the Big Dipper at Kansas...and I love the other team with Jersey's that just say "Frosh"...

Reporting to Coach K: Phoenix Suns coach Mike D'Antoni, Syracuse University's Jim Boeheim and Portland Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan were named Monday as assistants to head coach Mike Krzyzewski for the U.S. basketball team.

Reports already are speculating that Denver's lame-duck Kiki Vandeweghe or former Orlando general manager John Gabriel could replace him Rob Babacock.

Rumors, all denied, also have former Cavs coach Paul Silas replacing Sam Mitchell. .

Quote of the Weekend - "Gasol is a good player but he's not that good. We should have had an answer for him." Mavs forward Dirk Nowitzki, criticizing his team's defense against Grizz forward Pau Gasol (36 points) in a 112-92 loss Saturday.

Pacers rookie Danny Granger was at an Indianapolis-area hospital until 5 a.m. Saturday after passing out in his car at his house following Friday night's game against Atlanta. "(The doctors) didn't know what it was at first," said Granger, who was a passenger in the car. "I had a concussion and I had lost so much blood. It was a combination of the two. They did a scan on my brain. Everything is fine now."Granger left the game twice -- once in each half -- to get stitches. The first time, Hawks rookie Marvin Williams hit him in the mouth, which required four stitches. In the second half, former Pacer Al Harrington hit Granger above his left eye, requiring four more stitches."It's ridiculous," Granger said about the incidents. "They were like 20 minutes apart. What I didn't get was how they called a foul on me when I got hit by Al's elbow."

Funny Q&A in the Miami Herald about Gary Payton selling one of his Bentleys on eBay...turns out he didn;t even know it was for sale... When asked about it, he said, "What did it look like? Was it brown?" Then was he was asked how many Bentleys he owns, GP said, "I've got about four of five of them. I got it in like 2000. It's been sitting there for a long while and I decided I didn't want it anymore," he told the Herald. "I put a lot of stuff into it, a lot of music, a lot of rims, I changed the color of it and everything. It's one of the cars you build up, and all of a sudden it gets old for you." ...

Weird…The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico filed a grievance against NMSU coach Hal Mumme last month, claiming he discriminated against a Muslim player by repeatedly questioning him about al-Qaida. The grievance, which was filed on behalf of former Aggies running back Muammar Ali, also said the football staff required the team to recite the Lord's Prayer at the end of practices. Similar allegations were made regarding the release of Muslim twins Anthony and Vincent Thompson. The investigation by Albuquerque law firm Miller Stratvery found that the players were released from the team based on their performance and attitudes, not because of religion. The investigation included interviews with the football coaching staff, athletics department personnel and student-athletes. Peter Simonson, executive director of the ACLU New Mexico, said the findings were disappointing and questioned the impartiality of the probe. "I think it's very troubling that the university could not find any basis for these allegations whatsoever when three very sincere individuals came forward with such serious allegations," he said. "It really raises questions in my mind about the university's commitment to diversity and racial equality and issues of equality." The ACLU, which said Ali does not want to return to the Aggies to play for Mumme, was seeking a public apology from Mumme and disciplinary action against him. It also asked that the school provide diversity training to all students and employees.

Also weird…The Dutch animal protection agency says it is investigating the shooting death of a sparrow that knocked down 23,000 dominoes during an attempt to set a Guinness World Record. The bird flew into an exposition center before being chased into a corner and shot with an air rifle. A spokesman for Endemol, the company which organized the event, said organizers made a "split-second" decision to shoot down the bird. The bird was a common house sparrow, a species placed on the national endangered list last year. "Under Dutch law, you need a permit to kill this kind of bird, and a permit can only be granted when there's a danger to public health or a crop," agency spokesman Niels Dorland told The

Sometimes you just have a really bad day…Reuters news agency is reporting that a German man drank too much, wet his bed and set fire to his apartment while trying to dry his bedding, police in the western town of Muelheim said Monday. "He was too drunk to go to the toilet," said a police spokesman. "The next morning he put a switched-on hairdryer on the bed to dry it and left the apartment." When the 60-year-old returned, his home and belongings were in flames. Firemen eventually put out the blaze.

