Morning Coffee
by Peter Bean on Dec 11, 2007 9:53 AM CST
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Hoops beat. Mark Rosner has an excellent beat report with interesting hoops nuggets:
*DJ Augustin won the Big 12 Player of the Week award. That's not so shocking, of course, but this is: a Texas player has now won the award in three consecutive weeks (AJ Abrams and Damion James preceded Augustin). As well as the first nine games of this season have gone, it's going to be a particularly bitter sting when we lose our first contest.
*Rosner notes that the Erwin Center will have a new hardwood court installed in time for next week's game against Oral Roberts. The new playing surface which cost the athletics department $160,000 is a kind preferred by many NBA teams, containing thousands of rubber "shock absorbing cushions" which are easier on players' bodies.
*Rick Barnes says Dexter Pittman's got to lose more weight, pointing out that though Pittman is as good as anyone in the half court drills, when the game gets going up and down the floor, Pittman's weight continues to limit his effectiveness. I'm sure Barnes is right: you can see Dexy's potential when he's fresh and working near the hoop. Can you imagine him at a more mobile 270 pounds? Maybe we will...
Now this I can applaud. There hasn't been much positive talk about the football team of late, but this story sure presents an opportunity to cheer: fourteen Texas seniors received their diplomas from the university during December graduation. Congratulations to Jaime Carvajal, Brandon Foster, Marcus Griffin, Erick Jackson, Nate Jones, Drew Kelson, Robert Killebrew, Derek Lokey, Thomas Marshall, Ryan Moench, Frank Okam, Limas Sweed, Freddy Torres and Gilbert Zepeda. Special congratulations to Nate Jones, Drew Kelson, Derek Lokey and Frank Okam, who all received their degrees in just three and a half years. Nate Jones played great football for Texas this fall while taking 22 hours of coursework.
An outstanding accomplishment for all involved.
Underdogs? The Longhorns aren't underdogs very often, but 60% of America believes the Sun Devils will win the Holiday Bowl. Las Vegas, however, has the 'Horns as 1.5 point favorites.
Once more, if you haven't yet signed up for the BON Bowl Mania league, join in before the first game kicks off.
Crunch time. Short notes today and, in all likelihood, through next Wednesday, as I dive into my law exams. To fellow student readers: best of luck on your own finals.
--PB--
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Good Luck on finals PB
It really can't be said enough how voluminous and outstanding your contributions to BON have been, particularly for someone in the 1st year of Law School.
Dexter Pittman
Here is a link to a story from Nov 20, 2006:
http://colleges.beloblog.com/archive...
In it (a story from over a year ago), Barnes congratulates Pittman for losing enough weight to be less than 300 pounds. the story goes on to say that the goal for Dexter is to get down to 260 pounds.
Since Dexter is now at 300 pounds more than a year later, it looks like Dexter has not lost any weight (net) for over a year. Maybe his body fat % has declined.
I'm not sure that Dexter is going to lose 25 or 30 pounds in the next 3 months (i.e. in time for March madness) if he did not lose any weight in the last 12 and a half months. It is even less likely that he will lose that weight in time for the A&M and Kansas games.
Pittman is potentially a great one but his weight loss performance over the last year is completely unimpressive. If he is going to reach his potential he needs to get more disciplined.
What is disappointing to me, it that it is unlikely that he is going to be in optimal shape this year, the most promising year the horns have ever had for winning a national title. A well conditioned Dexter Pittman would make a huge difference on this ball club and might even even be the last piece necessary to put the horns over the top in march.
I doubt he will ever truly weigh 260
I'm assuming they plan on keeping him in the weight room, too.
Muscle weighs more than fat. If he packs on good lbs it will help him burn bad weight off.
He has done a good job so far, but Barnes is probably right. He needs to get a bit more lean.
You can see the potential on this kid.
Good for Barnes by not letting up easy on him. Push him to his maximum potential. Pittman will love him for it if it ends with an NBA paycheck.
Good question
he kind of reminds me of Oliver Miller, the big guy who had lots of skills but could never get his weight under control. Oliver still played a few years in the NBA.
