Starting Five

1. It isn’t often ever that Honduras makes sports news, if any. If you’re like us, you know that it is located in Central America but you cannot say exactly what nations border it ( answer: Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua) and you definitely cannot pronounce the name of its capital city (Tegucigalpa). Anyway, that’s Honduras, which somehow defeated the United States, 2-1, in a World Cup qualifier yesterday afternoon in 85-degree temperatures in the city of San Pedro Sula (fyi: Honduras’ population is roughly that of New York City’s). Our favorite aspect of it is that ESPN sent Bob Ley on-site to cover the match, and Ley reported that he was reporting “from one of the most dangerous cities in the world.” ESPN could have saved a ton of money by simply sending Ley to Bridgeport.

Honduras: The Mayans lived here.

2. The top five in terms of National Signing Day hauls according to Rivals.com: Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Florida and Michigan. According to Scout.com: Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama, Notre Dame, UCLA. According to ESPN.com: Alabama, Florida, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Mississippi. What is clear. Either the Big 12 and Pac-12 are sliding or the recruiting experts fail to focus on them as well as they do the SEC and a certain Midwest triangle composed of the cities of South Bend, Columbus and Ann Arbor. Just a reminder, too, that while Alabama won the national championship, neither Notre Dame nor Ohio State lost a game last autumn. The lesson: You can talk about climate and uniforms and coaches’ personalities, but what it comes down to is this…kids want to play for a winner.

Mountainous-looking Eddie Vanderdoes, who was raised in the foothills of the Sierras, was the last 5-star to sign. The DL chose Notre Dame.

3. No. 5 Kansas, the nation’s top-ranked school a few weeks ago, loses at TCU, which entered the contest 0-8 in Big 12 play. Jayhawks coach Bill Self: “It was the worst team Kansas has ever put on the floor. Since Dr. (James) Naismith was here. I think he had some bad teams and lost to the YMCA the first couple years…For the first half, there’s not been a team play worse than that. Anywhere. Maybe Northern Illinois earlier this year.” So, if you are scoring at home, Self not only coached a team that suffered the nation’s most embarrassing defeat of the college hoops season last night, but he also dissed the YMCA, Northern Illinois and the man who invented the game of basketball.

4. Kobe tells teammate Dwight Howard, a man who missed seven games in his first seven NBA seasons (he is now in his 9th) to stop coddling that shoulder injury and play. For what it’s worth, Kobe has had fewer 82-game seasons (4) in his 17 years than Howard has (5) in his nine.

5. Congratulations to my man Tyler Bruggman, a quarterback at Phoenix Brophy Prep who signed with Washington State yesterday. Have known him since the fifth grade and he has always been perhaps the most all-around impressive young man I’ve ever met. Absolutely fantastic parents, Curt and Michelle. You may recall Arash Markazi mentioning young Tyler’s encounter with Charlie Weis before the 2006 Fiesta Bowl. Three years later, before the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, I introduced Tyler to Pat Haden (who, like Tyler, was raised in Scottsdale, Ariz., and would become a Pac-10/12 QB), who then mentioned him on-air the following day. I have no idea how successful Tyler will be as a college quarterback, but I’d pay to see him and the Pirate Captain watch film together.

Bruggman: From Brophy to Mike Leach

Also, if you did not read the link above, Bruggman was scheduled to play a high school All-Star game in Austin last Saturday, but a lady on the plane threw up on him and he in turn got sick.

Starting Five

1. It’s National Signing Day! It’s the one day of the year in college football in which just about EVERYBODY wins. Except Boise State. The Broncos never pull in a Top 10 — or even Top 20 — recruiting class, and then the following autumn Chris Petersen coaches up his team to an 11- or 12-win season. The Broncos are 84-8 (a .913 win percentage; even Knute Rockne swoons at those numbers) since Petersen arrived in 2006 and yet have never landed a top 20 class in those times. I’m not sure if ESPNU ever even mentions them on the first Wednesday of February.

Granted, the Broncos do not play in the SEC or the Big 12. But at a certain point the numbers speak for themselves. And Petersen’s record, combined with his roster’s dearth of four- and five-star talent, suggest that he is as talented a coach as exists in college football (outside of Tuscaloosa).

