March 2006 Archives
27 March 2006
A Little Break
I'll be involved in some business travel over the next week, and posting is likely to be slow or even nonexistent here.
I'll see ya'll on the other side.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/27/06 08:34 | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (2)
25 March 2006
Ouroboros
I don't think there's much of a Houston-area audience that reads this blog and does not read blogHOUSTON, but in case there is...
I've posted some thoughts on Main Streat Theater's current mainstage play Ouroboros over there.
If you have any interest in theater at all, I highly recommend it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/25/06 15:57 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (0)
An Overdue Apology From A Thief
Ben Domenech has finally offered what seems like a real apology for being an intellectual thief, following earlier efforts by Domenech and his dwindling band of supporters to portray him as a victim and/or to downplay the gravity of what increasingly was shown to be outright intellectual theft.
For those who don't know, Ben Domenech is the young conservative overachiever who has served in the upper echelons of government, edited books, and started the Red State community website. The Washington Post decided he was just the sort of young overachiever who could provide conservative blog commentary on their site, and offer under-represented perspective.
That wasn't a bad idea, but as it turns out, the young overachiever actually seems to have achieved some of his success by stealing from others. So, no WaPo blog for him. Bad boy.
Whether it's a young conservative overachiever like Domenech, or older liberal intellectual thieves like Doris Kearns Goodwin or (locally) Rick Casey, I hate plagiarists. Even worse, I hate the excuses so many of them seem to offer, and the fact that there are hardly ever consequences.
It's nice to see there were consequences this time, even if there were no consequences when Doris Kearns Goodwin and Rick Casey ripped off the work of others.
LOCAL BLOGVERSATION: TBIFOC, TBIFOC Kittycats.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/25/06 13:11 | Media Matters | Technorati | Comments (1)
22 March 2006
A Biden Moment For David Van Os?
Isolated Desolation notes that a quote that supporters keep attributing to David Van Os isn't his own.
I guess we shouldn't be surprised at a Biden Moment from a fringe candidacy.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/22/06 22:33 | Texas | Technorati | Comments (4)
Songbird
I haven't downloaded Songbird yet, but it looks darn useful.
I'll have to give it a try soon.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/22/06 20:48 | Web Stuff | Technorati | Comments (0)
21 March 2006
Ditching The Agenda Or The Rhetoric?
Democrats ditch pro-choice agenda (Caitriona Palmer, Sunday Herald)
The liberal think-tank Third Way has reportedly issued a memo advising Democratic politicians to rephrase their wording on abortion. Instead of talking about a woman’s right to choose, the memo suggests that Democrat candidates should tell voters that they support “personal liberty” but accept a “moral responsibility” to reduce the number of abortions.
Senator Hillary Clinton, apparently grooming herself for a presidential bid in 2008, has dropped her strident pro-choice rhetoric for a more nuanced approach. At a rally in 2005, Clinton spoke of the need for both sides on the issue to work to prevent unwanted pregnancies because abortion represented “a sad, even tragic, choice.”
Toning down the pro-choice rhetoric isn't ditching the pro-choice agenda, as the headline implies.
Some pro-choice advocates say medical advances in neonatal care and contraception have changed the nature of the debate. They say the pro-choice camp should discourage second-trimester abortions and devote their energy to securing more access to sophisticated contraception, morning-after pills and sex education.
Those advocates are right about the nature of the debate (with the imagery we have now, it is impossible to portray the fetus in the second trimester as a meaningless clump of cells), but it's not clear that the Democratic Party's pro-choice interest groups will yield on this issue (hence the desires of some to avoid a fight with those interest groups with "a more nuanced" rhetorical approach).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/21/06 09:23 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (5)
20 March 2006
Coogs' Season Ends
The Coogs lost a tough one at the Hammons Student Center (I've been there a few times) in Springfield MO to end their season tonight.
I was only listening to the game, so I don't know if the foul call at the end was legitimate, but it's really tough when a foul call on a made putback decides the game (instead of the players).
The program continued to improve in Tom Penders' second season. His UH teams have played hard every night at Hofheinz, and 21 wins is nice after what has happened in that building for years now. Getting out to so many games has made me a college hoops fan again. I'm ready for next season.
I just hope Coach can find some big men who can contribute next season. Expected inside contributors just didn't pan out this season, and it was tough at times when the three-pointers weren't falling. They need to add some other options for next season.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/20/06 21:28 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (3)
T.O.
I guess I should say something about the Cowboys' signing of T.O.
