"I would never leave [Louisville] to go to another college. ... I had eight years in Camelot. Its the Roman Empire of college basketball." -- Rick Pitino, both insisting he will stay at Louisville and recalling his eight seasons at Kentucky
Ticket sales or loyalty
The Timberwolves are working on season-ticket and suite renewals for the 2007-08 season. The early results are horrendous. A frequent response has been: "I'm not going to commit until I find out if Kevin McHale is going to remain the basketball boss."
His status has become such a hot-button issue that a number of the team's ticketholders were invited to a gathering in which McHale opened himself up to any questions the audience wanted to ask.
McHale's theme was familiar: He doesn't want to leave with the team in subpar condition.
Unfortunately for the Wolves, it's already clear that -- if McHale stays -- season-ticket and suite sales will continue to plummet.
A month ago, owner Glen Taylor sounded as if he was ready to convince McHale to resign, with the triumvirate of Fred Hoiberg, Rob Babcock and Jim Stack sharing power in the basketball operation.
Now, sources in the organization say that Taylor is wavering. The owner could wait a few weeks after the season and see how bad things are with ticket sales before making a McHale decision.
Long recovery for Dee
Mike Dee was John Anderson's pitching coach with the Gophers for 11 seasons (1988-98). In July 1998, he became the head coach at Illinois-Chicago.
The Flames were down-and-out then, but they have become a Horizon League contender, with two NCAA tournament appearances in the past three seasons. They play in a 1,000-seat ballpark -- Les Miller Field -- on the edge of downtown Chicago.
"You look out to center field and feel like you can reach out and touch the John Hancock Building," Dee said.
Last November, the Flames were working out in an indoor facility. A bat flew from the hands of a player and smashed into Dee's face. "I was 25 feet away and paying no attention," he said.
The bat struck Dee on the left side of his face. He suffered a blowout fracture from above his eye, through his cheekbone to his jaw.
"A blowout fracture means the bones are gone -- splintered," he said. "The doctors' primary concern right away was that shards of bone had penetrated my skull. The doctors also thought there was a chance I would lose the eye.
"I was fortunate. The UIC hospital has some of the best eye surgeons anywhere. I have a little loss of vision and some loss of function in the eyelid. Overall, my eye came out of it very well."
The rest of his face did not. Dee underwent reconstructive surgery. There are 11 titanium plates permanently placed in his face.
"I could give a [Titleist] Pro V a pretty good belt with my face," he said.
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