Friday's Tidbits: May 29

1. Cincinnati Elder Tight End Alex Welch's commitment to Notre Dame a few days ago was a much needed one for the Irish, as the 2010 recruiting cycle has been a slow one so far for Charlie Weis and staff. For system purposes, Welch made the right choice by picking Notre Dame over Ohio State.

2. This whole Memphis-Derrick Rose-John Calipari scandal is going to get worse before it gets better. Changing grades and having someone take an SAT test for someone else is a very serious NCAA violation, as reported last night by the Chicago Tribune. Unless new information surfaces soon, the Tigers could have their 2008 Final Four appearance taken away. The June 7, 2009, NCAA hearing should display a lot of information.

3. The Cubs are struggling, and that might be an understatement. But don't jump ship too early Cubs fans, despite the woes of the pitching staff, lack of offensive production, and of course, injuries. My feelings about all this....it's still May.

4. 37-14-12, this was the stat line of Lebron James last night in the 112-102 Game 5 win over Orlando. The Magic still lead the series 3-2, with Game 6 on Saturday in Florida. The 37 points was the highest scoring mark for a triple-double by any player since Charles Barkley in 1993. Magicesque?

5. I've always liked Dwyane Wade, but I give him huge props for wearing Indiana shorts in a recent Spelling Bee commercial. Here's the link if you haven't seen it.

6. Denver will take Game 6 tonight, but Los Angeles will seal the deal on Sunday at the Staples Center.

7. It's extremely early to make a college football national title game prediction for next season, but I'm going to go ahead and do it anyway: Florida vs. Texas.

Book it.

8. I've shared this with others, but my favorite NFL "fun-fact" of all time is this...

NFL Draft #1 draft picks and their NFL jersey numbers from 2001-2005

2001: Michael Vick (#7)
2002: David Carr (#8)
2003: Carson Palmer (#9)
2004: Eli Manning (#10)
2005: Alex Smith (#11)

9. Tom Crean and Matt Painter are currently recruiting the state of Indiana extremely hard right now, and there is a reason for this-- the state is loaded in high school basketball talent. Below is a list of the top high school players in the 2011 and 2012 classes, and who has offered them.

2011
Marquis Teague (Louisville, Indiana)
Cody Zeller (Indiana)
Jeremiah Davis (Kentucky, Purdue, Tennessee, Indiana, Cincinnati, Xavier)
Tracy Abrams (Illinois commit)
Brandon Dawson (Georgetown, Indiana, Purdue, UCLA, Minnesota)
Dee Davis (Purdue, Xavier, Ohio)

2012
D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera (Indiana, Tennessee)
Raphael Davis (Purdue commit)
Dejuan Marrero (Indiana)

10. Two things about the NBA I need to get off my chest.

1. If you aren't watching the NBA playoffs, shame on you. Unless you don't like basketball in general, then that's another story. I'm tired of hearing this from people who haven't watched a game in years, "The NBA players don't care. Blah, blah, blah."

Oh really? Watch a game, and you will think differently. As the Herd on ESPN radio says, "People think it's 'cool' to rip the NBA. How sad."

If you don't like the style of the professional game, like the run-and-gun, up-and down, and one-on-one offensive schemes, I understand completely. However, to say the players and coaches don't care is tacky.

2. The playoffs are not fixed. Take the tin foil off your head and get out of the chat rooms with your internet buddies. Of course the NBA front office wants to see a Cleveland-Lakers match up, it's called ratings, which leads to higher advertising dollars. This isn't rocket science.

However, every sport has a match up that would draw higher ratings than others, including America's top professional sport entity, the NFL. But for some reason, there is never an NFL conspiracy......? There's a reason why, which we won't get into today, but will later on a different day.

Until solid evidence is emerges, the games aren't rigged, period.