There's really not much to say. The Cowboys needed playmakers, and it became apparent this signing was going to take place when Parcells gave it his blessing with leaks to his East Coast media buddies months ago.
T.O. will probably perform next season, and the offense will be potent if the offensive line is healthy.
After next season, things will probably go to hell.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/20/06 21:11 | Dallas Cowboys | Technorati | Comments (5)
16 March 2006
A Blow To The Mandate
R.G. Ratcliffe posted the following news to the Chronicle's Texas Politics blog yesterday:
In a public relations blow to Democratic gubernatorial nominee Chris Bell, the 2002 party nominee for governor, Tony Sanchez, today signed Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn's petition to run as an independent.
[snip]
Perry easily defeated Sanchez in 2002. But Bell's campaign has been promoting the idea he can win in a four-person race if Bell just gets the 40 percent of the vote Sanchez received.
Endorsements rarely sway voters, but they do show which way the political establishment is moving -- and in this case the Democratic establishment appears to be moving toward Strayhorn. She left the Republican Party in January to run as an independent.
Ouch! That's a blow to the Mandate.
Ratcliffe has more in today's Chronicle story.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/16/06 07:51 | Texas | Technorati | Comments (9)
14 March 2006
At Least The Beer Didn't Kill Anyone
Candidate Friedman caught drinking beer in parade car (AP)
Gubernatorial hopeful Kinky Friedman rode in a St. Patrick's Day parade car Saturday with his trademark black hat and burning cigar _ plus a beer in his hand, an apparent violation of the state's open container law.
A spokeswoman for Friedman, the author and musician running as an independent, acknowledged that the candidate drank from a can of Guinness handed to him. State law prohibits opened alcoholic beverages in the passenger area of a motor vehicle. The Class C misdemeanor carries a maximum fine of $500.
This won't hurt Friedman's marketing political campaign, and might even help it.
What won't help the marketing or political campaign is his support of a twice-convicted triple murderer.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/14/06 07:43 | Texas | Technorati | Comments (10)
13 March 2006
Lopez Shines The Light On NCAA Tourney Committee
The Chronicle's John Lopez has a nice column on the politics of NCAA tourney selections.
I'll take this opportunity to ask all of you who ripped me when I defended the college football computer rankings that put Oklahoma in the BCS championship one year even though they lost their conference championship game -- Wasn't that system, with its objective rules clearly established at the start of the season (flaws and all), better than the murky, almost dirty, sorts of selections that result when humans (and not computers!) are in charge of selecting teams?
Utah State. George Mason. Air Force.
Whatever.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/13/06 22:48 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (6)
The 65% Bandwagon
GOP may turn against 65% solution (David Hill, The Hill).
As more comes to light about Mooney and his background, Republicans may feel like jumping off the 65 percent bandwagon.
I only excerpted Dr. Hill's conclusion because the article's really worth reading in its entirety.
He is writing about the so-called "65% solution" for education, which has been pushed by a group called First Class Education and endorsed by George Will. Basically, their notion is that 65% of education funds should be spent in the classroom, and not on administration (with the devil being in the details of how classroom and administration are defined).
Dr. Hill is writing about efforts to push the plan in states other than Texas, but it's just as applicable here (especially since conservative pols like Rick Perry and Dan Patrick have jumped on the 65% bandwagon).
I haven't given the matter a whole lot of thought, but Dr. Hill raises some good points that really ought to be considered before jumping on the Perry and Patrick bandwagon.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/13/06 22:38 | Texas | Technorati | Comments (2)
11 March 2006
Company OnStage: Sound of Murder
Callie and I caught the opening of The Sound of Murder over at Company OnStage in Meyerland last night.
We had a good time. As community theater goes, Company OnStage tends to put on pretty solid stuff, although they certainly don't take many chances in terms of play selection or interpretation. That's just fine by me. I've always liked their intimate theater, although it's been several years since I had been over there.
We don't make nearly enough use of the city's fine community theaters (non-Alley stuff -- I really prefer the intimacy of smaller theaters). I need to make a concerted effort to get out and see more live performances.
UPDATE (03-12-2006): We blew off No Justice at a smoky bar last night, and instead caught the "preview" Ouroboros at Main Street Theater last night. That was a really interesting, well-acted performance. We'll probably see the "other" version of the play at some point (there's an interesting chronological twist involved).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/11/06 18:31 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (6)
Dan Patrick, The Blocker Bill, And Conservative Constitutionalism
Dan Patrick: a 'prophet' or a 'bishop'? (Rick Casey, Houston Chronicle)
[Dan Patrick] taunts [Republican state legislators'] manhood by suggesting that they should "act like the majority that they are" by removing the traditional "blocker bill."
