As many rounds as possible in 12 minutes of:
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7 One Arm DB Snatches LT - 50 lbs
3 Box Jumps @ 65% of 1 RM Box Jump
Post rounds completed
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DE Box Squat - GFY Crew
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A season in review.Virginia Tech's steady success through its first six years in the ACC was synonymous with nasty, unflappable defense, and the relationship generally hasn't been subject to the usual cycles of personnel and attrition. Even in a season when defensive coordinator Bud Foster welcomed back fewer than half the number of returning starters (four) as the Hokie offense (nine), the game plan didn't figure to change: The offense would look to pound away between the tackles about two-thirds of the time, confident the defense and special would keep the score within reach. The results of that philosophy – six straight 10-win seasons with three conference championships despite consistently dreadful offenses – speak for themselves.
There was no change in philosophy in 2010 – the Hokies ran on a little over 62 percent of their offensive snaps – or in the results: They won nine straight ACC games en route to the conference title and their third Orange Bowl bid in four years, finishing off the first perfect ACC record since eventual BCS champ Florida State went 8-0 in 1999. Yet again, Tech finished as the highest-ranked team in the conference in the final polls, for the seventh season in a row.
The balance of the latest run, though, was a little off, beginning with the rebuilding defense, by any measure the worst Foster unit since Virginia Tech defected to the ACC in 2004. The Hokies yielded more points (20.6 per game) on more yards (361.5) than at any point since they joined the conference and finished seventh against the run in the ACC alone, its usual perch in the national rankings. Boise State dropped 33 points on Tech to open the season, Stanford unloaded for 40 to close the season, and much of the ACC seemed to find the Hokie D uncharacteristically manageable in between.
In the meantime, the veteran offense was as advertised, in form and function. It remained a run-first affair, as always, with four different players – quarterback Tyrod Taylor and running backs Darren Evans, Ryan Williams and David Wilson – combining for 2,600 yards and 30 touchdowns on almost 40 carries per game, good for the No. 2 ground game in the ACC behind only the triple-option extremists at Georgia Tech. But the attack really blossomed with Taylor's underrated efficiency in the play-action game: He led the conference in passer rating, yards per attempt, yards per completion and completions covering at least 25 yards, cruising to Offensive Player of the Year honors as the captain of the highest-scoring offense in the league.
If that impact can boiled down to two sentences, it's this: Over six years from 2004-09, the Hokies won a grand total of seven games (and lost 15) in which they allowed at least 20 points. In 2010 alone, they won six games when opponents scored twenty. Somehow, Taylor flew under the national for failing to create a singed imprint of Michael Vick's face in the turf on a long, winding touchdown run or something, but he leaves Blacksburg with the five-star hype sufficiently fulfilled.
That leaves a gaping question mark for 2011, considering towering, 6-6/240-pound successor Logan Thomas has barely played and both Evans and Williams are on their way to the draft with two years of eligibility remaining apiece. You can almost hear entire sections of the playbook going back under lock and key from here. If you have to say goodbye to your best offense in a decade, though, at least there's a championship to ease the sting.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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Filed under: Texas A&M, Big 12
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- Jorge Brian Diaz scored 16 points and Nebraska held 13th-ranked Texas A&M to two field goals over the final 10 minutes in a 57-48 victory Saturday.
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At the end of 2010, Connecticut football was riding the wave: The Huskies were Big East champions for the first time after a five-game win streak to close the regular season, and on their way to the Fiesta Bowl for the biggest game in program history. I hope they got their money's worth, because 2011 has been one slap after another. Two days into the new year, UConn had already been blown out by Oklahoma in Glendale, bid its best player a fond farewell for the draft, and watched its longtime head coach – the same coach who'd overseen the program's transition from I-AA obscurity to BCS upstart over more than a decade – bolt for his "dream job" at another basketball school, Maryland, apparently without even meeting with the team.
But that pales in comparison to the six-page letter athletic director Jeff Hathaway received last week from booster Robert G. Burton, CEO of Greenwich, Conn.-based Burton Capital Management, over the hiring of former Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni to replace Randy Edsall. Burton's son, Michael, was a captain on Edsall's first UConn team in 1999, and his subsequent contributions to the football program come to $7 million, including $2.5 million in 2002 toward construction of the football complex that currently bears his name. And according to The Day of New London, Burton wants at least $3 million of it back – name included:
Burton informed UConn Athletic Director Jeff Hathaway of his intentions via a six-page letter dated Jan. 19, a copy of which was obtained by The Day. […]
"After we get our money back, you can take our name off the complex," wrote Burton, who also has a luxury box at Rentschler Field and who donated more than $1 million to endow two scholarships at the school.
Burton cited philosophical disagreements with Hathaway and his management style as reasons for his decision to end his involvement with UConn.
"The primary reason (former coach) Randy (Edsall) took another job is because he couldn't work with you," Burton wrote in the letter to Hathaway. "You are not qualified to be a Division I AD and I would have fired you a long time ago. You do not have the skills to manage and cultivate new donors."
According to the letter, Burton called Hathaway on Jan. 3 and asked to be "kept in the loop" with the hiring process for the next football coach. It was "the same process that (former Athletic Director) Lew Perkins had with me when Randy was hired."
Burton also wanted to "provide insight" about coaching candidates who he felt "would be a good fit."
