Video: Galloway & Big Mac debate Josh Hamilton's thoughts

 

 

Twitter @MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel

Mack Brown's message to Rick Barnes - don't lose to TCU

This is not what we had in mind when TCU joined the Big 12 - Bad vs. Really Bad.

On Tuesday night at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, the TCU men's basketball team hosts the University of Texas in a game that still must be played. Texas is in eighth in the Big 12. TCU is 12th in a 10-team league. 

TCU has lost three straight since upsetting No. 5 Kansas 62-55 on Feb. 6.

When TCU upset the Longhorns football team on Thanksgiving, all of UT nation felt shame. That point may have been the single most uncomfortable moment for Horns' coach Mack Brown. 

It's one thing to be embarrassed (again) by Oklahoma in the Red River game in Dallas. It's quite another to lose at home against a squad of TCU freshmen, and a quarterback who was almost a running back.

Even though UT's football team was down, losing to that TCU team in Austin was a smack in the face.

Much like Mack Brown, UT men's basketball coach Rick Barnes is having his worst season in Austin since he arrived in 1998. The team can't score, there isn't enough talent, and the return of point guard Myck Kabongo from NCAA suspension is too late.

Barnes has two things going for him:

1.) His boss - DeLoss Dodds - now is an advocate of losing so the fan base can appreciate success again. Talk about a great job. Not only are you at Texas but you have the green light to lose.

2.) Barnes coaches a sport that is not football. That really helps.

The Horns have six games remaining before the Big 12 tournament. Unless they win the conference tournament (they won't) the Horns are going to miss the NCAA tourney for the first time in the Barnes era. They can still post a winning record, and likely will be invited to one of those low tier tournaments that only gamblers watch.

There are soft whispers that perhaps Dodds should violate his own rules and fire a coach who is losing. UT would be dumb to fire a man who has done so much to build that program, but if Barnes wants to make sure his detractors remain at the fringe he would be wise not to lose to TCU.

 

Twitter @MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel

What will Texas do with Major Applewhite? Nothing

Don't see The Longhorn Network following this story too closely ... For the time being, University of Texas defensive coordinator Manny Diaz is not the program's assistant coach feeling the most uncomfortable.

That would be former UT quarterback and current co-offensive coordinator Major Applewhite.

On Friday night (odd timing), UT director of athletics DeLoss Dodds released the following statement:

“Major Applewhite engaged in inappropriate, consensual behavior with an adult student one time during the 2009 Fiesta Bowl activities. After learning of his behavior later that month, I took immediate action to review the situation. We promptly initiated an inquiry with assistance from the university’s Legal Affairs office and other units outside of Athletics. Major admitted his inappropriate conduct and he was disciplined. In determining appropriate discipline, we analyze the facts and circumstances surrounding the behavior and its relation to job responsibilities. Major fully accepted his discipline, including counseling. We have high standards for behavior and expect our staff and coaches to adhere to them in all aspects of their lives. I believe that the appropriate discipline was taken in this case.”

In turn, Applewhite also issued his own statement: 

"Several years ago, I made a regretful decision resulting in behavior that was totally inappropriate. It was a one-time occurrence and was a personal matter. Shortly after it occurred, I discussed the situation with DeLoss Dodds. I was upfront and took full responsibility for my actions. This is and was resolved four years ago with the University. Through counsel I have worked with my wife and the incident is behind us. I am regretful for my mistake and humbled by this. I am deeply sorry for the embarrassment it has caused my friends, family, and the University. I appreciate all of them. I’ve learned and grown from this and look forward to my work at Texas."

What makes this so odd is that this news comes out about four years after Dodds addressed Applewhite, when he was the team's running backs coach. The issue was already privately handled. If he was going to be fired, he would already would have been fired.

This is not a situation like Bobby Petrino. There was no one on the payroll. Applewhite's relationship was not with a player, which ... wow ... that would be awkward. 

So why publicly address it now? 

@MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel

Texas would be stupid to fire Rick Barnes

Not that anybody in Austin cares, but the University of Texas men's basketball team sucks. Maybe Jody Conradt can coach 'em up, because Rick Barnes can't do much worse. 

The Longhorns got their butt whupped at No. 18 Kansas State on Wednesday night, 83-57. The Horns are now a healthy 9-11, 1-6 in the Big 12, and yet are still good enough to kick the blank out of TCU when the teams play on Feb. 2 in Austin.

