Morning links from Bright House Field ...

Out here early at Bright House Field in Clearwater, where Louisville leads Villanova 5-0 in the second inning, continuing a ridiculous trend of lopsided games at the Big East tournament. All 10 games have been decided by at least six runs, and Louisville has had the hottest bats of any team in the tournament. The top five in Louisville's lineup were a combined 24-for-48 with 18 RBIs in the Cardinals' first two games ... you can add a grand slam to that list ...

-- Links? How about a quickie leadership speech from Jim Leavitt? The USF football coach recently spoke to a group called Leadership Polk, and the Lakeland Ledger has a three-minute clip of Leavitt's best gems. "The greatest thing about our season was how we dealt with adversity, how we dealt with things that didn't go our way," Leavitt tells his audience. "Adversity is always going to come, but how you deal with it is the key. ... We have challenges ahead. Believe me, we'll be there. How do you stay on top? You get better. That's how you do it. We're fixing to get better."

-- Good news for Kentrell Gransberry, hoping to be USF's second draft pick in three drafts after a 19-year drought: The big man got an invitation Thursday night to participate in the NBA's predraft camp next week in Orlando, a key showcase for potential draft picks. Gransberry got exposure at the Portsmouth Invitational and has been working out in Philadelphia with the hopes of getting such a platform to show his skills.

-- Everybody's ranking coaches these days. Rivals.com has their top 25 head coaches, and Leavitt makes the list at No. 21. That's one spot ahead of Oregon's Mike Bellotti, but somehow one spot behind Oregon State's Mike Riley. The only other Big East coach on the list is Cincy's Brian Kelly at No. 18. Sportsline.com's Dennis Dodd has his hot-seat rankings, scored between zero and five points, and Leavitt gets a 0.5 -- one of 25 coaches to get a 0.5 or better. The hottest seats? Washington's Ty Willingham gets a 4.95, and second-hottest is Syracuse's Greg Robinson, who gets a 4.5. The only other 4s are Arizona's Mike Stoops, Utah State's Brent Guy and UNLV's Mike Sanford. He's being kind to Pitt's Dave Wannstedt by giving him a 3 ...

-- Some interesting gamesmanship here at Bright House, as Villanova presented a starting lineup with a designated hitter batting eighth, a player with zero at-bats this season. And when he came up in the second inning, Villanova announced a pinch-hitter. So the first guy is just a place-holder, allowing the coach to get the best matchup -- be it lefty or righty, etc. -- for that first at-bat. Apparently West Virginia was using the same trick ... of course, Villanova's pinch-DH struck out. The Wildcats, however, have trimmed Louisville's lead to 5-3 in the second ...

Comments

[Sanjay]

Greg, You forgot to mention that Rivals also lists Grothe as the #13 QB, Selvie as the #1 DL and McKenzie as the #12 LB. Not bad, especially for Big George.

Rivals also has Wally Burnham at #14 among Defensive Coaches.

[Mike Lakeland]

Jim Leavitt in Lakeland? Why was I not informed?!?!

We totally could've gotten a few pints of Bass at Molly's. w00t w00t