Web lists worthy of fun debate for fans

PITINO NEEDS LESSONS FROM LETTERMAN

By John Clay - Herald-Leader Sports Columnist

Random notes:

■ The sole reason sites like ESPN.com manufacture off-season posts such as this week's "THE GREATEST COLLEGE BASKETBALL PROGRAM OF ALL TIME RANKINGS" is to entice the type of reaction that causes multiple page views.

Kentucky came out on top in MIT whiz Jeff Sagarin's computer rankings, published by ESPN.com, which prompted hosannas from Kentucky basketball followers, and then outrage from those same followers that any media member might dare disagree with the findings.

But then, isn't that the whole point of the exercise, to spark a meaningless but fun debate over a truly unanswerable question?

For my money, Kentucky is the top program of all time. Yes, UCLA has more titles. Yes, North Carolina has great tradition and nearly as many wins. Yes, it could be argued that Kansas was the birthplace of modern college basketball.

But no program has sustained its success decade after decade � titles in 1948 and 1949, titles in 1951 and 1958, a runner-up finish in 1966, title in 1978, a Final Four in 1984, two more titles in 1996 and 1998 � like Kentucky.

■ If Rick Pitino had handled his extortion scandal with the same jocularity and self-deprecation that David Letterman has handled his extortion scandal, then maybe the Louisville basketball coach wouldn't be the subject of so much ridicule.

■ Can the NCAA please abolish those absurd celebration penalties? The fact that an erroneous celebration flag might have cost Georgia a victory last Saturday is surely reason enough to rescind a ridiculous rule.

■ By the way, I don't think Tim Brando is too far off with his implication that racial attitudes could play a part in who gets those celebration penalties.

Said Brando on the CBS SEC post-game show, "They don't want us to go more in-depth on why the SEC is throwing more (flags). I am telling you, it is a conversation, I don't want to have it, my friend Spencer (Tillman) does not want to have it, and I am telling you, watch out, because people are going to take a closer look at this, and it is not going to bode well for the league."

As Paul Westerdawg of Georgia Sports Blog asks: How many celebration penalties has Tim Tebow received?

■ Before you go hating too much on Mike Hartline's game last Saturday against Alabama, consider that the week before, Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett posted a meager 76.4 passer rating against the Crimson Tide defense. (Hartline's rating was 91.7 against the Tide.) Last Saturday, versus Texas A&M, Mallett posted a sparkling 188.8. Alabama's defense can do that to a quarterback.

■ Doubt the Bengals' 3-1 start if you want, but that overtime win last Sunday at hapless Cleveland is just the type of game previous Cincinnati squads handed away.

■ Five weeks into the season, Auburn's Gene Chizik is the SEC Coach of the Year.

■ Sad to say, but that trustee at Florida State calling for Bobby Bowden's retirement is right.

■ Cincinnati's Brian Kelly is to the Big East now what Bobby Petrino was to the Big East when he was at Louisville.

■ If Cincinnati runs the table, will the Bearcats be in the BCS title game? I don't think so.

■ Hear the news that George "Smiling Side of the Scoreboard" Grande is retiring after 17 years as the Cincinnati Reds' television play-by-play man? Louisville Bats broadcaster Jim Kelch would be my pick as successor.

■ Of course Brett "Drama King" Favre was going to rise to the occasion Monday night.

■ So John Calipari and son Bradley did not last past 3 a.m. in their effort to camp overnight at UK's tent city last weekend. And Calipari calls himself an outdoorsman? Oh, wait a minute, maybe that was Rich Brooks.