<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">1. Cem Dinc, Indiana: Remember that Sports Illustrated hoax, Sidd Finch, who threw 168 mph according to a piece from April Fool's Day, 1985? Gem Dinc comes across similarly, only he's real. We think. On the other hand, how can a 6-foot-10, 250-pound Turkish-German who runs 100 meters in 10.8 seconds be so completely unknown in this information age? Indiana signed him in mid-August, and Dinc was telling reporters he plans to play shooting guard. Shooting guard! 2. Sylvester Mayes, Ohio State: You can never tell with junior college transfers. Sometimes they turn out to be Larry Johnson. And sometimes they're just Aaron Pettway. At Redlands (Okla.) Community College, Mayes scored more than 1,000 points in two seasons. He's 6-2 and said to be able to play either backcourt position. Then again, the same was said last preseason of Cincinnati's Jihad Muhammad, who can play neither. 3. Rekalin Sims, Kentucky: He's as close to a sure thing as you'll find in a juco transfer, considering he was a two-time All-American and conference player of the year at Salt Lake Community College. Sims interests me because, regardless of the Randolph Morris denouement, Kentucky's biggest loss from last season was power forward Chuck Hayes -- and Sims ought to replace him. If not, that means he's been beaten out by Bobby Perry or Sheray Thomas, in which case I've totally lost interest. 4. Nate Carter, Oklahoma: The Sooners won 25 games last season, and OU coach Kelvin Sampson says Carter would have started on that team. As it was, he redshirted as a transfer from California-Riverside, where in two seasons he averaged 16 points and six rebounds. We hear the 6-6, 220-pound Carter plays like former Oklahoma State All-American Joey Graham, albeit not quite that good. 5. David Padgett, Louisville: Before he was a redshirting transfer, before he was a disappointing freshman, Padgett was supposed to be one of the best centers in the high school class of 2003. Better than Chris Taft, who's now in the NBA. Better than Jackie Butler, who's now in the NBA. Padgett averaged 6.5 points and 4.5 rebounds for Bill Self as a Kansas freshman in 2003-04, but he'd signed to play with Roy Williams, so he left. Padgett chose Louisville, then sat out last season. Let's see how good he got.</div> Full Story
