This and that

A few observations about Xavier's big 63-58 win against No. 13 Memphis in Puerto Rico:

• Terrell Holloway (Harmony Prep) was 10-for-10 from the free-throw line. After he was 10-10 against Mizzou on Thursday. And he's a freshman.

• What's scary about the fact that Xavier won is they only shot 36 percent from the field. They only got 2 points from their best player (Derrick Brown). And they were only 2-of-14 from 3-point range. They didn't hit a three (in nine attempts) in the entire second half.

• Jamel McLean had a great game, especially in the first half. Jason Love had 12 huge rebounds.

• I wasn't overly impressed with Memphis, and it's pretty clear they were ranked a little bit too high. They lost a lot with the departure of Rose, CDR and Dorsey. But Sean Miller has got to be pleased with Xavier's defensive effort when the Muskies hold a team like Memphis to 32.7 percent from the field.

Update: The 5-0 Musketeers are ranked No. 16 in the new AP Top 25.

• Peter King's Monday Morning QB includes several Bengals mentions if you have a half-hour to read it. The highlights: First few paragraphs about Big Ben, Quote of the Week III from T.J. (about how the Bengals are 1-8 with Chad and 0-1 without him), Factoids of the Week about Dick LeBeau and a couple of the 10 Things I think I think (one about Carson Palmer, the other about how the Bengals shouldn't in a million years bring Chad back for 2009).

• From ProFootballTalk.com: Joey Porter being Joey Porter. What a piece of work. As you know, news about a linebacker who plays for the Dolphins usually wouldn't appear on this blog (unless it was the non-local link of interest), but I get away with it in this instance because of the incident where Porter punched Bengals lineman Levi Jones at a Vegas casino.

And speaking of former Steelers, ProFootballTalk stands behind its report that the Browns are talking to Bill Cowher.

• My buddy Stewart Mandel (Sycamore HS) gives Brian Kelly some love in his Five Things We Learned This Weekend.

Mike DeCourcy also gives Kelly love in the Sporting News.

Speaking of UC, ranked No. 16 in the latest AP Top 25, the Bearcats are one of just two Big East teams who still have a shot at the BCS bid. UConn is eliminated from title contention after last night's 17-13 loss to South Florida. And the only way WVU can steal it away from UC is if the Mountaineers win out (at Pitt and home against South Florida) and the Bearcats lose to Syracuse. Highly unlikely. In fact, the Backyard Brawl (WVU-Pitt) is Friday night, so the Bearcats actually could clinch the Big East title with a Pitt win.

ESPN has revised its bowl projections. Now Mark Schlabach has Virginia Tech playing UC in the Orange Bowl, and Bruce Feldman has the Bearcats facing Florida State (also in the Orange Bowl). Both experts have Georgia and Ohio State meeting in the Capital One bowl.

SI.com (Stewart) has the same Capital One matchup, but he predicts a Boston College-UC Orange Bowl.

• RedReporter.com just posted a nice analysis of what happened to Aaron Harang and what's in store for him.

And A name from the really-not-too-distant Reds' past: the Phillies have hired Pete Mackanin as their new bench coach.

• Boston Globe's Chad Finn writes about how the Red Sox actually might be shopping David Ortiz to avoid having to cram four high-quality everyday players - Ortiz, Mark Teixeira, Kevin Youkilis (Sycamore HS) and Mike Lowell - into third base, first base and DH.

I think they'd be much more likely to deal Lowell, while he's still got some value, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Reds pursued a guy like Lowell if they decide they're looking to replace and/or move Edwin Encarnacion.

• Non-local link of interest: Deadspin has an item called When Blogs Go Too Far?: Yahoo! NBA Writer Calls Blogger After Perceived Threat that's pretty disturbing about a Cleveland Cavaliers blogger who says he wants to go "American History X" (the scene with the mouth on the curb if you're familiar with the movie) on Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. I linked to Deadspin instead of this Cavs blog because I'm hoping you'll read the offensive comments on Deadspin (to get the gist) without giving this character a page view he doesn't deserve. I'm all for freedom of speech but I think Amir Panchmatia is out of line on this one.