After about a week off and conference play starting in about two weeks, $Bill has lined us up 4 warm up games: Sam Houston State, Rice, McNeese State, and North Dakota. Not all are home games, we play at Rice the 31st, but I am sure our guys will be home in time to get their new year kiss.

Sam Houston is a 5-5 team with a loss to Tech and a win over ULALA, never heard of their other 8 opponents. They play about 6.5 guys; two guys, Corey and Lance, shoot a lot of threes, Corey makes them and Lance does not (13-47 this season, at least he is trying)... whatever, we are going to dominate.

The Collegiate Baseball Fab 40 preseason poll (??) came out just before Christmas, and has us as the highest ranked Big 12 team at number 9. Other conference foes to make the list are:
10. Texas
14. OSU
15. Baylor
22. Mizzou

This seems like good news, and it is, but Rice is back again at number 3, which means we will be playing a super regional in Houston and not advancing to the College World Series. Bummer, I was so hopefully for this season.

Turge said it after the TCU game, and I bet he will say it after
tonight's game, this team doesn't play until their backs are against
the wall. Tonight we let LSU get within 2 with 3 minutes left, at
which point B-Davis turnded it on with to straight scores and we won
by 11.

I prefer killer instinct over come-back kid, but I'll take wins.

What looked like a blowout at half turned into a pretty close game. Sloan and Junior both had huge games--- Junior had, I am guessing, his first double double: 14 boards and 17 points, along with 6 blocks, wow wow WOW ---but we still almost gave it away in the second half.

Why? Turnovers. Their guy Twitty also nearly tripled his average offensive production last night with a team (and game) high 27 points, the next guy had 8. Back to turnovers.

From the chart above, you can see we were doing well until midway though the second half: up 13 and just few turnovers. Then things got sloppy. In four minutes we doubled our turnover deficit, and our lead went from 13 to 2. Sloan finally shook us away by stealing the ball and finishing with a 3-point play. Junior blocks a shot, Carter makes some free throws and we are on our way to a 13-2 run. In that run FAMU had 3 turnovers compared to our 2 steals and 2 blocks.

To find the silver lining... that is the second game this year where we didn't roll over and die; something we had a tendency to do last year.

We are destroying our namesake in Florida. Point leader is Sloan with
14. Junior is haveing the game of his career: 9 points, 1 steal, 3
blocks, 6 boards.

Walkup is doing his best Acie Law. Two games in a row he knocks down
clutch threes with seconds left.

Ice cold.

After Walks 3 Holmes added his own with 00:01 left for a tie. We rode
that wave in OT and beat Alabama 86-78.

Carter found his shot tonight; 5-11 from three. We need that.

We just closed out the first half of our first true road game very
strong. Down 7 with 6:35 left, we went on a 14-4 run to end up on the
good side of a 39-36 halftime score. The streak was a team effort: 5
guys contribute to the run, B-Davis had a pair of jams, and DRow
dropped two dimes.

I am still amazed at the Arizona comeback, and I want to figure out what the hell happened. I am sure we will remember the comeback to be much more dramatic than the stats will reveal, but I have been investigating none the less. For whatever reason here is what happened:
With 10 min left in the game, when we have been trailing by at least 8 points for the last 16 minutes, and as much as 14 in that stretch, we cut their lead to 2 in less than 4 minutes.

More analysis to come, unless our next game is particularly interesting.

So I have been MIA for a while, sorry. "Football" season took the wind out of my sails. Despite that mess, senior punter Justin Brantly made rivals.com's All-American list.

Now basketball is doing well, especially the women--- #3, wow ---and the Arizona comeback--- I still can't figure out what happened. I am starting to get excited about College Station sports, well and the weather is crappy and it's dark by 4PM so what the hell else am I going to do?

Um. Sloan juat showed up.

13-2 in the fist 5 minutes? I am not loving the Big 12-Pac 10
hardwood series. Carter is 0-3. Our only points came off a 3 foot
hook from Junior. We also look slow slow slow. Barf.

Something bothered me at the end of the Baylor game, besides that I was still listening; JJ had some big plays that didn't matter. It bothered me because it felt familiar. We loose and he has a great box-score game.

Here is a little graph that might help.
This is JJ's cumulative passing yards against our lead (This graph could be made much better if the x-axis was time, but the play-by-play I used doesn't give a per-play clock. If you know of a play-by-play that does give this let me know and I will fix the graph).

60% of his yards came AFTER we were down by 34. This would be fine if we were down 34 at half, but we weren't, this was within a minute of the fourth quarter (Again, don't pay attention to the x-axis, it doesn't indicate time; it's meaningless.).

The majority of his yards came at the end of the game when we were down huge

How often does this happen?

I could only get play-by-play to 6 games: Baylor, OU, KSU, Miami, Army, and Colorado, which is an okay sample. Some wins, some losses, some blowouts. But considering these games...

40% of JJ's passing yards came when were were down 21. I am not sure what to do with this metric. I know our defense stinks, and it's quite possible we are almost always down by three TDs, so I need to look into something better, but that number is hard to ignore.

What about big plays? Half of JJ's 20+ yard plays came when we were down by at least two TDs. 38% came when we were down at least 21.

An really big plays? JJ has had 5 +50 yard plays. We were down by 21 in two, 13 in one, and tied the the other two.

In the interest of full disclosure, we are almost always loosing. In fact, only 16% of JJ's pass attempts came when we weren't loosing. I am not blaming him for all of this, I am just pointing out when he gets his stats.

Got the live feed of the basketball game to work. Baylor? Who is that?

This is out of control. Doomsday. Baylor is up 13 at half. They
have 108 more yards than us; double the first downs; nearly double
time of possession; double the first downs; the list goes on.

How how how can we be this bad?

Say it ain't so Joe! A 10 seed? We only lost 1 player. He does have the 7 Big 12 teams in the dance: KU (6), Mizzou (11), Texas (3), OU (4), OSU (13), and Baylor (7). Yes that's right Joe has Baylor finishing above us; no respect.

The good news is that I think this is the first time we have been in a pre-season bracket. Maybe no respect is too much.

Notice yourself smiling? That is because it's basketball season has started and Turgeon didn't think we were awful.

72-59 isn't some sort of crushing win--- the margin was within a point of last year's opener ---but in the post-game Turgeon said, "We will have a good offense." Considering his comments last year, we know Turge is brutally brutally honest, and when he said we are going to be good at something I believe it.

Digging though the box score...

I don't have the play-by-play, but I bet Turge burned through all of this timeouts in the first half trying to figure out why we couldn't shoot or gaurd. In the first half we shot 12-31 (38.7%) while Kingsville shot 13-25 (52.0%). Something happened around half time and we flipped the stats: good guys went 16-28 (57.1%) and bad guys went 10-27 (37.0%).

Our defense must have improved in the 2nd half. Besides the obvious drop in field goal percentage, we started forcing Kingsville to make harder shots. In the first half only 15% of their shots were 3-balls; in the second half 50% were behind the arc. Again, I don't have the play-by-play, but I don't think they just started chunking 3's to catch up; they only shot 5, and were never down by a ton.

