Jim Harbaugh says USC's Pete Carroll will be gone after next season. That came across in a conversation with the Stanford coach last week.

"Perhaps the reason it's been up and down here (Stanford) is that no one has stayed here 20 years ..." the Stanford coach said.

"Charlie Weis is going to do that at Notre Dame. Tressel at Ohio State. Pete's doing it. He's only got one more year, though. He'll be there one more year. That's what I've heard. I heard it inside the staff."

• • •

That bolt of lightning must have jolted Steve Alford's brain.

Alford's plane was struck by lightning 20 minutes outside of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, while the coach was on his way to the New Mexico basketball job.

Upon landing in Albuquerque, Alford questioned Iowa's commitment to basketball. Basically he cried about football getting most of the money.

"It's real difficult," he said in an interview, "if they're not in line with one another as far as commitment levels."

Note to Steve: Forget football for a second. Your leaving wouldn't have anything to do with the school about show you the door would it?

The three NCAA berths in eight long years (with one win)?

Kirk Ferentz has won Big Ten titles, revived the program. Most of the money should go to football. Your Iowa teams weren't exactly playing on asphalt anyway. Carver-Hawkeye is one of the better cribs in the country.

And as is the case at most schools, football has to fund everything but men's basketball which, under you, floundered.

Steve, you left the Big Ten for the Mountain West. That's not a step up. It's beating the posse out of town.

• • •

Notre Dame opened spring practice last week with Weis doing his usual dance around the issues.

Who is going to be quarterback?

All Weis would say is that he wants to cut the list from four to two in the spring.

"Tommy Brady was the fourth his rookie year," Weis said.

What about Travis Thomas moving from defense to tailback?

Thomas was at running back last year, so it's no big deal. (However, losing Darius Walker to the draft is a big deal).

With some significant losses are expectations lowered?

"I would hate to think Bill Belichick would be going to the Hall of Fame when he threw in the towel every time he lost somebody to free-agency," Weis said.

The most revealing moment concerned quarterback Jimmy Clausen. Jim Clausen Sr. told the Chicago Sun-Times last week that his son had an undisclosed injury to his throwing arm.

Clausen Sr. said Jimmy played 15 high school games with the problem this past season. The dad added that his son lost velocity at the end of the season.

The Miami Herald reported in February that Clausen had bone spurs in his throwing elbow.

"Just so we can clear that one up," Weis said, "the only one who will answer for the health of our players will be me ... I'll do the answering for the health of our players."

Clausen, Weis said, is "full go" in spring practice.

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Do you want to meet Coach Walsh?

Jim Harbaugh said it and I still can't believe it. During an off day at the West Regional in San Jose this week, I drove up here to check in on Stanford's new coach.

I have no idea how Harbaugh is going to do. "Captain Comeback" with a 15-year NFL career going from a non-scholarship I-AA program at the University of San Diego to Stanford? I do know that after 90 minutes in his office Harbaugh asked if I wanted to walk down the second-floor hall of the Arrillaga Family Sports Center to meet Bill Walsh.

Walsh is many things. Being a real, live human being is not one of them to those of us who would consider an audience with him sitting at the right hand of a god.

"It is, it's exactly what it is," Harbaugh said.

So, yes, I wanted to meet Bill Walsh while he is still a real, live human being. The 75-year-old has leukemia. That hasn't stopped him from working as a special assistant to athletic director, Bob Bowlsby. His influence over the Bay Area, Stanford and football is ongoing. Walsh graduated from San Jose State and coached at both Cal and Stanford.

Oh yeah, and there's that stint with the 49ers.

"He's better," San Jose State coach Dick Tomey said the other day. "He still moves very slowly. He's very hopeful. It's a very difficult diagnosis."

Harbaugh picks his spots with Walsh. He doesn't want to seem cloying. Just the other day, he sat in on interview for 1 ½ hours. ("Can I just sit here and be a fly on the wall?" he said). They've run into each other at the Palo Alto Club -- Harbaugh speaking, Walsh tucked away in corner, listening.

"Every other day, I'll try to go down to his office and talk to him," Harbaugh said. "Sometimes 15 minutes, sometimes two hours. We're going to lunch next Tuesday. I'm just pulling nuggets."

So, like I said, Harbaugh escorted me down the hall. I was about to have my own nugget for the book we're all going to write when we retire.

