I’ve gotten a couple questions about Angel Garcia, since there has been no formal announcement yet about his signing a letter of intent. Memphis has had a general policy in recent years that they won’t make a recruiting announcement until the end of the eight-day signing period. I’ve been told that Garcia signed the letter, sent it to his mother in Puerto Rico, she signed it and has sent it back to the Memphis basketball office. However, It doesn’t make much sense to do a story on Garcia at this point until Cal can comment, so that’s the only reason we’ve held off writing.

In the same vein, assistant coaches Derek Kellogg and Chuck Martin stayed in the Northeast following the 2k Sports College Hoops Classic to do some recruiting. Certainly, the Tigers’ performance against UConn in Madison Square Garden was a big plus for their recruiting efforts in the New York area. Though I did not personally see these players, I was told that Dexter Strickland and Lance Stephenson — two elite guards in the 2009 class — were in attendance at MSG for the UConn game.

Center Darko Milicic underwent more tests today regarding his severely sprained left thumb and is being called a game-time decision. But Milicic wore a soft cast last Saturday when the Griz lost at Dallas.

It would be surprising if Milicic played tonight against Seattle given how concerned team brass appeared over the weekend. And Milicic, along with rookie Mike Conley, didn’t practice this morning. Conley couldn’t lift his arm after suffering a strained right shoulder in that Dallas game.

With Damon Stoudamire and Kyle Lowry receiving most of the playing time at point guard (plus Conley’s yet to play a regular-season game in FedExForum), it’s unlikely that the coaching staff will risk further injuring Conley’s shoulder.

Milicic’s absence hurts because the Griz will lack interior toughness and rebounding on defense.

THE BIG STORY

It’s official. The University of Michigan has an opening for a football coach, and LSU coach Les Miles’ name is everywhere around it.

Michigan coach Lloyd Carr told the Associated Press on Sunday that he would be announcing his retirement at a news conference this morning, which is two days after signs asking for Miles to return to Michigan were displayed around Ann Arbor, Mich., as Ohio State and Michigan ended the season.

ESPN has mentioned several times that Miles, who played at Michigan in the mid-1970s and coached there as an assistant twice, is the top candidate.

Miles’ agent George Bass of Dallas, however, told Gannett Louisiana Sunday night that there has been no contact between the two parties.

Bass has been representing Miles since Miles left an assistant coaching job with the Dallas Cowboys after the 2000 season to become Oklahoma State’s head coach. Bass negotiated Miles’ contract with Oklahoma State and his contract at LSU when Miles became the Tigers’ coach after the 2004 season. Bass was part of the negotiations that saw LSU athletic director Skip Bertman place a clause in the contract that states Miles must pay LSU $1.25 million should he accept the head coaching job at Michigan. There is no such buyout if Miles goes to any other school.

Bertman did not return calls to his cellular phone on Sunday night. He said in a previous interview that LSU is a better place to coach football than is Michigan.

“Quite honestly, this is a better school to be the football coach at than most schools in the United States,” Bertman said on Sept. 10 after speculation intensified of Carr’s impending departure because of season-opening losses to Appalachian State and Oregon. “It’s in a great community. And you don’t have to worry about an Ohio State here. Of all the schools in the United States, LSU can lock up every kid in (its state).”

Bertman said then he figured Michigan would likely call for Miles.

“They might call,” he said at the time. “I don’t know. I’ll worry about that when the time comes.”

Associate athletic director Herb Vincent was contacted Sunday night but referred questions to Bertman.

Miles usually speaks with reporters on Sunday nights in a lounge in the football facility, but he told LSU sports information director Michael Bonnette that he canceled that because of the short week of preparation for the Tigers’ next game against Arkansas.

No. 1 LSU (10-1) hosts Arkansas (7-4) on Friday at 1:30 p.m. on CBS. The Tigers remained at No. 1 in all the polls Sunday afternoon, including the Bowl Championship Series rankings that decide the teams that play in the BCS national championship

A look at the league: Read the rest of this entry »

Nothing changed in my top 15 this week. I dropped Arizona from 16 all the way out of the poll. They barely beat Northern Arizona at home, then lost to Virginia at home. Not the kind of start I wanted to see from a top-25 team. I also dropped Arkansas (previously 19th, got pounded by Providence), N.C. State (previously 21st, lost at home to New Orleans) and Mississippi State (from 25th). My new additions were Pittsburgh, Butler, Syracuse and BYU.

1. Memphis
2. North Carolina
3. UCLA
4. Kansas
5. Georgetown
6. Michigan State
7. Tennessee
8. Louisville
9. Gonzaga
10. Duke
11. Washington State
12. Marquette
13. Oregon
14. Indiana
15. Texas
16. Villanova
17. Kansas State
18. Clemson
19. Southern Illinois
20. Texas A&M
21. Vanderbilt
22. Pittsburgh
23. Butler
24. Syracuse
25. Brigham Young