The week in review

◊ Here are a few items of interest, as we wrap up the week:

• It looks like Penn State All-America center, A.Q. Shipley, is garnering some attention from a host of NFL teams going into the draft. One of those teams is the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Black and Gold might remember another long-time offensive center from Penn State, Jeff Hartings. This could work out well for A.Q.

Link: Pittsburgh Tribune Review

• Sophomore cornerback Jesse Alfreno is taking a cue from former quarterback Paul Cianciolo, by playing both football and baseball this spring. It's tough enough to manage school and football, but adding baseball is a real testament to this kid's work ethic. Even better for Alfreno, head coach Robby Wine thinks the move could be smoother for him than it was for Cianciolo, since quarterbacks have a lot more on their plate.

Link: The Daily Collegian

• In an awkward article featuring Ohio State All-America linebacker, James Laurinaitis, the Buckeye said he aspires to a better draft-day showing than his Big Ten predecessors, Paul Posluszny and Dan Connor. The odd thing in this article is that Laurinaitis' own coach, Luke Fickell, didn't do him any justice, saying how teammate Marcus Freeman has much more going for him at the NFL Combine.

Link: The Plain Dealer

• Michigan will be lowering its football ticket prices for 2009. Athletic Director Bill Martin chalked it up to the slow economy. But I'm not really sure how the price decrease will really help. The average season ticket will cost $3.57 less per game than it did in 2008, which makes this whole thing sound more symbolic than anything. If people can afford to fork out $400 for season tickets, do you really think they care whether the price is $53.57 per ticket, or $50?

Link: MGoBlue

• If you like seeing the big boys of sports blogging take a humility pill once in a while, then you have to read the absolute bitch slap put up on The Hoosier Report this week. A Deadspin writer published a nearly incoherent post about Indiana basketball, I guess figuring no one would notice or care that he pretty much bull-sh*tted his way through it. Well, John over at THR noticed, and took him to the wood shed.

Link: Hoosier Report

• Mike over at Black Shoe Diaries has been going over the scholarship outlook for the 2010 recruiting class. In the latest entry, he writes about the running back situation.

Link: Black Shoe Diaries

• It seems that Minnesota's football team has taken secretly taken over its basketball team, as the Gophers have been on a gut-wrenching slide of late. Once the hottest team in the conference at 16-1, the Gophers have gone 3-6 since.

Link: The Daily Gopher

• And in more important basketball news, Penn State beat Illinois by the absurd score of 38-33. Yes, thirty-eight to thirty-three, in basketball, not football. Hail to the Orange (formerly Paint the Town Orange, before they decided to sell out to the evil empire) wasn't too happy.

Link: Hail to the Orange

• Penn State still can't beat Michigan in one way, average stadium attendance. The difference was something like 317 people per game, but it's still annoying. Penn State should have realized that this past year's home schedule wasn't even close to the year prior; and should have scratched the Coastal Carolina game for, at the very least, an FBS (I-A) opponent.

Link: Stadium attendance

• Earlier this week, we got the results of a poll here, asking how readers felt about this year's recruiting class. The verdict was favorable, but not great. Most liked Penn State's 2009 haul, even though the Lions lost out on Jelani Jenkins.

Link: Poll results

Have a great weekend...

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Feb. 13