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The $200,000 raise Rick Barnes received this week didn't just confound fans surprised the Texas basketball coach would be rewarded despite failing to make the Sweet 16 each of the past three years.

It also angered state lawmakers who criticized the Longhorns for increasing Barnes' salary at a time when the Texas budget crisis may lead to deep cuts to higher education.

One Republican state senator called it "nuts." Another described it as "not appropriate." Democratic state Sen. Kirk Watson, whose district includes the Texas campus, summed up the position of his colleagues when he told the Associated Press the raise suggests regents are "tone deaf" to the budget shortfall.

"I'm a big fan of UT basketball and coach Barnes," Watson said. "But at a time when everyone up here is fighting to come up with money to pay for education, it was disappointing."

It's understandable that Texas lawmakers would be sensitive to frivolous spending at a time when a budget shortfall estimated anywhere

Fullscreen capture 5132011 72739 AMFullscreen capture 5132011 72619 AMIt's a good thing new Maryland coach Mark Turgeon began recruiting as soon as he was hired because the Terps may have a few more vacant scholarships than they expected.

According to various reports, all three of Maryland's incoming freshmen recruits have asked to be released from their letter of intent in the wake of Gary Williams' abrupt resignation last week. New Jersey point guard Sterling Gibbs and Baltimore shooting guard Nick Faust have said they will still consider the Terrapins, but certainly it's more common for recruits in this position to go elsewhere rather than sign with their original school.

"We just felt that it was in our best interest to just explore our options," Gibbs told the Baltimore Sun. "Maryland is still my top priority. But I just want to make sure that it was the best fit for me."

Next season will likely be a transition year for Maryland regardless of whether Turgeon can keep any of Williams' recruits, but the rebuilding process will become more difficult if

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Missouri coach Frank Haith is certainly pleased guard Kimmie English withdrew from the NBA draft last week, but there's a group of women probably far happier the senior-to-be decided to return to school.

Believe it or not, they call themselves "Cougars for Kimmie."

English apparently agreed to meet with members of the pseudo-sorority on Wednesday and tweeted a pair of hilarious photos from the event. Each of the six women pictured wore black T-shirts with "Cougars for Kimmie" printed in yellow on the front and English's No. 24 on the back with "meeeow" written underneath.

How do female Missouri fans qualify for membership of this exclusive group? I'll let English handle this question.

"It's a state of mind," English joked with a fan on Wednesday night over Twitter. "Preferably 30+ and good lookin, love MU, love me."

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It's no surprise that Tennessee would insert a clause in Cuonzo Martin's contract voiding the deal if the Vols' new coach violates NCAA rules the way his predecessor Bruce Pearl allegedly did.

What's more interesting is that Martin also will have some protection if Pearl's mess results in NCAA sanctions.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel obtained a copy of Martin's memorandum of understanding with Tennessee, the preliminary version to a final contract that both sides agreed to upon his hiring on March 27. The first page of the four-page document includes the following paragraph guaranteeing that Martin's five-year contract will be extended an extra year for every year the program is under NCAA restrictions as a result of Pearl.

If, as a result of currently pending NCAA proceedings, the men's basketball program (a) receives NCAA restrictions on recruiting in addition to those already self-imposed by the University; (b) banned from postseason play; or (c) incurs a reduction of one or more

Geno Ford's decision to leave Kent State to become Bradley's next coach apparently was hardly a clean break.

Kent State is now suing its former coach for more than $1.2 million in damages because the school alleges he had no permission to break the terms of his contract. When Ford signed a five-year contract extension after the 2009-10 season, part of that agreement was a buyout clause stipulating Kent State would be owed $300,000 for every remaining year on Ford's contract if he left.

Buyout clauses such as this are standard in college basketball and football because athletic departments negotiate them into contracts to serve as a deterrent for ambitious coaches eager to leave for another job. Nonetheless, this is hardly the first time a university has taken its former coach to court over breach of contract.

In 2010, Marist won a lawsuit against former coach Matt Brady alleging that Brady broke his contract by taking several players with him to James Madison that he'd recruited while

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In case the prospect of the first-ever college basketball game on an aircraft carrier isn't intriguing enough for fans, the ship North Carolina and Michigan State will play on next November may be especially noteworthy.

Mike Whalen of the Morale Entertainment Foundation told WRAL that the carrier that will host the event in San Diego will either be the USS Ronald Reagan or the USS Carl Vinson. Of course, the USS Carl Vinson is the ship the body of Osama bin Laden was brought to in order to be buried in the North Arabian sea.

That choice of aircraft carriers would only heighten the patriotic atmosphere for a game that will be held on Veterans Day in front of a crowd of mostly military personnel. Organizers did not want to risk selling tickets to civilians out of fear there would be an aftermarket and they would not be able to control who's coming aboard a U.S. warship.

Of the 7,000 seats available aboard the ship, the only ones not earmarked for military personnel will go to sponsors

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How much is protecting the sanctity of the phrase "March Madness" worth to the NCAA? About $17.2 million, apparently.

Quietly last October, that's how much the NCAA paid sports and entertainment marketer Intersport for sole ownership of the trademark, according to USA Today. Intersport previously won a 2007 dispute with the NCAA over the rights to use "March Madness" in connection with college basketball-related programming delivered over wireless devices.

If shelling out $17.2 million seems like overkill to protect such a well-known phrase, consider that the men's Division I college basketball tournament accounts for about 90 percent of the NCAA's $700 million in annual revenue.

As a result, the organization takes the protection of terms associated with the event very seriously, tightly controlling the use of phrases such as "Final Four" and "Big Dance" in addition to "March Madness."

The term "March Madness" originated in 1939 when coach, administrator and writer H.V. Porter used

352234Robert "Tractor" Traylor, the former Michigan star whose brief NBA career fizzled after seven unspectacular seasons, was found dead in his oceanfront apartment in Puerto Rico, his Puerto Rican professional team confirmed Wednesday.

The 34-year-old Traylor died of an apparent heart attack. He battled lingering weight problems throughout his NBA career and underwent surgery in fall 2005 to repair an enlarged aorta discovered when he failed an offseason physical with the New Jersey Nets.

While Traylor never averaged more than 5.7 points per game in the NBA and made just 73 starts in seven seasons in Milwaukee, Cleveland, Charlotte and New Orleans, it's his college career at Michigan that will be his legacy. The Detroit native averaged 13.3 points and 8.2 rebounds in three seasons with the Wolverines, but he was best known for his gregarious personality, massive girth and colorful nickname.

Traylor lived up to his "Tractor Traylor" moniker at Michigan, using his 300-pound frame to impose