Sports Smorgasbord

The Critical Nature of The ISU/Texas Game
They say everything is bigger in Texas. The Cyclones are about to find out just how much bigger as 6’10”, 290 pound center Dexter Pittman (pictured) and the #1 Texas Longhorns visit Hilton Coliseum Wednesday night. Texas (15-0) is coming off a 103-point outburst against Colorado last Saturday. Rumor has it that there are serious issues going on behind the scenes in the ISU locker room. Chris Colvin (ISU’s star freshman recruit) was suspended indefinitely for walking out of a closed-door meeting after the Duke loss last week. Apparently there have been other “tweets” and conversations about dissension in the ranks. As McDermott appears dangerously close to losing this team, this game becomes critical not only for the direction of the rest of this season, but possibly his career.

Colo-Nesco
How do you know you have basketball fever? I guess when you can’t make it to a Royals game (home late from kid’s basketball practice) and pace the house like a caged lion, wondering how the game is going. That’s what happened Tuesday night as the Royals faced Bondurant-Farrar. I just found out the Royals squeaked out a close one: 40-37. Great win. Royals improve to 10-2. Wish I could tell you more.

Lane Kiffin to USC: Maybe Al Davis Was Right?
You’ll never hear those words out of my mouth again, but hear me out on this one. I think Al Davis (Owner of the Oakland Raiders) is just about the worst owner in all of sports. But after the news that Lane Kiffin (a former coach for the Raiders that Davis both hired and fired) bolted to USC after just one season at Tennessee, you have to wonder if he was right with his comments about him. According to an article by Beth Rucker of Rivals.com, Davis said that Kiffin was “a liar who brought disgrace on the Raiders.” I’m guessing there are about 6 million Volunteer fans that would echo that statement tonight. Kiffin was the flashy new-hire in Knoxville last year who brought in a great recruiting class and had seemingly restored some of the luster to the Tennessee football program. Along the way, he also incurred some NCAA violations, so he should be a PERFECT fit for USC in Southern California. Kiffin better hurry--you don't want to mess with a bunch of ticked off Smoky-Mountain men with muskets and bloodhounds chasing you after you've disgraced their football program!

Alabama/Texas BCS Title Game
It really was too bad that Texas QB Colt McCoy got hurt in this game. It would have been interesting to see what the outcome might have been with him in there for the whole thing. At the same time, Texas blew two golden opportunities early to put the Tide behind the 8-ball. Two red-zone opportunities, two field goals. Six points instead of fourteen, then Coach Mack Brown makes a BONEHEAD move to shovel-pass right before half time, and before you can blink, the Longhorns are down 18. I like Texas and Alabama so much that I shut the TV off and went to bed at half time after that. Seriously, Mack Brown’s wife could coach Texas to a National Championship game. It’s TEXAS for crying out loud! Where they give babies footballs instead of pacifiers, and half the nations five-star recruits practically beg to play for the Longhorns.