Fire the Coach!

Why do the Horns stink?
The kneejerks would say that Greg Davis' tiny brain is the culprit, but it's more systematic than that. All of the revenue sports' teams are lackluster. It is a combination of factors, but if you have to point to a single person, he is Rick Barnes.
After Luke Axtell got Tom Penders fired, Barnes came in and with his Mack Brown sweet southern drawl we were saved from those yankee college coaches, Penders and Mackovic. Barnes and Brown were able to recruit the top tier athletes that up until then were going to the pros in basketball and to non-academic football institutions like Oklahoma. They promised recruits that UT was the best avenue to the pros, and they delivered. There are now more Texas exes in the pros than ever before.
The problem is that winning teams became an afterthought, and things like quality backup QBs evaporated.
Allowing underclassmen in the NFL and forcing prep hoopsters to do time in the NCAA just exacerbated the problem. The teams that are senior loaded like Duke b-ball and Boise State football began to rise to the top and the Texas/Florida/Michigan pro mills are floundering.
Longhorns of old used to live to beat OU. It was all they talked about. Today's pitstop prima donnas focus primarily on video games and their per diem checks.
The straw that broke the camel's back was the introduction of general studies degrees. Now UT could compete for the dunces. Guys that in the past would be forced to go the juco route, or lower like OU, could now go straight to UT! This did nothing to help build winning teams, but it did help ding-a-lings like Sergio Kindle climb the stairs to the NFL.
Firing Rick Barnes, who couldn't coach his way out of game against the Washington Generals, would be a start, but things probably won't get better until the guy behind all the underachieving, past and present, retires -- DeLoss Dodds. Until then go to Shaggy Bevo to lift your spirits

DuPage South

Texas goalkeeper Alexa Gaul has been named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week. Gaul posted her third shutout of the season on Monday in the Longhorns’ 1-0 upset win over No. 10 BYU. Gaul grew up in Naperville, Ill.
Freshman forward Leah Fortune scored her third goal of the season in the BYU win. She is the Newcomer of the week and hails from Brazil, by way of West Chicago.
There was a time that Texas never recruited out of state.
Football still thrives without global recruiting, and after getting burned by Chris Simms may never again search beyond the borders. Other sports however have seen success recruiting elsewhere. Apparently, we have some appeal to the girls of DuPage County. No doubt the warm weather and familiar Republican politics make the Forty Acres irresistible to those residing along the mighty Duper.
I credit Tom Penders with these outreach efforts. An anemic basketball program was revitalized overnight primarily with imports. Today, the best hoops newcomers, Tristan Thompson and Shanice McKoy call Toronto home.
Look here, as Leah inbounds the ball all the way from Butterfield Road to Dedman Drive:

FROM THIS DAY FORTH.............

Ask Keith Moreland or Burt Hooten. The curse on the Cubs is powerful mojo. Baseball is the most superstitious game. Maybe it's because all the balls are made in the voodoo capital of the world. Whatever it is, most players know it is nothing to fool around with.
The legend says that a man and his pet goat were ejected from Wrigley field. In Texas we know that livestock is no big deal in stadium or a bar, or a church for that matter, but in Chitown, despite bleating protestations the goat still had to go. As he exited "Billy Goat" Sianis put a curse on the Cubs condemning them to never winning the World Series. 102 years later, from Mr. Cub to Steroid Slammin' Sammy and all the great players in between, still no Series rings.
Apparently, the portly proprietor of venerated UFCU Disch Falk field in Austin has decided to tempt fate. After nineteen seasons of occasional brief water and potty breaks during the course of my workday I am now forbidden to use this state facility.
Fine. We all endure the profound rudeness and arrogance of the UT baseball players, knowing that they're just juvenile country boys who might grow out of it. This is however, too much. It is unwarranted and reeks of the same assholiness that oozes from the preponderance of latent groupies that prowl "the Dish."
It may be hard to tell as the UT baseball has underachieved in recent years despite having the best white recruits in the nation at every position year in and year out.
A coworker, we'll call him DJ Pop Bottle, fearing the prospect of this curse told me that the rule has been in effect for two years. If this is true, it still doesn't make it OK. It only makes me wonder if someone else threw down the mojo in Augie's pre-DUI days some time after Huston Street brought his father's football mentality in '02 and Taylor Teagarden QB'd the overacheiving '05 team to win the LAST COLLEGE WORLD SERIES' THE LONGHORNS WILL EVER WIN.

Fast Ice

No one around here's seen Shanice McKoy play yet.
No one around here's ever seen another player like her either.
All the great Lady Longhorns of the past Harris, Davis, Hall etc. have all been frontcourt players. There's been an assortment of quality guards to feed these greats but never one like McKoy, who put up numbers in high school that would make past stellar Longhorn men like TJ and BJ jealous. The game clips in this video are dazzling. There is one shake and bake move where an outsized McKoy weaves through a forest of opponents seeming to move independently of the ball. Only Allen Iverson has a higher degree black belt in that kind of Kung Fu.

American xenocentrism, yardsticks and a near death experience have allowed McKoy a stealthy entrance onto the Forty Acres. Her unheraldedocity matches her reserved, businesslike facade. Quiet assassin, unflappable QB...time will tell what reputation Shanice McKoy will cultivate. If off court demeanor is any indication as to what we should expect it shouldn't be long before Coach G. lets this magic genie out of the bottle to silently slice and dice the Big (insert random number here) and the NCAA. Until then we'll have to settle for old Marcus Haynes videos.

Carrying the Teamwork

The Chicago Board of Trade is the center of the American Empire. If you go out the back door and west on Madison a ways, you'll arrive at the home of our favorite sports dynasty. A statue of some guy memorializes the Bulls threepeats.
If you go out the front door of the CBOT and travel west down Jackson Blvd. a ways, and then a little ways more, and then a little more you'll be at the home of a dynasty you may not know about.
Marillac Social Center at Francisco and Jackson houses a charter school and Project Hope which helps teenage girls navigate the perils of Chitown's west side. "Hope Jr." focuses on Jr. High age girls and provides tutoring, resources, and a space to play basketball.
The Lady Warriors' leader is Jalesa Haggard (pictured above right) who has coached the team the during the current run of three straight championships. She played at the beginning of the dynastic drive a few years back and brings the positive attitude she played with to the current cast of kids. She emphasizes teamwork and drills her charges until passing and team defense are second nature to quiet confident players like Alisa J. Hill.(left) Vinny D. might still be working if he took a few lessons from Coach Haggard.
The statistical leader of the squad which threepeated in '09 is Carrie "Steal Wheels" Randle. (center) Randle amassed 77 steals playing 8 games of the undefeated 2009 championship season. To put this in perspective, the entire Bulls team of 1997 together didn't even produce at that rate. This stifling defense from Hill, Randle and the other girls held opponents to single digits in 5 games and a shutout against the AGSAs. If we were talking baseball we would be talking perfect game. Randle and Hill will be moving on to High School and leave a big void for Miss Jalesa to fill, but with the possible addition of Kareemah Martin to the squad, who is reported to b e working on her sky hook this summer, they look to extend the dynasty well into the this next decade. Marillac Social Center probably needs some thing$. I'm not sure what that may be, but I do know one immediate need is a new trophy case, as the current one is overflowing.