One of the popular topics these days is where Druck is going to be drafted, and I received a little email snippet from Joe Hillmer, a 1984 Hokie who lives down on the bayou. Joe had the following report, but to give you some background, I should tell you that recently the Saints, who have taken a serious look at Druck, traded their first round pick, the #2 pick overall, to the Raiders for some players and the Raiders' first round pick, which is #10 overall:

"On the ride home today in New Orleans, the Buddy D show talked about the New Orleans Saints trading their number 2 pick with Oakland for their number 10 pick and some odds and ends.

"No big deal, except .... the scout indicated that if Druck was available in the number 10 spot, he would definitely be picked by the Saints. This was mentioned several times with VIRGINIA TECH prominently mentioned. Thought you might like to hear our grape vine."

Good stuff, Joe. Thanks for the info. One thing that always cracks me up is when people send me info like that, and then they say, "I thought you might like to hear that."

Are you kidding me? I eat stuff like that up! So will the four-to-five hundred people who will read it today. Thanks again, Joe. The best part of that is the phrase "if Druck was available." He's starting to look like a lock for a Top 10 spot in the draft, and all the $$$ and accolades that go with it. By the way, Jim has already said that he will not make the trip to New York for the draft. He's going to watch it at home with his family.

Jimmy Carruth was waived by Milwaukee after they reactivated injured center Andrew Lang early this week. The final email newsletter from Jimmy's agent contained a couple of articles that appeared in the Milwaukee newspapers, as usual, and one of them is a good one to pass on to you. Here it is (sorry about the italics, but I need to set it off some way):

TOP HAT: Some players are honored with a retired uniform number when they leave a team. Other players and coaches have been known to be honored with streets being named after them.

Carruth's hat was retired when he left Virginia Tech.

That bit of basketball folklore came to light Wednesday long before the game against the Los Angeles Lakers, when Carruth stood on the edge of the Forum court, yelling and waving wildly at a fan up in the upper reaches of the arena.

"See my man up there?" Carruth was saying. "See my man?

"That's right baby," he was shouting to the fan. "Virginia Tech, baby, Virginia Tech."

How did Carruth know the fan was from Virginia Tech? By the orange hat he was wearing, of course.

Carruth went on to explain that when he was in college, he had a favorite orange hat he always wore. Basketball fans began to pick up on it and started wearing orange hats to games. Pretty soon, the orange hat became a symbol of Virginia Tech.

"They retired my hat when I left," Carruth said proudly.

Carruth, by the way, was so excited to see actor Jack Nicholson seated courtside that night that he went over, introduced himself and shook the actor's hand.

Hmmm ... Carruth really needs to learn how to enjoy himself, don't you think?

Oh, by the way, Jim Clibanoff, Carruth's agent, will be at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament (PIT) that Ace Custis is playing in. The PIT takes place in Portsmouth, VA and is an 8-team tournament featuring some big-name NBA hopefuls. Clibanoff promised to give us a report when he returns, and when he does, I'll pass it on to you.

The move to the new location is going slowly but surely. Well, actually, mostly slowly. To give you an update, I have signed up with a local web hosting service, Biz Net (www.bnt.com), and they are in the process of mapping my new www.hokiecentral.com domain name to one of their servers. They have also agreed to host the message board, and yes, they are two separate animals (the site will run on a Windows NT server, while the message board is a CGI script that will run on a Unix server).

The big hangup in getting the site transferred, time-wise, is the message board. I've got some enhancements I want to do to it (mainly password access), and although I recently obtained the technical information necessary to enhance the CGI script, it's going to take time to actually do the job and get it up and running.

Another thing that is slowing me down is the membership drive, but that's one of those problems that you like to have. The membership list is currently over 50 and is growing every day, and it's creating paperwork and administrative housekeeping that are slowing down the process of moving the site. But I'm not complaining, because the membership drive is also producing income that will support the site.

Just thought you might like to know what's going on, since it may appear to you that not much of anything is. But rest assured, I'm keeping busy. And one more thing: for those of you who were interested in some sort of tailgate/get-together before the Spring game, I'll announce something soon. I'm thinking about an 11:00 a.m. start time (the game is at 2:00) in the Cassell Coliseum parking lot, but I haven't finalized anything yet.

Another quick note: I added a background GIF to the Links page, a watermark kind of thing. I'm thinking of using the same one on the message board when I move it. Let me know what you think.

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