Huge Win for Longhorns

Folks, let me please say it one more time: If you halfway enjoy college basketball (or any basketball) and you haven't watched Kevin Durant play yet, you're missing out on something spectacular. I cannot conjure up any possibility that he will stick around after this year - he shouldn't!

Coming off of a stretch of some pretty mediocre games (2 losses followed up by 2 close games against sub-par opponents), I was a bit worried about this team heading into Lubbock against these Red Raiders - a team that knocked off Kansas and Texas A&M during their last 2 home games.

What a game it was!! It's a good thing that Texas was playing pretty well offensively in the first half because Tech was hitting every 3 they threw up there. Thank goodness they cooled off in the second half...WAY off.

DJ Augustin was a little sporadic in the first half - it looked like he was trying too hard to do stuff on his own, but in the second half he really pulled it all together and finished the game with 14 points and 11 assists - VERY solid game for a point guard.

But what can you say about Kevin Durant - I mean WOW!! 37 points and 23 rebounds on the road against a very solid Tech team. That's amazing. He's averaging over 30 points a game in conference which is pretty unbelievable at the college level. These guys won't get as much pub as the North Carolina's and Ohio State's of the world, but I think you would be hard pressed to find a better player in college ball right now.

Now those that know me well know that I can't talk about a Texas performance without pointing out some of the lesser moments - I guess I've got a little bit of Jay Mariotti in me like that. First and foremost, the defensive rebounding was horrendous. In looking at the box score I was SHOCKED to see that Texas actually out rebounded the Red Raiders. I don't know how that happened, but Tech did pick up 15 offensive boards (as compared to Texas' 10). Barnes was great in pulling them out of the zone at halftime to get more pressure on those guys - and it worked. Durant himself outscored Tech in the second half.

Also, Texas only got to the charity stripe 10 times - where they shot an abysmal 40%. That's uncharacteristic of this team on both fronts (attempts and %).

Great game, great win for this Longhorn team that gets Kansas State (now with Bob Huggins at the helm) at home on Saturday followed by a wicked road trip to Aggieland (or as I like to call it, the fifth ring of hell) on Monday night. If you get a chance this weekend, go check out the Kstate game, I'm sure there are tickets available.

Super Bowl Preview
Well, let's see. We've been hearing/talking about this all week...and last week! Here's my take on the game in a nutshell.

1. Grossman vs. Manning - this is a no brainer. Edge goes to the Colts.

2. Bears' Offense vs. Colts' Defense - For Indy, it all comes down to stopping the run. I think Freeney will be in Grossman's grill most times he drops back, but they've got stop that two-headed monster that is Jones/Benson and they've been suspect at that this year. Yes, they've turned on their run defense in the playoffs, but can they maintain it???

3. Bears' Defense vs. Colts' Offense - This is the million dollar question here. Seattle was able to run up and down on the Bears, but for some reason, the Saints weren't interested in taking advantage of that. I don't think Joeseph Adai is going to carry the Colts to victory, but he can certainly help keep the defense honest. Dallas Clarke vs. Urlacher in the passing game will be very interesting. I think the edge goes to the Colts, but only slightly. No doubt the Bears' D is fantastic, but between Manning, Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne, that's a tough trio to contain. The Bears' cornerbacks are very good, but their safeties are a bit more suspect - look for the long plays to come across the middle of the field.

4. Special Teams - This is where Chicago has a pretty big edge with Devon Hester. BUT, I'll take Adam V. any day of the week in terms of kickers. I hear all the Bears fans saying, "he has to miss sometime." Yep, he sure does, but if you're banking on that, you're not real confident. I don't think it comes down to Vinnateri this year. Memo to the Colts' punter - KICK IT OUT OF BOUNDS!!!!

5. Coaching - This is a bit of a tossup, but I'm giving a slight edge to Dungy simply given his experience and the core group of guys he's been with. Nothing against Lovie because you have to be a pretty damn good coach to have a QB that bad and still go 14-2 in the regular season.

Colts 31
Bears 20

Football Withdrawl

First weekend with no real football to speak of - man I was almost freaking out!!!

