Kyle Russell: Man or Machine?

We won't pretend to an all-out analysis of the Thursday-Saturday baseball series that the Longhorns won in Lawrence this weekend; for that, visit the official Texas Sports website; that is, if it isn't down again.

But, this guy was fortunate enough to be visiting Middle Bro, who attends KU, and thus got to go to the rubber game on Saturday (as well as the ugly last couple of innings on Friday). The KU starting pitcher, Andy Marks, was very impressive Saturday, throwing a confusing mix of junk that had Horns' hitters frustrated most of the afternoon. It was a good enough performance to make a casual observer wonder why the Jayhawks haven't won more games this season. But, the Longhorns uncharacteristically won the game via the long ball. Nick Peoples started it off with a solo shot. Then, the very powerful Kyle Russell joined in the party--first with a 3-run dinger to give Texas a 4-0 lead, then with a solo bomb of his own to tie the game at 5-5. The game-winning run came on an RBI double off the center field wall by Russell Moldenhauer in the top of the 8th, after he had fouled off 2 bunt attempts. Hmmm...small ball, huh?

Kyle's second dinger tied him with Jeff Ontiveros for the Texas all-time single season home run record with 20 for the year. Ontiveros set the record in the CWS championship season of 2002 in which he played 72 games. Kyle tied the record playing in just 38 games and with at least 21 games remaining in the season (going out on a limb to say this Horns team will at least make the NCAA tournament). Consider that the Longhorns have been playing baseball for quite a while and historically Texas has had one of the top programs in college baseball, all which makes Kyle's season all the more spectacular. Hopefully we'll get to see Kyle hit a few monster shots out of Omaha in a few months.

Joseph Krebs pitched admirably, but the Texas gloves left something to be desired. Kansas put together a game-tying 4-run rally in the bottom of the 5th. However, it should be noted that all 4 runs were unearned because, with the bases loaded and 2 outs, second baseman Travis Tucker committed a fielding error that allowed the inning to continue and the first run to score. Tucker seemed to be in a hurry to field the ball and tag the runner headed to second, but with 2 out all he needed to do was sit back and make the easy play to first. So, Krebs did not get the win even though he performed well enough to earn it.

The silver lining on the mound was the relief effort of Randy Boone. Boone came in to stop the bleeding in that 5th inning, and after giving up an RBI double on his first pitch and allowing a go-ahead run in the 6th, he shut the 'Hawks down for the remainder of the game to take the win.

All in all, it's nice to get a series win on the road--particularly in cold, windy conditions against a Kansas squad that clearly brought its A-game. Since starting 2-4 and losing its first two series, the Longhorns have won 8 straight series going 26-6 in the process. They now stand at 28-10 overall for the year.

Zach Johnson and more

A few hours earlier it seems we prematurely predicted a Tiger Woods victory in the Masters. The Sunday afternoon of the Masters is arguably the most enjoyable/beautiful period of television of the entire year but apparently nobody wanted to win the tournament this year. What is undeniable is that Tiger-proofing Augusta National plus extraordinarily difficult course conditions made the course far tougher this year and nearly led to the highest finishing score in the history of the tournament. Zach Johnson eventually won the whole thing and in the process tied the highest finishing score of one-over par which came in 1956. This year's tournament contrasts sharply from Tiger's 1997 tournament victory in which he shot 18-under par on the very same course.

As to Kevin Durant, the internet rumors stem from a draftexpress.com article which says that "according to multiple sources, both from the NBA and close to the player himself, Kevin Durant will be announcing in a press conference mid next week that he will be putting his name in the draft." It's not that we dispute that KD will be going pro, but the fact that no "major" news organizations have picked up on this creates doubt as the authenticity of the report...right now. If/when Kevin goes pro, Longhorn nation should wish him nothing but the best.

Finally, as the sports seasons go round and round, readers will notice that 40 Acres Sports revolves around one college team, one NFL team (the Saints) and two Major League teams (Red Sox and Cardinals) and until Kevin Durant declares pro, we'll hold out on die-hard support for an NBA team.

