Tweety Blurbs From the Fan Cave: Hot Topics in College Basketball

Many tweets convey more than we want to know such as when and how long you were in the bathroom enabling you to feel like you're entitled to a brand new wardrobe. On the other hand, concise capsules can quickly get to the heart of a subject.

Following is a regurgitation of pithy postings of up to 140 characters summarizing this season after they were designed to "tell it the way it is" and trigger some watercooler cussin' and discussin':

• Jim Boeheim's money-motivated defense of 'Cuse Abuse sure isn't "fine" when considering "high" number of suspect students he recruited.

• Need for eye exams may explain Syracuse's previous faulty free-throw shooting if players had inappropriate relations with ex-Orange aide wife.

• Is accuser Bobby Davis lying about him being noticed in Bernie Fine's road hotel room or will SU Coach Boeheim have more backtracking to do?

• Boeheim's 850-plus wins for alma mater is amazing when one considers Miami of Ohio's Charlie Coles was active runner-up with 250 before retiring.

• Hugs Thugs mentality must still exist at Cincinnati for coach Mick Cronin, a former aide under Bob Huggins' parade of pestilent UC players.

• UC Coach Mick Cronin's post-melee speech was Xcellent. But the problem is he recruited the UFC tryouts strutting their "Want Some?" stuff.

• To a certain degree, the televised UC-Xavier fisticuffs were blown out of proportion. There was plenty of blood shed in pre-ESPN donnybrooks.

• Dicky V's four-year stint at Detroit is vastly overblown. UD's court should be named after an A-A such as Dave DeBusschere or Spencer Haywood.

• Is Dicky V finally off Pitt's bandwagon proclaiming the Panthers will overcome an 0-7 start in Big East play and reach the NCAA playoffs?

• Whenever NFL analyst Mike Ditka shows some passion, one can't help but wonder how "hard" his picks were while playing basketball for Pitt.

• ESPN's farming out of NBA analysts to college games during the pro lockout was a disaster. They resembled know-nothing, union-busting scabs.

• Occasionally condescending Dookie Jay Bilas needs to refrain from infatuation with wingspan during his normally commendable commentary.

• Jay Bilas is nation's premier hoop analyst but year late in his support of mid-major Wichita State. An apology to VCU is also still in order.

• ESPN should give Joe Lunardi a shot as a game analyst rather than limiting him to racket as Walmart-like greeter citing first in/first out.

• Whether they're female eye candy or not, most of the TV sideline reporters are virtually worthless in futile bids to offer incisive input.

• Curing cancer is fantastic but ESPN should tone down its fawning over Jim Valvano, a PTP (Placed Twice on Probation) coach for Iona & NCSU.

• Neither Carolina nor Indiana will be "all they can be" until the Zeller brothers hit the weight room and quit being stripped inside so often.

• Illinois would be a lock for Big Ten first division if promising center Meyers Leonard was used properly by running offense through him down low.

• Butler can bounce back next year if Arkansas transfer Rotnei Clarke is unleashed. Long-range bomber could become the Bulldogs' first A-A.

• Kansas can't keep whining via caustic comments about scheduling Mizzou if the Jayhawks also won't extend similar welfare to Wichita State.

• Is KU selfless or self-centered? It's disconcerting that the Jayhawks' freshman class was littered with marginal academic credentials.

• UK might have still won NCAA title if Terrence Jones turned pro early. He clearly shouldn't have been selected as SEC preseason player of year.

• Coach Cal will need to change his last name to Calicrapi if UK joins two previous outposts (UMass and Memphis) as schools vacating NCAA play.

• Uneasy about Pitino's HOF nomination so soon after Slick Rick moonlighted as porn star satisfying his appetite in a restaurant. Did this go on at UK, too?

• Cuonzo Martin inherited a "Rocky Top" mess from Bruce Pearl. Hope Martin doesn't get so upset he forgets what his home looks like inside.

• A Temptations tune "Ball of Confusion" comes to mind each time Mississippi State's Renardo Sidney is tempted to get his grey matter in gear.

• If some of brightest coaching minds were conned out of $50M by an AAU guru, then how do we expect immature teenagers to cope with such fraud?

• The public can be fooled occasionally but UConn's conniving under Jim Calhoun claiming its roster has textbook student-athletes is laughable.

• Frustrated fans complain about the chemistry among UConn's players but some observers wonder if any of them ever took a legit Chemistry course.

• Andre Drummond's scoreless game for UConn vs. Columbia duplicated debut goose eggs by Tim Duncan (Alaska-Anchorage) and David Robinson (Yale).

• Notre Dame deserves plaudits for success sans Tim Abromaitis but it stems more than anything from Big East being way down from a year ago.

• Only three years removed from a Final Four, Villanova might be worst team this season among the six Philly universities (Big 5 plus Drexel).

• Excluding Syracuse, the first division of the underrated Atlantic 10 Conference is as competent as the first division of the Big East.

• Is it political correctness run amok to give Oregon State coach Craig Robinson a benefit of the doubt because he is POTUS's brother-in-law?

• If ex-Weber State coach Ben Howland can guide UCLA to three straight Final Fours, why didn't NBA-crazed Utah lure Randy Rahe away from Weber?

• Did you know ex-Arizona mentor Fred Snowden is only black coach to win at least 60% of 100 or more DI games decided by fewer than 6 points?

• No way former A-A guards Mark Macon (Temple/Binghamton) & Isiah Thomas (IU/FIU) can be guardedly optimistic about their coaching prospects.

• Eight best bets as this year's VCU are Wichita State, Saint Mary's, Creighton, Drexel, Gonzaga, Harvard, Long Beach State and Murray State.

• Should the MEAC and SWAC de-emphasize to DII? Hampton is the only HBCU not to have at least one 20-loss season in the previous eight years.

• OSU's Jared Sullinger is outstanding but how many millions of dollars did he cost himself by returning to college after A-A freshman year?

• How can neither the NCAA nor elite DI conferences have guidelines in place for what penalty to enforce if a player is caught doing drugs?

• It's difficult to follow in daddy's footsteps. There never has been a father/son combination earn All-American status for the same university.

• Was Kevin Jones, the Big East's leading scorer and rebounder, denied conference MVP award because West Virginia is leaving for Big 12?

• If voters knew impact of Flip Pressey, Mizzou playmaker and dad Paul would be 8th set of A-A father-son honorees rather than just All-Big 12 3rd-teamer.

• ESPN should call its bracket prediction segment with POTUS "Audacity of Hype." Ditto for CBS interview with Clark Kellogg. Please focus on economy!

• "Ohio," Neil Young's protest song in reaction to Kent State shootings, should be anthem for OSU/UC game as protest they don't play regularly.

• Indiana's Branch McCracken is the only one of more than 30 All-Americans who became DI mentors to compile higher winning percentage as coach.

• Stanford shouldn't be optimistic because no defending NIT champion advanced to an NCAA regional final since field expanded to 64 in 1985.

• Overdosing on TV visual makes Frank Martin's glaring switch from K-State to South Carolina the most overrated coaching change in memory.

• Never underestimate gall of boob tuber. ESPN's Doug Gottlieb thought he could assist K-State. How about starting craft at Kansas Wesleyan?

• The grass is always greener elsewhere. An average of four coaches per year leave NCAA playoff teams since seeding was introduced in 1979.

• Kentucky freshman phenom Anthony Davis shows there is more to game than scoring as he has lowest scoring average of any national POY in history.

• Kentucky is only the fourth school in last 30 years atop AP poll at end of regular season to go ahead and capture the NCAA Tournament championship.

• Despite UK's crown, California (30) moved ahead of Kentucky (29) as state with most men's national titles among all levels of four-year hoops.

• Average of only two seniors among top seven scorers for NCAA Division I champions since field expanded to at least 64 schools in 1985.

• Anyone implying in any way, shape or form that a college team can win a legitimate game against an NBA squad is in dire need of a brain scan.

• Is there anything more ridiculous than national forecast for next year before recruiting is complete and undergrads finish declaring for NBA draft?