40 Acres Sports

A lot of love in the media the last few weeks for the Texas A&M basketball program and the job Billy Gillispie is doing turning garbage into wins, but the Houston Chronicle points out that the Longhorns are still the premier program in the state. The Texas program was never at the horrid depths that the Aggies were, but [tag]Rick Barnes[/tag] has taken it to a whole new level of excellence and consistency.

Some interesting facts from the article:

• Wins against ranked teams: Penders 10, Barnes 38.
• Trips to the Sweet 16: Penders 2, Barnes 4.
• Final Fours: Penders 0, Barnes 1.
• McDonald’s All-American recruits: Penders 1, Barnes 8.
• Weeks in top 10: Previous 92 years: 3, Barnes: 41.
• Only three schools have advanced to the Sweet 16 in four of the last five years – Duke, Connecticut and Texas.
• Texas is one of just nine programs to advanced to eight straight NCAA Tournaments.
• America’s favorite college basketball programs: Duke, North Carolina, UCLA, Kentucky, and Texas.

This is now almost two weeks old but it’s new to me and hilarious.

On February 3rd Texas A&M won a huge game over Kansas for their first victory over the Jayhawks ever. It was a great win for Billy Clyde Gillespie and the Aggies over a top 10 team so it’s understandable that the fans were excited. Heck I even understand storming the court after such a big victory.

There’s only one problem… the game was in freaking Kansas.

Typical Aggies.

Dan Hawkins really wants you to practice more. Hilarious press conference audio.

Good Knight Aggies! Acie Law was nails again but Texas Tech had too much time and got the upset win.

The Longhorns finally looked like a complete and dangerous basketball team for the first time since the win over Texas Tech. All five starters scored in double figures and the Texas defense locked down Oklahoma State, holding the Cowboys to 38% shooting and forcing 16 turnovers. OSU star forward Mario Boggan chipped in 16 points but only grabbed three rebounds and had none on the offensive end.

Star of the game for Texas was the much maligned A.J. Abrams who finally snapped out of his shooting slump with 17 points and even added some solid work on defense. Abrams’ shot was falling and he did a much better job of getting open for his shots and not settling for mid-range jumpers on the move. After struggling to get involved in the first half, Kevin Durant did his usual thing in the second half and finished with a game high 21 points and 12 boards. D.J. Augustin was a little rough at the start of the game and turned the ball over carelessly a few times but settled in and contributed 19 points and 8 assists. Augustin’s 3-pointer from the state of Texas emblem at half court to beat the shot clock was the play of game.

Check out highlights from the game below:

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Did Nebraska’s Marlon Lucky overdose? Thankfully the kid is okay.

[tag]Oklahoma[/tag] recruit Donald Stephenson signed on the dotted line Wednesday like most of the nation’s top prospects, but he didn’t sign with his teammates in front of the local paper’s lone reporter and photographer. And he didn’t fax it in from the coaches’ office or get the school secretary’s help in the front office.

Instead Stephenson faxed in his letter of intent from Office Depot because he’s currently suspended from school. Apparently some “bad luck” made him break into cars and steal an iPod, a purse, and some caramel bars with his friends. He never denies he committed the crime in the article.

To top things off he accepts a favor from the Office Depot clerk because he’s an athlete, a clear violation of NCAA rules:

An Office Depot employee named Jeanne lights up when told she’s faxing copies for Oklahoma’s latest recruit. She doesn’t question why Stephenson’s at her counter at 8:58 a.m. instead of at school.

“Voila! Five pages sent,” Jeanne exclaims, then shows Stephenson the confirmation page. “And the fax is on me. You don’t have to pay for it.”

Stephenson flashes his dimpled smile.

“That’s the least I can do,” Jeanne gushes. “We’ve got a celebrity here!”

Stephenson finishes his eventful day of signing with Oklahoma and NCAA violations by flying through a school zone while driving without a license or proof of insurance. I think there’s an opening at Big Red Sports/Imports in Oklahoma City, sounds like we’ve got a top candidate here.

Last night [tag]Kevin Durant[/tag] set yet another record at Texas with his 14th double-double of the season. The previous mark was held by Ron Baxter, who had 13 in 1976-77.

Durant actually start off a little slow, with only 12 points in the first half, but he made up for it scoring 12 points in the first few minutes of the second half. Unfortunately though, Durant’s performance was not enough, as the Longhorns struggled to play anything that resembled defense. And missing those crucial front-ends of 1-1s towards the end of the game was killer.

Texas has a long way to go if they want to make a serious run in the NCAA tournament. The good news is that I think they have a shot, since they have been showing signs of improvement throughout the season.

Talk about an impressive stat line for Tiffany Jackson, 22 points, 13 rebounds, six blocks and four steals. That is doing it in all phases of the game.

The game was pretty close in the end, but the Sooners just went cold and Texas pulled out the win.

Bob Knight shows his softer side, giving Rick Barnes framed strategy notes from his record breaking 880th win against New Mexico.