I am clearly a curse of death for any college basketball team. Without a word of exaggeration, my plan for tonight was sit down and write a piece about Syracuse basketball. With a win tonight over Cleveland State they would be 10-0 for the first time in a long time, and their combination of talent, outstanding coaching and expectations tempered by a tough conference set them up very well as a sleeper in my book. It was going to be good. But then I fired up my computer, looked at the scoreboard, and felt my heart sink. See, Syracuse was favored by 10.5 at home over Cleveland State, but they forgot to show up and lost to a late three pointer. That’s yet another team to add to the list of teams that flounder and fall as soon as I jump on the bandwagon. The loss could be worse for Syracuse, I guess – Cleveland State was only 6-4 coming into the game, but they had been well tested, with games against teams like West Virginia, Butler, Kansas State and Washington under their belts. They were a perfect 0-4 against that group, though, so there really wasn’t an excuse. I obviously don’t think that this is reason enough to write of Syracuse, but they have a bit to prove before I believe in them again.

Reggie Theus was dumped by Sacramento today. That’s just a couple of days after Maurice Cheeks was let go by the Sixers. I’m not sure that there is a less stable job in the world than coach of an NBA team. Except maybe for Governor of Illinois. The difference between the two moves is that the Sixers stand a chance of getting much better after the change, whereas the Kings stand no chance whatsoever. You have to have talent to win in the NBA, and right now Cleveland State has about as much talent as the Kings. I really hope that the betting public thinks the Sacramento move matters, because that will provide good value for my certainty that it won’t.

Ken Dorsey is a really, really bad quarterback. That opinion was formed when he was at Miami, and hasn’t changed a bit since. His next good play tonight will be his first in about five years.