...the men's basketball team barely scraped by San Francisco after holding a 23-point lead.  The Dons, who just announced Eddie Sutton will be their interim coach, cut the lead to five a few times in the second half, but were thwarted by the efforts of Luke Harangody and Tory Jackson, who both had double-doubles.  Harangody pulled in 10 boards to go with his 23 points, while Jackson got the first double-double of his career with 15 points and 10 assists.  There's nothing else really notable in the box score, and the Irish have two games left against Brown and North Florida before opening up Big East play against Bob Huggins and the West Virginia Mountaineers on January 3rd.  

(In case you were wondering, our schedule strength is at 288 by Sagarin and 193 by Ken Pomeroy.  How we go through a non-conference slate without playing Purdue, Michigan, Indiana, UCLA or Southern Cal is beyond me.)

... Darius Walker - our Darius Walker- was the leading rusher in a NFL game with 66 yards, thanks to an injury to Joseph Addai and the Colts lack of a need to throw to anybody as they rolled the Texans.  He also had six catches for 44 yards, while the Packers' Ryan Grant popped off another big run - this one 66 yards - for Green Bay's only score in a costly loss to the Monsters of the Midway.

...there are some rumblings on the recruiting front about Omar Hunter, but that's not my area of expertise, plus it is all gossip anyway, enough to cause insanity.  Read about it here and here, then get back to me on signing day.

...the bowl season has been a pretty enjoyable one thus far, as one Notre Dame opponent, Navy, lost by a field goal to Utah after a late interception stunted their rally, while another, Purdue, won one a game-ending field goal over Dan LeFevour and the Central Michigan Chippewas 51-48.  Curtis Painter went off, throwing for 546 yards and three touchdowns, although in typical Painter fashion, also tossed two picks.  

The first Irish conquest of the season, UCLA, fell as time expired to BYU when their chip shot field goal was blocked.  As you can guess, the BruinsNation folks are still not happy as their coaching search appears to have possibly boiled down to current defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker against UCLA alum Rick Neuheisel.  See two current and future Irish opponents square off tomorrow evening as Michigan State and Boston College square off in the Champ Sports Bowl at 5:00.