Dodgers assign DeWitt to spot in Cal League; is Hansbrough done at MSU?

The Los Angeles Dodgers have rekindled their affiliation with the Cal League, and that's led to a new home for former first-round pick Blake DeWitt of Sikeston.

The Dodgers signed a player development contract back in the fall with the Inland Empire 66ers, one of 10 teams in the longrunning league that kicks off its season this week. Among the top prospects on the 66ers' roster is DeWitt, a third baseman who spent last season with the Vero Beach (Fla.) Dodgers and played during the winter in a Hawaiian league. DeWitt is already expected to put up big numbers with the 66ers.

• There are rumblings that Ben Hansbrough's time at Mississippi State might be limited. According to sources, the former Poplar Bluff all-state basketball player has talked to friends and family about leaving the school, where he just wrapped up his freshman season. There's been no announcement from the family or the school.

• Now that the FBS-level schools (formerly Division I-A) are playing 12 games a year, more and more are looking at FCS schools (formerly I-AA) to fill out the schedule. Case in point: Cincinnati hosts SEMO to kick off the season August 30. One of the most-mentioned games for 2007 is Michigan's home date against Appalachian State, which will earn about $400,000 for playing at The Big House. Michigan fans are already lamenting the likely mismatch in this Charlotte Observer story.

• After a whirlwind of college basketball coaching changes in the past three weeks, there's still lingering buzz that SIU head coach and former SEMO assistant Chris Lowery will be contacted by Texas A&M, which lost Billy Gillespie to Kentucky last week. Lowery signed a seven-year deal worth $750,000 per year last week, but with it comes a buyout that's said to be less than $500,000 if Lowery leaves for another program.

• Speaking of college basketball coaches, here's the Big 12's newest addition: Frank Martin of Kansas State, hired Friday to replace Bob Huggins. Martin is a 41-year-old former Kansas State assistant coach who was fired from Miami Senior High in 1998 for violations the Florida High School Athletic Association called "more excessive than any school ever investigated." Martin claimed innocense, yet his days at the high school were so notorious that he was the focus of an entire chapter in a book called "Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed and the Corruption of America's Youth."