For all those wondering whether there could be a rematch between LSU and Alabama in the national championship game, the newest BCS standings have spoken. The answer: Yes, with a few pieces falling the right way. But for this week, LSU and Oklahoma State are on a collision course to play for the BCS national championship game. The Tigers remained No. 1 after its 9-6 overtime win over the Crimson Tide on Saturday night, while the Cowboys moved up to No. 2 after its shootout win over Kansas State. Oklahoma State also has some tough games remaining, including this weekend against Texas Tech. The Cowboys also finish against No. 6 Oklahoma
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LSU leads BCS standings, Tide falls to No. 3
Filed under Football, News by on Nov 7th, 2011. Comment. 
Braeden Anderson, a top-50 power forward who wasn’t able to attend Kansas as a partial qualifier , will go to Fresno State instead and look to become eligible next season, according to the Lawrence Journal-World . “I did not want to commit to two years at a junior college,” said Anderson, who would have needed a juco degree to qualify for a two-year career at KU. “Fresno is a really good fit for me. I really like the coaches there. I’m a West Coast kid at heart. I have a ton of family in California — a lot of cousins.” Of course, he’s depressed that he’s unable to play at his first choice, KU. “My ultimate goal is the NBA. Before that, my ultimate goal was to make a high-major Div. I school. In my mind, I made it there,” Anderson said of attaining an offer from Kansas. “Kansas is where I wanted to go. I would have picked Kansas over any school in the country. I love all the people there. My heart will always be in Kansas. I’ll always have a really soft spot for Lawrence and the people there.” The addition of Anderson for Fresno State would be a big shot in the arm, as coach Rodney Terry is getting off to a good start with rebuilding the program. The former Texas assistant made his name recruiting out of Canada, and the Alberta native Anderson gives the Bulldogs the 2011 Mr. Canada Basketball award winner. Fresno State will have to raise its talent level, because this is its final season in the WAC before leaving for the Mountain West. Rather than help replace the Morris twins at Kansas, the 6-foot-9 Anderson will now head to a program that could make him the face of a new era.
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Kansas signee commits to Fresno State
Filed under Basketball, News by on Oct 24th, 2011. Comment.
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Boise State talked conference this week. Yup, Mountain West Conference. Sure, national headlines may have linked the Broncos to a new home in the Big East. Those were promptly ignored. What was emphasized? Making a statement in their first Mountain West game against Colorado State on Saturday. You could say No. 5 Boise State made a statement. Or you could say Boise State just kept on rolling and did not really have to say much of anything. The Broncos absolutely controlled the Rams from the start of the game, racking up a school-record 742 yards of offense, and getting career days from running back Doug Martin , receiver Tyler Shoemaker and another eye-popping performance from Kellen Moore in a 63-13 win . That marks back-to-back games in which the Broncos executed to near perfection, something that perhaps we have become spoiled watching with Moore in charge. Moore, ever understated, simply said, “Just felt like we were executing like the way it goes in practice. Hopefully that’s the type of stuff we have. If we execute the way we should, those things should be happening.” Moore started the game with 18 straight completions and finished 26-of-30 for 338 yards and four touchdown passes. His .867 completion percentage was the fourth-highest total in school history. But it gets better than that. It was the second time this season he completed more than 80 percent of his passes. He did it in the opener against Georgia, too. If anybody turns their nose at his numbers because of the subpar competition, they simply have not watched Moore play. Coach Chris Petersen said Moore is seeing things well right now, and that might be yet another understatement. When somebody has the experience Moore has, on top of the smarts Moore has, they are bound to succeed. But Moore takes that to another level with the ease in which he directs the offense. Four of his completions went for over 25 yards. His two touchdown passes to Shoemaker covered 52 yards and 62 yards, helping Shoemaker set his career mark with 180 total yards. Moore now has 120 career touchdowns, one away from tying BYU quarterback Ty Detmer for No. 4 on the NCAA list. He also needs one more win to tie the career wins record of 45, set by Colt McCoy at Texas from 2006-09. “I knew the whole week going in, the quarterback’s a good player,” Colorado State coach Steve Fairchild said. “He started out, what did he hit 18 in a row? When I played, I couldn’t have done that on air.” Meanwhile, the run game worked better than it has all season, as Martin got to 200 yards, the first time a Boise State player hit that mark since Ian Johnson had 205 against Nevada in 2007.
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Boise makes statement in first MWC game
Filed under Football by on Oct 16th, 2011. Comment.
