Taking what they're giving...

Along with the Oracle I also write for another certain area newspaper. So when I’m not at USF, I’m either at school or possibly at a girls high school basketball game between Freedom and Lake Gibson, like I was on Tuesday night.
At the conclusion of the game, in which one player scored 43 of the team’s 82 points, I ran into women’s basketball assistant Amy Wright. A college coach sighting isn’t unusual at a prep basketball game, but when I asked Wright who she was scouting — assuming she would tell me nothing — she informed me that USF is set for their ’06 class, but it’s looking more toward ’08 and ’09 classes.
Just when I thought I was one of the hardest working people at USF, coach Jose Fernandez and staff have to trump me by recruiting right in the middle of a run before the Big East Tournament. Maybe when Fernandez declines to comment after a late night game in Pittsburgh or St. John’s, I’ll think back to how hard his staff works and give him a few days to rest — or maybe I won’t.
Side note: The Lake Gibson player who scored 43 points is a sophomore by the name of Andrea Smith.

SIX DEGREES OF LOGAN FLECK: One thing I enjoy about talking to women’s soccer coach Logan Fleck is that there are no silly questions. I am never embarrassed, for example, to ask Fleck what he would choose to have on a hypothetical submarine sandwich that would be named after him. Also I am sure to hear an interesting Fleck-ism or Fleck story such as…
I would be a fool to assume everybody knows the Kansas City Wizards and the MetroStars are playing an exhibition game at the USF Soccer Stadium on Saturday.
I’m sure less people know that Wizards goalkeeper Bo Oshoniyi played on the same two-time Division II national championship Southern Connecticut State University team with men’s soccer coach George Kiefer. But it doesn’t stop there…
In 1992, SCSU’s second national championship was televised, and who provided his expert analysis during the game? Who else but T. Logan Fleck.
Upon further review, it’s not surprising Fleck was calling a national championship. I mean, when you combine a man’s two gifts — in this case, soccer knowledge and the gift of gab — it’s only natural he’d be successful at it.
That would also explain the reason I am in this business: In no other profession is it acceptable to both obsess over sports and eat in excess, and those happen to be my two gifts.

Tony Marquis