Sorry I’ve been quiet the past week or so. Had some stuff to take care of in the real world.

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The Orlando Predators are currently sitting 5-7 with four games left in the regular season. That includes home games this Friday against Alabama, and on Saturday night, July 24, against Oklahoma City. The game on Friday night will air on NFL Network, and of course tickets are available. Game time is 8pm.

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The Kraze are 4-3-2 right now. Their next game is this Friday at Showalter Field in Winter Park. Game time is 7pm.

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The Florida Tuskers is planning the big kickoff for their Supporters Club. It will happen next Tuesday, July 13, at Ember, a high-end bar and grill in Downtown Orlando at 42 W. Central Blvd. There is parking right next door at 55 W. Central Blvd. (no, that’s not the 55 West… that’s a couple blocks south on Church St.)

Drink specials and complementary appetizers will be provided.

The Tuskers have not been sitting around in terms of personnel decisions. They have signed running back Dominic Rhodes. That name ought to be familiar. It’s the same guy who saved Peyton Manning’s hind quarters by rushing 113 yards with one touchdown in Super Bowl XLI. For his NFL career, he has 7,257 all-purpose yards with 32 TD.

Their provisional roster, which they will take into preseason training camp, was announced last Wednesday.

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The only recent news on the Orlando Titans is that they recently reshuffled their ownership structure. The primary owner, Gary Rosenbach, has sold some of his stake to other ownership partners.

Team president Steve Donner said there is interest in bringing in local partners. I’m certain we’ll get news when that happens.

The team stated there are no major difficulties with our NLL lacrosse team. Although not profitable their first year (what team is?), they did do better this year than during any year in New York City. Their financial goal is to break even during their third season in town.

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As for UCF… I scooped that Jeffrey Jordan would join his brother, Marcus, at UCF for men’s basketball. This was made official last week. He’ll sit out this coming season, and play his senior season, 2011-12.

Women’s basketball announced just today that assistant coach Courtney Locke has been promoted to recruiting coordinator. Locke has been an integral part of head coach Joi Williams-Felton’s staff. She played at Rutgers from 2002-2006.

It should be noted that all five starters in women’s basketball, and 4 of 5 starters in men’s basketball, return next year. So there are high hopes for improvement in 2010-11.

Season tickets for UCF football are on sale now. General season tickets are $190 on the sidelines and $130 in the end zone. Both prices are lower than the first-year prices in 2007 ($210 anywhere). Faculty/staff pricing is $156, and student pricing is $60 with valid UCF ID.

In baseball, Chris Duffy is being named first-team All-American by everybody: ABCA/Rawlings, Baseball America, NCBWA, and Yahoo! Sports, among others. Whether or not he wins the Golden Spikes Award (for which he’s one of 5 finalists) will be announced next Tuesday prior to the MLB All-Star Game.

Owen Dew signed his tender with the Cleveland Indians, and will report to Short-A Mahoning Valley in the New York-Penn League. Shane Brown signed with the Yankees, and will report to Short-A Staten Island in the same league.

Chris Duffy has been assigned to the rookie-level Gulf Coast League by the Phillies, meaning he’s playing in Clearwater. (Interestingly enough, he’s not the only Chris Duffy in the Phillies system.)

We got official word today: The UCF Knights men’s basketball team will play a game at the new Amway Center in 2010-11.

The first collegiate game played at Amway Center will be a match against the Florida Gators on Wednesday, December 1.

Entitled the Florida Citrus Sports Shootout, the game will have tickets ranging from $15 to $100, with lower bowl tickets starting at $15.

Apparently, Michael Jordan likes UCF.

His younger son, Marcus, already plays here. Now his older son, Jeffrey, is transferring to UCF from Illinois. A point guard, he will sit out next year, then play his senior year in 2011-12.

In addition, Josh Crittle is transferring in from Oregon. A power forward, he will also sit out next year, and will have two years of eligibility remaining.

It just came down an hour ago that, according to multiple sources, offers have been made to four schools–two in the Big XII and two in the Big East–to join the Big Ten Conference.

The Big XII teams are believed to be Missouri and Nebraska. The Big East teams are believed to be Notre Dame (which is a football independent) and Rutgers.

Missouri has admitted negotiating with the Big Ten, but denies an offer has been made. Nebraska called it a mere rumor, denying any negotiations. Rutgers has no comment on the matter, saying they are currently dedicated to the Big East. Nothing from Notre Dame thus far.

If Notre Dame accepts (they have spurned the Big Ten before), then they will offer to a fifth school and expand to 16 teams. If Notre Dame declines, we will see whether they leave it at 14, or make offers to two more schools.

Assuming everything goes through, and an expansion plan is approved by the conference presidents at their next meeting on June 1, this will lead to the next round of conference realignments.

This will also open a door for UCF.

It’s obvious. Not only does UCF desire being in a BCS automatic-bid conference, and the Big East in particular, but analysts think UCF would be a good fit for the Big East. Plus, it would ram the War on I-4 back down USF’s throat.

The strongest words of UCF’s desires came from new men’s basketball coach Donnie Jones at his introductory press conference, when he said point blank he wanted to get the team to the Big East.

If at least Rutgers accepts the offer from the Big Ten, they might just get their wish.