Suddenly graduating from a world-class journalism school took a back seat. All that stuff about ethics and being a public watchdog was melting under the hot, hot heat of hero worship.

"Is Coach in?" Harbaugh asked an office worker.

"No," she says regretfully. "He's not in yet. Should be in, in about an hour."

My heart hit the carpet. I didn't have an hour. If I waited around that long, it might be considered stalking anyway. Basketball beckoned, damn it.

At least when I get home, the shoes are going in the safety deposit box.

Like my heart, they have touched Bill Walsh's rug.

Anybody get the feeling that UCLA's Ben Howland and Pitt's Jamie Dixon are a bit too close?

Without getting creepy about it, consider these tidbits from a friendship:

• Meredith Howland, 22, babysits for the Dixons in suburban Pittsburgh. Meredith is a nursing student at Pittsburgh.

• When Jamie's sister Maggie died suddenly last year, Howland was a pallbearer.

• As a young coach, Howland spotted Dixon as a player at Sherman Oaks (Calif.) Notre Dame High School.

• Dixon wanted to go to Cal-Santa Barbara, where Howland was coaching, but there weren't enough scholarships. Dixon saved the letter for years.

• The two coached together at Cal-Santa Barbara, Northern Arizona and Pittsburgh.

• When Howland left for UCLA in 2003, Dixon took over for him at Pitt.

• The two have never met on the court in their current jobs. But their playbooks are so similar that the West Regional semifinal might end in the 40s.

"I think it's inevitable, it was going to happen," Dixon said. ...

More notes

• SIU is leaving a ticket at will call Thursday for Jim Belushi. John's brother attended the school.

• For the third year in a row, SIU coach Chris Lowery (34) is the youngest head coach in the tournament.

• How big would SIU getting to the Final Four be? George Mason big (2006). Utah big (1998). Before that you have to go back to Penn and Indiana State in 1979 as far as mid-majors. Utah isn't a mid-major, but it's not a BCS school, either. The other school that falls into the category is Massachusetts, which has a high major program in the A-10 but doesn't play I-A football.

• A bunch of former Bruins, including Bill Walton and Baron Davis, are expected to attend the Pittsburgh game.

Off the court

• LSU is contemplating putting in writing a rule that forbids coaches from sleeping with players. While it is unseemly that has to even be contemplated, bravo for the athletic department in the wake of the Pokey Chatman scandal.

• While doing some research for a story, I was reminded by the National Athletic Trainers Association that the term "trainer" is not acceptable. "That's more like personal trainer," a NATA spokesman said. "The education level is not even comparable." The proper term is "athletic trainer." I will shove that in Debbie Austin's face next time I see her.

My take on the Sweet 16:

• Is anyone else catching on to the incredible irony at UNLV? This is a school that went to the Supreme Court to fight the NCAA during the Tark days. In fact, the NCAA's ability to govern springs from a 5-4 Supreme Court decision in 1988. I was right in the middle of the landmark 1998 decision by the NCAA to settle out of court, paying Tark $2.5 million to end long, bitter lawsuit. This all means something because UNLV is now winning with Lon Kruger's son Kevin. Kevin Kruger took advantage of a short-lived NCAA rule that allowed fifth-year players with degrees to transfer. Kruger graduated last summer at Arizona State, then quickly informed new coach Herb Sendek that he was going to play for his father at UNLV. The rule was rescinded in January after less than a year. It's delicious that the Rebels literally used the NCAA to get to the Sweet 16 after fighting it all these years.

• All-access with Wisconsin? Let's stop with this "all-access" crap. Inside information? I'd rather see someone's stomach turned inside out. If I see another Badger interviewed with a mouthful of scrambled eggs in his mouth, I'm going to scream. It's not an inside info thing. It's a trying-to-sell-the-public-poo-poo thing.

• UCLA will absolutely muck up the West Regional in San Jose, then win it. I've been there. I've seen it. Last year in Oakland the Bruins brought Gonzaga's Adam Morrison to tears (remember that?), then held Memphis to one-of-13 3-point shooting. At the end of the regional, I felt like I needed a shower because the basketball was so bad. It's taken a year, but I appreciate Ben Howland's style, even if James Naismith is turning in his Lawrence, Kan., grave.

• No. 1 Ohio State isn't going to the Final Four. Xavier showed me that by almost pulling the upset on Saturday. Coach Sean Miller had the right idea. He pulled Greg Oden away from the basket with good outside shooting. And the Musketeers actually challenged the massive Oden inside from time to time. That's what it will take for Tennessee in the South Regional semifinal -- or for Texas A&M or Memphis in the final. It will take a team with big guards and an active inside game.

