Happy Birthday Neil!

Yes. Yes. It’s Neil Diamond's 67th birthday. And we here at It’s Business Time wish him a happy one. And as much as we love Neil, we love Will Ferrell more so here’s Ferrell as Neil. Classic.

That’s a tough act to follow and unfortunately I don’t have much ammunition as last night’s game went pretty much exactly as expected. And since there's not much sense in breaking it down, I'll just touch on some things before moving on.

- You truly can't say enough about Darnell Jackson. And that stuff Self said about him after the game, not reacting to the Coach's practice tirade floored me. If he can keep this up – wow.
- 76 points scored in the half-court offense.
- Chalmers knocking home a couple more threes, bringing his average to 49%.
- 6 assists for Rush. Love the drive and kick he's been doing lately.
- And more than anything I love how routine a 24 point win over a conference opponent looked, especially considering Kansas never played how they truly wanted to.

Around the nation…

Due to the recent debates of #1 merit, the Memphis/Tulsa game caught my eye. Memphis' awe-inspiring athletic ability, sheer talent and experience catapulted them to a dominating 24-20 halftime lead, ultimately leading to a 56-41 win at Tulsa. I don't know much about Tulsa, but I do know that they've played exactly one other tournament caliber team, Oklahoma, and they lost 81-55.

As for Roy's boys, well they went down to South Beach and beat the pretender that is the Miami Hurricanes, 98-82. Any time you can score 98 on the road, you've done a lot right. But I have long since said and will continue to believe that they can't accomplish all they want to giving up 82 points a game – which happens to be exactly what their last 3 opponents have scored. (Also noteworthy: In 5 of their last 6, they have allowed 81 plus. Before NC State, Clemson scored 88 and UNC Asheville 81.)

Nothing else really entertained me outside of the conference. However, I certainly wish I had seen one of the games in the league. As you no doubt have heard, Baylor went in to College Station and outlasted A&M through 5 OTs to keep pace with the Jayhawks at 4-0 in the league. Thank you Big 12 for instead subjecting us to watching Methzou again prove that if they aren't playing Kansas, and especially if the game is not in Paige Arena, they really don't deserve to play. Really – who in their right mind thought Tech/Methzou was going to be a better game than A&M/Baylor? As for the Bears, major kudos to them for that one. I won't bother to link to Gottlieb's chat, but on Tuesday he was giving them a lot of praise but saying that they were going to get housed @ A&M. And to be honest, I kind of agreed - maybe not housed but coming home off two road losses, my money would have been on the Aggies.

In another game that wasn't televised, the Purple won in Boulder, keeping their record perfect in conference play. Beasley's second half line: 26 points, 11 boards. Not too shabby. Through 3 league games, I'm impressed. Now they need to avoid looking past the Cyclones in preparation for their Super Bowl next Wednesday.

The Big 12 really is bizarre this year. We all know how football went, but basketball is looking similarly interesting. As expected, the league is ridiculously middle-heavy and apparently there aren't going to be any nights off. I had expected Colorado and Iowa State to basically be punching bags, but that hasn't quite proven true. And even though I told you not to by the media hype about Nebraska, they won't stay winless for much longer (then again their next two are in Lawrence and Columbia so they're probably starting 0-5). By far the biggest surprise thus far has been Texas A&M at 1-3 – and their next 3 are @ OSU, UT, OU so they need to get it together quickly.

As for football, it’s good to see SEC homer Orson Swindle giving Clint Bowen some love.

Sticking with the gridiron, SI.com has Talib going #10 to the Saints. Last I saw ESPN had him at #17. It’s too tough to tell because of how much GMs cream themselves at the Combine, but I tend to think ESPN is closer.

A man can dream can’t he…

Speaking of dreaming, this is one helluva a championship match.

And I just found this interesting. Mostly because I am excited for the movie.