Texas women's basketball cracks the national top five; is a Final Four to follow? | Bohls
While I got ya, here are nine things and one crazy prediction:
Where would they be with Rori Harmon?
1. Taking the fifth: The 22-3 Texas women’s basketball team has jumped up two spots in the national Top 25 poll and is now ranked No. 5. No one may be in the same stratosphere as unbeaten No. 1 South Carolina, but Texas’ lofty status clearly means Vic Schaefer’s Longhorns are on the lip of being Final Four-caliber, right? Schaefer had a little nervous laughter when I asked him that. “I don’t know what that suggests,” he said Monday. “I’m just proud of the kids. They’re doing it. I appreciate the respect and admiration from around the country but you’ve got to live it if you want to live in that top-five neighborhood.” He said competitors have to live out those “winning moments” every single day, whether it means brushing your teeth, eating a good breakfast, doing your homework, practicing hard. “The rent is due every day.”
More: Freshman guard Gisella Maul makes the case for more playing time as No. 7 Texas beats TCU
Expanding Vic Schaefer's coaching tree
2. Coach Gaston?: DeYona Gaston returns to her home roots for Texas’ date with Houston on Wednesday, and the injury-toughened senior center from Pearland has followed Schaefer to Mississippi State and then to Texas. Schaefer said his sister lives in Pearland and he was once rejected for a high school job there. Why? “The AD said I was too young and I drove too nice a car,” he said with a chuckle. “I had a Corvette (from his savings as the head of the swimming pool and swim team at Golfcrest Country Club). … Gaston, who was the No. 1 player in the 2020 recruiting class, will graduate in May and said she’d love to go into psychology work or be a coach. And coach more or less like Schaefer? “I want to be more like Vic Schaefer, but be better than Vic Schaefer,” she added. “But better than Vic Schaefer. And you can tell him I said that.”
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Hitching Texas' recruiting wagon to head west
3. Go east, young men: Steve Sarkisian hit on it briefly and couldn’t have been more accurate when he said last week that with the dissolution of the Pac-12, more West Coast talent likely will be available to football programs in the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12. And Sarkisian’s California roots as a former USC head coach and assistant and a BYU quarterback and new linebackers coach Johnny Nansen’s time at Arizona will only grease the wheel for more West Coast blue-chippers possibly showing up in Austin. Not all those players — or the parents of said players — will be interested in that massive travel to Big Ten destinations or, in the case of Stanford and Cal, ACC locales. Sarkisian has already made his mark with 15 scholarship recruits from the Pac-12 area, eight from California and three from Arizona. He also culled two from Hawaii and one each from Washington and Colorado. He’s lured talent like tailback Bijan Robinson (Arizona), tight end Gunnar Helm (Colorado) and offensive lineman Brandon Baker (California), punter Ryan Sanborn (California via Stanford), receiver DeAndre Moore (California) and offensive tackle Malik Agbo (Washington) and quarterback Maalik Murphy (California), who since transferred to Duke. With the Cardinal and Bears three time zones away from most ACC places, you half-wonder if that league should schedule some neutral-site conference games halfway in the neighborhood of new ACC member SMU and play games at Jerry World or Globe Life Field.
Golden: Uncle Eli has sage advice for Texas backup quarterback Arch Manning: be patient
In a Brady vs. Mahomes debate, give me Patrick Mahomes
4. Super Super Bowl?: I kind of thought it was a mess with all the penalties, fumbles, touched punt and bad plays, but it certainly had drama. And I salute Patrick Mahomes because he is sheer greatness. My kids worship Tom Brady, but I think with his legs, mobility, ability to prolong plays and deliver under pressure, Mahomes is better and will prove it before his career ends when he’s, what, 40? All in all, I thought it was an exciting but poorly played Super Bowl. … Shouldn’t Chris Jones have just as much right to the MVP award as Mahomes? He was so disruptive and never allowed Brock Purdy to feel comfortable. … Major props to Andy Reid, not only for winning repeat titles, but for not losing his cool when Travis Kelce lost his. Reid brushed off any controversy and said he loved his tight end’s passion as only Reid could. He has to be the ultimate players’ coach to let that go. That said, Kelce's behavior was horrendous and disrespectful. … Should we just dispense with all kickoffs and let offenses start at the 25? For the first time in Super Bowl history, not a single kickoff was returned. … My favorite commercial was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “neighbaa” ad with Danny DeVito the “backstabba,” but a close second was Ben Affleck’s Dunkin’ Donuts spot with the ubiquitous Tom Brady and Matt Damon, who uttered the perfect line, “How do you like those, uh, doughnuts.” Did you know the doughnut franchise sold out their entire inventory of $60 DunKings track suits in 19 minutes? In third was the audition gag with a juggling Bradley Cooper, a tearful Laura Dern and the dancing Mike and Harvey characters from “Suits.” The Uber Eats ad had great cameos, but I had no earthly idea what the ad had to do with the food delivery service. That always makes me wonder does the marketing really work if I remember only the humor or the celebrities and not the product or business itself? I know a lot of the pitch is about saturation of the market because after all do Coca-Cola and McDonald’s really need to advertise? But they do so to ensnare the younger demographic to get them hooked on sodas and Happy Meals.