As far as the Red Sox go, they've started out somewhat slowly although Dice-K's spectacular debut was...spectacular. At 2-3 right now, the biggest concern may be the depth of the starting pitching. Question marks still remain for the bottom of the line-up and relief pitching but the season still looks to be in great shape. Tonight, the Red Sox try to salvage a game from the Rangers with Curt Schilling on the mound. Already Papi's gone yard twice.

You can read all about it tomorrow on Curt's blog. That's it for now, we'll be back later with a recap of the weekend that was in Longhorn baseball.

Golf, Confusion, and Slim Hope

Well, the writing is on the wall. But it's on there in eraseable ink. On the same day that Kevin Durant collected the final cherry on top of his smorgasboard of National Player of the Year awards, the prestigious Wooden Award, internet chatter began to gather that KD will declare for the NBA draft in a press conference this week. The encouraging note for 'Horns fans is that no major, reputable news organization has picked up the story yet, so there's a chance that it may not be true. No matter what happens, though, it's important to remember that KD has, in one year, become a Texas legend and will have his number hanging from the Erwin Center rafters soon.

Some other short thoughts:

Tiger is in the final group in the highest-scoring Masters ever today. Is there any doubt that he's going to win this thing? It's amazing that even though he hasn't played spectacular golf this weekend, Stuart "triple-bogey" Appleby and the other leaders have insisted on putting Tiger in position to win anyway.

Sammy Sosa hit a homerun for the Rangers yesterday. Isn't that cute?

And finally, it's beginning to look like the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals may challenge the record for fewest runs scored by a defencing World Series champion in a season. Albert is hitting .067 through 5 games (that's one hit total). This is a shame. Still, though, Cards fans like this guy can bask in the glow of a WS title at least until July.

Rick Barnes to Stay!

Fantastic news out of Texas in the last 24 hours as Rick Barnes has decided to stay at Texas and rival Texas A&M coach Billy Gillispie has left the conference to go to Kentucky. In honor of this terrific news, we present one of the finest moments in Rick Barnes' career at Texas. Enjoy!

The Coaching Carousel

This is shaping up to be one of the more interesting college basketball offseasons in some time. Major-conference schools are hiring coaches from other major-conference schools, leaving good coaching jobs still available after the top ones have been filled. The biggest example of this merry-go-round would have to be the Michigan-WVU-K State triangle; Amaker out at Michigan, Beilein from West Virginia to Michigan, Huggy Bear from K State to West Virginia, K State on the clock.

But the best news, BY FAR, in the offseason coaching stories to this point has been that the best coach (by a long shot) in Texas Longhorn hoop history has decided not to even interview for the vacancy at college basketball's winningest all-time program. That's right: Rick Barnes' lack of any interest in the Kentucky job is enormous for the future of Texas basketball. If Barnes won't leave Texas for Kentucky, it seems like a safe bet that he won't leave Texas for any other school. And how can anyone blame him? At UK he'd be coaching in the shadow of Rupp and Pitino, playing in a building named after the former. At Texas, when he retires The University will name the court (if not re-name the building!) after him.

And then there's the short-term implication of Ricky's loyalty: it leaves the door open that Kevin Durant may return to the Forty Acres for another season. It seems clear that if Barnes had departed, Durant may not have been far behind.

And then, the icing on the cake came this morning: not only would Texas keep its coach, but aggie would lose their coach. Billy Gillespie, who had arrived from El Paso and drummed up some hoop interest at the cow college with the well-known football tradition of losing to Texas, will be Kentucky's new coach. Aggie basketball is destined to return to the cellar of the Big XII, because despite recent success it is not exactly a sought-after post. Aggie will not be in the mix for big-name coaches such as Izzo, Few, Crean, etc. They'll have to get lucky with another small-time coach looking to make it big, and understand that as soon as a better opportunity comes along he, too, will move on. Because that's what aggie basketball is and always will be: a stepping-stone job.

(Side note: perhaps the most satisfying part of Barnes' very quick rejection of Kentucky's advances is that Dick Vitale's commentary from earlier Thursday, seen here, was immediately shown to be wrong. Only thing that could have made that better is if it had been Billy Packer.)

One final note: Coaching searches usually take a long time and involve a LOT of fan angst. Billy Donovan's long thought process notwithstanding, Kentucky moved along with their search extremely quickly. Donovan said no, Barnes said no, and Gillespie said yes within 24 hours of each other. Amazing.