Bryan Davis played like Bryan Davis; 1-8 shooting and 8 boards in 29 minutes. He has to contribute more on O.

Somehow both BJ Holmes and Nathan Walkup had 4 fouls. I am going to speculate that is because of the tight ball-guarding.

Before the season Turge said Dash "is going to help us" and Loubeau's "head is spinning." Seems he had his names mixed up. Dash was 0-2 with a turn over, and Loubeau was 4-6 with 3 boards.

JC, DRow, and Sloan played great. 14 points, 14 points, and 5 assists respectively.

I am glad basketball is back, so were the nearly 9K fans and 3K students.

--UPDATE--

Here is a short highlight video.

Finally, basketball season is here (actually it was here about an hour ago). Turgeon and the boys laced up against Texas A&M-Kingsville at Reed. Davis, Roland, Carter, Sloan, and Elonu got the start.

With the game about half over, Sloan has hit all four of his free throws; very good news, and Davis has two fouls; filling Joe's shoes like we hope.

Watching Tech reminds me of how we used to be; playing inspired
football at home and winning games we were not supposed to win. When
does that start again.

Okay kids, Colorado is our last chance to grab a conference W at Kyle. Before Tech, our chances of getting a home win seemed pretty bleak. While we didn't get the win in Lubbock, we did... hugs. "During the Texas Tech week, you could really see a big change in the locker room. There were a lot of guys going around hugging everybody. There was a lot of excitement." Hold on, give Trent Hunter a chance, he's a fish. "Some of the seniors … they’re a lot more passionate now than they were at the beginning of the year."

Seniors, that is so last season.

19 players have seen action for the first time this season. The motive is less throw-them-to-the-wolves and more whole-the-hell-else-do-we-have, but result can be the same: bad now, good later. Shermi knows “it’ll pay off for somebody. Hopefully it’ll be me." I hope so too, and not because $Bill lets Sherms say around too long.

Jerrod Johnson's too-soon start is paying off already. But Johnson can't take all the credit, "I really think I'm a product of my environment, the coach and players around me and the things I've been taught." JJ is only one man.

The OU game will be televised, but we don't know how, yet. Suck it up on Saturday and we will be on FSN; blow out Colorado and we are headed for a nationally televised ass kicking game on ABC.

Too bad the season is over, because that would have been a hell of a game last night. 1083 yards of offense, 11 TDs, and two punts. That is like a McDonald's All-American game, zero defense. Iowa State's QB Austen Arnaud had a career day, throwing more than 100 yards more on Saturday than in any other game in his career, but couldn't find the end zone. In total, Iowa State had 401 yards in the air but only one passing touchdown. How does that happen? Goodson didn't play due to a sprained ACL so the running game was pretty much dormant outside of Cy-Gray's 27 yard TD.

Freshman Ryan Tannehill passed T-Murph (and others) to be A&M's most prolific freshman receiver, and there are still at least four games left in the season.

Shermi quote of the year, "Our back is so far up against the wall we have splinters up our butt."

Um, I am watching Tech v KU. Have you seen this guy from Tech, Brandon "Mankind" Carter with Halloween makeup on, including striped lipstick?
Really?

With football season over it's been pretty sleepy around here, so Maroon Madness (Haj Hibbert was there, I can't wait to see this guy play) and Turge's media day were a welcome wake up. Basketball is BACK, finally. In his first press conference of the season, Turge talked about being more comfortable, Josh Carter stepping up as a leader (and hitting more shots, thank god), and James Blasczyk, the last minute big man he brought in when DJ split.

Besides Blasczyk, there will be a couple of other fresh faces, point guard Dash Harris and forward David Loubeau. Right now, David's "head is spinning" with the speed Turge is pushing. He will be good, but "he's got a long ways to go." Day one Turge said DJ had a long way to go, and he was exactly right, so I think we can trust him that we will have to wait on Loubeau.

Dash is another story. Turge loves this guy, and a former point guard he should know. I am not even going to paraphrase this praise...

We're trying to change the way we play. We're trying to play faster. We weren't able to do that last year, and Dash is going to help us do it. We just have to have somebody to run with him. I love his decision-making. Great on-ball defender. He's just going to help us. He's going to help us and be a part of the rotation and he's a winner.

Check Dash drop some dimes in these clips...

I maintain that a player with a cool name gets a disproportionate amount of media attention. Dash will be one of those players. A super-fast guy named Dash, are you kidding me. This is the cheese that the four-letter network loves.

Stick a fork in us, we are done.

Even if you hadn't looked at the schedule, you would know we are playing Tech this week by the posters on this site:

Tech poster 1:
"10 out of the last 13 the underdog has won. BWHAHAHAH. Isn't it time to go do a tradition or something. Y'all are pathetic."

Tech poster 2:
"I now look at them with there cult views and pity them that they can not break free from the Aggie bondage and must suffer as a die hard for a program that take solace in beating Army."

Tech, keepin it real.

So I blew it on the K-State upset call, and pretty much everyone has given up on the season. Things are so bad in College Station that Tech fans have emerged from the dust to talk shit about how they are so good that they don't even want to talk shit. They "will probably not even waste the energy of calling [their] aggie friends to rub it in. [They] now look at them with there cult views and pity them that they can not break free from the Aggie bondage..." Aggie bondage? Really? The sun even shines on a dog's ass some days; 10 of the last 13 days to be exact. We have given up 100 points in our first two Big 12 games and I bet our field goal tossing foes believe they can make it 200 in three games, but Vegas is only giving them +21. I actually don't even care. Out.

Vegas is giving KState 3.5; Not a humiliating line. If I knew how, I
would start a vote on what you think the Tech line will be. 45 sounds
conservative.

I am not always the biggest fan of the four-letter network's Tim Smith, but today I am...

I still think I can hear A&M play-by-play announcer Dave South's call ringing in my ears from that play.

South's call--- "HE GOT A TOUCHDOWN. HE GOT A TOUCHDOWN. HE GOT A TOUCHDOWN. HE GOT A TOUCHDOWN" ---has got to be one of the best, maybe I'm bias.

In case you forgot what a champion in maroon looks like:

Mi Bennett will no play on Saturday. Some BS about "team rules."
Haters.

KState @ Kyle Field; 2nd home win? I am kind of feeling this one.

JJ gets the start by default, not by ability or production, unfortunately. It's pretty clear that Shermi wants to stick with McGee. How else can you explain the unwillingness to name a starter? He wants the vet in there and will wait until the trainer's update on Saturday to give up on the shoulder; always hoping next week's news is better. I don't blame him. JJ gives us glimpses of great; McGee doesn't turn the m f'in ball over.

When it gets this dark, it's easy to see rays of light: the O-line gave JJ time; in the Army game we got on blocks and stopped, we actually moved OSU; we are punting the ball well; lots of young guys are getting serious minutes. There it is. The sign you gave up on the season is when you point out how much this will help NEXT season.

This brings some relief. All expectations are slid to '09 and each W will be a treat. I like treats.