2. “The University of Ole Miss.” The nation’s No. 1 overall recruit, Clowney clone Robert Nkemdiche (6-5, 260), chooses “the University of Ole Miss.” Older but smaller brother Denzel Nkemdiche (5-11, 203), led the Rebels in tackles as a linebacker last season. Both Nkemdiche brothers wore white button-down shirts, red suspenders, bow ties and baseball caps at the announcement. Are they teaming up for the Rebels or for Boyz II Men?

Nkemdiche is Oxford-bound…

Boyz II Men: More likely to be sporting oxfords than playing in Oxford

3. Three-for-all in Houston, as the Rockets bury 23 three-pointers, tying the NBA record, in a 140-109 rout of the Golden State Warriors. Jeremy Lin stroked a career-high five threes while scoring 28 points, while James Harden and Chandler Parsons hit four apiece. Nine different Rockets made at least one three as Houston shot 23 of 40 from beyond the arc and scored the most points in regulation of any NBA squad this season. The most bizarre aspect of the Rockets’ deadly long range accuracy? Houston’s top three-point shooter, Carlos Delfino, sat out the contest with an elbow injury.

4. They say that there are two types of motorcyclists: those that have crashed and those who will. The same can be said for downhill ski racers. Yesterday at the World Championships in Schladming, Austria, American Lindsay Vonn tore her ACL and MCL, and suffered a “lateral tibial plateau fracture” during the Super-G event. Watch the video of her crash and we defy you not to exclaim “Ow!” at some point. You can actually hear her cry out after the initial fall. Vonn, who was airlifted from the scene, should need at least 6-8 months of recovery time, unless Tim Tebow applies a laying on of hands, in which case she will be healed instantly. She should be healthy for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi — we don’t know how to spell it and we are still five months away, at least, from caring how to do so — but whether she will be as fearless or as fast is yet to be determined.

Not the type of air Vonn was hoping to get in Austria

“Not her face! George, tell me that her face is okay…”

5. The nation’s premier hoops conference this season? The Big Ten. Last night No. 3 Michigan slipped past No. 10 Ohio State in overtime in Ann Arbor, 76-74. It was the Wolverines’ second top-ten, Big Ten duel of the past four days (then No. 1 UM lost at No. 3 Indiana on Saturday) and its second highly enthralling contest. It was also a nice way for Wolverine coach John Beilein to celebrate his 60th birthday.

Reserves

No. 2 Florida, which as we noted two days earlier had won its past previous 10 games by an average margin of 25 points,  falls at Arkansas, 80-69. You could see this coming. Mississippi State visits Gainesville on Saturday and it’s going to be ugly.

The United States Postal Service will no longer deliver mail on Saturdays. So when should I expect my copy of The Saturday Evening Post to arrive in the mail?

Monopoly trades in the iron for a cat. Few of us will miss the iron, but why a cat? Why not a Donald Trump token?

Remember our friend Mamadou Ndiaye? The seven-foot-five high school center from Huntington Beach, Calif.? Since returning from an absence (injury? I don’t know), the UC-Irvine-bound native of Senegal has played five games. Here are his totals and, granted, he is playing a low level of competition in southern California.

Jan. 29, vs. Oxford Academy: 45 points, 15 rebounds in a 76-55 win.

Jan. 31 vs. Crean Lutheran: 40 points, 12 rebounds in an 81-65 win.

Feb. 1 vs. Servite: 34 points, 26 rebounds, 4 blocked shots in a 50-34 victory.

Feb.2 vs. Whitney: 35 points, 16 rebounds, 4 blocked shots in a 77-47 rout.

Feb. 5 vs. St. Margaret’s: 18 points, 14 rebounds in a 58-40 win.

Speaking of BoyzIIMen: Ndiaye is averaging 34.2 points and 16.6 rebounds in his last five games.

Brethren Christian’s last scheduled game before the playoffs (their record is 21-3) is tomorrow night. If I were ESPN I’d be airing it on one of my networks.

And finally, Pitt has signed a kicker named Chris Blewitt. He’s giving Dee Liner heavy competition for Most Aptly Named Player of the 2013 recruiting class.