Role reversal

As for this week's 'Bag, the readers were great about sending in YouTube clips of flopping, responses to our latest Parlor Game (see below) and college hoops look-alikes for actors on The Wire (below as well). But you guys forgot to send in any, uh, actual questions. Here's all we've got:

Do you think it's just a matter of time before a highly successful women's coach such as Pat Summitt is given the opportunity (or offer) to coach a men's team? Men coach women. Why can't the opposite be possible -- Sean Laura, Ohio

It needs to happen, and I can't wait for the day when it does. I happen to think Pat Summitt, Vivian Stringer and Brenda "Beadie Russell" Frese could win a lot of games in men's college hoops, but for now it remains a tantalizing hypothetical that's unfortunately less likely (right now, at least) than having a woman win the presidency in November.

Part of the barrier, I think, is that athletic directors are too conservative, as are the people who hire them. (How many female ADs are there these days? Not many.) Another part of the barrier may be that the most-accomplished female coaches might not want to risk tarnishing their legacy or be viewed by some as engaging in a publicity stunt.

In fact, this is a story idea I'd like to spend some more time looking into. Three of the many questions I'd like to ask are these:

For athletic directors: How many of you would include a woman on your interview list if your men's basketball coach resigned right now?

For female coaches: How many of you would take a Division I men's job if it was offered to you right now?

For men's players: How many of you would be comfortable playing for a female coach?

This wouldn't be the first time those questions were asked, of course. When CSTV recently asked some players the last question, for instance, the Tar Heels' Tyler Hansbrough said he would not be comfortable playing for a female coach.

If you look at the NCAA record books, rebounding records are always shown both for all-time and with a separate list for careers beginning after 1973. Why is this? Did some specific rule go into effect that brought down the number of rebounds in games? Or was there just a natural decline in rebounding that caused this? -- Rik, Richmond, Va.

Freshmen became eligible to play varsity college basketball in 1973. You'll notice that the NCAA will also note records in other statistical categories for four-year players.

We've talked a lot about the prevalence of flopping in recent editions of the 'Bag, which brings us to a few things:

• Brandon of Indianapolis sent a video of Indiana players working on taking charges.

• John from Richmond, Va., sent in a classic clip featuring Duke's Paulus taking a phantom charge last season. Since we're taking a dig at Paulus here, we'd also like to add this line from our notes on Saturday's Duke-Miami game: "Forget flopping for sec/Paulus is hell of a player/Cristiano Ronaldo of CBK?"

• Our old friend Ken Pomeroy of Basketball Prospectus checked in with a tremendous find: a snippet from the 1968-69 NCAA rule book in which flopping is the No. 1 point of emphasis for officials that season. "Just another example of how a lot of things we think are unique to today's game have really been around for generations," KenPom writes. "Other points of emphasis then included enforcement of traveling and bench decorum, issues that continue to be hot topics in the present day."

What follows is the verbatim 1968-69 point of emphasis, written in an unintentionally hilarious style mixing good old-fashioned finger-wagging with the earnestness of my eighth-grade gym teacher, Dudley Geise, administering our final exam in his too-small Bike coaches shorts:

"Acting As If Charged: The unethical practice of a defensive player or a screener acting as though he has been charged by an opponent, when in fact he has not been, is having an extremely undesirable effect upon the game. Without a doubt the practice is detrimental to the best interests of basketball. Those who 'put on these acts' must be penalized. The 'actor' wants to create the false impression that he has been fouled in the charging-guarding situation or while he is screening when in either case incidental contact has ensued. The acting guard or screener falls to the floor as though he were knocked there by the force of a charge. By his actions he indicates his opponent should be charged with a foul. He appeals to the official, either vocally or with a gesture. He attempts to get the sympathy of the spectators. Such conduct unfairly burdens the official. It incites the spectators. These acts tend to make a farce of the game and often are unsportsmanlike."

