Hlog Digest: Bo Pelini rides the rails

There was a time when the passenger train was the way for humans to travel long distances in the U.S.

If we had a national high-speed rail system like so many Westernized nations ... ah, but we don't.

However, June 28 will be going back in time a bit for Nebraska. Union Pacific Railroad will have a special train go the 280 miles from Omaha to North Platte, with hour-long stops in Columbus, Grand Island and Kearney.

The Big Red Express will have many Nebraska Cornhuskers coaches, including football's Bo Pelini and basketball's Tim Miles.

I've never traveled across Nebraska by train. Did it by car, though, and wished I was on a train. Or better yet, a plane.

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' When the Big Ten added Rutgers, it got a good sports columnist in the bargain. Steve Politi of the Newark Star-Ledger is a go-to guy for commentary about Rutgers sports.

In this piece, Politi looks at why Rutgers had to retain former Iowa women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer even if her team has tailed off of late. He writes:

Rutgers really had no choice but to overpay Stringer, because losing a coach with her resume now, given the string of negative stories coming out of Piscataway, would have been a disaster.

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' Please, college football writers and websites, don't give us fluff about preseason watch lists. Every award given seems to have a preseason watch list with 30 or 35 players on it, and the schools dutifully publicize this as if it means something.

Last year, 34 players were on the preseason watch list for the Davey O'Brien Award, a quarterback award. Last year, 76 players were on the preseason watch list for the Maxwell Trophy, a vote for the nation's best player.

Neither preseason list contained Jameis Winston of Florida State.

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' This didn't get much (or any) attention in Iowa, but first-year Phoenix Suns coach Jeff Hornacek of Iowa State finished second in the NBA's Coach of the Year balloting.

It was a strong second, in fact. San Antonio's Gregg Popovich won with 59 of the 124 first-place votes. Hornacek had 37 first-place votes, and another 44 for second-place. The next highest-finisher was Chicago's Tom Thibodeau, who had 12 first-place votes.

The Suns weren't supposed to be a .500 team. They were a woeful 25-57 the season before. But they went 48-34 with former Suns player Hornacek coaching them.

Phoenix has the 14th, 18th and 27th picks in next month's NBA draft.