John Clay's Sidelines

Hoops Links for Wednesday:

• Sports Illustrated’s Alex Wolff on how basketball shaped Barack Obama.
• In the Austin American-Statesman, Kirk Bohls reports that ex-Texas star T.J. Ford is high on incoming transfer Jai Lucas.
• At ESPN.com, Andy Katz writes that Minnesota needs to get its glass game in order.
• In the Cincinnati Enquirer, Paul Daugherty starts out his Wednesday Morning Line post with an ode to Miami coach Charlie Coles.
• On his blog, C-J columnist Rick Bozich asks if Auburn or Rutgers is worse.
• At SportingNews.com, Mike DeCourcy looks at the Big Ten.
• At SportsIllustrated.com, Seth Davis argues that college players should be allowed to pull out of the NBA draft.
• FoxSports.com’s Jeff Goodman feels sad for Alabama’s Ronald Steele.
• At CBS Sportsline, Gary Parrish writes on North Carolina coach Roy Williams.
• David Wharton of the Los Angeles Times writes that UCLA doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt.
• Mike Kern of the Philadelphia Daily News previews tonight’s Villanova-Connecticut clash.
• In The State, Paul Strelow previews tonight’s Clemson-North Carolina matchup.

I wrote recently about Barack Obama’s basketball jones. What a coincidence that many of those the president-elect has picked for his cabinet and as advisors have a strong hoops background.

The New York Times’ Cacus blog gives the hoops details:

• Attorney General nominee Eric Holder was co-captain of the basketball team at Stuyvesant High School in New York. He continued to play pick-up at Columbia. He told the New York Times on Monday that when it came to roundball, he wasn’t sure Obama is “ready for my New York game.”

• Susan Rice, Obama’s nominee for Ambassador to the United Nations, was a star player at Cathedral High School in Washington, D.C.

• General James Jones, who will be Obama’s National Security Advisor, was a forward for the Georgetown Hoyas. The Times lists Jones at 6-foot-4.