I can't make it much more plain than that. Buried 10 graphs in this K.C. Star story about Missouri's exhibition opener Thursday night is the rather revelatory fact that Missouri guard Kim English spends his nocturnal hours sleeping in Mizzou Arena. The explanation:

No Missouri basketball player has likely ever spent as much time practicing his game. A year ago English frequently slept at Mizzou Arena, so as to be able to shoot after practice and before class the next day. The practice has been catching. A lot of players are doing the same thing now.

This is insane. Like, it's one thing to be a college athlete, putting in the long morning hours before and after classes, spending basically every waking hour in the gym ... but to spend every sleeping hour in the gym so you can spend more waking hours in the gym borders on the fanatical. I'm almost worried for Kim English. He seems like a very nice, well-rounded young man, and this isn't healthy.

This isn't the first time the Star has written about English's unusual work ethic, either. From last June:

“On my recruiting visit, they told us this was a 24-hour practice facility,” English, a 6-foot-6 freshman guard from Baltimore, said Wednesday. “We’ve got a key and it works at 12 p.m., it works at 1 a.m. It works 24 hours a day.”

English sleeps in a leather chair that he drags from the players’ lounge to the locker room, allowing him to work around the clock. “To help this team win this year, I’ll do anything,” said English. [...] “I’ll sleep outside if that’s what it takes.”

Again, dude, not healthy. But it's also pretty cool, and the sort of thing Missouri fans and notoriously demanding head coach Mike Anderson will appreciate. And hey, maybe English gets a break on room and board. Win, win, and win.

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Everyone has heard of John Wall, and everyone knows about John Wall's eligibility issues -- that he played for certified agent Brian Clifton while in AAU, that he has to serve a two-game suspension and pay back any expenses Clifton paid for while the two did the AAU circuit together.

Far fewer people know about West Virginia freshman Deniz Kilicli. But Kilicli is having eligibility issues of his own. His suspension is far more serious than Wall's. And if Bob Huggins is to be believed -- hold your laughter for a minute here -- that suspension has far more to do with luck and circumstance than with any wrongdoing by Kilicli. Mike DeCourcy explains:

Kilicli, who is 6-9, 260 pounds, was suspended because the club team he played for wound up with a pro in the lineup after that player was dropped down from a higher division, Huggins said. NCAA officials consistently have applied a game-for-game penalty against international players who have competed alongside pros. Iowa State's Lucca Staiger, from Germany, missed the entire 2007-08 season because of a similar punishment. Kilicli got 11 games for that, and another nine for accepting expenses from his club.

There appears to be no chance for Kilicli to pay back expenses he received from his club in exchange for a lesser penalty, and an Kilicli's appeal has already been denied by the NCAA. Huggins says Kilicli is "struggling" with the decision, and that if "he wanted to be a pro, you don't think anyone would have paid him to stay over there?" It's a pretty valid point.

There's also an argument to be made that Wall's situation is potentially more damaging to the ethic of the NCAA. Theoretically, Wall could be in the pocket of an agent while enrolled at school, which leads to all sorts of problematic college sports issues too common for me to explain here. Kilicli's association with a pro gets him ... what, exactly? A pro was bumped down to an amateur club while Kilicli was also on the roster, and now Kilicli's amateur status is corrupted by osmosis? This makes zero sense.

The Bleacher Report has been quick to blame this on the NCAA looking to punish the little guy while preserving the star status of the game's elite. Maybe that's true, but I doubt it. More than anything, this is just a bad rule. It was a bad rule when it cost Iowa State player his entire 2007-08 season. It's a bad rule now. Free Kilicli! Or at least let him pay back the money and start paying. To use an expression you're more likely to hear from Bob Huggins: for chrissakes, this is silly.

This offseason, plenty of major schools passed on Cincinnati guard Lance Stephenson, the leading scorer in New York City history. They passed for several reasons, including Stephenson's role in a documentary while in high school, his reportedly abrasive father, his apparent attitude issues, and his academic record. That's a lot of baggage to take on, even for a player as talented as Stephenson.

