Big 12 Sports look at the Horns' Y Factor.
Defense is the key to this player being a Y-factor. Although he doesn't excel at shooting, he is arguably the best perimeter defender in the country and contributes to his team by igniting their defensive attack. It is no secret that a stifling defense has been the key to the Longhorns' ascension in the ranks this year. Dogus is relentless on the defense end the entire time he is in the game and his intensity is contagious among his teammates. If that weren't enough to earn him Y-factor status, he is also careful with basketball and is currently the Longhorns' career leader in assist-to-turnover ratio with 280 assists against 116 turnovers (2.41-to-1 ratio) in 88 career games.
It isn't safe to be ranked in the top 5.
The Statesman has an offensive preview and some predictions.
Cibolo Steele's Malcolm Brown (6,663 career yards) may lack top-end speed, but he is excellent between the tackles, runs through arm tackles and has very good vision, instincts and cutting ability ... Joe Bergeron was the nation's top fullback prospect. He lacks breakaway speed, but makes a lot of yards after contact, has good hands and is very tough.
A PREDICTION: Brown will make his first start at Iowa State — one week before OU.
MBTF has a Q&A with freshman MJ McFarland.
The Longhorn Network could be very, very good for recruiting.
Ray Seals, the football coach and athletics coordinator at Houston's Madison High School, where former Texas quarterback Vince Young played, said the network also gives Texas a valuable selling point to prospective athletes' parents.
"The sports like field hockey and things like that, you never see it on TV," Seals said. "Now, knowing that you can get that kind of exposure, that'd be hard to turn down for a youngster nowadays."
Be sure to vote for Rick Barnes in the Infinity Coaches' Charity Challenge.
That Nebraska upset didn't really change much.
Until their trip to Nebraska on Saturday, the Longhorns were playing like a no-doubt No. 1 seed, a month-long stretch that included a double-digit win at Kansas. But the loss to the Cornhuskers gave Texas four Ls on its resume, including one—a 17-point defeat to Southern California—that’s by far the worst by any of the teams vying for a spot on the top seed line. If the Longhorns win their final four regular-season games and avoid a conference tournament early upset, they’ll almost certainly be back at a No. 1 seed by Selection Sunday.
Basketball
Doc Sadler has the respect of his peers.
Now, it’s hardly unheard of for coaches to openly say nice things about a colleague that they beat regularly and perceive as no threat to contend for a championship.
But that’s not the deal here. The praise for Sadler isn’t lip-service.
From the time he arrived five years ago, Sadler has drawn earnest endorsements from his peers. That’s not easy to do in the gossipy world of the college basketball grapevine.
Bill Self isn't actually saying that Tyshawn Taylor will lose his starting job, but...
Kansas' Allen Fieldhouse is not a comfortable place to play basketball.
ESPN's Doug Gottlieb thinks Kansas has character issues.
"I think they have some character issues on this team. … That's probably the only thing that can derail them. Immensely talented team but those character issues … this can be devastating news especially considering the amount of time and effort they put into Tyshawn Taylor."
The U.S. Basketball Writers Association has selected Kansas State guard Jacob Pullen as its Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week.
Football
It is DeMarco Murray all over again. OU's Roy Finch just needs to stay healthy.
Roy Finch must prove he can stay healthy. Brennan Clay and Jonathan Miller will be listed as the backups this spring. But Brandon Williams, the highly touted five-star recruit out of Brookshire, Texas, might work his way into the mix. Williams enrolled early at OU. It will be interesting to see what kind of spring he has.
Bad news for the Land Thieves. OU assistant coaches improperly questioned players about their lack of participation in "voluntary" offseason workouts. The NCAA was not happy.
You are welcome. Poke o-line coach Joe Wickline got a nice raise.
Simple enough that even a high school student gets the concept.
Yellow journalism. We can sympathize with Jadeveon Clowney.
The Times would tell you that Clowney is a public figure as the No. 1 recruit in the nation, that they did not say he would be ruled ineligible – only quoted other people questioning his eligibility – and that it’s a news story that two people aware of Clowney’s academics aren’t sure if he’ll be able play college football next year.
Of course, the obvious counter-argument is that the only reason the Times found two people questioning his eligibility is that they were looking for it, and that they left out any other information that would give you a more accurate picture of his current academic state like, you know, his actual football coach or current teachers.
