Kentucky coach John Calipari nominated for a regional Emmy

John Calipari may win his first Emmy before his first national championship.

Hoops for Haiti, a telethon that raised more than $1.3 million for earthquake relief in Haiti, was nominated Wednesday for a regional Emmy in the category of special achievement in community service. Since Calipari conceptualized, organized and hosted the event while his Kentucky players helped man the phones, the Wildcats coach was one of the 12 people Lexington CBS affiliate WKYT submitted as part of its entry.

The most amazing part about the Hoops for Haiti telethon was that it was just a matter of two days between the time Calipari conceived it and the time that it aired, a testament to the power of Kentucky basketball. In between preparing for a road game at Auburn the day before the telethon, Calipari had to round up donors, auction items, gifts and anything else that would help create a 90-minute fundraiser in less than 48 hours.

"It may not have been fair to the fans of Kentucky," Calipari told Yahoo! Sports last year. "During the Auburn game, it was on my mind. It didn't affect how I coached or how we played or the comeback that Auburn made to make it close. It wasn't that. But when they made their run in the second half, I thought, 'We might have to do this after a loss and that's going to be tough.'"

Kentucky held on to defeat Auburn, but the telethon was the real victory of the weekend. It was an act of great vision and generosity from a man who may soon become college basketball's first Emmy-winning coach.

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CrossFit Four Corners

Alison Patenaude shares a simple, fun game that will keep CrossFit Kids moving.

Training Kids is about getting fit while having fun, so workout games are great for keeping young athletes engaged and moving.

Four Corners is fun fitness game that’s a little like musical chairs—without the chairs, of course. We want the kids moving, not sitting!

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Idaho coach uses flawed math to create the ‘Mountain WAC’

Idaho coach Robb Akey has never been called shy.

His candor and enthusiasm has made him one of the most entertaining and intriguing coaches in the FBS even if he does coach at Idaho.

That's probably why Akey wasn't shy to express his feelings about the upcoming WAC expansion vote and how he and other WAC football coaches weren't asked for their opinions on the matter. But that didn't stop Akey from telling the Idaho Press-Tribune exactly how he thought expansion should shake out after the board of directors meeting on June 14.

"I would like to see some strong football schools come into it. It needs to happen. We need to strengthen our conference, and we need to do it with football schools, because we're obviously losing a couple more at the end of this season. I wish they would let me have an opinion about this. Football coaches, we don't get to do this. ... What I think would be awesome would be if the survivors of the WAC Conference and the Mountain West would come together, I think that would be a 14-team deal in between the Mountain WAC, or whatever you would call those deals, you would have the best football on this side of the country."

Maybe no one asked Akey's opinion because of his math skills, which are way off when talking about combining the leagues.

If you drop Boise State, Nevada, Fresno State and Hawaii, who are all going to the Mountain West either this year or next, the WAC is left with five schools -- Idaho, Utah State, Louisiana Tech, San Jose State and New Mexico State. Add those five to the 10 football schools in the MWC -- after the WAC schools move over there -- and it would be 15 football schools. But wait, the WAC actually added Texas-San Antonio and Texas State as football members, so that would be 17. The WAC's only non-football school is Denver.

So actually, coach Akey, creating a "Mountain WAC" would result in a 17-team football league and the abandonment of new member Denver, which could probably go back to the Sun Belt. I'd like to see Akey come up with the scheduling for his new league, especially if he decides to leave three teams out of the mix altogether.

Akey, of course, isn't the first person to bring up the idea of combining the two leagues, but they did that before, it was called the (old) WAC. Once the Mountain West adds Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii at the end of the 2011-12 school year, it has absolutely nothing to gain by adding the rest of the WAC. It's already the stronger of the two leagues and adding those five or seven schools would do nothing but water down the product.

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Fittest of the Sierras

South Tahoe CrossFit recently hosted the Fittest of the Sierras Challenge at its box in California. The second annual event has grown to include 120 competitors from the surrounding areas and its organizers hope it will become the premier CrossFit competition on the West Coast.

Because this year’s competition was held during the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games Open, the organizers incorporated workout 11.4 into their programming as the first WOD.

“What better way to do the workout than to do it in, you know, a competitive atmosphere?” says Matt Johnson, owner of South Tahoe CrossFit.

After the AMRAP of bar-facing burpees, overhead squats and muscle-ups came a max snatch, and then another AMRAP of deadlifts/wall-balls after a 1000-meter row.

The athletes rave about their experience. Says one trainer, “I told my athletes, I said, ‘If you do one competition this year, this is the one you have to do.”

“Everyone’s helping each other do better, so it’s an awesome feeling and it’s an awesome event,” says another CrossFitter.

8min 43sec

Additional reading/video: Week 4 Workout.

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Headlinin’: Kelly still ‘optimistic,’ noncommittal on Floyd’s return

Making the morning rounds.

? In other words, he's still on track for the opener. Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said Tuesday he's "very optimistic" about star receiver Michael Floyd's progress toward fulfilling the criteria for returning from a DUI-related suspension in time for the season opener against South Florida. "He makes one mistake, in terms of how he handles himself, he doesn't play here ever," Kelly said before a "Football 101" event to raise money for breast cancer awareness and prevention. "There is no suspension, there is no sit for one game. He's got to live his life the right way. If he does that ? and all the signs point toward he's moving in that direction ? then I expect him to play every game."