Burton wrote that he didn't hear from Hathaway again until Jan. 13, when the process ended.
"I was not looking for veto power," Burton wrote. "Your lack of response on either of these requests tells me that you do not respect my point of view or value my opinion."
Burton reportedly didn't support the Pasqualoni hire, despite – or perhaps as a result of – having another son who played for Pasqualoni during the height of his success at Syracuse from 1997-2001 (aka "the Donovan McNabb Years"). Subsequently, he's threatened not only to revoke his donation, but also to give up his $50,000-per-year luxury suite ("You already have many other empty boxes at Rentschler. My box will just join the list."), cut off an annual $20,000 donation for summer coaching clinics, transfer all remaining scholarship dollars from football to the business school, and begin training "front line managers" for his company at Syracuse's business school instead.
All of that at a moment when donations to the UConn athletic department are reportedly down $9 million from five years ago. At least Burton didn't threaten to drop a bomb on Hathaway's office, although the end result if he follows through may not be all that different.
Let this be a lesson for aspiring athletic directors, and managers in all fields, really: When considering major decisions, always, always value the opinion of the guy whose name is on one of the buildings you go to work in. Otherwise, there won't be any more buildings anytime soon, and even if there are, you're not going to be working in them.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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LAS VEGAS -- New Mexico senior guard Dairese Gary was a part of Mountain West Conference regular season championship teams each of the last two seasons.
Admitting that he probably won't be part of a third before his college career is done was tough to accept following Saturday's wild, mistake-ridden 63-62 loss at UNLV, which dropped the Lobos to 1-4 in the league.
"It's tough trying to come from a deficit like that, especially in a league like ours, with a lot of good teams," he said. "Right now, I don't know if we're even thinking about a conference title anymore."
He's probably right, as San Diego State and BYU continue to blitz through their respective league schedules still without a loss.
The bigger question on everyone's mind is: Will the Lobos even make it back to the NCAA tournament after returning three starters and several more key pieces from a team that was a 3-seed last March?
"I'm sure that's in a lot of people's minds, especially mine, being a senior," Gary continued. "I want the season to go on as long as possible, but you can't think that far ahead or you will lose and go down the wrong path."
The problem for fourth-year coach Steve Alford and his club, though, is that they've already been down the wrong path for about a month now.
Since a 10-1 start, the Lobos have gone 3-6, and have two bad road losses in MWC play already, falling on a buzzer-beater at Wyoming and by 10 on Wednesday night at Utah. They're 13-7 overall with the only victories coming close to qualifying right now as 'good wins' being at Colorado and home over Colorado State.
In other words, the résumé looks like swiss cheese at the moment.
Things might only get worse for New Mexico, who still has to face BYU twice and play road games at CSU and SDSU.
So what's behind this collapse? Lets take a closer look …
• The Lobos returned a lot this season, but did lose two of its three key pieces from last year's squad in MWC Player of the Year Darington Hobson (early NBA draft entry) and 6-foot-6 3-point gunner/über-leader/glue guy Roman Martinez.
• UNM's top returner — Gary — is playing hurt, but that's been the case for the bulk of his career in Albuquerque. The added problem this season has been inconsistency for the Indiana-bred, hand-picked point guard Alford brought in before his first season at UNM. Still the MWC's best lead guard not named Jimmer Fredette is averaging a career-worst 2.7 turnovers per game, including a couple of big ones in the second half against UNLV.
• It's tough to tell if there are chemistry issues, but UCLA transfer Drew Gordon hasn't quite been the difference-maker many around the league thought he would be in terms of wins. He's producing and is the best non-Aztec big man in the conference, but since he became eligible after the fall semester, the Lobos are now 5-6.
New Mexico does have one advantage, if you can believe that, moving forward, and that's its home venue — The Pit.
In a league with many intimidating gyms for visitors to visit, New Mexico owns the toughest. Still, winning out at home would only put the Lobos at 18 wins entering the conference tournament. They're 0-3 so far on the road in the league, and might have a tough time winning more than one or two of their remaining away games.
That said, without either winning the MWC tourney in Las Vegas or an out-of-nowhere hot streak through the rest of the regular season slate, Gary's strong UNM career could have an unfortunate ending in the NIT.
Ryan Greene covers UNLV and the Mountain West Conference for the Las Vegas Sun. Follow him on Twitter.
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Even though Florida has a shooting guard who had 24 points and a small forward with a penchant for burying clutch shots, there was no doubt who coach Billy Donovan wanted to have the ball Tuesday trailing by three late in overtime.
That was point guard Erving Walker.
Florida's 5-foot-8 point guard zoomed up-court, pulled up from way beyond the arc to avoid giving Georgia the chance to foul and buried a 30-footer with one second left to force a second overtime. The Gators didn't waste their unexpected new life, pulling away for a comfortable 104-91 victory.
If early upsets against the likes of Central Florida and Jacksonville suggested Florida lacked the consistency to fulfill its preseason hype, the Gators (16-4, 5-1) are finally playing like a team capable of winning the SEC. They've won eight of nine games to take over sole possession of first place in the rugged SEC East.
Walker's overtime heroics were important for his psyche because he had to atone for a pair of missed free throws in the final 35 seconds of regulation that helped spark an improbable Georgia comeback. The Bulldogs rallied from eight points down in the last three minutes of regulation, tying it on a buzzer beater of their own when big man Trey Thompkins banked in a missed shot just before the horn.