1) Marty Burns of Si.com reports on the big games upcoming:

Bad blood rising - Grudge matches fill post Thanksgiving NBA calendar

The Thanksgiving holiday is over. The turkey and mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce have been eaten. Christmas is still a month away. In other words, it's a perfect time for a little bit of nastiness in between the holiday seasons. That's right, it's Grudge Match week in the NBA.
Take your pick. There's Baron Davis playing host to his former Hornets team. There's Mo Cheeks welcoming his former Blazers group to Philadelphia. How about Eddy Curry getting his first crack at the Bulls? If it's crowd reaction you seek, check out Larry Brown's return to Motown. Joe Johnson also could hear some boos when he returns to Phoenix for the first time since forcing his way out in a sign-and-trade last summer. Thanks to a fluke of schedule (or a sense of humor in the league office), these spicy matchups are all on the docket this week. It won't get David Stern's official imprimatur -- like Premiere Week or Rivalry Week -- but NBA fans should find Grudge Match Week fun nonetheless. Maybe even more fun than those family feuds around the Thanksgiving table. Here's a quick breakdown of the week's action:

Monday, Nov. 28: New Orleans at Golden State - Davis gets his first chance to play against the Hornets since forcing his way out in a trade last February. Davis and coach Byron Scott traded jabs in the media shortly after the deal, with Scott accusing his former star of milking an injury and Davis saying Scott was two-faced. Davis also clashed with the Hornets over his desire to use a personal trainer instead of one supplied by the team. Once, when the Hornets refused to let the trainer in the practice facility, Davis stretched outside the building with his personal trainer's assistance while photographers snapped pictures. Last month Hornets owner George Shinn referred to Davis as a "poison" in the locker room.

Tuesday, Nov. 29: Portland at Philadelphia - Cheeks was fired last year midway through his fourth season in Portland after compiling a 162-139 record. His tenure was marked by several instances of player insubordination, including a well-publicized incident in which Darius Miles cursed him out during a team film session. Miles and Cheeks have since cleared the air. Miles, in fact, recently said that he and Cheeks get along great and that they never really had any problems. Maybe so. But Cheeks no doubt wants to show his former employers that they made a mistake to blame him for the team's dismal slide last season.

Wednesday, Nov. 30: Chicago at New York - Eddy Curry figures to have something special for the Bulls, who traded him to New York before the season amid concerns over his heart condition. Curry refused Chicago's request to submit to a DNA test, and he later wondered publicly if the team had used his heart issues to depress his value on the free agent market. Bulls GM John Paxson has angrily denied any such suggestion, arguing that the team merely wanted to make sure the 23-year-old was healthy before letting him take the court. Curry has been out recently with a strained left calf, but is expected to be back for the game.

Friday, Dec. 2: New York at Detroit (8 p.m. EST/ESPN) - Larry Brown makes his long-awaited return to Detroit, the city in which he brought an NBA title two years ago and a second straight trip to the Finals a year ago. While most fans surely will remember those great times, they also might recall Brown's reported dalliances with the Knicks and Cavs last season, and how the resulting controversies marred the season. It will be interesting to see how Motown fans respond to the Hall of Fame coach. In addition, the Pistons players no doubt will be motivated to put on a good show for their former coach and show that their past success wasn't just a product of Brown's Xs and Os.

Sunday, Dec. 4: Atlanta at Phoenix - Speaking of fan reaction, Johnson will hope for an understanding reception from Phoenix fans in his first visit to the desert since forcing a sign-and-trade to the Hawks. Johnson, one of the main stars in the Suns' amazing turnaround season a year ago, criticized the team's management after the season for not making more of an effort to re-sign him as a free agent. He said he felt disrespected in Phoenix, and that it was a big reason why he wanted to leave for Atlanta. Many Suns fans, meanwhile, counter that Johnson simply chose a few more dollars over the chance to be on the receiving end of Steve Nash's passes and play for a winning team.

Who's up - Allen Iverson, Sixers, His team might be up and down, but it's hard to find fault with his performance. Three days after tallying 45 points in a loss at Milwaukee, the 6-foot-0 dynamo had 40 points and 10 assists in Saturday's loss at New York. Iverson not only leads the NBA in scoring (33.1), but he's also second in assists (8.2) and fourth in steals (2.14). He's shooting 44.4 percent from the floor, which would be the second-best mark in his career and the best since 1997-98 (46.1 percent).

