Belt Loops: Lousy Timing Cost Toledo Hayden Humes

• More hard luck chronicles for Toledo basketball. With the loss of Justin Moss they have an available scholarship. But before that they told Hayden Humes that no scholarships were available because of poor APR scores (thanks, Gene Cross!) and so Humes was granted a waiver to play immediately for Illinois-Chicago this coming season. And that's too bad; he didn't have a lot of talent (he was rather paddle-handed if recollection served me right) but was a smart kid and was essentially a loss for UT. They could have used him this year, but chalk this one up to bad timing. [ESPN College Basketball Nation Blog]

• Even with all those MLS draftees, defending soccer champion Akron remains No. 1 in the country. This could be more of a respect pick than a practical one; they have a fair amount of roster turnover. [Goal]

• Ohio cross country runner Annie Beecham is one of the 142 finalists (finalists? is that right?) for NCAA Woman of the Year. Neat for her. [MAC-Sports]

• Chad Spann was going to teach English at his high school before the NFL came calling. There's little difference between teaching and playing running back. Most people last two or three years before they are let go. Indianapolis Star]

• Teams are starting to practice now. Can you feel the anticipation? Temple, for one, began today, and even they realize they can't play defense with five people. So they are improvising. [Philadelphia Inquirer]