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Strickland had been ruled ineligible by the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association after the association discovered he had played six games for Thayer Academy in Massachusetts as a ninth-grader before repeating the grade the following year at Winchendon Academy. (Incidentally, don't think that just because Strickland repeated a grade he's a dummy; he ended up with a 3.8 grade-point average.) Strickland, like James, was able to get a temporary restraining order that allowed him to play two more games, but the judge who issued that order eventually dissolved it, saying that if he ruled in Strickland's favor "the association will be flooded with applications for new appeals and waivers."

Amen to that. Regardless of whether you believe LeBron should be allowed to play despite taking the jerseys, I still say these cases should be decided by high school associations, not judges. I hope that LeBron's case doesn't set a precedent for other appeals to find their way to a courtroom, but I think we all know better.

Many of you also wrote to chastise me for calling North Carolina freshman Rashad McCants' recent swoon a "remarkable fall from grace." The most common refrain blamed McCants' troubles on a severely strained back. As Neill Wessell of Chapel Hill writes, "You should come down here and see this kid limp around campus. He is hurt, and hurt bad, but realizes that he can't give up because the team needs him."

Yes, I was well aware that McCants was hurt when I wrote what I did, but recent comments from both him and Matt Doherty suggested that McCants was also suffering from a crisis of confidence. As many of you pointed out, McCants later went for 21 points (and five assists) against Virginia. (He also scored 15 in the loss to Clemson last weekend.) Does that mean his back has suddenly and miraculously healed? At any rate, I do hope McCants finishes well, because the league is much more interesting with North Carolina as a force. (Oh, and I hate to break it to you Tar Heels fans, but I don't care how strong UNC's nonconference schedule was, a team that's 4-7 in its league does not get into the NCAA tournament.)

I also liked this question from John Tune of Traverse City, Mich.: "Any chance 7-foot, 255-pound junior Chris Kaman of Central Michigan will be considered for some All-America teams?" While Kaman has exploded for 21.8 points and 11.8 rebounds per game this season while leading the MAC in field-goal percentage, I highly doubt he'll receive serious All-America consideration because he plays for an unranked mid-major team. I am, however, happy to give Chris some love in Hoop Thoughts, which is almost as good.

Thanks to everyone who submitted his or her favorite acting performances turned in by a basketball player. I had mentioned former UCLA guard Michael Warren's turn in the movie Fast Break, but of course Warren -- arguably the best combination basketball player/actor in history -- also won notice portraying Officer Bobby Hill on the hit TV show Hill Street Blues. Props also go to Ray Allen (He Got Game), Julius Erving (The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh), Robby Benson (One on One), Meadowlark Lemon (Scooby-Doo Meets the Globetrotters) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Airplane, plus one episode of Full House). Ted McCallister of Dayton, Ohio, also pointed out that Harold Sylvester, who played D.C. in Fast Break, hooped for Tulane, which I didn't know.

Special props also go to a reader named Cheryl, who didn't give her last name even though she wrote to us all the way from Bangkok. (Much like David Hasselhoff is big in Germany, Hoop Thoughts is all the rage in Southeast Asia.) Cheryl informs me that in Fast Break, the part of Robert/Roberta James was played by Mavis Washington, who played basketball and volleyball for UC Riverside in the 1970s.

Also received a few more suggestions for my all-scandal team. My idea was to "honor" the interesting shadow figures instead of the athletes and coaches directly involved. All-scandal additions include: Myron Piggie, UCLA et al. (Nick Mullendore of Brooklyn, N.Y., thinks Piggie should be the team mascot); Jack Molinas, who ensnared Connie Hawkins in controversy (thanks to John Millard of Durham, N.C., for that one); and Benny Silman, the student bookie -- and, sadly, a MOT -- at the heart of Arizona State's point-shaving scandal (from Allan Quiling of Philadelphia).

Finally, here's our weekly Radiators roll call, the favorite songs of people who, like me, have dedicated their lives to The Radiators, New Orleans' greatest and funkiest band: Run Red Run (Frank Lynch, Reston, Va.), Molasses (Mike Wagner, Hagerstown, Md.), Long Hard Journey Home (Steve Martin, New Orleans), Good Things (Rob Mills, Santa Rosa, Calif.), Monkey Meat (Steve Young-Burns, Minneapolis) and Number Two Pencil (Chris Forinash, Arlington, Va.).

And our Reader of the Week award -- given to the person who best combines college hoops with The Radiators -- goes to Ken Steinberg of Memphis, Tenn., who picked up on my note that the Rads' Law of the Fish also worked well for the NCAA tournament ("Big ones eat the little ones, little ones got to be fast"). Ken suggests that teams on the NCAA tourney bubble pay heed to a lyric from the Rads song If Your Heart Ain't In It: "Your only limitation is your imagination."

Keep writing, Hoopheads and Fish Heads, and I'll see you next week!

Sports Illustrated staff writer Seth Davis covers college basketball for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Hoop Thoughts appears every Tuesday during the regular season. Davis' first book, Equinunk, Tell Your Story: My Return to Summer Camp, is available through Chandler House Press.

 

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