The Morning Fade – 2.18.11

1. Big 12 all-academic teams announced – Of course Texas has four players on it. I wonder what the correlation is between number of athletes on conference all-academic teams and team ranking within that league. John Calipari would argue that it’s not very high but I’m curious nonetheless. Maybe when I have a free 400 hours I’ll put a chart together for the last 10 years. (Big 12 Sports)

2. Sports Illustrated has Kendall Hunter as its 40th ranked draft prospect – “Hunter lacks the size to be a feature runner in the NFL but has the makings of a Leon Washington-type player.” Interesting comparison, I like it. (SI)

3. Perfect Game has OSU as a #3 seed…in baseball – My question: if 8,000,000 analysts and publications can’t accurately predict the postseason of a mainstream sport that’s 2/3 of the way over with then why does this article on a sport whose season hasn’t even started yet think it can? Then again, I’ve scrolled through it twice so I guess they’re doing something right… (Perfect Game)

4. Jake Trotter with an OSU baseball preview – “The Cowboys finished last in the Big 12 and failed to win 30 games for the first time since 1977. Anderson, however, is hopeful the scholarship blight is near becoming a problem of the past, and is optimistic OSU is close to reappearing on the baseball map.” (News OK)

5. Mel Kiper releases his 2012 big board – We can all sleep more soundly tonight knowing this is floating around the internet! In all seriousness though he has Weeden at #4, Blackmon at #1, and Markelle Martin at #3 for their respective positions. Weeden and Blackmon are obvious, you don’t need a fancy haircut and big-time job to rank those, but Markelle is curious. I guess I didn’t realize what his pro potential was, I just always knew him as the guy who tried to physically debilitate everyone he ever played against. ( ESPN )

I know this isn’t Twitter but my gosh how badly is this going to end? I can see a YouTube video of 50+ diehards wearing Lions #20 jerseys lighting themselves on fire while Robert Allen narrates surfacing in the next 12 months. Seriously, I can.

Dez Bryant with a nasty left-handed windmill dunk in some random gym with some random guy…

Simmons released his annual trade value column yesterday and it’s predictably phenomenal. There’s also more information about his long-awaited secret project release this Spring. Utah St. put up 100 and their famed student section (featured in today’s podcast) chanted at the two backboards that were broken during the game. Lastly, Mark Cuban is very serious about his college football playoff project.