The Dakota Wizards obviously wanted attention, so they're going to get some from me -- but only once. Only now. Never again.

The Wizards, a team in the Continental Basketball Association, have hired despicable former Baylor despot Dave Bliss as their new head coach.

By hiring Bliss, the Wizards have made a pathetic grab for attention by urinating on the memory of Patrick Dennehy -- the Baylor player murdered by former teammate Carlton Dotson.

Bliss didn't give Dotson the gun, load it or pull the trigger, but he did try to deflect an NCAA investigation into his dirty program by asking colleagues to paint Dennehy as a drug dealer -- which was a lie. Bliss' attempt to smear the memory of the dead Dennehy was thwarted by an assistant coach who taped Bliss.

Bliss ought to thank that assistant coach, Abar Rouse, for the rest of his life. Without Rouse's tape recorder, Bliss was prepared to lie to the NCAA about the source of Dennehy's funds. Backed into a corner by his lie, Bliss might even have told that same story to police, opening himself up to charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

In sum, Bliss is not only a documented liar and a cheater, but he might have resorted to criminal activity had it not been for Rouse.

This is who you hired, Dakota Wizards. Here's the attention you wanted.

Never again.

You idiots.

If you're tired of blaming Cincinnati president Nancy Zimpher and would like to blame someone else for Bob Huggins' dismissal, blame me.

Blame me and lots of almost-informed sports writers like me, sports writers who knew the basic outline of a handful of facts and used that outline to paint ugly pictures of Huggins and his basketball program at Cincinnati.

For years that was me, back when I was based in Raleigh, N.C., and covering the ACC from 1997-2003 for the Charlotte Observer and then covering national college hoops for CBS SportsLine.com.

From afar, Huggins is easy to despise. He really is. The graduation rates, the police reports, the DUI. It all adds up.

It's only when you get closer and really look -- look past this headline from 1999, or that one from 1996 -- that you realize that, while Huggins' program has been no model of perfection, it hasn't been all that different from others in the Top 25.

In recent days intelligent and talented sports writers have celebrated Cincinnati's toughness while throwing dirt on Huggins, using the same half-truths and easy assumptions I once used from afar. I'm not so much embarrassed for them as I'm embarrassed for me, for contributing to the anti-Huggins mob in recent years.

There are coaches in this business -- big, big, big coaches -- who are easy to like from afar ... but become far less palatable with proximity.

Bob Huggins? He's the opposite. That's his fault, yes, but he's not the only one to blame.

Powerhouse prep coach Chris Chaney is switching schools -- and he's taking his entire team with him.

Chaney, who coached DerMarr Johnson at the Newport (Md.) School and Shawne Williams at Laurinburg (N.C.) Institute, is leaving Laurinburg this month to start a postgraduate basketball program at The Patterson School. The Laurinburg roster is making the three-hour move with him to Patterson, which is in the small, western North Carolina town of Lenoir.

Chaney said he's leaving for two reasons. One, he said, the facilities at Patterson are superior. Two, Chaney worked with the Patterson headmaster when they were both at Newport.

The hardest part, Chaney said, was the time it took communicating with the players -- and their advisers -- about the move from Laurinburg to Patterson.

"It took a lot of time," Chaney said. "You've got to talk to the kids, the college coaches (recruiting them), parents and guardians, their AAU coach -- everybody. People know of Laurinburg and they don't know of Patterson, but it's all worked out. We didn't lose anybody in the transition."

Patterson will play the same national schedule Laurinburg would have played, Chaney said, led by the likes of possible 2006 NBA first-rounder Davon Jefferson and Arizona recruit Jordan Hill.

Our favorite nomad, Justin Holt, is on the move again.

New Mexico announced Thursday that Holt, a 6-foot-7 wing with all-conference potential, would not be with the team this season "due to unrealized academic expectations."

Kudos to UNM coach Ritchie McKay for giving Holt this chance, and kudos again to McKay for kicking him loose after Holt failed to capitalize on that chance.

Holt has now failed to suit up for all four Division I schools that signed him: Oregon State, Iowa State, Virginia Tech and New Mexico. In the cases of OSU and ISU, he left those schools after coaching turnovers (McKay left OSU for New Mexico; Larry Eustachy was booted from Iowa State). Virginia Tech booted Holt shortly after he was arrested for marijuana possession.

Holt also has spent time at two junior colleges, which means he has played at -- or not played at -- six schools since high school.

The thing is, he's a great player. Or he could be, according to those who have scouted him. Maybe we'll see Holt one day in the NBA. Surely there's a better chance of that than seeing him at another college.

Let me get this straight: The NIT sued the NCAA in an effort to fight off the NCAA Tournament's monopoly on postseason college basketball. Midway through the trial, the NIT settled the case and sold its tournament to ... the NCAA?

