Now here are some highlights from this weekend’s games:

Oklahoma State 38, Texas 26

As if Texas didn’t hate the state of Oklahoma already, back-to-back weeks of getting their asses handed to them my the Sooners and the Cowboys didn’t add any love. Adding to Texas’ misery, they haven’t won at home in Big 12 games since 2009.

Clemson 56, Maryland 45

Clemson came back from an 18-point deficit to beat Maryland. The good thing was the Tigers won. The bad news is their defense gave up almost 500 yards of total offense to the 2-4 Terps. But Clemson stays unbeaten on the season. Barely.

Oregon 41, Arizona State 27

As a Sun Devil, I don’t want to talk about this game. But my Sparkys held their own against the Ducks for the first half. I was impressed with how they played because Oregon is good and FAST. They make any defense look like a bunch of Pop Warner kids.

Michigan State 28, Michigan 14

In a game of ugly throwback uniforms, the Spartans held on to beat, and upset, in-state rival Michigan, making it four straight years that MSU has beaten the Wolverines, the first four-game win streak for Michigan State since 1959-62. (And that was the longest run-on sentence ever!)

South Carolina 14, Mississippi State 12

Earlier this week, South Carolina’s star quarterback, Stephen Garcia, was kicked off the team. The Gamecocks held on for a narrow victory to improve to 4-1 in the SEC this year. The bad news is that the Gamecock’s offensive giant, running back Marcus Lattimore, who leads the SEC in rushing average, left the game in the fourth quarter with a leg injury. On Sunday, Steve Spurrier announced he’s out for the season. That loss, with the loss of Garcia, could be huge for the Gamecocks and their 2011 season.

Ohio State 17, Illinois 7

The Buckeyes reminded the nation that they are down, but not out as they upset the 16th-ranked, undefeated Illinois. The Illini haven’t beaten Ohio State at home since 1991.

Kansas State 41, Texas Tech 34

Kansas State has gone under the radar this season and came back to win to keep them undefeated this season. Kansas State is 6-0. Who knew?

Next week has some big match-ups and I for one will be hoping for some upsets. We haven’t had enough of those this season for my liking.

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Yes. Sarah Palin allegedly had sex with a basketball player when she was a sports reporter in Alaska in the years of aught-something.

Beer me.

Here is Exhibit A, Glen Rice, looking happy.

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That is not Sarah Palin in those teensy shorts. That is his former wife Cristina Fernandez-Rice.

She stood on things to pretend she was tall, sometimes, too. Also there was a fan in that room, and they greased him up to put him in those bad, bad jeans.

Those images are also from a site called Baller Wives, so you know, there’s that.

(Getting some air, BRB.)

Okay so basically those jeans (who lets a guy wear those jeans????) made me forget my hypothesis or thesis or topic sentence here. Damn you, Internet.

Cristina Fernandez Rice does not give a damn.

Cristy is @CubanRice on Twitter, if you’d like to add that follow to your repertoire.

So okay, Sarah Palin is now an also-ran political lightning rod wild card. Glen Rice is doing something somewhere, after getting the requisite NBA star arrest for going after a dude who was (I am not making this up) trapped in his wife’s closet. Cristina, now Cristy Fernandez Rice, was featured on the Real Housewives of Miami, and Glen was most recently known as the owner and head of G-Force Fights, based out of Miami, Florida.

Sarah Palin allegedly hooked up with Mr. Rice, who, it must be said, may not be unappealing, jeanless. It is now seven thousand years past the date when that happened, one must undoubtedly assume, awkwardly, at some sort of media meet and greet. I mean, really? How many years ago was this? They could have had sex in pilgrim times, for our purposes here. Also, neither were married at the time. And yes, Sarah Palin, she of the “Todd is gone for months, nay years, at a time,” and “Yes, my daughter had a baby and isn’t married but what? So? (And really. What? So?) is a big old abstinence proponent. But y’all know what they say about do as I say and not as I do.

