This just in, a motorist cut in front of Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight on Interstate 40. Knight did not even touch his car horn. Indiana University officials hold a press conference to introduce a tamer Knight.

You can tell it’s getting close to footbal time in the SEC.

SEC Conference Call relayed a verbal battle between Florida coach Steve Spurrier and Alabama coach Mike DuBose.

It seems Alabama is undergoing an investigation and Spurrier was quoted sarcastically as saying something to the effect of, &uot;No, not Alabama.&uot;

To which DuBose countered by saying at least some schools in the SEC go by a code of ethics.

The two teams do not meet during the regular season, but don’t be surprised if they are on opposite sidelines in Atlanta in December for the SEC title game.

Southern Mississippi softball pitcher Courtney Blades has to hands down win the most unsung, most underrated and best athlete few people know about award.

Everyone talks about how a most valuable player should be based on how that team would be doing without its best player.

I guarantee you the Lady Eagles would be nowhere close to Oklahoma City, Okla.

Blades (50-6) pitched all 44 innings in the NCAA Regional for Southern Miss, allowing only three runs on 22 hits. She struck out 62 batters while walking 12. Her earned-run average for the regional was 0.47.

She blanked LSU 1-0 in the regional championship game to send USM to the World Series.

Hopefully, Blades will be on top of her game and lead USM to a national championship. Then she should get the attention deserves.

And, yes, if she were doing what she is doing in college baseball, she would be on front of &uot;Sports Illustrated.&uot;

The Seattle Seahawks will become the first NFL team to play on the new FieldTurf this fall.

FieldTurf has an inch-and-a-half more fiber turf (2 1/2 inches) than AstroTurf and is supposed to be much easier on football player’s knees and ankles.

The new turf is being installed at the University of Washington’s Husky Stadium, where the Seahawks will be playing for the next two years before a new stadium is completed.

You know, when they were killing the baseball in college (Gorilla Ball), they changed bats.

What are they going to do in the major leagues?

Less than one year after the first five grand-slam day in major league history, there were six hit this past Sunday.

There were 56 homers in the majors Sunday, one off the record set April 7.

But that sells tickets. Unfortunately, not enough media folks care enough about the collegiate baseball game, so they don’t care about changing the game or making it less exciting at that level.

4Speaking of college baseball, ESPN2 will present 30-minute highlight shows of previous College World Series games, leading up to this year’s match-ups june 10-16. The network witll combine with ESPN to televise up to 13 games from the College World Series.

4Effective with the 2000-01 high school basketball season, 20-second time-outs have been increased to 30 seconds. Coaches will now be given three full and two 30-second time-outs during regulation play.

Joey Martin is sports editor of The Democrat. He can be reached by calling 446-5172 ext. 232 or at joey.martin@natchezdemocrat.com.