Fifty years on: Just in time for the 50th anniversary of his Halloween run, ESPN’s Wright Thompson, a former Times-Picayune sportswriter, profiles Billy Cannon. Cannon, LSU’s lone Heisman Trophy winner, has worked to redeem himself after going to federal prison in 1983 for his part in a counterfeiting ring. Cannon has been working as a dentist in Angola for the past 14 years and has come to terms with his life. “My old daddy had a saying,” Cannon says. “It’s not how high the peak or how low the valley. It’s how far across this valley we’re in. Think about that sometime before you go to bed at night. It’s not how high or how low. It’s how far across.” Read the story here.
Time for tipoff: LSU ranked No. 9 in the Associated Press’ preseason women’s basketball poll. The Lady Tigers were one of eight teams in the poll not ranked at the end of last season. Defending national champion Connecticut was the unanimous No. 1 choice in the poll, the seventh time it has held the top preseason ranking. Stanford was second, followed by Ohio State, Notre Dame and North Carolina.