This is a device whereby the first bill filed in the Senate is a meaningless measure. But since it requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate to take bills out of order, this tradition means that any legislation can be blocked by 11 of the 30 senators.The device was originally employed in 1879, and something like it has been used ever since. The reason: Conservative Texans don't trust government and want to make it hard to pass new legislation.
Thoughtful Republicans are very aware that Democrats may well one day return to power, especially with demographic trends now under way. Though frustrated at times, these members appreciate the value of requiring consensus.
Casey comes really close to getting it right with those bolded blockquotes.
To get it a little closer to being right, I think we could say that the Texas constitution itself has any number of provisions designed to frustrate government action, ranging from a relatively weak executive to the relatively short, biennial legislative sessions. The institutional design seems to reflect an attitude about limiting government action. In my view, the Blocker Bill is a legislative tradition that is perfectly consistent with a Texas constitutionalism designed to limit government action. You build some degree of consensus, or you don't move legislation!
While Patrick and the CLOUT crew are understandably agitated that they have been unable to lower the property tax appraisal cap in the few years the issue has been on their radar (because some Republicans have used the Blocker Bill for political cover), the fact is that Patrick and crew have driven awareness of the property tax appraisal cap issue, and they are making headway. 91.9% of GOP primary voters statewide approved a call for the cap to be lowered to 5%. In Harris County, 94.8% approved. The measure has deep support among Republicans. Majorities of 90-95% cannot be ignored by Republican officeholders forever in a Republican state (it only seems like it), or even officeholders of the other party.
Here's hoping that Patrick is unsuccessful in what will surely be an assault to get rid of the Blocker Bill tradition. The Blocker Bill is useful for the reasons proponents sometimes cite (it builds comity, it gives the minority party more of a say in government), but more importantly, the Blocker Bill is consistent with a conservative Texas constitutionalism -- even when it seems to be in the way of individual conservative reforms.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/11/06 15:19 | Texas | Technorati | Comments (2)
BAR: Reality Sets In
Here's Off the Kuff:
I said at the time that I suspected Kelly's simpler name helped boost his total. I still believe that's true, but I also think Stace is onto something when he says that BAR was running to win in November, not in March.
Here's Dos Centavos:
I've always said BAR was too busy running for November and not thinking about March like she should have been. He might be an old-coot, but one shouldn't underestimate the name of Gene Kelly. It gets to a point that being "perennial" actually helps one out.
Here's Brains and Eggs, quoting one of Radnofsky's associates at V&E:
But the most shocking example of simple voter ignorance is that Barbara Radnofsky is in a runoff with Gene Kelly. Here's how Katie O'Harra, one of her associates at V&E, put it:
SHAME on Texas Democrats for allowing Gene Kelly-- who is a perennial joke on Texas politics -- to challenge Barbara Radnofsky in a runoff for U.S. Senate. Texas Democrats MUST get the word out regarding the importance of the upcoming runoff election on Tuesday April 11, 2006: a strong, viable candidate needs a decisive victory over a clown.
And here's Burnt Orange Report:
Two tips to the Radnofsky campaign:
#1 - Stop whining and start kicking ass: Yeah yeah, we know that you all think it's not fair that Gene Kelly was running without campaigning. But, the fact that you're in a runoff with him isn't his fault, it's your fault.
#2 - Get out the vote: At the very least, get out more votes in Houston. As well, you all should be able to get out voters due to the runoffs in CD10 and SR47.
It's interesting that some Radnofsky supporters are accusing fellow Dems of being ignorant. Meanwhile, the BOR folks are more interested in offering suggestions to Radnofsky to improve her lackluster showing.
The notion of "running for November" is kind of a fun political strategy for a candidate with no statewide name ID against a candidate with name ID built by several unsuccessful runs. As I noted way back when, Radnofsky is a precinct chair who has no statewide ID and no money. From Day One, she needed to be trying to boost her statewide ID as part of the strategy of winning in November! She never had much of a shot at winning in November, but if she doesn't raise her name ID, she's going to be embarrassed in November. But hey, that's just my take. Radnofsky apparently thought she knew better. After all, she bragged to a Chronicle reporter that she has a political science degree from UH AND she's been thinking about the race since she was nine years old! Who could argue with that?!
