Etan writes on a handful of political topics — why terrorists hate us (not because of our freedom, but because of our foreign policy), the death policy (which he is vehemently against), and Giuliani’s exploitation of 9/11.

Color me impressed. This warrants the very first web cartoon for Big East Hoops:

In March of last year, the New York Times did a feature on former Georgetown jump-out-of-the-gym guard, Victor Page. Most of you remember Page as the prolific scorer with bad teeth who was the heir apparent to Iverson. Like Iverson, he had a big nose for trouble. Unlike Iverson, the lefty went undrafted when he left college after his sophomore year.

After a 4-year stint in the CBA with Sioux City and another stint in Europe, he found himself back on the streets of D.C. in 2003…

…where he was shot. Three bullets. One in his leg. One in his chest. And one in his right eye.

As of the article’s publishing, Page seems to have started to turn things around, despite having been shot again in the leg in the summer of 2005. He’s giving motivational speeches through the Urban League, presumably stressing the importance of staying out of trouble. Sadly, had he been given this advice 11 years ago when he was the Big East Tournament’s MVP, things might have turned out differently for Page.

It turns out that former ‘Cuse sharp-shooter Jason Cipolla has been dating Soprano’s star Lorraine Bracco for over, like, 5 years now. Cipolla was a behind-the-scenes driver for the show; Bracco was on screen, playing the mob-boss’s psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi. Psychoanalyze this, though: Bracco is 52 compared to Cipolla’s 31.

Cradle robber or Sugar Momma? (not that the two are mutually exclusive)

We congratulate Jason. Though he couldn’t make the NBA, he chose the next best thing…the AARP.

Kidding, of course. Best to both. Love the show.

So it brought me much joy last night to watch the last few minutes of the Virginia-Duke contest, which was a great game. Singletary hits this ridiculous fading one-hander and Virginia’s fans storm the court (they had lost 9 straight to Duke). What makes it even sweeter is that Dave Leitao, longtime UConn assistant coach, is in his second year at Virginia and he got the victory. It’ll be impressive if he lifts Virginia, which hasn’t done much in a while, to the top of the ACC.

That said, Duke is again overrated this year. I’m impressed with the job that Coach K has done, given that the team has such little talent. It always amazes me how Duke can land 10 McDonalds All-Americans, and have so many of them suck. Paulus is too slow for college ball, Scheyer needs to lift some serious weights, and all this talk about Josh McRoberts being ambidextrous and “equally gifted” with both hands is bullshit. He’s just confused and “equally bad” with both hands. Like I said, congrats to Coach K for getting them to number 10 in the polls, but I think they’ll be out of the NCAAs this year by the second round.

In Big East news, Georgetown looked amazing in the second half shooting 72% from the field against St. Johns and rolled to their fifth victory. Looks like the Hoyas are starting to hit their stride.

Yup, that’s right. After bouncing around the US playing in the USBL and moving over to Europe to play in a few leagues over there, Popa’s back in Florida. Now, don’t get me wrong — I think Popa’s a great guy for doing this, and we (as a society) need more people to go into teaching. That said, I’m laughing my ass off imagining him counseling a high school girl who just broke up with her boyfriend. The article gets even more hilarious:

“At UM, he became friendly with several standouts, including Dwayne Johnson (”The Rock”), Warren Sapp and Ray Lewis.”

Popa hanging out with The Rock? Popa chilling with Warren Sapp? Popa going to the club with Ray Lewis and stabbing people? Folks, we’re talking about this guy:

This just made my weekend…