5 Reasons Why This Basketball Season Kicked Butt

Well, we're less than 5 months away from football, with only baseball and summer football to keep us busy. Before we forget about this previous basketball season (STAY DJ! PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STAY!!!), let's review why it was a memorable one:

5) Texas played some elite competition, and beat some elite competition. KU, UCLA, Tennessee, Baylor, the list goes on. There have been years with ho-hum basketball schedules, but this was not one of them.

4) The loss to Memphis was not Rick Barnes' finest as a coach, but this season reminded us fully why we are lucky to have him. He took a lot of heat last season, mostly from Bill Simmons, but his coaching job in the offseason right up to the last day of March was nothing short of beautiful. If DJ and DJ return (we feel probably not on the former, possibly on the latter), Texas will have no excuses for not making the Final Four in 2009.

3) It started off slowly on the first day, but this turned into a fantastic tournament. Texas played 3 great games, WKU hit the shot of all but the tournament's last 5:03, Davidson became America's team, Duke lost in the second round, and UNC and UCLA did not make the championship game. It won't be as near and dear to our hearts as 2003, but it was still an amazing 3 weeks.

2) The championship game was the best in a long time. Billy Packer tried to ruin it, but he failed. We have nothing but respect for KU's program, and had no hard feelings for Memphis after they destroyed Texas. Both teams played a great game and Mario Chalmers did what Mario Chalmers does. 2009 hoops can't start soon enough!

1) It made us believe again. That may be a tad over the top, a tad melodramatic, but this basketball season gave us some bright spots on an otherwise dreary football-dominated landscape. The future is bright for Texas basketball, with or without the DJs.

Some More Points

A few thoughts from the world of sports:

• Pats in another tight game that they'll probably end up winning. That's two straight games that the Pats haven't looked like world beaters. Like I said earlier, going 0-16 (Dolphins) is harder than going undefeated (Dolphins).
• John Clayton called 'The Play' the worst call he's seen in 30 years. Still too painful to read, but it's ironic that the Saints scored a TD on that same play on the Monday Nighter last year (if you don't know what I'm referring to you aren't a Saints fan). Yep. That's right. I've never seen a call like that before. It was just as bad as Tim Couch's hailmary for the Browns first win in 1999, the missed XP after the miraculous TD against the Jags in 2003, and the Vikings fumbling the snap on a two-point conversion and still running it for the winning score in 2002.
• It wasn't exactly Texas ruining OU's Senior Day in 2003 (Hollis Price's only home loss), but we're 24 hours later and the win over UCLA seems like the biggest regular season win since that game.
• The Michigan State game in less than three weeks could be the third game against a top ten team this season.
• Damion James won Big XII Player of the Week this week, the second straight for a Longhorn.
• Finally, Michigan lost to Harvard, (insert obligatory Appy State joke here). The best part of the whole story: Harvard is coached by Tommy Amaker who was fired by Michigan in March.

Kevin Durant Forces NCAA To Push Back 3-Point Line

The NCAA announced today that it will be pushing back the men's college basketball 3-point line a foot to 20' 9". We assume this radical step was somehow related to Kevin Durant's season of dominance.

It's unclear how the change will affect the game, aside from lowering three point shooting throughout college basketball. We see the change as a good thing in that it will hopefully convince Connor Atchley to shoot less. You can read the ESPN.com article here including positive spin from Billy Donovan and Texas A&M sharpshooter Josh Carter. Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl was less enthusiastic, suggesting that "if it's not broke, don't fix it."