On the legal side, Floyd is still seeking a plea agreement with the state by the end of the month to avoid possible jail time. [Chicago Tribune]

? We'll get back to you. A member of Ohio State's board of trustees said Tuesday the 18-member board will break its silence on the Buckeyes' ongoing football scandal sometime next week. "We're at the beginning of the beginning of what we're doing," said Robert Schotteinstein, a businessman and chairman of the board's audit committee. "If we could [release a fuller statement earlier] we would. It's not my style to be not forthcoming."

With coach Jim Tressel already out, the board's confidence remains critical to the futures of university president E. Gordon Gee and athletic director Gene Smith, whose initial description of Tressel's coverup of NCAA violations as "an isolated incident" that no one else in the department knew anything about means he was either a) Woefully out of touch with his most profitable program, or b) Lying. [Associated Press]

? Storm's a-comin' over Storm's a-goin'. The father of ex-Miami running back Storm Johnson described the restrictions placed on his son's transfer by the university as "modern-day slavery" motivated by an arbitrary grudge on the part of new coach Al Golden. "Any [Football Subdivision] school within six hours of his [Georgia] home has been blocked. UM should be ashamed for doing this to an 18-year-old," Wesley Johnson told the Miami Herald, noting that the university had barred Johnson from transferring to any of 26 specific schools in the ACC and SEC or appearing on future Miami schedules. "Storm and Al Golden didn't see eye-to-eye. Storm didn't approve of the military style he was being coached. He didn't hurt anybody. He did nothing but transfer."

Before his departure, Storm Johnson was one of a half-dozen 'Cane players reportedly suspended for at least the season opener for an undisclosed violation of team rules, though no suspension has been officially confirmed (or denied) by Miami. Golden's response to papa Johnson's rant: "[Storm] wasn't doing the things he needed to do. He can spin it any way he wants." [Miami Herald]

? Let's get it (back) on. After a decade-long hiatus, Penn State and Pittsburgh have agreed to renew their longstanding rivalry with a pair of home-and-home dates in 2016-17. The Nittany Lions and Panthers met on an annual basis throughout the 20th Century, with only two brief hiatuses (from 1932-34 and 1993-96) between 1900 and 2000, before Penn State decided an extra home game against Temple in even years was a better financial bet than a trip to Pittsburgh. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

? Rich get richer. On the recruiting trail, two prospects ranked among Rivals' top 100 overall for 2012 made in-state commitments Tuesday to SEC schools. In Alabama, 6-foot-2, 205-pound running back T.J. Yeldon, Rivals' fifth-ranked RB and No. 58 player overall, verbally committed to Auburn, giving the Tigers their third top 100 commitment to the '12 class. And in Florida, 5-11, 187-pound cornerback Brian Poole, Rivals' eighth-ranked corner and No. 75 overall player, became the second top 100 recruit to verbally commit to the Gators. [AuburnSports.com, InsidetheGators.com]

? Comings and goings. Maryland announced Tuesday that two likely backups, sophomore defensive tackle Zach Kerr and freshman receiver Nigel King, have been declared ineligible for the 2011 season, bringing the attrition since coach Randy Edsall took over in January to three transfers, two early departures by would-be fifth-year seniors and now two academic casualties. "It is what it is. I'm not one of those guys that is going to go around and say 'woe is me' or anything like that," Edsall said. "You put your plan in place and if something happens you have plans in case you have to move somebody or do those sort of things." [Baltimore Sun]

Quickly… Russell Wilson's decision on a new school could be coming today. … Like everything else, mock draft love is motivation for Matt Barkley. … A dissenting opinion on Phil Fulmer's bid for Tennessee athletic director. …A top Vol blogger quits his job. … And apparently Cody Hawkins is the best quarterback the United States has to offer to the rest of the world in the International Federation of American Football Senior World Championship.

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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A DIALOGUE BETWEEN IMAGES IN DISCUSSING JAY PATERNO'S TWITTER

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Is transfer Ryan Harrow Kentucky’s next great point guard?

If Arizona earned the nickname "Point Guard U" in the 1990s for producing a string of elite players at the position, it may not be long before Kentucky usurps it.

Coach John Calipari landed another highly touted point guard late Wednesday night to go along with former Wildcats stars John Wall, Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight and promising incoming freshman Marquis Teague.

NC State transfer Ryan Harrow, a former top 50 recruit, selected Kentucky over Georgia, Louisville and Texas, among others. The sophomore-to-be will have to sit out all of next season but will have three years of eligibility remaining starting in the 2012-13 season.

It's easy to see why Harrow would be enamored with a point guard-friendly system like Kentucky's after spending a year in Sidney Lowe's structured, methodical system. Harrow started just 10 of the 29 games he played as a freshman at NC State and averaged 9.3 points and 3.3 assists, eventually growing frustrated that he was unable to fully showcase his creativity, passing or quickness getting to the rim.

There are plenty of benefits for Kentucky too even if Harrow's slight frame and erratic jump shot make him less of a sure thing than some of his can't-miss NBA lottery-bound predecessors.

First of all, Harrow's presence will give Teague a worthy practice adversary next season, something Kentucky would have otherwise lacked. Secondly, he may be better than any point guard prospect the Wildcats could have attracted from a 2012 class that appears unusually weak at the position.

What will be most intriguing watching Harrow at Kentucky is seeing if he's willing to follow a very different path than previous Calipari point guards.

Will Harrow have the patience and self-awareness to be the rare Kentucky point guard willing to remain in Lexington a few years and grow under Calipari's tutelage? And will Calipari embrace Harrow as his potential starting point guard for two or three seasons or try to recruit over him if the opportunity presents itself?

The answers to those questions will probably determine whether Harrow and Kentucky turn out to be a good longterm fit.

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