The NCAA has nailed the Indiana basketball program with further violations. Athletic director Rick Greenspan has resigned under duress.

What in the name of Bob Knight has happened to the storied Hoosiers program?

Indianapolis Star columnist Bob Kravitz summed it up nicely:

“It’s taken a while, and it’s required the added scrutiny of the NCAA’s watchdogs, but we are now getting a clear idea of how thoroughly and painfully mismanaged IU’s basketball program was.

“It was bad enough that IU scraped the bottom of the barrel and hired Kelvin Sampson, a guy known far and wide as a cheater. But then the Hoosiers brought him to Bloomington and failed to properly monitor his work, at least according to the NCAA. It was like hiring a burglar to watch your house, then failing to install security cameras.”

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while waiting for the Cardinals bullpen to pull itself together:

• Has the time come to ease Jason Isringhausen into the closing role?
• Has surprise slugger Ryan Ludwick officially hit the wall?
• Who could have possibly guessed that Mark Mulder would be unable to make his scheduled start this weekend?
• Have we seen the last of the Maria Sharapova camera commercials for a while?

SPEAKING OF SHARAPOVA

Before she bowed out of Wimbledon, she endured some additional scrutiny for all the noise she makes playing tennis. Here is how the Telegraph saw it:

“The 21-year-old Russian let out a volley of shrieks and yelps as she played fellow Russian Alla Kudryatseva in the second round of Wimbledon.

“Using a digital sound level meter, The Telegraph recorded maximum decibels of 103.2, louder than a motorcycle or a lawnmower.

“She grunted loudly as she lost the first set, but her noisiest offering came as she served for the first time in the second set. Her opponent remained silent throughout, going on to win the match.”

You can see here post-match news conference right here.

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Bill Simmons, ESPN.com: “As much as I love that pick for New York, with the name ‘Danilo Gallinari,’ he sounds like a better bet to win a Formula One race than an NBA title. We’re going to have to jump some major ‘weird-sounding name for a successful NBA player’ hurdles here. I’m not saying it can’t happen, just saying it’s a red flag, that’s all.”

Mark Kriegel, FoxSports.com: “Not only did NBC renew its deal with Notre Dame, it gave the university a raise. That would be like the entertainment division ordering up a few more seasons of ‘Andy Barker P.I.’”

Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “Stunt man Jim ‘Mouth’ Purol will attempt to sit in all 92,542 seats in the Rose Bowl over a five-day period. I hope Purol’s mouth isn’t writing checks his cheeks can’t cash. It would be quite an amazing feat for Purol. But at the risk of sounding like an old-timer, for my money, Evel Knievel’s stunts were more exciting.”

Dan Daly, Washington Times: “Strange, isn’t it, how many of these sports-themed movies have women owners? It’s amazing, really, that the warden in ‘The Longest Yard’ wasn’t Jennifer Aniston.”

Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel: “With Tiger out the rest of the season, I’m really worried about how his high-strung caddie, Stevie Williams , is going to handle his down time. I’m hearing from my operatives he may attempt to stay in shape by going to convenience stores and breaking their surveillance cameras.”

Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “Texas Ranger Milton Bradley is among AL batting leaders, making this Milton Bradley’s most successful year since introducing Yahtzee in 1956.”

Kriegel again: “Germany beats Portugal on an egregious non-call, and it’s just nice to know that there’s a place for Tim Donaghy years from now when he gets out of the joint.”

MEGAPHONE

“Maybe now you could say I didn’t play a second, but in five years you guys are going to forget. In 10 years I’ll still be a champion. In 20 years I’ll tell my kids I probably started, and in 30 years I’ll probably tell them I got the MVP.”

Celtics forward Brian Scalabrine, on being an unused bench warmer for the world champions.