Today's blog goodness

1. What are the top conferences in college football this year?
2. Predicting the 2012 Team USA Basketball squad.
3. Jay Mariotti moves on. Chicago rejoices.
4. The Mets are starting to collapse again. Right on schedule.
5. Kobe Bryant rules China.

Today's other FanIQ site goodness

1. Better get your college football picks in for Week 1 of the Plasma Screen TV Contest.
2. Since the SEC is supposedly the best conference in America, might as well make some predictions on it.
3. Usain Bolt is a dance machine.

Tonight's TV goodness

We have some early round U.S. Open action and a chance to see how A-Rod follows up his astounding awful 0-5 with two double plays game from last night. My guess is he goes 0-11 with eleventy hundred strikeouts.

Major League Baseball: Boston at New York Yankees (ESPN, 7 p.m.)
Tennis: U.S. Open, men's first round and women's second round, at New York (USA, 7 p.m.)

In my Greatest College Football Quotes post earlier this week, included was this classic from Knute Rockne:


Florida Gators running back Chris Rainey qualifies. Rainey may be a lot of things, namely ridiculously fast, but he's not smart.

Rainey is a redshirt freshman, who has yet to see the field, but when it comes to quotes, he's a bloggers dream. Let's see, he's already been accused of accepting illegal gifts in high school, refers to himself in the third person and most notably, made is public that he prefers white girls.

Via The Sporting Blog, the All-American career in quotes continues. You see, Rainey signed up for a sex class, but it's not exactly what he had in mind.

Rainey: I'm taking sex classes.

Reporter: Six classes?

Rainey: Sex classes.

Laughter erupted from the twenty-some reporters crowding around him.

He's not the only one who enjoys taking the sex class at UF.

"It's a lot of people," Rainey said. "It was all the way to the door when I got in. My back was touching the door."

And even with all those students in the room, the subject matter was not at all to Rainey's liking.

"It's boring," Rainey said. "I thought it would be fun, like you see on TV. But it ain't like that."

We eagerly await the debut of Chris Rainey on the field Saturday, we doubt any Hawaii Warriors will catch him, but we can't wait for the first reporter to catch him after the game. Whenever he speaks, I shall listen... dumbfounded.
 

Florida's Chris Rainey Was Under the Assumption That This Was a Film Class [The Sporting Blog]

Ken "Tomato Can" Shamrock might not pass his physical before his scheduled fight with Kimbo. Five straight knockouts will do that to you. [Fanhouse]

NBA sideline reporter gives us one of the weirdest and most hilarious stories you'll hear in a long time. [Mouthpiece Sports]

Just in case you were counting, Chris Mortensen has gotten an astounding EIGHT breaking news stories wrong in two years. Good lord, that's a lot. [Awful Announcing]

How come Cliff Lee is never mentioned among elite pitchers in baseball? Guy's been great for 5 years now. [The Angry T]

Is Albert Pujols now one of the best hitters to ever play the game? [I'm Writing Sports]

Soccer club Chelsea looks at the Yankees penchant for spending money on over the hill star players and instantly raises them $200 million. [Deadspin]

Donovan McNabb's mom is now unemployed. [You Been Blinded]

Seems Aaron Rodgers is now wearing Brett Favre's number. That should go over well in Green Bay. [Stock Lemon]

Ok, we lied. One more Olympic basketball post.

This year's Redeem Team had an interesting dynamic to it, in that the head coach of the team, Mike Krzyzewski, had never been a pro basketball coach on any level, which was admittedly somewhat odd. Even though Krzyzewski is an incredibly respected college coach, I had my doubts about whether he'd be able to pull all those overinflated egos together to get the job done.

After all, a number of college coaches have made the jump to coaching pros and failed miserably. And Krzyzewski was leaving himself open for even more scorn by leading a team that was told to win gold in Beijing or else.

But he did it. He got everyone to buy into his system.

Well, almost.

In this rather hilarious picture taken shortly after the medal ceremony, you'll notice that every player has given Coach K his medal...except for Tayshaun Prince, who of course went to Kentucky. It should also be noted that Tayshaun is the player furthest away from Coach K and I assume he was shouting "Duke sucks!" as the picture was being taken.

That Kentucky/Duke rivalry runs deep, my friends. Nice work, Tayshaun.

Tayshaun went to Kentucky [Kentucky Sports Radio]

One final Olympic basketball thought before I put basketball on the back shelf for a few minutes and jump in headfirst to a big pool of football goodness.

Yes, I'm already thinking about 2012 and who will represent the United States basketball team in London. The Repeat Team? OK, that's weak, but the lineup should be just as strong.

The Superstars

I think we can assume Kobe Bryant won't be back. Three more summers of commitment is a lot to ask. I'm thrilled he delivered on his goal to help Team USA win gold and will forever respect him for that. The tougher question is whether Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade will return? I say no on the latter two, but I think Lebron genuinely enjoys representing his country and as an added bonus, can't pass on the international marketing that's generated by such an event. For the sake of this task, we'll keep him on the team.

Next Gen Stars

Deron Williams, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard will all be back. At least, I sure hope so. Chris Bosh would be welcome back, but I think there's a chance that a few young guys could steal his spot.

The Rest

Jason Kidd? Absolutely not. Michael Redd? They'll find a new token shooter. Tayshaun Prince? Always welcome on my team, but I doubt he returns.  Carlos Boozer? Doubtful.

Lets go with the assumption then that James, Paul, Williams, Bosh and Howard are the holdovers from the Redeem Team.

New Additions

Kevin Durant and Greg Oden are likely choices, and good ones at that. By 2012, you'd like to think both will have been multiple All-Stars and faces of the NBA.

Andre Igoudala is not exactly Kobe Bryant or Dwyane Wade, but I expect him to be borderline superstar status in the next few years and would surely like to join this elite group .

Brandon Roy can provide some added leadership and play the two-guard, not to mention add to Lebron's defensive intensity.

With Williams and Paul, only one more point guard is needed. Do you go with a Derrick Rose if he fulfills expectations or a guy I firmly believe will be a star by 2012, Rodney Stuckey? Stuckey's my guy.

Michael Redd was called on to be the designated outside shooter, and while he's clearly a good man for the task, his performance was just average and they should go with a new trigger in London. Adam Morrison. Just kidding. I'd add a guy like Steve Novak or Daniel Gibson. Not exactly the star power, so you'll see a Rudy Gay instead.

One more spot, we'll call it the Carlos Boozer role. Al Horford is a carbon copy, but I'll root for Kevin Love. Either one would be make a great power forward to cheer on the bench.

What's your 2012 roster?