Here's a million dollar question for you - who would you rather be, President W having to give that State of the Union last week or Jack Bauer's brother at the end of last week's episode? It's a toss up.

Here are some of my observations and thoughts from last week's sports world:
- I watched the Suns/Cavs game on Sunday and man, Phoenix is sooo good...and fun to watch I might add. I was pretty high on San Antonio at the beginning of the season (who happened to luck one out against my lakers yesterday), but I honestly don't think the Spurs have a chance against the Mavs or Suns come May and playoff time. The Suns and Mavs have too much depth and they are younger which will help with longevity.

- And speaking of my Lakers, they get Lamar Odom back and drop 2 straight (one of those to the Charlotte Hornets for crying out loud). Although this team is much improved and (seemingly at times) getting better, they're just not quite there yet. I do think that come playoff time they will be secure in the 5th position (they are currently in the 5 spot). That doesn't mean I'm picking them to run all the way through, but that would be an improvement from last year. I also predict that the crazy seeding process will bite someone in the ass this year - it may be those Lakers as they hover between the 4 and 6 spots.

- It's a long way off and they just dropped a heartbreaker to Stanford last night, but my early pick for college basketball's national champions is the UCLA Bruins. This is a veteran team that is so complete - and they play defense which is a general cardinal sin in the Pac 10.

- After dropping 2 straight, the longhorns managed to squeak out a couple of wins last week - against the powerhouses of Nebraska and Baylor. The good news AND bad news (I guess) is that they were losing both games and managed to get the wins - learning to win tight games is a good thing. Unfortunately, those 2 teams made up, what will most likely be, the 2 softest opponents they will face for the remainder of the year. A win is a win, but the competition is about to get VERY good very quick. Given that this team plays A LOT of freshman, I think we may be seeing a midseason "wall" that these guys are hitting. Barnes is usually very good about getting his guys to play through this kind of stuff - we'll see...

- By the way, the Big 12 is very solid this year (unlike in football). Tech is coming up and making some big-time noise after knocking off Kansas and the Aggies (nevermind the Mizzou game). We'll see if they can keep that going, but those wins are GREAT for that team...and for our conference.

- You gotta love how unselfish of a player Kevin Durant is. BUT, as good as he is, he really NEEDS to demand the ball more - that's what elite players do. He didn't touch the ball in the last 4 minutes of the Nebraska game. As good as he is, Texas needs him to score 26+ a game. We saw him single-handily take over the Okie State game (and no, I don't care if you don't like me saying Okie State) and the Baylor game. No, it wasn't a misprint, he had 26 points in the second half of the Baylor game.

- Unfortunately, Barbaro lost a long battle this week and was euthanized. That's never cool, but you gotta like how much everyone did to save that horse. Pretty cool story, unfortunately one with a bad ending.

- Unless you work for SI and get free tickets to shit like this you probably didn't notice that the NHL all star game was last week - in fact, I doubt anyone living south of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin knew it. Quick, someone tell me which team has the best record in each conference. And since I'm talking about hockey I will take this chance to remind everyone how mindless and stupid the points system is in the game - but not quite as mindless and stupid as the 6 hockey fans I know who try and tell me why it's a good system. You have wins and you have losses, why in the world would you put some asinine point system on top of that???

- Here's the next popular bet to place - what will be the next event that Tiger Woods enters and LOSES??!! Was there anyone who thought for a second that Tiger was going to lose that match yesterday?

- And finally, my non-sports take for the weekend: Finally got to see Little Miss Sunshine yesterday - great movie. The grandfather and the horn on their beetle van had me rolling laughing.

What To Watch This Week
Monday - 24. I mean, c'mon.

Wednesday - Texas at Texas Tech. Tech is playing pretty hot of late and Texas REALLY needs a big road win like this. The Horns follow up this game with Kstate at home and then a trip to Aggieland next Monday.

Thursday - Oregon at UCLA. Look for the Bruins to hammer the Ducks here. This one may not be televised so suck it up and go to a bar to catch it. It's a late one (9:30pm tip), but just pretend you're back in college and doing your usual Thursday night stint.

Sunday - The last football game you'll watch for a long LONG time. And no, I'm not counting Arena or European league games.