College Confidential

Four Texas FB players to miss spring drills

Texas trainer Kenny Boyd said today that four players will miss spring football drills because of in-season or recent surgeries: tight end Trey Graham (right knee) and offensive linemen Dominic Espinosa (right shoulder), Kyle Kriegel (left shoulder) and Luke Poehlmann (right knee). All four are expected to be cleared for summer workouts. In addition, two players sidelined by injuries in 2010 are expected to participate when spring drills open on Feb. 24: offensive guard Tray Allen (left foot), a South Grand Prairie graduate, and cornerback Eryon Barnett (left knee), a Euless Trinity graduate.

_ Jimmy Burch

TCU Men's Basketball Team Indefinitely Suspends Its Best Player

A season that began with promise of a winning record and perhaps even an NIT-push continues to slide down the same familiar path for the TCU men’s basketball team.
On Friday afternoon, TCU indefinitely suspended leading scorer Ronnie “Tuffy” Moss. It is highly doubtful the junior guard from Fort Worth will play for TCU again.
TCU issued a four-sentence press release stating that Moss has been suspended for a “failure to adhere to the standards of the program.”
“We have to have standards in the program to advance,” TCU head coach Jim Christian said Friday afternoon. “I want the kids who are in the program who do it the right way to be rewarded because they’re doing it the right way. I’m not going to change that.”
Christian called last season the hardest he’s ever had in coaching. He’s calling this season more difficult.
Moss did not make the trip with the team in its most recent game, at New Mexico on Jan. 26. According to multiple sources, this decision was the culmination of a pattern of behavior that had not changed.
Moss is now the second player to be effectively kicked off the team this month. On Jan. 11, Christian kicked junior-college transfer Sammy Yeager off the team for a violation of team rules.
But Moss’s departure is a devastating blow to Christian, who is in his third season trying to rebuild a bad basketball program.
Moss, who averaged a team-high 15.7 points per game, was TCU’s most talented player. Between Moss and Yeager, TCU has kicked about 25 points per game off its team.
But even with Moss, the team continued to struggle. The Frogs are 10-12, and 1-6 in the Mountain West Conference. They have lost four straight, and eight of their last nine games.
The Frogs host Air Force at 5 p.m. on Saturday at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

- Mac Engel
Follow me on Twitter
@MacEngelProf

Tickets for Jimmer are going fast

The Jimmer Fredette Show is coming to Fort Worth in February and the tickets are going fast. BYU and the nation’s leading scorer, Fredette, play the Horned Frogs at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum Feb. 19. There are fewer than 1,000 tickets left for the game. The DMC holds around 7,200. The largest crowd at a TCU men’s game was 7,267 when the Frogs faced No. 2 Kansas Dec. 1, 2003.
BYU (20-1, 6-0), which is ranked No. 9 in the AP Top 25, defeated No. 4 San Diego State Wednesday in a Mountain West Conference battle. Fredette scored 43 in the win and is averaging more than 27.4 points a game. TCU (10-12, 1-6) hosts Air Force at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for youths. Tickets can be purchased online at www.gofrogs.com.

TCU-BYU won't be Thanksgiving weekend

TCU and BYU, former rivals in the Mountain West Conference, are likely to meet for a nonconference game in 2011, but a source at TCU said the game, contrary to reports, will not be played Thanksgiving Day weekend at Cowboys Stadium.
TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte said the Horned Frogs are still finalizing their nonconference opponents for the 2011 season.
BYU, which will play as an independent after being a member of the MWC since 1999, has two open dates left on its fall schedule. TCU, which lost two home games when Texas Tech backed out of a game in September at Amon G. Carter Stadium, and when the MWC switched the Horned Frogs' game with Boise State from Fort Worth to Boise, Idaho, has been trying to fill its schedule with another marquee opponent.
Another high profile potential nonconference opponent for TCU (besides BYU), which moves to the Big East in 2012, is being negotiated currently for a potential neutral site stadium, not necessarily Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.
No games have been officially confirmed, but TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte said TCU's schedule will be released soon.
-- Stefan Stevenson

A&M's Byrne expresses concern about Texas' new TV network

Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne expressed concern today that plans to show high school sporting events on the University of Texas’ unnamed network that will partner with ESPN in September could be construed as a violation of NCAA rules.

“I can’t speak for the NCAA,” Byrne said. “But I would imagine the governing body will look into the use of a collegiate television network airing games of prospective student-athletes. I understand networks such as FSN and ESPN airing high school sports, but whether or not employees under contract with a university that may have additional contact would seem to be an issue.”