Who's down - Jalen Rose, Raptors, It's been a mostly dismal season so far for the former Fab Fiver, mired in the worst shooting slump of his career. Rose is averaging 11.9 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists while shooting just 34 percent. He has scored 5, 11 and 6 points, respectively, over his last three games while making 6-of-28 shots (21.4 percent). Two weeks ago he went scoreless for the first time in 551 games when he got in foul trouble and played just seven minutes in a loss to the Sixers.

Rumor mill - Ruben Patterson to the Nuggets? It's no secret the Blazers are looking to deal the 6-5 veteran swingman after his tirade against coach Nate McMillan last week. A Denver newspaper reported the Nuggets might be interested, with reserve forward Eduardo Najera as the bait. While Denver coach George Karl admits he loves Patterson's Velcro defense and take-it-to-the-basket mentality, he says the team needs inside help more and that a trade at this point is unlikely. The Knicks and Rockets are two other teams that might take a chance on the mercurial Patterson, but it is doubtful either team has the right assets to make a deal work with Portland. If the Trail Blazers can't trade him, there is talk they might buy out his contract. Patterson is making $6.4 million this season and $6.8 million next season in the final year of a six-year, $34 million deal

Quote of the week - "Oh definitely, total agreement. Total agreement. Totally. Totally." --Suns forward Kurt Thomas, when told that former Knick Tim Thomas recently had said how excited he was to be playing in Chicago with point guards who pass. Though neither Thomas mentioned Stephon Marbury by name, the two former Knicks clearly were referring to their former New York teammate.

Three seconds - It's still early, but Bob Weiss could soon start feeling some heat in Seattle. It's one thing to get off to a slow start. It's another to lose at home to the Jazz and Hornets. Sonics management will give the veteran coach some time to get it straightened out, but a midseason change isn't out of the question. The Heat are shaping up to be classic victims of complacency. They have the look of a team that just wants to get the regular season over with so it can get on to the playoffs. It's understandable for a squad with so many proven veterans, but it could come back to haunt them. Nuggets coach George Karl would be wise to limit Marcus Camby's minutes early in the season. The oft-injured center has been playing like an All-Star, but he was also averaging a career-high 34.7 minutes before going down recently with a right tibia contusion. Denver is going to need Camby to be at his best down the stretch.

Around the rim - The debate of whether to foul intentionally or risk a potential game-tying 3-pointer rages on. In Sunday night's OT victory at L.A., New Jersey opted to foul Kobe Bryant (who had just hit back-to-back 3-pointers) up three with 12 seconds left. Kobe made both free throws to cut it to one. The Lakers were then able to foul Jason Kidd immediately, and he proceeded to miss one of two foul shots at the other end. It opened the door for Brian Cook's rebound shot at the final horn that tied the game and sent it into OT. ... SBC's decision to change its name to AT&T Inc. means the Spurs' SBC Center will soon get a name change too. The AT&T Center and AT&T Arena are said to be among the possibilities. ... According to longtime Kings executive Jerry Reynolds, the club didn't have a lot of offers for Chris Webber last year before pulling the trigger with the Sixers on the deal for Brian Skinner, Kenny Thomas and Corliss Williamson. "Quite honestly there weren't many potential trades out there for a guy with bad wheels and a huge contract," Reynolds writes in his new book, Reynolds Remembers: 20 years with the Sacramento Kings. ... Tim Thomas, by the way, is stuck on the bench in Chicago. The Bulls would love to trade him but he is in the last year of his deal ($14 million) and they don't want to give up the cap space this summer.