The notion that she was "running for November" because of lack of funds is even more interesting to me since Charles Kuffner left me a comment (also way back when) that seemed to take exception with my (accurate) characterization of Radnofsky's funding.
Eventually, reality intrudes, even on those in the community that claims to be reality-based. :)
UPDATE: Of course, for the perpetually reading-challenged, reality intrudes even more slowly, so I've bolded a portion of a blockquote to help out. :)
UPDATE 2: For Dems that Brains and Eggs might characterize as being ignorant (and anyone else who hasn't followed Radnofsky's career -- probably quite a few Texans, now that I think about it!), I should note that Radnofsky's highest political office held to date has been precinct chair. All references to precinct chair Radnofsky are intended to highlight her inexperience in politics. That seems obvious, but perhaps it's not.
UPDATE 3: I should have linked above to Sedosi's amusing comment on Radnofsky's plotting her Senate run as a nine-year-old.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/11/06 11:20 | Texas | Technorati | Comments (6)
09 March 2006
New Announcers For The Cowboys?
The Ticket, The Bone to air Cowboys games locally (Barry Horn, Dallas Morning News)
The radio station that gave the world "The Fake Jerry Jones" is the new flagship home of the real Dallas Cowboys.
The Ticket and the Cowboys announced a five-year agreement Monday afternoon at the station's offices.
[snip]
Jerry Jones, who will make the call on the game broadcasters, said he was not ready to discuss the futures of play-by-play voice Brad Sham and analyst Babe Laufenberg.
What the hell does that mean?
Brad Sham is one of the best radio play-by-play men in the business, and he and Laufenberg have an excellent rapport.
Bringing Sham and Laufenberg back should be a no-brainer.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/09/06 22:56 | Dallas Cowboys | Technorati | Comments (1)
The Issue That Differentiates (cont'd)
Abortion Ban Puts Strategies in Doubt: South Dakota's test of Roe vs. Wade has both sides wondering if they've moved too fast (Stephanie Simon, LA Times)
Some foes of abortion — fearful that South Dakota has moved too far, too fast — now find themselves reluctantly opposing efforts to protect all fetal life from the moment of conception. They are even angling to block another abortion ban that seems likely to pass in Mississippi.
For their part, some abortion-rights activists feel they must acknowledge the sentiment behind the South Dakota ban by assuring America that they, too, regard abortion as a grave moral concern. But such language outrages others in their movement, especially abortion doctors, who feel it stigmatizes and alienates their patients.
[snip]
Promoters of South Dakota's ban are calculating that one of the liberal justices will retire — and be replaced by a conservative — before their case winds its way to the high court. Daniel McConchie, vice president of the Americans United for Life, warns that the South Dakota strategy could backfire.
If the public knows an all-out ban on abortion is headed to the Supreme Court, "getting a [conservative] justice through the confirmation process will be like World War III," McConchie said.
He'd rather rely on the Roberts court to steadily chip away at abortion rights without overturning Roe outright. For instance, he's hoping that in an upcoming case on the procedure that is called "partial-birth abortion" by opponents like him, the justices might give states more leeway to restrict second- and third-trimester procedures.
[snip]
Such incremental steps would save many more fetuses than South Dakota's ban, said Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life. "As a pro-lifer, I feel guilty saying this, because people are out there all excited, but a ban is actually counterproductive," she said.
She and others argue that their movement needs more time to turn society firmly against abortion. They want to hold public hearings to investigate the alleged (and hotly disputed) risks of abortion. They plan to promote ultrasounds to fix an image in the public's mind of the embryo as a beautiful, human life. They aim to use more women who have had abortions — and now regret it — as spokeswomen for their cause.
Until then, they're reluctantly advising legislators in Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee not to pass the bans under consideration in those states.
Instead, they urge legislators to pass provisions such as requiring a woman to attend counseling and to wait a day or more before getting an abortion. The latest trend is to require doctors to show a woman her ultrasound or to inform her that the fetus might feel pain during an abortion.
[snip]
The liberal think tank Third Way is circulating a memo on Capitol Hill advising politicians who support abortion rights to recalibrate their message. Instead of stressing a woman's right to choose, they should tell voters that they support "personal liberty," but accept that it's a "moral responsibility" to reduce the number of abortions. (That number has declined steadily from a peak of 1.43 million in 1990 to 1.29 million in 2002, the latest year statistics are available.)
[snip]
"Talking about prevention really resonates with voters, because it's positive, it's proactive … it makes constituents feel good," said Julie Burkhart, the executive director of ProKanDo, an abortion-rights lobby in Kansas.
