Some might say I have it out for University of Michigan football head coach Rich Rodriguez.  They could have a point; I have friends that are somewhat close to the West Viriginia University program, so in some sense I guess I feel a connection to the school, and he just generally has a history of acting like a slimeball.

But I may not be the only one that isn't too thrilled with the coach known as Rich-Rod.  During the Ohio State spring football preview luncheon this past Wednesday, Ohio State coach Jim Tressel took a few questions from the audience.  While Tressel isn't known for taking shots at others, he seemed to toss a barb Rodriguez's way in response to one of the queries:

"Is there a gentleman's agreement between Big Ten coaches that once a player verbally commits to a school, the other coaches are supposedly hands off?"

This was Tressel's answer, after about a one-second pause.

"I guess only between the gentlemen."

Speculation is that this was directed at Rodriguez, who signed a recruit named Ray Roundtree that had already given a verbal commitment to Purdue - an action that prompted Purdue coach Joe Tiller to call Rodriguez "a guy in a wizard hat selling snake oil".  Clearly old Rich-Rod is not endearing himself to his new compatriots.

Sadly, this isn't it for his issues this week.  Following a pre-trial hearing concerning WVU's efforts to recover the $4 million due to them per their former coach's contract, Marv Robon, one of Rodriguez's lawyers, made a statement I have a feeling he's going to regret, if he doesn't already (hat tip to Sports by Brooks):

“It’s like back before the Civil War when slaves had the right to buy their freedom. A penalty of $4 million is almost like a slave from Africa trying to buy his freedom in America. I think it’s an outrageous amount. It’s just not fair and it’s not related to any damages the university is suffering.”

I've tried writing about five different responses to address the sheer ignorance and stupidity of this quote, but I think it's best to just let the quote stand on its own and let the reader absorb it for him/herself.  Either way, I think we can agree that anything related to $4 million is completely unrelated to slavery.

With four No. 1 seeds and four 30-win teams making to the Final Four for the first time ever, who comes out on top is anybody's guess come Monday night, but here are some interesting trends and stats for you to chew on:

--Kansas, North Carolina and UCLA alone have won 17 national championships and have been to a combined 48 Final Fours

--UCLA is tied with Kentucky for the most wins in NCAA Tournament history with 98, and the Bruins have appeared in 18 Final Fours and won 11 national titles.

--Memphis scored 90 points eight times this season and topped 100 in three games. UCLA has not reached 100 points in a game since December 2002; the Bruins never even scored 90 this season.

--Memphis has won 103 games over the last three years, which is the second-most wins over a three-year period in Division I history. UCLA has won 97 games during that same stretch.

--The Bruins take full advantage of the 14.4 turnovers per game they force and of the +8.6 edge in rebounding. As a team, UCLA is hitting 47.9 percent of its field goal attempts, with 35.1 percent of its three-point tries finding the bottom of the net.

--Memphis' John Calipari and UCLA's Ben Howland are the only coaches in college basketball history to go back-to-back-to-back on 30 wins.

--Kansas has plenty of interchangeable parts and that has led to the team leading the nation in scoring margin (+19.4), ranking second in assists (18.2 per game) and third in field goal percentage (.507).

--UNC finished first in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency. The past three national champs (Florida, Florida, UNC) finished either first or second in that category.

--The Heels finished 121st in 2-point FG percentage defense, which is the worst mark of any team in the past five Final Fours.

--Carolina has scored at least 1.2 points per possession in four of its past seven games, which is incredibly good in league tournament and NCAA tournament play (even with Mount St. Mary's thrown in).

What does this all mean? I have no idea, I just can't wait to watch the games.

My World Series pick is already looking bad as the Detroit Tigers (0-4) lost their fourth straight game to start the season on Friday night. It brings up the question of how important is it to get off to a solid start?  Baseball is a long season, so there is always time to turn things around.  We need to look no further than some of the Reds' seasons over the past 20 years to find examples to support both sides of the argument:

GOOD STARTS

1990
Won first 9 games (18-6 in April); Team was in 1st place for 156 days

2002
15-9, including 7-0 wining streak at end of the month, but finished with just 79 wins

2006
16-7 during the season’s first month, stayed in the race until the end, but fell out of the race w/2-8 West Coast swing in late August

BAD STARTS

1995
Started year 1-8, but finished with 85 wins and won division

1999
10-14  in April, but followed it up with a 17-9 May on their to 96 wins

2007
Won 4 of their first 5, including Opening Day. However, they would go 14-32 over their next 46 games and fall out of the race by Memorial Day

For the last few years in my weekly Points 2 Ponder column I have kept track of various streaks, milestones and other accomplishments in baseball. While the format may be changing, there is no reason we can't keep editing the record books. Here is a look at some of the things going on in the world of baseball from a numbers point of view. And don't forget to come back on Sunday to check out the first GSI Player of the Week!

Greg Maddux - The Mad Dog did not get a decision in his first start of the season. He is still just seven wins behind Roger Clemens for the eighth most in a career. He would need 15 wins this season to catch Kid Nichols who has 361 victories.

Ken Griffey Jr. - The Cincinnati kid is just seven HRs from hitting 600 in his career. He would need nine more from that point to reach Sammy Sosa for fifth place all-time, assuming Sosa does not find a job. Junior also passed up Reggie Jackson on friday night with a couple of RBI. He is now 29 behind Honus Wagner for 18th place.

David Wright - The Mets third baseman has a hit in each of the first three games this year, extending his streak to 20 games. That goes back to September 19 of last year. He looks to extend that streak Saturday against the Braves.

Pitcher HRs - Last season 20 different pitchers combined to hit 27 HRs. Micah Owings led them all with four. No pitcher has gone deep yet this season, but we'll be watching when they do.

Manager Wins - Tony LaRussa, Bobby Cox and Joe Torre are all in the top ten in all-time wins. LaRussa and Cox are third and fourth respectively and won't advance those positions this year. Torre needs just 55 victories to catch Joe McCarthy in seventh place. And not to be forgotten, Lou Piniella needs just 14 wins to catch Ralph Houk for 14th place all-time.

Fantasy Transactions - In previous posts on this site it has been mentioned that in the GSI League there is one owner that makes numerous transactions. That owner is none other than Chris Fessler. As of the writing of this post, he has made 17 transactions - and the season is not even a week old. We're going to keep track of his transactions and see how his team fares. By the way, as of Saturday morning his team is in first place.

Alex Rios - The Blue Jays' slugger signed a big contract this week, and he may have the Yankees to thank for it. Rios had a hit in each of three games in New York this week, extending a hitting streak against the Yankees to 23 games. He hit .368 with 3 HR and 15 RBI in that span.