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It's not exactly breaking news with the early departures of stars Cam Newton and Nick Fairley that Auburn's championship band is splitting up in spectacular fashion after one surprising, frenzied push to the top. Leave it to unrivaled stat head Phil Steele, though, to put in perspective just how much of the championship team is leaving the Plains: With just seven starters coming back in 2011, the Tigers have fewer returning starters than any other team in the country. That's not fewest in the SEC or fewest of the major conferences. In terms of front-line experience, the '11 Tigers will be 120th out of 120.
(In case you're counting, those seven are running back Michael Dyer, fullback/tight end Phil Lutzenkirchen, tackle Brandon Mosley, defensive lineman Nosa Eguae, linebacker Daren Bates, cornerback Neiko Thorpe and safety Mike McNeil. You can also include oft-used running back Onterio McCalebb and receiver Emory Blake to bring the number to nine, and it would still be the skimpiest returning lineup in the country by Steele's count.)
Of course, the biggest stars, Newton and Fairley, were both first-year starters in 2010 themselves. But you don't pull All-American, top-10 draft picks off your bench every year, and most of the supporting cast had been around the block: Seven offensive starters against Oregon in the BCS Championship Game were seniors playing their final game, along with seven more starters on defense. That number includes four-fifths of the offensive line and five members of the defensive front seven (not including Fairley), leaving exactly one returning starter on each line: Mosley on offense and Eguae on defense.
Altogether, the Tigers will defend their championship in the fall minus their leading passer, leading rusher, two of their top four receivers, four starting offensive linemen, their top two pass rushers and four of their top five tacklers – an unprecedented exodus for a championship team in the BCS era. In broader sports terms, that makes the Tigers the amateur equivalent of the 1997 Florida Marlins.
College football doesn't lend itself to that kind of attrition en masse, but the track record of teams that have suffered a major, one-time exodus after a championship or near-championship season over the last decade aren't exactly encouraging:
• Florida State (2001): The Seminoles, losers to Oklahoma in their bid to repeat as BCS champions in 2000, sent off Heisman-winning quarterback Chris Weinke, as well as their leading rusher (Travis Minor), leading receiver (Marvin Minnis), three starting offensive lineman and eight starters on defense, five of whom were drafted in the first three rounds. Old habits dies hard enough that the '01 'Noles opened at No. 6 in the AP poll, but subsequently dropped four games en route to the Gator Bowl, ending a nine-year run atop the ACC and a 13-year run with at least 10 wins and a top-five finish at season's end. A decade later, FSU is still yet to renew the streak.
• USC (2006): The exodus from the explosive outfit that fell just short of its second straight BCS championship in 2005 would have been enough to cripple almost any other team for the foreseeable future: A staggering 11 Trojans went in the '06 draft, including Heisman headliners Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush, the first of six offensive starters off the board in the first three rounds alone. In USC's case, though, all nine returning starters were All-Pac-10 picks in '05, and took the Trojans back within an eleventh-hour flop at UCLA of another championship trip the following fall. By the end of the year, the '06 lineup featured eight future draft picks who weren't listed as starters at the beginning of the season, not including backup quarterback Mark Sanchez.
• Penn State (2006): The Nittany Lions may be the best analogy for Auburn's run in 2010, featuring a star quarterback who came out of nowhere in his only season as a starter (Michael Robinson), an overwhelmingly senior-laden offensive line and a dominating defensive lineman (Tamba Hali) at the head of a soon-to-be dismantled defense that lost the entire starting secondary and all but one member of the front four. The Lions went from back-to-back losing records in 2003-04 to Big Ten champions in 2005, finishing third in the final polls, and returned immediately to the fringes with just nine returning starters in '06.
• Florida (2007): Not many championship teams can count on improving offensively after replacing a four-year starter with a true sophomore in a lineup that lost half its starters, but even Tim Tebow's Heisman-winning effort for the SEC's No. 1 offense in '07 couldn't overcome the growing pains of a defense replacing nine starters, seven of them draft picks. Even stocked with future draft picks itself, the spanking-new Gator D couldn't prevent four losses in a transition year between the plucky '06 champs and the juggernauts of 2008-09.
• Hawaii (2008): The Warriors' 12-0 Sugar Bowl run in 2007 yielded one of the most prolific offenses of the decade, virtually all of which hopped the first flight out of the islands when it was over – including June Jones, who followed his record-breaking quarterback, Colt Brennan, and top receivers to the mainland to take over as head coach at SMU. The defense also lost most of its starters, plunging UH from the greatest season in school history to a losing record in '08, with almost three full touchdowns per game on the board.
• Texas (2010): The numbers aren't as overwhelming, but the impact of the departures from the '09 BCS runner-up – quarterback Colt McCoy, his best receiver (Jordan Shipley), three starting offensive linemen, the Big 12's best pass rusher (Sergio Kindle), the leading tackler (Roddrick Muckelroy) and the best playmaker on defense (Earl Thomas) – added up to a disaster on every front last year, by far the worst of Mack Brown's tenure in Austin. Considering the expectations, the resulting collapse may exceed the implosions at Tennessee, Michigan and Notre Dame as the most spectacular in recent memory.
