"It Girl" of the week: Kimmy Maxx

The Just Sports & Just Us "It girl" of the week is Kimmy Maxx.

Louisville's Russ Smith returning to school

After Louisville won the national championship, Cardinals guard Russ Smith had announced his intentions to go pro. Well it was more his dad than Smith, as he seemed to be on the fence about leaving for the NBA.

After a few weeks of "sleepless nights", Smith had a change of heart and will be returning to Louisville for his senior season.

At a press conference Smith admitted to not being a surefire firs round pick and his love for Louisville.

"Obviously I wasn't a clear-cut first-round pick, so coming back for me was because of coach, my teammates, the Louisville campus and community and graduating," Smith said. "I never really got an official goodbye, so that stuck with me. I want to do senior night. There were just a lot of things as a person that I want to do."

Smith's return makes the Cardinals a threat to repeat as national champions. Louisville will be loaded on the perimeter with Smith, Luke Hancock, Wayne Blackshear and perhaps Kevin Ware on the wings and newcomers Chris Jones and Terry Rozier combining to run the point. Gorgui Dieng's departure leaves a void in the middle, but Chane Behanan will be back at power forward and Montrezl Harrell showed enough flashes of promise as a shot blocker and rebounder to suggest he may be ready for an increased role.

With Jones and Rozier coming in it's doubtful that Smith will get to show that he's an NBA ready point guard to scouts, but Smith likes winning so that probably doesn't matter too much to him.

"I love to win," Smith said. "With the group we have coming back, I want to go out as a winner, as well as to get my degree."

Look for Louisville along with Kentucky and Michigan State to be at the top of the polls once the college basketball season starts.

Colts' Dwayne Allen "can't stand the draft"

Every player eligible for the NFL Draft just wants to hear his name called and be given a chance to compete at the highest level of their sport. While some will consider it a dream no matter where they're drafted, some will come in with a chip on their shoulder due to where they were drafted at.

Indianapolis Colts tight end Dwayne Allen falls into the latter category. Allen was an All American tight end at Clemson and was the winner of the John Mackey Award which is given to college football's top tight end. The draft advisory panel gave him a first round grade, but when the draft rolled around he ended being picked in the third round. Allen wasn't too pleased with his draft experience.


“I want to say congratulations to all those guys whose dreams are going to come true,” Allen said of the 254 players who will be drafted. “But I won’t be watching.



“I can’t stand the draft.”

The Colts passed on Allen early in the second round when they selected quarterback Andrew Luck's college teammate Coby Fleener. He thought the Carolina Panthers would take him with their second round pick and the Panthers chose Midwestern State guard Amini Silatolu.

“A guy I had never heard of,” Allen said of the selection.

As the second round came and went Allen grew more upset.


Allen’s phone came to life. His eyes widened.

“Hold on for Mr. Irsay,’’ the voice at the other end said. “I was like, ‘(expletive) it’s the Colts,’ ” he said. “(Owner Jim Irsay) gets on and said, ‘Hey, Dwayne, we’re going to take you with the next pick. We’re excited to have you. Hold on for coach Pagano.’

“Coach starts talking to me and the entire time I’m emotionless. I was more pissed than anything else.”

Allen knew that he lost a few million dollars on his rookie contract so that explained why he was so upset. Not how most prospects watching the draft are thinking.

“You’re just watching as that money goes away,” Allen said. “You’ve never had it, but that doesn’t stop you from thinking, ‘Man, I’m losing money.’

Allen did admit to being kind of a jerk to Colts coaches and after thinking about it he realized that he was more fortunate than others and gave a call to tight ends coach Alfredo Roberts to apologize.

 “I apologized for my rudeness,” Allen said. “I told him I was ready to get to work and this was going to be the best pick you’ve ever made.

“It took me time to calm down and realize how much of a blessing it was just to get that phone call. How many guys are sitting at home and their phones didn’t ring?” 


    
Good thing that Allen did turn out to be the better than Fleener, but Allen is also lucky that the Colts didn't take his bad attitude personally when they called. If he can outperform his contract he'll end up making that money back and more.

Lions' Ronnell Lewis arrested for his role in a bar fight

The Detroit Lions had seven offseason arrests last season. This offseason hasn't been too kind to the Lions either. They've had two so far after defensive end Ronnell Lewis was arrested in his role in a bar fight in Norman, Oklahoma over the weekend. 


Lions defensive end Ronnell Lewis was Tasered twice over the weekend and arrested on three misdemeanor charges for his role in an alleged bar fight in Norman, Okla., police said Tuesday.

The 22-year-old was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, public intoxication, and interfering with official procedure after fighting inside and outside a bar, according to an affidavit provided by police to NFL.com.

According to the report, Lewis was thrown out of the bar for fighting with another man, and the fight continued outside. Once officers arrived, Lewis failed to comply with commands to stop fighting and police Tased both men involved in the altercation.

Lions officials haven't had too much to say about the incident other than the normal we're gathering information quote.

 "We are aware of the incident involving Ronnell Lewis," the Lions said in a statement. "We are in the process of gathering more information and have no further comment at this time."

It never seems to stop with the reckless off field behavior. You don't want a team full of Boy Scouts, but they must exercise better judgement when they're away from the team.