Bruce Pearl

I'm not sure if this stunt is cool or just flat out crazy. I will go with the latter.


Tennessee Coach Bruce Pearl goes topless for the Lady Vols game against Duke in Knoxville.

Texas NCAA Resume

So it's almost February and unlike recent years, this Texas basketball team is not yet a guarantee for the field of 65 in March. At 13-5 and a 3-1 conference record, Texas needs to win some road conference games if it wants to make the NCAA field.

While the Horns have been strong at home (undefeated in 10 games so far), the team has been mediocre on the road and neutral floors.

I still like their chances as Durant and this young team will continue to improve. But I still have a right to be nervous given the lower RPI Ranking currently held by the Horns (#56 RPI)

Let's take a look at the team's resume so far:

Big Wins

LSU (Neutral Floor in Houston) - After watching this game, I have doubts about this LSU squad. None the less, this was a super young Texas team over a much more experienced and talented team. LSU relied on the 3 way too much and it bit them as the Horns won a squeaker 80-76.

Arkansas - Great home win for the Horns in a great atmosphere against a tourney team from last season and a team that will make the Tourney again this year. Probably the best performance of the year so far.

Oklahoma - If the Arkansas win wasn't the biggest win so far, this game was. Durant dominated in this one and the Horns rolled over a younger OU squad coached by Jeff Capel 80-69 but it was a much more impressive win than the final score.

Okay Losses

Michigan St. - This game was very early and the Horns showed pretty well in Madison Square Garden lsoing a tight one 61-63.

Tennessee - This game really could come back to bite the Longhorns if they do end up on the bubble. Texas was up most of the game and lost a lead late and the game went into overtime. Two overtimes later, the Horns lost a game in a very hostile enviornment under Bruce Pearl 105-111. In an unrelated sidenote, I was christmas shopping with my fiance during this game at NorthPark Mall in Dallas. I followed overtime and double overtime sitting in the mall waiting for Sarah to finish shopping. Unbelievable and excruciatingnly painful loss for many reasons. Oh yea, I had Texas +5.5 in this one as well. Just shoot me.

Okahoma St. - Best game of the year period. This game had an electric pace that usually is reserved for games in late March. Both teams played their hearts out at the game ended up going 3 Overtimes. I fought to stay awake to the end of this one (yes I'm old). Durant had 37 and the Horns ended up losing on a crazy 3 pointer by Oklahoma St. bigman Boggan who had a career game of his own. Final Score (105-103).

Bad Losses

Gonzaga - I was in Phoenix during the game for Brian Defee's wedding, but I'm really glad I didn't go see the Horns get embarrassed by the Zags 77-87 but the it was much worse.

Villanova - The Horns really needed this one but it just didn't happen. Durant looked tired coming off a rought roadtrip following the Okie St. thriller. The Horns could have had this one but relied on the 3 pointer too much (as Rylan agonized while we were watching this one). 69-76 is the final.



Remaining Schedule:

Home Games
Baylor
Kansas St.
Iowa St.
Oklahoma St.
Texas Tech
Texas A&M

Road Games
Nebraska
Texas Tech
Texas A&M
Baylor
Oklahoma
Kansas


Current RPI Rankings

ESPN Takes a Look at how the NCAA Field is Shaping Up

College Hoops Baby -- 3 Overtime Thriller

Is it possible to feel good about a loss?

If there ever was time, last night's barnburner in Stillwater provided that opportunity.

Texas and Oklahoma St. exchanged punches for all of a regulation and 3 Overtimes like a couple of heavyweight fighters until Oklahoma St. pulled out the victory on a desperation 3 with time winding down in the third overtime.

The legend of Kevin Durant continues to grow with every game as he had another monster peformance for the Longhorns.

Mark your calendars. These two teams play again in Austin, February 12th

Beckham Signs with LA Galaxy

DAvid Beckham is leaving Real Madrid to join the LA Galaxy.

His contract is a 5 year deal for which will most likely earn him over 100 Million Dollars and could net him up to $250 Million. According to the Post article

is a highly complex agreement that is tied to marketing projects and will also compensate him through league initiatives after his playing career is over.

