Mikhail Torrance signs with Israeli pro team, Maccabi Tel Aviv

Despite going undrafted in last month's NBA draft, Mikhail Torrance will continue his basketball career in Israel after signing with Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv.

The contract is only for one year, but the team does have an option to extend his contract to 2012. Torrance will be joined on the team by fellow Crimson Tide alum, Richard Hendrix, who has also signed to play for Maccabi.

Here's hoping it works out for a guy who, by all accounts, has been a hard worker and gracious personality. If his talents had been more appreciated his first three seasons, something tells me Torrance would have left a stronger legacy at Alabama.

Former great Demetrius Jemison transfers to Manhattan...

... following in the steps of another former great in Rico Pickett. What? I thought UCLA was interested. Maybe he wants to live in NYC (which I can't blame him for), but there are better schools in the NYC area to go to. Anyways, good luck I guess.

Link

Recruiting Update: Trevor Lacey

It's Kentucky's world, we just live in it. Huntsville's Lacey is one of the top shooting guard prospects in the nation. He recently he said he will go to UK unless they pick up another 2-guard committment before he decides to make it official. I hate missing out on such highly regarded in-state prospects, but at the same time it's hard to blame somebody for taking an opportunity to play at a placel like UK. link.

Why the NCAA Tournament should have expanded to 96 teams

1) Dissolve the NIT. The NIT is a useless tournament that is a money drain, so merging this with the NCAA tournament to make it 96 makes more financial sense. Let the pay for play tournaments fill that void.

2) A 96 team tournament would lead to fewer upsets of top teams. In a 96 team field the top 4 seeds in each bracket would get a 1st round bye. People talk about loving the upset, but don't tune in if the upset goes too far (unless money is on the line). Problem mostly solved here.

3) More smaller conference schools get to play. A team that wins their regular season title, but loses in their conference tournament would get a chance to play in the NCAAs.

Ideally, I'd like the NCAAT to prohibit teams with non winning conference records from participating. Since that won't happen that's why I'm fine with 96 teams. Don't give me that, "This is a tougher conference" crap as I believe you should have a winning record in conference to get an at large bid.

Expanding to 96 in theory gives 28 more teams a chance to win it all... but in reality 75% of the field don't have a chance to do so. The so called "watering down" theory doesn't apply when we already have teams in the tourney with sub .500 conference records.

Enjoy :)

WARNING! WARNING! Barn content... photos of new arena

Here is the link. I'm not actually going to put them up here, but I have to admit it's quite nice. Wish we would've demolished Coleman and built something similar to this. Auburn is putting up a front that they're interested in making a commitment to basketball with this arena and hiring of a John Calapari clone. We will see how this works for them.

I wonder how long before the curtain makes an appearance. I say midway through December 2010.

Slow season- my 3 favorite all-time college basketball teams

1) 1989-90 UNLV: Yes, I'm aware they were getting NBA salaries, but man they were fun to watch. Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Greg Anthony, Anderson Hunt, and George Ackles throttled just about every opponent in their path.

2) 1985-86 St John's- Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson, and Bill Wennington anchored probably the greatest St John's team in history. 3 of their 4 losses that season came to Georgetown (led by Patrick Ewing).

3) 2001-02 Alabama: I know it ended with a 2nd round blowout to Kent State in the NCAAs, but the regular season was great. Looking back at that roster... man we should've done more with it. Roster

Honorable mention: 1994-95 UCLA, 1992-93 UNC, 1991-92 Duke

ATTENTION NASCAR FANS: If you like car collisions

then you'll love this year's Tour de France.  The two differences are that cyclists never face flames and that they have nothing to absorb or deflect the full impact of their falls other than the thin film of lycra that covers their torsos.  

American GC contender Christian Vande Velde (photo above) of Garmin Slipstream was able to finish Monday's Stage but was unable to continue riding Wednesday after Xrays revealed he'd suffered several broken ribs.  His U.S. teammate, Tyler Farrar, the best American sprinter in the race (photo below) was not so lucky.  His broken bones in the same accident were obvious, but he still finished the stage resting his left arm on his handle bars before being taken to the hospital. 

The first three days of racing have taken out several of the most notable participants in this year's race and the primary assistants of several others.  Yesterday's Stage Two saw almost half of the riders in the race hit the deck after a motorcycle crash spilled across and already-wet, descending side of a steep hill. 

I do not find the crashes nearly as exciting as the actual racing.  The threat of carnage like what we witnessed the past three days always is just around the corner any at time 190 of the best bicycle riders in the world start racing against one another, and the fact that most of the riders avoid these accident's 99.99% of the time they are on the road makes the racing even more exciting to me. 

Today's Stage Three produced lots of excitement across the cobble stone roads of Belgium and France.  You probably can see hi lites of yesterday's action and all of today's exciting race on The Versus Channel tonight.

MLB park rankings 2010... the ones I've been to so far.

1) Safeco Field (Seattle)- easy to get to, good food, great backdrop. The team stinks, but outside of that a great experience.

2) Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia)- the only reason this one isn't #1 on my list is it's location. Seats are angled to the field, great food, easy parking.

3) Camden Yards (Baltimore)- can't find a better brat at any MLB park. This park is the model for all new parks after it. It's a shame the team that plays there isn't competitive. My main complaint is parking prices and the interstate TOLL ROAD.

4) Nationals Park (Washington, D.C.)- discount code got me some great seats (GREEN). Easy to get to, parking is relatively affordable, food is 'eh', nice site lines.

5) Turner Field (Atlanta)- it's a plain park, but it has lot of stuff to do to distract kids. I'm of the mindset you take a kid to a game to watch the game, but that's just me. Also easy to get to driving from the west side of town, but food is overpriced (even for MLB parks).

6) Minute Maid Park (Houston)- the roof was closed even though it was about 80 degrees when I went. Food sucks, the ballpark itself is ugly, and the team sucks. Really, that statement can be made about the city of Houston. The upside was parking was cheap and really close to the park and it's really easy to get to by car.

7) Sun Life Stadium (Florida)- well, it's a football field with terrible site lines and the park is in a rough part of town. The upside is you can buy a cheap ticket and move around somewhat. Mediocre food, mediocre team, mediocre experience. They really should move this club to another city instead of ripping off the people of Miami with a new park that no one will go to.