Here is an interesting item worth bidding on: Phil Ford's ring.

Ford's 2000 Final Four ring is apparently up on eBay. Ford was an assistant coach to Bill Guthridge on the 1999-2000 North Carolina Tar Heels team. Here is the description:

This is Ford's original ring that was given to him by UNC. 100% GUARANTEED. I purchased the ring earlier this year from David Gerald Timepieces in Chapel Hill. Ford had given the ring to a good friend (Bernard) as a gift several years ago. The friend ended up consigning the ring for sale with David Gerald in 2008. I have displayed pictures of the two cards I received from David Gerald Timepieces along with the ring. One reflects the purchase (I have obscured my last name, telephone number, etc. in the picture) and the other is a thank you note from David Gerald himself which references Phil Ford.

There is a nice cubic zirconia in the center of this ring ... which looks like a chewed up piece of bubble gum.

However, if what he is saying is legit, this would be quite a keeper for a diehard UNC fan. Ford is held up to being the greatest player in North Carolina history.

This comes a few months after a 2005 Tar Heels' National Championship ring was sold for $3,600 on eBay (it is believed to have belonged to David Noel).

I think that (a) winning a National Championship and (b) crushing Roy Williams in the process does call for a new contract at Kansas.

And that happened for Bill Self, who signed a new 10-year deal to stay in Kansas through 2008. The deal is reportedly worth $30 million.

"This will take me to 55 if both parties want to continue, which hopefully will happen," Self said in a phone interview with The Associated Press while playing golf at Pine Valley in New Jersey. "I like to think I'll still want to keep coaching when I get to 55. But if we continue to do our job, this will get us close."

If you remember, Self was being heavily pursued by Oklahoma State during the Final Four -- a job Self turned down. Remember that last year, Florida's Billy Donovan won the title and actually left the Gators for the NBA's Orlando Magic before eventually coming back to Gainsville and signing a new deal.

Self and Kansas agreed to the deal in April, though it wasn't completed. This contract is retroactive to April 1.

Okay, we all know that the news that Indiana has extended new head coach Tom Crean's contract by two years was rather odd. After all, Crean has coached as many games as most of us for the school (that would be none). You just don't see that happening.

Of course, you don't see what's going on at Indiana happening every day, either. Which is why this development should make Hoosier fans very nervous.

Does this mean Indiana knows they are about to face some stiff penalties from the NCAA? Maybe even a self imposed two-year ban from postseason play or something? It could happen:

Remember, it was just three years ago that Ohio State gave then first-year coach Thad Matta a one-year contract extension on the same day the university announced it was slapping itself with a one-year postseason ban for the NCAA rules violations committed by Jim O'Brien's staff. Matta had only coached the first handful of games during his inaugural season in Columbus, but adding a year seemed like the right thing to do since there was no postseason ban in place when he left Xavier to take over the OSU program.

The glass half full of this may be that the school didn't think Crean would have it this bad right off the bat. Essentially everyone will be gone from last year's team and he is having to build from scratch. Maybe the school thinks Crean deserves the extra years added.

At least that's what Hoosier fans are hoping for.

That about sums up the state of Indiana basketball at the moment. New coach Tom Crean has been recruiting for next year, doing the publicity tours throughout Indiana.Generally trying to get the message out that it's a new day.

Not a single game has been played. Classes haven't started yet. I'm not sure the ink is even dry on the initial contract between Indiana and Crean. Yet, the Hoosiers have already extended the contract by two more years.

The unprecedented move is in keeping with the unique world that is the current state of Indiana basketball. Since Crean took over he has lost virtually his entire team via the NBA draft, transfers or his own decision to boot troubled players. The Hoosiers have just one player returning with any experience and still face sanctions from the NCAA.

The contract is now for eight years in length. It may have something to do with the fact that beyond the expectations that 2008 will be a lost year for Indiana basketball, there are possibly more sanctions and a deeper hole for Crean to extract the Hoosiers.

Indiana really has to hope that Crean can handle the Hoosier state in the long-term. After all that they have had to pay to get rid of the last few coaches (buyouts, legal fees, etc.), they now have a coach with an eight-year contract.

Today ... July 26th ... is my birthday. That fact is one of the reasons I will always remember Wake Forest head coach Skip Prosser, who passed away one year ago today.

I have such respect for Skip ... so much so that it pained me to see his program struggle mightily in his final few seasons at the helm. He was on the hottest of seats in the ACC as he pulled in one of the best classes any program would love to have (Ty Walker, Tony Woods and Al-Farouq Aminu).

That class will be enrolling at Wake this fall.

One of the things that makes me proud to be a fan of the ACC is how everyone reacted to Skip's death. The coaches and players who are rivals, but friends, did everything they could to comfort the Prosser family and the Deacons program. When those mega recruits were told they could look elsewhere to go to school ... the ACC coaches banded together to not recruit away any of those young men. Skip's recruits should be going to Wake Forest and no other ACC school. To their credit, they stayed.

