MSU's Derrick Nix suspended indefinitely following arrest

After Michigan State's season ending loss to Louisville in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament, center Derrick Nix talked as if he was ready to take on a leadership role for the team next season. It would take some big shoes to fill Draymond Green's leadership void and Nix was willing to take the role. Nix had a lot of work to be done to be regarded as a leader and it's going to even harder for him after the recent turn of events.

Nix was arrested for possession of marijuana and operating a vehicle with the presence of drugs. He's now suspended indefinitely and even though he does have a small window to regain his spot on the team he has no margin for error.

East Lansing police pulled Nix over at Lake Lansing and Abbot roads. He was driving a red, 2011 Dodge. Nix must reappear at 54B court in 4-10 days for arraignment . Both charges are misdemeanors.

“Based on the information we have received, Derrick Nix has been suspended indefinitely from our basketball team, and his future with our program is uncertain,” Tom Izzo said in a released statement. “He made an irresponsible decision that has put his future with our program in serious jeopardy.”


Another question that could draw a red flag is where did he get the car from? I'm not saying there's any dirty dealings but that question always comes up.

Nix needs to get his house in order because the Spartans were counting on him to have a bigger role on the team.

LaGarrette Blount wouldn't be happy if Buccaneers chose Trent Richardson

The NFL Draft is coming up and there are plenty of mock drafts to go around. Mock drafts usually aren't the end all be all but sometimes they do come close to nailing who goes where.

A lot of mock drafts have the Tampa Bay Buccaneers selecting Alabama running back Trent Richardson. I think that would be a solid pick as he and LaGarrette Blount would form a pretty good backfield combo. One problem, Blount wants no part of a time share backfield. And he says that he wouldn't be too happy with the pick which might relegate him to being a goal line back.

"I would not like that pick," Blount said at Nike's unveiling of the new NFL uniforms in New York City. "I would definitely not be happy with that pick."


Blount believes he's a feature back and expressed that last season. When it was suggested that he take a Brandon Jacobs type role he scoffed at that notion.

"I don't want that role," Blount said. 


Blount should realize that he could extend his career with the addition of Richardson, he should also know that when a team drafts a player with the number five pick he's not going to sit on the bench. Why would he view Richardson as competition when it's clear that the Bucs could use another running back on the team that could help you win games. Maybe it's because Blount knows that he probably would lose the starting job if Richardson is drafted.

I have a personal bias against Blount as he stunk it up on my fantasy team last year. Step your game up.

Singleton has no regrets about spending $10,000 in lottery

The multistate Mega Millions lottery reached staggering proportions with a jackpot of $640 million. There were three winners in Maryland, Illinois, and Kansas, but Washington Wizards rookie Chris Singleton wasn't among the three.

No dice after dropping $10,000 on lottery tickets. I guess professional athletes have lottery dreams too. Even after spending an absurd amount of money for the tickets, Singleton has no regrets about the money he spent.


Washington Wizards rookie Chris Singleton says it was worth it to buy $10,000 worth of tickets for last week's Mega Millions lottery, adding it was "either that or blowing it in the clubs."


Singleton didn't win a share of the record-breaking top prize, but he said Monday that he did win some money. He's not sure how much because he hasn't gone through all of his tickets yet.


My only beef is that athletes and entertainers shouldn't play to let someone needy have a better shot at winning the top prize.

William Andrews jailed on child support charges

Former Atlanta Falcons running back William Andrews was jailed in Cobb County Friday on a civil contempt charge.

Andrews, 56, of Alpharetta, allegedly failed to pay child support and was arrested Thursday afternoon by a Cobb County deputy, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office told the AJC. Andrews was being held without bond Friday afternoon.


Andrews' criminal record includes arrests in Gwinnett, Cobb and DeKalb counties, records show.

On Sept. 19, 2004, the day the former Falcons running back was inducted into the Ring of Honor, he was in the Cobb County jail for contempt of court after failing to pay child support. Andrews spent much of 2006 in the DeKalb County Jail on theft by taking charges in an alleged loan fraud case.


Andrews was one of the better running backs in the league during the early 1980's and had a bruising style until a knee injury cut his career short after five productive seasons.

Bruce Pearl and Jimmy Collins call a truce

After a decades long grudge, former Illinois basketball assistant Jimmy Collins has forgiven former Tennessee head basketball coach, Bruce Pearl.

I wouldn't exactly call Collins forgiving Pearl but he did accept Pearl's apology when the two ran into each other in New Orleans Friday night.

If you don't know the story I'll give a cliff notes version of it. Pearl was an assistant at Iowa back in 1989 and Collins was an assistant at Illinois. Both schools were in a heated recruiting battle over the services of Chicago native Deon Thomas.

Pearl secretly recorded a conversation where Collins alledgedly offered thomas $80,000 and a Chevy Blazer. Illinois was hit with probation, Pearl and Collins were never on good terms, and Pearl eventually climbed the coaching ladder to Tennessee while Collins could only land the top job at Illinois-Chicago. Collins never bit his tongue when asked how he felt about Pearl and held a serious grudge against him. 