And please, to be clear, it’s not that I’m supporting you booking a flight to Miami in the interests of hooking up with Glen Rice. MMA is a rough world. You don’t need that kind of trouble. I look out for you. I really do.

I think my favorite quote about this story is that it’s too outlandishly random not to be true, with she “hauled his ass down” a close second. Hi National Enquirer, and also every other news outlet everywhere now.

Thankfully for Rice he was the all-time leading scorer at the University of Michigan, because keeping that at the top of your score card above sex with Sarah Palin? Good call.

Just know that I — still — blame John McCain. For everything.

I mean I really hope he does, and we only have to wait until September 19 or thereabouts to find out. That’s when Ron — not yet legally renamed Metta World Peace, due to some outstanding traffic warrants — will join the likes of Nancy Grace, Chaz Bono and Ricki Lake, and make his debut on Dancing With the Stars.

I am an eternally hopeful soul, but this is the somewhat disappointing first image that appeared when I googled “Ron Artest Dancing”

Sad. No soft shoe to be had, anywhere, just that terrible, terrible Lakers…caftan?…that David Arquette is wearing. I hope Courteney Cox got that in the settlement.

ANYway, Ron is the first of the NBA stars — and the other athlete this season, along with soccer player Hope Solos — to join his NFL peers in their attempts to make a little coin and occupy their time during an off-season and protracted potential lockout. Remember Ocho at the rodeo? Hines Ward showing up on DWTS too? No? I know. I try to forget it too. Except for this. Never forget.

Ron Artest aka World Peace denied his Dancing turn just the day before, saying he was working on his new single (PS Ron would like you to “cop his new single”) and besides, he couldn’t rock the gear.

I just can’t dance. They asked me, but I just didn’t feel comfortable wearing a leotard.

Ron also had an offer from the Cheshire Jets to play ball in England, while waiting to find out if he and his peers would make jillions or merely squillions more dollars than the average person come wintertime. However, his daughter Diamond, a cancer survivor, asked him to do Dancing With the Stars instead, and he said okay, because he is clearly not a hard-hearted sort when it comes to his little girl. He indicates that he will donate any potential earnings to cancer research.

At first it was not appealing. I did not want to do it. I don’t dance and all of the dressing up and everything, but my daughter Diamond was like, Daddy, you should do it.

That means that no matter what I see on my tv in a few weeks, Ron did a good thing. He is also going to have a very busy early fall, because he says that he will indeed pay his parking tickets, change his name, and have the celebratory name-change barbecue on September 16 like he originally planned.

I’ll pay them off. I didn’t take classes on how to pay parking tickets. I’m taking classes. Anything you don’t know, you have to learn in college. Just don’t park at meters you’re not supposed to park at.

Ron Artest. Buddha. Same difference. And given my memory of him diving into the stands to beat up that fan several years ago? I think he’s probably going to be just fine in the grace department. I’m just going to suggest we all set some goals for September, because I don’t know about you, but so far this guy is running circles around me.

(Check this space. This may be too appealing not to liveblog. Just saying.)

So it’s no surprise that the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball coach is as determined and forthright off the court, announcing her diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease at the start of the new school year — and only telling her players as soon as she knew the remaining two were off the court in China and back in Knoxville.

Summitt, 59, learned that she had Alzheimer’s disease after many tests at the Mayo Clinic in May. She said that troubling issues with her memory last season that caused her to lose her confidence and concerned her enough that she wouldn’t meet with players individually, motivated her to seek answers. The tests that can clinically diagnose Alzheimer’s disease and its related dementia indicated that Summitt had the “mild, early-onset” variety of the disease.

Denial ruled the summer, Summitt said, but as it wore on, she realized that she needed to talk to her players and her Tennessee administration. More importantly for her, she says that she came to a certain kind of terms with her condition that allowed her to move forward with her life.

