I took this picture of a water snake trying to swallow a live bluegill at the pond behind my house earlier this week.

I’ve always heard that snakes have the ability to unhinge their jaws and swallow food that is much larger than their mouths.

I’ve seen rattlesnakes trying to swallow whole cottontail rabbits, and I’ve seen lots of snakes with big bulges in their bellies, suggesting they swallowed large items.

But I’d like to hear what you think about this picture.

Do you think this snake actually managed to swallow this fish? Or do you think the snake choked to death trying?

Before taking this photo, I was seeing this snake on a pretty regular basis. I have not seen it since.

So I’m really wondering.

I’d like to hear some thoughts from other folks.

NBA commissioner David Stern held an impromptu media session Tuesday at the draft lottery, and was peppered with questions about former referee Tim Donaghy, a convicted felon for gambling. He also fielded questions concerning criticism of the draft lottery.

Before being whisked away, Stern stopped briefly and responded to two questions about the Grizzlies.

Q. Winning made the difference in New Orleans and Atlanta but the problems in Memphis seem to run deeper with unstable ownership and declining fan interest. Are you concerned about Memphis’ viability?
A. Yes. And we’re anxious that Memphis gets new leadership, not ownership, but leadership. I know that there’s a search on for a new president of the club that will hopefully redirect their efforts in a very positive way.

Q. Is it disappointing that the relationship between the team and city is so poor for a relatively new market?
A. It is. It is. But stay strong. That’s the beauty of the draft lottery and the ability to make trades. It can improve situations.

As you may have read on the May 4 outdoors page, a breeding population of the dreaded northern snakehead fish was recently discovered in Lee County, Arkansas.

Obviously, this is bad news. But it may not be nearly as bad as some people think.

Since the northern snakehead was discovered in the United States back during the 1990s, myths and misconceptions about the fish have spread much faster than the fish themselves.

I’ve heard people say snakeheads can walk great distances to find new homes once they’ve eaten all of the fish from their original host reservoir. I’ve heard people say it’s unsafe to swim in a pond that’s inhabited by snakeheads because they will attack humans.

None of that stuff is true. It’s just exaggerated garbage that gets blown farther and farther out of proportion every time a story is passed from one person to another.

It’s true, northern snakeheads can survive for brief periods out of water. In fact, according to reports from the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, that’s how this particular population was discovered. A farmer actually noticed one wiggling along a gravel road near a ditch.

“Wiggling” is a much more accurate assessment of what the fish can do out of water. They don’t have legs, so they don’t actually walk. You won’t see one jogging along the shoulder of I-40, and you certainly don’t have to worry about one walking up your driveway, ringing your doorbell and attacking you when you open the door.

As far as I know, there is no record of a northern snakehead having ever attacked a swimmer in the United States.

I’m sure humans have been bitten by snakeheads. But it was probably during the hook-removal process after the snakehead was landed by a fisherman - and that’s nothing new for anglers in the Mid-South.

The same thing can happen easily with gar, bowfin or even trout. We’ve been catching those fish - and swimming in waters loaded with them - for years, and we’ve never had any problems.

The difference with snakeheads is that they’re relatively new to us. They made their way into the U.S. from Asia sometime during the early 1990s when some brain donor brought them in for sale in the aquarium trade. When that happens with an exotic fish species, it will almost always make its way into the wild at some point.

It’s been happening for years with fish like Oscars and pacus. The difference is “Oscars” and “pacus” don’t sound nearly as menacing as snakeheads.

Be honest. If they were called rabbitheads, do you think they’d still be as feared as they are now?

Don’t get me wrong. Just because these fish have overblown reputations doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous. If they escape into the major reservoirs of Arkansas, they could do immense damage to native fish populations like crappie, bass and bluegill.

For that reason, anyone who finds a northern snakehead in Arkansas is asked to call the AGFC regional office in Brinkley at (877) 734-4581 or the Fisheries Division in the Little Rock Office at (501) 223-6428.

They do pose some major dangers.

But no matter what you’ve heard, they’re not gonna come running up to bite you on your next family outing.

Looking for the freshest and latest Spring Fling coverage? We’ve set up a separate blog just for the Fling.

Go to our Spring Fling blog to check out blog entries and quick videos.

Here’s the roster that will go to China representing Memphis and Conference USA, as of Monday:

Memphis
G - Antonio Anderson
G - Willie Kemp
G - Doneal Mack
G - Jeff Robinson
F - Robert Dozier
F - Shawn Taggart
F - Pierre Niles

Tulsa
G - Ben Uzoh
C - Jerome Jordan

Southern Miss
G - Jeremy Wise
F - Andre Stephens

UTEP
G - Julyan Stone
C - Claude Britten

When wishful thinking is combined with exceptionally vague reporting, the imagination can run wild.

And so it was on Thursday, when the city of Memphis and blogs nationwide were buzzing about Fox 13’s Wednesday night newscast claiming that Memphis was in talks with the Big East about joining the mega-conference.

