Catching Up!

A lot happened in the world of sports while I was gone to Panama. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order, on the happenings of the last week.

Kansas Wins Big 12

Kansas and Texas tied for the Big 12 regular season title so it is only fitting that they played in the championship game of the Big 12 tournament. Anyone who is a real man would have put it all on the line and said, “this one is for all the marbles.”

Of course Texas fans are going to say that they won the regular season match-up and therefore should be given the regular season title. Again Texas showed that they are not a deep team and they failed to show up for a big game. This would scare me going into the Big Dance if I were a Longhorn fan, but I’m not and I’m crowning Kansas and Champions of the Big 12 on simple logic. Both teams had even conference records and the Jayhawks won going away 80-68 when it mattered most.

Congrats Kansas fans!

Sooners Bounced in the First Round

It was a disappointing end to a disappointing season for the Sooners who started the season highly ranked. After winning four games in a row by just one point Oklahoma dropped its final three games, including their opening games of the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments to end their season with a 20-9 record.

The bottom line on this team is that they just weren’t that good. The only “big win” that OU had was an 82-72 home win over Texas on January 28. OU has talent but no leadership which is really surprising because three of OU’s starting five were seniors.

The question now is, what does the future of Oklahoma basketball look like? The program faces possible NCAA sanctions stemming from a cell phone scandal and reports that head coach Kelvin Sampson has put out feelers for other coaching positions.

New QB in Miami!

The Dolphins finally got a big name quarterback but it was just about 6 seasons too late. Miami gave up their second round pick in next month’s draft to acquire Daunte Culpepper from the Minnesota Vikings. The trade gives the Dolphins an All-Pro quarterback for the first time since the retirement of Dan Marino and the consensus is that Ronnie Brown will be an All-Pro soon. Add Chris Chambers into and Randy McMichael into that mix and the Dolphins should be looking at their most potent offense of the post Marino era. So, why is this decision 6 seasons too late? Because now Miami is lacking on Defense.

The addition of Culpepper gives Miami a championship caliber offense but the Dolphins had had a championship caliber defense and they wasted it. That defense is gone now with the departures of Sam Madison and Pat Surtain, just to name a few. While Miami may be improved on offense they will most likely struggle on the defensive side of the ball. Makes you wonder why this team didn’t go after a big time quarterback until now.