In another college basketball game last night, Michigan State beat Wisconsin in Madison. That game was very different from the Duke/Maryland game. Rather than being played as an end-to-end full-speed sprint, this one was like Ohio State football in the Woody Hayes era. Every pass and every shot was contested by both sides. The final score was 51-47; lots of college teams score 98 all by themselves these days. Since I love defense in almost any sport, I enjoyed the game but it was hardly an artistic and highly athletic event.

In NBA news, Michael Jordan is offering Rod Strickland a deal. The Wiz can buy him out of his contract next year for a $5M payment. However, unless the Wizards release Strickland so he can sign with another team by midnight tomorrow, he cannot play in any playoff games. So Jordan has said that he will keep Strickland on the injured list until "he is ready to play" or he will release him today giving Rod a day to try to hook on with a playoff contender. But to do that, Rod has to take a smaller buyout - maybe only about $1M. Stay tuned.

Juan Carlos Gomez is a Cuban boxer who defected from Cuba to Germany about 5 years ago and he is now the WBC Cruiserweight champion. He has evidently not been fastidious in his payment of German taxes and the German version of the IRS has become an adversary of his. Gomez is now in Miami seeking to remain here and has been processed as a Cuban "without proper travel documents" and will "likely be allowed to stay in the US." Given the recent uproar about Marc Rich and the pardons, why would we keep an alleged tax cheat here? Given that we sent Elian Gonzales back to Cuba when he was accused of nothing more serious than dominating the US media for about 3 months, why wouldn't we send back someone who is accused of tax cheating?

On Monday, a Florida State linebacker, Devaughn Darling, collapsed and died in the midst of a workout. Now it seems that it is going to take as much as six weeks to determine the cause of death. I'll defer to #1 son, the paleontologist, here; but I think that you could probably fossilize his bones in something close to that time. Meanwhile a teammate who was evidently part of the same workout has told a TV station that Darling complained of chest pains during the workout; and supposedly, Darling had problems in multiple workouts for the two weeks prior to his collapse and death. Assuming that this teammate is not making this stuff up and that he is accurately describing the events, we have chest pains and collapsing several times in the weeks prior to chest plains and collapsing and death during a football workout. I'm not a medical examiner and I certainly don't play one on TV and I did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but if I'm guessing here, I doubt that he died of lead poisoning. If anyone is offering odds, I'll take "cerebral anoxia" - lack of oxygen to the brain. Happens all the time.

In NFL moves, the Giants have given Jim Fassell a 4 year deal worth a reported $11M. The Giants were clearly overachievers this season and everyone attributes that to the innovative coaching staff there. I'll suspend my leaping on the bandwagon for now; I have always thought that Fassell was an average coach; he is better than the obviously over-their-head coaches like Vince Tobin and Bruce Coslett; he has yet to show me he is in the "elite class" which is what about $3M per year makes him. It will be interesting to see if he is around as the Giants head coach to collect the final paycheck here.

If the Chiefs decide to keep Elvis Grbac, they owe him a $10M payment and the deadline for that decision is in the next day or so. I could understand paying Elvis $10M to come out of his hiding place and go on a concert tour or maybe make another movie, but who thought paying Elvis Grbac a $10M bonus for anything other than being MVP in a Super Bowl that his team won made any sense at all?

The NBA has its "sign and trade" deals; in the NFL it is "sign and retire". Thurman Thomas signed a one-day with the Bills and retired the next day as a Buffalo Bill. Lots of opportunity for emoting. I think Kurt Vonnegut might say, "Hi-Ho".

Curtis Enis was cut by the Bears. After being hurt early in his career, Enis showed up 20 pounds heavier this season saying that this would allow him to hurt other people during the collisions of an NFL season. What it appeared to do more effectively was to slow him down. Who woulda thunk?

The Patriots also cut chronic underachiever Chris Slade. He was supposed to make $2M next year. He will be signed somewhere else and go through the motions for another team at a lower number next year.

Frank Thomas reported to the White Sox training camp after lunching with Jerry Reisndorf. In a statement described as an apology, Thomas said, "I did look like a poster boy for greed over the weekend, but that is not the case. I've never been greedy. I've had a couple of opportunities to be the highest paid player in this game, and I didn't want to be there." After reading this several times, I think I know what Paul Begala is doing in his spare time these days. Puhleeez!!

Last July, the Orioles held a firesale of veteran players and when others said that they did not get a lot of top prospects in return, the Orioles' brass bristled and said they had restocked their farm system with top talent. One pitcher, Luis Rivera, has a torn labrum and is out for a year; now Mark Nussbeck has tendonitis of the shoulder and has had it since last year - he will not pitch for at least several weeks.

People who do not have to listen to the Orioles' incessant drumbeating about their minor league prospects may not have heard of Calvin Pickering and Ryan Minor. These guys were touted as the second comings of Boog Powell and Cal Ripken Jr. They were the going to be the anchors of the Orioles infield through 2010. Minor is now gone elsewhere and will probably be a player who accumulates a few hundred games in the major leagues by signing on with various teams when they need an infielder quickly. Pickering was injured last year and his weight - always a problem - went "well north of 300 lbs". He is supposedly "fully recovered" and is expected to be in the Orioles' minor league camp soon at 270 lbs. If he gets down to 240 lbs, he might actually do well enough in AAA ball to get a call up and a shot at playing in the big leagues. Otherwise, he is just another case of over-hype.

But don't feel bad for the Orioles' PR folks; they have options. In a story today that they will beat like a drum, Sam Perlozo, the O's bench coach, is reportedly saying that shortstop prospect Ed Rogers makes Sam see A-Rod at age 19. Here is a paragraph from the article that describes Rogers:

"At a time when the Orioles' recent past has made them a laughingstock and their present is less than promising, Rogers - perhaps more than anyone else - represents The Future for a franchise that has not developed an impact position player of its own in almost 20 years."

Finally, Susquehanna University has promoted Cheri Swineford from assistant softball coach to co-head coach. If this is the size of the steps on her career ladder, I hope she gets to take another one every year and that she is only 21 years old at this time. That way, she can aspire to anonymity.

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...