Yes, this thing is certainly unseemly and has The New York Times looking like the New York Post by printing material you’d find on message boards, not in the most respected paper in America.
(The Lost Lettermen also has a great article on Pete Thamel's investigative reporting.)
The NCAA has decided to give college football recruiting closer scrutiny.
Five investigators from major-enforcement and two from the agents, gambling and amateurism staff will spend the next several months building relationships in the football recruiting world (both scholastic and non-scholastic) and gathering information about what is happening in that sport. AGA Director Rachel Newman Baker will lead the group. The intent is to make sure the enforcement staff becomes as knowledgeable about football recruiting as it has grown to be about basketball recruiting.
"We have an idea of what’s going on, but we don’t want to assume anything," Lach said. "We are trying to find out what the issues are that we need to be tackling. The idea is just to get more information."
SBNation has a way-too-early 2011 preseason college football poll. ESPN's Mark Schlabach's way-too-early diagnosis has SEC teams dominating the CF landscape. Again.
Bo Pelini is getting a Big Ten makeover.
Did your football team have a lot of explosive plays? (If you are a UT grad, the answer is no.)
There is no conspiracy when it comes to selecting teams for the basketball tournament.
The Committee has the information at their fingertips, lots of information, mountains of information. Whatever bit, byte or nugget of knowledge could be scraped together was there waiting to be digested. The data included conference records, road/neutral records, strength of schedule, non-conference strength of schedule, opponents’ strength of schedule, non-conference opponents’ strength of schedule, record vs. teams selected into the tournament field, record vs. teams in common, and how good the teams look when they play basketball. The technical name for this is called ‘the eyeball test.’A decade ago, the Committee went through 100,000 pieces of paper, now it is practically paperless.
UConn basketball coach Jim Calhoun may be in trouble with the NCAA. Tennessee and Bruce Pearl, too.
Mark your calendar. Here is the 2011 NCAA Tournament TV Schedule.
Maybe Dave Duerson's suicide will make a difference in how the NFL views and treats head injuries.
There could be more fallout from the Iowa S&C disaster.
A leading compliance authority says it's a "coin flip" under certain conditions whether some, or all, of those players could transfer immediately without sitting out a year. A long-standing NCAA rule requires Division I football, basketball, football and hockey players to sit out a year if they transfer to another Division I school. Loyola Marymount assistant compliance director John Infante, who started the popular Bylawblog.com website, told CBSSports.com that even if Iowa was found to have no culpability in the players' conditions after vigorous workouts on Jan. 24, some could get that transfer waiver.
Sports writers continue to lament the deplorable state of the Alabama-Auburn rivalry.
No one is wishing it, but those of us who claim to have some sort of handle on the Alabama-Auburn history of hate have to consider the obvious: We wouldn't be totally surprised at mortal consequences following the poisoning of those Toomer's Corner trees, apparently by an Alabama fan. Sadly, violence seems to be the next logical evolution of the rivalry, mostly because it has happened in the past.
But maybe there is hope.
Following the gravy train of college sports and the BCS...money.
CBS College Sports Network has dropped the word college from the title.
In something of a surprise move, CBS announced that the CBS College Sports Network will rebrand as the CBS Sports Network starting April 4, 2011.
The network will still focus on college sports at first, but CBS says it expects to expand the content it features down the line. CBS hired former ESPN exec David Berson in December to run the network’s day-to-day operations.
The ACC couldn't sell all their tickets to last year's conference basketball tournament so they have changed their distribution policy.
Not only has the conference changed its distribution policies - tiering the number of booklets each school is allotted to sell, rather than dividing them equally among the 12 universities - corporate sponsors have been granted more tickets also. In addition, the ACC is already talking to organizations in Greensboro about buying any tickets that aren't sold for this season's tournament, which will be held March 10-13.
The Lost Lettermen has a five-part series on gambling and point shaving in college basketball. (The link goes to the last installment, but start at the beginning and read through. TLL has compiled a comprehensive look at the issue.)
A new ruling by a federal district court may affect former Nebraska and Arizona State QB Sam Keller's lawsuit against the NCAA.
And finally...
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has a new documentary.