This and that

• Local coaching legend resigns: After 36 years as a varsity head basketball coach, Lakota West's Mike Mueller announced he's stepping down, effective immediately.

You won't get it in the release on Lakota's Web site, but you'll see some of it in the comments field of Tom Groeschen's blog post. Some will question the timing of Mueller's resignation, because the school didn't have time (practice begins Monday) to find a replacement other than Mueller's son, Scott, who was named interim head coach. Not that Scott's not deserving ... you just wonder if it went down this way so that Mueller would pretty much guarantee that his son would get a shot at becoming the school's head coach. Surprising news, nonetheless.

• Good info too from Groeschen about a potential Elder-Colerain showdown if both schools win their regional semifinal games this Saturday. That'll happen, by the way, barring a fairly stunning upset, and it sounds like it would be played at Nippert.

• Haven't seen much of interest as far as the Bengals, probably because it's their bye week. Chick Ludwig's got a decent notebook, including Houshmandzadeh not-at-all surprisingly defending Andrew Whitworth's actions.

• CBS' Lesley Visser is the latest to write a column about Sam Wyche's pursuit of a County Council set in South Carolina.

• Big games for ex-Bearcats: Among former UC players who had big-time efforts in the NFL's Week 9: The Eagles' Brent Celek had six catches for 131 yards in a 26-7 win against Seattle; the Colts' Tyjuan Hagler had 9 tackles in Indianapolis' 18-15 win against New England (the link is to a feature last week in the Indy Star about Hagler) and the Steelers' Andre Frazier had a huge blocked punt during Monday night's win at Washington (buried undeservedly in the story ... it was a game-changing play).

• Following Miami RedHawk football has been pretty painful this year, but for those who haven't given up hope, here's the Dayton Daily News' preview of tonight's game against Buffalo (on ESPN2).

• Non-local link of the day: Written by a local guy, but otherwise not very local (aside from Ohio State appearance, and they're not even in his Top 10). Stewart Mandel's College Football Power Rankings. Stewart's alma mater, Northwestern, cracks the rankings, by the way ... and guess who they host on Saturday? A loss in Evanston would certainly end any hope of the Buckeyes getting a BCS bowl.