Monday Afternoon Quickie

Sunday night was a rough one for the staff at B.I.A.H so we didn't get a chance to highlight all the tremendous articles and posts we wanted to in the Morning Dump. Therefore you are being rewarded with an afternoon quickie.

- Rick Pitino officials accept the invitation to coach the Puerto Rican national basketball team

- The nominees for the Bob Cousey Award were revealed yesterday, and there are 66 of them. Mike DeCourcy responds

- Coach K could tie Dean Smith's career wins mark of 879 wins with a victory over Elon tonight.

- Jeff Goodman recaps the action that took place in Dallas on Saturday at "The Showcase". Goodman also details the debuts of 10 late-starters

- Gary Parrish takes a look back at the craziest week in college basketball thus far

- Illinois lost to Illinois-Chicago over the weekend in a game that they did not need to lose. The word on the street is that the team lacked focus in practice and was too complacent. Anybody who ever wants to succeed in sports at any level needs to understand that complacency is dangerous. "Going through the motions" is one of the worst things you can do as an athlete, on any level.

- Andy Katz provides his observations from the weekend in college hoops

- Tennessee has lost two in a row after a sizzling-hot start. Now they have to play tough, scrappy USC team that nearly beat Kansas. This is not a good thing for the Volunteers

- Memphis fans are growing restless with the lack of success. Chill out guys, your team is 8-1 and you have a talents, young head coach who is tearing it up on the recruiting trail.

- Joe Lunardi does something that I have been wanting to do for ages: attempt to align conferences into three categories based on level of majority

- Eamonn Brennan offers his poll thoughts: Where the hell is UCF?

- Donna DiTota of the Syracuse Post-Standard wrote a great article on the evolution and education of Chris Joseph ( Yeah, I pretty much stole her headline, but, well, there's just no other way to put it. Just click on the link)

- An interesting piece also courtesy of the Syracuse Post-Standard. This one questions why we add unnecessary labels to positions like "small" forward or "point" guard

- Despite some early season struggles (like losses to Fordham and St. Bonaventure's) Steve Lavin and the Red Storm continue to grow

- Louisville's Peyton Siva and Arizona's Derrick Williams threw down some impressive 360 dunks this weekend

- The Fayetteville Observer is doing a great series of articles on Coach K. This is must read stuff.

- Baylor recruit Quincy Miller tore his ACL in his high school basketball game over the weekend and will have surgery to repair it on Tuesday. Rehab for this type of injury usually takes 6-8 months.

- Can somebody please ask Roy Williams why Kendall Marshall isn't he starting point guard yet? Larry Drew isn't getting it done and Marshall is doing stuff like this

- Bruins Nation put together a fantastic "Where are they now" piece about a host of former UCLA stars

- What is it with the state of Alabama and bad basketball? Auburn is the worst high-major in the country and Alabama is working hard to make a case for itself

- Harrison Barnes is from Iowa. When he didn't sign with Iowa State, people got upset. Maybe those people shouldn't be too upset now.

- Kyle Whelliston of the Mid-Majority left a game early, and is very, very upset with himself