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Odds and Ends: Summer Boredom Edition

  • Inside Carolina has a final journal entry from Kendall Marshall prior to the freshman point guard's arrival on campus this weekend. Marshall is expected to arrive along with Reggie Bullock and Harrison Barnes. I know it has been said ad nauseum but you cannot help but be impressed with the work ethic and level headed nature of Marshall's public expression. Also true to his word, Marshall has stopped using Twitter much to Roy Williams' and Steve Kirschner's relief.
  • John Henson is still on Twitter however and updated the world with his current weight. Henson says he is up to 210 lbs. Keep working it John. Keep working it.
  • The major story in college athletics right now is the possibility of some sort of tsunami type upheaval in the major conferences triggered by the Big Televen looking to expand. That has led the Pac 10 to discuss doing the same leading to a very interesting scenario which had Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St. and Colorado(or Baylor depending on how antsy the Texas State Legislature might get) heading to the Pac 10 to form a 16 team league. The Big Televen would grab Nebraska, Missouri and presumably 1 to 3 other teams. Depending on if they went to the Big East to get them you could see that league fall apart. The Big 12 would be done with the biggest loser being Kansas basketball who would be without a major conference affiliation. Kansas would still be Kansas but playing in the Mountain West is not exactly going to help the recruiting.

    Anyway, as it stands right now, the Big Televen is poised to just invite Nebraska(for now) which could set off some minor tremors with a handful of teams moving around leaving us largely in the same place we were prior to all this started save a few schools changing affiliation.

  • And finally, something unrelated to UNC but well worth watching. The baseball world was all ablaze last night with the debut of pitcher Stephen Strasburg for the Washington Nationals. The hype machine was ridiculous for this kid to the point you figured there was no way Strasburg could ever live up to it. Well, he did, for one game anyway by striking out 14 batters in seven innings of work while surrendering two ER on four hits and no walks. Strasburg struck out the last seven hitters he faced while topping 101 mph on his fastball in the sixth inning. MLB.com has a video of all 14 strikeouts. Needless to say, that ball is doing some funky stuff.