So precedent is a mixed bag. No defending BCS champion has ever opened the following season outside of the top 10 in the preseason polls; the closest a championship-caliber team has come to that kind of fall, in fact, was Auburn in 2005, which dropped all the way to 16th in the preseason AP poll after losing the core of its uncrowned, 13-0 team in 2004. (The Tigers finished 14th in '05 with a 9-3 record.) As far as actual results, only two defending BCS champs, Florida in 2007 and LSU a year later, have dropped more than three games the year after winning the title, and only the '08 Tigers fell out of the polls altogether.
The early line on 2011 has Auburn falling anywhere from 14th to nearly out of the polls altogether in the wake of their great departure, typically coming in somewhere in the mid-teens. Vegas is even less optimistic, especially with Alabama and LSU loading up for their own title runs in an intensely competitive division. A pair of back-to-back, top-10 recruiting classes eases the pain somewhat, but if the Tigers are going to count on that kind of youth movement filling the most massive gaps ever experienced by a defending BCS champ, just holding fast in the top 20 – or the top half of the SEC West – will be a more than respectable encore.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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The NFL's final, official list of underclassmen declaring for the upcoming draft contains 56 names, a record number of early entrants in one draft class despite the looming lockout that threatens to put the 2011 season at risk. Some of them are certain first or second-rounders, guaranteed millions with long careers in front of them; some have nothing to gain by coming back; some are driven by other motives entirely. And at least eight of them make no apparent sense whatsoever:• DeAndre Brown, WR, Southern Miss. Brown was a mega-hyped, five-star recruit in 2008, and looked every bit the NFL-bound star that fall as 6-foot-5, 225-pound freshman All-American with 1,117 yards and 12 touchdowns to his name. But if Brown ever fully recovered from the grisly broken leg he suffered in the '08 New Orleans Bowl, he still hasn't demonstrated it in a game. He missed all of seven games in 2010 to some combination of injuries and extended stays in the coaches' doghouse, and was largely absent from most of the others, finishing with just 19 catches on an offense that did just fine without him. If the pros are still willing to take a chance on his size and potential, he's going to have to deliver some face-melting workouts to move into first five rounds.
• Nick Claytor, OL, Georgia Tech. Claytor started 10 games at tackle in his first season as a regular starter for an option offense, and, well, there you go. His "drive to be great" may earn Claytor a phone call at some point in the final round, but probably not any sooner.
• Tori Gurley, WR, South Carolina. Gurley's towering, 6-4, 235-pound frame may get him picked in the sixth round or so, but he only played for two years after redshirting in 2008 and was vastly overshadowed by teammate Alshon Jeffery in both of them.
• Dion Lewis, RB, Pittsburgh. Lewis is not only well below the NFL standard at 5-7, 195 pounds: After a breakout season as the nation's leading rusher in 2009, he was already showing signs of significantly diminished returns in '10 in his second season as the Panthers' top back. In fact, he didn't even qualify for that title for the vast majority of the year – it took about three weeks for everybody's All-American to begin yielding the majority of carries to fellow sophomore Ray Graham, who outrushed his more celebrated backfield mate 492 yards to 143 in September, with three straight 100-yard efforts. Graham, not Lewis, was still the Panthers' leading rusher entering the regular season finale at Cincinnati, on almost two full yards more per carry than their forgotten star.
Lewis finished strong with a career day against the Bearcats and another 100-yard effort against Kentucky in the bowl game to push him over 1,000 for the season, but that's not likely to get him into the top four rounds.
• Javes Lewis, DB, Oregon. Lewis also lost his starting job after a promising 2009 campaign, only he didn't get it back. John Boyett started all but one game (against I-AA Portland State) in Lewis' old free safety spot, relegating Lewis to nickel and garbage time sets, and likely to the ranks of he undrafted in April.
• Zane Parr, DE, Virginia. At least Parr was a key cog for one of the ACC's most porous defense, starting every game as a junior with two exciting sacks at Duke. But he will be very, very lucky to be selected at all in the draft.
• Stevan Ridley, RB, LSU. Ridley was a first-team All-SEC pick by conference coaches, one of only two backs (not including Auburn quarterback Cam Newton) over 1,000 yards on the ground in the regular season and may have some academic issues. But LSU tried in vain to persuade him to stay for a central role in an SEC and possible BCS championship run under a new offensive coordinator in the fall, and his subpar speed is likely to drop Ridley out of the first three rounds, at best. Assuming he'd be eligible, he could have set his sights on a championship and still been the 14th running back off the board a year from now.
• Sealver Siliga, DT, Utah. Siliga was a nondescript plugger on a generally nondescript defense, ending his three-year career on the Ute defensive line with 2.5 sacks and 11 tackles for loss. He picked up a vote of two last year for the All-Mountain West team. He'd probably headed for free agency. Godspeed.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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The NFL's final, official list of underclassmen declaring for the upcoming draft contains 56 names, a record number of early entrants in one draft class despite the looming lockout that threatens to put the 2011 season at risk. Some of them are certain first or second-rounders, guaranteed millions with long careers in front of them; some have nothing to gain by coming back; some are driven by other motives entirely. And at least eight of them make no apparent sense whatsoever:• DeAndre Brown, WR, Southern Miss. Brown was a mega-hyped, five-star recruit in 2008, and looked every bit the NFL-bound star that fall as 6-foot-5, 225-pound freshman All-American with 1,117 yards and 12 touchdowns to his name. But if Brown ever fully recovered from the grisly broken leg he suffered in the '08 New Orleans Bowl, he still hasn't demonstrated it in a game. He missed all of seven games in 2010 to some combination of injuries and extended stays in the coaches' doghouse, and was largely absent from most of the others, finishing with just 19 catches on an offense that did just fine without him. If the pros are still willing to take a chance on his size and potential, he's going to have to deliver some face-melting workouts to move into first five rounds.
