For teams that haven't met in over 25 years, tonight's matchup of #6 Purdue and #9 Tennessee has a certain feel of familiarity.  Here's a preview of some of the sub-plots to tonight's championship contest in the U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam tournament.

Pearl vs. Purdue. In coaching legend Gene Keady's final season, Bruce Pearl took his then UW-Milwaukee team into West Lafayette and came out with a victory.  A fact which Pearl didn't shy away from mentioning yesterday in an interview, even side by side with the former coach of 25 years.

Big 10 Memories. Former player under Keady and current Boilermaker coach Matt Painter also has familiarity with Pearl.  Painter's playing days were spent dribbling against Pearl's mentor Dr. Tom Davis' teams at Iowa.  They ran a similar "controlled chaos" pressure defense system then as well.

Top 10 Icebreaker.  Today is the first game of the '09-'10 season between two top-10 teams.

If you can't duck it... Last night's close 4-point UT win over DePaul was interrupted for about 10 minutes when a piece of the goal came off.  It was repaired -- you guessed it -- with duct tape.  The players were allowed a second post-halftime warmup segment, and the game continued.

Tonight's contest tips off at 8:30pm Eastern on Fox College Sports TV.

As if it wasn't already a certainty, Notre Dame's Charlie Weis sealed his fate with a home loss to UConn just a few hours ago. Now just 35-26 as he wraps up his fifth season in South Bend, good ole Charlie is as good as gone as the Irish prepare for a trip to Stanford to end the season. Another season of BCS promise down the drain, as the Irish once again proved you can't live off your reputation forever.

The prominent name being thrown around as a replacement is of course Florida's Urban Meyer, owner of two national title in his first four seasons in Gainesville. With his team focused on defending their title, Meyer obviously isn't talking about anything Notre Dame-related. And as he approaches legend status on Florida's campus, one might wonder why he would even consider leaving.

So here's a breakdown of the pros and cons for Meyer heading to South Bend, even as he prepares to lead his Gators to another championship.

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- Dollars. One rumor making the rounds is that Notre Dame is putting together an offer for upwards of $50 million to lure Meyer. While the Meyer family isn't exactly hurting for money as it is, it would be absurd to turn down that much money if the rumors are true. Florida's athletic department is more than willing to spend money on their coaches, but there's no way they would be interested in matching something like that. They'll wish Urban well, and then go about their business of finding another coach to fit their style. Current defensive coordinator Charlie Strong or former offensive coordinator Dan Mullen would be ideal choices.

No, I said where have YOU been?

Okay okay, we're back after a 3 week hiatus.  But not much has changed.  The score is still within 2 games with ELTT leading LKIAC 139-137.  Senor Cohron leads all-comers with a 3 pick lead over second-place professional writers Eric and Colin.

Holly has started picking out of spite and ate Dorito Salad last week in Georgia (video here).  No one has seen Brubaker in 2 weeks.  Ian has purportedly the best No-Shave November going on of the entire blogosphere.  And Mr. Ashley keeps us all entertained all day long with his hourly facebook updates.

Oh, and Rich Rodriguez is considering starting Denard Robinson this week.  Seriously Rich, say it out loud.  "My starting QB doesn't tie his shoes."

Enjoy these last 2 weeks in Ann Arbor, buddy.

On with the picks!

 
(Note: I forged Ian and Mr. Ashley's picks, and I think ERIC! took UK over UGA but I'm not fixing the graphic.  Sorry)

 Minnesota at Iowa

Iowa - Big Ten Football ends before Thanksgiving again. Thank Mitch. - Cohron

Iowa. In two weeks, Iowa has gone from the Rose Bowl to the Insight Bowl. No wonder Smooth loves Kirk Ferentz's coaching ability so much - Bru

Minnesota at Iowa - Tubby's done a great job resurrecting... erg. OK, what I meant to say is, Iowa's on a two-game losing skid at the absolutely wrong time. Minnesota should be good for what ails them. - ERIC!

Louisville at South Florida

Sometimes I just can't believe USF is in the Big East. They just seem so... Conference USA to me. Since this is in their backyard, however, I give the Bulls my vote to add to Kraggy's misery - ERIC!

