Dick Vitale, Herb Pope, Drew Gordon and more

This probably comes off as "Grinchy" around this time of the year but it's a professional and not a personal criticism and we agree completely:

At the Rush The Court site, Zach Hayes, RTC Bracketologist-in-Residence, has this holiday wish:

"This one might cause some controversy, but I’d ask Santa for some duct tape for Dick Vitale. Watching the Texas-UNC game on Saturday sent me over the edge. His shameless self-promotion and constant hyperbole is incredibly irritating and the man fails to make one cogent basketball point from an analytical perspective the entire telecast. His quirks and habits get extremely tiresome by December. While others like Bill Raftery have their fun, they bring to the broadcast a true sense of the intricacies of basketball to further my understanding of the sport. Jay Bilas is constantly providing enlightening analysis and former coaches like Bob Knight and Steve Lavin are tremendous. Yet ESPN keeps giving us Dick Vitale in the biggest games so he can yell things like “I’ll tell you, Ed Davis has talent!” and “go onto dickvitale.com for my freshman of the year, coach of the year, fans of the year…” It’s enough. Santa, send me some duct tape so I never have to hear that old man screaming again."

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Here's some tough words from Herb Pope on he and his team:

Seton Hall F Herb Pope's tough words after Temple loss could be just what Pirates need
Brendan Prunty
The Star-Ledger
December 20, 2009

Star-Ledger college basketball writer Brendan Prunty has all of the answers about Seton Hall's 71-65 loss Saturday night, including why what Herb Pope said afterwards is the best thing that could happen to this team:

1. We heard Herb Pope had some strong words after the game -- a sign of dissent on this team?

Absolutely not — and if anything, it's the best thing that could happen to this team after a tough loss like this. Coming into Saturday night, everyone — from players, to coaches, to pundits, to fans — wanted to know if Seton Hall was for real. They had compiled an 8-0 record, but the only win to hang their hats on was at Cornell. This game against Temple was for legitimacy and it didn't go their way. So when Herb Pope told me that the loss "definitely shows that we're a fraud right now," I thought it was the best thing for this team at a moment like this. This Seton Hall team as a load of talent, skill and ability but Saturday night was a wake-up call for them that those three things won't always win you games. I think Pope's sentiment puts a chip on this team's shoulder going forward because now they know what people are thinking of them. Teams that have something to prove are usually the most dangerous...

...GAME BALLS

Herb Pope (13 pts., 11 reb., 4 ast., 4 stl.): Still notched his seventh double-double of the night, but that wasn't the best thing. Pope's ability to keep 50-50 balls alive long enough helped keep his team in this game until the late minutes...

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It's a home away from home holiday for two Wolf Packers as Chris Murray details.

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This is intriguing -- in a December 22 game report about the San Diego State win over Drake, this is included:

"...SDSU is off until Dec. 29 when the Aztecs play host to UC Riverside on a night that UCLA transfer Drew Gordon will be attending the game as part of his tour of possible schools he will pick to continue his career..."

We reiterate that we have been told that the Chancellor of the California state and university system has said there will be no mid-years transfers in 2009-2010.

Now someone did respond to this saying his wife works in the system and this decree will not apply for athletes.

We've also been told that a coach at one of the California institutions will more than likely challenge such a ruling by signing someone.

So where does this stand? Your guess is as good as ours.

We still believe Gordon will be a UNLV Rebel when all is typed, pontificated and finally decided but expect him to be leaving Las Vegas prior to his senior season.