Thursday, March 17, 2011

Nails from the Toolbox: Grant Hill, Bruce Pearl, Sidney Crosby and more

*On Sunday night ESPN aired a documentary on the Fab Five. In it, Jalen Rose rips Grant Hill and Duke. Here is Hill's response yesterday in the New York Times. If you don't read anything else today, read this.

*It came across the wires that, according to Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton, "the jury is out on what's going to happen" with head basketball coach Bruce Pearl. I've written about Pearl's situation before. Tennessee can't fire him with cause until the NCAA completes its investigation. That will probably take place this summer. With this statement it's now clear that Pearl is done within the week of that finding. Hamilton was his lifeline and if he is now saying this, Pearl's got no shot. It's too bad because Pearl does seem like one of the good guys, but wow did he make a huge and unforgivable mistake. Watch Tennessee play Michigan Friday. It will probably be Pearl's last game as a head coach. Ever.

*It isn't going to happen but the The NFL Players Association should put a gag order on its players. Adrian Peterson calling the players' situation modern-day slavery and Ryan Clark ripping the Rooneys for their nepotism aren't helping in the court of public opinion. Drew Brees has stayed on point and been an excellent spokesman for the players. Everyone else should shut up.

*Sidney Crosby got on the ice today for the third time in four days. He hasn't practiced yet and there is no guarantee that he'll make it back this season, but I think mid-April seems like a reasonable target date if he doesn't have any setbacks. The Penguins have become so good defensively that if Sid returns they again have to be considered one of the favorites to win the Cup even with Evgeni Malkin shelved for the year.

1 comment:

Paul said...

David: Thanks for the link to the Grant Hill letter. Great stuff. When I watched the show I was surprised at how bitter Jalen Rose still is 10 years later.