The Sporting News decided to look at the state of the program one year after Skip's passing:

In a bit of shocking news, Oregon extended head basketball coach Ernie Kent's contract through the 2012-2013 season. His salary will be $1.06 million during that period with his assistant coaches also receiving a raise.

The reason this is shocking is that Kent seemed to be on thin ice with the Ducks. It's really no fault of his own: he's taken the Ducks to the NCAA Tournament five times in since 2000 ... including the past two seasons. He has led Oregon to the Elite Eight twice. Only seven coaches from BCS schools have held their job longer than Kent's 11 seasons in Eugene.

He is a very nice recruiter and has overseen a new golden age for an Oregon program that wasn't too good when he got there.

Still, there have been harsh critics. Some say he can't develop the talent of his top recruits and there was that down period from 2004-2006 when the Ducks missed the tournament and once finished with losing record. Kent has also had some person issues that were gossiped about. There are also some very wealthy boosters at Oregon who don't like him (they want Gonzaga's Mark Few ... now!) as they pay for a new arena.

It seems as if Kent will be there for the opening for the new digs ... or those boosters forking over some money to buy Kent out. Either way, he finally has a little room to breathe.

There was a big stink when Florida's Billy Donovan went against the National Association of Basketball Coaches recommendation that coaches stop recruiting kids who haven't completed their sophomore year in high school.

Three weeks after that declaration, Donovan signed Doc Rivers' son ... who was still in the 8th grade. Oh, and he doesn't think there is anything wrong with that:

"I don't know if it really made a whole lot of sense," Donovan said. "Because one of the things they should be doing, at least from my perspective, is opening up the lines of communication more than closing them down."

"I think for the NABC just to mandate when we can offer scholarships and when we can't -- what we need to be doing is (exploring) how can we open up the lines of communication more to get to know these kids better," he said.

"Whether the school offers at any age really comes down to the family and what the family thinks is in the best interest of the kid. I don't think anybody's forcing anybody to do anything."

This is a very hot topic, especially since the NABC (which is obviously run by the coaches) has come out against this practice. There is a line of thinking that coaches should keep in contact with these kids so they are more acclimated to the program, the coach and the college lifestyle change. Another line wants these kids to be kids and develop in their own time frame.

Dr. Tom Davis got fired from the University of Iowa for not winning enough games in the NCAA tournament. Now, almost a decade after his firing, the university has apparently had a change of heart.

No, they're not dumping Todd Lickliter and bringing back the Doc. Good grief, in Iowa City they're still happy just to have a coach who isn't Steve Alford. Rather, they're inducting Davis into the University of Iowa Hall of Fame.

There is little question Davis belongs there. You have to be a pretty good coach to lose nine games in the tourney, because that means you made it there at least nine times. Davis also had a good track record at getting his players to the NBA. His obvious stars like B.J. Armstrong and Ricky Davis made it, to be sure, but he also turned Les Jepsen from a player who had fans scratching their heads and saying "Why did they give him a scholarship again? Did he have pictures of somebody?" into an NBA draft pick. And then there's the whole "winningest coach in school history" thing. The real question is, "What took them so long to decide he belonged in the Hall of Fame?"

University of New Mexico coach Steve Alford is involved in a political controversy, with congressional candidate Darren White advertising a fundraising event as an opportunity to meet Alford, and Alford replying, "I wouldn't know Darren White if he walked in front of me. It got falsely advertised. I was just stopping by,"

The school's athletic department approved an invitation to a White fundraiser that says attendees can have their picture taken with Alford for a $1,000 donation to White's campaign, KOB in New Mexico is reporting, but now the athletic director is backing down:

"We're trying to clear up the perception that Coach is somehow involved in the campaign, he's not. He was asked by me to attend a reception, which he agreed to do. He is not endorsing any candidate," said UNM Athletic Director Paul Krebs.

I have no problem with athletes or coaches getting involved in politics. If Alford wants to endorse a candidate, more power to him. But in this case, the candidate apparently bragged that he had the coach's endorsement without bothering to check with the coach first. Not a good idea.

It was a big deal when Billy Gillispie accepted a commitment from Michael Avery, a 15-year old 8th-grader who hadn't yet settled on which high school he'd been attending when he said 'yes' to Kentucky. Gillispie took a lot of heat, not only from the press but the UK athletic director, who took some convincing before he blessed his coach's actions.

The National Association of Basketball Coaches, an organization which has no power of enforcement but does carry clout within the profession, issued an edict which basically stated that recruiting kiddos prior to their sophomore year of high school is a big no-no -- or at least, "strongly discouraged". Gillispie responded in kind by saying he fully respected the NABC's position and that he intended to abide by it from now on.

Enter Florida's Billy Donovan, who just three weeks removed from the NABC's recommendation accepted a recruitment from Austin Rivers, son of Doc Rivers, coach of the 2008 world champion Boston Celtics. Young Rivers, like Avery, is merely 15 years old and two grades shy of the NABC's recommended 10th-grade.