TCU appears on the verge of ending its Big East affiliation before it began and going to the Big 12 instead , and it’s safe to say its struggling basketball program wasn’t much of a factor in that decision-making process. But while the news has Louisville’s Rick Pitino disappointed and Kansas State’s Frank Martin loving it , perhaps TCU should be reminded that realignment decisions have real consequences for its basketball players, too. Consider that it was only April when the school announced the signing of Ryan Rhoomes, a 6-foot-9 forward from Middleton, N.Y., who made his decision to come to TCU in part because the school was joining the Big East. “Since he is from New York, our move to the Big East Conference really helped to create an attractive opportunity for Ryan,” coach Jim Christian said then in a statement. Said Rhoomes: “I picked TCU because I saw an opportunity to come in, play early and help the program. I also wanted to play in the Big East, and I thought it would be good to play in the Mountain West for one season as a freshman, get with the program and go from there.” Rhoomes is currently dealing with eligibility issues and not listed on the team’s roster, but it should be noted that only six months after signing up to play for what he believed to be a future Big East School, TCU might soon be breaking that promise. Of course, Christian is not the one at fault here. He doesn’t control realignment scenarios no more than even a more powerful name like Pitino does. But now Christian will have to explain to recruits a new direction for the school and what it means for them. If TCU chose to go to the Big 12, it would be a decision made with the best interest of it’s Rose Bowl-winning football program in mind. And even though basketball isn’t at the forefront of those discussions, administrators should know that a potential change of heart also changes things for recruits and players who might have signed up for something different.
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Another side to TCU’s potential Big 12 move
Filed under Basketball, Football, News by on Oct 6th, 2011. Comment.
We just got done dissecting Missouri’s decision to officially pursue its conference expansion options . The move could put the Big 12 in jeopardy, or at least force it to be more aggressive in its own expansion efforts. Its greatest effect could be on teams like Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor, Iowa State and the like — schools that desperately need that revenue-sharing agreement to hold up, desperately need Texas and Oklahoma to stay put, desperately need to keep the Big 12 together to avoid scrambling for a spot at a less-sensible table. Needless to say, Missouri’s move did not make Kansas coach Bill Self happy. Late Tuesday night, Self told the Lawrence Journal-World that if Missouri goes through with a move to the SEC , he would probably decline to schedule Missouri in a non-conference game each season. That move would effectively kill the Border War (or Border Showdown, if you prefer an anesthetized and politically correct terminology) rivalry — one of the and mostly deep historic and heated rivalries in college hoops. To wit: “To me it’s a great rivalry, one of the best in college basketball without question, but I don’t think I would be interested in having a once a year game like I did when I was at Illinois, playing Missouri,” Self told the Journal-World on Tuesday night. “If they choose to be somewhere other than with us and with the other schools that they’ve been a part of and could jeopardize the future of the other schools … I’m not going to make a commitment now that we’d ever play again. I’m not saying we won’t. I’m certainly not going to pretend that we would.” The Journal-World suggested to Self that fans, and therefore the media, would clamor for a continuation of the classic series. His answer? I don’t care: “I’m not saying it would be bad or won’t be bad (playing once on neutral court). I will say this … the media is not going to dictate who we play. I’ll dictate who we play as long as I’m coaching here,” Self said. “I have no ill will toward Missouri at all, but to do something at a time that could be so damaging and hurtful to a group, I can’t see us just taking it and forgetting.” It’s hard to disagree. Missouri’s self-interested move, whatever the reasons and motivations behind it — and you can argue those motivations are understandable even if you think Mizzou is biting off a bit more than it can chew — puts Kansas, perhaps more than any other school, in jeopardy. The Jayhawks don’t have many outs. They’re a basketball-first school that has failed to attract any expansion interest from the Big Ten or SEC; for a while there, we were wondering whether Kansas would have to join the Mountain West. Why would Self not want to punish Missouri for indirectly putting his program in that position? Why wouldn’t he prefer to see Missouri hoops languish in the SEC? At the very least, he’s not going to say everything will be hunky-dory — oh, go ahead, Missouri, best of luck, and see you at the Border Showdown in 2012! No, Self is making clear that there are sacrifices to leaving your league. One of them is traditional regional rivalries. If Missouri is OK with that, then that’s its prerogative. But if the Tigers prefer the SEC to the Big 12 for financial reasons , they shouldn’t be shocked when their old mates decide they’d rather not speak anymore. That’s just part of the bargain. And this is why we complain about conference realignment. Since 1907, Missouri and Kansas have engaged in an uninterrupted rivalry. The matchup has been a reflection of long-standing regional animosity, the kind that inspires small towns to write letters — in 2011, mind you — complaining about the “offensive” use of the term “Jayhawk.” I mean, it is (was) called the Border War . You don’t have to be a Kansas or Missouri fan to appreciate this kind of rivalry. Then conference realignment comes along, and Missouri decides its centuries-old rivalries with hated neighbor schools aren’t worth as much as an invitation to a league with which it has no historic, geographic or competitive relationship. Why
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Bill Self: Border War may be dead
Filed under Basketball, News by on Oct 5th, 2011. Comment.
