Woo Pig Sooey. No, that's not what the BasketCases had for dinner last night at their favorite Chinese restaurant, nor is it what the BasketCases exclaimed when catching their first glimpse of Coach Richie’s latest sartorial adventure (what WAS Richie thinking? Electric blue and pink! If Neon hadn’t been invented, he would have inspired it). Maybe Belle the Beagle (the cell phone chomping dog who dialed 911 to save her owner’s life) could be reprogrammed to grab Richie by the pants cuff and drag him back to the locker room next time he pulls that outfit out of his closet.)

But we digress --- Woo Pig Sooey is actually the cheer for the University of Arkansas sports teams, and it's what fans of Arkansas native and world middleweight champion Jermain Taylor were shouting as he entered the ring in Memphis on Saturday night, where he successfully defended his title. (And, whatever you've heard to the contrary, there is absolutely no truth to the nasty rumor that Woo Pig Sooey is what fellow Arkansas native, Bill Clinton, used to shout when Monica . . .wait, forget we said that, the BasketCases is a PG rated blog, we are not going there!) Anyway, back to Jermain --- you are by now probably wondering, why are the BasketCases writing about boxing (and not even about Laila Ali)?? It's because Jermain is the husband of Erica Smith-Taylor, a guard out of La Tech. Erica was drafted by the Mystics in the second round of the 2005 draft. But she was still getting back into shape after giving birth to daughter Nia in December 2004, and did not don a Mystics uniform last season. Hopes that we'd see Erica play this summer were dashed earlier this year with news that a second little boxing/basketball star is on the way for the Smith-Taylor family. (Woo Pig Sooey?) The BasketCases think that after missing two WNBA seasons, Erica's future in the WNBA unfortunately is doubtful. (However, in the every cloud has a silver lining category, Erica’s failure to appear in training camp may have opened the door for the Mystics to sign Zane Teilane, the best Latvian player in the WNBA.)

Note to Linda: Please, no more draft picks with sports star boyfriends! Aiysha Smith made a good effort, but didn’t make the Mystics' roster after taking a year off when her fiancé was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys. And then, Erica, wife of Jermain, never even made it to training camp! Of course, the BasketCases should mention that there’s the “LaMont Jordan exception” to this general rule. LaMont, a star running back for the Oakland Raiders, is such a BIG fan of women’s basketball, especially his beloved Terps, that if his fiancé were to be drafted by the Mystics, we are certain that he’d have her practicing free throws and running wind sprints on their honeymoon! (Woo Pig Sooey!)

Speaking of football, the BasketCases are just a little fed up with the way Redskins owner Dan Snyder has decided to enforce a dress code at another one of his business enterprises, Six Flags. No neat, well-groomed uneven (!) cornrows for Dan . . . or his employees, for that matter! No sir-ree! Unacceptable! Well the BasketCases find Dan (“I never saw a tree I couldn’t chop down”) Snyder unacceptable, so we’ve decided to sell our Redskins memorabilia on Ebay and become Oakland Raider fans in honor of LaMont. And now that we've made the switch, all we can say is that we should have become Raider fans years ago! These Raider fans are people the BasketCases can relate to!