So There learned this week Rick Samuels and Justin Timberlake of boy-band fame have something in common.

Besides their uncanny ability to attract midriff-baring girls in droves, both recently showed their softer side.

Samuels said Tuesday about Henry Domercant’s last game in Lantz Arena: “I’m going to shed a tear, I’ll promise you that.”

Stop the presses, call Rural King, order up a six pack of shooting cream and wait a second. Samuels typically focuses on team accomplishments. Like most coaches he’s all about the ‘W.’

So if the last Panther home game is Thursday, meaning the team wouldn’t draw a top-four seed in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament, how much will Samuels cry?

He’ll cry me a river.

u Wanted: coach, team leader, former blue-chip player, alumni, athletic director or warm body to lead Eastern women’s basketball team. Recruiting skills needed to save team from becoming a makeshift excuse for a Division I team. Amassed more than 10 wins in a Division I season, a big plus. Wealth of knowledge about torn anterior cruciate ligaments also a big plus. Redshirts need not apply.

Strong headline name a must.

u Riddle or ridicule me this. How does the Panther women’s basketball team, which has shown some signs of brilliance, err, mediocrity, lose to the worst team in the league — Murray State — which had only one league win before playing Eastern?

What’s worse, the Panthers carried a 26-13 lead through the game’s start. Eastern lost 79-73, but it gets hairier.

Panther head coach Linda Wunder said her team never gave up during the loss.

Was Wunder watching a different game? Where did the fiery coach go? Wunder ignites many times on the sidelines when her young team doesn’t follow fundamentals.

Maybe Wunder has seen so much disappointment this season she’s been chilled by cold play and her team’s yellow attitudes toward tough teams. Not even inspiring play from freshman Megan Sparks can light the fire.

For her to go as far to say her team didn’t give up shows the madness behind her ill-thought methods.

Junior high coaches aren’t that loyal to the cause.

u Linda Wunder, your plane is ready– factor in the budget cuts — so your bus is ready — wait, strike that, get your hitch-hiking thumb ready.

u Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa’s plane is ready for Mesa, Ariz. Sosa said he’ll be on time for the start of spring training next week. It’ll be the first time in many years he proves promptness as a skill.

But why jinx something Sosa said was for luck? A team so star crossed needs all the good luck charms it can get. Actual talent on this year’s squad is all but non-existent so bring on more luck and let’s Dusty off some wins, baby.

u Bring on spring training, it’s just too bad the Panther baseball team doesn’t have such a thing. Watching Eastern, which is always a force to be reckoned with in the OVC, get smacked around by big baseball programs in the South is tough to watch. Here’s hoping spring training, Eastern style, moves quickly without snow and bunches of losses.

Because once the real season begins — the OVC season — the ringing kah-tink of the aluminum bats never sounded sweeter at Coaches’ Stadium.