Any self-respecting pundit must justify his analysis at all costs; admit a mistake and your credibility evaporates. So here is mine... Careful analysis shows I was 62% right. The top runners v worst defenders was not the blood bath that most anticipated. We kept both guys under their normal production levels and, for the most part, out of the end zone. That said, our offensive line and receivers need to get better at tackling. If we are going to hand them the ball 5 times, we cannot let two of those go back for TDs. A&M is not on the decline; you cannot erode what you don't have. We are there, declinED.

Um, TTech hung 5 TDs on KState in the first half. We are screwed.

I am calling it. We beat OSU.

Everyone everyone thinks we are getting smoked. They are ranked for the first time in five years. The four-letter network picked it 45-20 bad guys; that is professional analysis ladies and gentlemen. Jackie Sherrill knows that line smells, "Since when has A&M been a 25-point underdog to Oklahoma State or a 25-point underdog to anybody?" Exactly Jackie (in the interest of full disclosure, Jackie was talking about our "tremendous step back,” and not the inability of Vegas to pick a good line for our games, but whatever).

OSU may have the both of the top two Big 12 rushers and may sport the top rushing offense in the country and we may sport the 5th-worst rush defense in the country, but everyone know those kind of comparisons are crap when they don't work in your favor. I mean please, who has OSU played? Probably not Army.

UPDATE: K-State will not be on TV.

My obsessions over plummeting financials have been a welcome distraction from a football team that was inches from hitting rock bottom. I didn't expect to see a fourth quarter, fourth down defensive stand to get the W in a game where Vegas gave us +30.

In the Army we (probably) said goodbye to McGee and (I hope) welcome back to J Train. I've complained about the big man for a while; his crying and weight have not gone over looked here. But at times like this, when a guy says, "I was asked to play fullback, and that's what I'm going to do. But when I'm called upon to carry the ball I'm going to put my team on my back," GIVE HIM THE BALL!

I listened to Dave South announce the game, so no clue how many times JJ avoid the sack and extended the play, but he has got to do better than 53 yards, a TD, and am INT. I guess his shoulder is not feeling great. This is reminding me of Fran years when half of our starters were hurt.

A single bright spot is Trent Hunter. The TRUE FRESHMAN defensive back was awarded Big 12 defensive player of the week. When was the last time that happened? Probably Jackson Appel. Here is to four more years of Hunter roaming the pitch.

We beat Army; the wheels didn't fall off, but they almost did. The odds makers gave us something like 30 points, we won by 4. It was nice to see J Train to get the rock and the first to lock up the win.

I am listening to the crap game on the radio because RCN (my cable company) is incompetent, so I cannot judge, but that has to be one of the worst defensive efforts we have ever put up. Army went 84 yards for 7, 39 of them defensive penalties. Dave South et al. seem to think a few of those were bad calls.

Offensive recap: McGee throws a 42 yard bomb, gets hurt, then JJ throws an INT to set up a 58 yard fumble return by Freeney.

14-7 good guys.

At the beginning of the year, even the most sceptical fans thought we would be 0.500 at Kyle Field; we are 0.000. Vegas has us as heavy favorites over Army this weekend, despite their dreaded triple option offense and our dreadful defense---- 105 out of 119 in rush defense.

Will we be stuck at 1 win at this most hollowed of fields? Maybe.

Army, K-State, Tech, Colorado, and OU are our home games. If we loose to Army the wheels fall off--- $Bill will need to fly to Washington, DC and get in line for a bailout ---that's a W. Tech and OU are top 10 teams; L L. K-State and Colorado are maybes. K-State can put points on the board, 44.7 per game, so our offense will have to keep up with what our defense can't contain. Unfortunately our offense produces slightly less than theirs: min 14, max 28, and mean 21.7. Colorado is 3-0 with a win of a top 25 team. Yes that top team was West Va and they got smoked by East Carolina, who in turn lost to NC State who you know stinks, but college football is't transitive. West Va started as a top 10 team and Colorado beat them. We did not start as a top 10 team.

There may be only 1 victory at Kyle this year, but at least it's still Tim Smith's favorite place to watch a game. Is it basketball season yet?

The thing that strikes me the most about the Miami game is how people see what they want to see.  Those that groaned when Stephen was announced with the starters then left their feet and cheered when JJ's name came next saw a different game.  They saw him stay alive in the pocket in the face of a ton of presure, and throw for 275 yards and 3 TDs, even with crummy receivers running crummy routes.  "Just think how McGee would have done with that pass rush," they say.

I saw none of that.  Even Sherms admits that despite the numbers, the passing game it was "nothing to hand your hat on."  I saw poor decision making on runs and passes and a complete disregard for protecting the ball.  I saw "14 points on a silver platter."  I saw poorly thrown passes that left receivers stretched out and dangerously vulnerable to hits.  Thankfully Fuller only had the wind knocked out of him.

Other frustrations/news:

Niether JJ nor Goodson are risk adverse.  When face with decision to either run straight and be guaranteed four yards, or make a move and either 20 yards or loose two, they will both choose the shake and bake EVERY TIME.  We went three and out in one series because JJ left us at third and short after a fail moved.

In his post game news conference, Sherms said that we had no success in the two back set, and some success at the option. In fact, you saw JJ line up as a receive at one point so that we could run the option with out the risk of injuring the QB.  The option?  Really?  Are we reverting to the Fran playbook?  Did Sherms learn something about this team that our former coach already knew?

JJ hurt his shoulder, but not as bad as McGee.

Shermi tucked in his shirt.

I cannot believe people complained out that.

JJ under center. First play is a false start. Second play Goodson
takes it 60 for 6. I like it.

They just announced both McGee and Johnson as starting; very sneeky
McGee got some groan and JJ got cheers.

I may get hit my the fly-by.

Word on the street is that JJ gets the start. Not sure how reliable
the word is, but it's it word.

I can think of worst places to have a beer on a Saturday morning.

I just read that ABC is showing the Notre Dame/Michigan State game to
most of the nation; that is good news. 1) We are 3-78837382 in
nationaly televised games, and 2) the fewer people who see this beat
down the better.

According to the wall in the Wings 'n More men's room, Miami is +4 on
Saturday. Not sure if that line has moved, but 4 seems low
considering we are 0-1 at home in the Sherms era.

Shermi is not expected to name his starting QB (publicly) before
Saturday. I hate speculating, but I cannot see a reason for this
beyond Sherms really wanting Stephen--- or really not wanting JJ ---
under center, so he is delaying his decision as long as possible.

I have stuck by McGee because I think he is a bad-a. The latest evidence of this came when he was asked if he thought he’d be able to play, McGee said, "I always do."

Zone Club seats don't suck. Well they might not see a fade to the
corner of the opposite endzone, but are recievers can't catch those
and our QB's can't throw them so maybe missing it is good.

McGee is still uncertian for Miami. He's doing more this week than
last, which was nothing. One day at a time.

Saw this sign tonight; its not sports related but it's in College
Station and amazing.

