Life is good. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Longhorns let the good times roll By Berry Tramel The Oklahoman NORMAN - Great news, Sooners and Cowboys. The University of Texas has no plans to add wrestling as an intercollegiate sport. At least there’s something left for us Oklahomans to win. The Longhorn basketball team hits Lloyd Noble Center tonight on a collision course with a 16-0 Big 12 record. Hope Rick Barnes’ boys don’t expect a parade. Nothing short of a national title is big burnt-orange news these days. Austin has become Titletown. The Longhorns are reigning champs in football and reigning champs in baseball. Now Barnes’ hoops squad shows signs of doing the same. North of the Red River, it’s the sum of all fears. Total domination by the Evil Empire. “I have always hated UT and so does the rest of the Big 12. I basically hate them because they rub it in your face when they beat you, and, well, they are good at everything.” That’s from a message board - an OSU message board. Common ground in the Bedlam Series: contempt for the Longhorns. Thank the Lord for Miss Courtney Paris and her Sooner women’s basketball teammates, who sent Texas’ traditional powerhouse home a big loser the other night. Almost three years ago, I wrote a column saying what a high time it must be for Longhorn fans. That was after Mack Brown managed UT’s first top-10 finish in almost 20 years, to go along with a baseball national title and a swell basketball squad. Now again the Longhorns rule baseball and play a mean game on the hardwood, plus Brown has scaled Mount Stoops and slain USC. It might get worse before it gets better. Texas also is defending NCAA champion in women’s track, and softball ace Cat Osterman is back for another strikeout marathon, and the ’Horns finished second nationally in women’s tennis, and the UT swim teams always are good, and well, the message board was right. Texas is just danged good in everything. Still, said DeLoss Dodds, “I don’t think it’s been this good before.” No kidding. Dodds is the UT athletic director and quite the unassuming fellow. Low key. Quiet. All cattle and no hat. Oklahoma legend Abe Lemons couldn’t stand Dodds, but every Texas fan from Dalhart to Brownsville should adore their CEO. Dodds is the AD who hired Brown, Barnes, baseball’s Augie Garrido and most every coach in the Longhorn corral. Dodds lists four reasons for the Texas uprising. 1. In the mid-1980s, UT started a foundation that now generates $20 million a year. 2. The Big 12 formed. “We were not recruiting Texas kids when we were in the Southwest Conference,” Dodds said. “They were going to UCLA and Florida State. We got into a new conference, gave us a new lease on life.” 3. New facilities, virtually across the board, including an $18 million renovation to Disch-Falk Field, UT’s baseball home. 4. Quality coaches, lured by reasons 1, 2 and 3. Can Texas win another NCAA title in basketball and sweep the three major men’s sports? “That would be a dream come true,” Dodds said. “Be almost impossible to think about.” Barnes coached Texas and T.J. Ford to the 2003 Final Four, where the ’Horns were felled by Carmelo Anthony, who that season burned the Big 12 the way Sherman burned Atlanta. This year, the ’Horns again are talented enough to reach the Final Four, and so far, no Carmelo seems to be hanging out on a college campus. “Some day, everything’s going to go right, we’re going to win one,” Dodds said. “Hang around at the top, and you’re going to win one. Oklahoma found that out (in football). We did, too.” And Dodds indeed confirmed that Texas has no plans to roll out a wrestling mat. “No, huh-uh,” he said. “You can tell Mike (Holder) and Joe (Castiglione), we’re not doing wrestling.” All of us north of the Red are grateful.
seems like they should probably beet out stanford this year. not sure though how scores are compiled for best college sport total program.
Yeah, you could tell that crowd was jacked up for the game, as they should've been. OU really needed a marquee win to push them towards a tourney berth, and that certainly helped them out. Plus, they shot the hell out of the ball last night. Those two bank-shot three pointers said it all- once the first one went it, I thought it might be their night. After the second one? Ha ha...all you can do is chuckle and say "see you in Austin on March 5th, maybe in Dallas for the Big 12 tourney, and who knows after that...." Hats off to them. They did play well, and really limited UT from the 3 pt line, which is where Gibson and Paulino have made a killing recently. They'll be a tough out come March IF they can keep getting some quality outside shooting like they did from Neal, as well as some inside production from Bookout and Gray. Wow, Bookout used to seem so formidable. He's still tough inside, but those surgeries have really taken him down a few notches imo.
This is my favorite part. Nice to see the feelings are mutual. (As if we all didn't know). I might add this to my sig.
