March Madness Baby!

March Madness has officially begun! What a night to be a college basketball fan, especially in the state of Texas. Over 7,100 screaming fans filled Hofheinz Pavillion tonight to watch the Rice Owls and Houston Cougars compete their collective butts off for 40 intense minutes. Neither team gave an inch in a game featuring 15 ties and 12 lead changes. UH prevailed 74-71 thanks to the clutch play of Lanny Smith. The result of the game was immaterial. What was important was the fact that for the 1st time all season, the UH student body showed up in masses to root on their team. Both Rice coach Willis Wilson and Cougar coach Tom Penders called it the loudest environment they had experienced at Hofheinz, and this is coming from a man (Wilson) who comepeted against teams during the Phi Slama Jama era. Though this is the last home game of the season, the challenge for the folks on Cullen Boulevard is to show up for EVERY game and not just Rice and Arizona. Owl fans, that message is also for you.

Meanwhile in College Station, Acie Law stroked a 3 at the buzzer as Texas A&M beat Texas for the 2nd straight season. It wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing game you will ever see, but it’s about time that a school with the resources and potential fan base of the Aggies supported a team after the month of November. What a brain fart from PJ Tucker at the end of the ball game as he allowed the shot clock to run out without taking a shot in a tie ball game. Still, credit Billy Gillespie for circumventing the talent gap between these two teams by imposing an intense grind it out defensive slug fest tempo in this ball game. He had the same strategy against OU earlier this season and narrowly missed pulling that upset as well. The Aggies are now 9-6 in the Big 12 this season, but I can’t call them a lock for the field of 65 just yet. No team that schedules four teams from the SWAC and plays only 1 non-conference road game should be rewarded for their scheduling cowardice. Not to mention the fact that the Big 12 is down this season. I still think the Aggies need to win at Texas Tech on Saturday and beat Colorado in the opening round of the Big 12 tourney to give themselves a chance to find an NCAA birth for the 1st time since 1987. As for the Longhorns, their chances of locking down a #1 seed in the NCAA’s are practically zero, and they have to get better PG play from someone (AJ Abrams anybody?) for key possessions in close games. PJ Tucker and Daniel Gibson are good college players, but decision making is not their strong suit. The Longhorns now need a win over OU on Sunday to win the Big 12 regular season title. A Longhorn loss likely means a fall to 3rd place. Kudos to the Aggies and their fandom for an A+ showing.
MJ