Comings and goings

From the wacky world of sports:

- The Billy Clyde Gillispie reign at Texas Tech is over.  And, his departure begs the question, "is there a school in the country who has a more odd recent coaching mini-drama than the folks in Lubbock?"  We first were treated with the Bob Knight re-emergence out of exile and his sporting the O'Reilly Auto Parts sweater on the sideline at Tech.  That led to the coach-in-waiting evolution of Pat Knight, and his subsequent dismissal given a dismal record with the Red Raiders.  Gillispie comes in, the next troubled coach to re-emerge in Lubbock and that fitful era ended with the news of yesterday.  Over on the football side, the Pirate--Mike Leach--brought his wild spread offense to Lubbock and experienced solid success until he ran afoul of the family James of ESPN fame.  Tommy Tuberville, another re-emergent coach, assumes the football seat and we're still all waiting to see how that hiring decision plays out.  In sum, and again, is there a school in the U.S. with a more odd coaching lineage of late?

- Athlon's pre-season college basketball edition is out and two familiar teams are predicted to make the Final Four.  Athlon predicts that Kentucky will return to the Final Four as will Kansas--the two national championship finalists in 2012.

- Kansas may not be experiencing early-season success on the gridiron but they are off of the playing field.  Head coach Charlie Weis and staff are shoring up the Jayhawks defense by the commitments picked up this week.  Marcus Jenkins-Moore, an outside linebacker from Pierce Community College in Woodland Hills, CA, picked KU after having had scholarship offers from the likes of Arkansas, Texas Tech and Texas A&M.  Earlier in the week, defensive end Andrew Bolton, of Hinds Community College in Raymond, MS, committed to KU and had interest from several big-name programs.  The moves continue Weis' desire to immediately improve a defense which may be leading the nation in turnovers, but still is giving up way too much yardage per game.

- The Barclays Center, future home of the Brooklyn Nets, is having its ribbon-cutting ceremony today.  The arena will officially open to the public on Saturday night with a Jay-Z concert.  The music artist and mogul not only is a part-owner in the Nets but also helped design the new Nets logo and visual identity system.