40 Acres Sports

Basketball assistant Ken McDonald takes Western Kentucky head job. Chris Ogden will reportedly replace him on Barnes’ staff.

Longhorns participate in Leadership Luncheon. Vince Young, Mike Griffin, Kyle Russell, & others discuss the importance of effective organizations & leadership skills.

Sanya Richards is healthy and on track for 2008 Olympics. Aaron Ross’ fiancée picked up two relay wins at Texas Relays.

Kevin Durant plans to be back in Austin to work toward his degree this summer. Nice trend to have of former athletes coming back to finish up.

How Texas remained durable after Kevin Durant. Every single other player is better the season, especially Connor Atchley.

DD Lewis rejoins Seattle Seahawks after half a year in Denver. He’s had a lengthy, solid career after being undrafted out of school.

Rookie Watch: Which veterans should the rookie class study? ESPN’s David Thorpe thanks Durant should emulate Allen Iverson.

Vince Young uses spring break to meet new coordinator. With Vince in Austin they hadn’t met face-to-face yet.

Texas coaching legend and baseball stadium namesake Billy Disch is one of three Longhorns elected to be a part of the 2008 National College Baseball Hall of Fame Induction Class. Joining Disch will be former Longhorns pitchers Burt Hooton and Greg Swindell, bringing the total number of Horns in the Hall of Fame to six.

Disch coached the Longhorns for 29 years from 1911-1939, winning 22 Southwest Conference titles while compiling a record of 513 wins and only 180 losses. He was one of the first people inducted into the ABCA Hall of Fame in 1966.

Hooton pitched for the Horns from 1969 to 1971 and finished his career with an incredible 35-3 overall record. His career ERA of 1.14 is still a school record, one that will likely never be matched in the metal bat era. Hooton was drafted by the Cubs in 1971 and made his major league debut that season without ever throwing a pitch in the minors.

While he didn’t have the MLB career his college teammate Roger Clemens did, Greg Swindell’s career at Texas from 1984 to 1986 was one of the best in college baseball history. At Texas, he compiled a 43-8 record with an ERA of only 1.92 and put up the two best single-season strikeout totals in school history. Swindell is one of only six players in history to be a three-time First Team All-American by Baseball America. His successful 17-year Major League career ended in 2002.

The three Longhorns will be joined in the 2008 class by Jackie Robinson, Dick Howser, and Ben McDonald, among others. The inductees will be honored on July 4 as part of the College Baseball Foundation’s annual celebration of both the past and present of college baseball in Lubbock.

Read profiles of the three inductees from TexasSports.com after the jump.

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After acquriing him via trade last Saturday, the Cleveland Browns moved quickly to lock up former Longhorn [tag]Shaun Rogers[/tag] to a long-term contract. The Pro Bowl defensive tackle signed a six-year, $42 million deal today with the team. $20 million of the new contract is guaranteed money.

Despite playing at a high level, he hasn’t always played up to his elite skill level during his career. His motivation has been questioned due to his inconsistency and problems with his weight. The article mentions he’s listed at 340 pounds, but rumor a couple of weeks back was that he was closer to four bills than he was to 340. He’ll be playing in the 3-4 now so the weight won’t be as big of an issue, but he still needs to be in good enough shape to be in there for a majority of the snaps. Hopefully he can find motivation in this new opportunity and fresh start he’s getting in Cleveland, because he has the talent to dominate on every play.

Congrats to Shaun on the big money deal.

And just because it’s awesome, here’s his fleet-footed run and stiff arm (of Selvin Young) on a 66-yard interception return for a touchdown last season: