Flagrant Fouls, Home Court Advantage

In this corner: Jim Calhoun. (That's the corner with the money)
In this corner: Ken Krayeske. (That's the corner with people asking about the money)
In this corner: Gov. Jodi Rell. (That's the corner angry with the outburst)
In this corner: Bros. (That's the corner filled with UConn grads watching the game in a sports bar).

Four corners!? Are we even talking about the same thing anymore? I thought this was an issue of money! We're not talking about money now? That's all we've talked about so far this year!

It's no longer Krayeske v. Calhoun. Now it's Rell v. Calhoun and Bros, with Krayeske as the clown.

Fair and balanced news coverage indeed. My favorite parts are the cheap shots at Krayeske:

If someone asked the reporter about how much he made a year, I'm sure he wouldn't have...had an answer right away either.
-Man in the bar

I don't want to put words into Krayeske's mouth, but I'm sure he would have been happy to answer. He's an independent reporter, not Peter Jennings.

But it's the reporter's cheap shot that really gets to me:

Now there's no indication that Coach Calhoun plans to address this again. Ken Krayeske, meanwhile, has said he's not done with it. We'll just have to wait to see if he makes the trip to Milwaukee to continue his line of questioning.

I wonder how much Laurie Perez was paid to throw that in.

Perhaps I celebrated a bit too early. Jeff Jacobs reverted to eyes-glazed UConn beat reporter. ESPN and many radio talk shows are defending Calhoun. But the New Haven Register is doing some good reporting on the issue that matters (which isn't anger, but money). This is only the first seed, perhaps. And given the way the economy is going, (to do so, just check out the daily Drudge Report headline) it seems this question may be asked more and more.

By the way, I checked out Office of Postsecondary Education and made some interesting discoveries. UConn basketball's revenue is $12,603,755 combined. The men's team takes in $7,333,214. But its expenses are $6,097,728, so men's basketball "only" profits a little over a million.

Sure there are more factors than that, such as potential student draw (athlete and non-athlete) and supporting local business, not to mention morale for the state. But it turns out that mountain of money was actually just a mole hill.