I don't know if the whole MLS is worth 250 million dollars, but Victoria Beckham is going to make trips out to Frisco to see FC DAllas a hell of a lot more enjoyable.

Said It's Great to be a Florida Gator

Well, that was pretty unexpected wasn't it?

All bowl season I was leaning to Florida +7.5 and the +240 Moneyline seemed to be a logical choice. I made plenty of money a couple years ago on LSU in a similar situation against the "greatest team of all time" Oklahoma Sooners.

Texas was a 7 point dog against SC last year and look what happened in that game.

But for some reason I got gunshy on gameday and was happy to take my profits from this bowl season. Pretty dumb decision in hindisght, because the Gators spotted the Buckeyes a Ted Ginn TD return (where apparently his injury occurred on the celebration) and simply dominated the rest of the night.

Names like Jarvis Moss, Percy Harvin, and Everitt (the guy who made the sack without his helmet) became household names and Urban Meyer is all of sudden Knute Rockne and Bill Bellicheck wrapped up into one football genius.


Give the Gators credit, they are now the current title holder in Basketball and Football.


Unbelievable.

A New Year

2007 is Upon Us. Not much really happened in 2006 unless you count getting engaged and Texas erasing a 30+ year title drought as pretty normal events. As I said at my future in-laws family gathering, getting engaged was pretty big but going to the Rose Bowl and seeing Vince Young run into our endzone to beat USC for the national championship was just a little more memorable. I'm obviously kidding as getting engaged to Sarah was the greatest moment of my life to this point. But the Rose Bowl was pretty cool, too. However you slice it, 2006 was a good year, but I have a feeling 2007 may be even better.

2007 got off to a rousing start with some solid bowl action on New Year's Day.

Starting with the best game since last year's Rose Bowl.


Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
Well, if you are as nuts about college football as I am, then you got a nice warmup for the national championship game in the Fiesta Bowl. I know plenty of people probably didn't stay awake until the end, but the Boise St. / Oklahoma game had one of the craziest and most exciting sequences of plays I've ever seen to finish game.

Below is a recap of what transpired as Boise St. beat Oklahoma 44-41 in Overtime but unless you watched it, you really can't understand how wild this game really was...

Enjoy






Rose Bowl

What was supposed to be a clash of two teams that very well could have been in the National Champsionship, the Rose Bowl was really a dud of a game because Michigan's offense forgot to show up.

Henne, Hart, Manningham on the Michigan offense had a really tough afternoon against the swarming Trojan defense. Cuyler can't stand Musberger but I thought he sounded okay with the Davie/Herbstreit tandem.

USC established themselves early on the defensive end and frustrated Chad Henne consistently during the 1st Half. USC jumped out to a big lead behind the passing game to Dwayne Jarrett and Steve Smith. John David Booty is a nice QB but anyone could look good in the USC system.

Michigan had a glimmer of hope when they cut the lead to 19-11 early in the 4th quarter. But USC went deep to Jarrett again and the game was out of hand. Pete Carroll has a pretty unbelieveable record at USC over the last 5 years. I'm too lazy to look it up, but it's damn impressive.

No chance that USC was going to lose 3 straight games at the Rose Bowl after the UCLA loss and the Texas Rose bowl last season. Look out for them next year obviously.

Not so sure about Lloyd Carr's future at Michigan after this loss. A good season but leaving the faithful in Ann Arbor wanting much more after such a great start to the year



In one of the worst tragedies I can recall in the Sports world, Former Oklahoma St. defensive back and Fort Worth Native Darrent Williams was gunned down leaving a nightclub in Denver after the Broncos loss on Sunday night. So sad...

Rob Breunig (you know your big time when your dad has a wikipedia profile -- provided this link

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/00/00tcentaur.phtml


Centaur Sketch on SNL



Pretty damn funny and who doesn't like Centaurs.





Saddam Hussein's Execution just gets more and more weirder as the execution drew worldwide international criticism today.

I'm not even going to comment because I'm not even sure I have the words to begin to discuss how messed up the situation in Iraq is right now. I'll just it at that for now.

Have a good new Year Everyone!