2) Royce Webb of ESPN.com with a gift for overstatement:

A night of playing homage

It was Reincarnation Night in L.A. on Sunday. Michael Jordan ... Magic Johnson ... back in business for one night. Or for one scintillating half, plus an overtime, at least. The New Jersey Nets pulled out a tough 102-96 win over the Los Angeles Lakers, but the result was almost academic compared to the spectacle put on by Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd. It's nothing new to note that Bryant is the closest thing we have to Jordan. And in case we had somehow missed the comparison, or doubted it, Nets color man Mark Jackson brought it home late in the fourth quarter, when Bryant hit yet another tough 3 to close what had been an 18-point deficit to one point. Jackson said former Chicago Bulls guard Craig Hodges, now a Lakers coach, had called Bryant "Michael Jordan reincarnated." As Jackson noted, Bryant had somehow learned to imitate Jordan, right down to "the facial expressions, the game, the bounce, the swagger and the results." Don't buy it? Well, it sure rang true Sunday night, as the Lakers followed the formula that has given them several of their five wins this season -- futz around for the first half, then give the ball to Kobe and let him start firing away. The result of all that gunning was stunning, as Bryant, against a Nets team that knew exactly what was coming, scored 38 points in the second half (then only one point in overtime, as he seemed to tire) -- though just as stunning was the fact that Bryant trusted a teammate enough to dish the ball for the final shot, only to have Lamar Odom miss a game-winning 3 badly enough that the ball caromed to Brian Cook, whose soft touch on a 10-foot putback at the buzzer sent the game into an unlikely OT. There is one reason Bryant's 46 points (best in the NBA this season) didn't produce a W -- Jason Kidd reminded us who the best point guard in basketball was before his former understudy, Steve Nash, borrowed the honor last season. But he didn't remind us of only his own heyday. He also brought Showtime back to the Lakers floor, bringing Mark Jackson practically out of his sideline seat with a series of dishes that echoed the artistry of the original M.J., Magic Johnson. In fact, Jackson described Kidd's most subtle pass, a lefty no-looker to Jeff McInnis on a fast break, as "Magic Johnson reincarnated ... absolutely phenomenal ... mind-boggling." (Jackson, remember, knows a thing or two about passing fancy. Not only did this M.J. likewise specialize in the look-away pass, but he is second all time in assists -- just ahead of the Magic man.) Kidd's jersey number is 5, in tribute to Magic's 32. Yes, for this Cal Kidd, 3 + 2 = 5. And his final numbers were just as magical: 35 points on just 21 field goal attempts, with 12 assists and eight boards. Plus one win, which is usually what Magic had when the curtain closed on Showtime for the evening.

3) Ian O'Connor of FOXSports.com wants to put the Shark in the Hall:

Tark deserves a spot in Hall of Fame

They named a floor after Jerry Tarkanian Saturday in Vegas. Yeah, a floor. Not an arena. Not a major highway. Certainly not a wing of anyone's library. A cold, hard floor inside the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of UNLV. That will be as good as it's going to get for Tarkanian, one of the most successful college coaches of all-time and yet a man who will never be allowed inside the doors of the Basketball Hall of Fame unless he's buying a senior citizen's ticket. Lawrence Taylor can remain in the Pro Football Hall of Fame despite his public acknowledgment that he was either buzzed or hungover every other time he stepped into a huddle. All sorts of racists and boors from baseball's Jurassic Age are allowed to keep their bronzed monuments in Cooperstown. Tarkanian? He's the Pete Rose of college basketball. Tark isn't on any official ineligible list, but it's right there in black and white. Do a quick survey of the records. Tarkanian won 778 games as a Division I coach. That would be 544 more than Pete Newell, 253 more than Pete Carril, 252 more than Lou Carnesecca and 182 more than John Thompson, just to name a random Final Four. Three guesses as to what Newell, Carril, Carnesecca and Thompson have in common. Hint: It's not where they stand on the issue of boxers versus briefs. Of course they've been inducted in Springfield, Mass., right along with a dozen or so other coaches who couldn't carry Tarkanian's towel. But then again, none of the above waged a holy war with the NCAA that reached the hallowed chambers of the Supreme Court. Then again, none of the above collected a $2.5 million payout from the NCAA after the governing body was found to have violated his Constitutional rights. Then again, none of the above had the nerve to decree that John Wooden's UCLA powerhouse was "the worst program in college sports."
Tarkanian made that claim in his wildly entertaining new book, Runnin' Rebel: Shark Tales of Extra Benefits, Frank Sinatra and Winning It All," written with Dan Wetzel. A chapter in the book is titled "Moneyball at UCLA." Tarkanian says notorious booster Sam Gilbert was "the biggest cheater out there" and a campus sugar daddy "who had them so far over the salary cap it was ridiculous." On the phone the other day, Tarkanian said, "Ask any other coach in the business. Ask Bobby Knight and Digger Phelps. Gilbert was unreal. He bragged about what he was giving those kids. What bothered me was that he never kept it a secret, and yet the NCAA left UCLA alone and came after me instead." Yes, Tarkanian goes to great lengths to praise Wooden's genius as a coach and decency as a man. But still, his depiction of the UCLA dynasty as a fraud will do him no favors in future Hall balloting. And neither will his claim — however accurate — that "nine out of 10 teams break the rules" in Division I. “I don't even know how the Hall of Fame works," Tarkanian said, "but I'm sure the NCAA will do everything they can to keep me out of there."