Eventually Pearl was done in at Tennessee for his own recruiting troubles and lying to NCAA investigators in a classic case of what goes around comes around.

Now it seems the two have made amends this past weekend.


"I saw Jimmy just before dinner about 7 p.m. on Friday; I put my hand out, and he shook it," Pearl, the former Tennessee men's basketball coach, said Sunday. "I told him I'm really sorry about what we all went through, and that Deon Thomas was a victim and there were a lot of victims.


"My apology was it was unfortunate it happened, and it hurt people, ultimately, including me."

" ... I looked up, he was walking toward me," Collins told ESPNChicago.com. "When he got to me, he started to apologize for what had happened. He made it clear that he was young and didn't understand things. He ended up saying he really felt bad because he knew Deon Thomas got hurt.

"The truth of the matter was it was fine. It was a guy who had gone through some changes, and as he's gotten older, he realized some things were wrong, and he apologized for it."

"I let it go; there's nothing I can do with what happened then," he said. "I'm not going around with a lot of hate in my heart. I'm not going to hold a grudge all your life."

I can see why Collins was cold as ice to Pearl, but it was the unspoken oath that Pearl broke that caused the rift between the two. Maybe after what Pearl went through at the end of his Tennessee tenure he could see what he did wrong. At least he reached out to Collins and wanted to make it right.

Book by private eye says O.J. Simpson didn't committ murder

This just in. Celebrity private eye, William Dear says that O.J. Simpson wasn't the killer in the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

Dear's book, “O.J. Is Innocent and I Can Prove It”, says that the real killer was O.J.'s oldest son, Jason.

Seriously, is this an April Fool's joke or something? I don't know, but Dear theorized why O.J. was innocent and  Jason was the one they should've been looking for.

Dear has spent 17 years de-constructing the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman on the night of June 12, 1994.


Digging through his prime suspect’s trash and abandoned storage locker, Dear says a treasure trove of circumstantial evidence points to the 41-year-old son.


According to Dear, among the items he found in the locker were a hunting knife, owned by the “overlooked suspect,” that forensic experts believe is the murder weapon never found by investigators and photos of Jason wearing knit caps similar to one at the crime scene that failed to be linked to his dad.


Dear questions why his suspect was never interviewed by police nor his fingerprints or DNA compared to unidentified ones at the crime scene.


Jason battled with “intermittent rage disorder” and assaulted his girlfriend two months prior to the murders, Dear claims.


He also contends that Jason confesses to having a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality and heavy drug use and cryptically declares “that this is the year of the knife for me” in his diary.


He could be right and I've always said that if O.J. didn't do it he knew who did. Maybe he put Jason up to it. I just don't know.

The worse part of it is that the families of Brown and Goldman have to think about this tragedy once again.

Luck's tutor says the Colts would be making a mistake by taking Griffin

Even with owner Jim Irsay saying that it's "up in the air" about whether the Indianapolis Colts select Robert Griffin III or Andrew Luck, I'd bet good money that the Colts select Luck with the first overall pick of the NFL Draft on April 26.

It almost seems like a foregone conclusion, but there are some that think the Colts should select Griffin over Luck. ESPN's Merill Hoge and NFL Films' Greg Cosell are amongst those in support of Griffin.

Andrew Luck's private quarterback coach, George Whitfield thinks if the Colts don't select Luck they'll be making a mistake. Remember that Whitfield also worked with Carolina's Cam Newton before the draft and he ended up being the top pick in last year's draft. So he might know what he's talking about.

"If they over-think this, they're going to make a mistake they'll regret for years,'' said George Whitfield Jr., Luck's private quarterbacks coach.

"He's constantly being categorized as being safe, the sure thing, almost to the point where it's a negative like there's a ceiling, no apparent way for him to get better,'' Whitfield said. "It's like they're describing a girl you've never seen as smart, witty, funny, consistent, without saying anything about her physically. It almost feels like they're looking at him as the guy with the least amount of negatives.

"Let me tell you: He's far from a finished product. He's very far along, but there are still things he's working on mechanically and there are lots of things he'll get better at by being in the NFL. People are now seeing him throw those intermediate and perimeter passes, and those are throws he's been dying to make. You don't think David Shaw (Luck's coach at Stanford) didn't want to make more of those perimeter throws or go downtown more during the season? But look at Stanford's skill position guys. You can only spend within the budget you have.

"But he's athletic. He's cat quick. He's strong. People are saying he's a prototypical pocket passer, like they're putting him in this category. But there's a lot more he can do.''

In my opinion, I think the Colts will select Luck and although I think both will contribute to their teams, Griffin is set up more for immediate success if he lands in Washington as expected. It's just unfair that Luck is going to be looked upon as the savior since I don't think he's cut out for that role. He'll be good, I just don't think Colts fans should expect the best out of him just yet.