Friday, April 2, 2010

The highest paid driver in NASCAR? No surprise, here. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., according to Forbes Magazine, makes $30 million annually. Jeff Gordon is right behind at $27 million and Jimmie Johnson third at $23 million.

Did you realize that this Final Four fails to have a single consensus first team All-American on the court? In fact, not one player averages 20 points per game. Duke’s Jon Scheyer has the highest scoring average at 18.2 points per game.

After four practices, here’s what new Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly thinks of his Irish team. "We stink right now," he said. "You’re 18-,19-, 20-year old kids and its 70 degrees outside and you’re playing at Notre Dame and I’ve got to motivate you? That’s why we aren’t on the same page right now."

The late college super coach Al McGuire once said , "Super intelligent people can’t be great athletes. They’re too aware." Think about how this might apply to Tiger Woods. Sports Illustrated writer Frank DeFord points out that Tiger may one of the most unaware folks on the planet.

I’m always amazed at how much hatred there is out there for the Duke basketball team. Folks call them privileged, arrogant, over-ranked, punks, elitists, and every other imaginable negative word. But that’s simply not true of this Blue Devil team. If anything, this team has hugely overachieved. And Mike Krzyzewski, the hated skipper of the Durham boys, has done perhaps his best coaching job in history. No reason to hate this bunch. I’ll take Kyle Singler, John Scheyer and Krzyzewski over any other combination in the Final Four.

What a kidder that Paul Johnson is. During Tech football practice this week, the Yellow Jacket offense spent an inordinate amount of time running out of a shotgun offense. "That’s just for you guys," the Tech coach told the assembled media. "You don’t think we’re going to actually use that in a game, do you? That’s just to break the monotony of practice."

Remember when Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster interviewed with Georgia to assume that position with the Bulldogs? Foster may be re-thinking his choice to stay in Blacksburg when next season begins. The Hokies lost more than one-half of their defensive starters and have another one iffy with an injury.

This is Norman Arey and my money’s on Foster to once again have a top 25 defense.