The Longhorns are currently ranked No. 1 in the South Regional rankings and Texas Tech is ranked No. 4 in the Mountain Regional rankings. The… Source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times
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Isles men’s and women’s cross country finish in top four
Filed under News by on Oct 1st, 2011. Comment.
Earlier this month, when Big 12 athletic directors were pursuing a possible 10th member to replace Texas A&M, they reached out to Brigham Young University. But will the Cougars listen again if the phone rings? Would they dismiss being an independent in football and eradicate their West Coast Conference affiliation before spending a full year in the league? BYU isn’t saying boo publicly, only issuing this general statement: “There is much speculation right now regarding conference affiliation that seems to change by the hour,’’ associate athletic director Duff Tittle said. “Commenting on such conjecture is not productive and creates a distraction for our program. As we enter the 2011-12 athletic season, BYU is focused on the opportunities ahead. We are excited about our relationship with ESPN as a football independent and our affiliation with the West Coast Conference.’’ The university would not comment further and athletic director Tom Holmoe isn’t making any public comments either. That’s fine. It’s not his decision. Any move by BYU will be made by the school president in conjunction with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The university is adamant that it wants its own network to be successful on a national and global stage. BYUtv has an agreement with the WCC and ESPN that works to its advantage by getting games on television that weren’t available under the previous contract with the Mountain West and Comcast. Not having to share those rights on BYUtv, which is not a tier 1 or tier 2 issue, may sound familiar to Big 12 schools after squawking over the Longhorn Network, a joint venture between Texas and ESPN. BYUtv probably wouldn’t be an issue for Big 12 membership, but the question is do both parties want each other? That’s still undetermined. The Cougars may want to sit and wait to see if the Big 12 really does stick together for the foreseeable future. The conflicting reports out of Oklahoma and Missouri on Thursday night make it seem as if there are two differing opinions about the unity of the conference. Oklahoma made it seem as if there was an agreement in place for the schools over the next six years, while Missouri’s news conference indicated there were talks but that nothing was set in stone. In fact, MU’s chancellor did not rule out his school moving to another league. BYU’s hierarchy does like being with like-minded, faith-based universities in the WCC that can understand its mission. The Cougars do seek stability and their new conference does offer it up. But if the Cougars did want to leave, they wouldn’t get held up by the WCC. The league fully understands that BYU may want to join a major football conference, but the WCC isn’t fretting an imminent departure. The conference is pumping up BYU’s admission with higher-profile members Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s and moved its tournament semifinals away from Sunday for the Cougars. Bottom line: BYU will take its time surveying the scene. Could the Cougars leave independence and the WCC? Of course. But, as you can see from the interview with commissioner Jamie Zaninovich at the top of this post, no one seems to be overly worried in the WCC offices in San Bruno, Calif.
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WCC keeps fingers crossed with BYU
Filed under Basketball, Football, News by on Sep 23rd, 2011. Comment.
The new-look Pac-12 has decided not to expand again for the time being, as it already appears to be positioned for long-term success based upon the maneuverings of Larry Scott. But the commissioner doesn’t diagram plays or make jump shots. For the Pac-12 to regain the stature it once had as a basketball conference, programs will have to pull themselves up by the bootstraps. Traditional powers Arizona and UCLA have done so on the recruiting trail lately , Washington has been consistently good in recent years, and the rest are looking to establish themselves. Will an offseason defined by change lead to a more dangerous Pac-12? Here’s a quick peek … Two newbies : The Pac-12 no longer has its teams playing in the true round-robin format due to the arrival of Colorado and Utah. The Buffaloes are coming off a year in which they won a school-record 24 games, and the Utes bring with them a championship history. For the coming season, though, it’s unclear how either team will do because they’re both in transition. Colorado loses its top four scorers, including Alec Burks to the NBA draft lottery after the bouncy guard’s sophomore season. The Buffaloes and second-year coach Tad Boyle do add three transfers, including former Utah leading scorer Carlon Brown.
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An offseason roundup of the Pac-12
Filed under Basketball by on Sep 21st, 2011. Comment.
