Rich's sometimes disjointed rambling

Various media have reported that Southside High School ( Greenville , S.C.) combo guard Quinton Thomas has made a verbal commitment to play basketball for the Wyoming Cowboys for the 2009-2010 season. Thomas, at 6-foot-6, is the reigning South Carolina 2A Player of the Year. Thomas averaged 16 points, six rebounds and five assists a game and helped lead Southside, 27-2, to a state championship last season. Thomas also played played AAU basketball with the Carolina Celtics this summer. The team finished with an overall record of 26-7. According to Scout.com, “Thomas has tremendous size and wingspan for a point guard. You could categorize him as a point forward in essence. He excels at getting to the basket currently but during this off-season he's improved his perimeter game and it should benefit his recruitment." It was also reported that among the other schools making offers were East Carolina, Winthrop and South Carolina-Upstate. Thomas is expected to sign his letter-of-i...

The summer Olympics are over. Now what? My wife is now muttering under her breath ... no more Olympics, no more Olympics. I guess it's back to the Food Network. Maybe the Food Network can run its own Olympics? No, I'm not sure I want to watch Paula Dean on the balance beam. And poor NBC. Now the network is back to Deal or No Deal for excitement. Me thinks Michael Phelps would be the perfect host. Get rid of that bald guy. I'm also thinking about a teenage reality show starring Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin . You could call it Smile or No Smile. OK, I admit that I had one eye on what was going on. The other eye was usually on baseball, preseason football, a crime show or on Sunday night, Gene Simmons Family Jewels (guilty pleasure). I did try to flip back and forth between Gene Simmons and the closing ceremonies Sunday night. I'm not a big opening or closing ceremonies guy, but I did know that Jimmy Page was supposed to play. Now, if Led Zeppelin played every day dur...

Former Minnesota Twins pitching great and current Twins television color analyst Bert Blyleven , who was raised in California, often talks about his "California math" when talking about statistics. Could this be Minnesota spelling? This picture of Minnesota utility infielder Adam Everett was actually caught by former Twins utility infielder Denny Hocking, while watching on television, as the Twins were playing the Angels on Friday night in Anaheim . Hocking, who lives in the LA area, text-messaged the Angels stadium to get word to the Twins clubhouse that they might want to change Everett's uniform top. They did and he played the rest of the way with the correct spelling of Minnesota. The lack of spelling in Minnesota, however, isn't hurting the Twins ability on the diamond, as they are currently (going into Saturday's action) in first place in the AL Central, one-half game of the White Sox . Go Twinz !!!! I mean, go Twins!!!

Leave it to a Green Bay Packers fan to spot somebody on the sidelines of the Wyoming football scrimmage in Packers' apparel. Actually, I originally thought he was a CSU coach (from a distance, mind you). UW's Aaron Voos quickly corrected me and told me he was in Packers garb. So that increased my curiosity. Now, I had to ask ... and I did. He's Lenny McGill , a college scout for the Packers. Now living in Broomfield , Colo., Wyoming is one of his target schools in the area. We talked a bit (of course, Brett Favre was the icebreaker) and then I went back to taking some pictures before I went up to the press box for the remote of Sportsline Live. Being the Packers fan, I got to thinking about it and yes, I did remember his name, although not much in detail. So I looked him up in the internet. I found out that McGill played cornerback for the Packers in 1994-95 in the dime package. He was then traded to the Falcons and started for two years before finishing up his career wit...

According to the Boulder Daily Camera, Broomfield (Colo.) senior forward Chaundra Sewell has committed to play basketball for the University of Wyoming in 2009-2010. For more on the story, click here: http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/aug/20/sewell-decides-to-become-cowgirl/

It's that time of the year -- the fall sports season has officially begun for Laramie High School. The Plainsmen football team got things going bright and early at 6 a.m. Monday with the first of two-a-days, practicing later at 3:30 p.m. Also getting going for LHS was the Lady plainsmen swim and diving team, the LHS volleyball team and the Laramie cross country, tennis and golf teams. Check back with Wyoming Sports.org with features on all of the LHS fall programs. For a little slideshow on the Plainsmen practice Monday afternoon, click here: http://wyomingsportsyouth.blogspot.com/2008/08/plainsmen-open-practice.html

Evidently , Colorado State football fans and the media are to take the CSU sports information department's word for their recent scrimmages. First-year as CSU head coach Steve Fairchild has his scrimmages closed to the public and the media. Fort Collins Coloradoan writer Kelly Lyell's scrimmage stories are written without the benefit of seeing what he is writing about. Evidently, the media waits for the scrimmage to end and then receives the statistics and can talk to players and coaches. Lyell wrote in a blog on Friday that this was probably the first closed scrimmages at CSU in 16 years. Lyell wrote that Fairchild said he feels "more comfortable" having some closed sessions as he prepares his first Colorado State University team for the Aug. 31 opener in Denver against the University of Colorado. I've got a feeling that if Joe Glenn closed his scrimmages to the fans and media, there would be some pretty upset people around town and the state. I haven...