Drug testing on the horizon at Carson High

The possibility of drug testing appears to be almost a done deal for Carson High School student-athletes starting next fall.

Right now, McQueen High School is the only school in Northern Nevada to test its athletes for performance enhancing drugs.

I applaud the idea, and I'd love to see them tested for alcohol, too. There have been too many problems in recent years regarding student-athletes and their alcohol consumption.

McQueen, two years ago, lost a couple of key football players. Douglas lost more than 10 players for drinking a couple of years ago and Incline lost eight players during this past basketball season for allegedly drinking.

When the drug testing passes, it needs to be as severe as possible. I'd like to see the student-athletes tested weekly for alcohol, drugs and steroids. And, I'd like to see the testing done on a random basis; different players on different days.

Kids need to be held accountable for their actions. Not only are they hurting themselves, but they are hurting their teammates and their school.

What would I do for a penalty? That athlete would miss the rest of the year. With that much at stake, I think that things would clean up in a hurry.

- It was announced Friday that Nevada forward Richie Phillips won't play for the Wolf Pack squad next season.

The 6-7, 220-pound forward from Seattle, Wash., played in 48 career games, including 33 with two starts this season, despite being severely limited by injuries each year at Nevada.

The injuries kept Phillips from ever becoming a key part of the Nevada team. He was a starter early this season, but eventually lost his job to freshman Ahyaro Phillips, who was much more active at both ends of the floor and a better scorer.

The loss of Phillips leaves Fox with an available scholarship for the coming season.

Big men are tough to find, so it will be interesting to see if Fox brings somebody new in right away or leaves that spot empty. Good big men are tough to recruit, and the lack of quality big men is Nevada's weakness right now.

- While we're on the subject of college basketball, what's with the addition of the Collegeinsider.com tournament this year? We need a fourth post-season college basketball tournament as much as we need higher income taxes.

Why not just go to 128 teams for the NCAA Tournament? I know, that would make too much sense.

A 128-team tournament would take just one more weekend to play, and there are two ways you could make it work.

You could either eliminate the conference tournaments, which you really wouldn't need with a 128-team tournament, or you could chop one week off your non-conference schedule.

In my opinion, one big tournament is better than one big one and three smaller, meaningless ones.

Parity in college basketball is becoming more and more apparent each season.

- Dallas Braden is ticketed to start the A's opener. Dallas Braden. Are you kidding me? Shoot, why not just do it by committee?

The gig, or honor if you will, was supposed to go to Justin Duchscherer, but he's starting the season on the disabled list.

When you look at the rest of the A's starters, it sends you scurrying to the computer to google some of these guys.

Dana Eveland went 9-9 last year and Sean Gallagher was 5-7. However, Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill have never pitched in a Major League game. That doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

Maybe the A's should have tried to deal for a front-line pitcher instead of Matt Holliday.

I can see it now. No A's starter with an ERA of under 5. Hitters will feast on this pitching like they are sacrificial lambs.

This is a joke. I considered Billy Beane smarter than this.

How does he expect to compete with an unproven starting staff like this? This is unfair to fans who pay big money to see their local team play.