For this sports column, I could write an in-depth investigation of the rape trial/basketball season Kobe Bryant is enduring, which would undoubtedly lead to a playpen of bawdy double-entendre to satisfy even Shakespeare – “Kobe just made a hard backdoor move,” perhaps? But alas, the grandest news in all the ...

Men’s college basketball died in 1995. At least that is the consensus you might glean from the wailings of some coaches and sportswriters as they lament the P.G. (post-Garnett) era.

So it is cozy. You might say small. Or even absurdly tiny.
And it is busy. Teeming, if you prefer. Perhaps you stand a greater chance of being struck by lightning while clutching a winning lottery ticket and barebacking flying swine than eyeing an open elliptical machine during peak hours.

In the current issue of ESPN The Magazine, savior-turned-pariah Maurice Clarett, the starting running back on Ohio State University’s 2002 national championship football team, describes a culture of rampant academic corruption and illegal benefits at one of the nation’s most prominent football schools.