Such tactical positioning infuriates Dr. Warren Hern, who runs an abortion clinic in Boulder, Colo. He, too, would like to see fewer women with unwanted pregnancies; he counsels all his patients on contraception. But in his view, the availability of safe, legal abortions should be a cause for national pride — not shame.
He urges politicians to respond to the South Dakota ban with statements like this: "Before 1973, women were dying like flies from illegal abortions. That has stopped, and it's one of the great public health success stories of the 20th century."
Susan Hill agrees. She's president of the National Women's Health Organization, which runs abortion clinics in five states, and she has been flooded with calls and e-mails from supporters outraged at South Dakota's ban.
Hill sees only one way to capitalize on that anger: a campaign to remind Americans that abortion is one of the most common surgical procedures in this country. One out of every three women will have an abortion in her lifetime, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
"We need to make people realize that this is about them: Their family. Their daughter," Hill said.
Above all, she said: "We have to stop apologizing" for the nation's abortion rate — and start mobilizing the millions of women "who believe it was the best choice for them."
Study: Law lowered abortion rate in Texas (Linda A. Johnson, AP)
Abortion rates declined significantly among Texas girls _ though some got riskier abortions later in pregnancy _ after the state enacted a parental notification law, researchers say.
The findings could have a strong influence on the abortion debate. Texas is the biggest of 35 states that require minors to notify their parents or get their consent before obtaining an abortion, although a judge can usually grant a waiver.
Researchers at Baruch College at City University of New York studied the records of teen abortions and births for the two years before the Texas law took effect on Jan. 1, 2000, and for three years afterward.
Abortion rates dropped for girls ages 15 through 18, even though the 18-year-olds were not subject to the law. But the drop was more pronounced among the younger girls. Their rates fell 11 percent to 20 percent more than the rate among the 18-year-olds did.
"The law has definite behavioral effects," said lead researcher Ted Joyce, a Baruch professor of economics.
As the first story illustrates, conservatives and Republicans are now engaged in a debate among themselves over the best way to restrict abortion in the country (previous post on this topic here), and whether to go for broke (overturning Roe), or whether to go for the incremental sorts of measures described in the second story, with the goal of building political consensus to overturn Roe.
As the first story illustrates, liberals and Democrats are engaged in a debate over how to package their support for the right to abortion.
Abortion remains one of those issues that clearly differentiates the two major parties.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/09/06 22:45 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)
07 March 2006
Calling A Spade A Spade
The Numbers, Gamed? (Eric Prisbell, WaPo)
Doug Elgin, the Valley's commissioner, has heard coaches such as Houston's Tom Penders refer to the Valley's "hype machine" and such analysts as ESPN's Jay Bilas say the selection committee needs to look beyond RPI numbers.
"Any major coach hiding behind that notion that we have cracked the code, tell that coach to come play our teams and see how overrated we are," Elgin said. "That notion that we have somehow outsmarted the system is a bunch of crap. . . . It's easy to make those statements when you're not willing to back it up."
In response, Maryland Coach Gary Williams said: "They haven't been banging down anyone's door in the ACC to play. The phone works both ways, last time I checked."
Penders praised the Valley as a conference but added that it does not include a team he would be afraid to play on a neutral court.
"What is RPI, garbage in and garbage out?" Penders said, speaking in general about the formula. "How do you build RPI, go out and play no one? If it's just a computer thing this year, I was born in 1945, I don't know much about computers. . . . The committee will dictate what guys do the next few years. If teams are rewarded for playing no one in the computers, then we should all do that."
[snip]
Williams, who compared the RPI to the Da Vinci Code, also said the ACC should consider lobbying for its teams more aggressively because the MVC has "done a great job publicity-wise, I'll say that for them."
"Somebody has" beaten the RPI, Williams added. "The Missouri Valley has. I've looked at all their schedules. They didn't play anybody. If they would have played all the Big Ten teams or something, then that's different. The only thing I can figure, and I don't know if this is true, is if you lose to a team with a pretty good RPI, that's better than beating a team that has a low RPI. If you look at our league, those stats, what's the problem?"
March Madness Insider (Wendell Barnhouse, FWST)
Several coaches believe that the MVC has pulled a fast one in nonconference scheduling. The criticism is that the MVC’s top teams didn’t play challenging schedules, but piled up victories and then kept their RPIs high by simply swapping victories and losses in conference play.
“The MVC bought games and all have winning records,” Memphis coach John Calipari said Monday. “What they did, they won games, they had a high RPI and when they played each other, the RPIs didn’t go down.
