If you missed Saturday Night Live last night while watching the World Series, the big news was that “Weekend Update” co-host Amy Poehler missed the show to give birth to her son, Archie. Poehler appeared on SNL up to last week, when she did this hilarious hip-hop take off on Sarah Palin. There was no sign of Poehler, Palin or Tina Fey last night, leaving this “Solid as Barack” skit as the highlight of the night.
With Lute Olson having walked off into the sunset of the Arizona desert, speculation is hot about who will replace him in the long term.
Because it sure won’t be interim coach Russ Pennell or assistant Mike Dunlap.
As Greg Hansen of the Arizona Daily Star put it, when your coach of a quarter century was a cross between John Wayne and Cary Grant, his replacement must be someone Large and in Charge.
So who fits that description?
John Calipari? Jamie Dixon? Mark Few? Sean Miller?
PITTSBURGH (AP) — On its second play, Rutgers found the offense that was missing all season. Nationally ranked Pittsburgh? The No. 17 Panthers haven’t played so poorly on defense since the second Johnny Majors era a dozen years ago.
Mike Teel, booed at times by his own fans this season, threw five of his school-record six touchdown passes in the first half and Rutgers came out throwing to confound Pittsburgh’s previously reliable defense during a stunningly easy 54-34 victory Saturday.
Teel, a senior who had only three touchdown passes in seven games, found Kenny Britt on scoring plays of 79, 7 and 26 yards and Tim Brown for 60 and 36 yards, all against what was the Big East’s top-ranked and nation’s 10th-rated pass defense.
NEW YORK (AP) — A suburban police chief likened the conflicting accounts of an accidental overdose at Isiah Thomas‘ home to a “cover-up” and rebuked the former New York Knicks coach Saturday for saying it was his teenage daughter who required treatment.
“It wasn’t his daughter,” Harrison Police Chief David Hall told The Associated Press. “And why they’re throwing her under the bus is beyond my ability to understand.”
Authorities were called early Friday to Thomas’ Westchester County home, where police said a 47-year-old man was taken to the hospital and treated for an overdose of sleeping pills.
CLICK HERE for a video interview with Pirates coach Bobby Gonzalez.
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. — John Garcia is about to enter his fourth season at Seton Hall. Whether it proves to be his last year with the Pirates remains unclear, but Garcia hopes it’s his best.
A 6-foot-9, 265-pound forward/center from Brentwood, N.Y., Garcia says he feels ready to go after undergoing offseason knee surgery.
“I tore my meniscus during the season,” he said during Seton Hall Media Day this past week. “It was a freak thing that happened in the South Florida game and I just played through it the last 12, 13 games. It effected me a little bit. I got it taken care of as soon as the season ended.
Derrick Favors will not visit Memphis this weekend as planned, according to a source close to the Memphis program.
Michael Reddick, Favors’ coach at South Atlanta High, told me yesterday that it was uncertain if the 6-foot-9, 220-pound Favors would make the trip.
“I’m not sure [if Favors will visit Memphis this weekend],” Reddick said Friday morning. “He might not be able to go. I’m not sure yet whether it’s going to be this week or the following or the week after.”
John Riek has received a qualifying ACT score and he could be ready to play at Cincinnati when the Big East campaign begins.
“He did get a qualifying score,” said Riek’s adviser, Fatah Muraisi. “We hope he’ll be there [at Cincinnati] sometime in December.”
Riek may also take the TOEFL — the Test of English as a Foreign Language — because he received his high school degree overseas, but Muraisi said “that has nothing to do with the NCAA.”
The 7-foot-2, 240-pound native of the Sudan committed to Cincinnati in August.
He remains at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., rehabbing the knee he had surgery on in June for an ACL tear.