Keeping Tark out of Springfield makes less sense than keeping Rose out of Cooperstown. Tarkanian finished his Long Beach-Vegas-Fresno State career as one of the five winningest coaches in the history of major college ball. He ended up at 778-202, a .794 winning percentage, and had 29 years of at least 20 victories in a 31-year Division I career. In his junior college days, Tarkanian went 212-26, an .891 winning percentage. He made it to four Final Fours at UNLV, won the national title in '90, guided an undefeated regular season team the following year, and had a zillion coaches attempt to steal his defensive schemes. But the endless procession of NCAA investigations and resulting penalties scarred Tark beyond recognition. For all the winning seasons and tournament runs, Tarkanian might be best recalled for the crack house bust of Lloyd Daniels and the infamous photo of several of his Rebel players in a hot tub with Richie "The Fixer" Perry. "I broke some rules," Tarkanian said on the phone, "but never any major ones. The NCAA investigated me like they've never investigated anyone, and they never came up with a major violation. No program could've stood up to the scrutiny I was under. Pete Newell once said that you could tell I never bought any players just by watching my practices. Pete said, 'No kids play or practice that hard if they've been bought.'" This would be the same Pete Newell enshrined in the Hall as a contributor with a 234-123 college record. "My greatest contribution to the game," Tarkanian said, "might be the way I battled the NCAA." That's a contribution that will never earn one of college basketball's greatest winners a free ride to Springfield.

4) Nick Goldinger of the New York Daily News on the little Knick that could:

Knick measures up - Diminutive rookie guard becomes a giant on court

Nate Robinson has been the shortest player on just about every basketball team he's ever been part of - and the best, too. The electrifying Knicks rookie stands just 5-foot-9 (in thick-soled sneakers) but has a 43-1/2-inch vertical leap and regularly dunks over 7-footers."They always say it's not how big you are, but how big you play," Robinson, 21, said yesterday. "Everybody makes a big deal about the height," New York's newest hoops star said. "But as long as I go out there and play like a giant, I'll be all right." Robinson held his coming-out party at Madison Square Garden this weekend when he won a game over the 76ers with a last-second rainbow three-pointer. The human pinball also brought Knicks fans to their feet with a rim-rattling slam dunk and held his own against the league's top scorer, Allen Iverson. "He can do some amazing things," Knicks general manager Isiah Thomas said. "The freakiest thing is watching him dunk the ball so easily." "He's different," says assistant coach Herb Williams. It hasn't all been smooth for Robinson in his first month as a pro. But his big smile and fearless style of play already have plenty of fans believing he could be one of the best little men ever to play a game meant for titans. Robinson has had more than a decade to perfect his improbable skywalking antics. Growing up in Seattle, he first grabbed the net at age 11. He nailed the backboard a year later and touched the rim when he was 13. A few taller kids at McClure Middle School pressured him to go all the way - and he finally amazed them by dunking a volleyball. Robinson is from an athletic family: His father, Jacque, was a star college football player who briefly played in the National Football League. Robinson's first sport also was football, and he won scholarship offers to both the University of Washington and the University of Southern California. The muscular kid chose to stay close to home, partly because of inspiration coming from his dad and his mother, Renee, who started her own beauty salon by working nights at a drugstore. After a couple of football seasons, he switched to the basketball court - but he never stopped thinking like a hard-hitting defensive back. "You better learn how to be tough," he said. "Plus, I also had cousins who were always trying to beat me up."

5) Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports that all is not well in the world of Yao:

Yao target of fans' unrest - But Rockets center is a victim of rules changes

Yao Ming said nothing, but his expression screamed. Yao demanded the ball. With Derek Anderson on the perimeter, Yao pointed toward David Wesley, ordering that the pass go to Wesley and then in to him. After his sharp move to the basket and his strong finish through a foul, Yao pumped his fists more with determination than anger. An hour later, his emotions were as open, the desire he had demonstrated on the court perhaps making the disappointment greater when they were unfulfilled. He sat in front of his locker, with his sore left ankle packed in ice that could numb that pain, but not his growing frustration. Yao had said often that with Tracy McGrady out he has felt the pressure to carry the Rockets through their troubles. For all the pressure that follows him as the focus of a nation's sports interests, for all the expectations that his combination of size and skills inspire, this was a challenge he had not experienced in the NBA, to carry his team past its failings. But when Yao's 30 points Saturday were not enough to overcome the usual late defensive breakdowns and the crippled offense through much of the game, the Rockets fell to a seventh consecutive defeat. And for all the Rockets' obvious problems, the examinations of Yao have become as much of a preoccupation as stopping him has been for opponents that don't have to concern themselves with McGrady. "I know right now, everybody's hopping off the Yao bandwagon," Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "That happens. People are fickle. When a guy doesn't make (shots) it's condemn Yao. It's either Yao is right behind Shaq (O'Neal) or Yao is right below the worst center in the league. With Yao, the only thing I feel badly about is people try to raise expectations up so high, they're actually satisfied with nothing that he does. I feel badly for him in that way. "I'm not going to jump off because everyone else has." Yao has averaged 18.9 points per game so far this season, after averaging 18.3 last season. He has not shot as well, but that is not necessarily the source of the rising dissatisfaction. More than anything, it is that the Rockets are 3-11 and no one makes a more obvious target for frustration than the player viewed as being at a level that would prevent such a slide. There have been players so dominant they turned around previously horrible teams. But since rule changes that began with the 2003-2004 season, Kevin Garnett could not prevent a Minnesota slide to the lottery, Kobe Bryant could not keep the Lakers out of the lottery, and McGrady could not stop the Magic's fall to 21-61. For McGrady, the frustration was so great that he said he was contemplating retirement. He laughed Saturday that anyone took that threat seriously, describing it as intentional hyperbole about the then-new rule changes. But as maddening as facing defenses twisted to stop him while Grant Hill was out, McGrady said it has been much tougher for Yao. "It wasn't as tough for me as Yao, because I had the ball 90 percent of the time," McGrady said. "It's different for a guy like Yao because we have to get him the ball. I already had the ball. I can create my own shot and create shots for other guys. That's why it's on us to get him the ball." When Yao had 18 points in the first half in San Antonio, the Spurs adjusted their defense to keep him surrounded. He took one shot in the second half, scoring one point. He had 15 in the first half against Dallas before the Mavericks adjusted and Yao had just five in the second half. A night later, the Suns did not wait, stationing a player in front and another behind Yao. He had a season-low eight points. "With the rule changes and the ability to completely take a guy out of the game like they've been doing, it's simple," McGrady said. "I was trying to tell the guys, it's on us. It's on the guys handling the ball to get him the ball. It's going to be hard to get him post-ups. It's going to be hard to throw him the ball on the post with a guy playing in front of him and a guy playing behind him. With me out, all the attention is focused on Yao." Against the Bulls, the Rockets effectively rolled Yao into the low-post position. They always use Yao screens to get big men off his body, allowing him to move to a position more easily. When the Bulls' big men got in foul trouble, Yao got low-post position and had his highest scoring game since February. "He had a bad stretch. We had a bad stretch," Van Gundy said. "A post player is much more dependent on who he plays with than a perimeter player. Our strength as a team is not entering the ball to the post. We're getting better. "Certainly the game has been made harder on the post player, and it's a perimeter game. The foul calls the perimeter players get can be a little softer than inside. The touch fouls on the perimeter and the mayhem inside can be ... for any big guy, a little bit difficult to figure out. But that's how the league is." That won't change, but McGrady will come back, possibly even on Tuesday against the Hawks. Without him, the Rockets haven't had a perimeter player to penetrate consistently and have not shot well enough to change defenses determined to keep Yao surrounded. McGrady's return might change defenses. More remarkable, though less important, it might even change opinions.