Cal's right. It is indisputable that the top four teams in C-USA compare favorably to anyone in the MVC, and the MVC doesn't have a single team that comes close to Memphis. But the MVC gamed the RPI system brilliantly this year. And their teams DID manage to win some games (we shouldn't leave that out).
On his radio program last night, Penders also pointed out that the MVC has more league games (18) than many conferences (helping the top MVC teams once conference play started, since they "gamed" their nonconference schedule for RPI purposes). C-USA only played 14 league games, meaning UH didn't get the boost that playing UAB or Memphis twice would have given them (and playing them on the road meant they didn't get the boost of a win against those teams, either), and C-USA's bottom feeders certainly are a drag on everyone else.
But, if you have a smart conference commissioner (C-USA's Britton Banowsky certainly doesn't qualify) like the MVC, you "game" your short non-con schedule to boost your league's RPI overall, and then league teams play extra games against each other. Voila! An average league suddenly looks like one of the nation's better conferences!
I can understand Penders' frustration, because he put together a good non-con schedule, has signature wins (Arizona, LSU) that match up with the signature wins of any team in the MVC, and is almost certainly going to be rewarded with an NIT appearance.
C-USA's commissioner and coaches may do well to learn from the MVC, instead of whining about it. Add some league games, and encourage teams other than Memphis and Houston to boost their schedules.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/07/06 08:49 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (1)
05 March 2006
At Least Somebody's NCAA Bound
The Coogs may not be dancing in the NCAA, but my cousin has worked his magic in his fourth season heading up the women's program at SEMO, with their first-ever NCAA bid:
The Redhawks women's basketball magical season will add a new chapter to not only this season but the program's record books as they defeated arch-rival Tennessee Tech, 71-50 in the Championship game of the 2006 O'Reilly OVC Women's Basketball Tournament at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The win sends the Redhawks to their first NCAA Division I Tournament appearance in their rich history as they earned the automatic berth by virtue of the win.
[snip]
"Our defense was the key to the victory," commented Head Coach B.J. Smith. "We kept them off the boards and I thought our shot selection was better in the second half."
Way to go, cuz!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/05/06 10:42 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (3)
04 March 2006
NIT Bound
Coogs lose at Memphis tonight, which pretty much seals their fate as an NIT tourney team (unless they unexpectedly win the CUSA tourney).
A&M gets a road win today at Texas Tech, which is good for a slight boost in the RPI, but I still think they have work to do to avoid the NIT.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/04/06 22:26 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (1)
02 March 2006
UAB Beats Memphis
UAB just beat Memphis, and probably played themselves into the NCAA tourney.
Before the game, UAB's RPI was comparable to UH's, although UAB owned a victory against UH.
I don't know if CUSA can get three teams in the tourney, so UH may well be forced to win the CUSA tourney if they hope to get in at this point. I don't know if beating Memphis at Memphis and winning one tourney game will be enough now.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/02/06 22:53 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (1)
01 March 2006
UH, A&M Win
The University of Houston finally beat Rice tonight, for the first time in five tries. The win at Hofheinz takes the Coogs to 19 wins on the season, surpassing last year's win total. While it was nice for the Coogs finally to beat Rice -- which played a great game after a pathetic performance against a terrible Central Florida team -- just playing Rice actually lowered the Coogs RPI, dropping them to 54 (on RealTimeRPI). The Coogs remain in the hunt for an at-large bid, however, because they face Memphis on the road this weekend (a potential RPI booster), and will likely face Memphis if both teams win their first CUSA tourney games. The Coogs will need at least one win against Memphis and a first-round win to get in, and it may take more than that.
Texas A&M pulled off a surprising upset against Texas in College Station, but as I predicted on Tom Kirkendall's blog earlier, that win still wasn't enough to put them on the bubble. Their RealTimeRPI ranking jumped to 53, which still has them outside looking in. They won't face two teams as good as Memphis for the rest of the season (not in this year's Big 12), so Texas A&M will not be getting in the NCAA tourney unless they win their conference tournament. That seems less likely than UH pulling an upset of Memphis.
What seems most likely is an NIT matchup between UH and A&M over in College Station.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/01/06 22:26 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (0)
BLOG
» Create Account
» Log In
DISCLAIMER
Content and design copyright © 1997-2008, Kevin Whited.
Posts represent the views of Kevin Whited (and occasional guest bloggers) only, and do not necessarily reflect the views of employers, family, friends, or significant others.