--By the way, judging from the feedback over the weekend, fans didn't have the courtside seat I had at the Ohio State-Xavier. Greg Oden absolutely deserved a flagrant or intentional foul for throwing Xavier's Justin Cage out of bounds beyond the end line. With 9.3 seconds left in the second-round game, Oden was whistled for a foul against Cage first. Then Oden shoved him out of bounds with an official standing right there. Cage missed the second of a one-and-one, allowing Ohio State's Ron Lewis to tie it with two seconds left. If Cage is awarded the shots for an intentional or flagrant foul, the game is likely over. Xavier moves on.

• There are three former NBA coaches left in the Sweet 16. USC's Tim Floyd, Memphis' John Calipari and UNLV's Lon Kruger. Not sure what that means, just pointing it out.

• MVP of the first two rounds? It might be Texas A&M's Acie Law, who has 46 points in two games. The Aggies wouldn't be in their first Sweet 16 in 27 years without him.

• Where are you, ACC and Big Ten? The leagues sent a combined 13 teams to the tournament. One is left from each conference (North Carolina, Ohio State).

• Roy Williams (Kansas) won his last five games against Tim Floyd (Iowa State) when both were in the Big 12. They meet again (North Carolina-USC) in the East Regional semis.

• In the other West Regional game, SIU will hang for a half against Kansas. The Jayhawks, with the best group of athletes remaining in the tournament, will prevail.

• Hey, Jim Boeheim, how's the view?

Instant analysis of Saturday's second-round game in Lexington:

It was hard to believe that Stanford had never seen a press like Louisville's. Not in a "make" situation with UCLA? Not down the stretch as a team fouled to get the ball back? As I wrote, that was another reason it was tragic that Stanford was in the bracket.

Now that Texas A&M has dispensed of Penn, it's time to play basketball again. The couple of Aggies I talked to in the locker room are looking forward to playing straight up again. Penn runs that Princeton offense, gets in your grill on defense and generally slows the game down. Louisville will not do that.

In fact, it will be interesting to see how the Aggies match up against the press. There was only one team that used it like the Cardinals in the Big 12 -- Missouri. The Tigers hung around for a half in College Station before losing by 16 on March 3.

It will also be interesting to see how The Ville intends to attack point guard Acie Law. He was held in control for most of the game by Penn but was great down the stretch. In the final seven minutes, Law scored six points, handed out two assists and drew a foul. Not bad. "Mr. Clutch" is best down the stretch.

• Thought I'd share this with you. It found its way into my e-mail today:

It is with great pleasure that I announce a new group for college basketball enthusiasts: the PKDGPA.

Catchy, yes?

It stands for the Please Kevin Durant Go Pro Association. Our mission statement: We will convince the Texas Longhorn man-child to abandon his adoring Austin campus and jump to the NBA. There he will earn a gajillion dollars in salary and endorsements, and he will no longer be able to terrorize Aggies, Sooners, Red Raiders, Cowboys or Bears with his freakish athletic ability and silky-smooth 3-point shooting.

To complete our goals, we must accomplish the following.

1. Assure Kevin that he'll be the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. We will sabotage all the top players at the draft by slipping them a mickey, once we figure out where one acquires a mickey. And we will convince all NBA teams to look closer at the weathered face of the other freshman phenom, Ohio State center Greg Oden. We are certain that he is 247 years old.

2. Arrange for Kevin's favorite team to have the top pick in the draft. We will abduct commissioner David Stern and train him to perform a masterful sleight-of-hand trick. This will involve the NBA lottery ping-pong balls, chloroform and the ghost of Pete Maravich.

3. Lure him with rock-star status and a nickname. We will tell Durant that Duran Duran wants him to join -- Simon LeBon thinks he's the coolest -- and Kevin will be known as "The Reflex."

4. Reverse psychology. DON'T go pro. You won't even get DRAFTED.

5. Injury scares. We will frighten Kevin with potential career-ending scenarios if he remains in Austin. He could smack his head on the top of the Erwin Center while attempting a windmill dunk and get a vicious concussion. Bevo could trample him. There's also whooping cough. Paper cuts. And shark attacks.

We are confident that these sincere efforts will convince Kevin to leave college ball behind for NBA riches. And that's good news for us all. Except Longhorn fans. And we're not talking to you right now.

