The Column to Be Named Later

BEVERLY HILLS (MI) –- If you have ever wondered where I find all of this stuff for my columns, I basically save up links to articles I find during the week and then spring them on you all at once. Boing:

-- There is a new Scout.com Top 75 out today for the Class of 2010. Adreian Payne is ranked #13; Juwan Staten is #54. Their All Ohio teammates Jared Sullinger (#4), Jordan Sibert (#42) and Aaron Craft (#61) also made the list:

http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75...pid=88&yr=2010

Not bad…5 guys from the same AAU squad! And another All Ohio player, former X recruit JD Weatherspoon, is probably in the #75-100 range.

-- Well, looky here. Guess what finally got updated? John Huston’s Recruiting Page:

http://sites.google.com/site/udhoopsrecruiting/

It had been 7 months since the last revision (October 18th to be precise, but who’s counting?). In the early days of the Intrawebs, John’s old AOL site was the only source we had to keep current on what HS players UD was pursuing.

-- Gary Parrish at CBS Sportsline has a great column on underclassmen declaring for the NBA draft. This year there are, count ‘em, 74 dreamers on the list:

http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/view/6271764

Considering that there are only 30 NBA teams and 2 rounds in the draft, clearly D’mond Grismore is not the only non-senior player who is smoking the drapes.

-- I follow the Red Sox when they are not on TV via MLB.com’s GameDay, a pitch-by-pitch update on the proceedings and I’ll usually check out the game thread on the Sons of Sam Horn MB at the same time. One of the cooler features on GameDay is the video replays that are usually posted shortly after the play happens. Up until this year they were free; now you have to fork over $19.95 to get GameDay Premium, which includes the vids. Sorry, MLB but I can wait a day to see ‘em or catch 'em on the MLB Network on cable.

-- Here’s a great example of the video highlights. Jonathan Van Every is a 29 year old Red Sox rookie OF who has bounced around the minors his entire career, most recently with the Indians. So guess who he hit his first MLB homer off of? The Tribe, of course and it was a game winner to boot:

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/media/v...55557&c_id=bos

-- Speaking of the Sawx, here is a very heartwarming article on the courtship of zillionaire owner John Henry and his soon-to-be-bride, from Boston magazine:

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articl..._takes_a_wife/

-- There’s a new virus sweeping MLB and it’s not the swine flu, but rather “The Bellhorn Syndrome":

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124088459426462243.html

-- Whether you like him or not, voted for him or didn’t, you gotta like the idea of having a pick-up hoopster in the Oval Office:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124096961837466783.html

-- I love Joe Dumars. Classy individual. Great player. Even better front office guy. But he did blow it on a couple of fronts: first, the Darko debacle:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ons/index.html

and the trade for Allen “Tattoo Boy” Iverson:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/bal...n=nba%2C159199

By all rights Chauncey and Mello should be playing together in Detroit and not Denver. Salary cap space never won anybody a basketball game, Joe.

-- Speaking of ‘tats’ there is no truth to the rumor that former St. Joe’s PG Delonte West looked into having a 3rd arm surgically attached to his body because he has run out of space to add more tattoos.

-- The Food Network’s Bobby Flay picked the best hamburger joint in each of the 50 states:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/50-states...age/index.html

Only one I’m familiar with is Hunter House up the road from me in Birmingham. They have great little burgers like White Castle that come with sliced grilled onions on ‘em, but their burgers are not the best in Detroit…that honor belongs to Miller’s in Dearborn.

Anyone ever been to Terry’s Turf Club Burgers in Cincy?

-- A-Roid is on the DL and yet he just can’t stay out of the news, can he? He’s the subject of a new book by Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts, in which she cites a prep teammate who says that A-Fraud may have been ‘using’ all the way back in high school:

http://www.boston.com/sports/basebal...m_not_goi.html

Ball players can be brutal sometimes. One of the side effects of steroids is gynecostema or rounded pecs. Roidriguez’s nickname in the Yankee clubhouse? “B*tch T*ts”:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4114292

-- Finally, there are several potential UD recruits mentioned in this wrap-up of the King James Shooting Stars Classic from HighMajorScoop.com:

http://highmajorscoop.com/2009/05/king-james-roundup/

2010 players being followed by UD Assistant Coach Cornell Mann include Alex Gauna, Jon Horford and Matt Kamieniecki of the Michigan Mustangs and Isaiah Sykes from the Michigan Hurricanes.

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at: swampy@udpride.com