Here is a pic of the Reed Arena practice facilities. Not much from
the outside.

ABC put us in the early slot, 2:30. This is going a hot as hell.

ABC picked up the Miami game; kickoff will be either 3:30 or 8 CST.  I am crossing my fingers for 8 considering this will be the only game I attend this year, and I don't want to have to set my alarm to tail gait.

As aways, pease email my public relations department at aggie.sport at gmail.com to schedule any tailgate appearances.  Regetably, due to high demand I will be unable to meet all requests.

I missed this in the press conference earlier today, but Shermi said that if McGee was healthy enough and the we were preparing for a game this week that the Stephen would be his starting quarterback. However, we aren't playing this week, so does that leave room for Johnson?

For those of you that like sources of this weekends two big injuries...

"We thought there was an outside shot [Stephen] might have torn his labrum. But it [the prognosis] was more positive than that."

"Coach Mike Sherman wouldn't rule out McGee returning in time to start the Aggies' next game."

"RB Mike Goodson (knee/ankle) is expected to be fine."

Live streaming working again.  I am a crappy stenographer, so cut me some slack.

Shermi:

Miami is also dealing with injuries so the effect of the bi-week balances out.  But going into a bi-week with a win is a good thing.  His wife and the secretaries really like it when we win before a week off.  Facing a very good defense and offense.  Phenomenal speed.  We have to improve.  Just as important after a win than after a loss.

3 man front has been pretty decent against the run.  A lot of time we are bringing a fourth to pressure people.  It is frustrating that when we put 4 we are not better.

Worst play in the game was the muffed punt.  Pugh showed that he is a great player by not being effected by that, came back and did well.
Just to give him a mental break.

Offensive Coordinator: Nolan Cromwell

Switched a handful of plays when Johnson came in.
We were a little conservative on play calling in the 2nd half, also not executing both in the running and passing game.

Stephen said he was fine but Shermi had to take him out of the game.  No question that Stephen could play the rest of the game.  Really speaks to how tough mentally and physically he is.

We concentrated on created a running game in fall.  Thought we had the backs to have a good running game.  Because of injuries at full back we have been really hurt.  We just need to maintain our focus and execute better.  We are going to run the ball and play action.  Would have hoped we would be better.

Lane will loose weight as he starts practicing.  Had lost some in training camp, lighter than he was in the spring.  When he got hurt he couldn't do any work and all the weight caught back up with him.  It is up to him to shed the lbs he needs to shed.  He is a valuable part of the offense and it is just a matter of how many plays we can get out of him.

Update on Stephen McGee and Mike Goodson from today's press conference.  McGee has a sprained shoulder and a slight separation; he is day-to-day and will likely not practice this week.  Goodson has a mild ankle sprain (sure looked like the has grabbing his knee to me), but he looks good and will practice.

Great time for a week off so guys can heal up.

Stephen McGee will undergo tests on his throwing shoulder today. The extent of the injury isn’t yet known, but "doesn’t appear season-ending."

Two thoughts:
1) McGee played with the shoulder hurt all last season, then had post-season surgery.
2) Ya Johnson threw two TDs, but he I didn't think he played well enough to take over the starting stop IF McGee is 100%. Kirk Bohls of the A-Statesman disagrees; he thinks McGee should line up in the slot, which is very interesting.

I will never complain about a win, ya just kidding. Some things looked good: Mi Bennett was all over the place, we had 21 points on four turnovers, the defense has a number of big stops and open field tackles, and Johnson drove the offense 93 yards for a TD. Most things did not look good: McGee was knocked out of the game, we fumbled all over the place somehow only lossing one, and NM had 134 MORE yards than us.

If Johnson is the QB for the rest of this season, then we will throw at least one pick per game; touch passes and last minute throw aways will be INTs against good teams.

I did think the o-line improved over the course of the game. McGee was getting slammed at first, but by the end Johnson had a few seconds to find open receivers.

Mi Bennett is a man, and can we talk about the ref's triceps?

McGee dunzo. Goodson dunzo.

Correction, McGee is hurt. With the punishment he has taken and
stayed in, his shoulder--- the one he had surgery on ---must be in bad
shape.

2 picks, a 2 TDs, and McGee is riding the wood. Johnson has (I think)
his 1st 1st half TD.

1st offensive series: bad. Goodson tacked behind the line, McGee hit
a few times, a fumble, that crappy wide receiver screen that has never
ever worked, and a punt. Didn't see the game last week but I bet it
looked like this.

In a few hours we will see how well Shermi was able to get his players to "flush it out."  Judging by the comments

"It was real frustrating actually." - Mike Goodson
"It's extremely disappointing. It hurts." - Stephen McGee

this one may clog on the way down.

While those quotes are discuraging, the real slap-in-the-face comes from New Mexico head coach Rocky Long when he said, "I don't know if A&M has more athletic ability than TCU."  F you Rocky.

"The bottom line is we should not be losing to Arkansas State." -$Bill

The men's basketball schedule has finally dropped. The Big 12
published the conference schedule months ago, and we knew some game
dates from our opponents schedules, so there were just a few pieces of
the puzzle missing.

Non-confernce highlights are: Arizona on 12/5, @ Alabama on 12/13, and
LSU in Houston on 12/20. Depending on how the brackets shake out, we
could play Illinois on 11/29 at the Padre Island tourney.

As pointed out by an anonymous poster, cheer up, A&M is a basketball school and we landed a blue chip. He may be still be in diapers, but Jamal Branch is the in Rivals top ten list for the 2011 recruiting class (thats right, he can't even drive yet). Best of all he is not a home opener loss.


Here is a video of the kid:

I like stats. In a win or loss, there should be some story in the numbers. Blowouts are the best. When you have more points then they had yards; they had more turnovers then first downs; you get the point. 14-18 is not a blowout, but there is still a story: melt-down.

I think our defense did well. You would have liked them to not allow the 80-yard, 4:51 minute, go-ahead touchdown drive in the fourth, but other than that, this was better than we have seen. We kept ASU out of the endzone, even on short fields; got two turnovers; and stoped them on downs once. The story here, all of ASU's points came off our turn-overs and missed field goals.

The offense, wow did they start good. Out of the gate: 69 yards TD; 57 yards missed field goals, shake it off; 77 hards TD; halftime! Then the wheels fall off.

The best news you can muster up about the second half was we punted twice. All other drives ended in turnovers or missed field goals. We had a GREAT drive to start the second quarter: 12 plays, 77 yards, 5:14 minutes, TD. Now compare that one drive to the third and fourth quarter.

One drive:	12 plays	77 yards	5:14 minutes	7 points
Third quarter:	14 plays	36 yards	8:08 minutes	2 punts, 2 turnovers
Difference	+2 plays	-41 yards	+2:54 mintues
Fourth quarter:	16 plays	87 yards	5:44 minutes	1 missed field goal, 2 turnovers
Difference	+4 plays	+10 yards	+0:30 minutes

I think this shows that we can play well, we just don't.

0-1. Same record as Baylor.

