It's Not Plagiarism If You Link to It Saw You Twice at the Pop Show

We Like Hoi's In Cars.  We hadn't checked in with our old pal Catlab in a while.  Given the state of affairs at Kansas State these past couple of months, we just assumed he was preparing his magnum opus techno video on Brigham Young in which Ty Detmer's head would rotate around a purple dog headcover.

Turns out we were only slightly off-target: The music is less techno, more pop, and the topic is quite possibly the only man on earth whiter than Steve Young:

We're not huge fans of how conference realignment shook out, but if it means Team Catlab remains in the BCS and keeps cranking out their own little kind of batshit insanity, we can't complain.

Take a Deep Breath.  It's officially basketball silly season, as the Prime Time League offers the die-hards their first opportunity to see incoming recruits, to say nothing for offseason development of an extremely young team.  Of course, it's also the Prime Time League; when Brennan "Dessert Fox" Cougill was the #1 pick, you can safely say this isn't exactly stiff competition.

With that disclaimer, incoming freshman power forward Melsahn Basabe put up 29 points and 10 rebounds Sunday night in a loss to the team with Devyn Marble.  It was Basabe's second consecutive double-double, and it doesn't even reflect the level of athleticism he is bringing to the table; it's looking increasingly likely that Basabe will be the best pure athlete on the team the moment he puts on an Iowa jersey this fall.  Marble scored 30 points in opposition, with support from Cougill (18 points, 12 boards).  Matt Gatens and Cully Payne faced off, with Gatens scoring 26 against Payne's 20.  Possibly the biggest news (no pun intended, we swear) is that Cougs has dropped 13 pounds this spring and plans on getting down to 250 by the time the season opens.

Speaking of Season Openers, Iowa basketball has announced its non-conference slate for the 2010-11 season.  It is particularly yawn-inducing this year:

The Hawkeyes will face Illinois-Springfield in an exhibition at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Nov. 7. Iowa will open its regular season slate with a home game against South Dakota State on Nov. 14, then play Louisiana-Monroe two days later. First-year head coach Fran McCaffery’s squad will travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands to participate in the 2010 Paradise Jam tournament in St. Thomas, where the Hawkeyes will first play Xavier on Nov. 19. The Hawkeyes will undoubtedly face their toughest nonconference road test when they travel to Winston-Salem, N.C., to play Wake Forest on Nov. 30 in this year’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

The rest of Iowa’s non-league schedule includes home games against Idaho State (Dec. 4), Northern Iowa (Dec. 7), Iowa State (Dec. 10), and Louisiana Tech (Dec. 21). The team’s final road nonconference game pits the Hawkeyes against Drake on Dec. 18.

South Dakota State, Louisiana-Monroe, Idaho State, and Louisiana Tech are the requisite cupcakes, though the 16-game Big Ten schedule, when coupled with the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and the intrastate round robin, is limiting our exposure to the true dregs of college basketball.  The Paradise Jam (which sounds like a 2003 Matt LeBlanc vehicle) is intriguing:  Iowa opens with Xavier, then gets either Seton Hall or Alabama the next day.  With some smaller programs at the top of the bracket (pdf), the Hawks should get at least one win out of their three games in St. Thomas.  Put it all together, and it's not out of the question McCaffery gets 8 non-conference wins, effectively making it impossible for his team to be worse than last year's.

SHORTEYZ:

• Iowa State has won the right to host the 2013 NCAA Wrestling Championships.  Rather than subjecting everyone to Hilton Magic and attempting to shoehorn 20,000 people into the Ames Comfort Inn, they will host from the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.
• The Brut Sun Bowl is no longer the Brut Sun Bowl.  Iowa has twice played in the Sun Bowl, and while we're not sure if it was the Brut Sun Bowl when the Hawkeyes beat Washington in 1995 or lost to Arizona State in 1997, there is little doubt that the musky scent of a late-period Hayden Fry after five days in the West Texas desert surely would have led to the inevitable corporate sponsor.
• Law Buckeye at The Rivalry, Esq. examines the legal wrangling to come over Nebraska's Big 12 television payments for 2010.  It's been oft-reported that NU will claim anticipatory breach, which probably won't work in court but will survive summary judgment, meaning the Husker brass will have the opportunity to air all the Big 12's dirty laundry in open court if Dan Beebe doesn't make a deal.
• Hlas on the Landon Donovan goal against Algeria and its unifying effect, with that Youtube video that is now making the rounds.