ranked #3. At the same time, they are beatable. Having them not lose a game will make it that much sweeter when we knock ’em from the ranks of the undefeated in the A-10 Tourney.

— When I saw the picture of Jameer Nelson on the cover of SI, I figured that it was a sign from the basketball gods that the Flyers were gonna win.

— Great article about the Flyers by Mike Vega on ESPN.com:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?id=1732687

— What perplexes me is that Vega covers the East beat for ESPN.com; Jeff Shelman covers the Midwest. The Shell Man has yet to write word one about the Flyers and couldn’t spell ‘Dayton’ if you spotted him the D, Y, T and N and then bought him a couple of vowels. Last time I looked, Dayton is in the Midwest, dude.

— Bring back Gregg Doyel!

— The thread with the 2nd most replies (currently 70) on the MM MB is about the SJU/UD game…and no, X fans don’t have a complex about the Flyers. Riiighhtt.

— Vin Baker of the Celtics has gone from the “feel good story of the year” to the “feel so bad for the dude tale” all in a few short months. One day at a time, Vin.

— This time, no one can accuse Jim O’Brien of destroying the Boston Celtics like he did the Flyers…after all, he was only the C’s coach. That distinction belongs to GM Danny Ainge. What the hell is he thinking? Ricky Davis doesn’t exactly conjure up images of past Celtic greats like John Havlicek or Bill Russell, does he?

— Anybody got 2 for the LaSalle home game on the 28th? It’s “Little Sibs Weekend” at UD and the Swampettes have tickets to the game (which is sold out) but their parental units don’t. If not, it’s hello Mr. Scalper.

— I spent last weekend at Daytona, soaking up the sights and sounds of my first NASCAR race. One of the radio properties that I sell is the Motor Racing Network, which carries most of the races. What a great time! The highlight of the trip was the Richard Petty Driving Experience at Walt Disney World, where you get to drive your own stock car. It was unreal! I averaged 112 MPH on my fastest lap, which ain’t that fast, but it sure seemed like it.

— MRN paid for my entry to the RPDE and it’s a good thing — I don’t know that I would have forked over $375 of my own money to drive, even tho it was a blast.

— Watching the Bud Shootout from a suite at the Start/Finish Line wasn’t too shabby, either.

— I would imagine Marques Bennett is feeling pretty good about himself these days, wouldn’t you?

— What ever happened to Gordy Gahm?

— I got several nice emails from folks about my dog. Thanks, guys.

–Also got a note from former Flyer Steve Hess:

Jim:

Thought you should know, if you already didn’t, that the University hosted a very nice event last evening (Tuesday) for former Flyer basketballers and their guests, as a part of the 100th Anniversary celebration. The 100th Anniversary Team was announced, tours of the arena were given, a reception and dinner was provided, and a good time was had by all…a classy event and we all got to see some old friends.

Regards,

Steve Hess
Class of ’73

Nice touch by Dan Curran, Ted Kissell and company to invite all of the former Flyers to the dinner to honor the 100th Anniversary squad.

— What exactly does Paris Hilton do for a living? What was the point of having her on the sidelines by P Diddy during the Celebrity All-Star Game on Friday night? Did she get paid for standing there with that vacant look on her face? Talk about “the lights are on, but nobody’s home.” She looks like the poster girl for “Lobotomies Are Us.”

— Since I just started a new job, Mrs. Swampy and the Younger Swampette are headed to Sanibel Island, FL during mid-winter break without me. I’m going to Houston and Dallas on business while they’re gone — anything to get out of this cold!

— As someone on the FlyerHoops.net MB pointed out, the DDN pulled out all the stops for the St. Joe’s game: Bucky had several articles, Arch contributed a nice piece and even somebody named Kyle Nagel did a before and an after column.

— Jamelle Cornley from Columbus Brookhaven sounds like the kind of kid that UD has never been able to recruit — 6’5″, 240 and built like a brick outhouse. Somebody from the Charles Barkley/Adrian Dantley/Brandon Hunter mold. Yeah, I’d use that one scholarship for the class of 2009 on Cornley…in a heartbeat.

That’s it “From the Swamp”