Big 12 spring game reviews from CFN. They take a brief look at all the games.
Archive for the 'Big 12' category
Longhorns lost roughly $68,000 playing in Holiday Bowl. I wouldn’t be surprised if all non-BCS bowls ended up costing the participants money.
Longhorns lose to Oklahoma State on error in 11th. Lineup shakeup doesn’t help as baseball team’s struggles continue.
Fanatic Cornhusker faithful pay $95 for spring game tickets. Nice devotion, but that’s idiotic. It’ll be just as boring as every other school’s free spring scrimmages.
Sooners, Jayhawks struggle offensively in spring games. Sam Bradford was intercepted three times. Thank God it wasn’t just us.
It’s been a while since AJ Abrams has been in a groove, but he certainly was feeling it Saturday afternoon against the Oklahoma Sooners. In the Big 12 tourney semifinals, Abrams got out of his funk in a big way by making 7 of 12 three point attempts to score 24 points. His shooting helped the Horns take a close game at half time and turn it into a blowout.
ESPN video highlights are below:
Next up for Texas is their third straight match-up with Kansas in the Big 12 Championship finals. Texas lost the previous two games and has never won a conference tournament since the Big 12 was formed. If the Horns can pull out the victory over KU, they’ve still got a shot at a #1 seed for the Big Dance. The game will be on ESPN Sunday at 2pm.
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The Longhorns got past the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Friday afternoon by a score of 66-59. The Horns were up by a comfortable margin for almost the entire second half but could never quite put the Cowboys away and had to hold them off during one final run late. DJ Augustin and Damion James led the team on offense, both shooting the ball very well from the outside. On the defensive side of things Justin Mason was active as usual and big man Connor Atchley blocked four more shots.
Check out some video highlights below:
With the win Texas advances to the Big 12 Tournament semifinals. They’ll face off against the fourth-seeded Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday at 1pm. The game will be televised by ESPN2 and ESPN+ in Big 12 markets.
Saturday’s men’s Big 12 tournament semifinals preview. Quick thoughts from the DMN on today’s games.
Longhorn baseball team defeats Kansas 8-6 in Big 12 Conference opener. Cameron Rupp hit two home runs.
The 2008 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Championship gets underway Thursday in Kansas City. The bottom eight seeds will all play on the first day, starting tomorrow morning when 8th seeded Texas Tech takes on 9th seeded Oklahoma State at 11:30am. The winner of that game will move on to face the Longhorns in the quarterfinals Friday, again at 11:30am.
Click on the bracket at right to view larger or download the PDF version below. Also check out the included links for more tourney information and to buy last minute tickets to the games.
All games will be on some sort of ESPN station, with the early games all on ESPNU, ESPN+, or ESPN2. Texas’ game Friday will be on ESPNU and ESPN+. The affiliates carrying the game inlcude KTXA (Dallas), KNWS (Houston), KCWX (San Antonio), and KNVA (Austin). The tournament championship game will be nationally televised Sunday at 2pm on ESPN.
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Texas sophomore point guard DJ Augustin and head coach Rick Barnes were both honored by Big 12 basketball coaches Monday. Augustin was named first team All Big 12. He was one of two unanimous selections, along with Kansas State’s Michael Beasley who was named conference player of the year. Guard AJ Abrams and forward Damion James were named to the second and third team respectively.
Barnes’ job taking a Kevin Durant-less Longhorns team to a Big 12 title was rewarded with a coach of the year nod. He’s been to a Final Four and coached two national players of the year, but this season was probably his best coaching job. The improvement of every single player on this year’s squad definitely reflects well on Barnes and his entire staff.
See the full list of Big 12 awards after the jump.
Colorado coach says some Big 12 stars should go pro, including DJ Augustin. He’s just hoping to actually win some conference games next year.
Augustin, Abrams, and James named to AP All-Big 12 team. Augustin was unanimous first-team choice.
Horns hold off Nebraska 70-66 at the Erwin Center. Blew huge early second half lead but hold on to win and Big 12 lead.
Men’s track team wins third straight Big 12 indoor title. Miler Leo Manzano wins fourth in a row.
Texas men’s swim team lit the Tower orange Saturday with its 12th straight Big 12 title and 29th consecutive conference crown dating back to the SWC. Congrats guys!
After seeing the first spring Big 12 power rankings from ESPN and disagreeing with their placement of the Missouri Tigers at number one, I am now proud to present the first 2008 Bevo Sports Big 12 Power Rankings. This will be a weekly feature during the season and we’ll likely post updates at the end of spring practice and again in the preseason.
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Oklahoma
I’m not 100% behind Sam Bradford as a top quarterback but he’s definitely good enough to lead this team. They lost several good players early to the NFL Draft, but they’ve got talent and running back DeMarco Murray is a stud.
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Texas
Too many question marks to be ranked any higher this early, but early practice reports from this spring are encouraging. If the Horns’ secondary and linebackers improve and flourish under coach Will Muschamp they’ll be my conference favorite.
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Texas Tech
I struggled deciding between Tech and Missouri, but I ended up placing the Red Raiders third thanks to a slightly better defense and a love for pirates and Michael Crabtree.
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Missouri
I don’t trust Gary Pinkel, I think he lucked into last year’s success and was tempted to put the Tigers much lower. Chase Daniel and Jeremy Maclin could be poised for a huge season, but their defense leaves a lot to be desired.
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Nebraska
I think the Cornhusker players will play with a new enthusiasm after being rescued from Bill Callahan’s regime. Marlon Lucky is a very talented running back and coach Bo Pelini’s return should immediately improve the defense.
