40 Acres Sports

Rick Barnes took one last shot at Texas A&M at the basketball banquet. “Pooooor Aggie!”

Overachieving nothing new for Major Applewhite. Good article on Major’s rise to offensive coordinator at Alabama.

Take heart, A&M fans, there’s still women’s basketball. And you’ve still got Fran!

Kevin Durant easily swept all the national awards, many by unanimous vote, but he had to share team MVP honors with fellow freshman D.J. Augustin Monday night. Both players were definitely deserving, you could see Augustin’s importance to the team when he hit a wall late in the season and the whole team struggled to get going.

University of Texas freshmen D.J. Augustin and [tag]Kevin Durant[/tag] shared the team’s Most Valuable Player honor in a vote of their peers, highlighting the 2006-07 men’s basketball team banquet held Monday evening at the Frank Erwin Center. Freshman center Dexter Pittman claimed the Lowe’s Home Improvement Most Improved Player Award.

With rumors swirling that Durant will declare for the NBA Draft this week, it could have been his last public appearance as a (current) Longhorn. Durant was the only Longhorn not available to the media at the banquet. Can’t really blame him though, he didn’t want to all the focus to be on him and I’m sure he’s exhausted. There will be a press conference whenever he announces his decision and reporters will have plenty of time to ask him questions then.

I love that the “Most Improved Player” award has a sponsor. They should sell sponsorship for all the awards. We could have the “Blockbuster Online Blocked Shots Award” and the “Acme Brick Worst Field Goal Percentage Award” and rake in the cash.

Award Recipients

• Slater Martin Award Ryan Clark
• Mike Wacker Comeback Award Matt Hill
• Coca-Cola Solid Citizen Award Damion James
• Jack Gray Award Connor Atchley
• Athletic Director’s Scholar-Athlete Award Craig Winder
• Jay Arnette Award Justin Mason
• Earlene Fulmer 3-Point Attack Award A.J. Abrams, D.J. Augustin
• Assists Award D.J. Augustin
• Blocked Shots Award Kevin Durant
• Field Goal Percentage Award Damion James
• Free Throw Percentage Award A.J. Abrams
• Rebounding Award Kevin Durant
• Hustlin’ Horns Award Ian Mooney
• Spirit Award J.D. Lewis and Harrison Smith
• Outstanding Defensive Player Justin Mason
• Lowe’s Home Improvement Most Improved Player Dexter Pittman
• Team Captains Craig Winder, A.J. Abrams
• Most Valuable Players D.J. Augustin, Kevin Durant
• Senior Award Craig Winder

Rain and cold hurts crowds at Saturday’s Texas Relays, but weather isn’t to blame for track’s recent decline in the US.

Kevin Durant wins Wooden Award in a runaway to complete sweep of every single major individual award.

Great 2006 highlight video of Longhorn tight end [tag]Jermichael Finley[/tag] from his redshirt freshman season (for some reason there’s about 20 seconds of dead air to start the video):

J-Mike had a great season last year and finished with 31 receptions for 372 yards and three TD’s. Texas fans are expecting big things from him in 2007.

Video originally created by HornFans member NEWhereButA&M. Great work.

Great coverage of the Gail Goestenkors hire from TexasSports. Includes video from the press conference.

EA is giving Devin Hester a 100 speed rating in Madden 2008, the first ever perfect rating for a player.

Kentucky has a press conference scheduled, reportedly to announce Billy Gillispie as their new coach.