What the hell are you doing here?  NEW WILCO NEW WILCO HOLY HELL YES IT'S NEW WILCO!!!!!!

(Yes, they are the only band that can make me write like Brewster.)

The "Guy Rucker Award for Living as a G" was presented to J.R. Angle at an earlier ceremony   Todd Lickliter announced that Jarryd Cole received the Chris Street Award for 2008-09:

Incoming junior forward Jarryd Cole was named recipient of the Chris Street Award for the 2008-09 basketball season. 

The Chris Street Award is presented annually to a Hawkeye player, or players, who best exemplify the spirit, enthusiasm and intensity of Chris Street.

"Jarryd was presented this award in the presence of his teammates and coaches before we left for our summer trip," said Coach Todd Lickliter.  "Jarryd is appreciative of the honor and understands the significance of receiving this very special award."

Yes, the Chris Street Award is so special to Lickliter that he forgot to mention its recipient until five weeks after he gave it out.  More importantly, is it time we start discussing the obvious bromance between Lick and Cole?  I know he recovered from an ACL tear and all, but back-to-back captaincies and the Chris Street Award to a guy who averaged 3.7 points and 3.0 rebounds per game?  Either Lickliter has a mancrush on his backup center, or Cole has incriminating pictures IT'S THE INTERNET LET'S SPECULATE.

Look away, nothing to see here   UI assistant athletic director Fred Mims, who has previously sent us a cease & desist letter (he's the reason why you can't get Stanzi shirts anymore) and is completely incompetent, denies the recent spate of alcohol-related football arrests is a sign of an epidemic:

"It’s not an epidemic in any sense," Mims said. "What we have is we have some people making poor choices."

Since mid-April 2007, 26 Iowa football players have been arrested or issued citations. Twenty of the players had charges or citations related to alcohol or drug use/possession.

Nine players were arrested for public intoxication, five for drunken driving and five were cited for underage possession of alcohol. Two were charged with drug possession. One player was charged for underage possession and public intoxication in another incident....

Mims rattled off a litany of alcohol programs aimed at student-athletes. In 2007-08 all new football players were required to attend an orientation that included high-risk drinking and take an online course on alcohol before arriving on to campus. The department brings in speakers who talk about alcohol and poor choices.

"I don’t know how much more programming one can do," he said. "We have probably one of the more intrusive programs in the country."

Yeah Fred, nothing grabs an 18-year-old football player's attention like an online course on the dangers of alcohol, taken before he hits campus and realizes he can drink for free in any of the 30-some bars within walking distance of his dorm room.  What's next, pamphlets?

Look, a vast majority of students at Iowa drink, whether they are of legal age or not.  Of that number, a significant percentage get a ticket or a night in jail at some point.  It's the ecosystem of Iowa City:  The students come to town and spend their parents' money in the bars, walk out of the bars at 2:00, do something stupid in the presence of the 147 cops on patrol, and give more of their parents' money to the city in the form of a possession ticket or public intox fines.  When you happen to be the size of a compact car and do something stupid, you stand out to the aforementioned 147 police officers even more.  Is there an epidemic of alcohol-related football arrests?  Not any more than there's an epidemic of alcohol-related arrests of the student body as a whole.  But that's not to say there's not an epidemic.

Caring Is Creepy, Part 1   Captain Kirk picked up a commit from Harlan defensive end Matt Hoch yesterday.  Hoch (3* Rivals, 3* Scout, ESPN 150 watch list), who was being pursued by ISU, Kansas State, Mizzou, and Stanford (Suck it, Bowlsby!), is the eighth commit of the spring; in contrast, at this time last year, Iowa had exactly one commitment.  He is also the seventh commit to project into the defensive front seven, a high number for a year where Iowa has just 18 scholarships to distribute.  Hoch's brother is an offensive lineman for Mizzou.

Caring is Creepy, Part 2   Ben Brust, a 6'2" shooting guard from Chicagoland, visited Iowa City yesterday, and said his decision could come as early as today.  Brust has narrowed his choices to Iowa, Northwestern, and Butler, but apparently Iowa has a silver bullet in Cully Payne:

Brust and incoming Iowa freshman Cully Payne are friends from the Chicagoland area. That could aid Iowa’s chances of landing Brust.

"It’s definitely nice having Cully around because I’ve known him for a while,"  Brust said. "It’s someone I can trust, it’s someone I know is going to tell me the truth and will be around for three years at Iowa, if I choose to come here."

It's hard to get excited about Iowa basketball right now, especially when we're fighting Butler and jNWU for recruits, but at least it's a start.  Right?  RIGHT?

Footnotes   Indiana finishes the renovation of the north end zone of Memorial Stadium; before kickoff, players will emerge from the new tunnel into the north end zone to find that nobody cares about Indiana football...Joe Sports Fan counts down the 7 worst sports movie endings of all time; after reading their logic, I can't disagree with #1...The Inimitable Mr. Swindle (which sounds like the latest Brad Pitt vehicle) gets his ass handed to him at ping pong.