Sophomore running back Cornell Tarrant of Samuell has transferred to Stephen F. Austin because of "undisclosed personal issues." Issues such as not enjoying the wrong end of the depth chart.

We face power-house UNC on the pitch today. This is a bit of a rebuilding year for us, while the 19-time national champ Tar Heals have 11 returning starters (I think that is all of them). Cross your fingers, this may be ugly.

"Gone are the bend-but-don't-break days." Have you read sweeter words? The answer is no. New d-coordinator Joe Kines junked that crap and has guys in the mindset of a "lion catching the gazelle."

JTrain practiced yesterday, no pads, no contact, but still suffers from headaches from his August 13th injury. 2 weeks and he still has headaches, get he kid an MRI.

My boy JC (Jason Carter) added to the reasons why NFL pre-season games are stupid when he popped his ACL late in the fourth. He is dunzo, cut Carolina head coach John Fox said "...if he works like (he did this year) he'll be back next year."

Depending on who you read, J Train is anywhere for questionable (DMorn
News) to doubtful (HChron) for the season opener on Saturday. The big
man suffered a 'stinger' (something short of a concusion) a week or so
ago and has not practiced since. Shermi has a 'major concern' with
his absence in conditioning drills, for obvious reasons. Backup Nick
LaMantia is nursing a sprained but should be ready to take JTrain's
spot against Arkansas State.

It is late August and two things are happening, students are back on campus and fall-camp is over. While the kids are welcomed by bed bugs in the dorms and a administration that is not to joining the national lobby that believes the minimum drinking age of 21 is not working, Shermi and the boys ended with a two-hour scrimmage before 1,500 fans. As expected, the backs "did a nice job," and as you might not expect, "the defense... made some key plays." Maybe we wont be the softy gooey mass that some think we will be (Side note: I feel that, at this point, saying we are "not exactly the 'Wrecking Crew'" is much like saying the earth is warming. No shit.).

This weekend's scrimmage gave our guys the chances to "practice every possible situation known to man in football." If you think Shermi has a case of the hyperboleies, don't. We did "short yardage, goalline, redzone, punting, kicking, went for two, had the last eight minutes of the game, four-minute offense and defense, two-minute offense and defense and then we went into overtime and finished by being backed up (to the goalline)." I think is pretty much everything.

Highlights came from Goodson and true Freshman running back Cyrus Gray. "Cyrus had the long catch on the inside seam route" and "Goodson finished very well today, which was good to see coming off that [hamstring] injury."

Mr. QB crush himself Mi Bennett managed to dust himself off after being declared academically ineligible for last year's Alamo Bowl. Shermi is "counting on Michael Bennett big-time" this year. Welcome back. Easy on the late hits.

McGee got the starting spot. No is surprised.

I am traveling sans laptop for the next few days, so posts will be
link-less.

Goodson returned to practice, but looked like crap ('rusty').

Lane sat out with a 'stinger'. I am still annoyes with him. His
"drink less alcohol" diet is both underwelmimg and disturbing.

Our men's basketball scheduel is still not out. Previously, I thought
we were waiting on a tourney invite, which was wrong. We seem to have
accepted a bid to the South Padre Invitational months ago. Now I
think a team bailed on us and we are looking for someone willing to
travel to the BCS.

Stephen McGee is "emerging" in the mostly media-hyped QB showdown. I don't think any one really expected Johnson to start this season.

With Mike Goodson and this pulled hammy watching from the sidelines--- sans cell phone, camera, and audio/video equipment --- Shermi has gotten a good look at true-freshman running back Cyrus Gray, and is impressed...ish, "He’s got to clean up some things he’s making mistakes on. You’ve got to weigh that with his productivity on the other stuff. But I’m excited about him. He’s doing a nice job." Lane has also been getting some snaps at his old stop in Mike's absence, but the coaches still think he is still too fat.

Sophomore wide receiver Roger Holland, who caught four passes for 52 yards, including a 32-yard touchdown reception against Kansas, will redshirt this season due to a concussion he suffered in the spring. Shermi don't "mess around with head injuries."

After all the new mascot brouhaha, hubbub, scuttlebutt, and kerfluffle, we picked another female collie. Good job big search team. My vote was for a mutt, I guess I am just old-school.

48% Final Vote 52%

We barely edged Georgia. Up next is Alabama. This is a tough bracket. If we were in the Bowden bracket, we would be up against this beat ass helmet.

$Bill has much love for Coach Blair in the form of $800K a year through 2012; "Our first-ever NCAA Elite Eight appearance in April exceeded expectations we could have only imagined before the hiring of coach Blair and his staff."

"...exceeded expectations we could have only imagined" sounds so awkward.

Fran will be the four-letter network's color man for an Alabama game this year. I thought he was more of a print-media kind of guy.

Training camp has started and things were "generally sloppy"; J-Train is still too heavy (+30 at 290); and our recievers only dropped "one or two today." Our QB decision is now 9 days away with both guys feeling good. McGee is in the "offense [he] always wanted to be in," and Johnson thinks "[he's] improved a lot since last year... scheme-wise, just understanding the defenses and protection and things like that." Based on those statements I think the McGee has the job. A guy who just learned how to play the position doesn't give me a ton of confidence.

It's the quarterfinals of the four-letter network's Helmet Clash (helmet, ha!) and we are facing the Georgia Bulldogs. Cast your votes here. This is a no brainer; they have stickers on their helmets, what is this, high school?

The football team reported to campus yesterday light two player; Derrick Hall and and Blake Chavis did not meet NCAA eligibility requirements. Hall was a 4-star player and the fastest guy (hopefully not the smartest) in the class.

Our men's basketball schedule is still MIA, but LSU posted our date with the Tigers --- Dec. 20th.

We had 3 votes in the USA Today pre-season poll. To give you an idea of how bad that is, UNC also had 3 votes. Did I mention this is a FOOTBALL poll.

Goodson make ESPN's top Big 12 running backs list; number 3 behind NE's Marlon Lucky and OU's DeMarco Murray. thinks Goodson "Finally has the right coach to make him into the Aggies' featured running threat." Even with Goodson's emergence, the bookies still put our odds of winning the Big 12 at +800.

Rice released their men's basketball non-conference schedule; we will face them on New Years Eve. Our schedule has not been made public yet, maybe we are hoping for a slot in one of the big pre-season tournaments. I didn't get to see us play in Madison Square Garden in '07, maybe I will have a chance in '08.

The Big 12 basketball schedule was released. We have 2 Big Monday games (at KU, Texas), and 14 televised games, with 7 on non-pay-per-view channels (ESPN, ESPN2, ABC). I thought that all of our games would be televised under some new contract with ESPN, but we will have to listen to Dave South for 2 games (at Baylor, at Tech).

