Lordy, hoops fans sure are testy these daze. Mizzou’s Quin Snyder: gone. (You read it here months ago.) The Drain The Tub Crowd is smelling blood down the road. I repeat: So nasty has it become, the Tubmeister is seriously considering moving on. (And where did you first read — in November — that this year’s Cats would be Team Turmoil II?)

Plus this: In a moment that would make Tricky Dick proud (“I am not a crook.”), flu-ridden Hoosier coach Mike Davis told the Indy Star Saturday afternoon from his sick bed, “I didn’t quit.” Well, when Davis does “resign for personal reasons having nothing to do with the program” — and he will when the season ends — he’ll have to stand in the unemployment line behind Huggy Bear and Pretty Boy Snyder.

Something to smile about in Hoopsylvania in the worst season in years? Try this:

Cover Boy.

U of L’s ’56 NIT champs got some long overdue props on Saturday at Freedom Hall. Atherton High grad Charlie Tyra, then a Cardinal junior, led the championship team in scoring and boarding. Here’s something he can claim that nobody else can. He was the cover boy on the very first Street & Smith’s Basketball Yearbook, released before the next season.

Press Coverage.

1956 Cardinals Phil Rollins, Jim Morgan and Bill Darragh met the media on Friday. Asked how many press conferences they had that championship season, they laughed and answered almost in unison, “This is the first.”

Future Star?

Whodathunk those words would ever be used in connection with pivot project Terrance Farley? He’s beginning to look like he might be a contributor in the future. A couple of sources advise The Rick is inclined to redshirt the PRP grad next campaign “if he proves he really wants to be a ballplayer.”

Hidden Juggernaut®, The Prologue.

There’s always one team that crashes the Final Four that few figure on. A month before Selection Sunday, I have winnowed the crowd down to two possibilities. (Sorry, Mr. Editor, I know you only wanted one.) This week’s HJ® is UCLA. Ben Howland’s Bruins are back.