Won't you join us? Send in your letters of support, your cash (for organizational purposes only) and your best sources of mickey distributors.

Rob's last group, the PVYDGTTA (the Please Vince Young Don't Go to Texas Association) was poorly received. E-mail him at rtclark@quickdfw.com. ...

• Heading out to watch Ohio State play Central Connecticut State. I will let Greg Oden know about the existence of the PKDGPA.

• By the way, where are all the upsets?

• Want an NFL Draft sleeper? A mole told me to watch Kent State cornerback Usama Young. On his pro day (Friday) he ran 4.38 in the 40, vertical jumped 43 inches and did 15 reps on the bench.

Nineteen teams were there. Three other teams worked him out personally. Started every game in his career. No character issues. Guess we can scratch the Bengals.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- You drop out of the sky here and looks like the old West, only with fences.

This is horse country in case you haven't figured it out. Sheiks have been known to fly in to the modest Lexington airport, plunk down their millions for a new horse, then fly back to wherever.

This week it's basketball in Lexington without Kentucky. As Tubby The Mini-Series swirls in Chicago, where the 'Cats are playing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, there's plenty of story lines here.

Here are some leftovers re: Rick Pitino and Billy Gillispie, from my advance that went up on Wednesday.

Louisville's David Padgett on his team's presumed home-court advantage in Lexington. (Louisville is only an hour or so away):

"There are seven other teams here that are going to have the same amount of fans."

Had to call Padgett on that one. Rupp Arena figures to be a sea of red when the Cardinals play Stanford on Thursday.

"Obviously we're closer than anybody, but this is a huge building," he said.

Oh, OK.

Pitino never fails to entertain. That's because he has something to say. He doesn't speak in cliches like about 80 percent of his colleagues in the profession.

On the NBA's one-and--done rule that forced Greg Oden and Kevin Durant to play in college for a year:

"Greg Oden is probably going straight to the pros as is Kevin Durant. I have guys on my team who can't master college basketball."

On parity:

"I think a 5, 6, 7 seed could win a national championship. A George Mason-type team could win it all. Parity is truly here. There are no dominating teams where you can't beat them, because they're young dominating teams. Young dominating teams can be beaten."

On Kentucky basketball's dominance in the state:

"In the city of Louisville, it used to be 50-50 now it's 52-48 Louisville. I think what's happened there is not because of basketball, I think (Louisville) football is the reason people have joined Planet Red so to speak."

On the embattled Tubby Smith:

"I wish I was an AD, (Tubby would) be the first guy I'd go after. In this game it's all about recruits. In the pros, it's all about ping pong balls (in the draft lottery)." ...

Keep an eye on Keena Young in the BYU-Xavier game here. Young is a Baptist from Beaumont, Texas who somehow made it to a Mormon school in Utah.

Young was part of a package deal out of high school. He and classmate Kendrick Perkins were going to Memphis. Then Perkins declared for the NBA Draft. Suddenly, John Calipari didn't want just Young. He told Young's mother Lavella that her son could be on the team "but that he wouldn't play," according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Young went to South Plains College, near Lubbock, for a year then committed to Texas Tech. Bob Knight then said Young would have to walk on and pay his way for a year.

South Plains coach Steve Green eventually steered Young toward his friend Steve Cleveland at BYU. Cleveland left after Young's first year but the player prospered. Young averaged 17.2 points this season to become the Mountain West player of the year.

It's a wonderful profession, coaching, isn't it? Sounds like Young has been abused every step of the way.

•  One of the biggest debates as we get close to tip-off is whether No. 1 Ohio State can win it all with such a young lineup. Consider that no Buckeye has played more than two NCAA Tournament games.

•  The locals are getting jacked up over a possible Ohio State-Xavier game in the second round. Thad Matta left Xavier for the Buckeyes in 2004.

•  What's Stanford doing in this bracket? With No. 11 seed, the Cardinal were one of the last teams in. Stanford lost six of its last 10, 12 overall and is proud owners of a 16-point loss to Santa Clara? It is 6-9 against teams in the bracket, 12-3 against everyone else.

•  Penn (vs. Texas A&M in the first round) is ninth nationally in field-goal percentage and 254th in free-throw shooting.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- If the rumors are true -- that Bob Knight is retiring after this season -- then The General is going out in a blaze of ... joy?

