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Roy Williams was the guinea pig, the first coach of a major D-I program to lose his top seven players all at once thanks to the simultaneous loss of four underclassmen to the NBA. Now his coaching buddy, Jim Calhoun, is experiencing a similar exodus at Connecticut, though it doesn't appear Josh Boone is a definite goner at this point.

It would appear the NBA's new age-limit/year-of-college draft rule will only make ridiculous player turnover like this more common. Most of those players who before would've skipped college altogether to enter the draft are now leaving after one year. Those losses are felt more severely than losing a guy you never had in the first place, i.e. JR Smith in UNC's case.

A must-read from columnist Pat Forde is up at ESPN.com in which he announces he is not a candidate for the N.C. State coaching vacancy:

I figured I should make this announcement now, before the coaches at Savannah State, Ithaca College and Fayetteville 71st High School beat me to it. They seem to be the only guys left who haven't yet pulled their hats out of the Wolfpack's Ring of Despair. Nobody likes to be the last guest to leave a sagging party, you know?

In going on to list all the actual coaches who have announced their non-candidacies for the job, Forde reaches the logical conclusion: "This job has cooties."

And he expects Winthrop's Gregg Marshall to be the last, lonely girl at the bar, available if the Pack gets desperate.

Well, I'd say at this point, Fowler should've had more up-and-coming mid-major coaches on his radar to start with. He had to take a run at Rick Barnes and John Calipari, sure, but I'm certainly not enthralled by his Plan B. If he, in fact, had one.

Why have I been absent from the blog for so long? Well the N.C. State coaching search and the birth of my son are two solid excuses, I think.

What's ended my dormant state? An absolutely phenomenal blog entry I just had to link. To modify a line from the Simpsons' Comic Book Guy, this might be the "Best Blog Entry Ever."

At this site, this guy has clearly put a great deal of thought - and probably way too much time - into pairing up college football programs with Simpsons characters. He started with the SEC and clearly the ball just kept rolling.

As a South Carolina fan, I can't really argue with his choice of Enda Krabappel for the Gamecocks.

Here's his explanation:

South Carolina: Edna Krabappel
Like Edna, the Gamecocks have gone a long time with very little to celebrate, and they've gotten used to crushing disappointment. Yet there's that kinda-sexy, kinda-trashy thing about both of them that tell you she could be really hot if only the right guy with the initials SS -- be it Seymour Skinner or Steve Spurrier -- came along.

This sort of stuff just makes you thankful for the advent of blogs, doesn't it?

First we brought you college football programs as Simpsons characters. Since then, my boss, Joe Sirera was kind enough to dig up a link he'd found a while back.

College football programs as rap artists.

Enjoy. I confess my knowledge of the hip-hop scene is not nearly as extensive as what I know about the Simpsons, but this is still some pretty good stuff.

Bear in mind though, that the site is a bit out-dated. So the comparison of Penn State to KRS One - which was hilarious back before the 2005 season - no longer makes sense, unfortunately.