Cincinnati's Mick Cronin was in a position to take a gamble. Yesterday, the gamble paid off: Stephenson was cleared to play by the NCAA and will miss no games. Cronin confirmed Stephenson's status with a simple text message: "Clear. No games." (Good thing reporters can read between the lines. A little more detail, coach?)

Of course, this is not to say that Stephenson's troubles are over, or that Cronin's gamble is over. Stephenson has only just begun his career. As we've learned from numerous recent one-and-done players (which Stephenson could be; he's that talented, though he isn't thought of too highly by draftniks yet), oftentimes the troubles come after the player's already packed his bags for the NBA. Or maybe Stephenson hits a rough patch and gets pouty, the sort of thing he's been criticized for before. Anything could happen; there's a reason elite programs didn't roll these dice.

But Mick Cronin did. So far, it's snake eyes, or whatever a good roll is when you play dice. I'm not really sure. I don't throw bones very often. The point is that Cronin has done well here so far. Now comes the easy part: playing basketball.

The Hunt for the Most Interesting Team in the World is the Dagger's 2009-10 countdown preview series. Check out the overriding principles here.

Last year's record: 27-8 (14-4 MVC)

2009-2010's toughest games: at Dayton, at Michigan, at New Mexico, at George Mason

Primary attraction: Spurned by the NCAA tournament in 2008, Creighton figures to be right in the thick of the Missouri Valley race, even with the loss of the reigning MVC Player of the Year.

Three items of undeniable interest:

1. Hello, my name is Dana Altman. You killed my 2008. Prepare to die. -- Revenge on the selection committee should be a big motivation for Creighton this year. The BlueJays were the co-champs of the MVC but failed to earn an NCAA tournament invite for just the fourth times since 1998. Should Creighton have made it? Winning the MVC last year was every it as impressive as winning the SEC and I'm always partial to giving bubble spots to the good mid-majors rather than the mediocre majors (Maryland), but you can't lose a conference tournament semifinal by 24 points to a team bound for the NIT and expect to get the 65th bid. You just can't.

2. The return of Cavell Witter -- The senior guard left the team last spring but reportedly asked to rejoin Dana Altman's squad. He played 13 minutes in Creighton's exhibition game Wednesday night, scoring six points. There's been no word on what caused Witter to initially leave the team, but I bet it had something to do with that loudmouth Whit.

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By now, we're all familiar with Michael Jordan's son Marcus, and Marcus's shoe-related issues at UCF. According to Jordan, UCF told him during his recruitment that he'd be allowed to wear his father's Air Jordan brand. The only problem: UCF is an adidas school, and adidas schools only wear adidas, just as Nike schools only wear Nike. If Jordan wore Jordans, UCF would violate their agreement and jeopardize a $1.9 million deal with the German shoemaker.

Last night, Jordan took to the floor in his father's brand anyway. Adidas, none too pleased at this development, summarily canceled its deal with Central Florida.

This is not as disastrous as it might sound, because, duh, Marcus Jordan is Michael Jordan's son. I think we've covered this before. And being Michael Jordan's son, it seems likely that Nike would be willing to swoop right in and take over UCF's sponsorship, especially since Michael Jordan's son is now on the team. Sports By Brooks's Brooks Melchior has already talked to two "prominent sports marketing execs" who say the wheels on a Nike partnership are already turning. See? No big deal.

It is a big interesting from a purely marketing perspective, though. Nike gets to be the hero; adidas looks like a petulant corporate overlord; and Jordan Brand gets a momentary boost in profile, the sort of old-school brand-loyalty marketing gimmick -- Mickey Mantle prefers Viceroy! Marcus Jordan's feet won't touch adidas! -- dreamed up by the ad whizzes of yesteryear.

You could even go one step further (as Brooks does) and speculate that UCF knew, whether intuitively or through conversations with Nike, that if Marcus Jordan refused to dress in adidas, Nike would come riding in. It makes sense. What athletics budget can afford to drop $1.9 million in sponsor money? Not even elite programs can manage that; UCF certainly can't. And yet the school was all-too-willing to let Jordan walk right out onto the court last night in his father's shoes.Weird, right?

