Sunday morning coffee

- Wow, that was a tough snow shoveling job this morning! The freezing rain and then snow that fell on the Kansas City area yesterday turned into very wet, heavy-to-shovel crud. Thankfully, the warmer temps and sun today are melting it quickly.

- Won't the east coast media have a field day if North Carolina and Louisville win today? Imagine, three Big East schools and an ACC school in the Final Four. Ugh...

- I'm making my weekly plea. Watch Friday Night Lights on NBC, Friday, 8 p.m. CDT. Once again, this past week's episode had a tremendous scene about the relationship of a daughter with her mother. Start with the season one DVD set and go from there.

- One TV pundit suggested that the Kentucky basketball job was becoming like Notre Dame's in football. Not quite--at least yet. Billy Gillispie was fired this past week as UK's head coach after two years. Prior to Gillispie, Tubby Smith took the Wildcats to a national championship in his ten-year tenure. Prior to Smith, Rick Pitino took UK to a national championship during his eight years. Eddie Sutton coached for four years prior to Pitino, succeeding Joe B. Hall, who had a national championship during his 13 years in Lexington. Contrast that to Notre Dame since Lou Holtz's departure. Holtz coached for 11 years and achieved a 100-30-2 record with one national championship. Succeeding Holtz was Bob Davie (35-25 in five years) followed by George O'Leary (of the falsified resume), Tyrone Willingham (21-15 in three years), Kent Baer (succeeded Willingham for one game and went 0-1) and Charlie Weis (29-21 in four years to date.) The potential comparison is that the Kentucky faithful have not embraced a coach since Pitino left after his tenure. Tubby Smith survived for 10 years but eventually left and Gillispie was obviously a bad hire--he did not handle the off-court demands well. Notre Dame fans have not had a consistent winner since Holtz, and they're not happy. Both high profile jobs require a unique blend of outstanding coach and personable leader who can rally alums, fans and students and cultivate a positive relationship with the media.

- Shades of Forrest Gump...the Guinness Book of World Record for "long walk" belongs to one Arthur Blessit. Blessit has managed to walk some 38,000+ miles through every inhabited area of the Earth. And--ready for this--he did it carrying a cross. Blessit felt led to convey the story of Jesus in a unique way, and did it by carrying a cross on his journeys across the globe. The story of Blessit is told in a new documentary, which opens this Friday in more than 200 theaters nationwide.