Reggie Theus

Greetings haters, it is your pal, McLean Stevenson here to break down yet another college basketball coach going to the pros. You all know me, I�m all for the money grab in college sports. Especially for guys like Billy Donovan and Nick Saban who will always have a job in college sports no matter what they do in sports. But there is something fishy about Theus who went from playing a coach on television to leading New Mexico State to the NCAA Tournament. (Even giving Texas a run for its money.)

Theus went for the quick fix in Las Cruces , bringing in transfers for a quick turnaround, instead of building for long-term success. (Although NMSU does have a great recruit in Herb Pope.) Theus made no secret of his desires to be the coach at UNLV (where he played in college), but the Runnin� Rebels are quite happy with Lon Kruger, who received an extension. So Theus took the money and ran to the NBA.

That�s cool for coaches who have put in some time and earned it, but Theus should have taken some time and actually learned how to coach. This is going to end horribly for Theus and he likely won�t get another shot with a high-profile college program because they will always question his commitment. Specially for a guy his players called "Hollywood," like he was looking to star in the urban version of Top Gun.

Yanks Fans Want Tickets Capped

Front-running Yankees fans appear like locust at opposing stadiums across the country because apparently nobody wants to live in New York. But major league baseball teams (in places people like to live, like Colorado) are taking a stand and charging extra for tickets to see the Bronx Bombers. And this is an absolutely great idea.

Most Angels fans don't want to go to the ballpark when Yankees fans come to town, mainly because they are rude, ignorant and, let's face it, their team kind of stinks. Imagine if the Royals had a large following and a bunch of Kansas City fans showed up at the ballpark, talking about the past, yelling obscenities and causing the city of Anaheim to deploy mounted police officers. (That's true.) So why not make these guys pay a few extra bucks for it? That's just smart business. Many season ticket holders get premiums for Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers tickets, so the club should be afforded the same opportunity.

And hey, if it allows Arte Moreno to lower beer prices even further, so be it.

Rescue Me: Take it to the bank

Slightly premature spoilers (so don't read 'em till 11 p.m. or so Eastern) for "Rescue Me" coming up just as soon as I hide all my flatware...

Why do I continue to watch and write about a show where I can barely tolerate the main character, where I can't decide whether the writing of the female characters is misogynist or just incompetent, where all the dramatic storylines have become a complete mess?

I watch because of scenes like the kitchen table discussion of the spank bank, that's why. Because even when "Rescue Me" is fumbling everything else it does, the show is still comedy gold when it's just the guys in the kitchen, preferably (as Lou points out) started by Garrity or Mike using the phrase, "Hey guys, can I ask you something?"

I don't understand Sheila's insurance scheme -- Why not just tell the truth, while maybe omitting the RoHypnol stuff? -- nor do I care about the outcome. I'm not interested in Colleen running away to live with her rock singer boyfriend, nor any of the other semi-serious elements working through last week's episode and this one, but dammit this show can still bring the funny when it wants to.

Not sure whether I laughed more at Lou moving quickly to hide the knives at Sean's mention of Janet being in his spank bank, or at Sean's look of abject terror when Tommy suggests Colleen might be in the bank as well, but that was just a gem of a scene.

Some of the other comedy bits were more hit or miss. I liked Lou and Franco brainstorming how to woo Larenz Tate (particularly the "Laugh, put your arm around me like I said something funny" gag), but I thought they wrote Mike a few IQ points too low in his scene with the doctor. Uncle Teddy still feels like he's off in his own show. The scenes with Richie and Franco are usually ridiculous enough to make me ignore just how offensive they are, but the jewelry store scene didn't go far enough.

Still, it was all worth it for the spank bank scene. I admire the attempts to service all the members of their large ensemble, but the show's becoming too disjointed. I go back and occasionally rewatch my DVDs of "The Job," and that was a much tighter show, even if it was less ambitious than "Rescue Me" is. Lately, I'm starting to wish that Leary and Tolan could go back to that format -- if not half-hour, then at least all-comedy.

What did everybody else think?