The Horns are flying high to their first losing season under Barnes since he arrived in Austin in 1998. The only way this season is salvaged is if Kevin Durant returns to lead the Horns to a Big 12 conference tournament title and they reach the NCAA tournament for a 15th consecutive season.

The suspension of Myck Kabongo for taking impermissible benefits hasn't helped, but even had he played this team is still lacking.

The only thing saving Barnes right now is that college football signing day is Feb. 6, and that day is usually when football coach Mack Brown wins another championship. Also saving Barnes' butt is that he coaches a sport that the great people in the great state a Texas routinely marginalize.

Perhaps the only thing that will put Barnes in Bevo flop is if UT manages to lose to an awful TCU team either on Feb. 2 or in Fort Worth on Feb. 19.

Even then, however, any talk that Barnes should seriously be fired is inane. The man has done more to legitimize that program than any coach in the history of Texas basketball. The only time his teams at UT failed to win 20 games was his first season when they won 19, yet still reached the NCAA tournament.

Since he arrived, Texas has been the second-best team in the Big 12 to Kansas, which is one of the top five programs in the nation. 

Barnes can recruit, and despite what his critics say, he can coach. You don't reach a Final Four and 14 consecutive NCAA tourneys because you don't know what you are doing.

This will be Texas' first losing season it finished 14-17 in 1997-'98, the last year under Tom Penders.

Barnes' teams have generally played hard, been clean, and usually win. This season has not been the norm.

The man has earned the right to have a bad year.

 

@MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel

I'm a sucker for the other Texas Rangers lefty

The U.S.S. Sucker is a lonely place, especially when it comes to the belief in a certain left handed Texas Rangers starting pitcher.

No, not Matt Harrison, whom the Rangers have given a long-term, $55 million deal. Good for him, and the club. He is a solid, innings eater and a reliable lefty.

As much as we should like Harrison the lefty on this staff whom I remain most intrigued by, and still believe in despite growing evidence he's never going to establish himself as a consistent winner, is Derek Holland.

It is the fact that he is left handed, only 26, and when he is right his delivery reminds me of a Tom Glavine - effortless, and without too much stress. He says he models himself after Andy Pettite.

Holland was a disappointing 12-7 with a 4.67 ERA in 29 games last season for the Rangers, including 27 starts. What is hard to determine is which pitcher he is.

"I agree with you," Holland told me last month in an interview. "My big thing is last year was a let down. I think I tried to do way too much all that once. I got sick and I lost all of that weight and I got hurt. ... When I came back after I got hurt I put so much pressure on myself and to try to fix everything at once. That hurt me more than anything. I did not handle it the way that I should have." 

In 2011, Holland finished 16-5 with a 3.95 ERA in 198 innings that included four shutouts. In Game 4 of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, he allowed two hits and no runs in 8 1/3 innings that the Rangers won, 4-0 to even the series at two games.

(let's not talk about Game 6 or 7).

Last season, all of that progress and promise ceased. He was not the same pitcher and the Rangers never knew which guy they were going to see. When he is right he can counted on to throw a lot of innings, locate the ball at the knees, and induce a high number of ground balls. When he is wrong, he walks too many guys and leaves too many hittable pitches in the middle of the plate.

We may get an idea of who is in 2013 as he is expected to play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic thingy.

In this offseason, he said he has reached out to team president Nolan Ryan, pitching coach Mike Maddux, GM Jon Daniels in an effort to find out as much information as possible to improve. They are all saying the same thing.

"It's location. When I'm on, I'm never in the middle. When I'm off, I'm missing in the middle," Holland said. "That is what I'm trying to fix so when I'm not on that I work my way out. ... Last year was a big let down. I know everybody has them. This year is going to be a big year. I'm going to be that guy that everybody is counting on."

The reliable lefty on the Rangers right now is Matt Harrison.

I'm still betting that Holland can be the best left hander on this staff.

@MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel

TCU loses major player to NFL draft, who should have stayed

On Sunday afternoon TCU head coach Gary Patterson was not sure if he was going to lose defensive end Stansly Maponga to the NFL draft, but he sounded like the announcement was coming.

