For those who (like me, until today) haven’t been following this nonsense with high-school basketball phenom (and USC superstar-to-be) O.J. Mayo “shoving” a referee, this video should bring you up to speed:

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That’s from WOWK-TV in West Virginia. Here, via Luke Winn, is the YouTube clip of the whole incident:

Also, this article is worth reading, particularly for quotes like “As a neutral bystander, this was the most biased referee I have ever seen” and “I think O.J. Mayo should have controlled himself better. But this ref took a dive. He wasn’t pushed.”

Anyway, here’s the latest on the kerfuffle. You gotta love it when stories about high-school sports involve District Court judges.

(Hat tip: AO.)

Here are some more photos of this white, wintry day at Notre Dame. A few samples:

P.S. Apropos of that last picture, here’s yet another Robbie-running-around-in-the-snow video for your viewing pleasure:

Can the Notre Dame men’s basketball team FINALLY get a road win tonight? So far, so good: it’s 61-42 Irish over Syracuse at halftime.

UPDATE: Irish win! Yes! 103-91! Finally, a road win! Praise the basketball gods! Hallelujah!

Mike Brey gently reminds his players, “DON’T F***ING DO POT!!”

Up next for the Irish: a game at South Florida on Saturday, then at DePaul next Thursday (the 8th). They return home on Thursday the 15th for a date with Providence.

Meanwhile, updated versions of ESPN’s Bubble Watch and Bracketology are due out tomorrow, so we’ll get a sense of where the professional prognosticators think the Irish stand.

Ropes of Silicon has had enough of all the Hobbit talk:

Why do people care so much about a feature film adaptation of The Hobbit? To go along with that, why would it matter if Peter Jackson directed it or not? Peter Jackson did a fantastic job with Lord of the Rings, but it just seems like everyone is making such a big deal about something that probably won’t happen for at least another two years and who knows if it will even happen then? Now, even the Los Angeles Times is getting in on the silliness by saying that Spider-Man director Sam Raimi is interested. Whoopy Woo! So what?

Heh.

Fellow 3L Chris Pearsall, on the name of our bowling team:

Right now we’re choosing between: “OJ was a Trojan” and “Lamont for Senate” - I just want to make sure those are alright with you.

Heh.

Actually, the team name is apparently going to be “Barbaro’s Glue Factory.” Hey, don’t blame me, it wasn’t my idea! :)

I just wonder if anybody will dare play off last semester’s BLSA/Patty O controversy. Will we see any bowling teams named “Student Carpentry Association” or “P. Dizzle Fan Club”?

Less controversially, I’m sure there will be some names along the lines of “McAlarney’s Dealers” or “Free Kyle McAlarney.” It’ll be interesting to see what people come up with. Last year’s best current-events reference, in my opinion, was the team called “Concerned Alumni of Princeton.”

Personally, I think “4th and 9″ would be a great bowling team name, but nobody else seems to agree… I can’t imagine why… ;)

Anyway… Law School Bowling starts Thursday night. Goooo Brendan, Beeeeat 138!

In looking for pictures of the snow, I came across this photo from one of the ND webcams:

If you look carefully, you’ll see the outline of the Basilica and the Dome. On a clear day, the picture would look something like this:

Check out this and the other ND webcams here.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN: Speaking of webcams, here’s the live view on LoyCam:

Here are some more photos of this morning’s snowstorm. Scroll down for the most recent ones.

The radar view of the system is quite impressive. At 6:52 AM, minutes before the above video was taken, it looked a bit like some kind of lake-effect mini-hurricane:

You can view the latest radar in motion here; an archived version of the 4:13 AM to 10:40 AM loop is after the jump.

[UPDATE, 9:29 AM: From the National Weather Service:

MORE SNOW & BLOWING SNOW ON THE WAY.

A PAIR OF SYSTEMS WILL MOVE ACROSS THE AREA THROUGH EARLY TONIGHT, BRINGING MORE LAKE EFFECT SNOW TO THE AREA. AS THE SYSTEMS MOVE OVER LAKE MICHIGAN, THEY WILL PICK UP ADDITIONAL MOISTURE AND HELP ENHANCE SNOWFALL AMOUNTS. GIVEN THE RELATIVELY DRY SNOW AND BRISK CONDITIONS, BLOWING & DRIFTING SNOW CAN BE EXPECTED. THE SNOW SHOULD DIMINISH AFTERNOON THEN REDEVELOP EARLY THIS EVENING.

Lovely.]

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A couple of interesting William Kelley-related tidbits came across the wire this morning, brought to my attention via my Google News Alert for his name. Both relate to Crawford Greenburg’s new book, “Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court and America’s Future.” The first one, from a L.A. Times book review, concerns the Roberts nomination:

Roberts, then an appellate judge, had almost been dropped from President Bush’s Supreme Court shortlist after a “brief and awkward” meeting with Bush’s top advisors. Only White House deputy counsel William Kelley’s efforts kept Roberts among the five finalists whom Bush interviewed personally.

So our ConLaw professor is personally responsible for the identity of the current Supreme Court justice. At some level, that’s quite cool.

The second tidbit concerns the Miers/Alito nomination. Apparently, having suggested his boss, Harriet Miers, for the job, Kelley then led the effort to line up a replacement pick once that nomination went sour. The following is an excerpt from the Greenburg book, as reprinted by ABC News:

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