Ray Holloman Posts

Oregon delivered the knockout blow to Arizona, but the Wildcats gave themselves a black eye Saturday night when a bottle thrown by someone in the crowd sent Ducks cheerleader Katelynn Johnson to the hospital in the chaotic aftermath of Oregon's 44-41 double-overtime win.

There are two kinds of odds in the world. There are those that most of us live by -- the 50-50 chance Jon or Kate are on any random television channel at any given time, or the 100 percent certainty that it will rain any day you're without an umbrella -- then there are those that Les Miles lives by.

For the LSU coach, whose seemingly never failed to convert a fourth down, there's a certainty to things.

Miles could play Russian Roulette with a cannon and still walk away in one piece. He could fall from an airplane and somehow land unscathed in Angelina Jolie's bedroom. And if the house always wins, that's only because the LSU coach decided not to play.

We're not sure how it's scientifically possible, but every bone in his body is in fact made from a rabbit's foot.

And yet then there was Saturday, when Miles' improbable good fortune turned into inexplicable confusion and a whole lot of standing around wondering what just happened in the Tigers' 25-23 loss to Ole Miss.

And that was just the players and coaching staff. Those who watched were even more stupefied.

(Video of the now most infamous finish of 2009 after the jump.)

Even with 10 gallons of Gatorade – orange, naturally – dripping off him, and clad in a gray Clemson sweatshirt right out of George Costanza's wardrobe, Dabo Swinney may still have been the most neatly manicured man in Memorial Stadium.

Consider that a lesson about the unflappable nature of bookish Clemson coach. Not even a Gatorade ambush can stray so much as a hair from the coach's gameplan.

"This is just an extremely special day," Swinney said of the Tigers' 34-21 victory over Virginia, a win that came hours after they clinched the ACC's Atlantic Division, Clemson's first title of any sort since 1991.

It was a belated birthday present for Swinney, who turned 40 Friday and was serenaded with "Happy Birthday" by 77,000 purple-and-orange well-wishers, a going away gift for C.J. Spiller and Clemson's talented senior class, and something of an anniversary present for all involved.

When Roy Williams was asked exactly where he felt his North Carolina team stood at this point in the season, he responded with the sort of enthusiasm usually reserved for a weekend with your mother-in-law.

And, being Roy Williams, it was in the form of an anecdote.

"I had a friend of mine tell me, Roy, you have more patience than anyone I've ever seen,'" the Tar Heel coach said. "So I looked at him and said, 'What are you talking about?' He said, 'You haven't used any of it yet, so you've got it all stored up."

Now might be the appropriate time to start using a little.

In the Tar Heels first real test of the season against Ohio State, North Carolina opened with a Broadway worthy debut, pushing around Big Ten title hopeful Buckeyes on the way to a 77-73 victory-slash-statement.

At least for the first 39 minutes.

The remaining 60 seconds served precisely as a reminder as to why Job never picked up a clipboard.

When John Calipari accepted the Kentucky coaching job, he warned that there are no easy solutions in college basketball. At the time, it was like telling a state full of lottery winners about the value of sound investment strategies.

Thank Miami University for proving your point, Coach.

And thank John Wall for reminding Wildcats fans just why they were so darn excited in the first place.

Wall scored 19 points, including the biggest two of the season, a 15-foot jumper with less than a second left that lifted the No. 4 Wildcats to a 72-70 win over the Redhawks, narrowly avoiding the first major upset of the college basketball season.

Once again, North Carolina beats Duke. And just about everybody else in the nation.

Harrison Barnes, the nation's top basketball recruit, selected the defending national champion Tar Heels over the Blue Devils, long rumored to be Barnes' fruont-runner, as well as UCLA, Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa State at a press conference at his high school in Ames, Iowa on Friday.

And if Barnes can play basketball half as well as he can draw out the suspense, Roy Williams is in for another banner year.

The official line on college football's most famous trophy is that the Heisman Trophy is given out to the most "outstanding college football player."

Even Bernie Madoff is wondering why their noses aren't growing.

If it ever was dedicated to the best player in football, that practice has long since ceased, instead going to college football's best publicized player. Year after year, the award is bestowed upon a quarterback or running back for one the nation's 10 best teams, the most visible positions on the most visible teams. Partially it's due to the insular nature of college football. How exactly the Heisman committee expects beat writers who spend all Saturday in a cocoon around the team they cover, to vote confidently on players they see only in highlights, is a mystery.

Partly it's due to the self-selecting nature of the positions. The best athletes tend to wind up at quarterback and running back.

But surely not every year.

So, to be sure we miss no one, here are four other candidates our writers think should be stiff-arm suggestions.

For a man who said goodbye to his 2009 team as reluctantly as a kid giving back a puppy, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo took the fastest possible route to this year's season kick-off.

He arrived in an Indy Car.

With the Final Four in Indianapolis, you don't exactly need your college lit professor to explain the symbolism of Izzo's Midnight Madness ride, (though the prof might help in search of the metaphor to describe what a 220-pound man wedged in a car the sized of a futon looks like). Then again, you might just consider it foreshadowing of a Big Ten race that'll be just as fierce as anything waged on the brickyard.

Please be sure to buckle up.

"I honestly see nine or 10 ... teams that could realistically win the league," Izzo said at the Big Ten media day. "Top to bottom, the league is the best it's been in a long time."

For a man who said goodbye to his 2009 team as reluctantly as a kid giving back a puppy, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo took the fastest possible route to this year's season kick-off.

He arrived in an Indy Car.

With the Final Four in Indianapolis, you don't exactly need your college lit professor to explain the symbolism of Izzo's Midnight Madness ride, (though the prof might help in search of the metaphor to describe what a 220-pound man wedged in a car the sized of a futon looks like). Then again, you could consider it it foreshadowing of a Big Ten race that will be just as fierce and clustered as anything waged on the brickyard.

Please be sure to buckle up.

"I honestly see nine or 10 ... teams that could realistically win the league," Izzo said at the Big Ten media day. "Top to bottom, the league is the best it's been in a long time."

Illinois junior Jeff Jordan announced his return to the Illini basketball team last month, but following an NCAA ruling Tuesday, it will be another two games before he finally suits up for Bruce Weber's team.

Jordan, the oldest son of former NBA great Michael Jordan, quit the team in June, but decided to return in October. During a compliance investigation, the NCAA found that he participated in an non-sanctioned basketball tournament and was ruled ineligible for the first two games. Weber said he believed the event was a 3-on-3 tournament.