TNEA of the Month: June

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This next installment of The Next Erin Andrews of the month is a little contradictory for yours truly; as a faithful contributor and reader for Scout.com, we're picking a Rivals.com lady. Sort of like a Brewers fan lusting after a Cubbies chick, or a tried-and-true Sooner checking out a Texas belle, or a Nuggets fan eyeing...um...do we have a real rival? The Lakers, I guess? Phoenix, maybe? Let's go with the Lakers. You suck, Kobe. No means no.

Anyway, you don't care about my blather when you click on the monthly TNEA. You just want pictures. You know you do. Fine. Be that way.

Ashley Russell hosts the site's 'Rivals Minute', which I will not link to because, well, like I said, I'm a Scout guy. So to be honest, I'm not even sure if I can get into Rivals because I'm not a subscriber and those little devils over at Badgerblitz.com might have us BN guys locked out. But I'm sure it's pretty easy to find. Here's a video sample:


She's 29 years old, based out of Nashville, a Hoosier fan by nature (I notice the boos aren't as loud as they used to be. Poor Indiana), and went to Middle Tennessee State. Of all our candidates to this point, she's probably the most similar to Erin Andrews, so we may have an actual winner here as far as potential goes.

Speaking of EA, anybody seen her lately? I suppose the woman needs vacation time some time or another. But let me ask you, ESPN folks: would it kill you to have Erin Andrews, Rachel Nichols, Michelle Tafoya, Lisa Salters, Suzy Kolber, Linda Cohn, Sage Steele...ANYBODY BUT DORIS BURKE doing your sideline work for 'The Finals'? Look, Doris does fine work with women's sports, namely the WNBA and the women's college tournament. She's actually not a bad basketball analyst either; she can hang with Jeff "see, now this is what I would have done if I were actually coaching" Van Gundy any day. But she just doesn't strike me as a sideline girl! Her investigative stuff is all right, but her question-and-answer periods with the coaches after the first and third quarters, and with the players at the end of each half, are just pain-full.

And let's put this out there; she's not exactly Jennifer Aniston with the facial, ya know? America likes a cutie-pie asking Sasha Vujacic why he insists on wearing a shoelace around his head, Adam Morrison if he'd like to trade lives with J.J. Redick, or Stan Van Gundy if he has considered Xanax. It's gotta be either a cute girl, or a strangely odd man wearing a bright purple suit with orange trim (*cough Craig Sager). Just the way the biz has evolved. Salters in particular is good at this, and I'm partial to Tafoya too. I don't know why this bothers me, but it does.

Anyway, that's my mini-rant. Ashley Russell, everybody.

-AJ