Like it is

Muschamp should learn how bread is buttered

Florida coach Will Muschamp talks with reporters during the SEC football Media Days in Hoover, Ala., Tuesday, July 16, 2013. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Will Muschamp proved at LSU, Auburn and Texas, where he was the head-coach-in-waiting, that he was a great defensive coordinator.

In 2007 he was a finalist for the Broyles Award, which is given each year to the outstanding football assistant coach in the country.

While the jury is still out on him as a head coach -- he is 22-16 overall and 13-11 in SEC play at Florida -- it is definite that he will not be a candidate for athletic director anytime soon.

Muschamp said earlier this week that he wants to avoid playing teams from the Football Championship Subdivision in the future.

A lot of people jumped on the fact that the Gators lost to Georgia Southern last season. What they should have been doing is listening closer to what Florida AD Jeremy Foley said in response to Muschamp's statement.

"I understand what Will is saying," Foley said. "In a perfect world, you play all D-I schools. But also you have to have 12 opponents."

Translated, that means you need to play three lower-tier schools because they will play you in Gainesville and that's where you make your money.

If the ticket package were reduced, fewer tickets would be sold and donations to scholarship programs would go down.

The SEC is in the process of updating its schedule by adding an opponent from one of the other national championship playoff conferences, so every other year most schools will lose a home game.

Athletic directors are constantly looking for new ways to create revenue, not lose it.

Athlon Sports has offered an opinion of 12 college basketball teams on the rise for the forthcoming season.

Of the 12, three were from the SEC and, since they were listed alphabetically, Arkansas was No. 1. The column stated that Mike Anderson has six of his top seven scorers back and that the Hogs finally started to win on the road last season.

It also had Georgia and Kentucky listed.

Yes, Kentucky, which finished runner-up to Connecticut for the national championship last month. The writer opined that the Wildcats, who will have nine McDonald's All-Americans on their roster, will have a better overall season.

The list also included SMU and Minnesota. The Razorbacks beat both those teams last season, split with Georgia and swept Kentucky, so maybe it was just coincidence that they were listed first.

Dwyane Wade was drafted by the Miami Heat in 2003 and not in 2006, as reported here Wednesday.

Chalk it up to too many notes and numbers on one page. He led Miami to the NBA title in 2006. He was the fifth pick out of Marquette and was instrumental in persuading his bosses to sign LeBron James and Chris Bosh.

In addition to winning three NBA titles, the past two consecutively, Wade helped the United States win a gold medal in Beijing.

Oklahoma City has tied its NBA Western Conference finals series with San Antonio at 2-2.

Part of the Thunder's success has to be attributed to the return of 6-10 power forward Serge Ibaka, who did a lot more than score nine points and grab eight rebounds in 35 minutes in Tuesday's 105-92 victory.

He altered so many of the Spurs' shots that they hit only 39.8 percent from the floor.

Another key factor was poor passing by the Spurs, which led to 13 turnovers, 12 of them steals, that accounted for 21 Thunder points.

Lastly, Kawhi Leonard and Tony Parker were the only starters who managed at least 10 points for the Spurs, and they combined for only 24 points.

The Thunder had only two starters with at least 10 points, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant, but they totaled 71 points.

Sports on 05/29/2014