Tellem gets it right. Sports agent Arn Tellem wrote an excellent piece in the Los Angeles Times yesterday. Tellem discusses the idea of a national basketball academy for the nation’s professional and Olympic hopefuls, and the agent suggests that our priorities are in the wrong place. Instead of trying to handpick the top high school players that might move on to the NBA or win the United States a gold medal, we should work hard at providing them with a first-rate preparatory education. Tellem writes: “students must learn something substantial about science, history and contemporary civilizations so they can apply that knowledge to the challenges of the future.” I couldn’t agree more. We’ve had a discussion on the blog for the past few months about whether or not parents should be holding their children back in school to improve their athletics talents. Some folks think athletics first, academics second. It is a rare, rare situation where that type of philosophy will work out.

Sitting on the dock of the bay. Jay Bilas offered his thoughts about the NCAA restrictions on text messaging and says the organization completely missed the boat. With all due respect to Jay, who is a fine basketball analyst, it is he who is left with Otis Redding on the dock of the bay. Jay suggests that without the ability to text message recruits (16 and 17-year-old kids), “coaches will have to communicate with others in order to contact the recruits.” So what? Five or six years ago the technology didn’t even exist for coaches to text recruits. What’s the big deal now? Let’s not be overly dramatic on this one – text messaging was becoming an overly invasive recruiting tool and its elimination should not only come at the Division I level, but in Divisions II and III as well.

Methodist jumps out fast. The Division III women’s golf championship will be determined by team scores after four rounds of play. After yesterday’s first round, however, Methodist is well on its way to winning yet another national championship in the sport. Four Monarch golfers combined to shoot 11-over par, 29 strokes better than second-place Gustavus Adolphus. The success is nothing new for Methodist, which has won nine straight national titles, the first two coming in a joint tournament format including Division II and III programs. Last year, the Monarchs won by an all-divisions record 76 strokes to claim the Division III crown, and it seems that mark could be in jeopardy this year.