Northwestern's prospects for 2005 just took a turn for the worse. Senior cornerback Jeff Backes and junior center Trevor Rees will not play this year, Backes because of a lingering shoulder injury and Rees because TREVOR CAN'T READ. Both were projected to start--Backes was also one of the Big Ten's best kick returners. File this under "only at Northwestern": Backes' next stop is medical school.

Rees is a major loss. Northwestern graduated three starters off the line last year and Rees was one of two returners (LT Zach Strief the other). Now the Wildcats have to scramble for a replacement. Gabe Watson: licking chops. Also probably his plate.

At three tomorrow, Frozen Four bids through 2012 will be doled out, according to USCHO's front page. That means that *four* bids will be given out to the six bidding cities (St. Paul, Boston, DC, Tampa, Philadephia, and Detroit). What can that mean? I don't know. But I do know that I'm going to be seriously pissed if Detroit doesn't get a bid. Michigan, home to eight D-I programs, hasn't hosted the Frozen Four since 1990.

Boston and St. Paul got bids. They just did. They'll always get bids. That leaves DC, Tampa, Philadelphia, and Detroit fighting for two. I can't think of a reason that they would change plans and extend four bids right now unless there was significant friction from an important part of the committee, and the only bid that could seriously put up a complaint is Detroit. DC, Tampa, and Philly have no programs in close proximity and are in states that have no hockey tradition at all. I think what happened is this: the committee picked three cities, Michigan hockey threw a hissy fit, and the committee caved: Detroit will get a bid.

Just speculation, but we'll find out tomorrow afternoon.

Dhani Jones is profiled in SI Players. Things you should know about him:

• He owns a bow tie company.
• He's putting together a photo project called "Face of Communism in the 21st Century."
• He's one of People's 50 hottest bachelors.

Dude? Dude.

Frank Deford further confirms that the correct answer to the question "When is Frank Deford going to die?" is definitely "Not soon enough." In his meandering, useless column bitching about the fact that there aren't any charismatic stars in the NBA finals he leaves us with this gem:

"The two teams who will play for the championship tomorrow night, San Antonio and Detroit may well be the best two teams in the league, but, sorry, nobody's paid any attention to them. It's a ghost championship. The NBA would've fared much better if, say, Cleveland had played Philadelphia."

Riiight. Because the NBA finals are often between teams in the Eastern conference. And if people not caring damns a sport, then I think we can deep six horse racing, not to mention tennis. Can we schiavo this guy? He's clearly a vegetable.

End of the Bench has proposals for the new NBA CBA that mgoblog is bang behind, especially the "Don't start Finals games at 9:18" one, because my eyes look like Stuart Scott's this fine Game Seven Eve.

Internet consensus appears to be that Dorin Dickerson will chose Pitt in the near future. Pitt Sports Blather says so--partially by referencing mgoblog and the recent recruiting comments. They also have a better source than this here website:

"Keystone Recruiting has learned that a Thursday press conference has been called by West Allegheny wide receiver Dorin Dickerson to announce his college decision. The 6'2" 212-pound Dickerson will choose between Pittsburgh and Michigan, though sources close to the situation are indicating that he will choose the Panthers. Dickerson is considered one of the best athletes in the country and was offered by over twenty schools, including such elite programs as Penn State, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio State, LSU, Nebraska, Purdue, Michigan State, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Virginia."

Too bad for us, since Dickerson is a top-100 guy, but not devastating given Mario Manningham, Antonio Bass, etc. Hopefully this doesn't indicate a sea change in western PA recruiting. Michigan has had much success there over the past half-dozen years. mgoblog doesn't think this is the case, as there were a lot of things pulling Dickerson to Pitt (proximity, best friend already a Panther, son of coach the starting quarterback, formidable Michigan depth chart) that won't apply in most cases.

Well, tonight's it. Bill Walton is busy proclaiming the Pistons to be the worst NBA team since the inception of the league. The knives have come out for Rasheed Wallace. People are seriously talking about Robert Horry in the Hall of Fame.

And I wasn't going to post on the thing again until I thought up the title. Anyway.

Rasheed is not the devil again. He screwed up. Real bad. And his offensive numbers this series have not been spectacular, but I think people are going a little overboard. Yes, very, very dumb. But Rasheed is very important to the team and his defense has been great... save for that. Game 5 was a bad game. If Game 6 is another and the Pistons bow out, I really hope the town doesn't turn on him--Rasheed, being Rasheed, is very easy to turn on--because we've seen that song before in Portland, and that ended ugly. Rasheed is Rasheed.

Brown? Carcajou suggested that maybe the three-time DPOY should have been on Horry instead of Rasheed and that he was getting a free pass here. Maybe. But it should have been a simple matter of saying "Sheed, do not leave Horry or I will castrate you." Rasheed is an adult. He is not retarded. When you tell a not retarded adult to do something simple and they don't do it, that's on the tellee, not the teller.

What of Hamilton? Lost in the Sheedaclysm is the fact that Hamilton is getting P3WNED by Bruce Bowen. That's partially because Bowen should be fouling out in about six minutes a game, but there's no excuse for letting him blow by you for easy layups. Hamilton can't do anything about the fact that he's getting fouled every ten seconds but if he plays a little better defense on one of the worst offensive players in the league, Horry's three is a noble but futile effort.

Drinky. mgoblog will be at Leopold's tonight for beer and game. Feel free to drop by and introduce yourself if you feel inspired. I will be the guy with the long flowing locks and glasses who is swearing like Courtney Love at the officials. Just don't get creepy about it.