Todd Graham leaves Pitt after one season for head coaching job at Arizona State. Graham, the now former head football coach at Pitt, had an assistant text/email his players to announce his departure. Varying reports claim, Graham called Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson the night before his decision hoping to receive formal permission to speak with Arizona State, but when it wasn't granted Graham decided to resign and accept the Arizona State position. This will be Graham's 4th head coaching job since 2006 (Rice, Tulsa, Pitt, Arizona State). The eventual replacement for Graham, at Pitt, will be the 4th head football coach at Pitt in the past 2 calendar years after the firing of Dave Wannstedt, the hiring and quick firing of Mike Haywood (arrested for beating his girlfriend/wife), Graham's less than one calendar year gig and whomever they choose next. Ironically, Todd Graham's college roommate and Pitt defensive coordinator, Keith Patterson, will coach Pitt in the BBVA Compass Bowl...reportedly, a real bowl game. Accounting for interim coaches, Patterson, will be the 5th person to lead the Panthers since Dave Wannstedt (Wanstedt, Phil Bennett - interim for bowl, Mike Haywood - never actually coached a game at Pitt, Graham and now Patterson - interim for bowl). Yahoo Sports writer Pat Forde has a nice write-up on Graham here.
Chris Paul traded to L.A. Clippers. In what seemed like a never-ending mess, the New Orleans Hornets finally found a deal that the NBA would approve to ship the All-Star PG to another team. The deal sending Chris Paul to the Clippers teams Paul up with young super-star Blake Griffin, giving the Clippers the makings of a special team. In return for Paul the Hornets did get younger (a stipulation that apparently held up the original Paul to Lakers trade) as they received guard Eric Gordon, center Chris Kaman, forward Al-Farouq Aminu and Minnesota's unprotected 2012 first-round pick to the Hornets for Paul. The Clippers will also receive two future second-round picks. Great deal for the Clippers, pretty good for the Hornets...in the long term. The Lakers deal would have made the Hornets better this season and next but not much beyond that while this Clippers deal may take a year or so to develop the Hornets into a playoff contender, but returned really good pieces that were much younger than the Lakers offer. No one will argue the youth angle to this, the problem always was the league stepping in and stopping the Lakers/Hornets/Rockets deal which wasn't as bad as David Stern (or the owners that whined) argued it was. It's fairly obvious the complaints really had more to do with the Lakers retooling than the trade itself. I mean come on, we've seen WAY worse trades go through without the league stepping in. But either way this should make the Clippers even more fun to watch and gave the Hornets a lot of talented young players (and draft picks).
Colt McCoy NOT checked for concussion after hard hit. Browns QB Colt McCoy was rocked by a hard hit from Steelers linebacker James Harrison that resulted in a one-game suspension for Harrison. Despite the helmet-to-helmet hit being penalized on the field and the Browns QB laying on the field for a few minutes after the hit the Browns' medical staff did not check McCoy on the sidelines for the symptoms of a concussion. Given all the concussion related news of late this is quite shocking. The NFL and NFLPA will look further into the staff's reaction but Browns team president, Mike Holmgren, did not expect that the league would take further action than investigating the incident.
Orlando Magic halt trade talks of star center Dwight Howard. The trade situation surrounding Magic center Dwight Howard appears to change almost hourly, but today the Magic have apparently (according to sources) decided to no longer field calls about the All-Star center.
Veteran free agent Richard Hamilton signs with Chicago Bulls.
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