"Coaches must not allow players to make believe they have been fouled. The fact that contact occurred does not necessarily mean there has been a foul. When contact occurs, the official must decide whether it has been incidental or whether a foul has been committed. In making his decision he certainly cannot permit his judgment to be affected by an 'act.' In fact the official must completely ignore the acting unless it becomes unsportsmanlike or it tends to make a farce of the game. If the guard or screener persists in putting on the act, and if in the opinion of the official it is making a travesty of the game, the player should be charged with a technical foul for unsportsmanlike conduct."

Classic.

You may recall last week's parlor game challenge, in which reader Evan Ferrier of Lawrence, Kan., took an odd fact -- Kansas' Bill Self (who played at Oklahoma State) and Texas A&M's Mark Turgeon (who played at Kansas) are coaching at different schools in the same conference they played in -- and asked if there were any other concurrent examples in the history of college hoops. He cited one other instance: Indiana's Bob Knight (a player at Ohio State) and Iowa's Steve Alford (a player at Indiana).

Two readers came up with one more present-day example, which takes us to the Atlantic 10 with Fran Dunphy (played at LaSalle, coaches Temple) and Jim Baron (St. Bonaventure/Rhode Island). Congrats and thanks to Jeremy Fallis of Philadelphia and SI.com's own Bryan Graham.

From a historical perspective, easily the most thorough response came from Charlie Hart of Noblesville, Ind., who found an amazing 12 examples, including two in which there were three concurrent coaches who fit the bill:

League/Years of Overlap/Coach 1 (Played/Coached)/Coach 2/Coach 3

• Big 8/1982-83/Ted Owens (Oklahoma/Kansas)/Jack Hartman (Oklahoma State/Kansas State)/Moe Iba (Oklahoma State/Nebraska)

• Big Ten/1976-80/Bob Knight (Ohio State/Indiana)/Johnny Orr (Illinois/Michigan)*/Jim Dutcher (Michigan/Minnesota)**

• Big Ten/1930-42/Rollie Williams (Wisconsin/Iowa)/Harold Olsen (Wisconsin/Ohio State)

• Big Ten/1951/Rollie Williams (Wisconsin/Iowa)/Harold Olsen (Wisconsin/Northwestern)

• ACC/1960-65/Vic Bubas (NC State/Duke)/Bones McKinney (UNC/Wake Forest)

• ACC/1969/Vic Bubas (NC State/Duke)/Lefty Driesell (Duke/Maryland)

• Big Ten/1972-75/Bob Knight (Ohio State/Indiana)/Johnny Orr (Illinois/Michigan)*

• Big 8/1970-81/Ted Owens (Oklahoma/Kansas)/Jack Hartman (Oklahoma State/Kansas State) • Big Ten/1981-86/Bob Knight (Ohio State/Indiana)/Jim Dutcher (Michigan/Minnesota)**

• ACC/1982-86/Lefty Driesell (Duke/Maryland)/Bobby Cremins (South Carolina/Georgia Tech)***

• ACC/1992-94/Bobby Cremins (South Carolina/Georgia Tech)***/Cliff Ellis (Florida State/Clemson)****

• Big Ten/2000/Bob Knight (Ohio State/Indiana)/Steve Alford (Indiana/Iowa)

* Johnny Orr played his freshman year at Illinois, left for World War II and later finished his playing career at Beloit College.

** Jim Dutcher was a two-sport letterman at Michigan but didn't letter in basketball.

*** Bobby Cremins played when South Carolina was part of the ACC and Georgia Tech was not. When he became Georgia Tech's coach, the situation was reversed.

**** Florida State was not part of the ACC during Cliff Ellis' playing career, but FSU was part of the conference his last three years at Clemson.

Yet another historical example that Charlie missed was in the ACC from 1970-73 with Lefty Driesell (Duke/Maryland) and Bucky Waters (NC State/Duke). Two readers provided that one: Jeff Haggar of Holly Springs, N.C., and Evan Ferrier hitting up his own parlor-game idea.

Other singleton examples of guys who played in the same conference they later coached in are: John Thompson Jr. (Providence/Georgetown), Henry Bibby (UCLA/USC), Tex Winter (USC/Washington), C.M. Newton (Kentucky/Alabama and Vanderbilt), Kevin McKenna (Creighton/Indiana State), Pat Douglass (Pacific/UC-Irvine) and Gary Williams (Maryland/Boston College).

