By David Scott
Boston Sports Media

9:01 p.m.
• Boston homey, Andy Katz, reported on ESPN at 8:54 that Michael Jordan is in the house and sharing a suite with Dean Smith. Let’s see if CBS milks it the way ESPN overdid the Gerry McNamara parents during the regular season.
I’m surprised Katz’s “scoop” didn’t make the ticker.
• Digger took Illinois (by three) as did Bilas (no spread) and Vitale and Fowler took UNC. Earlier, Vitale predicted a Maalox Masher and a 3-point spread as well.
• For the record, Shots is taking the Iona Gaels, plus the points. Go Rules!
• “Two and a Half Men” appears to be awful, awful, awful. But the eye candy could convince lesser men to watch. . . and enjoy.
• Gearing up for the final (men’s) college hoops game of the season and wondering these two things about Boston Sports Coverage:
1. Will Howard Bryant ever again write a column not about steroids? It’s one thing to be working on a book, it’s another to be auditioning the book with each day’s piece. Until further notice, he is to be called, Steroid Bryant or ‘Roid, for short. Thank you.
2. We were told – and saw glimpses – that Jerome Solomon had begun his tenure at the Globe, but we gotta ask: Is he part-time? He’s been thoroughly unimpressive, completely beaten by the likes of Mike Reiss and Michael Felger-Underwood and, to this point, been an absolutely preposterous hire.
• Save yourself the trouble of forwarding those last two grafs to Al Sharpton. Shots doesn’t see matters of black and white (newspapers) in terms of Black and White. For proof, see our critiques of Gee, Michael; Guregian, Karen and Shaughnasty, Danny Boy, et al.
• All right, one more bitter thing to get off our chest: America’s Most Incompetent Blogger, Eric Neel, posted this morning at 8:30 a.m. CST and then was right on top of things with another post at 2:42 p.m. CST. In those six hours, he managed to do a company promotion bit with Michael Wilbon of PTI and then gave regular old, newspaper-style coverage of the Hall of Fame inductees. The next time this guy does a blog, can we call it what it is: A notebook.
Oh, and one more Neel issue: His description of the Runyon’s party should earn him a lifetime ban form the Final Four’s Finest Fete. Neel, who clearly was snuck in by someone from ESPN, wrote: “Fewer sweats than the adidas party, and one less DJ. More silver-haired, country-clubbish older guys in blue blazers with gold buttons. They all look like they might be ADs somewhere, or boosters, or Ted Knight impersonators.”
They happen to be the fabric of college basketball and the only impersonator on hand at that party – and for the entire weekend – was one Mr. Eric Neel. Guilty of impersonating a blogger and further guilty of wasting the time of his ESPN.com readers.
• James Worthy checked in with ESPN’s pre-game show from the national Cable Convention in San Francisco and called tonight an “almost must-win” for Roy Williams. Keep up that frankness and Worthy will find himself a good home with ESPN (an ESPNU banner was prominent in the background, so it appears Worthy has some type of deal in the works – or already in place, with the network.)
• Steve Lavin was also at the SanFran convention, a gathering that Shots once crashed during the UMass Glory Days. In the course of playing in the inaugural ( I believe) Wooden Classic in Anaheim, we managed to crash the Huey Lewis concert in a ballroom at our hotel one night. Irony of all ironies, Shots’ Mentor Bill Strickland (my fellow Huey gatecrasher) will be a registered participant this year in his work for fledgling Collegiate Sports Images.
• Vitale just lobbied – jokingly, we think – for him and Jay Bilas to get the Virginia job and “go after the Dukies.”
• We’re not going to believe it if Syracuse’s Mike Hopkins doesn’t get out of the Frozen Dome this season. He would have been a nice fit at Siena – and probably better than Travis Ford, too.