LOUISVILLE – If the winner of the 136th Kentucky Derby turns up with a positive post-race drug test – heaven forbid! – the media immediately will begin looking for two people: the colt’s trainer and its veterinarian.
The trainer will be easy to find. But the vet? Well, suffice it to say that none of the […]

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LOUISVILLE – The addition of light poles around the track at Churchill Downs has done more than make the hallowed home of the Kentucky Derby look like your basic NASCAR or harness-racing oval. It has inspired thoughts that sooner rather than later, the world’s most popular race will be run at night.
Back in the day, […]

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LOUISVILLE – I’m so excited about all the progress at Churchill Downs that my mind is brimming with ideas about how to make things even better. For example, it was obvious yesterday morning that the track needs to hire yet another vice-president and put him in charge of toner procurement.
The track was unable to […]

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LOUISVILLE — Todd Pletcher has to be included in any conversation about Best Trainer Who Has Never Won the Kentucky Derby. He’s the guy who wins everything everywhere, but who turns into Joe the Plumber when he shows up at Churchill Downs. And it’s not that he hasn’t tried. My, has he tried.
Pletcher’s Derby record […]

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INDIANAPOLIS — On the morning that Butler University played for the NCAA championship, some of the players did a startling thing. They left their downtown hotel and returned to campus to go to class. Of all the messages sent by Butler’s amazing run through the 2010 tournament, this may have been the most powerful.
That evening, […]

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I’ve become convinced that the toughest opponent on any major college basketball coach’s schedule isn’t UNC, OSU, or UCLA. It’s ESPN, especially the nightly SportsCenter show. It’s the only TV program that has demonstrably altered the way a game is played and coached.
Think about it.
Of all the blue-chip recruits and Division I players in the […]

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Let me get this straight: Some of the same people who opposed a major-college football playoff because it’s “not in the best interests of the student-athlete” are in favor of expanding the NCAA men’s Division I basketball tournament from 65 teams to 96, which would add another layer to the tournament.
What is this message here? […]

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INDIANAPOLIS — Here on Easter Sunday, it’s abundantly clear that Big Blue Nation should be thankful for West Virginia. Had the Mountaineers not eliminated the Kentucky Wildcats in the finals of the NCAA East Regional, it’s now obvious that UK would have suffered an even greater humiliation at the hands of Duke in Saturday night’s […]

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INDIANAPOLIS – So now I’m at the Downtown Marriott, the official media headquarters hotel, and I’m waiting to see who wins the Associated Press version of the Coach and Player of the Year awards.
The suspense in the player category ends early when Ohio State’s Evan Turner walks in, accompanied by his family. The room is […]

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INDIANAPOLIS — I would like to be able to tell you that I was an eye-witness to the wild reception the Butler Bulldogs got from 20,000 or so fans when they took the floor for their Final Four shoot-around yesterday in Lucas Oil Stadium.
But, dear reader, I cannot lie: I was in the press working […]

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