THE STORY EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT
End of Semester Rules at Chapel Hill

As seen yesterday at Rush the Court with 850 the Buzz, some Carolina basketball players spent the end of the semester blowing off some steam earlier this week with a little roof hopping. Now, it was enough for Ol’ Roy that his presumptive starting point guard for next year, Bobby Fraser, was diving from two stories up when he is supposed to be rehabbing his knee. But we have to imagine that seeing his All-American take the high-gravity dip would send him into a tizzy:

For Tyler’s sake, we hope the pool is filled with Chi Omega girls.

In case yesterday’s conversation with his brother didn’t do it for you, that picture above is all the evidence you need of why Psycho T is staying in college as long as he can. (HT for the photo to the Deadspin commenters, you profane bunch of cellar dwellers.)

TWO STORIES THAT INTERESTED US FOR NO GOOD REASON
Wisconsiners Still Up in Arms Over Tom Crean

We’re a step behind The Dagger and Fanhouse in getting to this, but good stories deserve being told thrice. And like most good stories, it starts out with two buddies watching a game together, and then goes terribly wrong:

During the course of the game Aaron Dumas and John Capista began discussing how much success Crean would have in the Big Ten. [...] While the complaint is silent about who was taking which position, Dumas and Capista were discussing the possibilities “when the discussion turned from friendly into a heated debate,” according to the criminal complaint charging Dumas with battery. Capista told police that Dumas became so upset he lunged toward him and “punched him in the face with a closed fist striking him on the bridge of the nose,” and followed that up with four or five more punches.

Other topics that would have sent Dumas and Capista into fisticuffs: whether Aaron Rodgers is ready to start for the Packers; whether Prince Fielder’s decision to go veggie was ill-advised; whether brats should be boiled before grilling; and whether the first guy interviewed here is a patriot or a douchebag:

We Suppose No Early is Too Early

Like most people, we view preseason polls and All-American lists for what they are – an excuse to get excited for the upcoming season, but little more than media members looking into a crystal ball and seeing what they want to see. The folks at Bleacher Report, however, believe this has not been taken far enough. Not when they can look into their own crystal ball to see what they believe the media will see when they … ah, crap, this just got too meta for us, but you get the point.

BR released its preseason All-American list six months before the start of the season, bringing all of this mess to a whole new level of “too soon”. But if Joe Lunardi can post his first Bracketology for the 2008-2009 season only a week after the National Championship game, what’s the use in waiting?

OBVIOUS TO THE POINT OF DUMB ARTICLE PREMISE OF THE DAY
College Gambling is Fun But Potentially Dangerous

We’re a little embarrassed that this came from our alma mater, but here goes – a would-be expose of the seedy nature of high stakes gambling by college students. Plenty of shocking revelations from this (Men are more likely to gamble than women??? Kids gamble more at schools where sports teams are good??? There’s an overlap between compulsive gambling and substance abuse??? And substance abuse is a problem on college campuses??? AAAIIIIIEEE!!), but the most hurtful quote was the following:

Considering its recent success in basketball, and, according to James, “the fact that Georgetown students tend to have deeper pockets than kids at other colleges,” how does Georgetown gambling stack up?

“I have actually had contact with very little gambling at Georgetown,” Greg says. “Aside from small stakes poker games (like $5 dollars to buy in) and betting on March Madness I have not seen it at all.”

We’re not sure why two probably-true sentences regarding the Georgetown student body bother us so much … but sometimes the truth hurts. Hoyas are both privileged AND risk-averse.