(Screw you, I'm an anteater!)

The Hunt for the Most Interesting Team in the World is the Dagger's 2009-10 countdown preview series. Check out the overriding principles here.

Last year's record: 20-13, 10-8 Big Ten

2009-10's toughest games: Duke, at Michigan State, at Purdue, at Ohio State

Primary attraction: Wisconsin is boringly awesome, each and every year, which ironically makes them interesting. But is 2009-10 the year they're just boring?

1. Bo Ryan, model of consistency. You've watched Wisconsin basketball games before. You don't need me to tell you. There's something about them, isn't there? Something about the players they recruit. Not the stars, like Alando Tucker and Devin Harris; those sorts of guys could fit in anywhere. I'm talking about the Joe Krabbenhofts and Brian Butches and Marcus Landrys of the world, the guys that, for whatever reason -- whether a lack of athleticism or a quiet productivity or whatever it is -- somehow seem like they belong only at Wisconsin. They're Wisconsin players. It's weird and difficult to define, but you've watched Wisconsin basketball. You know what I mean.

That sort of weird, boring productivity is still productivity, and Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan milks it for all it's worth. Each year, despite a seeming talent deficit, Wisconsin competes in the Big 10 and makes the NCAA tournament and often goes further than expected. But what about 2009-10? This year, the Badgers are more talent-bereft than usual. Does Ryan's streak of boring NCAA tournament victories end? Do the Badgers -- gasp -- become just one of 20 or 30 untalented NIT teams you wouldn't flip back to even if nothing else was on?

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Barring some sort of cataclysmic error (or, say, another sexual harassment suit) Isiah Thomas deserves what every other new college coach deserves: plenty of time to build his program, and a touch of deference until that "plenty of time" line has come and gone. Still, if Zeke's debut at FIU is any indication, his tenure is going to be filled with that signature Isiah Thomas losing flavor. Drink it in. It always goes down ... actually, it doesn't go down smooth at all.

Yes, Thomas's FIU squad dropped its first exhibition last night in an upset almost as bad as Syracuse's the day before. The Panthers lost 71-61 to an NAIA team from West Pal Beach, Fla., called Northwood; NAIA, if you're not aware, is all the way down there in the college sports hierarchy below Division III. Which is not to say there aren't good NAIA teams. There are. It's just that, you know, NAIA schools are never supposed to beat NCAA schools, and they're especially not supposed to beat Division I schools with famous head coaches whose last job was general manager and coach for the New York Freaking Knicks.

But that's exactly what happened to Zeke's Panthers last night, and sure, it's not the end of the world. It's just an exhibition game, for one. And in the big scheme, it could be worse. Thomas's team is not supposed to be good this year; that's more than we can say for Syracuse, which dropped its exhibition game to a Division II school from the same town. The main problem for Thomas is not the exhibition loss. It's in figuring out how a team that lost an exhibition game to an NAIA school can four days later compete with the likes of No. 6 North Carolina ... which is exactly what Thomas has to do.In this case, a horrid exhibition loss is nothing compared to that which follows it.

If you'll recall, Friday was a very special day for Bob Knight. After years of icy silence, he finally called Indiana and graciously accepted the school's invitation to a Hall of Fame ceremony in his honor made up a dumb excuse and told IU to buzz off. It was not at all surprising, but Indiana -- the fans, the school, and the man who's been most vocal about wanting to "reunite" Indiana, Tom Crean -- would no doubt be disappointed.

Tom Crean seems most upset by something else, though. Specifically: Coach K.