The upshot out of Tennessee this week: Summitt will continue to work. She will remain at the helm of the Lady Vols, with the tactical and personal support of a team of assistants who have been at her side for decades. She will remain the coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team, and she will take care of herself as best as she can.

Summitt’s close friend Sally Jenkins wrote a lovely, understated, and quietly sad piece about her in the Washington Post, that left me thinking that as much as I don’t think I’d have the strength to write such a story about my best friend, at the same time I’d like to be the only one to do it, and I can only hope I’d find the strength and the grace at the appointed time. Jenkins said that talking about the situation had been a good, if painful thing, for everyone involved:

Over the last few days, with the clarity of her diagnosis and decision to go public, Summitt has recovered her confidence. More often than not, it is she who comforts others, as usual. Her staff have grief-stretched looks around their eyes, and seem quietly destroyed under their skins. Every so often you find one of them has ducked into her laundry room to weep. It’s Summitt who puts her arms around them and talks quietly into their ear. “I don’t want you worrying about me,” she says. Strong has always been her natural, preferred state.

Alzheimer’s disease is a demon. It’s a brain plaque from hell that erodes valleys in the cerebral cortex, kills neurons, disrupts synapses, and therefore robs individuals of their intellectual capacity. It steals likewise from families and friends, causing the person they love to change before their eyes (sometimes slowly, sometimes not.) I worked with people with dementia and their families for six years, when I was a very young, very green counselor, right out of graduate school. I went into their homes, heard their stories, absorbed their fears and profound need for answers, and in return I gave them the best advice I had about how to navigate this often-terrifying period in their lives. I immersed myself in Alzheimer’s, learned all that I could, knowing even then that I’d never have enough information, no matter how many research studies I memorized (and I memorized a lot.)

I also spent countless hours with people with Alzheimer’s, of all stages.They told me their fears, they told me I was full of shit and that it was really 1946, so shut the hell up. They revolted against the artificial schedule of long-term care, and wondered after their (sometimes dead) parents, siblings, and much-younger spouses. During this time I worked with a relative handful of early-onset patients, as obscure as Summitt as prominent, and their spouses, kids, and even sometimes parents. They were the roughest cases. These were people usually in the prime of their lives, ready to transition to golden years after decades of working and raising families, when their brains revolted and got them lost coming home from work or unable to complete a crossword puzzle. One of my clients was an elementary school teacher who, like Summitt, did brain puzzles and complicated step aerobic routines during the day while her husband was at work, to work her brain and try to stave off the deterioration the doctors said was imminent.

I told her she was working too hard. I told her that it wasn’t her fault, not any of this, and she did it anyway. She was a brilliant badass, and I always, inappropriately, unprofessionally, wanted to hold her in my arms. I can say the same about Pat Summitt.

What I’m taking away from this more than a decade after my own experience, and knowing what I know about the continuing stigma against Alzheimer’s, the fear and confusion that it causes, is Pat Summitt’s utter courage in speaking this aloud, not just with her loved ones or with her employers, but in the public sphere. She, quite frankly, could have worked a deal. Early stage Alzheimer’s (as best as it can be understood in terms of timeframe) can last for years — frequently not as long in early-onset, where it has seemed in my very limited experience to take hold and move more quicky, but still, years. She could have shown up courtside for at least another season and not disclosed this very personal information. She chose to be open, to approach this differently. And this sports writer thinks that’s pretty cool.

The Lady Vols don’t open until November 1. I’m marking it on my calendar now. Best of luck for a great year, Coach Summitt.

Love him or hate him, I personally have never seen anyone able to take over a game on offense AND defense like LeBron. No pass is safe and no shot is safe when he decides he wants the ball.  When he wants to, he can dominate a game like no other. Last night, I guess he didn’t want to.

