Bring on the Frogs.
Now the Horned Frogs stand between us and Omaha. As they did last year, when Texas beat them 2 out of 3 to advance.
The Frogs share many of our characteristics: a 49-11 record, dominant pitching, and power hitting. They cruised through an easy regional whipping Lamar 16-3, Arizona 11-5, and blanking Baylor 9-0. Unlike Texas, TCU’s offensive statistics are particularly gaudy, with an absurd team batting average of .345, 90 home runs so far this year, and they average 9 runs per game. TCU also features three good starting pitchers in Winkler (11-1, 3.05), Purke (13-0, 3.40), and Maxwell (11-1, 2.51). Despite having the highest ERA of the three, the freshman Purke has the most dominant stuff, as 122 strikeouts in 95 innings pitched will attest. As a freshman, Purke also has a reasonable chance of crapping himself in a pressure environment.
TCU is probably one of the best eight teams in college baseball right now and, once again, the NCAA selection committee has done us no favors.
Are our bats big enough?
The Longhorns have been in enough close games to know that it's much easier if their talented pitchers can have a couple of bad innings but know the bats will take up the slack on those rare occasions.
"We need to be more consistent with our quality at-bats and take our walks," Garrido said. "When you get into the (championship rounds), pitchers like (Jungmann) and (Workman) get better. We need to get our leadoff hitter on more."
Tales of doom and destruction. The last week has just been hell.
It's hard to believe that less than a week ago, hardly a soul outside of the parties involved had any inkling the Pac-10 might be on the verge of inviting Texas and five other teams. But with The Conference Realignment Texas Hold 'em Game suddenly moving at breakneck speed, we could be sitting here a week from now looking at a radically altered landscape. A series of impending, interconnected decisions currently being made in the offices and board rooms of a select few universities -- most notably Notre Dame, Nebraska and Texas -- could unleash a sweeping tidal wave that impacts nearly every Division I-A member.
Ken Starr just started his new job last Tuesday and now this.
"Baylor University emphatically supports the Big 12," Starr said the moment he picked up the phone for a teleconference Monday afternoon with national media.
No, it doesn't.
Baylor doesn't support the Big 12. Neither do Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M or Texas Tech. In fact, the only schools that actually support the Big 12 are Iowa State, Kansas and Kansas State, and they offer their steadfast allegiance only because they appear to lack a more attractive option.
College basketball is a second-class sport.
Kansas -- home of a top five basketball program by most historical and current measuring sticks -- is no more of a player in the eat-or-be-eaten game of conference realignment than Iowa State or Kansas State. Or even Kennesaw State, really. And though none of this is a grand revelation -- the ACC, remember, didn't worry much about hoops when it raided the Big East back in 2003 -- it is most certainly a reminder that the future of college athletics will be decided without a single thought to how it affects college basketball.
Or one of college basketball's premier programs.
Oklahoma thinks the PAC-10 has a lot to offer.
It is fine to say the right things and pledge to make the Big 12 work.
But, if the big domino falls, which is Texas, then the Sooners and Cowboys should be on the plane headed west.
Make no mistake. If the Big 12 starts to crumble, and every indication is that the league is coming apart at the seams, then the Pac-10, or whatever you want to call it, should be at the top of OU and OSU's wish list.
ESPN's David Ubben learned five things at the Big 12 meetings. There will be a quiz at the end of this post.
A merger with the Pac-10 is a reality. Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn's comments last Thursday to the Boulder Daily Camera made that obvious. "The longer that we were together in Kansas City it appeared that that rumor or speculation did have some validity to it," Bohn told the paper. That affected Thursday's meetings enough to cancel the day's news conference, and Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott confirmed that of the four expansion possibilities the conference is considering, three involved Big 12 teams.
Another post on realignment that will be valid only 15 seconds after I post BDR today.
And they haven't even seen Waco yet. The PAC-10 needs to get ready for culture shock.
The streets in Lubbock are really wide, and the steaks are really good, and while you’re there, don’t miss the statue of the city’s favorite son. Yeah, Buddy Holly could belt it, couldn’t he?
We bring you this nugget because it appears we need to become at least somewhat familiar with the quaint cow town on the West Texas plains.
Feels weird, huh? Despite the tourism council’s slogan, this locale is not "the Texas you’ve always dreamed of."
No, that Texas is in Austin.
Forget college football. The Horns should go straight to the NFL.