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The ascent of Southern football isn't just about the coaching.

AP

Each day during the noon hour, we'll offer five reading recommendations from around the Web.

1. What the Rise of Southern Football Says About America (By Darren Everson, The Wall Street Journal): The South is dominating college football like never before, but its ascent isn't just a matter of good coaching. How a population boom and a growing economy have helped turn a regional obsession into a national juggernaut.

2. Sean Avery is a bad, bad boy, thank God (By Colby Cash, National Post): Why the NHL is more interesting with Sean Avery in it.

3. How the football world would be different if Tim Tebow had chosen Alabama (By Jeremy Fowler, Orlando Sentinel): Considering a perception-challenging "what if" on the eve of the Alabama-Florida showdown.

Matthias Rietschel/AP

Switzerland's Maya Pedersen starts the second race of the FIBT Skeleton World Cup competition earlier today in the German town of Altenberg. Pederson, returning to competition after one season of maternity leave to have her second child, finished third in the event behind the winner: Germany's Anja Huber (pictured below, after the jump).

A.J. Abrams matched a career high with 31 points last night.

Harry Cabluck/AP

Dirk Nowitzki | The former MVP matched a season high with 39 points as the Mavericks rolled past the Suns, 112-97, in last night's Western Conference clash. Said Dallas coach Rick Carlisle: "It was clear to me he was not going to let us lose."

LaDainian Tomlinson | Signs of life from the consensus No. 1 fantasy draft pick: After running for just 24 yards Sunday in a loss to the Falcons, San Diego's Pro Bowl tailback rebounded for 91 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries in last night's 34-7 rout of the Raiders.

A.J. Abrams | The diminutive senior equaled his career high with 31 points to help No. 8 Texas lock down a 68-64 victory over No. 12 UCLA in Austin. Abrams made 5-of-9 shots from beyond the arc on the night, upping his career total to 308 -- just 24 behind Clarence Gilbert for the second-most trifectas in Big 12 history.

Oklahoma's Blake Griffin scored 11 of his 25 points after absorbing this cheap shot with 13:57 left in regulation -- compliments of USC's Leonard Washington -- as the sixth-ranked Sooners squeaked past the Trojans, 73-72.

This Oscar De La Hoya statue is not without controversy.
Jewel Samad, AFP/Getty Images

Statues don't normally cause much controversy. They are usually reserved for a select few that have clearly done enough in their life to deserve them and are typically celebrated by those that look up to and revere the bronzed individual.

That Oscar De La Hoya's new statue in front of the Staples Center in Los Angeles is the cause of much controversy, however, shouldn't come as a surprise. Everything De La Hoya has done in his hometown of Los Angeles has gotten mixed reviews since he became the "Golden Boy" back at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Not because of anything De La Hoya has done wrong but because of the fickle East L.A. Latino community he was born into, which has often seen De La Hoya as nothing more than a commercialized pretty boy who beat up on Julio Cesar Chavez, an icon in the Mexican community, twice at the end of his career.