Weekly Sportscamp - August 24

-I've been wondering, since the announcement came down that Memphis would have to vacate their 39-win season in 2008 because of Derrick Rose's phony SAT scores, has any media outlet bothered to talk to Rose? I don't remember seeing a single quote from Rose this entire week. It seems to me that it would be worthwhile to talk to the main figure in this case, if only to ask him why he cheated, how it happened, and why he can't figure out analogies. Sure, Rose probably doesn't care one bit about what happened at Memphis, and most likely wouldn't comment about it, but it's still worth a shot to see what he says. I think the media has been dropping the ball on this issue.

-Uh oh. Adrian Peterson went duck hunting. Although in actuality, he missed the ducks with his three shots, and was laughed at by his dog.

-You can tell it's a slow news day at ESPN when they've run out of Vick and Favre news and are forced to rehash the old "Pete Rose is banned FOR-EV-ER" story.

That's the tough part of covering sports in late august: there's really not a whole lot to talk about. Baseball hasn't hit its stretch run yet, football is deep enough in the preseason that the hype has worn off and the hype of the regular season hasn't heated up yet, and basketball is still months away. At this point, I'm sure most sports news outlets will take anything they can get their hands on.

-Was it because of the mysterious baggies in the background of his Twitter picture? Michael Beasley apparantly checked into rehab this week, according to Slam. This isn't what you want from one of the futures of your franchise.

-The Blazers just signed second-round draft pick Dante Cunningham. I like the move. I think Cunningham can be an effective backup small forward/power forward, like a Travis Outlaw who doesn't take bad shots. He's got the range to shoot from the outside and the size to be a good power forward. The only thing I want to see him improve on is his inside game, because Portland has enough shooters. Here are some highlights of Cunningham from the Blazers' Summer League, although you might want to watch it with the sound turned off to get rid of the annoying techno music.

-Look, I'm a Cubs fan. But with that being said, even I think that it's time to pack in this season and look to 2010. Give it up, Lou.