South Florida. On the plus side for Steve Kragthorpe, he can go ahead and start checking out some retirement home while down in Florida - Bru

South Florida - Steve Kragthorpe, coming to an NAIA school near you! - Cohron

LSU at Mississippi

LSU. Remember when everyone loved Jevan Snead at the beginning of the year?  - Bru

LSU - I could punch myself in the penis for believing in the Ole Miss hype at the beginning of the year. - Cohron

I'll do it. - Grubby

Wow. This game is the battle for second place in the SEC West behind 'Bama. What the world has come to. I choose Ole Miss for the chaos factor. - ERIC!

Vanderbilt at Tennessee

Tennessee - I went to Vandy last week to tailgate and drink at the Vandy/UK game. If you ever get bored on a Saturday afternoon, grab a cooler and a chair and go down to Vandy while their football team is playing. It is so damn funny to watch nerds pretend to party and watch them hit on ugly smart girls. - Cohron

If this thing isn't over by 8 o'clock and interferes with my PBR shower at the Lucero show, someone is getting doused with some force. - Grubby

Tennessee will win because of the pride I have brought them with my error-riddled articles. - ERIC!

Tennessee. Contrary to what you might think, I will not use this space to rip the Vols for their recent string of arrests. Every team has a few knuckleheads, including my beloved Gators. But I will issue this warning to any players, anywhere, who think they may have the urge to commit a crime. Please do NOT wear your team-issued workout T-shirt while doing so (ahem... Janzen Jackson). This is almost as bad as Chris Henry getting arrested in Florida a couple years ago while wearing his own jersey - Bru

California at Stanford

Stanford. Could we see a white running back win the Heisman this year? Really? I don't know what this means for college football, but it can't be good - Bru

Um, what's the difference between a Stanford and a Tedford? I'm going with Stanford because they wear trees instead of hugging them. - ERIC!

Stanford - Watch GameDay on Saturday and see how many times Kirk Herbstreit says Toby Gerhart's name. I bet it's over four. They have made out. - Cohron

Kentucky at Georgia

Georgia. Nothing like an abysmal Georgia defense to help UK's offense. Unfortunately, Randall Cobb can't throw passes to himself - Bru

Dorito Salad is great, but nothing beats a warm bowl of burgoo. - Grubby

Georgia - I need UK to win one of the last two so we can go to Nashville for New Years. Sadly, I guess I'll be jerkin' it at the house alone... again. - Cohron

Going against my home-team-wins logic here, because I've heard that nobody supplies the butt like Georgia does. - ERIC!

Oregon at Arizona

Oregon. The Wildcats just haven't been the same since Lute Olsen took a break. And then returned. And then resigned. And then retired. So I expect them to..what? What do you mean?  Arizona has a football team too? - Bru

Ducks, because these guys said so. - ERIC!

Comment of the week:

LeGarrette Blount Punches Thrown: 1 LeGarrette Blount Games Played: 1 LeGarrette Blount College Degrees: 0 - Cohron

It takes a special kind of writer to work armed robbery arrests into a travel article about moonshine, boating, and barbeque.  Luckily I know one such man.  And he's at ESPN today.

Tailgating is an art form at Tennessee, but it's been a long time since anything as pedestrian as the bed of a truck has been involved.

To the best of my knowledge, Tennessee fans have yet to figure out how to grill meat in an aircraft before kickoff, but they've got land and sea well-covered.

...

Our goal for 2009, flying hotdog transportation.  Hey, we've got a year to work out the engineering.

[ESPN] Photo Credit: Eric Angevine

We did it!

If you missed it, here's a good 4 minute clip at STF.

Picking up the late games for our good friends at Stormingthefloor.net

It's been a fun day/night so far, but these last few games should be the best yet.

Also check out Vandal Nation.