I was one of the critics who was almoooost silenced while watching the Heat get it together and become the most dangerous team in the NBA.  But when the arguably the most talented man who has ever stepped onto a court delivers 8 points in a losing Finals effort and is playing like a high school kid who has just been told his girlfriend is pregnant, it has to call into question whether or not he buckles when the pressure is the most intense.

In my opinion, he left Cleveland because of the pressure. Every year it was the same thing: “Why haven’t you won one LeBron? You can’t be the greatest until you win one.”  So rather than building a team to lead, he went to be a role player on another team, and now he’s seemingly content to let Wade and Bosh do it all by themselves.

As we remember the greatest players in history, their ability was only part of the equation. Magic, Bird, Jordan… these guys weren’t just great basketball players, their hearts were enormous and they were fierce competitors. They were born leaders and inspired others to be great. Their presence made everyone better and it was their wills that lifted their teams to victory. Not just their play, but everything about them. They were in the game 1000%, especially in the Finals. Last night, LeBron was playing as if he had just finished watching the first episode of Lost.

First, let me apologize to Jason Kidd and ask him not to beat me up. Compared to LeBron, you are 4’11 and 72. Comparatively, I would be 4′ 7″ and 75 or something, and it’s not cool to beat up old people who are smaller than you. I’m not sure how it works if they’re bigger than you. I think then it’s okay.

The buzz around LeBron is warranted. He is just that awesome and why he’s constantly being compared to the greatest players in history. His talent as so immense that we expect him to be great and when he’s on, he’s unstoppable. But one has to question whether or not he has the heart of a champion. So far, he’s shown everything but.

Who knew? Thank you, tall people, and thank you Dirk for doing some awesome stuff this postseason. 48 points the other night and… highest point scoring total in the fourth quarter in the last 10 NBA postseasons. That makes him King of the Tallies, people.

Of course, others on his team like Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion and Jason Terry do some stuff, too, and Jason Kidd has been around so long his name has become the definition of irony, I think. I’m not sure what the definition is, but if nothing else, it makes me giggle.

The argument I heard the other day is something along the lines of how Dirk stuck with his team and now it’s paying off vs. the “Lebron easy way out super team move” and how Dirk did the right thing.  Except… the Dallas Mavericks haven’t won a title yet.

LeBron took a bad team to the Finals, he just lost. Love him or hate him, he was the Cavs and singlehandedly took them to the end. And now, he seemingly takes over games whenever he wants to and can’t be stopped. As my son said yesterday, his defense is almost as awesome as his offense.  He’s also right now bringing it in the clutch against the best defensive team in the NBA  and shutting down the Bulls’ most effective player in the fourth quarter. In other words, ladies and gentleman, I think LeBron James is starting to blossom now and it ain’t pretty for the rest of the league.

To me, it seems he’s starting to get the feel for when it’s LeBron time and when it’s not. He seems to be learning how to run this team and while, as a team, they are not as well-oiled as Dallas, his enormous talent and play-making on both ends of the court is not something for which you can prepare.

Of course, Miami hasn’t moved past the Bulls, but I like to state my predictions as facts and then when it doesn’t happen the way I said it, I’ll never mention it again.

Now that we understand one another, I’m going to say that it will be the Heat and the Mavs in the 2011 NBA Finals. And then we’re going to hear about the whole “LeBron vs. Dirk vs. staying vs. leaving” discussion for at least 4 games. I’ll want to punch everyone for not shutting up about it, but most of them will be far too large and I’ll just have to sit on my hands. Unless Marv Albert says something. I think I could take Marv even though he’s a biter.

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I couldn’t do it by myself against that team. I apologize for the way it happened, but I knew this opportunity was once in a lifetime.

LeBron was light on the specifics. I venture what LeBron meant to say was he was sorry it wasn’t easy. He’s sorry that he had to work for it. That he needed to get better at mid-range jumpers. That his defense had to improve. That he had to pass to guys who could potentially miss. He’s sorry that he never tried to bring anyone to the team. That he refused to commit to the franchise for more than a
few years at time thereby putting them in perpetual “win now” mode and crippling any chance at long-term stability. He’s sorry the
team gave him everything he ever asked for and, in retrospect, coddled him far too much. He’s sorry he’s immature. He’s only
25 after all.

Most of all, he’s sorry the world wants him to earn it. His birthright may have been an incredible ability to play basketball, but a ring is promised to no man. I think LeBron half-expected David Stern to hand him the Larry O’Brien trophy on draft night. “Oh, need to play some games first?” He’s sorry that even such massive talent, such blinding speed and awesome raw power couldn’t show up, throw down a few dunks and walk away with a championship every year.

Ken Levine / Getty Images

There’s an iconic photo of Michael Jordan hugging his first championship trophy, openly weeping, indubitably reflecting on all the hard work he’d done over his then 7-year career and the preceding decades. He probably thought about the back-breaking work of building a team from nothing to the ultimate winner. The countless hours spent toiling through the playoffs with less than ideal teammates. In the end, there was no doubt he alone was the consummate champion – a singular winner.

So, LeBron is sorry. Well, I’m sorry too. I’m sorry that should LeBron shed his own tears in the coming weeks they won’t mean quite the same thing.

“It’s the right time,” Williams said.  “My entire career has been an unbelievable blessing.  I am fiercely proud of the program we have built here.  I couldn’t have asked any more from my players, my assistant coaches, the great Maryland fans and this great university.  Together, we did something very special here.”

Gary led the team to 14 NCAA tournaments, three ACC regular season titles, ACC tournament championships, seven Sweet Sixteens, two Elite Eights, two Final Fours and National Championship in 2002.  He was the National Coach of the Year in 2002, and the ACC Coach of the Year in 2002 and 2010.

Dan Steinberg, aka @dcsportsbog, just tweeted out his favorite moment in what I’m sure were many Williams’ interviews, involving Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski and the Beijing Olympics.

This double-College Park graduate with a Maryland basketball-crazy family is sad. My father and uncles talk about Gary like he’s their friend, and his visibility and leadership of this program over the past two decades has been a mainstay in our family. Everyone has to retire sometime, and I’m sure he did it at the right time for him, but we’ll miss him on tv and in Comcast. And honestly? With the team not even hitting the NIT last season, I’m sorry he didn’t go out on a higher note.

Still, he coached champions. And I’m just glad I got to be there with my father last year to watch a win over Duke on his watch.

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Yesterday I wrote an article called, “Kobe Bryant Is a Punk.” It was in reference to his punkness, but more specifically his latest punky comments regarding Pau Gasol’s poor game 1 play:

“It’s one and two, it’s me and him. We’ve got to deal with it. When you get all the praise when things go your way, [you also] get all the blame when things don’t. It’s part of the seats we sit in.”

Now, Gasol handled it with grace and vowed to do better in game 2. He didn’t, and neither did Kobe, so I wonder how it’s possible that the Lakers won. Gasol and Kobe combined for a whopping 19 points, while Bynum and Odom scored at will. It seems that Kobe’s comments did nothing to motivate Gasol, but perhaps a couple of the other players responded to Kobe’s comments.

Lamar Odom, recipient of the 6th Man Of The Year Award, would have something to say to Mr. #1 and Mr. #2, and Bynum clearly decided it was time to assert his dominance.

Kobe would try to take over a couple of times, and that seemingly resulted in what was a widening Lakers lead to consistently dwindle.  After the Lakers being down 22-16 in the 1st quarter, Kobe would take a seat, the Lakers would surge to a 12 point lead, Kobe would return, get stuffed on two attempts and the lead would be down to 6 points by halftime.

