end of the line for Lars

Lars Mikalauskas' last-ditch effort to remain a Virginia Cavalier basketball player is over - his academic appeal was denied. Here's hoping he will at least be able to finish his degree when the academic suspension is lifted, and if he can carve himself out a career playing ball in Europe, so much the better as well.

I dunno if you're interested in this sort of thing, but they may be worth a peek: the enemy's take. The LA Times and the OC Register give a token look at some East Coast team their Trojans are sort of expected to have a scrimmage against before their West-Coast-superiority-proving game against OSU. Here you can read about our entire offseason in five paragraphs, with sprinkled-in references to the notion that USC is so awesome.

The Blogpoll Roundtable roundup is up at Hey Jenny Slater. The roundup roundup:

- Lots of folks think Kansas is headed for a crash-and-burn.
- Lots of folks also want Usain Bolt on their team. (I still say the moment you try to send him into the line, even a below-average defensive lineman would snap him in two. "Wicked fast" and "durability of a rhinoceros" rarely show up in the same scouting report, though I grant you that an actual rhinoceros probably would have both of these qualities. Rhinoceri are ineligible, however.)
- No agreement on who is going to come out of nowhere and surprise everyone. Good thing, too, because if there had been a consensus, it would sort of have defeated the question.