40 Acres Sports

The 2008-09 basketball season isn’t over yet but Texas fans can get started being excited for next year already. The 6-foot-3 guard had a great week at the McDonald’s All-American basketball game including showing great things in practice, 15 points in the game, and a slam dunk contest win. Check out high quality video of the dunk contest win below:

Lots of [tag]Cody Johnson[/tag] news this week that we’re just now catching up on. When the Horns were coming back to practice earlier this week from Spring Break word was out that he was working hard and impressing the coaches and had risen to the top of the running back depth chart. His performance on the field also had the Texas coaches worrying less about his weight:

Johnson’s personal battle of the bulge has dogged him throughout his college career. But [Mack] Brown is learning to gauge other factors than merely the scales when looking at the 5-foot-11, 255-pound Johnson and his productivity and value for the Longhorns.

“We’ve quit trying to get Cody to lose weight, we’re working with body fat and we think that’s the key to it,” Brown said. “He looks like he’s in good shape. He came back in good shape after the break. We feel like that he’s doing a really good job.”

But then on Wednesday Johnson tweaked his hamstring and threw the whole thing back in the air. The injury isn’t too serious but he will miss the next two weeks of practice including the spring scrimmage on April 5th. This will open things up for [tag]Vondrell McGee[/tag] and Fozzy Whittaker to get more practice reps and impress the coaching staff, and also possibly may make it even less likely that incoming true freshman [tag]Chris Whaley[/tag] will redshirt.

Haltom City defensive end [tag]Reggie Wilson[/tag] is the latest 2010 recruit to add his name to one of the most impressive recruiting classes in recent memory, and he may also be the most exciting. He’s only been playing football for a few years but he’s already a dynamic pass-rushing end who strikes fear in opposing quarterbacks. Check out some of his highlights below to learn exactly why you probably don’t want to be a Big 12 QB for the next few years:

The 2008-09 Texas Longhorns were far from a perfect team, but Saturday night the team showed a ton of heart but came up short in the final minute in a second round loss to [tag]Duke[/tag]. Despite being overmatched in some areas, the victim of some bad bounced (and calls), and unable to knock down free throws the Horns still had their chances to come up with a huge win. Watch highlights from the game below…

Follow along below with our live thoughts and analysis during tonight’s 2nd round game versus 2nd seeded [tag]Duke[/tag] on CBS.

We’ll also be embedding Twitter posts from @40AcresSports and with the hashtag #UT right in with the other notes. Feel free to leave comments and questions using the live tool, but not all comments will be published. Read below for more notes on comments and how the live blog will work. Hook ’em!

Notes: Comments on the article itself will be turned off till after the game. The Writer can view all comments sent to them but only they can publish your comments for everyone to see. The “autoscroll” feature ensures you’re always shown the newest content without having to refresh or scroll your screen. Subtle sound effects alert you to new content as the writer publishes it. You can turn these features on or off by using the controls at the bottom of the Live Blog.

Yahoo.com interview from [tag]Varez Ward[/tag]:

Mack Brown’s 2010 Texas football recruiting class just keeps getting better. Top defensive end [tag]Reggie Wilson[/tag] made a surprise visit to Austin Thursday and yesterday word trickled out that Wilson had committed to the Longhorns. He is the 21st commit for the 2010 class.

Wilson is a 6-foot-4, 240 pound pass rushing defensive end from Haltom City, TX. He hasn’t been around football his entire life but he is an incredible talent with one of the biggest upsides in the entire country. He is one of the top players in the entire state, ranked number 4 in the LSR and number 1 by Inside Texas. He has a very good chance to end the season as a 5-star recruit if he puts up a strong senior season.

Wilson’s personal story is an incredible one, an excerpt from InsideTexas.com:

Wilson’s parents fled Liberia at the start of the country’s Civil War while Reggie’s mother was pregnant with him. The family moved to The Ivory Coast to a compound where Reggie’s parents cared for their seven children and other children that had were affected by the war.

When Reggie was seven, his parents, amid financial difficulties, moved to the United States with the hopes of making a better life for their children. Needing the older children to stay and take care of the younger children that could otherwise not take care of themselves, seven year old Reggie Wilson lived without his parents on the Ivory Coast for three years.

When Wilson was 10 his parents had saved enough money to bring him to the United States and after a short stay in New York with some relatives, Reggie was reunited with his parents in Fort Worth.

Congrats to Reggie and welcome to the 40 Acres. Make sure to check out all the commits and stay tuned to the site for all the latest recruiting news.

Texas advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament behind a barrage of 3-pointers from senior guard [tag]AJ Abrams[/tag] and support from [tag]Dexter Pittman[/tag] and others. They started slow but a run of four straight 3’s by Abrams allowed the Horns to pull away from [tag]Minnesota[/tag] and eventually win 76-62.

It’s not really a highlight package, it’s an Abrams show but so was the game last night so it’s fitting. Watch it now…

Texas will play [tag]Duke[/tag] on Saturday at 7:15pm.

Related Links

• Live Blog
• Box Score
• Photo Gallery

Follow along below with our live thoughts and analysis during tonight’s opening round game versus [tag]Minnesota[/tag] on CBS. We’re live now, join us below.

We’ll also be embedding Twitter posts from @40AcresSports and with the hashtag #UT right in with the other notes. Feel free to leave comments and questions using the live tool, but not all comments will be published. Read below for more notes on comments and how the live blog will work. Hook ’em!

Notes: Comments on the article itself will be turned off till after the game. The Writer can view all comments sent to them but only they can publish your comments for everyone to see. The “autoscroll” feature ensures you’re always shown the newest content without having to refresh or scroll your screen. Subtle sound effects alert you to new content as the writer publishes it. You can turn these features on or off by using the controls at the bottom of the Live Blog.

ESPN’s Andy Katz spends a few minutes breaking down the Horns’ first round matchup with [tag]Minnesota[/tag]. He talks (very) briefly with both head coaches to get their thoughts on the tournament and their first round opponent.