40 Acres Sports

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

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

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This is one of the funnier clips I have seen of [tag]Bob Knight[/tag]. Apparently he thinks [tag]Kevin Durant[/tag] is a good player.. My favorite part:

“There’s no secret. There’s no secret thing he drinks before the game. There’s no secret thing he rubs on his ***.”

Is it just me or does this remind you of the Dennis Green blowup after the Cardinals lost to the Bears. “They are who we though they are!”. You can almost hear Bob Knight saying, “Durant is who we thought he is!” Haha.

So this brings up the question. Just how good is Kevin Durant? We will let you decide. Vote for who you think the best player in college basketball is right now. You can vote below or in the sidebar to the right.

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Akina vows the defense will be more aggressive. Just coach-speak, but it’s music to my ears.

With Todd Graham gone, Rice has hired Texas State’s David Bailiff to replace him as head football coach.

Man, that sure was a tough way for the game to end last night. In TRIPLE OVERTIME, to lose by a prayer that Mario Boggan sloppily threw up was disappointing. Texas played tough all game and Kevin Durant showed why he is the best player in the land. And just in case you were curious, Boggan was shooting an impressive 16% from the 3-point line all season.

It was interesting to see Rick Barnes smiling so much after the game. It sure looks like he is having fun out there doesn’t it? Although, I guess I would be too if I had someone with the talent of Kevin Durant on my team.

And on another note, this Conner Atchley guy is starting to get on my nerves. Yeah he hit that big three in overtime, but that lay-up he blew was horrendous and some of the defense he plays is mind-boggling bad. What’s the deal?

Tim Brewster takes over at Minnesota. Brewster was TE coach under Mack Brown at UNC and Texas.

Texas coaches & coordinators get raises. Greg Davis is highest paid coach.

Rice coach Todd Graham signed a 5 year extension with Rice and 3 days later took the Tulsa job.

[tag]Larry Mac Duff[/tag] is the new name but Duane Akina is Texas’ new defensive coordinator.

The biggest news related to the surprise hire of Mac Duff is that [tag]Duane Akina[/tag] will now be calling the plays for the Texas defense. Under the previous regime coach Gene Chizik was the one really in charge of the defense and was the one calling the shots on Saturdays. Even though Chizik and Akina shared the defensive coordinator title, Chizik was the one who received the hype and he was the one who was referred to as “the defensive coordinator.” Now Akina is 1A and Mac Duff is 1B.

What we do know about Akina is that despite this year’s performance he is an one of the nation’s top secondary coaches and a good recruiter. His promotion means no disruption to the current players or to recruiting. Akina is a guy who has loyalty to Mack Brown and to the University of Texas so unlike the last two guys we can expect him to stick around longer than a year or two.

The Alamo Bowl was Akina’s tryout for the job but I’m not sure if it was enough for us as fans to get a good idea of his coaching ability or style. He was working with Chizik’s guys and didn’t have enough time to get his scheme into place. After struggling mightily in the first half, Akina and the Texas defense stepped it up a little in the second half and came up with the big stops when needed. One game is not enough for us to draw any conclusions from. We don’t have any idea what kind of job he’ll do making defensive calls on gameday or how good he’ll be at making in game adjustments. Next year it’ll be trial by fire and I think Akina has earned that opportunity.

The Mac Duff hire will be great news for the Texas linebackers and special teams play. He’s got experience and success at every level with those two groups and those spots have been a weakness for the Longhorns in recent years. Texas has a lot of young talent at linebacker and all three starters returning at the position, but it still wouldn’t surprise me to see three new starters next year. Sergio Kindle, Roddrick Muckelroy, and Jared Norton are all big, fast and athletic and I think most Texas fans are excited about those guys being on the field a lot more in 2007.

Whoever Mack brought in to replace Chizik needed to be a compliment to Akina because it’s clear Brown likes him and the players do as well. Mac Duff fits perfectly. He’s got a solid relationship with Akina and unlike Chizik and Jerry Gray he’s a true linebackers coach. A bigger name hire might have made more of a splash nationally and made some fans happy, but it would’ve caused more of a disruption to the team and depending on the hire might have meant replacing Akina as well. Brown decided that the Akina and Mac Duff together could do a better job helping the Longhorns win games than any of the other big names would do.