• Nick Claytor, OL, Georgia Tech. Claytor started 10 games at tackle in his first season as a regular starter for an option offense, and, well, there you go. His "drive to be great" may earn Claytor a phone call at some point in the final round, but probably not any sooner.
• Tori Gurley, WR, South Carolina. Gurley's towering, 6-4, 235-pound frame may get him picked in the sixth round or so, but he only played for two years after redshirting in 2008 and was vastly overshadowed by teammate Alshon Jeffery in both of them.
• Dion Lewis, RB, Pittsburgh. Lewis is not only well below the NFL standard at 5-7, 195 pounds: After a breakout season as the nation's leading rusher in 2009, he was already showing signs of significantly diminished returns in '10 in his second season as the Panthers' top back. In fact, he didn't even qualify for that title for the vast majority of the year – it took about three weeks for everybody's All-American to begin yielding the majority of carries to fellow sophomore Ray Graham, who outrushed his more celebrated backfield mate 492 yards to 143 in September, with three straight 100-yard efforts. Graham, not Lewis, was still the Panthers' leading rusher entering the regular season finale at Cincinnati, on almost two full yards more per carry than their forgotten star.
Lewis finished strong with a career day against the Bearcats and another 100-yard effort against Kentucky in the bowl game to push him over 1,000 for the season, but that's not likely to get him into the top four rounds.
• Javes Lewis, DB, Oregon. Lewis also lost his starting job after a promising 2009 campaign, only he didn't get it back. John Boyett started all but one game (against I-AA Portland State) in Lewis' old free safety spot, relegating Lewis to nickel and garbage time sets, and likely to the ranks of he undrafted in April.
• Zane Parr, DE, Virginia. At least Parr was a key cog for one of the ACC's most porous defense, starting every game as a junior with two exciting sacks at Duke. But he will be very, very lucky to be selected at all in the draft.
• Stevan Ridley, RB, LSU. Ridley was a first-team All-SEC pick by conference coaches, one of only two backs (not including Auburn quarterback Cam Newton) over 1,000 yards on the ground in the regular season and may have some academic issues. But LSU tried in vain to persuade him to stay for a central role in an SEC and possible BCS championship run under a new offensive coordinator in the fall, and his subpar speed is likely to drop Ridley out of the first three rounds, at best. Assuming he'd be eligible, he could have set his sights on a championship and still been the 14th running back off the board a year from now.
• Sealver Siliga, DT, Utah. Siliga was a nondescript plugger on a generally nondescript defense, ending his three-year career on the Ute defensive line with 2.5 sacks and 11 tackles for loss. He picked up a vote of two last year for the All-Mountain West team. He'd probably headed for free agency. Godspeed.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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Filed under: Florida, Mississippi State, SEC
STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) -- Dee Bost scored 24 points, Kodi Augustus and Renardo Sidney each added 16, and Mississippi State beat No. 24 Florida 71-64 Saturday.
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As lackluster as Reeves Nelson's zero-point, five-foul performance against Oregon was last Saturday, give the UCLA forward credit for wasting no time atoning for it.
Nelson had a career-high 24 points including the game-winning tip-in with 2.2 seconds remaining on Thursday night as the Bruins thwarted a furious late rally from Cal and emerged with a badly needed 86-84 victory.
"I didn't really look at it as an opportunity for redemption," Nelson told the Los Angeles Times. "I'm not perfect and everybody has an off game, so I was going to come out and do what I normally do, and it worked out for me."
The final bucket came after UCLA had squandered leads of 15 points midway through the second half and eight points with less than a minute remaining. Cal freshman guard Allen Crabbe sparked the late charge, scoring 13 of his 17 points after UCLA's Malcolm Lee fouled out with 3:20 to go, including a game-tying 3-pointer with 10 seconds left in the game.
That paved the way for Nelson to extend UCLA's winning streak to three and give the Bruins some separation on the crowded middle of the Pac-10 standings. Nelson met no resistance as he sprinted down the lane from beyond the 3-point arc and tipped Tyler Honeycutt's errant turnaround jumper off the glass and in.
Part of the reason Cal was able to rally was an injury that mammoth center Joshua Smith sustained when he hit his head on the floor trying to draw a first-half charge. Smith sat out the final 29 minutes of the game, leaving a huge void in the middle of the UCLA defense.
What made the hustle play from Nelson even more significant for UCLA is that it was he who made it. The sophomore forward has drawn criticism from Bruins fans for taking plays off and not competing hard enough, so it was important that his extra effort resulted in a game-saving bucket.
"I'm really excited that Reeves is the one that tipped that in," UCLA coach Ben Howland told reporters after the game. "For him to get that tip, to not give up, to not quit, to run the floor and get that play, that was exciting."
Confirming months of speculation, former starting quarterback Tate Forcier formally announced his departure from Michigan just after midnight this morning in a series of tweets that amounted to a full press release. On both fronts, he was fulfilling something of a family tradition: Before Tate, his older brother, Jason, transferred from Ann Arbor after being passed for the starting job by true freshman Chad Henne in 2004, and his other brother, Chris, announced his exit from UCLA in 2009 in one of the most bizarre press releases of the last decade, issued through the Forcier family website, www.QBForce.com.In fact, though Tate's "Dear John" letter to Michigan is shorter, cleaner and mercifully free of the blow-by-blow recap of recruiting accolades that cluttered up his brother's farewell to UCLA, the two efforts are remarkably similar in . Which Forcier parting shot sent its author off with the most aplomb, or least lack thereof? Let's go to the tape…
• Awkward rhetorical flourish.
Chris: Instead of conventional paragraphs, delivered statement as a succession of "Facts," with each new graf preceded by the word "FACT," even for such non-falsifiable statements as, "I believe my UCLA teammates respect me."
Tate: Opened statement with the rhetorical question, "Why do we all wait until we are at our lowest point to seek God’s help?"
Advantage: Chris. How can you trust anything that's not introduced right up front as fact?
• Melodramatic description of routine adversity.
Chris: "Fact: New QB Coach Norm Chow and New Head Coach Rick Neuheisel have brought in and played since day (1) their own guys (Quarterbacks) i.e. Kevin Craft. … Fact: In late February New QB Coach Norm Chow told me that the younger guys would get most of the QB reps in Spring Ball."
Tate: "I’ve been kicked, pushed, knocked down, publicly berated, belittled, emasculated and more."
Advantage: Tate. Everyone faces competition for their job, but few are forced to go through a regimen of actual physical torture.
• Positioning oneself as a victim in the process of denying victimhood.
Chris: "Fact: This is a pattern nationally. When New Coaches come in, they recruit their own guys, especially at the quarterback position. It's just like the corporate world, New Owners bring in New Management. With that being said, I do not fault them."
Tate: "There are plenty of legitimate reasons to give up or feel the victim. The humility of it all is indescribable and that is exactly my point. I had to reach rock bottom in order to see the light, and for that, I am thankful. It was not until then, I realized that it was my lack of accountability and maturity and not to pass blame."
Advantage: Chris. Corporate analogies and Random Capitalization are the Secret Keys of driving home any Argument.
• Example of hard work and commitment.
Chris: "Fact: I've always worked hard in the classroom as a student athlete where I've been recognized as a UCLA Honor Roll student. … Fact: I've competed hard in games and on the practice field, in film and meetings where I've always come prepared, attentive, always taking notes."
Tate: "I can proudly state, "I worked hard on the practice field, in the film room and at meetings" after all, football is my passion."
Advantage: Chris. For at least mentioning the "student" part.
• Example of sacrifice for the team.
Chris: "Fact: I've always been a 'team player' and have done what has been asked of me. Including but not limited to practicing WR in this years spring ball. Not to be confused with moving permanently to the position as it was again inaccurately reported."
Tate: "I even competed hard while injured as a true freshman through the last (8) games in 2009, but I always played the game giving it my all."
Advantage: Tate. Again, he was hurt, man.
• Fondest memory.
Chris: "Fact: I was practice player of the week as a freshman multiple times."
Tate: "I had fun celebrating with the fans."
Advantage: Tate. You talkin' about practice, Chris?
• Expression of ultimate, enduring love for the university.
Chris: "Fact: I'm a life long UCLA Fan. I love UCLA Football. Most Bruin fans have been very supportive/good people."
Tate: "I am proud to have been part of Michigan Football history and will always cherish the memory. […] Tate Forcier #5 - A Michigan Man Forever - Go Blue."
Advantage: Chris. He's talking straight to the people, man, cuz he's one of them.
• Fleeting glimpse of festering grievance at the core of the entire exercise.
Chris: "In 2007, I was (1) of the top (7) Quarterbacks in the country. However, none of that matters unless there is true opportunity to compete afforded."
Tate: "The last few weeks I worked extremely hard to catch back up. I really wanted to stay. I was not giving up on Michigan, but in the end, it was made clear they had given up on me."
Advantage: Chris. It always helps to back up arguments with statistics.
• Parting shot.
Chris: "Fact: I have reached my decision 'Furman University' Greenville, South Carolina. … Fact: I like and believe in Head Coach Bobby Lamb's system and style. I am looking forward to the challenges at Furman University. … Fact: I would like to wear #7 as I did in High School at Saint Augustine in San Diego, California. … Fact: I want to be part of the 'Greatness of Fuhman University' academic's."
Tate: "With that being said, its time for me to go. I promise the Michigan family and fans I will make you proud again."
Advantage: Tate. Obviously.
Verdict: The older brother comes out slightly ahead, but in fairness to Tate, it may be another generation before anyone in any family tops the tour du Forcier Chris dropped on the college football world two years ago. There are no losers here.
Well, except the English teachers who attempted to teach these guys how to write and the copy editors who had to print their statements verbatim. What this family really needs is someone with a P.R. degree.
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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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Even before the final possession of Saturday night's matchup with Northern Colorado, Weber State's Scott Bamforth had an inkling he was going to win the game for the Wildcats.
"I promise you. I'm about to make this shot," the sophomore guard boldly told two Northern Colorado players.
Bamforth delivered on his promise even though the Wildcats trailed by two and needed to go the length of the floor in 2.4 seconds. He took the inbound pass, pulled up just across midcourt and buried a contested 40-footer to hand Big Sky-leading Northern Colorado its first conference loss and lift Weber State to a 72-71 victory.