8 p.m. ESPN/ESPN360.com Gonzaga vs. Michigan State
8 p.m. ESPN360.com Northern Illinois vs. Illinois
9 p.m. ESPNU Duquesne vs. Iowa
9:30 p.m. ESPN2/ESPN360.com UConn vs. Texas (women)
10 p.m. ESPN/ESPN360.com Hall of Fame Showcase: Memphis vs. Kansas (St. Louis)
11:30 p.m. ESPN2/ESPN360.com Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT (from Arizona State)

Full disclosure here, I missed all but 15 minutes of the UK game last night.  An important engagement kept me from watching all but the first 5 and last 10 minutes of the game.  What I did see was great though.

Most UK fans today are probably scared to death that UK only beat Miami OH by 2 last night, but they shouldn't be.  Last night's game was a great lesson for the new team.  It taught all those top 100 recruits what it means to play at Kentucky.  That is everyone will give you their best shot every night.

UK's freshmen also learned last night that they are not infallible.  Everyone has talked about how they are one of the best recruiting classes ever.  Coach Calipari has noted that they think they "poop ice cream."  It must have been sobering for them to look up and see themselves down 18 points in the first half last night.  All this is great.

What I did see last night made me very excited.  Specifically, Patrick Patterson, DeMarcus Cousins, Darius Miller, and John Wall impressed while I was watching.  Patterson did his normal thing and dropped a double double while controlling the paint.  Cousins also had a double double with all his 10 points and 10 rebounds coming in the second half.  Apparently Cal challenged him at half time and the results were fantastic.

Miller showed some aggressiveness toward the end of the game that has been lacking lately.  It seems he plays better with his back against the wall when he has no choice but to be aggressive.  What else can you say about Wall?  He was playing too fast in the first half and calmed in the second.  The final play was amazing too.  Yes he made the shot, but the way he made it was flat out impressive.  He drove the floor at full speed, crossed over, and pulled up vertically for the game winning jumper.  For those who've never played competitive basketball you can't understand how hard it is to drive full speed, stop, pull straight up, release at the top, and come back down in the spot you left.  Wall's game winner wasn't a fade away and he didn't run down his defender.  He pulled straight up and came straight down.  It was just another example of his rare athleticism.

In all, the Miami game was a huge success for UK.  They got down, were tested, but won the game in the end.  The only severe disappointment I had in the night was the lack of a foul on Miami's last possession.  I would have though Calipari would have learned to foul when up 3.  You can't allow that tying shot to go in the air.  Those are things that can be changed later in the year, but it is a small thing that is worrisome.

Two more games this week will allow UK fans to see how much their team grew up.  If they come out and dominate the next two games everyone will know they learned their lesson. If they play 40 minutes like they did the final 25 last night then they will start getting better.  That's all any coach can ask of their team at this point in the season.

Bruce Pearl will shoot for his 100th win at Tennessee tonight against UNC-Asheville (7pm, CSS).  Here's Pearl this summer cracking jokes with boosters and announcing his engagement.

In other UT news, another Volunteer DB has been arrested.  This time, Nyshier Oliver, and for shoplifting. As if the injury bug wasn't bad enough, we have to add thug-removal?  Sheesh.

Follow this story at GVX.

We're about a third of the way through 24 hours of basketball on ESPN.  Niagara is about to seal the 8 o'clock game against Drexel and Clemson is just underway in the 10am contest at Liberty.

No word yet on whether Niagara is hosting a spelling competition following the game.  I mean after all, it is a Tuesday morning.

Follow along the live blog at StormingTheFloor with my good man Yoda.

UPDATE (3:47pm):  Let's not forget about the insanity ongoing at FNL4.com, where those guys are live blogging all 30 hours.  It should get interesting now that they enter hour 22 of 30 in 13 minutes.

Kentucky beats Vandy and becomes bowl eligible while Tennessee gets thwacked at Ole Miss and still needs another win.  Florida and Alabama are running headlong into one another in Atlanta, and Michigan just might be on the outside looking in this year.  Here's a compilation of the internet's bowl projections as of this morning, along with my own.

Mark Schalabach and Bruce Feldman from ESPN.

Kentucky Wildcats

Schlabach: Papajohns.com (Jan 2, 2pm)
Feldman: AdvoCare V100 Independence (Dec 28, 5pm)
CBS: Papajohns.com
Grubby: Papajohns.com

More after the jump