Football

Cyclone Roundup: Draft drama

By Chris Williams, CycloneFanatic.com PublisherFollow Chris on Twitter @ChrisMWilliams  

On Wednesday night of this week, Royce White was playing exhibition basketball with his at the  YMCA Des Moines Capital City League.

On Thursday night, the former Cyclone was making "news" on Twitter at the same time that Game 5 of the NBA Finals was taking place. One of ESPN’s big draft gurus, Chad Ford originally tweeted this:

Looks like a team may have promised Royce White. He’s pulled out of all remaining workouts and gone silent. Not injured.

Later on in the evening, Ford tweeted this:

More on Royce White. Now hearing more definitely promise is from Celtics at 21.

So there you have it. Royce White is going to be drafted by the Boston Celtics with the 21st pick. That’s according to one fairly well connected man at least. In case you care (which I’m sure you probably don’t), none of my sources close to White returned texts or phone calls last night. The whole "White has gone silent" part of that tweet appears to be correct.

I cannot and will not  confirm this report until I hear it first hand from a source who I trust.

Quick question – What if another team wants to take Royce before 21? Oh yes. There’s still going to be drama next Thursday night.

LANNING: The rumor mill was awfully active earlier this week regarding Ankeny (Iowa) quarterback Joel Lanning and his future. Reports surfaced on Wednesday stating that Lanning had verbally committed to Nebraska. Lanning later shot down that rumor via Twitter writing:

"I haven’t committed anywhere so whoever is telling people that you can stop.#thanks"

Iowa State and Nebraska have offered Lanning.

=== LOTS OF LINKS ===

Texas Tech is apparently considering playing only 11 football games this fall. According to RedRaiderSports.com, Texas Tech’s Sept. 8 road trip to Texas State might be televised on the Longhorn Network. That isn’t going over very well in Lubbock. It’s gotten so bad that this report claims that Tech might cancel the game just to avoid playing on Texas’ network.

In a related link, I appreciated the title to this blog: "Texas Tech Gives Middle Finger to Longhorn Network."

— This link is somewhat dated but it has some teeth and is worth reading if you haven’t stumbled upon it yet. Chip Brown is at it again and he’s really feeling this Notre Dame – Big 12 thing. In all sports other than football of course.

 Of course Notre Dame went on to shoot this report down but really, what did you expect the Irish to do? This is realignment. Nobody tells the truth.

— The South Bend Tribune chimes in, saying that the Big 12 whispers are "getting louder."

— A fun read from a CBS Sports blogger, who writes that college football will soon reclaim New Years Day. 

 

@cyclonefanatic