The improbable shot from Bamforth provided a rare bright spot in an otherwise disappointing season for Weber State. A season-ending injury to conference player of the year contender Damian Lillard back in mid-December has sent the Wildcats (10-9, 4-4) tumbling back to the middle of the league, an unfamiliar position for a program accustomed to winning conference titles.
Bamforth and Lindsey Hughley have picked up the slack for Lillard, but Saturday's win was the first sign that Weber State can compete with the top teams in the Big Sky this season. The Wildcats had lost by 19 to both first-place Northern Colorado and second-place Montana in their previous meetings.
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Three Northern Iowa students with a unhealthy appreciation for techno music and way too much time on their hands have spawned one of the more bizarre new traditions of the basketball season.
It's called the Interlude dance, a spastic semi-choreographed dance routine that the Northern Iowa student section has begun performing at games this season.
According to The Northern Iowa student newspaper, upperclassmen Ian Goldsmith, Scott Connerly and Tyler Wright created the dance, taught their friends and persuaded the university's athletic department to allow fans to perform it during games. Oddly enough the dance has inexplicably taken off, as can be seen from the above video shot during the Panthers' 71-66 victory over Creighton on Wednesday night.
In an effort to teach as many students the dance as possible, the how-to video is available on YouTube and the Northern Iowa Athletics Facebook page. There are six simple steps, everything from the handclap to the fist pump to the ninja robot.
In theory, students from other schools could incorporate the Interlude dance into their basketball gameday experience. More likely than not, however, this is a tradition that will remain uniquely Northern Iowa's.
(Thanks, Hot Clicks)
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Boxing out the shooter isn't typically that important when he's taking a 3-pointer, but Georgia's Travis Leslie has a habit of defying conventional rules.
When the right-wing three Leslie attempted in the second half against Tennessee felt long out of his hands, the springy Georgia guard instinctually headed straight toward the rim to follow his own shot. Leslie encountered so little resistance from the Vols that he was able to catch his own miss in midair and flush it home for a two-handed tip dunk.
Whether it's this memorable transition slam on DeMarcus Cousins last season or this nasty windmill dunk from earlier this season against Notre Dame, Leslie has earned a reputation as one of college basketball's must-see dunkers. The dunk itself wasn't one of Leslie's best on Tuesday night, but the degree of difficulty on the entire sequence as a whole was impressive to say the least.
Leslie's effort was enough to capture the attention of one of his SEC peers at the very least. Wrote Florida forward Chandler Parsons on Twitter, "My boy Travis Leslie really just dunked tipped his own three. Dude is a freak."
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If Xavier goes on to capture its fifth straight Atlantic 10 regular season title this year, the Musketeers may remember the final two seconds of Saturday's first half at Richmond as one of the sequences that put them over the top.
Xavier led by just with the first-half clock ticking down when Tu Holloway pulled up from the left wing, shot-faked and drew a three-shot foul on Richmond guard Darien Brothers with 1.3 seconds to go. Then after a Spiders turnover gave the ball back to the Musketeers, Holloway inbounded the ball off Dan Geriot's back and laid it in at the buzzer to out of nowhere push Xavier's lead to seven.
"It gave us great momentum going into the half," Chris Mack said by phone after the game. "Obviously we knew there was a lot of basketball to be played, but we felt like those two plays really sum up Tu's IQ for the game. To be able to draw a foul and then to have the presence of mind to throw the ball off the defenders back and finish in 1.3 seconds, he's a special player."
The confidence boost from those two plays from Holloway helped Xavier turn a hotly contested Atlantic 10 showdown into a surprisingly lopsided 85-62 rout. Despite being down to just seven healthy scholarship players as a result of roster turnover and a flurry of early injuries, the Musketeers (15-5, 7-0) have a half-game lead on second-place Duquesne and at least a two-game cushion on everybody else.
The primary reason Xavier managed to win so convincingly at Richmond was a virtuoso performance from Holloway, who merits more All-American attention than he has received up to this point.
Holloway scored a career-high 33 points, dished out five assists, grabbed seven rebounds and converted all 17 of his free throw attempts. Not a single Richmond defender had any success keeping Xavier's 6-foot junior point guard from penetrating the lane and getting to the rim as he had 14 straight second-half points at one point.
"He had one of the better individual efforts I've ever seen as a coach," Mack said. "He has such a knack for drawing fouls and finishing through contact. Today was a banner day for him and for our team."
It would have been difficult to predict this seven-game win streak from Xavier after the Musketeers lost by 20 at rival Cincinnati on Jan. 6.
The Musketeers entered conference play amid whispers that a 10th NCAA tournament berth in 11 years might be too daunting a goal to achieve. Between sharpshooter Brad Redford's season-ending knee injury, swingman Jay Canty's stress fracture in his right foot and top recruit Justin Martin's academic woes, Xavier has no perimeter players available off its bench and has leaned heavily on its stars.
While 13.6 points per game in A-10 play from 7-footer Kenny Frease and consistent production from Mark Lyons and Jamel Mclean have helped, Holloway has been the centerpiece of the turnaround. He's averaging 20.5 points per game and shooting a career-high 44.9 percent from the field, all while logging a ridiculous 38.4 minutes a game as a result of Xavier's lack of bench.