The 66-year-old Knight was chatty after his team's opening-round win over Colorado Thursday at the Big 12 Tournament. Funny even. The Red Raiders now advance to what might be an elimination game with Kansas State on Friday afternoon.

Enjoy the best of the man who can be the worst ...

After shooting 44 free throws against Colorado:

"I've always wanted us to be a team that can score from the free throw line, that we try to maneuver and get people in position where they have got a half a step or a step and they can go to the bucket.

"We've always been that kind of a team. I remember as a player (at Ohio State), we're playing St. John's in Madison Square Garden in the Holiday Festival. This was a great lesson for me. I had the ball at the foul line and I drove and I scored. I didn't score a hell of a lot of buckets but I scored this one against Tony Jackson who was an All-American at that time.

"And Jackson fouled me, and the bucket didn't count. I went to the free throw line and I made two free throws, and I remember sitting after the game in the locker room. I wanted to tell (John) Havlicek so bad that I scored against Tony Jackson and the referee had screwed me out of that, see.

"But, anyhow, he came over and he thought what I was thinking. He sat down beside me and he said, 'That was a big play when you drove and got to the free throw line and made both free throws.' "You know, that got me thinking. I thought back to that when I started coaching, that one of the things I wanted kids to understand was that two points from the free throw line is, many times, more valuable than two points from the floor. You are not as excited about it. The fans don't see it that way.

"But you get fouled, you make two points ... I really think back to that play that I made or didn't make in that game and that was December of 1960. And that was one of the things that I really thought about when I started coaching, the value of the free throw."

On the significance of playing Kansas State in what is being described as a loser-out game for the NCAA Tournament:

"If a team is in the NCAA Tournament at the end of a season, then the only way a (conference) tournament should matter is that somebody wins a tournament championship that wasn't figured on getting into the NCAA.

"I don't think you can put one game against an entire season or two games against an entire season. Kansas State finishes fourth in this league, a really tough league. I think they should be in it.

"You know, I think we should be in it. Hell, I think Kansas ought to even be in it." On his impressions of Oklahoma:

"My wife is from Oklahoma. My dad was born and grew up in Oklahoma. When I was 12 years old, my mother took me on the train to Pittsburgh to see OU play Pittsburgh. It was a 7-7 tie ... That was even before your time. That's how long I have liked Oklahoma. I want to stop right there. There are some things about Oklahoma that have displeased me from time to time.

"Just remember, if I'm all pissed off tomorrow and don't feel like talking, just remember we had a nice time today."

• Knight wasn't the only one. Colorado's Ricardo Patton coached his final game for the Buffs. This was one of the weirdest stories of the season. Patton resigned at the beginning of the season (effective at the end of the season) after failing to get a contract extension.

Predictably, the Buffs slogged to a last-place finish in the Big 12, 7-20. Patton finished 184-160 in his 11 seasons.

On his future:

"If you go down to Wendy's and you hear a familiar voice saying, 'Can I take your order,' it may just be me."

On having a eight freshmen:

"Tell your wife to try to have eight kids at the same time. See how that works out. Eight of those babies rolling around on the floor. That's a tough job."

OK, I've let myself settle down. I've seen the replay from a million angles. Listened and watched some reasoned discourse.

Deep breath, then, after watching Duke-Carolina on Sunday afternoon.

Gerald Henderson is a punk. At least he was a thug for that millisecond when he went street ball on Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough.

I don't know the kid. I don't know his game. I didn't ask Parrish about him but this is what blogs are for. What the Duke player did to Hansbrough on Sunday would get him run out of every Y in the country.

By "run," I mean kicked out, probably beat up. Maybe someone would call the cops. If it wasn't dressed up with Carolina blue and the classy Coach K legacy, what Henderson did yesterday would have been classified as misdemeanor assault.

I'm still thinking it should have been.

I doesn't matter if Henderson intended to elbow Hansbrough across the nose. (How else could you interpret it, though?) But there are certain things you don't do on a basketball court.

-- Trip a guy.

-- Bump a ref.

-- Undercut a player going to the basket.

-- Clobber an opponent in mid-air who doesn't have the ball on his home floor in front of 20,000 people and millions of viewers across the country.

See, it doesn't matter if Henderson "meant" to hit Hansbrough. He did it. People lose their tempers all the time. Or worse. I watch Court TV. It is filled with monstrous criminals who get up in front of a judge and tell him they didn't mean to burn that orphanage to the ground.

