A groan for Gosselin returning to DWTS and other stuff from a rainy Tuesday

FROM KEITH GROLLER

If you're not into Dancing with the Stars, I apologize for my commentary. And I assure you there's more sports to come later in this blog entry.

I was pleased that the sports community survived the first round of elimination tonight, and so Ochocinco, shown below with dance partner Cheryl Burke, Erin Andrews and the Olympic gold-medal winning skater Evan Lysacek will be back on the ABC show next week, as will my favorite pro -- dear, sweet and lovely Edyta.

But there was a groan in my section of the sports department tonight when it was revealed that Kate Gosselin will be back for another week.



One of the other sports staffers said that it's a conspiracy-- ABC knows she draws ratings, and fixed it so she will be back despite her increasing unpopularity everywhere. Every good drama needs a villain. That can be the only reason she will be back.

I talked to a local business person last year, a nice man who I trust would never lie and he told me he had Gosselin in his store to sign her book and she was the most arrogant, condescending, difficult person he's ever dealt with in his entire business career. He's not the type to speak negatively of anyone and he really couldn't stand her.

And I've kept those words in the back of my head for nearly a year after watching that whole Jon and Kate fiasco unfold.

I wish she would go away, and he would go away and those eight kids could find new parents.

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We had the all-area photo shoot for our boys basketball package today and everybody made it in here despite the bad weather.

What impressed about the 11 young men who will be featured on Friday is that these are generally good, smart kids. I think there are a lot of bright futures in this bunch.

The young man who has the brightest future on the court is Liberty's Darrun Hilliard. He's in no rush to make his college decision. He's got seven full rides on his table and many of them are from Philly schools -- Temple, St. Joe's, Drexel and Villanova. He'd like to stay close to home, and he said he was very impressed with Villanova. But he's a long way from making his final decision. He seems to be enjoying the process and isn't getting overly stressed by it -- at least not yet.

Look for Hilliard to receive some kind of all-state selection when the teams are released next week. Sticking around to the state 4A semis certainly enhanced his chances because he was seen by a lot of media in the eastern half of the state.

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I will be going to New York City and the NIT finals on Thursday and I have to admit that while I am not a North Carolina fan, I wasn't all that excited about a potential Rhode Island-Dayton championship game either. So I am glad UNC won its semifinal game in overtime, even though it took ridiculously bad foul shooting by the Rams (can't anyone make free throws anymore?) and a bad non-call on the game's final play before UNC could secure its trip the finals.



I am going to NYC on a bus with a bunch of Catty people, "Larry Millerites" I call them, and I am sure they will be all '"Heeled Up" on Thursday even if I won't be. Dare I yell "Let's go Flyers!" for Dayton? It's comforting that the weather forecast, at least the last one I saw, is predicting nice weather. And since I am spending all day in the Big Apple, that's good news.

FROM KEITH GROLLER