Dec. 24, 2003
Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus ... it's the time to be jolly, so I want to lay out some gifts for some Division I basketball coaches.

Bobby Knight -- Hey Santa, get Bobby Knight and Texas Tech some fans! The General needs more people cheering at United Spirit Arena in support of his Red Raiders, because they're giving a phenomenal effort and playing tough every night. They deserve a home-court edge.

	Texas Tech coach Bob Knight has more than 800 career coaching wins.

John Chaney -- For Temple coach John Chaney, Santa, please provide one more solid recruiting class. Let the Hall of Famer have one more great, great year.

Rick Pitino -- Hey Rick, bring your Louisville Cardinals to next year's Jimmy V Classic! It would be great to bring New York City phenom (and Louisville recruit) Sebastian Telfair to Madison Square Garden, the mecca of college hoops, and help raise funds to fight that dreaded disease of cancer.

Jimmy Boeheim -- Santa should give Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim a travel agent so he can get out of the Carrier Dome (the Orangemen play 11 of their first 12 games there). In fact, Jimmy B, you should join Ricky P and play at the Jimmy V at MSG next season, baby! It would be standing-room only at MSG (instead of the 7,000 for the Texas-Arizona matchup this year). I could see 18,000 fans going bananas, and Jimmy V's dream would gain tremendously.

Roy Williams -- Santa, North Carolina coach Roy Williams has one of the best starting fives in America, so please give him a healthy David Noel to bolster the bench. It would help big-time!

Lou Henson -- Please let New Mexico State coach Lou Henson have good health and a chance to get to 800 wins. Let it happen next year so he can reach that milestone, which should be an automatic ticket to the Hall of Fame (no coach with 800 wins has been left out at Springfield).

Mike Krzyzewski -- Santa, for Coach K at Duke, let him have freshman Luol Deng for four years, just like he enjoyed Shane Battier and Grant Hill before they went to the NBA. Let Deng say no to the temptation of the NBA.

Paul Hewitt -- Santa, get Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt lots of ink. He has done an A-plus job at Georgia Tech. Very few people know how great a job he has done.

Lute Olson -- Hall of Famer Lute Olson deserves a gift at Arizona ... so Santa, please have assistant coach Jim Rosborough work on developing Kirk Walters to give him some depth to go with that dynamic starting five.

Mike Montgomery -- Santa, Stanford coach Mike Montgomery deserves a healthy Josh Childress. He's the most versatile player on the Cardinal roster, so let him be ready to contribute big-time during the Pac-10 season.

Tubby Smith -- Give Kentucky coach Tubby Smith some help from his big newcomers, Shagari Alleyne and Lukasz Obrzut. Let one of them become positive contributors off the bench. Tubby could use some size on the inside to join his hard-nosed crew.

Tim Welsh -- Santa, grant Providence coach Tim Welsh a super season. Let him make a run at Big East honors so Ryan Gomes can get the credit he deserves.

Bobby Gonzalez -- Hey Santa, let Bobby Gonzalez of Manhattan get a job with one of the major conferences. The guy has the whole package. He just needs the environment where he can be showcased to the nation.

Gary Williams -- For Maryland's Gary Williams, please get him consistent performances from Nick Caner-Medley. Let Caner-Medley's performance against Florida in overtime become his standard.

Rick Barnes -- Santa, let Texas coach Rick Barnes find some consistency at the point-guard slot. That would help one of the deepest teams in America.

Tom Izzo -- For Michigan State's Tom Izzo, please get him some cupcakes. Get him some automatic wins after playing Kansas, Duke, Kentucky and Oklahoma early. Izzo deserves some Ws!

Santa, give Auburn's Cliff Ellis, Georgetown's Craig Esherick and South Carolina's Dave Odom some lessons from Izzo on scheduling tougher teams instead of Cupcake City opponents.

Finally, Santa, let me wish everyone in the hoops family, as well as my personal family, a happy and healthy New Year!

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