If they had to do it all over again ...

Henderson didn't burn down the orphanage but he ruined his credibility.

"I wasn't trying to hurt the kid or anything," Henderson said.

The slab of raw meat -- formerly known as his nose -- on Hansbrough's face -- says otherwise. The officials, after carefully consulting replays, agreed with the assault charge. Flagrant foul. One-game suspension.

Bang the gavel, Judge Judy. A year's probation is in order too.

I might have swallowed all the denials had not Coach K subtly suggested Carolina shouldn't have had its starters on the floor with 14.5 seconds left. Even when he's dead wrong, Krzyzewski can't help but come off as arrogant.

Mike, your guy just judo-chopped Carolina's big man in garbage time at the Dean Dome. Admit, your team sucked. Your player choked.

If K was dead wrong, Billy Packer's analysis should be six feet under.

With the elbow, the blood and the carnage staring at him through the monitor, CBS' analyst continued to say there was no intent. For a guy who is constantly accused of being an ACC homer, this was the ultimate.

This was his Sophie's Choice. He had to rip somebody, didn't he? Henderson? Coach K? The officials?

Packer picked Hansbrough's nose. Apparently it got in the way of Henderson's elbow.

TULSA, Okla. -- I have bruises.

Todd Graham has been bouncing off the walls of his office for the last 40 minutes and, well, sometimes I got in the way.

"We want to be a team that goes to a BCS bowl and win it," Graham says during a lull in his Ricochet Rabbit routine. "Look at what Boise State did, that's our goal."

Todd Graham coaches at Tulsa. To be precise, Todd Graham has coached at Tulsa for less than two months. Graham bounces around jobs too, which is to say he's not much different than anyone else in his profession.

Except that his battery doesn't run down. Ever. Two years ago he was the defensive coordinator here. After a year spent leading Rice to its first bowl game in 45 years he is back.

Five years ago Graham was the D-coordinator at West Virginia with his good buddy Rich Rodriguez. He has hired Rodriguez' tight ends coach Herb Hand, a tireless recruiter. Offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn is going to run the no-huddle spread -- a two-minute offense for the entire game -- after being run out of Arkansas.

Dust and cranes and the promise of a 42-year-old chatterbox surround all of them.

Did I mention that Todd Graham is also my new favorite coach?

He is because he gets it. Graham gets that he has drawn attention to himself, which draws attention to his program, which is stuck below college football's Mendoza Line in Conference USA.

First, understand there is a feeling throughout college football that any program can now become the next Boise State. Boise has its blue turf and a bowl win for the ages. Tulsa has a new football office and a renovated on the come. Graham understands he has stand out.

Tulsa already is halfway there. The Golden Hurricane won the league in 2005 under Steve Kragthorpe (Graham's old boss, now at Louisville) and has been to bowls three of the last four years.

All of it on an operating budget of $1.5 million.

"You've got to be innovative, do more with less, do more with less money. Get every ounce of potential out of everything we touch," Graham said.

The three smallest schools in terms of enrollment in any given year are Wake Forest, Rice and Tulsa. Graham has coached at two of them.

So why not think big? Bold prediction: Graham is going to be in charge of an SEC program within five years. Hell, Tennessee spends $1.5 million on tape. Think what Graham could do with more budget than hope.

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Graham has never been a head coach unless you count Allen (Texas) High School (1995-2000). But sometimes you just get that vibe and it's my blog. I'll write what I feel.

He's my favorite because Graham is going to beat you with undersized defensive linemen playing the 3-3-5 stack.

"The hardest thing to do in college football is to recruit defensive linemen," he said. "In my system I have to recruit two -- two defensive ends. That's all I have to have."

He's my favorite because there's an outside shot Graham can land Mitch Mustain. The disgruntled former Arkansas quarterback is also considering USC. For Tulsa to even be in the picture on Mustain, is a tribute to Graham and Malzahn.

He's my favorite because the locker room is going to be open to media after the game. This is important because in this age where most coaches cater only to television, Graham is trying to woo the media. There are those of us who don't pay for interviews (aka rights fees). We're just trying to get the story.

Last year, when Rice was settling on a new sports information director, it hired Chuck Pool. Pool, who has a background in the major leagues and the Lombardi Award, had some of us convinced that we picked the wrong Jarrett for All-American.

USC's Dwayne Jarrett everyone knew. Rice's Jarrett Dillard scored 21 touchdowns and became a second-team All-American thanks to enough yakking by Pool and Graham.