One team's overtime performance was super, at least
5. OT was OK: Love the semi-new overtime rules allowing each team a possession, a change implemented in 2022. And we all knew when the 49ers failed to score a touchdown on their overtime possession, San Francisco was doomed. That was one of Kyle Shanahan’s many mistakes, taking the ball first in OT when he should have gone on defense to know exactly what he had to do offensively to win or tie the game. I did grasp his thought process because, if the teams matched scores after their first possessions, he wanted the ball for the third series to win it all. Problem was the third possession never came. Plus, Jones said the Chiefs had worked on overtime strategy all year long and during the two-week buildup to the game and would have gone for two to win it all had Kansas City and San Francisco both scored a touchdown. Several Niners, however, said they didn’t know the new rules. Say what? That’s on Shanahan. … Here’s my question: could the NFL new OT rule work in college? … I loved the fact the refs flagged Mahomes for intentional grounding even though Noah Gray was in the general vicinity. Hey, it’s a judgment call, just like pass interference. Let the refs determine when they think a quarterback truly is grounding the ball. In fact, the viewers all know if he is unloading the ball to avoid a sack.
More: Texas football has 11 players invited to NFL Draft scouting combine
Streaming is the future of all sports
6. Stream of money: You may have missed the news that Disney, ESPN, Fox and Warner Brothers announced a joint streaming service to bring you every sport from pro and college football to the PGA and tennis and UFC. If you’re wondering why in the world they’d take on this venture, know that the first NFL playoff game ever streamed drew 23 million viewers on Peacock. A whopping 42% of adults surveyed said they watched the game, and 48% of those didn’t have a Peacock subscription before that game. Yes, 30% said they did not watch out of principle. But streaming is the new additional revenue source, especially for the NFL, which clearly, uh, needs the money.
The SEC's about to get a whole lot richer
7. Big bucks: Speaking of money, the SEC announced late last week that it was distributing $741 million to its 14 schools, which comes out to $51.3 million apiece. With Texas and Oklahoma joining the league this July, that number will only grow. It’s just a matter of time until a Big Ten or SEC portions out $100M a year to each school. And that’s before Texas reaps one dime from a ticket-holder or sells a Coke or a Quinn Ewers jersey.
Casting a search net for Ron Gardenhire
8. Scattershooting: While wondering whatever happened to former Longhorns and Twins and Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire.
Meanwhile, from the greatest seat in the world ...
9. On the couch: The wife and I rented “Ferrari” recently and found it a compelling look into the complex character that is Enzo Ferrari and his trials and tribulations. Penelope Cruz crushes it in her best role as Ferrari’s wife, Laura. If you were looking for any remorse or compassion for the head of the Ferrari family, well played by the versatile Adam Driver, this isn’t the place to look. He had a son with his mistress, came off as cold and calculating and in the opening scene after the death of his top driver in a practice session on the track, turned to a driver looking for a job and told him, “Come see me in my office on Monday.” Gave it 7 ducks.
Is a threepeat in the cards for Kansas City? You bet.
Crazy prediction: Early pick to win Super Bowl LIX is the Chiefs over whomever, I’ll say the Packers, maybe the Lions. Why would I pick anyone else?
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas women's basketball is No. 5 and on the rise, but hard tests loom
