DG146 - Part 1

With the first pick in the 2013 NFL draft the Arizona Cardinals select Matt Barkley.

That was the forecast by my crystal ball a couple of days before the start of the 2012 NFL season. But as we know now, Barkley played himself out of the top spot in the draft (and out of the 1st round altogether) with a good but not great senior season as the QB at USC. And the Cardinals? They played themselves out of the top spot too, finishing the season with a better record than 5 other teams.

But that's OK, because it allowed them, with the 7th pick of the 1st round, to have the honor of selecting the first player with dreads in this year's draft. Just as desperate for help on the offensive line as they were at quarterback, the Cardinals picked former North Carolina G Jonathan Cooper. NFL teams usually show very little love for interior offensive linemen in the draft; but apparently Cooper, a 6-foot-2, 312-pounder, is so highly rated as a prospect that not only is he expected to start on opening day, there's already talk of him having Hall-of-Fame potential. Have fun living up to that kind of hype, Coop.

The 2013 draft didn't have as much dread star power as 2012, when 5 of the top 15 players picked (and a total of 7 in the 1st round) had dreads. This year Cooper was the only player with dreads selected in the top 15 and the first of 5 selected in round 1. But the grand total of 36 players with dreads for the entire draft not only easily surpassed last year's total of 30, I think it also is an all-time high for any draft.

DG146 - Part 2

Part 2 of dread gallery #146 features the rookies for teams in the AFC North, NFC North, and AFC South. We'll begin with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I doubt that the Steelers' front office saw my Week 21 dread news report back in February; but with the players they drafted, you might think they did. I gave the Steelers a C- grade for their dreads in 2012, the only team in the division worse than an A-. But that grade is sure to be a lot better in 2013 because of the 9 players they drafted, five (!) have dreads.
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1. Jarvis Jones' dreads made a great showing at Georgia's pro day on Mar. 21, but apparently Jarvis Jones the player did not. Expected to be the first player with dreads drafted, Jones' stock plunged after he didn't run as fast as the scouts wanted him to, and he ended up not being selected until the Steelers took him with the 17th pick in the 1st round.

DG145

Dread gallery #145, our final look at the 2012-13 season in College Basketball, covers the final two weeks of March - featuring players on teams good enough to be invited to one of the four postseason tournaments. And there will be a few special extras as well.
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After a disastrous 3-game losing streak at just the wrong time ruined their chance to make it to the NCAA Tournament, Louisiana Tech took their 26-6 record to the NIT, where they were seeded #5 in one of the four regions.

1. Sophomore G and St. Petersburg, FL, native Kenneth Smith defends against G Michael Snaer as Louisiana Tech takes on #4 seed Florida State in an NIT 1st-round game on Mar. 19 at Tallahassee.

DG144

There are two more dread galleries to go in our look at College Basketball 2012-13, and both feature the month of March. Dread gallery #144 covers the first half of March, including action from the end of the regular season and the conference tournaments. For those players whose seasons ended with losses in their conference tournament, I'll include their stats for this season (unless I already did so in my dread news report).
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1. Sick sophomore David Rivers and C Andre Almeida of Nebraska pressure 7-0 C A.J. Hammons of Purdue during the 1st round of the Big 10 tournament at Chicago on Mar. 14. Rivers had 4 points and 6 rebounds before fouling out in 24 minutes as the Cornhuskers, seeded 10th after a 5-13 finish in the regular season, defeated 9th seeded Purdue, hanging on after nearly blowing a 48-39 lead to win 57-55.

DG143

The month of February is featured as we continue looking at action from the 2012-13 season in College Basketball. Let's start out West.
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In their televised first meeting on Jan. 10 I found out that both Northern Colorado and Montana State each have a player with dreads. And in their second meeting on Feb. 9 ......
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1. Freshman G Marcus Colbert goes to the basket early in 1st half, but this layup is about to be blocked by #22, F Tim Huskisson. Colbert hit 1 of 4 from the field in the game, finishing with 5 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists.