40 Acres Sports

Texas was chosen as the #4 National Seed and will host UC-Irvine, Wake Forest, and Brown. I did a quick check and UT has never played UC-Irvine or Brown. The Horns did meet Wake Forest…back in 1949. The Horns beat Wake Forest twice in the 3rd College World Series to win the Horns’ first National Championship. No meetings since then. I’m very excited to be seeing new teams come to town. Stanford and UT-Arlington came to town last year. The winner of our Regional will meet the winner of the Wichita State Regional (Arizona, Oral Roberts, and New Orleans are the other teams in that tourney).

Other Big 12 teams to make the tournament:

• Missouri (hosting Miami, Louisville, and Kent State)
• Texas A&M (hosting Louisiana-Lafayette, Ohio State, and Le Moyne)
• Baylor (#3 seed at Rice, with TCU and Prairie View)
• Nebraska (#3 seed at Arizona State, with UC-Riverside and Monmouth)
• Oklahoma State (#3 seed at Arkansas, with Creighton and Albany)

Here’s how the Big 12 stands (sorted by RPI as of May 27th):

It’s rather surprising that Oklahoma didn’t make it into the tournament. They’re the highest RPI team that did not get in. (Georgia Tech at 28 and Kansas State at 35 are the next two.) I’m very puzzled at OSU getting in over OU. Yes, OSU did better in the regular season but were swept at the tourney and their RPI is a lot lower. Very odd. And, over their last 10 games, OU went 6-4…while OSU went 4-6, losing the last 6! Is someone from OSU on the NCAA selection committee? ‘Makes you wonder.

Update. Thanks to Ruby for pointing out an error in the table above. Oops.

(Cross-posted to my page.)

Texas beat [tag]Nebraska[/tag] 5-4 this afternoon. Since the Aggies had won their game earlier in the day, the Horns knew they were out of the hunt for a spot in the Championship Game. I saw some chatter on different sites saying the Horns should throw the game so the Aggies couldn’t make it, either. If you ask me, throwing a game is always a bad idea. And, there’s no way in the world Coach Garrido would allow one of his teams to do such a thing. Can you imagine? People are funny.

Anyway, the Horns played well enough. Adrian Alaniz got the nod and did not have his best outing of the year. He gave up 3 runs (1 unearned) in 3 innings on 4 hits (all singles) with 1 strikeout, 1 walk, and 1 hit batter. Austin Wood replaced Adrian on the mound at the start of the 4th and sat down the first 11 batters he saw. Wow. The 12th batter reached on an error by Chais Fuller at ss. Chais had lost a ball in the sun in the first inning and then let one roll under his glove in the 7th; rather uncharacteristic for Chais. When the 4th batter of the 7th reached on an infield single, the Horns sent Randy Boone to the mound and he got the next batter to fly out to cf to end the threat. He struggled a bit in the 8th, though. After getting a couple of quick outs, he gave up back-to-back singles. On the 2nd hit, Kyle Russell tried to scoop up the ball and throw in one motion. Sadly, he missed the ball, ran past it a bit, and could not gather it up. The runner from 2b scored and the batter reached 2b. Randy then walked the next two batters to load the bases! Ack. The next batter hit a high-bouncer right in front of the plate that Preston Clark fielded; he stepped on home plate to end the inning. Nebraska argued that the ball was foul to no avail.

Texas scored one in the 1st, one in the 2nd (a solo shot by Preston Clark, his 8th dinger of the year), and 2 in the 3rd (when Jordan Danks and Kyle Russell reached on back-to-back walks and then both scored). Luckily, they scored a 5th run in the top of the 8th when Chance Wheeless reached on a single and was driven home a few batters later on a 2-out single by Chais Fuller.

The Horns made a few mental errors and have some things they need to work on before the Regional starts on Friday. But, they also did some things very well. Austin Wood had a great outing on the mound and got the win. Chance Wheeless went 4-for-4 with 2 driven in and a run scored. Jordan Danks went 2-for-4 with 2 runs scored. And Chais Fuller managed to do well at the plate, despite his fielding problems, going 2-for-4 with a run driven in.

As usual, more details are available on the game report on my page.

The Oklahoma Sooners lost to Boise State in historic fashion in last year’s Fiesta Bowl, and it looks like EA isn’t going to let them forget it. One of the biggest features they’re touting in NCAA Football 08 (due out in July) is all the new trick plays they’ve added to the expanded play books. To highlight the feature, they’re using a clip of Boise State using the Statue of Liberty play to beat OU as the latest trailer. See the video below:

I’m not sure how well the new trick plays will work in the game, even the simple reverses that have been in previous games didn’t work very well. Even if the plays are useless, at least it’ll make Oklahoma fans relive the game a few more times.

Check out the rest of the article.

The NCAA officially approves moving 3-point line back, but the women’s line will remain the same.

How to Make Love to a Texas Longhorns Fan. Another classic from EDSBS.

UT athletes Destinee Hooker & Andra Manson are setting their sights at U.S. high jump records.

The Big 12 title game is coming to Dallas in 2009. More money coming into Arlington and not Dallas, thanks Mayor Miller!

Daniel Gibson has solid game as Cavs lose to Pistons. Finished with 9 points, 4 boards, & 3 assists.

Texas lost (3-7) to Texas A&M this afternoon. The Aggies made an interesting decision to start Kirkland Rivers. He’s mainly been used in short relief this season. He did a great job, though, holding the Horns to 3 runs on 7 hits over 6.2 innings. When he looked like he was getting into trouble in the 4th, the Aggies made no move to replace him. And, the decision paid off. Keith Moorland was completely dumbfounded by the fact that he kept going back to the mound as the game wore on. When the Aggies finally replaced him in the 7th, they sent Kyle Nicholson to the mound. Nicholson has been the Aggies’ most reliable starter all year. He did close out some games early in the season, though, so that move wasn’t quite as unprecedented. Nicholson faced 7 Texas batters. Not a single one reached base.

Texas, meanwhile, sent James Russell to the mound. He got into trouble in the 5th when the Aggies started things off with back-to-back-to-back singles to load the bases. James struck the 4th batter out looking and we all let our breath out a little bit. He hit the next on the knee, though, to score the tying run. The 5th batter fouled out to Bradley Suttle at 3b and we relaxed just a wee bit more. Sadly, Craig Stinson hit the first pitch he saw over the lf fence for a grand slam which gave the Aggies a 6-2 lead. James actually pitched a good game after that, although he did give up one more home run (a solo shot) in the 5th. Keith Shinaberry pitched a scoreless 7th and Pat McCrory did the same in the 8th.

As Coach Garrido pointed out in the post-game show, when the Horns had the bases loaded with two outs, they failed to execute. When the Aggies had the same chance, they executed in a big way. And, that made all the difference.

The Horns are concentrating their efforts on managing the pitching in an effort to have the ideal set up when the Regional comes around next weekend. They’d like to win the Big 12 Tournament but are focusing more on where they want to be next weekend. On the one hand, I like that they’re looking ahead. On the other hand, they’ve played “one inning at a time” all year long. Changing philosophies late in the season makes me a little nervous.

As usual, more details available in the game report on my page.

Baseball team runs away with Big 12 postseason awards. Kyle Russell was voted Player of the Year, Adrian Alaniz was voted Pitcher of the Year, and Coach Garrido was voted Co-Coach of the Year.