Immediately, the Commercial Appeal called athletic director R.C. Johnson and Big East officials for the standard denials. Meanwhile, the mere idea of a move was enough to light up message boards and talk radio shows, trying to fill the vast empty spaces left by Fox’s report. How would such a move happen? When would it occur? Those are just two of the many questions that were conveniently left unanswered.

Based on numerous conversations over the course of many weeks, I will offer the following:

Do I think there is merit to the idea that powerful forces representing the interests of Memphis have made overtures to the Big East? Absolutely. In fact, that notion isn’t very new. This is a passage from a story I wrote last March — a somewhat controversial story in Conference USA circles on the day the 2007 league basketball tournament began.

While the Tigers have indeed blossomed into a national power the past two years, the biggest concern among those close to the program is whether that could continue in C-USA should Calipari leave. Calipari nearly took the North Carolina State job last spring and will likely continue to be hotly pursued by major programs that have openings in the future.

“You’ve got Tennessee and Ole Miss, so you wouldn’t think they’d want Memphis in the Southeastern Conference. You hear some about whether Arkansas is leaving or not. You hear a lot of rumors from time to time. Obviously, we’d never be in the Big Ten, but they only have 11 teams and would probably like a 12th, so there are things you could see out there starting a sort of chain reaction.”

In August, my colleague Geoff Calkins reinforced that idea:

But if (R.C.) Johnson is smart, he’ll call (Dave) Bronczek or FedEx CFO Alan Graf before the week is out. The conversation should go something like this.

“I have told both Shirley (Raines) and R.C. — who need to lead this effort — that FedEx thinks we should do something more formal,” he said. “We would be ready and willing to be involved.”

So, in other words, I (and well-connected sources I speak with regularly) have no doubt that some of this has taken place.

But the devil’s in the details.

At this point — at least until there’s some evidence that the entire college sports landscape is about to change — it’s hard to see these supposed conversations as anything more than jockeying for position.

Given the Big East’s current configuration — 8 for football, 16 for basketball — there simply isn’t room for a Memphis all-sports membership unless somebody like Rutgers, Syracuse or Notre Dame leaves for the Big 10 or the Big East is getting ready to split up into a 9-team or 12-team all-sports conference. And if that’s about to happen, Fox 13 is way, way, way, way, way out in front on the nation’s biggest college sports story of the last couple years and doesn’t even know it. And even at that, it’s practically impossible for the conferences to start the revolving door until 2010.

Here’s what Memphis fans should be focused on right now. Given what happened in the last round of conference realignment — the perception among people that matter is that Memphis didn’t necessarily put it’s best foot forward in its argument to get into the Big East — I have no doubt that the school is going to be extremely well-prepared the next time.

The general speculation is that there will be a comprehensive push, once the sands begin to shift, which would probably include the Liberty Bowl and a major FedEx sponsorship package. Until then, there’s not much to do but wait for the dominoes to start falling.

One thing I’ve learned in all my years as an outdoors writer is that you can’t go wrong writing about snakes.

Whether people love them or hate them, everyone seems to be fascinated by them - and for that reason, stories like the one I published May 11 are always well-read.

Personally, I hate snakes - and I have for a very long time.

I know they’re good for the ecosystem, and they play a positive role for the environment. But I get shaky at the mere thought of snakes because of several incidents that took place when I was a child.

When I was seven or eight years old, my grandfather used to let me swim in the Cahaba River that flows through the heart of Birmingham, Ala. We also did some trotline fishing for catfish on the river, and one night he put out a minnow trap to catch small fish for catfish bait in the same spot where I had always swam.

When we came back the next morning, the trap was filled with small bluegill. But it was also holding a giant banded water snake.

The snake had swam into the trap and swallowed one of the bluegill whole. But with the big lump in its mid-section, it couldn’t get back out of the trap and it drowned.

Needless to say, that was the last time I swam in that spot - and that incident was the source of many snake-related nightmares.

A few years laters when I was about 10 or 12, I went blackberry picking with my grandfather. Snakes were a common occurrence on blackberry-picking trips because they like to sit near the bushes and catch birds that come to eat the berries.

On our way to the blackberry bushes one day, we encountered a snake so big that it stretched completely across the dirt road we were riding on. It had to be at least 10 to 12 feet long, and I’ll always believe it was someone’s pet python or boa constrictor that they had just released into the woods.

My grandfather ran over it with his Volkswagen, and the snake didn’t even slow down. When we rolled over the giant reptile, it was like rolling over a concrete speed bump. But the snake kept going. It crossed the road, crawled into the woods and disappeared. Even four tires and the weight of a car weren’t enough to stop it.

I demanded that my grandfather take me home right then - and now, more than 20 years later, I never take a bite of blackberry cobbler without thinking of the incident.

Like I said, I know snakes serve a purpose. I would never kill one just for the sake of killing it.

But every time I see one, I get chills.

Even as a seasoned outdoorsman, they are one of my greatest fears.

They have been for a long time - and they probably always will be.