As I think of the great Lakers teams in recent years, I think we can spread some credit around. For instance, Phil Jackson. Phil Jackson has rings for his toes. Shaquille O’Neal in his prime would be another example of someone who helped out a little. Robert Horry was perhaps the greatest clutch 3-point shooter of all time, and Derek Fisher has been and still is one of the most dangerous and consistent clutch players in the NBA.  Add that Lamar Odom has been invaluable to this team’s most recent success, you can chronicle the Kobe years and  always point to a solid, well-coached team of professionals who have been bigger than any one man. Regardless of that, Kobe believes, and wants you to believe, that he is everything to a team that sometimes seems to function better without him.

Sure, Kobe played great defense on Chris Paul. So did everyone who covered him. I believe it was Kobe’s job to challenge the 3 Paul drained at the end of the 1st half, which he might have done had he not been twelve feet away. Paul wasn’t scoring when Kobe wasn’t playing, so I’m removing credit for replacing others who were doing the same job or better.

In my post yesterday, I said Kobe wasn’t helping. I was wrong. Clearly, publicly condemning a teammate and marginalizing everyone else on your team is a fabulous way to motivate everyone else on your team. What better way is there to get someone to perform than telling him he doesn’t matter? I’ve read about it, just never seen it applied so effectively.

Now that Gasol has had another poor game after vowing not to, I think it’s safe to say that he’s a lying foreigner and I fully expect Kobe to chastise him for his blatant dishonesty and clear unwillingness to help Kobe win by himself.

I might have disagreed with that logic before, but the genius behind it has inspired an idea. This might be the key ingredient to a utopian society of win. Let’s adjust it to make it applicable to everyone and put the Kobe motivational concept to the world.

You’ll need a whipping boy… someone who is already down on himself and though conventional logic would tell you to lift this person up and not kick him, publicly kick the shit out of that loser. This could be a friend, family member, co-worker… it’s up to you. Just make sure that this is a generally solid person who can be counted on, but forget all that “What you’ve done” and focus on “What have you done for me lately?”  This person has failed to match your awesome, and despite being an important part of your success to date must now be sacrificed for the greater good. This person will probably dislike you now, but the key to not allowing that to bother you is just being an asshole. Please copy the following and e-mail it to your address book:

Everybody, you suck.  My friend and I are the only ones who matter (you are not that friend). But to be honest, my friend (the one who matters and is not you) is being a suck-ass loser lately and if he doesn’t pull his head out of his ass, we will all fail.

(This inspirational message has been brought to you by the Kobe Bryant Association For A Better World.)

It’s much of the same in the West, the Spurs and the Lakers dominating. When will it end? When Kobe retires? When Jackson retires? And the Spurs are like the Patriots, a genius coach, a changing supporting cast and an enduring legacy that seemingly will never die. Some might say they are bi-winning.

In the East Derrick Rose is the one now being compared to Michael Jordan (at least for his leadership qualities). The Bulls have won over 50 games and are leading the Eastern Conference with the Heat and the Celtics steaming up their tail.

Probably the most interesting story of the year is when LeBron James signed with the Miami Heat along with Chris Bosh to create a new “Dream Team” within the NBA.  What we’ve seen so far is flashes of brilliance incorporated with monumental squirrel-brainedness and inexplicable happenings like their defeat at the hands of the Cavaliers not long ago. One wonders whether they will be able to remain consistent throughout the playoffs.

With only a handful of games left, most of the playoffs are set and while there are a lot of the same names around, everything is very much up in the air. The Lakers will probably be there in the end. At this stage, it seems like it would almost be weird to not have them there. It’s not a foregone conclusion, but it will be surprising if they’re not fighting for the ring at the end.  Might we see a Bulls/Lakers rematch? I hope so.

The Magic could surprise everyone. Dwight Howard has been on fire this season and poised to assert his role at one of the greatest players in NBA history. There’s a lot going on right now. There are a lot of great stories and stories behind the stories. I have no idea what’s going to happen when the championship run begins, but I do know I’ll be glued to my television set and the results will be nothing what I expected.  That’s one of the reasons I love it, and I simply can’t wait.