Carl Sagan's Thursday News and Views

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I am a new Netflix subscriber and I’ve recently found a new gem on my instant queue- Carl Sagan’s Cosmos.  If you’re unfamiliar, it’s an old 80’s documentary series in which the astronomer Carl Sagan touches on a number of subjects, including the origins of life on Earth and outer space.  It’s truly fascinating stuff and if you have streaming Netflix, you should definitely check it out.  But my man-crush on Sagan has continued on beyond Cosmos.  I’m not sure why I didn’t put two and two together before, but I just realized Sagan wrote the book on which the movie Contact was based.  Contact is one of my favorite movies because you can’t watch it without thinking and questioning life.  At its core, it’s about reconciling faith and science and it’s done in an excellent way.  Finally, check out this video and prepare to be mesmerized.  On to the news…

—Word came tonight that after an 8 day trial, Tubby Smith and the University of Minnesota are liable to pay $1.25 million to Jimmy Williams after Tubby allegedly “misled” him into thinking he had a job with UM.  Williams then quit his job at Oklahoma State and after Tubby didn’t come through, was left unemployed.  UM and Tubby allege Williams didn’t fully disclose his past problems with the NCAA.  Word even has it that Tubby “became angry” during his testimony and you have to wonder if he gave a beady-eyed stare at the guy who was cross-examining him.  The Tubster won’t have to fork out any money, however.  Evidently the University of Minnesota carries insurance for such an event. 

—The new head coach at Oregon, Dana Altman, confirmed to reporters that Kenny Payne will leave to take the open assistant position at UK.  Of course, we’ve all known this to be the case for a long while and have just been waiting on the official word from UK.  That word should come either today or tomorrow. 

—A little bit of buzz out there that DeMarcus Cousins might be slipping a little bit one some draft boards.  In fact, NBADraft.net now has Boogie going 7th to the Pistons, one spot below Patrick Patterson at #6 to the Warriors.  That’s the lowest I’ve seen him anywhere and that’s pretty surprising to me.  Granted, NBADraft.net probably isn’t the most accurate of the draft sites, but it could be reflecting some sentiments from GMs.  But those GMs should know they’ll be kicking themselves if Boogie slips below 5. 

—Jody Demling tweeted earlier this evening that 3 UofL women’s basketball players won’t return to the Cards next season.  Unconfirmed reports say Ashley Rainey, Gwen Tucker and Laura Terry have all decided to leave after a dispute involving a hair straightener.

—Yahoo! Sports broke the story today about large-scale ticket scalping at Kansas by some university officials, among others.  This likely won’t get much traction and will probably disappear pretty quickly, but it just goes to show there is a very slimy side to college hoops.  But you can surely believe that had this same thing happened at UK, the national media would be splashed all over the front page.  But like I said, expect this to fade as quickly as the Masiello story (which has been vastly underreported).

–As I mentioned tonight on my Twitter (@pfbarker), Barker men still have animal magnetism even into old age.  Despite being 86, my grandpa had Friend of the Blog Kristen Pflum from WLEX over to his house today.  That’s right.  Kristen Pflum.  Check it out.  And if you can help, let me know!

More to come all day, including a what can only be described as an absurd country music video about Breathitt County written by and featuring Bobby Perry with a cameo from Woo.  You’ll just have to see it to believe it.  Until then…Go Cats!