On Monday afternoon, the announcement came. According to multiple reports, Maponga will skip his senior year to enter the draft.

GP told me all of the NFL scouts he has talked to said Maponga should stay in school for his senior year. There are nearly 20 quality defensive ends who are going to be available in this draft, and unless Maponga has a fantastic individual workout at TCU Pro Day, and/or NFL Combine, we are not talking about a first or second round pick.

If you are not a first or a second round pick, the guaranteed money drops fast.

Maponga is listed as 6-foot-2, 265 pounds. That's a little on the light side for a defensive end. He may be moved to outside linebacker, but he has never played in coverage.

It's a huge loss for TCU. Had he returned the Horned Frogs would have had Devonte Fields and Maponga as bookend rushers, easily the best pair in the Big 12.

This smells like another kid who simply does not want to go to school, which is his right.

 

@MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel

Alabama at Texas A&M on Sept. 14 & other games we want to see

The 2012 college football season is over and the amateur Alabama Crimson Tide are yet again national champions with a win so boring over "No. 1" Notre Dame that most of us turned it off by the third quarter.

Cut to it - here are a a few of the area related games we can't wait to see in 2013: 

8/31 - TCU v. LSU, Cowboys Stadium. Whether this game is close depends if Casey Pachall is TCU's starting QB, and he has some line protection. If he's good, and TCU somehow wins, his draft stock should take off.

9/14 - Alabama at Texas A&M. Aggies handed Tide only loss in '12. The Aggies will be 2-0 and hosting the No. 1 Tide in what will be the biggest game in College Station in ... decades? This could be a No. 1 vs. No. 3.

9/28 - Oklahoma at Notre Dame. The Sooners lost at home against the Irish in '12 and with so much of ND returning another loss is likely for Stoops.

10/12 - Oklahoma v. Texas. This one Mack Brown can't afford to lose.

10/26 - Texas at TCU. Frogs won in Austin last year and Fort Worth will be primed for UT's first visit since the SWC days.

11/23 - Texas A&M at LSU. The Tigers play Alabama on Nov. 9 then have a bye before hosting the Aggies.

 

@MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel

Texas Tech at TCU tops best games of 2012 in FW/d

The one thing we can never get enough of is lists. A list of our favorite songs. The best Nicholas Sparks novels. The top 10 Rocky movies.

The end of the year brings the trite, mail-it-end look back at the year that was. Because The Big Mac Blog loves cliches as much as the next, here is a look at the best games of the year. I tried to spread the wealth ...

1. Texas Tech 56, TCU 53 (3 ot); Oct. 20, 2012.
Hands down the most entertaining game of the Big 12 season. 
In TCU's first year of the Big 12, the Frogs led Tech by five in the fourth quarter before the Red Raiders rallied to take a 10-point lead with 4:06 remaining.
TCU managed to tie the game with 18 seconds lef that set up one of the more entertaining series of overtimes you could watch.

2. Cowboys 27, Steelers 24 (ot); Dec. 16, 2012.
Tony Romo played one of the best games of his career as the Cowboys rallied to win a game they trailed by seven points in the fourth quarter.
Romo passed for 341 yards and two touchdowns, one to the busted-fingered Dez Bryant.
The Steelers weren't as good as advertised but this was a highly entertaining game and offered the Cowboys at their best. 

3. Texas Rangers 11, LA Angels 10, (10 innings); Aug. 1, 2012
The Angels led 7-1 after four innings. The Rangers scored four in the fifth, and runs in the eighth and the ninth to send the game into extra innings. The Angels scored three times in the top of the 10th, but the Rangers scored four runs in the bottom of the inning, the final two on an Elvis Andrus single.

4. Texas Rangers 10, Baltimore Orioles 3; May 9, 2012
Josh Hamilton hit four home runs. 

5. DeSoto 49, Southlake Carroll 45; Dec. 8, 2012.
In the 5A quarterfinals, DeSoto trailed by 18 points in the first half before taking the lead. Carroll QB Kenny Hill was stopped on consecutive running plays from the 1-yard line, the final as time expired.  

6. TCU 20, Texas 13; Nov. 22, 2012.
Easily the biggest win of the year for TCU as the Frogs won on Thanksgiving night in Austin. The Frogs forced four turnovers, including the game-clinching pick by Sam Carter with less than two minutes remaining.