I saw Dexter in person here in Houston against Rice the other night. I had seats that were close to the court so I could get a pretty good feeling about the relative athleticism of the guys. Dexter has a ways to go to even be in shape, let alone optimal shape. He has no explosion and it is quite a bit of trouble for him to drag himself up and down the court. On D, he was too tired to even bend his legs properly (i.e. to get into proper defensive position). The difference between Dexter and all the rest of the horns in terms of conditioning was pretty enormous. Chapman looked like he was having a hard time getting up and down the court also.
260 is kind of an arbitrary number. It no longer seems to be the goal (for this season anyway). They just want Dexter to be at a weight where he can be all that he can be. right now he has trouble getting off the floor and into the air.
It might be that Dexter needs to drop some upper body muscle (like Jordon did when he came back from baseball) and focus more on developing his core strength and leg explosiveness. Dexter did a great job in taking off the first 67 pounds but he has not made any net progress on losing weight in the last year. considering the support he gets from his head coach and strength coach, that is quite disappointing.
Oliver Miller
Was an incredible college player and had a very lenghty NBA career (12 years). His skill set was waaaay more refined than Pittman's at this point in their careers, despite both having similar weight issues.
If Pittman developed into the type of player Miller was, the Horns would be unstoppable.
by Michael Bean on Dec 11, 2007 12:03 PM CST up reply actions
the sky is the limit for Dexter
if he can get in shape (big if). The guy has really great hands (he should, they are huge). This year, of course, the runnin horns don't need too much offense out of the center but mainly need defense and rebounding (to compensate for their small guards with the big offensive skills). It is pretty much impossible to play defense when one is not in good shape.
I did not know that Oliver played 12 years in the NBA, this is really impressive.
I think Dexter would show a lot more skill if he was not so tired. I believe that he will eventually demonstrate that he has a very nice touch on his shot and is going to grab a ton of rebounds (if he can get a hand on the ball, it sticks to his hand).
Dwight Stewart
If you want to compare Dexter to an overweight Arkansas post player, Dwight Stewart is probably a better comparison. He great hands and a soft touch but he never had the conditioning to play that press defense. He liked to shoot the three, which doesn't seem to be Dex's thing, but in general I think they are pretty comparable players.
Randy Matson
The Aggies used to have a heavy guy named Randy Matson, who was an Olympic shotput champion who also played center on the basketball team. He was slow as Christmas, but he would park in the lane and shove everyone else out from under the basket. His feet never left the floor but he pulled in over 10 rebounds a game.
I did not know that Matson played BBall
He is, of course, super famous as an Olympian. My guess is that Randy could execute a drop step move pretty rapidly (since the spin move is so important to throwing the discus and shot).
Believe it or not,
Matson had a part-time job as the swim instructor at the old Golfcrest Country Club in Houston. This was circa 1965. I was one of his coaching failures.
Just thought I'd stick up for Sexy Dexy a little
Rosner's notes (as well as something else I read that I couldn't track down) mention that :
"He reduced to below 300 last season, decreasing his body fat from 41.6 percent to 13.8. Then a foot injury caused him to miss nearly a month of preseason practice this year.
Pittman said he has lost any weight he gained due to inactivity, but Barnes says further reduction is necessary."
Doesn't change that the net loss is minimal, but the other mention of this that I had read was from Todd Wright talking about how they were refocusing on his weight loss after the injury.
Solidarity
Yes, I'm a big fan of Dexter's too. I see so much promise in the guy. I think the change in body fat % may be from when he first got to UT and was weighing 367 pounds. I don't know what his body fat % was after he dropped the first 67 pounds.
02-03
was
the most promising year the horns have ever had for winning a national title.
at least since 1981, 14-0 and all. knee injury be damned.
I remember that team
I was a big Abe Lemmons fan (who wasn't, right?). I remember that team pretty well. Do you remember why they got rid of Abe? He was awesome.
All-Amercans announced
No Longhorns made the first or second team All-American list. Frank Okam was named DT for the third team.
And in the world of recruiting:
Terrell Pryor: "Texas is out. They're just not recruiting me that hard and I don't want to deal with all the Vince Young comparisons. It's not a big deal, they weren't that high on my list to start with but I was a little interested."
charles
made honorable mention.
by crocodile235 on Dec 11, 2007 6:24 PM CST up reply actions
Pryor
GD has been burnt by so many high profile QB prospects in the past few years that I'm not surprised that he is shying away from Pryor a bit. Mack really wants kids from Texas who really want to go to Texas. Plus colt has two years left so any really great prospect who might want to redshirt for one year and then play would rather go to a school where the starting QB will be going into his last year.
