Well, how about that. The new Wink hit the virtual newsstands this week, containing inside it all sorts of Spring fashions. For women. But, hey, all is not lost fellas. Like we did in the first issue, we went calling on Carolina athletics again for a good story.

This one is about Jack Easterby, head of the USC Fellowship of Christian Athletes and an advisor to the Gamecock men’s basketball team. It, eh, it ain’t bad. Check in on Page 22.

Wednesday night, the USC men’s basketball team upset Florida to try to set the team up for an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament. One person, who is not listed as an official coach for Carolina, is Jack Easterby. He’s the director of the South Carolina chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He also counsels the team, and has been doing so for several years. We were fortunate enough to be able to interview him for the latest edition of Wink, Columbia’s local Web-based magazine.

Unfortunately, not everything we talked to Easterby about could be in our story. It wasn’t about the content — Easterby seems to us like a really good guy who works hard to make sure the players develop their potential not just as players, but as people. There’s just not enough space sometimes.

We were interested in his opinion of former Carolina player Mike Boynton, the leader of the 2003-2004 team that was the last to make it to the Big Dance. Boynton never scored that much during the regular season, but was obviously the most valuable player because of his leadership. During the SEC Tournament, Boynton regularly led the team in scoring, because he had to. There was also the matter of Tré Kelley, who did an amazing job as a guard for the Gamecocks.

Talking about Boynton, who is now an assistant coach for the team, Easterby said:

Mike was almost born to coach.

[...]

That’s what’s so impressive to me about Mike Boynton. He just knows what kids need. He’s not trying to manipulate or do anything. He knows exactly what they need, when they need it, how they need it. He stays real patient.

[...]

Mike Boynton is truly going to be a great head coach very soon. He’s maybe a year or so, or even less, away from being a tremendous head coach. More so, just being a great people person.

As for Kelley, he’s playing ball in China these days. But, when he was still in Columbia, Easterby helped him out. You see, Kelley was a long way from his home in D.C. And that’s not the problem. Nineteen years ago, his uncle died in a murder related to drugs, and his aunt died in a drug overdose. Five years later, his mother was murdered by the man she had become involved with after separating from Kelley’s father.

About the situation, he said to a sports and faith Web site, “I saw a lot of negativity around me with friends. Once I grew up, I saw my friends go in other directions that wouldn’t make me a good person, that wouldn’t make me a successful person. At age 11, basketball was beginning to be what I did best. I met a lot of people who really helped me get along. They didn’t help me get over it — I’ll probably never get over it — but they helped me move in the right direction.”

At the time, Kelley’s grandmother stepped in and provided him with a safe home and the love and support he needed. He was still dealing with his problems when after his freshman year with the Gamecocks, Kelley went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic that changed his life.

While his time in the NBA didn’t go as expected, he’s doing some amazing things in the Chinese Basketball Association.

“I talked to him this morning,” Easterby said of Kelley on Wednesday. “It’s a 13-hour time difference, so it’s a little different. Tré’s been one of my projects that I’ve been incredibly proud of. Because, he is really dedicated to the Lord. Tré is an interesting situation. His home life was really poor growing up, and he’s really overcome a lot of great things. He is a really, really strong Christian guy. He’s playing over there, actually, against Stephon Marbury the other night. He had 36 points, so he’s doing well. There’s some really good things going for Tré, and I’m excited about watching him grow and see him continue – he hit 53 on Wednesday, so he’s getting it done over there.”

There’s a lot of stories out there about the corruptive influence of Division I athletics, but it’s good to know that it doesn’t have to be this way, and that people like Easterby, Boynton and Kelley are providing good examples to USC.

We were most aware of Tre Kelley when we were covering him while he was the freshman phenom from DC leading the Carolina men’s basketball team to one of its best seasons in recent years. He was a part of the back-to-back NIT champion teams, and was signed by a Croatian team out of college.

After that, Kelley made his way to a short stint in the NBA. And now, surprise, he’s showing up former New York Knick Stephon Marbury in China.

Marbury was outplayed by his counterpart, Tre Kelley, who finished with 34 points on 12-for-19 shooting. On an identical play with less than 30 seconds to go, Kelley would use Simmons’s screen to drive past Marbury for a layup that put Dongguan ahead 100-99. After his team’s loss, Marbury wrote on his Chinese Twitter-like site: “im sorry about the game last night. i wish we would have won for you guys. i will get better every game, i promise.”

Hey, it’s much better than hearing about Ro Howell beating up some soccer player in Italy.

On a night when Alabama finally came through on a first half lead to beat a Top 25 team, we’re rather unhappy to get distracted to that cow college in the Upstate. But, their virus spread to the ESPN analysts.

It’s been a long time coming, but members of the Tennessee basketball team are in trouble for drugs and firearms charges. Several years ago, we were working in a restaurant when the UT men’s basketball team came in. After asking where to meet girls, one gentleman pulled us to the side and inquired as to where they could pick up some weed. It’s quite obvious that Bruce Pearl hasn’t been recruiting Mensa candidates to Knoxville.

These guys were hot-boxing it when the driver decided not to obey the speed limit. After being pulled over, the cop smelled weed from the car. It all went to shit from that point.

The four were riding in a car driven by [Cameron] Tatum that police stopped for speeding. Police smelled marijuana in the car.

[Tyler] Smith, voted the SEC’s preseason Player of the Year in November 2008, was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm with an altered serial number (which is a felony).

[Brian] Williams faces the same charges as well as possession of marijuana.

Tatum is charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and having an open container of alcohol.

[Melvin] Goins is charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of marijuana.

The funny thing is, two players have already been dismissed from the squad for participating in an armed robbery. Miami’s “Thug U” football team has nothing on these fools from East Tennessee.