If the NCAA Tournament wasn't a monopoly before -- and it wasn't -- it is now.

Well done, NIT. Well done, NCAA. Was that $56.5 million well spent? Apparently so. Hush money usually is.

Here's my take on the mascot issue:

Mascots like those at Florida State, Illinois and Utah were created mostly by white people ... and are acted out mostly by painted-up white people ... and are now being defended mostly by white people.

Yet the mascots are not portraying white people. They portray Native Americans. And let's be honest: These mascots were created in a time when white people weren't the most sensitive. Decades ago, for example, white folks thought it was just fine to dance around in blackface and describe certain folks as being "colored."

You follow?

If you're a fan of Illinois or Florida State or any of the schools in the NCAA's crosshairs, this argument isn't about you. It's not attacking you. It's important to you, yes, but you are not the one being called insensitive. Neither is your current school president, football coach or student body.

This is an attack, yes, but it's an attack not on a school or person but on an insensitive era that has lingered too long in collegiate athletics. Nothing more, nothing less.

The mascots in question don't offend all Native Americans, obviously. But they just as obviously do offend a significant portion of the very culture they are meant to portray.

That's enough for me. Is it enough for you?

The United States finished fifth last week at the Under-21 World Championships in Argentina, proving international rules can be as illogical as anything conceived over here.

Not to be too jingoistic -- sue me -- but how can the U.S. team tie gold-medalist Lithuania with the best overall record at 7-1 ... yet finish fifth?

The Americans beat Lithuania by 20, but they beat Lithuania at the wrong time. While the United States was going 5-0 in the preliminary rounds, including a 103-83 pasting of Lithuania, the Americans picked the quarterfinals to lose in overtime to Canada.

How important is timing? This important: Canada went 4-4 ... and won bronze.

After you make sense of that, tackle the NCAA rulebook.

Travis Ford is close -- creepy close -- to turning UMass around. And he hasn't even coached a game yet. Hate to say I told ya so ...

No I don't -- I told you so.

Ford's gonna win at UMass, whether he speaks like a high-falutin' Harvard grad or a grits-eating Southerner (such as myself). It's not the accent, it's the ability. And he's got it.

Ford has UMass on the short list for former Syracuse signee Tiki Mayben, a scoring guard who has disassociated himself from the Orange after falling short of that school's admission standards. It's unclear if Mayben can qualify to play elsewhere this season or must sit out a year and play as a freshman in 2006-07, but whenever he's ready, if he goes to UMass ... wow.

Ford also has West Virginia transfer Luke Bonner, a 7-foot forward, redshirting this season, while reigning national juco scoring leader James Life will be a junior wing this year.

Look out for UMass. Remember where you heard it first, too. A long time ago.

Last I checked, this was my blog. So today I'm writing about me. And you. And us. With a thank you to Brandon Rush, the recruit who started this whole thing by listing Kansas and Illinois as two of his three favorites (along with Southern California).

Yesterday's Ten for Tuesday on Rush, Kansas, Illinois, etc. sparked message-board debates at both schools, with both constituencies coming to the conclusion that (A) I'm a moron and (B) I'm against their team. Whoever they are. And (C) I want Rush to play for the other team. Whoever that is.

A Kansas radio station invited me on for a few minutes Tuesday evening, and fairly soon a link to that interview was posted on message boards at both schools. And dissected. Both constituencies again seem to think I'm trying to direct Rush to the other school. Whoever that is.

Hey, don't forget the dark horse. Maybe I'm just trying to direct Rush to Southern California.

Thump.

Quick -- someone throw water on Tim Floyd. I think he just fainted.

Out there is a sucker -- er, a college basketball coach -- who will sign 6-foot-6 wing Dwight Lewis of Metairie, La.

Lewis, who will be a high school senior this fall, has already backed out of two verbal commitments, both to Kansas. His most recent reneging came this week.

Clearly he's not a player trying to parlay his recruitment into the best possible school, because a recruit can't do any better than Kansas. What Lewis is, however, is confused -- which is starting to bleed into uglier adjectives like erratic and disloyal.

The last time we saw a recruitment with this kind of schizophrenia, twins Lodrick and Rodrick Stewart were committing to 14 different schools before choosing Southern California. They have been trouble ever since, and Rodrick is now at ... Kansas.

Maybe Dwight Lewis wants to go somewhere else, to a place where he can be King Head Case.

After spending 30 years creating one image, Bob Knight is trying to create another. That's what Knight School, a reality show starring Bob Knight -- six consecutive words that should never be written -- is all about.

For 30 years Knight has gone the route of Knight, which has led to three national championships, an excellent graduation rate among his players, zero NCAA violations and -- despite all that -- an ugly international image.