It will be interesting to see how Jevan Snead plays next year. It will be interesting to see if chiles gets to play much in the Holiday bowl.
the horns do not yet have a QB prospect commit in this year's (i.e. 2008) recruiting class. since Mack normally signs kids very early, I wonder if this means the horns are not going to sign a QB prospect this year?
Arkansas needs to get its shit together:
Strong sources are indicating that Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp will be the new head coach at Arkansas. Muschamp has experience coaching all over the southeast, in the SEC and in the NFL. He is regarded by many as one of the bright young coaches in all of football, and an announcement is expect very soon.
via Rivals by way of Barking Carnival.
Bobby Petrino will resign his position as coach of the Atlanta Falcons and is close to an agreement to become the new coach at the University of Arkansas, multiple sources tell ESPN.
According to sources, Petrino and his agent have been talking with the Falcons about his preference to return to the college ranks. The former Louisville coach was looking for an opportunity to break into the Southeastern Conference ranks, and Arkansas was a natural fit.
Via ESPN by way of Barking Carnival (god, those guys are good!).
I saw a hobo...
...pooping on (yes, on) the parking lot of a gas station on South Congress, and it reminded me of Arkansas passing a Nutt. Then it reminded me of our defense, and now Bobby Petrino scares the hobo-turds out of me for next year.
Oh fuuuuuuuuu........
....we get Bobby Petrino and the Razorbacks in week three next year. That's okay, maybe they won't have their shit together by the time we face them.
Oh God, I just had a TERRIFYING thought! What if the arrival of Bobby Patrino makes Darren McFadden decide to stick around for his senior year and finally win that Heisman? God help us!
by 16thLonghorn on Dec 12, 2007 7:32 AM CST up reply actions
defense
by CoercedTX on Dec 12, 2007 3:54 PM CST up reply actions
Good lucky on exams
No idea how you keep the posting up considering the 1L load. What I wouldn't give for a nice torts exam right now instead of evidence kicking my ass all over the place.
Remember! Battery is an intentional act by the defendant intending to and causing unconcented to contact!
Barnes for Prez
160k. Just another example of why players want to play at Texas for Rick.
a kind preferred by many NBA teams
If NBA guys prefer the floor then by god Texas needs it. In the last six years we have gone from shitty Erwin Center to renovated Erwin Center, Private gyms for men and women, and 160k spent on NBA quality floor.
Barnes has helped engineer this. Several really, really talented kids are going to want to come to Texas to learn how to play in the NBA, actually they already have.
Hook'em
Does UT bball make money?
I don't know the answer. I know the football team makes a huge profit. $160k seems like a pretty good deal for a high tech floor.
Law Exam Hints
The first semester first year exams are notorious for roughing up law students. To do well, list and memorize every legal theory and associated fact pattern you studied this semester in class. On the exam first (and before writing another word) study the fact situation presented and identify and list as many issues based on the theories as you can. If you identify them all, you will pass on that alone. Some of them will be pretty far out, but use your imagination and identify them anyway. Then discuss the issues. Don't worry about the "right" answer since there is no right answer until the judge says so, and that is subject to being overruled. Just argue the issues logically, which will turn your already passing grade to an "A".
The zen of law school: there is no law -- only arguments.
by ky8t on Dec 11, 2007 8:15 PM CST reply actions
Law School Finals Advice
Return $5000 to the defendant and just the case on it's merits.
/rimshot
What?
L school finals
Finals are hell. I can't believe you've been able to put so much into your posts during your first year of l school. I'm in my second year of l school here in Austin and I barely have time to feed myself much less write a blog as detailed and well-informed as this one is. If thats any indication of your study habits, you'll be golden on exams. As far as remaining sane in the process? Unlikely, highly unlikely.
Back in the Late Jurrasic
When I started school at UT, the Fall semester started in mid-September and carried over to the New Year. The break was a great opportunity to catch up on term papers and study for finals. I never could understand why they went away from that.
When I took my LSATs, the test was given in the union on homecoming day. About halfway through, the Longhorn Pep Band set up on the patio right outside and started playing. It didn't bother me, but someone complained and we all had to retake the test. Moral: football can keep you from getting into law school.
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