It’s all Rick Barnes’ fault. Late-February. National Signing Day is over. Mack Brown’s proprietary Head Start Program has the coaching staff focused on the back half of the 2011 class. Baseball is still four months from Omaha (thankfully). Basketball? Too painful to even talk about. “Four out of 10” describes our free throw shooting and our winning percentage over a solid month. That No. 1 ranking sure was fun while it lasted. So what do Horns fans do for ...

Most coaches will ultimately be judged on the amount of wins and losses they procure during a lifetime of hardship and jubilation. Philadelphia University's Herb Magee could be recognized as the greatest men's college basketball coach because he's close to winning his record 903rd basketball game while only losing 352. The 67-year-old Magee won nearly 72 percent of the contests in which he stalked the sideline during the 43 years and counting that encompass ...

Sometimes fans get a little carried away with their enthusiasm at games. On Christmas just this past year, the Cleveland Cavaliers played the Los Angeles Lakers in a marquee NBA matchup. Down 20 points with a little over four minutes remaining, Lakers fans decided to let the refs (and to an extent, the Cavs) know how they felt. Suddenly, objects began to rain down on the court in a flurry of fan fury.  On ...

When the Texas Longhorns walked off the field after the National Championship game, questions started swirling right away about how the 'Horns would be deal with the losses of such stars as Colt McCoy, Jordan Shipley, and Sergio Kindle. To make matters worse, Coach Mack Brown found out that top safety Earl Thomas would be leaving early for the NFL Draft. However, as always, Texas still finds themselves as Big 12 contenders and even National ...

Once a landscape of harrowed tradition and occupational stability, the world of college football has recently transformed into a raging whirlwind of immediacy that has spurred a pursuit of the easy dollar. Driven by our society’s mantra of “What have you done for me lately,” college football fans are an impatient bunch that requires results — and quickly. And because the game is continually confirming its status as a business enterprise to be reckoned with, ...

For years the Atlantic-10 conference has been a respectable force in the college basketball world. Now, however, they are bringing the heat stronger than ever before. The conference usually puts in two or three teams on a good year, with Xavier the program making it famous. However, this year Xavier isn't the topdog. There are about five different teams playing for the top seed at Atlantic City (site of A-10 conference tournament), and right now there ...

The SEC is the best league in college football, and it has some of the most passionate fans ( see The Swamp, Vol Navy, Death Valley etc.). The last four BCS champs have come from the Southeast and next year's favorite Alabama is also out of the SEC. The SEC also produces great pro players like Peyton Manning, Percy Harvin, and Hines Ward. This is the new crop of SEC NFL stars, and they're getting ...

The NFL Draft has always been a welcome place for former Tennessee Vols football players. One need look no further than the Super Bowl less than a month ago to see the many Volunteer contributions to the next level. Peyton Manning is the greatest NFL player to have played at Tennessee. Many Vols fans are now Colts fans for that very reason. But the team that won that Super Bowl had three former Vols, including one, ...

For many of the smaller conferences, this is the final week of play before conference tournaments begin. This means a final push to secure a tournament berth or a valuable seeding position.    Let’s take a look at how some of the smaller conferences are shaking out as well as tournament dates and sites.    America East   The storyline in the America East comes down to Wednesday's matchup between league leading Stony Brook (12-2) and second place Vermont ...

It was just nine days ago that Jim Calhoun came back to the Connecticut program. And it was just nine days since he called his team an embarrassment. Well, UConn has heard him loud and clear, because in those nine days UConn has gone from a team barely on the bubble for the NCAA tournament, to a near lock.  With wins over No. 3 Villanova on the road and No. 7 West Virginia at home tonight, ...