Good morning, and welcome to the Skull Session. There are some weighty stories out there, but first up is our national pastime: trolling.
This story was related in Kyle Rowland's spring practice notebook, but it's too good not to repeat. In keeping with April Fools' Day, tight end Jeff Heuerman conspired with strength coach Mickey Mariotti and coordinator of player development Ryan Stamper to make tight ends coach Tim Hinton believe Heuerman had been arrested.
According to Heuerman, Hinton was close to having a heart attack before Heuerman reminded him about April Fools' Day. As for repercussions, well...
“He almost died,” Hinton said. “Coach Meyer almost had to kick him off the team because I almost killed him.
“Needless to say, he didn’t play in the scrimmage (on Tuesday).”
As long as that's exaggerating, it's tough but fair. Maybe Heuerman could've gotten a police officer to play along to really mess with Hinton, but from what it sounds like he stuck the landing anyway.
As a reminder to OSU students, there will be an open practice at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center tomorrow. Sure, it may not have free pizza like Illinois's open practice did, but compare the teams: perfection>pepperoni.
Another tidbit of news: there's been some discussion about who will be the new basketball coach at Rutgers after Mike Rice was fired for abusing his players. According to Jeff Goodman of CBS Sports, one possibility is Ohio State assistant coach Chris Jent. Jent, who was a Buckeye letterwinner from 1988-1992, has been an assistant under Thad Matta for the past two seasons, and before that was an assistant head coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
It'd stink to lose one of the constants on a couple deep tournament runs, but Rutgers is a great opportunity for an assistant coach. If he is a target, best wishes to him.
LOOK AT ALL THE BOTHERS I GIVE. NCAA President Mark Emmert gave an interview at the Final Four on Thursday that was far more contentious than expected.
A number of journalists took issue with the NCAA's handling of investigations such as the Miami case, and even going all the way back to the Ohio State and USC cases, the NCAA has been under a lot of scrutiny. Emmert himself has been under a lot of scrutiny, and unloaded on the reporters there.
In response to the New York Times's Joe Nocera, who wrote an expose on Emmert's career history and pretty clearly insinuated that he screwed things up then abandoned ship at those locations before scandal caught up with him, Emmert was dismissive. To Dennis Dodd of CBSSports, who had previously suggested that Emmert resign, Emmert was downright catty, facetiously thanking him for career advice during the interview (which the NCAA removed from the transcript) and again after the interview before leaving the stage.
Most media are having a field day with this in pointing out hypocrisy, double standards and whatnot. The press conference should suggest disliking Mark Emmert in these circumstances, but for some perverse reason I kind of want to see him keep doing this thing. For one thing, his demeanor is far different from the starched rhetoric from his office. Whether it's a change for the better or worse remains to be seen. Few people seem happy with how the NCAA has been handling scandals, and this change could either mean more blunt and honest rhetoric and action (if you like Emmert) or the delegitimation and unraveling of his presidency (if you dislike Emmert).
However you choose to read into it, it's a positive development. Heck, I just like being able to accurately compare a bureaucrat to Grumpy Bear.
If this is a precursor to the end of Emmert's time as NCAA president, at least he has another career lined up:
He's even got one Stone Cold mannerism down.
PAC-12 HEAD OF OFFICALS FIRED. Pac-12 head of officials Ed Rush was fired after making comments about targeting Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller. Initially, the Pac-12 tried to downplay the comments, but the circumstances following the comments (Miller receiving an unwarranted technical foul in a Pac-12 tournament game, a game his team lost by two points) made it inevitable.
It's unfortunate that what Rush calls a joke cost him his job, but it had to happen; the comments undermined his position, and you simply cannot have undermined credibility in sports, where credibility means everything. This is a total reversal from what Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott suggested would happen on Tuesday, and I wonder what could have caused the turnaround. Public opinion, internal investigation, and threats made by university officials seem the most likely, but there's so little transparency.
SPICE SPICE BABY. Stories about goings-on at Auburn continue to spread, and it's getting difficult to tell fact from fiction or pin down a narrative. Following Selena Roberts' report alleging criminal mistreatment of athletes as well as some less important but still severe NCAA violations, a number of sources claimed that they were misquoted in the story. Though Auburn fans may have trouble with objectivity right now, it seems like Roberts, an Auburn graduate, is viewed as a sort of cross between Kirk Herbstreit and George Dohrmann.
Following that story, yesterday ESPN's E:60 released a lengthy report on an epidemic of spice (a synthetic drug similar to marijuana) during Auburn's 2010 national championship run. Per the report, twelve Auburn players tested positive for spice during the season, but the test results were kept secret. In addition, ESPN links spice directly to the armed robbery four players committed several months later. Under the surface, there are not-so-subtle implications that Auburn covered up the drug tests and failed to protect players, and that Auburn's lack of support for players makes it culpable in the players' actions.
This report has been attacked by the usual suspects, and there are some problems in ESPN's logic. For instance, ESPN claims that Auburn masked positive tests in January 2011, but the NCAA didn't ban spice until October 2011 and Alabama didn't ban it until August 2011, so Auburn wouldn't have had to suspend players at the time. It's also worth questioning whether the spice "epidemic" (Deadspin uses scare quotes) is more dangerous than marijuana use among students, and other specifics. Parents also contradict the assertion that Auburn did not inform them of positive test results.
It's remarkable how much smoke there is at Auburn without there being any confirmed fire. Frustrating as it is for supporters and detractors of Auburn, there's nothing to do but wait for more news.
HAWKEYE FACEPLANT. A couple weeks ago I made a dumb joke about how Iowa wasn't in the NCAA tournament; would it be narcissistic to credit that insult for Iowa's turnaround in the NIT?
Following double-digit wins over Indiana State, Stony Brook, Virginia, and Maryland, Iowa faced Baylor in the finals of the National Invitational Tournament. However, in a disappointing performance Iowa shot only 26% and was wiped out, 74-54. Iowa becomes the sixth Big Ten school in the last decade to win the NIT (Michigan 2004, Ohio State 2008, Penn State 2009) or make the NIT final (2006 Michigan, 2009 Minnesota), which points to a consistently strong sub-NCAA tier for the conference.
Iowa fans ought to feel better about their team now than when they had been snubbed of an NCAA tournament appearance, but it has to hurt to get so close to a kind of title to have it taken away at the last moment. Still, Iowa finished with its most wins in a season since 1986-1987, and it has a young team, losing only senior Eric May. Even though Iowa keeps getting sued about Kinnick Stadium's pink locker room by someone with a tired agenda, things are looking up for them.
ABRAHAM LINKS-OLN. For WrestleMania 29, enjoy a 1980s wrestling gallery and retrospective on The Rock's career... Randy Edsall may not have been chased from the Glades after all... Rutgers still has to pay Mike Rice $100K... Whereas Dunk City is over but not forgotten... FIU's new basketball court is gnarly, dude... Conference acronym fever... UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero gets an extension, now cue the freakout... Come for the seals, stay for the Backstreet Boys... Getting kidnapped is no fun... Adorable mayo... Beware dihydrogen monoxide... Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? wasn't so tough if you had elite shuttle ability. #HUMBLEBRAG