Now Knight will copy bad boys Ozzy Osbourne and Bobby Brown, using reality television to remake his image. The ESPN show will air in February, with Knight using six one-hour episodes to choose one Texas Tech student, out of 16 candidates, for a walk-on spot on the team in 2006-07. Filming begins next month.

This show didn't just fall into Knight's lap. He was shopping another TV idea last fall, a sitcom based on his life and times. Apparently TV execs failed to find the humor in strangling, head-butting, chair-throwing and buckshot-in-the-back.

So we have Knight School. Watch it, and you'll love Knight. He'll be funny, he'll be tough, he'll be intelligent, he'll be human. He'll be all the things he ought to be all the time -- not just when he's trying to remake his image.

We've broken new ground -- which implies, does it not, that we've sunk? -- in recruiting. A high school junior has issued a press release to announce the seven schools he will continue to consider.

That's some impressive hubris by young Thaddeus -- or Thaddeus Young -- of Memphis, who announced to a breathless nation that his seven final schools are Arkansas, Kentucky, Memphis, Tennessee, Dopey, Grumpy and Doc.

Young, a 6-foot-8 small forward who is the next LeBron Jordan, also indicated he will consider other avenues for the 2006-07 season, presumably a prep school, which would allow him to enter the 2007 NBA Draft without ever spending a day at any of those seven colleges.

Not sure which is sadder:

The need for such a press release ... or that I just wrote about it.

Disgraced coaches ... you've got to love 'em. At least, I've got to love 'em. What else would I write about in August if it weren't for Nolan Richardson and Jim Harrick?

One week ago Richardson's attorney announced that the ex-Arkansas coach had been hired as Panama's national coach. That came as news to the Panamanian Basketball Federation, which on Tuesday emailed the Associated Press with a correction: Yes, the two sides are talking. No, Richardson hasn't been hired (yet).

Cue the laugh track. And also the news reports from last summer, when ex-Georgia coach Jim Harrick was linked to the head coaching job of the ABA's Vancouver Dynasty. Actually, Harrick was more than linked to the job. The ABA franchise announced he had been hired, and Harrick was quoted as saying the same.

One day later, Harrick announced a correction: Yes, the two sides were talking. No, Harrick hadn't been hired (yet).

Harrick never did coach Vancouver. Will Richardson ever coach Panama? Lord have mercy, I hope so. What else will I write about in September?

This is why some opposing coaches resent Duke, and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski.

Not saying it's right. Just saying it is.

One of the top juniors in high school basketball, 6-foot-3 Eric Gordon of Indianapolis, has been favoring Illinois for months. Since May, although he hasn't been ready to make a commitment, he has been telling recruiting reporters that Illinois was his top school.

And then Duke decided to get involved. And now Gordon says the Blue Devils -- who weren't even on his radar, or vice versa, as of last month -- are among his top choices.

If you're Duke, and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, more power to you. With all those national championships and Final Four appearances, Coach K has earned the right to recruit a player late and still have a shot at getting him.

But if you're the other coach -- in this instance, Illinois coach Bruce Weber -- it has to burn.

Understand, neither Weber nor any of his staff has talked to me about Eric Gordon. But last month at Nike, a number of college coaches -- big-name college coaches -- were muttering about the unstoppable recruiting machine that Duke has become. Duke winks at Shane Battier of Detroit and gets him. Duke nods at Carlos Boozer of Alaska and gets him.

For Illinois, and for Weber, the Duke machine has become a consistent nemesis. Illinois was the first school to be all over 2004 senior Shaun Livingston, but he committed to late-charging Duke. Illinois devoted itself to 2005 senior Jon Scheyer, but he committed to late-charging Duke.

Now it could be happening again with Eric Gordon. If it does, congratulations to Duke, and to Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.

And condolences to Illinois, whose hard -- harder -- work might again go unrewarded.

We're all about trends here, and we've found one among college coaches: sleep apnea.

Twice in the last week a college coach has revealed a struggle with sleep apnea, a nighttime breathing obstruction that affects roughly one-in-25 U.S. men. Victims of sleep apnea don't get quality rest because of their nighttime breathing difficulties -- struggles that often come as news to the afflicted.

Iowa State coach Wayne Morgan told the Des Moines Register last week that he underwent surgery in May for his sleep apnea, which had caused his wife to sleep in another room to flee his snoring.

Cincinnati assistant Keith LeGree told the Cincinnati Enquirer that he was diagnosed with sleep apnea after being found asleep at the wheel of his SUV in March. LeGree was suspended by UC after being charged with driving under the influence, but he was acquitted last week after less than 10 minutes of jury deliberations. LeGree has since been reinstated.