Many thanks to these readers for submissions: Don Turnbull of Bethesda, Md.; Mark Thompson of Seattle; David of Omaha, Neb.; Tom Vasich of Irvine, Calif.; Greg of Arlington, Va.; Brett Farrenkopf of Chicago; and Sandon of Washington, D.C.

Any other parlor game submissions or ideas? Send 'em in.

Last week we also asked readers to provide college hoops look-alikes for characters on The Wire, and you came up with some solid choices:

Howard "Bunny" Colvin and Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton (Jonnie Munz, Anaheim, Calif., and Chuck Smith, North Carolina)

Det. William "Bunk" Moreland and Southern Illinois coachChris Lowery (Sean, Lincoln, Neb.)

Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell and Michigan assistant coach Jerry Dunn (Tyler Newman, Wilmington, N.C.)

Sen. Clay Davis and former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson circa 1995 (David Cook, Ellicott City, Md.)

Michael Lee and Texas A&M's Bryan Davis (Steve, Hoboken, N.J.)

Chris Partlow and Missouri's DeMarre Carroll (Steve, Hoboken, N.J.)

"Proposition" Joe Stewart and former LSU player Glen "Big Baby" Davis (Gans, Syosset, N.Y.)

Bubbles' old junkie sidekick Johnny and Ohio State's Jon Diebler (Ben Lewis, Columbus, Ohio)

And some more of mine:

Lieut. Dennis Mello and Temple coach Fran Dunphy

Namond Brice and former Florida player Joakim Noah

Beatrice "Beadie" Russell and Maryland women's coach Brenda Frese

Dennis "Cutty" Wise and Mississippi's Kenny Williams

Ziggy and Oklahoma State's Tyler Hatch

Bubbles and Pittsburgh's Ronald Ramon

With the Oscars coming the 'Bag thought it was a good time to include our annual list of the top movies of 2007 that we saw in theaters:

1. There Will Be Blood. We wrote about this in last week's 'Bag. Just an unbelievable film with Paul Thomas Anderson, Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano at the top of their games.

2. Into the Wild. We still aren't sure why this movie got jobbed by the Academy. Is Sean Penn now too far left for even Hollywood?

3. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Plugged this Julian Schnabel gem two weeks ago. Go see it.

4. Michael Clayton. When he's not doing Oceans 37 nonsense, George Clooney is really, really good.

5. Away From Her. What's most impressive: that Sarah Polley, a young writer/director (and actor, of course), nailed a story about the elderly and the emotional trauma of rest homes.

6. Atonement. James McAvoy got overshadowed last year by castmate Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland, and now McAvoy fails to grab an Oscar nomination again even though this film is up for Best Picture. Should there be a special award for Guys Who Appear in Great Movies But Never Get Nominated?

7. The Lives of Others. I know this came out in 2006 in Europe, but the 'Bag Lady and I saw it in 2007. Poignant cloak-and-dagger in the East Berlin of 1984.

8. Ratatouille. Part of me wanted this to get nominated for Best Picture even though it's an animated film. If you love food it's hard not to like this Pixar masterpiece. (Our friends' 2-year-old, Elena, has now seen this 173 times, and will no doubt soon be asking for escargot at dinner.)

9. Juno. A fun movie that gets over its stilted early dialogue to become a genuine, well-acted film. Not sure it deserved a Best Picture nomination, though.

10. No Country For Old Men. The Coen Brothers put together a dynamite movie (with a scarily unforgettable performance by Javier Bardem) that completely came apart in the last 20 minutes. Otherwise it would be higher.

Also receiving votes: Dan in Real Life, Two Days in Paris, La Vie en Rose, After the Wedding, A Mighty Heart, American Gangster, Eastern Promises, The Savages, Waitress, Knocked Up, The Namesake, Breach.

Disappointment of 2007: The Darjeeling Limited.

Movies from 2007 that we still want to see: Charlie Wilson's War, Elizabeth, Sweeney Todd, I'm Not There, Gone Baby Gone, Persepolis, In the Valley of Elah, Sicko, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.

See you next week! (And make sure to send in a question if you can.)