This week's links: Dustin, Bracketology and a trip Down Under

It blew up on Yahoo, then the New York Post's Page Six ran a blind item about his personal life. Dustin Johnson is learning that he has become an international star when rumors of him dating Natalie Gulbis ran rampant. When Dustin withdrew from the Sony Open to return to Myrtle Beach, the false rumor ran that he came back to the Grand Strand because his former girlfriend did not know about his relationship with Gublis. The link below sets the record straight.

Johnson denies Gulbis rumors


ESPN's Bracketology is a required stop every Monday as Joe Lunardi does his best forecast on what the field may look like in the NCAA Tournament. Because Coastal Carolina is atop the Big South standings, you'll find them in the projections.

ESPN Bracketology for 1/25

CCU will be no better than a 14 seed and most likely a 15 seed even if they run the table. Keep in mind that Coastal must win the Big South Tournament and has absolutely no chance of making the field as an at-large. CCU has zero wins against teams in the RPI's top 100 and just two wins against teams ranked between 150-199. The best win on CCU's resume at this point is the win against East Carolina. If LSU can climb the SEC, that may become a top 100 win, but as impressive as Coastal's dominance has been in 2010/11 in the eyes of the NCAA committee it is not even worthy of at-large consideration. Here is one interesting tidbit:

RPI as of Monday 1/25
Coastal Carolina 70
South Carolina 76
Clemson 91

It will be interesting to see if CCU can stay ahead of the Gamecocks and Clemson as the season wears on.

Congratulations to Darren Stack for winning the WPDE Fantasy Football league topping our executive producer Tracy Vreeland in the championship game. I finished tied in my quarterfinal game and lost a tiebreaker (that's tough to swallow!). It's never to early to study up and below is ESPN's early top 100 for 2011. I paste this link to show CCU's Mike Tolbert in at #79. I thought that Jerome Simpson might have shown up on the list. He'll be a great sleeper for next year.

ESPN Fantasy Football Top 100 for 2011

The first major of the tennis season is underway at the Australian Open. So often, anything on the sidelines or post-game of a sporting event can offer boring and very predictable questions and answers. Kim Clijsters, who is already a working mom on tour, caught former Australian doubles legend Todd Woodbridge off guard in the post-match interview. Clijsters had fun with a text message from Woodbridge questioning if the top player was pregnant.

This week's links

Rather than call it a New Year's Resolution since resolutions usually fizzle out in a matter of weeks, I'm calling it a "goal" to be a little more connected with social media. When it comes to Twitter and Facebook, I'm often conflicted by a heavy workload with a deadline and tweets and facebook posts go to the backburner.

I'm going to share any interesting tidbits I read along the way and give them the proper credit with a link.

I'll start with Raymond Felton who is having a fantastic season with the New York Knicks. I had said for a number of years that Raymond needed to leave Charlotte and I'm happy about all the success he's having with the New York Knicks. The New York Post's Marc Berman wrote this article ahead of the Knicks loss to the Lakers and lofty praise of the former two time WPDE Mister Hoop Zone from Kobe Bryant.

Kobe not surprised by Raymond



I'm a proud graduate of Saint Bonaventure University (class of 1992) and hope that I can live up to the sterling reputation of the school's Mass Communication and Journalism department. A fellow Bonnie, Adrian Wojnarowski ('91), is one of the best columnists in the country. I particularly enjoyed his coverage of LeBron James. Read both of the columns below for a great take on "The Decision" and some real insight to what the whole Lebron circle is like.

Easy Come, Easy Go for King James

King James wants Spoelstra to bow to him

I haven't mentioned it on the sportscast yet, but it has become a big headline in the world of golf. Dustin Johnson is now dating Natalie Gulbis. I had a chance to interview Gulbis once when she came to Myrtle Beach for a contest promotion. My guess is that she may be spending some more time here.

No penalty here - Dustin Johnson and Natalie Gulbis

We all know that Dustin Johnson is one of the longest hitters in the world and he's gotten the reputation as perhaps the best athlete on the PGA Tour. Everyone talks about how he can dunk a basketball. Here's further proof from YouTube. A left handed drive!



This confirms that if Dustin played 18 holes left handed, I'd still probably get two strokes a hole and lose!