Tuesday Morning Notes: Texas, Texas, and More Texas
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Texas A&M is ranked #9 in the country in the latest AP poll. What is the world coming to? However, the Aggies have upcoming back-to-back games at #12 LSU on December 5 and at #1UCLA December 9. I’ll reserve judgment on A&M’s worth until December 10.
The Dallas Cowboys released kicker Mike Vanderjagt. Vanderjagt is the NFL’s most accurate field goal kicker of all time (86.5%) but only connected on 13 of 18 FGs for the Boys this season (72.2%). He’ll be replaced by - drum roll, please - Martin Gramatica. Now will the Patriots complete the circle and pick up Mike V?
Since I began the morning in Texas, I might as well continue ’round the Lone Star State. Check out this blistering comment on Kevin Garnett by Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News:
Mavericks fans can rest easy because their best player is named Dirk Nowitzki. And not Kevin Garnett.
And this thought came on a night in which Erick Dampier was Dallas‘ best player (no, really) and when Nowitzki had very un-Dirk-like numbers.
Cowlishaw goes on to say:
Garnett is the NBA’s king of empty numbers. And that’s not to say that it is totally his fault.
But then reaches back and throws another heater under The Man’s chin:
But when you are regarded as one of the league’s top five players for much of your career and you have moved well beyond $150 million in salary earnings, you should have more on your resume than this: One trip past the first round of the playoffs.
Wow, Tim. Who did a number one in your Honey Bunches of Oats? While Dirk just in the last, oh, year-and-a-half, became a standout for real, KG’s been that man standing next to Timmy Fundamental for almost a decade.
Garnett reminds me of a great actor who was given huge money for a movie and promised by the producer and director that other big names were coming on to join the project. But then the big names never showed and he was left to carry the entire movie with a bunch of mediocre bit players.
- Anybody remember Matt Doherty? that guy who once coached the North Carolina Tar Heels? Well, now he’s in the hinterland coaching at Southern Methodist University (SMU) - that’s in Dallas, and I don’t blame you if you didn’t know. I just wonder what Doherty did to get himself banished from top-notch benches? The NCAA basketball coaching fraternity is so very tight I don’t think we’ll ever know (unless your name is Todd Bozeman).
- The Texas Longhorns were once sexy pick for a one-loss team to compete in the national title game. But then they ran into Kansas State and Texas A&M. Yesterday, defensive coordinator Gene Chizik fled to coach ‘em up at fellow Big 12 school, Iowa State. Is there something up in Austin that we don’t know about? When you go from the Big Game in Glendale, Arizona to what, the Chick Fil-A Peach Bowl or something, in two weeks and then lose the man who built your championship defense, something has to be going on behind the scenes. Sure the Horns lost starting QB Colt McCoy, but losing to K State? And it was incumbent upon Brown to know McCoy wasn’t right before the A&M game but he started him anyway. Mack had better gear up in the off-season, or by the middle of next season, after Texas gets beat by Oklahoma the, Mack Brown can’t coach whispers will begin anew.
- San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich gave Don Nelson some serious props:
Nellie’s return is… “good for the game. His creativity is really special in this league. We’re all sort of creatures of habit, but this guy is out of the box. He does things most of us don’t have the guts to go do. “He’s always fun to be around and coach with and coach against.”
Golden State also handed the Spurs their first road loss of the season last night, 111-102.
- The Houston Cougars football team was 0-11 in 2001. This Saturday, if they beat Southern Miss at home, they’ll finish 10-2 and win the Conference USA West Division. This is a huge turnaround for any team and deserves more airtime.
- Both Rice and TCU are headed for bowl games. Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Houston, Rice, and TCU are all headed to bowl games. Is there another state in the country with six bowl-bound teams?
- Oh no! The Houston Texans lost QB Sage Rosenfels for the season with a broken thumb on his throwing hand.
- There’s a really good article by Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle on Tracy McGrady feeling Kevin Garnett’s pain. Here’s a snippet:
If only Tracy McGrady and Kevin Garnett had that team in the commercials, with Tim Duncan in the middle and Gilbert Arenas and Chauncey Billups in the backcourt.
If you put that fantasy team together for even one season, how different would their careers look? How different would their reputations be?
“That’s an unbelievable team,” McGrady said. “Imagine if we were all on the same team.”
If they were, McGrady might not be labeled by his years as the league’s most prolific scorer. Garnett would likely not be hearing the talk that he should find a way out of Minnesota to a team that could help him become a champion.
True, true.
Well, that’s my tour ’round the Lone Star State. Hope you enjoyed the ride.
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See, I feel Chizik did build their championship defense. The parts had been there for awhile. Someone need to put the players in the propers schemes and demand execution from them - that's what Chizik's role was.
The Chick Fil-A reference was just a joke (I just love that a bowl can can be named as such,and put chickens with peaches - and be taken seriously! Now the Chick Fil-A Waffle Bowl played in Houston would be cool! I bet they have really, really sweet goody bags for the players at the Fil-A... and all the Chick Fil=A sandwiches they can eat (ugh! I remember trying one of those for the first time at Barton Creek Mall - if you're familiar with Austin - it was horrid!)