FanHouse Darrin Horn

The University of South Carolina has self-reported 14 secondary NCAA violations by various sports teams during the last six months in the athletic department.

Secondary violations are defined as inadvertent and isolated and usually carry a minimal sanction, if any at all. Six of the violations are considered Level 1, which means they will go to the NCAA for review while the Level 2 violations will be dealt with by the SEC. Two of the Level 1 violations were committed by Steve Spurrier's football program, while first-year Gamecock's basketball coach Darrin Horn committed five violations the school reported.

The ones that will generate a few head scratches will be the "impermissible snacks" violation during an away-from-home competition and an impermissible entertainment violation for a bowling trip. Both violations were committed by the men's basketball team.

FanHouse placed a call to the NCAA for clarification of the snacks rule. Apparently, USC violated NCAA Bylaw 16.5.2, which governs away-from-home competitions.

Even if you phrase it as carefully as a major leaguer testifying before Congress, ask Kansas coach Bill Self who he thinks should be the national coach of the year and you're likely to get about the same answer as if you'd just asked him to explain the economic stimulus plan.

Which is to say a whole lot of stammering and more tap dancing than Broadway's spring season.

Every year Cinderella captures our hearts in the NCAA Tournament. They begin fittings for their glass slippers in November (and December), though. They Do Not Come From Nowhere introduces you to the teams that will be busting brackets nationwide come March.

Western Kentucky is blessed with one of the country's best scorers in senior guard Courtney Lee. He's got a career 17 point per game average for the Hilltoppers, led them to 60 wins in his first three seasons and is a good bet to be the Sun Belt's player of the year this season. What he hasn't done, however, is take the team to the NCAA Tournament. He hurt his wrist before last season's conference tourney and the Hilltoppers lost in the semis.

While Lee is going to be a key to any tournament run for WKU, coach Darrin Horn had to be impressed by his team's win against Nebraska yesterday. They won 69-62 in overtime despite a hellish 4-of-16 from the floor by Lee, thanks in large part to their other senior guards Tyrone Brazelton and Ty Rogers. Brazelton hit a three with 34 seconds to play and Rogers scored 11 points, including three threes, to help ease the pain of Lee's rough night.