The steak of turmoil shall cook no more. Rutgers is set to shuffle loose Fred Hill from his scarlet coil today. RU has basically been looking for a good reason to fire Hill with cause (and therefore not pay him millions of dollars for doing such a lousy job). You know things are bad when your star player decides to transfer and then, upon hearing that the coach is about to be fired, decides to hold off on said transfer.
With Hill out, that's one more NYC-area school making a coaching change due to poor performance this year. Mike Rothstein puts it in perspective:
If Fred Hill is fired tomorrow, that means St. Johns, Rutgers, Seton Hall, Iona, Hofstra, Wagner and Fordham will have new coaches.
In the case of basketball, I think DOC Gross got it right. Syracuse truly is New York's College Team. Or at least New York's College Team Capable Of Gainfully Employing A Head Coach For Longer Than Five Years At A Time.
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Hey, it's been a couple months, shouldn't a UConn athlete have been arrested by now? BOOM!
UConn freshman linebacker Mike Osiecki was arrested on campus Monday for shoplifting from the UConn Co-Op.
The New Haven Register website reported Wednesday through a source that Osiecki stole a PowerBar.
The report does not say if it was Peanut Butter, Chocolate Peanut Butter or Vanilla Crisp.
I just love the fact that he stole from a campus store. Considering he almost assuredly has an unlimited meal card good at any campus eatery, you have to be all kinds of dumb to resort to this for your energy needs.
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Hey, remember that "teaching moment" that almost cost Villanova their first-round game against Robert Morris? Apparantly part of the teaching lesson should have included how to properly put on a condom. The hot rumor making the rounds, via Deadspin, is that Corey Fisher not only slept with Scottie Reynolds' girlfriend but also got her preggers, leading to a fight between the two. (UPDATE: The rumor is indeed that...just a rumor. Didn't happen. Carry on.)
Where have I heard this before? Oh...right.
According to other drunk people in a bar on Marshall street, Preston Shumpert had gotten Deshaun Williams' girlfriend pregnant. As soon as that rumor surfaced the entire season went down the drain. Over the next 13 games the team went 4-9, missing the NCAA tourney, and making it only as far as the NIT (Nobody Interested Television) semi-finals. After that year Preston failed to get drafted (he was a pre-season lock for the 1st round) and DeShaun transferred to Iona (institution on North Avenue…near my home) to play for the Gales where he slipped into Ryan Leaf-esque obscurity.
The lesson is...never have girlfriends.
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South Florida made some great strides last season, winning the Fulmer Cup and setting the tone for a program befitting the state of Florida's high moral excellence standards. This season, all has been quiet on the arrest-y front. Maybe that's because Skip Holtz is making pre-emptive strikes. He just booted DT Leslie Stirrups off the team Wednesday for the dreaded "unspecified violation of team rules." With a history of bad behavior, the Bulls won't miss Stirrups. Though the folks down at the Tampa PD might, they got accustom to seeing him last year.