According to his and Marcus Jordan’s Twitter accounts, UCF basketball player A.J. Rompza has been hospitalized in Chicago for unknown reasons. He was back in his home town for a two-week post-term break.

Now, considering he was well enough to use Twitter, it’s not likely life-threatening. But again, the nature of his hospitalization is unknown. I’ll have more as I get it.

EDIT: apparently, he suffered a minor seizure.

UCF basketball got a major piece to their puzzle by picking up Moraine Valley Community College power forward Dwight McCombs.

McCombs, who played prep ball at Whitney Young High School along with A.J. Rompza, was heavily recruited by him and Marcus Jordan (who transferred to Whitney Young after McCombs graduated). Last year, he led his team with 22.3 points and 13.3 rebounds per game, and led the NAJCAA Division II with 5.1 blocks per game. At 6′ 8″ tall and 240 pounds, he will be the biggest man on the Knights in 2010-11, and he has a wingspan of 7′ 4″ and vertical leap of 42″.

Kind’ve reminds one of a certain center for a certain local NBA team, doesn’t it? Or at least a local power forward on a not-so-local NBA team.

McCombs tried to enter Miami-Ohio in 2007-08, but couldn’t cut it yet at D-I, so he transferred to the community college, where he’s developed quite nicely. Now he thinks he’s ready for the big time.

Head coach Donnie Jones said that, with UCF’s current lack of size inside, McCombs has a good chance of starting if he works hard to get himself up to the D-I competitive level.

I saw something come across on the Twitterverse recently that made me think. And it may be the most accurate argument in the whole search for “the next Michael Jordan”.

Michael Jordan did something that neither Kobe Bryant nor LeBron James will ever be able to claim: MJ never lost an NBA Finals series. The only one of the “next Michael Jordans” who can claim this is Dwyane Wade, but he’ll need to win a few more before he can reach that level.

But Michael also won all his titles with the same team. D-Wade is rumored to want to leave the Heat, which is totally different in his prime than MJ un-retiring to play a couple inconsequential years with the Wizards.

Check and mate. There will be no other “Michael Jordan”, and I am sick of the media trying to find “the next Michael Jordan”.

Although you know they’ll keep trying. Next up: Kevin Durant.

I want to refer people to the Orlando Sentinel. On Thursday, George Diaz wrote a column about Miguel “Mike” Cuellar, a Cuban former MLB pitcher who was dying of stomach cancer in ORMC. He died yesterday, aged 72.

Cuellar came to America before Castro took over in his homeland, and made his MLB debut in 1959. He made it to stay in 1964. His first big year was 1966, when his 2.22 ERA for the Houston Astros was second in the NL only to Sandy Koufax.

He is best remembered for his stint with the Baltimore Orioles, where he won the Cy Young Award in 1969 and led them to a World Series championship in 1970. He was also top 10 in MVP voting in both 1969 and 1974, and in 1970 he became the first player to hit a grand slam in Championship Series play.

(That’s hit, not give up. That a pitcher who hit .115 for his career did this is even more phenomenal. Though he did hit 7 regular-season homers in his career. Carlos Zambrano he was not, but it’s not like it was a complete bolt from the blue.)

Cuellar finished his 14-season career in 1977 with a 185-130 record, with a 3.17 ERA and 1,632 strikeouts. He had 20 or more wins four times, including a league-leading 24 in 1970, leading a pitching staff that had an unprecedented four 20-win starters.

Cuellar’s friends are currently trying to get assistance to cover his funeral costs. He retired before players benefitted from free agency, and was living off a $3,100/month pension when he got ill.

I will have the UCF baseball series info when the last game goes final later this evening.

Wow. There is a lot of anger from Marshall fan over Donnie Jones’ move to UCF.

The following video requires a good sense of humor, because it features someone playing Adolf Hitler. This is actually a very popular meme. When they see something they don’t like, they run this clip from the 2004 Austrian film, Downfall, and subtitle it as if Hitler is reacting to it. Downfall is about the last days of Nazi Germany as Hitler’s regime literally crumbled around him.

For that reason, I am putting a page break here so people who do not want to see Adolf Hitler don’t have to. If you go down here, and you’re offended, don’t blame me. You were warned.

Read the rest of this entry »

At yesterday’s public press conference, new UCF men’s basketball head coach Donnie Jones made his goals very clear: he wants to advance the UCF men’s basketball program, and make it a winner. He said there’s a lot of room “to hang up a lot of different banners”.

Jones said that his admiration for UCF began long before he was offered a job, when he and Marshall walked into a near-sellout UCF Arena earlier this year for their conference game.

He has already set recruiting goals for the next four years, and the players threw their support behind him following a locker room meeting just before the presser. According to A.J. Rompza, none of the players are talking about leaving the program. They are prepared to run with coach Jones and to win here.

To make this signing possible, UCF spent $400,000 to buy out the last year of Kirk Speraw’s contract, and $500,000 to buy out Jones’ contract at Marshall. Jones signed a new five-year contract with UCF which will see him make $500-600 thousand in base salary plus performance bonuses.

Orlando Sentinel sportswriter Mike Bianchi points out that Jones mentioned a possible school move to the Big East without it being brought up by reporters first.