The Pac-12 blog is worried about Utah. Now that Utah is in the Pac-12, a member of the privileged class, is it going to forget how to properly dislike BYU? Is it going to eyeball the Cougars on Saturday and think, “You know, blue really brings out their eyes!” This thought vexes the Pac-12 blog, which feeds on the often irrational passion of college football. So, Utah, we’ve brought back a friend to remind you how you should feel about BYU because this is how BYU feels about you. “I don’t like Utah,” former BYU quarterback Max Hall said after the Cougars beat the Utes in 2009. “In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their program, I hate their fans, I hate everything … I think the whole university, their fans and their organization, is classless. They threw beer on my family and stuff last year, and they did a whole bunch of nasty things, and I don’t respect them, and they deserve to lose.” Utes, the Cougars are going to be gunning for you hard Saturday. There’s the natural state rivalry, sure, but there’s a third, highly-motivating color involved other than red and blue: green. Green as in the money Utah is soon going to be making in the Pac-12. And green as in the green-eyed monster of jealousy: BYU isn’t happy the Utes jumped to the Pac-12 and it wasn’t invited. And, by the way, BYU is pretty darn good, having won at Ole Miss and falling just short at Texas. Ten starters are back on offense, including quarterback Jake Heaps , from a team that went 7-6 in 2010. Further, this game has been highly competitive in recent years. Five of the past six have been decided by a touchdown or less. Two of those went into overtime. Last year, Utah rallied from a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit to win 17-16. The game was decided when the Utes blocked a 42-yard field goal attempt as time expired. Utes linebacker Chaz Walker didn’t seem too concerned that BYU and Utah fans and players will start palling around. When asked if the so-called “Holy War” was a bitter or friendly rivalry, he spoke carefully but without much ambiguity. “Probably a little bit on the dislike side,” he said. “There’s not many BYU players you see hanging out with Utah players.” The feel of the game will be different, though. For one, it no longer counts in the conference standings. In previous seasons, the matchup often had significant Mountain West Conference ramifications. Further, instead of the chill of a season-finale in late November, this one will feature the pleasant weather of mid-September. For Utah, it also brings the grind of the new Pac-12 schedule front-and-center. The Utes must regroup and refocus after a tough, physical loss at USC. It’s likely the bye week that follows will feel pretty good. Perhaps the Pac-12 blog shouldn’t worry. After talking to a few folks on the Utah end of things, it seems clear BYU has the Utes’ attention. And always will when they go nose-to-nose. Said coach Kyle Whittingham, “It’s the biggest single sporting event in the course of a year. It’s the biggest thing that happens in this state.”
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‘Holy War’ is going to feel different
Filed under Football by on Sep 14th, 2011. Comment.
The Pac-12 blog is worried about Utah. Now that Utah is in the Pac-12, a member of the privileged class, is it going to forget how to properly dislike BYU? Is it going to eyeball the Cougars on Saturday and think, “You know, blue really brings out their eyes!” This thought vexes the Pac-12 blog, which feeds on the often irrational passion of college football. So, Utah, we’ve brought back a friend to remind you how you should feel about BYU because this is how BYU feels about you. “I don’t like Utah,” former BYU quarterback Max Hall said after the Cougars beat the Utes in 2009. “In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their program, I hate their fans, I hate everything … I think the whole university, their fans and their organization, is classless. They threw beer on my family and stuff last year, and they did a whole bunch of nasty things, and I don’t respect them, and they deserve to lose.” Utes, the Cougars are going to be gunning for you hard Saturday. There’s the natural state rivalry, sure, but there’s a third, highly-motivating color involved other than red and blue: green. Green as in the money Utah is soon going to be making in the Pac-12. And green as in the green-eyed monster of jealousy: BYU isn’t happy the Utes jumped to the Pac-12 and it wasn’t invited. And, by the way, BYU is pretty darn good, having won at Ole Miss and falling just short at Texas. Ten starters are back on offense, including quarterback Jake Heaps , from a team that went 7-6 in 2010. Further, this game has been highly competitive in recent years. Five of the past six have been decided by a touchdown or less. Two of those went into overtime. Last year, Utah rallied from a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit to win 17-16. The game was decided when the Utes blocked a 42-yard field goal attempt as time expired. Utes linebacker Chaz Walker didn’t seem too concerned that BYU and Utah fans and players will start palling around. When asked if the so-called “Holy War” was a bitter or friendly rivalry, he spoke carefully but without much ambiguity. “Probably a little bit on the dislike side,” he said. “There’s not many BYU players you see hanging out with Utah players.” The feel of the game will be different, though. For one, it no longer counts in the conference standings. In previous seasons, the matchup often had significant Mountain West Conference ramifications. Further, instead of the chill of a season-finale in late November, this one will feature the pleasant weather of mid-September. For Utah, it also brings the grind of the new Pac-12 schedule front-and-center. The Utes must regroup and refocus after a tough, physical loss at USC. It’s likely the bye week that follows will feel pretty good. Perhaps the Pac-12 blog shouldn’t worry. After talking to a few folks on the Utah end of things, it seems clear BYU has the Utes’ attention. And always will when they go nose-to-nose. Said coach Kyle Whittingham, “It’s the biggest single sporting event in the course of a year. It’s the biggest thing that happens in this state.”
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‘Holy War’ is going to feel different
Filed under Football by on Sep 14th, 2011. Comment.
