Larry Brown Sports

Of all the excellent fan creations we’ve seen, this may be the best. Self-proclaimed die-hard Kentucky Wildcats fan Danny Palmer spent about two weeks making a 4×4 portrait of former Wildcats forward Anthony Davis … and he did it using nothing but cereal.

Palmer told LBS he used about three boxes of Kix and Reese’s Puffs, and he says he also used some Cap’n Crunch for the ear rings.

I thought the gigantic Tebowing snowman was the best fan creation I’d seen until this.

Do we marvel or salivate over this fine work of art? Well done Mr. Palmer, well done.

H/T Kentucky Sports Radio
Photo Credit: Danny Palmer

After hearing that several other teams had unveiled modern-looking helmet designs to be worn at some point during the 2012 season, it appears the Arizona Wildcats did not want to be left out. As you can see from the photo above that the Arizona athletic department sent out in an email Wednesday, the Wildcats have announced they will be wearing copper helmets at some point during the upcoming season. Here is the reasoning:

“Copper is not only associated with our great state’s mining history, but it has influenced architectural design on our campus, including our athletic facilities – most notably the ring at the top of the McKale Center, and the future North End Zone Football Complex,” athletic director Greg Byrne wrote. “As such we embrace the idea that as the University of Arizona we will incorporate copper into a special helmet design to represent our state and University. Copper will not replace our traditional colors of red and blue, and the copper helmet will be worn on a limited basis. Bear Down!”

The chrome helmet thing has already been done by none other than Oregon, as they pulled it off to perfection at the Rose Bowl back in January. To our knowledge, Arizona is the first team to go with the copper look. When I heard about it before seeing it, I must admit I was skeptical. However, it looks much better than expected. They don’t quite beat TCU’s potentially new helmets, but there’s something about them that’s easy on the eyes.

H/T Tucson Citizen via Eye on College Football

Nearly three months after an ugly expose on the UCLA basketball program was published in Sports Illustrated, former Bruins standout Reeves Nelson has filed a $10 million lawsuit against the magazine, according to TMZ.

The minefield of a story, first released online in late February, paints the UCLA program as a mess, alleging a slew of misdeeds by players on and off the court, not limited to dropping ecstasy, smoking weed and deliberately ignoring coaches’ orders. Nelson, in particular, is portrayed as a total tool who intentionally tried to injure teammates in practice and even peed on teammate Tyler Honeycutt‘s clothes for allegedly snitching about a New Year’s Eve rave. Meanwhile, coach Ben Howland is depicted as somebody who more or less turned the other cheek to the bad behavior.

Nelson, who was kicked off the team in December for a recent string of misconduct, mounted up by hiring entertainment lawyer Keith Fink, who sent a letter to SI shortly after the story’s publication demanding a retraction, saying the expose’s author, George Dohrmann, fabricated portions of the story. Obviously SI didn’t budge.

Now Nelson has filed suit against the publication, and, according to TMZ, Fink said they have proof that Dohrmann “recklessly and negligently failed to investigate the claims in the article.” The lawsuit cites 18 current and former players who deny the allegations leveled against Nelson in the story. Honeycutt also reportedly said that Nelson “did not urinate on my clothes.”

Even if the suit is successful, it probably still won’t do much to undo the negative perception people have of Nelson. Or any possibility that he actually pooped on Honeycutt’s clothes instead.

Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

Saturday was already set to become one of the most special days of Louisville senior Taraneh Momeni’s life. As if graduating from the School of Dentistry and walking across the stage to receive her diploma wasn’t enough, her boyfriend decided to make it much more memorable. When Louisville basketball player and fellow senior Kyle Kuric stepped on stage as Momeni’s name was called to receive her degree, she thought he was up there to photograph the moment. Then, he took the microphone.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Kuric said as you can see in the video that WHAS 11 shared with us. “Me and her have been dating for about two-and-a-half years and I love her more than anything and definitely want to be with her for the rest of my life. I love her very much.”

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Earlier this week, high school hoops standout Anthony Bennett irked many in Big Blue Nation when he eliminated Kentucky from his list of prospective schools. Bennett, the seventh-ranked prospect in the class of 2013 according to Rivals, briefly made news after the decision for being berated with negative, often vulgar, tweets from scorned Wildcats fans. Now, Bennett, who’s presently deciding between Oregon and UNLV, and his Twitter account have caught the spotlight again, and this time it involves a popular late-night TV host.

On Tuesday, funnyman Jimmy Kimmel, who grew up in Vegas and briefly attended UNLV but did not graduate, reached out to Bennett on Twitter, trying to convince the Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.) power forward to sign with their hometown Rebels:

UNLV needs you Anthony! @Salsaa_Stylez @ABennett24 @UNLVRebellion @Salsaa_Stylez @ABennett24 @UNLVRebellion

— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) May 8, 2012

While the tweet seems harmless, it still counts as an NCAA recruiting violation, believe it or not. As College Basketball Talk pointed out last month, anybody who attempts to persuade a recruit to sign with a certain school classifies as that scary B-word in college athletics: a booster. And, obviously, boosters aren’t allowed to recruit prospective student-athletes (which, honestly, sounds like circular logic, but what else do you expect from the NCAA?). We highly doubt Kimmel knew he was in the wrong by sending that tweet.

It seems like such a petty violation for the NCAA to attempt to monitor, with the thousands on top of thousands of shameless fans on Twitter who are guilty of this. But given Kimmel’s prominence, this totally egregious violation of the NCAA’s sacred recruiting rules will probably lead to him being slapped with a 10-year show-cause penalty for late-night TV.

H/T The Big Lead
Photo credit: Brian Spurlock-US PRESSWIRE

Despite losing center Fab Melo for the entire 2012 NCAA Tournament, Syracuse was still able to pull off an impressive run. The Orange marched all the way to the Elite 8 before before being eliminated by Ohio State, and their success was due in large part to the shooting of forward James Southerland. Southerland averaged only 6.8 points per game during the regular season, but he scored 15 in each of Cuse’s first two tournament victories. His secret? Possibly farting.

According to the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician, some of the Orange players recently participated in a match game during the annual “Cuse Awards” where they had guess their teammates’ answers to random questions. When senior guard Brandon Reese was asked to give away a secret about Southerland that no one knows, he responded that Southerland farts all over the basketball court. Low and behold, the junior forward then held up a sign that read, “I fart on the court.”

“He thinks it’s a secret, but I know all these guys will say the same thing,” Davis said. “He farts all over the basketball court.”

Unless the two players cheated — which I don’t see what the fun in that would be — we have to assume this is true. As for the increase in production in the NCAA Tournament, maybe Southerland discovered the perfect blend of food to make his aroma unbearable to opponents. In theory, that could have led to more open jump shots.

H/T Beyond the Arc
Photo credit: Anthony Gruppuso-US PRESSWIRE

Larry Brown isn’t playing around when it comes to this SMU job. Introduced on Monday as the Mustangs men’s basketball coach, Brown has already cut three players, including team captain and starting point guard Jeremiah Samarrippas. Brown was reportedly blunt when he broke the news to the him.

“He basically told me that I wasn’t good enough to play for him,” the sophomore said, according to The Daily Campus.

Oof. Brutal.

Samarrippas averaged 6.9 points, 2.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 31 starts last season. He was fifth in the conference in assists and assists-to-turnover ratio. We don’t know the whole story that led to his dismissal. (For all we know, there could have been a Gene-Hackman-in-”Hoosiers” moment where Brown less than 5 minutes into the first practice cut guys who were being jerks.) But if it is performance based, I don’t know what Brown is expecting. He’s inheriting a 13-19 team in Conference USA.

H/T Bryan Fischer
Photo credit: Spruce Derden-US PRESSWIRE

When Terrence Jones barreled into a Louisville cheerleader during the Final Four a few weeks ago, he left her teary-eyed and with a cut on her head that required stitches. At the time, he didn’t realize she had been hurt that badly. When reporters informed Jones after the game of what had happened, he apologized and offered to bring the young lady flowers. The gesture was not an empty one.

As WHAS 11 in Kentucky reported, Jones kept his promise to Jerica Logue and showed up with a bouquet of flowers for her on Monday night at Louisville Cheer and Dance.

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Larry Brown has officially accepted the head coaching job at SMU, and the 71-year-old coach says he’s most excited about returning to teach young kids. Brown emphasized he’s looking forward to working with players at practice, and that’s when he dropped an impression of his former star player, Allen Iverson.

“I just think being a college coach, you’re really a teacher, and that’s something that I love to do. I love practice,” Brown said.

“Practice?” he said, mimicking Allen Iverson. “I love practice.”

“Do you guys know what I’m talking about?” Brown said, pointing at his young players. “I don’t have to explain that one.”

As young as those guys must have been when Iverson went on his rant, I’m sure they’ve all probably heard about it. It’s kind of hard not to.

As for the hire, I don’t think it’s as bad of an idea as most other people. Even if Brown is only there two seasons, if he can improve the program, the job will become more attractive the next time SMU is looking to hire.

You know how Terrence Jones knows he has finally made it? Not because he is projected to go in the top 15 picks of the 2012 NBA Draft. Not because he just helped Kentucky dominate the entire NCAA field to win a championship and go down as one of the greatest college teams ever. Those things certainly help, but Jones knew he officially had arrived when a pregnant woman asked him to sign her stomach over the weekend.

Considering we have heard about Kentucky fans who offer their wives in exchange for tickets and others who shave unibrows into their chests, the photo above that Jones shared on his Instagram isn’t exactly a shocker. Still, this has to be one of the most sincere forms of flattery. Signing someone’s boob is one thing, but the pregnant belly brings it to an entirely new level. This woman’s child could someday feel a personal connection with Jones, and as you can see that’s just fine with her.

H/T Beyond the Arc