Nothing gives you that sinking feeling like when the preseason college basketball polls come out. It only means that the football season is more than half over and barreling toward the finish line. Thursday, the ESPN/USA Today Top 25 poll came out, and Kansas and Michigan State take top honors.

Three SEC squads managed to make the list, though few people outside the mid-South (i.e. Kentucky and Tennessee) are really going to give too much of a damn unless their team goes on a run and actually does well, like the 2003-04 Carolina team that had been picked to finish last in the SEC East. Kentucky lands at No. 5, Tennessee at No. 11 and Mississippi State at No. 19.

Several teams landed in the “also receiving votes” category, including Vanderbilt, Florida, Ole Miss and Carolina. Obviously, the voters have absolutely no faith in the SEC West. It’ll be interesting if Alabama, LSU, Auburn or Arkansas do anything interesting and buck the conventional wisdom. The only SEC East team that didn’t receive a vote was Georgia, which probably reflects the decline in the program since Tubby Smith left years ago.

We were rather surprised when the College of Charleston beat South Carolina’s men’s basketball team by two points in front of a crowd topping the staggering amount of 5,000 last November. Yeah, jokes. Perhaps we just think that’s funny because our step-dad went to CofC and our mom went to mid-major UAB, and it’s nice when a mid-major owns a team like USC.

Maybe it’s a chance for redemption, but the Gamecocks are going back to Charleston early this season with new head coach Darrin Horn. Like the previously-mentioned Old Spice Classic, this one is run by ESPN (the WWL claims your soul) and will have some top teams. Carolina opens with LaSalle, and if the War Chickens win that one, they’ll take on the victor of the South Florida/Davidson contest. Also in the tourney are Tulane, Miami, UNC-Wilmington and Penn State.

Horn did a fabulous job at Western Kentucky, and ostensibly he has a better chance at talent in Columbia, but we’ll be able to see just how good he is pretty soon.

The Alabama men’s basketball team will give new coach (and former VCU skipper) Anthony Grant a good tip-off, the Old Spice Classic. The pre-conference play tournament is bringing in a number of big-name teams, including Florida State, Marquette, Iona, Baylor, Michigan, Creighton and Xavier.

The Crimson Tide will play Baylor in the first game, and the winner of that one will face the winner of Florida State/Iona. Orlando will no doubt be a place of great college basketball, with the winner of that game going into a match-up with the victor of Marquette/Xavier and Michigan/Creighton.

Looks like Grant will have his hands full.

A while back during the NBA Finals, there was quite a Twitter debate among some South Carolinians about who was the best coach of all time. The lean was on L.A. Lakers coach Phil Jackson, but now The Sporting News has delved into that discussion and come up with its Top 50 coaches in American sports.

SN used a panel of 118 people, and — w00t — former Alabama, Texas A&M, Kentucky and Maryland head coach Bear Bryant beat out Jackson for the No. 3 spot. UCLA’s John Wooden, whose teams thoroughly dominated college basketball, claimed the title as best coach ever, followed by Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi. Don Shula and Red Auerbach were fifth and sixth.

Knute Rockne, who despite our bias against Notre Dame, we believe was the most influential coach in college football, came up at No. 10.

The lineup of voters was rather distinguished, with the exception of (gag) former Tide coaches Mike DuBose and Ray Perkins. Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier was one of those on the panel, but it’s unknown whether he filled out his own ballot or he had a staffer do the task. Former Carolina quarterback and legendary NFL coach Dan Reeves was in the group, as was former NFL coach and potential U.S. House candidate Sam Wyche.

The Sporting News Top 50
1. John Wooden, college basketball
2. Vince Lombardi, NFL
3. Bear Bryant, college football
4. Phil Jackson, NBA
5. Don Shula, NFL
6. Red Auerbach, NBA
7. Scotty Bowman, NHL
8. Dean Smith, college basketball
9. Casey Stengel, MLB
10. Knute Rockne, college football
11. Pat Summitt, women’s college basketball
12. Paul Brown, NFL
13. Joe Paterno, college football
14. George Halas, NFL
15. Chuck Noll, NFL
16. Bob Knight, college basketball
17. Joe Gibbs, NFL
18. Tom Landry, NFL
19. Mike Krzyzewski, college basketball
20. Bill Belichick, NFL
21. Adolph Rupp, college basketball
22. Joe McCarthy, MLB
23. Eddie Robinson, college football
24. Bobby Bowden, college football
25. John McGraw, MLB
26. Bill Walsh, NFL
27. Woody Hayes, college football
28. Connie Mack, MLB
29. Bud Wilkinson, college football
30. Pat Riley, NBA
31. Pete Newell, college basketball
32. Joe Torre, MLB
33. Bill Parcells, NFL
34. Tom Osborne, college football
35. Walter Alston, MLB
36. Bo Schembechler, college football
37. Toe Blake, NHL
38. Sparky Anderson, MLB
39. Al Arbour, NHL
40. Amos Alonzo Stagg, college football
41. Tony La Russa, MLB
42. Geno Auriemma, women’s college basketball
43. Dick Irvin, NHL
44. Ara Parseghian, college football
45. Chuck Daly, NBA
46. Bobby Cox, MLB
47. Hank Iba, college basketball
48. Tommy Lasorda, MLB
49. Gregg Popovich, NBA
50. Herb Brooks, NHL

Former Carolina basketball player John Chappell wasn’t one of the statistical leaders during his time on the hardwood, but he did rack up his share of strength and conditioning and academic awards. He must have spent an amazing amount of time in the training room, considering how often we saw him at the Cayce Monterrey.

Anyway, he’s moved on to grad school, but that hasn’t hindered his pull among the ladies, according to the Web site, “Don’t Date Him Girl.”