_ Jimmy Burch

MWC makes it official:TCU to play at Boise in '11

Mountain West chancellors and presidents agreed Tuesday afternoon that TCU will play at Boise State in 2011 after a two-day league meeting in Las Vegas. Boise State, which joins the MWC next season was expected to replace Utah on the league schedule, which was scheduled to play at TCU this year. Although that still may be the case, MWC leaders agreed to switch the game to Boise, Idaho, saying it was in the best interest of the conference. TCU, which joined the league in 2005, announced a move to the Big East in 2012 last November. The league also announced that Boise State will play at San Diego State instead of hosting the Aztecs as expected. --Stefan Stevenson

Hamilton national player of the week

 Texas sophomore wing Jordan Hamilton has been named the Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week for games ending last Sunday, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association announced Tuesday.

Also the Big 12 player of the week (teammate Tristan Thompson was the rookie of the week), Hamilton averaged 22.0 points and 8.5 rebounds as the Longhorns defeated Texas A&M and ended Kansas 69-game homecourt winning streak on Saturday. He led the Horns against A&M with 27 points and eight rebounds while hitting 10-of-14 field goals, including 3-of-7 from three-point range. Hamilton recorded 17 points, nine rebounds, two assists and two blocks during UT’s 74-63 win at No. 2 Kansas.

Through 19 games, Hamilton leads the team and ranks third in the Big 12 Conference in scoring (19.5 ppg) and ranks second on the team and seventh in the league in rebounding (7.2 rpg).--Mike Jones.

 

This marks the second season that the USBWA has selected a national player of the week. The weekly Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week is added to the Oscar Robertson Trophy watch list. Since the 1958-59 season, the USBWA has named a National Player of the Year. In 1998, the award was named in honor of the University of Cincinnati Hall of Famer and two-time USBWA Player of the Year Oscar Robertson. It is the nation’s oldest award and the only one named after a former player.

 

No. 7/8 Texas (16-3 overall, 4-0 Big 12) returns to the court when it travels to Stillwater, Okla., for a game on Wednesday, Jan. 26 against Oklahoma State. Tip is set for 6:30 p.m. Central, and the game will be televised nationally by ESPN.

 

#Aggies to #SEC? Don't Think This Rumor Will Die

UT's decision to hop in bed with ESPN probably isn't sitting too well for the good folks in College Station. Or Norman, for that matter.
Austin American Statesman columnist Kirk Bohls floated the idea that UT's monopoly of TV money could like be trigger for A&M to flirt with the SEC again.

http://www.statesman.com/sports/nine-things-and-one-crazy-prediction-1205259.html

The Big 12, sans Colorado and Nebraska, is a shaky proposition even before ESPN handed Bevo a giant check. This thing is ripe to be picked off. Who can blame A&M for leaving for the SEC with Oklahoma? Both flirted with the SEC before, and I fully expect both schools will again. All of this points to even bigger mega conferences - think Kansas to the Big East - and UT eventually going as an independent.
College athletics is behaving like giant corporations that pray to Wall Street. Companies that pray to Wall Street have learned you can only grow so much before there is no more room. But unlike Wal Mart, which can go global, the increase of college athletic revenue is finite because there are only two sports that generate real money.
They are looking for ways to create more revenue to pay some of their painfully stupid costs, such as the assistants who coach inside linebackers. What these ADs will eventually have to learn is to be more fiscally responsible and more conservative with their money rather than simply raise this price and that price, or join this super conference, in order to keep the status quo.

- Mac Engel
Follow Me on Twitter
@MacEngelProf 

Tomlinson to host Purple Reign party for charity

Former TCU running back LaDainian Tomlinson will host "Purple Reign" at Cool River Cafe in Las Colinas Feb. 2 to celebrate the Horned Frogs' undefeated season and Rose Bowl victory as well as establishing a new program of Tomlinson's Touching Lives Foundation. A portion of the event proceeds will benefit Tomlinson's foundation, specifically Project 21, which helps fight childhood obesity and it's impact on quality of education.
The event is scheduled from 6 p.m. to midnight. Hall of Famer Michael Irvin and TCU coach Gary Patterson are two of the special guests scheduled to attend, according to a press release.

Tickets are very limited. Presale tickets start at $200 per person. For more information and to purchase tickets go to www.LTGivesBack.com

 

Few seats left for Aggies, K-State

Texas A&M basketball coach Mark Turgeon's expressed hope Wednesday that the 81-60 loss at Texas would not dampen enthusiasm for Saturday's game with Kansas State was apparently heard.

A&M announced Friday afternoon that all reserved seats were gone and that a limited number of $15 general admission tickets were available at the Reed Arena box office or by calling (979) 845-2311 or 888-99-AGGIE.

Business hours end at  5 p.m.--Mike Jones.