The no-longer Fighting Sioux, Grand Kicker and listen to your Mama!

The wisdom of mama.

Bobby Bouchet had it, Forrest Gump had it, hell even Norman Bates had it...ok, bad example.

Maybe though, Patrick Patterson should have it.

As mentioned here on Wednesday. Patrick and four of his Kentucky Wildcat teammates announced that they have decided to leave Lexington and enter the 2010 NBA Draft. An announcement that caught Patrick's mom a little off guard. Tywanna Patterson said she had discussed early entry with Patrick but no decision had been made. Then the announcement on Wednesday came and mama was not pleased:

"We were confused people by then," she said. "I have a problem with it going out and not being official. It is his decision. He has not declared for the draft and once he does he can't back out because he declared for the draft last year. But I am very upset with all this because the statement Patrick gave to DeWayne, he didn't know it was being released tonight" DeWayne refers to DeWayne Peevy (great name) who was the UK spokesperson who released the statement. Tywanna was not done. She then turned her focus to Wildcat coach John Calipari:

"Me personally, I think it is Cal's way to get recruits to commit and wants to make sure they know John (Wall), DeMarcus (Cousins), Daniel (Orton) and Eric (Bledsoe) are gone along with Patrick, Pat didn't know they were sending that statement out tonight."

Nice. Piece of advice folks...keep mama informed. People who don't are the Debil, Bobby Bouchet!!

After a 4 year legal battle and continuous skirmished that go back decades, the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux will be retiring their nickname and logo. The North Dakota Board of Higher Education had voted to retire the nickname in May of 2009 but a motion was filed with the North Dakota state Supreme Court to delay any action. The Board elected to suspend the nickname in October of 2009 with full retirement to be complete by August 2010. The one condition that could save it was the approval of the nickname and logo by the Sioux tribes of North Dakota, the Standing Rock and Spirit Lake. Spirit Lake gave consent, Standing Rock did not. The Spirit Lake tribe filed the aforementioned motion with the Supreme Court which was turned down.

Personally, I am a little torn on the whole "you can't use Native American names as logos" thing. On one hand, I understand a group of people not wanting to be insulted, lampooned and stereotyped. The Indians Chief Wahoo logo is cartoonish and a little silly, and I get that having a guy in a costume and war paint looking like Wahoo McDaniels and threatening to scalp the opposition can be unsettling. However, I don't see how just using the name of a tribe is harming. I would think having that name as something the school can unite behind is a good thing. Also, just being called "Warriors" doesn't mean you are demeaning Native Americans. In fact, automatically assuming it could only be in reference to Native American in prejudicial in itself. Florida State and Central Michigan have found ways to work with their native tribes in a way that is beneficial for both. Too bad UND couldn't, and by the way...the logo that has been deemed "hostile and offensive" by the NCAA was designed by Bennett Brien, a UND grad and decendant of the Ojibwa tribe.

The University of North Dakota is probably best known for their outstanding hockey team. The Fighting Sioux (while I can still call them that) has a total 14 Conference Championships, 24 NCAA tournament apperances, 18 trips to the Frozen Four and 7 Frozen Four NCAA championships which is tied for 2nd most all time. They play their home games at Ralph Engelstad Arena. This arena seats just under 12K and is probably the finest college hockey building in the country. Hell, it is one of the nicest hockey arenas in the US or Canada period! (Even The Great One said so) Ralph Englestad was a UND alum and contributed $100 million of the $104M cost and knowing that the logo was a center of contreversey, placed it within the building 2200 times! Ouch. Good luck with that. Somewhere, Ralph is laughing his nazi-loving ass off!!

To wrap up...the NFL Draft is less than two weeks away (woot!) but one player not worried about being drafted is Todd Carter. Carter played at D2 powerhouse Grand Valley State here in Michigan. For you Notre Dame fans, new coach Brian Kelly started his career by winning titles there. Carter was signed this week by the Carolina Panthers. Between workouts for the Panthers and the Chiefs and others, Carter had been working at a smoothie shop. Someone else will have to get their bananaberry orange whippy thingy because Todd's going to Carolina and not just in his mind.