It's PJS' birthday. I'm older and still not good at shooting free throws. So, this is going to be quick.

The nickname conversation went well yesterday. I'm partial to Colt 45, Absolute Zero (Nolen) and DJ Swat. Objections? Other nominations? I really, really like Absolute Zero. Colt 45 seems too obvious to me. But as someone pointed out below, he's obviously desirous of this namesake, else he wouldn't have been granted (asked for?) #45.

• The Cornell Basketball Blog posts here an update on the Cornell Big Red and a semi-preview of the game Saturday against the Gophers (live blog here of course). We should take the Big Red lightly. They went into Jim Boeheim's house and played with the Orange for 40 minutes Wednesday night before losing by 10.
• Rivals' Bob McLellan had this observation about the basketball team: "Tubby Smith's Minnesota Golden Gophers have only one player averaging double figures in scoring, but they have eight players averaging at least 5.0 points and a ninth averaging 4.9 points. Guard Lawrence Westbrook leads the way at 14 points. The surprise so far has been former three-star prospect Colton Iverson, a 6-10 freshman who is third on the team in scoring (9.4 ppg) and leads the Gophers in rebounding (4.9 rpg). Iverson led the Gophers with 14 points and seven rebounds in their 66-56 win over Virginia in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge."
• I have to prefice this by saying the UofM folks have been incredibly kind to us here at The Daily Gopher, probably because many of you make this a daily stop. But I have to offer some constructive criticism. This blog post on Gophersports.com regarding the football team's season is titled "Tremendous Turnaround." A great turnaround indeed. But must we always use the word tremendous?
• Ralph Sampson III gets the lead in this Detroit News Big Ten notebook.
• HoopAddict's 50 Reasons to be Excited About College Basketball was a good read. Number 16 made me smile: "Wisconsin having another 30 win season: Only for us to realize once again that a team that starts four slow white guys doesn’t win many NCAA Tournament games."  Also, #21 discusses BJ Mullens' pencil thin mustache and Tubby Smith gets a mention.