SDSU enters its first full year of Division I basketball competition next year. The current tentative schedule was posted on the SDSU discussion board.

The schedule features an opening game with National Runnerup Illinois, and marquee road games with Nebraska, Minnesota, Central Florida, and Utah State.

Featured home games include Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Manhattan, regional rivals Denver and UMKC, as well as the annual home-and-home with North Dakota State.

Nov 18 @ Illinois, 7 p.m.
Nov 24, Southeast Missouri State, 7 p.m.
Nov 30, Cal-State Fullerton, 7 p.m.
Dec 3, Tennesee State, 7 p.m.
Dec 6, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 7 p.m.
Dec 8, @ Nebraska, 7 p.m.
Dec 10, Denver, 7 p.m.
Dec 12, UMKC, 7 p.m.
Dec 17, @ Middle Tennessee State, TBA
Dec 20, Manhattan, @ Sioux Falls, 7 p.m.
Dec 22, @ Minnesota, TBA
Dec 28, Butler, 7 p.m.
Jan 2, @ Montana State, TBA
Jan 7 Utah Valley State, 7 p.m.
Jan 14, @NDSU, 7 p.m.
Jan 16, SW Minnesota State, TBA
Jan 21, @ Lamar, TBA
Jan 25, @ Idaho State, TBA
Jan 28, @ Utah State, 8 pm
Feb 2, @ Utah Valley State, TBA
Feb 6, IPFW, TBA
Feb 11, Texas Pan American, 7 p.m.
Feb 18, NDSU, 7 p.m.
Feb 22, @IPFW, TBA
Mar 3, @ San Diego State, TBA
Mar 5, @ Cal State Fullerton, TBA
Plus to be scheduled at Central Florida, and at Marquette.

Update 5/26/05:Multiple changes made.

New design drawings for Kansas City's Sprint Center (Kansas City Star, registration required) show the cost-driven evolution of the structure's design. The initial design drawings featured a rakish glass-covered exterior, while newer drawings envision a still-glass-covered, but more rounded exterior, shaped like a mildly squished marshmallow.

I haven't decided whether or not it's an improvement. It appears that they are settling on 18,500 seats, which in my opinion is at least 1,000 seats too small. Oh well, what do I know?

Previously reported here, Marquette University has apparently heard the cries (and web sites) of astonishment and outrage at their committee's attempt to change their tepid "Golden Eagles" nickname to the even more lame (or would that be lame'?) "Gold."

Frighteningly, Marquette president Robert Wild set the tone for a continuing debacle when he said in a written statement:

Now that Marquette has now managed to offend everyone in their struggle to offend no one by renaming their athletic teams after an inert metal, Tom Oates of the Wisconsin State Journal has suggested some appropriate color-nicknames for Big 10 schools.

Lots of Sprint Center news recently. There are from concert promoters that 18,000 seats is too small. There are worries that $250 million isn't enough.

Now, a Kansas City Star story by Randy Covitz (not yet published on the Web) says that it's more likely an NHL team will become the prime tenant of the building vs. an NBA team. Wonderfully snarky comment from NBA bigwig David Stern:

"We didn't tell them to go do a building," Stern said before joking, "Maybe they can have a WNBA team."

Well, the NBA sucks anyway. I would much prefer watching real basketball as played in the WNBA versus the cartoonish bomb and bam thugfest which is the NBA. Heck, I have found this year's NHL season (which wasn't played) more entertaining than the NBA season. That should give you a pretty good indication of how much I want an NBA franchise in Kansas City.

The Royals may be miserable on the field, but by golly, they're finally making money. Don't you feel better now about that $6.25 beer?

Now that I've got the knee-jerk cynicism out of the way, this is actually very good news. Maybe the Royals can figure out a way to keep their stable of young players and grow the team's income and the players' salaries together. Everybody knows that pro baseball is seriously broken from a financial as well as a competitive point of view. The two are directly related to each other.

Is this for real? From USA Today:

Qatar to use robots as camel riders.

Editor's note: Names and some places have been redacted to protect the guilty.
The parties to this escapade are labeled:
Person Of Interest #1 (POI1) (a female)
Person Of Interest #2 (POI2) (a female)
Person Of Interest #3 (POI3) (POI4's wife)
Person Of Interest #4 (POI4) (POI3's husband)
Person Of Interest #5 (POI5) (POI6's husband)
Person Of Interest #6 (POI6) (POI5's wife, the author of this piece)
Person Of Interest #7 (POI7) (a female)
This makes the story somewhat more confusing. This is intentional.

Although POI1 (POI2's last minute replacement) insists that "What happens in Indy, stays in Indy", I thought I would share with you guys what we did.

Globetrotter star slugs man in bar, police say

Just got back home from the women's basketball regional final, where Michigan State beat Stanford. No John Elway sighting tonight. Michigan State came out from half time on fire and got a 10 point lead before Stanford came back to make a game of it. The Spartans pulled away again towards the end for a 76-69 victory.

Among the highlights for this Jackrabbit was the entry on page 41 of the 2005 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship official program, in the article All Across America: News and Notes from the 2004-05 Season by Blake Whitney:

January 5, 2005 -- South Dakota State 86, Alabama 83
The former Division II power Jackrabbits, who won't be come full-fledged Division I members until 2008-09, picked up their second victory against a Southeastern Conference team with a three-point win in Tuscaloosa. The Jackrabbits beat Kentucky, 57-55, and routed Big 12 member Oklahoma State, 89-61, earlier in the season. South Dakota State, which also pushed then-No. 20 Purdue to the limit before losing by seven points, looks to have a bright future in Division I.

You might think my priorities are out of whack, but I do bleed yellow and blue, after all.

Now Snookums and I are settling in to watch the rest of the Rutgers-Tennessee game (Rocky Top!).