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Colorado
This is a team I’m really not sure about. They could go either way, either compete for the Big 12 North or completely suck. They lost a couple of good linebackers but if QB Cody Hawkins makes plays and Darrell Scott is as advertised they could compete.
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Texas A&M
I think this is a transition year for the Aggies and new head coach Mike Sherman. I think he’s a step up from Fran but I’m not sure he’s the longterm solution. The defense should be improved under new coordinator Joe Kines, but losing Yemi Babalola off the offensive line hurts bad.
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Kansas State
I like quarterback Josh Freeman a lot but the two other guys that killed the Horns the last two years (particularly Jordy Nelson) are gone. Ian Campbell is a beast on defense.
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Kansas
Welcome back to reality Kansas fans, though I still think the Fightin’ Manginos are headed in the right direction. They don’t have the same season they did in 2007 but they’re going to be a contender in the Big 12 North again soon if Mangino stays.
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Iowa State
Other than a win over rival Iowa last season the Cyclones and former Texas coach Gene Chizik had a rough 2007. Chizik reportedly has things headed in the right direction and two conference wins late last year might be an indication of that.
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Oklahoma State
The only coach in the Big 12 I think less of than Mizzou’s Pinkel is the Cowboys’ Mike Gundy. They’ve had more talent in previous years and not done much with it, this is a down year and they’ll finish near the bottom and Gundy won’t be back in 2009.
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Baylor
I think bringing in Art Briles was a genius move by Baylor. It is going to take a couple years for him implement his scheme and bring in his type of players, but he’s got a chance to turn the Bears into a Texas Tech caliber team. They’ll suck this year.
They really need to space these doubleheader games out better, it seems no channel does it well with either basketball or football. I guess they’d rather have games overlap and piss off fans than have to fill time between games. Either way, we’re once again missing the start of the Texas game and if it goes to overtime it could mean we miss most of the first half. We’ll have live opinions on the game as soon as CBS switches to the Texas versus Texas Tech game in Lubbock.
First Half
- Texas is up 4 to 3 early. Five minutes gone by but not much scoring so far.
- Watching ESPN’s game tracker Alexis Wangmene already has two rebounds. Getting more early playing time for the youngster.
- I really hope this Georgetown player chokes on this third free throw. I don’t care about his trauma, I just want to watch the Texas game. Crap… maybe at least CBS will be smart enough to switch the Texas region to the game.
Texas 18, Texas Tech 16
- Good. With 11 minutes left in the first half CBS has switched over to our game.
- Texas Tech presses and it worked pretty well but after Damion James breaks the press and Tech forgets to cover AJ Abrams in the corner. After struggling a little at the beginning of Big 12 play Abrams has found his groove and will kill you if left alone.
- Nice to see freshman Clint Chapman handle a pass and take it to the hole. Not sure about his form from the free throw line but he is nice and smooth just made two easy ones.
Texas 23, Texas Tech 20
- Looks the Red Raiders are hanging around at least in part due to some lucky shots. They’ve had at least two or three shots go in on some crazy bounces just since I started watching.
- Great pass from Chapman to James. Threaded in there right under the basket giving James an easy hoop.
- Wow! What a block by Tech’s Martin Zeno. James was going in for a big dunk and Zeno does a great job swatting it away.
- I like the attitude of Justin Mason but he just picked up a technical foul with his mouth. Not sure what he had to say or who he was talking to.
- I haven’t seen Connor Atchley at all today, must have picked up early fouls again.
Texas 30, Texas Tech 26
- JD Lewis swishes a three and then I think runs down the court giving Tech’s Voskuhl grief. If Lewis had gone to Tech he’d have started/played as much as Voskuhl the last 3 years.
- Pretty bad officiating again as usual. Zeno just flattened DJ Augustin who was standing with his hands straight up but they called it on Augustin. That call is missed pretty bad both ways though.
- Big Dexter Pittman still leaves his feet too much after the pump fake. He has to better job being under control on defense.
- Not sure what the announcer is watching. Abrams took the ball to the top of the key, pump faked, and calmly shot a wide open three. I’m not sure how that makes Texas rattled on offense to have the conference’s best shooter take an open shot.
- One of Tech’s many ugly white gguys apparently didn’t like the fact that he undercut a Texas player and then fell down. He had to be held back but no Texas players even noticed him.
- Rebounding on both ends killed the Horns the last few minutes of the half. Gave Tech too many second chances and didn’t help themselves out at all on the other end.
Halftime: Texas 37, Texas Tech 41
ESPN previews Big 12 spring practices. A few quick notes on all the teams.
The last two and a half minutes were downright ugly, but despite another tough game for DJ Augustin and some awful clutch free throw shooting the Longhorns topped the Baylor Bears in Waco Saturday afternoon. The 11th ranked Horns blew nearly all of a 14-point lead in the final three minutes, but did just enough to hold on for a 82-77 conference win. Next up is another ESPN Big Monday game at home against the Aggies at 8pm.
Watch ESPN’s highlights and interviews below:
(Video removed by ESPN for no apparent reason, must not like the free advertising. Idiots.)
CFN takes another look back at 2007 season in the Big 12. Nice capsules on all the teams.
A&M hires old, crazy, good defensive coordinator Joe Kines. Excellent hire by the Aggies.
Once again the Horns stepped up big in front of a national audience Monday night, playing good, tough basketball in route to a big upset win of #3 Kansas. The win puts the team in good shape for a Big 12 run and gives the team another quality win come tourney seeding. Check out my live blog of the game and ESPN’s highlights of the game below:
Video removed by ESPN. Why do they only store videos for a couple weeks?
Texas-Kansas becoming one of Big 12’s richest rivalries. Some great moments in the series the last few years.
Big 12 basketball midseason report from the Dallas Morning News. DJ Augustin is one of their top players.
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