"If you had asked me before the season started if I thought Tu would be this special of a player, I don't know if I could have said yes," Mack said. "What he's done the past two months has been remarkable. He's had to do it playing almost every single minute."
The departure of last year's stars Jason Love and Jordan Crawford appeared to turn this into a potential transition year for Xavier, yet the Musketeers have responded to adversity and established themselves as contenders yet again.
They're done with Temple and Richmond for the remainder of the regular season now, just another reason Xavier should feel good about its chances to hang a fifth straight Atlantic 10 championship banner.
"Today's win only counts as one game, but we knew who Richmond was coming in," Mack said. "They're one of the premier teams in our conference, a veteran team with four seniors in its starting lineup, a team that's very hard to play against. This should give us a boost of confidence going forward."
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Making the morning rounds.
• Eh, we'll believe it when we see it. Mack Brown went on ESPN's "College Football Live" Thursday and declared Texas' starting quarterback job "wide open this spring" under an overhauled offensive coaching staff, a pronouncement that was met with a resounding "meh": The few local and national outlets that bothered to mention it would all be "shocked" to see anyone other than incumbent Garrett Gilbert emerge atop the depth chart again, in part because he can't be any worse than he was in his first season as a starter – if backups Connor Wood and Case McCoy couldn't even get on the field with the wheels careening off en route to a last-place finish in the Big 12 South, a revamped staff probably isn't going to help their chances. Orangebloods.com, Shaggy Bevo]
The talk in Austin Thursday was dominated instead by a 17-year-old, hyped offensive line commit Christian Westerman, whose longtime pledge to the Longhorns is suddenly in jeopardy. [Austin American-Statesman]
• Leach won't back down. Former Texas Tech head coach/spread passing guru/radio host/soon-to-be author/pirate savant Mike Leach told Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel he was only contacted by one school with a head coaching opening this winter, Maryland, despite his solid resumé after a decade in Lubbock. The obvious stumbling blocks are Leach's pending lawsuits against Texas Tech, ESPN and analyst/disgruntled father Craig James over the network's coverage of Leach's controversial exit from Tech for whatever it was that happened to James' son in December 2009, which Leach admits has "limited my market." But he also refuses to let bygones be bygones for the sake of a new job: "First of all, I didn't do anything wrong, and the depositions clearly reveal that," he said. "The fact that I'm trying to get paid for the last year I worked, the fact I'm in litigation to collect what's mine, doesn't affect my ability to coach and doesn't impact another institution in any way." [Sports Illustrated]
• Nothing to see here. Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs emphasized again Thursday that Cam Newton's father, Cecil, didn't violate a mutual agreement with the school when he showed up at the BCS Championship Game earlier this month, because he was only in the stadium after the game: "My understanding is he actually came in after the game was over for the celebration," Jacobs said. "Now, I haven't spoken to Mr. Newton. But based on what his attorney said, that's my understanding. As far as I'm concerned, he didn't go against anything we mutually agreed upon."
Though not technically banned from the premises, the elder Newton had reportedly agreed to keep his distance in the wake of the NCAA's verdict that he'd committed a recruiting violation by working with a quasi-agent to "actively market [Cam Newton] as part of a pay-for-play scenario" at Mississippi State, for which he was ordered to have "limited access" to the program at Auburn. At any rate, Cecil wasn't at the game on Auburn's dime. [Birmingham News]
• Hawkeyes under the wheels of justice. Former Iowa player Cedric Everson faces up to 30 days in jail after being convicted Thursday of misdemeanor assault, a minor victory considering he initially faced multiple sexual assault charges stemming from a dorm room incident in 2007 that could have landed him a sentence of up to 25 years. [Des Moines Register]
Another ex-Hawkeye, outgoing receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, also caught a legal break this week when prosecutors dropped the most serious charge, keeping a drug house, stemming from Johnson-Koulianos' arrest at his home last month. He still faces misdemeanor charges for possession of cocaine, marijuana and various other substances. [Des Moines Register]
• In the fold. Georgia was Thursday's recruiting winner, picking up a pair of commitment from hyped Valdosta, Ga., teammates Malcolm Mitchell (right, via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) and Jay Rome, both of whom are ranked among Rivals' top 100 incoming prospects in the country. Rome drove 80 miles with his family and head coach to tape record an announcement in Florida for ESPNU's "Recruiting Insider"; Mitchell kept it local, announcing his choice live over four radio stations from a "packed" buffet off I-75. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
Oh, and if you're waiting to hear a decision from top-ranked South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, well, keep waiting. [USA Today, Rivals]
Quickly… Auburn preps for this weekend's national championship celebration in Jordan-Hare Stadium, and – fingers crossed – Cam Newton may actually be in attendance. … Arkansas releases plans for a $35 million, 80,000-square foot football center, populated by ghosts. … UConn running back Lyle McCombs kicks off the 2011 Fulmer Cup with a pair of misdemeanor marijuana charges. … Former Florida (and current Cincinnati Bengals) defensive end Carlos Dunlap is back in school in Gainesville, pursuing his degree. … Marvin Austin tries to rehab his reputation at the East-West Shrine Bowl. … Texas independence is an idea whose time has come, for at least the tenth consecutive year. … And Jim Tressel does his best impression of a 1987 B-Boy.
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Tressel hat tip: @elevenwarriors.
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.
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