7. Oklahoma 63, Texas 21; Oct. 13, 2012.
The game was boring as hell but there was so much comedy and amazement to watch Bob Stoops' Sooners put yet another nasty beatdown on Mack Brown's Longhorns at the Cotton Bowl. It truly was watching a train wreck.

8. Dallas Mavericks 101, San Antonio Spurs 100 (ot); Jan. 29, 2012
This was before the Mavericks completely crashed in the playoffs and was Jason Terry at his best. He hit a 15-foot game-tying shot to tie the game with 1 second remaining and send the game into OT. Terry finished with 34 points.

9. Dallas Stars 3, Vancouver Canucks 2 (ot); Feb. 26, 2012
Before the Stars fell apart to miss the playoffs yet again, they rallied for this impressive win against a good Canucks team. The Stars were down 2-1 with less than one minute remaining before Mike Ribeiro scored to tie the game. In overtime, Loui Eriksson scored the game winner.

10. Cowboys 24, NY Giants 17; Sept. 5, 2012
In the NFL season opener, the Cowboys defeated the defending Super Bowl champions in what would be arguably their most complete win of the season.
Romo threw for 307 yards with three touchdowns; Kevin Ogletree caught eight passes for 114 yards with two TDs; DeMarco Murray rushed for 131 yards.

 

 

@MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel

Another crack: Highly ranked recruit switches from Texas to TCU

This has probably happened before but the timing can't be a coincidence: A few weeks after TCU went into to Austin and defeated the Texas Longhorns a high school recruit changed his mind.

Arlington Martin senior running back Kyle Hicks has switched his commitment from the University of Texas to TCU. Hicks announced this decision on Twitter. He wrote from his Twitter account, @K_Hicks22: "That's is the hardest thing I ever had to do"

I am sure Johnathan Gray's heart broken.

According to Rivals, Hicks is a four-star recruit and ranked as the 21st best running back in the country.

Hicks sounds like a redshirt candidate; he suffered a torn ACL during the season.

 

 

 

@MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel

2 coaches ranked Texas 16th in their final top 25 rankings

The people in and around Austin who fancy themselves as Texas Longhorn powerbrokers who are tired of Mack Brown can't be happy with the final USA Today college coaches' poll. Despite a third-straight blah year from Los Horns, the Fightin' Macks finished No. 25 in the final USA Today Coaches' Poll.

Don't ask how. I gave up long ago how this Texas team managed to remain ranked despite four unimpressive losses.

Click here for the link on USA Today see how the voting coaches ranked the top 25.

Of the Big 12 coaches with a vote, only one gave a final ranking to the Texas Longhorns. Art Briles (Baylor), Bob Stoops (Oklahoma) and Tommy Tuberville (Texas Tech) did not vote UT in their respective Top 25. The only Big 12 coach who did was Paul Rhodes of Iowa State, who ranked the Horns 22nd.

Also of the notables who did not vote for The Macks: Nick Saban (Alabama), Bo Pelini (Nebraska), Dan McCarney (North Texas)

Be leery of these college coach rankings - a lot of voting coaches will admit they don't have the time to do this poll right, and this is often a last-minute procedure.

Here is where Texas received its votes:

25th
Dana Holgersen (West Virginia), Rick Stockstill (Middle Tenn.), Dabo Sweeney (Clemson), Jeff Tedford (California)

24th
Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech), Troy Calhoun (Air Force), Terry Bowden (Akron), Dave Christensen (Wyoming), Mark Dantonio (Mich Stat), Kevin Wilson (Indiana) 

23rd
Skip Holtz (South Florida), Mike Leach (Wash St.), Pete Lembo (Ball St.), Mike London (Virginia), Les Miles (LSU), Paul Pasqualoni (UConn), Joker Phillips (Kentucky), Rich Rodriguez (Arizona) 

22nd
Gene Chizik (Auburn), Paul Rhodes (Iowa State), Steve Sarkisian (Washington) 

21st
Dave Doeren (Northern Ill.), Ruffin McNeill (East Carolina) 

19th
Mike Riley (Ore. State)

18th
Jim Grobe (Wake Forest)

16th
Darrell Hazell (Kent State), Brady Hoke (Michigan)

 

@MacEngelProf
tengel@star-telegram.com
Facebook Mac Engel