40 Acres Sports

One of the biggest shots in Texas basketball history…

With Duke now out of the tournament, the road to the Final Four for whichever team wins this game just got a little easier. This game matches up two very different teams. While Texas needs the three to be dominant, [tag]West Virginia[/tag]’s entire game relies on the outside shot. Texas will spend much of the game in a man-to-man defense to attempt to give WVU’s shooters as few open looks as possible, while the Horns will attempt to dominate on the offensive and defensive boards.

Should be an entertaining game.

First Half

• Good dish by LaMarcus Aldridge to find PJ Tucker underneath the basket. Good start and great to see the ball inside to Tucker early.
• Kevin Pittsnogle‘s first three goes all the way around the rim before rattling out. A good sign?
• I guess it wasn’t much of an omen. Pittsnogle’s next two threes go down easily to give WVU the lead.

West Virginia 9, Texas 6

• Horns playing good defense and moving the ball nicely on offense. No wide open looks so far for WVU and several easy dunk/layups for the Horns.
• We need to be a little more careful with the basketball. Not too bad, but a couple unforced turnovers so far. I wonder if/when the Mountaineers plan on playing any full court defense.

West Virginia 9, Texas 10

• Darn, I thought we were going to be announcer-free for a second.
• Ouch. PJ takes it to the hoop and hits the ground very hard.
• Kenton Paulino had time and an opening to get rid of the ball on the trap but holds on to for too long. Luckily WVU gets called for the touch foul.
• Big fast break dunk for Tucker. 9 points already for him.
• Ahhhh! I hate playing good three point shooting teams. Good defense all around and Patrick Beilein nails the 3.
• Pittsnogle flops and they call the foul on Aldridge. If they’re going to call that amount of contact then the whistle should blow on every possession.

West Virginia 15, Texas 19

• Less than eight minutes to play and again the announcers are unaware we’re back from commercial.
• Aldrige is stroking it from midrange.
• Great steal by AJ Abrams. Shoot, he’s limping now. He said “f***” as he started to jog back up court and reached down towards his legs.

West Virginia 15, Texas 23

• How much longer is Napolean Dynamite going to play Napolean Dynamite? Memo to actors in Hollywood: If you see Rob Schneider’s name associated with a movie run away! Bench Warmers looks awful.
• West Virginia has yet to make a two-point shot and Texas has yet to hit a three.
• Nevermind. Daniel Gibson nails one. Let’s hope he gets going, we’re up now but we’ll need outside shooters hitting to win this game.
• How is that a foul on AJ Abrams? Yikes.
• Great move and decision by Mike Williams. Passed up a long jumper and drives for the easy hoop. Exactly what Brad Buckman needs to do. His midrange shot is off, put the ball on the floor and look to pass or find an easier shot.

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Phantom calls against LSU’s big men Glen Davis and Tyrus Thomas to get them their fourth fouls while Duke’s big men hack away with no call.

Shelden Williams picks up his fifth yet the call somehow goes against Greg Paulus despite the whistle not coming till after the contact from Williams.

LSU player ruled out of bounds when his foot has about 2 inches of space before he was on the line.

Even with all that going against them, the LSU Tigers are up one with 90 seconds to go and would be up a lot more if they hadn’t been so awful from the free throw line.

I hope we don’t play Duke next round (if we advance), I already can’t stand the officiating in these games.

Zack Pianalto out of Springdale, Arkansas (same school as Mitch Mustain and a handful of other excellent players last year) has become the Texas Longhorns’ 14th commitment. Pianalto, a 6’4″ 210 pound TE/WR combo in the David Thomas mold, is the second tight end prospect to commit this week.

Young kid who still has some growing to do physically but it sounds like the Texas coaches likes him and that’s certainly a big endorsement. The Horns have had a couple of fantastic tight ends the last few years in Thomas and Bo Scaife, redshirt freshman Jermichael Finley looks like he’s going to be big time as well, so I trust the staff to evaluate the position.

Welcome to the program Zack.

The Trojans’ theme for the upcoming season is “Encore.” (via)

As you probably know, Texas is playing West Virginia tonight in the Sweet 16. But what you may not know is that WVU’s Kevin Pittsnogle is a snazzy dresser. Seriously, what can be going through your head to decide to wear a suit like this to your wedding? This could be worse than Chris Walker’s videos (ok, maybe not).

Who knows, maybe he is just a big Jim Carrey fan…

More images after the jump.

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Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon spent some time on yesterday’s Pardon the Interruption discussing Vince Young and his draft stock. They think it’s completely ridiculous if he’s dropping and Wilbon thinks it’s all misinformation and that he’s not dropping at all.

It’s amazing what happens when people base their opinions on ability and on-field performance instead of their preconceived notions of what an NFL quarterback should be. The last couple of seconds of the video includes a classic exchange between the two hosts:

Kornheiser: “I don’t understand how you would not want Vince Young.”
Wilbon: “You don’t want to win.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. (Which is probably why they have a TV show and I have a blog.)

The Statesman has up some excellent footage from yesterday’s Pro Timing Day.

Not exactly breaking news, but ESPN sucks. This is their front page story on Vince’s workout today…

Quarterback Vince Young was timed in 4.58 seconds in the 40-yard dash Wednesday on what is considered a fast track at the University of Texas in Austin, one NFL scout told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen. The scout said Young’s time was slower than anticipated. According to the same scout, Young’s overall workout was “fairly impressive,” but the scout believed that Young was not asked to make certain drops and throws that he would have to perform in a private team workout. Young’s pro workout Wednesday, which was open to all NFL teams, was run by Jerry Rhome, a former NFL quarterback and assistant coach.

First off, pretty much every person I’ve heard quoted that was actually there called it a great performance and Sean Salisbury said he and all the scouts were “blown away.” Salisbury, a USC homer, even said he’d think about taking VY over USC QB Matt Leinart. Former Cowboys’ scout Gil Brandt said, “He impressed everyone with his arm strength, quick delivery and accuracy.”

Second, the 40-yard dash times ranged anywhere from 4.49 to 4.57 depending on whose stop watch you were looking at. Of course ESPN quoted a time above all of those.

Next, I’ve heard several times over the last couple of years that the track they run on is a slow one. I’m not sure if that’s true, but I’ve certainly never seen it called a “fast track.”

Finally, Chris Mortensen is a jackass. He’s been trying to claim for years that former Arkansas QB and current Jaguars receiver Matt Jones was a better quarterback than Vince. Despite the evidence from this past season and inspite of all logic, he restated the ridiculous claim again today.

Unbelievable.

Update

ESPN has updated their story to include a few quotes from people who were actually there. For the first couple of hours the quote above was the entire story. I find it interesting that they can only find unnamed sources that’ll give negative quotes. Hmm… (6:50 p.m.)

Update

They’ve added some good video of the workout to the story. Ed Werder does actual reporting from Austin and talks to actual coaches and scouts instead of quoting a single unnamed scout to say negative things like Mortensen did. It’s amazing that ESPN ran with the one negative report they could find based on second-hand reports from a guy I don’t believe was even there, despite the gushing reviews from their own guys like Salisbury. (03/23/2006)

Starts off 7 of 7. We’ll have more tonight on his performance. Update: Vince kicked ass.