"What can we do to make their (media) job easier?" Graham asked Pool. "You ain't going to get a date unless you clean yourself up a little bit."

That will happen in a few months. Once the dust and cranes are moved out, Tulsa's going to look like a mini-Boise. My new favorite coach says so.

"Those kids believed with every ounce of blood in them that they could beat anybody," Graham said of the Broncos. "That's training. That's not luck."

Trouble in Arkansas

After a whirlwind trip through Oklahoma and Arkansas this week (you'll read why later this month), I'm proud to be from Kansas.

OK, cheap shot. The Bentonville-Springdale-Fayetteville, Ark. along I-540 is a nice "town". Tyson, Wal-Mart and the U of A have given the region an identity.

It means a young, educated, white-collar population. From the Northwest Arkansas airport you can get direct flights to either coast, Chicago and Atlanta. Recruits -- both business and athletic -- should want to come here.

That being said, the last six months have been a mess at Arkansas. AD Frank Broyles was forced out. Basketball coach Stan Heath is about to be fired. There are people still trying to get football coach Houston Nutt canned.

Nutt is safe -- for now. He got a one-year extension. Plus, the university probably can't afford to hire a new coach. It will pay Broyles (who steps down in December) $256,000 a year until he is 90. A new basketball coach will have to be hired.

It would be foolish anyway to get rid of Nutt. You don't can a coach after he wins 10 and has the Heisman Trophy favorite (Darren McFadden) returning.

Slap Shot in the Midwest

Usually I never miss a chance to watch a hockey game on the road. I can't believe I missed Tuesday's Tulsa Oilers-Bossier/Shreveport Mudbugs conflict.

Where was the outrage? The teams combined for 296 penalty minutes and 13 players were ejected. The 'Bugs finished with six players.

As you're nodding off, consider this: There seems to be a trend to compare NBA fights to hockey fights; that there is something "racist" about not criticizing hockey brawls and condemning the NBA's thugs.

1. Fighting is not "allowed" in the NHL. It is a penalty. The penalty might be less than the NBA but fighting is still against the rules.

2. Fighting has largely been legislated out of the sport. Players get 10-game suspensions if they leave the bench. The instigator rule penalizes a player who starts a fight. Look at the stats. The number of fights are down in the NHL. It seems like they're up in the NBA.

3. Fans are protected from hockey fights by boards and glass. An NBA fight can spill into the stands at any time.

Apples and oranges, folks. These rules weren't instituted yesterday. The Ottawa Senators were so timid the other night they let their goalie Ray Emery get pummeled by Buffalo left winger Andrew Peters. Goalie-on-goalie action is OK (Emery earlier fought Buffalo goalie Martin Biron), but Peters is a cement head. Had that happened in the old days, Peters would have been carried out on a stretcher. The Senators just watched.

I can't remember a goalie fighting a position player. Ever.

Other ruminations:

•  Stop the talk about who's in and out of the NCAA Tournament. Unless you can tell me exactly how many upsets there are going to be in conference tournaments, then you know nothing. Missouri State? Syracuse? Oklahoma State? Alabama? Give me a break. Those schools aren't necessarily going to be competing against teams from their conferences for tournament spots. They're going to be lined up by the NCAA selection committee and compared to teams across the country. When I did that mock bracket in Indy last month that became apparent. There are going to be 10-15 teams that look exactly like Missouri State, Syracuse, Oklahoma State and Alabama at the end.

•  I'm going to miss the Missouri Valley Tournament for the first time in, oh, a decade. Parrish is going, which he should, being he's the basketball guy. Aside from the ACC, this might be the best postseason tournament going. There is desperation in the air. Now it's big time. CBS started doing the final last year.

•  Syracuse's Jim Boeheim has started his annual national full-court press junket on radio talk shows. His aims are to get Syracuse into the tournament by his sheer will and to push his ridiculous campaign to expand the NCAA Tournament. Boeheim might be a Hall of Famer but he has exactly no juice in swaying the NCAA. There is no movement, nor need to expand the bracket. This isn't the NHL where half the league gets into the postseason. It still should mean something to play well enough to get into the tournament. Don't dilute the pool.

•  I got an e-mail this week from a reader who knew I was going to be in Oklahoma and Arkansas. That's scary because the only people who knew were my wife and the subjects I was interviewing. Maybe I better change the locks on my doors.