Sat, 1/10	Texas A&M at Oklahoma State [ESPNU]
Wed, 1/14	Baylor at Texas A&M [ESPN2]
Sat, 1/17	Oklahoma at Texas A&M [ESPN]
Mon, 1/19	Texas A&M at Kansas [ESPN]
Sat, 1/24	Texas A&M at Texas [ESPNU]
Wed, 1/28	Texas Tech at Texas A&M [ESPNU]
Sat, 1/31	Oklahoma State at Texas A&M [ESPN]
Wed, 2/4	Texas A&M at Oklahoma [Big 12]
Sat, 2/7	Kansas State at Texas A&M [Big 12]
Sat, 2/14	Texas A&M at Baylor
Mon, 2/16	Texas at Texas A&M [ESPN]
Sat, 2/21	Texas A&M at Texas Tech
Tue, 2/24	Texas A&M at Nebraska [ESPN2]
Sat, 2/28	Iowa State at Texas A&M [Big 12]
Wed, 3/4	Texas A&M at Colorado [ESPNU]
Sat, 3/7	Missouri at Texas A&M [ABC]

"7-10 days" into training camp; that is how much longer we are going to have to hear about the QB controversy competition between Stephen McGee and Jerrod Johnson. Shermi isn't giving us any clues, and neither guy is being made available to the media, so we wait. Because of the competition, and the quality of players, the big man thinks "we’re going to have a very good quarterback when we start the season". Neither guy made best in conference/country list (some how Colt McCoy and his 18 INTs did? I smell a bias news outlet).

With the QB situation working itself out, Shermi has spent his time in the trenches with the O-line. To those forgotten big guys, having "the head man work like that with offensive linemen, who never get any credit for anything, that [means] a lot." While they are enjoying the attention, I am worried. With only few returning guys from a nothing-special line, the new pro offense may never get a chance to get off the ground, literally.

Luke Winn at si.com made his fearless predictions about the upcoming basketball season; one of those being:

11. Be on the watch for a breakout from ... Texas A&M's Bryan Davis. Now that Joseph Jones has graduated and DeAndre Jordan has turned pro, the burly Davis can finally be the Aggies' main man in the post.

The schedule has been released for the 2008 Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series:

Thursday, December 4, 2008 Oklahoma State at Washington UCLA at Texas USC at Oklahoma

Friday, December 5, 2008 Arizona at Texas A&M

Saturday, December 6, 2008 Baylor at Washington State Oregon State at Iowa State

Sunday, December 7, 2008 Kansas State at Oregon Nebraska at Arizona State California at Missouri

Outside the four-day series window Colorado at Stanford (Sat., Nov. 29, 2008) Kansas at Arizona (Tue., Dec. 23, 2008) Texas Tech at Stanford (Sun., Dec. 28, 2008)

Former Texas A&M and current Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Johnny Jolly was arrested last Tuesday in Houston for possession of at least 200 grams of a controlled substance, a second-degree felony.

A second-degree felony. What is that?

According to the Texas penal (penal, ha!) code...

 § 12.04.  CLASSIFICATION OF FELONIES.  (a)  Felonies are
classified according to the relative seriousness of the offense
into five categories:
 (1)  capital felonies;                                                     
 (2)  felonies of the first degree;                                         
 (3)  felonies of the second degree;                                        
 (4)  felonies of the third degree;  and                                    
 (5)  state jail felonies.     

...

 § 12.33.  SECOND DEGREE FELONY PUNISHMENT.  (a)  An
individual adjudged guilty of a felony of the second degree shall be
punished by imprisonment in the institutional division for any term
of not more than 20 years or less than 2 years.
(b)  In addition to imprisonment, an individual adjudged
guilty of a felony of the second degree may be punished by a fine not
to exceed $10,000.

The Oklahoman (a newspaper) has tracked down the Nebraska fan who faked the newsok.com (The Oklahoman's web site) article claiming OU QBs Sam Bradford and Landry Jones were arrested on cocaine distribution. By using their "technology", the Internet security guru's at The Oklahoman found the expert hacker who:

1) lifted a template off The Oklahoman's Web site,
2) wrote and pasted a bogus story about the arrest, and
3) posted it on a message board.

Now the paper is going to "consider legal action" against the hoaxster. Instead of legal action, the Oklahoman should consider not making so freaking easy to post fake stories on your website, and the readers of the Oklahoman should WATCH OUT FOR BAT BOY!

Its summer time. If this was a sports radio station, we would be chatting about your favorite sports movies, how to revamp the BCS into a tournament without screwing schools out of money, and which sports are really sports (golf, NASCAR, etc.). But this isn't a sports radio station, so when nothing is going on I post nothing.

Christine Marshall, through some strange rule phenomenon where a bunch of people qualified for multiple events, became Texas A&M's first ever American Olympic swimmer. A&M's squad has a number of Olympians, but none of them will swim for the good guys this summer.

They also found West Nile on the A&M golf course.

We finished 12th in the 2007-08 U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup and 2nd among Big-12 schools, our best-ever finish. Thank your women's sports!!

1. Stanford 1461.00
2. UCLA 1182.00
3. Michigan 1154.50
4. Arizona State 1146.00
5. Texas 1129.50
6. Florida 1126.75
7. California 1120.00
8. LSU 1085.00
9. Penn State 1041.00
10. Georgia 1040.00
11. Ohio State 1034.75
12. TEXAS A&M 1031.00

Bubbles always pop; that's what they do; that's why we call them bubbles. Dot-com, housing, and now DeAndre Jordan. The man who kept us at the edge of our seat all season waiting for him to take over a game, but never did, is sliding in the NBA draft. Some how, despite his college "performance", DJ's stock never dropped. But now, after some one-on-one matches where he "did not looked good", some are saying he is now a second-rounder. I think he is still a lotto pick; never underestimate the bad decision making in the NBA.

I got the inside word on Turge's 2009 commit Naji Hibbert. A local high school coach says...

Naji Hibbert...SICK. He'll make contribution immediately at A&M. DeMatha is one of the best basketball programs in the country; he's one of the best prospects in his class and I love his game.

Given this insight, you might be surprised that Hibbert is on the low end of rivals.com's top 150 recruits (134) until you note that he "dropped nearly 80 spots" in the rankings last month. 80 spots in one month without a major injury?!?! What did the kid do? Forget how to play basketball?

Seems that either their model (if they use one) is WAY too sensitive, or their rankings are arbitrary and capricious.

Turge adds ANOTHER 3-star guy to his 2009 recruiting class, that makes three. Kourtney Roberson decided after an unofficial visit this weekend. Roberson is the half-brother of Mr. Sportmanship, Mr. Team player, and the all-time Big 12 points leader for at least a day, former A&M standout and Melvin Watkins product Bernard King.

Sorry about the lack of posts... traveling makes posting difficult.

DeAndre Jordan is staying in the draft and, as you know, Josh Carter is not. Turge said that, "DeAndre is pursuing his lifelong dream of playing in the NBA. The Aggie basketball family wishes him nothing but the best in the draft and in his professional career."

DJ is the biggest disappointment since Reggie McNeal. Who is to blame? Turge? DJ? Both?

Our field goal kicker is transferring for "personal" reasons. This guy was a big recruit coming in, and ending being 17-for-30 on field goal attempts and 52-of-53 on extra points. 17-30 seem eh.