About two weeks ago, Mike Krzyzewski talked to ESPN's Andy Katz about Knight, with whom Coach K is famously close. Krzyzewski's comments were a little weird, to say the least. A representative sampling:

"I do think before coach Knight ever goes there, people at Indiana should think about what happened since he left [in 2000] and celebrate him instead of taking down the things he did," Krzyzewski said. "Over three decades he represented that school, won championships and produced great young men. That record is not talked about. You can't just say you're in the Hall of Fame. That's not enough. In order to have a great future, you need to celebrate the greatness of the past. I think Indiana basketball needs to celebrate coach Knight's time."

The whole point of the Hall of Fame seems lost on Coach K. The Hall of Fame induction is specifically designed to celebrate Knight's successes as a basketball coach. No one at IU is sending out press releases about Knight's failures, or his temper, or making jokes about Knight's speech being "zero tolerance." There are obvious black marks on Knight's record at IU, but Indiana brass was completely willing to gloss them over in the interest of getting Knight back in Bloomington for a weekend. What more does Knight want?

Anyway, Crean brought up Coach K on the radio without provocation, saying he was "bewildered" by Krzyzewski's comments and, egged on a bit by the radio hosts asking him successive questions on the matter, got a little bit aggressive in the meantime. The audio of the interview is here; the good stuff starts a little over halfway through. When asked if he ever thought about calling Coach K, Crean said:

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The Hunt for the Most Interesting Team in the World is the Dagger's 2009-10 countdown preview series. Check out the overriding principles here.

Last year's record: 25-10 (10-6 ACC)

2009-2010's toughest games: at Florida, at Ohio State

Primary attraction: In 2009, the Seminoles danced for the first time in 11 years. Will they make it back to the NCAAs without star Toney Douglas?

Three items of undeniable interest:

1. Length --Jay Bilas is going to love Florida State's length. Solomon Alabi is 7-foot-1, Chris Singleton (right) is 6-foot-9 and Xavier Gibson is 6-foot-11. Along with Wake Forest, Leonard Hamilton's team should have the biggest, most athletic frontcourt in the ACC.

2. Thank you, ACC expansion -- Somehow, FSU only has to play Duke and North Carolina once each this year. I'm a staunch ACC traditionalist, so I'm already inclined to loathe how adding Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech ruined the best basketball conference in the land. However, most of my reasons are the bizarre rantings of a solitary man with a messy apartment which may or may not contain a chicken. The unbalanced basketball schedule is a legitimate gripe though. The teams FSU could be battling it out with for third, fourth or fifth place in the ACC will each have to play Duke/Carolina three times (Georgia Tech has home-and-homes with both teams). This is obviously a huge advantage for the 'Noles.

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The Hunt for the Most Interesting Team in the World is the Dagger's 2009-10 countdown preview series. Check out the overriding principles here.

Last year's record: 28-6 (14-0, WCC)

2009-2010's toughest games: at Michigan State, vs. Wake Forest, at Duke, vs. Oklahoma, Maui Invitational (possibly Arizona, Wisconsin, Maryland or Vanderbilt)

Primary attraction: With a killer schedule and the departure of four starters, could Gonzaga miss out on the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1998?

Three items of undeniable interest:

1. Is the cupboard empty or merely restocked? -- Gonzaga always reloads. Every two or three years seniors matriculate or a star heads to the NBA early and people wonder whether this is finally the year Mark Few's squad relinquishes its grip on the West Coast Conference. Expect that question to get louder this December when a young Zags team with an inexperienced frontcourt is sure to drop a number of games thanks to the Bulldogs' usual, burtal non-conference sked. The most familiar names (Austin Daye, Micah Downs, Josh Heytvelt and Jeremy Pargo) are gone, replaced with guys you've never heard of. But, then again, you had never heard of any of those four guys when they were the no-names replacing Adam Morrison and Derek Raivio.

2. Matt Bouldin -- You have heard of Bouldin, though. The latest in a long line of white, shaggy-haired guards, Bouldin will provide senior leadership to a team that will feature a frontcourt decimated by the loss of Downs and Daye. Robert Sacre is a seven-footer coming off a medical redshirt and Few insists he's ready to go. But seven-footers and foot injuries tend to be as bad a combination as Josh Heytvelt and plantlife.

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