As one bows out another gears up.

Our run at the softball national championship ended last night with a second loss to Arizona State. Our batters could never get going against Arizona State pitcher Katie Burkhart. It was a great run and I look forward to next year. I cannot find any confirmation on this, but I think Amanda Scarboro will be able to get a medical red shirt for this season and play next season.

The good news is that we still have a dog in the fight (it has been long enough since Mike Vick et al. for that saying to be usable right?). Our baseball team DOMINATED the College Station regional, scoring 53 runs in four games. That should be enough to shake off whatever sticky ickyies may have been leftover from the 8 game skid. The only thing between us and Omaha is Rice (Why the hell do we always play Rice in the post-season?). We didn't do well against these guys back in April (L 2-11), but I like our chances. You see, I am going to Omaha next week, but I am leaving on Thursday. The CWS starts on Friday. Had my trip extended a few days, we wouldn't stand a chance.

Arizona State took game one of the Women's College World Series Final 3-0.

Something must be in the water in Oklahoma City. Prior to the making the trip north, we were averaging over 5 runs a game this post season. But in OKC, we have crossed the plate just five times in five games (that was a lot of 5s). Last night was especially painful. Jo felt that "we got a little discouraged at the plate and it got the best of us." No kidding. With two hits and no runs, last night was the worst offensive performance of the year. "Obviously we need to make some adjustments."

Jo, if you are reading this, I think it is time we asked for his help...

Game two of the Women's College World Series was a lot like the first; we pull ahead late in the game by taking advantage of the other team's mistakes. Tonight it was an OVERTHROW TO THE PITCHER that sent Jami Lobpries to third and then home off a Rhiannon Kliesing single. The final score, 2-1 Aggies over ULALA.

Jo warned our team that National Player of the Year Angela Tincher, who sports a 0.62 ERA and is #3 in the all time strike-out list, is "a strikeout pitcher and you’re going to strikeout in this game. How are you going to handle that?... As long as you can keep loose and not get heavy about that we are going to be fine. We’ll just keep plucking along. We’ll keep going until we score a run. It doesn’t matter how long it takes."

It took six innings, and went down like this:

Kliesing singled to right center. Tovar pinch ran for Kliesing. Villarreal out at first 3b to 2b; Tovar advanced to second. Gibson reached on an error by 3b; Tovar scored, unearned.

Ball game, 1-0 good guys.

Next up is the Ragin Cagins. An 8th inning one-run homer broke the 2-2 tie and sent ULALA our way instead of the #1 seed Fl Gators. Thank you Holly Tankersley.

Bill Hodge (not not rivals.com, yet) is reporting that forward Khris Middleton of Charleston/Porter-Gaud School, SC., has pledged to play for Turge in a couple years. Check out his highlight clip. Middleton looks like a good spot-up shooters, and at 6'7'', he show promise on the defensive end.

Still no players from Texas.... I am just saying.

Team doctors have decided that red shirt-freshman linebacker Derrick Stephens can no longer play because of multiple concussions. Stephens was a 4-star recruit from Cypress Falls High School where he was first-team Class 5A all-state honors. Stephens said that, "It hurt my heart. That was my passion right there. To have somebody tell me that I can't play anymore -- shoot me dead."

Softball is in the World Series and baseball is hosting a regional. Looking good.

Both Megan Gibson and Stanford's Missy Penna threw no-hitters in their previous starts, so this Super Regional was supposed to be a pitcher's duel. However, that headline was out the window in the first inning when Rhiannon Kliesing hit a lead-off homer, and four batters later Holly Ridley hit a three run shot. Unlike Penna (5 earned runs, 3 Ks), Gibson continued her post-season brilliance, allowing only one run and striking out 10. The 6-1 W puts us up 1-0 in the best of 3 series.

The bleeding has stopped. We pulled out of the tail spin at nearly the last possible second with a 6-2 W over Missouri. Coach Childress told the guys that "we just needed to pitch and play good defense and the rest will take care of itself." Done and done; Barret Loux pitched 6 1/3 innings of shutout baseball and we had zero errors (we averaged 2.12 errors per game in the last eight games/losses). Jose Duran helped out the defense with a 3-run homer.

If Childress can turn this thing around and get us to Omaha he will have eared his Big 12 coached of the year award, and, in my opinion, be a favorite for coach of the year.

We lost our 8th straight to Texas last night, 15-9. This team is sunk. We will be lucky to host a regional next week. I NEW I jinxed it when I made travel plans to Omaha. This is pretty much all my fault, sorry.

A&M says "my b" to "handful" swimmers whose Olympic dreams may have been crushed when their times at the the Texas Senior Circuit meet held at the REC Natatorium where called into to questions. Apparently "the course was three centimeters too short – measuring 49.97 meters instead of 50" (something about tightening ropes, shifting lanes, bla bla). Course lengths are "confirmed before major meets", but "it's not always standard to measure first". How do you "confirm before" with out "measuring first"?

Some of our own were among the "handful" getting the shaft...

Aggies swimmer Christine Marshall swam an Olympic Trials cut in the 400-meter freestyle. At least she might have recourse.

Alia Akinson, an A&M swimmer and Jamaica native, would have qualified for her country's Olympics team in the 100-meter breaststroke. Alejandro Jacobo, a male A&M swimmer, swam a time in the 200-meter breaststroke that would have given him a good chance to qualify for the Mexican team.

The international swimmers may have no recourse through FINA, the sport's governing body.

The downward spiral on the diamond continues. No. 8 seed Oklahoma upset No. 1 Texas A&M 4-1 in a Big 12 tournament baseball.

We got a bunch of awards recently:

$Bill graciously received our first ever State Farm Lone Star Showdown trophy, saying "There is no doubt our rivalry with Texas has pushed us to get better. They've had success for quite some time and we've had to elevate our program in order to compete." Ignoring what happened in baseball recently, who is keeping up with who now?

Childress was named Big 12 coach of the year, and Jose Duran was named both the Big 12 Player of the Year and the conference’s Newcomer of the Year. Duran spent two years playing JUCO ball at North Central Texas College before we picked him up. I am not familiar with baseball recruiting norms, but it seems in a sport where so many guys go pro out of high school, or after two years, it would be unusual to have a guy coming out of JUCO to have such a big impact. Other conference awards went to:

All-Big 12 First Team: Jose Duran, Dane Carter, Luke Anders, Kyle Colligan, and Travis Starling
All-Big 12 Second Team: Darby Brown and Brian Ruggiano
All-Big 12 honorable mention: Clayton Ehlert, Barret Loux, Brooks Raley, Blake Stouffer, Kyle Thebeau

Josh Carter pulled out of the NBA draft, saying he is "not worried about the NBA right now." After meeting with, and working out for, teams he knows he has "a lot to improve on and will have another shot at the draft next year."

What have you done for me lately?


The "body of work" may include a Big 12 regular season title, and a couple conference player of the year nods, but who cares if you just lost 6 straight? Besides, that was the regular season; we want Omaha. We want to be peaking this time of the year, not losing to 8-16 to the 6th best team in Southland Conference. Are we better off now with that trophy in a glass case than we were last year?

Turns out yes.

We finished last year about the same: 2-4 in our last 6, including 3 Ls to the boys in Austin.

The big difference is that last year we beat the cupcake (McNeese State). So when choosing to end the season slumping with or without the regular season title and a number one seed, I would choose with.


Thanks to Wildmen03 for the pictures.

Megan Gibson has only allowed 1 run in this year's post season. 6 games, 5 shutouts. Her latest shutout was a no-hitter in the regional final against La Tech; she had 11 strike outs and was one walk away from a perfect game. Coach Jo said its "nice to see kids stepping up in key situations." Nice? Better get control of yourself Jo.

Next up is Standford in the College Station Super Regional, who upset UMass to win the Amherst Regional. Standford's ace, Missy Penna, had an almost-as-good-as-Gibson performance in in Amherst Regional, she didn't allow an earned run and pitched a no-hitter.

The H-Chron's headline reads "Nebraska sweeps Texas A&M." Taking the last two games of a series, and a sweep are very different things.

Errors. We lost the first game in the ninth because of errors. Now its the 8th, we are down 13-10 and we committed 6 ERRORS.. We lost.

In better news, our softball team beat Nebraska 5-0, and captured our first ever Big 12 tournament title. Jo is glad to "finally get that monkey off our back." Surprise surprise, Megan Gibson was named Most Outstanding Player. Gibson, Jamie Hinshaw, and
Holly Ridley all received Big 12 All-Tournament Team honors.

Our softball team did just enough to get to the finals of the Big 12 tournament. In game one, Megan Gibson's two-hit shutout (her 17th of the year) and Holly Ridley's 4th inning homer (her 5th of the year) squeezed us past Iowa State 1-0. Similar story in the the semis against Texas. Megan Gibson allowed allowed only 1 run, and Rhiannon Kliesing hit a 2 run shot (her 2nd of the year): 3-1 good guys.

Next up, Nebraska at Noon. We took both games in Lincoln this year: 6-0 and 6-3.

We nearly swept the Big 12 awards. Congrats to: Megan Gibson for being the first player to ever win both Big 12 player of the year and Big 12 pitcher of the year in the same year; Jo Evans for Big 12 coach of the year; Megan Gibson, Jamie Hinshaw, Jami Lobpries, Alex Reynolds, and Holly Ridley for Big 12 first team honors; and Natalie Villarreal for Big 12 second team honors.

There is a rain delay in Lincoln. New start time is 5PM CST. noon on Sunday, first game of a double header.

Hoooly crap! We just took game one 6-3 in 16 innings! Two top 10 teams playing for a conference championship is exciting. Add 16 innings and you get "holy crap"-exciting. NU tied it at 3s in the 9th after we beaned and walked their first two batters. Seven innings later Dane Carter steped up to the plate for the eighth time sporting 5 strikeouts and 1 hit; bases loaded; two out; Carter doubles to right center; three runs. Nebraska answers by stranding a runner at second. Ball game.

When I see a game one of a series go 16 innings I think, crap, we just burned through all of our pitchers. But not today. Thanks to Travis Starling and his 8 innings of relief pitching (8!), we only used three pitchers, while NU used 5.

As it turns out, this "football school" does its best work on the diamond.

Our softball team lost only one conference game, and heads into the Big 12 tournament ranked 5th in the nation. Our domination has been thanks in part to Megan Gibson, who was named a finalist for the 2008 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award. Megan leads the Big 12 in walks (45), wins (30), shutouts (14), innings pitched (208) and complete games (29).

Our baseball team heads down to Nebraska on Friday with a 15-game conference winning streak, and hopes to bring home our first regular season conference title since 1999. Childress has executed quite the turnaround in three years, but he is not surprised. He knew we had the two things you need to be successful: "No. 1 you’ve got to hold on to a high draft pick and have a senior-(to-be from the previous team) that was drafted pretty good and wants to come back. Then, you need to have a couple guys come out of nowhere, and get other guys to have career years.” Hu?

Billy G across the way in Kentucky just picked up a verbal commitment, from an eight grader. Michael Avery, a 6-foot-4 eighth-grader, knows where he will play in four years, but does not know where he will play next year.

"That’s the funny thing," Howard Avery said with laugh. "We’ve got our college. Now we need our high school."

Naji Hibbert of Hyattsville, MD is Turgeon's first verbal commitment for the class of 2009. At 6'6'' and averaging 17.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.1 steals, Hibbert is the 54th overall prospect and the 10th shooting guard according to rivals.com. This guy will fit nicely into the slot left open by a graduating Josh Carter. Hibbert is a bit taller than Carter (not counting the 2 inches Carter grew in his 3 years), has similar high school numbers (Carter averaged 21.3, 6.9, and 2.3), but Hibbert is a 4-start guy where as Carter was a 3-star.

Here is a video of Hibbert.

He looks stronger and comfortable around the basket than Josh did his freshman year. Josh eventually learned to get to the rack and pull down boards, but he started as a pure sharpshooter.

I think this is called "reloading".

This commitment is interesting to me for a few reasons:

1. Living 5 miles from Maryland University, College Park, I hear A LOT about Gary Williams's inadequate recruiting. I hope I hear something on the radio today about how he let another one go.
2. Living 8 miles from Hibbert's high school, I may make an attempt to see Hibbert play in the fall.
   
3. How long will it be until people start bitching that Turgeon is recruiting only out-of-state kids (two guys from FL in 2008, first guy in 2009 is from MD)? These complaints where make about Laurie Corbelli (volleyball), and when she switched to in-state kids we became less competitive.
   

Baseball is strange. In what other sport can a team ranked 5th in the nation, and with the second best ERA in conference give up 12 runs and 20 hits to Dallas Baptist? 20 hits! We didn't give up that many hits in our last three games combine; two of those games were against #4 Missouri. Childress thought it "wasn’t so much about what we didn’t do, but what Dallas Baptist did offensively... You have to give DBU credit.” Not a lot of insight there.

The puzzling hot/cold baseball phenomena continued in the second game of the series, but this time in the right direction, with a 9-4 win. Coach new it was "important for us to come back and answer the bell after last night’s performance." Seems like the best way to do that is by throwing out your two best pitchers. Brooks Raley got the win (6-0) with eight strike outs in six and 2/3 innings. Kyle Thebeau came on in the 8th and shut things down with five strikeouts in two innings.

Last year we had ZERO guys taken in the draft. This year we had five, one of them was even on the first day!

Martellus Bennett TE 2 (61) Dallas

Cody Wallace OC 4 (107) San Francisco

Red Bryant DT 4 (121) Seattle

Chris Harrington DE 6 (185) Arizona

Corey Clark OT 7 (234) San Diego

Game three of our series with Missouri was tied in 2-2 in the bottom of the 10th. We were looking for our FIFTH (!!) conference sweep; they were looking to salvage a road series. Then this happened...Kyle Colligan hit a walk-off homer. Things are looking very exciting.